Chapter 197
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: Heinous Odds
-----------------------------------------------------------------
KRAAAAA!
The Mountain Giant Dragon finally halted its hunt, screaming and thrashing wildly. Ku-ku-ku-ku-KABOOM! The sheer intensity of its flailing made the agony all too clear.
But this was just the beginning.
"Here's another one."
CRASH!
The second Dragon-Slaying Spear flew straight and true, embedding itself without mercy.
The third followed.
The fourth.
KRAAAAA!
Ku-ku-ku-ku-ku-ku-KABOOM!
No matter how the Mountain Giant Dragon screamed or tumbled, Lee Eun-jeong's spears kept striking its left foreleg.
Hitting the same spot over and over.
And after the eighth one landed...
THUD!
One of its legs was crippled.
Not only could it no longer balance, but it couldn't even plant its foot on the ground—that was the proof. The Dragon-Slaying Spears must have burrowed deep into its leg, shattering bone and shredding the surrounding muscles into ribbons.
Because of that, it couldn't chase down the fleeing monsters to devour them anymore. Its speed was gone.
KRAAAAA!
"Perfect! Dickhead, let's finish it off while it's vulnerable!"
"Hold up."
"What?"
As far as I knew, phase two was coming up.
I couldn't check its HP, but the Mountain Giant Dragon, having undergone three evolutions, was classified as an adult specimen. From that point on, phases kicked in, and every player adopted the same strategy to tackle the now-enlarged beast.
Cripple one of its legs. And the moment one leg went down, its health roughly dropped below 50%, triggering phase two.
'That pattern is random.'
Random.
Typically, phases varied based on evolution, and what it did next was purely up to probability.
GRRRRRRR—!
And sure enough, it was gearing up for phase two.
"It's coming! Everyone, stay sharp!"
What would it be? Underground swimming? Rolling? A roar debuff or breath attack? The beast suddenly spun its body and half-burrowed into the earth.
A pattern where it hid underground?
That was my thought—until countless scales on its body suddenly shot up.
'Oh shit.'
One thought flashed through my mind.
'Fucking hell.'
"Hey, it's not gonna... launch its scales, is it?"
"Everyone, get over here to me!"
Shin Seo-yeon was right. This was the Mountain Giant Dragon's scale barrage, firing them in all directions. It could only be used once, making it one of its ultimate and most devastating techniques.
In short, the absolute worst pattern in phase two.
Thud-thud-thud!
Thankfully, the ground tremors stopped, so Shin Seo-yeon, Lee Eun-jeong, Kim Jong-su, and the four surviving North Koreans all gathered around me.
Twitch.
In the meantime, the scales quivered violently, and I swiftly pulled an item from my inventory.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
Dracalon's scales slammed into the ground, forming a sturdy wall around us.
"Everyone, get off the Dracos and hug tight to the scales!"
People grabbed a scale each and pressed close behind it. The quick-witted Dracos also crouched low, hiding behind us.
Then a sudden idea hit me. I yanked Lee Eun-jeong and Shin Seo-yeon to my sides with psychokinesis and braced my legs firmly against the scales.
Screeeee—
Suddenly, the world went pitch black.
After that, our bodies floated up.
A dull impact passed through the Dracalon scales, into our skin, muscles, and bones. Excruciating pain surged up from the soles of my feet through both legs. When I came to, we were soaring high into the sky.
A dizzyingly distant ground stretched out below.
'Ha.'
A laugh escaped me for a moment. How insanely powerful was this attack to launch us over 200 meters into the air in one hit? Without the Dracalon scales as a shield, it would've been impossible to block.
No—even with them, would we have been okay?
"Dickhead! Are your legs alright?!"
"What happened?!"
Snapping back to reality, Shin Seo-yeon and Lee Eun-jeong looked up at me from either side.
My two legs, which had solidly braced the Dracalon scales.
And not content with lifting us 200 meters up, we were now hurtling through the air at tremendous speed—all three of us.
Since my legs had absorbed the full shock, Shin Seo-yeon realized they couldn't possibly be fine.
"I'm good."
And I was. If my stamina hadn't exceeded 350, I never would've endured that impact.
Plus, with [Dusk Kindling] and [Arseina's Blessing], I had 40% physical damage immunity right now.
Normally, my knees would've been shattered, blood gushing everywhere—but thanks to Taladrass and Arseina's gifts, I avoided that gruesome fate.
"You're really okay, right?!"
"Yeah. You know me."
"I do! You're the bastard who never shows it no matter what!"
"Am I?"
Well, if Shin Seo-yeon said so, it must be true. She'd been watching me since kindergarten.
"That's not important right now."
First things first—we had to survive somehow.
I halted the Dracalon scales with psychokinesis. I wasn't sure if inertia would let me, but I managed to stop them just before they smashed into the barrier.
Then our bodies dropped straight down—but I used psychokinesis to descend gently, so no death by falling. I chugged a stamina potion I'd been saving to feed the Dracos.
"What about the others?"
That's when a dull sound came from behind us.
Turning back, I saw the Dracalon scales and the Mountain Giant Dragon's scales crashing violently into the barrier wall before falling away.
Beyond them, blood and flesh chunks poured down. Mangled corpses beyond recognition.
Such traces dotted the ground every few hundred meters.
'Ah.'
If I hadn't pulled Shin Seo-yeon and Lee Eun-jeong to me, they would've ended up the same.
"Ah...!"
Lee Eun-jeong flailed her hand toward where her comrades had been.
'What a shitty phase.'
In the end, only the three of us survived that monstrous tempest. Not just humans—most monsters and Dracos alike were reduced to meat chunks rolling on the ground.
"Uwaaaah!"
Lee Eun-jeong wailed, but no voices answered.
"Shin Seo-yeon, get ready. It's coming again."
"Again? Hasn't it ended yet?!"
The absolute worst pattern in phase two, drawn with heinous odds. It curls up underground and launches scales everywhere.
Why was it the worst? Because it ripped out and fired every scale on its body, inevitably wounding itself. In other words, self-damage—and the blood now pouring from its body proved it.
The headache came next: using this dropped its HP below 25%, jumping straight to phase three.
Yeah—before players could even recover, it went into phase three. That made it the worst.
"Wh-what?"
And phase three was random too. The moment I saw its action, a curse slipped out after ages.
"This is insane."
Crunch! Crunch!
"Wh-what is that?! Is it eating its own leg right now?!"
The Mountain Giant Dragon gaped its maw and bit into its left leg—the useless one—devouring it.
This was the worst pattern in phase three, drawn with heinous odds.
When cornered, the Mountain Giant Dragon would cannibalize itself to evolve and escape crisis—which was exactly what it was doing.
And finally, it achieved the evolution it desperately needed.
Crunch. Cruuunch.
"Th-the leg... it's regrowing...?"
The evolution it chose: super-regeneration.
The severed leg regrew, new scales sprouting. And then it started eating its own body again.
Eat and evolve, eat and evolve.
A route no player could possibly break had just triggered.
Crunch. Cruuuunch.
The beast grew endlessly larger and stronger. What had been a mere hill before now truly resembled a mountain.
"H-hey... what do we do? How do we even take that down...?"
Without DPS exceeding its super-regeneration, it was impossible now. No player could do it.
'...This is way too rigged.'
Having the Luck ability didn't mean I could always dodge the worst. It just raised the odds of avoiding it.
But still—worst odds on top of worst odds?
Maybe today was one of those five "catastrophic days" from the ten-year Selection Process.
"Urgh!"
Shin Seo-yeon gathered all her mana, even activating [Grand Mage's Circlet], forming truck-sized fireballs in her hands.
[Grand Mage's Circlet: An artifact left by an ancient nameless grand mage. Doubles mana upon use, lasting {Mana × 0.1} seconds. Usable once per day.]
"DIE!"
Ku-ku-ku-ku-ku-KABOOM!
A single strike fueled by her whopping 584 mana. But it was futile. It gouged deep enough to expose bone in the left leg, only for it to heal in seconds.
Thud.
Shin Seo-yeon looked up at it, sweat beading coldly.
A colossal, unstoppable calamity. That's what faced us. And truly, it was a calamity incarnate.
But the Crimson Flame Witch was the Crimson Flame Witch. She squeezed out nonexistent mana to hurl more fireballs.
"Die! Die! Die!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
That was the Crimson Flame Witch. An S-Rank hero who charged forward relentlessly, even in hopeless despair foretelling death, destroying everything and seizing victory.
But with her mana depleted, she could do no more.
"Hah. Haah."
What to do? Bring in the Saintess for a shot, or run like cowards to survive?
Crash!
Finally, the enlarged beast shattered even the [Heavenly Seal Formation].
KRROOOOAAAR!
It bellowed skyward, arrogant and ferocious, as if defying the gods who created this otherworld. A triumphant roar proclaiming it had overcome even the divinely foretold death.
Standing tall on two legs, its body was so massive it seemed to touch the clouds.
A colossal monster: 100 meters thick, 800 meters long.
Thud.
After flaunting its presence to the world, it planted all four legs and turned to us. Its longtime nemeses who'd cornered it. The emissaries sent by the gods.
"...Dickhead, we're totally screwed, right?"
"Not gonna deny it."
"Ha, who even asks us to take down something like that? It's basically a natural disaster."
Tell me about it. Thud. Thud. Thud. It approached us. What now—run, or see it through to the end? That's when...
Thud-thud-thud!
Someone shot forward like an arrow. Lee Eun-jeong snatched the two remaining Dragon-Slaying Spears from my hand and charged toward the enemy kilometers away.
"Hey, where are you going?!"
Despite Shin Seo-yeon's shout to stop her, Lee Eun-jeong kept running.