Chapter 160

Chapter 158 – Unexpected Identity – 3

“I guess I’ve done enough. I’m tired, so I should take a break.”

Helga, who had chopped five centipedes into 29 pieces, leaned against a nearby wall, swaying.

Despite saying she was tired, her expression remained unchanged from her usual self. It was unclear whether she was genuinely exhausted or just trying to create an excuse for her subordinates to rest.

“What are you guys doing, not resting?”

Considering she was urging her subordinates to sit, it seemed likely to be the latter.

One by one, the other knights settled down nearby. The bunny-girl in her attire flapped her chest to let the heat escape while continuously adjusting her rabbit ears and tail.

They had caught on to Helga’s intention, and more importantly, their Knight Commander had informed them that since there would be no reinforcements once they wiped out the enemies that came out here, they could afford to rest.

Initially, they had been half-skeptical upon hearing it, but looking back after everything had unfolded, the situation fit together frighteningly well.

What they thought was an appropriate cave turned out to be in front of a Rune Dungeon, and not only did she seem to know the internal structure of a dungeon she had never entered, but she also predicted where and what kind of enemies would appear.

Did she conspire with the lord? Such absurdness gave them a chilling experience. An emotion close to horror surged up, surpassing awe.

Under normal circumstances, even Helga would never sit down in the middle of a dungeon, and her knights would be automatically taking turns to keep watch despite the absence of orders.

But this time was different. Everything was unfolding exactly as their commander had said, and that thought had taken root in their minds.

“This conquest seems pretty good, right?”

“Not just pretty good; it’s really great! The commander told us to choose the design, didn’t she? Since we picked it ourselves, ‘pretty good’ isn’t enough.”

“Ah, right. Usually, the commander decides everything, like when we were in the Golden Dusk Knights. I was really surprised when we got to choose this time.”

As the knights chatted, pink rabbit ears perked up above their heads. No one questioned why the headband was twitched like real ears.

Wearing a rabbit ear headband naturally meant it could perk up—it was common sense.

While her subordinates excitedly chattered, Helga meticulously inspected the chest area of the conquest. She glanced at Nix while suppressing a strange moan that almost escaped as her nipple rubbed against the fabric.

“Kihihit… Heheh…”

Nix chuckled weirdly as she crushed one of the centipede corpses into pieces.

The centipede was long dead, so it didn’t react to being torn apart. Conversely, this meant that the woman was just mutilating a useless corpse.

While everyone was resting, she was performing such bizarre actions, attracting everyone’s attention. Nix kept tearing at the corpse, oblivious to the gazes on her.

A few knights frowned slightly.

Despite having appeared to be a reasonably decent person when teleporting them here a few hours ago and not causing any trouble back at the castle, behaving like this confirmed she was indeed a witch.

The fact that eye-brows were only slightly furrowed instead of outright restraint was due to her generally positive image in their minds.

Finally, after thoroughly disassembling a centipede, Nix stood up and lazily walked over to a nearby wall, where she leaned back and sat down.

To Helga and the other knights, it seemed like Nix would start tearing another centipede’s corpse apart, but they were surprised by what happened next.

Nix, with her knees up, flailed her arms. Trying to hug her knees was seemingly impossible due to her ridiculously large chest and comparatively short frame.

After struggling for a while, she finally gave up and awkwardly lay down instead of leaning against the wall. Her right breast pressed flat against her left breast due to the weight.

“Hey, witch.”

“…Huh?”

Helga called out to Nix. Nix, who had just lay down for less than a few seconds, began to doze off.

“I’m curious; does that behavior have any meaning?”

Helga pointed to the pile of rubble that was once a centipede monster. The original form was almost unrecognizable.

“Well… it might have a ritualistic meaning, or perhaps it’s just for gathering magic materials. Something like that.”

“……”

Staring intently at Helga after hearing the question, Nix suddenly burst into her strange laughter.

“Kihihit. It has no meaning!”

“…Huh?”

“Ah, to be precise, it has no meaning ‘here.’”

“No meaning here? What do you mean by that?”

Nix turned away to lie on her side, ignoring Helga’s question. It was clear she didn’t want to answer anymore. Helga stared at her in astonishment and eventually turned her attention away, resting her chin on her knees.

She figured it was probably done out of boredom, and if she admitted to doing it for fun, she’d seem pointless, so she likely came up with a more plausible excuse. It was as obvious as daylight.

‘What does the commander see in that woman…?’

This suspicion crossed her mind briefly, but Helga soon yawned lightly, dismissing the thought. If it were that person, there would surely be some intention behind it.

While she thought about the commander, her mind wandered to the fact that he was currently fighting alone against the monsters guarding the Rune Dungeon below.

When she said that, she thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t.

‘They must be doing fine.’

She wasn’t particularly worried.

—Terung!

With a clank of metal hitting metal, my body was pushed back several paces. I drove the blade into the ground. Graq ghadghed as the blade glided along the surface while slowing down.

I drew the Wingless Nightmare again. I had no time to hesitate here. As soon as I unsheathed my sword, a centipede-shaped train charged at me, spewing dark smoke from its chimney.

Or maybe it was a centipede-shaped train.

In truth, at this point, it didn’t matter which it was. Just the fact that its appearance was enough to give someone goosebumps was sufficient.

The legs of the centipede burst out from the wheels, smashing the nearby ground mercilessly as it rushed toward me, while its body undulated like a wave.

The gaze locked on me remained eerily grotesque. Its eyebrows were furrowed in anger, yet its eyes maintained their round shape. The corners of its mouth were extended horizontally. Every part of its body was unnatural.

Below its mouth, the headlights clacked like a lower jaw. I lifted the Wingless Nightmare again. The charge pattern was correct, but this time I had to deflect rather than dodge.

As its headlights crossed in the middle, I swung my arms. Just as the headlights were about to converge, they went ping! and flew off to the side.

Simultaneously, the creature’s path of advance twisted sideways. The head that had been coming straight for me veered sharply in front of me. Like a train switching tracks, its body brushed past me.

I swung the Wingless Nightmare at its centipede-like legs.

‘This is horrifying.’

It was likely the same sight I had seen a million times during the Rock Centipede boss fight, but for some reason, it felt even more disgusting now. Watching it made me feel like something was crawling under my skin.

Shaking off that feeling, I swung my sword. By the time I had struck it four times, the blue train centipede made a scritch scritch sound as it crawled away into the distance.

I steadied my posture and reduced my combat fatigue. The creature’s head turned towards me again. A few legs at the back lifted into the air. The legs attached at the very back lifted sharply.

It raised its rear like a scorpion and drove toward me. I rolled to dodge and burrowed inward.

‘Wait, is that really a centipede?’

I had thought, “They must create patterns in the game,” when I saw it, but seeing it in reality was utterly absurd.

What kind of centipede raises its segments in front like a snake, looking down at its enemy, and even swings its rear like a scorpion?

Regardless of how confused I was, my body responded. Following the game’s actions, as I rolled twice, I found myself right in front of its head.

I instinctively tried to swing my sword, but seeing its eyes fixate on me again, I hesitated for a moment. Even though I had seen that face several times, I still couldn’t get used to it.

I gathered my resolve and swung the Wingless Nightmare at its head. The blue blade grazed its jaw.

—Puhung!

In that moment, a much sharper sound rang out than usual. The part of the jaw I hit caved in, and the once-pointed rear sank down, elongating its body.

I realized what the situation had become. It was in a state commonly referred to as “groggy.” This was observed when consistently inflicting damage on the “weak points” that some bosses had.

This weak spot existed only in monster-type bosses, as humanoid bosses did not have such vulnerabilities. Essentially, monster-type bosses couldn’t be parried, so they set up similar countermeasures.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same as parrying.

In parrying, damage is proportional to the opponent’s maximum health and does not decrease due to resistance, while damage after the groggy state is proportional to the attack power of the attacker and is reduced by resistance.

But since I could deal far greater damage than a standard attack, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass. I drove the Wingless Nightmare forcefully into the dented part of its gray head.

—Chiiiiiing!

As soon as I thrust my sword into it, a thick black steam erupted from the chimney atop its head.

I pushed the Wingless Nightmare deep until the cross guard was nearly submerged and shoved with my shoulder. Defying the size difference, it toppled over to the side.

Dozens of legs flailed in the air. I withdrew my sword and increased my distance.

After struggling for a while, it managed to rise back up. Once again, it emitted thick black steam and glared at me.

—Quagdug!

Its head flipped 180 degrees.

The eyes that were once positioned in place of its mouth were now its mouth. Its mouth was positioned where its eyes used to be. Tap tap, the black iris of its eye spun around and turned back toward me.

The coal in the cargo car came tumbling down. As this happened, the black iris gradually expanded, while the whites of its eyes decreased in size.

Finally, the white in its eyes disappeared completely. A wave of chills went through me, but I quickly calmed my nerves as I realized why it had ended up like that.

It was undoubtedly below 5% health. Seeing its legs trembling confirmed it.

When it dropped below 5% health, the armor on its head partially shattered, dramatically slowing its movements and amplifying all damage it took. At this point, it was practically defeated.

So, now was the time to strike.

I firmly gripped the Wingless Nightmare and pulled it towards my right side. Then, I prepared to use the special ability of the Wingless Nightmare that bore magical attributes.

The blue glow of the sword intensified. Even while I was doing this, the half-destroyed blue steam train was still there, flipping its face upside-down, its pupils darkening as it staggered toward me.

The flickering headlights collided right in front of its eyebrows.

I gathered magical power to the limit, removed my left hand from the grip, and raised my right hand to shoulder height. The sword gleamed, trembling, emanating a deep blue light.

I stepped forward, extending my right arm. Using the Wingless Nightmare’s blade as a staff, a blue vortex shot out.

The blue vortex flew straight, colliding with the head of the blue train that was staggering towards me.

—Quaggigigigig!

And then it completely tore through its point of impact.

The blue vortex obliterated about one-third of its head and didn’t stop there. It burrowed nearly halfway into its body, smashing through to the segment that housed the first cargo car before exploding into the air.

It trembled for a moment before finally collapsing, unable to rise again, having lost about half of its body.

The once-white pupils filled with dark irises returned to normal. The remnants of its mouth perked up again into a smiling face.

However, its face was still upside down, giving it a crying appearance.

The blue steam train, which had returned to its smiling face, spewed out one last puff of gray smoke from its chimney before ceasing to operate entirely.

That damn little train, or rather, the Rock Centipede boss fight was over. Its body slowly began to crumble.

I approached the rune stele, which was radiating a gentle green light, secretly hoping this would be the last of such a mode.