526

 [Chapter 144]

[Phoenix's Flame (2)]

A feeling of consciousness half-floating.

However, his mind actually knew what he needed to do.

He had to somehow escape the situation.

Though his body wouldn't move,

This isn't good...

His body felt heavy and lethargic.

Above all, he couldn't control his internal mana as he wished.

...Move.

I have to move...

Trapped in the jelly,

Kim Geon-ung tried to move his body that wouldn't listen.

I can't... die here like this.

Perhaps his efforts paid off.

He succeeded in moving his fingertips.

At that moment, his mind became clearer.

He still couldn't manifest his internal mana, but

Gradually his body began to listen, and he stirred his hand in the liquid.

I am a person of KK Group.

I don't want to live with something like a monster in my belly.

As if I'd live like that.

Kim Geon-ung, who had repeatedly regained and lost consciousness many times until now.

Nevertheless, he was certain of what had happened to the students who had formed a party with him in the meantime.

Each time he regained consciousness, the students around him had disappeared one by one.

They must have all been parasitized by monsters by this dungeon's master.

Burst, please burst...!

And now the only one left was him.

Kim Geon-ung sensed his fate.

That's why he rebelled.

Thump thump

But no matter how much he swung his fists,

The transparent membrane only repeatedly expanded like rubber and contracted back to its original shape.

Damn it...

If only I could manifest my internal mana.

If only I had a sword at least.

Kim Geon-ung chewed on his powerlessness.

And not long after─

─Buzz

The wasp-type monsters finally began to move Kim Geon-ung.

They didn't care even if he struggled.

If only I hadn't been so greedy...

If only I hadn't been so impatient...

As he was being moved by the monsters,

He regretted his past days.

In a situation where the Academy students were relying on Noh Eunha and his friends,

He had become impatient at some point.

Anxious that his position might be narrowing, perhaps.

No, scared─

─It's all my fault.

Because I tried to forcefully achieve merits even while pushing myself... I made the people who followed me like that.

He had needlessly forced himself and dragged others into danger.

He could only realize this as his miserable end approached before his eyes.

Eventually, finally─

─...

He faced the dungeon's master.

A presence that made one's very soul feel infinitely small.

Ah...

A monster that moved as if uninterested in him yet approached him.

The monster that stood on two legs on the ground stood before him, swaying the tail that extended from its long head.

Hiss

Their eyes met.

The pupils revealed on the black skin were clearly laughing at him.

Kim Geon-ung felt his spine freeze and his whole body stiffen as if facing a predator.

Ah...

My body... won't listen.

My mind... is turning white.

Shaaaa

Don't come.

He shook his head.

No, he wanted to shake his head.

Kim Geon-ung watched the scene of its tail slicing through the air before his eyes.

The tail tip was strange.

It's shaped like a cylinder.

He instinctively sensed.

That eggs come out from there.

Ah...

How can death be so cruel?

The moment the creature's tail rushed towards him felt excruciatingly slow.

The cylindrical tail touches the membrane.

When the tail that wasn't affected by the membrane's elasticity suddenly entered inside,

He sensed his own death.

At that very moment,

─Spark Shower

In an instant, the world behind the creature's back burst into bright red flames.

Boom boom!!

The sound of a massive mass combusting oxygen and violently crashing to the ground shook the world.

"─Fortunately, I'm not too late."

A world dyed red.

Flames soar into the sky.

The man appeared, cutting through those flames without hesitation.

...Noh..., Eunha...

Him standing alone amidst the flames.

Kim Geon-ung felt he would never be able to forget that sight.

☆

Fortunately, he was able to make it in time.

The moment Kim Geon-ung was about to be attacked by it,

That moment was also when an opening appeared in the creature.

So Eunha ordered Bae Su-bin to unleash maximum firepower on it.

"...Cough...! Hack... cough..., hack hack...!!"

"Are you alive?" "...Yeah. Thanks, for saving me."

It was no wonder Bae Su-bin collapsed from exhaustion right after.

That's how much the area had turned into a sea of fire.

Eunha watched her being carried to the rear by party members and spoke to Kim Geon-ung.

Mok Min-ho, who had hidden behind Eunha and followed, cut open the jelly with his sword.

Kim Geon-ung, who crawled out from inside the jelly, dry heaved and thanked him.

But it wasn't time to be saying thanks.

"Pi! Pipipipipiii!"

The baby bird that Eunha had tried to send with Ariel but ultimately refused to leave him and followed all the way to the fortress's deepest part.

Fire Chicken flew around him, sounding warning cries.

Eunha knew too.

─It wouldn't die from just this.

Eunha closed his mouth.

Flames were fiercely soaring to the ceiling in front.

Soon, the form of a monster visible through the flickering flames.

Shaaaak!!

Thump thump thump.

The ground shook.

A sound that seemed like it would tear eardrums came from within the blazing flames.

Whoosh

When it swung its arm once,

The flames disappeared as if uprooted.

""""...."""

The flames that seemed about to devour the entire area were extinguished in vain.

The people there blankly stared at the creature cloaked in flames.

When it roughly shook its body,

The remaining flames went out, and sparks scattered.

Shaaaak!!

A huge body that looked about 5m tall.

Armor reminiscent of tiger stripes that gleamed just by standing still.

Thick forearms with visibly bulging blood vessels, and long curved claws dyed purple.

A tail attached to the end of the long head. A cylindrical tail tip that constantly made chewing motions as if it was another mouth.

The monster standing on two feet on the ground roared as if it wouldn't forgive them for intruding into its territory.

"Cr-crazy..."

"H-how can we defeat something like that..."

"W-we have to run...!"

The presence of a 4th tier monster encountered for the first time in their lives.

The Fear of a high-tier monster.

The students lost their fighting spirit in the face of its presence.

They denied reality.

As if knowing they were trembling in fear, it─

─Shaaaak!!

Roared even louder.

Its voice not only frightened the students through their ears but touched their very souls.

"Ugh... uweeek...!"

A sensation as if their souls were being kneaded, which they had never experienced before.

Eventually, some students couldn't endure and vomited the contents of their stomachs.

"Ugh..."

"Urk..."

It was the same for Mok Min-ho and Hosimiya Kaede who were facing it up close.

Though there was a difference compared to the other students, their hands holding weapons were also trembling.

They were forcibly enduring, but even that was now reaching its limit.

However─

"─Why are you getting scared over a monster's cry? What's there to be afraid of. From things that only wait to be subjugated by humans in the end."

The sensation of their souls being constricted disappeared cleanly.

When the students felt a sense of liberation,

Noh Eunha, who was facing it at the very front, was standing firm.

""""...."""

Blue mana was surging in the sword Eunha held in his right hand.

The students could instinctively sense.

The fact that the sword turning blue, white, and red had driven away the desperate atmosphere.

─Winter That Blooms Coldly

In an instant, flower petals scattered.

One petal, two petals, three petals...

The petals falling from the sword blade kept increasing in number.

Whoosh

Red petals swirled like a storm.

The storm that instantly enveloped the area blinded their eyes.

"─Don't be scared. How can you be scared?"

Shoulders that had felt heavy became light.

Feet that seemed like they wouldn't move became easy.

A sensation as if vitality was being breathed into bodies they thought would end like this.

The students gradually forgot their fear.

Shaaaak!!

From within the storm of petals,

It roared.

But its roar no longer reached them.

Rustle

Crackle

Finally, it stretched out its thick arm and tried to forcefully split the storm of petals covering the world.

But splitting a storm was nonsense.

The arm that had briefly revealed itself was engulfed by the storm again.

"─Mok Min-ho."

Even in that situation, Eunha calmly opened his mouth.

He called Mok Min-ho without even turning back.

"...Yeah."

"Take the kids and go ahead. I'll tie up that thing's legs and catch up." "...Are you really okay?"

"You'll just be in the way if you stay. So hurry and go. This won't last long either." "...Alright. We'll go ahead."

In the way.

Min-ho couldn't deny those words.

As Eunha said, they would only be a hindrance.

Min-ho turned his back on the scene of the storm's force weakening.

"Make sure to come back."

"I'll go even if you don't say it."

Noh Eunha is buying time.

And he will lead the party members to escape the fortress.

He couldn't waste the time he had bought for them.

Mok Min-ho clenched his fist.

☆

The plan was actually to rescue the remaining students and escape the fortress.

But of all things, Kim Geon-ung was in the area where it existed.

Eunha had no choice but to rush at it to save Kim Geon-ung.

"But with this, I guess I've created a debt for that Kim Geon-ung kid..."

Though he didn't tell his friends,

Eunha had consumed quite a bit of his internal mana from continuously using Winter That Blooms Coldly's magic.

He was just putting on a brave front so the students wouldn't panic.

Of course, even so─

─Ubbo

4th tier monster Kakgunbong.

It certainly didn't mean he couldn't handle it.

Just before the tail fell on his head,

Eunha used Ubbo to move behind it.

Clang

He tried to aim for its back right away,

But it lightly raised one arm to block Winter That Blooms Coldly.

He clicked his tongue briefly and retreated.

─Shaaaak!!

From then on, Kakgunbong's counterattack began.

"Ugh...!"

It threw punches.

Eunha deflected the impacts with his sword and let out a short groan.

It wouldn't give him time to swing his sword at all.

To make matters worse─

─Splash!

While Eunha couldn't break out of his defensive stance,

Kakgunbong, engaging in close combat, opened its mouth towards him.

By the time he noticed, it was already too late.

Eunha saw the acidic liquid falling from very close and made a "kuk" sound.

The way to block it─

─Winter That Creeps Like Snow

There was a way to block it.

Winter That Creeps Like Snow shone fiercely and absorbed its magic.

At the same time, Eunha coated Winter That Blooms Coldly with mana.

Burst Counter

On the left, he swung the absorbed magic like a whip.

On the right, he stimulated the mana Bae Su-bin had scattered and made it explode.

"─You're dead."

Roughly loosening his tie,

Noh Eunha growled lowly.

☆

As the students retreated,

And Eunha was locked in a fierce battle with the 4th tier monster Kakgunbong,

"Pipi."

A bird reminiscent of the incarnation of flames was secretly flying through the sky.

Eventually, the bird that found a spot where it wouldn't be discovered changed direction.

The bird that landed on the ground to rest its wings turned its eyes towards where explosion sounds were constantly coming from.

"Papa."

As if trying to gauge something,

The red bird quietly cried out while looking at its master.

Flare

Soon, sparks ignited on the red feathers.

Without anyone knowing,

The bird containing the essence of flames grew like that.