Chapter 156: Back to Basics
Chapter 156: Back to Basics
After leaving the clearing, we continued deeper inside. We came across several forks in the road, some of which I recognized. But we didn't enter any of them carelessly. I had no intention of changing our planned route, but I made sure to meticulously check which paths lay ahead and if my Sensing picked up anything before we moved on.
Because of this, our pace naturally slowed. Originally, I'd planned to push through without stopping, but now I was considering camping for a day. The others seemed to have sensed my thoughts. Without a word, they acted more proactively than usual. Within the Triangular Light cast by Jung Hayeon, Shin Sangyong, and Vivian, we advanced slowly, our vision much brighter than before.
“Hold for a moment.”
I raised my right hand to signal a halt and increased the density of my Sensing. At the same time, the spheres of light began to dim. This was in case any undead were ahead; they might spot the orbs of light and charge at us. The edge of my circular Sensing sweep picked up the presence of several groups, so I examined them in detail before speaking.
“I’ve detected the presence of undead monsters about 200 meters ahead. There are five of them… no, it seems to be six. If we continue down this path, we’ll definitely run into them.”
“Can you tell what kind of monsters they are?”
At Ko Yeonju’s request, I placed my hand on the ground. I felt a faint vibration travel up my palm, and after confirming a few more details, I answered.
“The ground is vibrating periodically. They’re at the edge of my Sensing range, so the information is faint, but I think they’re some type of golem.”
“If they’re undead golems… they’re most likely Blood Golems.”
“That’s what I think, too.”
Blood Golems can be considered monsters born from a kind of biological experiment. To put it simply, they are abominations created by magically fusing several humans together. For the others, they were by no means an easy opponent, but they were still better than spiritual-type undead. At least every hit we land will deal damage. Since it was a path we had to take anyway, I decided to face them head-on instead of avoiding them.
“Blood Golems pull out their own bones to use as weapons. Offensively, they only have physical attacks, but defensively, they possess an incredibly high self-regeneration ability. Even when they take a hit, the blood covering their bodies immediately repairs the damage. Therefore, after the mages apply their suppression spells, we can maximize our efficiency by imbuing our weapons with a Divine Spell before attacking.”
After giving out my orders one by one, I resumed our march. Ever since entering the Cave of Screams, we’d been on the receiving end of things. This time, I wanted to lead us to a clean victory without much trouble. A battle fought not alone, but with my companions. The caravan’s morale wasn’t too bad, either, so I felt that if we handled this well, this fight could become a turning point for us.
After advancing another 80 meters, five Blood Golems came into view, their bodies dripping with blood. They were about the same size as regular golems, but the sight of their exposed red muscles and the whitish things protruding from between them was instinctively repulsive. It was like looking at a giant, monstrous human from a failed biological experiment.
The creatures were shambling around the wide passage, still unaware of our presence. I turned my head slightly to look at Jung Hayeon.
“User Jung Hayeon, Shin Sangyong. Can you cast the Feedback Control spell?”
“No problem. With Double Casting and an empty slot in my necklace for storage, I can use it a total of three times at once. Like you said, Soohyun, as long as they aren’t affected by an external source like the Wraiths and are only using their internal self-regeneration, I should be able to suppress it.”
“My apologies. I haven’t included applied magic in my skillset.”
I nodded at the positive response, then kept Shin Sangyong in my line of sight as I continued.
“User Jung Hayeon, please cast Feedback Control on the golems in order, starting from the one on the far left. I’ll take care of the remaining two on the right.”
“Got it. I’ll start storing it with Memorize right now.”
Next, I turned my gaze to Ahn Hyun, Ahn Sol, and Lee Yoojung.
“Ahn Sol, start chanting Holy Strike now. Lee Yoojung, follow behind me. Don’t rush ahead; wait for my signal after I engage. Ahn Hyun, you’ll serve as the main tank this time. You don’t need to deal damage. Feedback Control lasts about five minutes on average, so just hold out until Yoojung and I return.”
“““Yes.”””
After hearing their simultaneous reply, I addressed the remaining members.
“User Ko Yeonju, I need you to be the keeper, as always. Mages and priests, once you’ve done your part, focus on supporting Ahn Hyun. And….”
I always asked Ko Yeonju to be the keeper. It might be a bit boring, but she didn’t seem to mind, as the caravan’s keeper was the second most important role after the leader. Seeing Ko Yeonju make an ‘OK’ sign with her thumb and index finger, I finished giving my orders.
“Vivian. I need you to taunt the Blood Golems. Use something that will slow their movements as much as possible, rather than dealing direct damage.”
“Yup. Trust me.”
Her response was a little off-topic, but since Vivian had never once disappointed me in battle, I decided to trust her. Soon, the simultaneous chanting of Vivian and the other mages signaled the start of our battle.
“Huff… huff…”
I could hear Ahn Hyun’s tense breathing. I glanced over at him; he seemed to be feeling the pressure of being the main tank. In truth, with Ko Yeonju in the rear, there was no risk of being wiped out, but he seemed to understand that if he fell, everyone would be in danger. I gently patted his shoulder and calmly reassured him.
“Don’t be so nervous. Just do what you did against the Wraiths. You don’t have to deal any damage. Once Yoojung and I circle around and take care of two of them, we’ll come straight back and strike them from behind. Just hold on until then. You can do it.”
“Huff… huff… Yes, Hyung. I’ll hold out until then.”
Seemingly encouraged by my words, Ahn Hyun took a deep breath to steady himself.
“—. —. —.”
“—. —. —.”
“—. —. —.”
A white light enveloped my weapon, then Yoojung’s, as a familiar magic circle began to form around Vivian. The Blood Golems shambling 100 meters ahead finally seemed to sense the flow of mana. One by one, they turned, and upon spotting us, let out a tremendous roar.
“Kuaaaaaaaah!”
“Kuaaaaaaaah!”
Then, the creatures reached for the whitish things protruding from their bodies, yanked them out, and began to charge toward us. Several of our party members grimaced at the grotesque sight of the creatures pulling out their own bones. The Blood Golems charged, their footsteps thudding against the ground. But by then, Vivian had already completed her summoning spell.
“Come! Petrify! O eternal darkness that rules the 53rd Legion!”
Vivian’s clear voice rang out, followed by another shout: “Spit it out! Petrify!” At the same time, a cool wind brushed past me from behind and swept toward the charging Blood Golems, enveloping all of them. And judging by the scene that followed, I could say that Vivian, as expected, had not disappointed me.
“Krrrk! Grrrk!”
The bodies of the Blood Golems struck by the wind were slowly turning ashen gray. The creatures, which had been charging with vigor, twisted their bodies as they were suddenly slowed. The ashen parts of their skin crumbled away like grains of sand, revealing their original red color underneath.
But the attack from the summon, Petrify, wasn’t a one-off. The moment the petrification wore off, the wind swirled around them again, and this time, different parts of their bodies began to turn gray. It would have been better to cast it after the Feedback Control spell, but since the creatures had spotted us and were charging, it was a necessary choice to kill their momentum.
It was then.
“Change Sand, Change Mud!”
I thought Shin Sangyong was proficient in wind and lightning-elemental magic, but lately, it seemed he had some skill in earth-elemental magic as well. The spell manifested, turning earth into mud. The ground beneath the creatures’ feet had already transformed into a sticky mire, almost like a swamp.
The creatures, who had been forcing their way forward, suddenly sank their feet deep into the mud and staggered violently. It was a bit of a shame that the mud only submerged their lower bodies, but it could still be considered a success. This had bought us more than enough time.
And finally, the spell I’d been waiting for from Hayeon erupted.
“Feedback Control!”
She was a bit slower than usual from preparing three spells at once, but from the perspective of an average User, it was still plenty fast. (Feedback Control is a high-tier spell even among applied magic.) True to Hayeon’s specialty, masses of blue light shot toward the three creatures I had designated, leaving long, aquamarine afterimages in their wake. Without waiting any longer, I grabbed Yoojung’s hand and darted to the right. The plan was to first take care of the two golems her spell hadn’t reached.
After circling around the mire to get behind them, the nearby creatures turned their heads toward me. As expected, the three farther away continued to cross the mire, while the two closer ones turned again and pulled their feet from the mud. I gave Yoojung the order to charge in and stab on my signal, then held my sword at a slight angle.
Up close, the creature’s body was certainly not a pleasant sight. Yoojung must have been disgusted as well, as I could hear her spitting repeatedly behind me. The aftereffects of Vivian’s spell still lingered on their bodies; parts of them would petrify, only for reddish blood to well up and cause the ashen grains to fall away, repeating the process over and over.
The first golem finally freed itself from the mire and immediately let out a furious roar, swinging the bone club it held. After calculating its trajectory, I sidestepped to easily dodge it and charged straight in.
Their bodies weren’t in perfect condition to begin with, and with Vivian’s spell taking effect, their movements were severely restricted. After I dodged the bone club, its incoming left hand seemed to move in slow motion. Thinking this was a perfect opportunity, I decided to strike its hand with the flat of my blade. I could already tell it would regenerate instantly if I cut it with the edge, so dealing explosive impact damage would be more effective than slashing.
Pow!
As I slammed the flat of my sword against the palm that was trying to crush me, I saw its left hand explode as its arm bent back sharply. The impact spun the Blood Golem halfway around, and before it could regenerate its destroyed hand, I pressed in and struck it twice more.
Pow! Pow!
Its bone club went flying and slammed into a corner, and I ruptured the muscle in its right thigh as well. Their regeneration wasn’t infinite. The magic core inside its body quickly attempted to restore the damage, but with simultaneous strikes on multiple locations, the recovery speed was bound to slow down. Watching the creature stumble back a few steps, I decided that was enough and immediately activated Third Eye. Then, I gave Yoojung her first command.
“Blood Golem, torso center, three centimeters to the left horizontally!”
There was no reply. Instead, a blur of Yoojung’s hair flew past on my right, and I clicked my tongue and turned. Her reaction time had improved, but her battlefield awareness was still too narrow. The other Blood Golem was just coming up on the right, so the correct action would have been to approach safely from the left. Besides, the spot I told her to stab was on the left side.
In any case, I decided to tell her that later. The priority was to block the Blood Golem, which was already moving to intercept Yoojung.
The second golem, having caught up, saw Yoojung pass in front of it and mercilessly swung its bone club down. Yoojung glanced to the side and calmly tried to twist her body away, but when I parried the attack for her, she charged forward without slowing down.
“Hah!”
With a sharp cry, she simultaneously thrust her katana and Skurepf into the spot I had indicated. Perhaps imbued with her own magic power in addition to the Divine Spell, her daggers easily pierced the golem’s skin, and thankfully, she was able to strike the magic core within its body precisely.
“Uwoooooh!”
Having taken a critical hit to its core, the Blood Golem let out a scream loud enough to shake the cave. I stepped back to assess the situation and saw that its self-regeneration had definitely stopped. Its left hand had regenerated, but the places I had hit with my second and third strikes were still gaping holes. Soon, the creature’s body began to tremble violently. Reading its status with Third Eye, I urgently shouted to Yoojung.
“Lee Yoojung! Get back!”
“…Huh?”
Yoojung also seemed to sense something was wrong and tried to pull back, but because she had pierced the magic core so cleanly, the Blood Golem’s destruction was happening in an instant.
Splat! Splat-splat! Splash—!
A moment later, with the unpleasant sound of bursting flesh, Yoojung, who was at close range, was completely caught in the aftermath.
“……”
A brief moment passed, and the shower of blood finally ended. And there stood Lee Yoojung, her lips pressed tightly together, covered from head to toe in bloody debris.