Chapter 221
Zeon silently stared at the quicksand that had swallowed Orca.
Even at this moment, the quicksand continued to flow endlessly—
Downward, into the depths.
At this speed, Orca would have been driven nearly a hundred meters underground.
In fact, that was exactly where his presence was detected.
No matter how powerful the Orc High Chieftain was, he couldn’t easily resist the force of quicksand flowing like a raging river.
At this rate, he would be buried several hundred meters deep.
The pressure beneath hundreds of meters of sand was comparable to that of the deep sea.
It was not an environment any surface creature could survive.
Even the Orc High Chieftain would be crushed like an empty can under such immense pressure.
It was a situation where one could feel safe—
But Zeon did not lower his guard.
A boss-class magical beast like the Orc High Chieftain wouldn’t die so easily.
And Zeon’s prediction became reality.
KWAANG!
Like a volcanic eruption, the sand exploded outward, and a massive figure burst forth.
It was Orca, who had nearly been buried alive.
He had leapt from a hundred meters underground to the surface in a single bound.
It was a level of strength that was hard to believe even when seen with one’s own eyes.
“Tch!”
Orca spat out sand-mixed saliva.
His eyes were glowing with a blood-red light.
“Such shallow tricks won’t bring me down, human!”
“Seems that way.”
Zeon admitted calmly.
The sheer power of Orca’s body was on another level.
With explosive strength capable of bursting out from a hundred meters underground, and a body as hard as diamond, he could easily crush most large-class magical beasts.
Tap—tap—tap!
Orca charged toward Zeon.
He intended to overwhelm him with raw power before Zeon could use another trick.
Zeon raised a sand wall.
KWAANG!
With a single punch, the wall collapsed effortlessly.
Zeon raised another wall.
But instead of breaking it, Orca slightly bent his knees and then sprang upward.
BOOM!
In an instant, his body shot through the air like a missile.
His target—Zeon behind the sand wall.
His arm, drawn far back, was filled with immense fighting spirit.
Orca swung his fist.
KWAANG!
From dozens of meters away, the pressure from his punch fired like a mana particle cannon toward Zeon.
Zeon used Sand Walk to evade it—
But that wasn’t the only attack.
“KRRRRAAA!”
With a roar, Orca repeatedly swung his fists in midair.
Each swing unleashed another blast of compressed air.
Kwakwakwakwaang!
Explosions erupted in succession, and pillars of sand shot skyward.
Dodging with Sand Walk, Zeon muttered,
“A spear that pierces the sky… Sand Spear!”
Swoooosh!
In an instant, a massive pillar of sand surged upward.
Shaped like a giant spear, it struck Orca in midair.
KWAANG!
“Grrk!”
This time, Orca let out a suppressed groan—he had clearly taken some damage.
But he was the Orc High Chieftain.
The true leader of the orcs, born for the first time in hundreds of years.
His pride would not allow him to show weakness from such an attack.
Spreading both arms wide, Orca shouted,
“Fragments of the Red Moon!”
At that moment, countless red spheres appeared around him.
True to their name, they resembled fragments of a red moon.
It was a skill only Orca, the High Chieftain, could use.
He had abandoned hand-to-hand combat and decided to fight seriously with skills.
After several clashes, he had realized—
Zeon was not an opponent he could defeat through brute force alone.
To kill him, he would have to go all out.
So he unleashed one of his most powerful abilities.
“Die! Sand Mage!”
Whoooong!
Orca swung his fist toward Zeon.
At once, the countless red spheres around him rained down like hail.
Shoo-shoo-shoong!
The red moons were falling.
It seemed impossible for any human to survive within that barrage.
But Zeon neither despaired nor panicked.
The falling red spheres filled his vision.
In an instant, Zeon calculated their number.
“Viper!”
From the sand, serpents of sand raised their heads—
Hundreds of Vipers surged into the air at once.
Pabababababoom!
Each Viper intercepted a falling red sphere one by one.
Brilliant explosions lit up the sky.
To an unaware observer, it might have looked like fireworks.
“Insane…”
Aiden’s jaw dropped as he watched.
He had expected Zeon, as a sand mage, to control sand to some degree—
But not to this extent.
Every grain of sand in the desert was Zeon’s weapon.
Against the overwhelmingly powerful Orc High Chieftain, Zeon was fighting on equal footing.
Against a monster whose mere presence was suffocating.
He imagined himself in Zeon’s place—
And lowered his head.
‘If it were me… I wouldn’t last even thirty seconds.’
He didn’t want to admit it, but his judgment was cold and accurate.
The Sand Mage wasn’t just some urban legend of Neo Seoul.
He was a real monster.
And that monster was far more immense and ferocious than anyone had imagined—
Powerful enough to stand toe-to-toe with the Orc High Chieftain.
While Zeon held the Orc High Chieftain at bay, fierce battles were breaking out all over the battlefield.
It was a clash between human awakened and the orcs.
“Uhehehe!”
Mountain was locked in a contest of strength with a massive orc as large as himself, while Giselle used freezing magic to encase the orcs in ice.
The frozen orcs were then attacked and finished off by other awakened.
Magic-type awakened were rarer than martial-type ones.
Among them, high-level awakened like Giselle were even rarer.
There weren’t many who could use freezing magic.
Even those who could were rarely valued highly—
Because they couldn’t produce cold powerful enough to overcome the desert’s extreme heat.
But Giselle was different.
She possessed freezing magic strong enough to temporarily freeze even a giant Sandworm.
“You filthy pig bastards! Ice Field!”
She froze the entire area.
It wouldn’t last long due to the intense heat, but at least it could restrain the orcs within dozens of meters.
“Nice!”
“Now this changes things.”
The awakened attacked the orcs whose legs had been frozen by Giselle.
The orcs fought back, but their movement was restricted by the ice.
The awakened struck them down mercilessly.
It was essentially a beatdown while the enemy was immobilized.
“Keh-ack!”
“Chwit! Humans are cowards!”
“Bullshit! You’re the ones using swarm tactics!”
“Die, pig-head!”
While brutal brawls broke out on one side, violet lightning rained down on another.
Levin, in his ghost form, unleashed Purple Lightning.
Countless orcs were electrocuted and collapsed under the attack.
Thud! Thwack! Boom!
The flesh, muscles, and even eyeballs of the electrocuted orcs burst apart.
Once one was struck, the current spread to those nearby—
Like branches extending outward.
‘That bastard’s broken too…’
For the first time in his life, Aiden felt the urge to recruit someone into his party.
Of course, he’d have to survive first.
“Chaaaat!”
From not far away, Jang Yongbeom’s battle cry rang out.
Turning his head, Aiden saw him wielding a claymore with his remaining arm, attacking the priest.
Boom!
But Jang Yongbeom’s attack was deflected uselessly with a loud explosion.
It was because of the black smoke swirling around the orc priest.
The black smoke formed unknown symbols in the air as it circled him.
Sssss…
Everything exposed to the black smoke decayed and vanished—
Sand, awakened, even the corpses of orcs.
It was the priest’s skill: Breath of the Dead.
“Rot into dust and disappear, human!”
The priest waved his hand, and the Breath of the Dead surged toward Jang Yongbeom.
It was a skill capable of both offense and defense—
Freely controlled by the priest’s will.
His eyes burned with rage.
Despite mobilizing thousands of orcs, he had failed to eliminate a mere few dozen awakened.
No matter how strong human awakened were, this was unacceptable.
“Useless creatures. If it comes to this, I’ll wipe you all out myself.”
Seeing the ominous energy rising from the priest, Jang Yongbeom felt a sense of crisis.
‘I have to kill him before he uses another skill.’
With a shout, Jang Yongbeom hurled his claymore with all his might.
“Guillotine!”
The claymore expanded several times its size midair and fell toward the priest’s head like a guillotine.
A sharp aura blade shimmered along its edge.
Anything it touched would be cut apart—
Living or not.
Jang Yongbeom was confident this strike would take the priest’s life.
But things don’t always go as expected.
Unfortunately, this was one of those times.
Thud!
The guillotine was stopped by a massive hand.
Jang Yongbeom’s eyes widened.
It was a giant.
There was no way a giant should exist here.
Orcs typically stood between two and three meters tall.
But the giant blocking his attack was nearly ten meters in height.
Larger than the Orc High Chieftain, and comparable to a large-class magical beast.
If such a being had existed before, Jang Yongbeom would have noticed.
The reason he hadn’t—
Was because it hadn’t existed before.
The countless orc corpses slain by the awakened had fused together through the priest’s power, forming a giant.
A corpse golem made from hundreds of orcs compressed into one.
He had heard of golems—
But this was his first time seeing one.
And for his first encounter to be something so grotesque—
A golem made from tightly bound orc corpses.
“What a disgusting hobby. Using your own kind’s corpses as weapons… Do you orcs not even have basic kinship?”
“It is all for the High Chieftain. Look! Aren’t all the orcs that became part of the giant crying tears of joy?”
Whether it was truly joy or not—
Tears streamed down the faces of the orcs that formed the corpse golem.
“You insane bastard…”
Jang Yongbeom cursed and waved his hand.
The claymore, which had been caught in the golem’s grip, flew back into his hand.
Seeing this, the priest chuckled.
“Heh… Among orcs, that’s the highest praise.”
“Good. Let’s see which one of us is truly insane.”
Grinding his teeth, Jang Yongbeom drew in mana.
His chest burned.
Something felt like it was about to explode from within.
If he didn’t release this boiling anger, he felt like he would burst.
More than anything, he didn’t want to lose to Zeon—
Who was overwhelming the High Chieftain with sheer power.
Even knowing he couldn’t match him right now.
That was who Jang Yongbeom was—
A man filled with an unyielding desire to never lose.
“I will kill you.”
He charged toward the corpse golem standing in front of the priest.
KWAANG!
His slash struck the golem.
Some of the orc corpses making up its body were torn away—
But even more corpses attached themselves, making it grow even larger.
Jang Yongbeom’s face twisted.
“Damn it!”
At that moment—
KWAANG!
A deafening roar shook the desert sands.
Everyone who heard it turned toward its source—
Their eyes widening in shock.