NOVEL NEXT Yona, unlike others, knows exactly what that demon is.
Dullahan.
A headless knight.
The knight that heralds death.
Clad in steel armor, wielding a great sword while tucking its severed head under its arm, the death knight swings its blade.
The Dullahan now stands before her, revealing itself before her very eyes.
“Du, du… Dullahan…”
Regardless of Yona’s mumbling, the Dullahan roared as soon as it emerged from the coffin.
The sheer force of its roar was unbearable for humans, causing the hunting party to cover their ears and drop to the ground.
The Dullahan was as hefty as it looked, shaking the ground with every step it took.
Even with over fifty members in the hunting party and seven priests present, an overwhelming fear lingered, making them question if they could truly subdue that demon.
‘What the hell… Is that thing considered a mere mob?!’
In all the web novels and media from the original world, Dullahans were mostly mob-level enemies, weren’t they?
They typically appeared, got a power boost from a strong protagonist, and poof! One swing of the sword, and they were gone.
But this Dullahan, towering at least six times the size of a person, was exuding an undeniably dominating presence.
– Whoooosh~!
Every swing of its great sword was met with screams as blood sprayed.
While the knights, being seasoned and trained, managed to either dodge or block with their shields, the adventurers panicked, screaming and scrambling to escape.
The screams filled the third floor of the catacomb.
The Dullahan appeared to be in its element, yet both the adventurers and knights were too busy fending off its attacks to even think about countering the Dullahan itself.
The disparity in strength.
It was a serious issue.
– Gooooo…
Black circles began to appear here and there.
From those circles emerged grotesque monsters, dripping flesh, charging at the hunting party with gaping mouths.
“G-Ghoul!”
A rotten corpse with blind hatred for the living, the ghoul.
As the Dullahan appeared, more and more ghouls joined the fray, and while the hunters prepared to face the ghouls, things fell apart the moment the Dullahan started smashing them.
“Protect the priests!”
The hunting party leader shouted.
Around a corner, a few knights huddled protectively around the priests, each gripping a rosary tightly and chanting prayers.
– Gaaaah!
From the severed head tucked under its arm, a roar emanated.
A white light continuously burst from above the Dullahan’s head, warding off the thick miasma, but it was hardly enough to stop the Dullahan’s movements.
It was absolute chaos.
The adventurers were left clueless, lacking leadership, desperately fighting off ghouls while Yona stuck close to Alex, matching his movements against the ghouls.
He was facing off against the ghoul.
Kaiyak brought his hammer down hard on one ghoul’s head.
As Kaiyak swung his double-handed hammer, one ghoul charged at his empty side.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Alex smashed the ghoul’s head with his shield and then brought his hammer down on the head of another ghoul in front of him.
In the meantime, a ghoul that had come from the side bit into Alex’s upper arm.
“You little punk!”
Yona smashed the ghoul’s head down with the shield she had tucked under her left arm.
As the ghoul that was biting Alex’s arm lost its head, its jaw slipped off, and red blood started to pour out.
Yona’s hand immediately covered the wound.
“Hey, are you alright?”
“…I’m fine.”
Probably not fine at all.
Despite gritting his teeth while answering, Alex didn’t say anything more as Yona remained silent.
When Yona removed her hand again, the bite wound was completely healed.
“Be careful.”
“Yeah.”
No need to say thank you in their relationship.
Yona moved back behind Alex and put a hand on his shoulder.
And then—
“Come here!”
Yona was suddenly pulled by a hand.
The warrior was grabbing her arm.
“L-Let go of me.”
For the first time, Rude frowned at Yona who was rejecting him even in this situation.
“Don’t we need to kill that demon?!”
It was Yona who couldn’t understand.
She was a healer, and no matter how much the warrior wanted her to join him, if she was going to heal him, she should follow from behind.
Jokingly, they say a healer’s bronze level is equivalent to a warrior’s silver level, but that was just because it sounded fancy, not because it reflected their actual skills.
Let alone keeping up with Rude, who was at the gold level?
That was ridiculous.
“I’m not following you…!”
I’m not in a situation where I should be following you.
Yona reached out for Alex.
Alex reached out to Yona too, but couldn’t reach her.
“Ludvik, you should come with me.”
Unexpectedly, Priest Vigrind butted in.
As Vigrind appeared, Yona forcefully pulled Rude’s hand away and glared at him before returning her gaze to Alex.
“My place is right here, so you deal with that priest and do what you can. We’ll handle the ghouls.”
Dealing with a demon? What a presumptuous request.
Yona patted Alex’s head.
As her hand brushed over the numerous scratches on Alex’s bald head, they quickly healed.
The Dullahan’s target was now the priests, not the raid party.
After all, the one who could truly inflict damage on the demon wasn’t those insignificant warriors, but the priests. The Dullahan probably figured that it was much better to deal with the priests first.
But among the priests, there was Sister Aege.
Though a priest, she had lived as an adventurer for a long time and had even reached bronze grade, so she was quick to realize this.
Even without her, there were still six priests.
With Vigrind among them, they probably had enough divine power.
Aege left the group of priests and started running around, bestowing blessings on their individual weapons.
He walked around and did his thing.
The adventurers who were already half dead were now down to about seventeen, while surprisingly, there were no casualties among the knights, so the twenty-man force remained intact.
If they placed blessings on their weapons, it meant the number of those with divine power would increase accordingly.
“Mages, take on the ghouls! Don’t hold back on the mana, unleash it all!”
The hunt leader was in command.
Should they have done this from the start? Facing a demon directly wouldn’t be an easy task.
Even if it was late, getting their heads straight like this was quite impressive.
Even without divine power, there were no mages with the kind of overwhelming strength to incinerate spirits with magic alone.
However, their magic was sufficient to handle ghouls, so it was better to have the mages deal with them here.
“You five over there, keep protecting the priests. The rest scatter into formation, and adventurers, scatter and support the knights. Mages, keep protecting as well. And you, Gold Rank, move separately with Priest Vigrind. Any questions?”
It was better to move than to answer the hunt leader.
Those given orders scattered quickly.
The Dullahan’s great sword flew around recklessly, threatening to collapse the interior of the catacomb at any moment.
Even its movements and steps were menacing, making split-second mistakes a matter of life and death for the warriors.
“Shit, we got paid, so let’s get to work! Move it quickly! Work as much as you were paid for!”
Kaiyak shouted loudly.
“We haven’t been paid yet, you lizard brat!”
At someone’s retort, the adventurers chuckled but hurriedly moved.
Following the knights, often referred to as walking power, the scattered adventurers each took on their assigned roles.
The knights deflected the Dullahan’s attacks with their tower shields while repeatedly striking the Dullahan’s armor with their blessed longswords.
Despite being surrounded by spirits for protection, their weapons were still blessed, so it was worth a shot.
The adventurers also hammered away at the Dullahan’s armor, but their primary mission was closer to protecting the knights.
Ghouls kept appearing. They might have already killed dozens, but no matter how many they killed, the ghouls kept coming for more.
The Dullahan was still going strong.
Blessings weren’t permanent, and the white light imbued in the weapons had dimmed significantly, leading to attacks increasingly failing to land effectively.
“Do you have a plan?”
“…I do.”
Rude nodded at Vigrind’s words.
His weapon was a spear, but it wasn’t the one he commonly used; it was the light spear he received as a hero.
A weapon that didn’t need to be blessed because it was a blessing itself.
Rude tilted his head slightly to glance at Vigrind.
“It looks like we have no choice but to go in close. I’ll leave the healing to you.”
“…Understood.”
Vigrind nodded.
For a moment, she was surprised to see Rude pull a spear from thin air, but then she simply watched his retreating figure.
‘…I don’t know why he’s only looking for Yona, but I’ll have to show him that I’m better than her.’
I am the Saint, and it is this body itself.
I wanted to make that known.
Rude charged in, wielding his spear.
The Dullahan sensed that Rude was no ordinary opponent and raised its sword high.
The blade of the sword swung towards him, but the spear’s tip effortlessly wrapped around it.
Despite Rude’s strong physique, he was no match for the Dullahan, yet the spear glided upwards, deflecting the massive sword.
Rude climbed onto the flat blade of the sword.
As soon as he stood, he used that momentum to jump off the sword, stepping on the Dullahan’s wrist, then running up its forearm and ultimately leaping onto its shoulder.
“A headless fool’s weak point is definitely its neck!”
Rude laughed as he raised his spear.
The smooth neck, devoid of anything but a sharp cut, was laid bare.
The spear radiated a bright white light as he lifted it.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rude spotted Priest Vigrind holding a rosary, directing it at him.
A touch of divine power must have empowered the spear.
‘Not bad.’
Without hesitation, Rude thrust the spear down.
– Thwack!
There was a vigorous struggle, but the spear wasn’t stopped.
The spear dug deep into the Dullahan’s neck, and it twisted its body, feeling the divine energy surge through its being like a massive wave.
– Graaaaah!
With the sword flailing about in its hand, the Dullahan swiped at Rude with its other hand trying to grab him.
But Rude cleverly dodged the Dullahan’s clumsy swings.
Just then, the wild swinging sword of the Dullahan swung toward Alex.
– Clash!
The metallic sound of impact echoed as blood splattered.
“—Alex!”
Yona’s scream rang out, and she rushed in to wrap around Alex’s waist.
Blood gushed from Alex’s deep cut, and a wild surge of divine energy poured forth from Yona’s right hand.
“Hey, hey…! You bald bastard, don’t die! Don’t you dare die!”
With blood rapidly flowing out, Alex’s face turned pale in an instant.
Blood trickled from his mouth as he lay down, gazing at Yona.
“A-ah, I’m not dying… you damn girl… not until… you, uh, grope… my chest…”
“Y-yeah, I’ll let you grope as much as you want, just don’t die, remember your promise!”
Yona desperately kneaded Alex’s waist, trying to stop the bleeding.
But her strength couldn’t heal such a deep wound.
A shadow of death loomed heavy on Alex’s face.
Yona knew it too, but there was nothing she could do.
Limits.
Her limits.
Even as a healer, a limit she couldn’t overcome.
Despair washed over her as she faced that limit.
“Don’t die… don’t die, Alex… don’t die…”
“I-I’m not dying… cough, not dying… not until you… grope… my chest…”
But the shadow of death thickened.
Alex’s breathing grew weaker.
And with that, Yona’s voice became increasingly desperate.