Surviving as a Barbarian in a Fantasy World

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

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Chapter 291: The Vile Rat That Pollutes the Seas (8)

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A collision occurred.

The broken and corrupted cub was now fighting Bayern.

Clang!

Bayern, having regained his stance, let out a breath of admiration.

"Strong! So this is still just a cub?"

Though it wasn’t fully grown, it was still a monstrous creature of hero-class.

Even one of them had the power to devastate the North.

[Roaaaar!]

The cub charged, swinging its enormous front paws.

Bayern gripped his axe tighter.

Boom!

The bear's body couldn't withstand the overwhelming force and was sent flying.

Bayern muttered regretfully.

"What a shame."

The cub was indeed strong.

But it wasn’t on par with Bayern.

Even within the same hero-class, there was a vast difference.

"It could have grown to possess power like its parent... but it has been tainted by something else."

[Roar!]

The cub sprang up again and charged once more.

Bayern spoke in a low voice.

"I owe your parent a great deal."

Bayern had once nearly died at the hands of a bear in the white snowfield.

That place would have been his grave if it weren’t for the barbarians.

"But I am grateful for that experience. It opened my arrogant eyes to reality. So, I will repay that debt."

Bayern's mystery flared, strengthening his body.

"I will set you free."

Boom!

Once again, the two collided.

A battle between the monster of the white snowfield and the Barbarian King.

This fight would surely go down in history.

But people couldn’t focus on their fight.

Because elsewhere, a much larger clash was taking place that made their struggle seem insignificant.

"...Is that a monster on par with the bear?"

Bayern muttered, watching the battle from afar.

"It seems I have little chance of victory in my current state."

And the one who was overwhelming that monster:

Ketal.

Bayern smiled bitterly.

"I’ll have to explain this properly to the barbarians later."

That he was weaker than Ketal.

Though, whether they’d accept that was another matter.

With a sigh, Bayern tightened his grip on his axe and clashed with the corrupted bear cub with all his might.

* * *

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The earth rumbled.

The swamp and the pollution exploded like molten lava, dirtying everything around.

The air was polluted, turning the atmosphere green.

This was the rat’s lair.

The density of pollution here was on a completely different level from the outskirts.

Thick, dark toxins moved according to the will of their master.

This place was no longer part of the surface world.

It was the domain of filth.

The world of the rat.

Boom!

And Ketal was destroying and smashing that world.

He was breaking it apart and sending it flying.

The pollution that dirtied everything scattered like mud.

Some toxins clung to Ketal’s body in the process, burning and corrupting his skin.

But due to the sheer resilience of his body, they couldn’t penetrate deeply.

Boom!

Punching through all the attacks, he swung his fist.

Crack.

With a sound of something breaking, the rat’s body was sent flying.

It barely managed to stay upright, scraping the ground with its hind legs, and swung its front paw wildly.

[Screech!]

The swamp rippled and then surged violently.

It was a wave of poison.

Any land covered by it would rot and decay for over a thousand years.

Ketal drew his axe.

Pop!

Blood vessels burst as his muscles twisted.

He swung his axe with all his might.

Boom!

The wave of poison split in two.

The attack that seemed capable of engulfing the world collapsed with a single swing.

The shockwave didn’t stop there and sliced through the rat’s body.

[Screeech!]

Splurt!

Blood spurted as its skin peeled away, exposing bone.

The rat staggered, barely managing to stay upright.

[Screech. You’re disgustingly strong.]

"Looks like you came prepared, but is this all you’ve got?"

The rat had grown stronger in this dense pollution.

But that was all.

It wasn’t enough to defeat Ketal.

There was no way the rat had only prepared this much.

As if confirming his suspicion, the rat chuckled darkly.

[Of course not.]

Throughout the fight, the rat had been steadily driven back.

As a result, they had arrived at the center of the swamp.

And the rat had been waiting for that.

The rat slammed its front paw into the ground.

[Open.]

Boom!

And a massive hole opened in the ground.

Ketal’s body fell toward the abyss, his eyes widening.

"Oh?"

[Come. Let’s descend together. To the depths.]

Both began to fall into the deep, bottomless pit.

* * *

How long had they been falling?

After what felt like an eternity, Ketal landed at the bottom.

The place was strange.

The walls of the circular hole were smooth like glass, nothing like the swampy exterior.

But that didn’t mean there was no poison.

In fact, the poison here was far more concentrated and extreme, compressed to its limits.

"The abyss, huh."

The abyss where all the poison of the domain was concentrated.

Ketal knew what this was.

In the distant past, when the rat decided that the barbarians were an obstacle to its expansion, it had truly tried to kill Ketal.

After a week of intense battle, Ketal barely won, but he had been severely injured.

It took him a full week of recovery.

Considering his regenerative abilities, those were significant injuries.

The rat had used this abyss as its trump card.

"It’s thicker than it was back then."

And now, the poison was even more intense.

Just being in this place, just breathing, was corrupting Ketal’s body.

The rat shuddered with a groan of ecstasy.

[...Ah, it feels like I’ve returned to the cradle where I was born. How nostalgic.]

Lost in its memories for a moment, the rat quickly regained focus.

[I was defeated by you before. I underestimated you. I thought I could kill you with a half-hearted plan. But not anymore.]

The rat lowered its stance, its energy resonating with the poison of the domain, amplifying its power to the extreme.

[This time, I will kill you with everything I have.]

The rat lunged.

Its speed was extreme, fast enough that even Bayern at full strength would struggle to react.

Ketal didn’t have the luxury of holding back.

He raised his axe and swung.

Clang!

The axe collided with the rat’s paw.

The rat wasn’t pushed back.

Instead, Ketal was forced to retreat.

His eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh?"

He had been overpowered.

The rat roared and charged again.

[Screeech!]

Its paws swung wildly, each blow fast and powerful.

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

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It was difficult even for Ketal to find an opening.

And that wasn’t all.

Boom! Boom!

The thick, compressed poison of the abyss began to surge.

There was no avoiding it.

Some of the poison touched Ketal’s body.

Sizzle!

His skin began to rot.

It damaged his muscles and tried to penetrate down to the bone.

Ketal’s eyes darkened.

[Screech!]

Crash!

Ketal's body slid backward under the rat's attack.

Though he clearly had the upper hand, the rat's expression twisted.

It realized that Ketal had deliberately held back during that strike.

Using the rat's attack to create distance, Ketal focused his power.

His axe crackled with energy.

The rat's fur bristled in alarm.

Ketal's full power—it was nearly a divine force.

Not even the rat at its strongest could stop it.

So, it dodged.

The rat, now filled with venomous resolve, conjured a dense shield.

It was the kind of shield that even an ancient dragon would need all its strength to break through—an absolute defense.

Ketal swung his axe.

Shatter!

That impregnable defense crumbled in an instant.

However, unlike before, Ketal's movements had slowed slightly.

The rat took advantage of the opening and leaped away.

Crash!

The axe sliced through the air, leaving a deep scar on the wall of the abyss.

But that was all.

It didn't reach the rat.

The rat had successfully evaded Ketal's full-power strike.

[Screeeech!]

Excited by the realization, the rat let out a wild cry.

[I can dodge your attacks now!]

Ketal and the rat had clashed countless times.

They knew each other all too well.

That's why the rat was certain.

[I can beat you now! You will fall to me!]

The rat shouted in excitement, and it wasn't mere overconfidence.

[Your power has limits!]

Ketal's strength came primarily from his physical body.

Of course, that wasn't all.

If he willed it, his very will could affect the world itself.

But that ability was almost pitifully insignificant compared to Ketal's physical power.

A joke, even.

Just looking at how long it took him to break the control of the High Elf Queen Karin or to resist the grip of an ancient dragon—it was clear.

By his strength alone, such influences should have been nothing.

It was an incredibly odd situation.

The reason was simple.

[You are strong. You have the power to fight against the elders. But, you are suppressing yourself!]

Ketal had the potential to reach the highest heights, yet he was dragging himself down.

[You're trapped by your stubborn belief that you are human! Yes, you're still mighty, but a lack has emerged in you that never should have existed!]

Why was Ketal's body unable to withstand its own power?

It was because Ketal had deliberately warped himself.

It was a self-inflicted flaw.

[In this abyss, I can kill you!]

In the abyss, the rat could avoid Ketal's full power.

And it could corrupt Ketal with the abyss's poison.

With a drawn-out battle, the rat could destroy Ketal's body and finally kill him.

[Finally!]

Finally! After all this time, the rat could claim victory over this monster.

It was filled with elation.

[Coming into this abyss was your mistake, barbarian! Your arrogance will be your death!]

“You're right.”

Ketal did not deny the rat's words.

They were true.

If he had let go of everything, abandoned his identity as a human, and fully accepted his nature, he could have reached far higher.

At the very least, he could have wielded a strength far beyond what he had now.

But he would have become something entirely different if he had done that.

What Ketal desired wasn't simply more strength.

It was a fantasy.

A dream he had always longed for.

[You're still filled with arrogance. Maybe that's why you’ve managed to gain such power in so short a time. But because of that arrogance, you will die here.]

“Who knows?”

Ketal smiled faintly.

“I didn’t let go, just as you said. So, I missed out on the power I should have had. But because of that, I gained something else.”

Rattle.

The mysterious force within Ketal began to stir, and his body strengthened in an instant.

The rat’s eyes widened.

[...You!]

Ketal gripped his axe and swung.

Boom!

[Kaahhh!]

The rat didn’t even have time to react.

It was struck head-on, crashing into the wall and coughing up blood.

“Hiding it was tough. If I had revealed it too early, you would have fled without looking back.”

[You… no, it can’t be!]

“You said coming into the abyss was my arrogance? Let me turn that back on you.”

The rat’s power.

The abyss.

It was indeed formidable.

It could concentrate the entire corruption of the abyss even to taint Ketal’s body.

But concentrating all the corruption into one place meant that there was no longer a way for the rat to escape through the abyss.

Ketal could now truly kill the rat.

His cold smile spread.

“I told you, didn’t I? This time, I will kill you for sure.”

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

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