Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 114

After a dull bursting sound, Hippomenes vanished while emitting light.It would be a lie to say he wasn’t surprised, but Anagin soon accepted the situation.

He probably escaped by borrowing the power of some kind of magical tool.

Honestly, it was a little unexpected.

Anagin knew he was a pathetic bastard who tried to fulfill an ugly, unrequited love by borrowing the power of the cult-like Barbaroi Cult, but he still seemed to have some pride, so Anagin hadn’t expected him to run away so quickly.

To think he would run the moment he saw the sword. Should it be called cowardice, or strong vigilance.......

‘Or… is there something else?’

Anagin looked at the Beast Devourer in his hand and felt suspicious.

Maybe the sword really had some kind of special power.

However, Anagin still couldn’t feel any kind of energy from it. Maybe it never had anything like that to begin with.

After a short moment of thought, Anagin returned to reality.

Thinking further wouldn’t be bad, but since something had already happened, it would be proper to resolve that first.

First, he decided to find the escaped Hippomenes.

Fortunately, that wasn’t difficult. Loud noises were coming from the after-party venue a short distance away.

He had probably thought it would be safer to evacuate to a place with many people.

Then what Anagin had to do next was simple.

In every situation, the best choice was to choose what the opponent hated most.

Anagin headed toward where Hippomenes was.

As expected, Hippomenes was right in the middle of the after-party venue where the guests and participants who came to watch the Groom Tournament had gathered.

Perhaps because the teleportation wasn’t smooth, traces of disturbance could be seen around him.

On top of that, he was claiming that Anagin had attacked him.

Logically speaking, going to Hippomenes in this situation was madness.

But Anagin stepped forward anyway. Whether he went or not wouldn’t change anything, so he judged that advancing was better.

“Hmm? Please stop for a moment.”

Even amid the confusion caused by Hippomenes, one of the royal guards who hadn’t lowered his vigilance discovered Anagin and warned him to stop. That was because Beast Devourer was in Anagin’s hand.

However, Anagin did not stop.

Soon, others also noticed him.

The gazes that had been focused on Hippomenes shifted to Anagin as well, and they saw Beast Devourer in his hand.

They confirmed that Hippomenes’s words were not nonsense but the truth.

Bwooo—!

When Anagin didn’t stop, the royal guards finally blew their horns.

Immediately after, they drew their bowstrings and fired arrows from all directions.

Despite standing guard for a long time, their movements were agile, and Anagin began to run.

When it came to arrows, moving quickly to avoid them was the best method.

However, as seen earlier, the arrows of Arcadia were not something that could be easily avoided.

When Anagin moved quickly to dodge them, the arrows turned direction like living creatures and surrounded him.

‘Good thing I’ve seen this once.’

Anagin swung the Beast Devourer, blocking the arrows flying in from all directions.

No matter how freely their trajectories moved, once they reached a certain distance, the direction of attack stopped changing, so as long as he watched them properly and knocked them away, there was no problem.

But he couldn’t relax just because of that.

Not only were the royal guards here, but there were also the participants of the Groom Tournament.

“Stop!!”

Though their statuses differed, most of them were practitioners.

They couldn’t just leave Anagin alone when he had drawn a sword in the middle of the royal palace.

The first to move was a huge man with a thick beard and the build of an ox.

He gathered power into one arm and fired a shockwave toward Anagin.

In response, Anagin swung his arm and knocked the shockwave aside.

Bzzzing...!

‘This won’t be as easy as I thought.’

The moment he deflected the shockwave, Anagin realized it instinctively.

The shockwave was stronger than he had expected.

‘Didn’t they say the participants are at least Rank 5 or 6, with some Rank 7s?’

He recalled what Ponytail had told him while patrolling the Groom Tournament.

Because the grand prize was Atalanta, the minimum level of participants was Rank 5, and there were even some Rank 7s.

He had already expected that if a fight broke out, it wouldn’t be easy, but experiencing it firsthand felt different from merely imagining it.

‘Should I think of it as dozens of guys on the level of the New Argonaut Expedition Team?’

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

As if they hadn’t been drinking and relaxing just moments ago, the participants of the Groom Tournament skillfully blocked Anagin’s path.

The prince who had brought the Golden Lion’s Tooth swung a long two-handed sword horizontally, trying to cut Anagin in half.

In response, Anagin lowered his body and charged forward, dodging the blade as he passed by.

The moment he passed, a practitioner who had brought arrows made from Artemis’s Sacred Tree, and a mercenary captain who had brought the head of the Minotauros Pirate Crew, each swung their axes.

Anagin blocked them with Beast Devourer, then charged forward and pushed through them with brute force.

Thud!

Not missing the opening, someone stabbed a spear into Anagin’s back. It wasn’t deep due to a lack of strength, but it still stung quite a bit.

“Ow!”

Anagin shouted angrily.

If it were up to his temper, he would’ve beaten these guys up as well, and he even considered it, but he decided against it.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t understand their actions.

If someone suddenly appeared swinging a sword, Anagin himself would have reacted the same way. So he held back.

Once Hippomenes’s identity was exposed, the matter would be resolved anyway.

“Block him!”

“Don’t let him pass!”

‘Ah, damn. Still annoying though.... Should I just shout that Hippomenes is a member of the Barbaroi Cult?’

As he advanced while blocking countless attacks, Anagin considered it briefly. But he abandoned that idea, too.

Judging by how the situation was unfolding, it was obvious it wouldn’t work.

They wouldn’t even listen properly and would just dismiss it as nonsense.

Swoosh—!

Arrows flew through the practitioners who were blocking and surrounding Anagin.

The work of the Arcadian royal guards.

Those bastards shot arrows through the crowd of guests, aiming to ambush Anagin.

As befitting an ambush, they were even harder to block, but Anagin used his reflexes—twisting his body and moving both hands busily to dodge, deflect, and catch the incoming arrows.

Thud!

Even so, this time he failed to block them perfectly.

Three arrows pierced into Anagin’s back.

It was the work of the royal guard’s commander and his lieutenants. They had hidden their arrows among the ones fired by their subordinates and sniped Anagin.

“Good, we hit him!”

The arrows had pierced accurately and fairly deeply, and they seemed to be coated with anesthetic.

Normally, that would have been enough to bring someone down.

However, Anagin ignored it and kept charging toward Hippomenes.

Seeing that, the Groom Tournament participants and the royal guards were horrified.

“What a monster!”

“Oh, thanks.”

Seeing that he did not stop even under the attacks of dozens of practitioners and the arrows of the royal guards, someone exclaimed in shock, but Anagin instead thanked them and continued forward.

Because none of the people here were weak.

They had the skill and reputation to propose marriage to Atalanta. So he thanked them.

After all, being called a monster was something you could only hear if you were strong.

Those who had thought they could easily subdue Anagin soon realized they could not, and they began to move in earnest.

[O Earth, pierce.]

When a treasure hunter who had brought an Orichalcum magic sword as a gift for the Groom Tournament stabbed the blade into the ground and shouted, several spikes shot up in front of Anagin.

The intention was to bind Anagin’s feet for a moment.

Seeing through it, Anagin swung the Beast Devourer and shattered the spikes.

“Not so fast!”

The moment Anagin destroyed the spikes, a practitioner who had brought Sea Monster Armor attacked him, thrusting a harpoon repeatedly.

Clang, clang, clang—!!

The harpoon strikes, persistent like a hunt, were not easy to shake off, and seizing the moment, others joined in.

In response, Anagin endured getting wounded and forced his way forward, grabbing the practitioner in the Sea Monster Armor and throwing him toward the practitioners following behind.

Then, as if they had been waiting, arrows flew once again and attacked Anagin.

“So damn annoying!”

At least the fortunate thing was that this time he wasn’t hit by the arrows and managed to block them all.

And the unfortunate thing was that while Anagin was blocking the arrows, a practitioner who had brought a belt that prevents aging as a gift swung a gigantic hammer at him.

Clang!

When Anagin blocked the hammer with Beast Devourer, a huge shock traveled into his hands.

It was not merely monstrous strength—it was a blessing.

The hammer-wielding practitioner pressed the attack, swinging the hammer upward from below with all his strength.

The target wasn’t Anagin.

It was Beast Devourer in Anagin’s hand.

Before striking Anagin, he intended to eliminate the sword first.

In that fleeting instant, Anagin saw Hippomenes being supported as he tried to escape, and he instinctively realized that if this continued, he would lose him.

‘If it continues like this…’

After making a quick calculation, Anagin did not avoid the incoming hammer. Instead, he swung Beast Devourer to meet it.

And as a result.......

Clang!

Beast Devourer was struck by the hammer and flew high into the sky.

Then the hammer practitioner raised his hammer high and brought it down straight onto Anagin’s head.

Bam!

As the hammer struck him, Anagin felt a sharp pain and a ringing sensation in his head.

In that moment, the treasure hunter swung a chain and wrapped it around Anagin’s neck.

“This won't be easy to break.”

The treasure hunter boasted confidently and used Eul (εὐ), pouring a large amount of energy into the chain.

The chain that received the energy not only grew stronger but also thicker, tightening around Anagin’s neck and pressing down on his body.

“Now’s the time!”

“Grab him!”

As Anagin, who had been moving constantly, finally stopped his steps, the other participants rushed in, grabbing his shoulders and pressing him down.

If it were up to their tempers, they would have killed Anagin immediately, but they needed to know why he had done something this insane, so they decided to hold back for now.

Besides, the fact that he was a guest of Princess Irida also made them hesitate.

But then, what was this?

Even with arrows stuck in his back, his head struck by a hammer, and a chain wrapped around his neck, Anagin was still enduring without kneeling.

“This bastard.... What kind of toughness is this?!”

Not only that, he kept trying to say something. Because of the chain tightening around his neck, it was hard to hear clearly, but he kept pointing somewhere with his finger and muttering.

Curious about what he was saying, a few people listened closely, and soon they could hear it.

“H-hey.... Look over there. Over there.”

Anagin pointed with his finger as he spoke.

When they turned their heads.......

Squeeeeeeeal—!

The sound of a pig’s squeal burst out.

At the utterly out-of-place sound that did not match the place or the situation, everyone’s gaze shifted—and they soon saw it.

Hippomenes screaming while clutching one eye, and Beast Devourer stuck into the ground in front of him.

Everyone instinctively understood the situation.

The Beast Devourer that Anagin had lost had flown through the air and accidentally slashed Hippomenes’s face.

Some wondered whether it was really an accident or if it had been intentional, but unfortunately, that wasn’t important right now.

What truly mattered was that Hippomenes had made a pig’s squeal, and that one side of his face had turned into that of a pig.

“Huh? Uh...?”

Seeing Hippomenes’s face, a royal guard unconsciously stiffened and stepped back.

At Hippomenes’s grotesque, alien, and disgusting appearance, he felt an indescribable mixture of fear and revulsion.

Seeing the reaction of the royal guard who had looked at him, Hippomenes revealed several emotions—anger, hesitation, regret, conflict, and finally resolve.

Craaaack.

Hippomenes opened his half-pig mouth wide and approached the royal guard.

Just as the massive maw was about to bite and devour the royal guard—

Thwack—!!

An arrow struck Hippomenes.

Hippomenes staggered.

However, at a glance, it didn’t seem to be a fatal wound.

Then another voice rang out.

“Get a hold of yourselves!!”

It was the voice of the commander of the royal guards, the same man who had shot Anagin in the back.

Shouting at his confused subordinates, he declared Hippomenes’s identity.

“It’s the Barbaroi Cult! Hippomenes is part of the Barbaroi cult!!”

Barbaroi Cult.

At those words, the Arcadian royal guards all loaded their arrows and fired.

Swishshshsh!

Arrows rained from all directions like a storm.

Hippomenes’s attendants rushed forward all at once, and each raised their own barriers.

[O bone and flesh, protect us.]

When the attendants placed both palms on the ground and shouted, the bones and flesh of a gigantic beast rose from the earth and blocked the arrows.

“So he really is from the Barbaroi Cult?”

A participant in the Groom Tournament could not hide his surprise at the sight before him.

After all, it was shocking that the Barbaroi Cult had openly participated in the tournament to choose Atalanta’s groom.

However, not everyone was simply surprised.

Some were shocked, but far more people revealed hope and greed.

After all, Hippomenes—who had been no different from the favorite to win—had been exposed as Barbaroi Cult. That meant the tournament would be invalidated, and a new opportunity had opened up for them.

And everyone instinctively realized it.

Whoever took Hippomenes’s head would become the winner of this Groom Tournament.

“He’s mine!”

Those who had just moments ago been fighting to protect Hippomenes from Anagin now charged toward Hippomenes’s neck as if none of that had ever happened.

When one person rushed forward, the others followed in a wave.

Thanks to that, Anagin was finally freed.

[O bone and flesh, avenge the pain.]

Seeing the approaching tournament participants, Hippomenes’s attendants shouted again.

Then the places where the arrows had struck began to bubble and churn, and pigs were born.

Some had four legs, some had two. Some even held weapons made of bone.

But they all had one thing in common: intense anger and hatred.

Since hunting beasts had been Anagin’s job back in his hometown, he could tell at a glance.

‘Judging from the spell and the point where they were born… it seems they are created on the condition of being attacked... Could it be that stronger pigs are born proportional to the damage they receive?’

Unconsciously, Anagin analyzed the Barbaroi Cult technique.

If his guess was correct, it would be quite a troublesome ability.

However, he wasn’t worried.

The participants of the Groom Tournament were quite strong.

“Stop getting in the way and get lost!”

With strength roughly comparable to the members of the New Argonaut Expedition Team, they immediately pushed back the herd of pigs in front of them.

The summoned pigs seemed quite tough and held on for a while, but once the participants attacked in earnest, even they couldn’t endure for long.

A practitioner who fired shockwaves, pushing back the pigs blocking the path.

A treasure hunter who struck the ground with a magic sword and swung a magic spear through the air, slaughtering pigs.

A prince who transformed into a lion-like form and swung a vicious two-handed sword.

A mercenary captain who infused his axe with energy and butchered the pigs.

And many other Groom Tournament participants showed off their martial prowess.

Hippomenes’s attendants rushed out to block them, but it was not enough.

Anagin quietly watched the scene.

Even if he didn’t step in, those blinded by greed seemed ready to take Hippomenes’s head themselves.

Honestly, things seemed to be going better than expected.

With that much power rushing in all at once, it didn’t seem like Hippomenes would last long.

As if proving it, Hippomenes’s forces and the walls of bone and flesh were being worn down in real time.

Escape didn’t seem possible either.

The royal guards were waiting with their arrows already drawn.

The moment he tried to run, he would be turned into a pincushion.

The only real possibility was the teleportation he had shown earlier.

But it didn’t seem feasible.

If he could escape like that, he would have done it already.

‘But why do I have such a bad feeling about this?’

Just as that thought crossed his mind—

A monstrous sound, like thunder mixed with the squeal of a pig, rang out, and an ominous aura burst from one side of the royal palace.

And where exactly was that?

“The treasure vault!”

It was the treasure vault where the gifts from the Groom Tournament were stored.

Apparently, Anagin wasn’t the only one who felt the ominous feeling, as quite a few people turned their heads toward it.

At that exact moment, the shockwave practitioner broke through the wall of bone and flesh and rushed inside.

“Hippomenes! That neck of yours—!”

The Groom Tournament shockwave practitioner charged in with momentum.

But he could not finish his sentence.

Hippomenes, whose face had completely turned into that of a pig, reached out and grabbed his face.

Hippomenes, now fully transformed into a pig-faced monster, had grown larger to match his enlarged head.

Like a gigantic pig walking on two legs.

Perhaps his strength had become pig-like as well.

With one hand, Hippomenes crushed the man’s head and calmly walked out.

He had something to rely on.

However, the people here were also confident in their own abilities, so instead of retreating, they attacked.

“Don’t get cocky!”

It was the mercenary captain who had once decapitated the leader of the Minotauros Pirate Crew in a single blow.

He infused his axe with energy to its absolute limit and tried to slice Hippomenes’s body apart—just as he had done to the Minotauros Pirate captain.

However, he failed.

Was Hippomenes’s body too tough?

Half correct.

But the real reason was something else.

For some reason, Hippomenes was wearing the Sea Monster Hide Armor—one of the gifts from the Groom Tournament.

It was an absurd situation.

A Groom Tournament participant’s attack being blocked by a Groom Tournament gift.

At the bizarre sight, the mercenary captain’s pupils shook, and he hesitated.

In that moment, Hippomenes pulled out the Orichalcum magic sword from his bubbling fingertips.

Incidentally, that Orichalcum sword was also one of the gifts from the Groom Tournament.

Stab!

Hippomenes thrust the sword into the mercenary captain’s body and killed him.