Chapter 57 - Staggered (6)

Staggered (6)

A colossal torso rose out from the ground.

Inside its large round mouth, hundreds of sharp teeth were layered endlessly.

A loud cry rang, and a worm of substantial body tilted over the length of several tens of meters.

The monsters hurriedly pulled themselves out of the incoming worm that devoured all the destroyed debris.

The swift movement of the monster avoided the worm’s mouth, and the worm swallowed the surroundings it would reach, and then dug into the ground.

The ground shook as the worm moved underneath.

Il-Hyun rushed to the monster that escaped.

Caen!

The sword hit it.

This time, Il-Hyun put all his weight on the monster and pressed it—the monster’s feet dipped down.

Both of their arms trembled.

Although he couldn’t overwhelm it, this was a completely different aspect.

Il-Hyun changed his posture, twisting his ankle as he stabbed the sword.

The monster jumped out of its place using its tail to avoid the sword and attack at the same time.

However, it quickly became a target of numerous thorns rising from the floor.

It was the exact same shape as the thorn that the monster was cutting down a while ago, but it wasn’t the same.

Even if one rope is made by transforming the same object, the intensity differs greatly depending on the ability of the user.

And this time, it was the transformation ability used by Il-Hyun, who absorbed the core of the A-rank ace monster, Chaser, and temporarily had a flow of a massive amount of Ether in his body.

The white monster, that instinctively thought that it wouldn’t be able to beat him easily, pulled itself out by putting a tail in the wall of the next building.

In the air that was unprotected, it quickly changed positions.

After sticking like that, the guy stuck to the wall with its four feet and quickly moved around.

The tail pulled out of the wall had been poked toward Il-Hyun again.

Il-Hyun lifted the sword—he lightly slashed a powerful attack, and then grabbed the tail.

His hand got cut from the tail like a blade, but he grabbed it more strongly.

Kwajik!

The guy’s tail was squished without a hitch.

The tail is much harder than Chaser’s notorious arms, and its tail still got broken.

Obviously, the white monster had never absorbed that kind of impact, thought it would not break—it was frightened and tried to take off.

However, Il-Hyun’s actions were faster.

In an instant, Il-Hyun hit the tail with a sword.

Caen!

The tail of the guy weakened as the transformation ability was cut off.

Blood spilled, and most of the length of it fell off.

The tail of the guy became noticeably shorter.

The blade was still a dazzling threat, but not as threatening as it was before it was cut.

The monster looked unbelievingly at its tail.

However, the speed of the battle is very fast, which is different from normal Awakeners and monsters.

Even as a monster, there was no time to be surprised by the world.

Bang!

The floor moved when Il-Hyun rolled his feet and leapt vigorously.

He stepped in the air from a wall protruding from the building and wielded the sword while turning it like a wheel.

Again, he made a shallow wound and blood splattered on the concrete wall.

Instead of being injured, the monster shook its arm and fired a mighty sword, approaching Il-Hyun in a difficult moment.

But a wolf jumping high enough between them intervened—it stopped the monster at once.

Instead of being safe, Il-Hyun was struck by an arm sword, and the powerful attack caused a large wound to his body.

The fragments of the wolf’s body splattered as if a piece of rock broke.

It wasn’t just simply cut, as if it were an ordinary creature, it was a level of wound that wouldn’t be strange if it died immediately.

However, the wolf didn’t show any signs of dying and was strong, and even the wound disappeared quickly.

A fragment of the gray wolf’s torn body had been immediately broken off. It then grew and regained its original shape.

If the damage is over a certain amount, the Summoners get canceled and disappears—but the wolf was fine.

Like other Summoners, the wolf has acquired and absorbed a core of a mutated monster over the past three weeks.

And as a result, it now has two special abilities.

It was an awe-inspiring regeneration and defense.

It was because of the fact that the body that was cut off by the sword was splintered, it was not flesh that spattered.

The surface of the wolf hardened as if it were an armor, and had strong defenses.

It was indeed the Summoners who absorbed the monster’s core.

The wolf that prevented the attack burned a string in the air and made the streets open—a chain of wolves reached out to the monster.

Quaddeuk!

The roadside trees that had fallen on the road started to rise up one by one, and they grew at a tremendous speed.

They ended being overgrown.

Plants that grew in an instant stretched out the stems that are still increasing one by one to catch the white monster, and they were facing the bloated body to cover it up.

It struggled to avoid them, but it couldn’t get out of the plants that clung with significant momentum.

Then, the worm appeared again.

Quaang!

As if an explosion had occurred, a worm spattered from all sides and popped off the floor, swallowing one of its legs and digging into the ground again.

Even if it was a little too late, it would’ve been swallowed.

The guy on the ground stared at Il-Hyun.

Even with only one leg left, it stood without any problems in balancing, and it used the tail to do other movements naturally.

Eeeek!

The white monster with the severed leg emitted a weird sound.

Then, Il-Hyun sent a considerable number of thorns from all directions.

The plants were cut off, and on one side, the Summoners passed by.

It was similar to Chaser’s behavioral pattern because it wasn’t a mutant monster based on that.

Il-Hyun barely avoided the buildings with the outer walls popping out.

Then, he watched the raging monster.

It jumped out with more power than before, and it seemed unusual.

To stop the damage caused by the indiscriminate sword, it was necessary to quickly suppress it.

The flames that Gumiho made around Il-Hyun sent a shot to the guy.

At the same time, Il-Hyun touched the ground, and under the feet of the monster, many sturgeons appeared through and rushed at once.

But it was all useless.

The white monster with red eyes swung its blade and cut off the flame as it jumped off from the worm.

The monster moved violently as it used its tails to smash the buildings.

At that time, Phoenix, that absorbed the surrounding fire, descended and hit the guy.

This time, Phoenix’s body together with the monster got engulfed with flames—they became entangled and rolled down on the floor.

Even in those short moments, numerous they attacked each other.

Nearly killing it, Phoenix was cut by the blade, and the monster stood up.

Also, a steady flame once again rushed behind the monster’s back trying to rush to Il-Hyun.

Phoenix immediately revived and hit the monster.

The summoned Summoners taunted the monsters to a battle as the giant worm scared the beast, but even then, it continued to fight and barely escaped.

Probably, if the monster of the same structure as the Chaser felt that it was a moment of crisis, the energy in the body would have acted to strengthen it.

Because of that, the picture that Il-Hyun was originally beginning to see deviated little by little.

An A rank monster which is also a variant monster, couldn’t be judged easily.

So, Il-Hyun decided to take a more active step.

He put his hand on the floor, and cracks began spreading all over the road around him.

Soon, the crack grew, and the floor collapsed.

Il-Hyun and the monster fell at the same time.

There was more space underneath than he thought.

The ceiling collapsed inside the broken subway.

Il-Hyun and the monster struck as soon as they balanced themselves.

Chaeng!

Swords and blades smashed dozens of times violently, and Il-Hyun’s instincts ripped the wall, pulled out the pillars, and flew to the monster.

The space that can be avoided is narrower than the outside, so the transformation ability of his became more powerful.

Because of that, the monster also struggled to get out of the space.

It tried to escape through the collapsing ceiling, but Il-Hyun and the Summoners who were standing on it wobbled.

They tried biting and stretching at it so as not to let it escape.

Grasp!

After one arm of the monster soars high, it falls to the floor.

Like its tail, Il-Hyun weakened its arm and succeeded in cutting it with a sword.

However, it was not only Il-Hyun who was successful.

Without any expectation, blood squirted out of Il-Hyun’s face as the tail of the monster raised from below.

Under his face, the tail rubbed his neck, and it penetrated, cutting most part of his skin.

“Argh—!” Il-Hyun staggered.

Luckily, the deep jaw was avoided, but the left jawbone was cut off.

He couldn’t stand the moan that leaked through an intense pain he didn’t experience before.

But the pain didn’t last long, and soon, it subsided.

The Awakening effect of the predatory instinct reached the end, and Il-Hyun’s head shook.

Il-Hyun, who was able to quickly wake up, used his hand first.

Pug!

He kicked it hard with his feet and the monster who reflexively lifted its arm got pushed back.

The guy at the bottom of the floor fell down the slope.

The railroad tracks were bent, holding the monster’s arms and legs tightly, like a tied whip so that they couldn’t be moved.

It was transformed into harder material, so even a monster in front of it couldn’t easily escape.

And that was its last breath.

Quaang!

A worm appeared through the bottom of the track.

The giant worm that occupied the field of view on one side of the station ate like a glutton without leaving behind any body of the monster.

The worm that filtered out the core from the body of the now-dead monster and spat it out in front of Il-Hyun dragged it down into its stomach.

The innocently pure core of the monster that took thousands of lives shined brightly in the dark and dirty basement.

Il-Hyun paused and stared blankly at the sky.

Bright sunlight poured through the collapsed ceiling in the basement.

The unpleasant force field that was blocking the gap between the sky and the city was gone.

“Hoo…”

The battle is over.

In Il-Hyun’s head that seemed to have cooled down, complicated emotions rose again.

Il-Hyun, who was taking a deep breath, gradually felt breathless—and it was getting worse. Soon, he lost consciousness and fell to the floor.

There were no colleagues that ran to his side as they performed the operation together, and only the Summoners of Il-Hyun gathered with an anxious gaze.

* * *

“The barrier is gone!” a government employee jumped in and said.

But before that, people in the temporary operation room were already amazed at the screen.

It had been a long time since the video was cut because the level of disturbance of the station masters surrounding the city became more severe.

The team leader disappeared, and the people who were isolated began to rush out one by one.

“Indeed…” Lee Soo-Yeon muttered while looking at the screen.

“What…?”

“What happened?”

People who just knew about the Rookie didn’t understand the situation at the moment.

But the questions that came out here and there soon turned to cheers.

“Wow!”

“I’m alive!”

The sound of cheering survivors had been heard from outside toward the inside of the vehicle.

Soon, claps began to spread in the operation room, and a loud laugh sounded.

The tens of thousands of people who almost died were the same.

At that time, on the screen holding the city, they could see the figure of Il-Hyun flying on the back of Phoenix.

Phoenix came out on the outskirts of the most crowded city overlooking a lost state.

People noticed at once that they were wearing Awakener clothes.

More than a dozen medical staff flocked to him urgently, and the fox hiding its tail licked Il-Hyun’s back from the side as if worried.

The bleeding was severe, even considering that he was an Awakener, but fortunately, there was no injury to threaten his life.

As soon as they saw the appearance of Il-Hyun on the screen, Lee Soo-Yeon rushed over to him.

Then, among the many people gathered, the Summoners who knew only Lee Soo-Yeon’s face welcomed her.

Lee Soo-Yeon looked down at Il-Hyun’s face.

“You did it…”