Ranker’s Return

‘It’s big right from the beginning.’

Hyeonu’s heart was calm. He wasn’t nervous at all about the huge tortoise that showed a spherical emission, which was like a dragon’s Breath. He had the confidence to stop it completely. Teramas’ attack was only reminiscent of a dragon’s Breath; it wasn’t actually a dragon’s Breath. This was a big difference. It was too impolite to call it by the same name.

Hyeonu injected magic power into the Mysterious Sky Sword, and it moved like a thunderbolt. The Mysterious Sky Range shot dozens of black-red pure energies toward the sphere that Teramas fired out.

‘Eh? What the?’ Hyeonu stopped for a moment. An amazing scene was occurring before him.

Teramas’ sphere was sucking in Hyeonu’s pure energies. There was no conflict at all. Hyeonu’s pure energies disappeared in an instant as if pouring water into a sewer. The black sphere continued to fly toward Hyeonu changelessly as if nothing had happened.

Hyeonu once again injected magic power into the Mysterious Sky Sword, and a huge pure energy blade rose from it. The pure energy blade grew endlessly, only stopping when it was around 15 meters long. Hyeonu drew the now 15-meter-long sword from left to right. The black-red pure energy blade enlarged yet again. It absorbed Hyeonu’s magic power as a nutrient until the moment it was separated from the Mysterious Sky Sword.

Crescent Moon Cut that had become A-rated was shot out with a great momentum to tear apart Teramas’ sphere. A noise that sounded like the buzzing of bees broke through the air as the crescent-shaped pure energy collided with the black sphere. Immediately after that, there was a huge explosion and strong vibrations. The shockwave alone caused some of the trees in the forest to disappear.

Hyeonu swung his sword without a break. He didn’t look at the results of the conflict. He had to first prepare for the next attack. This time, he was going to use Mysterious Sky Demonic Strength. A bead that was several times larger than before, although still much smaller than Teramas’ one, appeared at the end of the Mysterious Sky Sword. Much like Teramas, this bead didn’t move. Instead, it fired a black-red laser. The more that the laser was released, the smaller the size of the bead became.

It was only after attacking with Mysterious Sky Demonic Strength that Hyeonu confirmed the result of the conflict with his own eyes. The black sphere that Teramas shot out earlier still remained intact, while Hyeonu’s Crescent Moon Cut had already disappeared. Hyeonu was being pushed back.

‘It’s a big disadvantage not to have buffs...’

He was neither surprised nor disappointed by the results. In fact, he had expected it because he hadn’t used any buff skills. It was greedy to want to compete in a strength battle against a boss monster of a higher level than him.

‘I did get rid of one pattern though.’

The last two attacks weren’t meaningless. The momentum of the black sphere was now clearly weaker than at the beginning. Its distance from the ground had reduced, but it wasn’t showing the power to overturn the ground like it had done initially.

Soon, Teramas’ sphere and the Mysterious Sky Demonic Strength clashed. The sphere once again absorbed Hyeonu’s pure energy but not as quickly as before. Moreover, at one point, cracks started to occur on the sphere’s surface. The sphere soon burst open, and black magic power scattered in all directions.

The Mysterious Sky Demonic Strength continued to advance. The end destination was Teramas’ head. When Teramas saw that its attack had no effect, it let out a cry full of annoyance: “Kuooooh!”

However, Teramas’ cry wasn’t a simple one; it went beyond being just a sound. Around Teramas, there was now a circular black wave that directly deflected the Mysterious Sky Demonic Strength. The deflected Mysterious Sky Demonic Strength split into dozens of strands and scattered in all directions. The innocent trees and land once again exploded from the impact. 

Although Hyeonu’s Mysterious Sky Demonic Strength had been destroyed, he was smiling brightly.

‘This is obviously one pattern.’

Having a pattern didn’t necessarily mean greatness. All the skills that a boss monster showed were patterns. Boss monsters with a low level had monotonous actions, so patterns were defined as first attack, second attack, and so on. However, this was impossible for a high-level boss monster. It was clear that if he divided the patterns in such a broad manner, he would immediately be logged out. He had to analyze absolutely everything in order to kill a boss monster.

‘There are two fewer attack patterns...’

Hyeonu thought he could beat Teramas with ease. The attacks that involved moving its body weren’t a big threat. They could be avoided perfectly with no damage.

‘I think it will be over if I can hit it up there...’

A feeling of regret filled his heart. If he could climb onto Teramas’ thick neck, he would be able to finish the battle quickly. He had poured out his magic power and used all the skills contained in the Mysterious Sky Demonic Art but still failed to hit Teramas’ neck. In any case, his magic power was restored every time he hit the opponent, so he had no shortage of magic power.

‘One giant buff would’ve been enough.’

He thought it would be easier and faster to finish if he just used a giant buff. Nonetheless, this was a potentially risky move, so he felt regretful about it.

‘Still, don’t be overly greedy.’

He didn’t know what defense-related skills Teramas had, so he should fight as safely as possible. If he were beaten up, he would be forced to log out until the next day. Hyeonu was no exception to this rule. Just then, the fog around him cleared, and the world started to brighten. He looked around for the reason for the sudden changes, but he didn’t see anything.

‘It’s hot?’

Hyeonu felt like his back was burning hot and instinctively turned around. It was a crazy move to look away with the monster right in front of him, but it was also crazy not to know what was happening behind him.

“What?”

He saw a huge sphere that was dozens of meters in diameter. Flames were blazing on the surface of the sphere. This was a sun.

“Tang-E?” Hyeonu uttered. The only one person who could cast such magic—Tang-E.

“Master dude, go!” Tang-E’s voice rang out from somewhere. Hyeonu quickly turned his head to find Tang-E.

‘So he was hiding there.’

Tang-E’s face was exposed from between the broken trees. No wonder why Hyeonu couldn’t find him earlier. He had been exquisitely well hidden.

“Take this, big tortoise!” Tang-E shouted loudly and swung his front paw. The sun moved, and the air blew hotly as it did so. The trees on the ground started to burn, and the ground started to dry up.

Teramas’ response was very dramatic. This guy who hadn’t shown much movement apart from the first few times started to move busily.

“Kuooooh!”

It was the most intense sound Hyeonu had ever heard from Teramas. Teramas kicked at the ground in order to escape. It felt instinctively that this was dangerous. However, Tang-E’s sun rushed rapidly at Teramas. Eventually realizing it was impossible to escape, Teramas took a different action. It withdrew its head and legs into the shell on its back. Simultaneously, the shell was covered with black magic power. This magic power then quickly rotated and became a giant shield.

The flames from Tang-E’s black sun eventually covered it. At first, the sun seemed stuck, but cracks soon started to occur in the giant shield. They were very small cracks, but once a gap wasn’t properly prevented, they would keep happening. Hundreds or thousands of cracks instantly appeared on the shield, quickly breaking it.

Naturally, the black sun then started to touch Teramas’ shell. Teramas’ shell was very smooth. From a distance, it looked like black metal, but it soon started melting.

Right at this moment, Hyeonu buried the Mysterious Sky Sword in the ground, gently piercing it like it was soft tofu. Then a huge sword appeared in the air and dropped down, cutting and piercing straight through Tang-E’s sun and into Teramas’ shell.

The big sword was very small compared to Teramas. It was like stabbing a needle into a pincushion, but the power was certainly great. Apart from its handle, the entire sword was buried in Teramas’ body. A pincushion was an inanimate object, so there was no pain or damage when punctured by a needle. Teramas, however, was a living, breathing creature. Blood flowed from the puncture wound. If it didn’t heal, Teramas would die.

“Kuooooh!” A scream of pain emerged from Teramas’ mouth.

Hyeonu’s sudden attack was embedded in the already weakened shell. The biggest reason for the increased damage was that Teramas had hidden his head and legs inside the shell. It couldn’t see or sense incoming attacks, so it couldn’t respond to them. In other words, it had allowed this attack.

“I will finish it, Master dude!” Tang-E drove in another wedge. He poured all of his remaining magic power into lightning magic. Dark clouds began to appear in the totally cloudless sky. It was a very ominous sight. Additionally, there were slight yellowish sparks around the clouds. No, they weren’t sparks. There was no harm in calling them lightning. They were of a thickness and size too large for them to be called sparks.

Once a certain number of clouds appeared, new dark clouds stopped emerging. Instead, the dark clouds started to unite and become bigger together as they floated above Teramas. The sparks also naturally increased in size, very clearly taking on the appearance of lightning. More waves of real lightning were winding through the clouds with every second.

“Go!!!” Tang-E clapped his paws together. The dark clouds emitted a huge glow of light before a thunderbolt fell. Hyeonu quickly closed his eyes and raised his hand to cover them from the bright light. It was an instinctive movement, but closing his eyes didn’t stop all the light.

“Ohh!” A groan flowed from Hyeonu’s mouth. It felt like he was going blind. Then he heard the sound of thunder and became dazed. Hyeonu’s ears stopped functioning for a moment due to his exposure to the huge sound.

‘Is it over?’

After a while, Hyeonu felt the intensity of the light weaken and slowly opened his eyes. Teramas didn’t look the same as before. Most of its shell had melted away. Its huge head and legs were severely skinned like they were burned. Nevertheless, it was still breathing. Teramas was in a very feeble state, but it was still alive.

Hyeonu slowly approached it for the finishing strike.

Just then, something appeared in front of Hyeonu. “It is up to here.”