Chapter 94

Chapter 94

“Damn it!”

“These damn mole bastards!”

Jack and the raid team looked utterly sick of it.

They were advancing with difficulty, covered in the blood and bodily fluids of the Hell Moles.

Even this was only possible because the Inazuma raid team had taken the vanguard. If Jack’s group had been at the front, their losses would have increased exponentially.

“Kek!”

“S-save me......”

The Awakened who did not belong to either raid team were swept up in the Hell Moles’ offensive and vanished from sight in an instant.

It was obvious what their end had been.

Jack shouted to Connor.

“Buff us.”

“Got it.”

An intense light bloomed from the dwarf Connor’s entire body.

Those within the range of the light he released felt vitality surge through them, and their strength grew even greater.

Connor’s awakened ability was buffing.

His direct combat power was weak, but he was a precious resource who could instantly raise the combat power of his party.

Along with a Healer, he was a resource absolutely necessary for a Dungeon Raid Team.

However, just like Healers, buffers were also extremely rare, so they were difficult to find in an ordinary raid team.

The very fact that such a precious buffer existed in Jack’s raid team was unexpected.

“Woooooh!”

Declan roared.

His eyes were completely bloodshot.

Declan was a Berserker. And he was affected most strongly by his older brother Connor’s buff.

CRASH, CRASH, CRASH!

Using his enormous body, Declan crushed every Hell Mole in his path.

Seeing that, Koji muttered,

“Good! At this rate, we’ll reach the boss’s location soon.”

Thanks to the dwarf Connor, the Inazuma raid team’s combat power had also risen.

Because of that, breaking through the dungeon became easier.

Shu Han’s shout came from ahead as he ran forward.

“We’re almost there. Hold on just a little longer.”

“Woooooh!”

“Kraaah!”

The Awakened squeezed out their remaining strength.

BOOM!

With an explosive roar, a massive stone door shattered.

Then Inazuma, Jack’s raid team, and the surviving Awakened entered a huge chamber.

They had finally reached the boss room.

Koji shouted,

“Block the entrance. Don’t let them join the boss.”

“Hrah!”

Bai Lun struck the entrance pillar with his axe. Then the entrance they had broken through collapsed with a rumble, preventing the Hell Moles from entering.

“Haa!”

“Whew!”

Only then could the group catch their breath for a moment. But that was literally all it was—a moment to breathe. Their crisis was not over yet.

Kuuuuh!

A bizarre breathing sound came from behind them.

“It’s the boss.”

“Damn it!”

The being letting out that rough breath was the Hell Mole Boss.

As befitted a boss, its body was ten times larger than an ordinary Hell Mole.

Its back was densely covered in spikes like a porcupine, and its snout was made of some unidentified metal.

But strange objects could be seen behind the boss.

“What are those?”

Piles of stone shaped like coffins lay scattered around. Human heads were sticking out from the tops of the stone coffins.

Zeon clicked his tongue.

“Tch! It’s the raid team that came in before us.”

He had thought it would be something like this.

The Hell Moles were skilled at dealing with humans.

They had clearly gained experience against the humans who had entered before them.

Zeon’s gaze fixed on one of the stone coffins.

That was because he saw a familiar face.

“Clexi.”

The bloodless face with its eyes tightly shut was unmistakably Clexi.

“It’s the Guildmaster.”

“He’s over there.”

Jack and the Awakened shouted when they saw Clexi.

‘Guildmaster? Yu Se-hee was called Guildmaster too. Then is he the previous Guildmaster? Is he related to Yu Se-hee by blood?’

If that was the case, everything made sense.

Including why Yu Se-hee had made the request with such an anxious expression.

For some reason, Clexi had led a raid team into the dungeon first and gone missing.

For Yu Se-hee, it was a situation where she could not help being frantic.

‘The problem is rescuing Clexi safely from the boss.’

The coffin-shaped rock was one of the Hell Mole Boss’s abilities.

It was called Death Coffin.

It turned sand into stone and trapped living beings inside.

A living being trapped in Death Coffin fell into a near-death state, and the Hell Mole Boss absorbed the vital energy of the creature that had fallen into that state.

Of course, the final fate of a human whose vital energy was absorbed was death.

That was when it happened.

Kieee!

The Hell Mole Boss attacked the humans who had trespassed into its territory as they pleased.

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH!

The spikes growing from its back poured down like rain.

“Everyone, be careful!”

“Dodge!”

The Awakened each used their Skills to block or avoid the spikes.

They scattered in different directions and attacked the Hell Mole Boss.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Brilliant Skills struck the Hell Mole Boss.

The Hell Mole Boss failed to dodge their attacks and was hit.

“We did it.”

“We got it.”

Joy appeared on the Awakened’s faces.

In contrast, Zeon’s gaze sank deeply.

They did not know.

They did not know the Hell Mole Boss’s true ability.

The creature was not strong, but it had quite a troublesome ability.

‘Crimson Cloud.’

That was when it happened.

Suddenly, a blood-colored mist began spreading through the boss room.

“What is this?”

“Be careful!”

Koji and Jack shouted at the same time.

As experienced Awakened, they had noticed that the blood-colored mist was anything but ordinary.

The mist billowed out like a cloud and filled the boss room in an instant.

There was no space for the Awakened to avoid it.

“Urgh!”

“I-I can’t breathe......”

The slum Awakened clutched their throats and collapsed.

Yuri shouted,

“Everyone, gather around me.”

Wind whirled around her and formed a wall.

The wall of wind blocked the blood-colored cloud from approaching. Thanks to that, Inazuma and Jack’s raid team, who had gathered around her, were safe from the blood-colored cloud.

Maintaining the wall of wind, Yuri said,

“I can’t hold this for long. We have to take it down within three minutes.”

“Got it.”

Koji answered and steadied his breathing.

At that, Comaine said,

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen the captain’s Skill, Death Dance.”

It was a Skill that loaded aura into every sword strike and swung eighteen times in an instant.

The name Death Dance had been given to it because once the sword danced, it inevitably brought death.

“I’m going.”

“I can’t fall behind either.”

Jack also stepped forward.

If Koji was the captain of Inazuma, he was also a captain.

He could never show himself falling behind.

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH!

Death Dance and Jack’s Skill, Silent Funeral, unfolded at the same time.

If Death Dance unleashed eighteen sword strikes in a single breath, Silent Funeral concentrated all its power into a single strike.

Aside from the fact that both used swords, the Skills had nothing in common.

Because the swordsmen’s dispositions were different, their Skills had also developed in different directions.

Kieeeeee!

The Hell Mole Boss’s painful cry rang out.

“We did it.”

“We got it.”

As everyone let out cheers, only Zeon sensed the danger.

“Everyone, be care......”

CRASH!

Before his shout could even finish, the wall of the boss room collapsed. Then something poured in.

The bizarre creatures pouring in while writhing immediately covered Shu Han and the dwarf Connor, who were nearby.

“What are these?”

“Aaagh!”

The two screamed and tried to break free from the bizarre creatures. But there were too many of them, and they could not escape.

At that moment, Zeon swung his hand. Then tremendous flames rose and burned away the bizarre creatures covering the two.

“Haaagh!”

“Krrgh!”

The two, who had barely escaped death, gasped for breath.

Zeon did not even glance at them and looked toward the collapsed wall.

Bizarre creatures continued pouring in from beyond the wall.

“Ghost Dragonfly larvae. This side was the real one.”

The bizarre creatures swarming in while wriggling were the Ghost Dragonfly larvae Zeon had dealt with recently.

Hell Moles were certainly troublesome monsters.

They had traits that made them especially difficult to face underground, where the conditions favored them. But they were lacking as the boss of an entire dungeon.

That was why he had thought the true boss must be somewhere else.

“But Hell Moles and Ghost Dragonflies aren’t exactly a natural combination.”

Hell and ghost.

At first glance, the words seemed to go together, but in truth, the two monsters had different stages for activity.

If Hell Moles operated underground, Ghost Dragonflies needed a sky where they could fly high.

As larvae, they could operate underground like this, but to molt and flap their wings, they needed an open sky.

The fact that there were so many larvae meant there had to be many adults that had already molted as well.

There was no way creatures like that naturally inhabited an underground place like this.

Kuwaaaaah!

To make matters worse, the Hell Mole Boss they had thought was dealt with rose with a roar.

Though Koji and Jack’s attacks had left deep wounds on it, the creature was still alive and well.

“What is this now?”

“Damn it!”

Koji and Jack could not hide their confusion.

The Hell Mole Boss unleashed Crimson Cloud once more. On top of that, the Ghost Dragonfly larvae were added, turning the chamber into a literal hell.

“Kraaagh!”

“Aagh!”

The Awakened’s screams rang out one after another.

Zeon shook his head slightly.

“At this rate, they’ll all be wiped out.”

Though they called themselves Dungeon Raid Teams, they were not prepared to clear a dungeon at all.

They had cleared a fair number of dungeons, but those were only the dungeons that had appeared near Neo Seoul.

The types of dungeons that appeared near Neo Seoul were extremely limited.

Strangely enough, only dungeons with similar tendencies opened there.

Though they had cleared many dungeons, they had not experienced a variety of them, so when an unexpected variable appeared like this, their response was inevitably slow.

‘Are they only half-complete?’

He did not want to get involved if he could avoid it, but at this rate, it was obvious they would be annihilated.

“Fire Rain.”

Zeon muttered as he swung his right hand.

At that instant, rain of fire fell inside the chamber.

He had used the Superheated Gauntlet to activate the Skill.

The rain of fire burned the Ghost Dragonfly larvae that filled the chamber and dealt a heavy blow to the Hell Mole Boss as well.

Thanks to that, the raid teams were able to escape the crisis of death.

“Haaah! Haaah!”

“Damn it, I almost died.”

The people who had barely survived gasped for breath.

Koji hurriedly searched for Zeon.

“Where is he?”

Zeon was nowhere to be seen in the boss room.

After saving the raid teams from danger, he had vanished without a trace. But they had no time to search for him.

The Hell Mole Boss, wounded by Fire Rain, was staggering.

If they missed this chance, the creature would recover its strength again.

They had to take it down before that.

“Damn it! All-out attack.”