Clown 4

Swoooooosh—!

A chilling wind swept away the thick clouds of dust, revealing a burning skeleton.

The black flames devoured the Corpse Collector, stripping him down to bare bones. Yet even in that state, his bony hand still clung to the Staff of the Netherworld, somehow unharmed by the blaze.

‘…Why does he look so pathetic?’

The presence that invincibility skill had exuded when I first saw it in the Goblin Forest was gone, and the reason was simple.

One minute of invincibility.

His mental skills and abilities had been converted into physical buffs.

Although the core effect of the skill remained the same, the Blessing of the Netherworld had made it even stronger.

And yet, the bastard made a different choice.

Unlike last time, when he tried to hit my weak spot during that one minute—

Tap tap tap tap—!

This time, he turned his back on me and ran without hesitation.

Seeing him run like that reminded me of a pest. Back when I lived in that ground floor, cockroaches used to scurry exactly like that whenever I flicked on the kitchen light.

‘……He is fast, though.’

With the Blessing of the Netherworld stacked on top of Momentary Immortality, his stats was ridiculously inflated. His movement speed was insane.

In that sense.

Boom! Boom!

I pumped my long, thick legs as hard as I could, but the distance kept widening.

Doesn’t matter. You’re going to die anyway.’

Despite the growing distance between us, I didn’t feel rushed.

There wasn’t a single place to hide on this vast plain.

No matter how far he ran, I simply followed along after him.

And then…

‘One minute.’

After the minute passed, Momentary Immortality ended, and flesh began to reform on his body.

Tap tap tap—!

He was now running with only the staff in his hand.

‘…The distance still isn’t closing.’

Even without the buff, he was still annoyingly fast.

But it wasn’t a real problem.

The Netherworld wouldn’t close for a while.

“If I remember right, max duration is 24 hours.”

At most, I’d only been here about thirty minutes.

Meaning over 23 hours still remained.

Boom! Boom!

I grinned as I kept up my pace.

‘Let’s see how long you can keep running.’

A Barbarian never gives up.

***

Have you ever played tag?

If you have, you’ll know.

Even knowing it was just a game, being chased filled you with an intense mix of thrill and anxiety.

Until now, Necrapeto had never known.

Because he had always been the “tagger.”

Tap tap tap—!

His legs ached from running non-stop.

 

He was tiring faster than usual, whether due to psychological pressure or something else.

“Haah… haah…!”

His breath caught in his throat.

“P-please… just give up…!”

Even though the distance between them was huge, he couldn’t relax.

Boom! Boom!

The steady footsteps coming from far behind told him as much.

That man would never give up.

“If I want to lose him, I need more distance…”

Growing desperate, he used every method he could.

He kept pulling corpses from subspace.

Anything to block the barbarian’s path.

[Grrrrrr—!]

He built walls with giant corpses.

[Screeech—!]

He had the corpses swing their rotten claws at the barbarian to distract him.

“Whoa. Free stacks. Nice.”

Completely unaware of the barbarian’s satisfied grin behind him.

***

Time passed.

1 minute.
2.
3.
4…

40…

“…One hour.”

The situation hadn’t changed at all.

The distance?

The same.

‘Why isn’t it getting any wider?!’

None of the corpses he had summoned slowed that barbarian tank.

And—

‘Gigantification…’

There was no sign of that guy’s [Giantification] wearing off. Usually, transformation-type abilities consumed MP every second, so it was common sense that they couldn’t be kept active for long.

‘If it weren’t for that, I could pull away for sure!’

When the hell does that skill turn off?

He didn’t know, but he hoped it wouldn’t be much longer.

Necrapeto desperately clung to the hope that Giantization would soon reach its limit and that he would finally be able to escape the barbarian.

It was a vain hope born of ignorance. Abet Necrapeto did not know.

「Bjorn Jandel has used a transformation-type ability.」

「Due to the effect of [Primordial Cells], the Soul Power consumption of the skill is halved, and the highest stat increases by 1.5x.」

He didn’t know that the Shield Barbarian was already about 70% complete.

「Bjorn Jandel has cast [Soul Dive]」

「Soul Power is regenerated in proportion to the Soul Power consumed」

Unless he was forced to expend more MP, he could indefinitely maintain his Giantization.

Then—

A chilling sensation ran down Necrapeto’s spine. He glanced back in terror.

「Character has used [Aegis Dragon Armor].」

A giant spirit warrior appeared, so massive that it seemed to defy reality.

‘……What kind of skill is that? The cooldown is already over?!’

It wasn’t a skill, but an item effect — it was only natural that Abet Necrapeto knew nothing about it. The Aegis Dragon Armour was a ‘Secret Number’ that didn’t even exist in the game. He also had no way of knowing that it was his summoned corpse army that allowed the barbarian to rebuild his stacks so quickly.

‘I-I tried to get as far away as I could because of that thing…!’

It felt so unfair.

How could a tank spam such broken abilities back to back? Did that even make sense?

He didn’t have the luxury to complain.

Tap—!

He dodged the massive axe that fell from the sky like divine retribution and leapt off his summon.

And the result—

Booom—!

He barely dodged the axe, but the summon he’d been riding vanished without a trace.

Thanks to the Netherworld’s field effect, it would slowly regenerate, but with that much damage it would take hours at least to be fully restored.

“Tch. Thought I could finish him off this time.”

Thanks to his sharp hearing, he could make out the barbarian’s muttering.

Snapping to his senses, Necrapeto scrambled up and began to run on his own two feet.

Tada-da-dat—!

He noticed something wrong with his body about five minutes later.

“…Ugh!”

It seemed that although he had dodged the axe’s main strike, he had not avoided it entirely.

‘My… my leg…….’

One side was fine, but his left leg wouldn’t move properly. He was forcing it to move, but every time he did, a sharp, throbbing pain flared up…

Crunch—!

The pain only grew worse.

Naturally, his speed kept dropping.

Necrapeto didn’t look back. He focused all his energy on maintaining his sprint, but the sounds from behind him were growing louder.

Badump! Badump!

Step by step. Despite running desperately, the sound was gaining on him.

Thump—!

Then, the sound came directly from behind him.

“Ugh!”

He felt his hair being pulled upwards and his body being lifted into the air. When he opened his eyes, he saw the barbarian.

The barbarian let out a laugh of pure mockery.

“Psssit.”

***

The chase finally ended. It took about an hour.

”I should review my movement skills once all this is over.’

Even though I had successfully finished the chase, I could not help reflecting on my shortcomings and thinking of ways to improve. My lack of mobility had caused me trouble far too often lately. This time was no exception. If I’d had even a simple [Leap], I could have finished this chase much more smoothly—.

“Ha, hahaha…….”

While I was lost in thought for a moment, the guy suddenly let out an awkward laugh.

“H-how about we, uh, try to negotiate?”

Sigh, why do these bastards always do this shit whenever they’re backed into a corner?

“Nope, not happening.”

“S-still, if we talk, we might find a w-win-win situation—”

“Nope, there isn’t one.”

“…….”

“Time to die.”

As if lulling a baby to sleep, I slowly began to clench my fist.

“……Huh?”

“I-I can’t just die like this!! It’s too unfair……!!”

While I was holding him by his hair, he pulled a dagger from his subspace and swung it.

Whirrrr—!

It might have been obvious, but his dagger was not aimed at me. Instead of striking my body, which would not have even been scratched, he brought it down on his own hair.

He rolled across the ground and then bolted away, putting distance between us.

Wow, he’s still looking for a way out even in this situation.

Considering how he had abandoned Vivian and run last time, it was clear he had a strong will to survive.

Not that I blamed him.

“If you wanted to live that badly, you shouldn’t have gone around doing things that would get you killed.”

With those words, I slammed my mace down.

But…

Boooom—!

The guy nimbly rolled to the side to dodge it. Since I had expected him to do so, I immediately kicked him in the head.

Wait, what was this?

Tadat.

From that position, he dodged the kick with a backflip! For someone with an injured leg, he was remarkably agile.

“I just need to land one proper hit…”

He probably knew it too, because he was resisting desperately.

Whoosh—!

I swung the mace.

Whoooooosh—!

I reached out my hand.

Boo-mmm—!

I tried slamming the mace down again, but the attacks failed to connect.

‘Sigh, he’s really damn hard to hit.’

It was like trying to catch a fly. He wasn’t exactly a threat, but he was extremely difficult to grab with bare hands. All I needed was the finishing blow, but I kept missing that crucial final strike.

“Can’t you just die already?”

I was getting annoyed, but that was exactly when I needed to stay calm.

“…Huff… huff…”

Even a rolling pebble had something to teach.

Letting go of irritation, I watched him again.

He was dodging every attack with near-trance-like focus.

And then it hit me.

Whoooong—!

The reason my attacks weren’t landing wasn’t skill.

It was mindset.

He was using every sense in his body to avoid each strike.

But me?

Had I really gone all out?

The answer was no.

Yeah… in times like this—

‘Mental attacks it is.’

I kept swinging the hammer through empty air and spoke.

The words that would disrupt his concentration the most.

“You know something? Abet Necrapeto.”

“……”

“I’m actually an evil spirit.”

“…?”

His pupils wavered slightly, but he still bent backward to dodge the hammer.

Not enough, huh?

“I was born and raised in Korea.”

I kept talking rapidly, giving him no time to think.

“In Stone Iben, I used the nickname ‘Elfnuna.’”

“…What?”

Oh. Finally got a real reaction.

Well, Elfnuna was pretty famous.

Plus I pronounced it clearly in English.

Whoooong—!

“Ghk!”

His focus slipped. The hammer grazed right past his nose.

Still dodging?

“Clown. Abet Necrapeto.”

The name I’d only ever used at the Round Table.

When I used the name he went by at the Round Table, his eyes widened. It was as if they were asking me this:

‘…How do you know that name?!’

How? What do you mean how?

I smirked.

For some reason, a strange sense of relief washed over me as I spoke.

“I…”

The truth I’d always wanted to tell him to his face someday.

“…am the Lion Mask.”

“……!!!!!!”

Hah. That feels good.

Seeing that look in his eyes, like he couldn’t accept reality, washed all the stress right out of me.

“Y-you…?”

At some point, he’d even stopped moving, just staring at me as he spoke.

“Li… Lion Mask?”

I nodded.

Yeah. I’m the Lion Mask.

So—

「Character has activated [Swing].」

Time to die.

KWA-CRUNCH—!!!

Like the bug you are.

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