I’m not a Regressor
chapter-236

I’m Not a Regressor

Chapter 236: A Hero for the Downtrodden (6)

“Uncleee…” NT cried out with tears in her eyes.

Ohjin turned and gave her a slight smile. “Stay there, and don’t leave the barrier.” Though it was weakened after the monsters attacked it, the barrier could still block an attack or two, which was enough.

“Huuuuuuuu! Houuuuuu!” A monster with a bear's body and an owl's head screamed through its sharp beak, and the other monsters that survived his attack began to get back up.

‘Did around half of them survive?’ Ohjin calmly looked at the monsters and gripped his spear. They were all powerful enough for him to believe they came from the Demon Realm, so he couldn’t get careless just because he’d landed a successful surprise attack.

“Fuu.” He took a deep and long breath as the mana from the stigma curled on his chest spread through his body. The thrilling sensation of every cell coming to life filled him as the condensed mana pressured his mana circuits as if he were about to explode.

“Exceed.”

Kzzzzzzt—!

Blue lightning swirled around him like fire as he held his spear forward and leaped toward the monsters.

“One…”

Crack—!

The weapon’s tip pierced through the bottom of a monster’s jaw and shot out the top of its head. He pulled the spear back out in a graceful movement and struck one of the creatures coming up behind him with the butt of the spear.

‘Stigma of Pyxis.’ He was surrounded, but he intuitively knew where to step and swing his spear.

“Krrrrrrrrkk!” The monsters screamed in his ear, and the sharp odor of blood and sweat assaulted his nose.

He continued to fight, not knowing how many he killed or what he was even fighting from one moment to the next as the corpses piled up.

He felt every vibration through the shaft of his weapon as he pierced flesh and broke bone; the already unpleasant odor grew steadily worse from spilled monster guts.

"Haa, haa!" Wounds slowly appeared over his body from his assailers’ claws and teeth. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to treat his injuries with the stigma of Hippocampus’s water.

One movement after the other, he fell into a rhythm and continued to mechanically swing his spear at the surrounding monsters.

“U-uncle! The monsters keep coming!” NT shouted and pointed to one side. "That monster! That monster is suspicious!"

He turned to where she was pointing.

“Huoo! Huoo! Huoo!” An owl-headed monster cried out unpleasantly from the top of a tall tree and avoided participating in the battle.

‘That same monster seemed to give instructions to the others earlier…’ Ohjin’s eyes narrowed. The monster didn’t have a necklace anymore, but he could easily guess what rank it was.

‘A red-rank monster…’ He’d frequently encountered green and blue-ranked monsters during his search for a safe zone with NT, but it was his first time encountering a red-rank enemy. Of course, that showed how few red-ranked monsters were in the dungeon. Just like with the black-ranked monster, scarcity showed strength.

‘If the black-ranked bastard is a king… then that one’s like a general.’ He gave the owl-headed monster a closer look. Unlike its head, its body from the neck down was bulging with rock-hard muscles like an overdosed Hulk on steroids.

‘An Owl-bear.’ He remembered hearing that Owl-bears were powerful monsters that could freely handle mana and had great intelligence. They were second only to ‘named’ monsters.

'It's still just a monster.' Ohjin bared his teeth at it and readied his spear.

“Krrrrrrrrrkkkkk!”

"Keuhung!" The green and blue-ranked monsters gathered from the Owl-bear’s roar and rushed in from every direction.

“Heup!” Ohjin reversed the spear and raised it into the air. “Lightning Charge!” Then, he stabbed it back down, and dirt exploded outward, causing the monsters to slow down and retreat.

“Huo! Huoooo!” The Owl-bear observing the battle from its tree seemed to scold the monster, which caused them to throw themselves back into the cloud of dust.

"Keeeuk?" Perhaps, not expecting the monsters to rush back in so quickly, Ohjin barely maintained his grip on his spear and groaned in surprise.

“Krrrrrkk!” A leopard-like monster jumped up and latched its teeth into his neck.

Splash—!

Dark-red blood fountained out of the bite, and he fell as he gripped the injury. A moment later, monsters piled on top of him in a small hill.

“U-unnnccccllllleeeee!” NT’s piercing scream reverberated through the forest.

“Huo! Huo! Huo!” The Owl-bear thumped its chest as it looked down at Ohjin bleeding out on the ground. While it was celebrating its victory and clacking its short beak…

“You really are a bird-brain, huh?” Ohjin’s lips curved into a smile while blood continued to spout out of his neck. A moment later, he melted into the air like a mirage.

"Huo?" The Owl-bear turned its head in bewilderment.

Shlink—!

Following a sharp, mechanical sound, Ohjin soared up the tree and landed in a battle stance behind the creature. Once he landed, he pushed all of the mana in his body into his spear and imagined a bolt of lightning piercing through thick, black clouds.

-Krrrrrkkk

It could’ve been due to the image of black clouds in his mind, but Black Heaven unexpectedly gathered with his mana at the end of the spear.

‘What the hell is this?’ He didn’t think it would react so suddenly, but he couldn’t afford to care about such minor things at the moment and focused his mind as he embodied his mental image.

In his mind, black clouds covered the sky, and a beam of blue lightning shot through them like a god punishing the guilty before burning the world below. The best name he could think of for the skill was…

“Divine Punishment.”

Craaaaackle—!

* * *

Translator - Rainypup

Proofreader - ilafy

* * *

His spear left his hand and turned into a blue bolt of lightning that pierced straight into the Owl-bear.

-Ti-ring!

[You have successfully combined the Black Heaven with the stigma of Lyra!]

[Your proficiency with the skill 《Lightning&Thunder Lv10》 has increased exponentially!]

[You have acquired the synthesized skill 《Divine Punishment Lv MAX》!]

The unexpected harvest made him feel better for a while.

“Huoooooooo!” The spear still sticking out of it, the Owl-bear roared and leaped at Ohjin.

Ohjin clicked his tongue as he pulled his spear back and created some distance between them. ‘So you’re not going to die with a single shot, is that it?’ It seemed that taking the safe route of aiming for its body with his first usage of the skill had been a mistake.

He calmly lowered his stance and prepared for the fight to continue. ‘It won’t last long with a hole in its stomach.’ Thankfully, it didn’t take long for him to realize more fighting wasn’t needed.

“Huo, hu, ooo.” The Owl-bear noticeably slowed.

Krrrrrkk—!

Mana flowed into his body and created a sensation that was beyond familiar to him—it was the same sensation he felt when he absorbed mana with Black Heaven.

‘Why is it…?’ He narrowed his eyes at the Owl-bear and noticed a dark cloud wafting through his spear.

"Ha!" He laughed as he remembered what the message window had just said. ‘Right, it mentioned a skill resulting from the fusion of Black Heaven and the stigma of Lyra.’ If blue lightning was Lyra’s power, then absorption was the Black Heaven’s.

In other words, even if whatever he pierced with ‘Divine Punishment’ survived, its mana would be continuously absorbed by the Black Heaven until it perished.

“Hu, Huoooo…” The Owl-bear continued to be robbed of its mana and stumbled before falling from the tree.

‘This is fantastic.’ Ohjin smiled as he felt the monster’s mana flow through his body, but he could only afford to be happy for a moment—there was still work to be done.

"Krrrrrrkkkk!" The monsters, still happily biting into his Mirage, roared in outrage as they realized Ohjin’s deceit and looked up at him.

"Let's wrap this up first." He leaped from the try and into the group of monsters, who ran around like headless chickens after they lost their strategist. It was like the roles of hunter and prey were reversed as Ohjin swiftly massacred them.

“Keuhung, krrrrrrrrrkkkk.” The leopard monster was the last to fall, and it let out a wild roar as it fell limp to the ground.

Ohjin tried to catch his breath and leaned on the protective barrier.

“U-uncle…!” NT ran out and wrapped her arms around his waist in a hug. The blood covering him dirtied her clothes, but she didn’t care. "Sniff… Waaaaaaahhhh!” She cried and didn’t let go.

Ohjin raised a hand to pat her head before noticing how soaked in blood he was and lowering it again.

"Sniff… paeng! Hehe. I was counting on you to come," NT said through tears.

"Oh? You looked quite surprised when it happened." Ohjin smiled and looked at the civilians within the barrier, who looked back at him in fright. "Let's get out of here first." It wouldn't be easy to take care of about 10 people, but they couldn't stay there.

The people within the barrier looked at each other for a moment before immediately walking out.

“Uncle, another candidate seems to have come!” NY exclaimed.

"What?" Ohjin asked.

"Look over there!" NT brightly smiled and raised her hand to point toward a narrow gorge, where they could see someone approaching.

“…” When Ohjin recognized the figure, his expression fell.

“Let’s ask them to come with us!” NT shouted.

“NT, go back into the barrier,” Ohjin quietly said.

"What?" she asked.

“Hurry."

She tilted her head in confusion while Ohjin pushed her back into the barrier.

“Haa.” A deep sigh left Ohjin’s mouth before he bit his lip and tightened his grip on his spear.

In the distance, the approaching figure’s dark outline gradually became visible. It was just as he expected…

Burning, dark-red eyes burned within the blue armor covering the thing’s body, and a rusty sword hung from its waist.

“Damn it all to hell…"

The blue-armored knight was walking toward them.