novelraw Chapter 127
Chapter 127
Chapter 127
The giant beetle, boasting a presence so faint it was hard to perceive without focusing one's senses, dug back into the ground once again.
“Thanks for—”
I shook my head at Han Sang-ah and sent her a gesture to keep her mouth shut. Han Sang-ah nodded slightly and began clearing out the surrounding corpses with her sword.
Meanwhile, I held the crown in my hand and scanned the surroundings as it emitted a white light.
“Yeah, things like this are what's truly annoying.”
The ghost knight I faced in Kaesong was honestly nothing special. As long as we both revealed ourselves and fought fairly, the conditions weren't disadvantageous for me at all.
“And on top of that, you aren't even undead despite looking like that?”
Looking at its appearance, it was so hideous that it was hard to find anything that looked more like an undead even among actual undead.
Despite the crown emitting light, the presence of the creature that dug into the ground didn't become clearer. It meant it wasn't being weakened at all.
“Into the ground, huh.”
The gnomes I’d faced before enjoyed this type of attack. They would hide underground, wait for an opening, and then slit the enemy's throat in an instant.
It’s a reasonably effective method. I consider assassination one of the best methods to choose when a frontal confrontation is impossible.
“Poor bastards.”
However, the best method doesn't always guarantee success. I infused mana to strengthen my senses and felt the creature moving beneath the earth.
Faintly but surely, I felt the movement of the beetle old woman wriggling under the ground.
“You’re practically swimming through the earth.”
It wasn't as if they were gnomes or something. The beetle was swimming through the ground silently and covertly, yet at an incredibly fast speed.
― How is it, do you want some help?
I replied immediately to Jung Oh-hoon’s radio transmission.
“No, you support Han Sang-ah instead of me.”
At my words, the direction of the red lasers Jung Oh-hoon emitted changed instantly. Meanwhile, I continued to sharpen my mind and monitored the creature's movements under the ground.
A few of the thorns attached to its shell extended toward the surface. The extending thorns were aimed at me.
“Damn, a dying person’s breath would have a stronger presence than this.”
Its ability to hide its presence was truly admirable. Its skill at not getting caught was top tier.
“Being specialized in something means,”
In fact, if one has the ability to counter that specific thing, it often turns out to be nothing special.
Now.
As I stepped back in time, three or four thick thorns erupted violently from the spot where I’d been standing. They were right in front of me. Before those thorns could disappear back underground, I brought my spear tip to one of them.
“Farewell.”
The black flames that were smoldering at the tip of the spear transferred to the thorn. With the Paradoxical Flame attached, the thorns returned to their original owner's body.
It was a plausible idea to not install a shield because they judged it useless anyway.
But then, they should’ve also prepared a countermeasure for the Paradoxical Flame I use. Well, this isn't an ability simple enough to come up with a countermeasure for just by thinking about it for a long time.
“If you love being stuck in the ground so much, then just die in there.”
The Paradoxical Flame entangled in the thorns would eventually burn the creature's body hidden beneath the earth.
At that moment, our beetle old woman, who’d been hiding underground, finally burst out. The Paradoxical Flame was already clinging to her back.
“Molting? You’re really doing everything huh.”
With a clattering sound, the beetle old woman shed the hard shell covering her surface and burst out.
The shell dropped on the ground was still burning with the Paradoxical Flame.
A new carapace grew again over the squishy flesh that emerged from the shell. Seeing that, I clicked my tongue and turned off the Paradoxical Flame. There was no point in burning an empty shell.
― I know! You insulted my master! And, and you killed the loyal subject who served him with me?! You insect bastard!
“Hey, grab anyone and ask them who looks more like an insect.”
Who is calling whom an insect? It’s absolutely ridiculous.
― I will chew your flesh and crush your bones. I’ll pull out your throbbing heart and mash it. I’ll break your skull, pull out your brain, and squash it. I’ll gouge your spine and dig out the marrow. Yes, I will do exactly that.
The giant beetle muttered that while trembling its body. The old woman's face protruding from the open maw spun around, drooling and letting out a giggling laugh.
“I see you fight with your mouth too. Nice to meet a fellow comrade.”
I shot forward and swung my spear at the creature. It moved its six legs busily, struggling to avoid my spear. It was a fast movement for its size.
In the middle of that, its outer skin suddenly emitted a bizarre light and gradually became transparent.
“Just because I can't see you doesn't mean I don't know where you are.”
I pursued the hidden creature without concern and rolled my eyes around.
This wasn't the main body of this insect bastard. It was hidden somewhere else. This beetle in front of me was just like a remote controlled RC car.
“Wow jeez, it’s incredibly far away.”
It’s dozens of kilometers away. Estimating the direction and distance of the flow controlling this massive body, it seemed to be somewhere around Pyongyang.
I even saw traces of constant effort to make it difficult to find the flow connected by mana. They’d distorted and scattered it.
Anyway, to operate it by sending a mana signal remotely like this, there are conditions that must be met.
“A transmitter and a receiver.”
The transmitter seemed to be located around Pyongyang. Naturally, the receiver for that mana signal would be somewhere on that beetle’s body. They’d hidden it quite well.
It would take some time to find the receiver.
― …Are you not human?
“I don't want to hear that line from a bastard like you either.”
The thorns on its back stretched out toward me. Every time I swung the spear, the black flames used those thorns as a fuse and raced toward the creature's main body, but the thorns would snap off halfway.
Then, new thorns would sprout again. The creature attacked me while repeatedly turning itself transparent and then back to normal.
“Ah, grandma. Don't shove your face in.”
The old woman’s head protruding from the beetle’s wide open maw stretched its neck and lunged at me. I grabbed that head tightly and tore it right off.
With a bubbling sound, a new old woman’s face was created from the neck where the head had been torn. The old woman’s head poured out a disgusting laugh, and transparent thorns extended to pierce me.
That kind of thing wasn't the problem.
“Where is the receiver attached? This is truly annoying.”
Even if I tried to burn it whole, the moment the Paradoxical Flame touched its body, the damn bastard would respond by immediately detaching the outer skin and creating a new one.
― You’ve got nothing huh? You’re nothing!
I clicked my tongue at the creature's words. Nothing?
“I’m just concentrating on finding that damn receiver hidden inside your body right now.”
― I didn't set it up so easily that someone like you could find it! Of course not. That’s right!
As I spun the spear, the Paradoxical Flame gathered at the tip made a large circle, leaving a tail like a fire play.
“I definitely found the receiver just a moment ago. But it disappeared. It seems to be changing its position periodically.”
― ….
The creature suddenly shut its mouth. I’m certain that if the beetle could make an expression, it would be making a very surprised one right now.
“I just haven't found the pattern of how the receiver changes position yet. What if I find that pattern?”
I said that and glanced toward Pyongyang before speaking.
“Then, your toy gets smashed here.”
Ask your parents to buy you another one. If it's something you made yourself, then try making another one. Although it would probably be faster for me to find the owner of this toy before the new one is finished.
Things might work out if you try hard.
― You won't find it. You lot aren't at that level yet…!
Instead of an answer, I smirked. You probably want to say our understanding of mana isn't high. Sorry, but you’d better count me as an exception.
They say the world is enjoyable because there are exceptions, after all.
Thud! The tip of the spear pierced through its shell and dug inside. There was nothing yet. But very soon.
“Now.”
The length of the spear I was gripping extended, and the sharp tip dug even deeper into the beetle’s body.
The tip of the spear reached the intended location at the desired moment. It was exactly when the receiver inside this beetle was moving.
A sensation of something like a bone fragment breaking spread through the spear to my fingertips.
“So it was a totem. What a common taste.”
It’s a job where you make something out of corpses. I think you should try exercising a bit more creativity.
The spear I’d driven in smashed an X shaped totem made by connecting human bones and tendons. A deer’s skull was located at the center where the human bones crossed in an X.
The spear succeeded in smashing the deer’s skull. At that moment, the movement of this giant beetle that had been rampaging excitedly stopped dead.
― You… we, will be waiting.
“No need to wait. I’ll find you even if you aren't waiting.”
With those final words, the receiver was completely destroyed. Pulling out the spear, I kicked the giant beetle and sent it flying far away before landing on the ground.
“'We,' huh.”
I wonder exactly how many minions of that bastard named Ballea there are.
I hope it doesn't exceed three. I can easily win against them individually, but if the numbers increase, the development of the fight will change a lot.
“Let’s take care of the obelisks.”
At my words, Han Sang-ah drove her sword into the chest of a three headed corpse lunging at her and fried the creature with electricity.
With a series of thumping sounds, all three heads exploded. Han Sang-ah wiped away the flesh and blood clinging to her face and nodded.
“I want to take a shower once the job is finished.”
I pointed to the river behind us at those words.
“Jump in there once everything is over.”
But now wasn't the time to wash. After planting a microchip near the corpse of the giant beetle that had flown far away, we immediately prepared to tear down the obelisks.
“By the way, Jung Oh-hoon, can't you break them with your laser?”
Instead of an answer to my words, a barrage of lasers pounded the obelisk. However, the obelisk held up quite well against that rapid fire.
― Attacks using pure mana don't work well.
Is that so? Then it can't be helped.
“Just finish up what you were doing then.”
After finishing my sentence, I looked at Han Sang-ah.
“I’ll take two, you take one.”
You can handle that much, right? Han Sang-ah nodded slightly and ran toward a nearby obelisk.
“But, there really are an awful lot of them. I think there must be tens of thousands at the lowest estimate.”
It wasn't just that the numbers were high. I looked at the crown in my hand, which was shining like a bald head, and spoke.
“If not for this and my ring, it wouldn't have been just the numbers that were high.”
There was a reason Taebaek or Jannabi couldn't launch a counterattack. If I had only the ring, the undead swarming here would have resisted the cold emitted by the ring.
Movements would likely have been slowed overall, but the three of us, me, Jung Oh-hoon, and Han Sang-ah, wouldn't have been able to sweep away tens of thousands of undead.
However, thanks to the crown weakening the undead, it became possible for the ring to go beyond simply slowing the enemies and freeze them solid.
Thanks to the collaboration of these two pieces of equipment, the crown and the ring, we were able to advance while butchering corpses like a butcher at a discount meat shop slicing through pork belly, and this time as well, we achieved the feat of smashing all three obelisks without fail.