Mightiest Melee Magician

All the ogres in Sky Mountain gathered at the Small Summit.

Excluding the young ogres and the elders, all the other ogres who could use their strength lined up single file behind the arm wrestle rock.

And the sole person on the other side standing there facing them was me.

1 vs 100.

At this unbelievable spectacle of one scrawny human facing a mob of 100 ogres, someone spoke up.

“What is Ruin trying to do now?”

“Haven’t you heard? He announced that he would face all of us in arm wrestles.”

“What? Even if he was able to defeat Ormerush…… he’s going to fight all of us? Seems he’s gotten over his head.”

“Don’t you dare lose. The pride of the ogres is at stake here.”

“That’s fucked. I don’t want to even think about it.”

“Go win, ogre warriors! Crush the human’s hubris!”

Right.

It was my suggestion.

1 vs 100.

Me versus all the ogres in arm wrestles.

From the perspective of the ogres, maybe this was just an arrogant challenge, but the overall atmosphere wasn’t that bad.

“You must win! Know that if you all lose in a row, there won’t be dinner for you! Kekekek.”

Rather, they were excited by my spirit.

The kids started cooking meat from the side and it became a festival to once again spectate our arm wrestles.

Being satisfied with this atmosphere, Straang smiled.

“Kugh! This is nostalgic. Draka also did this once before.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I think it was about 30 years after he came to Sky Mountain? He said he got pretty strong and defeated 17 ogres in a row. But master…… you’re challenging 100 after only a month of training.”

“A human’s lifespan is incomparably short. We should get things done quickly.”

“Are you confident?”

100 ogres.

If I was the me of yesterday, I would’ve definitely thought that this would be impossible.

However,

“Yeah. I’m confident.”

The Knuckles of Kunkhan’s Will.

The feeling I got after putting these gloves on… was like I became the ruler of the world.

An infinite and unending strength that wouldn’t lose to anything.

As if I had a spear that could shatter any shield.

Through the arm wrestles on Sky Mountain, I had trained my ability to use my strength properly.

The explosive strength that emanated from my knuckles was just raring to go.

It was different to yesterday.

Definitely.

My strength hadn’t just simply increased by 2000.

I felt it ‘solidify’ by more than double.

I looked over at the ogres that were lined up and spoke to them.

“One, two, three, four…… Huu. There are too many of you. Since we need to finish this before the sun sets, let’s get this started.”

“What did you say?! You rat-like human bastard!”

“Haha.”

Some ogres pretended to be enraged at my taunt, but that was also just a performance.

The memories that I got from Sky Mountain always played out in similar refreshing manners.

“Alright, let’s start.”

I grabbed the hand of the first ogre, and with the start signal, I very easily pushed his arm down.

Bang!

It was enough for the arm wrestle rock to shake a little.

“Oh……!”

As the ogre warrior was swiftly defeated, light exclamations were heard all around.

I looked back at the next ogre and brightly smiled.

“Alright, next.”

* * *

My last night on Sky Mountain was as rowdy as ever.

“For the great human warrior! For Ruin Ardell!”

“Hey, I’m not a warrior. I’m a magician.”

“Kekek. Can you really say that? Is a wolf in sheep's clothing not a wolf?”

“……”

Well, whether I was a warrior or a magician, I actually succeeded in defeating all 100 ogres in the arm wrestle.

It started to get a little tough at the 80-ogre mark.

But from that point on, I really was holding on with grit alone.

The veins on my arms were tense like they were going to pop.

I clenched down on my teeth so hard that I thought they were going to break.

After I managed to fell the 100 ogres…

“For the friend of Sky Mountain! For Ruin Ardell’s great journey!”

“Blessings of strength for him!”

“……”

All the ogres on Sky Mountain called me the greatest ‘human warrior’.

The event of 100 ogres being defeated by just 1 human.

This could definitely be something that would be shameful for the ogres.

But they didn’t treat it like that.

“You stupid ogres! Can you still eat after you all were defeated by some human?”

“Then what about you? Weren’t you the first to be defeated by him?”

“Nah nah! I lost to Ruin when he was at his fullest strength! You were 98th and lost to him when his arms were tired like a noodle!”

“Fuck off! Losing is still losing. What’s the difference?”

“Yeah. Ruin was stronger than us, and we lost. That is enough. Hah!”

Rather, they were enjoying this situation.

If I was to follow what Ormerush said, this was probably the most fun thing that happened in a century.

This short month-long visit to this place where nothing special happens…

“Ruin. You have gifted us an excellent memory.”

It would become a fun memory for everyone here.

“Delicious meat, pig oil brew, and arm wrestling against us. If you ever miss these things, you can come back here any time. You will forever be welcomed by the ogres of Sky Mountain.”

“……”

Maybe that was why, for some reason, I became more attached to this place.

Here, I learnt about strength.

Here, I received my first weapon.

And here, I also learnt about how the ogres thought.

However, when tomorrow came, I had to leave Sky Mountain to return to Ravirdyne.

* * *

* * *

A Special Mission.

At the Magician’s Tower—

No.

Fire King Teron himself would probably interrogate me in full about my time during the month and about the identities of the ogres.

Would I truthfully say everything and complete the mission, or would I lie and fail it?

I was in a position to decide between the two.

But this too was set in stone from the beginning.

“Hey, Ormerush.”

I put my hand out in front of Ormerush.

Seeing that, Ormerush asked me with a reluctant expression while looking at my hand,

“Are you challenging me again? Hmhm. I didn’t know you had the tendency of bullying those weaker than you. Alright. I’ll be your last—”

“No. I’m not saying we should arm wrestle.”

“Hm?”

I held the hand of Ormerush that I grabbed countless times during the last month.

Of course, unlike the other times, I didn’t put any strength into it.

Rather, I held onto it lightly and shook it up and down.

“This is called a handshake.”

“Handshake?”

At Ormerush’s question, the other ogres looked at our curious movement.

I called out to these ogres.

“When we are happy to see someone, or separating with a friend, humans use this.”

“……A friend. Is that so?”

Yeah, friend.

Ogres were one of the main enemies of humans, and the ogres of Sky Mountain were no exception.

They treated the human who entered their barrier as an enemy.

But we had passed through all that and became friends.

“So, this is a farewell.”

“Farewell? No. That makes it seem like we’ll never see each other again. There’s another meaning hidden in the handshake of humans.”

“……?”

I smiled brightly toward my first ogre friend.

“See you later. I’ll come around sometime.”

* * *

Ravirdyne.

At the top of the tallest tower that was in the capital of the nation, Fire King Teron asked the magician Stray Cat,

“Any news?”

He had already asked this question three times in the last month.

Considering his nature of never asking the same question twice in most cases, this was definitely unnatural for him.

However, unfortunately for him, the words that came out of Stray Cat were the same as always.

“There is no news.”

“……”

News.

This was about the Magician of Screams that was sent after Ruin Ardell.

One month ago, three Wicked Mages left the Magician’s Tower to chase after Ruin Ardell, who was headed toward Sky Mountain.

However, two of them returned not a day later back to Ravirdyne with fatal injuries all over them.

It was because they were caught by Ruin Ardell and beaten up before their proper stalking could begin.

The ‘news’ the Fire King knew about was that the Magician of Screams had chased after Ruin alone.

But what happened after that?

Success… or failure?

It would’ve been proper if either of these pieces of news had returned back to Ravirdyne.

However, nothing had returned from the Magician of Screams.

And so, the Fire King sent another tracking team to Sky Mountain.

There were no traces of human activity around Sky Mountain, and there were also no signs of camping anywhere there.

They did find traces of human blood on the ground, but as it had all dried up, they couldn’t tell whose it was.

Since it had come to this, there was no way he couldn’t be curious.

Just what happened to Ruin Ardell and the Magician of Screams?

They would’ve had to either ascend toward the sky, or sink beneath the deep earth.

It would be one of the two, but nothing made sense.

“What is the probability that Ruin Ardell went somewhere other than Sky Mountain?”

“It isn’t zero, but if he did, there would’ve been a report.”

“Well, Ruin probably dealt with him.”

“The probability is very slim. Since their lives are their first priority, they wouldn’t have tried to enter Ruin Ardell’s magic range. On top of that, the Magician of Screams had quite a few long-range teleportation sigils on him.”

Stray Cat’s words were logical.

“……No. I’m confident.”

But the Fire King…

He was already confident that Ruin could overpower the Magician of Screams.

However, he couldn’t openly question Ruin about this.

To ask Ruin about what he did, Teron would need to admit that he sent trackers after him.

But to just brush this over as if nothing happened didn’t sit well with Teron.

In this situation…

“Tower Master, I have something to report.”

“……”

A new report arrived.

This was the news that the Fire King Teron was anticipating for so long.

“Ruin Ardell had just arrived in Ravirdyne a few minutes ago.”

One month after Ruin left Ravirdyne, there was news that Ruin had returned from his trip to Sky Mountain.

However,

“What of the Magician of Screams?”

“There is nothing.”

“……”

The pure source of information was missing.

The Fire King rubbed his temples, looking a little stressed.

“Call him here.”

——