Ossan Saikyō Chapter 14 Part 22
There were 4 people standing in the throne room.
One was a middle-aged knight standing at the front with a spear at the ready. He was presumably the other Royal Guard knight.
Behind him stood a man dressed in such flamboyant clothes that it was immediately obvious he was the King. He had slicked-back silver hair and a matching silver beard that hung down to around his chest.
He was probably approaching old age, but his straight posture made it hard to tell. His face, however, had none of the dignity one would expect from a King. At best, he looked like a cheap, corrupt company president.
The woman standing beside him was presumably the queen. She was a beautiful woman with a severe expression, glaring at us resentfully, particularly at young Ryūsha.
However, the person who caught my attention was the fourth.
He was a thin, pale-faced man of indeterminate age. His unkempt black hair and pointed nose made a strong impression, yet strangely, his presence was faint.
From the black robe he wore and the staff in his hand, he looked like a mage, but there was something about him that suggested he was not someone so simple.
We approached in formation and faced the King's entourage from about 10 meters away. The first to speak was Marquis Raghantz.
“King Giselpha, it is over. I humbly ask that you gracefully step down from the throne and yield it to Lord Ryūsha.”
“How dare you speak to me like that, you Raghantz brat! First you seduced my elder brother, the former King, and now you intend to manipulate his son Ryūsha as well! You cunning fox, know your place!”
Compared to the Marquis, who spoke calmly throughout, King Giselpha was practically foaming at the mouth. Unfortunately, it had to be said that they were simply not on the same level.
“No matter how much you condemn me for crimes of which I have no knowledge, it does not change the fact that Your Majesty has lost Heaven’s Will. If you willingly relinquish the throne, your name will remain in history as the King of Mekalinan.
…
But if you defy Heaven’s Will, you will be remembered only as the criminal who murdered the previous King. I beg you to make a wise and sacred judgment.”
“Y-You! On what evidence do you call the King a criminal!? Your disrespect and insolence know no bounds! I will strip you of your title and sentence you to death!”
“Unfortunately, under the laws of this country, Your Majesty alone cannot strip anyone of a title of Count or higher. Once again, I humbly ask you. Yield the throne to Lord Ryūsha. If you do so, your name will remain in history as King Giselpha.”
“Y-You fox!! Zonkett! By Royal Command, off with her head!”
“Y-Yes, Your Majesty!”
At King Giselpha’s command, the Royal Guard knight holding the spear stepped forward. However, his expression was quite troubled. His face reminded me of a colleague who had just been given an unreasonable task by his boss, and I found myself sympathizing with him.
“I’ll handle this.”
Arslin and the others were about to step forward, but even for a former A-Rank, this was probably more than they could handle. I stepped forward myself.
“You are an adventurer, I see. I, Zonkett, Royal Guard Knight of the Kingdom of Mekalinan, shall face you!”
This knight seemed to be a serious sort as well.
With his declaration, he instantly closed the distance and thrust his spear straight at me like a bolt of lightning. I blocked it with my shield, but immediately afterward he moved around to my right.
His movement was almost like teleportation, and his next thrust was practically instantaneous.
The spearhead swept toward my side. But before it could reach me, my mace parried the spear.
Knight Zonkett immediately retreated with sharp reflexes. However, he could not evade the【Shockwave】that I unleashed at the same time. It struck his entire body and sent him flying into the wall.
“Impossible! Zonkett, what are you doing!?”
At King Giselpha’s scolding, Knight Zonkett seemed to try to get back up, but one of Arslin’s subordinates rushed over and restrained him. That made two Royal Guard knights captured alive.
“Your Majesty, please make your decision.”
The Marquis pressed him once more. But King Giselpha merely glared at the pale man standing beside him, growling, “Grrr...”.
“Isnani! It is your turn! Kill them all!”
The man called Isnani twisted the corners of his lips into a smile as he spoke.
“Your Majesty, are you certain? The creature I summon cannot be dismissed unless 10,000 souls are offered in exchange.”
“I don’t care! I will gladly sacrifice 10,000 useless soldiers! Hurry up!”
(E/N: Way to get slimed by a military coup )
“Very well.”
He was beginning to say some ominous things, so it seemed best to restrain him immediately. I ran toward Isnani.
“Do not interfere.”
Isnani reacted to my movement and swung his staff. Dozens of black fireballs flew toward me in arcs from all directions. I hastily blocked them with my shield, but the magic was surprisingly powerful. It robbed me of my freedom of movement.
『Answer my call and manifest, the end of the seeker who sought the demonic and fell into the demonic.』
With that suspicious-sounding incantation, Isnani raised his staff toward the heavens.
Then a huge shape, like a magic circle, appeared on the floor of the throne room, and something began rising from it with a deep, dragging sound.
“Everyone, fall back!”
The Marquis shouted. I also retreated toward her for the moment and looked at the thing that was beginning to reveal itself.
It was a strange monster.
The best way to describe it would be as though about 10 skeletons had been completely dismantled, their bones haphazardly gathered together and formed into a sphere.
Among the disorderly arrangement of bones, around 10 skulls were neatly aligned around the circumference.
The sphere of bones was about 3 meters in diameter. I had no idea how it was floating in the air despite having no wings. In any case, if it was made of bones, it was presumably an undead monster.
“Your Majesty the King, Lich Legion at your service.”
Isnani twisted the corner of his mouth into a smile as he spoke. King Giselpha, his face pale before the grotesque monster, nodded awkwardly.
“Y-Yes. Well done. Crush the traitors at once!”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Then, Lich Legion, first feast upon the souls of those fools before you.”
At Isnani’s command, the giant sphere of bones, the Lich Legion, let out a deep roar.
UOOOOON!
The soul-chilling sound made the Marquis turn pale as she approached me.
“Soushi, the Lich Legion is an undead said to have reduced an entire city to ashes in ancient times. Do you think you can handle it?”
“I have a chance. I’ll deal with it for now, so take everyone and fall back.”
“Sorry. I’m counting on you.”
The Marquis looked surprised for a moment, but immediately turned toward the soldiers and shouted.
“Retreat! Hurry!”
At the Marquis’ command, her soldiers hurriedly fled the throne room.
UOOOOOOOOOOOWAAAAA!
The Lich Legion roared, and numerous rings of flame appeared on the floor. They were signs of an area attack, but being able to activate more than 10 at once was abnormal.
Just as its name suggested, it seemed to be the “Legion” of the magic-type monster known as a “Lich”. Though its appearance was just a mass of bones.
(E/N: Legion = Numerous, vast.)
I immediately activated【Shockwave】at maximum power and slammed it into the Lich Legion.
The sphere of bones shattered apart from that single blow, but the bones immediately gathered somewhere else and formed the sphere again.
A skill that nullifies physical attacks? Or maybe regeneration…
The saving grace was that I had managed to interrupt its magic.
“Ordinary attacks are ineffective against the Lich Legion. Even【Holy Magic】will not work easily. It is one of the highest-ranking undead, after all. Hehehe!”
Isnani declared this gleefully.
UOOOOOOOOUUUUNNNN!
The Lich Legion roared, and this time 100s of spears of flame, rock, and ice rained down on me all at once. But《Indomitable Bastion》could not be pierced by attacks of this level.
I advanced while taking all the magic head-on, then, during a gap in its attacks, swung my mace once and blasted the sphere of bones away with【Shockwave】.
“Kuhahaha, a powerful attack, but no matter how many hundreds of times you repeat such an attack, it will accomplish nothing.”
The sphere of bones immediately regenerated. At the same time, it combined magic spears with area attacks.
I ran around while blocking the magic spears with my shield. For a moment, I considered blasting Isnani away as well, but with King Giselpha standing beside him, that was obviously impossible.
I kept running while attempting to close the distance to the Lich Legion all at once. I took several magic spears, but noticed that I was taking surprisingly little damage.
It seemed【Diamond Body】and my various resistance skills were doing their job well.
“HA!”
With a shout, I slammed my mace directly into it. The Lich Legion came apart and reassembled once again, but this time I had felt some resistance. Looking at the floor, I saw several shattered bones scattered around.
Apparently, the effect of the【Water Damage】『+3』I had obtained just before was working.
I continued chasing it and striking it directly. Each time, several bones shattered and flew away.
HIIIIIIIIIAAAAAA!
Perhaps it sensed that it was in danger, or perhaps it had become frustrated that its magic was ineffective. The Lich Legion let out an even stranger roar. Then, with a clattering sound, 8 bone arms burst from the sphere of bones.
Each arm was about 2 meters long. Their fists were each surrounded by red, blue, green, or yellow auras, so they seemed to be using【Enchantment Magic】.
The Lich Legion glided through the air toward me and swung all 8 arms wildly, attacking with its fists. A magic-type monster was actually using hand-to-hand combat.
I blocked the bone fists attacking from all directions with my shield or knocked them aside with my mace. But 8 arms were simply too many. I could not deflect all of them and ended up taking several blows.
The impact itself was not that serious, but because they carried elemental attributes, they dealt a considerable amount of damage. Their attack power seemed comparable to the Twilight Kin, Zaikal’s ultimate technique,【Azure Mirage】.
“Kuhyaha! Fighting the Lich Legion head-on is quite amusing.”
“Isnani, stop playing around with that adventurer and hurry up, kill that fox!”
King Giselpha spoke irritably to Isnani, who was laughing with amusement.
“No, no. That adventurer has promise, so I would like to kill him carefully and take his corpse with me.”
“Just hurry up!”
“There is no need to rush. The Marquis cannot escape. I have surrounded this entire castle with undead.”
“What? In that case, fine.”
I had just heard something unpleasant. We could not afford to take much more time. Just as I thought that, my vision suddenly turned red.
(E/N: Wohoooo! Let's fugging go!!!)
This was that thing again, the【Fury】skill. So it really could activate even when I myself was not in danger. The activation condition was probably...
“OOOOOOOO!”
I knocked away one of the Lich Legion’s arms, then threw down my mace and shield and grabbed the giant sphere of bones with my bare hands.
I hooked my fingers into the bones and began climbing up the sphere. Of course, I was struck by a tremendous number of blows all over my body. Several arms grabbed me and tried to pull me off.
As if some bones with such thin arms could stop me!
As I crawled upward, a skull appeared directly in front of me. It was somewhat larger than an ordinary human skull. When I grabbed it with both hands, it began clicking its teeth, as though it had felt fear.
(E/N: 🤣🤣🤣)
So this is its weak point after all.
“Go back to Hell!”
I put strength into both hands, and the skull shattered easily. Moreover, it seemed the skill that allowed it to disassemble and escape was not activating.
I reached for the skull beside it. Once again, it started clicking its teeth, trembling in fear.
I went around crushing the skulls one after another. When I smashed the 10th skull with my fist, the sphere of bones suddenly burst apart, scattering across the floor.
Is that the end of it?
It was just bones, after all.
“Kuhyo!? You defeated the Lich Legion with your bare hands! This makes me want your corpse even more!”
Even though his trump card had been defeated, Isnani seemed strangely delighted.
Just what is this guy…? Well, does it really matter?
I grabbed the pale man by the neck with my left hand and his head with my right.
But the sensation in my right hand was strange. His head squished and deformed.
Could this guy not have any bones?
“Oho, are you actually planning to kill me? Do you not want to hear my side of the story?”
“Not interested.”
“Kuhya!〈Nether Candelabra〉. If you are interested, seek it out!”
“Maybe if I feel like it.”
I tightened my grip with my right hand. Feeling the sensation of crushing an overripe persimmon, Isnani’s head burst apart in my hand. But what splattered out was neither blood nor flesh, but some strange blue liquid.
(E/N: That crap was a homunculus! Bury that freak, 600 feet down!)
The next moment, Isnani’s entire body transformed into liquid and spread across the floor with a wet splat. Apparently, he had been some kind of magical puppet or something.
“Eek!”
When I glared at them, King Giselpha and his Queen collapsed onto the floor, clinging to each other.
I had no business with them. I ran out of the throne room, and the entrance hall was considerably noisier. They were probably fighting the undead.
I ran toward it.
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E/N:
Remember this Isnani fellow for a long time.
What kind of magic did he use? Debuff? Anyway, this Nether Candelabra crap is creepy and disgusting!
【Fury】was a great injection this time as well! Let's get stronger and flex!
Stay tuned!
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