Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: The Ogre's Demise
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KWAaaaAANG!!
Players were those who fought in some form or another.
In this moment, just like the boy crushed by the ogre's club, the moment of crisis against monsters crossing from the Gate came with high probability.
Today or tomorrow, they could become crippled or lose their lives.
Perhaps that's why, even more so.
Players had to serve society and devote themselves to the weak.
So that when they lost everything overnight, they could receive condolences.
KROOOARRR!!
The ogre, feeling the heavy impact, roared in delight.
To it, players were perfect toys to play with. They provided just the right amount of stress followed by intense pleasure.
Even after falling into slavery, trapped by its master's scheme, it had steadily hunted humans and always achieved the same result.
Victory.
It was the ogre's birthright.
Completely opposite to humans, who, even if they awakened after effort, often met miserable ends.
"So that's why."
Krwo...?
But right now.
The ogre hadn't fully claimed the victory it desired.
"You don't know how to respect your opponent."
The voice of the human who should have been turned to pulp by the club rang out clearly.
How?
The startled ogre looked at the club impaling the human into the ground.
Only a bit of dirt clung to it, not blood.
"You should have checked sooner."
Jae-hyeok slowly pushed aside the club imbued with the ogre's transcendent strength, revealing his unharmed form.
A small, round blue shield was gripped in his left hand.
[Heavy Moon]
Rank: Legendary
Fully absorbs shock when blocking attacks.
Cooldown: 1 minute.
*Stamina +20.
*During cooldown, afflicted with <Immovable> curse.
*Cannot release shield during <Immovable> state.
[Your body and mind, tempered through repeated endurance and overcoming, boast a high realm.]
[Resists low-level status ailments.]
[Releasing [Heavy Moon].]
Jae-hyeok gave the ogre no time to think.
The massive monster was insufferably arrogant.
It believed its attacks would unconditionally kill humans.
He had to exploit the confusion when that belief shattered.
SPANG-!
By preventing the Gate's emergence at Gugang Hotel, Jae-hyeok had accumulated three achievements.
One astonishing achievement from destroying the auxiliary core, and the other two legendary ones from shattering the central core and breaking the chain command.
Meaning all his stats had risen by a whopping 22 each.
Simple math put it at over 10 levels gained.
Even so, several ribs had cracked when hit by the ogre's kick, but he'd recovered using a potion during the opening blocked by the shield.
KRAAAAK!!
The ogre, its deep wrist wounds slashed again, let out a pitiful scream.
Yet it still swung the club.
Unaware that the muscles in its club-wielding hand had been completely torn apart.
Step.
Jae-hyeok walked straight ahead without flinching.
Even as the club filled with murderous intent rushed closer, grazed his clothes, and tousled his hair, he took firm step after step without care.
Confidence in himself shone through.
The certainty born from trusting the strength steadily built through effort.
Thud! Thud, thud, THUD!
The ogre's club never touched him, only futilely smashing the ground.
Its rag-like wrist twisted every which way with each swing, unable to hit the target.
Kr, krwo...
For the first time, the ogre's voice grew small.
Unfamiliar emotions it faced for the first time threw it into chaos.
Jingle.
The [Earrings of Delirium] targeted the gap in the ogre's mental fortitude.
Just as Jae-hyeok reached the ogre's feet.
Kr, KRAAK!
The ogre's onslaught grew even fiercer.
Ignoring the gaping wounds on its wrist, it spun the club like a windmill.
Toward empty air.
At some point.
In its eyes, Jae-hyeok appeared enormous.
Black pupils gave the illusion of looking down at it.
Crackle!
Yellow light flickered from Jae-hyeok's hand gripping the sword hilt.
The [Trace of Thunder Tribulation] reacting to the prelude of the skill.
'I have to prove it.'
That I'm fit to be the new head of House Kang.
'Without fail.'
SPANG-!
Jae-hyeok, spine straight, drew upward in an overhead cut.
As if proclaiming House Kang's revival.
SPLURT!!
The straight-rising Iyargut pierced the ogre's wrist,
SKREEECH!!
And two scythe-like auras suddenly appeared, embedding into the ogre's elbow.
The effect of [Two Sickles that Halt the Cart].
Flash!
Followed by a brilliant yellow lightning bolt from the sky.
[[Trace of Thunder Tribulation] convulses in excitement!]
Thunder tribulation striking toward Jae-hyeok.
But Jae-hyeok was at the ogre's feet.
The ogre's body, rising like a small hill, obstructed the thunder's path.
KZRZZZT!!
Struck on the crown, the ogre convulsed.
Normally, it would have scoffed at such fake thunder's power.
But now was different.
Vitality.
It had lost the concept that protected it.
Krwo...?
A galaxy unfurled before the staggering ogre on the verge of collapse.
From the white blood spraying from its just-severed hand.
Clunk! Clunk clunk!
The hand, still clutching the club, fell to the ground and rolled.
The cross-section was ragged. Jagged like roughly torn paper.
The result of Jae-hyeok's dozens of slashes and dozens more stabs.
The ogre finally realized.
It shouldn't have let that small human attack freely.
"Too late to realize now."
Jae-hyeok sneered, kicking aside the ogre's hand—larger than his own body.
"Now you'll feel pain too."
No matter how strong players became, they were disadvantaged against monsters because of their human bodies.
A sword cut hurt, a vital hit meant instant death.
It applied equally to civilians and National Treasures.
Could an ogre, now on the same plane as humans, bear that burden?
Jae-hyeok thought not.
The way to shake off fear of death was firm conviction.
A monster that lived by instinct had no such thing.
Thuk!
The [High Inquisitor Alus's Dagger] Jae-hyeok threw embedded in the ogre's knee.
KRWOOOORK!!
The ogre, terrified by the pain, flailed to grab the fallen club.
As it bent over, exposing its nape, Iyargut slashed it.
...!
This time, the ogre couldn't even scream.
Dizzy, it wildly swung the club it barely grasped.
Jae-hyeok evaded the attacks' trajectories without retreating, steadily closing into the ogre's embrace.
Repeatedly dodging by a hair's breadth.
Why take the risk?
Because psychological warfare was now possible.
Kr, krwooh...!
The ogre, stripped of vitality and awakened to death.
To it, Jae-hyeok began to look like a monster in human skin.
How could it fight something unafraid of death?
Its momentum wilted further with that doubt,
Slice!
And Jae-hyeok began exploiting the glaring openings.
Slashed its ankle to force it to kneel, climbed the knee to stab the solar plexus, then drew an arc to feel the heart's texture at his blade's tip.
Thump!
Both Jae-hyeok and the ogre.
Heard clearly as the heart's beating stopped.
KRAAAAAARRR!!
Death.
It's over.
Sensing it instinctively, the ogre unleashed its final rage.
Resolved to die together, it smashed its palm down on Jae-hyeok atop its knee.
KWANG!
And felt it.
Jae-hyeok's presence, unmoving, uncrushed.
"Your judgment's always late. Only regrets left."
[Heavy Moon]'s cooldown was 1 minute.
Already well past.
Using the repulsion from pushing back the palm against the shield, he spun, reversing his grip on the sword.
Naturally altering its path, Iyargut slit the ogre's throat.
Cough...!
Light faded from its eyes as white blood poured from mouth and heart.
[Defeated <Ogre>.]
[Level +8.]
[Amazing achievement!]
[You won against a monster stronger than yourself.]
[All stats +2.]
RUMBLE!!
The fierce flames engulfing the forest momentarily subsided.
Crushed under the ogre's massive body sprawled on the ground.
'Hurry.'
Jae-hyeok didn't spare the corpse a glance.
He knew [Ogre's Blood] was a high-value elixir ingredient, but judged escaping while the flames weakened was priority.
Above all, he worried for the Jaekyung Pharmaceuticals employees being chased by orcs.
'Those folks too.'
Luring orcs even in mortal peril.
Worrisome, yet somehow glad.
Chuckling, he quickened his pace.
***
"What... what bastard dares!"
Tamed monsters receive signals from their tamers.
The ogre's master clearly read its crisis and death.
Rushing to the scene, it was already too late.
The quick-witted foe had abandoned the valuable ogre corpse and fled.
'Not Martial Force. Those greedy bastards wouldn't ignore an ogre corpse.'
To never repeat the same mistake.
Today, he'd scouted Martial Force's routes and schedule, releasing the monster in a safe spot.
If things went as planned, the monsters would ambush and massacre the Jaekyung Pharmaceuticals employees arriving hours later.
But what was this惨 result?
"I won't forgive...! I'll kill you for sure!"
But it wouldn't be easy.
The burned-to-ashes forest had completely erased the intruder's tracks.
"KAAAAAARGH!!"
His scream echoed like a dirge mourning the ogre.