Chapter 54
Bwahahahaha!!!
Hans’s head exploded.
The young priest was showered with Hans’s bones and flesh.
“Ugh... ugh!”
The blood-soaked priest panicked, flailing about without even being able to speak properly.
Dark-red tumors burst from Hans’s entire body, covering him from head to toe.
The constantly swelling masses of tumors gathered together and formed a single enormous egg.
The elephant-sized egg immediately began to pulsate like a heart.
Thump.
Thump.
Squelch.
The tumors tore apart, and a neck as long as a giraffe’s rose up first.
At the tip of the neck, a slimy head emerged, and a pair of snail-antenna-like horns sprouted from it.
Brrrrrrr!!!
Several bundles of sharp tentacles burst through the side of the egg.
Its torso was swollen with yellowish-white tumors and red flesh tangled together, and it had no legs.
The stench of rotting meat wafted over them.
A chill silence fell over the hall.
But that lasted only a moment.
A massive panic swept over the guards.
Some people plopped down onto the ground.
Some fell to their knees and vomited.
Some wet themselves and fainted.
Others called out for their gods.
Jeong Yushin also stood stiffly as he stared at the enormous monster.
No way.
Was that a Monster Imprint?
Jeong Yushin bit his tongue.
The taste of fishy blood filled his mouth.
He did it to rouse his body, which was gradually growing rigid.
“Is that the Unholy Flash I’ve only heard about...? Lord Hans, how far have you gone?”
The frog beastkin Cork muttered blankly.
Thick saliva dripped from the corners of the frog’s mouth.
KWA-BOOOOM!!!!
Someone flew in front of the monster and landed.
The dust kicked up by the landing spread out in a cloud before gradually settling.
One of the members of the Labyrinth City Committee.
Ingrid Redtail.
She had driven her enormous greatsword into the ground and stood there majestically.
“Get a grip!!!”
Ingrid shouted loudly.
Her voice reverberated throughout the hall.
Only then did the guards come to their senses and begin shouting at the top of their lungs.
“Assemble the guards!!! Have everyone gather!!!”
“Raise your spears!!! Prepare for battle!!!”
The flustered guards grabbed their weapons and stepped forward.
Then.
A flash of realization struck Jeong Yushin.
Why had the high-ranking members of the Committee so often appeared in front of the labyrinth?
Why were the city guards so busy that they could not afford to look away from this place?
The reason was revealed.
It was to protect the city.
From whom?
From high-ranking explorers who had received Negative Imprints.
There had been a reason novice explorer classes never gave detailed examples of Negative Imprints.
“Ampuma Siphota.”
The thing that had been Hans until moments ago lowered its head and muttered as it looked at Ingrid.
“Hans, you’ve been completely consumed by the demonic nature of Unholy Flash. I’ll send you off peacefully.”
Ingrid gripped her greatsword.
“Kreeeeeeeeek!!!!!”
The thing let out a monstrous shriek.
People covered their ears and staggered backward.
In that instant.
Ingrid’s greatsword disappeared from view.
Whoooooosh.
From top to bottom.
Hans’s enormous body split in two and was ripped apart.
SPLAAAAAASH!!!!
BOOOOOOM!!!!
A single downward slash split Hans in two and carved out an enormous crater in the ground.
A powerful shockwave swept over them as if an explosion had gone off.
“Kgh!!!”
Jeong Yushin gritted his teeth and crouched down. Stones and chunks of flesh mixed with dust struck his helmet as they flew past.
A single downward slash had gouged out the ground and unleashed a shockwave.
A level of power that had reached the realm of superhumans.
It deserved to be called a supernatural ability.
Jeong Yushin barely raised his head and looked toward the source of the shockwave.
It was an unbelievable sight.
Jeong Yushin’s eyes widened.
Hans’s split body was writhing.
Had he survived even that blow?
His vitality was unbelievably tenacious.
“It’s over.”
Ingrid raised her greatsword again.
Suddenly, light burst from Hans’s body.
His split body regenerated in an instant, and a red membrane formed over it, covering Hans’s body.
“Tsk! Is it ‘that Imprint’? You really have all sorts of tricks, Hans.”
Ingrid clicked her tongue and swung her greatsword.
KRAAAACK!!!!
The greatsword scraped across the red membrane.
A shallow crack appeared.
Something strange happened. Hundreds of chunks of flesh burst from Hans’s body.
The chunks of flesh writhed and took on human forms.
Fingernails jutting out like spikes.
Mouths split wide open.
Sharp teeth.
Worm-like tongues.
And pitch-black pupils.
They had human forms, but they were much closer to grotesque monsters.
Hundreds of them spread rapidly outward through the red membrane.
Ingrid brought her greatsword to her waist.
Whoooooosh!!!
A horizontal slash.
Bwahahahaha!!!
Dozens were swept away by a single blow and sent flying through the air.
Patter, patter, patter!!!
Blood and chunks of flesh rained down around the magic circle.
Ingrid calmly thought to herself.
Hans had always occupied an unparalleled position in Labyrinth City thanks solely to his defensive abilities.
Now that he had gained several Imprints and even mutated his body, his defensive power would be impossible to ignore.
That did not mean he was completely invincible.
It would simply take some time to break through that barrier.
What an unlucky day, for this to happen on her first day taking over the shift.
Focusing on breaking the barrier would shorten the time, but the riffraff Hans had summoned would attack the guards.
The guards would probably have to suffer casualties.
Swallowing down a bitter taste, Ingrid swung her greatsword.
KWA-BOOOOOOM!!!
KWA-BOOOOOOM!!!
The red membrane Hans had created trembled, and cracks began to appear one by one.
Hans was not sitting idly by either.
Dozens of tentacles, seemingly woven from steel rebar, lashed out at Ingrid.
Swee-ee-eeek!!!
Swee-ee-eeek!!!
Without batting an eye, Ingrid cut down the bundles of tentacles that emerged through the red membrane.
While Ingrid and Hans fought.
Hundreds of ‘monsters’ created from Hans’s body escaped the red membrane and charged toward the guards.
“Cork!!! What’s that ‘monster’?!“
Jeong Yushin grabbed the frog beastkin by the collar and shook the frog beastkin.
“...Fl, Flash Crawler. They’re the summoned creatures of Unholy Flash.”
It was a name he had never heard before.
That was not what mattered. Where they had come from did not matter either.
What he wanted to know was their weakness.
But the frog beastkin was completely out of it.
Jeong Yushin stopped himself just before slapping the frog beastkin across the cheek.
He realized that he had become overly excited.
Jeong Yushin left the frog beastkin alone and gripped his longsword.
He could find out for himself.
Shrrring.
Jeong Yushin drew his sword as he watched the creatures charging toward them.
Iron Mask and Stonefist also took their places beside Jeong Yushin.
“Cork is a priest. As the healer in the rear, we should protect Cork.”
The half-ogre Stonefist said this as he stretched.
“What do you suggest we do?”
“If we hold out until Lady Ingrid kills that high-ranking explorer, we win. There’s no need for us to step in.”
Stonefist answered Jeong Yushin’s question smoothly.
Iron Mask rested his greatsword on his shoulder and asked,
“Half-ogre, tell us. What should we do?”
“...That’s...”
Just then, the mole beastkin shouted toward Jeong Yushin’s party.
“Barbaroi!!! Bring your friends over here! You’d be better off forming a line with the guards!”
Stonefist casually grabbed the dazed frog beastkin and lifted him up.
Jeong Yushin, Iron Mask, and Stonefist retreated and joined the guards.
Stonefist took up a position on the flank of the defensive line because of his large body.
Jeong Yushin had no idea where Iron Mask had gone.
The frog beastkin squeezed in among the priests in the rear.
Jeong Yushin took up position in the center of the line.
“Don’t break formation! Raise your spears! You have to hold!”
The guards shouted beside Jeong Yushin.
“Fuck! We’ve got the worst luck!”
“How many years has it been since this happened?!”
“It’s been almost a year since the Committee stepped in personally. Stay sharp. Judging by how things are going, this won’t be easy.”
The guards raised their spears and assumed their stances.
They had definitely been sitting in chairs, spacing out and joking around in the middle of the night.
But in an instant, the place was on the verge of becoming a battlefield splattered with blood and flesh.
Hundreds of monsters charged toward the guards, rushing over one another.
‘They’re coming.’
Jeong Yushin placed his longsword at his waist and assumed a stance.
It was a stance he had learned after being harshly drilled by Ashur.
“Kieeeeeeek!!!”
“Kreeeeeeek!!!”
Thrust! Thrust! Thrust!
The Flash Crawlers surging forward like waves were pierced by the guards’ spears.
They were so tenacious that they thrashed even after being skewered on the spears.
Jeong Yushin raised his sword and thrust it straight in.
He aimed for the neck.
These creatures had forms similar to humans. He expected their weaknesses to be similar as well.
SPLURT!!!
“Krrreeek!!!”
The monster with its neck pierced thrashed without dying.
No.
It wasn’t a vital spot.
Jeong Yushin quickly withdrew his sword and took an overhead stance.
A downward slash.
Shaaak!!!
The monster with its head split apart collapsed.
This was it.
“Their heads are their weakness!!!”
Jeong Yushin shouted loudly. The mole beastkin heard him, looked at the monster’s corpse, and shouted even louder.
“Their heads are their weakness!!! Guards, aim for their heads!!!”
Jeong Yushin stood shoulder to shoulder with the guards and swung his sword with all his might.
The guards behind them blocked the creatures’ path with their spears, while the guards at the front swung their swords and severed the monsters’ necks.
It was a chaotic scene of spraying blood and screams.
Jeong Yushin gritted his teeth and swung his sword.
It was the only thing he could do right now.
Shaaak!!!
Thanks to his relentless training, he split the monster’s skull vertically without wavering.
Shaaak!!!
Shiiing!!!
Foul-smelling blood and brain matter splattered across Jeong Yushin’s body.
KRAAAANG!!!
After being swung dozens of times, the dulled sword became lodged in a Crawler’s head.
“You fucking—!”
He shook the sword violently.
CLANG!!!
The sword broke.
“Fuck!! Boron!!”
“Use this!”
A guard behind him threw a sword to Jeong Yushin.
Without even having time to say thanks, Jeong Yushin snatched up the sword and swung it again.
Despite the guards’ desperate struggle, their formation was gradually pushed backward.
There had only been forty guards to begin with.
Twenty of them were explorers.
Most of the explorers retreated in fear or fled the battlefield.
It was impressive that they had held out even for a few minutes against more than a hundred Crawlers surging in from all directions at once.
Some of them even had their throats torn out by the Crawlers.
“Aaargh!!!”
“Dulla!! Damn it!”
Grief-stricken cries rang across the battlefield.
Jeong Yushin swung his sword without pause.
The fruits of opening every dawn with his sword amid blood and sweat were brilliantly revealed through his blade.
Pain and suffering.
Despair and his limits became fertilizer that firmly supported Jeong Yushin.
Like an icebreaker crossing the sea, only the area where Jeong Yushin stood jutted forward.
CLANG!!!
His sword broke again.
[Sacred Weapon]
A greatsword identical to Gilshian’s zweihander appeared.
A horizontal slash.
Whoooooosh!!!
SPLAAAAASH!!!!
The monsters’ torsos were ripped apart down the middle.
Someone threw him another sword.
He snatched it and swung.
Swee-ee-eeek!!!
SPLAAAAASH!!!
Sword strokes like rays of light severed the monsters’ necks.
Flesh and blood flew through the dark sky.
Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads.
In a trance, he crushed skulls and split heads apart.
The guards held out while shouting at the top of their lungs, but they were gradually pushed back. Jeong Yushin was becoming increasingly isolated.
‘Should I retreat?’
The moment he thought that.
Boom!!!
Someone landed beside him.
The half-ogre Stonefist.
“I’m joining you.”
“All right.”
The half-ogre brought his enormous fist down.
KWA-ROOOAR!!!
The ground caved in, and the flesh of the monsters reduced to bloody pulp flew in every direction.
“Barbaroi!”
The man called Iron Mask joined them.
Jeong Yushin gave the man a single nod. That was enough.
Iron Mask swung his greatsword.
From top to bottom.
KRAAAK!!!
The Crawler split in two from head to groin.
The three men stood back to back and held off the wave of monsters.
Indeed.
Fighting together was far better than fighting alone.
They barely even knew one another’s names.
Jeong Yushin did not know what Imprints these men possessed or what kind of lives they had lived.
What mattered was cooperating to survive.
“I-I want to join too! Ribbit!”
The frog beastkin came rushing over with his staff.
Jeong Yushin grabbed the frog beastkin by the collar and threw him backward.
“Ribbit!”
Jeong Yushin, Iron Mask, and Stonefist formed an equilateral triangle with the frog beastkin in the center.
“Try casting any spell!”
Jeong Yushin shouted.
“O-okay!”
The frog beastkin Cork began chanting.
The three men fought desperately back to back.
The half-ogre Stonefist smashed and tore apart Crawlers with his hands and feet,
while Iron Mask swung his greatsword one precise stroke at a time and cut the Crawlers in half.
CLANG!!!
Another sword broke.
“Damn it!!!”
Jeong Yushin gritted his teeth.
No matter how good a sword was, it could not endure splitting the monsters’ hard skulls dozens of times.
In desperation, he smashed the Crawler’s jaw with the pommel.
[Sacred Weapon]
A golden harpoon-like sword formed in his empty hand.
It resembled the strange sword he had seen at the tavern in the Eastern District.
SHRAAAAAK!!!
The jagged blades tore through the Crawlers’ bodies, ripping away great chunks of bone and flesh.
The golden, malformed sword, coated in tendons and entrails, broke apart into particles and scattered into the air.
One of them leaped out and bit Jeong Yushin’s shoulder.
Its sharp teeth pierced through his leather armor and dug deeply into his shoulder.
[Revenger]
Imprint activated.
Blue ghostly flames blazed in Jeong Yushin’s eyes.
He swung his fist and smashed the Crawler’s maw.
CRAAACK!!!
His left hook shattered the Crawler’s jawbone and broke its teeth into pieces.
He caught the creature as it collapsed limply, apparently concussed, and brought the pommel down on its forehead.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Once. Twice. Three times.
Its forehead caved in and crumpled until its eyeballs finally popped out.
“Long time no see, Kaal.”
The young leader he had met in the novice party.
It resembled the friend whose head had been crushed by a hobgoblin’s club.
Jeong Yushin greeted it warmly, then kicked it away.
The Crawler with the crushed forehead collided with the Crawlers charging from the front and rolled across the ground.
He threw away the broken sword and activated an Imprint.
[Sacred Weapon]
A golden single-edged axe.
He gripped it with both hands and twisted his waist as far as it would go.
‘Ainhofer.’
A horizontal slash.
SHRAAAAAAK!!!!
Eight monsters were bisected and torn apart in an instant.
The golden axe turned into particles and scattered through the air.
A little breathing room opened up.
He turned his head and looked at Ingrid.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ingrid knocked away all the tentacle attacks stabbing toward her by the dozens while pounding on the blood-red barrier.
Several cracks appeared in Hans’s blood-red barrier.
Was it still not enough?
What kind of barrier was it that even Ingrid, who was close to superhuman, could not break it in a single blow?
Jeong Yushin’s party was in a precarious situation.
Could they hold out any longer?
He did not know.
Once Cork finished casting his spell, he planned to slowly retreat and coordinate with the guards again.
“Done, done!”
The frog beastkin Cork raised his staff high.
[Aqua Fr]
Unfortunately, the frog’s spell did not activate.
“Save... save me!!!”
A bull beastkin covered in blood from head to toe came rushing toward Jeong Yushin’s formation, screaming.
“Wh-what?! Hey!”
Iron Mask raised his voice in confusion.
The bull beastkin shoved Iron Mask aside and forced his way into the formation in an instant.
The frog beastkin, who had been in the middle of casting his spell, was pinned beneath the bull beastkin.
“Protec... ribbit!!”
The frog beastkin screamed from beneath the bull beastkin.
The chant failed.
The magic scattered.
“You fucking crazy bastard!!!”
Jeong Yushin shouted, enraged.
For a party thrown together in a hurry without even discussing a plan, they had been holding the line surprisingly well.
But when one crazy bull barged in and caused a scene, the party’s coordination fell apart in an instant.
Iron Mask lost his balance and staggered.
Several Crawlers passed Iron Mask and charged toward the bull and frog beastkin.
All because of one damn vicious troll.
The party was plunged into crisis.