The Hero Returns

“When did it get back its sight?” Lee Kang-hee thought.

It was not long ago. Only a few minutes had passed since it lost its sight. Lee Kang-hee could not believe that Kraken had already recovered. Its regenerative power was beyond his imagination. Also, Kraken had a power that constrained movement only with its cry.

“Damn it. This is not what I expected…”

Rumble, rumble—!

Kraken raised its legs above Lee Kang-hee and the other awakeners of the Papillon Guild. It was slow, but there was no place to escape. Some of them had become completely paralyzed by Kraken’s cry.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Lee Kang-hee cussed.

Lee Kang-hee was at least able to resist the sound as he was an A-Rank awakener. He hastily left his spot. However, only two others were also able to escape.

“N… no…!”

“Help…”

Kraken’s legs were poised to fall on the remaining members of Papillon Guild.

Slash—!

Boom, boom—!

The two legs that were about to attack were suddenly cut in half. There was no trace left of the limbs.

“Huh? Huh?”

“What—what just happened?”

The Kraken’s legs wriggled on the ground. Since they were cut off, Kraken was gawky and did not move well. The people of the Papillon Guild looked at the legs in vain. Soon, a voice came to them.

“You have ten seconds.”

It was Su-hyeun’s voice, the man who cut off Kraken’s legs. He stared at Lee Kang-hee who had run away alone. Su-hyeun shouted to the awakeners of the Papillon Guild.

“Everybody, get back to your position. Otherwise—” Su-hyeun tossed his messy hair, looked around at the people, and said, “—you are all going to die.”

People got goosebumps. It was not an empty warning. Moreover, Kraken’s lethal nature had already been revealed. There was no reason to be greedy for contributions.

“E-everybody back to position!”

“Keep the formation! Hurry up!”

The awakeners of the Papillon Guild shouted hastily. Su-hyeun looked at them and frowned. At least experiencing Kraken’s threat taught them that it was not an easy mark. The terrified awakeners of the Papillon hurried back to their positions. Su-hyeun watched them go, thinking they were pathetic.

Gwooowoo—!

Whether because it lost its legs or because it resented failing to kill people, Kraken made an angry roar at Su-hyeun. Nevertheless, it didn’t swing its legs because it did not see Su-hyeun as a weak opponent.

“Although it’s a little smaller, it is still the same monster,” Su-hyeun thought.

Kraken could use Fear ability. Fear was the common distinct ability of the monsters close to the divine beast. Its effectiveness depended on proximity. So it was best for A-Rank awakeners to stay away from those monsters unless they had a skill that could resist Fear ability.

“Well, at least, burdensome people are backing off…” Su-hyeun thought. He turned his head and said, “Attack again!”

Su-hyeun was far away, but people could hear his voice as clearly as if he was right next to them. Kim Taek-hyun, who was watching Su-hyeun and Kraken, asked in surprise, “Should we start?”

Kim Taek-hyun did not have the same abilities that Su-hyeun did. Instead, his skill was to communicate from a distance.

Su-hyeun nodded and replied in a slightly sharpened voice. “We planned this already. Remember?”

Su-hyeun made a gesture to hurry people along as if repeating himself was annoying. Even though Su-hyeun said he would be okay, Kim Taek-hyun could not fully believe him. Su-hyeun had told them to unleash all their attacks while he confronted Kraken.

“We were supposed to start earlier…” Kim Taek-hyun thought.

They were supposed to rain down attacks when Kraken lost its sight. After they succeeding in making some big and small wounds, the real fight was supposed to start. But the guild master of Papillon ruined everything.

“Damn it. Whatever.”

Kim Taek-hyun closed his eyes. For now, he had no choice but to follow what Su-hyeun said.

“Everybody attack!” he shouted.

“Yes, sir!”

Sizzle—!

Whoosh—!

Swish, swish—!

Among the sixty awakeners, the people capable of long-range attacks was about forty. They began to use their skills at once. Various skills such as fire, electric shock, and magic were fired at Kraken. Even though Kraken was huge, each of them was higher than B-Rank. The monster wasn’t safe from their attacks.

Gwooook—!

Due to its large size, Kraken could not evade the attacks. It started to scream in pain and stared at the awakeners. Kraken was about to move. And then—

Slash—!

Thump—!

Su-hyeun’s sword cut off the Kraken’s leg.

“Where are you going?”

Su-hyeun once again caught Kraken’s gaze. He grinned.

“Come here, you bald octopus.”

***

Hack— Slash—!

Swish— Rumble—!

Another leg flew away and fell on to the ground. There were a few scattered about already. Kraken’s legs wriggled. The wriggling legs looked very disgusting. Each leg was almost as big as the huge monsters. But…

“What the hell…”

Kim Taek-hyun stared at the remains of Kraken with a blank face. About sixty awakeners were fighting together, but the result was unbelievable.

“I doubted him when he was so confident…”

At first, Kim Taek-hyun thought Su-hyeun’s role was holding Kraken. With its low intelligence, Kraken was most-likely to try attacking the closest thing—which would have been Su-hyeun. Then, the others could attack from a distance. But soon, Kim Taek-hyun realized that his thoughts were wrong.

“I thought he would only hold it back, but I was wrong.”

Whiz—!

Crack—!

Another leg was cut off by Su-hyeun’s sword. Out of a sense of survival, that thick leg that had been wrapped around its head for protection. And Su-hyeun had persistently aimed at such a vital point. Naturally, Kraken could not move and was stuck in that spot.

Boom, boom—!

Numerous skills struck Kraken’s body. Su-hyeun jumped, avoiding the skills. On the surface, it seemed like they had perfect teamwork. But actually, it was possible because Su-hyeun kept time with them.

“Our roles are meaningless,” the other awakeners thought.

To the untrained eye, it seemed there was cooperation with Su-hyeun and the other three guilds. But people with some skills or abilities would notice that Su-hyeun could deal with Kraken by himself.

“I heard he’d killed the boss of the green-colored dungeon alone in Anyang City.”

As a result, Su-hyeun had earned recognition as a new S-Rank awakener before receiving the S-Rank examination.

“I feel shabby in comparison,” Kim Taek-hyun mumbled.

Kim Taek-hyun was an A-Rank awakener. And among them, he was a pretty outstanding one. So he was somewhat confident. He had been confident that he would become an S-Rank awakener. But after seeing Su-hyeun, he changed his mind.

“In a few years…” he thought.

It had only had been a little over two years since Su-hyeun became an awakener. And if he was this good, Kim Taek-hyun could not imagine how much Su-hyeun would grow in the coming years.

“I should line-up well, at least,” Kim Taek-hyun mumbled. He looked at Lee Ju-ho, who stood next to him.

Lee Ju-ho met his eyes and asked, “What? Why?”

Kim Taek-hyun sighed. For some reason, a dungeon attack gave him no anxiety.

***

Slash—!

Thump—!

Another of Kraken’s remaining legs fell. Originally, it had eight. Su-hyeun expected it would recover at least one leg, but it didn’t. It just screamed painfully.

Kyaaaa—!

Whoosh—!

Boom, boom, boom—!

The skills flew and hit Kraken again. It did not have any opportunity to regenerate its body. In just over ten minutes, Kraken had sustained numerous wounds. Su-hyeun landed on one of the legs that had fallen. He looked up Kraken.

“Come on. Die already,” Su-hyeun said.

Su-hyeun’s forehead was sweating. He had been fought armored soldiers, Dullahan, and Kraken, all in quick succession. To sever those huge legs, he had to put his magic into his sword. It helped to increase the sword’s range and power. He used a lot of his magic to do it. But it was almost over.

“You don’t have any spare legs now.”

Su-hyeun stiffened his legs and moved. When Su-hyeun began to move again, it wriggled. Kraken tried to retreat as if it understood his words. Kraken was frightened. The fight was almost over.

Thump—!

Bam—!

Su-hyeun put strength to his legs and jumped at Kraken’s head.

Kyaaaak—!

Kraken acrimoniously exposed its teeth. Soon, Kraken’s mouth swallowed Su-hyeun.

“Mr. Su-hyeun!” the startled people called out.

They did not expect this would end with Su-hyeun being eaten by Kraken. But there was one who had no worries.

“He did that on purpose,” Lee Ju-ho said.

“What?” Kim Taek-hyun, who was next to him, wondered what he was talking about.

Boom—!

Slash—!

White blood sprouted like a geyser from Kraken’s head, and Su-hyeun appeared above it.

Rumble—!

Boom—!

Kraken’s body fell aside. Su-hyeun landed on the ground and took a long breath.

“Phew—”

There was a pause. People thought Su-hyeun was eaten by Kraken, but rather Kraken’s head was pierced. Kraken had fallen.

“We…we won!”

“Yay! It’s over—!”

The boss of the green-colored dungeon had finally died. The raid was successful. The team who had previously thought of retreat now cheerfully shouted.

“No, wait.”

Su-hyeun walked toward them and spoke in a low voice. “Who said this is over?”

At that voice, the cheers stopped at once. Su-hyeun had a cold expression, unlike the first time when they had entered the dungeon. The atmosphere was serious.

“Is there something else left?”

“Something more difficult than Kraken?”

Those were some of the thoughts. But they also thought that it couldn’t be possible. If there was something more difficult than Kraken, this dungeon’s level would be higher than green.

“What could possibly be…?”

While everybody was consumed with nervous thoughts, Su-hyeun stared at Lee Kang-hee, who hid in the crowd.

“You have something to pay, right?” Su-hyeun said.

At Su-hyeun’s word, Lee Kang-hee trembled. Of course, he knew that Su-hyeun was talking about him.

“I’ll give you ten seconds. Crawl out.”