Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 115

The name of the mercenary captain who had participated in Atalanta’s Groom Tournament was Targon.Though he was not a Gigant, his desire to grow stronger was intense. Fortunately, he received a blessing from a god and obtained a body that rivaled that of a Gigant.

Not content with that, he tempered his strengthened body like steel and wandered across countless battlefields, receiving even more blessings until he finally reached 6 stars.

If he advanced just one more step from here, he could reach 7 stars, the peak that most practitioners eventually aim for.

This was precisely why Targon had joined Atalanta’s Groom Tournament.

The throne of the Kingdom of Arcadia tempted him, and so did Atalanta herself, but his greatest goal was to receive more blessings and reach 7 stars.

He believed that if he won the tournament, the gods who recognized his worth would grant him another blessing.

However, Targon’s plan ended in failure.

Because he was eliminated from the tournament?

No.

Because Hippomenes, who had transformed into a pig-man, stabbed him in the abdomen. Once dead, no challenge was possible.

“Ghk... ghk.”

The Orichalcum magic sword brought by the treasure hunter had no special magic imbued into it.

It was merely a sword whose durability had been raised to the absolute limit.

Yet ironically, a sword that preserved only that single function was perfectly suited to piercing Targon’s steel-like body.

And so Targon was lifted into the air, skewered through the stomach like a piece of meat stuck on a skewer.

Crunch...!

Hippomenes opened his snout in that state and bit Targon’s head off.

The hardened body of Targon—strengthened by the blessings [Gigant’s Strength], [Bronze Skin], [Horse’s Muscles], and [High-Density Bones]—was devoured far too easily.

“H-hiiik...!”

Those who had retreated, thinking there would still be no real problem, saw the horrifying scene without any filter and let out shrill screams.

After all, it was not a sight one could easily see—a pig-man chewing on a human head while the victim was still alive.......

Even practitioners who had witnessed many gruesome things were horrified, their legs freezing in place.

Because of that, Hippomenes leisurely finished devouring Targon, still skewered on the sword, without any interference.

‘It feels like his body is getting bigger?’

Anagin thought as he noticed the subtle change in Hippomenes.

His body had grown slightly larger, and the density of the muscles beneath his skin seemed to have increased as well.

With that done, Hippomenes chewed up the shockwave practitioner held in his other hand.

Munch. Munch. Munch.

Then, just as it seemed he would let out a ‘Burp!’...

He fired a shockwave.

While everyone held their breath and watched, Hippomenes, using the hand that wasn’t holding the sword, launched the shockwave.

The practitioners standing in the direction of the attack were caught off guard and failed to respond, getting blown away. Hippomenes quickly closed the distance through that opening and cut down the off-balance practitioners with the Orichalcum sword.

Fortunately, only one person died. The rest suffered only minor injuries. Their physical abilities were excellent, but their techniques were lacking.

Even so, Hippomenes seemed unwilling to let them go and tried to swing the Orichalcum sword once more.

At that moment—

Thud-thud-thud-!!

The royal guard of Arcadia fired arrows, restraining Hippomenes.

It wasn’t so much to protect the guests as it was to stop Hippomenes from devouring any more of them.

Not only Anagin but everyone present had realized it.

Hippomenes was devouring people to steal the power and blessings dwelling within their bodies.

‘Rather than a practitioner, he’s more like a monster....... no, is he a mutant?’

Unlike the others, Anagin simply watched Hippomenes and sank into thought.

The strange and unstable feeling—half human, half beast—bothered him.

He wondered if all members of the Barbaroi Cult felt like that.

“Aim for the head, arms, and legs!”

The commander of the royal guard shouted orders to his subordinates.

Arrows could not penetrate Hippomenes’s torso, which was why he gave that command.

For some reason, Hippomenes was wearing the sea monster hide armor that should have been inside the treasury, so arrows wouldn’t stick into his torso.

Not only that, he was somehow already equipped with other Groom Tournament gifts as well, such as the Orichalcum sword and the boots of the wind.

One could not tell what kind of trickery he had used.

However, it didn’t seem like that alone would be enough to turn this situation around.

Following the order, the royal guard concentrated their attacks on the unarmored parts, while the other tournament participants briefly panicked before widening the distance and preparing to respond.

Carefully keeping their distance while staying wary of the shockwaves and the Orichalcum sword, they allowed the royal guard’s arrows to gradually wear Hippomenes down.

As befitting practitioners, they restrained their desire to take Hippomenes’s head and chose a method that would ensure his suppression.

After all, several people had already died from acting rashly. In that sense, it was a professional attitude.

However, it seemed Hippomenes had a countermeasure.

After being struck by a barrage of arrows and turning into something like a hedgehog, Hippomenes let out a shriek.

Then a massive swarm of parasites poured out from his entire body.

“Ugh...!”

The grotesque sight, something even most monsters could not imitate, made several practitioners barely suppress the urge to vomit.

Dozens of parasites that burst from Hippomenes’s body crawled away in all directions like snakes.

The practitioners, horrified, tried to kill them and succeeded in killing a few.

However, there were too many parasites, and they were too fast to eliminate them all.

Several people who failed to stop them screamed in terror—but fortunately, they weren’t harmed.

Instead, the parasites targeted the royal guards who had been firing arrows from afar.

“Fire!”

Instinctively sensing danger, the royal guards tried to shoot down the parasites with arrows, but it wasn’t easy.

In the end, quite a number of them allowed the parasites to approach.

The snake-like parasites burrowed through their skin, causing the soldiers unbearable pain.

“G-ghaaaah......!”

“M-my body won’t—?!”

“Ghk...!”

The royal guards who had been invaded by parasites collapsed as the veins across their bodies bulged as though they had been poisoned, losing control of their bodies.

A horrifying sight just to look at.

However, they couldn’t afford to be distracted by it.

Hippomenes, who had released the parasites, had already begun moving.

Despite his body turning into that of a pig, he moved nimbly and swung the Orichalcum magic sword.

The magic sword, whose durability had been strengthened to the extreme, cut through even the weapons of most practitioners as if slicing cheese. When a panicked practitioner tried to create distance, Hippomenes blasted them away with a shockwave and then cut them down with the magic sword.

The corpse immediately went into his snout.

The moment he ate the corpse, the arrows embedded in his body were pushed out as if expelled, and the wounds began to heal. His movements also became lighter again.

It seemed that when he ate people, not only did he absorb their power, but he also replenished his stamina and healed his wounds.

Honestly speaking, it was quite remarkable. If the conditions were right, it meant he could keep fighting no matter how many enemies there were.

To kill Hippomenes with such an ability, they would likely need to relentlessly pressure him without giving him a chance to eat and end his life in a single decisive blow.

The problem was that doing so wasn’t easy.

Hippomenes’s hide was thicker than expected, and even if someone managed to break through that thick hide and land an attack, they would worry about being targeted by parasites.

After all, the parasites had earlier specifically targeted the archers who had hit Hippomenes.

Because of that filthy fighting style, even the brave and shameless suitors who had come to marry Atalanta began stepping back.

Even though just moments ago, they had been practically fighting each other to take Hippomenes’s head.

‘Prevent him from eating, and end it in one blow.......’

The conditions were quite demanding, even in Anagin’s eyes.

Not only was Hippomenes’s defense formidable, but his toughness and regenerative ability were excellent as well, making a one-shot finish far easier said than done.

Anagin began to understand, at least a little, why Meleager the Immortal, who had slain a bishop of the Barbaroi Cult, was called a great hero.

They were simply enemies no one wanted to fight.

Amid a situation with no obvious solution, Anagin moved.

Hippomenes had begun aggressively attacking the now-hesitant suitors, and the casualties were gradually increasing.

Anagin judged that he needed to change this flow first.

Tak!

Instead of running toward Hippomenes, Anagin dashed toward the shattered wall of bones and flesh.

The reason was simple.

Beast Devourer was there.

He wasn’t sure if Beast Devourer was the answer, but seeing Hippomenes scream when it had merely grazed him earlier, it seemed best to secure it first.

And it appeared he was right.

The moment Anagin ran to retrieve the Beast Devourer, Hippomenes immediately charged straight toward him.

As if he had no intention of letting Anagin reclaim it.

However, having already anticipated this, Anagin dodged Hippomenes’s attack and threw a punch infused with Energy.

Anagin’s fist struck Hippomenes squarely in the stomach.......

“...Hmph!”

......but it failed to deal any meaningful damage.

Hippomenes tightened his abdomen and easily deflected Anagin’s punch.

His hardened skin and thickened belly didn’t just block Anagin’s fist—they bounced it away. There was a reason he had been overwhelming the Groom Tournament participants.

However, Anagin didn’t find him particularly threatening.

He had already met someone worse.

“Die!”

Hippomenes swung his sword at Anagin, his voice carrying a hint of emotion.

Anagin instantly lowered his body and grabbed Hippomenes’s leg.

Then, with practiced skill, he lifted the leg and slammed Hippomenes to the ground.

Boom—!

Hippomenes crashed onto the ground.

Without hesitation, Anagin used the full strength of his body to snap Hippomenes’s leg.

Crack—!

With the crisp sound of breaking bone, Hippomenes let out a grotesque scream.

It was an unpleasant cry—neither quite human nor quite beast.

Anagin moved to mount the fallen Hippomenes and break every bone in his body.

Rolling around like that wasn’t really his style, but against something tough, it was the most effective method.

Just as Anagin reached to twist and break the shoulder holding the Orichalcum sword—an arrow flew in.

Not toward Hippomenes, but toward Anagin.

“......!”

Anagin narrowly dodged it.

When he looked to see what was going on, the royal guards who had been infected by parasites had somehow risen again and were already nocking arrows.

Exactly as the parasites inside their bodies commanded.

“Guh..., uaaagh......!”

“Grrrk....”

The royal guards, their bodies forcibly moving after losing control, screamed in agony or foamed at the mouth.

It was clearly a terrible situation.

And an even worse situation was the fact that quite a few Groom Tournament participants had also been struck by arrows.

Even some ordinary spectators—noncombatants who had only come to watch.

“Fire!”

Hippomenes ordered aloud for the arrows to be shot.

The royal guards, now turned into expert marksmen, fired arrows at everyone except Hippomenes.

As if they were hunting.

In particular, they concentrated their attacks on Anagin.

It seemed less like they were trying to kill him and more like they were trying to pin him down.

Because while Anagin dodged the arrows, Hippomenes did not join the attack. Instead, he chewed on corpses and wounded people.

The more corpses he devoured, the larger Hippomenes’s body grew, until he eventually became as large as Erysichthon.

Of course, whether he had the same overwhelming presence as Erysichthon was another matter entirely.

Anagin ran again to retrieve the Beast Devourer.

And this time, he succeeded.

The moment he recovered it, Anagin charged at Hippomenes again.

In the meantime, Hippomenes had grown even larger.

Instead of dodging like before, Hippomenes faced Anagin head-on.

Just as Anagin wondered what he was relying on, arrows poured down on both sides of him.

Arrows fired by the controlled royal guards.

Anagin swung Beast Devourer and knocked the arrows aside, but seizing that opening, Hippomenes let out a pig-slaughtering shriek toward Anagin.

Squeeeeal—!

Though it caused no direct physical damage, a strange shock seemed to shake his insides, and Anagin’s body stiffened for a moment.

During that brief instant, Hippomenes pulled an arrow made from Artemis’s sacred wood out from inside his body.

That too had been a gift from the Groom Tournament.

For a moment, it looked as if he intended to fire it from a bow.

But instead, Hippomenes gathered his own flesh—bubbling like boiling mud—and wrapped it around the arrow.

The sacred-wood arrow seemed to become contaminated, and its size expanded into that of a massive javelin.

‘Damn it, my body still isn’t moving.......’

Because of the unexpected and alien shock, Anagin’s body still refused to obey him.

Taking advantage of that moment, Hippomenes hurled the javelin at Anagin.

It looked like it would hurt quite a lot.

Fortunately, the arrow never pierced Anagin.

From far away, Atalanta fired an arrow and intercepted Hippomenes’s javelin midair.

“Ah, you sure took your time getting here.”