久久大陆

Slowly, the bulbous, overtaken man turned around, swaying side-to-side as if intoxicated before revealing his face to him.

Another howl left in an inhuman frequency from Ho-Jun's maw before his eyeballs bulged out and his face began to crack and peel apart.

"What the…?" He watched in disgust.

Ho-Jun's entire head broke apart in a stomach-churning fashion, being stripped apart before the body of a giant centipede, larger than the previous ones, stretched out as if taking over as the man's new head.

He immediately had to resist the urge to vomit as tears hung around the edges of his eyes; it was beyond anything he had seen in this twisted world. Chunks of brain matter had been splashed onto the walls, and bits and pieces of skull fragments flew around the hall as the centipede-controlled man stumbled towards him.

This isn't right…! Is this what "Hell" is truly like?! He questioned.

There was no time to be disgusted as he forced himself to get ready to clash with the infected, lost companion of his.

He's dead…There's no saving him now, Jeong-Hui…so don't hesitate! He told himself.

Aiding himself in this, he activated Sage Period with the primary intent of augmenting his reflexes and emotions.

Let's do it just like that first time…I know I might hesitate–so, let's suppress my unneeded emotions! He thought.

Just as he commanded himself, those hesitancies were whisked away as his emerald eyes took to a glow, now able to face the centipede-human without any doubt in his mind.

As the bulbous being rushed towards him, he jumped up, spinning himself around as the soles of his boots pressed against the ceiling, dodging right over the attempted bite of the centipede-head as he looked down at it.

Dark Edge plus Ripper…He thought.

"Black Ripper."

[Spirit: -200. Remaining Spirit: 2000/3600]

He executed the combined skill by first using a [Blink Step] to close off the space between him and his opponent on the ground, flashing by as he landed on the ground behind the infested man.

In a dark flash, many slashes appeared, cutting up the body of who was once Ho-Jun, as well as cutting apart the centipede head.

"...That should do it–"

As he thought it was the end, he looked back to witness the bisected, enormous centipede body that stretched out from Ho-Jun's neck cavity had reattached itself before it could fully separate.

Regeneration–? This is different from how the other centipedes recover–it's almost instantaneous, he realized.

He was forced to jump back as the black, monstrous centipede extended from Ho-Jun's neck, whipping towards him in an unnatural path as he avoided its clamping, sludge-oozing mandibles.

"--!"

It was a tricky opponent; watching the body of Ho-Jun only served to deceive him as the centipede stretching from the body's neck cavity moved differently and more aggressively than the lumbering, thick body itself.

Cutting isn't going to be very effective, is it? Not normal cutting, anyway…He thought.

"Hades' Touch."

[Spirit: -200. Remaining Spirit: 1700/3600]

Sage Period lessened the spirit toll on normal, uncombined spells, allowing him to manifest the aspect of deathly frost as it exuded from the black-steel of his daggers in a cold air.

If Yeong-Un could end them with fire, maybe ice can handle it similarly, he theorized.

He jumped up, avoiding the mandibles of the lengthy centipede as it curved around, redirecting itself to try and latch onto him again.

With a swift counter, he sliced the midsection of its skin-crawling body, leaving a trail of ice that stretched across its form.

"Got you."

–However, it didn't seem to be the end as he was suddenly shoved by the headless body of Ho-Jun after landing back down, rolling across the floor as he quickly caught himself onto his feet again.

It barely did any damage, not enough to trigger a prompt from the System, but it did leave his shoulder feeling stiff afterwards as he looked up.

"...Shit," he let out quietly.

The icy attempt to thwart the centipede seemed to end in failure as the lengthy, monstrous insectoid split its body, leaving its head to wither away while its sludge-spewing, headless body quickly regenerated, regrowing its head in mere moments.

It can break off like that, then…I'll have to freeze Ho-Jun's body, he thought.

Using Hades' Touch for too long had its own side-effects; the deathly cold could be felt within his own body as his temperature slowly dropped, prompting him to take to the offensive this time while the main centipede was still recovering.

Hades' Touch plus Twilight Cutter…! He thought.

It was a difficult maneuver to make, but was able to combine one skill with another while one was still active, adding the rangeless, visceral aspect of [Twilight Cutter] to his ice-bearing daggers.

Slashing his daggers, he unleashed pale-blue, starry slashes that propelled forward, landing against the round, black-veined body of Ho-Jun.

"Underworld's Horizon."

As the centipede-controlled corpse itself was defenseless, the resulting slashes split open Ho-Jun's abdomen in an abhorrent fashion as his guts spilled out, but quickly froze over before the spillage could fall.

It's working! He witnessed.

The centipede halted its attack as it writhed in the pain of the biting frost that stretched across Ho-Jun's mutilated corpse.

Witnessing this made him realize an aspect of "Hades' Touch" itself:

It looks like the frost is much more powerful if it's inflicted on a weakened enemy, or if it's born from their wounds? He thought.

After standing there and watching the frost stretch, he witnessed it eventually freeze over both the body and the centipede itself–leaving a grotesque statue of ice in the hall.

"Haah…"

Using [Hades' Touch] for that long resulted in his breaths leaving in a frosty mist before he canceled it, allowing his temperature to return to normal as he slowly moved over to the frozen corpse.

["???" Defeated. EXP + 300 | 350/13500]

"...Weird. It looks like this isn't an enemy recognized by the system…" He thought.

Sage Period, off, he thought.

The moment Sage Period was deactivated, his suppressed emotions returned as tears trailed down his cheeks.

With the abundant death lingering on the fourth floor, he fell to his knees before slamming his fist down against the ground.

"Shit…!"

He screamed out from the top of his lungs, crying out as once again, he had failed to protect his comrades.

After a minute, he collected himself, wiping his face as he breathed in and out, knowing there was little time for grief.

This isn't something that can be swept under the rug now. We'll have to tell everybody, as soon as possible…this is terrible. I just hope Sol and Yeong-Un are fine…He thought.