Chapter 101
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Behemoth [4]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jeong Jin-yeong stared blankly, lost in thought. This has to be a dream.
It must be a dream. What just happened couldn't possibly be real, so it had to be.
About three minutes ago, Jang Byeong-gon had died.
He'd been prone on the ground, firing his gun, when a hook-like talon from a Deathclaw dropped casually from the rooftop of the building next door, piercing right through his back.
They'd killed that Deathclaw on the spot, but Jang Byeong-gon didn't move.
It had all happened in an instant, without even a moment to register the danger.
No foreshadowing, no hint of the gruesome fate ahead—and yet, one of their comrades was dead.
It hit him now, crystal clear: all those hunts tagging along with Kim Geuk had been not just easy, but remarkably safe. Other hunters must face this kind of thing every day...
And Kim Geuk—the one who'd always shielded and protected the team, keeping everyone alive up to now—wasn't here.
From the radio chatter earlier, Kim Geuk didn't sound okay. The transmission was garbled, so it was unclear if he was dead or just badly hurt, but either way, he wasn't in any shape to come when called.
That fact instilled a fear beyond anything he could have imagined...
Now that his body was free to move, his upper and lower jaws trembled nonstop.
Cutting through the terror and his swirling thoughts, Im Hyeong-taek's sharp voice pierced his ears. Im Hyeong-taek slapped his shoulder repeatedly as he shouted.
"What... the fu... run...!"
The explosions booming everywhere drowned out the words, but he could guess from the situation and the man's expression.
What the hell are you doing, you idiot? Run!
There wasn't even time to be shocked that mild-mannered Im Hyeong-taek would curse like that.
Jeong Jin-yeong ran.
Monsters had infiltrated all the way back here. Beyond that Deathclaw, more were charging down the road.
And worst of all, Behemoth had come far too close.
"Retreat... fall... back...!"
Im Hyeong-taek kept yelling amid the barely audible chaos. Retreat. Jeong Jin-yeong ran, just as ordered.
The ground shook so violently that running was no easy feat, but he had to. If he didn't want to die like Jang Byeong-gon...
Everyone was sprinting for their lives when a shout rang out.
「Don't... leave me behind!」
It seemed to come from behind.
Which meant it had to be Jang Byeong-gon—the one they'd had to abandon without even recovering his body!
"Jang Byeong-gon? You're alive...?"
「I'm alive! Seong Mun-yeong, Lee Jong-ho! Jeong Jin-yeong! Help me!」
No doubt about it. His name had been called!
Jeong Jin-yeong stopped running and looked back.
Jang Byeong-gon was still crumpled there, and no Deathclaws had reached him yet.
So maybe, just maybe, they could save him.
By the time he'd made the call, Jeong Jin-yeong realized he was already charging back.
He sprinted straight toward Jang Byeong-gon.
Racing off alone from the team, he felt a slight swell of pride amid the crisis.
Lee Jong-ho and Seong Mun-yeong weren't stepping up, so he was the only one going to help a comrade—pretty heroic. He could brag about this forever later... In the heat of the moment, pathetic thoughts like that were the only way to push down the fear.
Behemoth was still advancing. The ground quaked with each of its steps, thunderous roars echoing out.
But how had Jang Byeong-gon's shout cut through all that noise to reach his ears so clearly?
By the time the oddity struck him, it was too late.
Far too late.
I eyed the pile of explosives in front of me.
They weren't much, but soldiers had gathered them from all over in response to my request, and in no time at that.
"This all you've got?"
A colonel answered my question.
"For now, yeah. Not enough?"
I shook my head.
This might just do. More would be better, of course...
Even using every last bit wouldn't kill Behemoth. Not even a nuke would. You can't just blow away a four-hundred-meter mountain with nukes or explosives alone.
But this much could punch a hole in that mountain. Maybe even shave off a peak.
That was more or less my plan: damage part of the "mountain."
"What do you plan to do with this? Doesn't look like it'll make a dent..."
I answered the soldier's question.
"Collapse that tail. Use every ounce of explosive, right from the root."
"The tail? Ah, yeah, that makes sense..."
Behemoth's tail had to go.
The same tail that used to fire spines as a manticore, now spewing heat rays.
Behemoth could emit heat rays from its eyes too, as we'd seen, but when downing helicopters and fighters in the air, it had used only the tail, ignoring its eyes.
My guess: the face was a fixed turret, not very mobile. Even with targeting corrections, swiveling the neck to track fast-flying targets was tough.
Take out that tail, and we wouldn't have fighters exploding left and right every time a heat ray sliced the sky.
Air support was inbound soon. I had to pull this off first.
If not now—while the bombing had paused—I'd have no safe shot at working atop Behemoth without risking friendly fire, and I'd watch every support fighter get shot down.
Right before teleporting with the explosives, I spotted a man moving at blinding speed. Only my mental net barely registered it as human.
Han Hee?
Special forces backup at last? Nope.
Han Hee was here to help, but not as special forces.
She blurred by, slicing Deathclaws left and right until she paused, apparently winded. That's when I saw: no special forces gear, just some tracksuit.
Probably didn't want to catch flak from her special forces seniors for jumping in uniform.
Was I supposed to admire her spirit, or the special forces' culture that forced her to sneak in like illegal dumping?
I watched her dive back into the fray, butchering monsters, then teleported away with the explosives.
Landing me right in front of Behemoth's tail.
Atop the colossal beast, I worked as fast as possible.
I teleported over the max-mass load of explosives at once and slapped them onto the tail.
Stay still for even a second, and I was done for. A heat ray would vaporize me on the spot.
A couple teleports wouldn't cut it, so I desperately chained them, relocating batch after batch.
Dizzy from the nonstop jumps, I confirmed all explosives placed and triggered them.
A detonation rocked Behemoth's tail—like a nuke going off. A spectacular blast... Success!
But when the flames and smoke cleared, I stared wide-eyed.
The tail was still attached to Behemoth's body.
The explosion hadn't been useless—it had stripped away all the rocks clinging to the tail.
Exposing Behemoth's bare flesh, almost hairless skin.
And that exposed skin? Not a single scratch. Not even a scrape. Why?
I racked my brain at top speed to figure it out.
And reached a conclusion.
Like how the stone chamber formed the rock giant's shape, Behemoth traveled coated in as many rocks as possible.
That explained why it looked so much bigger than its real size.
Gigantic specimens are usually as nimble as regulars despite their size, so why was Behemoth so sluggish? Now I got it.
As a gigantic specimen, Behemoth's true body was probably around two hundred meters. It didn't turn its whole body to rock; it armored itself by attaching stones around it, bulking up size and defense. Like wearing two-hundred-meter-scale plate armor. And now the tail's armor was shattered.
This exposed tail was part of the actual body.
That bare flesh was probably far tougher than the armor. No damage from the blast confirmed it.
I eyed the tail—roughly nine to ten meters thick—and kept thinking.
Even a five-meter ogre had skin like steel; cannon rounds couldn't one-shot it thanks to those iron-hard muscles.
Gigantic specimens are like that.
Scale an animal up this big, and you'd think the bones and muscles couldn't support the weight, it'd crush itself, or couldn't even move on land...
They solve all that: bones thicken and harden, muscles grow tough and powerful enough for the impossible mass.
So Behemoth's muscles were developed to support and move a two-hundred-meter frame.
How tough would that be?
Could human weapons even dent it?
No idea. No time to test.
But I knew a non-human weapon that would work, no matter how tough the body.
I radioed the request fast.
「Force Field blades! Get me Awakeners who can use Force Field blades, ASAP!」
The response came quick: two Awakeners prepped.
Teleporting to the spot they gave, two familiar faces waited.
"Han Hee, and Park Ju-heon?"
Han Hee was expected, but Park Ju-heon? I asked.
"Han Hee's one thing, but why you? Unemployed ex-hunter."
No time to rib him about his special forces juniors ignoring orders, either.
Park Ju-heon grinned awkwardly.
"I'm gonna be an academy instructor soon."
"So?"
"Teacher, what were you doing when Behemoth went berserk? Can't exactly tell the kids I was home shitting my pants 'cause I wasn't a hunter anymore..."
Ah, this guy. Takes special forces orders so seriously he'd kill for them, and now he's that gung-ho about teaching?
Park Ju-heon kept rambling on. Not chatterbox style—more like tension relief. No room to talk anyway, but I let him.
"And the special forces not moving... you gotta understand. When I got kicked out, the mood was toxic. They followed the captain's direct orders, got canned anyway. Word is, don't blindly obey top-down commands..."
"Understand my ass."
Couldn't hold back the snap, and Park Ju-heon snorted.
"Fair. No need to defend 'em. I'm here as an ex-hunter anyway. Not ex-special forces."
Then I asked.
"You know this gig's high risk of dying, right?"
"Hunter life's always one slip from death."
I turned to Han Hee next.
Her blade seemed too short for this op. No longer sword like Park Ju-heon's? Best she could do, she said—the longest blade she could coat with Force Field.
Makes sense. Han Hee lacked real hunt experience, so her spirit growth lagged behind Park Ju-heon's.
After some radio signals back and forth, I grabbed the two sword-users' hands.
The go signal arrived.
「Now!」
I teleported, taking Han Hee and Park Ju-heon with me.