Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: A Fleeting Miracle
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[An entity with high speed and low defense...]
Iris had definitely started speaking before Cimeries moved. But before she could even finish her sentence, Cimeries had already finished its attack.
“Jade!”
Standing behind the priests, Oh Su-jeong was the first to see the 'result,' and she let out a scream.
Even she hadn't been able to properly perceive the 'process' of Cimeries swinging its spear.
A spray of blood erupted. About half of Gawain's priests were torn to pieces, their remains scattering through the air.
The surreal sight brought the same thought to every player's mind.
What would have happened if that attack had been aimed at them instead of the priests?
Could they really have blocked it?
The players were done watching.
Choi Yu-ra and Oh Su-min fired at Cimeries almost simultaneously. They unleashed a rain of arrows.
But it was too late. Before the first arrow could even reach its target, Cimeries vanished again like a gust of wind.
“Group up! Back to back!”
Daniel Kim shouted, turning to stand back-to-back with Park Hyeong-sik. It was the right call. But he'd overlooked one thing.
Cimeries was too fast.
“Agh!”
Seong Yu-jin's scream was drowned out by a dull thud.
Cimeries's spear slammed into Seong Yu-jin's shield, and like a marionette with its strings cut, she was sent tumbling over ten meters without being able to put up any resistance.
It was only because she was the tanker that she survived.
If her reflex to move the shield had been even a fraction of a second slower, the spear would have torn her in two.
Cimeries smiled at the sight of Seong Yu-jin, still alive and rolling on the ground.
A jet-black aura, presumably transferred the moment the spear struck her shield, constricted Seong Yu-jin's body. She trembled violently, letting out a groan of agony.
“You!”
Choi Yu-ra roared and pulled the crossbow's trigger, but it was too late. Once again, her bolt only pierced empty air.
Cimeries let out a booming laugh that seemed to well up from the depths of its lungs.
These creatures called Players were amusing, just like the three it had met in the forest. No wonder over a hundred Rat Scavengers had died while it was dealing with those three.
Within its accelerated consciousness, a mind moving at a speed that outpaced the wind itself, Cimeries pondered.
Who to strike next?
How about striking the one whose arm was severed, finishing him off for good?
Or perhaps it should pierce the belly of the girl it had just sent flying and wave her about like a banner?
Cutting off the legs of the woman with the crossbow would also be amusing.
The mere thought was delightful. The urge for violence, accumulated over countless ages, was being unleashed to its heart's content, and the feeling was intoxicating.
Cimeries's eyes darted around.
In the seemingly endless slowness of its perception, it observed the players.
The bald man, still screaming from the pain of his severed arm.
The blonde woman, still writhing on the ground like an insect, unable to recover from the impact.
The short man, back-to-back with the blue-haired man, staring off in the wrong direction.
The woman and the boy, hastily raising their arms to fire their sluggish projectiles.
The large man on the sled with a dazed expression, and beside him, the silver-haired girl who had burst into tears.
Having observed them all, Cimeries blinked.
The reason was simple.
One of them was missing.
Why?
The answer came from behind it.
***
The moment Cimeries’s spear slaughtered the priests, Kang-seok understood.
Its specialty was speed.
An agility that his current party couldn't even touch.
So, what was to be done?
Kang-seok knew. The answer had been set from the very beginning.
Cimeries leaped forward, its movement tearing through Oh Su-jeong’s scream.
Kang-seok gritted his teeth and pictured the command in his mind.
Cimeries’s spear struck Seong Yu-jin. It let out a crazed laugh filled with pleasure.
And just as that laughter began to spread, a pure white light erupted from Kang-seok’s body.
The moment Cimeries kicked off the ground again, Kang-seok did the same.
It was a miracle, granted for only ten seconds.
[Transcendent Skill: Overdrive.]
There was no such thing as power without a price. Activating his Transcendent Skill for the second time in actual combat, Kang-seok realized.
The new penalty for his Transcendent Skill, Overdrive, something that hadn't been there before.
Activation Cost: 1,000 Kron. It was the same principle as Choi Yu-ra spending 1,500 Kron to summon Gigantes.
But it was worth it.
Boom!
A deafening roar tore through the air. Within the accelerated time, Kang-seok appeared behind Cimeries. The moment it tried to turn, he swung Durandal without hesitation.
Durandal, wreathed in a blue aura, sliced through the part connecting Cimeries’s upper and lower body. Unarmored flesh split open, blood sprayed, and Cimeries's face twisted in pain.
Boom!
This time, it was Cimeries who moved. Suppressing the pain, it sprinted away, trying to shake Kang-seok off. Kang-seok pushed off the ground to give chase. And then he realized something had changed.
It wasn't ten seconds.
He only had seven seconds.
He couldn't immediately grasp why the duration had changed. Normally, he might have considered various causes, like a prolonged battle or repeated skill copying, but not now.
To avoid wasting precious time, Kang-seok accepted the seven-second limit without question.
Within his expanded consciousness, moving in sync with the accelerated time, he focused on the most important thing.
Pursue. Strike again.
Cimeries didn't dodge. It took Kang-seok's attack on its armor and twisted its body, thrusting its spear toward him. The strike was like a bolt of lightning.
Kang-seok saw the spear tip. But the blow was so unexpected he couldn't dodge it completely.
The spear tip, seemingly sharp enough to pierce space itself, grazed Kang-seok's side. No—it tore through his clothes and flesh, drawing a significant amount of blood. A vicious wound, as if from the bite of a wild beast, opened on his flank.
It could well have been a fatal wound. But Kang-seok didn't stop. Instead, a red glow flared in his eyes as he pressed his attack with even greater ferocity.
[Rage Mode]
A system from *God of War Online* that increased attack speed and power when his health dropped below 5%!
Bewilderment filled Cimeries's eyes. Kang-seok struck its abdomen once more. Within his expanded consciousness, he could feel the flow of time.
Only a few seconds remained. But at this rate, he wouldn't be able to defeat Cimeries.
Kang-seok, the one pressing the attack, knew it best. He was only on the offensive, but this monster was fundamentally on another level.
Iris had described Cimeries as an entity with high speed and low defense.
Having attacked Cimeries himself, Kang-seok knew she wasn't wrong. But at the same time, her words were completely useless.
Cimeries was too fast.
Besides Kang-seok using his Transcendent Skill, Overdrive, no one could match Cimeries's speed. What good was low defense if you couldn't even land a hit?
An agonizing pain that even Rage Mode couldn't suppress rooted Kang-seok to the spot.
Only two seconds of Overdrive remained.
What now? Should he unleash his most powerful attack, Knight of Knights?
There was no time to think. Kang-seok drew back Durandal.
But just before he thrust, with only one second left, he canceled the skill and changed his stance. As Cimeries reared up on its hind legs to crush him, Kang-seok shot out not his sword, but his foot.
↓↙←←←+K
Lightning Kick!
He didn't kick it sideways. The direction Kang-seok chose was upward, into the air. This time, there was no lightning. But he hadn't been aiming for the lightning effect in the first place. All Kang-seok wanted was the raw, physical power of the Lightning Kick!
It was launched.
Cimeries’s body, which had to weigh several hundred kilograms, shot diagonally up into the air.
The reason he'd canceled Knight of Knights at the last second.
No matter how fast it was, it was now airborne. A place where its movements would inevitably be restricted!
The backlash from Overdrive washed over Kang-seok.
Having collapsed immediately after forcibly changing the trajectory of his Lightning Kick, Kang-seok couldn't even manage a proper scream. The bleeding from the wound in his side wouldn't stop.
Cimeries hadn't died from the blow. Meanwhile, Kang-seok himself had collapsed, a complete wreck.
And yet, Kang-seok knew they would win.
Because he wasn't alone. Because here stood the nine players who had crossed the 'line of death' known as the tutorial!
KRAKOOM!
An arrow crackling with lightning seared the air. Loosed from Oh Su-min's bow, it pierced Cimeries's neck.
And that wasn't all.
Waiting for Cimeries as it fell, subject to the laws of gravity, was another figure. Park Hyeong-sik, in the exact same stance as Kang-seok, just facing a different direction!
“Lightning—Kick!”
A blast of pure white lightning erupted, as if to prove it was the original.
With a tremendous boom, Cimeries was sent flying like a ping-pong ball, tumbling across the ground in a battered heap.
John gathered the last of his strength and launched a fireball.
Daniel Kim leaped forward with his great axe, and Oh Su-min loosed another arrow.
“You wretched things!”
Cimeries roared from within the flames of John's fireball.
Though battered by Kang-seok's and Hyeong-sik's Lightning Kicks and Oh Su-min's arrow, it tried to rise, its face a demonic mask of rage.
I will show you my true power. I will transform into my true form as one of the '72 Demonic Beasts' and tear you all to shreds!
This was no empty threat. A terrifying energy began to surge from Cimeries’s body. Its armor fell away, and its jet-black hair whipped about like flames.
Kang-seok watched it. Instead of fear, he simply raised his middle finger to the demonic beast that was glaring at him with murderous intent.
Transformations, fusions, patiently waiting for your opponent to power up right in front of you—leave that to the villains in comic books.
The final blow Kang-seok had planned.
Choi Yu-ra did not disappoint.
BANG!
A hole blew through the chest of Cimeries just as it was about to transform. Before the power of an anti-materiel rifle capable of killing a target behind a concrete block, the hide and bones of a centaur were nothing.
Cimeries's most terrifying aspect was its speed.
The moment it lost its mobility and was rooted to the spot, the moment it became defenseless in its blind rage—its fate was sealed.
The anti-materiel rifle spat fire again and again. Riddled with holes in its chest and head, Cimeries's body lost the momentum it had gathered to rise and collapsed.
Daniel Kim and John, who had been charging in to unleash their own skills, stopped in their tracks with bewildered expressions. Baek Gi-hyung, who had urged his dog sled forward to run the beast down, couldn't stop in time and rolled right over Cimeries's corpse.
An awkward silence fell.
It was broken by letters of light.
[S-Seventh Wave Cleared!]
[Centaur - Demonic Beast Cimeries 1/1]
[Quest - Protect the Temple of Gawain, the God of Honor, Cleared.]
[Quest MVP: Choi Yu-ra (F)]
[Quest VP: Choi Kang-seok (M), Oh Su-jeong (F)]
[Title Acquired: Demonic Beast Slayer (Party)]
[Promotion from Intermediate Warrior to Advanced Warr... Agh! Later! Oh my god! Wow! You got Cimeries before it transformed! My goodness! Wow, for real!]
Hearing the mix of bewilderment and joy in Iris's voice, Choi Yu-ra chuckled.
To the other players, who couldn't hear Iris, it simply looked like a smile of victory.
Instead of answering Iris, Kang-seok collapsed again. Seeing Choi Yu-ra running toward him and Seong Yu-jin staggering to her feet, he closed his eyes in relief.
[That was truly amazing! The rewards this time are sure to be incredible! Even if it was before its transformation, and even if it was a lower-class one, you still defeated one of the '72 Demonic Beasts'! The same '72 Demonic Beasts' as the Demonic Beast Barbatos on the lowest floor of the Labyrinthos dungeon! Wow, goodness gracious! You must be the only players in existence to have accomplished such a feat!]
Iris chattered on, uncharacteristically excited, but he couldn't hear her.
He'd lost too much blood.
'Come to think of it, the loot...'
His thoughts trailed off.
Kang-seok fainted with a smile on his face.