Chapter 147
Chapter 147
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 147
Chapter Title: Mannequin Onslaught
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Mannequins came charging madly from all directions.
"Hold the line!"
With Kang Han's shout, the Justice Guild members swiftly moved into position.
They formed a tight circle around Nayeo-ju and Han Ji-seong in the center.
It was at that moment—a pang of regret hit for Yoo Jin-rok, who couldn't join them due to the sudden guerrilla gate assignment.
And just as Jang Su-ho summoned a massive shield from his subspace...
Boom!
One mannequin hurtled toward the shield at tremendous speed, smashing into it and crumbling to dust.
It had been leisurely strolling around just moments before.
Thud! Crash!
More followed in quick succession, slamming into the shield without hesitation.
Pure hostility toward the intruders, devoid of any fear.
"Maintain formation and attack."
Kang Han issued the order and thrust his spear first.
Whoosh—crack!
The black spear tip pierced the white mannequin's body with effortless ease.
But before the impaled one fully disintegrated, the next mannequin threw itself forward.
Kang Han's arm bulged with thick veins as he bore the weight dragging down the spear shaft while fending off the monsters swarming like enraged hornets.
The other guild members were struggling too.
"What the— so brute—forcing?!"
Lee Yu-eul gritted her teeth, wildly swinging her jungle mandao.
Each mannequin's attack power was negligible.
And they shattered like plaster statues.
She figured they'd just smash any that lunged at them.
But the problem was their numbers.
The horde pouring out from every corner of the vast campus defied imagination.
The sight of them surging forward was like a distant white wave crashing in, enough to turn your stomach.
And there was one more issue.
"These bastards have some real strength."
Lee Yu-chan wrenched his arm free from an unusually massive mannequin, then tsked as he embedded an arrow between its eyes.
Close-quarters combat was the archer's worst nightmare.
With them pressing in relentlessly, there was less and less room to loose arrows.
Lee Yu-chan furrowed his brow, thinking for a moment.
"I'll attack from the trees!"
He leaped back and, in the blink of an eye, scaled a tall tree.
Choosing the longest outstretched branch, he nocked three long, slender blue arrows like poles.
Twang—crack!
The arrows flew true, embedding precisely into the skulls of three monsters charging toward Jang Su-ho's shield.
"Hit."
Adjusting his slipping glasses, Lee Yu-chan smirked on one side.
"Haven't shot like this in a while. Today'll be fun."
The elevated vantage gave him a clear view of the enemies' movements—his perfect stage.
And so, Lee Yu-eul, Jang Su-ho, and Kang Han held the solid formation, dispatching the oncoming mannequins, while Lee Yu-chan thinned their numbers from afar before they could close in.
It was just as the fight seemed to be turning into a war of attrition...
"Everyone, make way."
Han Ji-seong's suit fluttered in the mana-born wind.
"Ice Spear."
With his quiet incantation, a massive ice lance shot forward.
Krunch!
It shattered a leaping mannequin mid-air into pieces, the shards embedding in the ground like jagged glass.
At the same time, a massive mana storm erupted around Han Ji-seong, tousling his silver hair.
Whooosh!
The fragments rode the mana winds, swirling through the air like glowing schools of fish.
Shhhh—
Quiet, yet devastating.
Dozens of monsters vanished into black dust without knowing what hit them.
"Whew, much better."
Han Ji-seong swept back his disheveled hair, surveying the noticeably thinned ranks.
But though their numbers had dwindled, the mannequins' aggression hadn't.
Kang Han grimaced as he swept his spear horizontally, felling three charging at him in one go.
They crumbled easily before the hunters' strength and stamina, but they were monsters all the same.
If a dungeon break occurred and they flooded into the civilian-packed university district...
Whoosh—crack!
Kang Han's spear strikes grew heavier.
"Ji-seong oppa, stamina! Heal!"
"Yeah, Nayeo-ju. Hit me."
Inside the sturdy wall formed by Kang Han, Lee Yu-eul, and Jang Su-ho, Han Ji-seong offered Nayeo-ju one hand.
As she activated her skill, the throbbing headache that had him wanting to hurl his glasses away after casting vanished like a lie.
'What principle does this even work on?'
Han Ji-seong sighed in relief, pondering.
'I have a rough guess.'
No ordinary heal skill could produce such effects.
Nayeo-ju seemed eager to explain, yet she kept quiet alongside him.
Finally, a warm energy reached even his icy fingertips. Han Ji-seong patted her head.
"Thanks as always, Yeo-ju."
"It's just healer work."
Meanwhile, Jang Su-ho was dying inside.
"Ah, damn it."
Thud, crunch!
He smashed one flying blindly into him, oblivious to its own destruction, then swung his shield to take out the one behind it—yet his grim expression didn't lift.
'If I hadn't smashed them thoughtlessly.'
The whole guild struggling now was all his fault.
Thud, boom!
The sounds from his shield pulverizing mannequins grew rougher.
That was when a small, warm hand touched his back.
He knew the owner without turning.
'Yeo-ju's hand.'
As tension crept up his spine involuntarily, Jang Su-ho froze for a moment.
"Jang Su-ho, stop digging into the ground."
"Huh?"
Was I digging?
He glanced down instinctively, but the ground underfoot was fine.
"Not that. Don't think 'it's my fault' or whatever."
"But."
"But this dungeon's built like this from the start. Got it? Sure, we'd have been less startled if ambushed fully prepped, but we had to raid it this way anyway."
"......Okay."
Jang Su-ho swung his shield wide, smashing another mannequin, and replied meekly.
"No more of this next time. That's it. Understand?"
"......Got it."
She was right.
Mistakes are mistakes.
Just don't repeat them.
Jang Su-ho steeled himself, regripping the cool shield handle firmly.
Whew, that was close.
While tending to Han Ji-seong briefly, I'd missed Jang Su-ho's berserker gauge climbing.
I dismissed the system messages filling my view and swallowed a small sigh.
"Nayeo-ju-ssi, any injuries?"
"No, I'm fine."
The situation was stabilizing enough for Kang Han to check on me.
Mannequins still charged fearlessly, but far less frequently.
The grounds weren't the solid white mass anymore.
A straggler or two from afar got picked off by Lee Yu-chan before reaching us—no worry there.
"Now to clean up the rest and move on..."
As I started saying to Kang Han—
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!
The ground began to shake.
Over Kang Han's shoulder—who'd instinctively shielded me behind him—I spotted something enormous.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
A grotesque, colossal statue—like mashed-together statues of clay—barreled toward us, trampling everything in its path: school buildings, mannequins, no distinction.
"That's the founder?"
Looked more like a tyrant.
Anyway, boss appeared—healer falls back.
"I'll head to Yu-chan's tree."
"No. Stay here."
......Fight too?
Luckily, that wasn't Kang Han's meaning.
"I'll handle it solo."
He kicked off the ground toward the founder, leaving those words.
Something's off.
That's not like him.
He always hung back half a step for guild growth.
'No way.'
I pulled up his status window, watching his white tracksuit flap as he leaped to the founder's eye level.