17 Chapter 16 (1/2)
”Yes, I am one, but....”
”Ahh, please forgive me. This way, please. Let me guide you there.”
”Ah.... Sure.”
Sensing that his troubles might get more complicated if he said ”There's been a misunderstanding here”, Seong Jin-Woo decided to quietly follow the soldier's guidance for now.
Jin-Woo then swept his gaze around his vicinity.
'Now that I see, it's....'
The surrounding atmosphere felt rather suspicious.
The streets were totally deserted. The only people he could see were the soldiers and the members of the police.
Also, corpses belonging to monsters, destroyed cars, and buildings with cracks running up their walls....
Jin-Woo realised what had happened here.
'A Gate must've opened up nearby.'
Something like that almost never happened nowadays with the well-established Hunter system in place, but sometimes, a Gate would appear in a remote area, and it'd go unnoticed for a while. As a result, no one would come around to close it in time.
When such an event unfolded, soldiers from the nearby bases were dispatched in order to buy some time until Hunters could arrive on the scene.
Of course, the weapons of soldiers didn't work against the monsters. However, in order to facilitate the evacuation of civilians, someone had to be offered up as sacrifices. In other words, they were to become cannon fodder.
A role someone had no choice but to perform had been saddled on the shoulders of this nation's youths.
”Thank you.”
The soldier walking up ahead thanked Jin-Woo out of the blue.
”Pardon me?”
”Well, because Hunters such as yourself fight hard, we are able to go home at the end of the day, you see.”
”Oh, uh.....”
He said 'thanks'.
That was something Jin-Woo wanted to say to the soldier, instead.
Soldiers to the Hunters, and Hunters to soldiers.
As befitting those fighting to protect someone, or even something, they were expressing their gratitude against each other.
Beep.
The soldier's expression brightened after he received the radio transmission.
”I've received a word that the monsters in the vicinity have been dealt with, and only the biggest one remains.”
Jin-Woo nodded his head.
He didn't need to hear the soldier's explanation to know.
He could actually sense the presence of a powerful 'lifeform' nearby. And he could even sense several auras of Hunters surrounding it, too. The enhanced Perception Stat was transmitting crucial information in the form of sensations and feelings.
And that's how Jin-Woo got to figure it out almost immediately.
'That thing is the boss.'
Soon enough, the creature could be seen in the distance. In the empty, open space not too far from him, a dozen or so Hunters were surrounding a giant made out of rock. It was as tall as a telephone pole.
It was a Golem-type monster.
”Heok....”
The soldier spat out a gasp of fear as he took a step backwards.
Perhaps it was his first time seeing one, since the moment he saw it, his entire body had stiffened noticeably. But then again, most people would react in a similar fashion. The difference between seeing a monster for real and seeing it on a TV or a computer monitor was like heaven and earth, after all.
Unlike him, Jin-Woo remained calm and observed the unfolding situation.
”Healers! Concentrate your healing on the Tanker!”
”We're also doing our best!!”
”Why isn't it dying already?!”
”What are the damage dealers doing!! It's not even remotely close enough to dying, is it?!”
”The monster's defences are too strong! And we just don't have enough magic-type Hunters in our group!”
Because they had been summoned out here in haste, none of them seemed to be high ranked Hunters. Both their defences and attacks didn't look that effective at all.
Because of that, Hunters couldn't avoid being embroiled in the protracted battle of attrition.
BOOM!!
When the Golem slammed its massive stone fist downward, the Hunter acting as the Tanker had no choice but to kneel down just for a brief second.
”Keo-heok!!”
The Tanker vomited out a mouthful of blood.
”N-no!!”
”The Tanker might die at this rate!!”
”What do you want me to do?! My magic energy reserve is completely empty, you know!!”
”Hasn't the support from high-ranked Hunters arrive yet?!”
These Hunters looked like they had reached their limit.
Jin-Woo's gaze, as he took all of these in, gleamed quite sharply.
'If it's only that much.... I can do this.'
Jin-Woo slowly took several steps back. This Golem-type boss might possess the high defence, but its rank was probably lower than its scary outer appearance might suggest.
Just from the aura it emitted, it was definitely weaker than the boss of the instant dungeon, the Poison-Fanged Blue whatever.
'So, if I could just render its high defences to nothing....'
What's needed right now was a powerful strike that could penetrate past that dumb rock giant's defences.
Jin-Woo got to enough distance away and took a position of throwing something.
The muscles in the arm holding the broken sword began swelling up quite violently out of the blue. Thick, pulsing veins even popped up on the back of his hand, too.
All of his physical strength was concentrated in his right arm.
A short while after that, the arm pulled back taut like the string of a bow was shot forward at the speed of sound.
”Go!”
***
The view of the rank D Hunter, Lee Hahn-Soo, was turning dark.
He couldn't continue on anymore. His prized shield had begun developing cracks as well. As if their magic energy had been depleted, the amount of healing magic hitting him from the Healers had decreased quite noticeably.
At this rate, every single one of them would die for sure.
Lee Hahn-Soo had to make a decision, now.
The only feasible plan here was for him to buy enough time so the other Hunters could safely escape from here. And at a later time, Hunters with higher ranks show up to kill this Golem.
'Or, we all die together here.'
Cold sweat drops formed on Lee Hahn-Soo's forehead.
He finally firmed up his resolve. Lee Hahn-Soo shouted out while looking back.
”Leave this to me and you all gotta...!”
It was at this moment that Lee Hahn-Soo saw it.
Something flew towards here as it gleamed coldly in the night air.
Actually, he could only 'sense' that he had seen something, but his eyes couldn't really pick up on anything tangible.
It was that fast.
KWAHANG!!
That 'something' slammed into the Golem's head and it grandly exploded.
”W-what the hell?!”
Lee-Hahn-Soo's eyes opened up super-wide.
The headless Golem began tottering dangerously. The Hunters began roaring out in elation only then. They focused their attacks once more.
”It's working!! Our attacks are working!!”
”It's falling!!”
”A little bit more!! Just a bit more and we'll win!!”
It seemed that none of them had noticed the object flying in from somewhere, because they were too focused on attacking the monster. With the sole exception of Lee Hahn-Soo standing right in front of the Golem, that was!
Roooaaaarrr.....
In the end, the Golem toppled over.
Thud!
The heavy body fell down to the ground and kicked up a mighty dust storm.
Waaahhh!!
Hunters all cried out in elation and celebrated their victory.
”We did it!!”
”We killed it!”