Chapter 760
Uber… what?
He definitely called my name and muttered something after that, but when I glanced back, Joel Schumacher was already collapsed with his head resting against a pile of concrete.
‘He really burned himself out.’
Then again, that made sense.
From what I’d seen in that brief moment, he had clearly been fighting in a state of enlightenment.
That dreamlike moment where one gains realization and advances to a greater realm.
Unfortunately, Schumacher had been ambushed before reaching the very end of that moment, but when he opened his eyes again, he would probably be much stronger.
“Should we wake him up?”
“Even if you wake him now, he won’t be able to get up anyway, so leave him. Make sure he doesn’t die.”
“You heard him? Protect the handsome hum… no, Team Leader Choi Minwoo?”
“Understood.”
Looking at how naturally that bastard dumped the work on someone else, he really had become human.
Of course, in a situation like this, it was true that Skeleton King would be far more useful in terms of combat strength, so instead of scolding him, I quietly sent a Mental Transmission.
– You know what to do, right?
– You’re treating this body like a child.
– Repeat it.
A gruff thought came back.
– There are too many humans watching, so I keep my Magical Power suppressed as much as possible… and if I absolutely must use my Authority, I make sure no one notices.
– Good.
– Satisfied now?
– At this level, you’re not a child anymore. More like a middle schooler.
– …For a human not even thirty to dare. This body is an elder who has lived over a hundred years.
– Strictly speaking, haven’t you been dead for over a hundred years?
“What!”
I let out a small laugh at Skeleton King’s shouted outrage, then lowered my spear diagonally and muttered,
“I’ve said all I needed to say, so get lost now.”
A dry voice, rough as sand, unfamiliar even to my own ears.
The trace of a smile that had brushed my lips for a moment had already disappeared without a trace.
I crooked a finger at the giant monster glaring at me hesitantly.
“You come here.”
Minotauros Lord.
A low growl leaked from its mouth along with a foul stench.
Its blood-red eyes were already filled with caution.
– Who… are… you.
“Me?”
At the center of the battlefield, which had fallen into a brief lull the moment I appeared, I slowly took a step forward and continued.
“The spearfighter from Majang-dong.”
– …Strong… human.
Most Minotauros were cattle-headed idiots that couldn’t even count, but regardless of what kind of monster it was, the higher the rank, the more developed the intelligence became.
And S-Class monsters were, among them, creatures granted truly exceptional power.
That was why, from the very moment I appeared, Minotauros Lord had frozen as if nailed to the ground.
It had already realized instinctively.
That with its power alone, it could never defeat me.
“You really are quick on the uptake. Seeing how you’re not charging right away.”
Step. Thud.
Two sets of footsteps overlapping.
Minotauros Lord backed away the same distance I advanced, then suddenly let out a beastlike roar.
– KAAAUUUUUU!
Fwoooosh!
Magical Power swelling around its massive body spread through every corner of the battlefield.
At the same time, the thousands of Minotauros, who had already begun halting their attacks one by one after sensing something strange, flashed murderous light in their eyes and charged.
Not at the Hunters fighting them.
At us.
– KWOOOOAR!
With the roar, the earth shook.
Watching the countless herd of bull monsters pouring in from all sides, Skeleton King muttered,
“No, we haven’t even left yet…”
“Then you should’ve left faster.”
“Then in a situation like this, can I use my Authority just a little? Feels like I’ll need an army.”
“If you want people to know you’re a monster, why not just start streaming online? Do one [Creating a Skeleton Legion] mission and you’d rake in donations.”
“Damn it. It’s too late now, but they’re not going to listen if I politely ask them to clear a path, are they?”
Team Leader Choi Minwoo answered Skeleton King’s nonsense.
“Instead of wasting time thinking about that, pick up a weapon.”
Shing.
At the same time as his voice, a silver blade came free from its sheath.
The [Hero’s Sword], leveled at the monsters, brimmed with dazzling Aura.
Then Team Leader Choi Minwoo’s calm voice, clear and steady, cut into everyone’s ears.
“Formation. Take it.”
Clack, clack, clack!
It wasn’t just the three of us who had come to save Munich.
There were also over two hundred Hunters from Ares Guild and Peace Guild, who hadn’t been able to do much in the battle against Leviathan.
And those elites among elites finished preparing to face the enemy without the slightest tremor.
“Please give us the battle directive.”
Team Leader Choi Minwoo.
Skeleton King.
And the Hunters on the battlefield who had barely survived a crisis in the middle of a desperate fight.
All of them were looking at my mouth.
Waiting only for my command.
And right now, there was only one thing I had to say to them.
“Kill every last one.”
Sssaaaa.
The Fire Dragon coiled in my lower Dantian awoke and spread through my limbs and meridians.
Taking the massive roar of the people as the signal, I kicked off the ground hard.
Boom!
The fierce wind scraping past my whole body.
Dozens of meters vanished in an instant, and the Minotauros legion charging like a herd of bulls came right up before my eyes.
No, it wasn’t them that came closer.
It was me.
Hoo.
The moment I exhaled and stopped breathing, I raised the spear shaft that had been hanging diagonally.
Mighty Scorching Yang Energy became flame and settled over the transparent spearblade.
And then… I unleashed it.
‘Right now.’
Fire Dragon Divine Spear: First Form — Fire Dragon’s Tail.
Whoooong, fwoooosh!
A line of flame tore through the air with a superheated gust.
The force curved smoothly like a dragon’s tail and swept across the front.
It melted horns that could pierce alloy like paper, and burned through the monsters’ bones and hides.
Kwaaaaaaaah!
A single strike.
The flames, crashing down like a wave, swallowed dozens of Minotauros.
And there were no screams.
At that horrific sight, where they burned black without even managing a death cry, even the ones charging behind them faltered and stopped.
– KWOOOOAR!
The leader’s roar, with its subordinates pushed to the front, urged them onward, but it did not reach the ears of those seized by instinctive fear.
And the price of that brief hesitation was brutal.
Slash!
Heads and limbs rose into the air with a slicing sound.
I plunged into their ranks in a single breath and went wild.
I split apart not only the mace one belatedly recovered Minotauros swung, but its body along with it, then smashed the chest covered in thick hide with the back of my hand.
Crack!
With a sickening crunch of shattering bones, the giant body went flying and collapsed the formation behind it.
As the Minotauros hurriedly shoved aside the corpses of comrades already dead and struggled back to their feet, countless spells and arrows rained down over their heads.
Shwish, thud-thud-thud!
Boom! Crackle!
Those pierced through the head or eyes by arrows imbued with Aura had it relatively easy.
Because clumps of mana-born flame scorched their hides, and currents splitting into dozens of strands poured down and lit up the battlefield.
– Grrk, grrrk!
Thud! Crash.
Monsters dropped in rows, convulsing.
And through the acrid smoke made by fire and electricity, a familiar face burst out first.
“Waaaaah! You damned monster bastards!”
Shwaeaeak, splurt!
No, leaving aside the fact that he was naturally committing friendly fire on his own kind, where the hell did he even pick that up?
Skeleton King, gripping a huge halberd, split three or four Minotauros in half at once.
And just as he was about to swing again at those charging in after them, blue Aura shot out through the smoke.
Slash!
A movement without waste, and the bare minimum of force.
After cleanly severing a neck, Team Leader Choi Minwoo opened his mouth.
“Charge.”
A low but powerful voice.
And the instant that single word, carrying mana, became a shout that dug into every corner of the battlefield—
“Waaaaaaaah!”
“You motherfucking bastards!”
“Kill them all! Protect our homeland!”
With a tremendous roar, the legions of countless Hunters crashed in like a wave.
Though they were neither as high nor as large as the wave Leviathan had summoned, their blazing eyes held strength greater than that.
The will to never let this land be taken.
The grief for comrades who had died here today, and the thirst for vengeance they had reserved for the monsters before them.
And at the head of them all—
me.
Whoooong, bang!
Compressed air exploded from the end of a punch shot out like a ray of light.
A monster whose head vanished without a trace collapsed like a rotten log, and countless spear strikes rained toward the enemies newly appearing.
Shwishwishwish!
Cut, pierce, twist, and shatter at the same time.
There was nothing that could stop the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron wrapped in Aura.
The spearblade that split solid weapons like tofu tore apart even the owners hiding behind them, and though I was under the effects of a special debuff, my body, which had already surpassed its limits, still utterly outclassed even monsters.
Just like now.
– KWOOOOAR!
Whoooong!
A heavy rush of air dug toward my side with a roar.
Having already skewered three Minotauros like kebabs, I stretched out my free hand the moment I recognized it.
Tap.
A fist as large as a manhole cover was blocked.
By my palm, which was so much smaller by comparison.
And with absurd ease, at that.
– Kwo?
The Minotauros blinked with an innocence like some farmer’s yellow cow.
At that ridiculous sight, I let out a small laugh and smoothly guided the force of the trembling fist I had blocked upward.
Whoooong!
The fist smashed into empty air just a palm’s breadth above.
But unlike the bastard that had lost its target in an instant, the tip of my foot shot out like lightning and struck the monster’s chest with perfect timing and force.
Crack!
With a gruesome bursting sound, the body that could not withstand the force went flying.
Sweeping away the comrades standing in a straight line behind it, farther and farther back.
Toward its leader, who had been watching all of this from behind.
And then—
Slash! Chwaaaak!
The body, already dead, split in half.
Through the blood erupting like a fountain, Minotauros Lord was glaring at me.
Those blood-red eyes.
That double-headed axe stained with the blood of its own subordinate.
But I already knew.
What was crouching deep inside those eyes.
That feeling, which had already shifted from caution to fear, kept forcing it to take step after step backward.
“You want to run?”
“Sure. Makes sense that you’d want to. But…”
Whoooong! Splurt!
Dozens of Minotauros charging in from all directions to protect their leader were blown away.
With those bastards, beaten into bloody mush, finally gone, the path ahead was at last wide open.
After shaking the blood off my spearblade, I continued slowly.
“You may have come here however the fuck you wanted, but leaving isn’t up to you.”
– You…!
Boom!
That belated shout was swallowed by the thunder exploding beneath my feet.
As I erased the space between us and shot forward like a ray of light, Minotauros Lord gritted its teeth and hurled its double-headed axe.
Shiiiiiiing!
Darkness descended with the tearing rush of air.
No, Magical Power.
Crossing low through the air with a single step, I twisted my body.
Whoooong.
A violent wind thick with the scent of blood grazed the tip of my nose, and I thrust my spear.
“Die.”
Splurt!
This time too, there was no death cry.