The Ash Walkers (4)
[KRAAAAAGH!!] —BOOOOM!! The monster’s body shattered the ground as it charged toward them. Its speed was monstrous, completely at odds with its massive frame. Even a graze from it would be enough to blow apart most superhumans. It raised its foreleg high, then brought it crashing down toward Seongjin and his team.
“Dodge!!”
They had to move immediately. —BOOOOOM!!! The monster’s foreleg slammed into the spot they had just vacated. The impact sent debris flying and heaved the earth upward.
“......”
The ground where the monster struck was completely obliterated, leaving behind a massive crater. That alone made one thing clear: this creature was far stronger than the Black Knight.
Seongjin was already airborne. He drove his tentacles into the ground and spun his body once. —SHWIIK! At the same time, six bladed tentacles unfurled and shot straight for the monster’s face. They struck hard, tearing away chunks of the purple slime coating its head.
[KRAAK!] The monster roared in fury and swung its foreleg at Seongjin. He retracted the tentacles anchored to the ground and yanked himself downward. The monster’s strike missed, slicing through empty air.
The creature kept coming. It lunged straight at him. Seongjin sidestepped the charge, and as the monster skidded to a halt, its claws gouged deep furrows into the earth. —CRASH! CRASH! Ryan’s magic bullets hammered into the monster’s head, snapping it backward.
The monster switched targets to Ryan. Its body shot forward like a cannonball.
“!!”
The distance closed in an instant. Claws reached for Ryan—only for Beowulf’s greatsword to intercept them in a shower of sparks.
“Ghh!”
The sheer difference in mass sent Beowulf skidding backward. Chiron’s water stream wrapped around the monster’s body, buying Ju Won the opening to leap in and drive a kick into its flank. Beowulf recovered quickly and brought his sword down on the monster’s hind leg—or rather, smashed it, since his weapon was closer to a blunt instrument than a blade.
—BOOM! The blow landed on the outer side of the hind leg, right where the nerves ran. The monster’s body twitched from Beowulf’s seasoned strike. Ricardo’s golden fist followed up, smashing into the other hind leg.
“Don’t stand in front of it! Fight from the sides!!”
“Understood!”
Trading blows head-on with something that could shatter the earth with a single thrash was suicide. The subjugation team kept circling outside the monster’s attack range, striking whenever an opening appeared.
Annoyed by attacks coming from every direction, the monster swept its limbs across the ground in a wide arc. The team jumped to avoid it, and fragments of stone sprayed outward. —BOOM! CRASH! THUD!
While the others engaged the monster, Seongjin narrowed his eyes and studied its movements. He needed to see how it fought, how it chose its targets.
[KRAAAAAGH!!!] The monster thrashed wildly under the barrage, swinging its forelegs, ramming with its head, and trying to crush everything with its bulk. Its behavior was simple: it always switched to whoever had most recently damaged it. When attacked from multiple sides at once, it lashed out indiscriminately at everything in sight.
The corrupted monsters they had encountered in the Helm Mountain Range dungeon had all been the same—mindless, fixated only on killing whatever was in front of them. This one was no different. No exceptions.
Which meant their pre-planned strategy would work.
“Everyone! Stay calm and stick to the plan!!”
“Understood!”
At Seongjin’s shout, the team responded. Ricardo fired an energy blast straight at the monster’s eyes.
“Over here, you stupid monster!”
[GRRRK!] The monster charged at Ricardo, intent on tearing him apart. Ricardo left behind a golden afterimage as he retreated at high speed.
“Hurry!”
“Understood! Let’s move!”
While the monster’s attention was drawn away, Ryan and Ju Won—carrying the bag with the sacred stakes—quickly withdrew from the battlefield. They raced toward the hill. Seongjin watched them go. Their role in this operation was critical.
Ryan took position on a hill a short distance from the fight.
“O great Goddess, grant me the power to vanquish evil—”
He raised his arms, chanting the prayer as he focused. White mana began to gather between his hands. It was the same attack he had unleashed from underground during the resort auditorium raid—the beam of light that had vaporized hundreds of monsters and half the auditorium in one strike. Ryan was preparing that very technique now. It was the core of their plan.
The strategy was straightforward: while the vanguard kept the monster distracted, Ryan would charge the attack, then blast the monster with the beam once it was ready. Ju Won’s job was to protect Ryan while he prepared. He knocked aside the rock fragments flying toward the priest.
The power of that attack, which had erased hundreds of monsters in a single shot, was undeniable. And Ryan had been stockpiling his strength for days. The beam would be even stronger than the one at the auditorium. If it landed, even a high-ranking monster would suffer a fatal wound.
—SHRRRK! Seongjin deployed his bio-armor across his entire body and rejoined the fight. They had to keep the high-ranking monster from noticing what was happening.
He lunged forward, twisting several tentacles together into a massive whip, and swung it hard at the monster’s head. —BOOOOM!! The impact made the monster stagger slightly. It immediately opened its jaws toward Seongjin. He leaned back just in time. —SNAP! The monster’s jaws clamped shut on empty air.
Seongjin didn’t miss the opening. “Hup!” His right fist, wrapped in tentacles, drove straight into the monster’s jaw. —BOOOOM!! [KRAAAAAK!!] With a thunderous crash, the monster’s head snapped sideways. Its jaw armor and teeth shattered. Black blood trickled from the corner of its mouth—the first meaningful wound they had inflicted. The team’s faces lit up.
But the moment didn’t last. [KRAAAAAAGH—!!!] The monster let out a furious roar and began rampaging, tearing up the ground in every direction. It stomped, clawed, and thrashed its head wildly.
“It’s gotten faster! Watch out!”
“Ghh!!”
Even though he blocked with his trident, Chiron was sent flying by the monster’s arm. He tumbled several times before slamming into a wall. He wasn’t dead or unconscious, at least. He staggered to his feet.
“Chiron!”
“Ricardo, focus!”
For a split second, Ricardo’s attention had wavered. He nearly took a hit, but Beowulf yanked him back just in time. The monster’s claws passed right in front of his face. —CRASH! BOOM!
After unleashing a frenzy of attacks, the monster suddenly drove its forelegs into the ground. Its claws dug deep, and cracks spiderwebbed across the earth.
‘What’s it doing?’ Seongjin’s eyes widened at the unexpected move. —RUMBLE. Then— [KUUAAAAAGH!!] The monster roared and heaved its two forelegs skyward. —BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! In an instant, the ground flipped. Soil, rocks, and lava erupted violently in every direction. The shockwave rivaled an earthquake, sending massive slabs of earth several meters across hurtling into the air. Thousands of fragments and boulders rained down across the basin like a storm.
“Khh?!”
“Damn it, the ground!”
The very earth beneath their feet had overturned, and the team’s formation collapsed in seconds. Fragments of the flipped terrain surged toward Beowulf and Ricardo like a tidal wave. Seongjin shot out tentacles and pulled them toward him. They grabbed on and landed safely, just barely avoiding being isolated. But they couldn’t avoid the follow-up damage.
—HISSS! “GRAAAAAGH!!” Scalding lava that had been flung everywhere splattered across Beowulf. The glowing, viscous liquid burned through his armor with a sickening sound, eating into his flesh.
“Beowulf! Tch, hang in there!”
“Ghh…!”
Seongjin grabbed the clump of lava and tore it off, flinging the sticky mass away. Beowulf’s left arm, right shoulder, side, thigh, and calf were all ravaged. The stench of burnt flesh filled the air, and muscle and bone were visible through the melted skin. It was a gruesome sight.
Chiron, who had rushed over, sent a stream of cold water over Beowulf’s wounds. —HISSS! The sound was like red-hot iron plunged into water, and white steam billowed upward.
“Stay sharp! The monster’s still here!”
“...Hah, hah. Thanks, Chiron.”
Beowulf forced himself to breathe and gripped his greatsword again. But it slipped from his hands and clattered to the ground. He tried to pick it up, but his fingers wouldn’t obey, and he missed several times.
“......”
Beowulf couldn’t fight anymore.
“Beowulf, head over to Ju Won and Ryan. Rest there for a bit.”
“...Sorry about this. My bad.”
“It’s fine.”
Beowulf limped away. At least he could still walk. Seongjin turned toward the direction the rumbling sound was coming from. Beyond the smoke-filled battlefield, a massive shadow loomed. The area was thick with acrid dust from the overturned ground.
[GRRRRR...]
The monster slowly emerged from the smoke, black blood dripping from its mouth.
“So it’s just the three of us left.”
“Seems that way. Ryan said it would take at least five minutes to charge, right?”
“Well, five minutes isn’t that long.”
Seongjin narrowed his eyes as he spoke. 「[Incandescence Lv.2] activated!」 —CRACKLE, CRUNCH. With the notification, Seongjin’s body pulsed. The muscles beneath his bio-armor turned crimson, condensing and hardening to their limit. His senses sharpened to the point where he could feel every shift in the air around him. When he clenched his fist, a shockwave rippled through the air. Power overflowed through his entire frame; even the slightest exertion made him feel like he could launch himself into the sky.
“Let’s go.”
With that, Seongjin walked forward. Ricardo, golden spheres floating in both hands, and Chiron, gripping his trident, followed behind him.