Surviving as a Barbarian in a Fantasy World

Chapter 82 – The Worshippers of the Abomination (3)

“…You dared to come here yourself. Bold indeed.”

The head of the family, momentarily flustered, soon regained his composure.

After a moment’s thought, he realized it wasn’t bad news for them.

It meant their target had come directly to them.

It could even be said that it saved them the trouble.

With a relaxed demeanor, the head leaned back in his chair and looked at Ketal.

‘…Impressive.’

It wasn’t a feeling of brute, oversized muscles.

It was more like looking at a perfectly sculpted statue.

The head narrowed his eyes.

He had defeated Rockbird and arrived here without him noticing.

He was a formidable opponent.

A look of interest appeared on the head’s face.

“Barbarian. Have you ever thought about joining us?”

“Master?”

Rockbird opened his eyes wide.

The head signaled him to be quiet with a wave of his finger.

Rockbird closed his mouth.

Ketal asked with a curious expression.

“Join you?”

“We are servants of the Great Abomination.”

The head spoke softly.

“He will set this world free. He will restore it to its original form, not this current state. We will live freely in the new world he creates.”

In the head’s eyes was a twisted fanaticism.

“If you join us, I’ll let you live.”

“The Abomination.”

Ketal muttered.

‘Are they worshipping some assassin deity or something?’

What a strange name.

Ketal shook his head.

“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t serve anyone.”

“I see.”

The head’s voice turned cold.

“Then die.”

As soon as he finished speaking, several figures surrounded the room.

In the first place, the head hadn’t seriously intended to recruit Ketal.

He had just been buying time for the other fighters to arrive.

“You’re strong, but you’re also quite arrogant.”

The head was confident of their victory.

Everyone here was either a second-rate or first-rate fighter.

Even a superhuman would have difficulty escaping unscathed from such a siege.

The head had no doubt about that.

Swish.

The figures drew their daggers.

Rockbird also awkwardly drew his weapon.

Ketal smiled faintly.

The head had bought time for the other fighters to surround the room.

But that was also what Ketal had intended.

Rather than chasing them down one by one, it was more efficient to deal with them all in one place.

“Kill him.”

At the head’s calm command, the figures lunged from the darkness.

* * *

In the darkness, swords slashed through the air.

Occasionally, the blades caught the moonlight.

“Hmm.”

Ketal moved his body this way and that, dodging the swinging swords.

Swish!

A dagger flew sharply towards him.

He flicked it away lightly with his fingers.

Another assassin swiftly picked up the fallen dagger and thrust it at Ketal’s neck.

“Oh, boy.”

Ketal bent backward to avoid it.

His body sank lower, and the swords aimed at his sides slashed through empty air.

As he evaded the flurry of attacks, Ketal was surprised.

‘They’re strong.’

Their aura was perfectly controlled.

At the same time, they minimized their presence and killing intent, targeting only his vital points.

It had been quite some time since Ketal had come out into the world.

In that time, he had roughly gauged the level of strength in the outside world.

In his estimation, half of the people here were First rate fighters.

First rate fighters were incredibly rare.

If they met the qualifications, they could become knights in a powerful kingdom.

The fact that there were so many of them here, working as assassins, was quite unusual when thought about calmly.

As Ketal pondered this, he nodded.

‘To be an assassin for a noble, you’d need this level of strength.’

They were based in the heart of the Denian Kingdom’s capital.

While it was unclear how much land cost in a fantasy world, it probably wasn’t cheap.

The fact that they had built a splendid building in such a place meant they had earned a lot of money.

‘Indeed.’

Come to think of it, Mileina had once bragged to him about the value and effects of the artifacts she was wearing.

She had said they were hard to penetrate, even for a First rate fighter.

In other words, it meant being cautious of an attack from a First rate fighter.

With that in mind, Ketal’s eyes gleamed.

‘Assassins in this world are quite capable!’

Considering that this was a fantasy world.

They would have to guard against not only physical barriers but also magical defenses.

To assassinate someone through such stringent defenses, they would need considerable skill.

Assassins in the fantasy world were highly capable and valued individuals. Ketal was convinced of this.

But that wasn’t true.

The reason Mileina was protected by artifacts that were difficult for even First rate fighters to penetrate was simply because she had an immense amount of money.

For an ordinary family, acquiring even one of the artifacts she wore would be financially crippling.

Furthermore, the assassins in this world did not need immense strength.

As Ketal thought, nobles did indeed have magical defenses, making assassinations extremely difficult.

However, breaking through those defenses with brute force was a very crude method.

Ketal’s current thinking was similar to dropping a stronger bomb to kill an opponent hiding in a bunker.

Assassins typically exploited the gaps in daily life, honing that skill to the extreme.

Thus, there weren’t many second-tier level fighters among the assassins.

While there were a few First rate assassins, they were usually secret weapons nurtured secretly by various organizations or kingdoms.

The fact that there were so many fighters of this level here indicated that this wasn’t an ordinary group of assassins, but Ketal was unaware of this.

After all, he wasn’t originally from this world.

While Ketal was happily sorting out his thoughts, the assassins attacking him were swearing inwardly.

‘What kind of crazy barbarian is this!’

Daggers flew at him.

Hidden in the darkness, they were neither visible nor audible.

Ketal lightly shook his head to dodge them.

He twisted his body slightly to avoid the blades aimed at his back.

Several second-tier fighters were attacking with all their might in the confined space.

Yet, despite his large frame, Ketal was effortlessly dodging all of their attacks with minimal movement.

The assassins were about to go insane.

It felt like they were fighting a mirage.

‘But!’

In the end, Ketal was only dodging and not counterattacking.

‘How long can you keep dodging!’

One of the assassins inwardly shouted as he moved.

A sharp blade aimed for Ketal’s forehead.

Ketal looked at the blade nonchalantly.

“It’s about time.”

He reached out and grabbed the blade.

The assassin’s body jerked to a stop in mid-air.

The assassin’s eyes widened, and that was his last expression.

The broken blade lodged into his forehead.

“What!”

Another assassin screamed and thrust his sword.

Ketal grabbed the assassin by the neck. The assassin’s body went limp.

He flicked away the oncoming daggers with his fingers.

They flew back to their owners with precise accuracy.

“Damn it!”

They hurriedly raised their swords to block the flying daggers.

Crunch.

But their swords couldn’t withstand the impact and bent.

Their bodies were pierced, causing them to vomit blood and crash into the far wall as if hit by a cannonball.

“A-Ah!”

Rockbird stepped back with a terrified face.

Ketal moved.

In an instant, he was right in front of Rockbird.

Rockbird screamed and swung his sword.

Ketal easily caught and broke it, then swung his fist.

The assassins fell one by one.

The head of the family, who had been watching with a sinister smile, waved his hand in shock.

“You!”

Swish!

Sharp throwing weapons flew through the air towards Ketal.

Ketal casually waved his hand.

The weapons were caught in his hand and snapped.

Rumble…

The building, unable to withstand the force, began to shake precariously.

People in the nearby houses woke up, thinking an earthquake was occurring.

The head swallowed nervously.

“…You were hiding your strength.”

“Not really.”

The reason he hadn’t counterattacked the assassins was simple.

He was curious about their teamwork and attack methods.

Once his curiosity was satisfied, he dealt with them.

He hadn’t been hiding his strength.

Of course, to the head of the family, it sounded like nonsense.

The assassins’ coordinated attacks.

Even he, at the peak of First rate level, couldn’t escape unscathed.

Yet Ketal had dodged them all with simple movements and killed them.

‘…Stronger than me.’

Perhaps even superhuman.

Why was such a monster here?

The head’s mind was in turmoil.

‘But.’

It wasn’t impossible to win.

The head narrowed his eyes.

Ketal had dodged all the assassins’ attacks.

That meant he would take damage if hit.

‘And he didn’t use aura.’

Whether he couldn’t use it or chose not to, he hadn’t used aura throughout the fight.

Though hard to understand, Ketal seemed to be purely physically strong.

‘If that’s the case!’

The head quickly moved, throwing his body backward and swirling his robe.

Hundreds of hidden weapons flew from inside the robe.

He didn’t stop there.

He unleashed all his mysteries, striking the desk.

Hidden weapons stored inside the desk poured out.

Swish!

The room was filled with a rain of hidden weapons.

They all flew towards Ketal.

“Die!”

That barbarian couldn’t use magic.

He couldn’t protect his body.

Hence, he had dodged the assassins’ attacks one by one.

The throwing weapons he had just launched were all coated with deadly poison.

Just a scratch would kill a person within seconds.

Hundreds of weapons densely filled the space, leaving no room to dodge.

The head of the family was confident of his victory.

And Ketal was thrilled.

‘This is it!’

Hundreds of throwing weapons flew towards him, like a downpour of rain in a straight line.

Ketal was very familiar with a similar technique.

‘Myriad Flowers Rain Down!’

The ultimate hidden weapon technique commonly seen in martial arts stories.

It was now unfolding before Ketal’s eyes.

It felt like witnessing a piece of art.

He wanted to continue watching.

But he couldn’t.

Ketal regretfully thought.

‘How should I handle this?’

Several countermeasures came to mind, but most were dismissed.

It was late at night.

Most people were asleep, and making too much noise would be a nuisance.

After a brief moment of consideration, Ketal made his decision.

He watched the incoming projectiles.

They were extremely fast, moving at a speed beyond the perception of an ordinary person, but to him, it seemed almost like they were stationary.

He took in the entire scene of flying weapons.

Then he read their trajectories.

He gauged the direction and force of each one.

And Ketal moved his fingers.

Tap.

One of the incoming projectiles touched his finger, and its trajectory reversed.

Ketal continued to move his fingers, altering the paths of several more weapons.

The deviated projectiles collided with others.

Clang.

The colliding projectiles bounced off and hit more projectiles.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

A cacophony of sounds filled the room as the weapons collided.

The tearing sound of metal echoed.

Weapons flew through the air, embedding themselves in walls and piercing the floor.

Some even flew towards the head of the family.

He hurriedly protected himself with magic.

Clang, clang, clang!

A harsh noise reverberated.

When the noise subsided, the head of the family lowered his magic barrier.

“…Ha.”

He let out a hollow laugh involuntarily.

‘What is this?’

If Ketal had leapt out of the path of the projectiles entirely, he would have understood and immediately thought of the next move.

If Ketal had used surrounding objects to perfectly block the projectiles, he would have been a little taken aback but still would have quickly acted.

But neither was the case.

‘…He changed the trajectories of a few projectiles to make all of them collide?’

He couldn’t understand.

A miracle beyond the realm of perception and comprehension.

His fighting spirit vanished in an instant.

His body went limp, and his arms hung loosely.

“Monster.”

The head muttered.

His neck was then grabbed by Ketal.

His body was slammed into the ground.