Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Demi Drake Assault
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"Argh! Fuck, how the hell do you block this?!"
No matter what anyone said, the tank always took on the dirtiest jobs during a hunt.
Especially against massive beast-type monsters like the Demi Drake, their workload intensified even more.
Its enormous maw snapped open wide, then slammed down.
Unlike the monsters they'd faced before, the Demi Drake hardly used any striking attacks.
Instead, it seemed intent on devouring everything in front of it.
Simply raising a shield to match the attack's direction wouldn't cut it—you had to swing the shield with all your might to smack its jaws away if you didn't want to get eaten.
Any living creature would flinch in pain or expose an opening in rage from the impact, but being undead, it just mechanically turned its head and smashed down again.
Even when Ha-yul fired an arrow at its face to draw its attention, the target remained Cha Jin at the front.
"This isn't working!"
Finally, Jin-ah couldn't stand it anymore and charged in with her rapier.
But everyone instinctively knew this wouldn't bring any noticeable change.
It was simply the limitation of her weapon, the rapier.
Thin blades had their limits against mid-to-large monsters.
And against undead ones? Forget it.
However, when Jin-ah circled around to the Drake's right side and engaged it, an unexpected effect emerged.
'The target switched?'
Jeong-hyeon's eyes narrowed.
More precisely, the moment Jin-ah got closer to the opposite tunnel than Cha Jin, the Demi Drake shifted its attack target.
"Hup!"
She couldn't deal damage, but in terms of defense matchup, Jin-ah's style was better than Cha Jin's.
Dodging with body movements was easier than blocking those grueling attacks one by one anyway.
'Truly, the best defense is evasion.'
Regardless, Jin-ah's involvement sparked an idea in Jeong-hyeon's mind.
Of course, figuring out a way to handle it didn't erase the Demi Drake's overwhelming presence.
Boom—
"Ugh!"
Suddenly, Cha Jin was blasted backward with a thunderous boom.
While its head dealt with Jin-ah on the right, its thick tail whipped at Cha Jin.
He'd hastily raised his shield to avoid a direct hit, but the impact was still brutal—he vomited a gush of red blood.
Hee-jun hurriedly healed him, but wounds like that didn't recover well even with healing.
"Thanks!"
He charged back in right after the heal, but it clearly wasn't the same as his initial condition.
'Head and tail... That should be the extent of its attack patterns.'
It had pillar-like hind legs, but with its own body weight to support, it couldn't pull off something ridiculous like kicks.
In short, the Demi Drake could only handle two frontline fighters at once.
"Jin-ah, can you turn its head a bit more to the side?"
"...I'll try!"
Jin-ah rolled to dodge its head and replied as she stood back up.
Its orientation had shifted a little, but it still fell short of the angle Jeong-hyeon envisioned.
What he wanted was the Demi Drake's body perpendicular to its line of sight.
"Cha Jin, hold the front steady!"
"Got it!"
The Demi Drake always targeted the side closer to the tunnel anyway.
Cha Jin could fully retreat if needed, but Jeong-hyeon was guarding against the chance he'd end up ahead of Jin-ah.
...Of course, this meant taking extra force from tail swings, making the tank's job harder.
'Well, that's what tanks are for, right?'
It was just a natural role division—no hard feelings.
Luckily, having gauged it from the first attack, Cha Jin managed to defend without getting flung back afterward.
And finally, when the Demi Drake's body aligned horizontally.
Jeong-hyeon, dagger in hand, felt his senses converge on a single point.
Now at level 2, Throwing Skill achieved similar precision without demanding the same level of focus as before.
He hadn't maintained that intense concentration since leveling up, but maybe he still could.
With his breath held and tremors suppressed, Jeong-hyeon saw only the Demi Drake's eye.
'Now!'
The moment certainty struck, he hurled the dagger.
It spun gracefully through the air, embedding perfectly into the Demi Drake's eyeball.
It had shut its eye at the last second, but the dagger pierced even its tough lid.
"Jin-ah, now the other side!"
"...Yes!"
They'd scored a hit, but stopping here wasn't an option.
Jeong-hyeon immediately directed Jin-ah's next move.
First, they had to blind it, even if the effect on undead was uncertain.
Understanding his intent, Jin-ah began luring the Drake's body.
She even inflicted minor wounds along the way.
They weren't visible, but far from meaningless.
In a pinch, pre-cracked tough hide could be a game-changer.
Finally, Jin-ah reached the position 180 degrees opposite her starting point.
However,
"What? Why isn't it turning?"
As Hee-jun blurted in panic, the Demi Drake refused to expose its remaining eye.
Even when Jeong-hyeon shifted slightly, it subtly turned its head to keep him out of view.
Undead or not, did it know what they were after?
When he tested by moving to the other side, it fully turned toward Jin-ah like nothing happened.
He considered throwing before it could react, but that wouldn't allow full focus.
Then, Ha-yul spoke from behind him.
"...I'll do it."
"...? Oh."
She'd already nocked an arrow.
If Ha-yul handled it, things would get easier.
"Then, please."
As Ha-yul nodded, Jeong-hyeon activated Stealth.
"—!"
He didn't cry out, but the watcher noticed a human's presence fade.
The Drake reacted noticeably.
Unlike its mechanical assaults on Jin-ah before, it briefly lifted its head, scanning the surroundings.
And toward that remaining eye, Ha-yul loosed her revolving arrow.
Compared to the massive Drake body, the eye looked like a tiny dot.
Did it belatedly sense another human targeting its last eye?
The Demi Drake jerked its head urgently, but bows were humanity's premier ranged weapon before gunpowder.
Arrows outsped daggers by far.
Thwack—
Not a perfect center hit like Jeong-hyeon's dagger, but the arrow burrowed into its loose eye, fulfilling its role.
The Demi Drake visibly panicked.
No longer attacking mechanically with head and tail,
It thrashed wildly, failing to orient itself, slamming its head around while flailing its tail haphazardly.
Jin-ah and Cha Jin, positioned nearby, hurriedly widened the distance.
And where Jeong-hyeon emerged from Stealth was none other than beneath the Demi Drake's shoulder.
'Up close, it's pretty damn big.'
Among the party's weapons, the most effective against the Drake was undoubtedly Jeong-hyeon's mace.
To end this hunt, he'd have to deal direct damage himself.
But swinging a mace from the ground would take forever.
Jeong-hyeon's plan: climb atop the Demi Drake.
Jumping straight onto its massive torso was tough even for him.
Clambering up its tail or spine wasn't feasible while it used them to attack.
Thus, beneath its shoulder offered the best shot.
"Jeong-hyeon, what are you planning?!"
To the others, he just looked calmly perched under the rampaging monster.
Jin-ah shouted from outside, unable to charge in.
But without replying, Jeong-hyeon simply leaped.
Using the arrow Ha-yul had embedded in its shoulder.
A single revolving arrow couldn't fully support his weight, of course.
But with the Drake's solid torso as backing, it changed everything.
Clack—
Grabbing the arrow as close to the torso as possible, Jeong-hyeon twisted his body mid-jump.
Perfectly vertical to the ground, he released and leaped again higher.
'Got it!'
Thanks to the thrashing Drake, its head was now directly below him.
Jeong-hyeon landed easily atop its head.
It shook wildly with nothing to grab, though.
'I'll make something to hold.'
He solved that by stabbing daggers into its thick flesh.
Now for free damage from above.
He jammed in a couple more daggers, securing his feet, and drew his mace.
Then smashed down.
Boom—
It felt like striking rock, but with position secured, even the short-armed Drake couldn't counter.
A few more smashes, and the undead beast rammed its head into the wall like a berserker.
Of course, that just damaged itself.
Boom— Boom— Boom—
Like a miner in a quarry, Jeong-hyeon hammered vigorously.
The Drake flailed its head and lifted desperately, but Jeong-hyeon shifted his center of gravity with ghostly agility, somehow swinging away.
"Good lord...."
The party could only watch in stunned silence.
How could they help in that situation anyway?
Only Jin-ah or Ha-yul could get close without getting knocked flying.
Even if they climbed up, they couldn't deal meaningful damage.
- An unregistered in a Mission Gate? Feels like we're safari guides.
- ...Agreed.
Hee-jun had mocked upon hearing an unregistered filled the last spot in the Mission Gate, griping about being guides.
But now, it seemed the guide was someone else.
What unregistered tries soloing a Demi Drake, undead or not?
They'd have dismissed it as a bad joke without seeing it.
'Become my coins already— Huh?'
Meanwhile, gleefully pounding the Drake's head, Jeong-hyeon sensed something off.
The rampage seemed to quiet slightly.
'It shouldn't be dying yet.'
Its scalp was peeled, bones exposed, but for undead, that wasn't fatal.
An ominous feeling crept in.
Villains always unleashed ultimate moves in their death throes, didn't they?
'Nah, no way. It's not some old-school villain....'
Crucially, even living Drakes didn't use special skills, and this inferior Demi Drake fell short of fire breath territory.
But Jeong-hyeon's instincts rarely missed on bad luck, so he couldn't relax.
Plus, he'd just recalled: the sudden quest mentioned "master of the suspicious tomb."
He'd thought it just hinted at undead, but it didn't feel like it'd end well.
'Finish it quick.'
With bones exposed, clear was only a matter of time.
Jeong-hyeon's arms sped up.
But if it could be blocked so easily, his instincts wouldn't have triggered.
'What's it doing?'
The Demi Drake retreated a few steps to the plaza's open center, its maw slowly opening.
Unlike prior attacks, no intent to devour anyone.
"W-, what?"
The party tensed, sensing the anomaly.
Hot energy gathered before the Demi Drake's open jaws.
Jeong-hyeon gripped his mace tightly.
"No way, for real?"