Chapter 51

Chapter 51

SHWAAAAA!

The bike split the muddy seawater.

A battle that had begun the moment we escaped.

RATATAT! RATATATAT!

The machine gun mounted on the tactical vehicle spat fire.

BOOM, BOOOM!

WHOOOOSH, BOOOM!

Grenade launchers and anti-tank rockets were also poured toward the swarming monsters.

The chain of explosions overturned the mudflat.

The blown-apart remains of monsters, mud, and seawater mixed together and sprayed in every direction.

“Do not stop firing!”

“Right side, fire to the right!”

The number of enemies flooding in was overwhelming.

Beyond the fog, distorted shapes writhed.

Damn it.

There are far too many of them.

At this rate…….

KABOOOM!

KABOOOM, KABOOM, BOOM, BOOM, KABOOOOM!

Shells rained down without pause on both sides of the road, forming a curtain of destruction.

It was not firepower we could produce.

Allies.

It was definitely fire support from the forces waiting outside Jebudo.

“……!”

I unconsciously looked up at the sky.

BRRRRRRR!

WHIIIIIIIIIR!

Before I knew it, allied attack helicopters and drones had arrived and filled the sky.

The enemies did not simply sit still either.

Of course. There was no way they would.

“Kyaaaaak!”

“Kiiiii!”

A multitude of Gargoyles, along with various kinds of flying species, appeared and tangled with the allied air forces.

BOOM, BOOOM!

KABOOM!

An aerial battle broke out overhead, and the debris came raining down.

Broken wings, torn flesh, and burning metal fragments fell together like rain.

At this point, calling it an escape felt embarrassing.

This was a war.

Humanity and monsters.

The large-scale forces of both sides were clashing, painting a scene from hell.

‘It’s finally starting to get quiet.’

Ironically, in the middle of this pandemonium, my inner mind was more peaceful than anyone else’s.

The fiercer the battle became, the colder my head grew, and the clearer my cognitive ability became.

The noise, the shock waves, and all manner of horrifically grotesque scenes…… all external stimuli were merely analyzed and input as information.

Explosions were filtered as waveforms, screams as positions and distances, and blood and remains as things I no longer needed to care about.

My vision was clear.

As if everything were in slow motion, everything looked one beat slower.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

I heard a sound.

‘Behind us on the right. Close. Three, two…….’

While gripping the handlebar with my right hand, I drew the double-barreled sawed-off shotgun with my left and twisted my body around.

Choi Yura’s shoulder, as she rode behind me, served as an excellent rest.

BOOM!

“Kyak!”

The Gargoyle was blown away like a shredded rag.

“You insane bastard! How could you fire a gun right next to someone’s ear?”

“Just watch the rear! I cannot pay attention to every single thing!”

After shouting back at Choi Yura’s protest, I drew the [Luck] card this time.

There was far too much debris raining down overhead.

I needed to take action.

Just as people said one could die from a stray bullet, at this rate, I was going to die buried under falling wreckage.

• Luck to you and your companions.

Following the whisper of the Goddess of Luck, I heard the sound of dice rolling.

Clatterrrrr…….

[Luck has increased by 90%!]

Not bad.

At the very least, it would reduce the chance of dying an absurd, sudden death.

For example, the chance of being killed by falling debris.

CLATTER-RUMBLE…….

I heard the sound of caterpillar tracks from the front.

It was a heavy sound pressing down on the ground.

I slowly reduced my speed.

This was not some chicken game, and I could hardly ram into an allied vehicle.

Soon, as if pushing through the fog, a massive lump of metal revealed itself.

It was an armored vehicle.

“Dismount!”

“Dismount immediately!”

As soon as the hatch opened, mechanized infantrymen rushed out and projected firepower at the monsters charging toward the road.

Soon after, Hunters belonging to the Defense Strategy Department descended by rope from a Black Hawk helicopter flying overhead.

“Mr. Cha Eunseong!”

“If Mr. Cha Eunseong is here, raise your hand! Is Mr. Cha Eunseong not here?”

“Who the hell is this bastard Cha Eunseong?”

The Hunters exercised their respective abilities to hold back the monsters while shouting my name.

What? What is this?

Because of them, my concentration ended up breaking.

“……I am Cha Eunseong.”

“Are you truly Mr. Cha Eunseong?”

“Yes.”

“We will confirm that for a moment.”

The leader of the team made up of Hunters compared my face to the photo written on the operation card strapped to his left arm.

“Confirmed. Let us go.”

“What?”

“We came under orders to rescue Mr. Cha Eunseong.”

So that was it.

There was a reason they had called my name the moment they descended.

“By any chance, are your orders to bring only me?”

“That is correct. Mr. Cha Eunseong, you are the top-priority rescue target. So…….”

“I refuse.”

“Pardon……?”

“I am not going right now.”

It was not because of some cheap sense of justice or conscience.

It had been so long since I had thrown away such things that I could no longer even remember when it had happened.

“All these people followed me here because they trusted me alone, and now you are telling me to slip away first. That is not right.”

“Just because the Defense Strategy Department rescues Mr. Cha Eunseong first does not mean we are abandoning the others.”

“I know. I know that, but since we have come this far, we should leave together as well. And…….”

I pointed at the sky above.

“Kyaaaaak!”

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

Even more Gargoyles than before were flying in.

“Can you do it? If you can, I will go.”

“…….”

The other person fell silent.

In this situation, forcing an escape by helicopter would be suicide.

In fact, the allied helicopters were quickly retreating, and suicide drones were filling the empty space they left behind.

Because helicopters were extremely vulnerable to small flying species such as Gargoyles, they had no choice but to fight them with drones.

And…….

WHIP!

A sharp tentacle shot out from the mudflat beside the road and wrapped around the special mission team leader.

“……!”

SPLAAAAAT!

The special mission team leader’s waist was severed, and he collapsed in two pieces.

It happened in the blink of an eye, so quickly that even I could not do anything.

“……Fuck.”

I poured bullets toward the place where the tentacle had shot out.

SPLOOSH!

Seeing black ink burst out, it was obvious that something like an octopus had undergone a Mutation.

But there was no time to be angry.

WHOOOM!

The moment I thought I heard the sound of something massive flying through the air.

KABOOOOM!

Something enormous completely crushed one allied armored vehicle.

Everyone was horrified by the sight.

“A monster……!”

“Th-That is insane.”

A gigantic monster that looked easily fifteen meters long.

It resembled a mudskipper, and it possessed an unbelievably massive physique, enough to crush an armored vehicle.

“……Mudflat Lord.”

The name of that thing slipped out of my mouth.

***

Mudflat Lord.

As the name implied, it was the ruler and king of the mudflat.

As a 5-Star monster, it was one of the bosses that appeared in a Transference Crisis occurring in mudflat terrain.

The Mudflat Lord’s two eyes, which had risen up with a smooth motion, swept over the surroundings.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch…….”

The Mudflat Lord lowered its body.

Creeeeeeak!

The armored vehicle that had already been half crushed was flattened even further.

The meaning of the Mudflat Lord lowering its body was…….

“Everyone, dodge!!!”

WHOOOM!

At the same time as my shout, the Mudflat Lord leaped high into the sky.

THOOOM―!!!

The Mudflat Lord landed on the place where the mechanized infantrymen were clustered together.

Nearly ten soldiers disappeared.

If it could crush even an armored vehicle, turning a few people into dried filefish was probably easier than eating porridge.

“You fucking mudskipper bastard!”

“Die, you bastaaaaard!”

The enraged soldiers unleashed a fierce assault on the Mudflat Lord.

Machine guns, anti-tank weapons, grenades, and other powerful conventional weapons rained down on the Mudflat Lord.

WHIIIIIR!

BOOM, BOOOM!

Drones fitted with bombs made of Etherium slammed into the Mudflat Lord and self-destructed.

“……It will be useless.”

A bitter mutter slipped from my mouth.

The flames and smoke from the explosion cleared, revealing the Mudflat Lord.

At a glance, the Mudflat Lord looked as if it had taken considerable damage.

However, the Mudflat Lord’s following action shattered that hope to pieces.

SQUELCH, SQUELCH!

The Mudflat Lord rolled around in the mudflat.

Flesh that had looked as if it had been torn away by the explosions was filled in, and the places where grenade fragments had embedded themselves wriggled shut.

An absurd regenerative ability that let it absorb the mud of the mudflat and heal itself.

Yes, that was the terrifying thing about the Mudflat Lord.

This place was a mudflat.

At least within the mudflat, that thing was nearly invincible.

SPLAT!

When the Mudflat Lord twisted its enormous body, the mudflat surged like a wave.

“Urgh!”

“Ugh!”

The moment two soldiers who had lost their balance fell to the ground.

WHOOOM!

The Mudflat Lord swung its enormous tail like a whip.

THWACK!

The soldiers’ bodies exploded into pieces.

But that was only the beginning.

SPLASH, SPLASH!

The Mudflat Lord charged across the mudflat as if sliding over it.

Its fins flapped like the forelegs of a beast, and its enormous body, fifteen meters long, charged forward at a speed reaching one hundred kilometers per hour.

KABOOOOM―!

The armored vehicle overturned by the Mudflat Lord’s body slam rolled over and over, becoming a crumpled lump of scrap metal before being buried in the mudflat.

That was the beginning.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch!!!”

The Mudflat Lord went berserk and began destroying everything in sight.

***

“It’s a d-disaster…… That thing is a disaster……!”

A terrified soldier shouted.

The tip of his finger pointing at the Mudflat Lord trembled violently.

I fully agreed with that opinion.

Yes, it was probably a disaster.

The Mudflat Lord was a 5-Star boss monster.

Humanity’s conventional weapons would not work against it.

But that did not mean humanity had no power to resist.

Hunters.

Those who had Awakened after being chosen by Ether.

As long as they existed, humanity could not be called completely powerless.

At the very least, one could say that they possessed the minimum strength necessary to stand against those things.

“……There is no way we can let it keep rampaging.”

I tightened my grip on the axe in my hand.

[Slaughterer of Madness].

I moved toward the Mudflat Lord as it went berserk.

I was not the only one who stepped toward that overwhelming disaster.

Those who had been chosen by Ether.

“You fucking mudskipper bastard!”

“I-I will help too!”

“Right! Let us try this!”

One by one.

Hunters drew their Spirit Swords and, without anyone telling them to, headed toward the Mudflat Lord.

For the Hunters, for us, there was no distinction of age or gender, nor any distinction between high and low rank.

There were chicks who had only just Awakened.

There were veterans who had been through everything.

Even I, who had gone back through the past, did not hesitate to face the Mudflat Lord.

The way we looked was like that of beings driven by instinct.

As if hostility toward that unknown enemy had been engraved deep into our souls.

Yes, perhaps this was the very reason beings known as Hunters had been born…….

‘Let’s go.’

With that thought as my last, I sprinted at full speed toward the ruler that dominated this mudflat.

With me at the lead, the other Hunters also ran toward the Mudflat Lord.

Flinch!

The Mudflat Lord lowered its body.

“Dodge!”

WHOOOM—!

A massive shadow swept over my head.

“Dodge!”

I threw myself aside.

KABOOOOM!!!

The spot where I had been standing a moment before was crushed flat.

RUMBLE!

Mud and concrete mixed together and shot into the air.

‘Luck, Red Moon, Enhancement.’

I instantly drew three cards.

[Luck] Critical Hit Chance increases by 100%!

[Red Moon] Attack Power, Attack Speed, and Slashing Effect increase by 150%!

[Enhancement] Your weapon becomes stronger!

Enchant.

The power of the cards wrapped around [Butcher of Madness].

The axe was dyed red, and as its size increased, a faint sheen flashed across its blade.

FWOOOOOOSH!

The Ether wrapped around the axe blazed like burning flames.

WHOOOM!

The Mudflat Lord’s tail flew in, aiming for me.

On the concrete road.

Tap!

I leaped with all my might, dodged the Mudflat Lord’s attack, and as soon as I landed, I rolled my body and swung [Butcher of Madness] with all my strength.

CRAAAAACK!

The axe split the Mudflat Lord’s left fin.