Chapter 73
Chapter 73: The Plan is Complete!
Recovering from her 'death,' Auréliane's mind was in considerable discomfort.
She hadn't actually died—yet for some reason, every time she was teleported back to the starting point, she was left with the feeling that she had already 'died' once.
As though it were mocking her for failing.
Auréliane didn't want to fail.
She began to think quietly.
Every time she 'died,' it started over from the beginning.
Her condition would be restored, and the monster before her would have its HP replenished by her Teacher.
As though it were telling her:
'You must defeat it in a single run.'
This was a trial.
That was what Auréliane told herself.
She rallied herself once more. Magic Formations took shape across her body, and while the Ogre was still bound, she layered several faint Buff spells onto herself.
In the instant the Ogre charged, she released the Grey Haze again……
Up in the sky, Viktor concealed his presence and watched everything unfold.
The moment the Boss was about to land an attack on Auréliane that could prove fatal, he would use Teleportation Magic to return them both to the starting point.
And in the process, restore the Wild Ogre and Auréliane to full condition.
He did so tirelessly.
Weija looked down from above. When the blue light flashed and Auréliane and the Wild Ogre were teleported back to their original positions once more, it couldn't help but grumble:
"Does she have a grudge against you? Putting her through this."
"Though it is somewhat entertaining."
After all, Weija had never witnessed such a 'novel' combat scenario before.
A powerful monster that could never manage to kill its opponent, while the opponent kept reviving again and again, challenging it in an endless loop.
It was like a playful little game.
Yet Weija didn't see what purpose this served.
True powerhouses were forged through relentless real combat against opponents of equal standing.
The gulf between this monster and the Princess was simply too vast—Auréliane would never be able to kill it.
Unless she could reach the same abnormal level as Viktor.
Thinking of how Viktor had battled the Calamity for 3 days and 3 nights and been injured only once throughout, Weija found it incomprehensible.
Even a Calamity had been read so completely by him—was there anything Viktor could not do?
Viktor spoke as though he had seen right through its thoughts, his tone indifferent:
"You asked me before why I'm a Mage, yet still have such refined close-combat technique."
Weija paused slightly and looked toward Viktor.
His face was still expressionless and cold, yet his eyes carried a sentiment that was difficult to put into words—a kind of distant, lingering nostalgia.
"I was forged in an environment just like this one, fighting without end."
"Once, twice, dozens of times, hundreds of times……even thousands of times."
"Fail once—start again from the beginning."
Viktor's gaze gradually grew fierce and burning, and within his words, Weija seemed to glimpse an image that was nothing short of epic.
A colossal dragon blotted out the sky overhead, and Viktor could do nothing but stare up at that overwhelming mass of power and dominance.
Its left claw held a Thunder Lance; its right gripped a spinning Wheel; the other 2 claws below cradled an enormous Thunder Drum.
It was a scene of absolute apocalypse—beneath the shattered, floating islands raged a dark, churning ocean of corruption, endlessly forming vortices that devoured everything in their path; the sky above was devoid of light, and the suffocating, oppressive weight of that air pressed into Viktor's lungs.
In his hand was only a silver blade—the pristine, radiant sword left behind by the Hero who had once slaughtered tens of thousands of magical beasts—yet beneath that dragon, its faint gleam looked so small, so fragile.
All around him, endless flame erupted spontaneously from lightning-scorched rock, and a single strike would be enough to reduce Viktor to nothing.
Fail once—start again from the beginning.
Die, rise. Die, rise.
Repeating without end.
In the end, he stood atop the great beast's head and severed its skull with his blade.
He won—but at a devastating cost.
Weija could not understand it.
A fight where the gap was so overwhelmingly vast—why would anyone keep repeating it?
The odds of victory were no more than 1 in 10,000, yet they still threw themselves in like moths into a flame.
"……Does it never get exhausting?"
Countless deaths, countless falls, all just to earn 1 hard-won victory.
What meaning could there possibly be in that?
"Exhausting?"
Viktor suddenly smiled.
It was the first time he had smiled like this—as though releasing some long-held burden, as though he had found a long-lost part of himself within a scene just like this.
"You only need to win once."
All of a sudden, Weija's gaze dropped to Auréliane below.
A crimson glow lit up in her hand, and a faint red flame shimmered across her palm.
Nearly pressed up against the Boss, Auréliane drove her palm hard into the monster's body.
For the first time, the Wild Ogre let out a howl of pain!
In a furious rage, it whipped out a chain woven from thick vines and sent Auréliane flying with a single sweeping blow.
Auréliane seemed to have anticipated this. One hand blazed with a fierce light as it deflected the strike.
"It worked!"
She had barely broken into a smile of triumph when the Ogre's enormous claw came crashing down toward her.
Whoosh!
The blue light flashed, and she and the monster were returned to their starting positions.
Auréliane stared at the number on the ground in a daze.
"11."
The 11th failure had nearly broken Auréliane.
She had managed to land a single hit on the enemy, and she had already started feeling pleased with herself.
That wasn't right.
She felt the Magic Power in her body restore, and the wounds on the monster healed over once again.
Another fresh round of combat.
She bit her lip stubbornly and took up her fighting stance.
"Again!"
"12."
"Again!"
"20."
"Ag……ain!"
"30."
"40."
"50."
An indeterminate amount of time had passed.
The number kept updating. Death after death—yet the sight of it left Weija quietly stunned.
"Why?"
She was still holding on, as though defeating the enemy was something she simply had to do.
From the very beginning when she couldn't even last 10 seconds, to now, where her endurance kept growing longer and longer.
It was as though she was continuously adapting to the enemy's attack patterns and fighting style.
On the 60th attempt, the wounds across the Wild Ogre's body were becoming increasingly severe. It was panting heavily, and its eyes even held a faint trace of hesitation.
This opponent was so utterly weak—like a worm. So why couldn't it kill her?
The Ogre's intelligence was not capable of higher-level thought.
"She's going to win?"
There was a faint note of surprise in Weija's voice.
Yet Viktor simply said calmly:
"The closer you are to the final moment, the less you can afford to relax."
Sure enough, from Viktor's vantage point, the Wild Ogre's HP was down to almost nothing.
Just 2 more solid hits.
That was all it would take for the Wild Ogre to die.
But the Ogre's hesitation made Auréliane sense an opening, and in her impatience she charged forward—forgetting completely:
The Wild Ogre was always faster than her.
Its lunge missed Auréliane, but the spiked chain in its grip was already cocked and loaded.
1 strike, and Auréliane was 'dead' once more.
But as long as Viktor was there, it was destined never to kill Auréliane.
Another Teleportation Magic swapped their positions once more, and the magic restored both their HP.
"61."
This time, Auréliane's state of mind was close to breaking.
She had been so close.
Yet the enemy seemed like something that could never be defeated.
Her physical wounds had healed, but her spirit was nearly at its limit.
All of a sudden, Auréliane recalled something Viktor had said at the very beginning.
'Do you……want to give up?'
Stubborn as she was, Auréliane never wanted to give up.
She raised her hand, and in the instant the Wild Ogre lunged toward her, the Magic Formation lit up.
The enraged Ogre crashed down where she had been standing, flattening countless tree branches in its wake—but when it reared up to look, it had caught nothing but air. In the crushed undergrowth and fallen branches, there was only a faint scattering of fine ice dust.
【1st-Tier Magic: Ice Decoy】
A perfectly timed evasion—and her fire magic followed immediately after……
From the sky, Weija watched the scene below.
For the first time, it felt something in Auréliane's combat that could be called 'evenly matched.'
She hadn't grown particularly faster—yet she moved as though she had fully adapted to the enemy's every attack pattern.
Footwork steady, watching for the Boss's moment to strike.
Evade, then deliver a hit.
Strike decisively, never linger, pull back swiftly.
A perfect combat rhythm.
At last, under Auréliane's relentless spell-harassment—like a fly that refused to be swatted away—the Ogre lost all reason entirely. It toppled down into the dense forest and began rolling and thrashing uncontrollably.
Auréliane was forced to retreat. She was waiting, looking for an opening.
As the Ogre rolled about indiscriminately, it kept tumbling in the direction away from Auréliane.
Auréliane knew this was the perfect moment.
【2nd-Tier Magic: Flame Scatter-shot】
In an instant, red Magic Formations began forming in the air one after another.
Although it was a 2nd-tier spell, it required simultaneously constructing numerous fire orbs in the air at once—only then could they converge into a concentrated strike and deliver amplified damage.
For Auréliane, this was the most effective method of attack available to her.
But its casting time was brutally long.
Soon, countless runes began to interweave, and the patterns between several Formations started linking together.
The moment the Formation completed its construction, countless fire orbs hurtled toward the Ogre.
BOOM!
Smoke and dust erupted in an instant!
The Ogre stopped its useless rolling. It hurled rocks and fallen logs at Auréliane in rapid succession, and its enormous chain swung at her again and again.
Every one of those attacks was dodged with ease by Auréliane—who had seen them all many times over—countering each move as it came.
By this point, they had been locked in combat for 20 minutes.
"This is the longest she's held on."
Weija said, with a note of surprise.
But suddenly, a series of footsteps from outside the barrier caught Weija's attention.
It looked through the white mist—it was the Royal Knight Company, with Gwen unmistakably at the front.
And the Princess's royal personal guard as well.
How did they find this place?
Could it be……?
Weija suddenly had a suspicion.
A crowd of people broke through the white mist and surged in—and in almost the same instant, every last one of them witnessed the scene before them.
The massive monster burst through layers of smoke and dust, carrying fragments of fine ice crystal, its body ablaze with roaring fire.
Like a great blazing meteorite, it came crashing down at Auréliane.
"Your Highness the Princess!"
Everyone froze on the spot. At this distance, there was no possible way for them to reach the Princess in time.
Gwen dismounted, drew her sword, and prepared to charge in front of the Princess—intending to shield her with her own body. But then—
Auréliane raised her hand. A Magic Formation enveloped her left arm.
【1st-Tier Magic: Repulsion】
The faint repulsive force caused the monster's arm to stutter momentarily—but its strength was far too overwhelming, and the blow still connected with Auréliane's left arm.
In that instant, excruciating pain flooded through her left arm, making Auréliane feel as though it were about to be destroyed entirely.
But having been through so many 'deaths'—this level of pain no longer counted for much.
She clenched her teeth and bore the pain, and her gaze turned fierce and dangerous.
The palm of her right hand transformed into a blade of pure light, aimed squarely at the Wild Ogre's exposed jaw.
Stab!
The bursting blade of light pierced through the Wild Ogre's vulnerable jaw and drove straight through its skull.
Blood erupted, dyeing her clothes and body red.
BOOM!
With a thunderous crash, a shockwave surged up several meters—and the Ogre's massive body collapsed to the ground, toppling right in front of Auréliane.
She stared into the eyes of the Ogre, now completely drained of life, and breathed in deep, ragged gulps of air.
As though she still hadn't fully returned from the combat, the power she had channeled through magic was slowly restoring her left arm.
Yet the countless people who had witnessed this moment were all frozen in place at almost the same time.
Gwen among them—who had rushed forward to save Auréliane.
The number on the ground locked in at "61," and gradually faded away.
Weija stared wide-eyed with its 1 enormous eye.
"With a gap that overwhelmingly vast—how did she manage to win……"
Suddenly, Weija's voice cut off.
Yes—with a gap that vast.
How had Viktor managed to defeat a Calamity that was like a Natural Disaster incarnate?
Viktor did not reply to Weija.
This was the environment he had prepared for Auréliane.
You can beat me countless times—but.
I only need to beat you once.
At this moment, Viktor noticed the Level displayed beside Auréliane's Health Bar.
The number that had been fixed at Lv15 ticked upward—
Lv16.
Seeing this, Viktor gave a slight nod.
"Well then—the experiment was a success."