Eden Ch 13

Chapter 13

“Are you—crazy—ugh!”

Ian barely avoided the sweeping tail and rolled his body forward. The tail whooshed past where he’d just been standing. Before he could catch his breath, the ground trembled, and massive spikes—each the size of a person—erupted from the earth. Dodging the spikes aimed at him, Ian dashed straight toward the snake’s midsection. Seizing the brief pause in its attacks, he activated Aperio once more.

Crackkk! With a shattering sound, Ouroboros’s health plummeted again.

Only 20% left.

After checking the remaining HP, Ian used a counter skill on the charging snake’s head, landing a brief stun before slashing down with his sword. Ouroboros’s HP dropped from 20% to 10%. But as expected of a specialty skill, it guzzled a huge chunk of Ian’s stamina, leaving him nearly drained.

[I’m out of stamina!]

[Already?]

[What do you mean “already”?]

He had been dodging solo and used the trait skill three times already. It was Raham’s unnaturally unending mana that was the real anomaly.

• Equivalent exchange! 30% of HP will be traded for 30% stamina recovery.

Even as he dodged a barrage of attacks, Ian asked sourly:

[Don’t you have a simple healing skill?]

[Didn’t learn one.]

[What? Why not?]

[If you can’t manage your HP and stamina, you might as well die.]

[…]

Sure, it was rare to use up all his stamina… but this guy would trigger an exchange even if a party member had just 20% HP left.

Grimly reminded of Raham’s ruthless nature, Ian clenched his teeth and focused hard to avoid getting hit. Dying here would make him just like the rest of the guild members—and Raham would definitely mock him for it. Ian had never been a burden to any party since his noob days, and he wasn’t about to start now—especially not in front of that infuriatingly skilled bastard.

Spotting an opening between attacks, Ian poured all his recovered stamina into one last Aperio. With Ouroboros’s death throes shaking the earth, its massive body tilted and collapsed. A flood of flashy notifications bombarded Ian’s senses.

• You have defeated Ouroboros with your final strike.

• Ouroboros, having lost its physical form, returns to the abyss.

The giant snake’s body dissolved into dust, revealing seven treasure chests where the corpse had been. Ian stood dumbfounded, then turned to Raham, who had walked up beside him.

“What the hell? This skill wasn’t supposed to be that strong.”

Other classes treated their trait skills like finishing moves. But for Paladins, Aperio was a useless skill burdened with heavy restrictions. Even when he’d used it in the Demon Realm during a previous quest, it hadn’t been anything like this.

Yet Raham didn’t seem surprised.

“Demonkind and the divine power of Theog are opposites. Aperio’s damage scales with the target’s demonic energy.”

“Ouroboros isn’t a demon.”

“Read the skill description carefully.”

Ian, who had never cared much about the skill, read the details with a frown. “Delivers divine judgment upon the servants of the evil god.” That was it. Just one vague line.

And what was he supposed to take from that? Ian’s expression turned even more baffled.

“I planted ten sigils on it.”

“So what?”

“Ten sigils of the evil god puts it on par with a Demon King.”

“…”

“That’s why Aperio’s damage was calculated as high. But Ouroboros itself is way below a Demon King in power.”

In short, Raham had forcibly turned a divine beast-type boss into a demon-type, amping up the counter-elemental damage while leaving its base stats intact.

Ian gave a dry, incredulous laugh. No sane healer would ever attempt such a brute-force mana assault.

Then a sudden realization made him scowl.

“Wait. Doesn’t that mean Ouroboros also did more damage to me, since we were also opposite elements?”

“Yep. One hit and you would’ve died.”

Figures.

“You could’ve warned me.”

“You were dodging just fine.”

Raham grinned as he replied casually. Ian had only dodged like his life depended on it because he assumed Raham’s skill would break if he got hit—but it turns out it was literally life or death. In a way, not knowing might’ve made it easier to stay calm.

Ian clicked his tongue. That so-called “great synergy” was nonsense—this was a strategy only someone like him could even think to use.

“Anyway, it’s over now, so go revive the guild members.”

Thankfully, no one had logged out yet. Remembering how he’d trampled all over them by accident, Ian felt a twinge of guilt. Raham, however, just blinked and asked back,

“Why would I?”

“…What?”

The unexpected answer caught Ian completely off guard, and Raham even smiled.

“Why should I revive people who couldn’t even manage aggro properly?”

“Oh, come on—”

How was he supposed to deal with this extreme meritocrat? Rubbing the back of his throbbing head, Ian bit back the urge to argue and instead closed his mouth. Emotional appeals wouldn’t work on someone like Raham.

He switched tactics and calmly reviewed the situation.

“Fine, that wasn’t ideal. But ultimately, wasn’t it your fault the DPS all died? That crazy 300 damage spike earlier—wasn’t that because of you?”

When that abnormal number popped up, Ian had noticed—everyone else panicked, but Raham remained unshaken. Whatever his combat power was, Raham had definitely been the cause.

“If it weren’t for that phase, we could’ve cleared it safely. So you should take responsibility and resurrect them.”

Well, sure, they wouldn’t have even seen the petrification pattern without Raham—but Ian didn’t bother saying that aloud. Instead, he put on the shameless expression he’d often seen on others and stared at Raham.

The man chuckled.

“Fair enough.”

Who knew whether it was a sincere concession or not—but Raham did acknowledge some fault and used his resurrection skill. Black wings unfurled above him, and a radiant light swept over the fallen guild members.

• Raham has used “Resurrection: Multi.”

Their bodies, drained of all color, slowly returned to life. As they groaned and rose, Valor muttered with a strange expression:

“This is the first time I’ve seen an angel forcibly shove souls back into bodies…”

Still, since this wasn’t a regular hunting ground or dungeon, the death penalty was minimal. And with such a high-level resurrection, all stats were fully restored.

However, having witnessed everything while dead, the guild members felt too sheepish to immediately celebrate. All except one—Debbie—who ran straight to Raham and bowed deeply.

“Thank you for saving me, Guildmaster! I promise I’ll never get in Sir Ian’s way again on the tanking path!”

Despite the utmost politeness, Raham only glanced at Debbie and gave a brief, “Okay,” before walking off toward the treasure chests.

Debbie, still on the floor, lifted her head and gazed at his back with stars in her eyes.

“So cool…”

Whether she lacked pride or simply had nerves of steel, Ian couldn’t tell. Watching the silly exchange, Ian clicked his tongue.

Soon, the guild members came over, looking sheepish, and began apologizing.

“We got too reckless. Sorry, Sir Ian.”

“I guess we relied on you too much and lost our heads.”

“No, no. Don’t apologize.”

Sure, the DPS had gone wild, and it had kept him busy—but there weren’t any major blunders. Honestly, the apologies made Ian more uncomfortable.

He waved them off awkwardly, but they insisted on apologizing one by one before changing the subject.

Elaine, especially, was too excited to sit still.

“This was epic! I thought it was a bug when I saw HP dropping by 10% each hit!”

“Couldn’t Guildmaster and Sir Ian beat it together, just the two of you?”

“That’d be tough.”

Paladin trait skills consumed a ton of stamina and had a five-use daily limit. The restrictions had always seemed pointless for such an inefficient skill—but after today, Ian finally understood.

It was probably a well-balanced design, anticipating even such insane use cases.

After a short chat, just before opening the loot, Elaine jumped up and shouted,

“Let’s take a group photo!”

“I’m in!”

Debbie joined in, setting her summon as a marker and urging everyone to line up quickly. Swept up by their youthful energy, the guild members laughed and complied.

Ian, too, was lining up—until he glanced back and hesitated.

Raham stood off to the side, not moving an inch.

Voluntary loner, huh…

Ian sighed, annoyed by how much it bothered him, and walked over. Raham’s gaze followed him silently.

“Come on. Get in the photo.”

“…”

His face clearly said, Why should I?

Used to Raham’s quirks by now, Ian didn’t bother waiting for a reply—he simply grabbed his arm.

“If you’re not gonna act like a Guildmaster, at least behave for the photo. Please?”

Surprisingly, Raham let himself be pulled along, and even smiled as if amused.

“You don’t even like me, but you’re always looking out for me.”

“So you do notice.”