Chapter 304
Chapter 304
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 304
Chapter Title: Sky Mountain Range (10)
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“Kuaaaaaaaargh!”
A monstrous scream echoed.
Crimson blood gushed from the crushed eyeball.
“Ptooey.”
Oh-jin spat out the remains of the Behemoth's eye and used his spear as a cane to push himself up.
He could see the one-eyed Behemoth stumbling back, bewildered.
Well, it had every reason to be.
Its dying prey had suddenly shot up and torn out its eye.
“See? You shouldn't make careless promises about not killing someone.”
Oh-jin twisted his blood-soaked lips into a smirk.
If he couldn't win in a head-on fight, there was only one way.
Luring the enemy into a false sense of security and launching a surprise attack was the only way Oh-jin could face the Behemoth.
In such a situation, the certainty that he ‘wouldn't die’ became his greatest advantage.
It allowed him to walk the tightrope, pushing the limits to draw out his opponent's carelessness without shouldering the risk of death.
“Th-That guy's insane, nyah?!”
Even with the assurance of not dying, to lure it in by taking a wound so deep his ribs were exposed and losing his left leg…
It wasn't something a sane person would do.
[Did I not tell you?]
Vega chuckled, looking at the flustered Felis.
[That you know nothing of my child.]
The moment she saw the battered Oh-jin collapse.
Vega had realized it without even thinking.
That Oh-jin would not fall from something like this.
That even with a wound so severe his bones were showing, he would never give up.
If she told others, they might scoff in disbelief, just like Felis, but.
-You know me, don't you?
Yes.
Having been with Oh-jin all this time.
She had come to know more than she'd ever thought.
Not Oh-jin the Regressor.
Not Oh-jin the Star of Revolution.
But the man standing before her now, the man named ‘Kwon Oh-jin’—she had come to understand what kind of person he was.
“Grrrrrr!”
The one-eyed Behemoth let out a furious roar and charged at Oh-jin.
Oh-jin extended his right arm toward the charging beast.
*Crunch!*
Sharp teeth dug into his flesh.
In an instant, bone crumpled and flesh was torn away.
But.
“Hmph.”
He gripped Dantalion with his left hand.
Dantalion, which had been a black spear, transformed into a palm-sized folding knife.
The eye he had just torn out was the Behemoth's right eye.
Which meant, as it was now biting his right arm.
‘It won't see my left arm.’
He plunged the Dantalion in his hand into the Behemoth's eye socket.
“Grrrrrr!”
As soon as it felt the pain, the Behemoth frantically turned its head, but.
“It's no use.”
*Scrape!*
Dantalion, lodged in the Behemoth's eye, changed into the shape of a hook.
Like a fishhook, Dantalion dug firmly into the flesh, anchoring itself.
With Dantalion embedded in the Behemoth's eye, Oh-jin channeled lightning into it.
*Crackle!*
Blue sparks flew as lightning flowed directly into the Behemoth's body.
“Kuaaaaaargh! Kuooooh!”
The Behemoth thrashed in agony, swinging its forelegs.
Struck by the Behemoth's paw, Oh-jin's body flew high into the air like a baseball clearing the fence before plummeting back down.
“Keuk!”
Searing pain, as if being branded by fire, spread throughout his entire body.
There wasn't a single part of him that didn't ache.
Oh-jin clutched his mangled right arm, torn up by the Behemoth, and struggled to his feet.
“Kraaaaaaa!”
He could see the Behemoth struggling to remove Dantalion from its right eye socket.
Even amidst the pain that felt like his head was burning white-hot, Oh-jin let out a cackle.
“It won't come out so easily.”
Dantalion possessed its own ego.
Even without him holding it, it would change shape on its own and dig deeper into the Behemoth's flesh.
“Grrrrrr!”
The Behemoth, seemingly realizing it couldn't easily remove Dantalion, turned its head toward Oh-jin and let out a furious, savage roar.
A black aura erupted from it.
“B-Behiring! Wait a minute, nyah!”
Felis cried out, horrified.
The bloodlust radiating from the Behemoth was so chilling it seemed to have completely forgotten the order not to kill Oh-jin.
At this rate, the enraged Behemoth would surely kill him.
“Grrrrrrrr!”
Ignoring the command to wait, the Behemoth kicked off the ground.
With an agility unimaginable for a creature that had lost an eye, the Behemoth closed in on Oh-jin, aiming its sharp horn at him.
“Keuk!”
*Twang!*
Oh-jin fired a wire at a nearby tree and quickly put distance between himself and the Behemoth.
“Behiring! I told you to stop, nyah!”
“Kraaaaa!”
The Behemoth was completely out of control.
Felis turned to Vega with a desperate look.
“Why aren't you stopping it, nyah?”
[Hmm? Is that not your spirit?]
Unlike the frantic Felis, Vega's expression was quite relaxed as she watched the battle.
Felis shouted in frustration.
“Your child is going to die if this keeps up! Are you okay with that, nyah? Didn't you just say you'd protect him even if it meant breaking the laws, nyah?!”
[I did.]
And that hadn't changed.
If Oh-jin were truly in danger of dying, she would protect him, even at the cost of her own existence.
However.
[Do not fret.]
Vega watched Oh-jin, who had put some distance between them with his wire and was now calmly observing the Behemoth, and gave a faint smile.
[My child will win.]
Her voice was filled with absolute conviction.
Felis narrowed her eyes in disbelief.
“You can look at that mess and still say that, nyah?”
He had managed to inflict a serious wound on the Behemoth, but it hadn't come without a cost for Oh-jin.
No, in terms of the severity of their injuries, Oh-jin was in far worse shape than the Behemoth.
His left leg was torn off below the knee, making it impossible to move properly without his wire, and blood was still pouring from the massive gash on his chest.
And what about his arm?
He had succeeded in sacrificing his right arm to plunge Dantalion into the Behemoth's eye, but in the end, one of his arms was ruined, just like his leg.
How could a warrior with a crippled leg and arm possibly defeat an enraged Behemoth?
“That boy is going to die, nyah!”
Felis, who didn't want to lose Oh-jin—even if it was just because of his scent—cried out anxiously.
But compared to her anxious trembling, Vega's expression remained serene.
It wasn't just because she trusted Oh-jin.
Felis couldn't see it, but she could perceive the ‘change’ taking place inside Oh-jin's body.
[Come to think of it, it has been quite some time since you reached the 8-Star rank.]
Compared to other Awakeners, the expression ‘quite some time’ didn't really fit.
But considering Oh-jin's growth rate until now, it was true that he had been stuck at the wall of the 9-Star rank for a long time.
For an Awakener, the wall of the 9-Star rank was just that daunting.
However.
If it was Oh-jin.
If it was the Star of Revolution she had watched over all this time.
It was in the pitch-black darkness where the future was unseen that he would surely shine the brightest.
“Haaah.”
Oh-jin clutched his tattered right arm and pushed himself up.
‘Just standing up is a challenge.’
Trying to support his body on one leg, he kept losing his balance.
If he used Gaecheon, his body would turn into a storm cloud and his severed limbs would regenerate, but.
‘I can't use Gaecheon in front of Vega.’
Even if Vega weren't here, considering the after-effects of Gaecheon, he couldn't use it just because things were a little dangerous.
‘In that case.’
There's only one option left.
“Ssssssp.”
He took a deep breath.
‘Charge.’
Blue lightning condensed in his right arm and left leg.
‘Charge, charge, charge, charge.’
The lightning, condensed beyond its limit, flared violently as if screaming.
The lightning thrashed like a caged beast, begging to be released.
Oh-jin ignored the thrashing lightning and continued to charge.
“*Cough!*”
His body swelled like a balloon overinflated with air.
Horrific pain gnawed at his sanity, warning him to release the lightning immediately.
But.
“Stay still, you bastard.”
He didn't stop.
There was no reason to stop.
This level of pain was practically routine for him now.
*Crackle!*
His right arm, mangled from the Behemoth's bite, exploded, and from within, an arm made of lightning was formed.
The same happened to his severed left leg.
Noeshinche.
A skill that transforms a mere mortal's body into that of a god.
Unlike before, when he had at most transformed one arm into lightning, this time, his left leg below the knee and even a part of his chest, which had been torn open to expose bone, turned into blue lightning.
“Grrr?”
Sensing an unusual energy, the Behemoth came to a sudden halt.
Its single, blood-red eye scanned Oh-jin up and down.
“What?”
Oh-jin grinned at the halted Behemoth.
“Scared?”
It was an incredibly childish taunt, but.
For the Behemoth, which had reigned as the ruler of the Sky Mountain Range and had only ever received looks of terror from countless beasts, there could be no more effective provocation.
“Grrrrrrrrrrr!”
It let out a savage roar and lowered its body.
A black aura erupted and began to suck in the surrounding fog.
*Rumble!*
The entire mountain range shook as if in an earthquake.
The ground around the Behemoth's feet cracked like a dry desert and began to crumble.
A black storm began to rage around the Behemoth's body as it absorbed the fog.
‘So it wasn't called the Black Storm just because it was fast.’
Until now, he had assumed ‘Black Storm’ was just a figurative expression, meant to describe how its movements were so fast they resembled a raging storm.
But what raged around the Behemoth now was a real storm, formed from the mana of its Stigma.
A black storm imbued with enough power to shred steel like paper on contact.
Wreathed in the storm, the Behemoth kicked off the ground and charged toward Oh-jin.
If the Behemoth's movements had been nimble like a cat's before, now it was charging straight ahead with the brute force of an angry bull.
“Yeah, that's more like it.”
Oh-jin watched the approaching Behemoth and curled his lips into a grin.
He had succeeded in turning his arm and leg into Noeshinche, but he couldn't yet move them as naturally as his real limbs.
In that sense, the Behemoth's attempt to simply crush him with ‘power’ was a welcome development.
The black storm raging around the Behemoth's body certainly held immense power, but.
‘When it comes to power, I won't be outdone.’
Oh-jin clenched his right arm, now transformed into blue lightning.
He drew back his right arm like a bowstring and stared down the charging Behemoth.
*Crackle! Sizzle!*
The eight strokes engraved next to the Stigma of Lyra began to glow.
No.
Now, nine strokes blazed with a brilliant light.
[The ‘Stigma of Lyra’ has been upgraded to 9-Star!]