What Is Our Healer Doing? 유혹 (8) 보스 몬스터.
The message that the boss monster had appeared was something familiar yet alien to Ahin.
He had seen countless such messages before, back when he was still not Ahin.
Now, after becoming Ahin, he had never witnessed one of them.
His reaction to the text suddenly floating before his eyes was simple.
“Seriously, what a pain in the ass.”
Why now of all times?
That thought echoed through his mind, leaving him dizzy.
The two walls that had blocked their path moments ago split open and revealed themselves.
Three glowing red eyes emerged from the darkness where they had been waiting.
At that exact moment, the magical stone lamps illuminating the area began to flicker and lose their light.
- Kyaaarrrgh!!!
It roared.
“W-what is that?!”
“Why did the wall just open like this?!”
Jina and Er raised their weapons with expressions mixing shock and fear.
They stared at the colossal monster visible in the shadows and swallowed dryly.
The ritual Haru had personally confirmed just minutes ago had been one she swore was safe.
So they had only relaxed their tension, cracked a few jokes, and moved cautiously.
No disasters had occurred, and the only strange thing was…
“Could it be that Ahin touched the wall?”
“What? How could that possibly be?!”
“But when we touched or looked at the wall, nothing happened!”
As Er said, the wall had been silent and calm until the moment it came into contact with Ahin.
It was obvious that even after others checked it and poured mana into it, the wall remained unresponsive—until the instant it touched him, when it started acting strangely.
“Fuck, this is bullshit!”
Ahin cursed and started yelling at someone somewhere.
“Must you really shit on me every single time?!”
“Ahin, now’s not the time to complain!!”
“The monster’s presence is off the charts.”
The closer the footsteps thundered, the clearer its form became in the darkness.
Its shadow had made Ahin think it was a werewolf.
Its two legs on the ground were like those of the wolf-men they had seen, and the fur covering its body was identical.
But when the gaze reached its upper body, they felt only confusion.
Instead of the sleek, agile werewolf body, it possessed a bulky, massive skeletal frame.
It looked like the strong, rugged body of an orc warrior, the kind that could split a human in two like kindling, but crudely stitched together.
Yet it was neither a werewolf nor an orc warrior.
Instead of the suffocating life force those two creatures exuded, it emitted a foul, nose-wrinkle-inducing stench.
Where the two bodies had been sewn together, it was black and rotting, creating that stench.
Like a corpse bloated with decay, it draped itself in the stench and roared with its throat trembling.
“Ugh…?”
Everyone who saw its face could only make a face of utter disgust, as if they were about to vomit.
It was rotting.
Rotting flesh covered its body, to the point where even the skeleton was unrecognizable.
Yellow pus dripped down, and the face had holes eaten by worms, looking like a half-decayed corpse.
Looking at it only filled their chests with revulsion.
Yet its eyes shone red, and the instant it met its own third eye in the forehead with their eyes—
- Kyaaarrrgh!!
A horrifying shriek like a window being scratched echoed, and it charged at them.
It had been bipedal, but upon reaching them it planted its front paws and used the powerful claws of its hind legs to launch forward like a slingshot stone.
The three glowing eyes on its rotting, mangled face had only one purpose.
To cut off the breathing of the humans who had disturbed its rest.
The humans entangled in the monster’s tantrum raised their mana and swung their weapons.
“[Pierce]!”
“[Smash]!”
Er’s sword and Jina’s gauntlets, glowing with dazzling light, slammed into the chimera’s body.
Boom!
With a noise that defied any imaginable collision between metal and flesh, the chimera was blasted back.
But unlike the intact chimera that had stopped only after leaving scratches on the floor, the two who had taken its frontal attack head-on screamed in pain that felt like their shoulders were being dislocated.
“Aaaah!!”
“Er, Jina!”
Ahin, watching this, gritted his teeth and reached out.
At the same time, warm divine power gushed from his heart.
The girl beside him froze in surprise, but he had no time to care and immediately uttered his chant.
“[Heal]!”
A pillar of light descended on the two who had been retreating.
The moment it seeped into their bodies, the pain in their shoulders from the horrifying attack vanished, and they exhaled in slight relief.
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind, and he yelled in a voice thick with disgust.
“Ahin, you’re in danger!!”
“Sudden—uh, wait—”
His words were cut off.
Jina and Er, who had been blocking his front, swung their swords and gauntlets in desperation.
They did not disappoint his expectations and succeeded in slashing and hammering the chimera’s massive body.
But that alone was not enough.
The chimera, having sensed the divine power, did not have the skill or time to leap over them and charge at Ahin.
- Kyaaarrrgh!!!
It leaped over Er and Jina in a single bound, roared, and swung its front paws with long claws extended toward Ahin.
“Damn, so it’s a zombie…!”
Ahin muttered with an irritated voice and pushed Haru standing beside him aside, rolling his body urgently to dodge the paw.
It wasn’t exactly rolling, but throwing himself aside was closer to the truth.
His body slammed against the rough ground and let out a voiceless cry, but his lungs forgot how to breathe under the sudden impact and screamed in pain.
But he had no time to care.
To avoid the sharp claws that came crashing down, the ground around Ahin’s shoulders was torn away.
Red blood scattered through the air.
The chimera let out a roar, as if smelling that foul blood scent.
- Kyaaarrrgh!!!
“Ahin!! Gah, [Smash]!!”
“[Pierce]!!”
Jina rushed over and slammed her fist into its head, while Er thrust her sword toward the chimera’s chest.
An attack aiming at both top and bottom was sure to be effective.
If the opponent had been an ordinary monster.
Black blood spurted from the rotting face crushed under the gauntlets, and the chimera’s chest that had been pierced by the sword tore open.
But something was strange.
Even though the sword had pierced near its heart, the chimera did not care at all and simply swung its hideous front paws to target their necks.
Er, who had blocked a strike of unchanged speed and power as if it had never been attacked, shouted in a pained voice.
“Even with its heart pierced, it’s this strong…? Jina!! I’ll block the attack, you attack!!”
“Got it!”
Kwoong!
The shield collided with the chimera’s torso, creating a heavy sound, and Jina, not missing the gap, kicked off the wall and leaped upward.
The underground chamber they had discovered was an extremely high ceiling for a tunnel.
One person leaping over the chimera’s massive body would be more than enough.
So she kicked it with all her might the moment both feet landed on the ceiling.
Her body shot forward like a cannonball.
In the instant the distance between them shrank, she clenched her fist, infused mana, and added the weight of her body and the power of her legs.
Unlike her usual usage of only hip and arm strength, she condensed every last bit of power she could muster into that single fist.
“[Smash]!!”
At that moment, the fist slammed hard into the chimera’s head.
Crunch—accompanied by the sound of bones snapping, the chimera’s huge body collapsed.
How powerful it was, its intact head had been torn off more than half and pushed sideways.
Jina, who had delivered that attack, frowned with pain felt throughout her body.
It was a sacrificial blow achieved by forcibly circulating the mana inside her.
Her unprepared body screamed in madness, and the fist and wrist that directly hit the chimera’s head felt broken and had no strength left.
But in that brief moment of slight distraction, thinking this was enough to be an effective hit.
“Jina, Er!!”
A cry mixed with a scream from the man calling his teammates’ names echoed.
And only then did she realize.
That the chimera whose neck had been half-torn off had been thrown away like a toy, sending the blonde woman straight at her.
Er, who had been sent flying backward by the overwhelming force without even trying to resist, had collided with Jina.
The pain of her entire body being crushed between the solid wall and Er’s armored body was inevitable.
“Gah…!!”
“Ugh, damn it…!!”
Jina, coughing up blood and lowering her head.
Ahin, who had spat curses while looking at her, tore the sleeve of the arm that was hanging loosely and emitted light.
“[Heal], [Bless]!”
Heal to cure the immediate wounds and Bless to fill Jina’s empty spot after she became unable to fight.
Because the flesh that had reached its limit due to overexertion took such a massive shock, Jina could not even stand up properly.
So Er, who had taken relatively less damage, had to hold on longer.
“Gah, this is…”
But Er alone was not enough to block that chimera.
After all, even during the pincer attack with Jina, she had not been able to block it properly.
So Ahin had no choice but to decide.
“U, uh…?”
“Haru, if you don’t want to die, move!!”
It was no time to watch his movements while hiding his abilities.
The moment he poured divine power, the wounds on Haru, which had been covered with bandages and medicine, healed and the consumed mana was restored.
Unlike body-focused fighters like Er and Jina, who were unfamiliar with mana, only Haru—who was familiar with it and clearly knew her own limits—could sense the effect.
“Mana… has recovered?”
- Kyaaarrrgh!!!
Again sensing divine power, the chimera let out a fierce roar.
Ahin, realizing the chimera had started targeting him again thanks to the use of Heal and Bless, gritted his teeth,
- [Bond] state is activated.
With that message, a strong light burst forth in front of him.
“[Judgement]!!!”
A flash exploded like a bomb.
A light hammer that blocked the chimera’s path as it rushed at Ahin.
The chimera, seeing the light extending into the darkness, stopped its leap toward Ahin,
- Kyaaarrrgh!!
With a roar, it spread its arms wide and opened its mouth as if it would tear itself apart.
The light disappeared.
It vanished into its mouth.
Inside the lewdly opened maw, the light that the two had created together disappeared.
“No, no way…”
With a stunned expression, as if unable to believe it, Er dropped her sword from the backlash of [Judgement].
In Ahin’s eyes, which watched that Er, the ever-damned message appeared once more.
- Boss monster, [low-grade chimera, three-eyed beast] has absorbed the light! -
“Damn it…”
Ahin said that, spitting the words out.
“Even if you hadn’t told me, I would have known.”
At that moment, light burst forth.
A golden explosion of mana and divine power combined from Er’s sword erupted from the chimera’s mouth like flames.
Overwhelming light release.
The one who blocked the chimera flying at Ahin was the girl with sky-blue hair standing beside him.
“[Mirror Force]!!”
If it had not been the mirror created in front of her by that chant,
A mage desperately raising mana to repel the light the chimera spat into the sky and create a hole connecting to the ground would not have happened.
At that spot, Ahin and his party would have vanished.
It was Haru who had saved their lives in an instant.
The sky-blue-haired mage who had created a massive mirror by exhausting the mana and stamina recovered by Ahin’s Heal and Bless.
The girl wearing an oversized robe that did not match her body looked back at the man she had saved and said.
“Ahin… there’s a way.”
“…A way?”
“That chimera… absorbs light. But…”
The chimera that had absorbed Er’s [Judgement] unchanged and returned it, but Haru—the only mage in this place—could understand.
“That chimera has no heart.”
“…What do you mean?”
The instant Er’s sword had pierced the chimera’s chest.
The reason the pierced chimera could move without caring about the wound was simple.
That chimera had no heart.
Like the rotten stench that decorated it as if it were not a weakness, several internal organs that could have been weaknesses from the beginning did not exist.
As was typical of chimeras made by black mages, it had tried to replicate the tenacity unique to undeads.
But it was not perfect.
Because another weakness had been created by removing the weakness.
“Storing mana is the heart’s job.”
“What does that have to do with anything right now?!”
As if it were the aftermath of a counterattack, the chimera stopped in place and let out a low growl, wary of when it would charge again.
When Ahin shouted that as he rushed toward Jina to treat her,
“Er’s attack had an enormous amount of mana. So it couldn’t absorb it. Because there’s no heart. Then…”
At that moment, Haru’s mouth split into a wide smile.
“If you stuff enough light into its maw that it can’t spit it out right away, it will break on its own.”
That was the method Haru had thought of to defeat that monster.
[Ahin’s Healer in Peril]
📍 Location: Underground Chamber
🎁 Reward: [Unknown]