Chapter 53

Chapter 53

 

Lee Ha-kyung was engaged in a fierce battle with Silent Ruin.

‘Even after stealing a huge amount of Abyss Energy with Kin-Eater, we’re still evenly matched.’

In that case, the result was obvious.

The moment the skill effect ended.

Lee Ha-kyung would be torn apart by Silent Ruin.

Then, suddenly, a warm energy wrapped around his entire body.

Instinctively turning his gaze, he was able to spot his companions.

Because the one who had cast a support skill on Lee Ha-kyung was Seo Jun-hyuk.

However, he saw a rather unexpected scene.

Lee Ha-kyung gave a small laugh when he saw Park Jun-ho returning after trying to run away.

‘It is a bit ambiguous.’

Since he was a ranged damage dealer, he might have reflexively tried to widen the distance.

Or perhaps the Raiders Guild’s instinct to flee had manifested.

Only Park Jun-ho would know the truth.

Of course, whether that was the case or not, Lee Ha-kyung did not care much.

Because for now, taking down Silent Ruin came first.

[Crosswind activated]

[Two-Stage Midair Leap is now possible]

Tap!

Lee Ha-kyung tried to escape the crisis with Crosswind, whose cooldown had finished just in time.

If he crashed into the ground like this, he would have no choice but to be hit by the follow-up attack.

When he changed direction in midair, Silent Ruin swept past him.

Whoooooosh―!

Astonishingly, the bastard was flying around at tremendous speed.

Using the wings attached to its gaunt body, no less.

Fortunately, it did not seem to have excellent turning ability.

Because it could not immediately follow Lee Ha-kyung.

‘Seo Jun-hyuk cast a healing skill on me. In that case, I can save Tyrant’s Bracelet.’

The problem was Silent Ruin’s next move.

Without a Tank, maintaining Aggro was impossible.

It would clearly try to target Seo Jun-hyuk first.

After all, his opponent was a bastard with extremely high intelligence, like the Abyss Ruler.

Sure enough, Silent Ruin immediately changed direction.

After circling widely, it began plunging down like a bird of prey.

Shaaaaaak―!

“Uwaaah!”

Seo Jun-hyuk turned, his face gone white.

It was a movement meant to somehow escape the dive attack.

Lee Ha-kyung also kicked off the ground.

‘Damn, it’s fast.’

Instead of being unable to change direction freely.

Silent Ruin flew at tremendous speed.

Lee Ha-kyung had been much closer, yet their arrival times were almost the same.

He stretched out his arm.

It was to grab Seo Jun-hyuk even a little sooner.

However, it was right then.

Tap!

Seo Jun-hyuk suddenly threw himself to the side.

Thanks to that, he became slightly closer to Lee Ha-kyung.

And Silent Ruin’s sharp claws barely swept past him.

Whooong―! Grab!

Lee Ha-kyung grabbed Seo Jun-hyuk and flipped over to the other side of the Wall debris.

During that process, Silent Ruin ended up plunging into the ground.

CRASH, CRASH, CRASH!

While a thunderous noise rang out from beyond the cover.

Lee Ha-kyung saw an unexpected sight.

“This way. If we go through here, we can get to the other side.”

Park Jun-ho had opened a hole through the Wall debris.

To think he had prepared something like this without running away.

For some reason, Lee Ha-kyung felt awkward.

‘Was I mistaken?’

To be honest, he had simply assumed Park Jun-ho was trying to flee.

Seo Jun-hyuk seemed to have thought the same thing.

He was scratching the back of his head.

Then Lee Ha-kyung suddenly came to his senses.

“This is no time for this. You two, please hold out while using this structure as cover. I will go fight that bastard again.”

“Of course. If we go out into the open, we will only get taken down by that thing.”

It was right for a Ranged Damage Dealer and a Healer to provide support from a safe place.

The moment the two slipped out through the hole.

Lee Ha-kyung looked upward.

Shaaaaaak―!

Silent Ruin, having taken flight again, had begun circling.

However, it merely drew circles round and round.

The bastard could not easily charge in.

Because Seo Jun-hyuk and Park Jun-ho had hidden themselves tightly in the Wall debris.

On the other hand, Lee Ha-kyung leisurely walked out into the open ground.

“Try coming in again.”

―Cunning bastards.

“Let’s call it being smart.”

―For a mere lowly creature, you refuse to lose even a single exchange.

“Who are you calling a lowly creature?”

―You, of course. Because I am the strong one.

“How ridiculous. Don’t you know you only find out what’s long and what’s short by measuring them?”

―Kekekek! Is that so? Then let’s measure them, shall we?

No sooner had the brief conversation ended than a tremendous roar of torn air rang out.

Of course, the sound arrived after the impact.

THOOONG! KWAAAAA―!

“Ngh!”

Lee Ha-kyung tumbled away with a groan.

His opponent had clearly flown in faster than sound and struck him.

However, even if it was supersonic, it was not impossible to react to.

With Lee Ha-kyung’s physical abilities, he should have been able to respond sufficiently.

‘Then why did I get hit?’

The answer was in the system message he checked a moment later.

[Silent Ruin deploys Denied Evasion]

[Evasion impossible]

Right before the impact.

It seemed his opponent’s skill had interfered with Lee Ha-kyung’s movement.

An area attack with no presence at all.

And even a binding effect that made evasion impossible.

It truly was an incredibly troublesome ability.

He had been beaten one-sidedly, but it had not been entirely a loss.

[Reactive Magic Armor activated]

[Cloak of Command activated]

Fwoosh!

Dark red flames blazed up from Lee Ha-kyung’s blade.

Kin-Eater and the Mana Amplification of Reactive Magic Armor.

Now every preparation was complete.

One strike.

He only had to land one proper blow that would bring Silent Ruin down.

Lee Ha-kyung stood still and waited for his opponent.

However, the same sense of danger as before suddenly arose.

The hallucination of knives stabbing into his stomach.

He immediately threw himself to the side.

Tap! Skid―!

When he stopped while scraping his soles against the ground, the spot where Lee Ha-kyung had just been was erased.

A pit with a diameter of three meters had appeared without a sound or a rumor.

[Silent Ruin deploys Dead Zone]

Through that attack, Lee Ha-kyung realized something new.

‘It can’t use two skills at the same time.’

What if it had bound him first and then attacked?

Lee Ha-kyung would not have avoided annihilation.

Of course, there was a possibility that it had done that on purpose.

If its goal was to toy with him before killing him, or if it was a vicious psychological battle.

But the probability of that was low.

Because Silent Ruin also knew Lee Ha-kyung was no easy opponent.

Whoooooosh―!

Soon, his opponent’s dive attack resumed.

It was so fast that the system message had not appeared yet.

However, Lee Ha-kyung had already steeled himself.

‘It’s coming.’

He felt as though his entire body was being tightly constricted.

Silent Ruin’s form was rapidly growing larger.

Because it was plunging down at an incredible speed.

Lee Ha-kyung swung his karambit upward with the timing.

Swoooooosh―!

“Tchaaaaat!”

A dark red Disc with a diameter of fifteen meters suddenly surged upward.

It was a strike slammed straight into the face of the opponent approaching at high speed.

There was absolutely no way to avoid it.

Silent Ruin seemed to know that as well.

It chose to force the attack rather than evade.

A dark red flash and bright yellow energy crossed past each other right afterward.

Then something pitch-black formed at the center of the collision.

WHOOOOOOO!

Products of malice tangled together.

In that process, Lee Ha-kyung had to experience an enormous pressure.

‘Why is this happening all of a sudden?’

Normally, it would have been natural to be thrown back by a powerful impact.

However, Lee Ha-kyung was being pulled in instead.

Toward the black mass that was gradually growing larger.

The astonishing fact was that Silent Ruin was in the same situation.

―What the hell is this?

He did not know why, but one thing was certain.

His opponent also did not know exactly what this situation was.

And it was flustered.

Lee Ha-kyung thrashed violently.

But he could not escape.

Because the force pulling him in was far too strong.

Even so, he could not simply let himself be swept along by the flow.

An inexplicable unease ran down his spine.

When even using all his strength proved useless, Lee Ha-kyung made a new attempt.

‘This might work.’

He took out the Resonance Pillar he had been carrying on his back.

Then he struck it hard with his karambit.

CLAAAANG! HUMMMMM!

Along with a sharp noise, the Resonance Pillar began to vibrate.

Amazingly, Lee Ha-kyung’s body was slowly slipping free.

He threw the Resonance Pillar directly toward the black mass.

“To hell with it!”

RUMBLEEEEE!

Then Lee Ha-kyung was able to escape relatively easily.

The moment he moved away from the center of the collision.

A tremendous Aftershock swept in.

BOOOOM!

“Ngh!”

The black mass had finally exploded.

Lee Ha-kyung held out while using cover.

A gust of wind swept through once.

Then it soon became quiet.

He peeked his head out from beyond the debris.

‘What? Why is it fine?’

Silent Ruin was standing upright.

Even though it must have been caught directly in the explosion.

Lee Ha-kyung immediately leaped over the cover.

‘Whatever happened, there must have been damage.’

In that case, he had to land as many follow-up attacks as possible before the bastard recovered.

However, the moment Lee Ha-kyung tried to close the distance.

Silent Ruin suddenly soared upward.

―Grrrr! Hahahaha!

The bastard laughed as though it had gone mad.

Then it soon began emitting pitch-black energy.

―Such pure Abyss Energy. What an unexpected windfall!

Astonishingly, Silent Ruin seemed to have absorbed most of the explosion.

It was an absurd situation, but Lee Ha-kyung did not care.

‘Even if I’d been dragged in, I wouldn’t have been able to do what that bastard did anyway. Focus! I have to focus!’

There was no stupidity greater than lingering over what had already passed.

The Abyss Energy he had stolen with Kin-Eater had all been exhausted.

Now he had to fight entirely with Lee Ha-kyung’s own strength.

It was an utterly disadvantageous situation.

Soon, Silent Ruin began circling.

Then, at the moment the tension reached its peak.

The bastard’s dive attack resumed.

Shaaaaaak―!

Sure enough.

This time as well, Lee Ha-kyung felt his entire body stiffen.

[Silent Ruin deploys Denied Evasion]

[Evasion impossible]

His opponent’s form grew larger with every passing moment.

Silent Ruin closed the distance in an instant and tried to swing its claws.

However, it was right then.

Tap!

Lee Ha-kyung suddenly leaped forward.

Silent Ruin’s eyes widened at the unexpected movement.

―H-How did you move.......

But there was no time for conversation.

It was in the middle of flying at tremendous speed.

And Lee Ha-kyung had jumped right in front of it.

Truly in the blink of an eye.

The two collided head-on.

BOOOOM!

“Guhurk!”

―Kwaaaak!

Lee Ha-kyung and Silent Ruin were flung in opposite directions.

Both in equally wretched states.

“Ah!”

An anguished cry rang out from behind.

It was Seo Jun-hyuk’s voice.

It seemed he had been about to cast a healing skill but missed the timing.

After all, it had happened far too suddenly.

However, Lee Ha-kyung, who had been sprawled on the ground, staggered to his feet.

His entire body looked as if every bone had been broken.

Yet it was as if he felt no pain at all.

Crack! Crunch!

“Phew.......”

Lee Ha-kyung let out a long sigh.

Cloak of Command had long since lost its effect.

Astonishingly, he was enduring the pain that exceeded his limits in full.

An ordinary person.

No, even most Awakened would have lost consciousness long ago.

But Lee Ha-kyung moved about without concern.

‘It’s bearable.’

The reason he could endure the pain was thanks to Tyrant’s Bracelet.

It was possible because he had no fear that he would not be able to return to his original state.

As he walked toward Silent Ruin.

Lee Ha-kyung fully recovered his body.

Soon, a gloomy voice seeped into his mind.

―Wh-What trick did you use?

“Well, which one do you mean?”

―How did you break through my skill?

“Evasion impossible?”

―Yes.

“Because I didn’t try to evade. Think carefully about what I did.”

Silent Ruin’s grotesque head twisted severely.

At the final moment.

Lee Ha-kyung had thrown his entire body straight forward instead.

By using his opponent’s speed in reverse, he had created a situation that could not be avoided.

During the collision, he had even struck Silent Ruin in the abdomen with Heaven-Shattering Fist.

Silent Ruin let out an empty laugh.

―Hehehe! What an amusing bastard......

SQUELCH!

However, it could not continue speaking to the end.

Because Lee Ha-kyung simply stabbed his karambit into it.

Silent Ruin spat out a curse.

―You bastard, you have no sense of romance. 

“Cutting off variables is more important than that kind of thing.”

―Do not think this is the end. His Majesty will......

SQUELCH, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, SQUELCH!

Whether his opponent was chattering or not, Lee Ha-kyung kept driving his blade in.

Silent Ruin helplessly spat out its final words.

―This bastard really is insane.