Chapter 30
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: The Troll King Kataku (2)
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While the troll melted away pathetically and vanished after being devoured.
The remaining nine trolls were locked in fierce combat with Kang Sa-hu's summoned beasts.
Krurrrung!
Kiaa! Kiaa!
The Giant Hounds, Corpse-Eating Apes, and the Vampiric Apes surrounded the trolls and began tearing into them.
Thanks to the Devourer's ability, their instinct to crave flesh had activated, making their biting speed resemble woodpeckers hammering at trees.
Kuwooo-!
Upon hearing the screams of the trolls from atop the cliff, veins bulged on Kataku's forehead.
[Useless worm bastards.]
Kataku clicked his tongue, clenched his fist, and pulled it back behind his shoulder.
The tattoos etched into his body began to glow in response to his rage.
And as Kataku thrust his fist forward, he muttered.
[One Strike Shatters Heaven.]
Ku-ku-ku-kwa-kwa!
With a single punch.
The cliff where the summoned beasts and Bae Deok-ho stood shattered entirely into pieces.
"Kr-heuk!"
Bae Deok-ho coughed and snapped his eyes open.
Had he passed out?
How much time had passed?
Had the trolls gotten close?
Thoughts raced through his mind in an instant as he hurriedly assessed the situation. Seeing the cliff fragments still falling, he realized he'd only been unconscious for a few seconds.
"D-Damn monster bastard...!"
He didn't know what method it had used, but one punch had crumbled the cliff and taken down a large number of the summoned beasts Kang Sa-hu had assigned him.
Worried they might be dead, he checked on them, but most were on the brink of death.
The summoned beasts, left with only necks and collarbones, slowly faded away, eventually turning into small orbs.
And those orbs all flew toward one direction at once.
Realizing it was toward the fortress, Bae Deok-ho sighed in relief, understanding they were returning to Kang Sa-hu.
"Give me a ride."
Bae Deok-ho approached a Giant Hound and spoke.
Having received orders from Kang Sa-hu, the Giant Hound obediently sat and lowered its body to let him mount comfortably.
"Huu-"
Exhaling deeply to calm his racing heart, he gripped his arrow.
"Let's go."
Kyung kyung!
As Bae Deok-ho patted its back, the Giant Hound bolted forward.
The distance blasted open by Kataku's attack closed in an instant, and the moment Kataku entered his sight, his fingers released the bowstring.
Paaang!
The arrow shot forth, bursting the air.
However, one of the elite trolls standing beside Kataku emitted light from its tattoos and blocked in front of him in a flash.
"Kuwo-!"
Pakang!
The arrowhead, which flew true, couldn't even pierce the elite troll's steel-hard skin and shattered.
The elite troll snorted derisively, but Bae Deok-ho grinned back.
Exploding Arrow
S-Rank Hunter's mana-infused skill unleashes devastating power.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
An S-Rank Hunter's skill, brimming with mana, was anything but weak.
As the dust cloud cleared in the wind, the elite troll, who had crossed its arms in front of its chest, looked at Bae Deok-ho with a panicked expression.
Even its tough skin had been reduced to ragged shreds by the skill's power.
"Good."
Bae Deok-ho smirked, satisfied that his skill had landed properly, but the smile vanished in an instant.
In just a few seconds, broken bones realigned, new flesh sprouted, and skin regenerated—the elite troll glared at him fully restored.
"...Ha."
A look of despair crossed his face at that grotesque, horrifying regenerative power.
"...Party Leader, you really think we can take down a monster like that...?"
Bae Deok-ho muttered in a voice full of despair.
This time, it wasn't regular trolls—two elite trolls were scaling the cliff to kill him.
Watching the climbing elite trolls, Bae Deok-ho pondered.
Could he beat them?
Impossible.
Even in that one exchange, he knew that even if he and the summoned beasts went all out, they might barely manage to kill two elite trolls.
Which meant now was the time to retreat and prepare for the final battle.
"Let's go!"
Kyung!
Before leaving, he recalled that his role was merely to buy time, and the real defense would happen near the fortress with all the hunters together. Without hesitation, he chose to flee.
But as he did, he used his remaining skills to imbue ten arrows with [Exploding Arrow] and fired them to block the trolls' advance as much as possible.
Kurururung!
Kwa-kwa-kwa!
'The monster boss and those four elite ones beside it won't take damage, but this should slow the regular trolls' march.'
He hadn't even expected to stop them with this, just hoping to hold their feet for a few minutes as he withdrew from the battlefield.
Kwa-kwa-kwang...
Hearing the massive explosions from afar, the hunters in the fortress gulped.
"Th-that Bae Deok-ho hunter... He's definitely B-Rank, right...?"
Dragon Guild's Guild Master, Maeng Yu-na, stared blankly at the distant cliff crumbling and rocks soaring into the sky.
'That's... a B-Rank hunter...?'
No matter how she looked at it, the devastating attacks rivaled or surpassed her own, making her shrink back a little.
The other guilds' hunters felt the same, similar murmurs echoing everywhere.
"If even that can't stop them, how are we supposed to...?"
"Not just blowing up empty buildings, but collapsing the cliff itself..."
As the fortress hunters swallowed hard and debated the power animatedly.
Ten explosions rang out in succession, and one face of the cliff crumbled like collapsing Legos.
"...Any chance that wiped out the trolls?"
One soldier hunter asked Lieutenant Han Si-yeon.
But moments later.
A single deafening boom erupted, sending the fallen cliff debris flying back into the sky.
"Hu, huk!"
"What the hell is that?"
If the previous sounds were explosions, this was like a fighter jet's sonic boom.
As the hunters stared in stunned silence, a Giant Hound leaped into the fortress.
Kyung kyung!
"Kyaaak!"
"Uwaaak!"
Startled into panic for a moment, the hunters soon realized it was Kang Sa-hu's summoned beast.
The Giant Hound, carrying Bae Deok-ho back, set him down and bounded up the cliff again.
The battle-ready hunters swarmed him with eyes full of expectation and worry.
"Hunter Bae Deok-ho, good work. Did you wipe out the trolls?"
Daehan Guild's Guild Master, Wi Dae-un, asked urgently.
Bae Deok-ho gave a dumbfounded look at the question before grimacing and shaking his head.
"No. I tried to inflict as much damage as possible—ideally up to that point—but I only managed about ten trolls."
Despairing sighs spread among the hunters at his answer.
"Good work. For now, please get treated by the healers quickly."
Seeing his body riddled with rock shards and blood, his left arm torn off from the intense battle, she ordered the soldier hunters to support him.
As Bae Deok-ho departed, she turned with a resolute expression.
"The trolls will be here soon."
Groans rose among the hunters at her words.
Fearful sobs and calls for family echoed from somewhere, but Han Si-yeon ignored the weak sounds like a true soldier.
"We're not here to kill all the trolls. Our goal is one thing: buy as much time as possible for Hunter Kang Sa-hu to finish his preparations."
She locked eyes with each guild master.
Dragon Guild's Guild Master, Maeng Yu-na, wielder of the hidden class Half-Human Half-Dragon.
Daehan Guild's Guild Master, Wi Dae-un, wielder of the hidden class Warlord.
And even the acting Guild Master of Cheokgang Guild, who had fled, now filling in.
Resolve burned in the eyes of the three who met hers.
"Hunter Kang Sa-hu requested 30 minutes. Our mission is to hold out for just 30 minutes."
Whether Kang Sa-hu could annihilate the trolls after those 30 minutes was uncertain.
But she didn't voice that grim truth.
What they needed now was just the hope to endure 30 minutes.
"Everyone here is among Korea's top hunters. So, everyone. Just 30 minutes. Let's hold out that long."
At the 30 minutes—which usually didn't feel long—the hunters clenched their eyes shut.
"...Yeah, just 30 minutes! How hard can it be?!"
"We've got so many A-Ranks here! Can't hold off C-Rank Gate monsters for 30 minutes? That'd be embarrassing!"
"Waaaaa!"
The hunters shouted with all their might, raising their weapons.
Hope flickered in eyes once clouded by fear.
The guild masters and Han Si-yeon exchanged faint smiles.
Turning her head, Han Si-yeon shoved off the healing hunters treating her and spotted Bae Deok-ho yelling something at them.
But his voice was drowned out by the hunters' roars.
What was he shouting?
She read his repeating lips intently.
We're. Screwed.
The moment Han Si-yeon read his lips.
Trolls hurled from afar plummeted from the sky like bombs.
Several hundred meters from the fortress where the hunters gathered, Kang Ji-ye, diligently drawing the magic circle, turned to look.
Something had happened—a massive cheer echoed.
Puzzled, she paused, and Kang Sa-hu, drawing beside her, spoke.
"Ji-ye, focus."
"Huh? Oh, sorry."
Kang Ji-ye snapped to attention and resumed etching spells into the stones.
Given the urgency, it wasn't a full magic circle— a simplified version with many omissions.
Its power would be reduced, and the spirit energy needed to activate it increased, but this was the practical limit now.
Glancing around, she saw Kim Ho-myeong and Lee Yu-rim, who had been building the bone altar in a daze from the cheers, now revitalized.
Their reluctance to touch bones had lessened; they wove them boldly. Kang Ji-ye slapped her cheeks to refocus.
Kkii, kkii!
Then, a Corpse-Eating Ape screamed and charged toward Kang Sa-hu.
Having become a Devourer and consumed troll muscle and bone, its leg strength made its jumps like a rubber ball slammed to the ground.
Kkiiiii!
Already sensing trouble through mental links with his other summons, Kang Sa-hu hardened his face.
And confirming the soul cores flying back from the sky, fierce light gleamed in his eyes.
Soul Core
Return speed increases based on owner's ability. Mana consumed.
As he used mana to activate the skill, the soul cores responded to his will, awakening the desired ability.
The soul cores, drifting in slowly, accelerated in an instant and gathered in his hand.
'...None annihilated.'
Fortunately, they'd only returned as soul cores due to heavy damage from his preset ability—no permanent losses.
"Party Leader, something wrong?"
Lee Yu-rim, assembling bones, approached Kang Sa-hu.
Kim Ho-myeong also sensed the problem from his stiff expression.
"I think Kim Ho-myeong and Lee Yu-rim need to support the fortress."
That one sentence was enough.
Having synced with him multiple times and knowing his character, they knew he didn't issue empty orders.
The Giant Hound that raced to his call landed, and Kim Ho-myeong and Lee Yu-rim mounted it instantly.
"Don't worry. I'll hold out."
"We'll be back, Party Leader."
As they bid farewell, the Giant Hound kicked off.
Kang Ji-ye etched the magic circle faster than before, but Kang Sa-hu gently grabbed her hand.
"Wh-why, Oppa?"
"No time."
The trolls were already attacking the fortress, hunters fighting back.
Every second counted now.
"Shorten it more."
Her eyes widened at his words.
Meeting them, Kang Sa-hu concluded.
"Finish as is and move to completion."