Chapter 147 - To The End of the Core (2)

'That monster…!'

A werewolf!

Ain knew best the physical capabilities of that monster that had a human head and a beast's physical abilities.

It was the job Ain used to have while playing Asra.

Thanks to the ferocious claws and the endless stamina, she'd turned countless users into light.

A big wolf and a small one looked at each other.

When their eyes met, the big wolf laughed.

He'd realized that the opponent was a lot weaker than him, and, at the same time, a small fire wolf.

「Hyun! Can you help me?!」 Ain quickly asked Hyun through the party conversation.

Paf!

The moment the werewolf's front claws shone, Ain tilted her head.

She could feel her chin getting hotter.

[You've received 1029 damage!]

The opponent had reduced the distance between them instantly and attacked her.

But before she could regain posture, a second attack was coming in her direction.

—At an angle she wouldn't be able to dodge.

«Steps of the Incarnate»!

The claws and the afterimage of the fire clashed against each other.

Pow-!

As the werewolf's claws hit the ground, a concentric circle of mana spread.

To defend against the intense shock, the protective magic circle began making a loud noise as if it were crying.

"Grrr, I won't let you go."

When the werewolf swung his claws again, an alarm sounded in Ain's head when she realized the skill the werewolf was about to use.

'If I get hit with that skill, I'll die!'

Clang!

The attack covered in a silver light collided with «Efreet's Claws».

Ain's strength stat was lower. She couldn't resist the shock, and her body bounced back and hit the wall. The wind was knocked out of her.

[Your skill has been temporarily disabled!]

[You cannot use «Efreet's Claws» (Right) for 10 seconds!]

"Ugh, she blocked it?"

After using the skill, he was planning to run toward Louise. The werewolf turned his head to Ain and looked at her in surprise.

"To think you'd block my attack!"

When she noticed his claws were starting to grow in size, he had already reduced the distance between them.

The claws once again clashed against each other.

But since resistance to impacts was based on your strength stat and body weight, Ain was the only one who was pushed back.

'Even though I have agility buffs stacked up three times, he's still faster than me…!'

Ain felt that the figure of the werewolf was stretching while she was knocked away.

Crack-!

The wall behind her was torn down as she subconsciously twisted her body.

The werewolf smashed both hands down as if he were trying to cut the air.

Although it barely touched her, Ain received almost two thousand damage.

Thanks to the unique item Hyun had given her, 'Recard's Devil Armor,' the attack brushed past her, and the damage was reduced. She was able to guess how much destructive power his attacks had due to how much damage she still received.

'I can't compete in terms of strength…!'

Clang!

[Your skill has been temporarily disabled!]

[You cannot use «Efreet's Claws» (Left) for 10 seconds!]

Once again, he took the chance that she wouldn't be able to dodge and attacked her.

Ain, who was barely able to react against it, was pushed upwards as if she were a straw doll. She slammed into the ceiling and coughed from the impact.

Fu, a smile appeared on her face as she was falling.

She noticed that Louise's body had turned pitch black.

「Ain!」

Louise, who stepped on the ceiling, quickly charged toward the werewolf.

Pang! As a wind current smashed into him, the direction of the werewolf's claws changed.

His claws that were targeting the falling Ain hit the floor.

Whir-! Slash!

The huge shock overloaded the protective magic circle.

While the pattern on the ground was blinking, Hyun spoke.

「Did I come when things were about to get dangerous…?」

「No, I would've been able to resist for at least one more minute.」

「Then I came at the perfect moment.」

Whish-!

A strong, black wind blew inside the room. She could see Louise's white clothes fluttering.

「Are you going to be okay?」

「I'll have to try.」

Hyun would have to fight the werewolf alone while Ain's «Efreet's Claws» were disabled.

「Be careful!」

Crack! Right when the werewolf smashed his claws down, Ain took a deep breath.

It looked as if Hyun had thrown himself into the werewolf’s attack range without thinking about it too deeply.

It was an attack that not even she would be able to dodge.

To make things worse, even if he blocked it, he couldn't completely neutralize the damage.

Since Louise was weaker than her, wouldn't she die in one hit?

‘No, she won’t die in one hit. If things get dangerous, I'll immediately help Hyun.’

Ain was worrying about that when something surprising happened in front of her.

"Grrr… I'll kill you!"

The werewolf's eyes had turned red, and he was growling.

The claws hit the floor, but Louise wasn't there anymore.

The speed of the werewolf's attack was under 0.1 seconds.

Hyun had managed to dodge such an attack perfectly from an extremely short distance.

'How did he do that?'

‘Was it a coincidence?’

Ain looked nervously at Hyun's battle for a little longer.

Pang-!

Again…

The werewolf's claws brushed past Louise's clothes.

But Louise had already reduced the distance with the werewolf.

A series of attacks was naturally made.

Boom!

As the wind exploded consecutively, his body was pushed toward the sky.

"GRRR!"

A silver light attack kept grazing Louise's clothes.

No, he wasn't even able to touch her clothes.

Hyun, who had managed to land an attack on him, moved diagonally to his back.

'Good, it's working.'

As Hyun smiled, the tips of Louise's mouth went up.

The one who was able to deal damage was Louise.

That was a characteristic of the werewolf:

They had a habit of trying to land a counter no matter what.

If you knew that, you could perfectly read the timing of his attacks.

The ability to fight using the monster's characteristics was an ability Ain didn't have. No, maybe Hyun was the only one in Asrian Online who had it.

Whish-!

The werewolf’s claws scratched the ground.

Tsss-! The magic circle activated at the attack so fast that it seemed like it was about to tear the air apart, but it barely brushed past Louise's hair again.

And…

Pang! Every time he failed, the wind exploded.

If he tried to hit him while looking, it was already late.

It was already late if he tried to dodge it after seeing it coming toward him.

Hyun was fighting at a speed beyond his perception.

'Amazing…'

Ain just watched and forgot about attacking.

Hyun closed in on him using steps that weren't possible in real-life combat.

Pang-! Pang-!

Every time the wind exploded, Louise's figure appeared before the werewolf and then disappeared.

Then, every time his claws failed to hit her… Pang! Four wind attacks hit his weak point.

"Grrr…"

As that repeated a couple of times, the werewolf’s hp was reduced to half.

Ain shouted.

「Hyun, what kind of movements are those?」

「I created a movement that can be used with Louise's body. It’s easy once you learned how to use the recoil.」

「The recoil…?」

「Yes, I probably won't be able to use it frequently. It's a bit dangerous if the opponent is a humanoid or if it’s in PvP.」

Hyun smiled bitterly.

Louise's movements went beyond one's senses, so there was a huge chance she’d get hit by an attack from a blind point.

But that wasn’t the case when fighting a werewolf.

It was a movement designed to be useful against a monster that didn't learn.

"GRAARR!"

Suddenly…

The werewolf shouted aggressively and sent a silver ray of light flying.

'Now!'

Hyun, who had been waiting for that skill, reacted immediately.

He bent his back.

The silver light brushed past Louise's belly button.

Pang!

As Louise's feet hit his chin, his body flew upward toward the ceiling.

「Grab him! He cannot move while in the sky!」

「O-okay…!」

Ain, who had been looking blankly, barely came back to her senses.

Black and red rays were drawn in the sky from the ground.

Simultaneously, Louise and Ain appeared behind the werewolf.

It was an attack of Demonic Energy and fire from the sky!

After receiving an attack from both sides, his HP quickly went down.

GRR!

The angry werewolf tried to hit Ain, but the attack just brushed past her hair because the wind coming from Louise's hands kept shaking his balance.

Pang!

The moment Louise stepped on the wind barrier and drew a half-moon with her feet and hit the werewolf's head…!

Hyun saw his experience going up by 25% in just an instant.

[Level Up!]

The werewolf turned into light and scattered away before it fell to the surface.

Particles of light drifted to the ground.

"This reminds me of the past!"

Ain turned back and shouted after landing.

But Louise was looking at her while blinking. The aura coming from her feet had also disappeared.

Louise mumbled in a low voice.

"Ehmm… It seems like he «Disassimilated»."

A few moments later…

「Go to the last section. The 4th floor is almost done.」

It seemed like Hyun had gone to the floor below before landing on the ground.

That's right. The plan still hadn't ended.

Ehem… Ain coughed, swallowed a bit of disappointment, and began moving with Louise.

* * *

Bahmir's Castle…

As Mablen returned via the portal, the Duke asked him a question.

"Yes, so how far did my knight and his allies reach?"

He thought it was unexpected.

Mablen had returned more than an hour after he’d given him the order.

That meant they'd survived for that long.

"Did they run around the outer wall like cowards all this time?"

"No. They were able to reach the inner part of the castle."

Mablen gave him the report while bowing.

Bahmir let out an exclamation in surprise.

“They weren't discovered?”

Even if they were weak devils, there was no way a group of users that were under level 200 would be able to go through it.

Was that also TarrTarr's doing? He thought that was probably the case. After confirming that he had made the right choice, he smiled, satisfied.

"How far did they reach? They died immediately after crossing the inner wall, right?"

"They didn't go over the inner wall."

"What?"

"It seemed like they were trying to reach the core using the transportation train."

"Hmm? HAHAHA!"

Bahmir laughed out loud.

How did they learn about the existence of a transportation train under his castle? He wasn't sure about that, but he thought it wasn't something he should be wary about.

It was because he could already imagine what happened next.

"It seems like they used their heads quite a bit… but they probably didn't know that would be their end! So that's where it all ended, right."

"No."

"Hmm?"

"I escaped before the train passed through the 3rd level of security. I'm not sure if they died or not."

The Duke's eyebrows wriggled.

It took him a while to understand what was going on.

'He's still alive!'

He soon realized.

TarrTarr had done the knight contract, so even if they were far apart, he could know his status.

The Duke spoke in a serious tone.

"When did they touch the train?"

"It was 8 minutes and 40 seconds ago."

"They're still alive despite that? Mablen, you didn't see wrong, right?"

Mablen just remained with his head bowed silently. Bahmir took that as a positive answer.

"That's too bad… Should I have put some eyeballs on them?"

As Bahmir got up, Rublen, who was next to him, carefully spoke.

She was a vampire and was wearing a maid uniform.

She was one of the closest underlings of the Duke, just like Mablen.

"Are you going yourself?"

As Bahmir didn't answer, she asked again.

"But if you use your strength there… What are you going to do at the ceremony?"

"No, it's nothing like that…"

Bahmir began calculating the time.

It took about 10 minutes for the train to reach the core.

They should be crossing the only bridge connecting the castle's inner part and the core at that moment.

That place was being guarded by tens of vampires, werewolves, and evil knights.

"I thought that it would be over by now."

Bahmir sat again.

With his eyes closed, he felt TarrTarr's soul, which was connected to his.

It probably wouldn't take long before the soul's trembling stopped. Convinced of that, the Duke relaxed on the throne.

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