Chapter 198
Underworld King's Fist Technique, 2nd Form.
The Legendary-grade Underworld King's Fist Technique struck Rakandra.
"Ugh!"
Rakandra, with a bewildered expression, allowed a few hits before starting to defend himself.
He even counterattacked, dealing significant damage that drastically reduced Jeong-hoon's health.
As expected of someone who had reached the Celestial realm, he was on a different level compared to the previous foes.
Thwack!
Jeong-hoon's Underworld King's Fist landed on Rakandra's face, and as if waiting for the opportunity, his black claws scratched Jeong-hoon's face.
[Debuff: Blood Curse inflicted.]
Death's Judgment and now Blood Curse.
[Using Purification.]
But Purification worked, and the debuff: Blood Curse disappeared.
[Using Advanced Healing.]
Jeong-hoon immediately used Advanced Healing to quickly heal the wound on his face.
His depleted health was restored, and he pressed Rakandra once again.
With the continuous exchange of blows, Rakandra's health rapidly decreased.
[Great Demon Rakandra: 89.9%]
Reduce his health to below 90%.
With that punch, his health had dropped from 90% to 89.9%.
[Death's Judgment countdown will not activate.]
He had succeeded in fulfilling the condition to prevent Death's Judgment from activating.
However, Death's Judgment didn't disappear and still remained.
[Reduce Great Demon Rakandra's health to below 70% within 30 minutes.]
[Failure to do so will result in your health reaching 0% and death.]
A new condition to prevent activation was presented.
This time, the condition was to keep his health below 70% for 30 minutes.
The difficulty had significantly increased compared to the first condition.
The reason lay in the next ability he would use.
"Damn human! I will erase you without a trace, even if it takes everything I have!"
Rakandra's face was contorted with rage.
[Great Demon Rakandra uses 'Recovery'.]
Rakandra's body momentarily glowed, and his health returned to 100%.
'This is why the difficulty increases.'
The recovery ability he could use.
It was limited to five times a day.
The fact that he had already used it once meant it was to activate the Death's Judgment on Jeong-hoon.
[Great Demon Rakandra uses 'Serenade of Despair'.]
Rakandra used an additional ability, as if determined to end things this time.
The first pattern that had terrified and annihilated the humans he first encountered.
That first pattern had begun.
To survive by avoiding this pattern, one had to defend against a total of twelve attacks.
Of course, there was a way to skip the pattern, just like with the demons in the previous dungeons.
Jeong-hoon took out the 'Eye of Oblivion' that he had purchased along with the 'Frozen Curse of Ullr'.
A consumable item that cost a whopping 30,000 points.
[Eye of Oblivion activated.]
He used the Eye of Oblivion on Rakandra, and the demon's eyes momentarily lost focus.
An eye that could make him forget one ability for 60 minutes.
He could only use it when an ability was activated, so he waited for the demon to use it.
'Serenade of Despair. I definitely have to skip that.'
It would take a considerable amount of time to dodge all four attacks.
If that happened, the Death's Judgment currently on him would inevitably activate.
Jeong-hoon punched Rakandra in the abdomen.
The 3rd Form's energy was imbued in his fist.
"Cough!"
Rakandra's eyes, which had lost focus, snapped back into focus due to the shock.
A groan escaped his lips.
It was because the damage from the Underworld King's Fist Technique had become stronger than before.
And it didn't end there.
[Invisible Fist activated.]
Invisible Fist activated with every punch he threw.
[Additional attack power increased by 20%.]
[Number of hits +2 applied.]
That's right.
Whenever Jeong-hoon landed a successful hit on Rakandra with Underworld King's Fist Technique, an additional +2 hits were applied, resulting in three effective hits.
Furthermore, as the battle prolonged, the Underworld King's energy imbued in his fists grew stronger.
[Great Demon Rakandra: 68.4%]
The rate at which his health decreased became even faster, and soon, he met the condition to prevent Death's Judgment from activating.
[Great Demon Rakandra uses 'Recovery'.]
Rakandra's body momentarily glowed, and his health returned to 100%.
"Do you think you can defeat me with just this?"
Rakandra grinned and reached out towards Jeong-hoon.
[Great Demon Rakandra uses 'Demon's Grasp'.]
[70% of your health is stolen.]
The next ability he used.
Jeong-hoon's health was stolen by 70%, leaving him with only 30%.
Since it was stolen, he couldn't recover it with holy power.
Furthermore, the stolen health was added to Rakandra, causing his health to jump from 100% to 150%.
[Reduce Great Demon Rakandra's health to below 50% within 30 minutes.]
[Failure to do so will result in your health reaching 0% and death.]
With a new condition added, he had to reduce Rakandra's health by over 100% within 30 minutes.
"Yes. You will die by my hand."
Jeong-hoon nodded and unleashed Underworld King's Fist Technique once again.
Now, the 6th Form's energy rippled in his fists.
With even stronger attack power combined with Invisible Fist, he started pounding Rakandra again.
Rakandra grinned.
"You're a funny human."
With those words, a giant scythe appeared in Rakandra's hand.
He had moved on to the next pattern.
As if waiting for this moment, Jeong-hoon's eyes gleamed, and he punched Rakandra in the chest.
Bam!
Rakandra's eyes bulged.
The way to skip the pattern.
It was to aim when he held the scythe.
Because when he held the scythe, his vital point was briefly exposed.
At that moment, if a certain level of damage was inflicted on that vital point, his body would stiffen for a few seconds.
"What are you doing, exposing your weakness like this?"
Jeong-hoon grinned and relentlessly pummeled Rakandra.
His health was rapidly decreasing.
'W-weakness...? I had a weakness?'
Rakandra's mind was in complete chaos as he was being beaten.
He was just trying to unleash his power to end this game for good.
He had no idea there was a weakness in the process of activating his ability.
At the same time, his pride was crushed.
A mere human had seen through a weakness he himself didn't know about.
'My health is decreasing rapidly...!'
Moreover, as time passed, the human's attacks became unimaginably stronger.
The energy rippling in his fists.
It had become incomparably denser than at the beginning.
It seemed his power grew stronger as the battle continued.
This was truly dangerous.
'Yes! I can move!'
Rakandra desperately tried to move his body, and as the stiffness wore off, the hand holding the black scythe rose.
[Great Demon Rakandra uses 'Death's Guidance'.]
"Human, this is the end for you."
Rakandra slammed the black scythe into the ground.
An ability boasting a whopping 4,500% attack power.
It even ignored 100% of defense, making it impossible for any human, no matter how skilled, to defend against this attack.
Even if they didn't die, they would be left on the brink of death, and with Death's Judgment activated, they would ultimately meet their demise.
In the end, the victor of this battle was Rakandra.
Or so it should have been.
"I told you. You will die by my hand."
Jeong-hoon was holding the scythe, completely unharmed.
Rakandra's eyes trembled at the sight.
"H-how...?!"
It was simple.
Jeong-hoon's left hand was holding the scythe, but in his right hand was an artifact.
[Rudbeckia of Duality (Single Use)]
- Type: Artifact
- Grade: Legendary
- An artifact containing the magic favored by Rudbeckia of Duality.
- Absorbs the opponent's attack and reflects it back.
- The artifact is destroyed after one use.
An artifact he had purchased by spending all his remaining achievement points.
Jeong-hoon was able to prepare for this because he knew the demon's patterns.
[Absorbed Great Demon Rakandra's 'Death's Guidance'.]
[Releasing Death's Guidance.]
"Farewell."
As Jeong-hoon activated the artifact, Death's Guidance surged towards Rakandra.
"Kuaaah!"
[Great Demon Rakandra: 15.2%]
His health instantly dropped to 15%.
At the same time, the nape of his neck turned red.
A new vital point appeared when his health fell below 20%.
'Those damn Transcendents.'
Rakandra was merely their pawn.
They had intentionally created several vital points so that humanity could stand a chance against him.
And the most vulnerable of those vital points was the nape of his neck.
Jeong-hoon thrust his fist towards the vital point.
Bam!
"Gah!"
Rakandra screamed and went limp.
[You have defeated the Great Demon Rakandra for the first time! 100,000 achievement points will be awarded.]
[10,000 points will be awarded.]
[Acquiring the title 'Demon Slayer'.]
[You have defeated a being who has ascended to the Celestial realm! You have acquired 0.2% of the unknown Ultimate Energy.]
[Acquiring 2,000,000,000 experience points.]
[Level up.]
[All stats increased by +1.]
[Bonus stat +1 awarded.]
[Acquiring a Unique~Legendary grade Rune Box (random).]
[Acquiring a Unique~Legendary grade Item Box (random).]
Countless messages popped up.
'Amazing...'
The rewards for defeating Rakandra were beyond imagination.
And then.
[You have defeated the boss of the Tutorial Dungeon. All dungeons opened on Earth will simultaneously disappear.]
With Rakandra's defeat, all the dungeons that had opened simultaneously vanished.
* * *
The users who were clearing dungeons without any problems were facing difficulties.
"The demon has awakened!"
"Damn it!"
"What?! Wasn't it supposed to appear only after breaking the jewel?!"
They had followed the strategy from HoneyTube, breaking the jewel and using the Frozen Curse of Ullr to quickly eliminate the demon.
If things went that way, it was a very easy dungeon, but if the demon awakened, the story changed.
Not only did it prevent them from breaking the jewel, but it was also in an invincible state where the Frozen Curse of Ullr didn't work.
Moreover, its strength was beyond imagination.
Therefore, even those who had entered as a party couldn't put up a proper fight.
"I'll turn you all into dust."
The demon grinned and activated its ability.
[Demon Barion uses 'Storm of Destruction'.]
The sky turned black, and a vortex raged.
The vortex began to press in on them from all sides.
"Oh, shit!"
"I-I'm going to die..."
They turned pale and lost all will to escape.
"You foolish humans. I'll kill you all here... Cough!"
Suddenly, the demon's face hardened, and then it screamed and disappeared.
Then, the raging vortex vanished.
"Wh-what...?"
Those who were on the verge of losing their lives looked around in a daze.
And a message appeared before their eyes.
[The boss of the Tutorial Dungeon has been defeated. All dungeons will disappear.]
[Please exit the dungeon through the portal.]
Along with the message that the boss of the Tutorial Dungeon had been defeated, a portal appeared in front of them.
"The boss was defeated...?"
"There was a boss?"
"Anyway, we're alive..."
"Wow... I thought we were going to die."
They exited through the portal.
And they could see that the monsters roaming the streets had disappeared.
All the monsters, including the dungeons, had vanished.
"I-is it over?"
"It seems like it...?"