The Regressor Likes Cider (5)
The Regressor Likes Cider (5)
"Run!"
All three of us dashed for the corridor we'd entered the courtyard through at the same time.
"Grrrraaaagh!"
The monster wolf clearly had no intention of letting us go quietly. It leaped high into the air.
It meant to pounce on us from above. I gripped my sword tight, bracing for the impact.
"?!"
But its target wasn't us—it was trying to block the corridor we were running through with its body.
It had been clever enough to hide on the ceiling, so had it instantly grasped that we were trying to escape? With the wolf blocking our only exit, we were suddenly trapped in a sealed chamber.
"W-what do we do?!"
Just as Ahn Gyeong-jun's panicked footsteps were about to slow,
"Just keep running!"
Dok Su-hee shoved him from behind and pulled two daggers from her chest.
"Hah!"
She hurled the dagger in her right hand straight at the wolf.
"Grrrrrr!"
The monster wolf leapt aside to dodge it, seemingly wary of the strike.
Clink!
But Dok Su-hee's dagger merely smacked helplessly against the wall and then fell to the floor.
"Now!"
Despite the dagger's pathetic force, the wolf had overreacted by dodging, which created an opening—a gap we could squeeze through into the corridor.
The three of us sprinted on without slowing.
"Grrrrrrr!"
The giant wolf, perhaps realizing it had been tricked, landed and then charged straight at us.
"Haah!"
Dok Su-hee shouted and threw another dagger.
Crunch!
But this time, the monster wolf chose not to dodge. Instead, it snatched the dagger out of the air with its sharp teeth.
Having just confirmed that the dagger posed little threat, it decided to charge straight through without dodging.
And that was exactly Dok Su-hee's aim. The first dagger had lulled the wolf into letting its guard down, and the second attack was meant to land a critical hit.
Screeeeech!
With a hair-raising metallic shriek, Dok Su-hee's dagger exploded right inside the wolf's mouth.
"Kyaaaaaang!"
No matter how enormous the wolf was, a wolf was still a wolf. It writhed in agony as blood streamed from its mouth, and in that gap we slipped into the corridor.
"How's that? Pretty useful, right?"
Dok Su-hee grinned even as she ran.
She'd demonstrated an enchanting ability.
Enchanting usually meant boosting equipment—granting weapons extra effects. Dok Su-hee's ability was no different.
"I enchanted the dagger with 'Explosion.' I bet its mouth feels pretty numb right now?"
She could imbue her weapons with various useful attributes, and the most destructive among them was Explosion.
Since the dagger blade had detonated inside the wolf's mouth, the wolf definitely wouldn't be unscathed. Besides, the versatility of the ability seemed absurdly high, so unlike Ahn Gyeong-jun who seemed to have noticeable flaws, Dok Su-hee was a genuine powerhouse.
"...But to make full use of Explosion, wouldn't something other than daggers be better?"
"...I don't have enough strength to wield something like a spear."
Whatever the case, we'd bought ourselves a breather. The wolf's body was far too large to fit through this narrow cave passage. To force its way in, it would have to smash through the walls as it advanced, and that would take an awful lot of time.
"Grraaaagh!"
"It shrunk?!"
No. Thinking we had any leeway was a mistake.
Did it come with a modern consumer-friendly size-adjustment feature? The monster wolf had shrunk its body to match the cave size and was now chasing us like mad, blood still dribbling from its mouth.
"Damn!"
A flustered Dok Su-hee hurled another dagger enchanted with 'Explosion.'
But this time, the monster wolf didn't try to catch the dagger with its teeth. It simply twisted aside and dodged.
Screeeeech!
"Ugh..."
The dagger exploded near the wolf's flank, but it couldn't penetrate that thick fur and hide.
"..."
"..."
The three of us exchanged a split-second glance and then—
"Run!!!"
—we started running as if our soles were on fire.
***
Again, back to the present.
"Pant, pant... 'Iron Wall'!"
As we ran, Dok Su-hee enchanted my sword with a defensive attribute.
"Grrrrrr!"
Clang!
The scenario repeated: the wolf charged, and I barely fended it off.
"Fuck, fuck..."
So far, Dok Su-hee's enchantments were letting us block the attacks, but in a drawn-out battle of attrition, we were clearly at a disadvantage. This cave wasn't an endlessly connecting tunnel. It was inevitable that impatience would creep in.
My Hero trait had already activated. But with so few people around, it wasn't much help. What should I do? Should I have Dok Su-hee enchant 'Explosion' onto my sword, then charge in like a lunatic and jam it into the wolf? Do I need to go all-in?
"H-hey! Look at the wolf!"
But it seemed I wasn't the only one growing impatient.
"Grrrrrrr..."
The monster wolf's fur, which had been faintly glowing blue, was now blazing a full, brilliant blue.
White steam billowed from its muzzle, and its eyes blazed with feral light.
I could feel its savage wildness. It looked ready to twist my neck right then and there.
It was unmistakable. The wolf had also decided to go all-in.
Is it standard for everything in the Tower to carry around something like an ultimate skill, even the City Master? It was utterly ridiculous.
"Ssss..."
Could we win? It seemed unlikely. Even without my regression ability, I couldn't confidently say I'd win in a head-on fight.
While I was weighing my options as we ran,
"Gyeong-jun! Are you crazy?!"
Ahn Gyeong-jun, who had been running fine all along, had stopped and was standing stock-still like a stone statue.
"..."
Slowly, with a blank expression, he removed his glasses.
Crack!
He gripped them in both hands and then crushed them completely. The lenses shattered and pattered to the floor.
Plop.
He tossed the crumpled frame at the blue-glowing monster wolf. The flimsy debris flew weakly and bounced off the wolf's snout.
"..."
"..."
For a moment, silence hung in the air.
Dok Su-hee and I were too bewildered by what we were witnessing to make a sound.
"Grrrr..."
The monster wolf, wary of something, hunkered its body down tightly.
"...I am the first son of the Great Mother, the great warrior, the eternal outsider."
But as if paying no mind to that silence, Ahn Gyeong-jun murmured softly and stretched his right hand straight out to the side.
In his hand, a rough wooden spear had materialized at some point.
A streamlined body. A sharply honed tip.
I had only seen its shape, but I was certain: that was the javelin Ahn Gyeong-jun had spoken of.
"..."
Silently, he held the wooden spear out toward Dok Su-hee.
"Ah! Just a moment! 'Explosion'!"
Having caught on to what he intended, Dok Su-hee grabbed the spear firmly, and the spear briefly glowed.
"Grraaaagh!"
Perhaps sensing that its life was on the line, the monster wolf attacked without letting the opening slip by.
Its speed was far swifter and more agile than any movement the wolf had shown until now.
"Much has changed, but my karma remains the same."
But it was already too late.
The monster wolf charged with all its might. Ahn Gyeong-jun's arm swung.
"Hunt."
Whoosh!
Shot in a straight line like a laser, the spear pierced deep into the wolf's shoulder joint. At the very last instant, the wolf had twisted its body and narrowly avoided a fatal wound.
However, it couldn't overcome the overwhelming physical force concentrated in that crude wooden spear, and the spear drove far into the wolf's body.
Booom!
The wooden spear detonated violently inside the wolf.
"!!!"
The monster wolf let out its death throes, its eyes rolling back as it collapsed.
"Haa, haa..."
"Whooh..."
Dok Su-hee and I struggled to catch our breath.
"Uh, uhh... what in the..."
Even Ahn Gyeong-jun, seeming to snap out of his battle trance, stammered stupidly, unable to grasp the situation.
The process had been somewhat chaotic and messy, but...
We had won.
"...So what now? That door that was closed earlier should be open now, right?"
"Wouldn't it be?"
"Oh, give me a second. I'm going to search the corpse. There might be items or something."
Ahn Gyeong-jun and I sat on the ground to rest while Dok Su-hee went to rummage through the wolf's corpse in search of any possible items.
Step. Step.
Then, from deeper down the cave passage, footsteps sounded—both familiar and strangely unfamiliar.
"...I'm a step too late."
Blood trickling from his forehead, Kang Chan walked toward us with a solitary air.
His well-trained body still radiated a subtle killing intent.
"Where the hell have you been?! Do you have any idea we almost died just now?!"
Dok Su-hee's face twisted as she immediately took him to task for his absence.
"...There was one more giant wolf. I just finished taking care of it."
With an expressionless face, he pulled a bright red orb from his chest.
"...It gave me this as a reward."
Blood Orb [B+]
-A bead that grows as enemies are defeated. Once fully grown, it can be consumed.
As he spoke, he casually wiped the blood running down his forehead.
"Ah, um..."
When Kang Chan said he had been fighting as well, Dok Su-hee seemed to run out of things to say and could only close her mouth.
And watching all this,
"...Huh."
I very seriously began to wonder whether Kang Chan was, in fact, a complete pushover.