Chapter 58
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Preliminary Battle (3)
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“Seo-woo! Hit ‘em with a big one right in front of me!”
“Got it!”
BOOM!
An explosion erupted in front of the shield, instantly blasting more than ten spiders to pieces.
Beside her, Dad was swinging a fire axe and a metal pry bar, tearing through the spider swarm, while the newly joined Jeon Byeong-cheol was holding his own, picking them off one by one.
‘But.’
No matter what anyone said, the core firepower of the group right now was none other than Song Seo-woo and Kim Geon-ho.
Those two.
Crunch!
“Seo-woo, watch yourself.”
So-hee couldn’t help but admire how Geon-ho safely shielded Seo-woo from a spider she’d missed, while Seo-woo unleashed his firepower without a care, trusting him completely.
The two had become a perfect combo, dominating the battlefield ever since the fight began.
“Thanks, Bear Uncle! Whoa? Fireman Uncle, look out!”
BOOM!
“Whoa! Thanks, Seo-woo!”
“Dad! Help him out!”
“You got it!”
All she had to do was keep them from tiring out with [Aura of Healing] and use [Shield of Protection] to pin down a few of the giant spider centurions.
The rest of the team was steadily thinning out the spiders on their own, so there was no need to push too hard.
At this rate, wiping them out was just a matter of time.
The only question was how long it would take.
‘Min-jun needs to hold on just a bit longer….’
Min-jun had drawn all the Demonic Humans away with him. This fight was basically handed to them on a silver platter.
With his Star Force fully unleashed, he could easily take down regular spiders, no sweat—not to mention the giant ones in a one-on-one.
They needed to finish up quickly and go support Min-jun, who was probably ditching the two Demonic Humans by now.
‘Items. I’ll definitely make sure you get them, so please hang in there!’
Even back at school, the shooting club captain who’d given Min-jun trouble was a Demonic Human.
Sure, Min-jun had gotten a lot stronger since then. But these two were obviously tougher than Baek Ki-hyuk back then.
And this time, there were two of them.
No matter how much she trusted Min-jun, human affairs were unpredictable.
So So-hee couldn’t help feeling anxious.
“Seo-woo, here!”
As she deflected the giant spiders’ attacks with her shield and called for Seo-woo’s firepower support once more.
She sensed presences rapidly approaching from the open field beyond.
“Dad! More spiders incoming!”
“What?!”
“Looks like a lot of them…. We need to clean this up fast! Hurry it up, Mr. Jeon!”
“Got it!”
She asked the two melee fighters to handle cleanup and slowly pulled the front line back to match Seo-woo’s position.
They needed to wrap this up quick and help Min-jun, but the endless waves of spiders were annoyingly numerous.
“Seo-woo!”
“Yeah.”
“Think you can make a wall of fire?”
“A wall? Like what?”
“Um, like the fence around the school, you know? Imagine making one just like that with your flames. Surround the area we’re fighting in.”
“Hmm… I’ll try!”
If another wave joined before they finished off the current bunch, it’d take even longer to clear them.
The more spiders piled up, the trickier they got, so priority one was taking out the ones already here.
Seo-woo furrowed his brow in concentration, then whoosh—a wall of flames as tall as a person encircled the battlefield.
‘Perfect! That buys us time.’
“Sis, I don’t think I can hold this long. It’s tough.”
“It’s fine. That’s plenty.”
“Geon-ho, I’ll guard Seo-woo now, so go help Dad and Mr. Jeon. We gotta finish before they get here.”
“On it.”
With Geon-ho’s stats closer to hers now than when they’d first met.
He could clear spiders faster than her, focused as she was on defense and support.
Crunch!
A brutal melee erupted inside the blazing wall, blood spraying everywhere.
They could’ve taken their time per the original plan and cleared it without much trouble, but with the situation as it was, they had to accept some injuries.
So-hee smashed spider heads with her shield to protect Seo-woo, while pouring more Survival Time into [Aura of Healing] to bolster the team.
“Everyone! Just a little more! We’re almost done!”
“Sis, I’m getting tired.”
“Seo-woo, hang in there just a bit longer. If we nail this fight, I’ll buy you a doll.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Promise.”
It had been a while since they’d wiped the initial wave.
The reinforcements were mostly cleared now—regular Apostles done, just giant spiders left.
So-hee urged on the sweating Seo-woo as she scanned the battlefield.
‘We’re almost there.’
Jeon Byeong-cheol, injured, was getting healed by her for the next fight, while Geon-ho and Dad cornered the last four giant spiders.
Thwack! Crunch!
Dad hacked at their legs with a pry bar in one hand and fire axe in the other, and Geon-ho finished off the crippled ones to wrap things up.
As Geon-ho buried his axe blade in the final spider’s head, the two collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.
“Man, I’m beat. You good, Geon-ho?”
“I’m fine. You hurt anywhere, Team Leader?”
“What, you think your team leader’s some pushover? It’s me, Jeong Jin-ho.”
“Geon-ho, Dad. Before more show up, we should—”
She was about to tell the chatting pair there was no time to sit when.
Someone burst through the flames into the battlefield.
‘Huh…?’
The figure was just a silhouette in the firelight shadows.
It was human-shaped, charging fast at Dad’s back with what looked like a sledgehammer.
No time to block or even call out.
The monster was that swift, that lethal.
Dad finally sensed something off and started turning, but it was too late.
So-hee’s mind flashed with Dad’s head exploding like a watermelon.
Then.
A thunderous roar exploded as another figure shot in at light speed.
Squelch—
The newcomer plunged his hand into the hammer-wielding monster’s chest, then slowly walked toward them.
* * *
‘Almost a disaster if I’d been a second late.’
Min-jun crushed the Demonic Human’s heart with his Star Force-wrapped hand, then decapitated it with his dagger just to be sure.
After seeing the one he’d thought dead earlier revive as some freakish beast.
No reason this one wouldn’t do the same.
[You have killed Demonic Human Park Ye-chan and absorbed 6,118 hours.]
[Fraus recognizes that his Demonic Human has died.]
‘Fraus this time? Figures it died too easily….’
Yeah, it seemed weaker than the ones Atlnak, the Star Lord, had sent.
Those guys could’ve blocked that attack easily….
‘…Anyway.’
Good thing no one got hurt by trash like this.
“Boss?! Whew, Boss saved this nobody Jeong again! As expected, you’re the real ‘Boss’—leagues above our old inept fire brigade captain.”
“Yeah, that’s our Boss.”
“Hah… Everyone, good work out there. No more Apostles nearby. Let’s rest a bit, then head out.”
With the Demonic Human—who’d used his minions as bait and hidden behind the flame wall—finally dead.
No more Apostles in the immediate area.
‘Was gonna head back and roll out right away.’
But it was obvious they’d pushed hard to clear the monsters in a rush.
Even if they charged Fraus now, he’d be fortified around himself.
Trying to fight more here? They wouldn’t even get close.
Min-jun himself needed a breather too….
‘Whew….’
Exhausted from the tougher-than-expected fight, Min-jun sat down to catch his breath.
“Thanks again this time.”
“Oh, So-hee?”
So-hee approached, holding Song Seo-woo.
“Hey, no need for formalities between us. Haha.”
“Between us… Yeah, right? Between us—”
“But!”
“…?”
“I took out the last Demonic Human. So, I win the bet, right?”
“…Hah? Gotta squeeze blood from a flea, huh?”
“The world of competition is ruthless. Looking forward to it, So-hee?”
“You’re impossible.”
At Min-jun’s words, So-hee handed Seo-woo to Geon-ho and shifted back to what she’d meant to say.
“Min-jun, we’ve got a problem.”
“Because of the injuries?”
“Yeah. The others just have superficial wounds—Red Potions’ll fix ‘em. But Seo-woo’s in no shape to fight. He overdid it this battle.”
“More rest it is, then. Hm… Our initial plan to ambush Fraus got clocked anyway. He’s probably ready for us now…. Let’s regroup and prep again. We can scout his moves from somewhere with a view of the gateway while Dan-woo catches up.”
Following Jeon Byeong-cheol’s guidance that the gateway was in the apartment complex’s central park, they headed to a still-intact apartment near it.
The top floor of Building 203—far enough from the central park but with a clear view down.
Min-jun settled in and gazed at the distant shimmering rainbow gateway through the balcony.
“That’s why we didn’t see a single spider hatchling on the way.”
The gateway was ringed by over a dozen massive trees the size of 15-story apartments, and the whole area crawled with spiders.
“Looks like he rounded up every Apostle he’s got.”
“Too many spiders. And we’re too few.”
“Breaking through head-on’s gonna be rough.”
With those giant trees, even more spiders would swarm from all directions at once.
Facing that horde straight-up was suicide.
“For now, we’re short on people. Need Dan-woo here ASAP if we’re gonna do anything…. Think he can find us?”
With the spider army that thick, every extra hand counted, so So-hee worried about their returning ally.
“Left markers only we’d recognize along the route. Smart kid’ll find us.”
Right then.
The door creaked open as someone entered 1502.
Speak of the devil—thinking it was Dan-woo, the group rushed to the entrance.
And.
“…Uncle, uh, we hit a little snag on the way….”
Following Song Dan-woo.
Three unfamiliar faces peeked cautiously around him, locking eyes with the group.