#47 United Front (2)
#47 United Front (2)
My burned jaw healed quickly. Regeneration (D) was nothing next to the Juggernaut's, but it was enough to regrow severed limbs. The scorching inside my mouth faded in seconds, and I scrambled across the Juggernaut's bulk, leaping from plate to plate.
Every footfall triggered Snatch Devour, but the bastard's regeneration erased the wounds almost instantly. Ghost Flame (C) couldn't keep pace; even the Gust got swallowed by that healing. Hell, even penetrating with the Black Mist itself was a struggle—devouring black mana meant I had no focus left for anything else.
The fight had cycled through the same deadlock three times already. Dodging wasn't the problem. I was just burning time for nothing.
"......."
In the distance, the clash was reshaping the terrain. I grimaced. They were still fighting, but they wouldn't last much longer. I did have an idea, but first I had to put down Chimmuk-haneun Ip.
[Multiplexarea sferei fulgerului―!]
Desperation sharpened the air. Countless orbs of crackling lightning screamed toward me—dozens, hundreds. Most were swallowed by the mist, but the tide pressed through and surged at Wolf. I read every trajectory. Even without the mist, not a single orb would have touched me.
Chimmuk-haneun Ip knew that perfectly well. This was nothing more than a bid to buy a few seconds of separation. Already, he was incanting his next spell.
[Dumnezeul tunetului și al fulgerelor, coboară]
The first verse followed in a breath. High-speed chanting so sharp the first and last syllables nearly landed in the same instant. By the time I closed in, Wolf was scaling the Juggernaut's frame. The Juggernaut twisted and thrashed, but I clung fast.
With its eyes rolled back, the Juggernaut hurled its whole body against the ground. Several tons of impact sent dirt erupting into the air and set the flesh heaps sloshing.
The shock loosened the spikes and plates that bound it together. I had already kicked off and gained distance; I looked down, eyes gleaming.
'Those restraints are what keep its shape in check...'
The Juggernaut's essence was still an unfinished product. It had been forcibly granted some semblance of will, but it remained a mass of endlessly regenerating flesh. What would happen if I stripped away the iron plates and metal spikes wrapped around it?
Thought became action at once. I landed on a spike, and Snatch Devour ate through it. As the binding loosened, the Juggernaut's movements grew sluggish.
'Was this the answer?'
"......!"
The Juggernaut propped itself up on both arms as if nothing had happened, but I could tell its movements had grown subtly more awkward. Dodging became easier.
[Când trage fulgerul, respirația ta se va opri]
—The problem wasn't the Juggernaut. It was Chimmuk-haneun Ip, still hidden inside and chanting. Every verse he completed sent a prickle of unease down my spine. Something ominous squirmed within the Juggernaut's depths.
'What the hell is he aiming for?'
I was a total layman when it came to magic. Without the ability to peer into the future, guessing at what I didn't know was impossible. Back at the cliff, the Black Mist had swallowed even grand magic, but as long as he hid inside the Juggernaut, that wasn't an option. And the half-heard incantation was the same spell I'd devoured before—the final chant he hadn't been able to finish.
'......!'
Instinct screamed that this one, more than anything, must not be completed. As the next verse rolled on, I tore into the spikes, plates, and chains binding the Juggernaut, devouring them faster.
***
'Alpha (Jirisan Warg).'
He was still there. Alpha (Jirisan Warg) was running rings around the Armored Monstrous Figure, harrying it from every angle. Quicksilver movements, dazzling to watch. Every step held intent. Eun Ja-rim found her gaze locked on him as he set up his next play.
'...This is absurd.'
He was rendering spell after spell useless, pushing back and overwhelming the black mana that had been so impossible to oppose. Only a short while ago, when she'd spoken with Alpha (Jirisan Warg) in Daejeon, she'd been confident she could beat him somehow.
—Not anymore. Among the hunters gathered here, how many truly grasped the meaning woven into those movements and the paths he traced?
"...If we flee now, wouldn't that be acceptable?"
Eun Ja-rim turned and nodded at the speaker. The situation had changed. If Alpha (Jirisan Warg) was tying down the Armored Monstrous Figure, there was no need to force a fight. He would buy them time. Intervening here would be nothing more than a dog's death. Coldly considered, retreating and rejoining the assault force was the correct call.
Sector 1. The Plaza wouldn't block their way, and they could manage the Maze somehow. The real problem was the Labyrinth. Whether the remaining assault force could break through was uncertain. The right move was to add their strength there. Seizing this opening to pull back the Suicide Squad was the right choice a hundred times over—without anyone having to spell it out, they all knew it.
"...Go ahead and do that."
Eun Ja-rim's words came out like permission. The Suicide Squad nodded, then frowned at the strange note in her voice.
"Don't tell me..."
"Go on ahead. I'll catch up soon."
"Disciple of the Spear Saint, now is not—!"
Hayeon couldn't finish. The fierce will in Eun Ja-rim's eyes declared that she, at least, would not retreat.
'I can't back down from this.'
The other hunters weren't wrong. They had made a cold, correct judgment. Monsters were fighting monsters—staking their lives to interfere was unnecessary. The answer, plain and simple.
'But...'
Eun Ja-rim couldn't take it. Not because of any debt to Eun Gong, but because of the unease she'd felt the moment they entered the 2nd Sector. Her innate intuition refused to let her retreat. It whispered over and over that she mustn't, that doing so would unleash something irreversible.
'I have to settle this here.'
Hayeon held her gaze for a long moment before exhaling deep.
"I can see trying to stop you is pointless."
Eun Ja-rim was never someone who could be persuaded. The warrior trusted her instincts; the mage would decide with reason and lead the rest to safety. All Hayeon could do was offer the only farewell fitting for a fellow warrior.
"...May fortune follow your blade."
Eun Ja-rim gripped her spear in both hands and nodded. Then she sprinted full-force toward the Armored Monstrous Figure. Hayeon watched her back for a heartbeat, then shook her head.
"First, let's regroup."
***
The spikes' and plates' connections snapped, and the Juggernaut's body sloshed. This wasn't an Amorphous form—just a cluster of unfinished pieces, nothing more than a heap of flesh held together by sorcerous engineering and alchemy.
'Not all of it yet, but.'
Both arms had already blurred at the shoulders, softening into shapeless masses. More distortion would follow with time. If I could collapse the Juggernaut's form entirely, separating it from Chimmuk-haneun Ip might become possible. Hope flickered—maybe we could actually win. That was when Chimmuk-haneun Ip began the fourth verse.
'Bastard...'
Nothing had changed. Even with that glimmer of hope, there wasn't enough time to make it real. I still had no way to punch through. If only I had a single opening, just one moment...!
"......!"
I dodged the incoming magic through gritted teeth. Snatch Devour kept my stamina up, but the longer this fight dragged on, the more the mental fatigue piled on.
'...Damn it.'
An anxious chill swept over me. I'd met Eun Ja-rim only twice. Everything I knew about her came from the novel. Had sending Perry back on such shallow faith been a mistake? What if everything had gone wrong because of it...?
'.......'
I shook my head hard. There was no room for that now. The moment I kicked off a foothold and launched upward, a streak of lightning flashed.
"—Spear of Annihilation!"
A shout. The lightning swelled into a blinding light—a white glare so bright it drowned even the sight granted by my skills, burning away every shred of my doubt and unease with room to spare.
"Kyuuuuu!"
From a distance, I locked eyes with Perry, perched on her shoulder.
'You pulled it off.'
The Juggernaut's abdomen was deeply gouged where the spear had pierced it. Enraged, it charged. With the wound now exposed, this was clearly an opening, but...
'Not enough.'
It needed to be the chest, not the gut. A more decisive window. I raced to get Eun Ja-rim clear of the Juggernaut, but catching up to a hulking mass moving at over five hundred agility while dodging incoming spells wasn't easy.
"......!"
So I didn't run. The tentacle I'd already anchored to its ankle yanked me forward. The instant the monstrous pull closed the gap, I hammered Elasticity and detonated a Gust.
"――――――!"
The Juggernaut roared. The wound at its chest was already fully sealed. It reached out to snatch the still-falling Eun Ja-rim, but Perry blinked her away in a flash of light.
"Ah, Alpha (Jirisan Warg)—?!"
She'd barely slipped free of the Juggernaut's hand, but she was still plummeting. I seized the back of her collar in my jaws and found a foothold by a hair's breadth.
In the brief gap we had gained, I swept Detection around, then wrenched my neck back. Eun Ja-rim, spinning through a full rotation, leaped upward again. Her spear whirled back to her outstretched hand.
"...This is."
Eun Ja-rim murmured as though she couldn't believe it. Right now, she was riding on Wolf's back. The fact that Alpha (Jirisan Warg) had offered his back to her made her swallow unconsciously. The meaning behind that gesture was far too clear.
'From here on.'
This was beyond what one could do alone. They had to fight together.
—I had the means to evade the Juggernaut's attacks and Chimmuk-haneun Ip's spells. But I lacked the offensive power to pierce the Juggernaut. She had the means to pierce it, but no way to shake the Juggernaut off or block the black mana.
In that case, the only answer was to fight side by side, just as those bastards were doing.
"—Get ready. That same strike again."
Aim for the chest. Eun Ja-rim's eyes widened in surprise, then she nodded. One moment—just one moment where a split in its armor created an opening—would be enough. If the Black Mist could worm through, I could separate the bastard from the Juggernaut.
'We can bring it down.'
The outcome of this fight hung on a single question: would his grand magic complete first, or would Eun Ja-rim's spear punch through the Juggernaut's chest before that? Having read the flow of battle, Wolf's eyes burned red.
***
On the raft, the first thing Lee Eun-ha did after rejoining the retreating assault force was set down the wounded Gu Jin-ha. A team member with a recovery skill rushed over and examined him, then immediately grimaced.
"...Well, he's somehow still breathing."
The problem was, he was little more than a living corpse. His entire body was fractured. He'd lost a massive amount of blood. And whatever had taken his arm—the question was whether it could even be healed. Worse than any of that were the internal shock and ruined organs.
Only after he'd practically drowned himself in potions did his breathing stabilize, but that was all. It had bought him a little time without changing a thing. The team member wiped cold sweat from his brow and shook his head.
"Getting him evacuated as fast as possible is all we can..."
Lee Eun-ha watched the team member shake his head and ground her teeth. She looked toward the distant chaos, her clenched fist trembling.
—As if she were cursing her own powerlessness.