I Alone Regress in a Hero Party That Was Annihilated - Chapter 58

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#58. Nightmare-Eating Tree Spirit (3)

 

— — —

 

Hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss… Thump! Hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss… Thump! Hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss… Thump!

 

Purple mist flowing through the black forest.

 

What occasionally makes the slowly undulating mist throb is the heartbeat of this giant spider before his eyes.

 

[Ohhh—ooooooo…]

 

J’ba FoFi’s eyeballs rolling around like red watermelons.

 

Eight ominous gazes turn toward Featherback.

 

Featherback cracked his neck left and right.

 

“I haven’t lived through the Mythical Age, so I don’t know how terrifying Kunni Babun was. Would you, as his distant descendant, kindly show me?”

 

The ancient spider god Kunni Babun—the trace he left in the mortal world roared toward Featherback.

 

[Ohhh—ooooooo!]

 

The eight massive legs that J’ba FoFi swung swept across the ground.

 

This J’ba FoFi was the being that claimed to be the king of the Nightmare-Eating Tree Spirit.

 

No monster more powerful than this existed in this region.

 

Kwa—bang!

 

J’ba FoFi’s legs consecutively smashed thick trees and large rocks.

 

Featherback moved quickly, dodging the fragments flying in all directions.

 

“Not very scary.”

 

Featherback drew his sword as he closed the distance and charged in.

 

“If this is all you’ve got, your ancestor couldn’t have been much either.”

 

The moment Featherback finished speaking, he slashed J’ba FoFi’s leg with his sword.

 

Thwack—!

 

The moment the blade cut through the hairy leg, pitch-black blood splattered in all directions.

 

Hisssssssss…

 

The ground around where the spider’s blood splattered melted away, turning black.

 

“Tsk.”

 

Featherback clicked his tongue as he looked down at his blade.

 

Just a few drops of J’ba FoFi’s blood were enough to melt the blade.

 

Moreover, when he struck its hard exoskeleton, the blade had chipped.

 

‘I can’t drag this out.’

 

Even while provoking J’ba FoFi, Featherback was coldly assessing the situation.

 

[Ohhh—oooooooo!]

 

J’ba FoFi let out an enraged cry and thrashed about with its remaining legs.

 

Whoooooosh!

 

The wounds on its legs tore open, spraying a considerable amount of black blood.

 

Since this attack had a very wide range, Featherback chose to block rather than dodge.

 

Pat―

 

The Black Iron Shield attached to Featherback’s forearm blocked J’ba FoFi’s poison blood.

 

However.

 

Hissssssssss―

 

Even that supposedly sturdy Black Iron Shield couldn’t withstand J’ba FoFi’s blood.

 

Countless holes were drilled into the roughly finished surface of the shield as black smoke rose up.

 

“Is spraying blood all you can do? If you have any weapons you’ve honed yourself rather than bloodline you inherited for free, show me.”

 

Featherback continued to provoke J’ba FoFi.

 

[Ooooooh!]

 

Whether it understood his words, blood vessels grotesquely bulged around J’ba FoFi’s eight eyes.

 

Soon J’ba FoFi spread its eight legs and began making strange movements.

 

Tarararak― Tak! Tak! Tak! Tarararararak―

 

It looked like spinning a wheel to draw out threads.

 

Then the corpses in the vicinity began rising like puppets once again.

 

Rattle―rattle―rattle―rattle―

 

The Corpse Puppets controlled by J’ba FoFi rushed toward Featherback.

 

“An outdated Puppet Show. How tedious.”

 

Featherback swung his sword to cut above the heads of the Corpse Puppets.

 

Rather than fighting the corpses one by one, cutting the spider webs connected to the top would cause the puppets to lose power and collapse.

 

However.

 

“Oh?”

 

Featherback turned to look behind him, his eyes flashing with interest.

 

J’ba FoFi had somehow gotten behind Featherback.

 

[Ooooooh!]

 

It had drawn Featherback’s attention with the Corpse Puppets, then used its jet-black body color as camouflage to hide in the forest, moving nimbly to circle around behind the enemy.

 

“This was quite creative.”

 

Featherback responded immediately.

 

He slashed J’ba FoFi’s leg with his sword while raising his shield to block the spraying blood.

 

Crack― Clang!

 

The sharp appendage at the tip of J’ba FoFi’s leg clashed with Featherback’s sword.

 

The Aura Blade that rose like vapor scraped away the spider’s exoskeleton and carved out a handful of the soft flesh inside.

 

Black blood splattered everywhere, covering Featherback’s entire body.

 

…Thwack!

 

A skilled northerner can handle a shield like their own hands and feet.

 

Featherback spun the massive pavise weighing over 20kg round and round as if handling a small buckler, pushing away J’ba FoFi’s blood.

 

Hissssss!

 

The poison blood didn’t linger long on the shield’s surface and was all deflected away.

 

Swooosh—

 

The blade became even faster.

 

Despite clearly fighting J’ba FoFi at close range, almost no poison blood touched Featherback’s sword and shield.

 

That was natural, since Featherback’s blade cut through J’ba FoFi’s body while being swung rapidly, leaving no time for the poison blood to corrode the blade’s surface.

 

The shield was the same.

 

Featherback had secured a shield large and heavy enough to cover more than eighty percent of his body to his left forearm with a leather cord, and this joint was made to rotate 360 degrees.

 

So Featherback could continuously spin this shield round and round, and J’ba FoFi’s poison blood had no choice but to bead up and bounce off before it could even wet the shield’s surface.

 

[Ooooooh!]

 

But J’ba FoFi was persistent.

 

It continuously spat spider webs toward Featherback to narrow his range of movement and kept spraying poison blood over them.

 

Retch— Spluuuurt!

 

Later, instead of spraying blood from the wounds on its legs, it even began vomiting directly from its mouth.

 

Patter— patter— patter— patter— patter—

 

Even Featherback couldn’t do much about the poison blood spewed into midair falling down like a downpour.

 

J’ba FoFi charged at Featherback as he spun his shield to deflect the poison droplets.

 

Crash—!

 

J’ba FoFi’s leg, swung like a massive log, sent Featherback flying.

 

Featherback blocked with his shield, but.

 

…Crack!

 

The pavise that had held up well until now finally shattered into pieces along the microscopic cracks created by corrosion from the poison blood.

 

Swoosh!

 

J’ba FoFi’s poison fangs struck down toward Featherback.

 

Clang—!

 

Featherback raised his sword to block the attack, but with that, the blade completely broke.

 

“Hmm.”

 

The broken blade and shield.

 

Featherback dropped them to the floor without any hesitation.

 

[Kekekekekeke…]

 

J’ba FoFi’s eight eyes narrowed.

 

From the moment it was certain of victory, a strange leisure began to settle into its behavior.

 

However, there was still no change whatsoever in Featherback’s expression.

 

“A wise being knows how to find happiness in small things.”

 

Soon.

 

…Thud!

 

Featherback set down the luggage he had been carrying inside the cloak draped over his back.

 

“But a warrior shouldn’t be like that. Especially not in the middle of a fight.”

 

It was a Pure White Longsword that didn’t even have a scabbard yet.

 

And a scutum-style shield with no decorations or craftsmanship, looking as if it had been carved entirely from a chunk of ice.

 

“Because… this is what happens.”

 

Featherback raised his sword and immediately stabbed it into J’ba FoFi’s maw.

 

[Kieek!?]

 

J’ba FoFi was shocked.

 

It thought it had completely destroyed the enemy’s weapon, but a new weapon had appeared.

 

Moreover.

 

Zzzzzzzzzt!

 

The new weapon the enemy had drawn emitted a Cold Aura so intense it made its bones dizzy.

 

It didn’t seem to be a unique ability that the enemy possessed.

 

“Dragon’s Tooth really is good after all.”

 

Featherback admired the power of the blade that had torn through J’ba FoFi’s maw.

 

A crudely shaped sword made by smelting Ice Dragon Adara’s Tooth.

 

Though it was merely a primitive form with no guard, just a sword blade with leather cord roughly wrapped around its lower section… its power was still tremendous.

 

Swooooosh—

 

With a single swing, not only did it deliver a slash attack, but it also unleashed a frigid blizzard cold enough to freeze the enemy’s bones and brain.

 

The mithril sword handle was amplifying the blade’s Cold Aura even further.

 

It was a cold weapon sufficient to terrify J’ba FoFi.

 

[Ohhhhhhh!]

 

J’ba FoFi tried to spurt blood from its mouth that had been stabbed and torn by the sword, but it was impossible.

 

This was because the extremely low-temperature Cold Aura that had penetrated into its body through the sword tip had turned all the blood around its mouth into sharp ice crystals.

 

As an emergency measure, J’ba FoFi sprayed blood from the minor wounds at the tips of its legs in all directions.

 

However.

 

Pop pop pop pong!

 

The poison blood drops were blocked by the square shield mounted on Featherback’s left forearm.

 

Drip drip drip…

 

Black blood drops trickled down the shield’s translucent surface in droplets.

 

But despite this, not even the slightest corrosion occurred on the shield.

 

No.

 

Crackle—

 

Rather, the poison blood on the shield’s surface froze and transformed into sharp spikes.

 

“The scales are doing their job perfectly too.”

 

Featherback was using a shield made from Ice Dragon Adara’s reverse scale taken from under her jaw, covered with mithril around the edges.

 

This too was crude in form without any special decorative work, but its defensive power exceeded any famous shield.

 

Moreover, it even possessed the strange power to freeze everything that touched its surface, making its usefulness beyond question.

 

[Graaaaaaah!]

 

J’ba FoFi continued spraying blood, but Featherback raised his shield and blocked it all.

 

Through the ice-like translucent shield, Featherback’s gaze could be seen.

 

Eyes watching this way without wavering.

 

It was the gaze of a predator targeting its prey.

 

J’ba FoFi felt a chill and retreated backward.

 

The small human, the chunks of meat it thought could be swallowed in one bite, was not as easy as expected.

 

No, it wasn’t just not easy.

 

Grooooooo…

 

Behind the small human, the form of a massive ice dragon seemed to overlap.

 

The cunning J’ba FoFi finally realized.

 

It should not have revealed itself before that monster.

 

…But it was already too late.

 

“If you have nothing more to show, just die already.”

 

Featherback raised the sword forged from dragon’s tooth and the shield carved from dragon scales.

 

White hair, white blade, white shield.

 

The red light emanating from between them shone with a blood color much deeper than J’ba FoFi’s eyeballs.

 

* * *

 

…Thud!

 

J’ba FoFi’s massive body collapsed to the floor.

 

If there was a difference from when its form first appeared, it was that its head and belly had completely parted ways.

 

“I suppose that was enough for a warm-up.”

 

Featherback nodded as he looked at the bisected body of J’ba FoFi.

 

Of course, if the Imperial Knights had heard his previous statement, they would have been horrified.

 

To put it somewhat dramatically, J’ba FoFi was a high-level monster that, if it appeared in a small duchy capital, they would consider coexistence by offering tribute three times a day rather than attempting subjugation.

 

Featherback, who had accomplished such a feat alone at the mere age of fifteen, maintained a calm expression.

 

“Catching Ice Dragon Adara was a great help.”

 

The sword made from the ice dragon’s fang had extraordinary cutting power.

 

Besides emitting an Aura Blade, it could also whip up ice winds, so in snow-covered regions and against enemies vulnerable to cold, its ferocity would be doubled.

 

The shield made from the ice dragon’s reverse scale was the same.

 

Not only was it light and sturdy, but it also emitted cold aura toward those who attacked it.

 

This caused solid chunks of ice to form on the surface of enemy weapons or bodies, which became heavy leg shackles throughout the battle, hindering the opponent’s movements.

 

Moreover, perhaps because it was a reverse scale rather than just any scale, it even reflected a certain amount of impact, making it the ultimate shield.

 

‘…Even before my regression, there weren’t many artifacts of this level. I can keep using them for a while.’

 

Having finished his thoughts, Featherback began to move.

 

Soon, Featherback started butchering J’ba FoFi’s corpse.

 

First, he scraped off the poisonous hairs that grew abundantly on its body with his sword and placed them in a small matchbox.

 

Each hair of this giant poisonous spider was as thick as a knitting needle, with barbs clustered at the tip, making them like torture awls.

 

‘Once they’re embedded, they won’t come out easily.’

 

Next, he separated the poison sac connected to the aorta and froze it solid.

 

The ice dragon’s weapons and equipment were useful for this kind of work too.

 

Finally, he carved out only the pupil portions from J’ba FoFi’s eight eyeballs in round shapes and put each into a sack.

 

‘This spider’s poison is useful. There’s no harm in keeping it.’

 

Throughout the previous battle, not a single drop of J’ba FoFi’s poisonous blood had touched Featherback’s body.

 

But what if even a single drop of its blood had touched Featherback’s body?

 

‘I wouldn’t have escaped instant death.’

 

Featherback put some of the spoils collected from J’ba FoFi’s body into his chest and carried the rest on his cloak.

 

‘Someday there will come a time when they’ll be useful.’

 

Just then.

 

Sssssssss…

 

The purple mist that had been spread around began to surge violently.

 

“…”

 

Featherback furrowed his brow.

 

Black smoke-like substances rose from the corpses scattered around.

 

They mixed with the purple mist and began to take human form.

 

Featherback let out a quiet sigh.

 

“…To think that a monster like J’ba FoFi is merely a Middle Manager. As expected of the Troublesome Forest.”

 

Everything was exactly as he remembered from before his regression.

 

The Nightmare-Eating Tree Spirit was finally about to reveal its true face.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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