abcnovels
Chapter 93:
Chapter 93:
Chapter 93:
Chapter 93
“Huff! Huff!
Damn it!
How are these skeletons so strong?!”
“Don’t let your guard down! They’re not normal skeletons, no matter how you look at them!”
“These bastards. They’re so annoying!”
The collectors who were fighting outside the Sulfur River were frustrated by the prolonged battle that was different from what they had expected.
They had thought that it would be easy to finish off the Underworld’s jade soldiers.
They outnumbered them by more than three times.
The collectors were not ordinary people, and when they gathered like this, they could easily defeat any fantasy creature.
‘Moreover, those guys are not even boss-level fantasy creatures!’
The jade soldiers’ formation was solid.
They complemented each other and defended calmly against the attacks.
Whenever there was a gap, they stabbed their spears like ghosts.
Their defense was not loose enough to allow any sloppy counterattacks.
The skeleton soldiers who moved like gears, fitting together perfectly without any error, were admirable even though they were enemies.
Their movements were not something that could be seen from ordinary fantasy creatures.
“Everyone, snap out of it! These guys are definitely not average skeletons! Think of them as elite-level and fight!”
The highest-ranked man among the collectors shouted that, and the other collectors nodded their heads with grim expressions.
When their false hope of having the upper hand was gone, they finally faced reality.
“Damn it! If this goes on, I won’t hold back anymore!”
“Everyone, bring out your full power!”
The collectors realized that they couldn’t afford to spare them anymore, and raised their energy.
Some collectors had translucent energy flowing from their bodies, enhancing their physical abilities.
The jade soldiers who saw that scene still maintained their calm red eyes, and spread out their shields to wait for the enemies to come closer.
It didn’t matter whether the collectors were serious or not.
The only command given to them was to deal with the enemies.
Even if that command destroyed their miserable armor and flesh, they would never stop.
***
Clang! Clang!
Swords clashed and spat out sparks that lit up the darkness.
In the dimly lit room, two beings were engaged in a fierce fight, aiming for each other’s lives.
The skeleton general held his sword with both hands and swung it horizontally.
The fierce energy on the blade tore through the air roughly.
Kwon Jia blocked the attack with her sword tilted slightly.
Clang!
“Ugh!”
She groaned at the force that shook her wrist, even though she had deflected most of the power.
The pain sharpened her mind.
She aimed for the skeleton general’s exposed gap and kicked off the ground.
She approached him like a wolf hunting its prey, skimming the floor.
Kwon Jia sprang up like a spring from right below the skeleton general and thrust her sharp teeth at him.
[You…!]
The skeleton general’s red eyes exploded.
He quickly withdrew the energy he had released and went into defense.
Clang!
Kwon Jia’s sharp teeth clashed with the energy several times.
She didn’t stop.
She didn’t panic when her attack was blocked, and she went one step further.
In mid-air, she twisted her body and delivered a roundhouse kick to the skeleton general’s head.
The skeleton general raised one arm vertically to block the kick.
At the same time, he moved his hand to grab Kwon Jia’s ankle and threw her hard towards the wall.
Kwon Jia regained her balance in the air and landed lightly on the ground.
[Your movements are like a beast.]
She didn’t react to the words that the skeleton general spat out as if shaking his soul.
She ran towards him again, as if to avenge being thrown away.
Her fighting style was like that of a beast that never let go of its prey once it bit.
The skeleton general held his energy sword with both hands and took a stance to face her.
Clang!
The moment their weapons collided, countless slashes followed.
Sparks flew like small fireworks whenever their swords met, and disappeared like bubbles in the air.
Kwon Jia glared at the skeleton general with an annoyed look.
The skeleton general who swung his energy sword was a very formidable enemy.
He had no flaws in his movements, and he reacted calmly to the attacks that pierced his weakness.
She felt a shiver run down her spine every time his giant body and overwhelming power swept the space.
Just as she acknowledged him as her match, the skeleton general also knew that she was not ordinary.
[Living dead, you will never cross this place.]
“Shut up.”
Kwon Jia gathered the power that she had suppressed inside her.
She collected the energy that flowed like a storm in her right hand, and released it towards his front.
Boom!
A huge explosion occurred and a rough gust of wind blew.
Dust rose up and obscured the skeleton general’s figure.
She wondered if she had killed him, but then she felt something and threw herself to the side.
Boom!
The skeleton general fell from the air and slammed his energy sword where she had been standing.
It was an agility that did not match his huge size.
If she had been a little slower, her head would have been pierced.
[You use magic…]
“You talk too much for a dead skeleton.”
[This is the land of death. The living should never come here…]
Kwon Jia ignored his words and looked at the door behind him.
The paper door had been torn by the impact of their collision, revealing what had been hidden inside.
There was a large stake glowing in jade color, half-embedded in the ground at the center of the narrow room that the skeleton general was guarding.
‘That is… the clear condition of this hellish world… the stake of the register…’
The object that the Underworld’s jade soldiers built their mansion here and desperately protected while roaming around this area.
The clear condition of this hellish world was to completely pull out that stake of the register that was half-embedded.
‘To do that…’
I had to knock down the giant skeleton general in front of me first.
I had to fight him anyway to get the hidden piece, the energy sword, but even if I ignored that and tried to pull out the stake, I couldn’t avoid fighting him.
‘He’s such a pain.’
I muttered to myself and checked on Yu-hyun.
I was worried that he might not be able to hold on while I was settling things with this guy. But that was just a needless worry.
Yu-hyun was doing better than I thought.
No, he was showing more than just holding on. He was performing beyond what I had expected.
‘That weapon.’
My eyes widened at the sight of Baek-Ryeon, which changed its shape freely.
I knew it wasn’t an ordinary sword, but I didn’t expect it to change its appearance like that.
More than that, Yu-hyun’s skill in handling it freely was amazing.
‘How can a teller fight so well?’
I knew he was a person who had survived the apocalypse.
But I didn’t know how he had lived in that world.
‘What kind of life did he have…?’
I had experienced the apocalypse too, but not for long.
I couldn’t endure that horrible world for 10 years like Yu-hyun, so I kept repeating regression.
‘No. That’s not important right now…’
I shook off my distractions and focused on the enemy in front of me.
The skeleton general who took his stance looked like a wall that wouldn’t collapse no matter how hard I hit him.
I had to fight him alone and claim victory.
“Here I go again.”
I put more strength into my hand holding the sword and ran towards him to end our battle.
***
Watching Kwon Jia fight, I realized I didn’t have to worry about her so much.
She was fighting well.
The problem was that the enemy was also not easy.
‘A skeleton general as big as him is a boss-level fantasy creature. There’s too much of a gap between him and a normal fantasy creature ghoul.’
Usually, in a fantasy world, even if a boss-level fantasy creature is strong, it doesn’t show such a big difference from a normal fantasy creature.
But this place was different. Ghouls and skeleton generals.
If you compare them side by side, you would feel sorry for the skeleton generals for the huge gap.
‘The difficulty is too high, even with a hidden piece. Is it because it’s a mythological story?’
I thought that while dodging a spear that aimed at my head.
“Eek!”
I quickly ducked and avoided the spear, then turned Baek-Ryeon into a spear and stabbed it at him.
But my attack was blocked by the shield that another guy held out.
While I retrieved my spear, the shield moved aside and another attack from the jade soldier followed.
I stepped back slightly and bit my tongue.
“Annoying bastards.”
[Hey, Yu-hyun! Focus! They’re really no joke!]
“I know.”
The Underworld’s jade soldiers were not very dangerous individually.
The problem was when they were together.
They gathered together and executed the most optimal moves to kill their opponents without any hesitation or fear.
Even ferocious beasts recognized the strong ones and felt fear, but they didn’t have that.
Rather, they fought more thoroughly and surely against more dangerous enemies.
They didn’t get close and shot arrows from afar, and when they got close enough, they swung their spears.
The rest of them held shields and helped their allies in case of any trouble.
“They’re taking full advantage of their group.”
Usually, if one side is alone and the other side is many, they would be careless, but those who were already dead didn’t have that either.
If an ordinary collector fought them, they would have been drained and died without being able to do anything.
We got tired, but they didn’t.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t have a way.”
If they had been trained to deal with any situation, I had to pierce their weakness even more.
“Baek-Ryeon.”
[I got it.]
I immediately changed Baek-Ryeon into the shape of a whip.
The volume and mass couldn’t be increased beyond a certain point, but I could extend the whip up to 10m.
I swung the whip and aimed at the archer in the back.
Maybe they didn’t expect me to do such an attack, but the reaction of the guys with shields was slow.
The archer dodged to the side, but when I twisted my wrist, the end of the whip bent strangely and wrapped around one archer’s waist.
Slash!
…!
I swung my hand holding the whip and shook the archer roughly.
Naturally, the formation of the rear line where he was collapsed.
The jade soldier with a sword swung it to cut off the whip, but he couldn’t easily cut the whip that wriggled like a snake.
The solid formation of them started to crumble slowly.
I didn’t stop there.
I wrapped the whip around the beam that supported the ceiling and roof of the building.
“The building is not that sturdy either.”
I pulled the whip hard and the beam broke with a creaking sound.
The broken beam fell on top of the jade soldiers.
Boom!
The jade soldiers raised their shields, and some threw away their weapons and caught the falling debris with both hands.
I broke one more beam and made more roof debris fall on their heads.
Part of the ceiling collapsed and light poured into the dark interior.
At the same time, the smell of sulfur from outside blew in.
‘Now, is the time…’
I quickly changed Baek-Ryeon back into a sword and plunged into the center of the jade soldiers’ group.
They had given up on maintaining their formation to stop me.
Their mistake was trying to face me in this weak indoor space.
If we had fought in an empty plain, I would have been at a disadvantage.
Slash!
I quickly dealt with them as if to vent my anger that had been held back until now.
They also realized that keeping their formation was meaningless, and each one held their weapons and ran at me like crazy.
I welcomed a brawl like this.
***
“Phew. It’s finally over.”
“Those damn bone bastards! They underestimated us!”
“Everyone, stop there! How’s the damage?”
“There are no deaths, but there are seven injured. But they’re not serious, just a little hindrance for fighting.”
“Hmm. Is that so.”
I was hurt by my pride for having a prolonged fight that should have been easy and having seven injured, but there was one more thing that we gained.
“That building inside, there must be something there, right?”
“It must be. Those skeletons also came out from there.”
“There was a sulfur river here. I didn’t care about this hellish world because there was nothing to farm here. But moving according to the order from above, this is an unexpected harvest.”
Everyone exchanged glances.
They were excited by the fact that there was such a place hidden in this hellish world that they didn’t want to come to, and by the thought that there might be something more inside that mansion.
Their eyes were filled with greed.
“Let’s check what’s in there.”
Everyone nodded and headed towards the mansion in the center of the sulfur river.