You Know (4)

“What is this?!”

“Hold the center!” All of the energy within the gate was being absorbed into the falling scythe through the earth. Thanks to that, the ordinary people without skills and the superhumans who lacked training were staggering without balance atop the changing ground.

-Pull it out!

-Kill him!

The dwarves rushed to Kang Shin-hyuk, throwing themselves at him without hesitation despite the shield of rotating blades around him. As the blades dulled from their bodies, they could begin to see Kang Shin-hyuk within.

“Ha.” Kang Shin-hyuk didn’t budge from his spot. He raised the power of his wind, adding it to the blades. The wind was golden in hue as it grew stronger and sharper. At the same time, he was working on extracting the gate’s energy with the falling scythe. It felt like his head might explode from doing the two tasks at once. It would’ve been impossible if it weren’t for his trait, assisting him in all actions related to combat.

-The proficiency of Golden Dragon (SS+) has grown to A+. Golden Dragon Fighter has grown to S+.

With that thought, the proficiency of his trait and skill grew. The rotation of the blades, which was slowing down, accelerated once more to throw away the screaming dwarves.

“Shin Eun-hyuk is doing something.”

“We have to protect him!”

“Another giant has appeared!”

“Defend, no…damn it!” The hall was dominated by chaos. Unable to stop it in time, poison began to spew out from the new poisoner that had appeared.

“It’s poison.”

“It can’t be blocked even with artifacts…”

“Oh god…” Perhaps it was similar to the poison from the fourteenth floor. Kang Shin-hyuk, even with his resist poison at A+ rank, felt a bit dizzy the moment it spread out. However, he was able to resist it.

‘Damn, three in an instant.’ Most of the high-rankers had thorough defenses against poison, but the poison spreading out now exceeded that. Of course, the falling scythe was sucking up all of the energy inside of the gate, but it was impossible to prevent it from spreading completely.

‘I can’t stop now. Damn it…Baek?’ It was a useless worry. Worthy of being the successor of Baekyang, Baek In-ha was moving as fast as he could even in this situation. Quickly rescuing the incapacitated rankers, attacking the giants, and even trying to prevent the further spread of the poison. His ability was staggering.

‘I’ve seen it before, but it’s still amazing. He must’ve been tired from fighting the other students.’ It was hard to believe he was only seventeen. With those idle thoughts, he could feel something set off inside himself.

-Member, an antidote! It can’t be completely resisted with your current skills alone.

“…Yeah.” Kang Shin-hyuk urgently purchased and downed a high-level antidote, clearing the dizziness away. That was when he finally noticed the dwarves around him.

“Ah.”

-Kuoooo!

He accelerated the blade shield’s rotation to cut down all the enemies near him. Cloning the scythe and manipulating it with the wind wouldn’t last forever, however. He could feel his spiritual power being blown away little by little.

‘I’m still okay, but the big boss of this gate hasn’t appeared yet…’ The poison spreading across the battlefield was neutralizing the combatants one by one. He clenched his jaw and held the scythe firm. He would have to deal with the boss alone. An SS-class gate boss. It was a funny thought to him. Even with the energy of the gate absorbed, there was no guarantee he could beat it. However, that was a superhuman’s duty.

-No!

-Our land…we have to get it back!

A few more minutes passed of dwarves throwing themselves against the shield before the gate lost its power, and the erosion ceased. Screams echoed out everywhere as the dwarves collapsed and began to convulse. The poison keepers also lost their strength and fell to the ground, unable to spread poison anymore.

-Well done, member. The gate is collapsing!

“Hah…haah!” Kang Shin-hyuk pulled the falling scythe out from the ground, breathing heavily. He used the Great Heavenly Spirit to clean up the poisonous energy because he disconnected it from the scythe. While he did that, the environment that had been eroded by the gate returned to its original state, revealing the marble floor of the thirteenth floor of the French Superhuman Association’s HQ.

‘If that happens, I won’t receive the bonus from fighting inside of the gate…!’

-It’s much better to deal with the boss monster outside of the gate, member.

The administrator was right. Kang Shin-hyuk tried to measure the total amount of energy currently held in the falling scythe. It felt like it might explode, as the energy inside it was protruding and fluttering around hazily. It was maintained by a golden hue around it, however.

“We’re back!”

“All survivors escape to a safe place! There is still poisonous energy here…good luck!” The others were beginning to pick themselves up and hurry around. Although they hadn’t been in the gate for long, 70% of their numbers had been killed or incapacitated. Shin-hyuk would be happy if that were the end of it, but something must appear at the end of the gate.

-Oooooh…

“What…”

“Run away!”

“Ahhhhh!” A giant monster was slowly revealing itself from where the gate had appeared.

-The named boss monster of the 41st Barracks, Poison Mist (SS+), has appeared. Be careful! It is an extremely high-level enemy!

“SS+…” Kang Shin-hyuk had a silly expression on his face upon reading the message. This giant of a monster had mouths with jagged teeth all over its body or at least the parts that could be seen given its size. It looked vaguely hazy, too, making it hard to recognize. If it weren’t for his spiritual power, it would’ve been hard to recognize properly.

-Oooooh…!

It was breaking the ceiling with its giant body of about ten meters. It was vibrating as it emitted a strange sound, causing a light mist to cover its body. There were two good things, however. One was that the boss had weakened thanks to Kang Shin-hyuk collapsing the gate. The second was that the boss monster was currently dealing with the tight space around it.

-The gate on the twelfth floor is keeping it from collapsing. That was lucky. If it weren’t for the gates, the building would have collapsed from that monster.

“But that means we’re sandwiched between two gates now. To think I have to experience these ridiculous things…”

-Wooooohhhhh…

It was almost funny to watch the giant monster stumble around, unable to stand up properly beneath the ceiling.

“It’s open, attack!” Kang Shin-hyuk shouted instinctively, cutting through the strange silence, and everyone’s confused. He held the growing scythe in hand. The blades continued to rotate around him without losing their strength, striking at the gray body of the giant as he ran in.

-Guooooooh!

A hazy fog burst out from it. It would be nice if it were just a mist, but it clearly wasn’t. It spread through the air with magical power, a dangerous poison that threatened everyone around it. It would consume the magical power and stamina of all who came into contact with it.

“What?!”

“The poison bursts out just by attacking. If you don’t have resistance, fall back!”

Only

“Damn Jormungand…!” The poisonous mist didn’t give them any time to stand by and swear lazily. It spread fast, only barely visible, and highly lethal. Two more high-rankers knelt, unable to contend with it.

“Kahak…this poison…damn…!”

“This isn’t possible…these Jormungand guys are different from before…!” Everyone could feel it. The conflict with the monsters…today, here in Paris, the real war between humans and monsters had begun.

“We can’t fight it!”

“So we just run away and let it loose into Paris? What nonsense!”

“As long as the gate on the fourteenth floor is cleared…damn!” The survivors began to retreat despite saying things like that. Only three or four high-rankers were standing up, albeit barely.

“Fuck, even if it wasn’t poisonous…” It was a deadly poison that would make those with stronger magical power suffer even more. In the midst of all that suffering…

Only Kang Shin-hyuk, who had no magical power, could stand without falling.