Chapter 77 - Subjugation

That concluded the subjugation of the fire elemental, but one more elemental colony remained.

This colony consisted of creatures shaped like wolves. Every one of them boasted combat prowess worthy of the name elemental.

... And right now, a pair of humans were utterly demolishing them.

—!!!

A wolf-shaped elemental shattered under Noel’s fist.

Aiden had already watched her destroy dozens. Ordinary spears and swords could barely pierce an elemental’s hide, never mind actually injure one.

Yet this woman was blowing the damn things apart with her bare hands as though popping balloons.

Even Katya watched her with a look of disbelief. In just a few minutes, she had already sent more than twenty elementals to the afterlife.

Of course, Katya herself was hardly any less impressive.

“Hm.”

A short exhalation, and flames flared around her.

Flames so intensely hot they were invisible filled her surroundings in an instant. Sweeping through the air, they engulfed the nearby elementals.

It was no more than a casual gesture, yet every elemental in their path had been reduced to ash.

Where Noel exuberantly, violently pulverized everything she could get her hands on, Katya’s combat technique was precise and accurate enough to bring machinery to mind.

At this point, it barely qualified as a subjugation. This was simply a chore: grinding up everything in sight as casually as pulling weeds.

‘... So those are two of the scenario’s main characters...’

The sight drove home, once again, just what caliber of women he dealt with on a daily basis.

And just how vast the main scenario had to be for even women like these to count as mere cogs within it.

“...”

Aiden heaved a deep inward sigh.

Well, he had chosen this path, so he would have to see it through.

Still, whenever he wondered how and when someone like him had become involved in all this, there was nothing to do but sigh.

Especially since there was no longer any way to escape.

But he couldn’t simply stand around sighing at the sight forever.

So, while these terrifying women fought a battle that gave him goosebumps just to watch, what exactly was he doing?

“Oh, this one’s still alive.”

He was picking up the elementals sent flying nearby.

The ones on the verge of death, but still breathing.

“...”

It wasn’t exactly a dignified sight, but this was necessary work too.

Just before dying, elementals expelled their cores, as the fire elemental had earlier. Even if these weren’t colony leaders, collecting their cores was bound to come in handy.

As he hummed to himself and gathered elemental cores, the racket around him suddenly stopped.

An opponent had appeared that made even Noel and Katya pause their weeding and narrow their eyes.

“... That looks like a pain.”

Katya muttered as she studied an enormous wolf with grotesque protrusions jutting from its body.

Judging by its size, it was a medium elemental. Probably the ruler of this area.

Even these women, who had been dispatching nearly every other elemental with a single strike, seemed reluctant to attack it carelessly.

As befitted a colony leader, it was obviously loaded with special abilities.

‘Judging by the color, it’s packed to the brim.’

A wry smile came unbidden.

The danger posed by an elemental with special abilities could generally be gauged by its body color, and this one was red.

That marked it as the most dangerous of its rank. It probably had the maximum of three special abilities.

“...[ Adaptive Skin], [Refraction], and [Hyper-Regeneration]. This will be troublesome.”

Noel agreed with a sigh.

Adaptive Skin was a mutation that granted exceptionally high resistance to any weapon that had touched it once.

Refraction reflected all damage it received back at the attacker.

And Hyper-Regeneration was, exactly as its name suggested, a mutation that continuously regenerated its wounds.

In other words, they had to land a blow powerful enough to kill this exceptionally hard-to-kill creature in one hit, and whoever dealt that blow would have to suffer all that damage themselves.

Any one of those mutations would have been troublesome. This creature had all three at once.

No wonder it stood there looking so smug while every other elemental around it was wiped out.

“There is a simple solution.”

Katya grinned.

“... There is?”

“Just beat it until it dies, right?”

“... What about the reflected damage?”

“Tough it out through sheer bloody stubbornness.”

“...”

“It just comes down to who dies first. I’ve never lost.”

... That only works because it’s you, you lunatic.

As Noel glared at Katya with that thought, Aiden stepped forward.

“... I’ll handle it. You two have done enough hard work already.”

Everyone else in the party widened their eyes as he stepped forward with a heavy sigh.

“You’ll handle it? How?”

“Perfectly well, all on my own. I’ve had a free ride this whole time. I should at least earn my keep, shouldn’t I?”

As he began loosening up, Katya gave a disbelieving laugh.

“... I won’t stop you if you want to take on the hard part, but are you sure? Don’t try to show off. Just ask us for help.”

I could feel Noel’s stern gaze on me from the side.

Her eyes said, ‘You’re planning to get yourself hurt again, aren’t you?’

“...”

I gave her a reassuring look.

No, seriously, I wasn’t going to get hurt this time.

Aiden waved a hand as if to say there was nothing to worry about.

“... Even so, this will be difficult alone. We should help—”

“Dame Noel.”

Aiden flashed her a confident grin.

“Stand back.”

With that, he shot toward the enormous wolf.

His opponent noticed him at once.

With a bestial roar, it lashed out with a forepaw.

It was insanely fast.

‘It’s definitely strong!’

Even without its special abilities, a medium elemental’s physical capabilities alone made it a considerable threat.

And specimens loaded with multiple mutations like this one were generally even stronger than ordinary medium elementals.

Still, Aiden could now use supernatural power to inflate his own base stats.

-System Message

▶ Activating ‘Skill: Magical-Beast Transformation’,

▶ Activating ‘Skill: Primordial Strength’.

With these, he could react in time.

He activated Primordial Strength, taken from Reaver, on top of the Magical-Beast Transformation skill belonging to the duke’s daughter Liza. Savage power momentarily filled Aiden’s otherwise ordinary human body.

Previously, he would have been crushed the instant he faced something like this. Not anymore.

With his enormously enhanced strength, he knocked the blow aside. Bewilderment crossed the elemental’s face.

“Hup.”

He brought his sword up to meet the next swing of its forepaw.

As he deflected it with a clang, blue energy rose from the creature’s body and spread across his sword like tiny cracks.

He had nicked the paw as he parried, but [Hyper-Regeneration] immediately healed such a minor wound.

He couldn’t read an animal’s expressions, but the wolf seemed to look smug.

- System Message

▶ Contact made with the elemental’s ‘Adaptive Skin’!

▶ This weapon’s power against the target elemental is reduced by 90%!

‘So that’s how it works.’

Talk about unfair.

Merely blocking an attack had rendered a piece of equipment useless. Rare mutation or not, this was a bit much.

“You idiot! Why would you use your weapon like that? That sword’s useless now!”

Katya shouted in frustration behind him.

“Get out of there! Fighting any longer is a waste of time...!”

She immediately shut her mouth.

Before she could even finish, Aiden charged the elemental again.

He had said he could handle it alone because he genuinely could. He had never intended to kill it with that weapon in the first place.

This was, so to speak, a way to make it lower its guard.

—...?

The elemental looked bewildered. A natural reaction, considering that a human who had lost even his weapon was charging straight at it unarmed.

But scorn soon filled its eyes, and it raised its forepaw again. It evidently intended to finish Aiden in one blow. Disregarding its own defense, it swung with all its might.

After all, it must have thought he had no effective means of attack left.

However, there was one ability he could always use against opponents with powers like these.

Dharmic power formed the base, with divinity mixed into it.

-System Message

▶ Activating ‘Skill: Purifier’.

Then the red was washed from the wolf’s body.

—...!

The wolf’s eyes widened. It seemed to sense instinctively that something had changed, that it was in mortal danger.

Every ability protecting it had vanished in an instant.

But it was already too late.

Blade of Dawn flashed.

It pierced the wolf’s thick hide, carving a gash across its chest deep enough to all but expose its organs.

Into that wound, he wedged a barrier formed from pure-white energy. The narrow opening in its hide spread violently apart.

The barrier had no offensive capabilities of its own, but it was impressively sturdy. That made it useful for tricks like this.

Before the elemental could even scream in agony, he drove the finishing blow into the heart visible through the opening.

A blade made from Guardian’s Flame plunged straight in. He had employed Spiral - Bore, the same Shaping he used for Blade of Dawn.

—...!

—...

And that was all it took.

The light left its eyes. It staggered, then collapsed to the ground.

“...”

Everyone gaped at the elemental as it crumpled.

No one could say a word, even as its enormous body hit the ground with a heavy thud.

“... Did that even take five seconds?”

“4.7 seconds.”

Katya and Noel exchanged those remarks in slightly dazed voices.

Noel, in particular, stared at Aiden in disbelief.

‘... This man, honestly.’

He seemed to constantly underestimate his own combat prowess.

Yet in some respects, he was already more of a wild card than Noel herself.

He possessed not one or two but over a dozen unique advantages that no other supernatural-power wielder had. Even Noel, who had fought on countless battlefields, had never seen anyone like him.

And this walking bundle of surprises was still growing at a terrifying pace, with no sign of slowing down.

‘Even when we first met, I wondered where someone like him could have come from.’

Where had such an extraordinary person appeared from? That was what she had wondered.

She still wanted to know, but now she had another question too.

Just how far would this man grow?

‘... Before long...’

He might surpass even her and Katya.

Noel looked at Aiden with that thought.

‘... Jackpot. Jackpot. Absolute jackpot.’

... Aiden, meanwhile, paid her no mind as he stared at the fallen elemental.

There was loot to strip from this one too.

Not just a little, either. It looked like there was a great deal.