Chapter 98: Settlent
Hot heat wrapped around the air.
The wind still carried the scent of flas.
The ground was heated reddish.
Smoke rose from places where tal seed to have lted.
With the giant body of the Viking lying on the ground, debris was scattering around.
Seol Hayun turned her gaze frantically.
Soon, her eyes widened as if she found sothing.
Looking up at the sky, sothing was falling through the flas.
That black shadow grew bigger in the blink of an eye.
"Ryu Jinwoo!"
Seol Hayun's instinct moved first.
Her two arms stretched out automatically.
Flas shimred beneath her toes.
The Vulture's embers burst and soared into the sky.
Cutting through the air, her body sprang up.
Hot wind brushed her cheeks.
Fingertips touched.
It was Ryu Jinwoo's wrist.
"……Got you!"
She swung her arm with all her might to reduce the speed.
As the Vulture stopped abruptly in mid-air, embers scattered in all directions.
Slowly lowering altitude, she landed on the Viking boarding platform.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks to you."
It was a short answer.
His breath was shaking slightly.
Seol Hayun slowly lifted her head.
A majestic steel structure entered her view below her gaze.
It was the Viking's hull.
A massive lump of tal lay prostrate on the earth.
The giant steel fra was half crushed.
Debris and flas mixed around it.
At the very last mont, the monster was pinned exactly underneath it.
From the impact of the fall, the earth shook as if bursting apart.
And the Viking's giant body slid, pushing across the ground.
Along with a high-pitched screech of tal scraping 'Kwagagak', the ground was dug deep, and a dark red trail continued for tens of ters.
Scattered amidst the scorched marks were pieces of the monster's flesh here and there.
The Giant Troll was pushed like a mop while crushed underneath.
The earth beneath was dug deep as if the asphalt had been peeled off.
"I can't believe it even seeing it again."
Looking at that scene, Seol Hayun muttered.
"Did you ask
to operate it with this in mind? The Viking."
"That's right."
Ryu Jinwoo answered briefly.
"Because the opponent is too strong. You saw it too."
At Ryu Jinwoo's words, Seol Hayun nodded quietly.
Did he call it a Freak?
It even went berserk and transford into a monster.
An existence at a level two cadets could do absolutely nothing about.
‘I didn't know we could defeat it like this.’
Seol Hayun experienced firsthand how powerful its regenerative ability was.
Even if burned with strong firepower, it restored its body in an instant.
But what if such a huge object crushes its body in an instant and pushes it like a road roller, creating friction with the ground?
No matter how excellent the regenerative ability, it was natural that it couldn't restore the body.
"I was surprised at how you ca up with such a thod."
Her gaze moved to the upper part of the Viking.
"Breaking that sphere wouldn't have been an ordinary task either."
At those words, Ryu Jinwoo bowed his head for a mont.
His expression distorted subtly.
Seol Hayun noticed that small change.
"Are you hurt?"
There was no answer.
His body was trembling roughly.
At a glance, he looked fine.
No wounds or blood were visible.
Yet, she could feel he was in pain.
It might be due to the burden.
The pressure that the mont he makes even a slight mistake, he could ruin everything.
Until right before breaking the sphere on top of the Viking, Ryu Jinwoo couldn't have been sure this would succeed.
As such, how heavy a burden must he have carried in his heart until completing this amazing plan.
"If you are hurt sowhere, I can give ergency treatnt-."
As Seol Hayun continued while checking Ryu Jinwoo's pulse, Ryu Jinwoo slowly caught his breath and answered.
"I'm fine. I'm just a little tired."
"There's no way you're just a little tired."
He went through such things just now.
Saying he's fine was clearly a lie.
Like those words parents often say to their children.
Nevertheless, strength dwelt in Ryu Jinwoo's eyes.
That gaze stared at one spot.
A wary look.
‘Why?’
The place where Ryu Jinwoo's gaze stopped was the Viking's hull.
The massive body stopped after pushing across the ground.
The monster was crushed underneath it.
‘No matter how excellent the regenerative ability, with that much…….’
It must be dead.
Even the eerie magical energy that vibrated the air just a while ago was no longer felt.
Complete silence that faded in an instant.
So there should be no reason to be wary.
It was the mont she thought that.
A strange energy brushing her skin was detected.
An eerie feeling like a chill.
‘No way.’
It was the mont she thought it couldn't be.
SIZZLE-!
The sound of tal lting rang out.
It was faint at first, but soon it was heard clearly riding the wind.
"That makes no sense."
Seol Hayun muttered inadvertently.
Strength went into Ryu Jinwoo's arm.
His gaze headed towards the center of the Viking.
SIZZLE-
The corrosion sound rang once more.
And right there, a hand popped out.
As the huge steel plate lted down, a hand crawled out.
The hole widened gradually.
A blood-covered hand grabbed the steel plate and pulled the body up.
"It was alive?"
A bewildered voice flowed from Seol Hayun's mouth.
The monster slowly revealed itself.
The figure crawling up onto the hull was no longer the sa appearance as the beginning.
It was wretched.
One arm was completely gone from below the shoulder, and parts of its body were scorched black.
DRIP, DRIP-
Every ti it took a short step, pieces of flesh fell off.
Dark red blood flowed down, and the sll of blood spread in the air.
The massive build had also shrunk.
What used to be a Giant Troll was now barely over 2 ters.
Bigger than a human, but ambiguous to call giant anymore.
Nevertheless, the guy was standing.
With a wretched body.
Seol Hayun raised her hand imdiately.
WHOOSH-
Flas rose from her fingertips.
[Flower of Flas: Kingfisher]
Red flas scattered in the shape of kingfishers.
They embedded into the monster's body and exploded in a chain reaction.
BOOM BOOM BOOM-!
Flas rose and smoke billowed thickly.
However, after a while, in the spot where the smoke cleared, the monster stood as it was.
‘It's enduring.’
Seol Hayun narrowed her brows.
Her magic power was almost at the bottom.
But she couldn't stop.
Just as fire was about to ignite at her fingertips once again.
Ryu Jinwoo stepped forward.
His hand lightly pressed her shoulder.
"Ryu Jinwoo?"
He didn't answer.
He just quietly, slowly started walking toward the monster.
The monster looked at him too.
It didn't run away, nor did it pounce.
It was just waiting for the opponent to approach.
***
Climbing onto the Viking, I faced Gonta.
I stood in front of the guy repeating the cycle of body collapsing and barely regenerating.
"You, you were targeting . From the beginning."
Looking back, it was like that from the start.
The guy's gaze was always directed at .
Eyes pressed down by hatred.
For , I was just curious about the reason.
Gonta is the Alliance's 'Material Procurent Team'.
The role of stealing magic power or kidnapping humans with good conditions for becoming freaks.
That was the guy's original mission.
But he chose , who has absolutely no magic power.
I still don't know the reason.
Perhaps simply, my face might have been the cause.
Since Gonta had a setting of collecting 'good faces' and decorating his room with them.
Whatever it was, there is no way to know now.
Because this guy can't speak right now.
It was then.
Strength filled the guy's fist.
Mushy skin flowed down as if lting.
Thick smoke shimred over the face where muscles and tendons were revealed.
Nevertheless, the guy's gaze was directed at .
Clear hatred was contained in it.
Fundantal aggression towards humans possessed as a freak.
I received that gaze without saying anything.
Sound of the body collapsing.
Sll of flesh boiling.
Slowly, the guy took a stance.
Corroded bodily fluids leaked from between squirming muscles.
I lowered my stance just the sa.
The sound of my heart beating hit my ears.
The air slowed down as if the wind stopped.
My toes moved naturally.
Strength dwelt in the hand holding the sword.
Suddenly, such a sensation brushed by.
A sensation as if only I and the opponent existed in this world.
‘Here it cos.’
Gonta's figure distorted.
Vision was disturbed as if torn in an instant.
The shadow that popped out prying open the air reached right in front of my nose in a flash.
Like a cannonball, the guy's fist flew at .
Thick arm muscles squird, and huge pressure pushed the space away.
That fleeting mont when the fierce strike rushed at
drawing a straight line.
I felt a strange sensation as if the world stopped.
A void where everything becos silent.
[Hundred Night Yaksha]
With the right hand twisting palely, the sword trembled minutely.
Along with the sound of air being crushed, my vision flashed.
Over my vision directed at Gonta, a whitish light shimred.
The faint light soon split into dozens of strands and began to flash.
Lines drawn in detail, their trajectories intersecting and entangling like a lody.
In that, I held onto only one sensation.
Cut.
My body reacted according to that simple will.
[Yaksha Style: White Lotus Dance]
Lines carved in the void piled up one by one, and two, as if overlapping.
Every mont the sword tip slid, heat rose.
A series of movents were being completed according to the basic will to cut.
SNAP-
The guy's arm stopped in front of .
The guy's eyes trembled briefly.
The fleeting ti that felt like eternity began to flow again.
SWISH-
A very minute sound of tal brushing was heard.
Sound blood belatedly from the trajectory the sword tip passed.
Slowly, cutting through the guy's entire body, countless dark red lines began to be carved.
SLIDE-
Blood drops spread from the gaps created by all those lines.
The monster's body divided as if sliding apart.
Turning into hundreds of pieces, the guy's body scattered.
The pieces touching the ground broke softly, turned into powder, and scattered into the wind.
Regeneration did not happen anymore.
Gonta's head thrown on the floor, its gaze was directed at the empty air.
DING-!
Amidst the silence hanging around.
A notification sound rang out sharply.
A sound now familiar.
‘Here it cos.’
I closed my eyes while sheathing the sword back into the scabbard.
I used a skill.
Then the aftermath was obvious.
Settlent, skills were post-paid.
After using it, pain is transmitted belatedly from the Tactical Manual.
It's obvious a ssage like 'Settlent begins.' will pop up and pain will co.
I quietly waited for the unavoidable system ssage.
But it was strange.
I closed my eyes and waited, but the pain didn't co.
‘What?’
Just as I opened my eyes again harboring doubt.
[……Digesting……]
What I saw was another ssage.
I instinctively looked at the Mimic.
The guy was chewing sothing crunchily in the empty air.
Soon, I realized the direction the guy was facing was the point where Gonta's corpse scattered and disappeared.
‘It eats?’
Co to think of it, the ssage saying it's digesting appeared once before.
Was it when I defeated Balzac?
Just as I was watching that scene blankly for a mont.
DING-!
Another notification sound was heard.
[Settlent begins.]
This ti it was real.
Before I could even catch my breath, pain digging into my bones assaulted .
‘Ugh…….’
Perhaps because I pushed myself the whole ti, the intensity was particularly severe this ti.
Damn it.
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