#91
What if this was one of the boss mob’s abilities?
Fear makes people cower and prevents them from demonstrating their full capabilities. Since they were fundamentally S-Class hunters, their threshold was high, but if the opposing mob cast an S-Class or higher debuff, they would naturally succumb to it. It goes without saying that S-Class hunters aren’t invincible in every aspect.
“Ahhh!”
“Uwahhh!”
Still, to be caught off guard so helplessly like this.
At the desperate screams echoing from all directions, Seo Yi-young gritted his teeth and searched for what he could do. The sight of hunters being dragged toward the boss mob one after another, their bodies wrapped in tentacles, was reflected in his corneas. Something. He had to do something somehow.
He thought it might get better if he put up a barrier, but it was futile. For a brief moment after putting up the barrier, it seemed like they could hold out, but even that returned to the original state after just a second or two. The overwhelming state continued to the point where they couldn’t even attempt to cut through the tentacles binding their bodies.
They couldn’t fight like this.
“Save me, ahh…! Fuck, this, this is…!”
“Hunter Lee Su-jin!”
Even Lee Su-jin, who had been near Seo Yi-young, was being helplessly dragged toward the mob. Seo Yi-young immediately ran toward Lee Su-jin. In his urgency, Seo Yi-young grabbed the tentacle with his hand, but ended up screaming and letting go.
“Sa-, ve m-, ahh, ah, uhhh…!”
Lee Su-jin looked at Seo Yi-young with a desperate expression, pleading to be saved. But Seo Yi-young couldn’t respond. Just enduring the urge to run away without looking back from that spot was already difficult enough.
Just from briefly touching the tentacle, all sorts of negative emotions flowing from it came rushing in.
Submission, humiliation, fear, disgrace, contempt, terror, anxiety, panic, horror.
Every bad emotion humans could feel came pouring in like a flood. He was so overwhelmed that he couldn’t even lift his head to look at the mob. Far from moving his hands and feet, he could barely breathe properly. Attack in this situation? Counterattack? There was no way he could do such things. But he couldn’t just sit there doing nothing.
Seo Yi-young pulled himself together and first grabbed Lee Su-jin. Even though she was a support hunter, she was S-Class. However, the tentacle’s strength was so powerful that even with Lee Su-jin holding on and Seo Yi-young grabbing her, they were dragged along together.
Seo Yi-young healed Lee Su-jin. He knew barriers were useless, but he couldn’t not do it. He also hoped that if she could come to her senses even for a moment, at least Lee Su-jin could escape.
However, the situation didn’t unfold as Seo Yi-young expected. When he healed her, Lee Su-jin seemed to get better, but that was only temporary. There was no opportunity to escape from the tentacle. The tentacle wrapped around Lee Su-jin’s body gulped and swallowed as if sucking something up. She screamed and wailed. With the blood vessels in her face bursting and turning bright red, her eyes gradually rolled back as if she had reached her limit for enduring.
“Save me, -ahh, ahhh, ah! Stop, stop! Hic, it hurts, ahh, ahh!”
He couldn’t heal Lee Su-jin anymore in this state. Just mindlessly healing without a way to solve the problem would only increase her suffering.
Lee Su-jin’s body, which had been pleading and screaming, suddenly flipped backward. Her body went limp as if it had no strength at all. And only then did Seo Yi-young realize that most of the hunters who had entered the dungeon had been caught by these tentacles.
Even the few remaining hunters were caught by tentacles, screaming.
The screams and the sounds of bones and organs being crushed gradually subsided. The sound of being dragged toward the boss mob could be heard.
Seo Yi-young unconsciously looked for Choi Do-jun. But he couldn’t see him. Was it because he couldn’t search properly in this situation? Like a young child who had lost his mother’s hand in a crowded shopping mall, he desperately searched for Choi Do-jun but failed.
Could it be that Choi Do-jun was also, already… already.
“…Uhh.”
What had allowed him to endure in this dungeon, what had been supporting the foundation, began to crack and crumble.
But he couldn’t just keep looking for Choi Do-jun. He knew that. He couldn’t stay stopped like this. Though he felt afraid, if he stayed still, he didn’t know when he might be attacked. That’s when a tentacle flew toward Seo Yi-young too. He threw his body backward, but it was futile. The tentacle that touched his arm swiftly wrapped around Seo Yi-young’s body.
“Ah… ahh.”
It was completely different from when he had briefly grabbed it with his hand to save Lee Su-jin earlier.
He had to endure this?
Crushed by overwhelming despair, he couldn’t even breathe.
It felt like falling into a place full of filth, being drenched by vomit pouring down like rain, with people’s malice and contempt piercing into his body like thorns. The horrible sensation of tiny insects crawling around in every corner of his arteries and capillaries was a bonus.
He absolutely couldn’t endure it. Not even for a single second.
Nausea surged up.
“Urp… uweck.”
In an instant, Seo Yi-young’s face was covered in tears and snot.
He could understand why all the S-Class hunters had lost consciousness. No one would have the mental strength to endure this. Even if they were the most remarkable hunter.
…Yes, even if that was Choi Do-jun.
The despair that had faintly spread out covered his mind pitch black.
But such thoughts were soon erased. With the pain inflicted on his body, thinking was a luxury. In the burning sensation that flowed through his spinal cord and seemed to set his entire body on fire, his thoughts crumbled like scattered sand. He desperately wished he could at least faint. If he could lose consciousness, he wouldn’t feel the pain.
But that didn’t go as he wished either. He didn’t lose consciousness like the other hunters. Seo Yi-young was feeling all the pain that his mind and body could perceive.
He could feel himself being gradually dragged toward the boss mob, but he couldn’t muster the strength to resist. With every breath he exhaled, it felt like his lungs would tear apart.
Use his ability in this situation? Impossible.
He didn’t want to feel this pain anymore, at least.
Click. Chiiik.
A sound came from the communicator in his ear. Seo Yi-young, who had been barely breathing shallowly, blinked his eyes.
It ends like this?
Here?
After even traveling through dimensions, so futilely like this?
Such thoughts occurred to him even with his hazy mind.
Even if he escaped from the tentacle binding him, this wouldn’t be the end. But he absolutely refused to have being helplessly beaten without doing anything become his last memory.
“…Don’t be ridiculous.”
Seo Yi-young said through gritted teeth. Only a voice like hissing wind came out. If he was going to end it like this, he wouldn’t have gone through all that suffering. If he was going to die like this, wouldn’t everything he had done so far be too unfair?
Seo Yi-young put strength into his fist. He began to resist by putting strength into his feet, which had just been dragged around. A grinding sound of his toes scraping came out. Perhaps noticing that Seo Yi-young was resisting, the tentacle binding him tightened with more force, squeezing his body even more tightly. It was pressure that wouldn’t be strange if his body burst and died.
Crack. Snap.
The dull sound of bones breaking came out.
“Ah! Ahhh… uhh, uhhh…”
Cough, blood came out with the cough that burst forth.
Injuries to his body could be healed. He wouldn’t die from this.
In the endless pain, Seo Yi-young bit his tongue to stay conscious and looked around once more. As expected, Choi Do-jun was nowhere to be seen. He would have been the most threatening existence to the boss mob, so it might have attacked him first. No matter how much it was Choi Do-jun, it was hard to expect that he would be alive after receiving such an attack without healing. If there were no combat hunters to attack, no matter how much Seo Yi-young healed, he couldn’t clear the dungeon.
Seo Yi-young applied healing to his own body. He felt like the hazy fog spread in his mind was clearing. Then suspicion arose about the blind fear toward the boss mob. Why had he been so afraid?
What had he been so scared of? He couldn’t believe that he had tried to give up without doing anything. No matter how much it was a calamity-level dungeon boss mob, wasn’t it just a moth? Even if he died, he had to try what he could try. Such resolve came to mind.
“…Ah. Uhhh.”
But the pain didn’t disappear and remained the same.
Hah, a sigh flowed out. He was amazed at himself for not fainting yet despite having long exceeded the limits humans could endure. Or was there something different about him? Seo Yi-young thought about his skill. Could it be because of his skill? If recovery was applied to Seo Yi-young himself even without specifically applying the skill. Even if it seemed impossible, when only one possibility remained, that could sometimes be the truth.
If that was the case.
What if he healed to the point of complete overload? If he was going to die either way. Then wouldn’t the healed hunters be able to attack the boss mob? If everyone joined forces even for just a moment when both body and mana were fully recovered. If there was only one way to clear the dungeon, this was it.
Having thought that far, Seo Yi-young immediately went into action without thinking twice.
Either way, dying in this dungeon was the same.
Then wouldn’t it be better to surprise that damn boss mob? Light began to slowly swirl around not only Seo Yi-young’s hands but his entire body. The rippling light spread wide enough to embrace all the hunters collapsed around him.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
