Why You Must Never Ignore Paralysis Poison
Thud. Thud.
Gong Ryun roughly made his way toward the sound of Medilla’s voice.
Kishishishishishi!
Queen Medilla’s laughter rang through the sewers.
Shalalalalak!
A sound of something sliding, as if gliding along.
Kishishishishi!
Seureureureuk!
Kishishishishi!
Sararararak!
Madoka ♩ Shining Moonlight ♩♪ Magical Girl of Justice ♬
“She’s singing now, too?”
He remembered that song. It was the one Queen Medilla had been humming while staring at her personal device the first time he’d met her.
This way, it is! Kishishishishi!
“Hide-and-seek’s taking forever today.”
This way, it is! Kishishishishi!
“Yes, ma’am! Coming!”
Apparently, until she’d hired Gong Ryun as a mercenary, living alone down here had left her desperately bored.
This way, it is! Kishishishishi!
“Boss, you’re being awfully pushy today…”
This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi!
“…? Boss?”
He stopped dead.
Gong Ryun halted mid-step. Something felt wrong.
And the moment he stopped, the sounds that had been pouring in cut off as if by a ghost’s hand.
“…”
…
Silence swallowed the sewers. But before long, Medilla’s voice returned—
in a tone identical to before, down to the last inflection.
This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi! This way, it is! Kishishishishi!
Gong Ryun’s judgment was swift. His hand shot out with startling speed, and with it he yanked his personal device from his inner pocket.
I am Nam Gong-ryun, a man.
He did not run, ugly and undignified, from an enemy in front of him.
Hitting the emergency button, though—that much was fine.
Without hesitation, Gong Ryun brought his finger to the emergency rescue button.
Splorch!!!
But the attempt failed.
A green liquid streaked out of the darkness and plastered itself over the device and his entire hand.
A sticky, viscous, ominous fluid.
It scrambled the device’s touch sensors, blocking any attempt to press the emergency button on the screen.
He immediately tried to scrape it off, but everywhere he touched, it clung all the more tenaciously.
Squelch.
When he spread his fingers wide, the green sludge stretched like spider silk. Which, in fact, was exactly what it was.
“You little—!”
Splorch!
Splorch!
Splorch!
And that was only the beginning.
More of the liquid came flying at once, sticking to Gong Ryun’s body in patch after patch.
No!
Gong Ryun spun his protective qi to its absolute maximum.
This was poison.
Poison spider silk.
With the dawn of the Galactic Martial Age, many poisons had hit their limit. Modern humans had become far too resistant. Venom that could drop an elephant dead on the spot had been reduced to little more than a paralytic.
But that did not mean poison could be ignored entirely. Even if it no longer killed outright, it could still do its work as a paralysis toxin.
Gong Ryun layered his protective qi thickly over his skin. For now, that would hold the initial poisoning at bay—keeping the venom of the poison spider silk from seeping into his flesh. A substance that would kill most living things on contact, reduced against humans to a paralytic.
His skin felt just a little dull. Each hit stacked. He could not afford to drag this out.
Gong Ryun glared into the darkness ahead.
Within it, eight yellow eyes gleamed.
Kishishishishi.
They seemed to mock him, a sneer aimed his way.
This way, it is. This way, it is.
The same voice, looped like a recording. A trait for luring prey by mimicking another creature’s speech.
High intelligence. Stealth. Specialized in traps.
An Arachne.
A spider beast larger than a man.
“…The thing I hate most.”
That thing was Gong Ryun’s natural enemy. Its official threat rating sat only a little higher than a hydra’s, but against him the matchup was disastrously bad.
He’d nearly died the last time he’d run into one in an abandoned mine. Back then Un-rang had been there—quick on his feet—and they’d managed the cull. Today he was alone.
Queen Medilla’s greatest hits started replaying in Gong Ryun’s head. Everything she’d said about the Arachne-related disappearances in the underground waterways.
Truly!! The Arachne case is closed, it is!! There shall be no more missing persons!
Upon this lady’s mother’s honor!! This lady swears it!!!
“Medillaaaaa!!!!!”
Gong Ryun’s rage boiled over.
She’d lied and told him it was safe?
No.
“Selling out your own mother’s honor!!! Unforgivable!!!!!”
She had sworn on her mother’s name that it was safe!
Betraying her mother?! That unfilial wretch of a daughter!!!
He could not believe she would do such a thing.
His trust and affection for Her Majesty the Queen plummeted straight through the floor.
Queen? What queen.
From this moment on, you are an unfilial daughter. You wicked woman!!!
Kishishishishi.
While he thought all that, the Arachne closed its glowing eyes and slipped back into the dark.
Then it melted completely into the shadows and erased every trace of its presence.
Kishishishishi. Kishishishishi. Kishishishishi.
Laughter rose again from every direction.
Hunting time.
Gong Ryun shoved his emotions aside, gathered internal energy into his hands, and prepared for combat. This was not the moment for anger. He had to fight.
He strained his ears, trying to catch any movement.
It was useless.
He felt nothing at all.
And then—
Splorch!
Splorch!
Splorch!
Poison spider silk came flying. It plastered itself all over him.
Until the instant it launched, he hadn’t sensed a shred of energy.
Should he use Parangjang? No. Too far. Palm techniques were for close range.
Sticky.
The venomous fluid coating his body was viciously adhesive. Bit by bit, it began to restrict his mobility.
His skin’s sensation started to fuzz and tingle. He couldn’t take any more hits. Next time one came, he would dodge as best he could.
Splorch!
Splorch!
Splorch!
Splorch!
Splorch!
The thought had barely formed when the follow-up barrage arrived. Every shot landed.
“Damn it.”
What an infuriating liquid.
“You cowardly long-range harassing piece of trash! Stop sniping from a distance and come out front!!!”
Kishishishishishi!
Only that mocking laugh came back.
This wasn’t working. He couldn’t fight like this. The thing had zero intention of leaving the dark. It was perfectly content to sit out there and plink poison at him.
He needed to get somewhere as bright as possible. Somewhere open would be even better. Only then could he make a real fight of it.
But he couldn’t check a map. His device was fried.
In the end, he had no choice but to go back the way he’d come.
If memory served, he had passed through a place like a cavern—wide and bright.
So Gong Ryun turned on his heel and ran back along the path he’d taken.
This was not running away. This was charging in to fight. The heart of a warrior racing toward the dueling ground. That was what it was. Anyway.
And it was also the way to force the Arachne into close combat. An Arachne knew its favored battlefield well. It would not leave its prey free to reach the light.
So it would try to stop Gong Ryun’s escape—using something other than poison spider silk.
That silk was not the only annoying thing about it.
Swaaaaaeek!!!
From somewhere in the dark, a sound of air splitting. The whistle of a blade cutting the air. A claw strike. Its two foreclaws were abnormally developed.
Gong Ryun activated Geumnasu and wrapped himself in even denser protective qi.
Then he spun around, facing the Arachne’s direction, staring into the dark. Here it comes! Straight ahead!
Kaaang!!!
Wrong. It came from the side. The Arachne had already ridden the darkness in close and been lying in ambush.
A two-meter foreclaw shaped like a great saber, specialized for cleaving strikes, slammed into his flank.
Moving through darkness like swimming—that was its specialty. In the dark, its body was like a cat’s.
That enormous frame could move at terrifying speed without making a sound, then fold itself with liquid flexibility and hide every inch in the shadows—as if its whole body had turned to fluid and dissolved into the dark. For an arthropod, no less.
The whole thick darkness of the sewers was its territory.
Like piranhas in a pond, it could burst out from anywhere.
Whoosh!
Gong Ryun swung Geumnasu.
The creature had attacked with only its long foreclaw fully extended. He couldn’t reach the main body, but he ought to be able to grab the claw and rip it clean off.
But this was a dark sewer. Arachne territory.
The claw yanked back in a flash. Then the whole body folded into the dark and vanished without a trace.
…
The sewers fell silent again.
Once more, he could feel nothing at all.
Gong Ryun looked at the flank that had taken the cleaving blow.
The strike had bounced off his protective qi.
It hadn’t wounded him. Not yet.
Not yet.
As it was, he was already spreading protective qi over every inch of skin without gaps just to hold back the poison on his body. The instant a cleaving strike landed, he had to pour qi into that point as well.
For now it was fine—but as the poison stacked further, the cost of defending against it would only climb.
When that moment came, could he still block a cleaving strike perfectly?
He got his answer not long after.
“Hah… hah…”
Gong Ryun forced his breathing steady.
He was still running hard for the bright cavern.
His body was draped in green spider silk. Dozens of poison threads had come flying, and he’d taken every last one.
Sensation in his skin was vanishing or going numb and burning. At least he could still move—that was something. He kept his feet going.
Scratches marked him here and there. At first they had been hair-thin. But the more the poison took hold, the more of his focus went to defending against it, and the concentration of his protective qi dropped—letting the cleaving strikes cut deeper and deeper.
The latest wound was the kind that drew blood. Poison seeped in through it, and defending against that seeping venom weakened his protective qi still further.
A perfect vicious cycle.
Kishishishishishi! Kishishishishishi! Kishishishishishi!
Madoka ♩ Shining Moonlight ♩♪ Magical Girl of Justice ♬ Madoka ♩ Shining Moonlight ♩♪ Magical Girl of Justice ♬ Madoka ♩ Shining Moonlight ♩♪ Magical Girl of Justice ♬ Madoka ♩ Shining Moonlight ♩♪ Magical Girl of Justice ♬ Madoka ♩ Shining Moonlight ♩♪ Magical Girl of Justice ♬
And on top of everything, a mental attack.
Gong Ryun felt as if he might lose his mind.
He staggered. His body tipped, and he braced one hand against the wall.
And that was the moment the hunter had been waiting for most of all.
From the darkness came a cleaving strike sharper than anything before—an attack loaded with its greatest strength, aimed as the finishing blow.