Chapter 595 – The Director vs. the Berserker
After Viscount Ivan, the director, drained the liquid in the vial, he began to groan.
Dark, swollen veins rose across his face as though something abnormal were happening inside his body.
“Guuoooh!”
Apparently, the drug he had swallowed was causing him to transform into something.
Zion had no intention of waiting for him to finish.
Instead, she activated one of the abilities of the Opposing Demon Gauntlets: [Berserker]. Light radiated from the right gauntlet and darkness from the left. When those two auras reacted with the Two-Headed Holy-Dark Beast Leather Armor she wore, mist enveloped Zion and transformed her into a large black cat wreathed in haze.
Zion, transformed by [Berserker], didn’t politely wait for Ivan’s transformation to finish. She attacked without hesitation.
In an instant, she closed the distance, raked his chest with sharp claws, then kicked the suffering viscount upward and slammed him into the ceiling.
As he fell, she mercilessly drove a sharp punch into his abdomen.
“Gah!”
Ivan cried out as the blow struck him in the middle of his transformation.
Zion ignored his pain and followed with a barrage of punches, turning the fight into a completely one-sided beating.
Finally, Ivan was hurled into a wall. When Zion paused for a moment, he raised one hand.
“W-Wait! Normally, when someone is transforming, aren’t you supposed to stop and watch out of curiosity?!”
His transformation had finished in the meantime.
Although he was battered badly enough to make the details difficult to see, parts of his body were now covered in scales resembling those of dragonfolk.
Previously, members believed to belong to the Imperial special-operations unit known as the Golden Lions had taken drugs and transformed completely into dragons. Those men had lost their human consciousness and become monsters, but Ivan was different.
Zion had attacked before his transformation finished precisely because allowing him to reach that state looked dangerous.
But in [Berserker] form, she gave him no reply.
“Damn it, no response! I have to deal with an idiot who can’t even understand how extraordinary the results of my research are!”
Ivan rose in his dragonfolk-like hybrid form and faced the berserk Zion.
“…Well, fine. It was my mistake to leave myself open. You hit me hard, but thanks to the extraordinary recovery ability of the dragonfolk I’ve been researching, this much damage can still heal.”
His badly injured body began to recover.
Zion didn’t wait for that either.
She gave a low warning hiss and attacked again.
“Isn’t it about time you witnessed the achievements of my research?!”
Ivan raised both arms to block the claws of Zion’s left hand.
The arms he used to defend himself were almost unharmed. His transformed body had clearly become tough enough to withstand her physical attacks.
But Zion’s attacks weren’t merely punches and slashes.
The left Opposing Demon Gauntlet carried the darkness attribute and could inflict random, powerful abnormal conditions.
That effect activated.
Even before Ivan’s transformation had finished, Zion’s repeated strikes had been inflicting abnormal conditions. Those effects had continued consuming and negating the various resistances of his dragonfolk-like body.
On the surface, her latest attack appeared to have done little, but in reality his resistances had already been weakened considerably.
Now the accumulated effects finally exceeded those resistances and began harming him directly.
“Gyaaah! What’s this pain?! I blocked the attack, but my entire body is in agony… What?! That can’t be! This enhanced body should have strong resistance to pain! Why isn’t it working?!”
Ivan’s face twisted as unbearable pain raced through him.
“…That’s the power Lord Tauro gave me.”
Zion answered while still transformed by [Berserker].
In the past, her consciousness had almost completely faded while the ability was active, and she regained awareness only when Tauro called out to her. After her training in the Dragon’s Den, however, she had gained enough control to remain conscious and even speak while transformed.
“Gah! A power that can overcome the power I gained?! Then I’ll take that power from you! My physical abilities should equal yours—or exceed them! I’ll kill you here and dissect you!”
Ivan launched himself at Zion.
She braced herself to meet the attack.
But his blow never reached her.
A shield of light suddenly appeared and repelled him.
It was Ragune’s [Area Defense: Aurora Shield]. She and Ankh had arrived nearby.
Ankh slipped past Ragune, raised his magic greatsword, and slashed Ivan from the side.
Caught completely off guard by their arrival, Ivan lost his left arm to the blow.
“Gyaaah! My arm!”
Ivan screamed and clutched the severed limb.
“Are you alright, Zion? And who’s this…? He looks somewhat like a dragonfolk, but not quite.”
Ragune studied Ivan skeptically.
“What are you talking about?! My research is perfect! This body is a masterpiece created by unraveling the mysterious power of the dragonfolk!”
Ivan protested, evidently proud of his transformed appearance.
“Isn’t that closer to a regression toward an ancestral form? We dragonfolk lost our tails over the course of our evolution.”
Ragune pointed to the short tail protruding behind Ivan.
Just as she said, a small tail stuck out through his trousers.
“Don’t dismiss my research over a tail! It should be perfect!”
Ivan shouted in frustration.
“None of that matters.”
The instant Ankh’s words reached him, Ivan’s body was cut cleanly in two.
“Huh?”
Viscount Ivan died before he could even comprehend what had happened.
Seeing that the fight was over, Zion released [Berserker].
Then she puffed out her cheeks and protested.
“…Ankh, don’t take all the best part for yourself!”