Chapter 104 Mountain Escape (2)

Chapter 104 Mountain Escape (2)

Episode 104 Mountain Escape (2)

Muscles bulging and blood vessels writhing.

Thump!

Thick legs like tree trunks stomped on the ground, pushing his large body into the air.

A faint heat haze rose from his entire body as he soared, and the “Calcos-style Combat Tattoos” engraved all over him glowed mysteriously.

And...

Whoosh— Splat!

The axe blade, enveloped in the red flickering light of “Bio-Aura”, drew a large circle and separated the head of a four-meter-tall monster from its body.

“Hahaha—! It’s satisfying to cut something this big!”

Harley laughed maniacally, covered in the Troll’s blood.

But his attack didn’t stop there.

Immediately after beheading it, he brought his axe down on the Troll’s chest, shattering its ribs, and thrust his hand through the gap, pulling out the magic stone.

He landed on the ground, jumping off the monster’s large body—.

Crunch!

...And split the large head lying on the ground in two with his axe.

Boom—!Fôllôw new stories at novelhall.com

The Troll’s body, which had been thrashing for a while despite its head and heart being destroyed, finally collapsed after a short time.

‘The Troll’s life force is monstrous, considering it’s already known for its regenerative abilities and it’s infected with madness.’

Harley frowned as he munched on the Troll’s magic stone in his hand.

He was able to deal with it so easily because he was used to hunting giant monsters and had overwhelming physical abilities, but others would have had a much harder time.

Like those who were catching their breath as soon as the battle with the Troll group ended.

“Whew...”

“Huff, huff... Damn it. A Troll in a place like this. We’re trying to escape the mountains, but it seems like we’ve entered even deeper than before.”

As the monsters started to move south in earnest, even those living in the deeper parts were gradually being pushed outwards.

A war was already raging between the monsters on the outermost edges and the humans.

“...Let’s move right away. The situation will only worsen as time passes.”

The effect of the magic tool that concealed their presence wasn’t that great against the higher-ranking monsters that started to appear occasionally.

They weren’t originally at that level, but their instincts were amplified by the madness, increasing their perception.

They weren’t weak, but there was nothing they could do in this situation with just a small party.

The continuous battles for several days had exhausted them, and high-ranking monsters that required careful handling were appearing frequently...

“Only Harley, who’s been moving the most, is still full of energy. Is it because of that secret shamanistic technique? I’m envious...”

“But thanks to him, we were able to get this far. And we’ll be able to escape the mountains if we just push ourselves for one more day. Let’s hang in there until then.”

The guide, Marcus, encouraged them with hopeful words and led the exhausted group again from the front.

But...

The situation was deteriorating even worse than they expected.

___________________

Harley was able to understand the behavioral patterns of the monsters consumed by madness in more detail while wandering through the Northern Mountains.

The information he obtained from the other avatars outside said that they didn’t fight each other and attacked in cooperation, but that was only partially true.

They were still living beings, so they needed food to survive, and the food chain among monsters was also part of their ecosystem.

It wasn’t uncommon to see stronger monsters preying on weaker monsters in these mountains.

‘The weaker ones might be even more reckless and charge at the stronger ones without thinking.’

As a result, there were cases where the stronger ones were hunted down.

They were extremely aggressive towards each other, to the point where a life-or-death struggle would break out if something triggered them, even within the same group.

‘And when one eats another, the concentration of madness in the survivor increases.’

The loser became food in death, and the winner became even stronger due to the accumulated madness.

It was already threatening enough...

But the moment they sensed other intelligent beings, including humans,

They would join forces as if they had never fought before and charge madly to eliminate them.

Just like now.

____________________

The first casualty was Bordo, one of the Rangers who had been isolated with the Dwarf Zaonic.

...Probably.

‘Then, shall we begin in earnest?’

Harley was still in the middle of the battlefield because it was an urgent situation, even while raising his power.

He extended his right hand behind him and drew the other axe he had been carrying.

He had been keeping one hand free to immediately extract magic stones, but now that he had decided to go all out, he could use this too.

Harley, gripping an axe in each hand, took a deep breath—.

“Heave-ho!”

Whoosh—! Thud!

One of the axes flew like a missile and embedded itself in the head of an Orc.

But that wasn’t all.

His left eye, which had been calm unlike his burning right eye,

Started to emit a dark green light.

“Gem Eye: Telekinesis.”

The axe embedded in the Orc’s head was enveloped in a faint green light and floated into the air.

And...

Whoosh— Thud! Thud!

It freely flew through the air and smashed the heads of the enemies targeting his companions one by one.

He didn’t even need to see them directly and control it.

His senses, enhanced by “Frenzied Beast”, were already grasping the entire battlefield in real time.

‘There’s no problem with the attack power itself because the telekinesis in the axe is replacing the power of aura. But the fuel efficiency is terrible because I’m sending energy remotely...’

But that didn’t really matter to him.

At least not in this situation where he was fighting numerous monsters.

Crack— Munch!

Harley continued to rip out the monsters’ hearts with his bare hands, putting the magic stones and hearts in his mouth and continuously consuming them with “Gluttony”.

The rapid consumption of energy inside his body gradually slowed down.

‘To think I still can’t fully recover.’

It showed how energy-intensive the combination of abilities he was currently using was.

Boom—!

“Hahaha! Die!”

Of course, the effect was also overwhelming.

His extremely strengthened body made a loud noise every time he moved, and the axe swung with red aura had already surpassed the speed of sound.

He could now smash monsters just by headbutting them.

At this point, his body was too light for the power he possessed, so he had to take additional measures to control his body properly, even if it meant increased energy consumption.

He widened the surface area of his feet, transformed his toes into hooks, and poured a considerable amount of aura to increase his grip on the ground.

Even then, the ground couldn’t withstand his full power and exploded with every step he took, but he was able to unleash his power much more comfortably than before.

‘But the energy consumption is terrifying. I wouldn’t have been able to maintain it for long without “Gluttony”.’

He hit-and-run the monsters with his explosive movements, elegantly swung his axe to dismember them, and diligently ripped out their hearts and brought them to his mouth.

And the axe enveloped in green light was flying in the sky, smashing the monsters’ heads...

Crackle—!

Thanks to his efforts, the battle finally entered a lull.

The monsters’ reinforcements had also stopped, thanks to the temporary barrier that the Dwarf Zaonic had hurriedly set up, which moderately absorbed the battle noise to prevent it from spreading too far.

‘It couldn’t be helped that the monsters nearby rushed in because it was hastily set up with a magic tool, but it’s still a good job.’

If it hadn’t been for that, they would have had to fight until they collapsed from exhaustion.

“Whew—”

Just as Harley was about to deactivate his current full-power battle mode with a sigh and a puff of white steam,

‘Hmm?’

His extremely sharpened senses detected something approaching him fiercely.

Thump, thump, thump...

Vibrations that shook the ground, a presence that stimulated his “Frenzied Beast” instincts, and a massive amount of ‘madness’ contained in its body, all perceptible even from afar.

‘Ah, I’m screwed.’

It was charging straight towards them.