Chapter 348: Cunning Fishing (3)
###
“Hello? My name is Lloyd, and I’m going to put you in cuffs now.”
Lloyd smiled faintly.
The Spirit King turned to look at him, visibly startled.
Despite his ghostly, vague appearance, his panic was clear.
‘Well, it’s understandable.’
The Spirit King had already been thoroughly beaten by Javier.
At first, he probably only expected the usual patter of a Sword Master’s aura.
But he had been hammered by Javier’s aura, more intense than he could have imagined.
‘It must have hurt. It was probably the first time he experienced that kind of pain. That’s the aura of a Grand Master.’
Lloyd had predicted that Javier’s aura would be effective.
And that prediction had been spot on.
Thanks to this, the Spirit King was completely thrown off.
He was so focused on escaping from Javier that he didn’t notice Lloyd’s approach.
Which allowed Lloyd to grab him momentarily, just like now.
‘A moment is enough.’
Clench!
Lloyd’s aura-infused hands tightened.
He gripped the Spirit King even more firmly.
Then he opened his skill window.
Before the Spirit King could shake off his grip.
He recalled the golden rule known by all strategists across ages: strike first to secure victory.
He activated the option.
Ding-dong.
[Asrahan Martial Arts Skill Option ⑤: Rapid Recharge has been activated.]
[Absorbs a large amount of mana from random targets around you.]
It started from that moment.
‘Hup.’
His eyes closed involuntarily.
He lost consciousness in an instant.
As if lying on an operating table, preparing to count down valiantly, only to be knocked out by anesthesia in one go.
He had no time to brace himself.
He lost consciousness and fell into a trance.
And in the next moment.
A beast within his instincts awakened.
Vrrrr…
The three circuits in his chest started to rev up.
At first, softly and slowly, like calling a gentle breeze.
Then, gradually picking up, like summoning a fierce wind.
The wind grew stronger, turning into a typhoon.
Vrrrrrr-!
It raged.
It roared.
It hunted indiscriminately.
Everything around him became prey.
The Spirit King caught in his grasp was no exception.
Vwooom-!
‘…Ugh!’
Pantalarasa, the Spirit King of the Pantara Mountains, was horrified.
He was so shocked he couldn’t even speak properly at first.
Like a gamer playing a marksman suddenly ambushed by an opponent’s ultimate skill, or a student realizing they were in the wrong exam hall, or an employee who mistakenly trashed their boss in a group chat and then realized their mistake too late.
He couldn’t think of a way to respond.
The only thought occupying his frontal cortex was that he was screwed.
His mouth moved helplessly.
His arms flailed, trying to push Lloyd away instinctively.
But it was useless.
‘This, this human, won’t budge… at all!’
He couldn’t push him away.
The more he tried, the stronger the suction force holding him grew.
Vwoooom-!
‘…Guh!’
A large amount of mana was being sucked into Lloyd in real time.
Of course, it wasn’t just the Spirit King’s mana being absorbed.
Within a 7-meter radius around Lloyd, everything was being indiscriminately absorbed.
The bedrock beneath, the snow and ice on top of it, the moss growing in the crevices, and even the snowflakes flying in the wind.
Lloyd’s rapid recharge didn’t miss anything.
It absorbed the mana of all targets with a fierce intent to suck them dry.
But the most prominent target?
Of course, it was the Spirit King, Pantalarasa.
‘Aaaaagh!’
Spirits were beings of pure natural mana.
Thus, they had no physical body.
They existed only as spiritual entities.
So, unlike humans or other creatures and undead that housed mana in a physical vessel, their bodies were entirely made of mana.
But Lloyd’s rapid recharge option?
It was a skill specialized in absorbing mana to the fullest extent.
It could absorb not only the mana within but also the mana that formed the vessel.
For the Spirit King, it was a nightmare of a matchup.
‘What kind of human is this…!’
How could a mere human indiscriminately absorb the mana of a spirit?
After shock came a sense of crisis.
‘If this keeps up, I’ll really be done for.’
It felt like his nonexistent heart would burst.
The sense of urgency pricked at him like needles piercing his entire body.
It wasn’t a joke.
‘This human is sucking all my mana. And I can’t stop it. If I had a physical vessel like humans, I might have been able to resist somehow…’
Unfortunately, his form was purely made of mana.
So he couldn’t resist.
He was helpless.
Moreover, the fact that he had no idea how long this fearsome mana absorption would continue only heightened his urgency.
‘I can’t keep getting drained like this. I’ll be wiped out for real.’
In the worst case, his existence could be obliterated.
He couldn’t let that happen.
He had to act immediately.
‘I have to escape!’
If he couldn’t resist, escaping was the best option.
In his panic, the Spirit King made a decision.
‘To break free from this suction and escape from that human… Huff!’
Crash!
He condensed his mana.
He mixed it with cold and exploded it.
A cold gust blew between him and Lloyd.
It pushed Lloyd back with wind pressure.
But that attempt failed.
Just as Lloyd seemed to be pushed back, his hand reached out again!
Grab!
‘What?’
The Spirit King’s eyes widened.
Meanwhile, Lloyd’s grip tightened more persistently.
He had fallen into a trance state while using rapid recharge.
In other words, Lloyd’s body was moving with the sole purpose of ‘never letting go of what he’s holding.’
‘…What is this!’
Persistence that overcame even the cold gust.
An unwavering spirit of “I’ll focus on one target no matter what!”
Lloyd’s unexpectedly tenacious grip left the Spirit King appalled.
Moreover, another foe began to hinder and torment the Spirit King’s escape.
Boom!
‘Ugh!’
A sudden shock as if his head was being shattered.
The Spirit King staggered involuntarily.
Simultaneously, he realized.
‘The silver-haired human!’
The human who had mercilessly beaten him earlier.
That human was swinging his aura-laden sword with an indescribable intensity.
Thud! Bang! Thud!
The Spirit King, nearly immobile due to being held by Lloyd, received relentless hits on the back of his head from Javier.
‘Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!’
He was hit painfully, precisely on the same spot.
And hit again without mercy!
The barrage of Javier’s attacks left the Spirit King in unbearable pain.
At the same time, he felt wronged.
‘Why? Why? I’m losing mana, and everything around us is too. So why is that silver-haired human perfectly fine?’
He couldn’t understand.
It felt unfair.
He didn’t know about the existence of the Asrahan Martial Arts.
‘Why? How is the silver-haired human moving without any hindrance and attacking me in this situation?’
The Spirit King didn’t know.
Javier was an expert in the Asrahan Martial Arts.
His bold use and delicate control of the technique were far superior to Lloyd’s.
Thanks to this.
No matter how much Lloyd used rapid recharge.
Even if he greedily devoured all the mana within range.
Javier could neutralize the suction with his exquisite use of the Asrahan technique.
Therefore, he didn’t lose a single bit of mana within the rapid recharge range.
He could move even more fiercely.
Thud! Smack! Crack!
‘Huff, Huff!’
The Spirit King’s mind grew increasingly hazy as he kept getting hit on the same spot.
The sense of crisis swelled with it.
‘No, I can’t even try to escape like this. I’m continuously getting drained and attacked… If all my core mana gets depleted, I’ll really be annihilated. I’ll be completely defeated.’
It was terrifying.
This was the greatest crisis and despair he had ever felt in his long life since the day the mountains emerged from the earth’s crust.
‘What should I do?’
His mind raced.
From now on, even one wrong decision could be fatal.
At the same time, he realized.
He had very few options left.
‘In the end, this is the only thing I can do now.’
Grit!
The Spirit King ground his non-existent teeth.
He made up his mind.
‘Even if I do nothing and just let this continue, I’ll be annihilated… Alright, it’s all or nothing.’
As soon as he made the decision.
The Spirit King gathered the essence of his core mana.
He condensed it with maximum cold.
He put his very consciousness into it.
He fused them.
Hiss!
When the fusion was complete.
He didn’t unleash it as an attack.
Instead, he offered the fused mana to Lloyd.
He poured everything into the suction flow of rapid recharge.
‘If you want to absorb my mana, then take it all!’
Vrooom-!
Riding the suction flow of rapid recharge.
Pantalarasa, in the form of fused mana essence, invaded Lloyd’s body.
If he had been in a position of being absorbed until now.
He now became an invader.
‘Can a human body handle all of me?’
The Spirit King was sure.
He poured all his essence into Lloyd’s body.
He poured in the entire mana of the Spirit King of the mountains at once.
So he wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
He couldn’t handle it.
The moment he tried, his entire body would freeze and burst.
‘Of course. No matter how great a
human is, there’s a limit to the physical body of the species. But he won’t be able to handle the overwhelming amount of mana at once.’
It was a simple principle.
A human body could drink a lot of water.
If sipped slowly all day?
5 to 6 liters could be easily consumed.
But if someone chugged 5 to 6 liters at once?
They would die.
Unless they were very lucky, they would die.
Because the sudden influx of water would disrupt the sodium balance in the blood, and the body couldn’t handle it.
The principle the Spirit King Pantalarasa relied on was similar.
‘Human, you tried to absorb my mana slowly… That’s a mistake. I have other ways too!’
He would punish his arrogance by flooding him with mana.
‘By pouring in unmanageable amounts of mana at once!’
Vrooom-!
The essence of mana, condensed by the Spirit King, invaded Lloyd’s body.
Following the flow of rapid recharge.
Through Lloyd’s hands.
Into his veins.
To his heart.
It poured in without hindrance.
The Spirit King intended to burst Lloyd’s mana heart.
But he had no idea.
That Lloyd’s mana heart housed a being far superior to himself, the Heart of Winter.
Grab!
‘What?’
The moment the Spirit King boldly stepped into Lloyd’s mana heart.
An unexpectedly familiar force grabbed him by the nape.
The Spirit King involuntarily looked back.
And he saw.
Himself, the Spirit King of the mountains.
Holding enormous mana of cold.
But this was far beyond his own immense cold mana.
Something infinitely larger and colder resided in Lloyd’s mana heart.
A mass of cold that now held his shoulder, smiling faintly.
‘…….’
The Spirit King Pantalarasa was dumbfounded.
If his cold encompassed a mountain.
The cold in Lloyd’s mana heart?
It was comparable to the entire polar regions of a planet!
It was overwhelming!
‘What… is this….’
An elementary school student facing a college student.
A neighborhood heartthrob suddenly feeling inferior between two superstars.
A fully tuned Tico on the highway, watching a Lamborghini sports car zoom past, becoming a dot in the distance.
It was like that, unexpectedly facing an overwhelmingly superior being.
But the Spirit King Pantalarasa didn’t despair.
He didn’t think of resisting openly either.
Instead, he felt a strange coziness!
‘So… warm….’
An unexpected comfort in the place he invaded.
A homely scent, far colder and more serene than the peak of the Pantara Mountains!
Pantalarasa was involuntarily disarmed.
Simultaneously, for the first time in millions of years, he discovered another side of himself.
A powerful homebody instinct.
‘…….’
Here, it’s more comfortable and cozy than I thought.
Since I’m already in, maybe I’ll stay for a few decades and rest.
‘For a spirit like me, that time is just a few hours in human terms.’
So… let’s rest a bit.
Just until this human’s lifespan ends.
Stay here.
The impulse and temptation that suddenly emerged.
At that moment, an unexpected message appeared before Lloyd’s eyes, who was still using rapid recharge.
Ding-dong!
[You have absorbed the Spirit King of the Pantara Mountains, ‘Pantalarasa.’]
[The Spirit King you absorbed wishes to stay in your mana heart.]
[If you accept this request, you will inherit the title of ‘Spirit King of the Pantara Mountains.’]
