Chapter 304 (1/2)

Act 5

Ki-aah!

Kuruk, kuk!

A monster resembling an ox waved its horns. Right after that, another monster that looked like a toad displayed its lengthy tongue.

Slice.

Ku-ruk!

The long tongue was sliced in half, and blood splattered everywhere. The toad-like monster screeched and thrashed around in pain.

The human it tried to devour was simply too fast. The monster, even while in pain, tried to attack once more, but its supposed prey had already escaped.

Shortly after that, sword-brandishing Hak-joon descended from the air.

Whoosh!

Swish!

A thin but lengthy line followed Hak-joon’s movement as he wielded his blade. The line was produced by the magical crimson energy emanating from his sword.

Splat!

In the blink of an eye, dozens of monsters were cut down. While wielding a lengthy sword made out of magical energy, Hak-joon spun in the air and landed on his feet.

“Fu-wuwu—”

He took a deep breath, the one he had been holding back subconsciously until now, and exhaled loudly.

It had already been three hours. He lost count how many monsters he killed so far.

“It got harder to count after going past the 1,000 mark,” Hak-joon commented.

Things got more challenging when the more skilled and superior monsters appeared. This group of monsters was a mix of pawns and skilled fighters.

Just like now…

BANG!

Hak-joon extended his hand and created a transparent barrier. Immediately, massive hooves slammed right on top of it.

His body slid on the ground. He was trying to dodge the creature’s attacks.

‘The Undead Unicorn…’

The unicorn had a half-broken horn. It was a superior creature from the blue dungeon. It wasn’t that large, but it moved fast and its strength was impressive.

Grit.

Hak-joon gritted his teeth and shoved aside the Undead Unicorn’s front hooves. Just as the monster lost its balance, a magical energy gushed from Hak-joon’s sword.

Splash!

The Undead Unicorn’s head was severed. The headless creature thrashed for a moment before trying to kick Hak-joon again with its front hooves.

This was the reason for its ‘undead’ moniker. Even if its head was cut off, it still had life in it that it would continue to survive unless it was cut into pieces.

Hak-joon dodged the Undead Unicorn’s relentless attacks. The creature did not even bleed despite its head being cut off. Hak-joon swung his sword again.

[Massive Sword]

Gugugugu—

Hak-joon’s sword enlarged to match the Undead Unicorn’s size.

He then forcefully wielded the enlarged sword. The Undead Unicorn, along with the advancing monsters, was cut into pieces. Blood was everywhere.

Splat!

Neigh!

The Undead Unicorn fell on the ground, but it continued to neigh. Although it was quite a chilling sight to behold, Hak-joon was not a bit horrified. He was actually relieved that it was over.

Pant. Pant.

Hak-joon’s skill, the ‘Massive Sword’, was one of the best techniques he currently possessed in terms of pure power. Unfortunately, it cost a lot to use it.

The Undead Unicorn proved to be a challenging opponent. Hak-joon had no choice but to use the ‘Massive Sword’ skill to defeat it in one strike. It was worth the steep cost of magical energy anyway.

Shu-wut!

It was right then when a sharp spike was thrown at Hak-joon’s direction. It was aiming for his unguarded back.

He was panting heavily. He didn’t notice the sudden attack. However, as the weapon was about to strike him, he caught sight of it, and then it stopped midair.

Tsu-chut, chut—

The pitch-black fog trapped the spike and prevented it from making contact with Hak-joon. Soon, the fog traveled across the spike and spread out to the white monster wielding it.

Kya-ahk!

It was a short white human-shaped monster, only about one meter tall.

The creature looked like a dwarf, but its opponent would do well not to underestimate it. What he lacked in size, he made up for in his skills. Besides, it was a terrifying monster and appeared at blue dungeons. Its main method of attack was to adapt to the color of its surroundings like a chameleon and stealthily stab its prey in the back.

It was one of the monsters that one should be most wary of in a battlefield like this one. Hak-joon heaved a sigh of relief and turned his head. “Thanks, Thomas.”

“I got another one!” Thomas replied with a grin.

Despite Hak-joon and Thomas energetically fighting the monsters, they were exhausted. Although they had killed a lot, the monsters still outnumbered them.

‘It’s like their numbers have increased somehow,’ Hak-joon noticed.

He wasn’t mistaken.

He was focused on the battle that he did not notice monsters arriving. What’s worse was, this new batch was larger than the last one, of which members were mostly dead by now.

One could not deny that a ridiculous number of monsters had been flooding out of Gangwon Province.

“This is totally nuts, man.” Hak-joon chuckled helplessly.

With how things were, he couldn’t fall back anymore. If he and Thomas retreated now, no one could tell where these monsters would be heading to. They would surely destroy each town that they passed by.

Moreover, the city of Yangpyeong was not too far from here. With their remarkably acute sense of smell, these monsters could head over there next and wreak havoc.

‘What about reinforcements?’ Hak-joon considered.

‘Out of the question,’ he thought, responding to his own question.

The remaining manpower currently consisted mainly of low-ranked awakeners around C-, maybe even D-.

Majority of capable individuals were dispatched to locations other than Gangwon Province to raid the dungeons being generated there. As for those awakeners ranked B or higher who had not been dispatched yet, they were all either injured or recovering at the moment. Hence, they were not fit to fight.

What help could they possibly provide even if they came here?

Probably nothing more than killing one or maybe two monsters out of so many here and bravely meet their ends. That’s all.

‘If bro was here,’ Hak-joon mulled, ‘he would have fought till the end. He would go on no matter how spent he was.’

Grit.

“Fine.” Hak-joon raised his arms that used to falter from this sense of hopelessness. “Let’s go as far as we can, shall we?”

* * *

The sun set beyond the horizon, and the skies darkened.

Night fell, yet the battle continued. Hak-joon couldn’t tell just how his body was still able to move and fight.

Chu-wak!

Pow!

Hak-joon, in the midst of his swinging his swords, punched to his side. Then a red-nosed monkey trying to attack him flinched in surprise.

Hak-joon moved with momentum and swung his sword.

Splat!

The monkey’s torso split in half and its blood splashed everywhere.

Hak-joon didn’t bother to keep away from the blood bath. He was too exhausted to do so that he opted to save his remaining energy for the next opponent.

Pant. Pant.

Buzz…

While panting, Hak-joon felt the smartphone stashed in his pocket vibrate. The call was most likely coming from Lee Ju-ho.

…Probably calling to find out why Hak-joon had not returned despite his promise of coming home soon.

‘How many calls did I miss?’ Hak-joon wondered.

His phone had been ringing nonstop for the past 30 minutes or so. Lee Ju-ho must have been really worried over there.

Then again, he should have realized that something was wrong by now—realized that a large number of monsters were flooding out of Gangwon and heading towards Yangpyeong.

Then a thought occurred to Hak-joon, ‘Bro, sorry about this but…’

Hak-joon’s knees were shaking, and he had to use his sword as a support. “It looks like we may not have that good meal as promised,” he muttered softly.

He didn’t have any means to answer the phone.

Almost half of the wave of monsters still remained. Thomas was extremely fatigued as well.