Task Force Secret Weapon (4)

It was not unusual for the last remnants of humanity (or those who thought they were the last) to leave a record of their world in some form. They were already aware of the existence of other worlds, given their conflict with Jormungand, so they created a special gate that contained their will. This was the record of destruction that they had found.

“With that, it’s over. There will be a boss showing up.”

“Whoo… okay.” They bet on someone with the right strength finding the records. Thus, they set up this complex trap and set monsters to guard it. Kang Shin-hyuk wasn’t all that surprised that this gate could be part of another world, but he was rather excited to find some means to fight the group called Jormungand.

“Get ready.” The last tombstone accepted Shin Eunah’s mana and sunk into the ground. The magic circle around them began to emit a dark blue light that filled the cavern.

-Coooo…

It was a type of monster that had yet to be seen in the dungeon so far; its strange cry echoed around them. At first glance, it was a monstrous cow with a blue metallic body, looking almost like a Gorgon, but Kang Shin-hyuk quickly realized that wasn’t correct. Its insides appeared to be empty, and blue light was emitting irregularly out from it. The outer armor was engraved with a complex magic circle that he had never seen before, causing the cow’s body to float in the air.

“Golem?”

“It might be some sort of living armor. Be careful!” Shin Eunah suddenly shouted out a warning. Kang Shin-hyuk quickly moved in response, narrowly avoiding a flash of blue lightning that exploded out where he had just been standing.

-Coo…

Recognizing its attack had missed, the enemy slowly turned its head to Kang Shin-hyuk. A spark of some alien intelligence sprang up in the bull’s empty eyes.

“Kh!” This time he leaped without needing a warning from Shin Eunah, once more dodging the lightning strike. He couldn’t compare to Shin Eunah, but at least with spiritual power, he could hold his own against this boss.

-Coo…!

“I’ll do it!”

“No.” Noticing that the enemy was of a clearly higher level than him, Shin Eunah immediately stepped out to intervene. Kang Shin-hyuk refused her help, however.

“If it gets dangerous, then I’ll ask.” The lightning fell towards him once more, but he was a bit too late. He mobilized using Wind Mastery to move, but the attack still grazed him.

‘But it doesn’t hurt? I felt like I heard something shatter…’ He realized that it must have been the new ability of the Godslayer sword, Guardian. It would automatically create a shield when an attack would hit the wielder’s body, so the shield appeared even though it was in a subspace.

‘But I can’t just rely on that.’ It would protect him with the spiritual power stored in it, but he couldn’t expect it to last forever.

‘Don’t get hit twice.’ Despite its strength, it couldn’t fire off two bolts of lightning in a row, so that was the best time to attack. Kang Shin-hyuk strengthened the Venom Princess Soul as much as possible with his own traits and threw five poisonous spider threads out into it. Given its attacks, he ruled out the lightning web as useful.

-Cuuooooo

“Kh…” The threads bounced off in vain. He fired them off again after avoiding another bolt, trying to strengthen the poison in them as much as he could. He could feel the armor absorb his web and the energy within it.

‘It’s the same ability as the Great Heavenly Spirit.’ It was a fairly passive ability compared to that, but it was enough to stop his webs. He tried the black tiger dagger, but that also bounced off. At least it wasn’t absorbed. He began to wonder if he should try the Godslayer, although its rank right now was lower than his glove.

‘No, though…’ Just because it was a bit tricky didn’t mean he needed to rely on the sword right away. Shin Eunah was also nearby to save him in case of an emergency, so wasn’t this a great situation to analyze the enemy and learn? His armor was ridiculously hard, and it had that lightning attack, but it couldn’t keep it up forever. Kang Shin-hyuk believed so as he kept evading.

-Cuuoooooo…!

The armored bull’s cries rang throughout the cavern. It was growing angry with Kang Shin-hyuk, who kept evading its lightning. That was enough evidence that its abilities weren’t infinite.

“His agility is S-rank with his artifact’s ability, but how is he able to avoid it so easily…?” Lightning kept bursting out from inside the barrier to scratch at the ground, narrowly missing Kang Shin-hyuk. Shin Eunah was seated nearby, carefully watching to ensure his life wasn’t in danger.

‘Is it spiritual power?’ It was clear to her that he was using spiritual power, at least in some capacity, to evade.

‘If so…’ If the enemy also dealt with spiritual power, wouldn’t that be a way to confront it directly? The spiritual power it had was probably greater than Shin-hyuk’s, but with the aid of the Shinfeng orb or the Great Heavenly Spirit, he had no reason to fear a head-on collision with spiritual power.

-Cuooooo!

“Hoo!” He avoided three lightning strikes in a row, throwing off another dagger with a spider web attached towards the bull. This time, however, his spiritual power stretched out with it. Information began to flow into his mind roughly.

‘It’s more of a sentient artifact than a monster. Its name is…blue cow in Korean. That was the name given to it by the Belatos. I can’t read any memories beyond that.’ It seemed possible that it wasn’t created in Belatos, however. It also seemed to be stronger than it was in the memories, although he wasn’t sure why. That wasn’t important; however, all that mattered was how to defeat it. His eyes flashed gold as he attempted to restrain and weaken the enemy with his own spiritual power. It was only for a moment, but the monster was clearly slowed down.

-Gwoooooo!

The artifact quickly realized what he was trying to do and shouted in anger, striking itself with lightning.

“Ha.” With that, the connection of spiritual power was cut off as sparks careened off of the blue cow. The magic circle engraved onto it was flashing rapidly, and Kang Shin-hyuk wondered if that was its power source.

-Kooooowooooo!

It rushed through space, slamming into the barrier behind Kang Shin-hyuk as he leaped out of the way. He had been able to read the flow of spiritual power just in time.

“Crazy!” He wondered if the energy consumption of the artifact would be worse with it rushing with lightning flowing around it, but it didn’t really matter, given the speed it had done so.

‘It’s dangerous as is.’ Kang Shin-hyuk recovered his spiritual power, but it wasn’t enough to approach this enemy wrapped in blue sparks. It seemed to be absorbing more energy now, too, having taken some of his spiritual power. He felt that was somehow unacceptable, and he ground his teeth as he kept dodging.

‘What to do…’ He reached out again with his spiritual power, letting the bull absorb it. But this time, he didn’t let it dissipate and instead used it to wander around inside the bull. He recalled the moment he had repaired the Shinfeng orb as he did so. It might have just been an illusion, but for a moment, it felt like his spiritual power took on the form of a golden dragon.

‘Huh?’ At that moment, a brief image popped into his mind. It was an image of the last Belatos, who made this gate, with the blue cow. He was using his magical power to control the cow, albeit clumsily.

Only

‘That’s it!’ With that firmly in mind, the golden dragon swelled up with spiritual power inside of the empty armor of the blue cow. It couldn’t absorb the energy as it overflowed around the magic circle engraved into its skin.

-Chiiing!

The magic circle broke, and parts of it vanished with an audible sound. It wasn’t difficult to erase, as the controls were poorly made. Kang Shin-hyuk could feel he had lost some of his spiritual power, but now it was easy to force the blue cow to stop moving.

-Kuoooo…

The sparks also vanished as it let out one more fading cry. His spiritual power was carving into both the outside and inside of its body in such a way that even Shin Eunah couldn’t understand.

“I thought you were going to fight…huh?” The barrier disappeared, and Shin Eunah’s eyes went wide. The blue cow was still there, but the barrier was gone. That meant the battle was over.

“Done.” Kang Shin-hyuk let out a laugh as he poured the last of his power into the cow.

“Now, I have a ride.”