Wolf Among the Sheep (7)
“Urk!”
Godajok desperately triggered a vacuum explosion on the hand clamped to her shoulder.
Boom.
The blast shoved both Over Yangsaeng and Godajok away. Her shoulder popped out of its socket from the shock, but at least she avoided her comrade’s fate.
Over Yangsaeng shook off the mangled hand like it was nothing and charged at Godajok again.
Thud-thud-thud.
Dozens of arms and legs intertwined in a grotesque sprint. Godajok wasn’t particularly afraid of bugs. But when that bug took on a human shape, stood four meters tall, and sprouted dozens of legs, it was a different story altogether.
Thanks to it, she was developing a centipede trauma in real time.
Even in a thoroughly prepared state, abominations produced casualties. And this one could melt your entire body with a single touch, so extra caution was needed.
Especially for her, whose ability only activated on bare skin contact.
“Ju Kang-rim, you bastard!”
“Hang in there. You got this.”
Ju Kang-rim offered half-hearted encouragement from where he’d fallen back.
Godajok considered luring Over Yangsaeng toward him, but the abomination gave her no such opening. In the end, one of its countless arms seized her ankle.
“Ah, ugh! Let go, you centipede bitch!”
“Spider, I’m telling you. Spider.”
Ignoring Ju Kang-rim’s nitpick, Godajok kicked at Over Yangsaeng furiously. But vacuum explosions only worked on bare skin.
Gritting her teeth, she triggered one through her shoed foot.
Boom.
With a deafening roar, she let out a pained groan. Her captured foot was a mangled mess. Definitely broken, at minimum.
Triggering vacuum explosions on non-hand areas was her trump card, but anything wrapped in clothes or shoes meant she got caught in the blast herself.
“Guh, urk, ah……”
Still, it freed her from Over Yangsaeng’s grasp. Godajok dragged her body along, crawling to escape.
But Over Yangsaeng had merely lost one hand among many.
Why? Why is this happening?
Godajok wondered how things had gone so wrong. She’d thought Ju Kang-rim was decent enough to take him in without bloodshed if possible. Losing comrades hadn’t even crossed her mind.
Yet here she was, down two, on the verge of being devoured by an abomination.
“Save me!”
Godajok cried out desperately. Ju Kang-rim smirked at her plea.
“Why should I?”
“Don’t you have a conscience? You…… humanity, or whatever……”
“You’re not human. Immortal scum.”
Immortals weren’t human. Smart zombies, basically. Which made them even worse.
“What bullshit! I’m not like that!”
Ju Kang-rim’s eyebrow arched.
“You’re not?”
“No! I……”
Over Yangsaeng grabbed her shoulder and flipped her. Godajok frantically tried to shake it off, but now eight hands pinned her torso.
She froze solid.
Then Over Yangsaeng leaned in, extending its neck. It peeled back the hands covering its face.
Eight weeping eyes emerged from within.
“Ugh, uwaaaack!”
No matter how seasoned the hunter, staying sane after being grabbed by the abomination that melted your comrades was impossible. The moment Godajok saw that face, she unleashed a vacuum explosion right at it.
Boom!
The blast erupted between them. Godajok, unable to control the direction, got caught in it fully.
Over Yangsaeng clutched its face and writhed.
“Aaaaaah!”
It screamed a horrific wail. But Godajok lay motionless, bloodied and unconscious.
Over Yangsaeng lunged to devour her in one bite.
Then a thunderous roar—countless fragments slammed into its body.
Over Yangsaeng whipped its head around with another screech.
“Eight eyes? That’s eight times the glare.”
Ju Kang-rim muttered as he reloaded his spent blunderbuss into his robe. He needed Godajok alive for interrogation. Her suicide knockout worked out perfectly—now it was time to hunt Over Yangsaeng.
“Let’s get to the hunting.”
Blunderbusses lost power after the first shot for a while. Their might came from the evil spirits infused within—once depleted, accuracy and damage tanked. Useful only for that one mid-range hit.
But Over Yangsaeng dodged the fragments and charged Ju Kang-rim, moving with blinding speed.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
The grotesque sound of countless palms and soles scraping the ground.
It barreled toward him like it meant to flatten him. Ju Kang-rim swung his hand axe at the oncoming mass.
Whoosh.
But it only cleaved empty air. Over Yangsaeng had leaped aside at the last second.
“What the—?!”
Ju Kang-rim hadn’t expected such a massive body to float so lightly. But it wasn’t just jumping—it swung along invisible threads.
Threads connecting buildings, streetlights, poles—its personal web.
Ju Kang-rim lit will-o’-wisps everywhere to track Over Yangsaeng in the dark. Soon, it appeared.
Convinced it was hidden, Over Yangsaeng peered down from an apartment corridor.
Ju Kang-rim pretended to search, glancing around.
It glided in silently. Hundreds of limbs converging was a sight to behold—but one he never wanted to see again.
One embrace from that horror, and he’d be mushy croquette filling.
Ju Kang-rim threw himself aside at the last moment, slashing wildly.
“Kyaeeeeek!”
A scream tore through his eardrums. His legs buckled for a split second, but he gritted his teeth and kept swinging.
Whoosh, thud, splat.
Each strike snapped or severed limbs. Durability worse than a normal human’s.
Is the inside hollow?
Its disproportionate agility and lightness suggested low muscle and bone density. Made sense—if it could melt anything it touched, raw physical power wasn’t necessary.
“Kyaeee!”
Over Yangsaeng spat blood-mixed saliva at him. Too close to dodge, Ju Kang-rim barely blocked with his robe.
Thud-thud-thud.
The fluids on his robe turned into swarming spiders.
“Damn it.”
Normal-looking spiders, but their tiny claws pierced his robe-sleeves like bullets through kevlar. He flung them off in panic.
Over Yangsaeng seized the opening to grab him. Ignoring the spiders on his skin, Ju Kang-rim swung at the abomination first.
Whoosh, crunch.
Thinking embrace-first, it took the axe to the face. Three of its eight eyes were sliced away.
The scream shook the streets.
“Aaaah! Ah! A! Ah!”
Crash, shatter.
Windows exploded downtown. A bizarre wail, like sobbing or keening.
Ju Kang-rim’s chest tightened at the sound. It was a mother’s wail of grief—the kind heard at funerals for lost children.
Over Yangsaeng stared at him, bloody tears streaming from its three ruined eyes. Wherever they fell, foam bubbled up into maggot clumps, birthing mosquitoes and craneflies.
“No way, what……”
Ju Kang-rim realized: those weren’t eyes on its face. They were eggs.
He’d seen similar in slug zombie fluids. Over Yangsaeng birthed its young amid corpse piles.
Bzzz.
Mosquitoes and craneflies swarmed him. He grimaced at the proboscis—like needles.
Crunch.
Some pierced his robe and skin. Worst mosquitoes since mountain training in the army.
“Ttakkachi!”
His prepared magpie sprang into action.
Caw!
Wings flapped wildly. Birds filled the airspace.
Ttakkachi didn’t need to command—the flock followed instinct and enmity.
Crunch, rip, tear.
Birds shredded and devoured the insects. Not ordinary bugs, though—some birds got impaled and drained.
But it bought Ju Kang-rim breathing room.
“Thanks, Ttakkachi.”
He shook off the bugs and glared at Over Yangsaeng. It kept spawning swarms.
Ju Kang-rim pondered breaching the bugs and fluids.
If only my defense was a bit stronger.
Then it hit him. He already had the perfect tool.
Grinning, he pulled an item from his sleeve: Park Tae-hyeon’s black core.
“Dunno if it’ll work, but let’s try.”
He popped the black core in his mouth and crunched.
Crunch.
It shattered between his teeth. Park Tae-hyeon’s soul burst out, shrieking horrifically.
“Urgent Underworld levy. Park Tae-hyeon, sinner—obey the grim reaper.”
The man who’d tried conscripting awakeners was now conscripted himself.
Park Tae-hyeon writhed, sobbing shrieks worse than Kangryeong Daegun’s state. No awakener powers or spirit abilities for him.
But another soul bound to his thrashed. Ju Kang-rim forcibly extracted it.
He’d crunched the black core to pull this soul out. From Kangryeong Daegun’s example, consumption speed scaled with power output.
Ju Kang-rim was burning Park Tae-hyeon’s black core at max for this one-time burst.
“Sinners, obey the grim reaper’s command!”
Crack.
Underworld chains bound Park Tae-hyeon’s form. The entangled soul too.
Full-power extraction meant ironclad binding.
A chilling energy seeped into Ju Kang-rim’s body. He grinned.
“Let’s see if this melts too.”
Crack, creak.
White frost spread with each step, freezing the ground. Charging mosquitoes iced mid-air, wings stiff, plummeting.
Even those that reached couldn’t pierce the iron armor now covering him.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Clad head to toe in Death Knight plate, Ju Kang-rim charged Over Yangsaeng.