Chapter 192
Chapter 192: To the Ends of the Earth (5)
“Whew…”
Min Yu-ri exhaled deeply.
In the end, she held her breath and pulled back the bowstring.
Aiming at Im Min-soo or Jerry with a magically sharpened arrowhead.
Thwong!
Letting go of the drawn bowstring.
The arrow that had been waiting to be fired sliced through the air.
“Quieeek!”
Monsters rushed to block the flying arrow.
Many of them threw themselves into the path of the arrow, trying to intercept it with all their strength.
Because of that, quite a number of arrows got stuck halfway, but…
Pababababak!
Pababababak!
Pababababak!!
They couldn’t block all the arrows that were continuously shot without rest.
Like a car overflowing with oil can keep racing until it breaks down.
Min Yu-ri, brimming with magical energy, lavishly invested her magic toward her target.
[Shape Change – Rope]
[Shape Change – Rope]
[Shape Change – Rope]
…
…
Ropes cascaded down like a net, targeting Im Min-soo and Jerry.
Jerry yawned even while dodging the ropes with nonchalance.
Im Min-soo, who had been moving around noisily like he was tap dancing on a bird’s back, suddenly huffed in annoyance.
“Could you stop being such a nuisance?!”
Many monsters glared at Min Yu-ri in response to their master’s emotional shift.
The situation drew considerable attention toward the ranged dealer.
For Yoo Ji-han, this wasn’t such a bad situation.
Feeling at ease, given that Kim Hyun-tae’s party was fiercely clashing with the monsters.
“Chik…!”
Thung! Thung!
Caw!
Chilla blocked the party members’ front.
Adjusting his shield position in real-time, he protected them from attacks coming from various angles.
“Keyiik!”
“Chirp chirp!!”
Thwoo!
The monsters that approached closely were pushed back with force.
Many of them were larger than Chilla, like hippos transformed into monsters, but.
Having become stronger somehow, they couldn’t easily be pushed back while holding a shield.
“Awesome!”
“Chirp, chirp!”
Chilla croaked in response to Kim Si-hu’s praise.
Although he couldn’t use skills like those employed by tankers like Hwang Joon-ho.
His unexpectedly agile movements for such a large body complemented that greatly.
“Chilla! I’m going in like a cannon!”
“Chirp!”
Yoo Ji-han, all buffed up after dealing with monsters for a while, jumped towards Chilla.
Chilla presented his shield toward the oncoming him.
Just as Yoo Ji-han’s foot made contact with the surface of the shield.
“Chirp!!”
Chilla, whose center of gravity leaned back while hunched over, pushed the shield forward with a cute shout.
At the same moment, Yoo Ji-han used [Wind Bomb] between the shield and his body, launching himself upwards.
Paaaan—!
Yoo Ji-han shot through the air, comparable to Min Yu-ri’s arrows.
Ignoring his clothes fluttering in the wind,
he closed the distance between himself and Jerry, who was flying.
“Kyah! Here he comes!”
Jerry, riding on a bat, shouted as she saw Yoo Ji-han flying toward her.
Her reaction was akin to a teenage girl meeting her favorite celebrity.
Rather than being displeased, she seemed happy facing the enemy.
‘She really isn’t normal.’
Without evading Yoo Ji-han, Jerry extended her arms to welcome him.
Instantly, chills ran down Yoo Ji-han’s arms, making him want to pull back his body.
“Were you really eager to meet me? Right?”
Thwack!
Two daggers that had slipped out from the sleeves of Jerry’s T-shirt were caught in her hands.
Immediately, those forward-thrust twin daggers deflected Yoo Ji-han’s strike.
Caw!
Yoo Ji-han’s powerful thrust, enhanced by strong force, pushed Jerry back significantly.
However, she held her position without falling off the bat.
Similarly, Yoo Ji-han, standing on the bat, remained wary of her.
“Why did you let me ride? You could’ve easily tossed me off.”
“That would be boring.”
“….”
“Do you know how much I’ve worried about you? Huh? Why are you making me worry like this!”
Jerry pouted like a girlfriend upset with her boyfriend directed at Yoo Ji-han.
“Why would you worry about me?”
“Because you’re mine!”
“Get lost.”
Though Yoo Ji-han promptly rejected Jerry’s unilateral claim,
she instead wore a charming smile and said,
“Don’t be like that, just trust me for a day. From that day, your preferences will change to me….”
“I don’t want to have such a terrible experience.”
“Terrible? You just haven’t met a girl like me yet. Once you try it, your thoughts will change!”
“I really don’t want to change my thoughts.”
“Right… You need to have some fun bouncing around like that, seriously!”
Swish!
As Jerry finished her retort, she charged at Yoo Ji-han.
Yoo Ji-han calmly parried the daggers that flew at him like a surprise attack.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Hah! Hahaha!”
Using her aura-infused twin daggers, Jerry swung at Yoo Ji-han while laughing maniacally.
Despite the tingling shock felt in her hands with each clash of blades,
her laughter only grew louder and more cheerful.
Clang! Clang! Clang!!
In the midst of a rapidly unfolding battle atop the bat,
Yoo Ji-han focused on attacking Jerry’s left hand with his sword.
Thwack!
After a series of failed attempts to land a hit, when Jerry lost one of her daggers,
Yoo Ji-han kicked the dropped dagger away and swung his sword toward her now-vulnerable left hand.
Just then, Jerry attempted to block with the dagger in her right hand.
—Hah!
At that moment, Sylph, who had been waiting for such a timing,
unleashed a powerful gust of wind, redirecting Yoo Ji-han’s sword and distorting its trajectory.
Swish!
With the combined attack from the spirit, Jerry winced as her arm was slashed.
But she didn’t lose her smile and clung to Yoo Ji-han.
“What was that just now? Show me that again!”
“…!”
Ignoring the injury on her body, Jerry kept up her aggressive onslaught.
Yoo Ji-han frowned at her persistence.
—Down!
Just then, Sylph announced a warning.
Poof!
A dagger shot out from beneath the bat Yoo Ji-han was standing on.
Jerry manipulated the dagger that fell below, piercing the bat’s belly and out its back in one go.
If he hadn’t hurried to retreat, his feet would’ve been split in two had he stood still.
“Wow, you avoided that?”
“Biiih…”
The bat, having a hole punctured in its belly, let out a small cry before stopping its flapping.
As a result, both Jerry and Yoo Ji-han began to fall slowly downwards.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Even while falling through the air, Jerry continued attacking Yoo Ji-han with her controlled daggers.
The twin daggers hovered in mid-air, moving as if Jerry were wielding them with her hands, pressing him hard.
Yoo Ji-han, who had been chasing after Jerry, clicked his tongue lightly and pulled away.
“Ugh!”
As Jerry fell, she hopped onto another bat.
The swarm of bats behind her acted as a means of transportation she could switch to anytime.
Im Min-soo, flying alongside Jerry, commented,
“You’re hurt again.”
“Ah, no going back now!”
“I’m sure you’ll get scolded, whether I mention it or not.”
“Aww…”
Jerry was worried about receiving a scolding from her companions.
If it got out that she got hurt again because of Yoo Ji-han, the freedom she enjoyed now would vanish.
While that was happening, Im Min-soo looked down at the heroes.
“The resistance is fiercer than I expected.”
He thought he could take down about ten with ease.
Jerry had been hurt again, and not a single hero had fallen yet.
Did he underestimate these fame-holding heroes too much?
“Are you planning on heading back already?”
“No. I’m using that here, so please help.”
“Uh! …Then you must absolutely not let our selves die!”
“Hoho, remember that.”
While Jerry and Im Min-soo were chatting among themselves,
Yoo Ji-han, who was looking for another opportunity to approach them, tilted his head.
The two suddenly raised their right arms overhead.
‘What’s that? Is it a signal?’
An unease suddenly surged within him.
To prove that unease, Min Yu-ri shouted,
“Something’s coming from that way!”
She pointed her hand toward the sky.
In the sky was an unusual, densely dark cloud.
That cloud rapidly approached them at a speed incomparable to other clouds.
“…?”
Yoo Ji-han widened his eyes, staring at the black cloud.
A moment later, as it drew a bit closer, he realized.
“It’s mosquitoes.”
“Eek!”
That was no ordinary cloud.
It was a cloud of countless mosquitoes clustered together.
‘You can even control mosquitoes?!’
Disturbing the sleep of modern humans in summer,
and in regions like Africa and Central and South America, it claims tens of thousands of lives every year.
Although they might surpass monsters, being the most lethal creatures against humans on Earth,
they also have gone unrecorded as transformed monsters.
“How many are there…!”
An unmeasurable swarm of mosquitoes appeared to the naked eye.
Yoo Ji-han spoke to the visibly flustered Kim Si-hu.
“Burn them all!”
Whoosh!
Kim Si-hu immediately shot a massive fireball at the swarm of mosquitoes.
Lim Si-yeon of Kim Hyun-tae’s party didn’t hold back either, attacking the mosquito swarm with fire magic.
Whooooosh!
But it seemed the mosquito swarm had fire resistance.
They easily pierced through the flames and advanced forward.
Just as the increasingly closer mosquitoes reached near them.
Paaaan—
The cluster of mosquitoes that had been bound together spread out in all directions.
Shadows of them wriggled over the scorching sun, creating a slight darkness.
“Babe! I’m sorry!”
“…?”
“Just know that I didn’t want to win this way at least!”
Jerry’s apology, filled with certainty of victory.
Her tone implied that she didn’t want to use this method.
Wiiing! Wiiing! Wheeee!
The annoying buzzing of the mosquitoes bombarded their ears.
Though their size wasn’t much different from regular mosquitoes.
Each of them harbored magical power.
[Water Blast]
[Lightning Dance]
Even dousing them with water and raining electric magic didn’t faze them.
Even Min Yu-ri’s magical arrows yielded disappointingly poor results.
Thus, Yoo Ji-han realized.
Not only were they strong against specific elements, but they also possessed potent magical resistance.
‘No wonder they seemed so relaxed.’
He hadn’t encountered quite as powerful a magical resistant monster in his life.
Their one common weakness was that they were all weak against physical force.
So it meant hitting them directly was the solution.
However, trying to smack down each and every one of these small, numerous mosquitoes was no ordinary task.
“Hey, Lim Si-yeon! Attack with any magic!”
“Wait a second!”
“Just get rid of those damn mosquitoes!”
While the Kim Hyun-tae party couldn’t come up with a clear countermeasure,
Yoo Ji-han scanned the surroundings rapidly, searching for an escape route.
Bringing a party heavily reliant on magic into a frontal conflict was unfavorable.
He was thinking of making a quick getaway from this spot.
“Bro! Let me try something.”
“…?”
Just then, Kim Si-hu emerged from behind Chilla’s shield.
He wore a face that appeared resolute.
Noticing the unusual atmosphere, Yoo Ji-han asked.
“What do you plan to do?”
“Just watch. …If I fail, I’ll follow your orders immediately.”
Swoosh.
Kim Si-hu’s staff pointed toward the mosquito-filled sky.
“Gra, ete, sio.”
“…!”
Then, from his lips flowed,
the incantation he had recited when defeating the Barbarian in the department store’s theater.
Recognizing that, Yoo Ji-han’s eyes widened.
Shuuh—
Kim Si-hu’s magic began to boil like bubbling water.
As those who sensed a minor change looked up at the sky.
“Ah.”
Above, where mosquitoes filled the sky.
A thin curve woven from slender branches and green grass was being drawn.
