Invincible
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#165
🕑 Added 2024-12-12 18:24:46 +0000 UTCSpirit Battle (5)
The dull sound of flesh being struck by a hammer spread through the air.
With a line of blood trailing from the corner of his mouth, Arkandric looked at the monkey chief with a calm, observant gaze.
Despite delivering the same blow to its face, the creature appeared unfazed.
‘It seems brute strength alone won’t be enough to have any impact.’
His opponent was a spirit—a being that couldn’t be harmed meaningfully without mana or aura.
Yet, engaging in a contest of pure strength had been a mere amusement.
Smack!
The monkey chief’s fist landed square on Arkandric’s nose.
His face momentarily caved in, but he didn’t take a single step back, instead staring intensely into the monkey chief’s eyes.
“Why haven’t you used aura this whole time?” the monkey asked.
With a twitch of his beard, Arkandric replied, “Well, I’ve reinforced myself with it.”
“...That’s not what I meant. Why didn’t you use it to attack?”
“Oh, that,” Arkandric said, placing his enormous hand on the monkey chief’s head.
The creature’s head was so large that he could grasp it with one hand.
“Purely out of curiosity—to see if you’d survive if I crushed your brain with sheer grip strength.”
Crunch!
His fingers dug into the monkey chief’s skull, causing it to grimace in pain and unleash a flurry of punches on Arkandric’s face.
Bang!
Sweat sprayed with each punch, but Arkandric only smiled, his face lined with a mischievous grin.
“Ha ha ha! So it does hurt, huh?”
“You damn bastard!” the monkey chief stomped its feet in rage, trying to break Arkandric’s fingers.
But his grip strength was unyielding.
As blood began to drip from the monkey chief’s head, it regretted biting its nails.
‘If only I had my claws, I could have sliced through his skin!’
With no other option, it tried choking Arkandric with both hands, squeezing his neck as hard as it could.
Just then, a sickening crack resounded, and the monkey chief’s brain burst.
“Heh heh heh.”
At that moment, the monkey chief’s body, released from Arkandric’s grip, began to squirm, the cracked head reforming back to its original state.
Arkandric clapped his hands as if witnessing a marvel.
“Oho! It regenerates even after its head bursts.”
The monkey chief gritted its teeth in fury.
It wanted to charge at him immediately but took a cautious step back, unable to gauge the full extent of Arkandric’s strength.
‘This human… far exceeds my expectations.’
When the old man had tried to crush its head, the monkey chief had landed a punch on his face infused with dark energy.
Arkandric’s unscathed appearance was likely due to his intense use of aura for reinforcement.
But his grip strength had shown no sign of weakening.
‘He must be simultaneously using both strength and aura reinforcement. Did he push all his aura to the limit? If that was truly all his power, he’d be a beatable opponent… but… perhaps it’s best to set aside such thoughts.’
The monkey chief, seasoned by countless brutal encounters with humans, sensed instinctively that the old man was hiding his true power.
"Then."
The monkey chief approached Arkandric, feigning friendliness.
"Is there nothing else you're curious about?"
Lowering his guard as much as possible, he spoke, and Arkandric looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"Hmm?"
"Seeing you so amused is both irritating and oddly innocent, so it softened my anger. I even found your reactions somewhat entertaining. Maybe I’ll play with you a little more before killing you."
The monkey chief smirked.
‘Once he lets his guard down, I'll strike his heart with full force.’
His trump card was hidden on his back, out of Arkandric's sight—a tail with crystallized dark energy at its tip.
If humans had aura blades, fallen spirits like him had this.
‘Using this technique called Mantra.’
Concealing his true intentions, the monkey chief watched Arkandric’s reaction closely.
Arkandric held his chin thoughtfully, as if deep in contemplation.
"Hmm. I’ve already burst your head, so there's nothing else I’m particularly curious about."
"Strange. Spirits have many secrets that you humans don’t know."
"Secrets?"
The monkey chief shrugged and extended his hand.
"When you reach the level of a high spirit, you acquire a mystical power. I could call it a kind of blessing."
"A blessing? Like some kind of magic?"
"Well, I’ve never heard it called magic, but think of it however you want. Anyway, I’ll grant you a blessing—a blessing to communicate with nature and your own heart."
Arkandric's eyes gleamed with faint curiosity.
Seizing the moment, the monkey chief continued to speak words enticing enough to sway any human.
"Think carefully. The mana and aura techniques your kind covets are all derived from nature’s power. Now imagine being able to communicate with nature itself. If you manage to gain its favor, you could receive immense support."
Of course, it was all a lie.
But he was confident the old man before him would believe it.
As a strong warrior, Arkandric likely assumed that even if it were a trap, he could handle it.
And humans were known to chase even a 1% chance as if their lives depended on it.
"Believe me or not, it's up to you. Oh, if one of us dies, you'll never know whether I was telling the truth or not."
As he casually withdrew his hand, Arkandric swallowed hard.
"Hmm. Now that’s something to be curious about."
Arkandric took a step closer.
Only three steps remained until he was within range of the Mantra.
Thud.
He took two more steps and lifted his foot for the final stride.
The monkey chief’s pupils dilated, and he began to slowly move his tail.
It was close. The moment that foot touched the ground, he would pierce his heart in a single strike.
Just as he was about to fire his tail, a voice came from the side.
"See, I told you so."
A man with a blond head was speaking to a shorter man as he entered.
Behind him stood a burly man who looked like a barbarian and a woman with black hair.
"I wasn’t sure, but it’s true..."
“The engine room is the core of this place. Naturally, even the principal would have to make an appearance here.”
Then came the sound of a sharp stab piercing through skin.
The tail had struck Arkandric’s chest, but it missed slightly.
For a moment, the monkey chief's concentration wavered, leading to this result.
He only had a moment to realize the cause of his failure.
Looking at the tail in his chest, Arkandric exhaled cold air and spoke.
“You little….”
A calm blue flame flickered in his eyes.
The monkey chief felt a chill run through his entire body as he realized what was happening.
‘Aura… in his gaze?’
Aura is typically stored in the dantian, below the navel.
However, when that power surges abnormally, it can spread even to the head, causing this phenomenon.
And those who reach such a level of mastery are usually…
‘Damn it! I need to escape!!’
Even for a high spirit, he was a monster capable of killing with ease.
“How dare you try to deceive me! Die!!”
With a barrage of countless strikes, the monkey chief felt every blow with his whole body.
It was a force packed with both power and speed.
And the cold that froze the blood in every spot hit was undoubtedly the aura infused with nature’s power.
‘Ah, it was because of monsters like this that I lost to humans back then.’
The punches that chilled him to his core caused the monkey chief’s body to grow cold and stiff.
Finally, as his back hit the ground, Arkandric’s fist smashed his head like breaking ice.
Crash!
***
Arkandric is truly a monstrous old man.
To think he’d kill the creature with just his fists, without even using a sword.
Maybe it was because of him that Luon went on the run.
He probably thinks he's merely disciplining, but to those on the receiving end, each blow feels like death.
“Ha ha ha, you lucky little rascals. Thanks to you all showing up just in time, I survived. I almost got my heart pierced.”
Arkandric gave us a broad smile and asked me,
“But what brings you here?”
Of course, part of it was to check if the barrier was secure, but mostly it was an excuse to skip out on duties.
If I said that out loud, he’d probably hit me, though.
“That monkey barged into the engine room, so Professor Gomon ordered us to kill it.”
“Gomon did? Hmm. It turned out to be a wasted trip, but not a bad decision overall.”
Saying that, Arkandric froze the open wound on his chest.
“Still surprising. I’d reinforced myself with aura, yet it pierced so easily.”
That was likely due to a high spirit’s technique called ‘Mantra.’
It seems that spirits, like humans, have organs that convert mana into aura.
Mantra is a special power spirits use by combining aura with dark energy or mana.
Arkandric picked up a sword lying on the ground and secured it at his waist, then turned to Dorosian.
“Dorosian El Grice, how many of them did you take down?”
His question hinted at his desire to see Dorosian’s progress.
Dorosian smiled slyly and answered,
“How many, you ask? I didn’t catch a single one.”
“…Why?”
Dorosian shook the heavy chains of his armor with a smirk.
“Huh. Expecting me to help with these chains hanging on me? Absurd.”
Then she approached Arkandric, curling his lip.
“Sir Arkandric, if you want my assistance, you’ll have to release these chains first. Isn’t that right?”
Dorosian looked to us for agreement, but no one nodded.
Arkandric scratched his head, looking uncomfortable.
“It’s obvious you’d try to escape if I removed them.”
“You seem to underestimate me.”
“If you’re not interested, there’s nothing I can do. I was going to take care of everything outside in return.”
Dorosian showed no sign of disappointment, acting as though it didn’t matter.
Watching her, I felt a slight unease, as if she was planning something.
“Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that. If you still don’t plan to align with us here, so be it. I’ll ensure the professors hear nothing of this.”
With those words, Arkandric turned his back.
I glanced at Dorosian’s face beside me.
She gave a faint smile and said, “It doesn’t seem like there’s much left for us here, so where to next?”
“We should probably head back.”
Turning back the way we came, a thought rose to my throat, but I swallowed it down and kept walking.
***
“Kerndel! How many times have I told you not to overuse the aura blade?!”
Professor Ildiran from the Knight’s Division scolded him.
Kerndel scoffed and continued slicing through the monkey horde with his aura blade.
“Are you asking me to wield a shabby sword?”
“…You idiot. What you’re doing is like using a butcher’s cleaver to slaughter a chicken. I’ve told you time and again to manage your strength wisely. One day, your foolish pride will bring disaster upon you.”
“Heh, if you’re injured, why don’t you step back a little?”
Bellman, who had been resting in a corner, shook his head.
‘I heard that Kerndel trained under Professor Ildiran in his first year, but it seems their relationship wasn’t great.’
Bellman looked away from the frowning Professor Ildiran and toward the main entrance.
With all ten divisions assembled, the monkeys were getting slaughtered the moment they came in.
Finally, the moment had come to advance beyond the stronghold.
“It’s almost time! Just a bit more, everyone!”
Professor Gomon shouted excitedly.
As everyone pushed forward with all their might, Rokefeller’s voice rang out.
“The units stationed in the first-floor lobby have driven the enemies out to the main entrance. Everyone, gather in front of the stronghold and establish a defensive line.”
Bellman dragged his heavy body forward.
Seeing the towering mass of spirits just beyond the barrier up close, his tension soared.
Three gaping holes continued to spill out corrupted spirits.
“Damn, there are way more of them than we saw inside….”
“No time to talk—draw your sword, they’re coming at us.”
The battle outside the building required even more stamina.
With the open space, the creatures began forming a wide encirclement, and dealing with them was no easy feat.
Bellman gritted his teeth, squeezing out his mana just as Rokefeller’s voice called out from above.
“Now, we’re going to eliminate those three high-ranking spirits maintaining the barrier.”
Rokefeller’s voice came from right above.
“Leading this effort will be Principal Arkandric and Bellen. Your task is to clear the path so they can reach the high-ranking spirits. I know you’re all exhausted. Hold out just a little longer and push forward. Once the situation is under control, there will be time to rest and resupply.”
His words signaled the nearing end of the defensive battle.
“Then, Principal, Bellen. Please prepare.”
When Rokefeller called their names, Arkandric and Bellen stepped out onto the railing of the second-floor window.
Watching them loosen up, Bellman prayed fervently.
They would clear a path with all their strength, so he hoped they could finish the fight quickly.
***
Rokefeller stood on the sixth-floor balcony, scanning the battlefield.
The top priority targets were three spirits.
The blond man, one of the core pieces of this operation, was nowhere to be seen.
“Hersel Ben Tenest… That bastard… the remaining spirits were your responsibility.”
To defeat high-ranking spirits in a single strike, one needed mastery comparable to Bellen’s.
‘If those creatures maintaining the barrier sense any danger, they’ll surely retreat.’
Expecting that a single blow might not be enough, he prepared follow-up attacks to decisively finish them.
This battle was a prolonged one.
If they failed, there was a chance the creatures would launch a surprise attack at some point, a situation that had to be avoided at all costs.
‘Everyone is exhausted. Without proper rest, they’ll waste away.’
The number of creatures invading inside and outside the barrier was finally starting to decrease.
Thanks to the students' impressive advance, a path was opening from the breached barrier.
Rokefeller cast a lightening spell on himself and slowly descended to the ground.
“No other choice… I’ll have to take care of that one myself….”
