Chapter 102
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: Behemoth - [5]
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That was how the three of us reached Behemoth's back. The surface felt nothing like part of a living creature—it was solid rock through and through.
Right in front of us loomed Behemoth's tail, thick as a pillar.
"Cut it off!"
Han Hee and Park Ju-heon sprang into action immediately. They swung the blades they'd already drawn.
Han Hee struck multiple times in a split second, while Park Ju-heon slashed with the widest possible arcs.
At a glance, it didn't seem impossible for the two of them to sever something around nine meters thick, but it was no easy task.
One clean slice wouldn't do it. The tail was far thicker than even Park Ju-heon's ridiculously long blade.
And it couldn't be a single neat cut, either. Behemoth had Super Regeneration. Factoring that in, even a perfect severance would reconnect in an instant.
So they had to make it messy—layer after layer of ragged cuts to hinder regeneration. Otherwise, they'd never detach that tail from its body.
And above all, they had to do it as fast as possible.
Because Behemoth had its heat ray. A horrific weapon that could vaporize a mosquito or two clinging to its hide without a second thought.
About ten seconds after they started hacking away, Behemoth seemed to finally notice and whipped its tail.
I spotted the tip aiming right at us and glared.
It's willing to fire its heat ray into its own body, huh. I'd expected it, but it was still chilling.
Meanwhile, something glinted transparently high in the sky. With no helicopters or jets left flying, a lone aircraft crossed the heavens in isolation.
It was Baek Dam-bi's ice peregrine falcon. She'd made it full-sized; the wingspan alone looked to be about 18 meters.
Behemoth let the ice falcon approach, apparently dismissing it as another decoy like those drones earlier—meant to waste its heat ray. No sizable soul would have been visible in that ice sculpture, so it made sense.
And so, the ice falcon reached Behemoth's back unscathed.
In the meantime, Behemoth finished lining up its shot in a flash.
The moment the tail tip locked on, the ice falcon moved.
It dove at maximum speed, exploding into icy shards upon striking the tail tip.
At the same time, the water barrel clutched in its talons burst open.
Apparently not just a plain ice construct. Some kind of chill seeped into Behemoth's tail tip, freezing it solid.
Then, the heat ray fired from the tip.
It didn't reach us. Scattered once inside the ice, the beam veered off wildly, melting the rocky hide instead.
The ice on the tail melted away too, but we'd bought a moment's delay.
Everything up to this point was going according to plan. We'd thrown it together without much time, so it was rough around the edges, but it was holding—for now.
Meanwhile, the two swordsmen recoiled in terror from the heat ray that had nearly grazed them. They redoubled their efforts, moving even faster.
"Keep cutting! Don't stop—"
Han Hee blurred with invisible-speed slashes, while Park Ju-heon traced massive arcs without pause.
Surprisingly, Park Ju-heon was carving faster than Han Hee, the acceleration specialist. His force field blade was simply much longer.
Behemoth must have judged him the bigger threat.
This time, the heat ray from the tail tip struck Park Ju-heon square in the body.
He was mid-swing when it engulfed him.
No death cry. He probably didn't even have time to feel pain... God, I hope so.
When the beam faded, not even bones remained where Park Ju-heon should have been. Just a bit of ash.
Even as it fired into its own flank, Behemoth avoided major self-damage—like a laser precisely burning off a wart and nothing else. It had targeted and erased him perfectly.
Another death that went beyond gruesome into pointlessness. But this time, there was no luxury of looking away.
I just thought it bitterly inside. Strong Jun-chi, you bastard.
Did Han Hee sense the urgency? She didn't slow down a bit.
Not just her blade—her whole body darted at blinding speed. To fully sever the regenerating tail with every slice, she circled it like a madwoman, cutting relentlessly.
Then she shouted.
"It's all cut—"
The instant she said it, I moved.
"Get clear!"
Thankfully, she followed our prior agreement and hurled herself off Behemoth's body. I didn't even have time to confirm she was safe below.
I was alone on its back.
And I swung the hammer in my hand.
Now it was my turn to deliver the impact, severing the tail the two swordsmen had carved through.
Gripping the hammer two-handed, I poured every ounce of strength into a swing at the tail. A fierce recoil shot through my arms. Boom—
Incredibly, it sounded like a boom, as if I'd struck flesh.
A shockwave rippled out, but it wasn't enough.
The severed tail was still regenerating, and its weight rivaled a skyscraper. My blow barely nudged it backward—it didn't detach.
I had to keep hammering.
But could I afford the time? With that tail tip already zeroing in on me...
Just before the heat ray fired again, another ice falcon—this one from Baek Dam-bi—swooped in with its water barrel.
This time, Behemoth didn't let it. It snapped its tail around, aimed, and shot the falcon down.
It happened in a blink, but it bought me another moment.
In that sliver of time, I swung the hammer with all I had.
I smashed the tail again and again and again.
Each impact deformed the massive appendage just a fraction and shoved it back bit by bit—but unmistakably so.
Then the tail tip locked on me once more.
I couldn't stop. Dodging with micro-teleports to the side, I kept hammering.
I couldn't fully bail from the spot, either.
If I teleported away even briefly and stopped, the tail would reattach in moments.
As I teleported and swung again, the heat ray finally fired.
The dodges paid off—it didn't hit dead-on.
But it didn't miss entirely, either.
From one shoulder to one leg, I burned away in the beam.
I nearly collapsed on the spot. Just a bit more.
Even the hammer had melted in the ray, so I had to finish barehanded.
Grabbing a tuft of fur on the tail to steady myself, I headbutted it.
Die, you freak.
I'd gone this far—please.
Behemoth didn't drop dead from my headbutt, but the impact reached the tail. It shifted further back.
Torquing from the waist for one final headbutt, it boomed like my hammer strikes. Boom.
Followed by a thud, like a boulder hitting ground.
Dazed, I opened my eyes and realized what had happened.
Behemoth's tail had finally begun to fall.
Detached at the root, it slammed into Behemoth's body before plummeting to the earth below.
I tumbled with it, clinging to the fur—but teleported free before hitting bottom, escaping the impact.
Ah, ugh, ah...
Even after teleporting, I rolled across the ground once. My force field had shattered, leaving me to take the hit raw.
Then soldiers rushed over.
"We did it! You were amazing, really amaz—"
"Kim Geuk! What the hell were you thinking, pulling that off?!"
Nguyen came running next, thrusting a canister the size of a water cooler at me—an energy drink for Super Regenerators.
As I chugged it and watched, Behemoth—minus its tail—still hungered to devour more people.
In other words, it kept advancing.
We soldiers stared blankly at its march amid the ongoing quakes.
"Ah...!"
Finally, air support arrived.
U.S. military? Japan? China? No idea.
Whoever it was, the bombings resumed on Behemoth.
Not as many jets as the initial Korean Air Force contingent circling overhead, but any damage mattered. Leave it unchecked, and it'd cross the whole peninsula.
Fighting back against the jets raining hell, Behemoth fired heat rays from both eyes.
As expected, beams from its face lacked pinpoint speed. They whiffed repeatedly, barely clipping empty sky—or one unlucky jet.
Frustrated, Behemoth roared.
That alone wrecked the soldiers around me; they grimaced, clutched their ears, and dropped to their knees.
By the time they staggered up, Behemoth had turned around.
In other words, it was retreating the way it came.
Monsters kept pouring from the Gate.
Its eyes swept heat rays through the horde's heart, wave after wave.
Soon the monster surge was ash.
Normally, Behemoth ignored its trailing monsters—not out of camaraderie or loyalty, but because it absorbed half the souls from human-killed beasts.
Souls went to the killer, sure—but non-Awakeners' kills were fair game. Those orphans got pulled to the strongest gravity: Behemoth.
It had reaped plenty from the fallen already. Satisfied enough to withdraw now? Apparently not.
Behemoth retreated, slaying monsters outright.
Beasts were always like that. Symbiosis to human eyes? Just ugly opportunism.
Trampling and incinerating the monsters it'd lured out, Behemoth returned whence it came.
Finally, the Gate swallowed its bulk.
The quakes stopped—and cheers erupted, not coincidence but because the roar faded, letting voices carry again.
Soldiers around me hugged, wept, and bellowed in joy.
My chest radio crackled with the National Security Minister.
Keep yapping, you moron.
I didn't reply, but he kept yelling.
Several soldiers approached me too.
They praised my efforts, said I'd saved them, voices fervent—but I had no time to celebrate with them.
What about my team? Where are they?
I'd confirmed Baek Dam-bi safe. Now the rest. I'd been scanning with my spirit net, but they hadn't turned up—maybe too far.
I set out to find my team.
I found them about ten minutes later.
I saw Seong Mun-yeong and Lee Jong-ho slumped on the ground, staring blankly downward.
Then I blinked at Jeong Jin-yeong.
He held the 75kg hunter rifle I'd kept as a spare.
In one hand. How?
Jin-yeong was covered in blood.
Losing an arm and a leg would do that.
Right arm and left leg gone—half his limbs missing—yet he stood tall. Rifle in hand, as I'd said.
His grip mimicked my two-handed shooting stance. Impossible one-handed.
I soon learned how.
His missing limbs had been replaced by something else.
I eyed the faint outline of his transparent new limbs, caked in blood and dirt.
Force field exoskeleton. Unusually manifested as prosthetics.
I couldn't congratulate him. You awakened, huh.
Jin-yeong didn't look celebratory, either.
As I approached, he aimed the rifle at me with wide eyes—then recognized me, trembled violently, and spoke.
"Byeong-gon hyung... and Hyeong-taek ajusshi... Hyeong-taek ajusshi..."
Absence of Jang Byeong-gon and Im Hyeong-taek among the team clicked. I understood.
His voice shook as he continued.
"Hyeong-taek ajusshi tried to help me... He should've listened and gone back first, but he wouldn't..."
Force field exoskeleton awakens under extreme stress. His face and voice told the tale.
Like when I'd seen Kim Hyeong-man's severed corpse, I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them.
Then I walked ruined Seoul, searching for the two whose bodies weren't even recovered. Amid monster and hunter corpses everywhere.
Thus ended Behemoth's invasion.
Or rather, the first wave. To imply a "second," that's how it'd be phrased.