Chapter 65: The Faint-Hearted A-Ranker

Screech! Agh!

Agor’s screams, torn alive by the eagle’s beak, echoed horribly through the rain. Hunters quickly scanned the Agors nearby.

Only a handful of Agors lay prostrate, paralyzed with fear.

This was the opportune moment, with the Chimera actively devouring the Agors alive. Every hunter in the vicinity gripped their weapons and lunged towards the thick-furred Chimera.

“Kill it before its rank rises! What is the attack team doing?! Can’t you tear through that fur?!”

They could charge a hundred times, but it would be futile.

The Chimera was a monster with high skill resistance; ordinary attacks and abilities couldn’t even tear its fur. Geon Ita might have been able to help, but he had long since declared it wasn’t his problem and left.

Taeseongyeon… he ran away too. It was a bit infuriating, but perhaps for the best.

Dokyeom wiped the rainwater from his cheek, glanced at the railing where Taeseongyeon had been, and swiftly followed Ju Uiryeong.

As soon as Ju Uiryeong saw Dokyeom, he asked with a pale face.

“What—what is it? Why are you following me?!”

His agitated voice trembled uncontrollably. Even amidst this chaos, Ju Uiryeong moved with a clear intent to survive.

His actions, predictably, did not deviate an inch from what was expected.

“Uiryeong, I saw you use teleportation quite well last time, didn’t I?”

Ju Uiryeong’s eyes immediately sharpened. Demanding to know why Dokyeom was speaking informally, he turned, his face seething with rage, and walked directly towards him.

His eyes overflowed with a murderous fury.

“Han Dokyeom, do you not understand this situation? Is this truly the time to be discussing that? Why? Do you still have more to blame me for? But must you act like this now?! Or perhaps, has something happened to your head, Han Dokyeom? Are your eyes suddenly dim? Is that why you can’t see that monstrosity?!”

“Me?”

“Then why on earth are you doing this to me?!”

Despite his piercing yell, no one around them paid any attention. Everyone else struggled, holding their breath, trying desperately to tear through the Chimera’s hide.

If the Chimera failed to consume prey for more than thirty minutes, its rank would increase by one level. Its current rank was approximately S-class.

In the novel, when it reached SS-class, the government gave up and requested aid from Japan and China. That was only after suffering immense damage.

Countless hunters had been devoured by the Chimera during that process. Therefore, the present moment, before any casualties occurred, was the perfect time to stop it.

CRASH—!

“Argh!!”

At the deafening roar that shook the ground, Ju Uiryeong clutched his head, screamed, and crumpled to the ground.

His fingertips, white with strain, clearly betrayed his terror. Dokyeom crouched in front of him, adopting the same posture, and met Ju Uiryeong’s gaze.

“Uiryeong. You came here intending to stop that thing, didn’t you? So you should at least try to fight it. Why do you turn tail and run the moment you see it? Especially you, the one with the highest chance of survival, huh?”

“It’s so enormous, how can I possibly face it? And why me…!”

A white piece of paper was abruptly thrust before Ju Uiryeong’s eyes. Perhaps because it appeared exceptionally white beneath the gloomy sky, everything else blurred, and only that paper stood out clearly.

It was Dokyeom who had offered it. Ju Uiryeong’s trembling gaze slowly rose to meet Dokyeom’s eyes.

“Wh-what is this?”

“Ask your Incarnation if that thing can be moved. If they say no, grab them by the collar and pressure them anyway.”

“What is this, I asked?”

“And if it’s possible, then you’ll have to come with me.”

“I’m asking what this is!”

“Coordinates.”

Dokyeom forcibly pressed the laminated paper into Ju Uiryeong’s hand. Four sets of numbers were inscribed upon it.

Those coordinates marked the spatial transfer location that Orias had uncovered overnight. Ju Uiryeong’s expression stiffened.

As if unable to comprehend, he blinked slowly, then lowered his wavering gaze to the paper.

“So, cast teleportation to those coordinates. You want that thing, don’t you?”

‘I do too. I desperately want that.’

Dokyeom nodded, gesturing towards the Chimera, which had its maw grotesquely agape. The distant, chilling cry of an eagle shook the surroundings.

Dokyeom firmly grabbed the collar of Ju Uiryeong, who was staring blankly at the Chimera, and pulled him to his feet.

Before Ju Uiryeong could utter a word, Dokyeom dragged him into the very eye of the storm where the Chimera stood.

“W-wait a minute! I haven’t even asked yet. I’ll ask, I promise, so please let go of me…!”

“Instead of whining, just ask. I’ll give you ten seconds.”

“You really are—!!”

Ju Uiryeong’s eyes bulged with blood vessels as he glared at Dokyeom as if to kill him. However, Dokyeom, having long developed an immunity to the resentful glares and complaints of every A-ranker in the guild, found the look utterly unthreatening.

“How does an E-ranker have so much strength…!”

Ju Uiryeong, who had been struggling to shake off Dokyeom’s grip, turned deathly pale the moment he saw the approaching disaster zone.

He immediately began frantically calling out to his Incarnation in the air, attempting to communicate.

“G-Gapp! You heard everything we said, right? If not now, that Chimera’s rank will definitely rise further. If that happens, we might not be able to resolve it here! Please help! Huh…? You’ve never… moved something that big before…?”

Ju Uiryeong ended up sobbing and begging. He tried every persuasion, from ‘just try it once’ to ‘can’t you see my predicament,’ before finally glaring at Dokyeom again and then screaming once they entered the disaster zone.

‘For an A-ranker, he was surprisingly faint-hearted.’

“Gapp! Just try it…! Please! Han Dokyeom, let go of me! How much further are we going…!”

Ju Uiryeong’s struggles caused the tightly held collar to tear free. Suddenly, something whizzed past Dokyeom’s head with a ‘whoosh’.

It was a hunter, flung by the Chimera’s tail.

Growl—

Agon, who had been following alongside, lowered his body and bared his teeth like a beast. His face, contorted like a raging yaksha, looked ready to tear apart the Chimera that was spewing monstrous roars.

“Uiryeong, are you really an A-ranker? It seems your body is still the same, but only your abilities reached A-rank?”

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

“I was just wondering if someone could be this faint-hearted. An E-ranker holding your collar and you couldn’t even break free, that’s just a bonus.”

‘Well, I think I understand.’

Ju Uiryeong harbored a romanticized notion of ‘frailty,’ and the very first paragraph of his novel began with a protagonist coughing up blood.

The absurd plausibility of an A-ranker being unable to shake off an E-ranker’s grip was perfectly justified by his novel.

It was highly probable that Ju Uiryeong’s body was as fragile as an ordinary person’s, and only the abilities he wielded performed at A-rank or higher.

‘Yes, that made sense.’

“Ah, so if that Chimera bastard swings its tail just once here—”

Dokyeom tilted his head towards Ju Uiryeong and smiled. That provocative expression was clearly reflected in Ju Uiryeong’s brown eyes.

“We’ll both end up lying side by side, holding hands as corpses. You and I, in one swift blow. Terrifying, isn’t it? Truly terrifying.”

Ju Uiryeong’s eyes darted past Dokyeom’s head, fixing on something in the distant air. Whatever he saw, his previously pale face was now as white as a sheet.

Trembling uncontrollably, Ju Uiryeong barely managed to point over Dokyeom’s shoulder, squeezing out a choked voice.

“Beh… be-behind…”

Dokyeom knew what was behind him. How could he not know, when a dark object had been rapidly moving in Ju Uiryeong’s wide eyes just moments before?

That frantically moving thing was now approaching them, flicking its tongue like a viper. The shadow reflected in Ju Uiryeong’s eyes grew larger and larger.

The straight, slit reptilian eye was clearly projected into the world of pouring rain.

“H-Han Dokyeom… b-behind… behind me now…! Argh, Gapp!!”

The snake attached to the Chimera’s tail opened its maw, revealing a grotesque oral cavity. It looked as though it would swallow its prey at any moment.

Ju Uiryeong raised both arms, squeezed his eyes shut, and covered his face. The attention of nearby hunters converged, and curses could be heard from various directions.

However, just as the thunder roared, the world abruptly slowed, as if someone had stretched time itself. Then came the message from the Incarnation.

[The demon ‘Gapp’ of ‘Lemegeton’ reveals their true name to the opponent.]

The downpour of rain seemed to slow. The frantic hunters rushing towards them appeared and sounded sluggish, as if moving in slow motion.

Following that, a furious message from the Incarnation appeared.

[The demon ‘Gapp’ of ‘Lemegeton’ expresses their outrage at your brazen behavior!]

His breath hitched. Gapp’s fury surged, tearing at his heart like a ravenous beast.

The suffocating scent of death filled his nostrils.

This bizarre phenomenon, as if time itself had been stretched, was an ability wielded by Ju Uiryeong’s Incarnation, Gapp.

A flash of light assaulted his eyes. The light was blooming beneath Ju Uiryeong’s feet, accompanied by intricate formulas.

It was a pattern he had seen before. It was the same instant movement skill Ju Uiryeong had used when he abandoned Dokyeom inside the Eulwangli Gate to evacuate the people.

[The demon ‘Orias’ of ‘Lemegeton’ paces restlessly, tearing at their hair.]

[The demon ‘Orias’ of ‘Lemegeton’ actively persuades you, asking if they can’t just step in themselves.]

“N-no… don’t.”

Clutching his dry throat, Dokyeom managed to reply. If the Incarnations were to fight physically here, it would disrupt their plan.

It would be fortunate if it ended with a mere skirmish; in the worst case, both Incarnations could be stripped of their ‘Lemegeton’ qualifications. That, he had to prevent at all costs.