Chapter 178

Chapter 178

Zeon raised his head.

The place where he had fallen was a vast underground space.

It was so wide that there was still room left even with dozens of giant leeches rampaging inside it.

In fact, even though the giant leeches that had fallen with Zeon were writhing, the space still had room to spare.

“At least it’s fortunate the shifting sands are flowing in here too.”

Sand was flowing even within the underground space. But its flow was not normal.

Some streams flowed like rivers, while others reversed direction, as if a waterfall were flowing upward.

There were even streams of sand flowing sideways along the walls.

Some unknown force acting within this place was clearly making the flow of sand move however it pleased.

“Interesting!”

It was when Zeon smiled.

SCREEEE!

With bizarre cries, the giant leeches came to their senses and raised their heads.

The giant leeches discovered Zeon and attacked.

CRASH—!

A gigantic mouth slammed down exactly where Zeon had been. But by then, Zeon had already dodged elsewhere.

Other giant leeches chased after Zeon and attacked.

CRASH! BOOM—!

Zeon avoided all of their attacks by a hair’s breadth. Then, as if angered, the giant leeches shook their heads and let out shrieks.

Their appearance was so revolting that it made one nauseous just to look at them.

Zeon sent sand flying toward the giant leeches.

The sand flew like a viper raising its head upright.

It was Viper, the evolved form of Sand Blaster.

THUD, THUD, THUD—!

Viper struck the giant leeches’ bodies again and again. But because their bodies were so large and their hide was so thick, it failed to deal any significant damage.

“Their durability is quite high.”

He had expected as much, so it was not surprising.

After that, Zeon unleashed various Skills.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

With explosive roars, the bodies of the giant leeches shook back and forth. But as expected, they did not appear to have suffered any meaningful damage.

Instead, as if he had only provoked their tempers, they attacked Zeon even more savagely.

SHAAAK—!

A giant leech’s body instantly stretched dozens of meters and reached Zeon.

Its mouth was large enough to swallow Zeon whole, and its saw-like teeth were clearly visible, packed densely inside.

At that instant, a cold smile appeared on Zeon’s lips.

“Let’s see if your insides are as tough as your hide.”

SHAAAK—!

A huge stream of sand flew from behind Zeon and shot into the giant leech’s mouth.

GRRRRIND—!

The sand rotated fiercely and pierced through the giant leech’s insides.

Its mouth, esophagus, and stomach were ground apart by the sand.

BOOM—!

At that instant, the giant leech’s body shattered with an explosive roar.

Leeches sprayed out in every direction.

As the fusion was released, it split into thousands, tens of thousands of small leeches.

The sight of tens of thousands of small leeches sprawled across the ground and wriggling was horrifying enough to make one sick.

But Zeon did not even blink as he attacked the insides of the other giant leeches.

BOOM—!

BOOM—!

Unable to withstand the impact from within, the giant leeches burst apart one after another.

At the same time, the number of small leeches rolling across the ground increased exponentially.

The small leeches whose fusion had been released covered the ground in black as they squirmed.

The small leeches, which had been stunned for a moment, soon swarmed toward Zeon.

The leeches blackening the ground were so horrific that one would fear seeing them in a dream.

Zeon looked indifferently at the leeches that had reached his feet.

Zeon’s gaze, containing no emotion at all, was frightening enough to send chills down the spine.

It was a gaze he had never once shown in Neo Seoul.

This was Zeon’s original gaze.

He had wandered the desert alone for seven years.

Monsters had been dangerous, but the greatest danger had been other humans.

He had met far too many humans who smiled while stabbing with knives, so Zeon had completely blocked them from approaching him emotionally.

He had locked the door to his heart.

Back then, his eyes had looked like this.

Although he had softened a little after returning to Neo Seoul, this was Zeon’s true nature.

Because no one was around, Zeon’s original self naturally emerged.

Zeon raised his right arm and muttered,

“There has to be a progenitor somewhere.”

Swarm-type monsters always had a mother body, such as a queen or boss individual. They were the core of swarm-type monsters.

If the boss could lead such an enormous swarm, it was surely no ordinary individual.

Right now, it was thoroughly hiding itself among the countless swarm.

It was impossible to distinguish which of the tens of thousands of leeches was the progenitor.

“If I can’t distinguish it myself, I’ll just make it reveal itself.”

Red light burst from Zeon’s right arm.

“Fire Rain!”

FLARE—!

A rain of fire poured down into the underground cavity.

The ultra-high-heat fire rain fell upon the leeches densely covering the ground.

SCREEEE!

The leeches screamed and writhed.

There was nowhere to flee and nowhere to hide.

The rain of fire mercilessly burned the leeches.

The small leeches, unable to receive the protection of the sand, were powerless.

They tried to burrow into the sand, but Zeon did not allow it.

Zeon hardened the sand, leaving the leeches no room to burrow.

Thousands of small leeches burned to death.

Even so, the progenitor still did not reveal itself.

It meant it still had enough strength left to endure.

Zeon unleashed Fire Rain once more.

FLARE—!

Another ultra-high-heat rain of flames fell, and countless leeches died.

“Huff! Huff!”

Zeon gasped for breath.

That was because his mana, which had already been showing its bottom, had been completely exhausted by those two attacks.

As his mana ran dry, Zeon staggered under the sense of exhaustion.

It was then.

CRRRAAACK!

Among the leeches burned to death, one raised its head.

It was especially black compared to the other leeches.

The creature stared at Zeon, as if carefully observing his condition.

‘That one.’

Zeon realized that it was the progenitor of this swarm.

It was the only one that remained perfectly fine even where Fire Rain had fallen.

An intense mana wave could be felt from the progenitor.

The direction of the mana wave was none other than Zeon himself.

‘It’s detecting whether I have any mana left.’

It was frighteningly cunning.

Even though it had countless subordinates, it did not recklessly push forward with force and instead spied on him.

If Zeon had even a little mana remaining, it intended to hide itself among the swarm again.

The progenitor possessed a Skill capable of sensing mana. That was why it could be certain that Zeon had no mana left.

In truth, not a single drop of mana remained in Zeon’s body.

Then a bizarre sound flowed from the progenitor.

KIIIEEEE!

It was a strange sound, one that seemed like weeping and laughing at the same time.

At the progenitor’s cry, the other leeches responded and swarmed together.

They were trying to merge into a giant leech again.

Only this time, it was on a different scale.

Instead of dividing into several giant leeches like before, they merged into one around the progenitor.

A giant leech of an entirely different size was born.

At the crown of its head, the progenitor jutted out.

Certain that Zeon had no mana, it had revealed its presence.

A red force field lingered around the giant leech’s entire body.

It was a force field on an entirely different level from before.

The progenitor looked down at Zeon from the giant leech’s forehead.

It seemed to be looking down at Zeon and laughing mockingly.

Zeon’s gaze turned cold.

“How arrogant......”

The very fact that it mocked him was proof that the progenitor possessed emotions.

The more varied emotions a monster possessed, the higher its grade.

The giant leech, with the progenitor as its core, had become Grade A in itself.

On the other hand, Zeon had completely exhausted his mana.

No matter who looked at it, Zeon was at an absolute disadvantage.

But Zeon had a move he trusted.

FLAAARE!

Suddenly, intense light burst from the area around Zeon’s neck.

Elura’s Tear.

An absurdly unfair item that completely restored mana once a day.

He had used Elura’s Tear, which he had kept carefully hidden inside his clothes until now.

In an instant, all of Zeon’s mana recovered.

Not a trace of mana exhaustion could be found on him.

The progenitor, noticing this, writhed as if flustered.

With its uniquely sensitive senses, it had detected that all of Zeon’s mana had recovered.

It could no longer dissolve the fusion now.

All that remained for it was to attack Zeon.

KIIIEEEE!

With a bizarre cry, its enormous body stretched toward Zeon.

The giant body, stretched like a rubber band, struck the place where Zeon had been. But Zeon was no longer there.

Zeon was floating in the air, using sand as a foothold.

He said with an expressionless face,

“Let’s start light. Claymore!”

BOOOOM—!

At that instant, the sand near the giant leech exploded all at once.

Each grain of sand became a lethal weapon and struck the giant leech’s body terrifyingly.

SCREEEE!

The giant leech’s scream echoed through the underground cavity.

Thanks to its force field, it did not suffer a fatal wound, but it received a tremendous shock.

The impact brought great pain to both the giant leech and the progenitor.

At the first pain it had ever felt, the progenitor writhed, then went berserk.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

Shells fired from the giant leech’s body.

It had launched the gathered small leeches like cannon shells.

Zeon immediately condensed sand in front of himself and formed a Sand Curtain.

The leech shells struck the Sand Curtain.

BOOM! BOOM—!

With explosive roars, the leech shells detonated in midair.

The impact made the Sand Curtain ripple, but it was not pierced completely.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

The giant leech kept firing shells.

Because its body was so massive, the number of small leeches was enormous.

No matter how much it fired, there was no visible sign of reduction.

Zeon flew through the air on sand.

The small leech shells chased him.

BOOM! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

The leech shells exploded with thunderous roars.

Within the smoke, Zeon swung his hand. Then the flow of sand changed.

The sand that had been flowing however it pleased through the underground cavity shot into the air all at once under the intervention of a stronger force.

The particles of sand filled the underground cavity in a haze.

Within them, Zeon muttered,

“Sand is my battlefield. I’ll show you how foolish it was to challenge me here.”

Zeon extended his hand.

At that instant, the sand filling the underground cavity began rotating around the giant leech.

GRIIIIIND—!

A sound like gears turning echoed through the underground cavity.

One of Zeon’s main Skills, Sand Blender, had unfolded.

The grains of sand rotating at terrifying speed began scraping away the giant leech’s force field.

The giant leech tried to protect itself by strengthening its force field as much as possible, but it was useless.

Ordinary sand could not affect a force field. But the moment Zeon’s control intervened, the sand was no longer ordinary sand.

Just like the Skills of magic-type Awakened, it exerted powerful influence over force fields.

SCREEEE!

The giant leech writhed under the horrific pain it felt for the first time in its life.

Its force field was forcibly stripped away, and the small leeches forming its outer skin were mercilessly torn off.

As the hard outer layer was dismantled and gaps opened, sand infiltrated inside.

The infiltrating sand spun fiercely within the giant leech.

GRIIIIIND—!

The grains of sand rotated both inside and outside the giant leech at the same time.

BOOM—!

The giant leech that had gathered around the progenitor exploded.