Chapter 82
82. Moth to the Flame
In crises, concentration and judgment rise sharply.
The moment I saw my vision turn white, I moved at once.
I used [All-Out] to boost my durability stat and activated [Iron Wall] to raise my defense. I pulled a shield from my inventory and used it as cover.
But I wasn't confident I could block it perfectly even with that. If what I had wasn't enough, then it was time to use the surroundings.
I hid myself behind the biggest piece of cover nearby, the Emerald Wyvern.
It was more wishful thinking than prediction, but these things should have some resistance to their own attacks.
I didn't know whether that came from the durability of their bodies themselves or from some unusual magical means.
If it's the former, I'll live. If it's the latter, I'm dead. No way a collapsed wyvern is going to obediently become my shield.
It took about one second from finishing that judgment to acting on it.
-KWA-GWA-GWA-BOOM!
The deafening blast left only ringing in my ears, and my vision was already pure white.
Hearing, sight, and then even touch and mana perception were all paralyzed.
The HP bar in my status window was being shredded at an incredible speed, and I lost consciousness.
**
Feeling a dazed haze, as if I were submerged underwater, I forced myself back to my senses.
I quickly circulated mana to check my body's condition, and at the same time sensed the wyverns that had fired beams at me.
They were pounding toward me. But the distance had barely closed at all.
They weren't so slow that it would take long to close the gap, though.
It seemed I'd only lost consciousness for a moment. But in that brief instant, my body had been reduced to a complete wreck.
“Kuhk.”
A dry cough escaped me involuntarily. Even though I felt like I might throw up, not even saliva came out, let alone blood.
My throat must be scorched raw. Shit, it feels like I'm being burned just from breathing.
And my eyes seem to have been scorched properly too, and there isn't a single limb that's fine. At this rate, I may as well be charcoal.
The HP shown in the status window was almost at rock bottom. In other words, I was one step from death.
“Kuk, kuhk, kek, shit, ba-hah...”
It probably sounded insane, but for some reason, I felt good. The scorched corners of my mouth curled upward.
I feel an intense rush of pleasure every time I achieve some kind of growth.
If the vow never to stop is what drags me forward, then the pleasure of growth is what pushes me from behind.
“Heh, heh-heh-heh, heh-heh!”
Then was the pleasure I felt now because I was sensing my own growth? No, probably not.
I hate myself. I hate the pleasure I feel and all the animal instincts within me.
That was why I had thrown myself into death-defying situations again and again. Because I wanted to die. Because I wanted to kill myself.
And yet, in those life-or-death situations, I grew and became stronger faster than ever, so come to think of it, there was nothing more contradictory than this.
Maybe what I really liked wasn't the act of throwing myself into danger itself?
Fail, and I die.
Succeed, and I grow.
It may look like a life-threatening gamble, but for me, who wants both, either outcome is a win.
“Uhek, kehk, k, hnnng.”
Feeling my body gradually recover, I watched the five wyverns approaching me.
It was fun, exhilarating, irritating, disgusting, loathsome, revolting, and fun again.
Because emotions and will directly affect mana control, my mana was wavering more violently than ever at this moment.
But this wasn't using my own mana, so I could safely use it even in a moment like this.
[Mana Reinforcement]
-RUMBLE!
As I used the fully charged pendant, immense power surged through my body with a thunderclap.
**
The wyverns that came out of the cavern could act much more freely.
The inside of the cavern wasn't wide enough for them to fly around to their heart's content, but it wasn't so narrow that they couldn't take off.
That was why two of the five wyverns flapped their wings and rose into the air.
Now they had entered their real stage.
But now it's my turn to get serious. My body is a complete wreck, but if I still have even a little HP left, I won't die.
The effects of [Combat Persistence] and [Combat Awakening], both of which have reached double digits, probably help too; even with this half-finished body, I can still fight.
On top of that, there's the enhanced effect of [Indomitable], triggered by my HP dropping sharply, and the Mana Reinforcement activated by the pendant.
More than at any moment so far, I am stronger now.
-BOOM!
I kicked off the ground and shot toward the wyvern on the ground like an arrow.
The wyvern swung its claws to swat me down as I rushed in, but I was far faster.
After closing the distance, I thrust the thick spear I'd pulled from my inventory and drove it into the wyvern's neck.
-KIIIIIIING!
I could feel a powerful wave of mana from the wyverns floating in the air. A beam.
It was an attack I could dodge even without using any special buffs. Now it was even easier.
The fired beam swept across the ground, but I had already kicked off and risen into the air.
“Hoo-wup.”
I took a deep breath in midair, adjusted my posture, and used Sword Charge with the one-handed sword in my hand.
With the charge effect taking hold, my body shot forward, and in an instant I could close on the wyvern that had flown up.
“Caught you.”
At that awkward distance where it was almost within reach, I pulled a large halberd from my inventory and drove it into the wyvern's shoulder.
I grabbed the halberd's shaft and climbed up it, mounting the wyvern's back.
[Achievement Unlocked : Wyvern Rider]
An unknown achievement was completed, and as a reward, my stats rose slightly.
The wyvern tried every kind of acrobatic maneuver to shake me off its back, but I wasn't about to be shaken off by that.
Instead, I drove my sword and spear deeper into the wyvern's shoulder and held on even tighter.
-KWA-GWA-KWAAANG! KWAANG!
The other wyverns fired beams to shoot me down, but not a single one hit.
I wasn't sure whether it was because this wyvern flew so well or because those bastards couldn't properly aim at one of their own kind.
But at least I understood that once I was on it, it was comfortable. I was also starting to figure out how to stay on it more easily.
“Is there no class like Wyvern Rider?”
Thinking it'd be nice to be able to raise a flying mount, I took a fresh throwing weapon from my inventory.
Even on the back of a wyvern flying around so wildly, my throwing accuracy didn't drop one bit.
“Hup!”
I hurled the weapon at another wyvern that was stuck with no way to move.
**
The Emerald Wyvern's biggest weakness was, as expected, that its defense was low compared to its firepower.
Its flight speed was slower than I expected too, so I could land several effective hits with my strongest specialty, throwing attacks.
I carved a large chunk out of the now-useless wyvern's shoulder, then used [All-Out] to boost my strength and tore off its wing with my bare hands.
-GRAAAAHHH!!
Shrieking as it fell, the wyvern crashed down, and the other wyverns were already waiting on the ground, just as mangled.
I downed a potion to heal my remaining wounds and put the dying wyverns out of their misery.
“Nothing special.”
If you leave out the part where I almost died to a beam, it was a completely one-sided fight.
Well, once I'd properly built up my skills, fights with large monsters always felt like this.
One wrong hit and I'm dead, but I don't get touched even once by the beast's brute-force attacks that have nothing fancy about them.
Ah, of course, that's only possible because my basic stats can keep up with these bastards.
“Mana Reinforcement is seriously broken.”
In the end, it was the absurdly powerful double buff of [Indomitable] and the pendant-triggered Mana Reinforcement that made it possible.
But I can't be entirely satisfied with just how powerful the buff is.
Because I was completely relying on an item to activate Mana Reinforcement, which gives me my biggest boost in combat power.
The backlash after using Mana Reinforcement isn't something to take lightly, and because it's rechargeable, I can't use it flexibly whenever I want.
Now that I've learned how good Mana Reinforcement is, I can't just give it up.
As expected, items that are too powerful are troublesome in all sorts of ways.
Well, the only answer is to be able to activate Mana Reinforcement on my own as soon as possible.
Then let's stop reflecting here. There's only one thing left.
“Now, it's your turn.”
I walked toward the one and only wyvern I had deliberately left alive.
The Emerald Wyvern whose wings and claws I'd torn off and half-pinned to the floor with swords and spears.
It couldn't fight at all like this, but as long as its mouth was still there, there was still one thing it could do.
“Come on, fire already.”
As I strode boldly right up in front of it, the wyvern immediately gathered mana and prepared a beam.
It had already been proven a moment ago that a single beam wouldn't kill me.
There was no barrier left to serve as cover, but with Mana Reinforcement active, my actual defense was even higher than a moment ago.
Maybe because these guys aren't boss monsters and aren't the kind of thing you're meant to hunt, they don't give separate rewards.
Then I should take something for myself, shouldn't I?
It's a high-powered, multi-attribute attack, so if I get hit a few times, won't all kinds of resistances start shooting up?
[Passive Skill : Magic Resistance Level 1 has been acquired.] [Passive Skill : Spell Resistance Level 1 has been acquired.]