“O-Owner punk!”
“Your Majesty!”
Hamchi and Gringore were shocked.
Siegfried was sent flying in one hit?
They could have never imagined that a day would come when Siegfried would be sent flying away with just one hit, especially when he had been holding his ground against enemies much more powerful than he was.
Thud!
Siegfried crashed to the ground.
“Ugh…! Why is a Level 240 NPC so strong…?” he grumbled and checked his HP.
[Siegfried van Proa]
[HP: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜]
He was shocked to find that ten percent of his HP was missing after getting hit by a single punch, and it was even more horrifying considering how it was only a simple punch without any mana.
‘Is this what the Descendant of the Supreme King is capable of? He’s completely different from other Level 240 NPCs…’ he thought.
However, Cesc was shocked as well. “Huh? You’re sturdier than you look. I thought you were going to die in one hit. Not bad for an anchovy.”
“Anchovy?” Siegfried pointed at himself and asked, “Me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You’re 183 cm tall and around seventy-seven kilograms.”
“So?”
“That’s why you’re an anchovy.”
“What the hell are you talking about…?”
“Anyone under a hundred fifty kilograms and lifts less than a combined total of twenty tons for the big three lifts is an anchovy.”
Hearing that, a thought popped up in Siegfried’s mind.
‘So this bastard is the type to call a snakehead fish an anchovy…’
“Anyway, I guess we can keep going,” Cesc said as he started walking toward him.
‘I’m dead if I drop my guard,’ Siegfried acknowledged the bandit leader’s power and decided to fight seriously.
He gritted his teeth.
Badump! Badump! Badump!
He could feel his heart racing.
Why?
It was all because it had been a while since he fought against someone powerful.
***
Cesc managed to prove that he was indeed powerful in just less than thirty minutes.
Whooosh! Clang!
It was at that moment that Siegfried’s mace slammed into Cesc’s face once again…
“Why are you carrying that weak weapon around?” Cesc asked.
He grabbed the mace with his hand.
Crack…! Clack!
Cesc snapped the Bavarian Workshop’s mace in half.
[Alert: Weapon Destroyed!]
[Alert: Your weapon, Bloody Mace, has been destroyed!]
Siegfried was in total disbelief. ‘Just how strong is this crazy bastard…?’
He knew his weapon had no enhancements, but it was still a Level 200 Unique weapon.
However, Cesc snapped it with his bare hands. Actually, this wouldn’t have happened if Siegfried had invested in his weapon. After all, there was a famous saying about how a +10 was an absolute must the moment one reached Level 200.
Unfortunately, Siegfried decided against it. He felt that it would be wasteful to invest in something that would soon be replaced by the +12 Gaia’s Fist, and this mindset of his had finally come to bite him on the ass.
Indeed, the saying—better safe than sorry—truly existed for a reason.
‘This is too much!’ Siegfried cried out inwardly.
He was aware that this could have been avoided if he had invested in his weapon, but he still found Cesc’s strength to be borderline absurd. However, the main problem was that strength was not the only thing that the bandit leader possessed…
“It’s my turn to hit your face.” Cesc swung his fist toward Siegfried’s face.
Whoosh!
‘He’s also fucking fast!’ Siegfried was horrified when he realized that he couldn’t avoid the attack. It wasn’t really strange because a human being’s speed came from their muscle strength. Most people would think that a skinny person was faster than a muscular person, but that was a big misconception.
In fact, a sprint race between a sprinter and a weightlifter would be in the weightlifter’s favor for the first few meters. It was all because the weightlifter’s muscular body would allow them to burst out like a bullet.
Of course, there were numerous factors at play after the initial few meters, such as stamina, weight, air resistance, etc. In other words, the sprinter would win in the end, but the general idea was that speed came from strength as well.
The explosive kinetic energy launched Cesc’s fist toward Siegfried like a bullet.
‘I can’t avoid it! I’ll try to block it instead!’ Siegfried immediately gave up on evading and wrapped himself with his cape in an effort to protect himself.
Pukeok!
When Cesc’s fist collided against Blood Butterfly’s Wings, a message popped up in front of Siegfried.
‘Huh…?’
[Alert: Status Ailment!]
[Alert: Your character has been inflicted with Status Ailment: Stun!]
[Alert: Your character will be incapacitated for 1.5 seconds!]
Cesc took advantage of the status ailment to beat Siegfried up.
Bam! Bam! Pukeok!
Thud!
Siegfried was thrown to the ground once again.
“Ughh…” he groaned in pain.
Meanwhile, Cesc was thoroughly impressed by his enemy. “Wow… You’re really tough.”
“Urgh…”
“I thought for sure that you’d, but you’re still alive? I guess anchovies come in different shapes and durability!”
“Can you stop calling me an anchovy? Otherwise, this anchovy here might beat you up.” Siegfried growled while forcing himself to his feet.
“Beat me up? You’re going to beat me up? Ah, I guess you can hit me, but that’s all you can ever accomplish against me,” Cesc replied with a confident smirk.
He looked like he was saying—you can hit me a hundred or even a thousand times, but nothing is going to change.
“Owner punk! Hamchi will help you!”
“Your Majesty! Let me sing a song for you!”
Hamchi and Gringore tried to help, but…
“Stay back,” Siegfried raised his hand and stopped them. “I would have accepted your help, but it’s different this time.”
He was currently trying to complete a portion of Master’s Regret.
In other words, he couldn’t receive his comrade’s help.
The Master’s Regret quest required him as the Debuff Master to defeat the descendants of the other legends. He couldn’t gang up on the target with his comrades.
Theft is never good, try looking at [ pawread dot com ].
This fight had to be a one-on-one battle against the Descendant of the Supreme King, and he had to emerge victorious.
Wooong!
A kaleidoscope of colors enveloped Siegfried as he cast the Debuff Master’s buff skills—Contempt for the Strong, Adamant Body, and Proof of Existence.
Of course, he wasn’t done just yet.
Woooong!
Siegfried placed his debuff circles as well.
Seuk… Seuk…
Shadows emerged from the ground.
‘I’m going to win,’ thought Siegfried. He gnashed his teeth and decided to give it his all against this bandit leader—the Descendant of the Supreme King.
***
Meanwhile, Michele was in a dilemma.
“Hmm…”
He was comparing the files he had received from the Guardians and the files that the Proatine Kingdom had independently procured about the Church of Osric, but he couldn’t figure out just what that organization was no matter how much he searched through the files.
Who was their leader? What was their objective? Where were their headquarters?
It felt like it would be impossible to get to the bottom of their identity.
“I wonder what I have to do to get more leads on them. They will definitely need food, clothing, and shelter since they are humans as well…” Michele was trying to come up with a way to catch the tail of the Church of Osric.
“Wait a minute…” Michele suddenly thought of something. “I’m not aware of their scale, but they still need money, right? They’ll need a lot of money to pull off whatever they’re doing. In other words…” Michele muttered. He immediately searched for reports on all of the merchant companies on the continent.
‘Yes, their financial capacity. They will need a lot of money to run such a huge organization, and they will need even more money to pull off their plans. That means someone is funding them from somewhere…’ he immediately started penning a letter to the Guardians after finding a clue that might just catch the Church of Osric’s tail.
***
The battle between Siegfried, who was using his full power now, and Cesc, who was more of a monster than a human being, was like a fight between an out-boxer and an in-fighter.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Cesc threw numerous jabs at Siegfried, and his fist cut through the air like a bullet. His insane jabs were so fast that their speed alone was more than enough to cut Siegfried’s skin.
The wind pressure from Cesc’s jabs was also strong enough to reduce the durability of Siegfried’s items. However, what was more baffling about the bandit leader’s strength was that he didn’t seem to be affected by the shadows clinging to him.
Slow?
The debuff that managed to slow even high-level Adventurers was rendered obsolete against Cesc’s monstrous strength. Siegfried could see that the bandit leader would only get slowed down by five percent, and it only happened whenever he got lucky.
Cesc Graham was so powerful that it was hard to believe that he was a bandit leader.
Unfortunately, his strength was useless if he couldn’t land his attacks.
“Until when… do you plan on running away… huff… huff…” Cesc asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“I’m sure I’ll die in one hit, so shouldn’t I keep on evading your punches…?” Siegfried replied.
“Then… Why don’t you just run away?”
“Don’t wanna.”
“…”
“Catch me if you can~”
A vein popped on Cesc’s head.
He strongly flexed his muscles and charged toward Siegfried.
‘Avoid it with a step,’ Siegfried thought while reading the bandit leader’s movement.
He cast Shadow Swamp once again once it went off cooldown to hinder Cesc’s movement even by a little bit. This was Siegfried’s entire game plan against the Descendant of the Supreme King.
He was planning on running, evading, and using Shadow Swamp whenever it was off cooldown. He simply rinsed and repeated those actions without bothering about how he could attack the bandit leader.
Of course, there was a good reason behind his actions.
‘He’s too strong, fast, and tough, but I can tell that his stamina isn’t that good,’ Siegfried immediately identified the bandit leader’s weakness, and it would be his key to victory.
And the fact that Shadow Swamp could finally slow Cesc down meant that the bandit leader was starting to run out of gas. The bandit leader’s sweat and labored breathing were further proof that Siegfried’s plan was effective.
“Huff… Huff… Huff…”
Ten minutes later, Siegfried smiled after confirming that the bandit leader was out of gas.
“You’re tired, right?” Siegfried asked.
“N-No…” Cesc replied while gasping for breath.
“Really~?” Siegfried sneered. “But your movement’s getting slower, and your punches are getting weaker~”
“N-No! You’re wrong!”
“I guess you’re suffering from premature~”
“…!”
“Ha! To think that a premature sufferer would call me an anchovy!”
“I’m not suffering from premature…!”
“You are...”
Fwaaaah!
Siegfried finally cast his other debuff field—Blaze Field.
“Enough chatter. I’m going to beat the living daylights out of you, so you better get ready,” Siegfried said before throwing an uppercut.
“Kuheok!”
The bandit leader’s extremely high defense was shredded by the debuff field.
Bam! Bam! Pukeok!
The uppercut was followed by a punch, elbow, knee, and kick.
“Ack! Stop hitting me! AAACK!” Cesc cried out in agony after falling to the ground.
“Oh, right, you said you’re quite tough down there, right?” Siegfried flashed an evil grin while walking toward the bandit leader on the ground.
“…!”
“Shall we test how tough it is, then?”
Kwachik!
Siegfried stomped on Cesc Graham’s precious place with his Bloody Iron Boots.
