Barbarian in a Failed Game

066. Homunculus (2)

It was a direct hit.

The magic sword, thrown with maximum power, tore through the curtain set up by the puppeteer in an instant, and went even further to completely obliterate his head without leaving a trace.

The shockwave of the axe that exploded as if chasing the sword literally grinded the feeble mage’s body to dust.

Survival was impossible.

Even for an undead, if their body doesn’t leave even dust behind, they can’t rise again.

This should have been enough to be certain of the puppeteer’s death.

However.

“These things… they are still moving!”

The assault from the living corpses controlled by the puppeteer didn’t stop, but continued to overwhelm the party.

Ron, thinking it was safe to breathe a sigh of relief, was startled and began swinging his hammer, but if anything, the corpses seemed to become even more fiercely aggressive.

And then, one of the puppets slowly walked forward, picking up the puppeteer’s staff that had fallen to the ground after losing its master.

‘You’ve got to be kidding…’

Khan grimaced.

“Remarkable. That was dangerous. This isn’t human strength. I’ve heard that among barbarian warriors, there are champions believed to be endowed with divine power. You must be such a champion, then?”

The figure who spoke was a young man with a common face one might see in any city. However, the aura he exuded was identical to the old man’s from before.

“I lost a puppet mask I cherished. Looks like playing the wise man is out of the question for a while.”

The puppeteer. He had switched bodies.

Switching bodies is a familiar pattern even in games.

His true form was a black, slime-like liquid monster, and the conventional strategy was to completely destroy it, leaving no form behind.

And yet, he should have been completely dealt with…

“What an odd skill you’ve mastered.”

Khan scoffed, though his tone was nonchalant, his inner thoughts were different.

It was now unclear what he had gained from the experiments in the North.

Could it be, to kill him, all the puppets in this vicinity must be destroyed?

‘That won’t be easy.’

While the puppets’ resistance was negligible, the barrage of spells thrown by the puppeteer was threatening in itself.

Moreover, new puppets were continuously appearing from within the clearing.

It seemed that before they could eliminate the puppets, the puppeteer’s spells would likely wipe out the party first.

“A grand knowledge indeed.”

The puppeteer replied in a seemingly polite tone, tapping his staff on the ground as if to signal the start of the battle again.

Wooosh. With a subtle tremble, as the puppeteer fortified himself with a curtain, Khan too grasped Neriah’s magic sword and Draupnir’s sheath in hand, replacing the axes and magic swords scattered around the puppeteer.

“You still intend to fight. You have no chance of winning.”

“That’s for us to find out. Besides, if you die and disappear, the experiments in the North will stop. The knowledge you gained will also be forgotten. Sounds like enough stakes for a gamble, doesn’t it?”

“And that strength of yours. And managing spatial voids without mana. And being familiar with information that only Seekers should know…”

Yes, you must be apprehended here and now, the puppeteer murmured in a low voice.

“Agreed, you damn bastard─!”

Khan, deflecting an unexpected flaming arrow with his sheath, charged forward.

The puppeteer moved his puppets in an attempt to halt Khan’s charge.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

“Uraatcha…!”

Ron and Maya took on the unending wave of puppets, knowing that the outcome of the battle ultimately depended on Khan and the puppeteer.

Thankfully, although the puppets were numerous, in terms of combat power, Ron and Maya were overwhelmingly superior. At least until now.

“Argh!”

Ron, who had just smashed a puppet’s skull, suddenly screamed.

Turning towards him, Khan saw Ron with a deep wound in his abdomen. Damn, what now…!

“They’re using magic! The creatures are using magic!”

Maya, who crouched low and broke the ankles of the puppets with her spear, shouted.

Clang─!

Shortly after, Maya was sent flying as if struck by something.

Thanks to using her spear for defense, she didn’t suffer severe injuries, but blood trickled from her mouth, indicating the shock was significant.

‘Magic. And from the Gray Tower?’

Khan’s face contorted with bewilderment. Originally, the puppeteer was only supposed to use red magic.

“This too is part of a great truth.”

The puppeteer twisted his lips, his gaze turning toward Jan, who was a gray mage of the Mage Tower.

“You, the dregs of the Mage Tower. It seems you’re quite a prized talent there… Look.”

Ashen spears filled the space behind the puppeteer, in an overwhelming number that surpassed the spell Jan had just cast.

“In your eyes, how does my gray spell compare? To those magus your Mage Tower brags about?”

“…It’s pathetic.”

“Hmm. Is that so? Then, what about this?”

In the next moment, blue ice flowers began to form at the tip of the puppeteer’s staff, causing Jan’s eyes to widen as if they would tear apart.

A multi-spell chant. A technique allowed only to those born with exceptional talent within the Mage Tower.

For a mage of the puppeteer’s caliber, having such skill was not surprising.

However, casting spells of different attributes simultaneously was a completely different matter.

“How…!”

“How does this blue spell compare with the magus of your Blue Tower?”

The difficulty of simultaneously casting and maintaining spells of differing attributes was beyond imagination.

Even Jerome, Jan’s master, wouldn’t dare attempt it. In fact, it was an undertaking only those out of their right mind would consider, due to the tremendous risk of mana backflow from the clashing attributes of mana, which could lead to crippling injury.

“Could it be…! On the same level as the tower masters?!”

Indeed.

The technique the puppeteer had just displayed was something only possible in the realm of the Mage Tower’s masters.

“Hmph. Your face is quite the sight.”

Jan’s face was filled with turmoil.

He couldn’t accept that this dubious entity before him stood on the same level as the Mage Tower’s great masters.

And it was indeed a fact.

‘Yes. It’s not on the same level as the tower masters. There’s too much of a gap in the activation of the spells. Though its power might be formidable, its structure is rough around the edges…’

“Impostor!”

Jan burst out in overt anger.

He had guessed that the puppeteer’s methods were akin to cheating, even if he couldn’t fully understand it at the moment.

The young prodigy of the Mage Tower couldn’t forgive it.

“To think that those who see magic as truth would tarnish magic with such deceit…”

“I am different from those seekers.”

The puppeteer scoffed.

“My goal is solely my own perfection. Not like the inferior barbarian have babbled about!”

A large explosion occurred.

While the two mages were conversing, the puppeteer had launched a spell towards Khan, who had approached them unnoticed.

More than twenty ashen spears and a barrier of ice from above and below engulfed Khan, presenting an overwhelming quantity that was difficult for a single person to overcome.

Snap! Crack! Boom─!

Khan’s hand, holding the scabbard of the magic sword, shook like an afterimage, repelling the magic with its special properties that pushed away mana and with monstrous strength.

He shattered half of the ashen spears with a single sword strike and then crushed the ice barrier rising from below with a stamp of his foot.

“Indeed, so spells that have materialized can be broken by force. How about this then?”

The puppeteer aimed at Khan with the end of his staff.

From its tip, a tiny spark quickly swelled in size, exploding and scattering fragments of fire forwards.

It wasn’t an attack that could be fended off with a scabbard.

The puppeteer had quickly identified Khan’s weakness and switched the type of his spell accordingly.

“Damn it!”

Even if the one holding the scabbard was the sword maestro known as the Sword Lord, fending off every spark wouldn’t have been impossible.

However, for someone whose only swordsmanship experience was from a dojo in his youth, performing such a feat was an impossible miracle.

Facing an onslaught that resembled a downpour of fire, Khan lifted Neria’s magic sword.

[Neria’s Magic Awl]

─A weapon used primarily by an exceptional Elf Sword Mage. Having been empowered by spells inscribed over many years, it has approached the status of a magic sword.

─Wind Awl :: Possesses penetration power that ignores all below a certain level of sword resistance.

─Multi-Spell Engraving :: The spell circuits carved out over a long duration are no different from sophisticated machinery. A variety of spells are inscribed within.The moment the magic stone in his grip was shattered, spells engraved on the magic sword were activated. A spell similar to the ice barrier that the puppeteer had used moments before, materialized in front of Khan, as if to protect him.

Boom! Crash─!

The ice barrier trembled as if it were about to break at any moment. Indeed, it was certain it wouldn’t hold much longer and would soon shatter.

Crack-

Khan shattered another magic stone, extracting another spell embedded in the magic sword.

‘Arun’s Wind Walk’

A gray spell with a supportive nature, it reduced air resistance. Though not very useful to an ordinary mage, for Khan, it was different.

[Leap]

Crossing his arms, Khan shot forward like a cannonball, smashing through the barrier and arriving in front of the puppeteer in the blink of an eye.

“Foolish…”

[Shut─up─!]

A non-physical shockwave burst forth, attempting to push Khan back, but the puppeteer’s body abruptly froze in place. A skill that defied the laws of the world had forcibly immobilized the emotionless homunculus.

It was over in just an instant.

Crash…!

With one collision, the barrier protecting the puppeteer was half destroyed, and soon after, Khan’s foot completely shattered it.

Gasp.

A pained breath leaked from Khan’s mouth. The aftermath of wielding his magic sword and scabbard repeatedly in such a short time had exhausted his breath.

This time, the puppeteer reached out not with his staff, but with his hand, aiming to cast another spell while Khan was immobile.

“Uriaaatcha─!”

His action was interrupted by a flying hammer.

“Gonna wreck you good! Boss!”

Ron, bleeding from the abdomen, smirked.

Following his instincts, Ron had precisely timed his intervention in the fight.

However, he hadn’t completely thwarted the puppeteer’s trick. Some of the puppets, while pressing Maya and Elena with lower-tier spells, shot a spell towards Khan.

Khan, unable to dodge in time, was engulfed in flames.

As Ron, who had been eagerly anticipating Khan’s victory over the puppeteer, watched in horror, and the puppeteer’s lips curled into a sneer, that’s when it happened.

Whoosh─!

From within the sphere of flames engulfing Khan, a slightly singed, ash-gray hand burst forth.

Even the emotionless puppeteer displayed shock at the sight.

“How-.”

Thud.

The flaming hand grasped the puppeteer’s head in its entirety.

Khan, intent on killing the puppeteer even as flames scorched his skin, looked as terrifying and formidable as a demon crawling out of hell.

‘How?’

The puppeteer’s rational mind repeated the question.

The spell had hit its target. It was a spell capable of burning a person whole, and Khan had been hit with over a dozen of them.

Separate from not dying, the tremendous pain should have made coherent thought impossible.

How then, could this barbarian move so freely? Such questions lingered persistently.

Was it possible he couldn’t feel pain?

Creak.

Contrary to that speculation, the pain was evident on Khan’s face, twisted grotesquely as if he was a malevolent spirit. It was proof he was in agony.

Seeing this, the puppeteer was even more baffled by the man before him.

How does he do it!

“Shii. It hurts.”

Whoosh! His breath was as hot as fire.

“So damn…!”

The incredible force exerted by Khan’s grip astonished even the homunculus puppeteer.

Since the puppeteer’s body couldn’t feel pain, he could only blankly watch as his head was crushed like a tin can.

With a sound like meat being pounded, the puppeteer’s vision faded to black.

Then, just after.

“It hurts──!”

Khan roared like a beast as he shattered the puppeteer’s staff. Eventually, as the medium holding the soul was destroyed, the puppeteer’s consciousness began to fade.

Even then, the puppeteer thought,

‘What exactly is it about this human that spurred such simple brutishness and madness in him-’

And if Khan had heard this question, he would have answered,

“You should also try getting rolled over in the Frost Gorge.”