Barbarian in a Failed Game

059. Wyvern Hunt (2)

Indeed, the wyvern’s speed was not something to be outdone by a mere dash.

Even if one managed to create distance through some convoluted method, it would only be temporary. The wyvern, flying freely through the sky, was quick to close the gap behind Khan.

Crack!

Khan, who hastily rolled on the ground to dodge the wyvern’s ambush, clicked his tongue.

Considering the upcoming battle required him to be mindful of his stamina distribution, endlessly using leap skills to evade pursuit was not an option. It was practically impossible to begin with.

“Still, it’s not much farther.”

The first thing to come into view was a tower, towering higher than the city walls. Soon after, a city wall, on a scale incomparable to that of Al-Ranzas, came into sight.

It was no wonder it was called one the wealthiest cities in the north.

And finally.

Khan entered the city of Al-Rasdel through the wide-open gates. It was fortunate that the caravan of Al-Ranzas had left the gate open upon returning from gathering city resources.

Whoosh!

Of course, to a wyvern that could fly freely through the sky, even the city walls were no obstacle.

The wyvern, managing to overtake Khan, opened its maw wide. A sweltering heat enveloped the area, even from afar, and a ball of fire, the size of a person, formed in its mouth.

Khan, without panicking, widened his field of view.

The outer city buildings were placed further apart than he had expected. But that was enough.

Boom! Whoomph!

A fireball shot at an unyielding speed torched a two-story building in the direction Khan was headed, clearly intending to block his retreat.

Khan didn’t care.

Crash!

He passed straight through the collapsing building. Skin burning and a terrible pain engulfed him. But such pain was nothing new to him!

The sight of his skin reddened and burnt was unimagusnable pain, yet Khan’s charge did not stop.

He was used to enduring. Clenching his teeth, he persevered for the sole purpose of entering the inner city in the shortest route.

“Kroooah──!”

Boom! Boom!

A couple more barrages of fire attempted to hinder Khan’s charge, but they only managed to inflict burns.

Such minor pain could not stop a barbarian warrior who had survived the trials of Frost Gorge.

‘You’ve got to shove a fireball in its mouth to stand a chance!’

It was a crude and violent charge to the end.

The inner city wall, separating the external and internal sections, was now right in front of him. Perhaps due to the civil war that had broken out in the city, the gate to the inner city was completely destroyed.

Just as Khan was about to pass through and enter the inner city area, he hesitated—slowing down.

“───!”

Realizing the barrage of fire had no effect, the wyvern attempted to block Khan’s path with its body, descending toward the gate.

Crunch!

Its claws, capable of tearing solid ground as though it were tofu, dug into the upper part of the gate.

It was then that Khan understood its intention. It aimed to completely collapse the top part of the gate to block the path, seemingly making a judgment based on its understanding of human architecture.

“Damn it…!”

Khan gritted his teeth at the intelligent maneuver, something not even seen in games. Was it suddenly gaining intelligence now?

But this was not the time for complaints or grievances.

If he stayed, the entrance would collapse entirely, trapping him for a while, which was certainly not good news for Khan.

‘Should I just leap over it?’

No, that was impossible.

He would risk being crushed by the falling debris. There had to be a better way…!

That’s when Khan, surveying the surroundings of the gate, noticed the side towers that embraced the outer gate like arms.

The rounded side towers had walls perforated at regular intervals with cross-shaped holes, designed for archers to safely intercept incoming enemies—a murder hole.

‘That’s it.’

Khan’s eyes sparkled.

Ziiing─.

Khan halted with a screech of his right foot, stomping down in preparation for a leap.

“Kroooh!”

The wyvern roared, embedding its claws into the top of the gate and gaining altitude. With a deafening crash and the sound of stones tumbling, the wyvern squinted its three hundred eyes in mockery, as if to say, “What will you do now?”

“Damned bird. Acting almost human in its cunning!”

Without a hint of surprise, Khan leaped, not towards the blocked gate but towards a side tower.

“Kiik?”

Taken aback by Khan’s unexpected direction, the wyvern let out a strange cry and hesitated.

Like a foolish lizard. With a light sneer, Khan placed his hand on the side tower’s total ocular.

A gap so narrow, not even a dwarf could pass through. Khan’s body, let alone his thick forearms, wouldn’t fit.

But.

‘Just need to make it bigger!’

His grip tightened, veins bulging as he exerted all his strength, pulling apart the walls as if tearing them, widening the narrow gap instantly to an opening large enough even for an orc to squeeze through.

Thud.

Stepping inside, Khan first checked both directions. To the left, the passage had collapsed due to the wyvern’s actions, but the right passage was in much better condition.

He had no other choice.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Khan dashed down the right-hand passage.

From outside, the furious wyvern’s wing-beating and roaring could be heard, emanating exactly from above Khan.

‘Persistent beast!’

Rushing down the long corridor, Khan pressed his body against the right wall in a hurry.

Crash─!

Right then, the wyvern’s maw burst through the ceiling into the passage.

“Kyahaak!”

With a slam, it closed its gaping maw and disappeared back through the broken passage.

Chills ran down Khan’s spine at the thought of being chomped in half had his reaction been a fraction slower.

‘This is like some horror game!’

Cursing, Khan resumed his sprint down the passage.

Despite the wyvern continually smashing the walls and thrusting its maw in, fortunately, the noisy intrusions allowed Khan to dodge safely.

However, he couldn’t keep running through the corridors forever.

‘The building should be around here somewhere…!’

His flight wasn’t aimless; he had taken in the layout of the city whenever the wyvern smashed through walls connected to the inner city areas.

And soon, Khan reached the location he had calculated. Opening Aecharis’s pouch with what could be described as a barbarian’s animalistic intuition, the wyvern’s characteristic thunderous flap hit Khan’s ears again.

Boom! Bang!

The sounds of collapse followed; the former was the sound of the wyvern’s claws tearing through the ceiling and ravaging the passage, while the latter was Khan swinging a war hammer, breaking through a wall to escape the passage.

‘Found it.’

Below, amidst the sprawling cityscape, was the building he had kept an eye on – a huge stable, essential to the lifeblood of the city of Al-Rasdel.

Unlike the pastures outside the city, the stable, meant for the knights and nobles of Al-Rasdel, was unsurprisingly massive.

Of course, in the now-fallen city, all valuables had likely been looted.

However, the item Khan sought might very well still be intact.

With a flawless landing, Khan moved seamlessly. As if having simulated the action countless times in his head, he entered the stable without hesitation and began his search.With a furious roar, the wyvern finally realized that Khan had left the passageway, but Khan was too busy attending to his tasks.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The mysterious clanging sounds coming from inside the stable prompted the agitated wyvern to change its course immediately.

Then, it spread its wings wide in the air.

Gulping, gulping—

The wyvern’s throat convulsed violently, and a light source intense enough to be seen through the thick scales of the dragonkin flowed down its neck.

It was preparing to unleash a proper breath attack, not merely spewing embers.

Clang…! Clang…!

The clanging sound persisted unabated.

Finally ready to spit its breath, the wyvern opened its mouth wide—

The sky over Al-Rasdel flashed brightly, akin to the flame breath that had engulfed Khan right after annihilating the basilisk.

Kaboom!

The dragon’s breath, strong enough to pierce the sky, swept through the land near the stable first, forming a sea of flames as if to block any escape routes.

The wyvern’s breath quickly turned a part of the city into a hellish inferno and then twisted its path toward the stable Khan had hidden in.

Just as the clanging noises ceased.

Bang─!

“Kiiiik…!”

Instead of its breath, a scream escaped the wyvern’s mouth.

Even with its excellent vision, it was of no use.

A spear, thrown with beast-like intuition, flew like a beam of light, piercing through the building’s roof and penetrating the wyvern’s thin wing membrane.

Relying solely on his senses, Khan pinpointed the wyvern’s position and threw the spear just before its breath engulfed the stable, inflicting damage and significantly altering the path of the breath.

Such wild, beastly instincts.

It seemed as though he was born to roam the battlefield, demonstrating such impressive combat instincts.

‘I was aiming for its torso, though…’

Nevertheless, the outcome was unsatisfying.

Even as he managed to make at least an effective injury with the spear throw, the wyvern twisted its body to dodge while releasing its breath, proving it wasn’t going down easily. Khan’s lips twisted in a smirk as he emerged through the wall of the stable.

All around him, every path was engulfed in flames.

But mere traces left by the breath could not hinder the charge of a barbarian, unless the flames were imbued with mana.

Whoosh! Boom─!

Wielding the draupnir and the sheath of the magic sword in his hands, he swirled them around, dispelling the wall of fire left by the breath.

Even though the tremendous heat reddened his skin, it wasn’t enough to impede him in battle.

‘As long as I don’t die!’

If there was one major lesson Khan learned since being possessed in the accursed Midland, it was that a human body is surprisingly resilient.

Surviving nights bare-bodied in the icy ravines called by some as nature’s miracles, adapting to the cold, quenching the hunger with snow almost equivalent to permafrost, sustaining on the blood of goblins venomous enough to be toxic, wrestling with the sirhol wolves capable of killing tigers with ease, and still, Khan did not perish despite being bruised all over.

In other words, mere burns couldn’t slow down a barbarian’s stride.

‘Truth be told, it doesn’t seem like a human’s, but rather a barbarian’s body is unbelievably resilient.’

Khan suppressed the smirk breaking on his face and ran towards the tower located at the city’s center.

Inhaling the scorching heat left by the wyvern’s breath, and using the leap skill repeatedly, his breathing became ragged, but still, his legs moved forward.

That was enough.

‘No, more than enough.’

He could sense the wyvern hurrying after him from behind.

There was no need to look; his enhanced senses, boosted along with his stamina stat, were fully operational in this extreme situation.

Calculating the distance to the central tower and the speed at which the wyvern was closing in on him, Khan opened the Aecharis Pouch in a fleeting moment.

Clink─.

The chains obtained from Ron in Al-Ranzas, especially crafted with a mage’s spell to enhance their function, meant to tether even a warhorse where ordinary means would fail.

And a massive mass designed to bring a dragon down to the ground.

Finally, all the preparations to pull the wyvern down to earth were complete.