Arena Chapter 84:
Chapter 84 Odin’s Abilities (Part 2)
The mothers, first of all, took the 10 elves Odin has brought .
The young female elves took them away to their homes to rest and to give them food .
Odin and I went with the mothers to go to a quiet spot and have a conversation .
“First of all, using your own money to save our kind, we thank you once again for your kindness and goodwill . ”
“Please do not mention it . As a human too, I am ashamed of such cruelty . ”
“Did you say Count Odin of Ulpenburg? With a high position amongst the humans, I do not know the reason you would want a relationship with us when we are not affiliated at all . What benefit is that to you?”
“The world is becoming more and more chaotic, and protecting yourself on your own is becoming more difficult . I think the same can be said for you as well . ”
“Yes . ”
The eldest mother completely agreed .
Odin said .
“More so, we have a common enemy . ”
“A common enemy?”
“It is Baron Bastian . I have just finished preparations to go to war against Baron Bastian . ”
“Bastian is the human set up to the north of here . ”
“Yes, he is . ”
“You want our help in attacking him?”
Odin shook his head .
“Not so . I have no difficulty at all in dealing with Baron Bastian . ”
“You do look the part . ”
Derrick, who had been quiet, finally spoke .
“You are the strongest one of all the humans I have ever met . ”
“That is an honor .
Odin smiled .
The mothers and I were surprised .
Derrick was the longest living elf on the brown mountain .
And he said he is the strongest human he has ever seen .
Odin is an incredible examinee that has cleared all 20 of his exams thus far . I cannot fathom just how strong he is .
“Then why is it you want our alliance?”
“It is because I want to work together to handle the future dangers we cannot yet see . ”
Said Odin .
“Baron Bastian is not my match, but I do not know why he would fight me when he knows that . I think there is someone much bigger standing in the background . ”
At those words, the mothers gathered and started discussing .
I too was deep in thought .
Let’s think .
The current circumstances, the Silver clan lycanthropes and baron Bastian have made some kind of deal .
They probably see the elves as their joint target .
The ambitious Leon Silver is probably thinking of expanding his silver clan territory into the elves’ brown mountain .
And Baron Bastian probably wants to capture all the elves and sell them as slaves and make a grand profit .
Then add the black magician who is controlling the undead, into this mix .
The Silver clan, baron Bastian, and the black magician, those three combined and attacking the elves, they can all get what they want that way .
‘That’s it . ’
I organized my thoughts before I said .
“I have something I want to say . ”
“Go ahead, Kim . ”
“Yes, what Mr . Odin has said, the danger we don’t yet see, I think that is the black magician . ”
“Black magician?”
“Yes, I am pretty sure I know what the silver clan and baron Bastian want from targeting the elves . The silver clan wants territory, baron Bastian wants elf slaves . ”
“Cruel things . ”
“Shameless have joined forces . ”
The mothers were angry .
I continued to speak .
“The problem is what the black magician wants . And I think that’s the Tree of Life . ”
“The Tree of Life?”
“Yes, I heard the evil spell that makes the undead came about from research from immortality . In that case, the Tree of Life that is full of life force, wouldn’t it make the best research specimen for that?”
“It can be thought of that way, I see . ”
Odin nodded his head and agreed .
I continued .
“There is something I would like to ask . Before I came, the Tree of Life was getting sick, when did that begin?”
“Why do you ask that?”
The eldest mothers asked .
“I want to know if the Tree of Life getting sick was due to natural causes or if the black magician put some sort of curse or something of that sort . ”
“…!”
The mothers were all in shock .
“It wasn’t a natural decline, was it?”
“I thought so too . I think that’s why we never believed that it was dying . ”
“It wasn’t a natural cause so of course we could not find the reason . ”
“Kim’s deductions are right . ”
The mothers were all chatting at the same time, it suddenly looked like a women’s association, and it flustered Odin .
“Is it always like this?”
“Yes, it’s always like this . You will have to get used to it . ”
“It is a fun ruling system . ”
“When you get used to it, it just makes you sigh . ”
The agony of man having to watch the women chatter…
After a long while of chatter, a decision was made .
“Our decision is that if the three of them have joined forces, then we too will need an alliance . Count Odin of Ulpenburg, we will form an alliance with you . ”
“It is a wise choice . ”
Odin shook hands with the eldest mother .
So, the two decided to join forces and then Odin said .
“I have one request, could I see these undead? I want to see how dangerous the undead are . ”
“Would you like to join us in the fight for one day?”
Asked Derrick .
Odin smiled and nodded his head .
“That sounds good . I haven’t had a good chance to practice my skills lately . ”
I decided to go too .
It’s a chance for me to see how good Odin’s skills are .
Together, we headed for the southwest cliff .
***
“There sure are plenty of them . ”
Those were Odin’s thoughts on the horde of zombies ambling up the cliff .
“Have you always fought such numbers?”
“Recently, they have increased a lot . ”
Replied Derrick .
The elves that were guarding the cliff were very interested about this newly appeared Odin .
Everyone was curious about his abilities .
Perhaps he had caught on to that, Odin smiled and took out his sword from his hip sheath .
“I suppose it is time for my hazing . ”
“Whenever you are ready . ”
“Is it okay for the cliffside to break a little?”
At those words, I was completely surprised, and Derrick pointed with his chin to the other elves .
The elves receded from the cliffside .
“Go ahead . ”
“I shall . ”
Odin closed his eyes and seemed to focus himself on his sword .
Then… …
Paaaat!
A blue halo from his sword, like a heat shimmer, started to swell .
“That, what is that?”
“He is focusing aura into the weapon . ”
Replied Derrick .
“Is something like that possible?”
“That human can do more than that . Just watch . ”
The blue heat shimmer coming from the sword eventually became a solid mass .
“Aura sword . It has been a long time since I have seen that . ”
Said Derrick .
“Is an aura sword something incredible?”
“It is said that if your aura control skill is able to reach a dramatic extreme, that that is possible . I have only seen that once, a very long time ago . Amongst the humans that attacked us, there was one that could do that . ”
As soon as Derrick finished talking, Odin jumped down the cliff .
Odin went straight down towards the zombies and swung his sword around .
The aura sword sung in their direction, with a wide berth .
That after effect was shocking .
Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwang – !!
The aura’s storm swept up the zombies .
The strength of the hit broke a line of rocks and created a rockslide . The landslide took more zombies with it .
So with a single blow, Odin easily took care of over hundreds of zombies .
‘Is that a human?’
I was astonished .
At that level, he’s practically a walking weapon . It is no different than if he were to be holding a missile on his belt instead of a sword!
“Whew, that was refreshing . ”
Odin came atop the cliff with a refreshed face .
“That was incredible . ”
“Thank you . Now, could I see your abilities?”
“I shall show you . ”
Derrick pulled out both his swords .
I worried a little bit .
Derrick’s technique is indeed impressive but compared to the enormous power that Odin just showed us, the impact might look shabby .
But that concern of mine was apparently needless .
“Kasa . ”
Derrick summoned a spirit .
His Kasa was a grand fire giant .
A huge fire spirit, at 5 meters tall!
The commanding figure was ablaze, it was like a demon beast from revelations .
“A superior level spirit . ”
Odin was shaking with excitement .
‘That’s a superior spirit?’
For a moment, I remembered my own Kasa .
A Kasa whose body has grown and is wagging its massive tail .
Kuk, no matter how much I think about it, it’s not as cool as Derrick!
Derrick then showed us something even cooler .
The fire giant and Derrick combined into one body .
Kasa’s flames seeped into Derrick’s body, they were drawn inside, and disappeared .
Instead, hot flames started to spew from all over Derrick . From his breath, came fire .
Derrick jumped below to the cliff .
“Ku haaab!”
With a strong shout, he wielded his dual swords .
Kwa kwa kwang – kwa lu lu lung! Hwa lu lu luk – !
It made fireworks .
In all directions, hot flames abound . Are those waterfall flames?
Below the clifftop, flames flowed like a river .
“Kuahh!”
“Kulululu!”
“Kuaak!”
“Uhakkk!”
Zombies were melting . In an instant, hundreds of them become a heap of ashes and died .
After the firework celebration, there wasn’t a single zombie left clinging to the cliff .
“My goodness…”
That is the power of spirit summons?
I thought of spirit summons and weapons as discrete and separate . And up to now I thought Derrick’s skills were in his dual swords, not spirit summons .
But seeing the great impact of the dual swords and the spirit combined, I feel as if I have been introduced to a new world .
‘Am I able to combine the guns and spirit summons/”
I must .
I thought of the Mosin-Nagant and double guns as support tools, and the spirit summons as a useful skill for lots of situations .
I thought of them as different tools for different things .
But I realized that if I kept thinking that way, I could never become like Derrick .
Build a well for one of the two things or use both as one thing .
I chose the latter as my future path .
‘I’ve been thinking of the spirit summons too carelessly up to now . At least starting now, I should be experimenting with it more . ’
I deemed that to be my task for this 6th turn exam .
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen your skills . ”
When Derrick returned, he was flooded with compliments .
“That was great!”
“Definitely Derrick . ”
Derrick just smiled at it .
These guys, everything up to now was just some exercise .
Now that I think of it, all this time fighting, no one had used their spirit summons . They haven’t used their real skills .
“How was it?”
Derrick asks Odin .
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen something that great . There isn’t that much known to the world about elves and spirit summons and it was hard to fathom . ”
That was true .
Derrick, on his own within the hour, could turn the silver clan into a sea of fire .
But they don’t know that which is why they were targeting the elves .
“But there is one weird thing, do this many undead attack every day this way?”
“Interestingly . They have increased lately . ”
“But to waste that many undead every day, one would need a lot of corpses . And realistically speaking, that is impossible . ”
When Odin said that, I wondered too .
Acquiring that number of corpses every day, there’s no way something like that can be done secretly .