Necromancer Survival

‘If I fall from here, I’ll die.’

The pit was so deep and empty, my thoughts couldn’t help but turn to the worst case scenario–certain death. The wind whistled strangely over the floor-less black void.

Dangling from Koo Hui-seo’s tentacles while looking down at this pit wasn’t good at all for my mental health. I trembled and begged Koo Hui-seo, “K-Koo Hui-seo-ssi! Please let me down somewhere…Ack!”

However, even before I could finish speaking, Moon Issak hit Koo Hui-seo’s right-most tentacle with a beam of white light.

The recoil made my body wobble; I worried that I would fall into the pit. My eyes closed tight as I screamed. Luckily, Koo Hui-seo didn’t release me, but…

‘He’s frozen!’

When I cautiously opened my eyes and looked at Koo Hui-seo, I saw that his body was frozen from the neck-down. He was clearly in a horrid state.

Koo Hui-seo blinked, tilted his body, and extended a blackened tongue.

[Whenever this happens… It’s…. So difficult…]

Despite his drained tone, his foothold–rather, the tower of black tentacles he was standing on, turned into angry spikes.

Then, from below, more tentacles wriggled up onto the ground like snake heads. At first glance, someone might mistake them for black snakes: intertwined, wriggling, and writhing.

Slither–!

But, before the snake-like tentacles could blanket the ground, attacks flooded towards us from behind, not from the front where Moon Issak stood. An arrow ensconced with blue flame hit Koo Hui-seo’s frozen right arm.

[Haah…]

The attacked arm began to crack, pieces from below the elbow began to fragment off.

After staring at the crumbling pieces, I looked back to see Lim-Jisoo. Shadows covered her torso; she was looking this way with a smile.

I didn’t know when on earth she arrived, but a red magic circle had unfurled behind her on both sides. New arrows were locked and loaded, waiting midair in front of the magic circle.

Fully prepared, Lim Jisoo smiled brightly as our eyes met and said, with a hint of mockery, “Don’t worry, Choi Lee-kyung, I’ll rescue you from that monster right away.”

“……”

When I faced her mocking eyes, I could see that she wasn’t really attacking Koo Hui-seo in order to save me.

I wanted to know what she was scheming, but I sensed a large movement from Moon Issak’s side. The investigator jumped up at a tremendous speed before swinging a long, extended pole down toward Koo Hui-seo’s head. “Die!”

Boom!

However, the tentacle that had risen behind Koo Hui-seo quickly protected the ex-chimera’s head. However, concerningly, the tip of the tentacle, which had defended against Moon Issak’s attack, froze solid blue as if frostbitten.

In addition, Moon Issak, after finishing his attack, retreated to avoid a counterattack. Lim Jisoo, who had been waiting for this moment, intensely targeted and bombarded the frozen part.

Although Koo Hui-seo was incredibly resilient, the repeated freezing and bombardment made his tentacles fragile–to the point that they would break apart if an attack just grazed the tentacle.

As I watched them repeatedly attack Koo Hui-seo, I thought, ‘If this continues, Koo Hui-seo will be at a disadvantage…’

Both of them attacked from a long distance, well outside the range of Koo Hui-seo’s tentacles. Lim Jisoo timed her attacks to arrive after Moon Issak’s, and Moon Issak attacked during the opportunities created by Lim Jisoo.

‘Even if the situation was currently in Koo Hui-seo’s favor, I don’t know if he would have a chance at victory…’

It was clear we were at our limits. Even if Koo Hui-seo could somehow revive again, my survival wasn’t guaranteed in that gap between his defeat and revival.

While I swayed back and forth, wrapped in Koo Hui-seo’s tentacles, my eyes focused on the pit that seemed to stretch into the abyss. “Hui-seo-ssi. Could you perhaps go underground?”

[……]

Koo Hui-seo, who had been whipping his tentacles like he was swatting at nuisances, suddenly stopped and looked up with confusion-blurred eyes.

I couldn’t be sure if he understood me, but this half-baked situation ¹ couldn’t continue any further.

So, I deliberately stabbed his tentacles with the dagger. It felt like I was digging into tough, stale bread with a knife, but fortunately, it worked.

Koo Hui-seo frowned as he looked at me.

[Stop… Harassing… Me…]

“Then, snap out of it!”

[So mean…]

Koo Hui-seo stared at me with a tearful expression when I plunged my dagger point deeper.

Though his head was twisted in a grotesque manner, his pitiful look made him less intimidating. In the end, this monstrous being was still Koo Hui-seo.

“Go back into the hole and hide!” I shouted.

[Then Lee-kyung-ssi will… Die…]

“I won’t die! I’m saying we should hide ourselves first. Did I say we should bury ourselves alive or something?!”

[……]

Koo Hui-seo hesitated, but he eventually began to slowly lower himself into the pit.

Of course Moon Issak and Lim Jisoo didn’t just idly stand aside. Moon Issak increased the size of his staff, intending to strike Koo Hui-seo’s head with all his might. “Where do you think you’re going!?”

“Koo Hui-seo-ssi! Dodge it!”

Cr-r-r-ack–!

Fortunately, the ex-chimera narrowly avoided a direct hit, but the staff pierced through Koo Hui-seo’s left shoulder–all the way to his flank.

As Koo Hui-seo stood there, penetrated by the staff, Lim Jisoo summoned a huge sphere of flames and shot it at us. “[Hellfire]!”

A huge flame, almost the size of an adult male, began to engulf everything around us. In the meantime, Moon Issak tried to grab my arm to drag me out. Since he was within touching distance, I desperately pulled my arm back to avoid being caught. Moon Issak gritted his teeth, his eyes glinting, “You dirty dishrag…² grab my hand! Do you want to burn to death?!”

“Piss off, you lunatic!”

[It hurts…]

Koo Hui-seo began to twist his whole body; I struggled to push away Moon Issak who was standing over Koo Hui-seo’s tentacles. The investigator had no choice but to retreat when faced with my staunch refusal.

Though, fortunately, I wasn’t caught, the rapidly approaching heat was now our biggest problem. Lim Jisoo’s [Hellfire] exuded intense amounts of warmth.

Though this was only a hypothesis, I thought Koo Hui-seo’s tentacles were similar in nature and attribute to trees and wood. So, they were quite vulnerable to fire-based attacks.

Koo Hui-seo seemed to instinctively realize this and tried to block it, but the outer layer of tentacles that tried to block the incoming ball of fire had turned into black ashes and scattered in the wind. Even the tentacles that held my limbs had now loosened from the threat of the fire.

I held onto Koo Hui-seo’s neck with both arms, desperately clinging so as to not fall off. Meanwhile, through his tears Koo Hui-seo stopped [Hellfire]; he rubbed his cheek against mine.

[It hurts… Hnngh…]

“I get it, so do something quick!”

[But… Lee-kyung-ssi… You didn’t give me permission…]

“What?”

Koo Hui-seo answered very seriously–face still wet with tears.

[If I just had a little more of Lee-kyung-ssi’s blood…]

“……” I looked into his eyes.

I couldn’t sense any greed, craving, or bloodthirst in those incomprehensible yet strangely innocent black eyes. They felt different from when he wanted to drink my blood earlier.

My lips quivered as I replied, “How… much do you need?”

[……]

Koo Hui-seo’s eyes rolled around as he looked at me. Simultaneously, I felt the sharp point of one of his thinnest tentacles poking my stomach.

Though I wanted to contemplate further, I had no time; I saw [Hellfire] getting closer to Koo Hui-seo’s almost burnt-to-a-crisp tentacles. We were truly on the verge of completely melting.

Fucking hell…

“If I give it to you, can you get out of here?”

[Ye~es…]

Koo Hui-seo answered promptly.

And…

Stab–!

Before I could nod, something hot plunged through my stomach.

It felt surreal–I looked down at the tentacle that was embedded inside of me. Not a drop of blood flowed out, but… it was strangely painful…because I felt the strange sensation of my blood being sucked out from within me.

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TL: Lee-kyung is going to need lots and lots of steak after this. All the iron supplements.