Chapter 129:
How many more monsters did she kill?
“……!”
As she sliced through another club, her hand stiffened. Not just her palms, but the skin on her fingers was torn and ragged.
If the muscles in her hand were damaged before the boss monster even appeared, she would be in trouble.
Dismissing her fire swords, she crushed the head of the ogre she was fighting with her bare hand and retreated.
“Ha, just how many of them are there?”
She had killed at least twenty, but there were still many left. Was Park Hyung-woo even killing any monsters? She could sense his power fluctuations, so he must be fighting, but…
That useless Baldy.
“Villager evacuation complete!”
A Taesan Guild member yelled from behind.
They were more useful than their Guild Leader!
Seo Jae-yi jumped onto the roof of a nearby house. It wasn’t very high, but it gave her a good view of the surroundings.
Houses half-destroyed by the ogre’s club, fires burning everywhere, Park Hyung-woo struggling against the remaining monsters…
Seo Jae-yi stretched out her ragged hands. The raging fires throughout the village slowed their advance.
Beep.
【Overload Progress — 35%】【Warning. Please maintain below 30%.】As the alert blared from her receiver, all the fires in the village began to converge towards her, swirling around her like a ball of fire.
The darkness around her glowed red.
“…….”
Seo Jae-yi blinked as she held the village’s fires in her grasp.
There were no more villagers to protect.
Only the ogres, wreathed in electricity, remained in her sight.
Ah, now she could see clearly.
Seo Jae-yi tossed the ball of fire into the air. It exploded with a bang, and fiery spears rained down, targeting the ogres.
Rooooar! Screech!
Their electrical armor was useless. The ogres were pierced by the intense heat.
Burning, burning. Consumed by a heat they had never experienced before, they clawed at their bodies.
“If you want to die that badly, I’ll grant your wish.”
Beep!
Ignoring the alert from her receiver, Seo Jae-yi smiled benevolently.
She clenched her hands, then spread them wide.
Boom! The fiery spears impaling the ogres erupted into pillars of fire. The intensified heat melted them down.
Some screamed in agony, while others collapsed silently, without a sound.
Everything boiled and churned. The world was painted red. It was like a living hell.
But it was short-lived.
With another wave of Seo Jae-yi’s hand, the pillars of fire consuming the ogres and the village vanished.
Only the horrific stench remained as proof of what had just transpired.
“Holy…”
“Oh my god…”
The Taesan Guild members, who had been watching after evacuating the villagers, were speechless. Some even stumbled back in fear.
They thought they were used to S-rank battles, as their Guild Leader was an S-rank himself.
But what Seo Jae-yi had just displayed was beyond their imagination. It wasn’t even comparable to Park Hyung-woo. It was awe-inspiring and terrifyingly overwhelming.
They had tried to kill this…monster?
What if she turned on them after she was done with the monsters?
The terrified Taesan Guild members stared at Seo Jae-yi with fear in their eyes.
‘I’ve dealt with all the ones outside the gate.’
Unaware of their fear, Seo Jae-yi checked the dead and dying ogres.
Her overload level was high, but she could still manage. At least until reinforcements arrived.
Jumping down from the roof, she approached the gate. The ominously flickering red gate was still radiating a terrifying power.
Since fighting inside the dungeon was better than in the village, she was about to enter when—
“Ugh!”
A sharp spear blade shot out from the gate.
Without time to dodge, Seo Jae-yi grabbed the blade with both hands. A jolt of electricity surged through her body.
Crack!
Biting back a scream, she twisted the blade with all her might. The spear shaft snapped, but the electricity still coursed through her.
“Gasp…”
Seo Jae-yi tossed the broken blade aside and quickly retreated. Her entire body trembled from the electric shock, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it.
Four monsters emerged from the gate.
They were far larger than the previous ogres, and their weapons weren’t just clubs, but menacing spears and brutal maces.
‘The royal guard.’
The appearance of the royal guard meant there were no more small fries left. That was a relief.
Rooooar!
The ogre royal guards looked around, then roared, realizing that she had killed all their underlings.
Whoosh!
The four guards hurled their weapons at Seo Jae-yi with terrifying speed, far exceeding the speed of the previous ogres.
Rip!
A mace grazed her cardigan, tearing it. Even a glancing blow sent a jolt of pain through her skin.
Dodging backward, Seo Jae-yi retaliated with a volley of fire spears. But the royal guards, wielding stronger electricity than their underlings, deflected her attacks with their weapons.
“You can’t just brush off my fire like that.”
To break through their defenses, she would need to increase the intensity of her flames or use a different attack to disrupt their electricity.
Seo Jae-yi ran towards Park Hyung-woo. The royal guards followed.
“You crazy bitch! Why are you coming this way?!”
Park Hyung-woo, who had more injuries but fewer burns, yelled.
“If we’re going to settle this, it’ll have to be between you and me! Where else would I go?!”
“I’ll kill you, you damned bastard!”
Park Hyung-woo raised his hands.
Rumble!
The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck, and sharp stone spikes erupted from the earth.
Despite the surprise attack, Seo Jae-yi dodged easily and slid next to Park Hyung-woo, discarding her shredded cardigan.
The royal guards were trapped by the stone spikes. The spikes crumbled against their electrical barriers, turning to dust.
“They should be piercing their bodies, not just getting blocked. Why are they so weak?”
She had expected the earth spikes to at least injure them since earth was resistant to lightning, but they were blocked so easily.
“You haven’t been practicing your abilities after I beat you up like that? Sigh. That’s why you’re still like this.”
“Shut up!”
Park Hyung-woo cursed at her condescending sigh.
“You’re useless, but better than nothing.”
The ground conducted electricity, so their barriers must have weakened slightly.
Seo Jae-yi stretched out her hand towards the royal guards, and massive pillars of fire erupted, engulfing them.
The temperature was so high that even the earth spikes Park Hyung-woo had created melted into liquid.
‘That should be a fatal blow.’
Just as Seo Jae-yi thought that—
“……Huh?”
Her body floated into the air. Before she or Park Hyung-woo could react, she was pulled towards the burning monsters.
“What the…!”
It was an immense force. She tried to stop herself by blasting hot air in the opposite direction, but it was useless.
Only when she was close to the monsters did she realize that electricity was coursing through her body.
That electricity was pulling her in, like a magnet.
‘It’s because I grabbed the spear blade from the gate!’
She thought she had dodged the attack, but she must have been hit.
“Gah!”
An ogre struck her in the abdomen with its mace. She was thrown back, crashing into a nearby wall, a shower of debris falling on top of her.
“Cough! Hack! Ugh!”
She spat out blood and looked up.
A monster emerged from the still-burning pillar of fire and charged towards her. It was using the same force that had pulled her in, but in reverse.
But it wasn’t unscathed.
Its skin was melting in places, and the electricity coursing through its body had weakened considerably.
Right. It couldn’t have emerged from her flames unscathed. It wouldn’t be much of a boss monster, or even a royal guard, if it couldn’t even handle one of her attacks.
“Ahaha!”
Seo Jae-yi laughed and regained her footing.
The pain in her abdomen was nothing. On the contrary, the thrill of battle surged through her, making her feel alive.
It was a completely different feeling from fighting the Taesan Guild members. A chilling exhilaration. Everything felt vivid and real.
Bam!
She clenched her fist and punched the charging ogre in the abdomen. It crashed to the ground, its momentum reversed.
Electricity coursed through her arm from the impact, but Seo Jae-yi ignored it and charged towards the remaining monsters emerging from the flames, a wide grin on her face.
Thump.
As the last of the four royal guards fell, Park Hyung-woo collapsed to the ground, retching. He seemed to have overexerted himself using his abilities.
“What, Baldy? Giving up already?”
Seo Jae-yi, who had used far more power than him, clicked her tongue.
Before them lay the four royal guards, melting into goo. They had been surprisingly resistant to heat, taking longer than expected to eliminate.
‘Still, this was easier than the Incheon dungeon.’
A year ago, the Incheon Rank 2 dungeon had almost killed her.
Back then, even with the help of Haeil Guild members, it had been a difficult fight. Of course, unlike now, she had been suffering from a lack of Guiding, and her condition had been poor.
‘The energy signature from the gate wasn’t this weak.’
This should have been more difficult than the Incheon dungeon. Which meant…
A sense of foreboding washed over her.
Tap.
It was a light footstep, yet it echoed like thunder. Both Seo Jae-yi and the gasping Park Hyung-woo froze.
Something emerged from the gate and stood before them.
It was much smaller than the monsters they had faced so far, barely half the size of the smaller ogres, about the same size as Seo Jae-yi.
It didn’t look particularly strong, except for its bright red skin, unlike the others.
Yet, Seo Jae-yi and Park Hyung-woo couldn’t move.
The source of the terrifying power emanating from the gate.
It was the boss monster. It possessed this immense power all on its own.
Crackle!
A powerful surge of electricity crackled through the air, and the boss monster vanished from sight.
Before they could react, Park Hyung-woo was sent flying, crashing into a wall and sending debris crumbling down.
“Gah! Cough!”