Chapter 142 - Awakening (5)

Three minutes had passed since Dwalki's magical support stopped.

Well, perhaps it had been less than that.

Still, it felt like a solid ten minutes.

"I'll give you that, barbarian. I've never met anyone like you in my life."

I hadn't looked back once. Whether he was trying to sow discord or not, even if Dwalki really had cracked and fallen into a panic, I decided it changed nothing.

Did that make me boring to him?

"I'll put your soul to good use. Now die."

As if to declare playtime over, he drew a dagger from his waist and thrust it at me. It came at such a perfect angle that blocking or dodging seemed impossible.

All I could do was choose the lesser evil.

Twist as far as I could and offer him a lung instead of my heart. It would be a near-fatal wound, but didn't we still have a top-tier potion left?

Drink it, heal, and somehow hold on.

Misha and the dwarf would wake up soon. And Soul Exhaustion wouldn't last forever.

I made that plan in an instant and was just about to act when dazzling light poured out from behind me.

WHOOOOSH!

Dozens of Mana Arrows curved through the air, radiating brilliant white light. Faced with that torrential barrage, he retreated in alarm.

But just as when the dwarf, Rotmiller, and Misha had faced him, the attempt accomplished little.

WHOOOSH!

The arrows of light curved after him as if each had a will of its own. He stopped fleeing and began batting them away one by one with his little dagger.

It looked about as effective as trying to bail out a river with a single scoop, but...

'Holy shit.'

Incredibly, it worked. Though he ended up looking like a porcupine, his entire body pierced by arrows of light, he had managed to protect his vitals.

STEP.

The sudden sound of someone behind me brought me to my senses. I'd had some inkling, but...

Dwalki stood behind me.

In other words, he was the one who had cast that spell.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. It took me rather a long time to make up my mind."

"Make up your mind? More importantly, how the hell did—"

"That... let's discuss it after we finish him off."

Dwalki averted his gaze as if dodging the question. Seeing him act like this, I was pretty sure he hadn't become someone else...

'What the hell is going on?'

I couldn't explain it. Mana was pouring from his body, so dense even a barbarian with zero mana affinity could feel it.

Apparently I wasn't the only one wondering.

"Mage, what have you done?"

He asked the question despite blood dripping from his entire body.

Man, if I were him, I'd have just run—

"You ask when you already know the answer."

What? He knew?

Dwalki's cold murmur left him utterly speechless.

Wait, did he really know?

"If you're trying to stall, I'm afraid you're out of luck. I know full well how little time I have."

What? What the hell was going on?

Actually, since when had Dwalki been this decisive?

It had been a very long time since my brain had failed to keep up with a situation. Even so, I could tell one thing.

This was a very favorable development for me.

'I can ask how he did it later...'

I focused on the situation.

TAP TAP! *

Then Dwalki spoke to me.

"Stand back. You might get hurt."

"Ah, uh. Sure."

I could barely adjust to this change in character, but I did as he said for now.

Then what was this?

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the grade-eight offensive spell [Ice Spear].」

An Ice Spear shot forward. A spear so massive it filled half the passage.

Twice in succession.

FWOOOOSH!!

They hurtled toward him with truly overwhelming wind pressure.

Was he experienced with magic on this scale?

He calmly watched the Ice Spears, then swiftly pulled the Arc longsword from his subspace.

BZZZT!

The sword spat sparks as if rejecting his touch. Yet he gripped it and swung anyway, veins bulging in his neck.

BOOOM!

True to the Arc longsword's anti-magic properties, the enormous Ice Spears shattered on contact with the blade and dispersed into mana.

Even then—

TAP TAP!

He kicked off the ground again and closed in. Dwalki's eyes flickered slightly; apparently even he hadn't expected this.

But his hesitation didn't last.

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the grade-seven offensive spell [Cold Tempest].」

He finished the incantation and cast the spell in less than a second.

WHOOOOSH!

At this point, it was more a downpour of small Ice Spears than shards of ice...

But once again, that damned Arc longsword was the problem.

His silhouette drew steadily closer through the blizzard. Once I could make him out clearly, I saw him advancing while knocking aside only the larger chunks of ice with his sword.

'Right. So it won't be easy, right down to the end.'

I sighed silently and prepared for what came next.

There was nothing particularly unusual about this. My life had never been about easy wins...

And wasn't protecting the damage dealer a tank's destiny?

"VEHELLLAAAAAA!!"

First strike wins.

I swung my mace just as he emerged from the blizzard. But had he been keeping an eye on me even through all that?

Despite my carefully timed ambush, he reacted nimbly and blocked the mace with his sword.

Steel, a tier-one material, clashed against tier-six Arc.

SHING!

Regardless of its thickness or density, the mace was sliced through like tofu. Not satisfied with that, he went for my neck.

But at that moment—

BZZZT!!

Sparks erupted wildly from the sword, making him flinch. His hand was bright red and even giving off steam.

Were the burns covering his body related to that sword too? I didn't know the details, but he must have decided he couldn't push any further, because he put it back into his subspace.

Then...

TAP TAP!

He drew his dagger again and pressed in close.

What he wanted was all too clear.

Right. I'd wondered why he was so desperate to force his way through the magic. This was his aim.

"Bjorn, get away from him!"

It was a strategy along the same lines as the Barbarian Drag-You-Down-With-Me Mode I'd used earlier. He was using me as a shield to suppress Dwalki's magic.

Whew. Never thought I'd be on the receiving end.

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the grade-nine curse spell [Dulling].」

Curses stacked on him in place of offensive spells, but he clung to me tenaciously, slashing with his dagger. Shaking him off was far from easy.

So...

'Fine. Let's do this.'

I thrust my mace, now shaped like a bamboo spear, at him. It wasn't as if magic was the only thing that could kill the bastard.

THUNK.

Thanks to the greatly strengthened Dulling, he wasn't as difficult to fight as before. Dwalki was also supporting me with a few precisely controlled Mana Arrows instead of Ice Spear or Cold Tempest.

The situation clearly favored me. But that only made me more alert.

'Would he really not realize that?'

He knew about the current situation that Dwalki had refused to explain. Yet he had charged at me anyway.

Why?

["I know full well how little time I have."]

The answer was time.

Dwalki couldn't maintain his current state for long. Perhaps this bastard knew even better than Dwalki how much time was left.

"Dwalki, use Cold Tempest!"

I made my decision.

"...!"

His expression told me I'd guessed right. But Dwalki hesitated.

"But...!"

He might have changed a little, but Dwalki was still Dwalki.

"Don't worry about me! Just cast it!!"

As I shouted insistently again, Dwalki cast his spell. Cold swirled above his hand.

"How well do you handle the cold?"

"You lunatic."

Well, another glowing compliment.

I raised my shield and pulled away from him. My plan was to block the chunks of ice with my shield and hold out somehow.

WHOOOOOSH!

The blizzard soon filled the passage around us both, freezing my skin stiff.

But what was this now?

Through the blizzard so thick I could barely see in front of me, he thrust his dagger at me.

THUNK!

About twenty centimeters of blade drove deep into my lung.

"Khurgh!"

I couldn't breathe.

Meanwhile, chunks of ice slammed into my body. Crystals as sharp as Ice Spears grazed my skin.

But I couldn't just keep taking it.

THUNK!

My body reacted first, driving the short spear that had once been my mace forward with all my strength.

And at that moment...

WHOOOSH...

The blizzard ended sooner than expected, restoring my view.

I quickly checked my surroundings. Incredibly, three unexpected things had happened in that brief instant.

"..."

First was Dwalki, kneeling with blood pouring from his eyes, nose, mouth, and even his ears.

"..."

Second, my blindly thrust short spear had pierced the bastard's heart.

「The activation conditions for Ligar Vagos's [Second Heart] have been met.」

Third, he still had another unused Numbered item.

Ha. I'd really been trying not to swear like this anymore unless I absolutely had to.

「The character receives absolute protection until his heart recovers.」

This crazy fucking son of a bitch.

* * *

Something red, reminiscent of muscle, covered his body.

Watching it, I wondered just what the hell it would take to kill this bastard. Could he even die?

I didn't know, but first I vomited blood.

"Bleeergh! Keh, kheeegh!"

Even drenched in acidic blood, the heart-shaped shell didn't so much as sizzle. I turned away without hesitation.

No. 3120, Second Heart.

A consumable Numbered item that activated when the heart took instant-kill damage.

At my current level, nothing I did could break that barrier.

So I needed to do what had to be done first.

STEP. STEP.

I walked slowly, dragging along a body that could barely breathe.

Thank goodness Dwalki was a cold-element mage. If I hadn't been inflicted with 'Frostbite,' blood would already be gushing out of me.

"D... walki."

Calling Dwalki's condition terrible didn't begin to cover it. He was unconscious on his knees, blood flowing from every opening in his body.

When I checked his pulse, I felt his heart hammering away, as if its speed limiter had broken.

"Please... hold on."

I couldn't see any external injuries, so I poured a top-tier potion into his mouth. Exactly half.

Someone else was dying too.

STEP. STEP.

I walked as fast as I could. Every step twisted my insides and stole my breath, but I used the short spear as a cane and pushed myself faster instead.

"Rot... miller..."

Thankfully, he was alive. Yes, for now, at least.

He was racing toward death in an entirely different way from Dwalki. His heart beat so faintly it seemed ready to stop at any moment.

I poured all the remaining top-tier potion over his wound.

HISSSSS!

The wound bubbled and began to close. I sat down beside him, leaning back and concentrating on breathing.

Small coughs kept forcing their way out, bringing blood with them.

But all I could do was endure it somehow and wait for Rotmiller to recover. Both remaining potion bottles were in this man's [Treasure Room], after all.

Had about a minute passed?

"B-Bjorn...!"

The dwarf, who'd knocked his head against the wall and passed out, regained consciousness.

"Where's Dwalki? Where is he?"

Come on, I was dying too. His best friend came first, huh?

I didn't have the strength to speak, so I pointed toward Dwalki.

"W-What on earth happened...!"

He rushed over and examined Dwalki, then carefully hoisted him onto his back and brought him over to us.

That was when it happened.

"Ugh..."

Misha, lying about four meters from the wall I was leaning against, raised her head with difficulty.

"... Bjorn."

"I'm alive."

"Thank... goodness, nyah..."

Yeah. You're the only one I can count on.

Touching the area around her broken ribs, Misha struggled to her feet. She came over and sat beside me.

"What about... Rotmiller, nyah...?"

"Gave him... khurk... a potion."

Whew. What was this, a gathering of invalids?

I was trying to get a little rest when the dwarf, having finished transporting Dwalki, came over and bound my wound with a bandage.

"Bjorn, what happened? And what's that strange shell over there?"

I didn't want to explain. I didn't have the energy, and what would explaining change anyway?

I closed my eyes and focused on breathing.

"I'm sorry. You must be suffering too. Rest. I'll manage the rest somehow."

The dwarf apologized and returned to check Dwalki's condition.

About another minute passed.

「Soul Exhaustion has ended.」

My stats finally returned to normal, and breathing became a little easier. Even without Natural Regeneration, my body's durability itself had changed.

I slowly opened my eyes.

"... Come on! My friend, hang in there!"

"B-Bjorn...? Rotmiller's trembling. H-He's going to be all right, isn't he, nyah...?"

The line between life and death was being drawn.