Chapter 76

SH-SH-SH-SH-SH-SH-SLASH!

Countless streaks of black light struck Lee Minsung like thunderbolts.

BOOM!

["Graaagh...!"]

Lee Minsung plummeted to the floor with a deafening crash.

Baek Miho immediately followed him down, driving her fist straight into his abdomen.

KA-BOOM!

["Guh!"]

His eyes bulged as he vomited blood.

"Let's keep this fight on the ground from now on."

Her eyes blazing, Baek Miho swung both hands.

Skill: Beast's Claws.

BOOM! KA-BOOM!

She began pounding Lee Minsung relentlessly. If she stopped attacking for even an instant, he might get away.

'I don't know what's going on, but I can't waste this chance!'

The ability Suho had suddenly displayed had startled her, but if she let this opportunity slip, Lee Minsung might escape at his incredible speed.

Baek Miho pressed her attack harder, and Lee Minsung snapped out of his daze and fought back. He had a clear advantage in speed, but the countless Shadow Lancers constantly harassing him made up the difference.

He could not hide his confusion.

'How are there lancers here...?'

What was going on? How had lancers suddenly appeared? Just what connection did that human have to the queen bee?

Questions filled his mind.

Then he caught sight of Suho attacking from the opposite side to Baek Miho, and all those tangled emotions finally erupted at once.

["What the hell is your connection to the queen bee?!"]

BANG!

Lee Minsung turned his attack on Suho. Common sense dictated that he focus on Baek Miho, who was stronger than Suho, but he was no longer capable of reason.

At last, he realized what that poisonous emotion was.

It was... jealousy.

["Why did the queen bee give lancers to the likes of you?!"]

He denied it with every fiber of his being, but one truth remained unchanged.

And that was...

["I am the strongest worker bee, the queen bee's favorite! Me, Lee Minsung! Not some nobody like you...!"]

KA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

As the enraged Lee Minsung's attacks laid waste to everything around him like a bomber, Baek Miho hurriedly activated a defensive skill.

"Ngh...! Suho, get behind me!"

But rather than retreat, Suho lunged farther forward.

'My God.'

Baek Miho could scarcely believe her eyes.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG...!

Before her, Lee Minsung's spear and Suho's swords were locked in a furious exchange. Lee Minsung was unquestionably far faster, but Suho simply took whatever attacks he couldn't block on his body, never once letting up.

The sheer toughness of his assault left Baek Miho astonished.

'Was he a tank, not a summoner?'

She no longer knew what to make of him. In the end, she gave up trying to figure Suho out.

Still, she wasn't entirely wrong.

[Skill: Toughness has leveled up!]

[Physical Defense +60% → +80%]

'Good. Now I can hold out longer.'

Even as he fought with all his strength, Suho's mind remained perfectly rational.

A burning body, a cool head.

He fought while checking his HP and MP on his status window at every moment.

Lee Minsung was so powerful that Suho couldn't afford to use his usual skills that continuously drained mana. Enlarging himself with Giant’s Armor against such a fast opponent would be suicide. And even if he boosted his speed by having Gray possess him, he could only sustain it for a few minutes.

Even without skills, he was infusing every attack with mana, so he had to conserve it carefully.

'That leaves Iron Body Arts...'

Of all his skills, Iron Body Arts offered the greatest destructive power. But it, too, continuously consumed mana, and to land a blow on an enemy this fast, he first had to pin him down.

Suho ordered his Shadow Lancers,

"Pin him down! Tear his wings off and attack his legs!"

A truly brutal order!

But it was the Shadow Lancers who were torn apart instead.

["These pathetic things!"]

["Krrrk...!"]

Lee Minsung severed the lancers' heads and punched gaping holes through their chests.

But that was not the end. It was a new beginning.

["Kreeee!"]

As Suho's mana dwindled, the dismembered Shadow Lancers turned into black vapor and began to knit themselves back together.

Lee Minsung was stunned.

["Impossible! Even I can't do that...!"]

Petty jealousy of his fellow lancers welled up inside him.

["Why didn't the queen bee give me that power of regeneration?! Was she afraid I'd grow too powerful?!"]

Of course not.

But now jealousy incarnate, Lee Minsung let his misunderstanding spiral out of control—until he realized something.

Come to think of it, he had originally been unable to attack the lancers the queen bee sent after him. Yet somehow, he could attack these.

What did that mean?

["Th-that's it! Hahaha! I've already broken free of the queen bee completely! Gathering my own army was the right answer after all!"]

Lee Minsung burst into laughter, his face alight with ecstasy. He swept the lancers aside without hesitation and lunged at Suho.

But at that moment, a chill ran through him.

["...!"]

Lee Minsung saw it.

An immense shadow loomed behind Suho, radiating an oppressive presence. He saw a vision of something as vast as a mountain gazing down at him with haughty eyes.

[The Queen of Insects, the Monarch of Plagues, is watching Lee Minsung.]

["Ah... Aaah..."]

Before that mighty gaze, he had become a tiny, pitiful insect, trembling helplessly.

An instant passed.

Time, which had stopped, began to flow again. Lee Minsung snapped back to reality, and the enormous shadow was nowhere to be seen.

'D-did I imagine that?'

He didn't understand what had happened, but he decided to flee immediately.

'I've accomplished everything I set out to do anyway.'

His gaze turned to Lim Taegyu, who was firing arrows at the ghouls in the distance.

'I don't know how the ghouls managed to poison him, but...'

Lim Taegyu was clearly struggling with the poison. He was somehow suppressing it with mana for now, but eventually he would reach his limit.

'It doesn't matter if I lose every ghoul I've gathered here. Not if I can get Lim Taegyu!'

Then he would have an S-rank hunter serving him as a worker bee.

... Or so he mistakenly believed.

Completely unaware that Secretary Oh had betrayed Lim Taegyu, Lee Minsung could only assume that Taegyu had been poisoned by his royal jelly.

'Right, I'll escape for now! No one can cure Lim Taegyu's poison anyway. I just need to hide somewhere and wait for it to take him over!'

WHOOSH!

The instant the thought occurred to him, he turned and fled.

"You're not getting away!"

Suho immediately gave chase with the Shadow Lancers.

["Got you, bastard!"]

Seizing that fleeting opening, Lee Minsung suddenly wheeled back toward him.

["Before I go, I'll at least kill you...!"]

"...!"

Lee Minsung's mana erupted toward Suho.

"No!"

Baek Miho rushed up from behind, but she was too late.

BOOM!

An explosion of densely compressed mana.

"... Cough."

"...!"

Suho's eyes widened. He wasn't the one who had been hit.

Without his noticing the approach, Lim Taegyu had suddenly stepped between them and taken Lee Minsung's attack in his place.

Even Lee Minsung was taken aback by the utterly unexpected turn.

["L-Lim Taegyu, you bastard..."]

"Yeah, it's me. You son of a bitch."

Lim Taegyu grinned straight into Lee Minsung's face. Blood gushed from his mouth.

Yet despite the agony, both his hands clamped firmly around the spear buried in his abdomen, refusing to let go. No matter how hard Lee Minsung struggled, he couldn't pull it free.

Even without the use of mana, Lim Taegyu still had the physique of an S-rank hunter.

["Lim Taegyu!"]

Lee Minsung radiated murderous intent as he desperately struggled against Taegyu's strength.

["What the hell are you thinking?! Are you planning to die with me?!"]

"... Why do you think, asshole?"

Lim Taegyu forced out an answer.

"I'm the reason you turned into such a nasty bastard."

["...!"]

Lee Minsung froze.

Looking straight into his bloodshot eyes, Lim Taegyu gave a faint smile and murmured,

"So I ought to take responsibility. I'm supposed to be your friend, after all."

He was genuinely saddened. It had been less than two years since their relationship had soured. Before that, they had been childhood friends, closer than anyone.

How had things come to this?

What was so important about this damned mana? About awakening?

'You were born with everything. Why did you have to be jealous of someone like me...?'

"... So, Minsung?"

WHOOOOSH!

The mana Lim Taegyu had been suppressing suddenly surged with tremendous force. At the same time, the royal jelly's poison tried to invade his brain, but everything would be over before it could.

"I couldn't bear to watch my friend get beaten to fucking death by someone else. So just die by my hand."

["Bullshit! You're the one who's going to die!"]

Lee Minsung roared and attacked Lim Taegyu with his other hand.

Just then—

SLASH!

Suho descended between them like lightning. His twin swords severed both of Lee Minsung's arms at once.

["...!"]

Lee Minsung's eyes bulged.

"You talk too much."

This was the moment.

Suho had been waiting for Lee Minsung to be pinned in place. Now he unleashed all his strength.

[Activating Skill: Iron Body Arts.]

Iron Body Arts.

Ammut's power, which had raised even a small, insignificant goblin into the Monarch of the Iron Body.

That vast, black energy flowed along Suho's arms and surged outward as sword aura.

KABOOOM!

Suho did not stop attacking. Like a giant hand crushing a tiny insect to death, he struck again and again.

BOOM! KA-BOOM-BOOM!

Without stopping.

KA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

He rained merciless violence down upon Lee Minsung.

'This is impossible...'

With both arms gone, Lee Minsung could barely even scream. He had no choice but to take every blow.

'Why am I losing to some bastard like this...?!'

He couldn't believe what was happening. Had it been Lim Taegyu, an S-rank hunter, he might have understood. But he could not accept being so utterly demolished by the nameless brat beside him.

But...

It hurt.

Every one of Suho's attacks hurt so terribly.

Worst of all, Lim Taegyu was right in front of him, witnessing his wretched state.

With a complicated expression, Taegyu was looking at him and murmuring something.

"..."

But Lee Minsung, already battered beyond recognition, could no longer hear a thing.

["GRAAAAAH!"]

In that instant, Lee Minsung rose in one final desperate struggle and lunged at Suho.

At the same moment, Suho's enormous black fist and the attacks of countless black lancers slammed into his body.

BOOM.