Debuff Master

Chapter 298

Who was he?

He was the ruler of all dragons, the Dragon Lord. He was 9,111 years old this year, and he was renowned as the most powerful dragon lord the continent had seen to date. He had played the biggest role in the War of Descent six hundred fifty years ago, and the entire continent would have been overrun by the demons if it hadn’t been for him.

However, the fact that he was punched by a mere human was one for the history books—his history book of shame.

This was the biggest humiliation he had ever suffered.

Of course, it was normal for him to get hit, and that was not a problem in itself, but the problem was that the punch carried enough power to make him, the Dragon Lord, have a nosebleed.

‘Can a human be this strong…?’ Gerog was completely flabbergasted. He had seen countless humans in his life, but he could not recall anyone as strong as the old man who had just punched him.

— You… What the hell are you? Are you the demon king?

Gerog asked while profusely bleeding from his nose.

“I’m a human.”

— A h-human?! Impossible! The humans I know of can’t be this strong!

“And who gave a lizard like you the right to decide how strong a human should be?”

— What?!

“Is there a law saying that humans can’t be stronger than dragons?”

— Everyone knows that dragons are stronger than humans! That is the law of nature!

“Says who?”

— S-Says who…?

“Humans are stronger than dragons.”

— How so?!

“Because this great being is a human, and I’m stronger than all of you lizards combined.

— What bullshit logic is that…?

Gerog was speechless at Deus’ reasoning. The fact that dragons were stronger than humans was one of the absolute laws of nature that the universe was built upon. So it didn’t make sense that a single human could defy the very foundation of the universe.

— From which hole did you crawl out of? You insolent human! You dare speak such insolence toward the Dragon Lord—Kuheok!

Gerog roared in anger and was about to teach the insolent old human a lesson, but he gasped after getting punched in his midsection by the old human.

“Hmm… You’re quite sturdy for a lizard. Is it because you call yourself the Dragon Lord? Kekeke!” Deus laughed out loud after seeing the Dragon Lord writhe in agony.

Sparkle! Sparkle! Sparkle!

Deus’ eyes were sparkling with curiosity, and his smile was full of mischief.

He looked like a kid who had just found a new toy to play with.

‘I… I fear for that dragon’s life…’ Blockhead thought while shuddering in fear as he watched Deus beat the living daylights out of the dragon. Then, his concern for the dragon’s well-being suddenly turned into despair. ‘I-I guess I’m never breaking free from his clutches…’

He was now certain after seeing Deus beat the crap out of the Dragon Lord. The chances of him becoming free were close to none, even if he became a Grand Master.

And he wasn’t wrong…

“Hoho! How long has it been since I had a sandbag to play with? Kekeke!” Deus exclaimed as his eyes shone brightly.

— Gwueeeek!

“Try and endure this as well! Don’t die on me now! Kekekeke!”

— Kuheok?!

Deus beat the Dragon Lord to his heart’s content for ten whole minutes.

“E-Elder-nim! I was wrong! Please forgive me—Kuheok! M-Mercy! I beg for your mercy this once, Elder-nim!”

Gerog shifted into human form and landed on top of Korekawa, and the first thing he did after that was to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness.

The Dragon Lord’s face was in absolute shambles, and he resembled a squashed dumpling rather than a human being. He would have—without a doubt—turned into a handsome blonde man if he had polymorphed earlier, but…

“What did you say a while ago? What law says that dragons are stronger than humans?”

“T-That was…”

“Answer me now. Which is stronger? Dragons or humans?”

“W-Well… if we are talking about averages, then it will be the d—Ah! Humans! Humans are stronger! Dragons are nothing but weak insignificant creatures before humanity!”

Gerog was forced to concede that humans were stronger than dragons, even though he was the Dragon Lord.

It was humiliating.

If the dragons were here, they would have immediately rebelled and demanded he step down from his position as the Dragon Lord. No, they would have gathered to forcefully drag him down from his throne.

However, Gerog had no choice.

Tremble…! Tremble…!

Gerog’s body was trembling uncontrollably against his will.

A fear greater than Dragon Fear was carved on his soul.

Gerog was forced into humiliation and kneel before the invincible being.

The title Dragon Lord meant nothing in front of this being. In other words, Deus’ beating not only beat Gerog’s body into a bloody pulp, but it also completely shattered the dragon’s soul.

“Hmm… I guess the beating taught you a good lesson.”

“…”

“Anyway, don’t get involved in whatever happens at the Eternal Isles, understand?”

“Huh? But that island is where the traitors from the War of Descent are imprisoned. I cannot simply allow them to escape…”

“Then, what did you set the rules for?”

“Well, that was to torture them further by giving them hope.”

“How despicable.”

“Hehe… That is the only way to stop them from sitting around and doing nothing.”

“You’re not wrong. Anyway, I won’t let you interfere with that island from now on.”

“Why, Elder-nim?”

“The one leading the escape from that island is my dear disciple.”

“Huh? You can just go in and save him, right, Elder-nim?”

“That’s spoon-feeding the brat!” Deus shouted.

Gerog flinched and covered his head with his hands just in case he was hit again.

“This great being doesn’t wish to spoon-feed his disciple. I simply set the table for him; it’s up to him whether he eats or not.”

“Ah!”

“I don’t wish to see you interfere in my disciples\' attempt to escape from that island. What if he manages to finally escape from that island, only to see a lizard stop him from leaving? That’s going to make my disciple feel quite upset, don’t you think so?”

Deus was adamant about setting the meal but not spoon-feeding Siegfried, and he had been nurturing Siegfried in such a manner.

‘Hoho… Elder-nim pretends that he doesn’t care about Young Master, but he cherishes him a lot! I guess that’s what the Adventurers call tsundere in their world, right?’ Blockhead thought. In his eyes, Deus was the biggest tsundere on the continent.

***

Meanwhile, Siegfried was fighting for his survival without even knowing that Deus had just saved him from the looming danger, which was the Dragon Lord.

Balrag was quite renowned among the demons, so it was definitely not an easy opponent.

“T-This demon is too strong…!”

Balrag was so strong that even Ingrid, who was currently Level 299, wasn’t a match for the boss monster.

However, that did not mean there was no way for them to defeat the boss monster, as the combined efforts of Siegfried and Ingrid on top of the Blaze Field were enough to push the boss monster to its final legs.

Unfortunately, their biggest enemy was not the boss monster but time itself.

[Alert: You have 4 minutes and 3 seconds remaining to clear the quest!]

Twenty minutes was nowhere enough to defeat a powerful demon like Balrag.

‘We don’t have time…’ Siegfried gritted his teeth as time was ticking.

Defeating Balrag within four minutes was nearly impossible, judging by their current pace. Of course, he could try again tomorrow from scratch, and he could definitely expect a better result with Ingrid next to him.

However, he had no plans to delay it until tomorrow.

He could have decided to stay a few days in the Eternal Isles to take advantage of the huge experience points the demons gave, but his leveling speed had slowed down dramatically after hitting Level 230, and grinding here was no longer that great.

Siegfried also had another reason to escape from here as soon as possible.

“Hyung-nim! Your wife is at death’s door now. She goes out to sea every single day searching for you, and her health has taken a hit from it. I guess she really loves you a lot…”

Seung-Gu had told him that Brunhilde had become no different from a walking corpse.

“Siegfried-nim…! Siegfried-nim! I will find and rescue you! Please wait for me! I will save you!”

Brunhilde had been crying every single day since Siegfried’s disappearance, and she had been roaming the seas in hopes of finding Siegfried. Seung-Gu said that she apparently looked like an addict who had gone cold turkey.

‘I’m reaping what I sowed, so I should hurry up and get out of here as soon as possible.’

Siegfried no longer wanted to waste another day in this place after knowing that there were many people waiting for him outside.

“What are you doing?! Your field has disappeared! Hurry up and place it down again! I can’t hold this demon back much longer without it!” Ingrid screamed, and her voice made him snap back to reality.

The reason she was screaming at him was that his debuff fields had vanished, and she was getting pushed back by the boss monster without it.

“Hang in there! Just give me ten seconds!” Siegfried shouted in response.

“Why?!” Ingrid retorted.

“Just ten seconds!” Siegfried shouted again before charging at the boss monster to help Ingrid. He distracted the boss monster and fought as defensively as possible while inwardly counting down from ten.

Finally, ten seconds passed.

Woooong!

Siegfried gathered his mana and used his debuff skills one by one.

First up were his two main skills, Blaze Field and Shadow Swamp, followed by Frost Wave, which shredded the enemy’s Attack Power, and then Wave of Oppression, which interfered with the enemy’s skill activation.

Finally, he cast the skill he had never thought he would use, so he invested only one skill point into it—Elemental Shower. Siegfried cast all five of his debuff skills, and they were the reason he had waited ten seconds.

‘Let’s see how strong it is.’

He was done setting the stage.

It was time for him to gather his mana into his +15 Gaia’s Fist.

Wooong! Sseuuu…!

The +15 Gaia’s Fist turned red like the sun, and its destructive power was palpable.

‘Let’s go!’ Siegfried charged at the boss monster.

Chwaaaaak!

Balrag swung its whip at Siegfried, but he took a diagonal step and spun his body to avoid it then…

Counterattack!

Shwiiiiiik!

He swung his +15 Gaia’s Fist at Balrag’s waist.

Kwaaaaang!

A surprising thing happened after the red-hot +15 Gaia’s Fist slammed into Balrag’s waist.

[Balrag]

[HP: ??????????]

Balrag’s HP was around eighty percent before getting hit by Siegfried’s attack.

[Balrag]

p>

[HP: ??????????]

Balrag’s HP was instantly reduced to zero upon getting hit.

One shot! One kill!

Siegfried deleted eighty percent of the boss monster’s HP in a single hit.

Thud…!

Balrag collapsed to the ground; the right side of its body was disintegrated by the attack.

‘Was that damage for real just now…? This skill is that strong?’ Siegfried was shocked.

However, he wasn’t the only one.

“What was that… just now?” Ingrid asked while staring at Siegfried with her eyes wide open.

“Huh?” Siegfried muttered in response before replying, “Ah… Touch of Death…”

“Hmm?”

“That’s the skill name… Touch of Death.”

Touch of Death—the Level 225 skill of the Debuff Master.