When attacks with the same attributes overlapped, the effects doubled. That was why Seon-Hu had intentionally set some of the skills he had obtained from the master box as flame attributes since he had gotten Ra’s Sun Cape a long time ago. The Road of the King of Hell was a skill that formed a wide buff zone with flame properties after a strong flame attack, and Hanuman’s Tail was also a flame attribute skill with the effect of giving an additional body part to the user. Igni’s Sword, which was one of the forms that Devi’s Sword converted into, also had a flame attribute.
***
For a moment, after Seon-Hu had exterminated all the monsters that the giant boss monster had brought, the street was empty. The end of the access road then split into two and more monsters poured in.
Smack!
Seong-Il struck out with his blunt weapon. The monsters that came into Seon-Hu’s territory suffered pain the minute they stepped into the zone. The ones that had targeted the other man perished after being smacked by his weapon, and the others struggled by themselves as the inferno heat made them spontaneously combust once enough time had passed.
Seong-Il quickly realized that Seon-Hu’s skill was the culprit behind all of this. The Road of the King of Hell…
“Yo, that’s dope!” he shouted gleefully.
The monsters who had entered the red area were dying. Therefore, it didn’t matter how many they were since they were all going to die sooner or later. All Seong-Il had to do was stay alive. There were only a limited number that could directly attack him, so the rest often went straight to hell while they were waiting for a chance to attack.
Soo-Ah ran to Seong-Il through the weakened monsters.
“I told you to stick with Odin!” he snapped.
“No,” she said.
He snarled in response, “Why not?”
Bam!
When Seong-Il kicked the front line, the monsters there collapsed like dominoes. At that moment, his line of sight, which had previously been blocked by the ravenous creatures, opened up a bit. He saw the giant monster and Seon-Hu from afar. Although he only had a brief glimpse, it was so impactful that the scene was now firmly embedded in his mind.
In that short snippet of time, he had seen two elongated plumes of fire. One of them was celery Seon-Hu’s sword, but there was another one that was much longer and thicker. The fire was connected to the younger man’s body and attacked the monsters by moving like a creature with a mind of its own. On top of that, there was another lump of flame that he couldn’t tell where it was coming from as it wrapped itself around the neck of the boss monster.
Also, why is the lightning striking so ruthlessly?
Ah… That was Seon-Hu’s true appearance. Seong-Il widened his eyes as he felt goosebumps rising and yelled at Soo-Ah again, “Are you ignoring me? Go to Odin!”
The sight that Seong-Il saw was wild, but Seon-Hu was fighting against a monster that was as gigantic as a house.
She refused, “I can’t heal him. Don’t you understand? Odin doesn’t need me yet.”
Seong-Il shot a murderous glare at her, “I’m going to kill you if you lie to me! If you are trying to trick me like that motherfucker Cheol-Yeong…”
“Be careful!”
“Take your own advice! I’m fine!”
[The effects of the skill ‘Road of the King of Hell’ have ended.]
Many monsters had died without even having an opportunity to attack them, and Seong-Il started clearing up the rest. Although the skill effect was no longer in effect, the damage that the monsters had accumulated still remained. That was why Soo-Ah, whose combat skill was inferior to Seong-Il’s, could kill as many monsters as him.
No more monsters came out from the road, and only the giant boss monster was alive. Seong-Il and Soo-Ah naturally turned their attention toward it. At that same moment, the monster’s atrocious trap was opening up.
Kwaaaaaah!
Then, it vomited disgusting yellow dust. Neither Soo-Ah nor Seong-Il knew what it was, but their instincts were telling them that it would be deadly to Seon-Hu.
“Odiiiiiiin!” Seong-Il ran out screaming. He felt overwhelmed just looking at the monster’s hulking size, but his body moved before he could think. Soo-Ah also caught up with him as she healed him.
However, a flash of light quickly appeared and receded. Shortly after the light burst from Seon-Hu, the foggy energy that had been trying to swallow him suddenly turned around and swept the monster’s upper half. The monster, particularly its tentacles, slowed down enough for Soo-Ah and Seong-Il to see its movements clearly. Then, they came to an abrupt stop. The boss wasn’t budging anymore, and only blood flooded out from it like a gushing waterfall.
Seon-Hu sprinted toward Seong-Il and Soo-Ah.
“Is everything… over?” the other man asked hesitantly.
Seon-Hu shook his head. “It has entered an invincible state.”
The boss monster was about to start its second round of consolidation. More tentacles broke through its skin, and it now possessed a reinforcement-type trait that would revive it another time, making it come back in a stronger state. Clearly, the System had a strong desire to annihilate everyone today, not just reduce the number of survivors!
Therefore, Seon-Hu was gnashing his teeth. Furious thoughts ran through his mind.
This level of difficulty only appeared after Act Two in the past, but the System is giving us this in Act One, Stage One?
He couldn’t guarantee that Seong-Il and Soo-Ah would be able to stay alive anymore, but he also had no intention of evacuating them from the battle. He’d rather risk having a party member die than continue with someone who only enjoyed the benefits without any risk. Keeping someone like that could be fatal as he continued on the challenger quests. Seon-Hu gazed at the two as if he found it unacceptable that he took a person like that along.
He curtly issued orders, “Focus on healing Seong-Il until my protective barrier breaks. Seong-Il, you should help me.”
***
Seong-Il had just been knocked out. The monsters were huge and slow, but they had weapons to cover their disadvantages. There were dozens of strands of tentacles flying about. Although Seon-Hu had sliced them off previously with Devi’s Sword, their appendages often regenerated swiftly.
Meanwhile, it had been Seong-Il’s only chance for him to land a blow on the monster as Seon-Hu had just blocked its attack. However, the tentacle that grew out of nowhere cut across Seong-Il’s abdomen as soon as he launched an attack. Had he reacted a little slower, he would have been sliced in two.
Seong-Il twisted his body, and his intestines flowed out. He had witnessed others’ guts coming out before, but it was his first time looking at his own. Then, he realized what had happened and severe pain hit him
“Ah…”
Seong-Il lost himself and kept pushing his intestines back into the gaping hole. Of course, he also stopped up the hole with his hand like how Seon-Hu had done. When Seong-Il checked the front, Seon-Hu was still an unbelievably mighty figure. He could never imagine that Seon-Hu was still a human like him. He thought he might have to be a burden on the other man for a few seconds, but that was before the pain in the abdomen had radiated to every single part of his body.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! How did Odin endure this pain?
Seong-Il crawled to the ground and looked for Soo-Ah as his vision became blurry. That girl had to heal him quickly so that he could be free from pain and take advantage of the next opportunity Seon-Hu would create to damage the monster. Or he could grab the monster’s attention and let Seon-Hu strike a deadly blow at it. Anyway, his body had to recover first.
Where is she?
He found her in a nearby pool of blood.
“Wake… up…”
Seong-Il stretched his arm toward her face and said while grabbing her face, “Ugh… what should I…do… if… the healer… gets knocked out first… I told you to stick with… Odin… Wake… up…”
No matter how much Seong-Il groaned and complained, Soo-Ah didn’t even open her eyes.
Pit-pat, pit-pat, pit-pat, pit-pat.
Blood was pouring down from the sky, drenching Seong-Il’s eyes. Although he could no longer see, he could still rely on his other senses a little as he could tell that the taste of the warm monster’s blood in his mouth was sickening.
Then, he realized that he had been talking to the dead the whole time. He was holding onto Soo-Ah’s sliced-off head, and he couldn’t find her body as it must have been stuck somewhere in the blood puddle. He threw her face away and forced himself to get up. Unfortunately, he fell again, and the intestines that he had barely managed to push into his abdominal cavity came back out.
People claimed that the images from a person’s past life passed by like a flashlight at their moment of death. However, all he could think of was his son. Not the face of his son who was currently in puberty, but the face his son had when he was a baby. He clearly remembered what his son looked like when he had just started toddling. He missed him so much.
Seong-Il lay down and intuitively felt death nearing.
Odin will take care of the world. So Ki-Cheol… I’ll go ahead and wait for you. Oh, and make sure you look at the girl’s heart, not her face. See you later, son. I love you.
His eyes slowly closed, and tears rolled down his cheeks.
It was then his eyes opened wide as subtle light seeped into his body. It was a sign of healing skills. At that moment, Seong-Il saw and heard his son, who was crawling toward him.
“I will help you too.”
Seong-Il blinked quickly and clearly saw the boy’s face, who resembled his son. The boy looked to be around the same age as his son, and he recalled that this unfortunate teen had been dragged into this disgusting world with him. Seong-Il didn’t remember his last name, but he vaguely thought that his first name was probably Ja-Seong. Seong-Il stood up with a gesture to the boy to stay away, and his wound had been treated enough such that his guts no longer flowed out.
Moreover, the boy had used a Speed-up insignia on Seong-il, so his body became more agile.
“Wait right there! Don’t come near me!” Seong-Il shouted and ran toward the monster. It was impossible for him to completely recover after a single heal. He grimaced as the excruciating pain clung to his entire body. He did his best to maintain the speed that Ja-Seong’s insignia had boosted up. By avoiding as many tentacles that were flying toward him as he could, he managed to narrow the distance between them. He just let some of the appendages slap him if he wasn’t able to dodge them. When his arm suddenly got cut off, his eyeballs were rolled around just from shock.
Sheeeek-
The number of tentacles aiming at Seong-Il had doubled. He perceived intuitively that his second death was looming over him as he chopped at the monster’s feet. More tentacles were falling down towards him, but he wasn’t in a bad mood. Even if he died here, the great Odin would end the monster, move on to the rest of the stages, and then return to Korea. To Korea, where his son Ki-Cheol was! He would guarantee his son’s safety!
Seong-Il continued attacking the monster even when he saw tentacles rushing towards the top of his head. However, the tentacles started drooping like a withering flower right before they were about to pierce his head.
Thud!
Seong-Il turned his head toward the direction where something had fallen, making the ground echo. He realized that the gigantic head of the monster had toppled over. Its eyeballs were melting in the raging fire, and a notification message stating that the quest had been completed popped up.
It’s… over…
The last thing Seong-Il saw before he lost consciousness was Seon-Hu jumping on the monster’s head and exploding it.