Chapter 82: El Quero (4)
Slash-!!
The sound of water being cut could be heard.
The splashing water washed away the blood.
"Ugh."
KangWoo moaned in pain.
He could feel a huge pressure in the hand that was holding El Quero.
It would have probably torn him apart if he weren't using the Authority of Defense and Divine Power.
'A little bit more.'
He could see the mountain giants that were following Chae YeonJoo.
—They were pulling El Quero's body to the surface.
Boom-! Boom!
"UUOONNGG!!"
As El Quero twisted its body, the mountain giants connected to it by the chains lost their balance.
Although tens of giants were pulling, they were losing in terms of strength.
'It's really strong.'
Worthy of its size, no, it was way stronger than that.
It was doing its best to resist.
The giants that were following Chae YeonJoo looked at El Quero.
"What are you looking at, you pieces of rock?"
Chae YeonJoo used one of the chains as a whip and hit the mountain giant's head.
On top of that, Echidna's magic hit the mountain giants.
El Quero looked at both girls.
"Kid! You go that way!"
"I'm not a kid."
While pouting, Echidna moved to the side that Chae YeonJoo had indicated.
The group of mountain giants that was split into two began pulling El Quero's body to the surface again.
Squeak-
The chains penetrating El Quero were split into two sides.
The blood coming from the monster made the lake turn red.
El Quero began flapping its fin and screaming.
Poisonous needles hit the mountain giants.
Crack-! Crack!
Because their bodies were made of stones, the poisonous needles did not affect them.
But you couldn't ignore the physical damage, because they poured down as if it was raining.
The bodies of the mountain giants were destroyed.
"Damn."
Its reaction was stronger than expected.
KangWoo turned his head around. The two had dodged El Quero's attack and moved from it.
They'd ended up falling into the lake and were swimming to the surface.
'I can't expect help.'
Since they couldn't fly like him, they wouldn't be able to reduce that distance by swimming.
—Which meant that he'd have to solve the issue.
KangWoo frowned.
'I'll have to use three.'
He couldn't dismiss either the Authority of Defense or Divine Power.
—He'd have to use three Authorities to block El Quero's movements.
There was a huge difference between using two and three different Authorities simultaneously.
The amount of demonic energy required to do that was almost double.
Using two Authorities simultaneously required four times the demonic energy. If you used three, it required close to eight times the demonic energy.
"Kraken's Rage."
His coat began shining with a dark-blue light.
His stat bonus doubled, and five extra demonic energy stats were added.
KangWoo concentrated and activated the third Authority.
'Authority of the Blade.'
A black sword appeared from his hands that were holding the monster in place.
The black sword penetrated El Quero and grew in size inside it.
"UOOOO!!"
It screamed in pain.
Blood pouring out from it covered him with water.
'Not enough.'
It wasn't enough with just that.
El Quero still had strength left. Another attack was needed.
KangWoo shouted to Chae YeonJoo.
"Create thorns!"
"What?"
"Create thorns over the chains!"
"A-are you crazy?! If I do that...!"
"Quickly!"
"..."
Chae YeonJoo's expression hardened.
She gulped and nodded.
Thorns started appearing over the chains as her bracelet began to shine.
"Petrification."
It was the effect of the Gargoyle's Armor that he had obtained from Moon YeongHo.
It doubled your physical defense for ten seconds.
Although it had doubled, Chae YeonJoo's chains were a legendary-ranked item, so the chains pierced the physical defense and penetrated KangWoo.
He could feel a strong pain spreading through his body.
"..."
* * *
Even while frowning, KangWoo maintained the three Authorities.
He had become used to pain, so he wasn't going to scream from just that.
After being pierced by the chains, El Quero began losing strength.
—It was because the chains had started to drain its energy.
Boom-!
El Quero's body was pulled to the ground. KangWoo quickly cut the chains and moved from El Quero's body.
"KangWoo, are you okay?" Echidna, who came running toward him worryingly, asked.
KangWoo nodded.
"We don't need the giants anymore. Echidna, clear the remaining ones."
El Quero had a high magic resistance.
It wouldn't be effective for Echidna to fight it. Instead, it would be most helpful for her to clean up the mountain giants.
"Understood."
Echidna cast magic aimed at the mountain giants.
The mountain giants were already tired of pulling El Quero.
They began to fall at her magic.
"Chae YeonJoo! Stop escaping and join the fight!"
"Do you think I escaped because I wanted to?!"
Chae YeonJoo, who had been dragging attention, had returned. KangWoo turned his head to El Quero.
"It didn't die after coming to the surface."
"That's obvious. Although it looks like a giant stingray, it isn't a real fish."
El Quero was a monster—a boss monster that appeared in an S-rank gate on top of that. It wasn't going to die just because it wasn't in the water.
"Oof, oof! Swimming is harder than I thought!"
"So this plan really worked."
Goo HyunMo and Baek HwaYeon had also arrived.
KangWoo raised his right arm; a black sword appeared in his hand.
"Then let's end this."
El Quero was on the surface, so it was the perfect opportunity to hunt it.
Wind began gathering at Baek HwaYeon's longsword.
Go HyunMo gripped his two shortswords.
"I'll go first."
"It will be different from when you were in the water, you radioactive stingray."
"UOONNGG!!"
"I can't concentrate because of its cry!"
It seemed like he had a lot of things to say about El Quero's cry.
But he knew that it wasn't time to joke around. He lowered his stance and ran toward El Quero.
Whish-!
"Ho-ob!"
El Quero swung its tail like a whip.
A whip that was, in reality, the tail of a monster with a size that reached 30 meters.
The tail was two meters thick...
Goo HyunMo lowered his waist.
—The tail brushed past his head.
"Move back!"
Baek HwaYeon raised her sword from a place El Quero's tail couldn't reach.
Wind began gathering at the white longsword. She swung the sword down, and the wind was shot following the trajectory of the sword.
Slash-!
"UOONNGG!!"
She cut the tip of its tail. Blood was scattered around.
El Quero's attention focused on Baek HwaYeon.
KangWoo and Chae YeonJoo took that opportunity to penetrate it.
Slash-!!
"I'll block the attacks of the tail! You just charge forward!"
"I'll trust you."
KangWoo nodded.
If he reduced one defensive Authority, he could add an offensive one.
KangWoo didn't immediately rush forward after hearing Chae YeonJoo's shout, instead, he looked at El Quero with deeply sunken eyes.
'It's gotten weaker.'
Unlike fish, it didn't immediately die after coming to the surface.
But because it was a water monster, it had clearly become weaker after coming to the surface.
Not only that, but it had been severely wounded.
It wouldn't have been weird if El Quero had died while they were dragging it to the surface.
'Then...'
KangWoo's eyes shone.
The only thing that was left was to finish it.
He closed his eyes and felt the demonic energy gathered in his heart under his left chest.
The Ten Thousand Demon Core...
The demonic energy he'd gathered for the past ten thousand years...
It was bigger and deeper than anything else.
'A sea...'
A sea made of demonic energy.
You couldn't see its end, and you also couldn't see how deep it was.
Even KangWoo didn't exactly know the limits of the Ten Thousand Demon Core.
—He didn't know what was under that deep sea and what was happening there.
Even back then, when he was able to use it fully...
He raised his head and looked around.
He saw three doors embracing the sea.
'I don't need that much.'
He turned his head from the doors.
He extended his hands toward the sea, clasping his palms and gathering demonic energy.
It was very little compared to the vast sea, but for the moment, it was enough with just that.
"Bident."
He used the Authority of Dark Spear and the Authority of Hellfire.
A spear surrounded by dark fire appeared. KangWoo grabbed the spear, lowered his body, and aimed the spear at the monster.
He could feel powerful energy transmitted to his hand.
But KangWoo thought that it wasn't enough. It seemed too small and weak compared to the vast sea.
He became greedy.
Once the fire called greed was ignited, it began burning at an incredible speed.
'One more.'
Authority of Spallation—An Authority capable of destroying its natural armor and tearing its skin apart was added on top of Bident.
The spear's end, which was divided into two, twisted.
The spear's ends began twisting as if they were snakes.
He felt exhausted, like his soul had gone out of his body.
The price of using three Authorities at the same time was high.
He felt as if he was about to lose consciousness at any moment.
The tips of KangWoo's mouth went up.
"Gae Bolg."
After making a small chant, the dark-red spear was completed.
Gripping it tightly, KangWoo stepped on the ground.
Ting-
[You've managed to perfectly combine three different Authorities.]
[You've fulfilled the second condition for achieving the Extreme Demonic Energy Body.]
Message windows appeared.
But KangWoo didn't care about them—he couldn't let himself get distracted.
He gripped the spear even tighter.
The giant tail swung toward him, and a shield made of red chains pushed it away.
The dark red spear pierced El Quero's body.