Chapter 250 : Chapter 250
Chapter 250. Overloading (5)
The instant both sides, sprinting at each other, closed to within striking distance — the foremost beast cocked its carapace lance back.
Enoch, too, freely spun the long double-bladed axe he'd been holding behind his back and accelerated again.
Kicking off the ground, he soared several meters into the air.
Enoch's figure cut across the sky, the long-hafted weapon tracing its characteristic circular arc as he rotated. The axe, wrapped in devastating kinetic energy, swung down and slammed into the extended carapace lance in a plunging strike.
The impact of their collision alone sent tremors rippling through the surrounding road, caving in the ground.
Enoch landed immediately, whipping the axe up and over his shoulder with the spin's momentum. In the same breath, the axe unleashed a ferocious downward slash, driven by furious thrust.
The blade — boasting unmatched hardness — struck the enemy's hastily raised carapace lance, and for a split second sparks flew as they clashed.
But the balance didn't last. Enoch stomped forward hard, channeled his strength into the axe, and sent the enemy flying — guard and all.
Overpowered, the beast sailed through the air, bounced off the ground, and crashed into the building wall on the opposite side.
Enoch kicked the side of the axe where it had driven into the ground, and using the rebound, pulled and spun the long haft into his grip as he whispered.
"Good."
Spinning the axe — longer than its wielder was tall — overhead, Enoch quietly settled it behind his back and raised his head.
"I've got the feel for it."
As if the beasts understood the meaning behind those cold words, the ones charging from behind faltered.
Though it was not a sword, Enoch already understood how to wield this polearm.
More than surprise, acceptance came first.
The application of Sword Forms he had been attempting all along. The fruit of that relentless training and contemplation was finally bearing unmistakable results in this very fight.
A strange sensation washed over him, and Enoch briefly closed and opened his eyes.
Confirming the enemies slowly spreading out to encircle him, he lowered his stance.
A fierce wind swept over the momentarily silent battlefield. The dying sunset scattered its crimson light in all directions, dazzlingly bright —
Without either side going first, both broke into a sprint.
Enoch, charging at the enemies like a bullet, spun the double-bladed axe to the side.
He bisected the lead beast's upper body in a single stroke. Simultaneously, he drove the axe at a steep angle into the ground, heralding the start of the hunt.
Before the enemies behind could even register their comrade's death, Enoch spun his body once and flicked the butt of the haft with a precise heel kick.
The jet-black axe shot forward, spinning like a top, and was launched ahead.
The whirling axe struck the ground with a searing trail of sparks and a thunderous roar, sweeping through the remaining enemies in its path like a helicopter rotor, severing every one of them.
Black powder and severed limbs scattered from the front in an instant.
Enoch immediately kicked off the ground, overtook the axe still spinning at an angle through the air, and caught the haft one-handed.
Settling the axe on his shoulder, he dropped low and accelerated forward, sprinting like the wind.
Enoch's dark blue eyes carved a long, meteor-like trail across the battlefield thick with drifting black ash.
— SCREEEEEE!!
The Master Class beast directly ahead sensed something amiss and let out a shriek. But dragging its massive bulk, it was already too late to react.
Pressing the momentum, Enoch sprinted to finish it — half-rotating at the waist, sliding long across the ground, he thrust the axe forward with devastating force.
But what he heard next was not the beast's scream, but the fierce clang of two objects of extreme hardness colliding.
Enoch's all-out thrust had struck the carapace wing, sparks erupting on impact.
Wrenched backward by the tremendous force, Enoch was sent skidding, axe still in hand, dragging shoe-marks across the pavement before barely stopping.
A chill jolted down his spine. Looking up at the massive silhouette before him, he knew at once.
A formidable enemy.
— SCREEEEEE!!
The harpy-shaped leader-class beast unfurled its jet-black wings the very next instant.
Feathers made of obsidian-like carapace shot toward Enoch indiscriminately, like a volley of arrows.
A barrage of feathers — each hard and sharp enough that a single graze would be fatal — blackened Enoch's entire field of vision like a rain of arrows.
Enoch kicked off the ground and dashed sideways, spinning the axe laterally at speed.
With a rapid series of metallic clangs, he deflected the minimum number of projectiles and curved toward the enemy in a flanking maneuver.
Reaching the beast in a flash, Enoch cocked the axe far back — and the beast, reacting with speed far beyond human limits, crossed its two wings before it.
Black wings and axe blade swept the air in every direction as a breathless exchange unfolded.
Around Enoch, as he whipped the axe through rapid arcs, circular trajectories fanned out — attack and defense crossing dozens of times in a single breath.
Along the spinning haft of the double-bladed axe, the beast's wings and talons clashed again and again, sparks erupting in rapid succession.
TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!
Ignoring the crimson sparks grazing his face, Enoch caught the wings' blows on the axe and, in a split-second, spotted the beast's balance wavering as it swung — and shoved the haft forward hard.
The beast, its center stripped away, staggered back. Enoch kicked off the ground in pursuit.
Unable to hold any longer, the Master Class beast spread its wings wide and launched itself skyward in a soaring leap.
Caught off-guard by the beast's sudden ascent of dozens of meters, Enoch's reaction lagged a fraction as he looked up. Horror nearly burst from his throat.
The massive enemy was plummeting toward him from above, wings rotating vertically like a windmill.
A grotesque sight — like a swan performing a dance with wings spread — yet its overwhelming mass translated directly into destructive force, slicing through the atmosphere like a meteor plunging down.
There was no time to dodge.
Locking eyes with the falling enemy, Enoch held the axe behind his body, crouched, and set himself to counterattack.
He waited until the enemy was directly before him, then angled the axe and half-rotated, stomping the ground as he received and deflected the attack.
CLAAAAAAAANG!!
The metallic roar of weapon meeting carapace wing erupted simultaneously with the parry, splitting the air.
The ground where Enoch stomped compressed — stone paving and all — sending fragments flying in every direction.
Even a perfect defense couldn't absorb that force. Enoch planted the axe shaft upright in the ground to brake himself as he was pushed far back, then one knee buckled and he dropped to the pavement.
The shock traveled through the haft, through his wrist, through his bare body — buzzing and jolting — making movement momentarily impossible.
He hadn't been overpowered in raw strength, but the sheer difference in mass was the problem.
The Master Class beast, seemingly convinced its decisive blow had landed, spread its flower-like head wide and let out something like a laugh.
Enoch felt he could almost understand the mockery woven into that screech.
I've won. This settles who has the upper hand.
Now I'll finish you off.
Brimming with that triumphant certainty, the leader-class beast strode toward Enoch, footfalls booming.
Its carapace-armored talons slammed down right in front of Enoch's lowered line of sight as he knelt.
Standing before the kneeling Enoch, the beast raised its massive wing like a guillotine and sneered. This was the end——
But in the next instant, the beast looked to the side, puzzled. The raised wing felt far too light.
Only upon checking did the beast's cry twist into a note of shock.
The wing carapace that had just collided with Enoch's axe had, at some point, cracked wide open. Not only that — fractures ran across the wing in every direction, dust and fragments crumbling away.
While the beast groaned at the impossible sight, a cold voice sounded from directly below.
"I've thought this for a while now."
Only then did the beast look down at the boy before it, aghast, and inch backward.
Black hair streaming in the wind, Enoch slowly rose to his feet, spun the axe planted in the ground into his grip, and took his stance.
"No matter how strong your magic resistance, deflecting this clearly isn't your forte."
Ignoring the beast's incredulous stare, Enoch kicked the axe off the ground and spun it into his hand, expressionless.
Without a sword, he could neither fully replicate Reverse Flow nor project mana. But he had managed — just barely — to mimic that transcendent Sword Principle and parry the enemy's attack, deflecting its force.
Had he lacked even a shred of that sense and tried to block all that power with brute strength alone, he would have been crushed.
Yet the enemy, staggering as though unable to accept the reality unfolding before it, glared at him with terror in its eyes.
Enoch kicked off the ground once more and charged at the enemy head-on, axe angled behind him.
Sensing it was being pushed back, the beast tried to flee — inching its massive frame backward — but Enoch was a beat faster.
Slipping inside the beast's guard in a flash, Enoch buried the double-bladed axe in its abdomen, then used one arm on the haft and the recoil of a rising kick to launch himself into the air.
Like the breakdance move called a windmill, he half-rotated his body, using the elasticity of the haft to vault acrobatically skyward.
Gazing coldly down at the enemy's head — now at a range where he couldn't possibly miss — Enoch delivered a rotational kick with full force.
THWAAAAAAAM!!
The kick, loaded with enormous kinetic energy, struck the enemy's head and snapped it sideways in a single blow.
Forced to an angle far past its elastic limit, the beast's neck carapace shattered all at once. Carapace fragments grazed past Enoch and scattered in every direction.
But seeing the massive flower-like head tilt far backward, Enoch narrowed his eyes.
Not yet.
The enemy still hadn't taken a fatal wound. A Master Class would regenerate broken carapace in no time.
But he, too, had a next move.
Seizing that split-second timing, Enoch pressed his hand to the communicator and shouted.
"April!"
[Leave it to me——!]
The very next instant, a pink round pierced the air beside Enoch as he hung in the sky.
WHIIIIIIIIIZ!!
A beat later, the crack of the shot and the beast's deep scream tore through the air. Jet-black ash erupted before his eyes like a spray of blood.
He realized a beat after that a .308 caliber sniper round had hammered the enemy in a spiraling trajectory. April had threaded the shot precisely through the shattered carapace gap in the beast's head.
In the instant his body was flipping backward through the air, his head turned to the side, Enoch saw it.
On the rooftop of a building several hundred meters away, a girl was calmly aiming her sniper rifle at him.
Lying prone in a shooting posture, sighting him through her scope, the girl — with her cat-like eyes — looked his way and urgently keyed her comm.
[Sorry, Direct Lineage — that thing's not done yet!]
April's concise shot — fired in haste for supporting fire, without even imbuing magic.
The leader-class beast, boasting tenacious vitality and regeneration, had only lost its balance from the sniper round. A hit like this alone wasn't fatal.
But that alone was enough.
The impact of the sniper round jerked the beast's head violently, and its massive body toppled backward. The ground shook with a heavy thud.
———This is the end.
Enoch fell from the sky toward the ground where dust was billowing spectacularly, one arm outstretched to the side.
He caught the double-bladed axe — which had spun free from the impact of the beast hitting the ground — out of the air, and in the same motion as his landing, drove it into the fallen leader-class beast's head.
A devastating shockwave swept the ground, and the stone paving where the beast had fallen caved in with enormous cracks.
Confirming the enemy had gone silent, Enoch kicked the flat of the long axe blade to wrench it free.
In raw strength alone, he had never been outmatched even by beasts that surpassed human limits. But his movements were unmistakably far sharper than before. The extent of his growth was palpable.
All this without even using the sword.
Training had played its part, but it was clear he had been continuously growing even throughout this operation.
Walking through the dissolving beasts — crumbling into black ash — Enoch glanced down at the magic gear in his hand.
But victory wasn't everything.
"Haaah."
Only after confirming the enemy was fully dead did Enoch finally allow the breath he had been holding to tear out of him in ragged gasps.
Crushing fatigue was flooding his body.
He urged his reluctant legs forward. He couldn't rest yet. There was still work to be done. He had to reach the underground shelter, deal with the remaining Master Class beasts, and prevent a massacre.
Just as Enoch was reaffirming his purpose and about to move — his body lurched violently.
"……!"
A strangled groan escaped through his clenched teeth.
His vision wavered. His breathing grew short and shallow.
His hand clenched with far more force than needed, and the metal shaft of the double-bladed axe in his grip let out an ominous creak as if it might shatter.
He forced his eyes wide and glared ahead.
Here — of all places, now of all times. Sensing something like black haze rising at the edges of his vision, Enoch ground his teeth.
What was bound to come had finally arrived.
The Inner World erosion had begun anew.