Debuff Master

The giant’s roar was so loud it shook the entire area.

“Argh!”

“Aaaack!”

“Kuheok!”

The Santa Climbers cried out in agony and collapsed to the ground while covering their ears.

The giant’s roar was so loud that it pierced through the raging blizzard, destroying a section of rocks up in the mountains.

In other words, it triggered an avalanche.

As for Siegfried...

Plop...!

He experienced blood coming out of his ears for the first time in his life.

[Alert: Your eardrums have been damaged!]

[Alert: Your sensitivity has reduced by 3.3%!]

The giant’s roar was so loud it ended up bursting Siegfried’s eardrums, which was not strange, as its roar was loud enough to trigger an avalanche.

“W-What the hell is this guy?” Siegfried stuttered in disbelief before flashing his Rune of Insight at the giant.

[Sasquatch]

[A legendary giant inhabiting Mount Kunlun.]

[It is a distant relative of the Big Foot and Yeti. It boasts immense strength. It is a very bad idea to clash head-on against it.]

[Type: Named Neutral Creature]

[Level: 300]

[Race: Great King Kong]

[Class: Snow Warrior]

[Note: Anyone above Level 280 will instantly gain one level upon killing this creature.]

The Level 300 Named Neutral Creature, Sasquatch, gave a level-up reward once hunted.

“OOOH! Level up!” Siegfried cheered after seeing the last bit. He was currently Level 280, and he required a massive amount of experience points just to level up, which was why he cheered the moment he saw the reward.

“Come here, you little bundle of joy!” Siegfried exclaimed.

“O-Owner punk! Now’s not the time to be happy! Kyuuu! It’s dangerous!” Hamchi shouted.

“I know!” Siegfried retorted. Then, he smirked and added, “But there’s no point crying over it, right?”

“Kyu?”

Siegfried gripped his +13 Horse Fly and charged at Sasquatch while shouting, “We just have to fight!”

Sasquatch’s presence was so terrifying that it made the Frozen Tarantula and Night Stalkers look like mobs. Siegfried was planning to ignore the mobs and focus on the Sasquatch before using Grand Duel to finish it off once he had reduced its HP a fair bit.

“Hamchi! I’ll leave the mobs to you!”

“Alright! Kyu!”

The battle ensued with Siegfried taking on the Sasquatch while Hamchi took on the mobs.

***

‘This thing looks strong, so I should be careful,’ Siegfried thought as he stood in front of the giant.

“GRWAAAAH!” Sasquatch raised both fists above its head and let out a deafening roar. It showed off its strength by locking its fingers and swinging its fists down with all of its strength.

‘This is easy to evade.’ Siegfried found the attack to be quite direct, so he simply side-stepped but...

Baaaam!

The moment the Sasquatch’s fists slammed into the ground.

‘Huh?’ Siegfried felt weightless—no, it wasn't just a feeling.

Whoosh!

He found himself in mid-air before crashing back down.

Baaam!

Siegfried ended up on the ground even though he was not hit by the attack. Sasquatch possessed immense strength to the point it was absurd, and it was able to recreate the same effect as Splitting Heaven and Earth just by slamming its fist into the ground.

“Argh! I think this guy is as strong as Maranello,” Siegfried muttered in disbelief while getting up.

Of course, Maranello was an immortal monster, so he was without a doubt more powerful than Sasquatch, but it was difficult to say if Sasquatch would lose in a contest of strength alone due to its absurd strength.

However, this was not the time for Siegfried to stand around in awe of the giant’s strength.

“Woo! Woo! Wooo!” Sasquatch cried out before charging at him once again.

‘I’ll be in a world of pain if I get caught by its attack. I need to fight from range,’ Siegfried decided to change his battle style and widen the gap with the giant. He threw his +13 Horse Fly and controlled it with Flying Sword. At the same time, he shot out a beam of energy using Energy Buster.

Meanwhile, Hamchi stood in front of the Mobile Bunker and fought off the Frozen Tarantulas and the Night Stalkers. He fought in an extremely efficient manner by using the bunker as a shield whenever the Frozen Tarantulas shot their webs, and he would kick back any monster that got too close to the bunker with his large paws.

A few minutes later...

“Argh!” Siegfried cried out in agony after getting caught by Sasquatch’s fist.

“Woo! Woo! WOOOOO! WOOOOO!”

Sasquatch’s entire body turned red after having its HP reduced down to sixty percent. It suddenly received a boost in both strength and speed, which was the reason it caught Siegfried off guard.

This was the Frenzy state some monsters would enter once their HP dropped low enough, and this would give them an immense buff to their stats. Sasquatch managed to catch Siegfried this time thanks to the buff it received from Frenzy.

“Kyu! Owner punk!” Hamchi cried out.

Whoosh!

Sasquatch jumped into the air before crashing down toward Siegfried.

“O-Owner punk! Hamchi will help!” Hamchi exclaimed and ran to help for fear that Siegfried would end up dying.

It was then...

“W-We can’t die together!”

The leader of the Santa Climbers, Elliott, pressed the button to minimize the Mobile Bunker and shoved it in his pocket. Then, he made a beeline for the lava streams, leaving everyone else behind.

“Kyu?!” Hamchi was so shocked by what Elliott did that he forgot Siegfried was even in danger.

Who would have imagined Elliott would pull such a betrayal the moment the momentum swung against Siegfried by a tiny bit? This was a betrayal that not even the biggest coward on the continent would pull!

“Sir Elliott!”

“H-Hey!”

“That son of a bitch!”

The Santa Climbers cursed in anger while watching Elliott disappear into the distance. They did not expect their leader would abandon them along with the other two.

Meanwhile, Sasquatch crashed into the ground like a meteorite, creating a deep crater in it.

“Kyu?!” Hamchi’s head turned back to where Siegfried was located.

What if Siegfried was at the impact zone of that destruction?

“O-Owner punk...! A-Are you getting up? A-Are y-you alive...?” Hamchi stuttered before he darted to the crater.

However, Siegfried appeared a short distance behind the Sasquatch and growled in anger while glaring at Elliott’s back. “I knew that bastard would do that.”

Sasquatch's punch had struck him, but it was not enough to incapacitate him.

“Owner punk! You’re alive!”

“Yeah, I am,” Siegfried replied with a nod. Then, he charged at the giant and shouted, “Let’s kill this guy first!”

Fwaaaaah!

Pillars of flames shot up from the snowy ground, and they hardened to form the Barrier of Victory around Sasquatch.

It was the Debuff Master’s skill, Grand Duel.

***

Siegfried placed down all of his debuff fields in preparation to use Death’s Touch.

“GRWAAAAAH!” Sasquatch roared and tried to squash the culprit who trapped it in this place but it was to no avail.

Sasquatch possessed a large body, and this meant that it was one big target.

Siegfried evaded all of Sasquatch’s frenzied attacks.

Whoosh!

He evaded a punch and stepped on its thigh before jumping up in the air.

“Stop shouting and just die, will you?” Siegfried grumbled while preparing his most powerful skill, Death’s Touch.

Booooom!

The +13 Horse Fly struck Sasquatch, triggering a massive explosion that pierced a hole through its abdomen.

Baaam!

The ten-meter-tall Sasquatch was thrown back by the impact and crashed on the Barrier of Victory.

Krwaaaang...!

The Barrier of Victory crumbled right afterward.

A large gaping hole was on the abdomen of Sasquatch, and it could no longer stand up. Even a Level 300 creature couldn't withstand the destructive power of Death’s Touch.

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: Your level has risen!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 281!]

Siegfried smirked after checking that his level had gone up by one.

“Awesome!”

However, his joy lasted only for a few seconds.

“Heh,’ he turned his eyes to the direction Elliott escaped in and flashed a smile that would send chills down the spine of anyone who saw it.

“Kyu! That bastard escaped with the bunker, owner punk! He stabbed you in the back!”

“Yeah, seems like it,” Siegfried replied with a shrug before looking around his surroundings.

The Frozen Tarantulas had surrounded them.

“Let’s wrap this up and go catch that bastard,” Siegfried said.

“Kyuuuu! Alright!” Hamchi replied with vigor.

The duo charged at the Frozen Tarantulas and began annihilating them.

***

“Huff! Huff! Huff!” Elliott ran as fast as he could amidst the blizzard. He was being chased right now, but the one chasing him was not Siegfried but the Night Stalkers.

“Where are you... going...?”

“Take me... with you...”

“Come with me...”

“You... made me... like this...”

The Night Stalkers chased after Elliott and him alone. These monsters were actually the ghosts of the climbers who had climbed with Elliott yet perished on Mount Kunlun.

“I will never forget... what you did... to me...”

“I can’t rest... until I... take you with me...”

The Night Stalkers stubbornly chased after Elliott, but they had to cut their chase short.

Fwaaaah! Fwaaaah!

Plop...! Plop...!

Elliott managed to run out of the blizzard and enter the next section of the mountain, which was filled with flowing red-hot lava.

“Fools! Why? Do you feel wronged for dying that you’d turn into ghosts? Haha! Then you should’ve used your brain to begin with!” Elliott taunted the Night Stalkers with a sleazy smirk.

The Night Stalkers gnashed their teeth and growled at him, but they couldn't step out of the blizzard.

“You coward...”

“Are you happy... surviving... alone?”

“You evil bastard...”

The memories of what Elliott had done to them were still vivid.

What was Elliott’s secret that he could attempt to scale Mount Kunlun eight times? The secret to his survival was not that he was an excellent climber—no, his secret was his determination to do whatever it took for his own safety and survival.

He did not hesitate to leave his comrades behind when things became dangerous, and he even went as far as killing some of them in their sleep when food rations were running low. He had also pulled all sorts of despicable things to survive until today.

Why? What was his reason for going this far?

It was all to satisfy his own selfish ambitions. His ambition of becoming the first climber to scale Mount Kunlun had blinded him, and that ambition had transformed him into a monster.

“Hahaha! Rot in this mountain, fools! I will become the first person to conquer Mount Kunlun and enjoy the fame that will follow–”

It was then.

“...!”

Elliott felt as if his body was getting pulled back into the blizzard.

“W-What?!”

Elliott looked around and found that he was indeed getting sucked back to the raging blizzard where the Night Stalkers were waiting for him.

“Come... here...”

“Welcome... I was waiting... for you...”

The Night Stalkers welcomed him with open arms.

“W-What is this?! Argh! M-My body is—!” Elliott tried to resist this strange phenomenon, but he was unable to do so.

Shwaaaa...!

A hand aimed at Elliott was sticking out from amidst the Night Stalkers, and this hand belonged to none other than Siegfried.

He was pulling Elliott back into the blizzard using the Grappling Master, Leonid’s secret technique, Black Hole Strike. This skill pulled the target toward the user just like a black hole would before striking them to deal lethal damage.

There was no way a climber like Elliott could withstand the secret technique of the Grappling Master, but his survival instincts kicked in, causing him to do whatever he could to resist the gravitational pull.

“N-No!” Elliott screamed desperately while digging his feet into the ground.

Unfortunately, his attempts were futile, as Black Hole Strike sucked him in even harder.

“NOOOOOO!”

Elliot’s scream reverberated in the air as he flew toward Siegfried and the Night Stalkers.

R𝑒ad latest chapt𝒆rs at freew𝒆(b)novel.c(o)m Only