00252 Plateau of Delusion ———————————————– ————————–=
“stop.”
When Kim Soo-hyun, who was at the head of the march, stopped walking and raised his hand, Ahn Hyeon, who was walking next to him, stopped walking as well. Kim Soo-hyun looked around for a moment and then spoke in a calm voice.
“A pack of poisonous cats are coming. The number… . That’s a bit much. I’m thirty-eight. As the name suggests, its teeth are poisonous, so be careful not to get bitten.”
The voice seemed casual, but Ahn Hyun felt saliva running down his throat. If it was Poison Seung-nyang, it was a monster that Monica had faced once or twice. Not only did it have the cunning and clever movements of a horse riding cat, but it was also a monster twice as big as an ordinary horse riding cat.
In a previous battle, I was accidentally surrounded and bitten several times, so I had to lie unconscious for almost half a day. As memories of that time he wanted to forget came to mind, Ahn Hyeon raised the tension inside his body to the fullest.
About five minutes passed? The thick bushes ahead began to shake little by little. Anhyeon slightly bent his waist and began to operate his magical power along the circuits within his body.
“come.”
Kim Soo-hyun blurted out a word and immediately retreated to the back. At the same time, a hunting cat with a strong body suddenly emerged from the bushes.
That was just the beginning. Starting with the first one, those who followed were pouring out of the bushes like mushrooms. One, two, three, four, five… . By the time the number reached nine, Anhyeon had given up on counting. What he could see before his eyes was only about ten, but he soon felt that a similar number of wolves were coming from all directions. It was a perfect encirclement formation.
At first, they just paid attention and didn’t try to rush in. However, judging from the dark life glistening around his dark eyes, it was clear that he was just waiting for the opportunity.
“───. ───. ───. “The cold petals become a shattered flash under the dawn storm.”
A moment passes, and Kim Han-byul’s quiet voice echoes through the air, as if she had been preparing her order since Kim Soo-hyun said stop. Then, a gem emitting light slowly floated onto her palm, and a weak gust of wind began to rise around the clan members.
“Spread!”
Eventually, after completing all preparations, she scanned the poisonous cats with a cold gaze and shouted sharply. And that broke the search war that had continued so far and became a signal announcing the start of the battle.
“Kakkan! “Kakkan!”
“Kakkan! “Kakkan!”
The ultramarine-colored gem soon turned into particles and mixed in with the gusts of wind swirling around. And starting from the shouting of the start word, the gust flattened like a disc and began to spread widely in a circle.
Anhyeon took a closer look at the magic targeting the poisonous cats. As I poured magical power into my eyes, I was able to see a collection of magical powers forming the shape of a flashing blade, blinking countless times outside the gust of wind. It was like looking at a gear wheel.
Just as he was about to cheer inwardly, Anhyeon ended up swearing when he saw the continued movement of the poisonous cats. They seemed to have sensed the terrifying energy contained in the gust of wind and were moving around quickly. And by the time the gust of wind hit, some of the hunting cats that had not been able to avoid them showed evasive movements by soaring upward.
Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!
“Kkegaeng! “Kkeggang!”
“Kkegaeng! “Kkeggang!”
A gust of wind carrying blades cut through the delicate bushes and trees, and the screams of the hunting cats that could not get the timing right occasionally leaked through it. Kim Han-byeol initially used a range magic targeting all of the poisonous Seungnyangs, but due to the Seungnyangs’ quick response, he did not see the effect as expected.
In any case, it was safe to say that the situation was better than before. The dogs, who were close to 40 when they first got there, have shrunk by a third. However, those who still remained were well over twenty.
“Kaaaeang!”
I don’t know if it was because they were attacked by magic or because their companion was attacked, but the poisonous cats immediately let out a tearing scream and flocked without hesitation. Anhyeon looked up at the three wildcats jumping over 2 meters towards him. And he immediately raised his spear, took aim, and activated the potential ability he had been preparing.
“Spear shooting!”
Car window! Cha chachang!
In an instant, the jet-black spear split into three pieces and pierced the cat’s abdomen as it flew into the air. Soon, Anhyeon focused his gaze forward again as he saw them falling helplessly to the ground with their stomachs sinking. In front, three other wildcats were running menacingly, yellow saliva dripping from their teeth.
Anhyeon was not embarrassed. This time, when I activated the special ability Spear Master, magical energy flowed into the jet-black spear. The window, which had been hard, became as soft as a taffy stick, and when one side was pulled, it bent like a bow with many strings drawn. And at the moment when they opened their mouths wide and rushed towards them, Anhyeon struck hard at the spear he was pulling.
Sigh!
“Kkegaeng! “Kkeggang!”
The spear that bounced in struck down all three that were running at the same time. The hunting cats were thrown in all directions, each spewing out blood.
Even though Ahn Hyun had killed six animals in just two attacks, he did not let down his guard and became even more determined. In the past, he had shown some activity in the beginning and charged in recklessly, but was immediately surrounded and bitten all over his body. Fortunately, he didn’t have a deep bite thanks to the equipment he was wearing, but if the bite had focused on seams or other exposed areas, the results would have been dismal.
After losing sight of the front for a moment, Ahn Hyeon looked back. On the left, Lee Yu-jeong was struggling against five or six birds alone. A translucent film was created around her body, which was a protective shield given to her by Ansol, considering that her armor was relatively weaker than Anhyeon’s.
Yujeong was steadily reducing the number of cats one by one by constantly playing with his dagger, but the number of wildcats was gradually increasing. This is because Ko Yeon-ju was perfectly blocking the Seungnyangs coming to the right, and Kim Soo-hyun was focusing on blocking the keeper and the rear.
As the front, right, and rear were blocked, the Seungnyangs ultimately chose the left direction, which was the weakest. Ansol was supporting by restraint every time the cooldown came back, but the shield that was initially applied was already in tatters.
Eventually, when Ansol stopped using the restraint spell and began to memorize the shield spell, the hunting cats, which had been acting sluggishly, began to move actively again.
At the moment when Ahn Hyeon was about to take a stance to help with a spear attack, thinking that things couldn’t go on like this, he made eye contact with Hanbyeol, who was just preparing a support spell toward Yujeong. She looked at Anhyun with a surprised expression and then opened her mouth in an urgent voice.
“brother! “Behind you!”
“huh?”
“Chain Lightning!”
“W-what is it?”
Ta-da! Ta-da!
Kim Han-byeol changed the direction of the magic he was preparing and sent it towards Ahn Hyeon. However, before Ahn Hyeon could finish speaking, a dark shadow came from behind her and loomed over her clearly exposed neck. Finally, as he was about to chew on his neck, a ray of yellow lightning flew straight into his snout.
“Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”
Poison Seungnyang flipped over and trembled on the spot, and An Hyeon belatedly sharpened his spear. However, a few wisps of black smoke were already rising from the mouth of the guy who fell to the floor.
By the time Ahn Hyeon sighed with a face that had endured for ten years, the situation on the right and rear sides was creating a fairly stable situation. Kim Soo-hyun and Go Yeon-ju were almost organizing their respective positions. It was then.
“Aaaah!”
A high-pitched scream came from the left, where the largest number of hunting cats were gathered.
Lee Yu-jeong was slowly retreating as she could not handle the ever-increasing number of hunting dogs, but she soon stopped retreating when she sensed the presence of An Sol and Baek Han-gyeol behind her. The center must have judged that it would be dangerous to retreat any further, and they seemed to have overextended themselves by trying to secure distance by holding on.
As soon as the protective shield that was barely holding on was broken, ten wildcats, who were just waiting for an opportunity, rushed towards her at once. Ansol, who completed her spell belatedly, quickly put up a protective shield, but in the end, one of the birds managed to sneak in through her gap and sink its molars into Lee Yu-jeong’s thigh.
The moment Lee Yu-jeong collapsed, the left side instantly became chaos. At this point, the cries of the rushing cats and the screams of several users were coming together and a great confusion was about to occur.
Then, Kim Soo-hyun, who had been concentrating on the keeper and rear until then, immediately turned and jumped to the left the moment he heard Yu-jeong Lee’s scream. Then, he lightly cut off the Seungnyang that had its teeth stuck in Yujeong’s thigh and immediately turned the tip of the Ilwolshingeom towards the surrounding area.
Every time the Ilwonsin sword, which gave off an eerie light, was swung, a poisonous cat soared into the air. He quietly watched the flock of wildcats rushing towards him in all directions, and then with lightning-like movements of his hands, he stabbed them one by one.
They were clearly the ones who jumped up first. However, before each attack could reach Kim Soo-hyun, they were falling one by one to the bottom of Ususoo.
And An Hyun, who had defeated another poisonous Seungnyang that was attacking her, was looking at Kim Soo-hyun with blank eyes.
Kim Soo-hyun’s movements were quiet, but his surroundings were never quiet. As if they had encountered a storm, the hunting cats were being swept away like fallen leaves.
Eventually, the battle with the poisonous cats came to an end when he lowered his sword towards the one remaining animal that was groaning under his feet.
*
“Hey, aren’t you turning your head?”
“Ah-oh. I came here because I was worried. I don’t see it. I don’t see it. “What’s good about looking at the flesh of your thighs?”
Ahn Hyeon slowly poked his head towards where Yu-jeong was taking off his pants, gave her a shout, and then turned around. I let out a short sigh as I watched him grumble and clean up the cat on the floor.
“How was it?”
“yes?”
“This battle. “Don’t you like it?”
“hmm. Well, because there were a lot of them. it’s okay.”
I shook my head excitedly at Go Yeon-ju’s question. Right now, my mind was filled with other thoughts than my evaluation of the battle just now. After organizing those thoughts one by one, I turned my attention towards Ko Yeon-ju again. She was still staring at me from when she first spoke to me.
“You’re finally looking at me. Tell me. “Don’t worry alone.”
“Did you notice anything strange during the battle just now?”
“well. To be honest, Yujeong’s injury was unexpected. “They are the type of guys that run away when they receive a certain amount of damage, but strangely, they run at me with a tenacity.”
“I felt that way too. “I can understand that they were cornered by Yoo-jeong because of their habits, but the fact that they didn’t run away until the end is different from normal cases.”
After speaking, I was lost in thought for a while. The expedition was already entering its 8th day. For eight days, after leaving the Plains of Wailing, we passed through the folds of the fierce winds, and were now in the middle of a dense forest ahead of the Plateau of Delusion.
‘The battle… . ‘Was it the eleventh if you add up to just now?’
Encountering a monster in a dense forest was not a particularly strange problem. However, the fact that most of the eleven battles were fought in relatively stable areas such as the Plains of Wailing and the Fold of the Sharp Winds was certainly worthy of question.
Of course, it is also a hole plane that must include all variables, so there can be movement of monsters. However, the strange behavior of the monsters starting from Runoceros was giving strength to one of the many directions of thought that had been open to me.
Raise your head and look around. The area around the battle was quiet. Ansol was busy treating Yujeong, and Baek Hangyeol was working hard to clear the battlefield with his frozen face. When I turned my attention to Anhyeon, he was scratching the ground alone, but then he found Kim Hanbyeol and blurted out a word.
“Ah, Kim Hanbyeol. I was grateful earlier. “I survived thanks to you.”
“no. “I’m glad I found it.”
“But that’s it. Ah, chain lightning. “It was originally a magic that Yujeong would support, right?”
“… yes.”
“f*ck. So in the end, it was my fault too. There’s still a long way to go… .”
Except for Go Yeon-ju, the nerves of each clan member were dispersed. After silently listening to Anhyeon beat herself up, I opened my mouth in a quiet voice.
“High user performance.”
“yes.”
“That’s just my opinion. I guess… .”
“… … .”
Even though he hadn’t said anything yet, I could see Go Yeon-ju’s face hardening slightly. Maybe she also noticed it a little bit. Nevertheless, the fact that she did not speak out first may be due to the ambiguity that comes from not being able to catch her clue as the
I paused for a moment, but then continued speaking.
“It seems like we were cornered. No, I think I’m being punished.”
—————————= Review of the work ——————– ——-=
hello. It’s Ro Yu-jin.
As I said before, the level of expedition and surrounding users has increased a lot, starting from regular cities. From now on, when I enter the ruins, I think there will be less play with them like I did with Vivien and Horens in the past. Well, the rewards will be great.
P.S. They said my speaking style was very feminine, so I changed my speaking style. From now on, I will show my rough and wild side as much as possible. If you keep teasing me, like someone said, I will write down the bed scenes with Kim Soo-hyun + Ahn Hyun or Kim Soo-hyun + Shin Sang-yong or Kim Soo-hyun + Baek Han-gyeol or Kim Soo-hyun + Do Young-rok or Kim Soo-hyun + Park Dong-geol. It’s fun.
fantasy,
