Chapter 315

Chapter 315

Zeon’s face showed not the slightest trace of pity as he watched the Scavengers burn amid their desperate screams.

White Phosphorus Flame.

A demon’s fire that only went out after burning everything down to the bone.

It was one of the worst Skills that could be used against humans.

It was so cruel that even Zeon usually avoided using it unless the situation called for it. But given the circumstances, he had unleashed it without hesitation.

Whoosh!

The inextinguishable flames brightly lit the underground space.

The sight of the Scavengers running this way, rolling that way, trying to put out the fire clinging to their bodies, even looked like dancing.

“Crazy!”

“You son of a bitch!”

Hassim and Etli, who had barely avoided White Phosphorus Flame, shouted in rage.

If they had been struck by that Skill, they would have ended up in the same state.

They had burned countless people to death until now, but they did not want to die burning themselves.

Their rage toward Zeon, who had casually unleashed such a horrifying Skill, drove them mad.

With their eyes rolled back in fury, they rushed at Zeon without thinking ahead.

“Graaargh!”

The first to charge was Bucksher, the Lycanthrope.

Covered in fur from head to toe, Bucksher charged with his enormous mouth wide open.

Lycanthropes possessed bodies several times stronger than humans by default.

Even among Lycanthropes, Bucksher possessed upper-tier combat power.

In terms of pure combat power, he matched a Grade B Awakened.

He had the strength and speed to tear apart most martial-type Awakened in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, he reached Zeon and grabbed both of Zeon’s wrists.

He believed that if he pulled them apart from here, a human’s fragile body would tear like paper.

“Grrgh!”

But no matter how much strength he used, Zeon did not budge.

Even his nails, as hard as diamond, could not dig into Zeon’s flesh.

‘What?’

In that instant, Zeon swung his arms wide and shook off Bucksher’s hands.

When he lost his grip on Zeon so emptily, Bucksher was briefly flustered.

THUD—!

At that moment, Zeon’s fist slammed into Bucksher’s jaw.

“Yelp!”

Bucksher screamed and staggered.

A tremendous impact pierced through his head, making his consciousness fly away for a moment.

Thanks to the regenerative power befitting a Lycanthrope, he quickly regained consciousness, but his body could not easily regain its balance and dropped to one knee.

Zeon drove his knee into Bucksher’s kneeling head.

CRACK—!

With the sound of bone breaking, Bucksher’s head snapped backward.

Zeon grabbed Bucksher’s head tightly with both hands. Then he struck it with his knee again.

THUD—! THUD—! THUD—!

Eerie rupturing sounds kept echoing through Nest No. 5.

Each time Zeon’s knee struck, Bucksher’s face was crushed until its original shape could no longer be recognized.

No matter how strong a Lycanthrope’s regenerative power was, even he could not recover quickly after taking this level of repeated impact.

“Fuck! Stop that!”

Unable to keep watching, Etli brought his war axe down toward Zeon’s head.

WHOOOSH—!

The already heavy war axe carried the fierce strength of a dwarf. Naturally, its speed and power were extraordinary.

But Zeon’s reaction speed and power were also extraordinary.

BANG—!

He tilted his head back to avoid the war axe, and at the same time, he struck Etli across the bridge of the nose with the back of his hand.

Etli’s face twisted as the bridge of his nose collapsed.

“Fuck!”

Etli grabbed his nose and retreated while shouting.

Zeon swung his hand at Etli.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Dozens of Fire Missiles fired in an instant.

“Danger!”

Hassim blocked Etli’s front and swung his shamshir.

The shamshir infused with aura cut down every Fire Missile.

Although he had fled all the way here while being chased by Zeon, Hassim’s skill itself was real.

After cutting down every Fire Missile in an instant, Hassim rushed at Zeon and thrust toward his neck.

At that moment, a wall of sand appeared before Zeon.

At some point, he had opened his subspace and poured out sand.

THUD—!

Hassim’s sword was blocked by the sand wall and could advance no farther.

“Fuck!”

Hassim cursed and moved his mana.

His mana was converted into aura and injected into the shamshir.

BOOM—!

In that instant, with an explosive roar, the sand wall Zeon had created burst apart.

Hassim tried to ride that momentum and cut straight through Zeon’s neck. But Zeon was no longer there.

Standing in his place were soldiers made of sand, Sand Soldiers.

And not just one or two.

A full twenty had been summoned.

The corner of Zeon’s mouth twisted upward.

Sand circulated.

Sand that had formed a wall and then shattered could become Sand Soldiers, and even if the Sand Soldiers broke apart, the sand could be reused as another Skill.

As long as Zeon’s mana did not run dry, this circulation would continue forever.

For his enemies, hellish moments would repeat endlessly.

“Go!”

No sooner had Zeon spoken than the Sand Soldiers attacked Hassim and his subordinates.

THUD—!

A Sand Soldier’s fist slammed into the back of Bucksher’s head just after he had barely finished regenerating his face.

“Kek!”

Bucksher screamed and dropped to his knees again.

Three or four Sand Soldiers climbed onto his back and poured down indiscriminate attacks.

“What the hell are these bastards......?”

Etli also swung his war axe frantically while dealing with the Sand Soldiers attacking him.

“Aaah! Damn it.”

Akashi, whose combat ability was the lowest among them, was driven into a corner by the Sand Soldiers’ attacks.

But Hassim could not help him.

That was because ten Sand Soldiers had latched onto Hassim as well.

CRASH—! BOOM—!

Sand Soldiers that regenerated no matter how many times they were broken.

Each one’s combat ability did not reach Hassim’s, but because there were so many of them, and because they regenerated endlessly, even Hassim’s mana eventually reached the point of exhaustion.

Unable to endure it, Hassim exploded in fury.

“I’ll definitely kill you.”

Because he had operated his mana excessively, every capillary in his eyes had burst, leaving them bloodshot. Hassim’s eyes flashed red as blood, and his screaming face looked like an evil spirit.

His voice, full of madness, held the power to frighten the opponent. But to Zeon, it sounded like nothing more than a hollow scream.

Only a frightened puppy barked loudly. A true beast did not scream like that.

Hassim was not truly strong.

He was nothing more than a coward who only inflicted violence on those weaker than himself.

And countless people in survivor villages had died to such a man.

That was why their deaths felt so pitiful.

When Zeon waved his hand, Sand Viper emerged from the sand and flew toward Hassim.

Viper slammed into Hassim’s right arm, the one holding the shamshir.

THUD—!

“Kraaaah!”

At the pain of his right hand being crushed like mud, Hassim screamed.

Having lost his weapon, Hassim could no longer protect himself from the Sand Soldiers.

THUD—! THUD—!

The Sand Soldiers beat him like a sandbag.

Under the merciless violence, Hassim’s body gradually caved in.

Hassim tried to counterattack with his remaining mana, but the Sand Soldiers pressed him without giving him enough time to operate his mana.

Just like Bucksher, Hassim’s face was also smashed until its shape could no longer be recognized.

“Graaargh!”

At that moment, Bucksher shook off the Sand Soldiers pressing him down and charged toward Hassim.

He was trying to save Hassim somehow.

It was only possible because he was a Lycanthrope.

If not for the aggression, strength, and regenerative power unique to werewolves, he would already have died under the Sand Soldiers’ attacks.

Zeon looked at Bucksher and gave a cold smile.

Bucksher’s loyalty deserved praise, but that did not mean it would save his life.

A wisp of flame bloomed at Zeon’s fingertip.

It was White Phosphorus Flame.

When Zeon swung his hand, White Phosphorus Flame fluttered like a butterfly and settled on Bucksher’s chest.

“......”

FWOOOSH—!

The moment Bucksher swallowed dryly, White Phosphorus Flame expanded explosively and covered his entire body.

“Kraaaah!”

His desperate scream echoed through Nest No. 5.

The advantage of a Lycanthrope was strong regenerative power. No matter how severe the injury, given enough time, they could regenerate without difficulty.

That ability became a disaster for Bucksher instead.

That was because White Phosphorus Flame burned his regenerating flesh in real time.

The speed at which White Phosphorus Flame burned and the speed at which his flesh regenerated were similar.

If the speed of burning had been much faster, everything would have burned to ash long ago, but because his flesh kept regenerating, the time he spent suffering only grew longer.

Bucksher rolled across the floor and tried to put out the fire, but it was useless. If it were a fire that could be extinguished that way, Zeon would never have used it.

Like Sisyphus, who had to roll a boulder forever for the sin of deceiving the gods, Bucksher too had to endure endless pain.

Zeon stepped past Bucksher, who was rolling across the floor, and approached Hassim.

Hassim’s left hand had also been shattered, and he lay sprawled on the floor. Sand Soldiers were pressing down on Hassim’s back with their knees.

“Aaaaaah! Fuck!”

Unable to suppress his rage, Hassim let out a monstrous scream.

Zeon asked him,

“Are you angry?”

“Are you seriously asking? You fucking bastard! I’m going to kill you.”

“How?”

“If those clumps of sand weren’t here, you’d be no match for me. Cowardly bastard! Without sand, you can’t do anything......”

“Do you really think so?”

“Fuck! If you feel wronged, get rid of these sand humans. I’ll deal with you myself.”

At Hassim’s provocation, Zeon chuckled and said,

“No.”

“What?”

“I said no. Sand is my ability, and you want me to fight while excluding that? What kind of unreasonable demand is that?”

“You cowardly bastard!”

“It’s fine if you call me a coward. It’s fine if you call me despicable too. The winner is me anyway.”

“Grr!”

“So the loser should quietly listen to the winner. Otherwise, the pain will only get worse. I’ll ask one last time. Tell me the identity of the Five Poisons Clan survivor.”

“Fuck off! You fucking bastard!”

“Face, age, sex, height, features, anything you remember. You’d better tell me everything.”

“Ridiculous! You think I’ll talk?”

“You will soon.”

Even at Hassim’s curses, Zeon’s expression did not change as he spoke calmly.

His cold eyes and dry tone.

In that instant, Hassim felt the temperature around him grow cold.

Goosebumps rose over the skin of his body pinned beneath the Sand Soldiers.

At that moment, Zeon took a glass bottle from his subspace.

Hassim stared blankly, wondering what nonsense Zeon was trying to pull.

RATTLE—!

Inside the glass bottle were two long, thin objects that looked like twisted wires.

Zeon took one of them out and placed it right in front of Hassim’s nose.

“What is this?”

“It’s a monster called a Ghost Horsehair Worm.”

“Fuck! You think I’ll be scared just because it’s a monster? I’m not scared of monsters at all.”

“You’ll know in a moment. You’re going to become thirsty from now on, so clench your teeth and endure it.”

Glug, glug!

Zeon poured water from a kettle rolling on the floor onto the Ghost Horsehair Worm.

When water touched it, the wire-like Ghost Horsehair Worm began to squirm awake.

The first thing the awakened Ghost Horsehair Worm detected was the closest living creature.

Having found Hassim, the Ghost Horsehair Worm crept toward him with creaking motions.

At the sight of the Ghost Horsehair Worm, Hassim felt primal fear.

“Damn it! I’ll talk, so get that thing away from me!”

“Too late.”

Zeon shook his head with a regretful expression.

In the meantime, the Ghost Horsehair Worm that had reached Hassim began forcing its way past his lips and into his mouth.

Hassim clenched his teeth, but it was useless.

At the foreign sensation inside his mouth, Hassim’s eyes widened.

A moment later, Hassim shouted loudly.

“Water! Give me water.”