Chapter 52
A disgusting smell stabbed at their noses the entire time they climbed through the narrow, steep gap between the cliffs.
It smelled like old blood mixed with animal waste.
The smell was completely different from the dry earth near the dungeon entrance.
"Wow, breathing here is awful. This area smells especially bad."
Jo Mingyu, who was following from behind, pinched his nose and frowned deeply.
Irritated, he kicked a small stone lying on the ground.
"Everyone stay alert."
Park Junhyeok tightened his grip on his shield.
"Watch your footing too. The rougher the terrain gets, the more ambush points these things have."
He was right.
The middle section of Blackstone Gorge had extremely troublesome terrain.
The path was only wide enough for two or three people to barely walk shoulder to shoulder.
Huge strange rock formations surrounded them, blocking visibility in awkward and unnatural ways.
If anyone lost concentration or broke formation, the party could collapse almost instantly.
Chaeho continued walking while carefully examining the deep shadows between the rocks.
Thanks to his new special-fiber boots, his footsteps were nearly silent.
But the cramped, suffocating atmosphere of the narrow path continued scraping against his nerves.
Then...
Rustle.
A tiny sound came from above.
Small stones were falling from a sharply cut ridge.
"Above us!"
The moment Park Junhyeok shouted, two enormous black shadows tore through the air and dropped toward them.
Black-Armored Wolves.
The same monsters they had encountered near the entrance.
Their red eyes shone as they threw themselves directly toward the front of the formation.
BANG! BOOOOM!
Park Junhyeok shouted and immediately raised his enormous shield.
He directly absorbed the mass of both charging wolves and blocked their path.
The tremendous impact cracked the rock beneath his feet.
Fragments scattered.
"Urgh! These things are much bigger than the ones near the entrance!"
Veins bulged in Park Junhyeok's neck as he gritted his teeth.
The two wolves alternated their attacks, slamming their heavy front paws into the shield over and over.
The sound of metal bending echoed violently between the canyon walls.
"I'll support you!"
Lee Soyeon urgently raised her staff.
Seo Eunbyeol also began creating a faintly glowing mana barrier around the party.
At that exact moment...
Rustle.
On the party's most vulnerable right side, beyond Lee Soyeon and Seo Eunbyeol's field of vision...
One of the large rocks pressed against the cliff wall moved unnaturally.
Its texture and color were identical to the surrounding stone.
But it wasn't a rock.
It was a massive Rock Lizard.
Its yellow eyes narrowed vertically and flashed.
The monster kicked powerfully off the wall and launched itself through the air with unnatural elasticity.
Its target was Jo Mingyu, who stood at the end of the formation, hidden from Park Junhyeok's defensive line.
Its thick tail, as hard as a stone pillar, tore violently through the air toward Jo Mingyu's upper body.
"Huh...?"
Jo Mingyu noticed the danger late and instinctively tried to raise his bow.
Far too late.
His face instantly turned pale as the massive tail filled his entire vision.
Park Junhyeok couldn't even turn his head.
He was still struggling to hold back the weight of two wolves from the front.
There was no time to dodge.
No one was in position to block it.
At that moment, rather than recklessly charging toward the monster's throat, Chaeho quietly inhaled.
His eyes became calm.
The skill activated.
[Time Slow].
The gears of the world seemed to grind as though forced to stop.
The sounds of air being torn apart and the growls of monsters stretched out as though heard underwater.
Everything moved at an extreme crawl.
Inside that slowed world, Chaeho clearly saw the Rock Lizard's tail advancing centimeter by centimeter toward Jo Mingyu's face.
He could even see the sharp rocky protrusions covering its surface.
And that wasn't all.
One of the wolves attacking Park Junhyeok's shield had begun shifting its weight backward.
It seemed to have noticed that the side defense had been broken.
Its gaze was fixed above Park Junhyeok's head.
It was pretending to continue attacking the shield while preparing to jump over the front line and strike the rear directly.
The wolves draw attention while the camouflaged monster attacks the blind spot.
This was the vicious coordination B-rank monsters displayed instinctively.
They weren't simply fighting independently with their own strength.
They used each other's movements as bait to create fatal openings.
Chaeho finished his judgment quickly inside the nearly frozen world.
There was no value in showing off by rushing forward and cutting down an enemy first.
The most urgent variable he had to eliminate was the death of a party member, which could destabilize the entire formation.
Immediately after planning his movement with accelerated thought, Chaeho deactivated [Time Slow].
Then his legs kicked off the ground.
Tap!
His new lightweight equipment pushed his body forward like a feather.
With his old steel boots, he would have reacted half a beat too slowly.
Following the short route he had already planned, Chaeho moved directly in front of Jo Mingyu.
He gripped his new one-handed sword firmly in a reverse grip.
Then he struck the side of the Rock Lizard's incoming tail at precisely the right angle.
CLAAAAANG!
A sharp sound rang out like steel colliding with stone.
Chaeho didn't try to overpower the tail's enormous kinetic force head-on.
Instead, he lightly struck the side of its path with his blade, twisting its direction away.
The tail that would have shattered Jo Mingyu's ribs swept through empty air and smashed into the nearby cliff wall.
CRASH!
