Chapter 79
“Huff! Huff!”
“Hurry! They’ll catch up to us at this rate!”
Over ten thousand prisoners ran across the northern plain for their lives, their impatience reflected by the dust cloud and vibrations from their running.
“Kerek! Stop right there!”
“We’re gonna carve your flesh if we catch you! Krrrk!”
Around three thousand goblins were on their tail. Although the prisoners outnumbered them, most were F-rank inferior races. On the other hand, the hunting and securing unit had just returned from their hunt and joined the chase.
“Kerek! There’s nowhere to run! You’ll never break through the barrier sorcery, Cage!” Homaruba shouted.
“Krrrk! Right you are, Sir Homaruba. On top of that, it will be a piece of cake to capture them again now that the hunting and securing unit is with us!” Chanagita remarked, saying exactly what Homaruba wanted to hear. He continued, “Kerek! This may be a blessing in disguise. Let us use this chance to gain the hunting and securing unit’s favor!”
“Gain their favor?”
“Exactly! They will be in awe of your exceptional power if you capture the escapees! Kererek!”
Homaruba nodded in satisfaction. “Sounds good!”
He stomped on the ground to accelerate, making him look like a golden meteor because of his golden helmet, armor, and a halberd the same height as him.
“Ahhh! Here he comes!”
“Chwik! Tigrinus! Chlor!”
The orc Qwee, the tiger beastfolk Tigrinus, and the elf Chlor, who had remained in the rear, attacked Homaruba.
“Haaah!” Chlor shouted.
[Activating Skill: Explosion Arrow.]
He fired an arrow infused with a skill, his emerald eyes shining. The bow and arrows were too short for him because he had taken them from a goblin, but the power from the skill was nothing to scoff at.
The arrow exploded and scattered fragments once it touched Homaruba. However, Homaruba’s armor suddenly flashed and defended against Chlor’s attack without a scratch.
“Chwik! Let’s go, Tigrinus!”
“Roar!”
[Activating Unique Skill: Ren’s Heroic Soul.]
[Activating Race Skill: Tiger Slap.]
The heroic soul of Qwee’s father appeared from Qwee’s red Battle Force. Beast Force, the yellow secondary force of the beastfolk, enveloped Tigrinus’s palm and shone brightly.
Homaruba scoffed and shouted, “Kerek! Just surrender!”
[Activating Race Skill: Barrier Sorcery - Reverse Golden Wall.]
Homaruba activated his signature skill, creating a giant golden wall before him.
“Kurgh!”
“Gah!”
Qwee and Tigrinus’s attacks smashed into the golden wall, but were reflected as an impact wave to strike them instead. They were blown back as powerfully as they had charged and tumbled across the ground, coughing blood.
“Kerek! Death to the instigators!” Homaruba raised his golden halberd, about to behead Qwee and Tigrinus, who were in shock from the blow.
“No!” Chlor shouted.
[Activating Skill: Mana Explosion Punch.]
Just then, a giant white pillar smashed into Homaruba.
“Kerek?!”
He was pushed so far back that he collided with the goblin pursuers at the back of the group.
“Kehhh!”
“Krrrk!”
Dozens of goblins caught in the attack were reduced to lumps of flesh.
“Kerererek! Who did that?!” Homaruba shouted, noticing the countless cracks on his Reverse Golden Wall.
“I can’t believe I can use my burst skill like a regular skill now,” Gilder mumbled as fumes rose from his Prosthetic Arm of Conviction because it was in the exhaust phase. “It feels amazing!”
Seong-Hwi carried Qwee and Tigrinus to Chlor and said, “Stop fooling around and focus, Gilder. That goblin is a Ranker. Although he’s a tank, you shouldn’t underestimate his attacks.”
“Kerek! Are you alright, Sir Homaruba?!” Chanagita asked..
“Krrrk! What the hell just happened?!” Homaruba shouted.
“Look over there!”
Homaruba quickly looked forward. He saw a warp gate resembling a rainbow bridge.
“K-kerek?”
Homaruba only returned to his senses after Chanagita shouted. “Merope has betrayed us!”
Homaruba grimaced furiously and shouted, “KEREEEEEK! THAT FUCKING WINGED BITCH!”
He couldn’t believe the warp gate user they had paid a fortune to the dragons to hire had betrayed them.
“CAPTURE THEM NOW! KEREK! IF YOU CAN’T, THEN JUST KILL THEM ALL! WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR?! CHARGE!” screamed Homaruba, who had believed the escapees could never escape the Cage.
***
“W-we’re saved!”
“Hurry the hell up!”
“Don’t push, dammit!”
The escapees rushed toward the warp gate, the size of a small door, like passengers trying to squeeze into the subway train at rush hour.
“Fairy friend! Can’t you make it any bigger?” Thumper asked.
“This is as big as it will get because of the barrier sorcery!” Merope answered as she sweated buckets.
She was a Semi Ranker, 778th in the fairy ranking. It was only because she was so strong that she managed to create a warp gate inside the barrier sorcery. However, the warp gate was so small that it would take a long time for over ten thousand escapees to cross it.
It’ll take at least twenty minutes! Thumper calculated.
He shouted, “A few of us need to hold the goblins back!”
“Move! Move, dammit!”
“I’m first!”
“Fuck off!”
However, the escapees who tasted hope for freedom ignored Thumper and rushed to get into the warp gate.
“It’s no use, Thumper! We have to stop them ourselves!” the naga Sayo answered.
Behind her was a suicide squad formed mainly by prisoners held in the west wing of the sub-second floor.
“I-I will fight! I may be only F-rank, but I will fight!”
“Chwik, one’s bravery can only be tested in a life-or-death situation!”
“We started it, so we’ll end it as well!”
The suicide squad was much smaller than the people trying to run away. However, their eyes were blazing with life.
“Alright! Let’s go!” Thumper shouted.
He and the suicide squad ran in the opposite direction from the escapees. The cowards ran for the exit while the brave ran to the field of death.
***
Thunderous explosions boomed throughout the northern plain.
“Gilder! Don’t clash against him head-on! We’re only trying to buy time!”
“I know! Hup!”
Seong-Hwi and Gilder were keeping Homaruba and Chanagita at bay.
“Kerek! Move it!”
[Activating Race Skill: Barrier Sorcery - Reverse Golden Wall Breaker.]
Homaruba activated a skill to shatter the Reverse Golden Wall, its fragments flying forward.
“Kurgh!”
“Gah!”
The fragments stabbed dozens of escapees running toward the warp gate from the rear, killing them. However, Homaruba frowned because the two annoying humans getting in his way were unscathed.
“Kerek! What the hell are you doing, Chanagita?!” he screamed.
“K-krrrk! That human is hard to deal with!”
Gilder was keeping Homaruba at bay while Seong-Hwi prevented Chanagita from doing anything.
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Diseased White Horse, one of the symbols of No.13 Death]
[Catastrophic Thunder, one of the symbols of No.16 The Tower]
Neigh~!
Seong-Hwi rode the Diseased White Horse and jumped straight into the crowd of goblins chasing the escapees. Black smoke rose from the ground where the Diseased White Horse’s hoofs stepped, filling the air.
“Kerek! What’s this?!”
“Gurgh! It’s poison!”
[Applying Disease: Bubonic Plague.]
[Applying Disease: Tularemia.]
[Applying Disease: Anthrax.]
...
The goblins who breathed in or touched the black smoke created by the Diseased White Horse contracted various diseases. Blisters appeared on their skin, they vomited, turned red from a fever, had trouble breathing, and experienced extreme muscle pain.
However, it was less effective on goblins with high Health stats or those who could drive away the diseases with mana. Seong-Hwi electrocuted such goblins with Catastrophic Thunder.
“Kreeeh!”
“Get away from it! Kerek! It’s a lightning element skill!”
[Applying Debuff: Electrocution.]
[Applying Debuff: Nightmare.]
[Applying Debuff: Despair.]
...
Although Catastrophic Thunder, which applied various debuffs, wasn’t fatal, it was enough to reduce the goblins’ mobility.
“Kererek! Damn weakling!” Chanagita cursed Seong-Hwi, who ran away from a head-on battle and only spammed debuff skills.
“Thanks for the compliment!” Seong-Hwi shouted, unfazed by the mockery.
I could beat him if I buff up, but... there’s no need to push myself, Seong-Hwi thought. I just need to buy time for around ten minutes at most—
Just then, an unfathomably enormous mana wave sent intense shivers throughout his entire body. Seong-Hwi jumped off the Diseased White Horse and quickly retreated to the rear.
[Activating Race Skill: Blood Sorcery - Blood Explosion.]
A massive explosion occurred from the back, where it was filled with corpses. Hundreds, whether they be goblins or escapees, died instantly. Gilder and Homaruba quickly widened the distance from each other and observed their surroundings as they were showered with a rain of blood.
“W-what the hell was that?!” Gilder shouted.
“Kerek!” Homaruba grunted as he heard a waterfall and saw a giant lizard, made of several tonnes of blood, charging toward them from a distance. “Krrrk! That’s... blood sorcery!”
Homaruba instantly recognized the skill. A goblin with sharp canine teeth was sitting on the giant blood lizard’s head, looking down at Homaruba with his arms crossed.
“Krrrk, how pathetic. Tutobure is dead, and the prisoners have broken out... You should be ashamed of yourself, Homaruba.”
“Natojax!” Homaruba shouted.
The goblin on the blood lizard’s head was Natojax, eleventh in the goblin ranking. No, he was tenth now that Tutobure was dead. He had come to Trophy to kill Tutobure at Abyete’s command. However, he discovered Tutobure’s headless body in the Tin Can and tracked his blood to the northern plain.
Natojax looked around and noticed a human with black hair. The human had what Natojax was looking for around his waist.
“Krrrk. So, you’re the one who killed Tutobure,” Natojax remarked.
Seong-Hwi remained silent.
“Hand over Tutobure’s head. Kerek. If you do, I will allow you to live without your limbs.”
Seong-Hwi continued to remain silent and only looked up at the sky.
Homaruba shouted, “Natojax! Kerek! What is the meaning of this? Can I take this as Clan Red Fang’s declaration of war against Trophy?!”
“Krrrk! What use is Clan Trophy without Tutobure? You only exist to do the goblins’ dirty work, but it looks like you can’t even do that anymore.”
“Kererek!”
“Now, human! Hand over Tutobure’s—”
“Can’t you guys feel that?” Seong-Hwi mumbled as he looked up at the sky.
“Krrrk. What? Have you lost your mind, human?” Natojax said as he stared at the odd human.
Did he go crazy after seeing me while he was on a high with hopes of escape? Or is he trying to pull a cheap scheme to get out of this situation somehow? Natojax wondered as he also looked up at the sky.
“Gasp!”
The dome-shaped barrier sorcery Cage shattered, and the sorcery was completely disabled.
“Kerek! That’s impossible!” Homaruba shouted.
The warp gate Merope created suddenly grew ten times larger.
“It got bigger!”
“Hurry up and get in!”
The escapees quickly ran into the widened warp gate.
“GILDER! RETREAT!” Seong-Hwi screamed.
“What? But we have to protect the—”
“JUST RUN! DON’T EVEN LOOK BACK! EVERYONE, SPRINT TO THE WARP GATE RIGHT NOW! WE’RE DEAD IF WE STAY HERE!”
Seong-Hwi sprinted to the warp gate like a madman. Seeing that, Gilder, Thumper, and everyone else also rapidly retreated.
“Kerek! Where do you think you’re going?!” Homaruba shouted.
“Homaruba! Krrrk! Forget about them and create a barrier right now!” Natojax screamed.
“Don’t you dare give me orders!”
Natojax turned as white as a sheet and pointed tremblingly at the blue dot in the sky, shouting, “That’s Biphatogenes!”
“What?”
“Krrrk! Dammit! Run!”
Natojax fled for his life on his blood lizard. Homaruba belatedly understood what Natojax said.
“Biphato...genes?”
Why is he mentioning a World Ranker all of a sudden? Homaruba wondered.
Just then, the sky grew dark, and a black shadow loomed over the entire area under it. The true form of Ice Dragon Biphatogenes, one of royal blood even among the dragons, had appeared. He was several times bigger than the Empire State Building. He was covered in sapphire scales like ice crystals, his colossal wings covered the sky, his teeth were like sharp spires, and his eyes were as cold as a glacier.
“A fine meal to offer Abyete as a greeting,” Biphatogenes said.
“Gasp!”
“Kerek!”
Intense pressure from Biphatogenes’s mana and Draconic Mana weighed down from the sky. It felt as if heaven and earth were being flipped, and everyone under the pressure felt intense vertigo. They instinctively knew they needed to run, but their feet did not leave the ground.
[Activating Skill: Blizzard Storm.]
“K-kerek!”
“Save me!”
The S-rank skill, Blizzard Storm, enveloped the entire world in white snow as if white was the only color allowed in it. It did not even take ten seconds for all life around Clan Trophy to become ice. The Semi Ranker Chanagita, the Ranker Homaruba, and even Natojax, who had only just become a High Ranker, were equal before the white storm.
The ice sculptures shattered, and the base of Clan Trophy, located in the southeast region of the second zone, turned into pure ice.