Chapter 30: The Crazy Dokkaebi

Karl raised the Death Stick and Death Energy immediately spread across the Circle of Pistis.

Several massive skeletal giants emerged first, followed by a heavily armoured undead knight, a skeletal wolf and more than a dozen ordinary undead Karl had accumulated throughout the last month.

The sudden army occupied nearly half the platform.

Atherion looked toward the undead before his gaze settled upon Karl.

Karl smiled.

"We’re partners now."

His eyes moved briefly toward the two Beast Humans and then toward Satan.

"You better understand that much."

Atherion’s jaw tightened and for several seconds, it looked like he wanted to argue simply because Karl had been the one to say it, but eventually he turned away and raised his sword toward Satan.

Karl accepted the silence as agreement.

Good enough for an arrogant heir.

Killing Atherion here would create far more trouble than it solved.

The Fitzalan family ruled Dawn City, and Karl had no interest in leaving the Forgotten Cave only to discover that another major family wanted his head.

More importantly, Atherion and his four companions were useful right now.

Something suddenly appeared beside Karl.

"Your undead are rather ugly."

Karl slowly turned his head.

Seraphine stood beside him with both hands behind her back, looking across the gathering army as though she had simply decided to join them for a walk.

Karl sighed.

"Who told you to come out?"

"Nobody."

Seraphine looked at him strangely.

"Why would I need permission?"

Karl stared at her.

Technically, Death Legion had placed Seraphine completely beneath his authority, yet the actual control he possessed over her remained strangely loose compared with every other undead.

Maybe Hero-ranked undead are just like this.

It was easier to believe that than question why his own summon repeatedly ignored the concept of being summoned.

Seraphine suddenly wrinkled her nose.

"There is also a strange smell here."

Karl glanced toward her.

"What smell?"

"I don’t know yet."

Her eyes moved across Satan and the transformed Beast Humans before returning toward Karl.

"But it is unpleasant."

Satan raised one massive hand and Karl immediately felt the Mana around them distort.

"Move!"

An invisible force slammed across the platform.

Karl’s undead giants braced themselves while Leon jumped aside and Atherion’s group scattered in different directions, but several weaker undead were thrown straight across the Circle.

The fight began instantly, Atherion reached Satan first and brought his sword across the demon’s chest, while Leon followed from the opposite side with Qi covering his axe.

Both attacks struck but Neither reached Satan’s body.

The air around the demon bent inward as an invisible barrier absorbed the impact, and the force from Leon’s own swing suddenly rebounded toward him.

Leon barely twisted away as his Qi-covered axe passed inches from his shoulder.

"The fuck?"

Karl sent two giants forward while the undead knight attacked between them.

A massive fist struck Satan’s barrier first, followed by the knight’s sword and another giant’s shoulder.

The invisible layer distorted but atan did not even move.

"Is that all, Pioneers?"

His hand swept outward and the same force they had released returned through the barrier.

One giant staggered backwards while the undead knight was pushed several metres away, his armour scraping across the stone before he regained his balance.

Karl narrowed his eyes.

It absorbs and rebounds attacks.

Seraphine looked toward him.

"You’re struggling against something at Level 99?"

Karl ignored her.

"How disappointing."

"Do you want to help?"

"No."

Seraphine smiled.

"I prefer watching."

Karl’s eyebrow twitched, he grabbed the connection between them through Death Legion and pulled.

Seraphine vanished into the summon space.

Karl finally turned back toward Satan.

"Peace."

"That was rude."

Seraphine reappeared beside him, smiling innocently.

For several seconds, he considered forcing her back again before deciding that doing it repeatedly while Satan was trying to kill them would not be the best choice.

"Just stay out of the way."

"How commanding."

Karl clenched his teeth and moved.

Across the platform, the two Beast Humans had already been surrounded.

Mira repeatedly shifted through their shadows while two members of Atherion’s team attacked from opposite directions, and Karl’s skeletal wolf kept the scaled man from creating enough space to escape.

Several ordinary undead closed around the woman.

Now that their disguises were gone, neither Beast Human looked particularly troublesome compared with Satan.

Karl left them alone.

The real problem was directly ahead.

Atherion’s sword struck Satan’s barrier again while the staff user created several spikes beneath the demon’s feet.

The spikes shattered against the same invisible defence.

Leon appeared from the side.

"Heavy Slash!"

His axe crashed down with considerably more force than before.

The barrier bent and for a moment, Karl thought it might break.

Then the axe was thrown straight back toward Leon’s face.

Leon released the handle and dropped beneath it.

The weapon spun through the air before burying itself inside the stone several metres away.

"That’s bullshit!"

Satan laughed.

"Again."

Karl raised the Death Stick and three weaker undead rushed toward Satan together.

The demon barely looked at them.

Karl waited until all three were pressed directly against the barrier.

Death Detonation.

The undead exploded simultaneously.

Death Energy tore across the invisible defence and black flames covered Satan’s entire position, forcing even Atherion to retreat several steps.

Karl watched carefully as the smoke cleared.

Satan remained standing without a scratch several distorted cracks had appeared across the barrier, but they slowly began closing before any of them could attack again.

[Satan: 97.84%]

Karl clicked his tongue, even sacrificing three summons had barely made a difference.

We have to break that defence first.

Satan suddenly pointed toward him, karl felt danger before anything appeared.

He twisted aside as a compressed wave of force ripped through the place where he had been standing and continued into one of his skeletal giants.

Several ribs shattered instantly.

Seraphine watched from behind him.

"So slow."

Karl turned toward her.

"Do you have nothing useful to say?"

"Plenty."

She pointed toward Satan.

"Don’t get hit."

Karl almost threw her back into the summon space again.

Atherion attacked Satan from behind before Karl could respond, his dark-red armour shining as his sword repeatedly struck the invisible defence.

Satan turned toward him and Karl immediately moved from the opposite side.

Death Severance condensed beside the Death Stick and cut across the weakened section of the barrier.

The curved blade penetrated slightly deeper than before.

Then the accumulated force returned.

Karl hurriedly twisted away as his own Death Severance tore past his shoulder and disappeared several metres behind him.

"Bish!"

Karl looked toward Atherion.

"Don’t you know the basics of protecting your mage?"

Atherion blocked Satan’s claw with his sword and slid backwards.

"You’re not mine."

He immediately rushed forward again.

"We’re just partners."

Karl stared after him.

Shameless bastard.

He raised the Death Stick and summoned several more ordinary undead.

The fight continued without giving anyone enough time to argue.

Leon recovered his axe and attacked beside one of Karl’s giants, while Atherion’s teammates repeatedly forced Satan to divide his attention between several directions.

Karl used Hellfire whenever the barrier distorted enough to let some damage through.

The Health bar still moved painfully slowly.

[Satan: 95.12%]

Karl was about to send another group of expendable undead forward when movement near the opposite side of the platform caught his attention.

The two Beast Humans had suddenly stopped fighting.

The scaled man looked toward the woman and she looked back.

Then both reached into their clothing and swallowed something.

Karl frowned.

What did they—

Red gas burst from their bodies and the cloud spread across the platform almost instantly, swallowing Mira, the Beast Humans and everyone fighting near them before Karl’s vision disappeared behind the thick crimson haze.

Even Perception became difficult to maintain through it.

"Mira!"

"I’m fine!"

Her voice came from somewhere inside the gas.

Karl barely had time to locate it before Seraphine suddenly spoke.

"Above you."

Karl moved immediately as Satan crashed down where he had been standing.

The stone beneath the demon fractured outward as Karl rolled aside and forced himself back onto his feet.

Satan turned toward him.

"Tch."

His demonic face twisted into an irritated smile.

"Pioneer, why are you so slow?"

Another invisible force gathered around his hand.

"At least let me enjoy this."

Karl’s breathing had already become heavier.

Before Satan could attack again, Atherion struck from behind and forced the demon to turn.

The red gas began thinning and then a scream tore through the platform.

Everyone looked toward the sound.

One of Atherion’s companions stumbled backwards while clutching his shoulder, or what remained of it.

His entire arm had disappeared above the elbow and blood poured from the stump between his fingers as he screamed through clenched teeth.

"What the fuck?!"

The last of the red gas cleared and Karl froze.

The two figures standing opposite Mira no longer resembled disguised humans.

The scaled man’s body had expanded several times over, his back bending forward beneath thick overlapping plates while massive claws replaced both hands.

Beside him, the woman had become an enormous fur-covered beast with several thick tails twisting behind her and only faint traces of her original face remaining.

Karl stared at them.

What are those?

He had encountered Beast Humans before his regression but he had never seen one transform like this.

Are they even normal Beast Humans?

There was no time to think further, satan spread both arms.

A ring of invisible force erupted from his body.

"Down!"

Karl pulled one damaged undead giant directly in front of himself.

The destructive wave struck its body and shattered several bones while Leon appeared beside Karl and braced behind the same summon.

Atherion’s group was thrown farther across the platform.

When the wave finally passed, Leon looked around at the transformed Beast Humans, Satan and the steadily shrinking number of people still capable of fighting.

"We better go all out."

He tightened his grip around the axe.

"Otherwise this bastard is going to mash us into paste."

Karl released a tired breath and looked toward Satan.

The Health bar floated above the Administrator.

[Satan: 93.67%]