Chapter 198
Translator: uly
Chapter: 198
Chapter Title: Part 2, Chapter 61 [S Onslaught]
[Part 2, Chapter 61] [S Onslaught]
“Monsters are breaking through on the left!!!”
“Block them!!!”
The Hysis Gate brimmed with chaos.
The blue sea had turned red from all the wounded. While support teams dragged the unconscious hunters out along the ground, fresh reinforcements were thrown into the fray.
The support hunters, having watched top-tier rankers emerge pathetically from the water, were gripped by fear and focused solely on defense, making their attacks hesitant.
The ferocity of the Abyss-affiliated hunters—who were comparatively free of fear—did boost the morale of the late arrivals a bit, but it couldn’t fully suppress the anxiety and dread.
However, when three arrows suddenly slashed the gates’ difficulty levels dramatically, morale soared beyond control.
“Waaaaah!!!! We’re alive!!!!”
“How is this possible?? How the hell is this possible??”
“It’s that hunter’s ability. The number one support from Abyss.”
“Push forward with this momentum!!!”
Elated, the people snatched up their weapons, shifted from a defensive formation to an offensive one, and plunged into the gate’s depths.
* * *
[Arrrrgh!!!]
The arrow that pierced Oh Minji’s solar plexus drained a massive amount of power from the gate’s interior before vanishing.
Oh Minji rolled on the ground for a moment, clutching her shoulder and groaning in pain, then hurriedly circulated mana through the gate.
She sensed far too little mana.
‘Who is it? Who the hell?!’
Fury boiling over, Oh Minji scanned the gate’s interior thoroughly.
No hunter capable of dealing her that kind of damage was in sight.
They had to be hiding somewhere, observing the situation meticulously.
Tense, she swept her gaze around, but aside from the wheezing Lee Kyung-seop, not even a single mouse was visible.
Had some special awakening ability allowed them to slip from her field of vision?
Anxiety gnawed at her; she might have to close this massive gate without a single accomplishment. Oh Minji bit her lip.
‘I need to kill that guy fast…….’
Intending to replenish her power by killing Lee Kyung-seop, she gripped her weapon tightly.
But when she turned her gaze back to him, he was no longer there.
“Looks like you’re out of juice.”
Lee Kyung-seop swung his sharp sword from right behind Oh Minji.
The blade sliced cleanly through the air, and the surrounding stone walls crumbled along its path.
[……I was sure I’d drained all your strength.]
Barely evading Lee Kyung-seop’s opportunistic strike, Oh Minji scowled.
The hunter before her was quite strong; taking him on with her remaining power would be a massive gamble.
Plus, there might be another hunter lurking hidden nearby.
After a moment’s thought, Oh Minji closed one of the gates created by her replicate monster.
She pulled all the mana from the closed gate straight into herself.
One gate vanished, but the mana shifted to the central fortress-like gate, boosting its rank.
As a result, the difficulty of the emission-type gates rose in tandem.
Lee Kyung-seop, who had glimpsed hope in her weakening state, wore a look of utter despair once more.
Terrified by how she kept drawing power from somewhere to grow stronger again, he swung his sword at Oh Minji once more.
The bolstered monster absorbed the attack with ridiculous ease.
Having dragged his battered body into one final all-out assault, Lee Kyung-seop collapsed to the ground.
‘Guess the miracle ends here.’
It had been a miracle that extended his life by exactly five more minutes. Sprawled limply on the floor, Lee Kyung-seop stared up at Oh Minji.
The monster gave off a strangely familiar vibe.
He’d seen a few humanoid monsters before, but none had ever felt this familiar. For some odd reason, this one did.
He was just blankly staring at the monster poised to kill him when yet another miracle occurred.
Pajijik!
A white electric net—designed to let electric attacks pass through harmlessly—engulfed Lee Kyung-seop’s body.
* * *
“Attention!!! The monsters in the rear are switching to a single-file formation and charging!”
Abyss B-Class hunter Maeng Chae-rin shouted, her nose twitching.
She kept her eyes locked tightly on the rear even as she battled the monster in front of her.
Thanks to the drug experiment granting her multi-vision, Maeng Chae-rin could monitor distant situations while fighting her immediate foe.
Far off, monsters were forming a new formation and closing in rapidly.
While the humanoid monsters rushed in haphazardly to disrupt the hunters’ focus and vision, a dense, straight-line formation of monsters waited in the back.
Just moments ago, the gate’s difficulty had been low enough for smooth progress, but now it had spiked sharply.
The hunters were aghast the instant they spotted the fast-approaching catastrophe.
“Uwaaak!!!”
“Blast them with magic!!!”
“No!!! Magic attacks here will kill us too!!!”
“These bastards have steel bodies anyway—magic barely works!!! Retreat!!!”
The hunters were swiftly overwhelmed by the momentum of the monsters charging in a tight, rapid formation.
The monsters’ formation shifts were terrifyingly swift. There was no time to adapt to one attack pattern before another hit.
‘This Hysis Gate is weird—all humanoids.’
Maeng Chae-rin retreated alongside the frightened support team, dashing toward the secondary barrier set up by the vanguard hunters.
The gate’s interior and the monsters’ attack patterns showed no fatigue, constantly evolving.
It felt like sparring the gate itself incarnate—not some average person, but a trained killer trading blows.
Yet since it wasn’t direct combat, it felt more like being toyed with helplessly on the killer’s chessboard.
A cold sweat broke out at the thought of the boss monster Lee Kyung-seop was facing.
‘No wonder the A-Class freaks got pulverized.’
Though she figured she’d be next.
She was insanely jealous of Pyo Sang-hoon and the few Abyss members incompatible with water who’d joined the injured recovery team.
Killing as many regular monsters as possible outside the boss zone would give Lee Kyung-seop’s team an edge against the boss.
‘Gotta do what I can for as long as possible.’
Scanning front and back meticulously with her vertically slit pupils, Maeng Chae-rin yelled at her team’s mage.
“Strong wind push!!! Wind push!!!”
The natural-element wind mage reinforcing the defensive barrier from the rear hastily cast her spell at the shout.
“Everyone, leap forward!!!”
The moment Maeng Chae-rin grabbed the people around her by the napes and powered her legs to jump, a fierce wind blasted forth.
Fwooooosh!
The oncoming monsters were shoved back several paces.
Having bought some time, Maeng Chae-rin roughly dragged her feet across the ground to halt her sliding body. She swiftly spun around and assumed position.
She raised her two boomerangs—her signature weapons—and dropped into a low stance.
Without a second’s hesitation, she hurled the razor-edged pair with full force toward the far side of the monsters’ seamless single-file line.
The monsters’ rear was completely exposed. The massive boomerangs whistled through the air with a vicious whoosh as they soared far.
To avoid detection while throwing behind her, Maeng Chae-rin darted into the slightly disrupted monster cluster, drew her sword, and launched minor strikes.
The boomerangs curved in spinning arcs, their blades steadily growing as they reached the monsters’ necks, where they began to cross.
Skreeeech!
Roughly half the overpowering monster horde collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
“Hup!”
A few onlookers stared in awe at the clean, exhilarating strike.
Murmurs of “As expected of Abyss” rippled briefly before everyone charged into the broken formation to finish off the rest.
Once the barrage of attacks had come and gone and the area was cleared, everyone let out sighs of relief.
“Can you pull off a few more like that?”
“It’s my ultimate—can’t do it again. Sorry.”
Panting heavily, Maeng Chae-rin grabbed the end of her high ponytail and tied it even tighter.
In the meantime, her eyes darted closely over the surroundings before she scowled.
“Monsters incoming from the rear!! Switch to B-formation, now!!!”
“!!!!”
Freshly spawned monsters were swarming from behind.
Maeng Chae-rin was horrified by the endless waves crashing in like tides. How could the respawn speed and numbers be this insane?
‘At this rate, we’ll be wiped out before overseas reinforcements arrive.’
She gnashed her teeth and readjusted her grip on her weapon. She was still too young to die.
Patsujik!
Suddenly, a white electric net unfurled across the gate’s interior, white sparks crackling and illuminating everything brightly.
‘Huh? Isn’t that the baldy’s tech?’
Startled, Maeng Chae-rin stared at the white net.
It was Pyo Sang-hoon’s invention to prevent allies from being barbecued—standing on the white electric net protected you from his electric attacks.
But why was a trace of that guy’s tech here, where he couldn’t possibly be?
She didn’t have long to ponder before the white net began flashing rhythmically.
Pajik! Pajik! Pajik!
Three familiar, steady beats.
‘If my white electric net flashes three times at one-second intervals, it’s the signal I’m unleashing my ultimate—get to safety.’
Having raided countless gates with Pyo Sang-hoon and knowing exactly what that signal meant, Maeng Chae-rin’s eyes went wide as she bellowed.
“Uwaaak!!!! Everyone, stick to the white net!!! Right now!!!”
Where and how was he attacking from? Flustered, Maeng Chae-rin plastered herself to the white electric net and called for her teammates.
The moment the last member huddled low against the net, hundreds of yellow deadly spears rained down from above.
Pachijijijik!
Like fast-forwarding the growth of nutrient-rich branches, shooting out refreshingly.
Pajijijijik!
Like knitting the ceiling and floor together with threads of yellow death.
Pajijijik!!!
“Hey! You damn bald-headed bastard!!! What the hell—unleashing your ultimate with no warning?!”
The voltage was so intense that the white protective net couldn’t fully block it, leaving her with a mild shock.
Itching all over, Maeng Chae-rin scanned around for Pyo Sang-hoon and coughed.
* * *
Massive, thick bolts of yellow electricity erupted over the Hysis Gates.
Pachijijik!!
With an explosive roar, the bolts’ tips veered sharply, thinning out gradually.
Yellow light washed over Lee Yu-hyun’s troubled face as she spoke with the overseas hunter headquarters.
Even the people on the beach untouched by the white net stared dumbfounded at the beautiful yet terrifying spectacle before getting lightly zapped.
The monsters got it too—pajijik!
Woo Ji-yoon, frustrated that the monsters had been dodging her alone, swiftly raised her sword and cleaved through the paralyzed sea beasts.
The thick yellow lightning branches continued to lash and envelop the gates, flashing for several minutes.
When the yellow electric branches finally vanished, so too did the Hysis Gates.
“Dawn! All the gates are closed! It’s over now! Dawn?”
Having withdrawn the barrier, Han Su-hwan patted Lee Sa-byeok’s back to soothe her. Lee Sa-byeok calmly took in the scene around them.
Severely injured people being pulled from the water. She recognized so many faces there.
Lee Sa-byeok simply watched everything in silence.