Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Pass the Bomb
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When faced with an invincible enemy, almost no one chooses to fight to the bitter end.
Most will lament that it's an enemy they can't possibly beat and choose to run away instead.
Unbreakable will, or an indomitable spirit—those are things you only hear about in manga and novels.
In reality, especially with modern sensibilities, such resolve isn't something you can find so easily.
Even those who have been through hell and back still fear death, and even a recluse who had grown indifferent to life will naturally tremble when a blade is held to their throat.
Humans are cowards.
And that is how they have evolved and developed.
After all, those who lacked the instinct to fear death died off long ago. Anyone who isn't a madman fears death.
That fear or terror is by no means a bad thing. It is an essential emotion for survival.
Judgment and composure are just as important.
If you let fear throw you into a panic, causing your thoughts and actions to cease, death will take one step closer in that very moment.
“We have to run...!”
Lee Seon-jae, the leader of the Jinshim Attack Team, who had just barely blocked the Durahan's sword, made a quick decision.
The fate of his team rested on his choice. If he was even a moment too slow in his judgment, they would be wiped out.
Seon-jae thought.
That thing was a monster with no way to defeat it.
He knew its true identity was Gu Kyo-han, but given how horribly it had transformed, there was no bringing him back now.
The porter, Gu Kyo-han, was already dead.
All that was left was to flee as far away from that monster as possible.
Casting aside all hesitation, Seon-jae shouted that they had to escape right that instant.
“Run!!!”
To allow the rest of the party to escape the building, Seon-jae swung his demon sword to block the Durahan's greatsword three more times.
The Durahan, not caring in the slightest about the narrow space, continued to swing its sword.
It cleaved through and shattered the walls and ceilings that blocked the path of its blade, relentlessly aiming only for Seon-jae's head.
With each of the Durahan's strikes, a huge crack ran through the building, which soon began to shake with an ominous groan.
At the same time, a small crack also appeared on Seon-jae's demon sword.
The attack was that powerful.
“Float!”
In the meantime, Yun Ji-ho lifted the unconscious Kim Ki-seong with telekinesis and leaped down the stairs.
Cha Ji-tae, who had gone down to the first floor first and was beating nearby zombies to death with his cane, looked up at the second floor where Seon-jae and the thing that used to be Gu Kyo-han were fighting, his face filled with tears.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
CRAAAASH!
The glass window shattered, and Seon-jae jumped down.
“Run! Run!!!”
The Durahan watched them run from the second-floor balcony.
It waved its hand through the empty air and summoned something.
NEIGHHH!
A skeletal horse clad in black demonic armor.
A summon that was the very symbol of the headless knight appeared.
The Durahan lightly mounted the horse and, shattering the second-floor wall with a single blow, leaped down.
In an instant, the building shook and then collapsed with a deafening roar.
“That bastard is ridiculously fast!!!”
“Dammit. Dammit, dammit!!!”
Seon-jae quickly caught the floating Kim Ki-seong and put him on his back.
He couldn't maintain the levitation spell any longer as it consumed too much mana.
Yun Ji-ho, after seeing Kim Ki-seong get on Seon-jae's back, released his levitation magic and repeatedly overturned the ground and created obstacles to block the path of the charging Durahan.
Cha Ji-tae, while running, focused his power and finally managed to wake the unconscious Kim Ki-seong.
“Ugh... fuck... my head...”
“Hey!! Get off my back and run!!!”
“Huh? Th, this!! You fuck!!!”
The Durahan, which had been chasing them at a moderate speed, let out a wheezing sound, almost like a sneer, upon seeing Kim Ki-seong, who had just woken up.
Then, it threw the head it was holding.
BOOM!
The Durahan's head slammed into a car parked in the direction the Jinshim Attack Team was running, and the car was not just pushed back but was smashed to pieces as if it had exploded.
The loud noise from the car's destruction drew in the nearby zombies.
“Shit...!!!”
The skull returned to the Durahan's hand.
It seemed to be retrievable.
That meant the head would be flying at them again.
“Shield!!!”
BOOM!
CRACKLE!
Yun Ji-ho's protective magic, which had been cast at the perfect moment, couldn't even last two seconds before shattering.
With ease, the Durahan's head broke through the defensive spell and flew at the party once more.
“You fucking bastard!!!!”
Kim Ki-seong, who had just woken up, let out a battle cry and took the skull head-on.
Had he left it, Cha Ji-tae, who was standing there foolishly, would have been crushed to death.
CRUNCH!
In exchange, Kim Ki-seong's arm was shattered, and the skull buried itself in his abdomen.
“Guh...!! Gwaaah!!!!”
Fresh blood gushed from Kim Ki-seong's mouth.
It was an attack that would have been instantly fatal if he weren't a Blood Warrior with an extremely high body regeneration rate.
“Heal!! Heal!!!!”
Cha Ji-tae screamed and poured one healing spell after another.
Thanks to that, Kim Ki-seong barely managed to stand up, wiping the blood from his mouth, while Seon-jae and Yun Ji-ho held back the Durahan in the meantime.
“Uwaa!! C-can't you use teleportation!?”
“Dammit!! I don't have enough mana for anything but short-distance movement!! Even if I use it, we'll get caught up right away... And my concentration is shot, I can't use it right now!!!”
“Fuck!!”
While the party's feet were momentarily slowed, the Durahan caught up to them.
As if it were playing a fun game or toying with an insect, it swung its greatsword, cutting through Yun Ji-ho's magic and crushing Seon-jae.
CLANG!!
SWOOSH!
In the end, one of Seon-jae's knees buckled, his demon sword snapped in two, and the Durahan's greatsword lodged itself in his shoulder.
The wound on his shoulder could be healed by Cha Ji-tae, but it would take at least three days for his demon sword to be restored.
Losing one's demon sword for a demon sword user meant their combat power was practically reduced to zero.
“Heh... Heh... Hehahahaha...”
A wheezing laugh echoed in the ears of the Jinshim Attack Team.
The Durahan mocked Seon-jae, who was kneeling and glaring at it while bleeding.
It mocked Cha Ji-tae, who was staring blankly.
And it mocked Yun Ji-ho, who was lost in thought due to a lack of mana.
Just then, Kim Ki-seong, who had re-entered the fight, quickly threw Seon-jae backward, out of the Durahan's reach, and then used Blood Rage to face the Durahan alone.
That bought them a little more time.
“Da... dammit...”
Yun Ji-ho, barely holding his dizzy head together, scraped together the remaining mana to prepare for a teleportation spell.
They had to get as far away as possible from this insane monster.
‘If the incantation gets tangled up, we're all dead... Dammit...’
Using teleportation in a state of diminished concentration was a form of gambling.
Yet, to survive, he had to risk his life on those slim odds.
There was no other way to overcome this crisis.
Just then.
A massive presence was felt from behind them.
“Huh? Th-that fucking hell!! What is that monster bastard doing here!!!”
At the panicked shout of a man, Yun Ji-ho turned his head to look at the three players approaching from behind them.
‘What on earth is that...?’
In that moment, Yun Ji-ho felt like collapsing on the spot and wailing.
His Demon Eye, the ‘Sage's Demon Eye,’ slightly pierced through the target.
It was a skill that could also see flowing mana and grasp the essence of objects to some extent.
And now, his skill was screaming at him.
Run away from that monster right now.
‘Insane... an insane amount of mana... and two terrifying monsters clinging to his back... Those women aren't to be underestimated either, but that... that is the real deal.’
Yun Ji-ho saw them.
Jang Jo-jun, Lee Eun-ji, and Kang Hwa-yeong.
‘Honestly, the two women are manageable even for us. But that man...’
The image of Jang Jo-jun reflected in his Demon Eye was truly horrifying.
Not to mention his explosive mana, but behind him were a giant spider monster with piercing eyes glaring at him and a horrifying, disgusting-looking cockroach that made his head spin.
Yun Ji-ho was completely intimidated, especially by the murderous gaze of the spider monster, Queen Kishiria.
He had already lost before the fight even began.
Yun Ji-ho even had the delusion that Kishiria was speaking to him.
As if to say, ‘How dare a mere insect like you observe me?’
The Abyssal Overlord Kishiria was glaring at Yun Ji-ho from the deepest part of the Curse Palace, located at the end of the abyss.
‘Th, that monster in the abyss...’
It was a monster that refused to even be compared to something like the Durahan.
The man who possessed such a monster—one that could dismiss the Durahan, which had just pushed them to the brink of annihilation, as ‘something like’—who on earth was he?
Furthermore, due to the Ring of Memory Transformation that Jang Jo-jun was currently wearing, he appeared to Yun Ji-ho as a shattered piece of glass.
Shock and fear.
Nothing else could enter Yun Ji-ho's mind but the thought that he had to run away right now.
Right now, something like the Durahan was not the problem.
If he were caught by such a monster, he wouldn't die a peaceful death.
As the personification of death rushed right before his eyes and only the thought of escape remained, his concentration soared to its peak.
His subconscious, driven to the limit of its survival instinct, instantly completed the formula for spatial movement.
Yun Ji-ho grabbed Seon-jae, whose shoulder was shattered and was being healed by Cha Ji-tae, and Kim Ki-seong, who was dodging the Durahan's attacks, and teleported with all of them.
“Hey! Grab them!!”
In that instant, Jo-jun, reacting to the teleportation, shouted, and Eun-ji hastily created three shadow daggers and threw them at Yun Ji-ho, the caster.
Thus, the shadow daggers were also caught in the teleportation and were sucked in together...
WHOOSH!
They successfully teleported a short distance.
“Guh...!!!”
Yun Ji-ho collapsed to the ground, trembling, unable to even pull out the daggers buried in his abdomen, shoulder, and thigh.
This was because, in that brief moment, Eun-ji had coated the daggers with Paralysis Venom Fang.
“Th, this!!!”
They had barely escaped the Durahan and Jo-jun's party, but they hadn't run very far.
A distance of just two blocks.
A distance at which they could be caught up at any moment.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!”
Kim Ki-seong, who had felt the energy of another vampire, Kang Hwa-yeong, during the instantaneous movement and felt a chill run down his spine, quickly put the sprawled-out Yun Ji-ho on his back and ran.
He instinctively realized that if they foolishly stopped here, that monster-like bitch and an even greater monster would be on their tail.
Running behind Kim Ki-seong were Seon-jae, whose shoulder injury hadn't fully healed and was continuously bleeding, his complexion terrible, and Cha Ji-tae, who was on the verge of collapse from mana exhaustion.
And so, they survived yet another day.
In this ruined world, you never know when, where, or for what reason you might die.
They must have learned a very, very, very meaningful lesson today:
Never pick up just any random object.
After losing their precious comrade, Gu Kyo-han.