The clear hostility in the fairy’s voice poured cold water on the hot atmosphere of the inn.
The man frowned. He looked visibly annoyed.
“Hella? I’m Stefan. Who are you to pick a fight with me?”
There was no trace of arrogance in Stefan’s voice. He only showed bewilderment and hostility at the unexpected situation.
He had a natural expression and behavior that no one would find strange, but at that moment, Ruon felt a strange sense of incongruity sweeping over his back. His superhuman senses told him.
That the man in front of him was not normal.
That’s why he didn’t stop Tarwen from grabbing a fork and stabbing it into Stefan’s eye.
“Aaah-!”
A chilling scream swept through the inn. The first to move among the villagers who were frozen by the sudden situation was Stefan’s mother, Melba.
“You crazy woman! What are you doing!”
She pushed Tarwen away with all her strength, then hugged Stefan, who was writhing in pain with his right eye bleeding.
“Oh, my God! Stefan! What the hell is going on?”
She rolled her feet and then glared at Tarwen with bloodshot eyes.
“Are you all just going to watch? That mad woman made my son’s eye like this!”
The first to respond to her scream was the man who was blowing a whistle. He was sitting next to Tarwen and jumped up from his seat, then swung a bottle upside down at the fairy’s head.
But Ruon, who had approached in the meantime, blocked it with the back of his hand. Glass shards shattered in the air with a clang.
The startled man thrust the sharp end of the broken bottle forward and growled.
“What the hell? You wanna try me?”
Ruon brushed off the glass shards that had splattered on his arm and retorted.
“I’ll let it slide this time since it was a misunderstanding. But there won’t be a second time.”
The calm warning only made the man more furious and he backed away hesitantly.
Then, a scream of agony pierced the air. Ruon turned his head and saw Stefan, who had staggered to his feet, pulling out a sword from his waist.
“You damn fairy bitch! What did I ever do to you to deserve this!”
With his only remaining eye, Tarwen licked his lips and glared at the man who looked like he wanted to kill him.
“It doesn’t hurt, does it?”
Stephan growled fiercely, making a face as if he was talking nonsense.
“What are you babbling about after poking a person’s eye with a fork...”
Suddenly, his body stopped. Melba, who was startled by his appearance, asked in a wet voice.
“Stephan? Are you in a lot of pain? You shouldn’t be like this, you need treatment right away...”
“I’m not in pain.”
“What?”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
Instead of pulling out the fork that was stuck in his right eye, Stefan pushed it deeper into his socket. His pupil and vitreous humor shattered in an instant, and blood oozed out. People screamed and backed away in horror.
The perpetrator of the gruesome self-harm blinked his blurry eyes and muttered to himself, regardless of the people’s reactions.
“...Why doesn’t it hurt? What’s wrong with my body?”
In his hands, he held two large axes made of bones and flesh, and the sight of the hearts embedded in the middle of the axe blades pulsating was truly horrifying.
Ruon, who had been watching the whole transformation process, said.
“I hope you’re satisfied with the experience points I’ve waited for you.”
“Warrior, what do you mean by that?”
“I hope you’re worth fighting.”
At that, the monster laughed with his three mouths. One of them uttered a languid woman’s voice.
“The barbarian warrior’s soul that dwells in this body has a record of cutting down twenty knights of the kingdom with a single sword. How about now, with a body and weapons that are several times stronger than in his lifetime? You’d better not be careless. Warrior.”
At the same time, the monster smashed the floor with a thud and charged at him. Ruon drew his ego sword from his waist and swung it up at the axe that the monster swung down.
Clang-!
A loud noise erupted from the weapons that collided, and they both stepped back. The difference was, the monster staggered for a moment and Ruon was not shaken at all.
To counter the downward attack by swinging it up, you need more than twice the strength of your opponent. The scene a moment ago clearly suggested what it meant.
Ruon’s strength was ahead of the monster.
The monster realized that too and gave up on pushing him with force, and swung his axe nimbly in the gap that opened up. Ruon blocked the axe blade that dug in half a beat faster and tried to narrow the distance for a counterattack, but instead stepped back half a step. Then, with a whoosh, the opposite axe blade swept the air.
At the moment when the opponent’s sight was fixed on the upper part, he aimed at the lower part with exquisite timing. It was an impossible combination without tremendous strength and sharp situation judgment. Of course, Ruon brilliantly thwarted it, but he had to admit that the opponent was a powerful warrior in his lifetime.
A longsword and two axes clashed in midair, spitting out red sparks. There was no courtesy in their exchange of blows.
Neither side backed off, and soon the distance between them was too close to swing their weapons.
The monster, feeling pressured by the opponent’s strength and skill, quickly retreated. But Leon, who had maintained his posture despite the repeated collisions, followed him and slashed his sword.
The blade of Ruin, which soared like a razor, sliced through the monster’s three eyes.
Grrr-!
The monster counterattacked with his axe, ignoring his pain-filled roar. But Leon was faster. He inserted his sword between the axe blade and the handle, blocking the monster’s attack in advance. He then punched the monster’s abdomen with his other fist.
The monster’s hard muscles crumpled under the impact, but he did not back off. He swung his other axe, but Leon leaned his upper body back and dodged it. A huge flame engulfed his body.
The monster slammed his chest with all his might, taking advantage of Leon’s momentary falter from the burning sensation. Leon flew back with a loud bang, smashing a few tables and chairs in the inn before he stopped.
Leon brushed off the flames on his body and spat on the floor, smiling.
“I thought you were fighting pretty well for your looks, but I was wrong. Spitting fire from your mouth.”
Grrr-oo-oo-oo!
The monster roared loudly, as if his pride was hurt. A hard carapace sprouted all over his body. At the same time, the heart embedded in the axe blade throbbed violently, making the whole axe pulsate with thick blood vessels.
Leon did not just watch this change. He slammed his arm on the ground, and his sword became blurry. A red rune appeared on the blade, and he swept the monster’s upper body with it.
The monster desperately raised both axes in his hands, but he was no match for the immense dragon power contained in Ruin. His reinforced axes cracked, and he staggered back three steps. A thick dagger pierced deep into his chest.
Grrr-ah!
Leon slapped his palm on the weight attached to the dagger, which had pierced through the carapace and buried itself deep in the flesh. The monster, who had lost his balance completely from the successive impacts and the pierced chest, fell backwards.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Leon detected the scorching heat from the three mouths on the monster’s jaw. He pounded his fist on them repeatedly. Blood foam bubbled up from the crushed lower jaw.
Leon clenched his fist and looked down coldly at the monster’s more than ten eyes. He shared the monster’s vision and saw the damn witch who was looking at him. He added a word to her.
“Wait for me. I’ll find you soon. Next time, I’ll smash your face.”
Crash!
Leon’s fist smashed the monster’s jaw completely as he finished his words. At that moment, a surge of satisfaction filled his body like a raging wave.