The Third Son of a Medieval Knight Family Chapter 83 - Knight of Ascension (18)

‘The eyeball doesn’t seem as tough as the rest.’

Viktor barely had time to absorb the shock of falling straight to the ground as he hastily rolled his body.

The Rock Demon Serpent, with one eye burst, was thrashing its entire body in agony.

Whooom-!

A chilling sound echoed as the monster’s long body swept over the spot where Viktor had been just moments before.

-Kiyaaaaaaack!

At the first major wound it had ever received, the Rock Demon Serpent raised its head high and continued its frenzied rampage.

“Shit, get out of the way!”

“If it grazes you, you’re dead! Get down!”

Not only the mercenaries but even the knights abandoned their dignity and lay flat on the ground, ducking their heads.

With a rock-like body mass being whipped around like a whip, no human was fearless enough to throw their body against it.

Actually, precisely speaking, there was one.

“Sir Viktor?!”

Viktor, who had rolled on the ground to evade the creature’s attack, held his axe in one hand while drawing a javelin with the other, then began running forward like a madman.

Even though the giant serpent was writhing and rolling its elongated body with enough force to completely tear up the ground, he showed no concern whatsoever.

‘It’s troublesome, but I’ll finish this decisively.’

Seeing the creature raging with a vicious expression after attacking first, Viktor steeled his resolve.

There was no need to leave future troubles.

-Kraaaaaaaa!!

The Rock Demon Serpent’s face twisted like a demon’s when it confirmed Viktor was once again charging with his bare body.

Blood was still spurting from one eye, giving off a terrible stench, and the blood that had fallen to the ground was burning the surroundings with acrid smoke—a sight reminiscent of evil dragons from mythology.

Tumen bit between his teeth and shouted with all his strength.

“Avoid it! It’s poison!”

Almost simultaneously, the monster took a deep breath and opened its maw wide.

Dark red smoke began pouring from its mouth, instantly spreading forward.

It was the poisonous smoke the Rock Demon Serpent had stored within its body.

As the smoke billowed and spread, encroaching on the surroundings, Viktor frowned and covered his face with his forearm.

Breathing it in would clearly be very bad in many ways.

Despite the warnings and restraints from those around him, he actually increased his speed.

Even if he tried to avoid it, he couldn’t completely evade the poisonous smoke that approached as if occupying the space itself.

‘I’ll break through quickly instead!’

Hiss!

The areas that came into contact with the smoke began to discolor with an acrid burning smell.

It was terribly toxic.

Viktor bit his lips and leaned his entire body forward as if putting his weight behind it.

Then he stomped with all his might and leaped into the air.

Soon his body stretched like a bow.

Viktor, who had soared to an unbelievable height for someone wearing armor, pierced through the thick smoke and approached the Rock Demon Serpent’s body, driving his javelin straight into it!

Clang!

‘…It’s harder than I thought.’

-Kraaaaaaaa!

But surprisingly, the javelin that Viktor had struck down with all his strength failed to pierce the monster’s skin and simply shattered.

It was an incredibly tough body.

Looking down at Viktor, the Rock Demon Serpent smiled sinisterly.

“For just a snake, you have quite varied expressions.”

Viktor muttered calmly and roughly secured the axe he was holding.

Watching this scene from a distance, people let out sighs of despair.

“Even Sir Viktor’s weapon can’t penetrate it… How tough is that snake bastard!”

“Don’t just stand there gaping! The Sir is in danger! Shoot! Shoot!”

The mercenaries simultaneously aimed their bows and crossbows and fired arrows, but they had little effect on the monster.

The Rock Demon Serpent swished its body annoyedly, then used its tail to fling a chunk of rock.

“Aaaaah!”

As a rock the size of a human torso came flying, the mercenaries all dove and scattered.

One mercenary captain shouted loudly.

“Don’t dodge! Just get hit and die, you idiots! Keep shooting! Shoot!”

“Are you seriously saying that right now?!”

The surrounding mercenaries complained angrily, but at the captain’s fierce retort, they closed their mouths.

“So you want to just stand there watching the Sir roll around alone? You bastard, if you took money and ate it, you should do the work! Where else in the world are there mercenary bastards stupid enough to let their employer fight alone!”

“…But that knight isn’t exactly our employer…”

“What an idiot calling himself a mercenary! Fine, then try abandoning that knight to die and run away. The Count will surely forgive you, right? Hm? What do you think the other knights here will think right now? Hm?!”

“…”

“When that time comes, make sure you step forward first and say it. That because the opponent was too big a monster, you just watched whether the knight fought or not in front! If you all want to hang together, go ahead and try!”

“Oh my, why are you doing this, Captain! I understand, we’ll fight, we’ll fight!”

The mercenaries made an effort to shake off their fear and began preparing to fight in earnest.

Fighting barbarians would be better than clashing with such a monster—that was truly terrifyingly scary.

But they too had their own pride and self-respect.

Though nobles always looked down on them as lowly and caring only about money, even mercenaries had their mercenary code.

Abandoning and fleeing from a commander who charged most valiantly at the front without regard for his own safety was tantamount to trampling on their own pride.

“Damn it, let’s just fight the thing!”

“It’s just a somewhat big snake bastard, don’t be scared! Let’s see if that thing can survive even if we pour oil and set it on fire.”

A group of mercenaries prepared oil jars.

While allies from behind would shoot arrows to draw attention, they planned to approach closely and pour oil.

“By now that knight should have retreated too. Good, let’s go… huh?”

“What, why are you… Huh!”

They found themselves gaping with their mouths open.

The knight was climbing up the snake’s body with his bare hands, as if he had no concept of fear.

---

Snap!

Viktor reached out to grab a protruding part and lightly launched his body.

Perhaps because there were many places to grip, climbing up the creature’s body was easier than expected.

-Kryaaaaaaaa!

Of course, the creature was extremely displeased by the human climbing its body and caused a commotion by rolling around, but such interference posed no problem at all for Viktor.

He nimbly moved his body left and right, calmly climbing up the swaying body.

Whether he wasn’t dizzy or not, he maintained a perfectly calm expression even while being shaken wildly.

‘If the skin is tough, I have no choice but to target other weaknesses.’

Viktor’s gaze turned upward.

The face that had been smiling sinisterly when the javelin broke was gradually becoming more distorted.

‘What kind of… it’s not even human…’

Do monsters originally have rich expressions?

With a somewhat incredulous feeling, Viktor kicked off.

Thud!

In just one breath, he had reached near the creature’s chest area.

Viktor lightly exhaled and looked around.

The view that had been shaking dizzyingly when he first started climbing had now become calm.

‘It stopped moving.’

Viktor lightly placed his hand on the axe handle and put strength into the hand gripping the protruding skin.

The monster was moving as he had expected.

A shadow fell over Viktor’s face.

-Krrrrrr…!

With a nose-wrinkling stench, the Rock Demon Serpent’s face approached closely.

-Kryaaaaaaaa!

The Rock Demon Serpent opened its mouth wide.

As the human who had stabbed its eye climbed up its body at high speed, the monster instinctively felt danger and finally couldn’t endure it, thrusting its face forward.

The Rock Demon Serpent thrust its snout toward Viktor at tremendous speed.

It intended to devour him instantly without giving him a chance to escape.

Clang-clang-clang!

With metallic sounds too loud to be from biting its own body, Viktor’s figure disappeared entirely.

“No!!”

Mikhail and Krupin rode their horses with furious expressions.

“Spit out Sir Viktor, you monster!”

When the two knights swung their weapons with all their strength, the Rock Demon Serpent swished its body annoyedly.

“Aaaaah!”

Hit by the body blow that came from the side, Mikhail and Krupin went flying.

-Kraaaaaaaa!

The monster roared in victory.

Having dealt with the most dangerous human who had wounded its face, the rest were mere hunting prey.

It was regrettable that it had killed the annoying human in one go without tormenting him, but the rage from having one eyeball burst could be sufficiently vented on the other humans.

Just as the Rock Demon Serpent began surveying the scattered people with a ferocious face.

-Krrk?

Feeling something bubbling inside its mouth, the monster tilted its head.

And at some point, at the insane pain it felt, the Rock Demon Serpent screamed and opened its maw.

When Viktor, covered in blood and saliva, majestically revealed himself with his arm wrapped around one tooth, the mercenaries involuntarily burst into cheers.

---

‘The smell…’

The cost of ravaging the Rock Demon Serpent’s mouth had been great.

Though he wasn’t seriously injured, he had to endure the urge to vomit from the terrible stench.

“I won’t forgive you.”

Though he had brought it on himself, human hearts are naturally different going in versus coming out.

With a rarely angry expression, Viktor put all his strength into his arm.

Crack!

-Kraaaaaaaa!!

When the tooth cracked, the monster shook its head frantically.

It couldn’t come to its senses from the pain spreading in its mouth.

And Viktor didn’t miss that opportunity.

He lightly jumped up and grabbed the Rock Demon Serpent’s bridge of the nose, launching his body upward.

“Arrogant snake bastard, try smiling again.”

-Kraaaaaaack!

As if understanding Viktor’s words, the monster’s face became thoroughly distorted.

He gripped his battle axe with both hands and aimed at the monster’s remaining healthy eye.

Then he charged with all his might and brought down the axe as if chopping firewood!

Tendons bulged on his forearms and blood vessels stood out at his temples.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The axe that struck down consecutively like lightning not only dug into the eye but was driven deep inside the head.

“Hup!”

Viktor put strength into the axe that was buried so deep that more than half the handle was invisible.

Crunch!

As if pulled out with a harpoon, the monster’s soft inner flesh was revealed.

-Krr…

The Rock Demon Serpent, with half its face caved in, swayed for a moment and then stopped moving.

No matter how powerful the life force of a monster, it couldn’t survive having both eyes burst and half its head blown off.

Viktor exhaled roughly.

“Huff… this is the first time I’ve exerted myself this much.”

His whole body felt weary—an intense fatigue he was experiencing here for the first time.

It had truly been a troublesome opponent.

‘I want to get down quickly, wash up, and rest.’

Just as Viktor, unable to endure any longer, was about to sit down slightly.

Thud!

“Ah.”

The head of the Rock Demon Serpent, now lifeless and just an empty shell, slowly tilted and began falling forward.

‘I didn’t think about how to get down.’

Falling like this would not be good at all.

Just as Viktor made a troubled expression while looking around for something to grab and hold onto.

Whooom!

With a gust of wind, clusters of light covered his vision and began shining brightly around his body.

Then, as if grasping Viktor, they stuck to him in various places and quickly moved his body to the ground.

Thud!

Viktor, who landed lightly, looked in the direction where the light clusters disappeared.

He could see Alisa shaking out an empty pouch with a pale expression in front of a small makeshift altar she had prepared at some point.

“…She was a more versatile witch than I thought.”

It was fortunate he had brought her along.

Viktor looked at the approaching mercenaries and the knights who were struggling to get up, and smiled slightly.

Crash!

Behind him, the Rock Demon Serpent’s head finally collapsed, raising dust.