Breaking the Adaptation Cycle
Taat—! I gripped the massive battle hammer with both hands and sprinted back to the formation where my party members waited.
“Everyone, listen up.”
Without even pausing to catch my breath, I rattled off a rapid-fire briefing on the horrific defensive gimmick I’d uncovered after stabbing the creature’s leg with my spear. An insidious adaptive outer shell that mutated in real time—chain scales against slashing attacks, solid ceramic armor against piercing ones. Han Seol-ah’s silver eyes narrowed sharply as she listened in silence.
“...So that’s what it was.”
Now that she understood why her flawless slash had slid off without resistance, the lingering discomfort vanished from her face. She readjusted her grip on the longsword with renewed focus. The rest of the party, however, looked devastated.
“This is insane. How the hell…”
“Huuu… How are we supposed to kill a monster like that…?”
Jung-woo clicked his tongue in disbelief while A-rin clutched her staff in terror. Only Ki-tae, still not fully grasping the situation, fumed with frustration.
“So you’re saying my artistic bombs are useless?!”
I calmed the group while readjusting my hammer.
“I have one experiment I want to run.” My eyes flashed. “Let’s try the exact same thing one more time.”
“Haa, you really don’t give us a second to breathe. Fine!”
Even as he grumbled, Jung-woo charged forward reliably and slammed his tower shield into the ground.
Boom—!
The red wave of provocation rippled outward. The moment the Behemoth’s gaze locked onto Jung-woo, Seol-ah sprang into the air and began disrupting its movements. Perfect aggro ping-pong. I charged once more into the creature’s blind spot—this time targeting the massive foreleg that hadn’t yet been stabbed.
If the outer shell reacts like this, blunt force should work. But how exactly will it respond?
I twisted my torso back dramatically, then unleashed every ounce of centrifugal force, smashing the battle hammer down onto the top of its foot without mercy.
Kwaaaaang—!!
A deafening crash like shattering bedrock rang out, and the satisfying crunch of bones splintering traveled up through my hands. The Behemoth howled in agony.
“GRRRR—!!”
I lifted the hammer immediately to confirm the mutation and struck the same spot even harder.
Thud—!!
This time a dull, sickening rupture filled my ears. It wasn’t the sound of breaking bone. The instant the hammer’s face connected, incredible elasticity sent it bouncing back into the air with a sharp ting.
Rubber…?
I quickly retreated and examined the foot. A dark smile finally spread across my lips. To absorb the brutal impact of the blunt weapon instead of letting its bones take the hit, the outer shell had mutated into a thick, tough material that looked and quivered like specialized rubber.
The puzzle was now complete.
I rejoined the party and shouted with absolute certainty.
“Fall back again!”
Once we regrouped, I explained how the creature had countered the hammer by turning its hide rubbery.
“If it’s rubber, then…” Seol-ah’s eyes lit up with understanding before anyone else.
I gave a firm nod. “Exactly. Rubber can be sliced. That means your sword will cut through it perfectly now.”
I looked each of them in the eye and delivered the final subjugation order.
“Its defensive gimmick isn’t invincible. I hit it with the hammer to turn the outer shell into rubber. Seol-ah, you slash through it with your sword and tear the rubber apart. It’ll switch back to chain scales to block the cut, and that’s when I stab the gaps with my spear. Hammer, sword, spear, hammer! Same rotation as before.”
“Whoa…”
“Okay, so there really is a way.”
Hope finally bloomed on Jung-woo and the others’ faces once my briefing ended. No matter how vicious the gimmick, now that we had a perfect counter, the rest would be nothing but our party beating the crap out of it.
“All right, if we stick to this—!”
The moment I raised my hammer to rally everyone, it happened.
Both of the Behemoth’s hind legs had been destroyed, stripping it of all mobility. Realizing it could no longer chase prey with physical charges, the beast suddenly dropped flat on its belly and lowered its head in a grotesque manner. It wasn’t a roar of rage or pain.
Uuuung… Uuuuung…
A spine-chillingly low, heavy bass howl—like a giant speaker’s woofer tearing apart—vibrated through the entire plaza, shaking the asphalt with an unpleasant resonance.
“…What is that? Preparing an attack?”
Jung-woo raised his shield warily, but the creature remained motionless where it lay. Then, right after that eerie low tone swept across the battlefield—
Kigigigik—! Shaaaaaat!!
From behind us, inside the city hall building and within the darkness surrounding the plaza, hundreds—thousands—of chilling metallic screeches answered in unison.
“Huh…? W-what the—?!”
A-rin stumbled backward, face deathly pale, and pointed at the city hall. The shattered windows and first-floor lobby we had smashed through earlier, along with every broken sewer grate around the plaza, now swarmed with grotesque crimson eyes.
Monstrous worms the size of human heads and low-grade mutants. To immobilize its prey, the Behemoth had released its aggro and summoned every trash mob in the surrounding city into the plaza.
Kweeeek—!!
The swarm that blanketed the buildings and ground in utter blackness surged toward our formation like a black tidal wave.
A single boss had already been overwhelming. Now we faced the worst possible scenario—waves of adds pouring in from every direction.
“Fuuuuck!! What the hell is all that?!”
Jung-woo cursed in panic. Even Seol-ah clicked her tongue and urgently drew her longsword. At that moment, every one of us turned to the same person.
“Ki-tae!”
Amid the skin-crawling tide of worms, Ki-tae turned with a wide grin. The gleam behind his glasses wasn’t fear—it was ecstatic madness.
“Heh heh. Now it’s finally getting fun!”
The words had barely left his mouth before he kicked off the ground and shot forward. Spinning like he was dancing to lively music, Ki-tae twirled and yanked every pin from the spherical mana grenades in both hands, scattering them in all directions.
Boom—! Kwaaaaang—!!
The leading edge of worms pouring from building entrances and collapsed sewers erupted into chunks of meat amid horrific chain explosions.
“Hahaha! Art is an explosion, you disgusting freaks!!”
Ki-tae hummed cheerfully as he hurled bomb after bomb. Flames erupted everywhere. Dozens of worms died with each blast.
Perfect.
We no longer needed to worry about our backs. Thanks to Ki-tae’s artistic bombardment, we had secured the ideal one-on-one environment where we could focus entirely on the Behemoth.
I locked eyes with Han Seol-ah as she closed in from the opposite side. No words were necessary. A single short nod passed between us. That was the signal. We charged the Behemoth at the same time.
“Here we go!”
Kwaang—!!
My hammer struck first, smashing into the creature’s thick flank. Instead of crushing bone, the tough rubber’s elasticity sent the hammer rebounding. In that instant, Seol-ah’s longsword sliced in like a waiting predator and tore through the quivering rubber hide.
Kigigik! Clang!!
As its flesh was carved away, the Behemoth rapidly covered the wound with dense chain scales to repel her blade. But I had already switched weapons, pulling out my long spear and driving it mercilessly through the gaps in those scales.
“KRAAAAAGH!!”
Hammer (Bludgeoning) → Longsword (Slashing) → Spear (Piercing) → Hammer (Bludgeoning)
It was a flawless cycle. The suffocating chain of attacks meshed together like gears, mercilessly hammering, slicing, and stabbing the Behemoth’s massive frame. We piled wound after wound onto its back and flanks.
Yet even after dozens of strikes…
Why won’t it fall?
In the midst of our breathless exchange, I clicked my tongue. Both hind legs had been shredded and pierced, forcing the beast onto its knees, but it was still no easy opponent. Even while writhing in pain, it swung its pillar-thick arms wildly, stubbornly obstructing our approach. It guarded its vital spots—especially the heart and throat—with those long arms, never once leaving an opening.
Despite landing dozens of effective hits on its back and sides, its ridiculous endurance and stamina—the same traits that had driven the ace teams to despair—prevented us from landing a decisive blow.
Time was slipping away too quickly.
“Huff… huff…”
Seol-ah’s breathing had grown ragged, and her sword strikes were visibly dulling. I had been switching weapons nonstop while drawing on mana with extreme focus; my own limbs already felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton. The situation on the main frontline was no better.
Boom—! Crash!!
Jung-woo, who had been taking the beast’s desperate arm swings head-on with his whole body, finally tumbled across the ground covered in blood. Cracks spiderwebbed across his once-sturdy tower shield. His durability had reached its absolute limit.
“Heal…! Need a heal… ugh!”
A-rin, supporting him from the rear, had gone deathly pale. The healing light flowing from her staff flickered like a candle in the wind before sputtering out entirely. It was the clear limit of a single healer—her mana pool had run completely dry.
The red system timer floating at the edge of my vision ticked down mercilessly. Our party’s stamina and mana had both hit their limits. Any further delay and all the progress we had made would vanish. Total annihilation would be inevitable.
I have to make a decision.
Just then, two of the mana grenades Ki-tae had been throwing with growing leisure struck a worm’s head, bounced off, and detonated right beneath the Behemoth.
Kwaaaaaang—!!
A horrific explosion swallowed the creature’s massive lower body in crimson flames.
“KRAAAAAGH!!”
The Behemoth screamed. In that instant, its outer shell began mutating wildly in a desperate bid for survival. To withstand the wide-area blast, its skin rapidly melted into a sticky, semi-fluid state. It had gained extreme resistance to explosions but lost its physical integrity, becoming extremely soft.
Seol-ah, with her overwhelming dynamic vision, did not miss that fleeting opening.
Sssssshk—!!
Without hesitation she dove in, driving her longsword deep into the liquefied hide. The slash was far deeper and more lethal than when the hide had been rubber. The creature’s thick flesh parted like warm butter.
“KUOOOOO!!”
A roar more desperate and agonized than any it had uttered before shook the entire plaza.
…That’s it.
The moment I witnessed the scene, a spark ignited in my mind. The outer shell had collapsed to disperse the explosion and heat. In that state, it would be horrifically vulnerable to slashing attacks.
The system timer in the corner of my vision showed less than two minutes remaining in real time. At most five minutes subjectively. The beast had taken terrible damage, but as a boss that had devoured Rank 1s, it still boasted frightening vitality. Our party, on the other hand, was completely spent. We could no longer afford a war of attrition.
“Kang Do-woon! What are you doing?!”
Seol-ah’s sharp cry pierced my ears. According to the original plan, I should have followed her slash immediately with my spear, driving it into the gaps in the mutated scales. But I had been frantically reassembling tactics in my head and stood frozen for a moment.
The Behemoth, enraged at Seol-ah for carving out its flesh, spotted me standing defenseless and raised a blood-soaked massive fist high.
Ah.
The instant I realized I had become the target, my vision flipped upside down.
Taat—!
Crash!
Seol-ah, who had been closest, kicked off the ground like a wild animal and snatched me around the waist. We tumbled across the asphalt several times and barely escaped the range of the Behemoth’s brutal descending fist.
Kwaaaaang—!!
A massive crater formed where I had been standing, sending debris flying in every direction.
“Ugh…”
In the cloud of dust, Seol-ah pinned me to the ground from above, eyes bloodshot.
“Snap out of it!”
“W-wait a second.”
I gasped for air, pushed her shoulder aside, and urgently raised one hand toward the snarling Behemoth in the distance.
Low-grade Lightning.
Crackle—!
Blue lightning shot from my fingertips and struck the creature’s melted outer shell. The damage was no more than a mosquito bite, but what I wanted to see was its reaction.
Ssssssk—.
Shockingly, the Behemoth kept its semi-fluid form while pulling dirt and sand onto its surface, perfectly insulating itself against the electric magic.
…!
A monster capable of maintaining both physical mutation and magical attribute immunity at the same time. But that also meant it could be doubly vulnerable to coordinated magic-and-physical attacks.
“Han Seol-ah.” I stared straight into her eyes as she hovered above me, breathing hard. “That sword energy you used inside the building earlier—can you use it at maximum output?”
Her brows furrowed at the sudden question. “What? Right now… I can’t. It needs charging time. At least five seconds… more than ten if I want it stronger.”
“We don’t have much time left. We’ll never kill it by chipping away like this. We need to end it with one decisive strike.”
“……”
Her silver eyes wavered. Ten seconds. Standing still to gather energy for ten seconds in front of this rampaging boss—especially in the middle of a battlefield where thousands of worms were pouring in—was practically suicide.
“Can you trust me?” I gripped her shoulder tightly and whispered.
“Guys!! I really can’t hold this anymore!!”
From the front line came Jung-woo’s desperate scream as he held his broken shield, coughing blood. A-rin was sobbing while squeezing out every last drop of mana, but collapse was only a matter of time. Seol-ah’s wavering gaze met my resolute eyes. A cold, venomous determination flashed across the icy eyes that had earned her the title of Ice Queen.
She gave a short, firm nod.
I smiled and rose to my feet.