Chapter 191: Starzone Monsters (2)

Chapter 191: Starzone Monsters (2)

Just how large was it?

300 or 500 kilometers?

No...

It might have been over 1km tall.

Compared to its monstrous size, its appearance was extremely simple.

It was a slime made of cloudy, dark-red mucus that was reminiscent of lava flowing down from an erupted volcano.

Arms? Legs? Facial features? There were none of those things.

It looked as if a single-cell organism had focused only on increasing its size to the extreme.

Appearance-wise, it didn’t look threatening at all, but the problem was its overwhelming size.

“What the fuck is that?”

He had seen many monsters to date, but it was his first time feeling intimidated by nothing other than a monster's size.

“Shit... a monster that big exists?”

Ha-eun stepped back reflexively.

It was excessively simple, but the sheer difference of ‘mass’ was significant when it came to fighting.

Imagine having a lightweight go up against a heavyweight in boxing.

No, there wasn’t even a need to think so far.

From that gigantic monster’s point of view, humans were nothing but ants.

“What are we supposed to do, throw oil on it and light it up?”

“There is nothing as good as fire when it comes to facing large foes, but...”

Ohjin narrowed his eyes.

He felt an intense heat despite being located incredibly far away from the monster.

If the monster’s influence was the reason why the water for several dozen kilometers was heated like a hot spring...

“There’s a high chance that it’s extremely resistant to fire.”

“...Th-Then how are we supposed to face it?”

“Give me a sec.”

Ohjin chewed his lips and touched the pendant on his neck.

Owooong!—

Vega and Riak appeared with a radiant blast of silver light.

[That’s...]

Vega narrowed her eyes while looking at the gigantic monster outside the window.

“S-Something that huge suddenly came out of the water!!” Ha-eun while grasping Vega’s body with both hands.

“Hmpf. Something that huge?” Riak chuckled as his eyes shone.

“Come to your senses and look properly, lizard woman. That thing isn’t a ‘huge monster’.”

“What?”

“Do you call a mass of ants a huge ant?”

“What do you...? Ah.” Ha-eun exclaimed and looked at the massive monster rising from the sea.

Red eyes appeared from the monster’s body that consisted of dark-red mucus.

It wasn’t just one pair of eyes...

Hundreds... thousands... tens of thousands...

An uncountable number of eyes densely covered the massive monster’s body like the stars that filled the night sky.

“I see, so that’s what it is.”

Ohjin held back his laughter and stared at the monster.

As Riak said, it wasn’t a ‘huge monster’.

‘It’s a mass of monsters.’

They were in the form of a bacterial colony and consisted of an astronomical number of monsters.

Roaaaaaaaaar!!!—

A morbid cry was heard from the window.

Just like simultaneous yells from the crowd in a stadium, an uncountable number of noises overlapped and transformed into a single, loud roar.

Rumbleeeeeee!!!—

Monsters poured down from the kilometer-tall mass of monsters like an avalanche.

Monsters crossed San Fruttuoso’s sea in an instant and charged to the shore. They were running like crazy to the village built alongside the beach.

“Ha-eun, hold my arm.”

“Huh? Wh-What are you planning to do?”

“We’ll be too late if we run there.”

Only wearing his swimming pants, he slid on his wire shooter and opened the window.

The hot sea winds raged and crashed along the bottom of the cliff.

“Wh-What are you doing?!”

“Hold tight.”

Ohjin pulled in Ha-eun’s waist as she clung to his arm, and they jumped off the window and headed down.

“I’ll take care of this, so you should head over there to help people evacuate.”

“Wouldn’t it be better for me to fend them off?”

She stretched her body and turned to face the herd of monsters.

“But fire won’t—”

“—work against them?”

Ha-eun smirked and raised her hand, and a gigantic ball of fire floated on top of her palm.

“Irachaaaa!!”

“Krrrrrr?”

The fireball gave off an intense heat that was several times hotter than what the Ant-horns emitted.

The Ant-horns that appeared to be resistant to fire were helplessly reduced to ashes in an instant.

“How about now?”

“...”

Ohjin dumbfoundedly looked at Ha-eun.

Her way of facing monsters innately resistant to fire was to ignorantly hit them with even stronger fire that they couldn’t endure.

‘How typical of her.’

He chuckled and nodded his head.

If their resistance to fire wasn’t a problem, it would indeed be better for Ha-eun to take care of large numbers of enemies.

“Alright. Then fend them off as much as you can.”

“Believe in me.”

Ha-eun slapped Ohjin’s butt and turned to face the Ant-horns.

She took out a packet of cigarettes from a waterproof pack and put a cigarette between her fingers.

“Flames.”

Sizzle!—

A frightening wave of flames burned from the tip of the cigarette and twisted around her body.

“Fucking blaze.”

Fwoooosh!—

Massive flames swept away the Ant-horns that were rushing in like a tsunami.

“Vega and Riak, help Ha-eun block the Ant-horns!”

[I understand!]

“Hmpf! The nerve of them to rely on their numbers.”

Vega started shooting lightning after flying up into the air, and Riak changed into his werewolf form as he charged at the monsters.

‘I’ve bought time for now.’

Ohjin narrowed his eyes and observed the surroundings after using his wire shooters to scale a tall building.

He did earn some time thanks to Ha-eun, Vega, and Riak’s help, however...

‘We probably won’t last long.’

There were way too many of them.

Just like how you couldn’t block rain using your hands, fending off that many Ant-horns with such a small group was impossible.

“Isabella is...”

He looked around in search of Isabella, but he couldn’t figure out where she was since the entire place was a mess.

‘It can’t be helped.’

Stopping the Ant-horns from causing more damage was the first priority.

“...Though I don’t know how I’m supposed to stop them.”

He sighed deeply and looked at the endless wave of Ant-horns.

How many were there?

Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

There were so many that counting was meaningless.

‘There’s no way so many monsters grouped up naturally.’

In that case, there had to be something that could cause such a strange phenomenon.

‘A starzone alone isn’t enough to warrant it...’

At that moment, Vega’s words crossed his mind.

-There just might be... a dragon vein flowing here.

—Dragon Vein.

A location with an unnaturally large amount of mana flowing through it...

The power of a dragon vein could be the cause of such a strange phenomenon.

“In that case...”

There was a single method to solving everything.

“I just have to devour it all.”

Ohjin smirked and looked at the Ant-horns covering the sea.

Bzzt!—

He created lightning in the air and shot into the sky.