WeTried Translations
Translator: ZEROSUGAR
Editor: Abstract
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◈ Regression is Too Much
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Chapter 266
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The regressor proves himself (6)
"Heart of Lightning Flash."
Flash. Flash. Blue light shimmered through the dark cave. The slick stone walls glinting blue were, honestly, kind of beautiful.
"...#$%##$@"
The words the dark mage muttered, on the other hand, were nowhere near beautiful. They weren't human words at all, and something about them carried a wrongness that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
Clatter. Clatter. Skeletons rose up off the floor. I already knew. Those things were just a distraction, nothing more than a stalling tactic.
"This is a problem."
"It was actually real..."
The two Italian men and the French woman readjusted their grips on their weapons. I'd already warned them that skeletons would show up and that their weakness was the head, but knowing that didn't mean they could actually do much about it. An undead army armed with rusted weapons? Impossible to just brush off.
"Jun-ho, I'll leave it to you."
"Sure."
Of course, that rule didn't apply to Choi Ji-won.
Crack! Craaack!
Light itself couldn't keep up with the blinding trail Bung-bung left behind. Dozens, hundreds of blue arcs carved themselves into the air. The skeletons standing near her turned to dust in an instant.
A slash so fast even the tip of the blade was hard to track. Choi Ji-won ground up every bone around her like some massive blender, striding straight toward the dark mage.
"...!"
The flustered dark mage sped up its chanting. But no speed could match Choi Ji-won's stride.
"This ends now."
Before anyone knew it, Choi Ji-won had closed the distance, raised her sword high, and gathered her mana. Thunder no one should have been able to hear roared, and a shape close to a dragon wrapped itself around Bung-bung, threatening and huge. Sparks scattered through the air like an audience watching a death sentence.
The enemy was a dark mage — a wicked one, willing to do anything to win. No point holding back, testing the waters, dragging things out. If possible, go full power from the start. Give it no room to breathe, no time to scheme. One shot. That was why Choi Ji-won had activated Heart of Lightning Flash from the very beginning.
Slash!
Right then, she cut off the dark mage's head.
Thud. Roll, roll.
The horde of skeletons filling the cave collapsed all at once. No longer shaped, moving bone, just white human remains scattered haphazardly across the ground. Even those sank into the floor and vanished, leaving a horrible silence in their place.
"Ji-won, fall back."
"Okay."
Choi Ji-won released Heart of Lightning Flash and stepped back, and this time I moved forward. Wasn't it already dead? Wasn't this over?
"No way."
There was plenty of evidence. First, no message announcing Floor 27 had cleared. Second, the thing had died too easily. Third, the way all the skeletons dropped at once felt... staged.
"Get up, you."
I spun my sword in my grip and stepped toward the fallen dark mage's corpse. No, probably not a corpse.
"Let's see how long you can hold out."
A glimpse of its body looked like a purple caterpillar blown up to a massive size. Not remotely human-shaped. That made this a lot easier on the conscience. I gripped the sword with both hands, raised it high above my head, and set up for a downward strike.
Kiiing.
A magic circle hidden beneath the floor lit up brightly, and the beheaded dark mage's corpse vanished in an instant.
"What are you."
The dark mage's body reappeared, dangling in midair. Still headless, and yet it kept speaking fine.
"Who sent you. What's the problem here. Did we not form a pact. Did we not agree to join forces."
Its body writhed grotesquely, as if something were trying to claw its way out from inside, and with a bubbling of foam, a head grew back. This new head had no wrinkles at all. Instead it belonged to a clean, handsome man.
The body underneath stayed just as shriveled as before, though, so the mismatch was jarring. Like someone had just stuck a random head on top.
Right, I remembered now — "dark mage under contract with a demon." I'd figured there might be a second phase. That was exactly why I'd told everyone not to let their guard down.
"Enough. I can ask you later."
A voice that sounded like several people speaking at once, overlapping.
"Die."
It declared that, then — thud — struck the ceiling with its staff. At the same moment, countless grotesque hands sprouted from the ceiling and slammed down toward the floor.
"Hup!"
"Get off!"
The French woman and the two Italian men managed to block the attack. Their knees buckled a little, their breathing went ragged, but blocked was blocked.
"Not coming down?"
Meanwhile, Choi Ji-won and I blocked the attack with almost no effort and immediately counterattacked. While Choi Ji-won activated Heart of Lightning Flash again, I decided to buy time. I released Chill right away and leaped high toward the ceiling.
Twitch, twitch!
Unlike the skeletons, which were nothing but bone fragments, those crimson hands seemed to count as living things, because the moment they entered the range of my chill, their movement visibly slowed. I used that opening to close the distance to the ceiling in an instant with Flash Step, and soon I had the dark mage right in front of me.
"Hah!"
I poured mana into the blade and swung upward with everything I had.
Clang!
No, I thought I'd swung upward. Right up until the attack bounced off harmlessly.
"?!"
A familiar sensation. From back in the maze, hitting the ceiling. That same feeling like the rule simply said, "cannot be struck."
What was this? Was that thing invincible? Could it not be killed without the warriors around? Or was this some gimmick where an invincible doppelgänger shows up while the true body hides somewhere, and I had to find it?
No, I still didn't know. Let's test it.
"Hup!"
I pulled a potion out of my subspace, dumped the contents into the air, and hurled the glass bottle straight at it. Just a plain glass bottle, but breaking against something would still hurt.
"Meaningless."
The dark mage caught the bottle with a light snap of its fingers, then threw it right back at me. I turned my head to dodge it.
"Meaningless, utterly meaningless. Your attacks cannot reach me. You just felt that yourself, didn't you."
A voice that sounded like a man, like a woman, like an old man, like a child, all at once, declared this with grave authority. You cannot win. You will be defeated. Simply wait for death.
"You just gave yourself away, buddy."
But I'd just felt something. If that thing were truly invincible, it would have just bounced the potion bottle off too. There had to be a limit on how many times it could use that. I've seen a truckload of guys like you in battle manhwa.
"Hold back your strength a bit and keep repeating moderately threatening attacks! This is an invincibility ability with a use limit, or maybe a time limit! Wear it down and we win!"
"...You."
Its handsome face twisted into a scowl. Looked like my guess had landed. Or maybe it hadn't, and the thing was just pretending to be caught off guard to run another mind game. Either way, with regression on my side, I'd win eventually. No need to rush.
"Still meaningless."
The dark mage moved its staff again, aiming to strike the ceiling.
"Block the staff!"
This time it was the French woman who jumped. Her movement suddenly accelerated, like fast-forward footage, and she closed in on the dark mage floating near the ceiling in an instant. No, seriously, there's no need to rush. Why is she doing this?
Thwack!
Her spinning kick stopped the staff's motion cold. Wait, what? Why didn't it bounce the attack off this time?
"Click."
The dark mage flicked its tongue. A sound that had been drowned out by the staff's noise until now, that little "click."
Only then did I understand why it hadn't blocked the attack. The staff was a fake. The tongue click was the real trigger condition.
"Ah."
A giant hand emerged from the ceiling. The French woman's face drained into despair.
"...Ugh."
I squeezed my eyes shut and bit down hard on the inside of my cheek.
[You have taken damage.]
[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 27.]
"Click."
The staff was a fake. The tongue click was the real trigger condition.
"Ah."
A giant hand emerged from the ceiling. The French woman's face began draining into despair...
"Watch out!"
Right before it did, I shoved her aside. The hand sprouting from the ceiling swept uselessly through empty air.
"T-thank..."
"Choi Ji-won!"
Setting the woman's thanks aside for later, I called out to Choi Ji-won. She'd already activated Heart of Lightning Flash and moved like a beam of light, driving a slash straight into the dark mage.
Clang!
Choi Ji-won's attack bounced off the same way. But this time there hadn't been much force behind it to begin with.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Choi Ji-won kept her strength carefully moderate and landed four more strikes in an instant. With a crack, a fracture appeared in the staff gripped in the dark mage's hand.
"That was the answer!"
"The hand's dodgeable too! Strong hits, but as long as it doesn't catch you, you're fine! Let's focus on wearing it down!"
Excitement spread through the players' side.
"..."
Irritation spread through the dark mage. Joy and frustration crossed paths, and the momentum shifted our way.
"Don't struggle!"
The dark mage screamed and swung its staff, now snarling. Ominous black smoke burst violently from its fingertips.
"What's this supposed to be! Idiot!"
Choi Ji-won took the black smoke head-on, tough as ever. The smoke seemed to have been another fake, because nothing at all seemed wrong with her.
"Kuh...!"
The dark mage was clearly flustered that its mind games weren't working. Choi Ji-won rose back into the air and landed three more slashes, and its staff was now on the verge of shattering.
"This is it!"
My turn now. I took the black mist head-on again and swung with everything I had, centrifugal force behind the blade, aimed straight...
The slash...
The slash...
"Huh...?"
The world went black in an instant. A familiar feeling. Mental type. An attack targeting the mind. I'd experienced this on Floor 23.
"No way."
Earlier. Choi Ji-won had taken that black smoke head-on and stayed completely fine.
Could it be... that wasn't a fake the dark mage threw...
"Bung-bung?"
Was Bung-bung... unaffected because she's a sword...?
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