Chapter 70: The One Who Opens Up the North (1)
“His weaknesses are his eyes and underbelly,” shouted Shakhan.
It was impossible to pierce the Behemoth’s thick skin, but the Shakhan tribe had discovered over time that the Behemoth’s weaknesses were its eyes and soft underbelly.
“Understood!” replied Crockta.
He charged toward the Behemoth and got up close, but the Behemoth didn’t move an inch. As if waiting for Crockta to attack, it just observed his movements. Yet, the moment Crockta was about to step in between its two front feet, the Behemoth stomped its foot.
The earth shook. The stomp of the Behemoth, which was the size of a house, caused the ground to shake as if there was an earthquake. Crockta resisted the tremor of the ground beneath him and dodged the Behemoth’s foot. Because of the Behemoth’s size, he felt as if a giant press machine was trying to squash him in every direction he went.
“I wish you luck, Crockta,” muttered Shakhan as he observed the scene.
One of them had to divert the Behemoth’s attention, and Crockta was best suited for the task. Shakhan had pointed out the Behemoth’s underbelly as one of its weaknesses, but it was near impossible to penetrate its thick flesh. With Crockta drawing the Behemoth’s attention, the rest was up to Shakhan and Tiyo.
“Tiyo, aim for its eyes,” said Shakhan.
“Understood!” replied Tiyo.
“In the Forest of Monsters, the Behemoth’s regenerative ability has no limits, but if you strike its eyes, you can temporarily halt its movements,” explained Shakhan.
He had succeeded in piercing one of the Behemoth’s eyes in the past, causing it to go on a rampage. However, it had only lasted a second. Dark mana had sprung forth right after and healed the eye, making it seem as if there had never been a wound in the first place. Afterward, the Behemoth’s two yellow eyes had looked down on him menacingly. Shakhan had felt helpless in the face of the near-immortal monster.
Nevertheless, things were different this time. Tiyo’s General emitted iridescent colors of light that struck the Behemoth’s eyes. The General lacked lethal powers, Tiyo’s job was to hold back the Behemoth, rather than deal heavy damage. The Behemoth shook its head as the blow scorched its eyes, but Tiyo’s next few attacks missed their targets.
“Dammit,” muttered Tiyo.
“Stay calm,” said Shakhan.
“The muzzle is shaking...” remarked Tiyo.
Then he began to slowly kneel toward the ground.
“Tiyo?” Shakhan muttered in surprise.
Kneeling during battle was a sign of submission!
However, Tiyo’s expression was still confident; it wasn’t the expression of a loser.
Shakhan couldn’t help but nod in approval while observing Tiyo’s next movement. “As expected...”
It was the final shooting formation of Quantes’ gnome garrison—the prone position. The position boasted a degree of precision that was incomparably superior to shooting while standing. It was a sniper shooting technique only used to mercilessly crush the enemy.
“Cold-blooded murder...” muttered Shakhan.
With the prone position, the earth and Tiyo’s body became one as he aimed at the enemy. It was a special long gun skill that couldn’t be imitated with archery. Tiyo fired his General again but completely missed.
“Dammit!” yelled Tiyo.
He hadn’t accounted for the Behemoth’s huge height. In a prone position, he couldn’t aim the muzzle at the Behemoth’s eyes. At most, he could hit the Behemoth’s body. Tiyo tried to get the right angle but gave up and got up again.
“I failed!” said Tiyo.
“It was still worth a try,” replied Shakhan encouragingly.
Crockta, who had been desperately struggling underneath the Behemoth, shouted upon hearing their lax conversation, “What are you guys doiiiiiinnng?!”
The Behemoth’s huge foot brushed past the tip of Crockta’s nose, and Crockta had to swerve precariously to dodge the stomp. Tiyo became fully alert after seeing that.
“Sorry! I will try again!” shouted Tiyo.
Then he rapidly moved his short legs and took cover behind a huge rock. Tiyo rested the rifle’s grip on the rock. It was a shooting technique that used a nearby object as support to assume a seated position. Because the shooter could lean on an object, he could execute the same level of accuracy as the prone position while easily hitting an elevated target. Tiyo wouldn’t fail this time.
“This is the power of Quantes’ gnome garrison!” yelled Tiyo.
The General’s magic bullet accurately hit the Behemoth’s eyes, causing the Behemoth to stagger as its head wobbled.
It cried out in pain, “Geuooooohhh!”
With the Behemoth’s attention now focused on Tiyo, Crockta decided to take a risk. He went under the Behemoth and jumped in between its four legs. When Crockta raised his head, the Behemoth’s soft underbelly was in plain sight.
“Bul’taaaaaaarrrrrrrr!” Crockta jumped up and thrust the greatsword upward.
Even though the underbelly had the weakest layer of skin on its body, it was still tougher than ogre skin. Utilizing Leyteno’s Swordsmanship, Crockta wrapped vapor-like mana around his blade and shoved it into the Behemoth’s underbelly. The Ogre Slayer just barely managed to pierce the softest part of Behemoth’s skin, but it eventually made its way into the flesh.
“Geeuuoooohhhh!” The Behemoth let out a thunderous roar that shook the ground with its low frequency, causing everyone’s eardrums to vibrate.
Crockta’s movements slowed down. The Behemoth raised its huge foot, casting a shadow over Crockta. Crockta couldn’t respond and stared up at it blankly. He had to bolt away, but his body was frozen.
“Bul’tar,” whispered Crockta as he shut his eyes tightly.
The Behemoth was about to crush Crockta with its foot, but a strand of light flung the Behemoth backward. A narrow arrow had pushed the Behemoth back with explosive force.
“This is what a true hunter’s arrow is like,” said Shakhan while nocking a new arrow on the bowstring.
After being rescued by Shakhan, Crockta resumed his attack. Each time Crockta needed help, Shakhan shot an arrow at the Behemoth. Shakhan’s arrows were able to boast such potency because he imbued them with his will. Willpower was what opened up infinite possibilities in the world of Elder Lord and wielded physical force that could destroy enemies. Some called this ‘mana,’ some called it ‘aura,’ but to Shakhan, it was just an intense will to pierce the enemy. Although Crockta practiced swordplay charged with mana, he had only set foot into the introduction stage of the skill.
“Hey kids, look, I’m the last Shakhan!” shouted Shakhan in a manner that was unlike him.
Had Crockta’s fighting spirit affected him? Shakhan experienced a sense of elation that made his body move on its own. Right now, Shakhan felt like he could pierce through and kill anything!
“The Shakhan hunt everything! Today is your turn!” he yelled.
As if it understood him, the Behemoth shifted its gaze toward Shakhan. It ignored Crockta, who was pestering it from underneath its stomach, and began to move forward. A loud thud shook the earth with each step the Behemoth took.
“Run, Tiyo!” yelled Shakhan.
Shakhan and Tiyo quickly turned around and retreated, but because the Behemoth was so large, they couldn’t get away no matter how fast they ran. Just as the Behemoth’s huge shadow loomed over them, they heard a powerful roar like that of a lion’s.
“Are you ignoring meeeeeee?!” roared Crockta.
Crockta, who had been chasing the Behemoth from behind, leaped up and thrusted the Ogre Slayer into one of the Behemoth’s butt cheeks. The Behemoth shook its butt to shake off the greatsword, but Crockta refused to let go of its hilt.
“Don’t you dare look at anyone besides me, Behemoth!” commanded Crockta while grinning from ear to ear.
He jumped onto the Behemoth’s back by propelling himself with his greatsword. The Behemoth twisted and squirmed, but Crockta held on by lying flat on his stomach. Then he pulled the Ogre Slayer out from the Behemoth’s butt. The Behemoth let out a piercing cry as it screamed in agony.
“Right now!” shouted Shakhan.
Tiyo and Shakhan commenced their attacks. Tiyo struck the Behemoth with the General, and Shakhan bombarded it with arrows. The Behemoth writhed in pain while Crockta crawled toward its head.
The enraged Behemoth opened its mouth. It was about to shift gears.
“Geuuuoooohhhh!” The alarming shriek that it let out was deafening.
Then the Behemoth took a deep breath and gathered mana by sucking in all of the life around it. Crockta held on by jabbing the Ogre Slayer into the Behemoth’s back, but the Behemoth paid no heed to that and continued sucking in air. Extremely concentrated mana began to stir inside its mouth.
Tiyo turned his head and covered his eyes.
People usually turned their heads when there was too much light because it blinded them, but when they turned away from darkness, it was because they feared that their souls would be sucked in by the void.
However, Shakhan resisted and stared the Behemoth right in the face. He aimed his arrow at the pitch-black energy smoldering inside the Behemoth’s mouth.
“That’s the wrath of the Behemoth,” said Shakhan.
He knew that attacking the Behemoth’s eyes and underbelly wasn’t enough to kill it. The Behemoth’s true weakness was the thing inside its mouth. In the same way that dragons breathed fire, the Behemoth drew in darkness and breathed out hellish mana. Shakhan had to pierce the organ that emitted mana, but it was only briefly exposed when the Behemoth released mana.
Shakhan gritted his teeth. The dark energy was now targeting Shakhan. Tiyo was running away, but Shakhan stood there and confronted the Behemoth directly.
“Shakhan! Run!” shouted Tiyo.
However, Shakhan didn’t hear him. A smile came to Shakhan’s lips. A gust of wind swept away his hair and pushed his body, but he refused to turn away from the center of the typhoon.
“Father, we are Shakhans.”
“Yes, we are Shakhans,” Shakhan said.
He didn’t have a name. He was just Shakhan. He was Schola, Penando, and Akilleh. He was also his dead wife. He was all of the Shakhans who had walked the earth. He carried the weight of his kin on his shoulders. He was not just a lone hunter but the Shakhan tribe itself.
“We killed dragons and drank their blood to create the Shakhan bloodline!” shouted Shakhan fiercely. “I will kill you and open up the north, Behemoth!”
Then he pulled his bowstring back as far as possible and imbued the arrow with his will. Endless hatred and resentment toward the Behemoth settled in the arrow.
The Behemoth’s dark breath spilled out and erased the world as it approached Shakhan and Tiyo. Their surroundings were drowned in absolute darkness, which was so pitch-black that it didn’t reflect anything. Crockta, who was on the Behemoth’s back, and Tiyo, who had dodged to the side, experienced utter hopelessness at the sight of that calamitous breath. Could anyone survive after taking a hit of that thing? Probably not.
‘You have to pierce the core of darkness,’ thought Shakhan.
A strand of light pierced the darkness, growing brighter and brighter as it swept through the space toward its target. The darkness wrapped around the strand of light, but it dissipated into the light as the two merged. It became a smooth, straight line without the slightest error or deviation.
“Open up the north!” shouted Shakhan.
***
There was an explosion. The forces of light and darkness collided and swept away everything around them. Crockta fell off the Behemoth’s back and rolled around on the ground for a while before getting stuck somewhere. A long while passed before Crockta came to his senses and was able to survey his surroundings.
When Crockta raised his head to look around him, he found the Behemoth lying on the ground. Crockta then got up by supporting himself on the Ogre Slayer. Even when he was unconscious, he had held onto his greatsword tightly. The Behemoth’s head was slumped down on the ground like a wrecked car as it emitted black smoke.
Shakhan had succeeded.
“Shakhan!” Crockta called out as he moved his battered body to look for Shakhan. “Shakhan! Tiyo!”
Tiyo had avoided the Behemoth’s breath, but Shakhan had faced it directly. Crockta limped while rushing toward where Shakhan had been.
“Shakhan!” Crockta continued to shout.
The Behemoth’s breath had destroyed everything. It had created a huge hole in the ground, and Shakhan lay sprawled inside. Crockta slid down the slope of the pit, and a cloud of dust rose in the air.
“Shakhan!” he yelled again.
Crockta almost fell because he was limping, but he steadied himself and ran over to Shakhan. Shakhan didn’t move though. He was bleeding profusely from his stomach. Crockta propped Shakhan up. There was a big hole in the center of his body, from which intestines and blood were spilling out.
“Crockta...” muttered Shakhan.
Despite being on the brink of death, Shakhan’s voice sounded the most cheerful Crockta had ever heard.
Shakhan smiled faintly. “Did I succeed?”
Crockta gritted his teeth and choked back his tears.
He nodded and assured him, “You succeeded.”
“What do you think? Do you still think the Shakhan tribe is just made up of rabbit hunters?” asked Shakhan.
Crockta smiled while shaking his head. Then he clasped Shakhan’s face in his hands. It was getting cold.
“No, you are definitely descended from a bloodline of hunters. You could even catch dragons,” Crockta replied.
“Hahahahah...” Shakhan laughed and then vomited blood.
Crockta tried to calm him down, “Say no more.”
“It’s okay. I have no regrets...”
However, Shakhan’s pupils suddenly dilated as his eyes trembled. Crockta could tell something was wrong. He then saw what Shakhan was seeing through the reflection in his eyes. It showed a huge black mass getting up.
The Behemoth was rising. “Grrrrrrr...”
“Oh, crap....”
The Behemoth was unrecognizable due to its wrecked head. There was no way it should be able to get up again after receiving all that damage, but there was something else going on. Crockta turned his head to look. Dark energy rose from the Behemoth’s injuries, filling in the gaping wounds and substituting the destroyed organs. The Behemoth’s eyes were no longer the eyes of a living creature. They were just red lights shining in the darkness.
Crockta fell into despair. There was no way they could win. It was his first time feeling so utterly hopeless since starting Elder Lord. It was impossible to kill that thing.
Right when Crockta was about to drop his head in anguish, Shakhan said, “Shakhan... do not let their enemies live.”
Shakhan tried to raise his body by pushing on the ground, but his intestines fell out from his burst stomach.
“Shakhan!” screamed Crockta.
“Open... the bag....” whispered Shakhan.
Crockta shook his head. “It’s okay now. You did your part.”
Crockta tried to console him, but Shakhan burst into rage at Crockta.
“Shut up!” he yelled, exhibiting drive that was unimaginable in a dying person.
“...”
“I said to open the bag! Crockta!”
Crockta looked into Shakhan’s eyes. They were burning with indomitable will. Seeing that, Crockta couldn’t help but oblige. He took the bag off Shakhan’s back and opened it. It had an unbearable rotting stench.
“This is...”
There was a huge heart inside. It was the contaminated core of a monster—the heart of the manticore that they had killed. The heart had already decomposed and was emitting a foul stench.
Crockta raised the heart with trembling hands.
“Feed it to me,” said Shakhan with a sigh.
“...!”
“Put that thing inside my mouth,” ordered Shakhan.
Upon seeing the burning determination in Shakhan’s eyes, Crockta suddenly realized that Shakhan had preserved his body this long by killing monsters and eating their hearts. That was why he appeared unbelievably young and exhibited strange behaviors, such as being unable to distinguish between the past and present. His body was that of a monster that had been eroded by dark mana. Just like the monsters in the forest, his blood was strange too. It oozed like a viscous substance.
Shakhan’s burning gaze left Crockta unable to refuse, and he placed the heart inside Shakhan’s mouth. Shakhan opened his mouth and gnawed at the heart, ripping bits off with his teeth. He chewed continuously on the tough muscles of the heart and absorbed its blood and mana. Shakhan’s eyes blazed as if on fire.
“The ancestors of the Shakhan tribe killed dragons and drank their blood,” said Shakhan.
Dark energy wavered around him, and the mana began to restore his broken body. His eyes turned black, and he vomited a dark liquid. He smelled of the same rotting stench as the monsters in the forest.
“To kill a monster, you have to willingly become a monster,” continued Shakhan.
He swallowed the remainder of the heart. With a gulp, his throat quivered. Then Shakhan cackled while black energy continued to spread through his body. He gripped his bow again.
The monster with Shakhan’s name got up. The Behemoth recognized its presence and cried out. The two monsters gazed directly at each again.
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