Chapter 31

Chapter 31.

 

SWISH! SWISH!

In the blink of an eye, Crack Swarm turned into five creatures.

Then it drew countless spiked tentacles from the fissures in its body.

At the same time, hundreds of thick tentacles whipped into motion.

It was nothing less than a storm.

The raid party formed ranks in an instant.

Ha-kyung quickly hid behind the wall the tanks had created.

CLAAAAANG!

Immediately afterward, a heavy shockwave swept over them with a thunderous roar.

It was the sound of the spikes at the tips of the tentacles striking the shields.

Goosebumps rose all over Ha-kyung’s body.

‘If I get hit by that, I will be turned into minced meat in an instant.’

He had thought he could handle the role of a sub-tank well enough.

But without a shield, he did not even dare to try.

Of course, that was only natural.

After all, this was an Extreme-grade dungeon.

Ha-kyung lowered his stance as much as possible.

He was enduring the impact.

Then, suddenly, his eyes met those of a blond foreigner with a mischievous expression.

Was his name John Nager?

“Oh! Good to meet you, bro. I am John. Not damn John. Just John.”

“This does not seem like the right situation for introductions, but it is good to meet you too.”

“What situation? We are doing well. That flesh bastard is a living creature too. It will get tired someday.”

His speech was awkward, but convincing.

He was not wrong.

No matter how much of a guardian it was, it could not pour out attacks forever.

Ha-kyung looked at the Crack Swarms stretching out countless tentacles.

However, John’s hopeful interpretation was different from reality.

The creatures poured out attacks without showing any sign of fatigue.

Ha-kyung shook his head.

‘Approaching them is impossible. We cannot clear this unless we break that endless cycle.’

On top of that, Crack Swarm was a creature whose head could not be identified.

Its form was completely different from that of a normal living being, so he could not read its presence.

At this rate, they would be finished before they even got a chance to try anything.

Kang Woo-jin did not seem to have any brilliant solution either.

He was simply holding firm and waiting for an opportunity.

Then something suddenly caught Ha-kyung’s eye.

More precisely, the senses of Soul Brand told him.

Ha-kyung slightly raised his head above John’s shield.

‘The tentacles are not going upward.’

Crack Swarm’s tentacles were only being swung in a doughnut-shaped range.

If he could leap over that, he should be able to strike its body.

Of course, to do that, he would have to rise dozens of meters into the air.

No matter how outstanding an Awakened person’s physical abilities were, that was impossible.

But with someone’s help, the story would be different.

Ha-kyung met John’s gaze.

“Hey, John.”

“Why?”

“Can you launch me with your shield? Far toward that thing.”

“Okay. You want a boost, right?”

“Yes?”

“A boost. Like this, when I hold my hands on my knee and lift you up.”

“That is right. Then here I go. One, two, three!”

TAP-TAP-TAP! STEP! WHOOSH!

John braced his shield against his shoulder and held firm.

Then, the moment Ha-kyung planted his foot on it and leaped,

John launched him with all his strength.

As expected of a powerful tank, he sent Ha-kyung dozens of meters into the air.

John watched his back and shouted,

“Go! Unkillable Bad King!”

At first, Ha-kyung ignored it because he had no idea what John was talking about.

Then he realized.

‘Ah! He was calling out my nickname. But why Bad King of all things?’

It felt very badly twisted.

In any case, even a foreigner knew it.

He could feel his fame reaching him now.

Ha-kyung quickly snapped out of his idle thoughts and drew his karambit.

‘I am starting to fall. I need to focus.’

An Extreme-grade guardian was by no means easy.

Not long ago, there had been a massive Unfathomable dungeon led by the Association.

This place was even more difficult than the Fusion Abyss.

And the guardian he had seen there,

Crack Swarm was probably far stronger than Gear Crusher.

Ha-kyung was flying in an arc.

‘It is a little reckless, but this is the only way.’

Even if he fell into danger, he was confident he could survive.

Tyrant’s Bracelet would regenerate his body somehow.

Soon, Ha-kyung fell toward the Crack Swarms from above.

‘Unless they are fools, I will not get a second chance.’

Then this was the moment for a strike with everything he had.

[Kin-Eater skill target set]

[Target: Crack Swarm]

PING!

A sharp noise rang in Ha-kyung’s ears.

Soon, a considerable amount of abyss energy flooded into his body.

As the oppressive sensation tightened around his entire body, Ha-kyung clenched his teeth.

‘I will keep going like this!’

[Abyss Challenger’s “Compression” authority increases the density of abyss energy]

ZING!

An ash-gray blade grew from Ha-kyung’s karambit.

Normally, flames should have flickered around it.

But his Abyss Refinement had a smooth shape, like the second stage.

It was because the Compression authority held the abyss energy tightly together.

In that state, Ha-kyung deployed Soul-Sever.

“Chahaaap!”

SWAAAAASH!

The ten-meter-long blade struck Crack Swarm.

He had no idea where its weakness was.

Its appearance was simply too bizarre.

So Ha-kyung drove the blade into one of the fissures in its body.

KRA-CLANG!

Then something astonishing happened.

Crack Swarm suddenly closed the fissure.

Ha-kyung’s blade was caught tight by the creature.

CHOMP! SSSSSSS!

It was a truly absurd sight.

His decisive strike had been rendered useless in an instant.

However, Ha-kyung did not retreat and carried out his attack anyway.

‘So what if you caught it?’

He pushed abyss energy and mana into the blade.

He did not care about maintaining Soul-Sever’s shape.

He simply poured in as much as he could.

Then Crack Swarm’s body began to swell.

GROAN! GROAN! GROOOAN!

Soon, a strangely dangerous sound came from the creature.

For a moment, he thought it might burst at this rate.

But that disaster did not occur.

Crack Swarm opened the fissures in its body.

FWAAAAAAH!

The ash-gray energy that had filled its insides burst out all at once.

The force was enough to make Ha-kyung’s body rise slightly again.

‘Good. I will use this opening to get in.’

He deployed Compression Soul-Sever once more.

When he slashed with the karambit with all his strength, crimson liquid burst out.

SPLAAAAASH!

Only then did Ha-kyung complete his attack.

Then the repulsive force pushed him toward the outer edge.

For a brief moment, he let himself be carried by the flow.

‘I am dizzy. I used too much power at once.’

He felt something warm running down from his nose.

It seemed he had a nosebleed.

It was only natural.

Since he had used power beyond his limit, he had to pay the price.

Then Ha-kyung suddenly snapped back to his senses.

‘Ah, damn it. I was falling, wasn’t I?’

Plummeting from dozens of meters in the air?

No matter how much of an Awakened person he was, he would not survive that.

But he did not even have the strength to move a finger.

Right then,

SWOOSH!

A pure white energy seeped into his entire body.

Soon, a strange vitality surged up inside him.

When he glanced sideways, the Great Sage was looking at him.

It seemed they had temporarily stopped supporting the front line,

And cast a recovery skill on him.

Thanks to that, Ha-kyung could move again.

‘Good.’

He quickly flipped his body over.

He intended to land in a stable posture.

However, a heavy impact struck him from the side.

THUD!

“Urgh!”

Ha-kyung groaned at the unexpected blow.

But after that, there was no pain.

It felt as if he had been gently set down on the ground.

Ha-kyung turned his head with a puzzled expression.

Then he saw John’s brightly smiling face.

“Yo! Bad King. John saved you. John is damn cool, right?”

“Thank you.”

“Why are you reacting like that? Do not tell me you think you could have survived on your own and I just made a useless move.”

For a moment, John’s words became incredibly fast.

His pronunciation also became much clearer.

It seemed Ha-kyung’s reaction had scratched his pride and unleashed his language ability.

Ha-kyung quickly shook his head.

“No. I was just too disoriented…….”

“Yes! I have a drinking story for my foreign worker friends for life. I saved Bad King in a princess carry.”

“Yes?”

Anyone could see he was holding Ha-kyung like a dangling sack.

Where did “princess carry” come from?

When Ha-kyung stared at him with a dumbfounded expression, John laughed and waved his hand.

“Hey! It was a joke. A joke. John does not spread strange rumors, so do not be scared.”

“Ah, yes.”

Ha-kyung laughed despite himself.

Then John raised his shield with a proud expression.

It seemed he intended to protect Ha-kyung while he caught his breath.

Ha-kyung calmed the boiling abyss energy inside him.

‘But what happened?’

Of course, even as he did so, he could not suppress his curiosity.

He wanted to know how effective his performance had been.

Ha-kyung hurriedly settled the aftereffects.

Then he slowly rose and watched the situation.

Perhaps reading his movement,

John explained the situation to him.

“It was amazing, Bad King. You are the best. Thanks to you, those freaky flesh lumps are getting beaten to hell by us!”

“John. Please stop calling me that.”

“Why?”

“The nuance is a little strange.”

“It sounds like a tyrant in bed. I like it.”

“…….”

It seemed he was not the kind of person who operated by ordinary common sense.

Meanwhile, the raid party was gleefully beating down the Crack Swarms.

The second one had already fallen silent.

Now only three remained.

Just as John had said, all of this was thanks to Ha-kyung’s strike.

By breaking the storm of spiked tentacles, he had opened the way for a counterattack.

Ha-kyung watched the fight with pure admiration.

‘The abnormally large number of front-liners actually worked in our favor.’

If there had been fewer tanks, they would have collapsed long ago.

They would have sunk beneath the storm-like attacks.

On top of that, the matchup was favorable when it came time to counterattack.

They could tank all five Crack Swarms at the same time.

In that way, the raid seemed to be progressing smoothly.

At least until the endangered Crack Swarms curled up.

[Crack Swarm deploys Colony Overlap]

The Crack Swarms began gathering around the corpses.

Then they writhed and soon returned to their original form.

Their size and appearance did not change, but they had become one.

Up to that point, it was not a particularly worrying situation.

But the moment Crack Swarm revealed its true nature,

The raid party fell into danger instead.

Crack Swarm drove hundreds of tentacles into the ground.

[Crack Swarm ultimate deployed: Spike Eruption]

[An unstoppable wave of abyss energy has been detected]

PISH! PISH! PISH!

Soon, enormous spikes began rising from below.

Even Ha-kyung and John, who were standing a fair distance away, were no exception.

“Dodge!”

“John is already running like hell!”

Ha-kyung ran madly.

As he did, he abruptly changed direction from time to time.

It was to avoid the spikes that kept shooting up.

After rolling across the floor once, he looked back toward the main force.

‘The situation is bad. Too many team members were hit by Crack Swarm’s ultimate.’

This was precisely the weakness of the raid party Kang Woo-jin had assembled.

The front line was sturdy, but their ability to provide care was relatively weak.

Their ranged attacks were lackluster as well.

The moment the tanks collapsed like that,

The whole thing crumbled like a house of cards before anyone could respond.

At this rate, a failed raid was all but certain.

Ha-kyung suddenly met John’s eyes.

The foreigner was still grinning even in the middle of this difficult situation.

John shouted with his awkward pronunciation.

“Bro. One more like before?”

For a moment, Ha-kyung froze.

He had already used Kin-Eater.

And his body was not in good condition.

He had suffered internal injuries from unleashing power beyond his limit.

The Great Sage’s care had helped him, but the fact remained that he was short on abyss energy.

Even so, he could not just stand by and watch until he recovered.

Ha-kyung took a deep breath.

‘There is no need to overthink this. I only have to interrupt the guardian’s attack like before. Besides…… I am the only one who can do it.’

The raid party was busy enduring the guardian’s ultimate.

Ha-kyung was the only one who could move freely.

He looked at John and said,

“Can you send me higher than before?”

“How high?”

“About a hundred meters?”

“…….”

John’s confident expression warped.