Chapter 63

Chapter 63

The Fear unleashed by the Flame Wolf Alpha shook the minds of the Awakened.

“Grrgh!”

“Damn it!”

The Awakened briefly lost their balance and staggered.

By contrast, the Flame Wolves gained courage and strength from their Alpha’s Fear and attacked even more fiercely.

The battle situation, already unfavorable, tilted even faster.

“Fuck! These sons of bitches......”

Eloy swept up her abundant blond hair and spat a curse.

Red blood flowed down the shaft of Mad Gumiho.

She had no idea how many Flame Wolves she had killed.

Filled with madness, she killed and killed again.

Even so, the Flame Wolves did not decrease.

When an empty spot appeared, another bastard filled it, and they charged in without fearing death.

“Kraaaagh!”

One Awakened who had been barely holding on was bitten by a Flame Wolf and fell from the bus.

Dozens of Flame Wolves swarmed over the fallen Awakened.

In an instant, the Awakened became Flame Wolf food and vanished from the world. Yet as if that still was not enough to fill their stomachs, the Flame Wolves rushed in again.

“I’ll sweep every last one of you away.”

Eloy threw Mad Gumiho into the sky.

In midair, the spear instantly split into nine.

When Eloy gestured, the nine spears rose high into the air.

An incredibly intense light poured from the mana connecting the nine spears.

“Nine Spear Strike.”

The strongest Skill Eloy could currently use unfolded.

CRASHCRASHCRASH—!

A rain of spears poured down and struck the Flame Wolves rushing toward the Armored Bus.

In an instant, hundreds of Flame Wolves were swept away.

“Haa! Haa!”

Eloy retrieved Mad Gumiho and breathed roughly.

Its power was extreme, and so was its mana consumption.

Her mana was on the verge of hitting bottom. But she could not keep resting forever.

KROOOAR!

Countless Flame Wolves filled the empty spaces and charged again.

Even though hundreds had died, it was barely noticeable.

“Fuck! There’s no end to them no matter how many I kill. Where the hell did all these monsters crawl out from?”

She already knew the reason.

The problem was that Alpha.

In any monster group, once an Alpha was born, their numbers swelled greatly and their cohesion strengthened.

It took only an instant for them to form a massive army.

Unless the Alpha was killed, the Flame Wolves would continue to increase their strength endlessly.

They had to kill it.

The problem was that killing it was nearly impossible.

The Flame Wolf Alpha merely watched from a distance and did not join the hunt.

As if it were saying this was not the level where it should play.

“I have to kill that son of a bitch.”

Eloy ground her teeth.

But merely defending the Armored Bus was already difficult, so she could not even dare attempt it.

That was when it happened.

WHOOOSH!

Suddenly, she felt a strong wind at her back.

When she looked back, she saw a sand-laden wind blowing in.

Thick sand covered her entire field of vision.

Without thinking any further, Eloy shouted at the driver.

“Drive into the sandstorm.”

She did not know whether the driver had heard her, but the bus drove toward the direction the sand was blowing from.

The huge Armored Bus soon vanished into the sand. Even then, the Flame Wolves clung on stubbornly. But their numbers had decreased noticeably.

Eloy swung Mad Gumiho and muttered,

“At least the heavens haven’t completely abandoned us.”

---

Zeon glanced back.

The bus was hidden by the thick sand-laden wind.

It was the sand-laden wind he had called in.

He could see the Flame Wolves swept into the sand-laden wind, running around in confusion.

With this much, Eloy and the Awakened should be able to hold out for a while.

Now he had to solve the problem.

Zeon used Sand Walk.

SHAAAK—!

As if he were skiing, Zeon’s body slid over the sand and flew forward.

KROOOAR!

The Flame Wolves who discovered him charged.

At that instant, dozens of streams of sand formed beneath Zeon’s feet.

Like vines climbing over a wall, the streams of sand rose up and shot straight toward the Flame Wolves.

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD—!

The Flame Wolves died without even managing to scream, pierced through by the streams of sand.

Zeon did not stop for a single moment.

Hundreds of Flame Wolves were impaled on the streams of sand and died before they could even approach Zeon.

In an instant, Zeon arrived before the Flame Wolf Alpha.

Grrrrr!

The Flame Wolf Alpha bared its teeth at Zeon.

The fiery light in its eyes grew thicker.

With a monster’s unique instinct, it had realized that Zeon was dangerous.

Looking at the Flame Wolf Alpha, Zeon said,

“You’re about Grade B. With just a little more time, becoming Grade A wouldn’t have been a problem.”

Just as an Awakened’s grade rose, a monster’s rank also rose as experience and time accumulated.

The Flame Wolf Alpha before Zeon’s eyes was still a young wolf in its maturation stage.

That meant its growth speed was just as fast.

If left alone, it would quickly become Grade A.

If it were allowed to remain, it would clearly become a calamity.

KROOOAR!

It roared.

It had unleashed Fear. But its Fear had no effect whatsoever on Zeon.

Zeon frowned and said,

“You’re spraying spit. That’s filthy......”

In truth, the Flame Wolf’s saliva had splattered onto Zeon’s chest.

The Flame Wolf’s saliva contained venom and corrosive components, so most protective equipment would melt and tear apart in an instant. But there was not a single mark left on the robe Zeon wore.

The robe Zeon was wearing had been made from Leviathan’s hide.

It was far higher in rank and strength than the Flame Wolf Alpha.

Naturally, Flame Wolf saliva could not damage it.

At that moment, the Flame Wolves, sensing their Alpha’s crisis, charged like mad.

Their goal was only one thing.

To save the Alpha even if they died.

But Zeon had no intention of granting their wish.

“Summon! Sand Soldier.”

At that instant, sand rose around Zeon and quickly took human shape.

They were Sand Soldiers.

The number of Sand Soldiers created that way reached several hundred.

“Stop them!”

At Zeon’s command, the Sand Soldiers moved.

There was no fear and no hesitation.

The Sand Soldiers gladly threw themselves into the Flame Wolves’ jaws.

They fought, killed, and died.

When they suffered heavy damage, the Sand Soldiers crumbled like sand castles.

Even so, Zeon did not worry.

As long as he had mana and sand, he could summon Sand Soldiers again as many times as he liked.

Sand existed infinitely, and Zeon’s mana was ample.

There was no problem maintaining the Sand Soldiers.

While the Sand Soldiers blocked the Flame Wolves, Zeon approached the Alpha.

KROOOOAR!

Flames surged from its mouth and tail.

When the Flame Wolf Alpha opened its mouth, flames of tremendous heat poured toward Zeon.

“Sorry, but this much can’t do any damage to me.”

Zeon raised his right arm. Then red light flashed from the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet.

The red light swept away the Alpha’s flames in an instant.

It was the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet, embedded with the Red Dragon’s Eye.

It could be called the pinnacle of the fire attribute.

Naturally, no Flame Skill worked before the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet.

In the end, what remained for the Flame Wolf Alpha was close combat, charging in directly to bite and tear.

Using its overwhelming size, tremendous mass, sharp teeth, and claws as weapons, it charged in.

Even before that imposing sight, enough to make one’s knees go weak, Zeon’s expression did not change much.

Just before the Flame Wolf Alpha’s teeth pierced his body, a wall of sand appeared before Zeon.

The sand swallowed the Flame Wolf Alpha in an instant.

Zeon murmured,

“Sand Blender.”

GRRRRIND—!

At that instant, fine grains of sand rotated at incredible speed.

The grains of sand literally ground the Flame Wolf Alpha apart like a blender.

The Flame Wolf writhed in pain and tried to escape the sand. But no matter how hard it struggled, escaping from the high-speed rotating sand was impossible.

Its fur was torn away, and its flesh was ripped apart.

The sand dug into the flesh, pulverizing and dismantling it.

The Alpha screamed under the terrible agony. But even its scream was buried beneath the noise of the sand rotating at high speed.

GRRRRIND—!

Blood sprayed, and chunks of flesh scattered.

The high-speed rotating sand turned red in an instant. Even so, the sand did not stop.

AWOOOO!

BARK! BARK!

The Flame Wolves fighting the Sand Soldiers suddenly tucked their tails and barked loudly.

They had sensed the Alpha’s death first.

Once the Alpha who had ruled the pack with powerful control disappeared, the Flame Wolves scattered in every direction.

Only then did Zeon release the Sand Soldiers and the Sand Blender.

TAP!

A single red Mana Stone fell where the Flame Wolf Alpha had been.

Its bones, flesh, and everything that had made up its body had vanished, leaving only the Mana Stone that was its essence.

He had dealt with a Grade B monster in an instant, but there was no particular emotion on Zeon’s face.

The road he had walked was too harsh for him to grow excited and rejoice over this much.

The Flame Wolf Alpha did not even belong among the threats that could endanger him.

Picking up the Flame Wolf Alpha’s Mana Stone, Zeon muttered,

“This should be worth quite a bit if I sell it.”

Until now, he had not needed money.

There had been no occasion to use money in the desert.

The colonies outside Neo Seoul were too occupied with survival to have the leisure to develop civilization.

Instead of money, they used Mana Stones or barter as means of trade. Because of that, there had been no need to convert Mana Stones into money. But Neo Seoul was different.

No less than ten million people lived gathered in Neo Seoul.

If the people living in the slums were included, the number was close to twenty million.

With so many humans crowded into such a narrow space, they naturally had no choice but to use money for transactions.

The better the quality of a Mana Stone, the higher the price it received.

In particular, a Mana Stone gained by killing a monster Alpha like this was worth whatever the seller asked. The energy that could be obtained from it was qualitatively different from the ones mined at the Mana Stone Mine.

Zeon put the Mana Stone into his subspace.

The Flame Wolf pack that had filled the area had scattered and was no longer visible.

Until another Alpha appeared, they would scatter into small packs and live that way.

“Should I head back now?”

Now that he had achieved his goal, he had to return to the Armored Bus.

Zeon used Sand Walk and caught up to the Armored Bus in an instant.

The Armored Bus was still engulfed in the sand-laden wind, so those inside had no idea what was happening outside.

They could only feel that the Flame Wolves’ attacks were gradually becoming less frequent.

Zeon calmly entered the Armored Bus and released the sand-laden wind.

When the sand that had clouded their vision disappeared, Eloy and the other Awakened realized the situation.

“What the hell?”

“The wolf bastards all ran away, didn’t they?”

“We’re alive. We’re alive!”

The Awakened and miners embraced one another and rejoiced. But Eloy could not rejoice as purely as they did.

That was because she knew the current situation was absolutely not natural.

Eloy entered the bus and looked at Zeon.

Zeon was sitting in a chair with his arms crossed.

The scent of blood wafted strongly from him.

Her sense of smell as a half-elf could not be fooled.

‘That bastard definitely did something.’

Otherwise, the current situation made no sense.

The problem was that she had no idea what Zeon had done.

‘Just what the hell are you? You dogshit bastard......’