The Weight of Existence
'Damn, these things are ridiculously tough.' I'd poured a massive amount of skills into them, but I still hadn't managed to inflict any truly critical damage. The tension remained razor-sharp. The moment their aggro locked onto me, Yeonhee split her summoned beasts in half and deployed them in two directions. One group charged the two Tarantaras bearing down on Cha Jin-hyeok and the hunters. The rest followed her as she sprinted toward the gymnasium.
I had seven on my tail and two left on the field. With the hunters now marking every Tarantara, there was no reason to keep the citizens inside the melting evacuation facility. Yeonhee had taken on the job of informing them and guiding them to safety.
On the other side, Cha Jin-hyeok—covered in blood and tears—was squeezing out the last of his strength while watching Yeonhee run for the gymnasium. The hunters who had been waiting on standby saw that the Tarantara on the roof had vanished and finally burst onto the field like they'd been waiting for their cue. They were late to the party, but I hoped with all my heart that everyone would work together to defeat those two Tarantaras without letting Yeonhee get hurt.
Yeonhee, still running toward the gymnasium, couldn't tear her eyes off my back. Tears already brimmed in her eyes, yet a fierce determination burned within those purple irises. My benefactor. My hero.
The image of Yeonhee overflowing with justice from my memories overlapped with the woman I saw now. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. But any sentimental thoughts were quickly washed away by the reality of being chased by seven Tarantaras.
- Chirrururu—!
- Kyaaaaaaaak—!
Thankfully, their aggressive nature kept the provocation effect active. I sprayed Special Strong Acid behind me, trying to slow them even a little.
They're definitely slower than the first one I fought. The massive explosion I'd set off earlier seemed to have dealt a solid shock. The acid was working too; I could feel their speed dropping bit by bit. But my own stamina and mana were plummeting from all the skill spam.
Still, I can't pull too far ahead. My only purpose was to keep them occupied. I had to maintain that perfect distance—just close enough to chase, never close enough to catch.
Even while running, I kept crafting skeleton bombs from the pouch on my chest and hurled them the instant they finished.
Kwaaaang—!
- Kiheeeeeeee!!
The way the monsters' eyes trembled with rage told me they were beyond furious. Thanks to that, even after we'd put more than three hundred meters between us and the school, they remained completely fixated on chasing me.
I'd successfully lured them toward the small mountain behind the school. Just as I thought the plan was proceeding smoothly, an absolutely shocking situation slammed into me.
Aw hell! More of them?!
Five new Tarantaras were charging straight at me from the direction I was running.
Where did they even come from?! This wasn't supposed to happen.
Even while fleeing, I'd clung to a faint hope. The life force of the ones chasing me was slowly draining away from the trails of strong acid I'd left behind. If the pattern continued, maybe I'd eventually see them collapse. But the moment I saw five perfectly healthy Tarantaras, that hope evaporated.
Hmm?
Looking closer, something about them seemed off.
......Are they terrified?
They didn't look like they were running toward me with purpose. They looked like they were fleeing from something. Using the instincts of the same monster species, I guessed they'd encountered some monstrously powerful being they'd never met before and were running for their lives.
That would mean an incredibly strong entity was nearby, yet nothing had registered on my sensory waves. If I headed in the direction they'd come from, I might run into it—but I had no intention of moving more than a set distance from Yeonhee. Warning messages about exceeding the range of the earring artifact from the hidden dungeon kept flashing in my vision.
If Yeonhee fell into danger, I needed to be close enough for her to use her emergency escape ability. So the moment the newly arrived Tarantaras locked onto me, I made a sharp left turn. With the new additions, a total of twelve monsters were now chasing me.
Are they seriously mobilizing an entire squad just to catch one skeleton?!
No matter how much I cursed internally, it changed nothing. The distance hadn't closed, but the real problem was that repeated use of Phantom Dash and Lightning Step while luring them had dropped both my stamina and mana below half. If it were just about my own survival, I could fly into the sky—but that option wasn't on the table right now.
There can't possibly be more, right?
Having accidentally picked up extra trouble while trying to shake some off, I expanded my sensory waves to their limit and scanned the area.
None. That's a relief.
After that, staying within range of the paired earring artifact linked to Yeonhee, I had no choice but to keep circling the school in a deadly game of tag with twelve Tarantaras.
How can not a single one come to support us? This whole area is a disaster.
My molars ground together, but I suspected other districts weren't faring much better. Several more minutes passed. My mana had truly hit rock bottom. Over at the gymnasium, they'd finally killed the two Tarantaras, but the hunters were in rough shape. With over thirty people, I couldn't understand how it had taken them so long to handle just two.
Cha Jin-hyeok and the hunters who'd engaged first were practically combat-incapacitated. The rest of the group was so poorly composed that the three rude hunters were the strongest among them. That was why the fight had dragged on.
If I led these monsters back to the school now, everyone there would be slaughtered. Nearly seven hundred people would be eaten alive. Just imagining it was horrifying.
Huu...
I'd expected something like this, but now that it was happening, a sigh escaped me anyway. How had my goal of killing villains turned into helping them? Maybe my initial plan to level up by striking at Cha Jin-hyeok had been too simplistic after all.
No. My thinking had been short-sighted. Even accounting for the accelerated timeline, I should have considered the possibility that Cha Jin-hyeok might not turn to darkness.
......
All sorts of thoughts swirled through my head. When my mind got this tangled, I needed to focus on the present outcome. What was the current result? Everyone who had been inside the gymnasium was unharmed. Cha Jin-hyeok's children looked fine too.
If I hadn't come here...
The thought made me dizzy for a second.
Good thing I did.
Yeonhee was still moving frantically. She'd barely managed to persuade the terrified people inside the gymnasium after they saw the orc summons, getting them outside. Now she was shouting at the hunters that they needed to move the regular citizens to another evacuation facility. She even told the bystanders that they should at least help with this much, threatening to report every last one of them if they kept standing around half-heartedly.
Wow... Yeonhee has that side to her too.
Just witnessing her growth was achievement enough. Besides, if we wiped out all these monsters, both Yeonhee and I would definitely hit level 60...
Huu—
I began increasing the distance from the gymnasium. My stamina and mana had both fallen below fifteen. Recovery rates were losing efficiency, and I had nothing left in the tank.
My head's spinning...
The occasional headaches mixed with mana exhaustion rattled my skull again. But the activated trait instantly erased the pain.
Pain Resistance
What a convenient body.
Kieeeeeeeee—!
Even after taking continuous damage from Special Strong Acid, their momentum hadn't decreased at all. Perhaps because they had high natural resistance to acid, at some point the strong acid had stopped working entirely. That meant my original plan of slowly wearing them down had almost no chance of success.
Don't these things ever get tired? Their stamina was no different from an undead's. What tenacious little shits.
I shook my head and moved to an area where people would be affected as little as possible.
Abruptly—
When I, who had been fleeing like mad, stopped dead in the middle of an open clearing, the Tarantaras halted as well and began scanning their surroundings.
Crazy bastards. How much smarter have they gotten?
But when I squeezed and stimulated Clacker and Jeombaki in both hands, Provocation activated again. The twelve horrific monsters spread out and charged straight at me.
Clacker, Jeombaki... I'm sorry.
(Chirrururu-)
(Hoet-)
More than guilt, I felt relief. At least this time I wouldn't die alone. It was a fleeting thought, but the way the two summons in my arms seemed to comfort me, telling me it was okay, made something in my chest tighten.
Crack!
Crunch!
Stab stab—!
Their blade-like teeth and forelegs began tearing into my body.
I hope nothing goes wrong until I return...
Whispering that earnest wish to myself, I activated the skill for the first time.
Madness Exploding Bullet
Loaded with the Weight of Existence — Instant Death
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiing——
The moment the skill activated, time slowed to a crawl. Is this what they call the flashback?
- Crunch!
The core inside my head burst through my skull and began spinning rapidly in mid-air.
......
The spinning core suddenly froze, then unleashed a massive pillar of light toward the sky before shattering into pieces.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa——!
A pillar of light so blinding I couldn't even look up shot into the heavens for what felt like forever. Moments later, the pillar fell back from the sky as if being rapidly rewound and began recombining with the shattered core.
The core, now perfectly intact as though it had never broken, settled back into my chest. Crack. Crunch.
An utterly alien sensation I'd never experienced before made my whole body shudder.
Craaaaaack——!
Cracks erupted across my body and spread outward like a spiderweb. The Tarantaras consumed by those cracks froze where they stood, as if their very existence had been rejected by the world itself.
It all happened in an instant.
Releasing the Weight of Existence stored by Skeleton Magic Swordsman Ilwol.
Claiming one life.
Black bullets burst from the spreading cracks and scattered in every direction.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang——!!
With an earth-shaking roar, I, my two summons, and the twelve Tarantaras vanished from the world without leaving a single trace.
Skeleton Magic Swordsman Ilwol has been annihilated.
Trait [95 Lives] has activated.
Level has increased!
Entering the advancement stage.
* * *
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang——!!
"Kyaaaaaaaaak—!"
An explosion so massive it seemed the world itself had split apart shook everything with a tremendous vibration. Lee Yeonhee, in the middle of evacuating people, instinctively dropped to the ground and clutched her head.
Skeleton Magic Swordsman Ilwol has been annihilated.
Annihilated...?!
Yeonhee stared blankly into the air at the sudden message. But the next one that followed let her breathe again.
Time until resummoning: 05:59:57
"Phew... You scared me...!"
The irritation that had flared up instantly melted into sorrow and self-reproach.