Chapter 112
Chapter 112
In Cheollihyang Village - 10
****
“Is everyone okay?!”
Na-yeon, having barely dodged the flame breath, shouted as she checked behind her.
“I-I’m okay! For now…!”
Hye-seo answered, pushing back her disheveled hair.
“I’m also, haah, still, haah, h-holding on.”
Su-ah replied, gasping for breath.
Her face was a mess of sweat and dirt as if she had been on a battlefield for months, and her ragged breathing showed just how perilous the situation was.
A single flap of its wings created a storm that could blow away a mountain, and the poison and flame breath spewing from its three heads turned everything they touched back into its primal form.
Hye-seo and Su-ah, who lacked experience fighting giant monsters, couldn’t even think of counterattacking, and Na-yeon was fighting desperately on the front lines, but it was only a matter of time.
A matter of time until the defensive line collapsed, and the Chimera’s ominous roar reached beyond the village’s end to the city walls.
“Damn it! What the hell is that thing-!!”
Na-yeon spewed her anger and resentment at the sky.
It was a stroke of luck that the tail attacks weren’t happening.
However, the punishment dealt was too harsh to praise this luck.
Despair, apocalypse.
Only those two words could convey this situation to future generations.
An S-class hunter, a diamond-class holder, and a high-dimensional apostle were all helpless before the super-giant monster Chimera.
Even that was because there was only one of them; if there had been two, they would have already met a screaming, violent death.
Though it seemed that violent death was not far off.
“What do we do…!?”
Hye-seo asked, standing next to Na-yeon.
Unfortunately, in the face of such absolute and overwhelming difference in power, everything was equal.
Clever plans, strategies, or sheer grit.
They were learning that all of it was just futile and fleeting hope.
Therefore,
“…We have no choice but to hold on somehow until the evacuation is complete.”
Looking towards the southern part of the village, Na-yeon simply wished for a miracle in a sorrowful voice.
“If only we could tie up those heads somehow….”
Hye-seo said, looking resentfully at the heads that were coiling like snakes and spewing fire and poison.
Of course, it wasn’t that they would have a chance of winning just by restraining the heads.
It was just a complaint born from a vague hope that they might get a ‘chance’ to buy some time.
Na-yeon nodded as if she agreed, but no matter how many times she thought about it, there was no way to restrain those thick, long necks and ferocious maws.
“Damn it…. Is there no way.”
Na-yeon muttered, grinding her teeth.
Mana was not infinite.
A war of attrition like this would eventually lead to the collapse of the defensive line.
Frustrated, Na-yeon looked up.
At that moment, a huge explosion occurred on the Chimera’s middle head.
Kwaang!
-Kieek!
The massive body staggered greatly from the sudden explosion.
But its legs, similar to a spider’s, belonging to the iron-clad beetle Arstel, quickly regained balance.
Following that.
“Na-yeon! Holder-nim! Ercia!”
Tae-jin’s voice came from the sky.
A voice more welcome than ever.
Na-yeon looked up at Tae-jin, her once resentful eyes now brimming with joy.
“Tae-jin-!”
Then, she waved her hands with a wide smile like a young girl.
The voice from the sky was like a single ray of hope.
“I’ll lure the heads, so you all take care of the lower body-!”
“Got it-!”
A handful of faded hope hung in the despair-filled eyes of the three.
If Tae-jin could just lure the Chimera’s heads, they might not be able to defeat it, but they could at least hold it in place.
-Kieek!
-Krrreuk!
A moment later.
With a roar from the attacked middle head, the heads on both sides also began to chase Tae-jin.
Na-yeon, Hye-seo, and Ercia reignited their mana and steeled their resolve.
It was the beginning of Phase 2.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Roque! Faster!”
-Krrrreung!
The sight of three giant necks, each easily 30M long, bending freely and three ferocious maws chasing after us was certainly terrifying.
It was a fear I had never experienced in my life.
I felt a dizzying terror, like riding a roller coaster without a safety bar, but I forced myself to maintain my composure and activated my trait.
There was no solution in just defending.
Didn’t someone say that the best defense is a good offense?
⚙ System Notification ⚙
[Trait ‘Detection’ is activated.]
[As a Level MAX perk, weak points are displayed.]
Soon, the super-giant monster Chimera’s weak points began to be displayed in red.
The strategy was simple.
A tactic of outmaneuvering the beast with Roque’s flight and aiming for its vitals with concentrated strikes.
But…
‘What the?’
Flying above the Chimera, I couldn’t help but be bewildered.
Usually, a giant monster’s weak points are limited to about three spots.
At most, four.
In some cases, none were displayed at all.
‘Is it an error?’
But counting the Chimera’s weak points just from what I could see from above, there had to be at least twenty.
In particular, all the areas where different creatures were joined together were flashing red as weak points, and other spots were flashing as well.
‘Don’t tell me, it’s incomplete?’
The existence of the Chimera was never mentioned in the original work.
It didn’t even appear in the setting book, and there were no foreshadowing or hints in the original story.
In other words, it was an existence that would have appeared only at the very end, and it must have been Illusion’s final strategy.
Perhaps this super-giant Chimera was Illusion’s masterpiece that Ercia said would bring about the [End of the Planet].
If so, Chimeras might be appearing all over the world, including South Korea, right now.
However, in the original work, the story was still unfolding at the academy, and the appearance of the Chimera, which was far too early in terms of timing, was likely a premature judgment.
That would, in turn, be linked to its completeness.
I didn’t know the reason for its early appearance, but it might be a variable that could overcome this despair.
The tail, lying on the ground and not moving an inch, was probably for a related reason.
First,
“Multi-Shot.”
I cast my ultimate skill and shot an arrow towards the joint between the tail and the body.
Among the many flashing red weak points, it was the area with the deepest color.
Hwoong—
Three arrows shot out like cannonballs.
The recoil was enough to make Roque stagger greatly.
The Chimera’s maws spewed fire and poison at the arrows respectively, and two of the magic arrows melted away.
But…
Kwaang!
-Kieeeeek-!!
One shot hit the weak point directly and exploded, and the Chimera staggered again with a shriek.
The ground vibrated with every step it took to regain its balance.
And in that gap, Na-yeon and Hye-seo concentrated their attacks on the legs it was trying to use for support, and finally.
Kwoong!
The giant body collapsed with a vibration as if the earth was caving in.
Of course, it had only lost its balance and fallen.
But, that momentary collapse alone turned despair into a faint hope.
I could be sure.
This early-appearing super-giant monster was God R'hell’s premature judgment and an incomplete product.
-Kugugung…!
-Kieek!
The beast hastily raised its massive body with its eight ominous legs, like those of a praying mantis.
Dust swirled like a sandstorm, and the vibration caused by the massive body made the surroundings crumble as if an earthquake had occurred.
Then—
Tteudeuk... Tteudeudeuk!
-Kkieeeeek!
A loud noise came from the joint of the tail and body, and soon the tail was completely torn off, revealing the thick optic nerves inside.
Green liquid gushed out, and as it scattered on the ground, it oxidized everything it touched.
To be completely ruptured with a single attack, its durability seemed to be abysmal, unlike its massive body.
Of course, the areas that weren't weak points were hard enough to deflect an S-class hunter’s attack.
-Kiek! Kiek!
The beast roared and raised its front legs high to stand its body up, then spread its wings wide.
Its size could be said to have swallowed the moonlight.
“Roque!”
-Krrrung!
Just by flapping its wings from a stationary state, the village entrance was swept away as if hit by a tidal wave.
If the kinetic energy of that massive body was added to the wing beats, the entire village would probably be swept away.
I had to stop it.
My family and companions, as well as the residents, were in the village.
Roque’s powerful wing beats soared up to the massive body’s wing section, and I immediately cast [Multi-Shot] and fired dozens of arrows.
-Kiek!
As if telling me not to interfere, two of the heads spewed breath at the arrows, and the central head spewed breath at me.
But
Kwagagang!
The dozens of arrows dodged the breath and hit the joint between the wings and the body, exploding, and the beast’s massive body staggered and began to topple forward helplessly.
The sight was as magnificent as a great mountain collapsing.
Kuuuung!
A huge crater formed as if a small planet had collided, and a gale carrying dust swept the surroundings, covering the beast’s massive body.
But I could see beyond the dust.
The numerous weak points flashing red.
I leaped from Roque’s back into the sky.
“Heup.”
Holding my breath, I ignited all the remaining mana in my dantian.
In the slow-moving time, the bloodstream circulated rapidly.
The mana, condensing at my fingertips through that bloodstream, was channeled into Heaven’s Edge.
Woong-woong-woong~
The vibrating Heaven’s Edge.
The bow, which reads its user’s will, was now pouring all the amplification energy it possessed into the bowstring.
And when the leap reached its peak and I was in a state of levitation.
I drew the bowstring to its limit and aimed at the ground.
Dozens of targets shining under the dust storm.
Hwoong—
Hwoong—
Hwoong—
Hwoong—
Hwoong—
Hwoong—
<w:pgmar w:bottom="1440" w:top="1440" w:left="1440" w:right="1440" w:header="720" w:footer="720"><w:pgnumtype w:start="1"><w:r w:rsiddel="00000000" w:rsidr="00000000" w:rsidrpr="00000000"><w:rpr><w:sz w:val="28"><w:szcs w:val="28"><w:rtl w:val="0"><w:t xml:space="preserve">Soon, above them, hundreds of arrows, leading a sacred trail of light, began to rain down.