Chapter 219

Chapter 219

Jang Yong-beom frowned.

A terrible pain was coming from his left shoulder, where his arm had been severed.

The Healing Potion had treated the wound, but that didn’t mean the pain had vanished too.

More than anything, what troubled Jang Yong-beom was his sense of balance.

Humans could only be used to living with two arms. But one of his arms had suddenly disappeared, so he had to adapt to an unfamiliar physical condition, and there was no way that could be as easy as it sounded.

No matter how much of a Grade A Awakened Jang Yong-beom was, adapting would inevitably take a long time.

“Whew!”

After walking for a while, Jang Yong-beom let out a sigh.

Giselle seemed worried about him and asked,

“Are you all right, Captain?”

“As soon as we get back to Neo Seoul, I’ll have to find a decent prosthetic arm.”

“I know a good magitech engineer. It probably won’t be optimized like what mechanized Awakened use, but they should be able to make a prosthetic arm that won’t cause any inconvenience in daily life.”

“That’s enough. I can swing a claymore with just my right arm anyway.”

“If it’s you, Captain, you’ll overcome it just fine.”

“Of course.”

Jang Yong-beom grinned.

Losing an arm that had been perfectly fine hurt, but he could obtain a mechanical prosthetic arm as a replacement.

Besides, at some point, he had begun feeling something pecking deep inside his chest.

Like a bird pecking at its shell with all its strength before hatching, something deep inside his chest was pecking with all its might.

That strange feeling, which he couldn’t fully explain in words, made Jang Yong-beom’s heart race.

Before becoming a Grade A ability user, Jang Yong-beom had felt this sensation several times. Though it had never been this intense.

It felt as though some change was about to happen.

The problem was the timing.

A bird breaking through its eggshell.

No one knew when the moment of hatching would come.

It might happen immediately, or it might be far in the future.

‘If I fight another strong opponent, maybe I can break the shell.’

He wanted to fight a powerful enemy like Gangkara.

Even if the price was his own death.

‘It’s been a long time since I felt this kind of excitement.’

A smile had appeared on his lips before he knew it.

Yet Jang Yong-beom himself did not realize it.

His gaze turned to Zeon’s back.

As always, Zeon was leading the group from the front.

He faced the sand-laden wind head-on.

The sand split to both sides in front of Zeon and flowed past him. Thanks to that, those following behind him could move forward without inhaling the sand.

‘No matter how I look at it, that ability is absurd. I never thought I’d envy someone else’s ability.’

With Zeon, it seemed as though one could survive in the desert for years.

That was something impossible for any Awakened in Neo Seoul.

‘That bastard is just as strange.’

Next, his gaze went to Levin, who was floating in Ghost Transformation.

That ability, which physical force could not affect at all, was just as absurd as Zeon’s.

In terms of practical use, it even seemed better than Zeon’s ability.

If that ability became known to Neo Seoul’s power holders, they would compete fiercely to recruit him.

With Levin’s Ghost Transformation, there would be no information he could not steal, and even assassination would be easy.

How could anyone stop Levin when he could nullify any barrier and infiltrate like a ghost?

No matter how powerful one’s ability was, if they were ambushed while asleep, death was still the same.

‘It’s an ability optimized for assassination. On top of that, there’s a little brat who can use alchemy, and even Neo Seoul’s Supervisor is following him. At this point, they’re almost a small faction’s worth of combat power.’

What mattered was that all of them were blindly following Zeon.

Persuasion seemed impossible.

‘The world really isn’t fair. It took me years to gather my members, but that man gathered his in less than a year.’

He coveted them madly.

If he could draw in Zeon alone, the rest would naturally come along like a string of candies. If that happened, Jang Yong-beom’s party would instantly become the strongest party in Neo Seoul.

The problem was that the chances of that happening were almost nonexistent.

The Zeon he saw was not the type to stand above someone, but he was also not the type to stand beneath someone.

Trying to force someone like that would only backfire.

The reason Jang Yong-beom saw through Zeon’s nature was because he himself was the same kind of person.

That was why he cleanly gave up on the plan to recruit Zeon.

Just as Jang Yong-beom finished organizing his thoughts in his own way, it happened.

“Aaaagh!”

A desperate scream came from somewhere.

“What is it?”

“Damn it!”

The Awakened, who had already sharpened their senses with tension, hurriedly entered battle stances.

Levin said,

“I’ll go first.”

Because he was in Ghost Transformation, he could move faster than anyone else.

Levin flew toward the place the scream had come from at terrifying speed, and Zeon and the Awakened followed behind him.

Naturally, Levin arrived at the scene first.

He saw elves being slaughtered by Orcs.

The Rangers who had fled to lure the Orcs away from their village had finally been caught.

The elf Rangers were outstanding warriors.

They had killed quite a few Orcs, but in the end, they could not overcome the wave tactics, and one by one, they were killed by the Orcs.

Only two elves remained.

They were Seina and Rapyuna. But they too had suffered grave wounds and were on the verge of collapse.

Levin rushed toward them without needing to think.

“Damn it!”

Crackle!

Levin, who approached the elves in an instant, released Purple Lightning as he was.

“Squeak!”

“Queeeek!”

The Orcs electrocuted by the purple current collapsed while screaming like pigs having their throats cut.

“Are you all right?”

Levin hurriedly checked the two elves’ conditions.

But Seina and Rapyuna were not in good condition.

Both had suffered fatal wounds that were difficult to recover from.

“Please save our village.”

“Please!”

Even in that state, they were worried about their village’s safety.

While Levin hesitated for a moment, their breaths stopped.

“Whew!”

Levin let out a heavy sigh and was about to rise.

SWISH—!

A sharp tearing sound, as if ripping through the eardrums, echoed out.

Sensing danger, Levin immediately turned into a ghost.

SHOOOK—!

Right afterward, a large spear pierced through him.

Levin felt chills rise across his whole body.

If he had been even a little slower to transform into a ghost, that huge spear would have pierced him.

Levin looked in the direction the spear had come from.

Orc warriors holding spears were charging toward him.

The way they surged in, covering the desert in black, was anything but ordinary.

Levin hurriedly retreated toward Zeon and shouted,

“It’s a great Orc army.”

It was then.

SWISH—!

Once again, a sharp tearing sound rang through the sky.

THUD—!

“Kraaaak!”

One Awakened failed to dodge the spear and was struck head-on.

The spear pierced through the Awakened and flew much farther before lodging itself in a sand wall behind him.

Its power was truly terrifying.

At the tragedy that had unfolded in the blink of an eye, all the Awakened lost their words.

At that instant, Jang Yong-beom shouted,

“What are you doing, standing there like idiots? Are you all going to die like that?”

“Ah!”

“Fuck!”

Only then did the Awakened come back to their senses and enter battle stances.

Grieving the Awakened’s death was itself a luxury.

They had to think of a way to survive first.

Before they knew it, Orcs were swarming in from every direction.

At the momentum of the Orcs charging in like a swarm of ants covering the desert, the Awakened bit their lips hard.

Jang Yong-beom said to Zeon,

“Looks like we ran into the Great Chieftain’s main force.”

“It seems so.”

Zeon nodded and looked at the Orcs.

The clothing and weapons of the Orcs they had encountered until now had been all over the place.

By contrast, the Orcs now charging toward them were uniformly equipped with heavy armor, spears, and large blades.

That meant they were elite.

Elite troops would not be common among Orcs, so these were clearly subordinates directly under the Orc Great Chieftain.

“It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to escape easily.”

“Seems we’ll have to kill them all to get out.”

It was then.

Far away on top of a sand dune, an especially enormous Orc appeared.

At that moment, Jang Yong-beom’s eyes trembled.

‘How can a mere Orc give off this kind of energy......? Is that bastard the Orc Great Chieftain?’

He was several hundred meters away, yet Jang Yong-beom’s skin tingled, and his heart hurt as if stabbed by a needle.

That was how overwhelming the enormous Orc’s presence was.

His fighting spirit was reaching all the way here.

Just as Jang Yong-beom guessed, the enormous Orc was Orca, the Great Chieftain.

Orca’s gaze was fixed on Zeon.

“I found him. The archenemy of the Orcs!”

“We must kill him, Great Chieftain.”

The priest also recognized Zeon and trembled.

He instinctively realized that Zeon was the source of the annihilation of the Red Hammer Tribe and the Steel Orc Tribe.

The tattoos carved into his body were writhing on their own. It was a phenomenon that happened when the tattoos sensed a threat first.

Orca took one step forward and said,

“That one is mine. Deal with the rest.”

“I will do so.”

The priest bowed his head.

He gave the Orcs an order.

“Kill every human here. We will bathe in their blood and fill our bellies with their flesh.”

The priest’s voice held the power to stir the Orcs’ excitement and killing intent.

His shout alone could deliver a buff to the Orcs.

“ROOOOAR!”

“Kill them!”

“Go!”

The excited Orcs charged toward Zeon’s group.

“Damn it! Looks like this place might become our grave today.”

“Fuck! Even if I die, I’m dragging at least ten Orcs down to hell with me.”

“I can die, but I’m not becoming Orc feed.”

The Awakened, steeling themselves, charged toward the Orcs.

CRASH—!

SLASH—!

A fierce battle broke out between Orcs and humans.

The Awakened poured out Skill after Skill and fought against the Orcs.

Jang Yong-beom gripped his claymore and said to Zeon,

“No matter how many small fry we kill, it won’t matter. We have to take down the leader. I’ll handle the Great Chieftain.”

“That’s impossible.”

“What?”

“Sorry, but with your strength, you won’t be able to do anything to even a hair on the Great Chieftain.”

“Krrgh!”

Jang Yong-beom’s face twisted unpleasantly.

But he could not refute it.

That was because he felt for himself that he was no match for the Great Chieftain.

Zeon looked at Orca and said,

“You handle the Orc beside him. He seems to be something like a Shaman, but his feeling is no joke.”

“Understood. I’ll do that.”

“Before that, I’ll need to open a path.”

Srrrrk!

Zeon’s body floated into the air.

The sand swirled and lifted his body into the sky.

Zeon’s figure reached several dozen meters up.

Only now were his eyes level with the Great Chieftain’s.

Orca watched Zeon with his arms crossed.

His whole body carried the ease of the strong.

Zeon did not like that sight.

“Let’s see how long you can stay that relaxed.”

There were too many Orcs between him and Orca.

First, he had to sweep them aside.

Snap!

“Sand Wave!”

Zeon snapped his fingers and murmured.

At that instant, the sand on the ground rose abruptly and surged toward the Great Chieftain like a wave.

The problem was that the wave was a full ten meters high and fifty meters wide.

RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE—!

The house-sized wave swallowed everything and surged toward the Great Chieftain.

The sand wave possessed tremendous mass and destructive power.

No matter how hard the Orcs’ bodies were, they could not withstand the mass of the enormous sand wave.

“Kweeeek!”

“Kraaak!”

The Orcs’ screams were buried beneath the sand wave and vanished.

It was a wave of death.