The Support Ate it All

Mana BB pellets and steel pellets poured into the Blood Sword Squad Leader.

Ahn Jeongmi and Dang Ilbi had fired them after breaking off from the blood demons.

On top of that, I pointed at him with fingers frozen stiff.

[Resonant Jade-Demon Finger-Flick]

[Ice-White Pellet]

[Resonant Ice-White Jade-Demon Pellet Finger-Flick]

“It’s useless—!”

Six blood-red sword aura arms swung six swords, splitting every incoming projectile cleanly in half.

And finally, he chopped at a single streak of cold as well—but instead of being cut apart—

It triggered two cold explosions.

That was [Ice-White Pellet]’s effect with [Chain Explosion] layered on top.

The cold the Blood Sword Squad Leader got drenched in would, under the effect of [Resonant Jade-Demon Finger-Flick], freeze his blood vessels and sever the flow of his internal power.

‘Meaning blocking it doesn’t matter.’

It was a skill he absolutely had to dodge, but there was no way he’d know that, so I mixed it in with the other projectiles and sent it.

“……!”

The Blood Sword Squad Leader’s eyes flew wide—he realized he’d been hit—but he didn’t stop. He kept charging straight at me.

He closed the distance in an instant and brought down sword aura blades.

The next moment, there was nothing left in that spot.

Crushed without a trace by overwhelming force.

Of course, I wasn’t “not there” for that reason—I wasn’t there because I’d used ★Blink★ to get far away.

I waved at the Blood Sword Squad Leader as he turned to glare at me.

“Did the pedestrian walk over?”

“YOU BAST—!”

A violent shockwave burst out from around him.

It wasn’t just rage.

‘A debuff cleanse.’

Looks like he removed the cold from Resonant Jade-Demon Finger-Flick.

Then the Blood Sword Squad Leader kicked off the ground again.

He reached within arm’s length at a terrifying speed, but—

Compressed air exploded and sent him flying.

“What the—!”

The Blood Sword Squad Leader’s eyes bulged like they were about to tear.

He clearly hadn’t expected to get shoved back this pointlessly.

‘Normally, he would’ve just flinched and that would’ve been it.’

His resistance would be pretty high, befitting the edge of A-rank.

But right now, [Movement Command] was amplified to B-rank.

[Movement Command(D→B)]

▷Forced-movement resistance penetration +2 ranks

▷Every 3→1 minutes, an additional 2→3 ranks of penetration

Once per minute, I could ignore a full five stages of the target’s forced-movement resistance.

Meaning even an S gets treated like an E.

Using the opening that created, another streak of cold shot straight for the Blood Sword Squad Leader’s chest.

“……!”

For someone who’d been through plenty in the Blood Cult, he recognized the Jade-Demon Finger-Flick instantly.

He’d learned he shouldn’t block it—he had to dodge—and it wasn’t even hard if he just twisted his body a little.

‘Of course, I expected that much.’

[Space Fold]

The streak that had been fired halfway blinked out—then arrived at his chest.

The moment the cold explosion went off, another violent shockwave erupted.

‘He cleared it again.’

But debuff cleanses always have cooldowns.

And he’s a martial-artist class—he wouldn’t have invested that heavily into utility.

‘He’s almost out.’

Even if he has one or two left, they’ll be weaker ones.

So the moment my eyes met his—

[‘Octopus Arms’ will be used.]

[‘Mutual-Destruction Eye’ will be used.] *30

[The target is inflicted with the status ailment ‘Poisoned (S)’.]

[The target is inflicted with the status ailment ‘Weathered (S)’.]

[The target is inflicted with the status ailment ‘Poisoned (S)’.]

[The target is inflicted with the status ailment ‘Frozen (S)’……. ]

…….

[Cooldown 14:59:58]

‘First time doing thirty in a row.’

And first time using it amplified to S-rank, too.

Up to now, I’d used Mutual-Destruction Eye to bait out the cleanse, then landed the Jade-Demon Finger-Flick—but at around thirty stacks, it would be stronger than even forbidden skills, so I flipped the order.

And the power was excellent, exactly as I’d expected.

Wind wrapped around the Blood Sword Squad Leader’s entire body, and he ended up practically trapped inside a chunk of ice.

S-rank poison would be gnawing at him from the inside as well.

Still, I felt a faint throb behind my eyes.

My vision blurred for the briefest instant, then snapped back.

‘Thirty is the limit.’

The 900× cooldown application through Octopus Arms is one thing—

And I can neutralize the poisoning penalty with ★All-Poison Immunity★—

But the strain hitting my eyes seems unavoidable.

‘If I stack more than this, I’ll get hurt.’

I could end up messing with [Pain Delay] or [Retrocovery] for no reason, so keeping it at thirty stacks or less going forward is safer.

Even that is plenty strong.

‘Anyway, the seasoning’s done.’

And I’ve bought enough time.

Do I really need to finish him myself?

As I was thinking that—

The Blood Sword Squad Leader shattered the ice and stepped out.

“Seriously—one to ten, you’re all nothing but vicious—”

Then his face abruptly hardened, because he realized one thing.

The Arcade was unnaturally quiet.

The shouting and screams, steel scraping steel, internal power colliding with internal power, gunfire, explosions—everything was gone.

You need both sides alive for noise to keep happening, and in the meantime, the Asura Blood Sword Squad had been wiped out.

Meanwhile, the damage the party had taken was nothing more than a few shallow wounds.

Soon, Seo Ye-in, Dang Gyu-young, the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family, Ahn Jeongmi, and the Hyeseong Group staff all settled into their positions.

As the Blood Sword Squad Leader slowly looked them over, his gaze suddenly stopped on the Gyu-Shadow Undead.

“Dark-Shadow Commander……?”

A moment later, his expression turned as if someone had smashed him in the head with a hammer.

“Blood-Wind Sword……. Dragonslayer Academy……. It was you bastards.”

“Thanks. We’re using it very well.”

In a little while, you’ll be using it very well too.

If we register you as a Gyu-Shadow Undead, wouldn’t you land around A+?

The Blood Sword Squad Leader let out a hollow laugh.

“……At this point, I can’t even get angry anymore. Either way, it’s obvious you bastards are a massive obstacle to the Blood Cult’s great work. I’ll take as many of you with me as I can.”

An enormous blood-red sword aura began to whip and churn around him.

At the same time, his skin wrinkled and dried out like an old man’s.

Seeing that, Dang Ilbi spoke with a grave expression.

“He detonated true origin energy…….”

He’d blown up something that was practically the foundation of internal power, gaining massive strength temporarily.

And it looked like he’d dragged up more than one or two things on top of that.

The moment the effect ended, his life would end too—but I couldn’t be sure the party could hold out until then.

So I gave the order.

“We end this in a short, decisive battle.”

The Dang twins added a word each.

“We’ll take out the Dang family’s secret art.”

“Even the Clan Head hasn’t mastered it perfectly yet…… but if we combine our strength, we should be able to imitate it, at least.”

“Buy us just a little time.”

Then Ahn Jeongmi and the Hyeseong Group staff stepped forward.

“Leave it to us.”

As they spoke, they pulled out bullets with a purplish tint and loaded them into their mana guns.

‘Special rounds.’

If my guess is right, those are insanely expensive—and they’re planning [N O V E L I G H T] to fire several each.

Still. They’re not more expensive than a human life.

Seo Ye-in also raised one hand high above her head, like she was about to use an ultra-first kill move.

But nothing happened, and I asked casually,

“Is it because we’re indoors?”

“……I guess so.”

“What a shame.”

What can you do. I just have to suffer a little more.

That was when—

“Blood taxes the world—! The blood demon subjugates all—!”

With a solemn shout, the Blood Sword Squad Leader swung his sword aura arms.

Blood-red sword aura slashed wildly in every direction.

The Twin Heroes of the Dang Family dodged as they built momentum.

Steel pellets and coins—and even every small and large piece of metal inside the Arcade—rose as if defying gravity.

Then they began moving along a massive current.

The Blood Sword Squad Leader seemed to notice too, but decided it wasn’t the priority right now.

He kicked off the ground and surged toward Seo Ye-in at an insane speed.

Four Gyu-Shadow Undead instantly blocked his path.

But the moment his six sword aura arms whipped around, they couldn’t last more than a few exchanges before scattering into pieces.

Because Umbral Corridor was still spread out, they were resummoned immediately—

But even that got torn into pieces in no time.

After casually clearing the obstacles, the Blood Sword Squad Leader kept sprinting toward his target.

Seo Ye-in tracked him with her eyes, then—

“Slide.”

She cast Ghostless Shadow and widened the distance.

But the Blood Sword Squad Leader looked like he’d decided to fixate on just one person.

He pushed his footwork to the extreme and stuck to Seo Ye-in.

Blocking his path this time was Dang Gyu-young.

Maybe they’d judged undead wouldn’t stop him for long—Dang Gyu-young raised the shadow club.

[Standing Alone]

The undead were destroyed all at once and absorbed into Dang Gyu-young.

Up to now, they’d gained the bonus from two, but now all four slots were filled, doubling the effect.

With black energy surging, Dang Gyu-young faced the Blood Sword Squad Leader head-on.

Six swords and the shadow club collided in a chaotic exchange.

At first it looked roughly even, but the Blood Sword Squad Leader had dragged every stat up with his life as collateral.

Little by little, he started forcing Dang Gyu-young back—until a single blade swung for an arm.

But instead, the blade bent grotesquely, because [Distortion] activated.

The Blood Sword Squad Leader’s face twisted even harder.

“You dog—”

“Waaah! The sovereign gave it to me!”

Dang Gyu-young shouted with a grin.

Even so, their expression stayed serious, because they were still being pushed back.

Only a few more exchanges later, another crisis arrived—a blood-red blade slashed in on a diagonal.

But by then, I was already within arm’s reach.

Crow Tree slapped onto the blade.

[Ihwajeopmok]

When I tossed it as if shoving it into another blade, the six sword aura arms tangled into a chaotic knot.

In that moment, Seo Ye-in threw the lump of light she’d been gathering above her hand.

[Capricious Trap]

[Space Fold]

It flashed out of existence, and the instant it touched the Blood Sword Squad Leader’s chest, it turned into thick wooden vines that wrapped him up tight.

As the six sword aura arms began ripping and tearing at the vines—

Purplish rounds fired from the Hyeseong Group staff’s mana guns.

Instead of hitting him, they stopped dead in the air nearby.

Then purple current linked them together, wrapping the Blood Sword Squad Leader like a net.

Internal power inside the area scattered violently.

Sword aura wasn’t an exception—his six blood-red forearms blurred and wavered.

A couple of them even shrank down to about a child’s forearm.

While the Blood Sword Squad Leader was nearly neutralized like that, the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family looked like they’d finished preparing too.

A sea of metal spread across the Arcade’s ceiling.

Then, following the twins’ gestures, it began to claim all directions—focusing only on the Blood Sword Squad Leader.

[Rain of Ten Thousand Flowers]

The Blood Sword Squad Leader’s body trembled as he looked up.

Blood poured from his seven orifices—recoil from forcing up his last reserves.

He tore the vines apart in one burst and escaped the net of purple current.

Swinging his regenerated sword aura arms, he roared,

“With tricks like this! You can’t bind me—!”

Compressed wind exploded and shoved him right back to where he’d been.

“Hey. Why do you keep moving around? Hold still.”

“…….”

The Blood Sword Squad Leader stared at me, dumbfounded.

And just as he was about to spit out every filthy curse he could think of, Rain of Ten Thousand Flowers swallowed him whole.