Chapter 161: I Wanted To Protect You
’It seems I can only try two options.’ Asher moved his gaze around, calculating the grim odds. Stepping forward with an exaggerated air of calm, he pointed directly at the towering, green-skinned terror.
"Hey Beautiful!!" He yelled.
".....?!"
The Forest Queen tilted her head, her luminescent green eyes narrowing as she stared at him with a small, incredulous frown. In all her centuries overseeing the subterranean expanse, no human sacrifice had ever addressed her with such brazen audacity.
"We aren’t your enemy! That forest is your domain; we simply ran out from it without harming a single plant... But when we stepped out, that thing up there—" He gestured dramatically toward the sky, pointing at the massive, scaled terror hovering above:
"—it attacked your Forest with a fireball... If we hadn’t gotten in the way and tried to stop it, the whole forest would be destroyed by now." He then pointed his finger at the charred, smoking crater along the treeline where the Wyvern’s attack had detonated.
"That is proof!!"
The Forest Queen turned her gaze slowly toward the burning forest, the harsh orange glow reflecting in her pupils. She looked up at the Wyvern with narrowed eyes, assessing the damage, before lowering her cold gaze back to Asher.
"You see?! We are not your enemy!!" He said, spreading his arms wide in a grand gesture.
"Hahahahaha!!"
The Forest Queen burst out laughing, a sound like grinding stone and rustling dead leaves echoing all over the barren plain. The chilling, resonant laughter stunned Asher, Marianne, and Denise in place.
"What is funny?" Asher asked, keeping his posture firm despite the suffocating energy rolling off her in waves.
"You are so funny, human!! The Forest is my domain, but I don’t care about it! Hahahaha!! And second, that guy up there is my ally. He is tasked to take down anything that escapes from my domain, mainly because this here is his Domain. Hahahaha, your ignorance is entertaining." She explained with a hearty, mocking laugh that shook the ground beneath their feet.
’Damn!!’ Asher gritted his teeth, his jaw tightening as his desperate bluff crumbled.
"Why are we talking? We should kill them," the Wyvern spoke, its deep, guttural voice rumbling through the air as it descended thousands of feet from the clouds, its massive wings casting a dark shadow over the party.
’Sara was right—all monsters in an SSS-Rank Dungeon have intelligence... They aren’t mindless thralls like the Priestess from an A-Rank Dungeon.’ Asher looked up at the soaring beast, a cold, dangerous smirk replacing his frustration.
"I said all that to protect you."
"Protect me?" The Forest Queen stopped laughing, her expression souring as she stared at him with unadulterated disdain.
"Hehehehe... I haven’t killed something like you before. One hit is more than enough," he said with a dark smirk. He opened both his palms, and in the next moment, the two Supreme Mythic-Tier Twin Daggers materialized in his grip.
WHOOSH!
A terrifying wave of concentrated killing intent burst out from the twin crimson blades, flooding the open land like a physical tide. The sheer pressure of the weapon aura stunned everyone present, heavy enough to make the air feel thick and metallic.
"This?"
They were all stunned, feeling the absolute, deathly energy zooming out from the daggers.
"If you had followed the script, I wouldn’t have to killed you." Asher said, his voice dropping into an icy register. The shadows on the scorched earth began to writhe and stretch. Ten Knights wrapped in pitch-black shadow armor rose smoothly from the ground, taking up formation behind him like silent, obedient wardens.
He snapped his fingers, and in the next instant, ten Mythic-Tier Swords and Shields hovered in the air before the summons. The shadow knights dropped their standard gears without hesitation, reaching out to grip the glowing, high-tier armaments.
"So many Mythic-Tier equipments?! Am I seeing things?" Denise asked, his jaw dropping as he rubbed his eyes in utter disbelief.
"This is crazy! How can one person have so many Mythic-Tier gears?" Marianne added, completely dumbfounded by the absurd wealth of artifacts hovering before a single Awakened.
’I thought the gear he equipped on his wife was already scary, but these swords... They are even more terrifying. But those daggers—what rank is that?’ She thought, completely lost in the absurd display.
’You finally summoned us, Master. We were so bored in that void space,’ a light, sweet voice belonging to a little girl echoed directly inside Asher’s mind.
Asher froze, his eyes widening slightly as he lowered his gaze to the twin daggers in his hands. ’Wait... did you just speak?’
’Of course! My sister and I have already broken through the shackles of a normal Mythic-Tier weapon, so we can form our spirit souls...’ A young boy’s voice sounded in his head, chiming in right after the girl.
’Yeah, but we are still too weak; we can’t advance again,’ the little girl’s voice added, sounding distinctly poutsy and sad.
’Advance? Are you saying there is another rank above this?’ Asher asked mentally, his mind reeling.
Supreme Mythic-Tier was already a realm beyond human comprehension—a class of weapon that established guilds would wage decade-long wars to possess. He was the only human known to wield such a grade, yet these twin weapon spirits were openly hinting that Supreme Mythic-Tier wasn’t even the pinnacle of gear classification.
"Die, Humans!!!" the Forest Queen screamed, her amusement vanishing into pure malice. She threw her hands forward, sending ten massive, thorn-covered tentacle vines whipping across the dirt straight toward the three.
"Leave these to me..." Asher commanded, staring down the incoming strike with razor focus.
’The Knights can’t fly, so they will handle this Queen on the ground... After I deal with that bug up there, I will assist them.’
WHOOSH!!
The warrior knights shot forward in perfect unison, stepping in front of Asher and slamming their Mythic-Tier shields into the earth to form an impenetrable wall.
BOOOOM!!!
The crushing weight of the vines smashed heavily into the reinforced shields, the impact causing a shockwave that forced the heavy constructs back a single step, the ground groaning beneath their feet.
’This?! How did these puppets’ shields block my attack?’ The Forest Queen thought, her eyes widening in momentary shock.
BOOM!
"...??!"
Everyone snapped their heads upward toward the sky as Asher detonated the ground beneath his feet, shooting into the air like a dark rocket. His shadow gaze were locked onto the flying terror above.
"How dare you attack me first, human!!!"
The Wyvern opened its colossal maw wide, a roaring sphere of dense, white-hot flame rapidly condensing in its throat. But before the breath could unleash, Asher vanished mid-flight into absolute stealth, unleashing every active buff in his status panel at once.
"Sword Proficiency. Judgment Strike, activate."
{Rank Temporary Increase to Ex-Rank.}
"....?!"
Before the Wyvern’s instincts could even process the sudden disappearance of its target, Asher manifested directly in front of its massive, reptilian eye—and unleashed complete, unbridled destruction.
WHOOSH!!!!
{Physical Damage: -18,168,200.} X5