# Chapter 57
However, since the entrance to the boss room was open, this fog would soon disappear…
Ko Eungyo remembered that the fire turtle had poor vision. But as its vision was poor, its other senses were likely to have developed. He was careful not to breathe too loudly.
Meanwhile, the fire turtle remained silent like a stone. It seemed to be pretending to sleep to reassure the intruders so it could assess their movements. It wasn’t a creature with a very low intelligence level. Ko Eungyo carefully measured his distance from the fire turtle, picked up a stone, and threw it in a completely different direction.
The fire turtle charged toward that spot with thundering steps, perhaps thinking the intruder was there.
Ko Eungyo ran as far away from the fire turtle as possible, utilizing his stamina to the maximum. Realizing there was no intruder where the stone had fallen, the fire turtle shook its head in irritation. Then it turned around again to find the intruder.
In the meantime, Ko Eungyo, who had hidden himself behind a pile of stalactites, picked up and threw another stone.
The fire turtle ran even faster than before. Unable to contain the anger rising through its entire body, it threw itself in the direction where the stone had fallen.
There was a loud bang, followed by an ominous sound from the cave ceiling.
The ceiling, which had already collapsed once, still had stalactites remaining, and they began to fall like rain with the sound of crumbling stones.
This hit the fire turtle fairly, but Ko Eungyo also had to run like mad to avoid the stalactites.
Without exaggeration, Ko Eungyo didn’t have excellent stamina. Nevertheless, using his skills from his past life and survival instincts, he managed to avoid the stalactites somehow, but he couldn’t perfectly dodge all the flying debris. The stalactites were quite thick, so their fragments were also very large, and Ko Eungyo was thoroughly beaten all over by stones flying in every direction. It would have been better to fall and roll on the stalactites piled on the floor.
When his shoulder hit a falling stalactite, it was excruciatingly painful.
But this was tolerable. No, he had to endure it no matter what. Ko Eungyo rolled his eyes, wanting to check if Lee Seungwoo was alright, but he froze when he saw black eyes intently staring at him through the steam and dust clouds that had started to clear.
Right… the fire turtle didn’t need to make a fuss about falling stalactites. It had an outer shell so hard that it remained intact even after charging at full speed and hitting its head against the wall dozens of times.
The fire turtle, cunning as it was, seemed to have realized that this intruder was much more fragile than the annoying one from before.
What a trap, to throw itself to see what kind of creature the remaining intruder was.
“Damn it…”
Not just low intelligence—at this level, it was quite cunning. Now there was absolutely no way to avoid the fire turtle. He muttered dejectedly.
The monster opened its mouth toward Ko Eungyo. Ko Eungyo saw thousands of small teeth densely lined inside. As if intending to chew him up where he had fallen, the fire turtle approached Ko Eungyo with its mouth open.
Having no intention of lying still and becoming the fire turtle’s food, Ko Eungyo got up and ran with all his might. The fire turtle seemed displeased when he ran away and charged at him with a strange cry. If he had been even a second late, Ko Eungyo would have been eaten by the fire turtle.
With a thud, a huge stalactite was jammed into the fire turtle’s mouth instead of Ko Eungyo.
That was, of course, Lee Seungwoo.
“Seungwoo… Seungwoo.”
He kept muttering thanks to someone he didn’t even know who it was. He felt like he might burst into tears. Thank goodness. Thank goodness… that Lee Seungwoo wasn’t dead.
Ko Eungyo, who had been running, sat down right there. His breath had risen to the tip of his chin. His damn ankle was starting to lose its function again after falling several times. Ignoring the throbbing ankle, Ko Eungyo opened his mouth.
“Seungwoo, are you alright?”
In response to Ko Eungyo’s call, Lee Seungwoo glanced at him once before using his ability again. Specifically, holding a huge stalactite from who knows where, he struck the fire turtle’s head. Provoked, the fire turtle began to charge at him again with a strange cry.
Lee Seungwoo flew up and lured the fire turtle away.
Lee Seungwoo was clearly not in a normal physical condition, and Ko Eungyo was genuinely worried about whether he should be using his abilities like that. The guiding he had provided earlier wouldn’t be enough… No, now he shouldn’t be worrying about guiding but about how injured his body might be.
The fire turtle was extremely angry to see the intruder it thought it had dispatched standing up again.
This time, to completely crush the intruder, the fire turtle stamped its feet with an ominous force. And instead of continuing to charge after Lee Seungwoo, it pulled its body all the way to the opposite direction, then with its feet planted on the ground, it ran at full speed toward Lee Seungwoo, who was aiming at it with a stalactite.
Surprisingly, Lee Seungwoo stood firm in his place, not avoiding the fire turtle. Ko Eungyo couldn’t understand why he was relying on the stalactite when it barely had any effect on the fire turtle.
He must not be hit by that. Ko Eungyo momentarily thought Lee Seungwoo might die.
Lee Seungwoo might have been at a point where he could no longer use his abilities. When he collided with the fire turtle earlier, he might have received such a big impact that his cognitive abilities had fallen too much. Or… or, this was all he could do.
A strange thought occurred to him that just as Ko Eungyo had prepared for death to protect Lee Seungwoo, Lee Seungwoo too seemed to have prepared for death to protect Ko Eungyo.
He never wanted to see someone die. But… instead of tightly closing his eyes, he opened them even wider.
If Lee Seungwoo had to die because of him, he had to witness that final moment.
The fire turtle, with its mouth wide open like it did to Ko Eungyo, thrust its head forward and charged at Lee Seungwoo at maximum speed. Right before colliding with the fire turtle, Ko Eungyo saw Lee Seungwoo narrowly escaping by sliding between the fire turtle’s four legs.
There was a thunderous sound.
The fire turtle, which had hit its head so hard that it almost broke through the wall, remained motionless. It seemed to have… fainted from the massive impact. Lee Seungwoo absolutely did not miss this opportunity. He picked up a nearby embedded stalactite and used his ability to make it very sharp. Then he approached the fire turtle and began to cut off its tough head.
The creepy sound of sawing—swish, swish—was heard for quite some time. No matter how strengthened the body was against external impacts, it couldn’t withstand continuous sawing. Finally, with a snap, the fire turtle’s head was split in two. And then a breathtaking silence followed.
…Had the battle really ended like this?
He stared tensely at Lee Seungwoo and the fallen boss monster. Eventually, Lee Seungwoo staggered and sat down. He seemed to have exhausted all his available strength.
“Seungwoo.”
He murmured in a small voice. As if miraculously hearing his voice, Lee Seungwoo could be seen smiling as if wincing. They sat down, silently looking at each other.
Only then did his heart begin to ease a little.
At the same time, there was a sound of a temporary escape portal being generated. It was the surest sign that they had cleared the Jeju Island gate.
The thought finally occurred to him that they had done it. They had survived. They had successfully cleared the gate.
Completely exhausted, Ko Eungyo slowly got up. Enduring the throbbing pain in his ankle, he stood up and looked at the temporary escape portal shimmering with blue light.
His entire body was stiff. He moved slowly as the tension that had stiffened his muscles relaxed. He turned his head toward Lee Seungwoo to tell him to escape together. From a distance, he could see Lee Seungwoo saying something. It was quite a long distance between the opposite cave walls, so he couldn’t understand what he was saying. Just as he was narrowing his eyes to try to read Lee Seungwoo’s lips.
‘What… did you say?’
There was an ominous cracking sound, and then the cave walls began to collapse at an unstoppable speed.
The cave walls, wrecked by the fire turtle’s ramming, could no longer function as walls, and since all four walls started to collapse simultaneously, there was no way to avoid this disaster no matter where they went.
Yes, the cave was collapsing.
Ko Eungyo, seeing the pile of stones falling on his head, unconsciously closed his eyes. Because the distance between him and Lee Seungwoo was too great, he didn’t think Lee Seungwoo could protect him.
To encounter such a disaster at the very moment they cleared the gate.
Without any way to help himself, an enormous impact engulfed him.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
