The center of the ship graveyard.
Atop a massive vessel, Gidan closed his eyes long, then opened them.
The blinding rage had already sunk deep within.
A faint breeze brushed past like grazing his skin. The tension was at just the right degree for moving his body.
From the puddles that still held traces of once being the sea came the stench of brine.
The boy naturally thought of a swimming pool. And his father’s booming voice too.
Situation: bottom of the ninth, two outs.
One runner on base.
Score: 1–0.
Defeat loomed before his eyes.
Gidan gripped his sword, standing in the batter’s box (the area where the batter hits the ball).
[Skill ‘Lion’s Breath’ activated.]
[Skill ‘Purple Blood Flow’ activated.]
As skills were activated in succession, the black blade greedily devoured the trickling blood. Magic power surged around Gidan like a storm.
Before he knew it, Malikian’s massive frame had turned toward him.
“Human child, have you finally come to fear death?”
Malikian spoke mockingly to Gidan, who had been concealing his presence.
“I mean to ask if you have already forgotten the atonement you intended to make with your death.”
But Gidan did not waver easily.
Now was not the time to simply run amok; it was the time to truly accomplish what had to be done.
For a come-from-behind victory.
‘Goal: a home run.’
He tapped his right foot and dug into the ground once.
In an instant, Malikian’s hand shot straight toward Gidan to seize his body.
Gidan lightly leaped off that hand, evading the attack.
During the repeated exchanges of pursuit, Malikian let out a hollow laugh at the sight of Gidan surpassing his own speed.
‘His movements have improved from before.’
Indeed, the reactions of this brine-smelling child were incredibly fast and outstanding—frighteningly so.
Talent of this level at such an age was rarely seen even in his world.
‘But.’
Malikian knocked aside the sword pushing straightforwardly toward his chest.
‘His technique is shallow.’
Because of that, the blade’s trajectory was rather textbook instead.
Gidan suddenly changed direction and ran up the hull (the ship’s body) before leaping at Malikian.
“Foolish!”
As Gidan leaped toward him, Malikian reversed his grip on the greatsword with his four hands.
A ferocious, murderous spirit enveloped the blade.
“All is futile before the great Biarte!”
Gidan read the trajectory of the greatsword descending in a straight line and twisted his body aside.
Then the greatsword instantly changed direction horizontally. At the same time, an aura emanating from the blade spread out like a net.
To Biarte, who had traversed battlefields his entire life, he was merely a fledgling!
A flicker of confusion crossed Gidan’s face at the unexpected movement.
Speed and movements impossible for anyone to demonstrate. Biarte, possessing even the destructive power of the greatsword, was invincible!
Unless one possessed reaction speed surpassing his, along with a movement skill capable of perfectly circumventing him, one could only helplessly receive the attack.
It was the very moment Malikian felt victory within his grasp.
Suddenly, Gidan bared his teeth in a grin.
‘……?’
Gidan’s main skills numbered a mere two. His experience, having awakened less than a year ago, was shallow.
Yet the reason he had shot up to Rank 5 in mere months, surpassing Korea’s prominent Hunters, was—
Gidan spun half a turn in mid-air, evading the attack.
Stats of an extraordinary scale.
An innate combat sense.
And a buff skill that amplified them to an absurd degree—Berserk.
The combination of his innate talents made his body react before his mind could even perceive.
With his keen senses, Gidan stepped onto the tip of the greatsword and surged forward at tremendous speed.
To evade this, Malikian pulled his body back.
In that instant, Gidan’s sword ‘Biarte’s Aspiration’ shot forward as if to push through Malikian’s solar plexus.
Under the relentless offensive, Malikian’s back touched fully against the outer wall of the hull.
Thud!
It was then.
Splurt.
[Skill ‘Submission of Blood’ activated.]
[Resisted the debuff.]
It was a tiny snow duck.
It had broken apart pathetically above Malikian’s head.
“Ha!”
Malikian let out a mocking laugh.
“So this trifle was all you had aimed for.”
How absurd. Even if this brat possessed the power of a ‘Monarch’, if he couldn’t use it, it was no different from a pearl necklace on a pig’s neck.
“What will you do now that your only bulwark has failed?”
But Gidan simply looked up at Malikian with an expressionless face.
Three pupils spun round and round mockingly.
“I shall reclaim ‘Biarte’s Aspiration’!”
It was that very instant.
Plop plop.
“What?”
Malikian raised his head.
Heavy snow was pouring down.
‘No, all of that is……’
Above Malikian’s head.
Standing tall on the ship’s railing, Geuru bared his teeth in a Heh— grin.
*
*Absolute Command: At a somewhat low probability, ignores the target’s resistance.
Having confirmed the function of the Duck Pincers, Gidan let out a low hum.
“Hmm…… If it’s a somewhat low probability, roughly around 8%?”
“What is 8%?”
“Have you done a gacha draw?”
Nod, nod.
“It’s like a gacha machine where 92 out of 100 are duds, and 8 are candy. Could be even lower……”
In truth, it hadn’t been clearly revealed by the system. It was merely an inference researchers had made by collecting Hunter data.
Not only that, but the caster had to be Geuru.
“It might be better to just run than to bet on that 8% hitting……”
“Then if we throw a hundred at once, it works?”
Gidan blinked at the method he had never considered.
“Ah…… No, unlike gacha, the duds don’t decrease. So it’s like you have to keep drawing from a machine with 8 candies out of 100……”
“Ah! Then more?”
Geuru, who had asked nonchalantly, pulled out bottles of mana syrup from his bag and lined them up in a long row.
“…….”
Before Gidan could say anything, Geuru drank the syrup and began making snow ducks. They quickly began piling up one by one.
The Duck Pincers were a bound item. The condition for triggering the debuff was hitting Malikian with snow ducks made by Geuru.
If that became the condition for victory…….
“Then wait just a bit. Big bro will bring him right to you.”
*
And now.
Gidan had definitely brought Malikian within Geuru’s range.
Geuru hugged an armful of snow ducks close and threw them.
Anxiety was ever present.
How many snow ducks would be needed for the somewhat low probability; whether Geuru’s mana would run out before then; and even if all of that succeeded, whether they could survive and escape this place.
Amidst countless uncertainties, there was only one thing to be certain of.
The more attempts were made—
Countless snow ducks poured down like heavy snowfall.
—the probability of the debuff landing grew greater.
[Resisted the debuff.]
[Resisted the debuff.]
[Resisted the debuff.]
[Resisted the debuff.]
‘I must avoid this.’
What moved Malikian was instinct. Though he couldn’t say exactly what, it was to avoid an ominous force that would eventually crash over him like a tidal wave.
But what blocked his path was ‘Biarte’s Aspiration.’
Uuuung—
‘Biarte’s Aspiration,’ gripped by Gidan, resonated fiercely and stabbed toward Malikian’s throat.
Because of that, he couldn’t avoid the last snow duck in time.
The snow duck left the child’s small hands atop the ship and fell slowly.
Splurt!
It shattered against his black-stained fingertips.
[Skill ‘Submission of Blood’ activated.]
At that instant, the ‘Monarch’ opened his eyes.
The spectral image of the Monarch appearing before him overwhelmed Malikian.
In that fleeting moment, Malikian gasped, swallowing his breath in absolute terror.
His Monarch bore a deep smile.
[The Monarch confiscates the subject’s authority.]
[The subject’s defense is ignored.]
“Ugh……!”
The black hood wrapped around him like armor began to melt away like snow.
“Uaaaaaack!”
Malikian frantically tried to pull his hood back up. But it only slipped through his fingers.
“N-no!”
Within the hood, Malikian’s emaciated, wretched body was revealed. His hide, covered with black splotches of curse as if stricken by disease, was exceedingly grotesque.