Chapter 34: Snap
The three full moons in the sky gradually began to merge into a single, larger crimson body. Their silvery glow turned into a fierce red hue that bled across the entire Vale Kingdom and the territories surrounding it.
The monster-filled streets grew even more chaotic as the new moon seemed to amplify their strength and hunger. Their movements became faster and more erratic, their cries turned wilder, their hunger so intense they no longer wandered aimlessly. Instead, they began stomping through every house that had a trace of life inside.
On one of the streets, a group of these creatures broke through the doors of a mud house and attacked the family hiding within. Without mercy, they tore into the helpless people and devoured them alive. The same tragedy repeated itself across countless places. Chaos like never before had been unleashed.
But in the valley surrounded by tall mountains, the mayhem was far worse.
The piercing, eerie cries echoed endlessly, making the ground quake and the mountains shiver around Marlon and the others. The shaking was so violent that even the knights nearby struggled to stay on their feet, while Lunar had long since lost not just her footing, but her consciousness, overwhelmed by sheer terror.
Marlon gritted his teeth. "Tch... the boss sure knows how to make an entrance," he muttered, forcing a scoff through his unease. Then he turned sharply to the struggling knights. "Take Lunar! Get her far away from here, now!"
They obeyed without hesitation, grabbing Lunar’s unconscious body and rushing away as fast as their legs could carry them, leaving only their master standing amid heaps of corpses.
Marlon slowly rose from his kneeling position. Thanks to Lunar’s healing power, most of his health had already recovered, and his body was in fighting shape once again—ready for whatever was coming.
He narrowed his eyes, scanning the surroundings and activating his Night Instinct skill, trying to detect the direction the Dark King would appear from. But it was useless. Apart from trembling mountains and piles of darkling corpses, there was nothing — no sign of movement, no shadow but his own.
The eerie sound continued, echoing closer and louder each second, yet still, the Dark King didn’t appear. Marlon cursed under his breath several times, his nerves tightening with every passing moment.
Just when his patience was about to snap
BOOM!
A thunderous impact echoed across the terrain.
Marlon’s head snapped toward the direction of the sound, his eyes widening.
A monstrous being—massive and unmistakable—was slowly stomping its way toward him.
It was the very embodiment of darkness. Its skin was so black that it seemed to swallow all light, like a shadow born from a moonless night. Its size alone was terrifying, towering like a small hill, reaching dozens of meters in height.
Even from afar, its glowing red eyes burned like twin suns. But instead of radiance, they burned with malice and a hunger so deep it could freeze blood.
Each step the creature took made the entire ground tremble violently.
Marlon swallowed hard.
"I’m... going to die," he muttered, his voice barely audible as his gaze locked onto those crimson eyes.
He tried to calm himself, but it was pointless. All the confidence he once had evaporated, replaced by a creeping sense of dread and despair.
Each step the Dark King took closer filled his chest with an ache of hopelessness and self-loathing, as if the creature’s presence alone was devouring his courage.
And after a torturing amount of time had passed, the Dark King now stood only a few meters away from him, glaring down at him with disdain and the will to kill.
Marlon looked up at those cold red eyes staring back at him.
At that moment, a holographic health bar appeared above the head of the Dark King.
[ HP: 1,000,000 / 1,000,000 ]
Marlon froze.
A million health points, comparable to B-rank, Hell-level boss monsters on Arden.
Now he understood why the 4-star breakthrough trial was considered a suicide mission.
Fortunately, he had saved a trump card ahead of this moment.
He quickly equipped the Horn of Divine Army and blew into it. The same sound echoed across the entire region, and within the next five seconds or so, five hundred knights appeared, encircling the Dark King.
But the fierce boss monster was unfazed, not even registering their presence as though they were insects.
It remained unmoving, eyes still fixed on the human wielding the three treasures created for the sole purpose of bringing about its own demise. Its inactiveness provided an opportunity for Marlon to use the horn for the last time, summoning another five hundred knights that encircled it.
In the dark night, the radiant steel armor and white capes of the knights lit up the darkness.
Marlon looked up to observe the eyes of the Dark King one more time before issuing the command for the knights to attack.
With a silent nod, one thousand knights swung into action, attacking the single unit of darkness in their midst.
Their swords gleamed as they slashed and stabbed the Dark King with all their strength, the clangor of their swords echoing across the region.
Marlon simply stood back and watched, wanting to see just how much of the Dark King’s health points the knights would be able to chip away.
After a minute of the knights attacking and the Dark King ignoring them like mere ants:
[HP: 980,000 / 1,000,000]
"Just twenty thousand points of damage!"
The hope he had held for the knights vanished instantly.
They were only useful as supports on the sideline in this battle.
Without wasting time, he made a move toward the Dark King.
As if waiting for his signal, the Dark King finally budged from its position, lifting its gigantic foot and crushing dozens of knights to death as it stepped closer.
Its mouth opened, and a thundering sound echoed.
About a hundred knights died in an instant as the sound turned out to be a sonic attack.
Fortunately for Marlon, it only chirped away two hundred health points and caused a minor headache. But he knew it was just a single skill in dozens of other terrifying ones possessed by the Dark King.
The only thought that came to his mind was to weaken it and keep it engaged in combat, to prevent it from having enough time to use those skills.
Fortunately for him, the Dark King was massive, and a single flaw was present due to its size—it could not move as fast as him.
It had only taken two steps so far. Even though they covered a great distance and slaughtered over two dozen knights in its path, it was still miserably slow becoming the only advantage Marlon had over it.
"Knights! Come!"
He bellowed at a few knights around him to come to his aid as the Dark King made motion signifying its third devastating step.
The knights arrived, and he issued a command right away.
They grabbed him and catapulted him several meters into the air, flying straight at the Dark King’s head.
Marlon flexed his arms and quickly activated Punch of Judgment, his gauntlet glowing brightly with ethereal light.
He covered the distance in the air in a short time and delivered an attack on the eye of the Dark King, the sole weak point on the massive monster.
-1000
But his attack only dealt about twenty-five percent of its actual damage, causing his eyes to widen in surprise.
[ Dark King Defensive Skill: Scale of Darkness is in effect — 75% of damage dealt nullified ]
Marlon’s expression crumbled.