Chapter 191
Chapter 191
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 191
Chapter Title: Monsters of the Sanctuary (2)
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Just how big was it?
300 meters? 500 meters?
No.
It might even be over a kilometer.
For a creature of such mountainous proportions, its form was incredibly simple.
A colossal slime made of a murky, crimson-black ooze, like lava that had cooled after a volcanic eruption.
It had no arms, no legs, not even a proper face.
Perhaps this is what a single-celled organism would look like if it grew to an extreme size.
Its appearance alone wasn't threatening at all.
The problem was its overwhelming scale.
“What the fuck is that.”
He had faced countless monsters before.
But this was the first time he’d felt such pressure from sheer ‘size’ alone.
“Crazy… there’s a monster that big?”
Ha-eun instinctively took a few steps back.
It was a simple principle.
A pure difference in ‘mass’ was often an overwhelming factor in combat.
Imagine a lightweight fighter going up against a heavyweight.
No, in this situation, there was no need to even bring up fighting.
From that giant monster’s perspective, a human was no different from an ant.
“What are we supposed to do? Douse it in oil and set it on fire?”
“Fire is usually the best thing against a large enemy, but.”
Oh-jin’s eyes narrowed.
An intense heat could be felt despite the immense distance to the monster.
If that monster was the reason the seawater for tens of kilometers around had been heated like a hot spring…
“It’s highly likely it has a resistance to fire.”
“…Th-Then how do we fight it?”
“Wait a moment.”
Oh-jin bit his lip and fiddled with the pendant around his neck.
*Vwoooom!*
With a brilliant silver light, Vega and Liaq appeared.
[That is….]
Vega’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the giant monster outside the window.
“Th-That huge thing suddenly appeared from the sea!!”
Ha-eun cried out in a panicked voice, grabbing onto Vega’s body with both arms.
“Hmph. A giant, you say?”
Liaq snorted, his eyes gleaming.
“Get a grip and look closely, lizard woman. That is no ‘giant monster’.”
“What?”
“If a bunch of ants clump together, do you call it a giant ant?”
“What does that mean… Ah.”
When Ha-eun let out a short gasp and looked at the giant monster rising from the sea…
Red eyes began to appear on the body of the massive creature, which was made of a murky, crimson-black ooze.
Not just one pair.
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands.
Countless eyes covered the giant monster’s body as densely as the Milky Way spread across the night sky.
“I see, so that’s what you meant.”
Oh-jin let out a hollow laugh and glared at the monster rising from the sea.
Just as Liaq said, that was no ‘giant monster’.
‘A colony of monsters.’
And a colony formed by an uncountable, astronomical number of monsters clumped together.
-Kuuuuuooooooo!!!
A bizarre cry echoed from outside the window.
It wasn't the roar of a single creature.
Like a stadium full of spectators cheering at once, countless sounds overlapped and merged into one massive roar.
*Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!*
Like an avalanche, monsters poured down from the kilometer-high colony.
In an instant, they crossed the sea of San Fruttuoso, rushing toward the beach.
They were madly charging toward the village built along the long shoreline.
“Ha-eun, grab my arm.”
“Huh? Wh-What are you doing?”
“We’ll be too late if we run.”
Wearing only his swim trunks and a wire shooter, Oh-jin threw open the window.
A sea breeze laced with scorching heat rushed in, revealing a sheer cliff just below his feet.
“Wh-What are you trying to do?!”
“Hold on tight.”
Pulling Ha-eun, who was clinging to his arm, closer by the waist, he kicked off the window and fell toward the cliff below.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Ha-eun’s bloodcurdling scream pierced his ears.
‘Lightning Step.’
Oh-jin created a foothold of lightning in mid-air, twisting his direction and reaching for a crevice in the cliff.
*Thwang!*
The wire, lodged in the rock wall, extended as they rapidly descended.
[There are people gathered over there!]
Vega, perched atop Oh-jin’s head, pointed her stubby arm toward the town square.
Hundreds of people, likely drawn by the commotion, had gathered in the square near the beach.
People screamed, trapped in a state of panic.
“Haaah.”
Oh-jin took a light breath and bent his body.
The Lyra Stigma on his left chest emitted a brilliant light, and immense magic power spread throughout his body.
‘Good.’
His internal injuries were completely healed.
A smile crept onto Oh-jin’s lips as he crouched down.
Because of his severe injuries, he hadn't had a chance to test the power of the Black Heaven and the Lyra Stigma, which had grown even stronger after reaching the Bloom of the Seven Stars. Finally, an opportunity had presented itself.
*Crackle!*
Blue lightning spread out like a staircase.
The lightning scars burned with a light more vivid than before.
Oh-jin fiercely stomped on the lightning steps he created in the air, heading toward the town square.
“Kuuuoooooooh!!”
“Grrrrrrrk!!”
Monsters surged forward like a tidal wave.
He hadn't noticed when they were clumped together, but the monsters had the appearance of wolves, just like Liaq.
Wolves whose entire bodies were covered in a hard exoskeleton.
It was a very familiar monster to Oh-jin.
‘Ant-horns.’
Low-level monsters with the exoskeleton of an ant and the form of a wolf.
They were one of the most common monsters found in any gate, and among the countless monsters, they were considered the ‘weakest’.
‘But they’re also the monsters that have killed the most people.’
Before the gates appeared.
What animal had killed the most people in human history?
Lions? Tigers? Sharks?
No.
The animal that killed tens, even hundreds of times more people than all of them combined was the mosquito.
The Ant-horns were the same.
Though they didn't usually act in colonies like this, their insane reproductive rate and overwhelming numbers had caused more casualties than any other monster.
‘And no matter how I look at them, these aren't normal Ant-horns.’
Their murky, crimson-black exoskeletons, like hardened lava, and the intense heat felt even from a distance.
Though they had the form of Ant-horns, he had a feeling they were completely different from the ones he knew.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“Aargh! Gack!”
“Wh-Why are these Ant-horns so strong?!”
As it was a resort mainly used by the powerful, many had brought their own armed bodyguards, but they were being pushed back helplessly, unable to even put up a proper fight.
Horrific screams and shrieks echoed across the beach.
“Oh-jin!”
“Yeah.”
Oh-jin took a small folding knife from the pocket of his swim trunks.
*Shhhlick, click!*
In an instant, the knife transformed into a black spear.
Blue lightning crackled fiercely at its tip.
‘Lightning Strike.’
Oh-jin plummeted from a height of several dozen meters at a terrifying speed.
Like a thunderbolt striking from the sky, a pillar of blue lightning crashed down among the Ant-horns that were surging forward like a wave.
*Crackle-crackle-crackle-crackle!!*
Like a stone thrown into a puddle.
Blue lightning spread out in a circle from the point of impact, sweeping through dozens, hundreds of Ant-horns.
The bodies of the madly charging Ant-horns were torn to shreds and scattered in all directions.
But that was only for a moment.
Instantly, twice as many Ant-horns filled the empty space and rushed in.
“Just how many of them are there?”
Ha-eun’s jaw dropped as she looked at the swarm of Ant-horns flooding in like a tsunami.
“I’ll hold them off here. You go to the back and help evacuate the people.”
“It’d be better if I held them off.”
Ha-eun lightly stretched and turned to face the swarm of Ant-horns.
“But fire won’t…”
“Won’t work on them, you think?”
Ha-eun let out a smirk and raised her hand.
A massive fireball materialized above her palm.
“Hyaaaah!!”
“Grrrrk?”
The fireball, radiating a heat several times more intense than that of the Ant-horns, swept over them.
The Ant-horns, which had seemed to possess incredible fire resistance, were turned to ash and collapsed without a fight.
“Still think so?”
“……”
Oh-jin stared at Ha-eun with a dumbfounded expression.
To just mindlessly scorch a monster with fire resistance with an even stronger flame.
‘That’s so like her.’
He let out a dry laugh and nodded.
If fire resistance wasn't an issue, then Ha-eun was better suited to handle the large number of incoming enemies.
“Alright. Then you hold them off as best you can.”
“You can count on your big sis.”
Ha-eun gave Oh-jin a smack on the butt and turned to face the swarming Ant-horns.
She took out a cigarette pack from a waterproof pouch tucked in her cleavage and placed a cigarette between her fingers.
“Flames.”
*Fwoosh!*
The tip of the cigarette glowed red, and a terrifying storm of heat enveloped her body.
“Burn like fucking hell.”
*Fwoooooosh!*
A massive wave of fire swept through the Ant-horns that were rushing in like a tsunami.
“Vega and Liaq, help her hold off the Ant-horns!”
[As you wish!]
“Hmph! How pathetic, charging in relying on numbers alone.”
Vega rose high into the air and summoned lightning, while Liaq transformed into his werewolf form and charged at the Ant-horns.
‘I’ve bought some time, at least.’
Oh-jin used his wire to get to the top of a nearby building, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the area.
Thanks to the efforts of Ha-eun, Vega, and Liaq, he had bought a little time, but…
‘They won’t last long.’
There were just too many.
Just as you couldn't block a downpour with your hands, it was impossible to stop the tsunami of Ant-horns with this number of people.
“Isabella is…”
He looked around for Isabella.
But with the entire beach in such chaos, there was no way to tell where she was.
‘It can’t be helped.’
For now, stopping those Ant-horns was the priority.
“…Even if stopping them is the priority, I don’t know how to do it.”
He let out a deep sigh and looked at the endless swarm of Ant-horns.
Just how many were there?
A thousand? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand?
The number was so vast that trying to count them was meaningless.
‘A colony like this couldn’t have formed naturally.’
Then what on earth could create such a bizarre phenomenon?
‘This kind of phenomenon can’t be happening just because this is a sanctuary…’
Just then.
Vega’s words flashed through his mind.
-Perhaps… a Dragon Vein might be flowing here.
A Dragon Vein.
A place where the mana of the stars had gathered abnormally.
The power of a Dragon Vein might just be able to cause such a bizarre phenomenon.
“In that case.”
There was only one solution.
“I’ll just have to devour them all.”
Oh-jin smirked as he looked out at the sea, which was covered by the crimson-black swarm of Ant-horns.
*Crackle!*
Stomping on the blue lightning scars created in the air, Oh-jin’s body shot up into the sky.