Chapter 111 - The Last String (2)

Salon smiled at his sudden luck.

He had always been thirsty for attention from users.

Right then, all of the spotlights were focused on him. He felt as if he'd become the protagonist of the quest.

Technically, he wasn't wrong. After all, there were millions of people looking at him.

The sight of Salon doing his best to protect a Heavens’ NPC girl made him look like a hero.

That vivid scene that surpassed movies made users so excited that they couldn't take their eyes off the screen.

Rather than focusing on the agonizing deaths of NPCs, the channels preferred focusing on a user fighting until the end.

「I'll leave it to you for a second!」 Hyun said to him through the soul.

Louise had been exposed to the attacks of several skeleton mages.

Salon felt the foreign sensation disappearing from his body.

As Hyun «Disassimilated», he got control again.

—Hyun had decided to alternate between Louise and Salon.

Salon understood how «Assimilation» worked.

Basically, it gave the power to control your character to the other person.

'Well, I guess I can't stay still. Right?'

After taking a glimpse at the messages, Salon smiled.

[1836 combo! You've achieved a new record!]

His body felt light.

He had a pair of destructive lights, one in each hand.

It was the lights coming out from the shortswords that had been fortified thanks to «Trance».

Salon began swinging the swords trying to remember the movements he'd just seen.

Although he was still a bit clumsy, Salon tried his best to copy Hyun's movements and danced through the air.

«Vision Sword»!

On the other hand, a giant sword made of light appeared in Louise's hands.

Louise turned around a swung the grand sword.

All of the flames flying in her direction exploded in the air simultaneously.

They were all cut off by a single sword attack.

Then she used the «Vision Sword» as a shield to cover herself up.

Ring-! All of the arrows bounced away.

Some ghosts tried to snatch Louise away.

Clink-!

The ghosts disappeared after making mournful cries.

Salon stood with an inspired expression on his face where the ghosts had disappeared.

「How was that?」 Salon asked when Hyun used «Assimilation» on him again.

Hyun nodded shortly.

「Just do it like that.」

「I'm a fast learner!」

Salon's ability to control his body was better than he’d thought.

Thanks to that, Hyun could think more about Louise's safety.

The scenery in front of them had changed after the number of combos had surpassed 2000.

The party crossed the city and entered an empty place.

The number of monsters hadn't decreased at all.

No, it had increased.

After all the magic circles were turned off, it had become a territory of the Abyss.

'This isn't good.'

There, there weren't any obstacles. It was a bad place to react to attacks.

For someone that was being followed, it was a fatal place.

But they'd have to pass through that place to reach Radiette.

What did he have to do to go through safely?

While he was thinking about that, he narrowed his eyes.

He saw the silhouettes of two people fighting near the horizon.

He soon realized who they were.

'Practice and Jini!'

Because they were far away, he couldn't see their faces.

But just looking at their silhouettes was enough to know who they were.

They were fighting a lich—a monster that could control the undead!

Jini was using «Bind» to restrain the monster, and Practice attacked it and then backed off.

"Haha..."

Hyun smiled joyfully.

They weren't going to be able to defeat the lich.

They would soon die.

But just dragging its attention was good enough.

Thanks to them, the army of undead had lost their commander and began fighting against each other.

Practice and Jini had accepted Hyun's sudden proposal.

Thanks to their sacrifice, he was able to go through what seemed like the gates of hell.

AIN: Go to the left!

He heard Ain's voice again.

She kept telling Hyun what road to take.

AIN: I'm checking the time, so don't worry about it.

LeeSeoHyun: How much time do we have left?

AIN: More than enough. You still have two minutes left.

LeeSeoHyun: Thanks!

A spark of hope had begun burning within Hyun's heart.

Even while running, he kept analyzing all the possible variables.

He was thinking about the safest way to reach Radiette.

"Louise, run up the waterway."

"Over the water...?"

"That's probably the safest option we have now."

"I've never done it... But I'll try it."

Determined, Louise changed her direction toward the waterway.

Poof-! Poof-! The sight of Louise running over the water resembled a skipping stone.

Her skill, «Steps of the Wind», which used the reaction of the air to move, created a stream of water under her feet.

Running over the water was more effective than he thought it’d be.

Thanks to Jini and Practice, the undead had lost their commander.

That meant that, as long as he could seal the left side, he would be able to take Louise to a safe place.

'We're going to be able to meet Radiette!'

Ain kept telling him the correct direction so they wouldn't get lost.

The direction was correct, and they had more than enough time.

Salon's combo had already surpassed 3000.

Even if the combo was reset, he was sure he'd be able to take Louise to Radiette.

Was there a saying that said good luck and bad luck came together?

AIN: Hyun, a Reaper! There's one on your way. If you move at this speed, you should see it in 30 seconds...!

Ain's voice suddenly became urgent.

'A Reaper...!'

Hyun's eyes sank.

He knew the Reapers better than anyone.

They were monsters that answered to one of the three great demons. They were beings that lived on the floor of hell. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they represented death to the people of the game’s world.

Even if the Empire's Knight Commander fought against one, victory wasn't guaranteed.

In other words, it was an opponent that no user should be able to beat at that point in the game.

「Is there a problem?」

Salon felt Hyun's worries.

He didn't know yet that feelings were shared with «Assimilation», but just judging by Hyun's atmosphere, he was able to guess that something bad was about to happen.

「It's a Reaper.」

「Reaper? Is it the name of a monster? I haven't studied much about the world, so I'm not sure.」

「It's a named monster that's over level 400...」

「That’s quite a harsh opponent.」

「It isn't just harsh...」

While ensuring the combo wasn't reset, Hyun began analyzing Salon's skills.

His eyes stopped at a certain skill.

—It was a skill Salon had learned after the job ascension but that he hadn’t had the opportunity to use yet.

He opened the skill description to learn more about it.

[«Rhythm Control» Lv.2(+1)]

- Reduce the combo number to half and increase the next damage [combo/320] times.

- If you manage to land critical hit damage, you'll recover the combos spent.

That was Salon's last skill.

According to Hyun's calculations, it was a skill that could increase the damage output of a normal attack by 10 times.

But if you couldn't land a critical hit, the number of combos would be reduced by half.

'Critical Hit...'

It was true that attacks would end up as critical hits when weak points were attacked,. but there were some restrictions depending on the level difference.

For example, if you attacked an opponent's neck, it would normally be a critical hit, but if the level difference was high, you had to be even more precise.

For Salon, who was just over level 100, landing a critical hit on a level 400 Reaper wasn't going to be an easy task.

'I guess I won't be able to ignore the Reaper.'

Hyun knew better than anyone about how dangerous Reapers were.

If he tried to outsmart it, he could end up becoming its target and cause an even greater danger.

Even he wouldn't be able to resist a Reaper following him like a guardian of hell.

'I'll take it down!'

Hyun bit his teeth.

He had to try it, at least.

He took a glimpse at Louise's face, which was starting to be filled with fear.

Angels were sensitive to demonic energy.

After noticing demonic energy completely different from the ones she'd felt until then, her body had become stiff.

"Louise, hide under the water," Hyun warned her.

Because Louise's HP was low, just being touched by the demonic energy of the reaper could become fatal to her.

"Underwater..."

"Now!"

At Hyun's urgent shout, Louise quickly put her head underwater.

Immediately after that, the Reaper's scythe drew a half moon.

The black scythe came flying from the horizon.

The scythe kept getting bigger the closer it got. When it reached them, it was already taller than Salon.

Hyun felt a sense of urgency.

It was as if pitch-black energy had engulfed the world.

The only place where he could avoid the attack was the sky.

'Damn...!'

Salon groaned.

He'd seen the Reaper that was following them.

—It was carrying a giant scythe on its back.

After his eyes met the cursed doll, he felt creeped out.

‘I'm going to die...!’

After looking at the black scythe, he couldn't gather courage.

He felt like a herbivore animal that was about to be devoured by a predator.

He subconsciously closed his eyes.

But he soon opened them again.

His body was moving on its own.

「Don't close your eyes!」

Hyun was controlling his body.

He created a «Wind Barrier» and twisted his body.

The demonic energy scratched the floor.

Everything that was touched by the scythe was destroyed.

—Even monsters that were part of the same team.

With a shock wave that made your ears deaf, a crater of tens of meters wide appeared on the surface.

The overwhelming remnants of the destruction left by the attack petrified Salon for a little while.

[3184 combo! You've dealt 18163 damage!]

Salon noticed that his body was still moving.

While he was blinking, Hyun had used the monsters around them to keep up the number of combos.

Salon was horrified by the sudden sense of urgency he was feeling.

It was hard to believe that he was inside a game.

If he let himself go, he thought that he would start crying.

'Was I ever so immersed in the game...?'

Salon thought about that for a moment.

But it didn't take him long to know the answer.

Were those really his feelings?

He suddenly thought of a possibility.

—It wouldn't be impossible since Asrian used your brainwaves to induce certain emotions.

'No, these aren't my feelings.'

Maybe... They were Hyun's.

If «Assimilation» also shared your emotions…

If that was the case, it was clear that Hyun didn't see the game as a simple game.

On another hand, he started to wonder if Hyun was crazy.

For him, it was even hard to be standing because of the trembling he felt throughout his entire body.

"Oof..."

Hyun sighed and stopped for a moment.

He was eliminating the incoming undead while thinking of a plan.

What was the best way to eliminate them? What skills could he use? What were the possibilities of victory?

Numerous thoughts appeared and disappeared.

'I guess there's no meaning in using «One Second Absorption» or «Shield».'

Just being brushed by the Reaper's attack would be enough to kill him.

—The difference between their specs was that big.

There was only one way to reduce the gap between them…

It was to use Salon's skill he'd seen before.

For a normal user, it would be impossible to hunt a Reaper. But for him, it wasn't.

«Powerless Wave»…

The blue aura coming from his body was the Support's sword that could even hurt a Reaper.

Also, the rest of the Support's skills were like a whetstone that made the sword sharper.

If he combined those skills with Salon's, he could create an attack capable of killing a Reaper.

Hyun thought about Louise, who was holding her breath underwater.

'Please, resist a little bit more...!'

He increased his concentration to the limit.

He dodged a couple more of the Reaper’s attacks.

Death brushed past his skin several times, but he didn't counterattack hastily.

He had only one chance, so he couldn't easily move.

Hyun's eyes shone after repeating those dangerous acrobatics for a while.

Paf-!

Salon's body suddenly melted into the air.

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