"You vermin! I swear by my life that I won't even let you taste death!"

Right after the necromancer shouted, a massive wave of mana spread out.

The shattered zombies, the corpses of the government official’s group, and the still-standing zombies were all drawn toward the necromancer.

Like metal being pulled toward a magnet, the bones, flesh, and blood started swirling around, gathering at the necromancer's center.

By the time Dung Beetle reloaded his shotgun, the mass had already become larger than a truck.

"Death, reverse! Death, accumulate!"

The writhing mass soon began to take the form of a giant.

The zombie flesh and bones created two enormous arms the size of containers, and the twisted face made of corpses looked like something straight out of a nightmare.

Dung Beetle pulled the pin from a grenade and tossed it at the monster's unfinished lower half.

Though the creature, just beginning to form legs, collapsed pitifully, that was the extent of the damage.

Corpses swarmed into the hole in its lower body, quickly repairing the damage.

"Did you think a mere grenade could take down my titan? The immortal king has bestowed his grea—damn it, block it!"

Dung Beetle changed his target and threw a grenade at the necromancer’s coffin. The unfinished giant desperately stretched out its hand, catching the grenade. The grenade silently exploded in its grasp.

Only the rotting blood trickling through its fingers remained as evidence of the grenade’s damage.

"Kill him, kill him now!"

–Grrrraaah!

The giant, under orders, brought its massive fist crashing down toward Dung Beetle.

The punch, moving with incredible speed despite the giant's size, hit with a force matching its mass, striking both Dung Beetle and the container behind him.

Boom!!

The container tower collapsed, creating a sound even louder than the grenade explosion.

‘It’s fast.’

Caught off guard by the unexpected blow, Dung Beetle swallowed hard amidst the rubble.

His left arm, which had blocked the titan's punch, had gone numb. On top of that, he could feel blood filling his throat, suggesting that a couple of ribs had likely been broken.

Spitting the blood pooling in his mouth, he stood up. The fully formed giant corpse titan and the coffin floating in the air were glaring down at him.

"You’re tougher than I expected, vermin."

Dung Beetle didn’t respond. Instead, he kicked off the ground. The spot where he had been standing was instantly crushed by the titan’s fist.

Boom, boom, boom!

Dung Beetle ran, and the titan’s fists chased after him.

"Haha! Are you playing tag like a good little insect?"

Dung Beetle glanced back, calculating the distance to the necromancer.

'There's no way to take down the titan with grenades and a shotgun. I have to go for the source.'

He stopped in his tracks, gathering mana into his thighs. The titan, seeing an opportunity, swung its fist at him. No, it tried to.

Dung Beetle jumped up, narrowly dodging the titan’s fist, then used the momentum to run up its arm toward its shoulder.

He had quickly scaled up to the titan’s shoulder and was about to fire his shotgun at the necromancer’s coffin when—

Flash!

A burst of light shone from within the titan's body. A sinister green curse lashed out, striking Dung Beetle.

"Be careful, young knight! You can block the curse, but not the impact!"

Thanks to holding onto the unicorn’s horn, he avoided being cursed, but he couldn’t stop himself from tumbling off the titan’s shoulder.

Had the necromancer also heard the warning from the unicorn’s spirit? The moment Dung Beetle hit the ground, the titan’s fist came crashing down on him.

Wham! Dung Beetle took the blow directly, his body flying through the air before he tumbled across the concrete dock.

"Are you alright, young knight?"

Dung Beetle gritted his teeth and got back on his feet. He had only taken two hits, but every bone and organ in his body was screaming in agony.

"You’ve got some impressive resilience. Haha, it looks like I get a good practice run in before the big show!"

The necromancer’s taunting voice echoed, but Dung Beetle focused all his energy on dodging the titan’s attacks.

‘…I can’t win.’

The shotgun and grenades weren’t reaching the target. The unicorn’s horn was only useful for blocking curses, and even his enhanced body was showing its limits.

‘I was too complacent.’

The original plan had been simple—an ambush using grenades.

It seemed like a straightforward and sure plan. After all, no matter how powerful the necromancer was, there was no way he could block grenades flying out of the darkness.

It was arrogance.

I should have been more thorough. I should have prepared more than I did.

If I had anti-tank missiles or even landmines prepared… I might have stood a chance against the titan.

'Should I retreat?'

Boom!

As Dung Beetle fired his shotgun at the incoming fist, he pondered. The titan hesitated for a moment but quickly recovered, rushing at him again.

Two shells left in the shotgun, five grenades, and twenty bullets.

'Victory… is unlikely.'

Even if I unload all the firepower I have left, I can’t take down the necromancer.

‘Retreat.’

Once again, the thought crossed his mind.

When there’s no chance of winning, retreating is a valid option.

A step back to take two steps forward—an entirely rational and logical decision.

But…

'No.'

Dung Beetle clenched his teeth.

The faces of his fallen comrades flashed before his eyes as he considered retreat.

My comrades, who died unjustly. It had only been three days since I made their graves.

The blood I shed when I swore not to return until I avenged them hadn’t even dried yet.

'I will never retreat.'

I knew this wasn’t a rational decision.

But just as there’s no logic in a blazing fire, there’s no logic in revenge either.

From the moment I chose vengeance.

I only had two choices left.

"Kill or be killed."

Dung Beetle turned back from his retreat. The titan, like a cat chasing a mouse, stopped, and the necromancer mocked him.

"Giving up on the game of tag, vermin?"

Dung Beetle didn’t answer. Instead, he recalled Park Seti’s Bikak Technique. Her movements, the muscles used in her kicks, and the flow of mana that followed them.

The next thing that came to mind was the way the titan had moved up until now. The overwhelming size, strength, and speed… but also its simple movements.

The two memories blended together, leading to one question.

If it wasn’t me, but Park Seti… how would she fight this monster?

Before he could even find an answer, the next attack began.

"The entertainment is over. Now, embrace eternal pain."

The titan's fist came crashing down, a simple but overwhelmingly powerful strike.

!!!

The impact hit the ground before the sound reached it. Dust blew into the air, and the dock surface caved in.

However, Dung Beetle was still standing.

Just a single step away. He stood only one step away from where the fist had landed, staring up at the necromancer.

"What are you doing? Kill him!"

The necromancer commanded the titan’s fists to move again. The enormous hands, made of corpses, struck Dung Beetle over and over, creating craters in the dock.

But once again, Dung Beetle was still standing.

The necromancer’s skull rattled in disbelief. He didn’t feel flesh and nerves but mana, and he sensed what Dung Beetle had done.

He had dodged. Like a feather caught in the wind.

Dung Beetle had slipped through the physical strikes, weaving between the punches, the gaps in the blows, and the flow of the shockwaves. He had evaded every attack.

But humans aren’t feathers. No, even a real feather wouldn’t be able to avoid those blows.

“…What did you do?”

While the necromancer was dumbfounded by the incomprehensible reality, Dung Beetle leaped.

 

"Whoa, what’s that?"

Park Seti muttered to herself without realizing it, peering through her binoculars.

Through her binoculars, at Dock 13, a battle between David and Goliath was unfolding.

Goliath was a massive giant made from hundreds of corpses.

Wasn’t it called the Undead Titan? A rare monster that only appeared in history books, created through magic.

Typically, thousands or tens of thousands of corpses were needed to make a titan larger than a fortress, with records of a B-29 bomber taking one down.

The titan rampaging on the dock didn’t seem to have enough corpses to cause that kind of pressure, but…

'Still, it doesn’t look like something a single superhuman could handle.'

Seti smacked her lips and shifted her gaze from Goliath to David, who was dodging attacks.

It was hard to believe that was the same rookie superhuman she had seen just a few days ago.

No, could you even call that a rookie?

When it came to footwork, specifically the dodging technique known as "Feather Step," he was above even the instructor who had taught her.

"You're telling me he learned that just from seeing it once..."

Seti let out a laugh as she watched Dung Beetle narrowly dodge the titan's fists.

Of course, Feather Step wasn’t an impossible technique to learn. Technically, it wasn’t something that couldn’t be picked up through observation.

But learning it and mastering it were two entirely different things. If it could be mastered in just two days, it wouldn’t be considered a secret technique.

"The world is big, and there are plenty of prodigies."

Even though she was witnessing it with her own eyes, it was hard to believe. But if all of this was truly the result of his raw talent… then she could confidently say he was one of the top five most gifted people she had ever met.

In some ways, even more so than that famous hero candidate—

Flash!

In the brief moment that Seti was distracted, a green light flashed atop the titan’s head.

A curse—unleashed by both the titan and the necromancer—was raining down on the superhuman.

But the curse didn’t touch him. An ivory-colored barrier around his body deflected the green curse, and the necromancer cursed furiously upon seeing this.

'The handle of Uragan. So, he really did have it.'

Seti recalled what Dung Beetle had said to her before they parted ways.

He hadn’t said he would "retrieve" Uragan’s handle but that he would "pass it on" to her.

She had wondered at the time, but now it all made sense.

There was a tickling feeling in her chest as if she had been tricked, but it didn’t last long.

'Well, he’s going to sell it to me anyway.'

Watching as the handle of Uragan blocked all curses from the necromancer, Seti found herself looking forward to the moment she would hold the object in her own hands.

"Oh, has he finally switched to offense?"

By now, the battle between David and Goliath was reaching its peak. The previously defensive Dung Beetle had started counterattacking the titan and necromancer.

"But that’s not going to be enough."

Seti absentmindedly stroked the weapon lying beside her.

A shotgun, grenades, and kicks.

All fine offensive tools, but none of them were quite enough to be the slingshot that David used to defeat Goliath.

Without a decisive blow, Dung Beetle would tire out first.

‘Should I help out soon?’

She put down her binoculars and picked up her weapon. It was a war hammer, something she didn’t particularly like using. The heavy weight of the iron climbed up her arms.

She didn’t know how much longer this fight would last, but unless she intervened, Dung Beetle was going to die.

It was a logical and reasonable judgment, after all.

But then—

Boom!

The heavy thud that started from Dock 13 blew through the air and swept across her hair.

“…What?”

The titan was falling. Its massive body, trying to stay upright, reached out for the container towers, but everything collapsed together.

‘How?’

Seti quickly picked up her binoculars and scanned Dock 13.

Standing atop the fallen titan’s head was Dung Beetle.

He didn’t look to be in good shape. His mouth was smeared with blood, as if he had coughed up some, and his entire body was trembling slightly, as though his muscles had reached their limit.

But even so, he was still standing.

'What in the world did he do?'

It wasn’t a grenade or a shotgun. Could it have been the Bikak Technique? But there was no technique in Bikak that could take down a creature of that size.

As if answering the question forming in her mind, Dung Beetle moved. He lifted his trembling leg.

His foot rose above his knee, his breath shortened, and his eyes glimmered with a sense of resolve.

Then his foot stomped down on the titan’s head.

Boom!

A short burst of sound, followed by the titan’s long scream. Rotten flesh and debris exploded into the air.

Unconsciously, Seti stood up from her seat.

“…Jin-gak?”

Gathering mana into the soles of the feet, maximizing recoil, and strengthening the body for a powerful downward strike—a simple stomp.

But to master such a technique, to infuse it with intent and force, how many years of training and insight were needed? How many trainees had been unable to overcome the wall of Jin-gak and had fallen into despair?

Her father, and many failures she remembered, were among them. Even she had struggled to master the technique.

Yet Dung Beetle had performed Jin-gak, with no guidance or help from anyone.

“Amazing…”

As the shockwave from Jin-gak subsided, the titan’s head, deeply dented as if hit by a cannonball, was revealed.

Unlike with the grenades and shotgun blasts, this time, the wound did not heal.

The sheer force of the blow had far surpassed the titan’s regeneration ability, shattering the spell itself.

Seti stared blankly at the scene, then closed her mouth as she watched Dung Beetle, standing atop the titan’s head.

He looked like a half-dead man. No, more like someone barely clinging to life.

'The recoil was too great.'

His body and mana couldn’t keep up with the power of the technique. At this moment, he probably couldn’t even lift a finger.

And Seti wasn’t the only one who noticed his condition.

The crimson coffin floating in the sky.

The necromancer, hidden inside, began chanting another spell.

'I can’t just let him die like this.'

Seti, seeing both Dung Beetle and the necromancer, kicked off the ground, lifting her war hammer.

The war hammer she held sparkled with a silver-white light as it cut through the darkness of the dock, flying straight toward the enemy.