Debuff Master

“How can we fail again?! Damn it!” Vladimir raged with gnashed teeth while making a break for the warp gate. He thought for sure that Siegfried had become no different from a mouse trapped in a cage, but he couldn't be more wrong.

Once again, Siegfried had proven that he was extremely cunning. He ran around the forest, made a fool of them, and somehow managed to warp in his reinforcements to the Tundra Forest. Thus, the roles were reversed, and the Church of Osric became the mouse being chased down by the Proatine Forces.

Crack!

Vladimir gnashed his teeth in anger, but there was nothing he could do about their current situation. The Church of Osric still possessed the numerical advantage, but the quality of troops of the Proatine Kingdom was far superior.

To make matters worse, none of the Mercenary Kings could be seen anywhere, and this was the same for Chae Hyung-Seok and his Adventurers too.

Vladimir was strong , but he was not confident he could fight against tens of thousands of enemies by himself.

‘Just wait and see, Siegfried van Proa. I’m going to kill you with my own–’

It was then.

“For Proatine!”

“For His Majesty the King!”

The Proatine Forces appeared in front of the Church of Osric, letting out war cries at the top of their lungs.

However, that was not the only problem Vladimir faced…

“For Proatine!”

More soldiers appeared on their right flank…

“For Proatine!”

Soldiers and knights even appeared behind them, completely surrounding Vladimir and his troops.

The encirclement tightened around Vladimir and the Church of Osric.

Mooooooo!

Vladimir heard a cow's cry from somewhere, and he turned to where the sound had come from.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Vladimir turned and saw a gigantic black minotaur rushing toward him like a bulldozer, and the minotaur bulldozed over every single living thing in its path as if they were scarecrows.

Mooooo!

The demon, Maranello, let out a cry after spotting Vladimir and charged at the latter with reckless abandon.

Baaaam!

Maranello threw a punch carrying his full weight at Vladimir’s abdomen.

“Argh!” Vladimir gasped, and then he was blasted dozens of meters away. He rolled on the snowy ground for quite a while before sprawling out on the ground. “Argh! What was that monster?!”

Vladimir was shocked by the sheer force behind Maranello’s punch. He could not get up from the ground, as he was paralyzed by a single punch. He knew it was going to take time before he could recover from it.

This was the reason Maranello was feared. He was powerful enough to knock down Vladimir, who was a Master, with just a single punch.

“Don’t spare a single one of them! Kill them all!” Siegfried’s voice boomed throughout the forest as flames shot up from the snowy ground when he placed down Blaze Field.

The debuff field shredded the Defense and Magic Resistance of the mysterious monsters accompanying Vladimir.

Thud, thud, thud…

Dull thuds echoed as Siegfried leisurely entered the battlefield and walked for Vladimir.

“Argh!” Vladimir groaned and managed to force himself to his feet.

“The Church of Osric’s Red Cardinal, Vladimir,” Siegfried said. Then, he sneered, “Long time no see. How long has it been? Five hours?”

“You little rat…” Vladimir growled.

“Rat? Hey, who are you calling a rat?” Siegfried grumbled in response.

Thud!

Maranello stomped while standing right behind Siegfried.

‘I can’t beat him by myself, but it’s a different story with Lamborghini's help,’ Siegfried thought smugly. Realistically, it would be difficult for him to win one-on-one against Vladimir. He had yet to cross the insurmountable wall—forget about the wall; he wasn't even Level 299 yet.

The chances of him winning against Vladimir were very slim, and he would need to have extreme luck on his side to win the battle.

However, it was a different story with Maranello on his side. The demon was powerful enough to overpower most Masters, so having such a powerful ally on his side would definitely increase his odds of winning the fight.

Unfortunately for the Red Cardinal, Maranello was not the only dependable ally Siegfried had alongside him.

“Honey!” Brunhilde called out from atop Hyperion, and she dove straight down to the ground. It went without saying that she was accompanied by the Flying Squadron of Elondel as well.

“I’m sorry for being late! I visited Elondel and heard the news late!” Brunhilde exclaimed.

“No, it’s fine. Nothing bad happened,” Siegfried replied, reassuring her.

“What do you mean by that?!” Brunhilde retorted. Then, she glared at Vladimir with intense bloodlust and growled, “You better forget about forgiveness because I’m not going to forgive you for what you've done.”

Brunhilde was a Level 299 powerful knight. Actually, even Siegfried was not confident that he could beat Brunhilde in a duel.

What was going to happen to Vladimir with Brunhilde joining the fray?

‘Damn it…’ Vladimir knew that he was in extreme danger.

Maranello was already too much for him to handle, so the fact that he was going to fight Siegfried and Brunhilde as well meant certain defeat or, even worse—death.

However, Vladimir smirked and laughed in disbelief, “Haha…! Are you seriously going to try and kill me?”

“Whatcha gonna do if we are?” Siegfried sneered in response and took a step forward.

“You can’t kill me,” Vladimir said confidently. Then, he grinned and added, “I shall take my leave now.”

“And who’s allowing you to leave?”

“I don’t need your permission to go.”

“Did you hit your head just now? What nonsense are you–”

It was then.

Sseuuuu…!

Vladimir’s figure dissipated into a thin cloud of red mist, which flew straight for the warp gate.

Mistify.

This was one of Vladimir's skills, and it allowed him to turn into a cloud of red mist that was capable of phasing through any physical object.

***

“...!”

Siegfried was shocked to see Vladimir turning into a cloud of mist. The Red Cardinal phased through everything in its path and headed straight for the warp gate.

It appeared like he was in a non-physical state similar to a ghost.

“Damn it!” Siegfried cursed and ran toward the warp gate. He had no intention of letting Vladimir get away.

“How can I let you go?! I can’t let you go!”[1] Siegfried shouted and threw his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp at the cloud of red mist.

Shwiiiiik!

The +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp, controlled by Flying Sword, flew overhead the crowd and headed straight for Vladimir, but the +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp simply flew right through the cloud of red mist without causing any damage.

Vladimir was immune to any physical damage while he was in his mist form, so the insanely powerful Attack Power of the +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp was rendered useless.

“Damn it! That’s cheating!” Siegfried raged upon seeing how his weapon had gone through Vladimir. However, Siegfried had never been someone who'd give up so easily.

Ziiiiing!

He trusted his hip forward and shot out a laser from his Great Champion’s Belt, but it was to no avail as well The laser beam passed through the cloud of mist without dealing any damage.

Vladimir was getting closer and closer to the warp gate.

Siegfried was running out of time.

‘Damn it…! I have to find a way—huh? Hold on, if he’s a mist right now, then that means he’s just a bunch of water particles, right? What if I freeze him up?’

A genius idea popped up in Siegfried's head, and he immediately took action.

Woooong!

Absolute Zero burst out of Siegfried, freezing his surroundings.

‘It’s too far! Can I even reach him?!’ Siegfried was worried that his skill wouldn't reach Vladimir before it was too late. Fortunately, Absolute Zero was spreading faster than Siegfried had anticipated, and it managed to overtake and surround Vladimir.

‘It got him!’ Siegfried rejoiced inwardly.

Flash!

A burst of blinding white light flashed and froze everything around it.

Thud…!

A block of red ice fell to the snowy ground.

Absolute Zero had frozen the cloud of red mist into a block of ice!

‘Now’s my chance!’ Siegfried seized the opportunity and placed down all of his debuff fields. Then, he infused Touch of Death into his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp and threw it with all of his strength at Vladimir.

Shwiiiiik!

The +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp infused with Touch of Death flew toward Vladimir at breakneck speed.

Boom!

The red block of ice exploded into pieces the moment it made contact with +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp.

***

“Is he… dead?” Siegfried muttered. The red block of ice had exploded into pieces right before his eyes and had scattered all over the snowy ground. He thought it was highly likely that the Red Cardinal had perished from the attack just now.

The red ice melted in an instant and turned into mist; Vladimir then emerged from the red mist. The Red Cardinal's regeneration rate was truly awe-striking.

“Cough…! A-Argh…!”

Contrary to what everyone thought, Vladimir was in a very bad condition.

[Vladimir]

[HP: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜]

[Mana: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜]

[Stamina: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜]

He was on the verge of death. The combination of Absolute Zero and Touch of Death completely was enough to put the Red Cardinal right at the doorstep of Death.

‘Let’s wrap this up quickly.’ Siegfried hurriedly used Flying Sword and controlled his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp to deal the finishing blow. He was currently very far away from Vladimir, so his only option was to use Flying Sword to kill his target quickly.

Flaaaash!

However, a sudden burst of bright light flashed behind Vladimir, and thousands—no, tens of thousands of aura blade weapons appeared and rained down like bullets.

‘T-This is…!’ Siegfried instinctively knew that the attack was Torrential Flower Rain, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Shwaaaaa!

The rain of mana weapons became a wall dividing the battlefield in two, and it seemed like a warning to Siegfried not to go any farther.

Siegfried couldn't take even a single step forward.

Why?

It was all because he would be mercilessly skewered and turned into a pincushion by the mana weapons if he took even a single step forward.

The Weapon Seeker emerged from the warp gate. He picked up Vladimir off the ground and placed him on his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

The Weapon Seeker stared at Siegfried for a few seconds before disappearing into the warp gate.

Kaboom!

The warp gate exploded the moment they disappeared into it. It seemed that they had planted explosives on it and had set those explosives to trigger the moment Vladimir left through the warp gate, just in case Siegfried chased after them.

“Tsk… He actually managed to escape…” Siegfried grumbled after losing Vladimir, but his grumbling didn't last long.

‘Well, it would be a meaningless victory if I had won it by ganging up on him. How can I satisfy Master’s Regret by lynching a descendant?’

The quest details of his main quest, Master’s Regret, said that the Debuff Master had to defeat the descendants of those Deus had failed to defeat in his lifetime.

Siegfried knew that there was no meaning in defeating them if he ganged up on them or relied on luck. Of course, Siegfried himself wanted to defeat the descendants in a fair one-on-one duel.

“Honey!” Brunhilde exclaimed, rushing to his side.

“He got away,” Siegfried said with a shrug.

“Ah…” Brunhilde muttered, looking disappointed by the result.

“Shall we head back now?” Siegfried asked with a warm smile before walking away without any regrets.

1. This is a line from a famous old song. ☜

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