A Balak hero who fought the Empire as a single man.
A mythical being who struck fear into the hearts of even the Empire's greatest Swordmasters, unleashing a fury across the continent. The Bowmaster, the most powerful archer who ever lived.
She is Adonai.
Ever since the history of Balak began to be written down, Adonai, the archer who was known to be the strongest, appeared in front of Aquila, who was far from learning.
Short gray hair, parched skin on his face, sagging lips and clearly visible teeth.
Every time the black shroud covering the whole body swayed in a black aura, the large bow slung on the back was revealed.
It was a bowstring with a very pointed tip and emitted a very black color.
It had a strange appearance, like two legs of an insect that had been bent and connected.
"...."
Vikir stood still, staring at the Adonai before him.
It had been a long time since he'd been this close to a Master-level being, a being that touched the heights of the Supreme.
The power emanating from Adonai was as wild and vicious as Hugo Baskerville's.
Perhaps because he is a Death Knight, it feels even more so.
"... Author is Adonai the Archer.
Terror of the empire, hero of the barbarians.
It was a strange feeling to see a figure I'd only heard about in jungle mythology.
But my wonder was short-lived.
The next moment, Adonai raised his great black bow.
There were no strings or arrows on the bow.
But as Adonai grasped the air with the opposite hand from the one that held the bow, a cool current of air formed a thin thread from tip to tip of the bow.
It's like a spider spinning a thread.
Sssssss...
To Adonai's surprise, the black air currents connected pole to pole of the bow.
Adonai snapped his fingers once, then released them.
Then, an arrow made of aura was created and nocked on the bowstring, which was also made of aura.
Quack!
Adonai pulled and released the bowstring, and an arrow of dark aura shot out.
"...!"
Vikir narrowed his eyes.
The speed was so fast that even Vikir, a Advance Graduator, couldn't see properly!
It was only through half instinct and half luck that Vikir was able to deflect the arrow by extending the Beelzebub on his wrist as far as it would go.
Boom!
Adonai's arrow flew on a trajectory deflected by Vikir's sword, and it punched a hole in a huge log.
Crunch! Quack!
Not only is the log pierced, but the cliffside rocks behind it crumble with a thunderous crash.
It was a sight to behold, as if they had been scattered by countless blades.
Adonai's arrows are monstrous creatures that devastate their surroundings with just a glance.
It would be unimaginable to face them head-on.
"...Hmm."
Vikir furrowed his brow and drooled.
Despite the obvious deflection, his wrist was stiff and his arm tingled.
Beyond the torn muscles in his forearm, he must have cracked his wrist bone.
The liquid aura on Beelzebub was also torn to shreds.
Adonai's aura bolts have the density of extremely hard solids, the realm of a master.
No wonder it couldn't be defeated by a Graduator-class liquid aura.
Even.
Tsutsutsutsuts...
The log sniped by Adonai's aura began to wither and die.
The poison was strong enough to kill a giant tree that could have lived for hundreds of years in an instant.
Vikir's attention was drawn once more to the large black bow that Adonai held.
At first glance, it looks impossibly large and long, but it is solid and light, almost weightless.
Pointed at both ends and sprouting horn-like spikes in the middle, it looked like two insect legs glued together.
Vikir realized its identity at a glance.
"... The remains of Madame Eight-Legged.
When I met Madame Eight Legs the other day, I confirmed that all eight legs were attached, so it was probably made from fragments of her body before shedding her skin.
This reminded me of something Aiyen had once said.
"'Adonai was the only one who could stand toe-to-toe with the Madame of the Eight Legs. Now that you are a young Balak, honor him. And pride in being her descendant.'
Adonai remembered that in the past, he had dueled Madame Eight-Legged and won.
The bow was made from her ruins, and her vile poisonous aura was imbued into the bow itself.
The fearsome black bow must have retained its poisonous power long after Adonai died and was buried with her.
"I'm in trouble."
Vikir clicked his tongue.
He was up against a Swordmaster, or perhaps even a more difficult Bowmaster.
The Death Knight's flaw is that he attacks recklessly and haphazardly, which in close quarters can leave him open and vulnerable, but....
Poof! Pow! Quack quack quack!
In a long-distance fight, it becomes a unified offense.
Adonai fired off a series of aura arrows.
Dark solid auras, even poisonous ones.
They tore through Vikir's black liquid aura, tearing it to shreds.
Vikir loaded his aura onto Beelzebub and swung it long.
Baskerville Carnivore.
Six fangs drew a blackened trail of blood, but even so, it was pushed back.
Even a warrior of the Graduator's rank would be powerless against a master.
A liquid cannot defeat a solid.
However, the reason Vikir was still alive was due to the protection of the Styx River, the strength and mana regeneration of his body, and the power of the monster that the magic sword Beelzebub was sealing.
"...! ...! ...!"
Vikir had gained weight with Oxbear's sacroiliac spell, which allowed him to withstand Adonai's arrows without being knocked back.
But even the six ambush hits from the Baskervilles are not enough to stop Adonai's arrow showers.
Each of Adonai's arrows was stronger, harder, and more numerous than each of Vikir's teeth.
What's more, the aura of her bowstring and arrows never wore out or dropped.
Adonai was simply unleashing an endless barrage of the overflowing negative dimensional energy characteristic of Death Knights.
Boom! Crackle! Puck! Puck!
Deciding that a head-to-head battle was out of the question, Vikir swung his blade sideways to deflect the arrows, but was nonetheless gradually being pushed backward.
The large mana reservoirs of the Graduator were already running low.
The aura radiating from Beelzebub was popping like honey from a hammer whenever it came into contact with Adonai's aura.
Even his shaking wrists told him that he was at his limit.
There were many bad news reports coming from all over the body.
'... At this rate, I'll be an arrow in the quiver.
Vikir tried to move quickly to get out of the way, but Adonai was faster than Vikir,.
Closing the distance would be impossible as the arrows would fly like crazy, and opening the distance would be suicide against a Bowmaster level archer.
A sneak attack might have worked, but there's no way to win a head-to-head fight.
Of course, I don't mean how to win, but how to survive.
'...I need to kill at least Ahheman.'
But with Adonai standing firmly in his way, that was impossible.
All the warriors of Balak fired arrows in unison, but they were all blocked by Adonai's shroud and the body of the black bow.
Just as Vikir was in the midst of thinking.
…Puck!
There was a kick to Vikir's cheek.
"Slave, to the side!"
Aiyen stretched out her long legs and shoved Vikir's head away.
Pow!
A black flash of light flew in a black trajectory to the place where Vikir's head was just a moment ago.
…PIT!
A long, thin gash appears on Aiyen's calf.
Meanwhile, Vikir wiped the blood from his forehead and said.
"Thank you. Better to die of a concussion than an arrow."
"No time to slack off, here they come again!"
Aiyen reached out and grabbed Vikir by the nape of his neck.
An arrow of black aura struck the ground where Vikir's groin had been just moments before, tearing a deep hole.
"...You're aiming for the groin, too. So much for the rush of the male."
Vikir smirked at Aiyen's narrowed eyes.
"'Not so fast. To the great Adonai."
"For now, you're just Ahheman's puppet. After you have attained perfection."
Aiyen quickly fed arrows into his bow.
A dozen arrows flew at breakneck speed, aimed at Adonai.
Then they broke off into different trajectories, each aimed at a different part of Adonai's body.
But.
Puff-puff-puff-puff-puff-puff!
With a flick of his hand, Adonai caught all ten arrows coming from ten different directions.
Woof!
As if that wasn't enough, he clenched his fist tightly, breaking all ten of the arrows and causing them to shatter.
"...Your hands must be big."
Aiyen gritted her teeth as she saw the arrow fragments falling to the ground behind her.
Then, Adonai raised his black bow.
The bull's-eye was clear. Vikir and Aiyen in front of him.
Boom!
With a sound like a cannonball being fired, a sharp vortex shot out of Adonai's black bow.
It sliced through the air around them like a whirling blade.
Destruction and speed, unavoidable and unstoppable! Vikir and Aiyen prepared for battle.
Then.
Boom!
Someone deflected Adonai's dark power blast with their bare hands.
Kwagigik! Boom!
The frantically spinning blade aura was shattered by pure force.
Adonai's aura arrows turned into black air currents and scattered.
"...!"
Vikir and Aiyen looked up, wide-eyed, at the being that stood before them.
A warrior, dripping with blood from his torn grip, yet standing without missing a beat.
Chieftain Aquila. Fox of the Night.
She stood here as the representative of the new generation against the representative of the old.