Chapter 142

Ogre (1)

A monstrous creature suddenly erupted from underground. Its enormous body emerged, pushing aside the earth—a full twenty meters of bulk. Its muscles, evolved from a whale’s blubber, were as rough and hard as rock.

Unlike a whale, it had evolved two legs. Claws transformed from the hooves of an even-toed ungulate raked savagely across the ground, announcing that the king of the seas now reigned over the land.

... No. That was wrong.

The king of the land had conquered even the seas. Its very presence proved that it stood at the apex of all predators.

“M-my God...!”

“Th-that’s...!!”

“An ogre...!”

The dwarves sank to the ground, trembling in fear.

The ogre grinned down at them. As if to announce that the strongest predator on land had arrived beneath these skies—

ROOOOOOOAR!!!

Its explosive roar generated a tremendous sonic boom, shaking the space around it.

* * *

The ogre’s roar had evolved from the distinctive resonance of a whale’s call. A resonance that traveled tens of kilometers through the sea had become an overwhelming roar, releasing shock waves powerful enough to seemingly tear space apart.

◆Successor's Will[EX] resists the predator’s roar!

◆13 Sanity has been accumulated.

The messages flashed before my eyes. When I refocused, the dwarves were losing their balance and falling to their knees, unable to withstand the impact. Blood streamed from some of their ears, perhaps from ruptured eardrums.

“Ghh...! Wh-what is...!”

“Aaaaagh!”

The dwarves collapsed, clutching their ears.

I hurriedly pulled a container of oil from my Inventory and poured it into my mouth.

Honestly... I hadn’t expected this.

‘To think the ogre would react this quickly.’

I certainly hadn’t expected it to burrow underground to ambush us.

What if I hadn’t had Vibrational Perception[B-]? I would have reacted too late. The Arcanoheart would have exploded before we could do a thing.

Fortunately, I had just barely stopped it. But this wasn’t over.

ROOOOOOOAR!!

The ogre roared. We had to hunt that monster down.

‘It won’t be easy.’

At rank [A] and above, abilities became comparable to a dragon’s genetic abilities.

Isolde’s Perfect Muscle Control[A]. Iliana’s Peak Human Intelligence[A+]. Brumbar’s Unbreakable[A+].

The abilities possessed by the heroes of the allied army. They could rival a dragon—and “perhaps” even surpass one.

And the ogre’s Impregnable[S-]—

◆Impregnable (Imperviousness)[S-]

: This skill is an [Evolutionary Perfect Form] born of countless instances of natural selection and extreme environments. The skills combined within it generate [Synergy] with one another, greatly [Amplifying] their [Base Effects].

A hybrid skill. A skill combining different attributes or types of skills to produce multiple effects.

In other words, the ogre’s Impregnable[S-] was no different from rolling the heroes of the allied army into a single being.

That was no exaggeration. All it took was a look at just one of the individual skills making up the hybrid skill—

◆Hyperdense Myofibrils[A+]

: Upon acquisition, the player’s muscle fiber tissue is reconstructed into a [Hyperdense Structure], adjusting muscle density by [+1,350%]. In addition, the [Actin-Myosin Filament Arrangement] is regulated to alter [Contractility] and the [Elastic Modulus], increasing [Muscular Force Output] by [+36,800%] and [Shock Absorption] by [+4,240%].

... What an insane bastard.

An insane bastard with no fewer than five skills like that. And their synergy was exponentially amplifying their base effects.

The resulting hybrid skill was a staggering [S-] rank.

There was no “perhaps” about it. In survivability and adaptability alone, it surpassed a dragon.

There was a reason it picked fights with dragons. A reason it could hunt them.

Granted, it only hunted their young—hatchlings. Even so, it was the only creature on land capable of hunting dragons, the strongest of all living creatures.

Hunting an ogre wasn’t merely difficult. It bordered on impossible.

But what if I could devour that ogre with Predation[S+]?

I could leap past the limits I’d reached in a single stroke. If I absorbed its strength and broke through those limits, I could grow several times faster than I did now.

Having emptied all the oil into my mouth, I tossed the container aside. Regenerating the left wrist that Dragon Burst[E] had blown apart, I kicked off the rocky mountain and leaped into action.

“Kai!! Seraphia!!”

I had already explained the plan.

“Sir Kai! Let’s go!”

“Hold on tight!”

Kai scooped Seraphia into his arms and followed close behind me.

* * *

Brumbar gritted his teeth.

The ogre had burrowed underground to attack. If an explosion hadn’t shot in a straight line from somewhere and knocked it off course, everything would have been over.

Yet its enormous body emerging aboveground alone had made the earth heave. The roar that followed had thrown the surroundings into utter chaos.

“U-ugh...!”

“What is...!”

The dwarves lay bleeding on the ground, struggling to get back up.

HMMMMMM!

The Arcanoheart’s magical field began to fluctuate unsteadily. The surrounding air grew heavy with pressure.

The ogre’s eyes flashed toward the Arcanoheart. Intense bloodlust was directed at it—a gaze filled with seething violence, blazing with the pure destructive instinct to crush it.

Its enormous feet kicked off the ground.

Overwhelming violence bore down on the Arcanoheart. A direct hit would cause it to explode instantly.

Brumbar sprinted forward. He could not let that happen.

The damage from the explosion was one thing, but without the Arcanoheart, they couldn’t mine the runesteel vein.

The Arcanoheart could not be rebuilt. It was his life’s greatest masterpiece. He wasn’t confident he could make another, and even if he could, there was no time.

... Feractrum would be finished.

Brumbar held his breath and swelled his muscles. The ogre’s fist crashed down upon him.

KRAAAAASH!!

The ground split, and shattered rocks flew into the air.

He had barely managed to block its fist, but...

“Ghaaack!!”

The tremendous impact made him spew blood. The ogre’s fist crushed down on his entire body. He felt as though he would... shatter.

Brumbar forced himself to correct his stance. But—

“Ghhhh...!”

His vision wavered. Just as his muscles screamed as though they were about to split apart—

BANG!

An explosion shot in a straight line from somewhere.

KABOOM!

It struck the ogre head-on—

ROOOOOAR!!

The ogre let out a monstrous cry and was driven backward.

It had driven the ogre back...?

Brumbar’s eyes widened. He had never imagined anyone could push that monster back from the front.

‘Who in the world...?’

As if in answer, a streak of black light flashed past his eyes.

... It was Adrian.

In that fleeting glimpse, he saw that one of Adrian’s forearms had been blown apart. Yet Adrian paid it no heed. Like a black wolf, he charged fearlessly at the ogre.

Just then—

“Chief!!”

The dwarves’ urgent cries reached him.

“The Arcanoheart...!!”

The impact from the ogre had finally triggered a runaway reaction.

If the Arcanoheart exploded, everything was over. But they had no way to stop it from running out of control...!

At that moment—

“Leave this to me!”

EEEEEEEE!

Ink-black lines of cold, edged with a deadly chill, coiled through the air. Seraphia stood at their center. Her eyes shone a brilliant pure white as she reached toward the rampaging Arcanoheart—

“The Arcanoheart’s runaway energy...”

“It’s being controlled?!”

“What...!!”

Some of the dwarves who hadn’t been knocked unconscious by the roar cried out in astonishment. But their surprise was nothing compared with Brumbar’s.

The runaway energy the Arcanoheart emitted was high-density mana plasma. It was the power source that triggered mana nuclear fusion reactions to generate explosive amounts of energy.

What could possibly control that runaway energy...!

Brumbar’s eyes widened in shock. Then he doubted what he was seeing.

The pure-white cold spreading from Seraphia’s fingertips... wasn’t merely lowering the temperature. It was changing the very flow of energy.

As if reversing the primordial source of heat and annihilating everything—

It was Heat Death.

‘H-how can that...?’

As Brumbar’s astonishment grew ever more profound—

KABOOOOOM!

A deafening blast rang out. He looked up to see Adrian closing in on the ogre.

* * *

Dragon Burst[E] traded half its power for the ability to strike a target precisely.

But the ogre had Impregnable[S-], and the Hyperdense Myofibrils[A+] that formed part of it. Each muscle fiber possessed greater elasticity than steel and contracted even more firmly.

ROOOOOOOAR!!

The ogre was unfazed by Dragon Burst[E]. Instead, it swung its massive fist in fury.

KRAAAASH!!

The entire surface of the ground overturned, sending earth surging upward.

... Incredible destructive power.

But it wasn’t without drawbacks. Amplifying muscular strength beyond its limits upset the body’s balance. It put immense strain on the nervous system and caused fatigue to accumulate. An enormous body also dulled movement and the sense of balance.

There was a reason whales had entered the sea. A reason hippos had reduced their size.

But the ogre was the perfected form of biological evolution. Through countless instances of natural selection, it had overcome those weaknesses.

◆Enhanced Sensorimotor Control[A-]

: Upon acquisition, the player’s [Nervous System] transforms into a [Multilayer Neural Network Structure]. The [Auxiliary Neural Network] precisely [Analyzes] [Neural Currents], increasing [Motor Balance] by [+19,240%] and neural response time by [+300%].

In addition, even if the [Primary Nervous System] is [Damaged] or [Severed], the [Auxiliary Neural Network] immediately takes over, fully [Maintaining] [Motor Performance].

The ogre’s neural response time was under 8 ms. There was no immediate deterioration in bodily function.

In short, Dragon Burst[E] wasn’t powerful enough to do anything to it.

In terms of weight class or anything else, the ogre was a miniature Kraulgar. Simply put, its combat strength was comparable to Iratum, the Destroyer of Wrath.

And Iratum had been a formidable opponent even for Isolde. In other words, this was a monster even she couldn’t contain.

I extended my left arm.

◆Using derived skill, Dragon Burst[E]!

My entire left arm blew apart, releasing an explosion.

KABOOOM!

Struck squarely in the chest, the ogre was pushed back for a moment.

BOOOOOOM!

A thunderous sound rang out as though an earthquake had struck. But that was all.

With its power halved, Dragon Burst[E] couldn’t deal a critical blow to the ogre. It could, however, create an opening.

“Kai!!”

At my shout, a shadow moved in the undergrowth. Kai had been lying in wait, scarcely breathing. His presence suddenly took on a sharp edge.

SHIIIING!

An aura blade cleaved the darkness. The ogre’s astonishing reflexes responded to it.

But Kai was no longer the man who had fought the lycanthrope. He had fully attained the rank of Master, and his sword was more than sharp. It was like a wolf’s fang, ready to tear everything apart.

Wolf's Swordsmanship. First Form.

Dance of Fangs.

* * *

Sword strikes swept in along merciless trajectories. The first tore through the ogre’s hand. The second drove into its flank.

Then the third, the fourth...

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!

The successive strikes hacked the ogre’s body apart in an instant. Each one sank in as sharply as a predator’s fang.

At last, the ogre staggered, bleeding.

“!!!”

Brumbar and every other dwarf stared in shock.

That monster, which had seemed as though it could never fall...

R-ROOOOOAR...!