Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Nuclear Ambush
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Axe Guy unleashed a furious barrage of attacks, but I'd already grasped his patterns from clashing with him once yesterday. The nature of an axe as a weapon—no thrusts—made it even easier to read.
On top of that, I didn't have to hold back from killing him like I did yesterday.
Unlike yesterday when I'd been holding back, I unleashed my poison mist at full power. The ten-meter cloud of poison mist billowing toward him looked like a mass of red clouds.
Axe Guy hurriedly backed away and held his breath, then burned away the mist with a wide hemispherical aura just like yesterday. But the mist was several times denser than before, so he had to sustain the aura much longer to burn it off.
In the meantime, I plunged through the mist, circled to his side, and swung a fist at his ribs. Before he could even react to the mist and my simultaneous assault, I landed the first hit...
Or so I thought.
My heightened senses picked up Tian Pei's killing intent. I twisted my body in a hurry to dodge the arrow, and right after, Axe Guy—having burned off the mist—swung his axe at me.
Axe Guy and Tian Pei's attacks poured in relentlessly. They were tough opponents individually, but facing both at once left me no room to counterattack.
"The cocky bastard's gone awfully quiet!"
Arrows flew in at perfectly timed intervals, scratching the itch, and Axe Guy grew arrogant.
I'd tried to position Axe Guy between Tian Pei and me to use him as a shield for the arrows, but he caught on to my intent, leading to an intense game of positioning.
While I was tied up with these two, more hunters were gathering near the Gate. If I could just hold out, reinforcements would arrive. The problem was not knowing how many hours it would take for the Gate to close—and with the current manpower, handling a B-Rank monster like a troll wouldn't be easy.
"Think someone's gonna come if you wait?"
I glanced back, and Axe Guy—reading my mind—halted his attack to ask.
"Even if they do, no one's useful is coming. I confirmed Jeong Min-gi entered a Gate in South Korea."
He cackled with laughter.
"A bandit-lookin' guy like you, pullin' off something this clever. Or did someone put you up to it? That Chinese prick over there?"
Veins bulged on his forehead.
"I'll rip you to shreds and toss you in the gutter with your girlfriend."
"What?"
"I nabbed the bitch comin' up from Seoul. Time she paid the price for cursin' me."
"Where?"
"What're you gonna do, find her? You and her both die today. Ah, she's a looker, though. Play nice, and I might keep her alive a while longer—pet her in your place."
It was blatant provocation meant to rile me up, but Na Young really hadn't been answering. Until now, I'd chalked it up to communication issues from the Gate Break.
Na Young excelled at wide-area and special attacks like no other, but capturing her wasn't actually that hard. She was extremely vulnerable to ranged strikes, and a vital guy like me could equip a mental defense item and ambush her.
"I was too nice, fighting all polite like."
I charged straight at Tian Pei. Had to take that bastard out first.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Axe Guy's axe slashed across my back, carving it deeply.
Normally, I'd regenerate instantly to staunch the bleeding, but instead, I made the blood gush out like a fountain.
Spraying blood directly—not as mist—would dehydrate me badly. Long-term, it was a bad move, but right now, my vision had gone red.
Axe Guy dodged the blood and charged again, slicing my back and arms. I'd been moving at top speed, so his strikes weren't too deep.
Tian Pei loosed arrows at me in rapid succession. I raised my arms in a boxing guard to protect my face, neck, and heart as I ran.
The moment my left foot left the ground, an arrow pierced my knee, shredding it. But by the time I planted my right foot and stepped with the left again, it had already healed.
My senses tingled with an attack from behind. Axe Guy's full-power strike. Couldn't take that one. I spewed poison mist in my running direction and dove into it. While Axe Guy detoured around the mist, I closed in on Tian Pei until we were practically face-to-face.
Tian Pei leaped back to create distance, firing an arrow. Longbows weren't for close range—accuracy and power both dropped.
Tian Pei had good strength to wield a longbow, but his speed didn't match mine. And now he was backpedaling, so the gap closed fast.
In a last desperate flail, he swung the bow at me. I blocked it with my arm and blasted poison mist right in his face. Dehydrated as I was, it wasn't a huge cloud.
"Graaaah!!!"
Tian Pei twisted away, but the mist hit from his right cheek to his neck. He screamed in agony from his melting face and the inhaled poison. As I stepped forward to finish the writhing bastard...
"You fucker! Stop!"
Axe Guy—panicked—swung both axes from either side. Taking that head-on would rack up serious damage, so I spun around and deflected them outward with the armor on my arms.
My arm snapped back from the rebound, but I drove my fist into Axe Guy's exposed chest. Just then, the mangled Tian Pei whipped out a throwing dagger and hurled it into my back.
Lucky it didn't hit my head or heart, but it slipped between my ribs into a lung. Then Axe Guy's axe barrage followed. I rolled across the ground to gain distance.
My body was a wreck.
"What, hurtin' now? Saw last time you're not infinitely healing, right? I'll chop you to bits till you die."
From behind, screams rang out in real time as monsters from the Gate slaughtered hunters and soldiers. Na Young might've been nabbed by these damn bastards. Axe Guy was swinging wildly with Acceleration and Berserker skills, overwhelming my blocks, leaving no opening for Tian Pei. And Tian Pei had chugged a potion to recover.
This was what they called a total shitshow.
I had to move. Stronger, faster. To smash these two.
[Regeneration Skill has leveled up from B to A.]
[Regeneration A: Burns life force to boost stats.]
Extreme stress from the situation and repeated physical damage had leveled up my Regeneration Skill. A-Rank Regeneration was a stage even my past life never reached.
I craved moving faster, stronger, and I felt life force burning through my body like fuel.
Axe Guy charged. His axe felt a bit slower now, and my movements were quicker than before.
I caught the incoming axe blade with my left hand and squeezed—my fingers dug into it. With my right, I hammered down on his arm like a hammer, severing it. Before he could scream, my right fist smashed his face, pulping it and sending him tumbling backward.
Before Axe Guy hit the ground, I bolted for Tian Pei. Seeing Axe Guy go down, he turned tail without a backward glance. They were just allies of convenience for mutual gain—no loyalty there.
I'd been faster before, and now even more so—he had no chance of escaping. Just a few meters separated us. Tian Pei dove backward, hurling daggers at my head, neck, and heart. With the life force burn from A-Rank Regeneration boosting my agility by dozens of points, they were no threat; I swatted them away one by one.
As I deflected the last one, I spotted Tian Pei—sweating bullets but smirking.
Boom!
The final dagger exploded on impact, spewing thick black smoke.
I barreled through the smoke, but he was gone. The bastard must've used an escape skill. Before I could track by scent, I glanced back—Axe Guy had vanished too.
"Goddamn it!!!"
Curses spilled out. Their scents trailed in different directions.
If I had to chase one... Axe Guy. He was most likely to know Na Young's location.
Glancing at the Gate, reinforcements had arrived in force, sealing it off. As long as no more interruptions, they could handle it from here.
North Korea's aggressive territorial reclamation efforts over the past few months—and the last decade's gains—had been wiped to zero by the monsters that escaped today. But at least, the head of this new North Korean regime would die by my hand today.
I tracked him by scent, footprints, and blood from his severed arm.
The blood trail stopped. He'd switched to a car from here. He'd stolen one from the Korean military—several soldiers' bodies lay on the ground.
I followed the tire tracks. The scent grew stronger; I was closing in. Then a familiar fragrance stopped me dead. Na Young.
Following her scent led to a depression in the ground, where Na Young lay sideways on the dirt, bound.
Unconscious, but breathing steadily. I scooped her up.
"You bastard!"
Axe Guy's voice boomed through a speaker. The sound came from a bunker about a kilometer away, mostly buried underground. His face peered from the small window.
As I stepped to grab him, he grinned wickedly and slammed his remaining arm down on something.
My senses screamed a warning louder than ever before.
A faint mechanical whir rose from underground.
I instantly enlarged, cradling Na Young to my chest. No time to leap far. I hardened my back as much as possible and turned it to the ground.
KABOOOOOM!
The explosion hurled me skyward like the Earth itself—a massive beast—was vomiting me out.
The blast's shock and heat scorched my body's surface; radiation seared my insides. With single-minded focus on protecting Na Young, I regenerated and hardened my entire body.
Then I plummeted from the sky.
Pain and impact nearly blacked me out, but I clenched my teeth and barely held on. Na Young in my arms seemed mostly unharmed, her heart beating steadily.
Only then did I look at my body and realize not just my arms but my whole form was encased in armor. My fierce desire to protect myself and Na Young had armored me entirely. The black armor enveloping me resembled Na Young's design.
A mushroom cloud rose beside me, still ascending.
That mad bastard had detonated a leftover North Korean nuke. Even in the nuclear bunker, he didn't want to die at close range, so he'd used a tactical nuke with relatively low yield—lucky for me.
A stronger blast would've killed Na Young even if I survived.
I peaked and began descending. I'd gone so high that landing on the ground like this would jolt Na Young. I blasted rough aura from my feet to brake and touched down.
Na Young's breathing was labored. Even shielded by my body and new armor, if that was a nuke, radiation exposure was inevitable.
I raced toward the bunker where the bastard hid.
Life force overuse had me suffering, but no time to rest.
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
Repeated bodily damage and my near-bottomed stamina prompted Stamina gains to replenish it.
Like pouring a cup of water on parched earth—not much, but better than nothing.
Boom!
I kicked in the bunker's door.
The waiting bastard swung his remaining axe at me, but I'd burned life force for speed while he was slowed by Berserker backlash.
I twisted aside, dodging the axe, and kicked him in the gut.
Boom!
"Cough..."
Axe Guy, slammed into the wall like a ragdoll, spewed a mouthful of blood.
"Elixir. Hand it over."
"Elixir? What elixir?"
I crushed his ankle underfoot as he played dumb.
"Gaaaah!!"