Chapter 56
The Blackstone Beast King kicked off the ground with a rough breath, its black rock-like shell swelling as though it might burst apart.
It was even more ferocious than before.
Blood poured from its injured right hind leg, yet it charged as though it had forgotten the pain entirely. The ground caved in beneath its feet as if struck by explosives, and sharp fragments of stone flew in every direction.
"I'm blocking it!"
Park Junhyeok didn't even have time to wipe the sweat running down his chin.
He adjusted his shield and firmly planted his feet.
Then he met the Beast King's charge head-on.
BOOM!
"Urgh!"
A tremendous collision shook the gorge.
Park Junhyeok was pushed backward across the ground, the soles of his boots carving deep marks into the dirt.
But he didn't fall.
Instead, he twisted the angle of his shield and forced the monster toward one side, preventing it from escaping left or right.
"Now, Lee Soyeon! Freeze the ground under it!"
Chaeho's short, firm voice echoed through the gorge.
Lee Soyeon, who had been waiting behind them, immediately thrust her staff forward.
Blue mana erupted from her fingertips.
"Freeze!"
A wave of freezing air spread across the ground.
With loud cracking sounds, the rough stone beneath the Beast King transformed into a thick sheet of ice.
"Grrr?"
The monster instinctively expanded its muscles to change direction.
Normally, it would have immediately altered its path and attacked from a blind spot.
But its injured right hind leg became a problem.
The moment the Beast King shifted its weight to turn, its foot slipped across the ice.
Its support gave way.
The enormous beast lost its balance and leaned heavily to one side.
"Nice!"
Jo Mingyu shouted in delight and drew his bow.
Tw.a.n.g! Tw.a.n.g! Tw.a.n.g!
Several arrows cut through the air.
They struck directly into the open wound on the Beast King's right hind leg as it struggled on the ice.
"KYAAAAAGH!"
The Beast King screamed.
The arrows tore deeper into the already-open wound.
Dark red blood splashed over the ice and froze against its surface.
But Chaeho didn't move.
His sword remained ready in his hand.
Not yet.
If he rushed in now, he would get caught in the creature's desperate struggle.
The final resistance of a beast driven mad by pain was often far more dangerous and persistent than expected.
"Seo Eunbyeol, keep healing Hunter Park!"
Chaeho calmly controlled the battlefield.
"Jo Mingyu, just keep pressuring it. Don't let it stand!"
Rather than forcing an attack, he waited for the monster's strength to drain away.
The Beast King thrashed across the ice.
It desperately tried to regain its stance, but the slippery ground and throbbing leg refused to cooperate.
The killing intent in its eyes gradually changed into desperation and madness.
Eventually, the Beast King's patience ran out.
It squeezed every bit of remaining strength from its body.
BOOOOM!
One massive front paw slammed into the ground and shattered the ice.
Fragments exploded outward like a snowstorm.
Using the recoil, the beast forced its body into the air.
The violent movement tore its injured leg open even further, sending blood pouring down like a waterfall.
But the Beast King didn't care.
It launched itself toward Jo Mingyu, who had been continuously firing arrows.
"Holy shit!"
Jo Mingyu recoiled in horror and stumbled backward.
But the Beast King's posture was already broken.
It had paid the price for forcing a leap with an injured leg.
Its huge body shook violently in midair, its balance completely unstable.
Chaeho's eyes sharpened.
Now.
[Time Slow].
The world stretched.
The ice fragments flying through the air seemed to stop.
Jo Mingyu's terrified expression froze.
Even Park Junhyeok's attempt to raise his shield became as still as a photograph.
Chaeho focused entirely on the Beast King struggling in midair.
Its gaze is unstable.
Its muscle contractions are completely out of balance.
The monster twisted desperately, trying to prepare itself for landing.
As it did, the hard black stone plates covering its body began shifting out of position.
There.
The gap between its neck and chest.
The thickest armor plates had been forced apart by the unnatural twisting.
Red flesh pulsed beneath them.
A blood vessel was completely exposed.
Chaeho calculated everything.
Where the monster would land.
The reach of its claws.
The blind spot he needed to enter.
The calculation took less than a second.
He deactivated [Time Slow] and kicked off the ground.
The world snapped back to normal speed.
"Chaeho!"
Someone shouted urgently.
But Chaeho was already inside the Beast King's lower blind spot.
Its enormous claw tore through the air just above his shoulder with a terrifying sound.
His hair scattered in the wind.
Chaeho didn't blink.
There.
The opening between the stone plates.
He violently twisted his waist and drove a strike forward with his full body weight.
The sharp tip of his one-handed sword plunged directly into the exposed flesh of the monster's neck.
THUNK!
The dull sensation of piercing tough hide traveled through his hands.
Chaeho kept the sword buried inside and rolled his body along the direction of the monster's falling weight.
The blade tore a long path through the Beast King's neck, creating a fatal wound.
"Grrrrrrrk...!"
Bloody foam poured from its mouth.
Its eyes rapidly lost focus.
Dark red blood sprayed from its neck like a fountain, brushing across Chaeho's cheek before splattering onto the ground.
The enormous creature crashed down.
BOOOOOOM!
The earth shook.
A thick cloud of dust rose around it.
"Now! Give it everything!"
Chaeho shouted as he escaped the dust cloud.
At his signal, the rear-line hunters unleashed all their remaining firepower.
"Die already, you damn monster!"
Jo Mingyu gathered all the mana he had left and fired three arrows at once.
They streaked forward like lightning and buried themselves deep into the monster's back.
"Haaah!"
Lee Soyeon swung her staff and created several sharp ice spears in rapid succession.
They pierced the Beast King's body.
Every impact produced loud cracks that echoed throughout the gorge.
"Move!"
Park Junhyeok stepped in and brutally smashed the edge of his heavy shield down onto the monster's skull.
BOOM! BANG!
The Beast King's body gave one final violent twitch.
Then it went limp.
The unpleasant mana pressure surrounding the monster vanished as though it had never existed.
The dust slowly settled.
Only the party members' heavy breathing remained in the gorge.
"Haa... haa..."
Park Junhyeok lowered his shield and collapsed onto the ground.
His entire body was covered in sweat, dirt, and monster blood.
His hands were still trembling around the shield handle.
Jo Mingyu also lowered his bow and swallowed dryly.
"That thing... it's dead, right?"
"Yes."
Chaeho kept his eyes on the Beast King's corpse while flicking the blood from his sword.
"It's dead."
The movement looked casual, but even the scraps clinging to the blade were cleanly shaken away.
As usual, his expression remained calm.
He looked around.
Blood from the monster was pooling across the ground, but fortunately, none of the party members appeared seriously injured.
"Wow... this is insane."
Jo Mingyu stumbled closer and lightly kicked the Beast King's corpse.
"That thing was stronger than an ordinary B-rank boss just a minute ago, and now it's lying here like this."
He looked at Chaeho.
"Chaeho, what the hell was that just now? How did you get in there while it was in the air?"
"The armor opened when it twisted its body too hard."
Chaeho answered casually, carefully avoiding any mention of his skill.
"I got lucky."
"Lucky, my ass."
Jo Mingyu stared at him in disbelief.
"How do you even see an opening at that speed? If you weren't here, all of us would've ended up inside that thing's stomach."
Park Junhyeok shook his head as he caught his breath.
"I agree."
He looked toward the shattered ice.
"Seriously, once we followed your instructions, even when that monster started going crazy, there was always something we could do."
Lee Soyeon smiled despite her pale face.
She had spent so much mana that she was using her staff to support herself, but relief filled her voice.
"Freezing the ground and making it lose balance... that was perfect."
Chaeho calmly redirected the praise.
"I only created the opening."
He looked toward Park Junhyeok.
"If Hunter Park hadn't held it from the front, and if Soyeon and Mingyu hadn't attacked at exactly the right timing, none of this would've worked."
It was true.
He couldn't have defeated such a vicious creature this cleanly alone.
The result had only been possible because his party members trusted his judgment and followed his plan.
"You're too modest."
Park Junhyeok lightly punched his own chest.
"No matter how much the rest of us practiced together, it wouldn't matter if nobody could identify the decisive moment like you did."
He smiled tiredly.
"I learned something today."
There was deep trust toward Chaeho in his expression.
Chaeho gave a faint smile.
For someone as reserved as him, it was a fairly positive reaction.
"Then we've caught our breath."
His gaze moved toward the grotesque corpse.
"Let's check the rewards."
A mutated individual.
It had been far more dangerous than an ordinary B-rank monster.
Naturally, the magic stone and materials inside its body would also be worth far more.
"Look at that shell."
Jo Mingyu's eyes lit up again as he approached.
"If we strip all of that off, that's enough material for several sets of armor."
"Be careful while dismantling it."
Chaeho stepped back.
"It's so hard that ordinary blades probably won't even scratch it."
He quietly watched the others begin collecting materials.
Today's battle had clearly shown him how efficiently he could divide the use of [Time Slow], as well as how effective his new equipment was.
No matter how fast or unpredictable a monster's movements were, physical limitations always existed.
Seeing through those limits.
Controlling that single critical instant.
Once again, Chaeho confirmed that the path he had chosen wasn't wrong.
He took out the mana recovery potion he had kept for himself and handed it to Seo Eunbyeol.
"Here, Seo Eunbyeol."
She looked up in surprise.
"You're not hurt anywhere, right? Drink this after you rest for a bit. For now, just catch your breath."
"Ah, yes! Thank you!"
A cold wind swept through the gorge and scattered the smell of blood.
After surviving a life-threatening fight, the party members were strangely energetic.
The achievement of overcoming such a massive wall was written clearly across their faces.
My first official B-rank raid.
Chaeho took the old handkerchief his parents had bought him from his pocket and wiped the blood from the handle of his sword.
