Chapter 85 – Magician’s Ivory Tower (6)

Lenin, who was growing out of the center of the ‘Chimera’ body, fired a lightning bolt out of his hands. The Highlander lifted his sword high and shouted

“Electro!”

The bolts of lightning that left Lenin’s hands were pulled into and absorbed by the Highlander’s Two handed sword. The Highlander immediately charged towards Lenin whose body was situated at the center of the Chimera.

But that was no easy task since the rest of the Chimera was defending it.

‘Woosh’

The Highlander had to defend against the Lion’s front paws. The Mountain and Hoplite ran in to assist, but they also had to contend with the Snake forming the tail.

While a fierce fight broke out, the ‘Green Magician’ placed his hands on Sungjin’s forehead and chanted

“The morning has come, Awakening.”

Sungjin’s eyes soon opened. As soon as he was awake, he checked his surroundings. The Chimera was busy fighting off three hunters. The only one to fall asleep was him.

It was not an area of effect spell. But

“Baa~”

The Goat cried again. This time the Mountain fell asleep. Since the Tank was no longer in combat, the other two men were suddenly in peril.

The Lion and the Snake attacked the remaining two men; the Hoplite and the Highlander.

The Hoplite was able to ward off the Lion’s claws with his shield and spear, but the Highlander was unable to defend against the Snake due to being preoccupied with defending against the Lion. He was bit in the shoulder.

“Ugh!”

There was no time to nonchalantly read the book. Sungjin closed the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and dashed forward to help the two men. He warded off the Snake with the Moon Specter and cut off the claws of the Lion.

“Kah! You!”

Lenin seemed to recognize Sungjin. Sungjin replied

“I’ll kill you the second time!”

But it wasn’t as easy as he had said. Despite the fact that four independent creatures were mixed into the Chimera, they moved as one living being. The Lion was clawing with its paws, the Snake continued to look for a chance to strike, and the Goat and Lenin used magic attacks.

“Baa~”

“Unextinguishable inferno of hell!”

Everyone was in danger. Sungjin moved quickly to seal the Chimera’s movements.

“Snake eye”

The eye of Basilisk opened from his necklace, and the Chimera froze up in place as a whole. Sungjin held his sword in a cross and slashed against the Lion’s face in an X shape. The Lion lost both eyes at the same time.

“Kragh!”

A wild beast cried out in agony. The Chimera flinched. Sungjin moved to strike again. But

“Baa~”

The Goat cried once more, and the Chimera flew up into the air.

‘Damn it… I have to use my spells…’

Sungjin looked up at it and

“Pa!”

Fired the Blood Vengeance, but the Lion knocked it out of the air with its paws. The Lion had lost his eyes but seemed to be able to see due to other sources of sight.

“Haa!”

Sungjin readied his Moon Specter. But

“Close the wounds and erase the pain, Heal!”

Lenin cast healing magic while floating up in the sky.

‘Unfair…’

The bosses until now were specialized towards either magic or physical attacks, but this Chimera was good at both; a jack of all trades.

The Lion and the Snake were the warrior type, while the goat and Lenin were the Magician type. A similar creature to Pach and Cho’Roch, where the individual parts worked in harmony to support one another and became stronger as a whole compared to the constituents.

While watching the Chimera heal itself in the air, the Mountain and the Hoplite chanted

“Lance which pierces all! Lightning Bolt!”

“Steel-cutting Blades of Wind! Wind Cutter!”

And sent spells flying towards the boss. However, the size of the lightning bolt or the wind blade was small. Their Magic power was far less than Sungjin’s.

Seeing that, Sungjin thought

‘There’s no way that will do any damage…’

And as expected

“Baa~”

The goat cry generated an ‘anti magic shield’, protecting the boss from harm. Of the spells the Hunters were using the one that proved most effective was

“Counteract the Poison and return to nature, Neutralization!”

The spell the ‘Green Magician’ used on the Hoplite. It was a recovery magic Sungjin also knew of. Followed by

“Nature’s power of healing, Regeneration!”

He followed it up with healing magic. According to Soldamyr’s explanation, it was a little different than the White Magic ‘Heal’ in mechanism but it had similar effects.

“Thank you”

The Highlander expressed his gratitude towards the Green Magician. Sungjin put away the Blood Vengeance and equipped the Artemio for the Magic Reflect.

‘Aim for a well-timed counter attack.’

But once the Chimera was done healing, it climbed higher up in the air. Sungjin thought while looking up

‘…What is he doing?’

Until now, Sungjin had never seen the boss escape from the fight. But Sungjin shortly realized the enemy’s intentions.

The Chimera climbed high into the sky and suddenly plummeted down at high speeds.

The Mountain who had been readying his shield for defense realized that it was not an attack that should be taken head on.

“D…Dodge it!”

The hunters scattered chaotically.

“BOOOM!”

With a deafening noise, the Chimera landed on the top. But the tower began to collapse due to the impact.

‘Rumble rumble’

“Eh?”

The floor collapsed, and everyone including the Chimera were forced into the 10th floor. They couldn’t see due to dust and were put off balance.

“Kragh!”

The fully healed Lion came charging towards the hunters. The target was the Hoplite who was isolated from the rest. Before anyone could do anything to stop it, the Lion ripped off his entire arm.

“K…”

The Snake took that time to grab him and throw him off of the tower. The Hoplite sailed through the air as he plummeted down.

“Edwin!”

The Highlander shouted out his real name, but his fate was sealed.

“You Bastard!”

The Mountain and Highlander charged towards the Chimera out of anger. Sungjin joined them in the charge.

While the Mountain suppressed the Lion’s paws, the Highlander stabbed the Lion’s arm and cut off the tongue of the Snake. They were a good duo. While the two of them were facing off against the Lion and the Snake

Sungjin ran to the left. The target was the Goat. It had an incredibly short chant of ‘Baa~’ and showed nearly as high magic power as Lenin. Number 1 priority for elimination.

But because it died once to Sungjin’s hands, as soon as it noticed Sungjin charging at it, the whole Chimera jumped back in response. At the same time, Lenin chanted a spell.

“Incinerate everything in your path!”

It was like as if he was using ‘substitute casting’ all by himself. Shortly afterwards

“Baa~”

A ball of fire appeared at the Goat’s Mouth. The two of them must have planned to cast the same spell at the same time. The hunters other than Sungjin were panicked by the sight and scurried off to hide behind the rubble.

But Sungjin thought

‘This is my chance.’

Gripping Artemio tightly, he ran.

“Reflect Magic!”

Artemio glowed purple. At the same time, he thought to himself ‘Anti Magic Shield’ and Besgoro chanted on his behalf.

“Spell-devouring magic field, Anti Magic Shield”

“Fire Ball!”

The balls of fire left Lenin’s hand and the Goat’s mouth at the same time. Sungjin readied the Artemio and swung his sword like a batter in a baseball game.

‘Bing~’

Artemio’s purple blade clashed against the fireball and reflected the attack back towards the Goat

“Kabooom!”

It made a massive explosion. The embers flew all over, but Sungjin was safe since he was protected by the ‘Anti Magic Shield’.

The Chimera, whether it was the Human Goat Lion or Snake, was unable to immediately recover from the blast. But even this wouldn’t last very long.

Sungjin decided to go all in.

“Frenzy”

The eyes of Besgoro began to glow bright red, and the sword of Sungjin moved even faster than before, speeding up as he began to cut up the Chimera.

The Lion’s head was severed, the Snake was cut down the middle, and the Goat was pierced through the head with the Sword. Due to his immense speed, the Chimera was unable to react and could only flinch.

Only Lenin could act in response.

“Defy Gravity!”

He was trying to use ‘Flight’ to escape into the air again, but Sungjin had already prepared by sheathing the Moon Specter; He didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

“Ghastly Wail”

The wail was activated.

“KYAAAH!”

Because of the Wail

“Fl…u…aahhhh!”

Lenin began to scream. The incantation failed to activate. Lenin trembled in fear and put up his hands in submission

“Mercy. Forgive me.”

Lenin was typically out of his mind, but now that he was scared it seemed as if he was back to normal. Sungjin was going to take his time to finish off Lenin, but the main body of the Lion became a problem.

When Sungjin moved closer to the Chimera, the Lion’s body automatically ran backwards to escape.

The problem was that behind him was empty air; the outside of the tower. The Lion ran away scared out of its wits and flung itself out of the tower.

“Eh…?”

Sungjin was about to run over to the edge and chase after the Chimera but

“Boom”

A loud crash was heard from below, and the Operator gave an announcement.

[Congratulations. Hidden Boss]

[Terrible Chimera is Cleared.]

Sungjin still walked over to the edge to look down the side of the tower. The four creatures were in a bloody heap where it became impossible to tell which part corresponded with what animal.

The enemy this time was no easy foe. It was cleared thanks to the help of the other hunters, but if he had fought this one on one, it would have dragged on for quite a while.

And in the process, the Hoplite had lost his life. The raid is designed to be just barely beatable when investing every coin and status points one could get their hands on.

For several chapters Sungjin focused on buying marbles rather than using his coins and stat points to empower himself; it was slowly making these fights more and more difficult.

‘Next time I won’t think about how to get more coins and just buy the item from Darker than black.’

Sungjin wrapped up his thoughts and turned around. He could see the ‘Highlander’. The White man who had carefully observed Sungjin’s actions. He was silent. He must be mourning for the Hoplite.

“Damn it… If only I was stronger…”

Sungjin couldn’t help but think

‘Really… he is just like my past self…’

Sungjin had been the same. Whenever a teammate would die, he would become depressed as if it was his fault. Enough to affect the next raid.

But after experiencing this dozens of times, he had become desensitized to the feeling. Sungjin walked over and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“It is not your fault.”

The Highlander looked up to stare Sungjin in the face. It didn’t look like he distrusted Sungjin any longer. But he soon let his head drop. As he hung his head, a tear drop fell down his cheeks.

It was an entirely different image compared to when he was fighting Sungjin earlier. Seeing him like this, Sungjin thought

‘Strong… and incredibly humane… Should I baptise him?’

It was a dilemma.