MTM 75

‘What should I do… I can’t use my strength properly…’

Harto tried to create a sand barrier to help Zed, but before it could even take form, the wind scattered it or the sand collapsed. His chest tightened more and more. It seemed that he had already reached his limit from the battle the night before.

Whoosh!

At that moment, Draik swung his long tail through the air again.

“…Ugh!”

“Zed!”

Zed barely avoided the strike, but one of his knees was torn open and blood trickled down. Red drops spread in a curve over the sand. Harto tried to look at the wound, but Zed stopped him.

“I’m fine, Harto. Stay where you are.”

“But…”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but that thing… is dragging time on purpose.”

Zed’s voice sounded rough.

“I don’t know why, but it looks like he’s waiting for me to wear out.”

“He’s waiting for you… to wear out?”

“Yes. Even now, he knows I’m injured, but he’s not attacking.”

At Zed’s words, Harto swallowed his saliva and lifted his head to look at the lizard.

When their eyes met, Draik slowly blinked his one remaining eye and flicked his purple tongue. It felt like he was enjoying their misery.

How could they bring down that enormous lizard with a single attack?

Even when Zed cut off his limbs with the greatsword, he used he immediately regeneration, so it didn’t seem easy.

‘But it can’t be completely invincible. He must have a weak point.’

Harto pulled himself together and tried to think of a solution. The same had been true with the monstrous flower. Its fatal weakness had been buried under the sand, and he had instinctively known it. Even though his strength had weakened a lot, he believed he could find it again this time.

“Zed, maybe… is there any difference between that lizard and the snake we fought back then?”

Zed placed his hand over the wound and sent holy power through it as he murmured lowly.

“That thing… definitely wasn’t a sorcerer before. But today it’s different. I can feel far more magical energy than the sorcerer from that time.”

“Magical energy…”

Harto raised his head. Even if he could barely sense magic, it didn’t matter. Right now, he focused all his will on figuring it out.

‘What could’ve changed him like this?’

Harto didn’t take his eyes off the giant lizard that was stomping and circling around.

Flash.

At that instant, the uncovered red eye directly met his. A shiver ran down his spine.

“Zed… I think I know.”

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

‘Hmph, weak fools… what are they wasting time for?’

Draik moved his massive body and circled around Zed and Harto, who were standing in the center of the desert. The sun was burning, but his thick hide made it bearable.

However, the two of them enduring it with bare bodies must already have been gasping with scorched lungs.

‘Stubborn worms… how long do you plan to last? There’s nowhere to run in this desert.’

It was natural that the mage in their group had already placed precautions here, and no matter what strange ability that monster had, it could never surpass his regeneration. Since he had blown away the spears he had planted in the dunes, he hadn’t done a single thing since.

‘They told me not to kill them, so I tried to talk first… tch, what a bother.’

Draik clicked his tongue and let his body droop. He decided to rest for a moment while watching them.

Then, the black monster that was on Zed’s back slid down.

Shhh.

The monster mixed sand, water, and its own soft body and began to form a shape.

“Huh…?”

Draik’s eyes widened. Soon his mouth opened wide, and his loud laughter shook the desert.

“Ha ha ha ha! You made a weapon out of a monster?!”

The sword made from sand and the black monster was far longer and sharper than the previous greatsword, but its surface was flexible and soft.

“You think that weird thing will work! I’ve never seen such idiots!”

Drake laughed mockingly for a while.

“……”

But Zed didn’t answer. He threw his old greatsword onto the sand and gripped the monster-made blade. Without hesitation, he charged straight toward Draik.

Draik stuck out his long tongue with a look of boredom. The poison stinger hanging from his tip shot toward Zed with lightning speed.

Thwack!

Zed jumped and avoided it, then sliced the tip of the tongue with the monster blade. Thick, hot blood gushed from the severed end.

‘Foolish! That won’t matter anyway!’

Draik sneered and wrapped himself in black energy as he instantly regenerated the cut tongue. Just before the new stinger hit Zed again, Zed caught it with his bare hand, pulled out the dagger from his belt, and thrust it deep in.

‘It’ll just regenerate again… wha–?!’

Draik smirked but soon felt something wrong.

Zed had thrust the dagger deep into the lizard’s tongue, then hurled the monster sword with all his strength. Draik turned his head to the side in realization, but it was too late.

The blade, formed from mixed sand and the black monster, twisted its body midair, cut through the sky, and changed its path toward its true target.

“…?!”

The monster blade shone under the sun as it fell toward Draik’s red iris.

Thud!

“Gyaaah!”

The sharp tip pierced through the red eye. His purple tongue with the dagger still stuck in it flailed. Zed seized that instant, grabbed his greatsword, and brought it down on the tongue.

Slash!

Dark red blood sprayed up like a fountain. Zed gripped his sword again and cut through the giant lizard’s four legs and tail one after another. Then he aimed at the body. The sword filled with holy power split through the belly over and over. The blood that spurted out burned in black flames and vanished. There was no more regeneration.

Rumble–!

The huge body collapsed within seconds. Black smoke scattered through the blood-soaked sand as Draik’s heavy body slowly sank into the desert.

“…Harto!”

Zed didn’t even think about checking Draik’s end and ran toward Harto, who was trapped inside the cloud of sand.

Flap.

At that moment, with the sound of a bird’s wings, a single black feather fluttered down before his eyes.

“Why… suddenly…”

“…Zed!”

He felt an ominous feeling, but when he heard Harto’s voice, Zed threw himself into the sandstorm.

“Harto! Are you okay?!”

“Yes…! Cough, cough! Ugh, it’s disgusting…”

Harto coughed, covered from head to toe in Draik’s sticky bodily fluid. But he didn’t seem to have any visible wounds. Zed finally felt a bit of relief when he saw the black monster still wriggling beside him as usual.

“Zed, are you okay…”

Pi-iiit!

At that moment, a piercing high-pitched sound cut through the air, and Harto stopped talking. Both of them froze like stone, staring at each other. They didn’t know what had just happened. Time seemed to stop, and even the sand grains drifted slowly through the air.

Swish.

“Three years… it’s a quite a long wandering.”

A strange voice broke through the silence.

“How far were you planning to keep running?”

A silver mask with a bird’s beak. It was the sorcerer Bernak. A crow with red eyes perched on his shoulder.

“You…!”

Zed reflexively tried to swing his greatsword, but his body didn’t move. It was as if invisible threads had bound him. Harto couldn’t move either. His eyes, fixed on Zed, were full of fear.

“You shouldn’t move carelessly. The more you move, the faster the poison will spread.”

Bernak spoke in a calm voice.

“You didn’t even notice the poisoned stinger. It seems you’ve grown quite attached to this monster. The master is very intrigued as well.”

“Ugh, Harto has nothing to do with me!!”

Zed shouted, veins bulging on his neck and his face red.

“Really?”

Bernak smirked and raised one finger. Black flames rose from his hand and moved instantly onto Harto’s body.

“Ah…!”

Harto’s eyes widened. The flames weren’t hot, but the black energy spreading through his body was terrifying.

“No! Harto! Don’t be afraid! I’ll, I’ll… urgh…!”

Zed tried desperately to move, but the poison had already taken over his body. His hands only trembled, and the greatsword fell onto the sand.

“Caw!”

At some point, a swarm of crows had covered the sky. They circled around Harto, whose body burned with black fire.

Zed felt his mind go blank. His vision turned red, and his thread of reason shook.

“Urghhh…!”

It felt like his insides were burning. He should never have taken his eyes off Harto. Zed cursed himself and raged.

“What do you want?! Tell me! What do you want from me?!”

His furious shout echoed in the air, mingled with the endless cawing of the crows.

“‘Light cannot hide inside shadow.’ Have you forgotten the warning I left you?”

Bernak spoke calmly and took out a glass bottle that glowed pale blue. The wavering black fire completely wrapped Harto.

“Ze… d…”

When the terrified Harto called out to him in a small voice, his body was instantly sucked into the glass bottle with a trail of black smoke.

Harto disappeared right before his eyes.

“No… no, Harto…”

Plop, plop.

Blood burst from Zed’s face. The veins in his arms, legs, and shoulders split one by one. His blood vessels ruptured as he forced his body to break the paralysis. Through the wounds, traces of holy power leaked out from his body.

Bernak, who was holding the glass bottle with Harto sealed inside, looked down at the blood-covered Zed.

“The master is waiting.”

Flap.

With those words, Bernak’s body scattered into countless black feathers. The crows cawed all at once as they took flight, then disappeared into the sun.