Surviving as a Barbarian in a Fantasy World

Chapter 322: The Ashen Barbarians of the White Snowfield (4)

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Chapter 322: The Ashen Barbarians of the White Snowfield (4)

“Hahahahaha!”

“I’ll kill you!”

Three axes simultaneously aimed for Necronovix’s entire body, as if competing with each other. Necronovix swiftly moved his hand.

[Darkness becomes my wall.]

A pitch-black wall sliced through the space.

It was a defensive maneuver to grasp the situation.

The wall collided with the axes.

CLANG!

A sharp noise echoed as cracks spread across the wall.

The barbarians grimaced fiercely.

“Coward!”

“Stop hiding and come out!”

They swung their axes repeatedly.

Cracks spread across the wall like a spider’s web.

Something that even heroes would struggle to break was shattering rapidly.

[...What are you?]

They were strong.

But it was hard to gauge the extent of their power.

Necronovix couldn’t sense any mystical aura from them.

These weren’t ordinary barbarians.

No, they weren’t ordinary beings at all.

Yet, they were breaking through his wall.

The energy emanating from them was unmistakably foreign to this world.

[...Anomaly?]

Necronovix murmured.

At that moment, the wall could no longer hold and shattered.

Axes swung sharply toward Necronovix’s body.

He cloaked himself in darkness to create distance.

“Don’t run away!”

The barbarians roared, chasing after him.

As Necronovix dodged their attacks, he quickly assessed the situation.

[You... You’re the barbarians of the White Snowfield.]

He recognized them.

They were the barbarians of legend, whispered in tales of the distant emperor.

Necronovix, who had existed before the creation of the Forbidden Lands, was familiar with them.

The seal of the Forbidden Lands, imposed by gods and demons, had weakened.

Its inhabitants were beginning to crawl out.

The northern front had already been lost to vermin, so he was well aware.

[So they’ve followed their king out. How troublesome.]

They were attacking him under the command of Ketal. N

ecronovix quickly grasped the situation.

And because he understood it, he realized:

This was an entirely unwelcome variable for him.

‘What kind of power are they using?’

Necronovix analyzed their power.

It wasn’t mystical, that much was clear.

There was not a trace of mysticism in them.

Instead, they possessed something bizarre, something foreign.

Even Necronovix struggled to identify it.

Having never ventured outside the White Snowfield since its creation, these barbarians were shrouded in mystery.

‘...Surely, they’re not all wielding the power of Abomination, are they?’

Since their king, Ketal, wielded the power of Abomination, he couldn’t help but suspect it.

‘I need to seal off their power of death for now.’

Having made his decision, Necronovix gathered his magical energy.

[As the wave rises.]

A tide of darkness surged forth, consuming the space and rushing forward.

A wave of such force that even heroes would struggle to survive if engulfed barehanded.

Faced with this power, the barbarians had two choices: evade or smash through the wave to advance.

Necronovix had already devised countermeasures for both scenarios.

But they did neither.

The barbarians charged straight into the tide of darkness.

The wave swallowed their bodies.

Necronovix’s eyes wavered.

[What?]

“Hah! Hahaha!”

BOOM!

The barbarians emerged through the wave.

Their bodies were in a wretched state—torn apart, with flesh ripped away to reveal bone.

‘What is this?’

Necronovix couldn’t help but be taken aback.

Charging headlong into a deterrent spell, leaving them on the brink of death—it was incomprehensible.

But then he saw it.

The broken bodies of the barbarians regenerating instantly.

CRASH!

Darkness and axes clashed violently.

Necronovix retreated, conjuring another wall.

The barbarians swung their axes with brute force, shattering it into fragments.

The debris scattered into the air.

Necronovix snapped his fingers.

[Fragments become blades.]

The scattered debris turned into sharp blades, flying toward the barbarians.

It wasn’t a particularly fast attack.

Given their strength and speed, they could have easily dodged or blocked it.

But the barbarians did neither.

As if they couldn’t be bothered, they continued their charge.

The blades pierced their bodies.

Once again, Necronovix widened the distance.

“Stop running away!”

“Coward!”

[I am a magician. There’s no reason for me to fight brute force head-on.]

Necronovix ignored their taunts and observed them.

[What is this?]

The barbarians’ bodies, pierced by the blades, were a grotesque sight—wounds that would kill most within minutes.

But those wounds were healing.

The darkness-infused blades lodged in their bodies were expelled as their flesh regenerated, restoring them to their original form.

[Regeneration.]

No.

That wasn’t quite right.

This was more than that.

[This is closer to a reversal, an effort to maintain their original form.]

This wasn’t a power humans could possess.

These barbarians were no longer human.

Something had fused with them.

[They’ve already become half of the oldest ones. I never thought humans could mix in such a way.]

How had ordinary barbarians survived the White Snowfield?

They had adapted to it.

In that alien land, they became alien themselves.

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[Yet they must still feel pain. How foolish.]

Despite his words, Necronovix’s eyes gleamed with intrigue.

‘How did they become fused like this?’

The essence of the Forbidden Lands and the surface had intertwined—a seemingly impossible phenomenon.

Even Necronovix, a master of black magic, could only mimic the power of Abomination, never fully replicate their nature.

If he could study these barbarians, he might unlock the secrets of the oldest powers.

His fingers itched.

The desire to capture and experiment on the barbarians surged within him, driven by his unrelenting thirst for knowledge as a magician.

[No. No, I can't.]

Necronovix forced himself to suppress his desire.

He was here now as a lord of hell.

He couldn’t act out of personal satisfaction.

[But a little indulgence should be fine. Capturing them alive might be too much, but at least I can take their corpses for analysis.]

Necronovix made his decision.

The analysis was already complete.

There was no trace of unholy energy emanating from the barbarians.

In that case, there was no reason not to wield death against them.

[Piercing Bullets.]

Dozens of dark bullets shot toward the barbarians. Necronovix murmured softly.

[Clever creatures, aren’t they?]

The reason these barbarians had taken Necronovix’s attack head-on wasn’t because they could survive it.

It was because they wouldn't die from it.

It seemed like simple behavior, but it was backed by precise calculations.

[You can’t survive here by being merely reckless. But this time, it won’t go the way you think.]

The bullets carried the power of death.

No matter how strong the barbarians were, if the bullets struck their vital points, they would have no choice but to die.

Their only options were to evade or block them.

Necronovix gathered his demonic energy.

No matter how they responded, he planned to block their escape and finish them off.

“Ha! Hahaha!”

But the barbarians were different.

With maniacal laughter, they charged forward.

The bullets pierced their bodies—legs, arms, abdomens.

Yet, in an instant, they arrived in front of Necronovix.

[…!]

Necronovix hadn’t expected them to push through the attack with their bare bodies again.

He hesitated for a moment, and though he quickly raised a barrier, it wasn’t thick enough.

The wall cracked under the relentless strikes of axes, and one embedded itself in his arm.

[Repel.]

Boom!

Necronovix muttered briefly, and the barbarians were blown back as if hurled by a great force.

They quickly got up and shouted:

“Finally hit you, you coward!”

“We’ll kill you now!”

[…]

Necronovix’s eyes wavered.

The part of his arm struck by the axe wasn’t regenerating easily.

The barbarians’ alien energy hindered his recovery.

But what truly unsettled him wasn’t the minor injury.

[What… are you?]

Necronovix had imbued the bullets with the power of death.

If they were directly hit, even barbarians would face death.

Their bodies were still riddled with holes from the attack, blood flowing and their insides exposed.

They couldn’t have been unaware of the force contained in the bullets.

Warriors of their caliber would have instinctively recognized it.

And yet, they had charged straight into it.

Necronovix couldn’t understand.

[I can kill you. If the bullets had pierced your hearts or heads, you would have died.]

“So what!”

The barbarians bared their teeth.

“What does it matter!”

“The outside isn’t so weak after all! This is fun!”

They attacked Necronovix even more ferociously, more violently.

Boom!

Energy exploded.

Relentless assaults targeted Necronovix without mercy.

He unleashed his power in an attempt to push them back, the demonic energy bursting forth.

But the barbarians ignored it and pressed on, even with their limbs mangled and shredded by the magic.

One swung an axe with a tattered arm, grazing Necronovix’s leg and leaving a wound.

Necronovix groaned.

The reason these barbarians had taken his attacks head-on wasn’t because they couldn’t die.

It was because they didn’t care if they died.

To them, their lives meant nothing.

If they died, so be it; if they lived, so be it.

It was as simple as that.

Necronovix finally understood.

[…You’re mad.]

The Barbarians of the White Wasteland.

Their ancestors were humans from the surface who longed for the power of the Abyss and willingly entered its prison.

Among all beings—surface dwellers, hellspawn, and even the divine—they were the most unhinged.

[Ha, hahaha.]

Necronovix burst into laughter, his previously conflicted mind suddenly clear.

Logic didn’t work on them.

Reason, intellect, judgment, answers—none of it mattered.

They existed purely to kill and be killed.

In that case, he would act accordingly.

[It’s been a while since my head felt this clear.]

How long had it been since he faced such pure malice?

Necronovix felt an odd sense of exhilaration.

[The most insane beings in existence. I acknowledge you. So let me make a clear decision as well.]

He would simply kill them.

Power gathered.

It brimmed with a singular, lethal intent.

The world seemed to warp around him.

It was an overwhelming, godlike force.

Even the mighty Barbarians of the White Wasteland would have to face death against it.

But as though thrilled, the barbarians grinned, gripping their axes tightly and charging toward Necronovix.

Necronovix unleashed his power.

Hell and the Forbidden Land collided violently.

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