Ranker's Return

Chapter 606

Translator: rainbowturtle

Before the elemental hydra was summoned, Hyeonu stood on a wide, empty plain and briefed the Crescent Moon players on the raid strategy: “As you can see, this time I can't kill it quickly if I fight alone. We have to fight together and kill it together.”

Hyeonu’s idea was that the elemental hydra was very bothersome to attack alone. Based on the description of the commentators, he knew that the elemental hydra’s health wasn’t insignificant.

“Then how do you want to do it?”

“In general, just fight like you would when hunting a boss monster,” Hyeonu responded kindly to Mason’s question.

“As usual? Is that really okay?” Mason asked back like he couldn’t believe it.

“I’ll attract all the aggro. Don’t worry about that. Instead, I can't block the patterns. It is fine as long as you don’t get swept away by it.”

Hyeonu could block everything else. The elemental hydra had nine heads, but he could cover it all. It was possible if Hyeonu and the magic spirit fought separately. However, he wouldn’t prevent the patterns of the elemental hydra at the same time.

“I can help until I run out of magic power,” Sunny said while clenching her fists tightly.

She was capable of handling one or so of the elemental hydra’s heads. The undead and curse magic were enough to cause annoyance, even if she couldn’t do much damage due to the limit of her magic power.

“Will there be teams that won’t be able to kill this?”

“It might be possible if they have no luck. Honestly, I can’t guarantee any team will succeed as it isn’t easy to deal with multiple patterns.”

Hyeonu thought that the most important thing they needed to do to finish this raid time attack safely was to remove the elemental hydra's heads.

‘Even one is fine. I have to remove the heads no matter what.’

Every time a head was removed, the probability of failure would be reduced as well. This was due to the lowered risk of simultaneous patterns.

“It is being summoned. Get ready,” Hyeonu said as he looked at the number floating in the sky.

It was rapidly decreasing toward zero. At zero, the elemental hydra would appear. The moment the Crescent Moon players grabbed their weapons and took their formation firmly, the number turned to zero. The field started to split apart. It was like an earthquake. Stones went flying, and clouds of dust rose.

“Kyaaaaaah!” A tremendously high-pitched sound echoed through the field. It was a sharp cry that gave goosebumps. Apart from Hyeonu, the other players covered their ears with both hands.

Hyeonu moved while speaking casually, “Buff me.”

Tang-E and Yuri buffed Hyeonu at the same time. Light of various colors entered Hyeonu’s body.

‘Let’s save my buffs and aim for cutting off one head first.’ Right now, Hyeonu had one goal—to conserve his buffs and reduce the elemental hydras nine heads to eight.

The dust soon settled, and the elemental hydra was revealed.

“Why is it so big?” Hyeonu muttered as he forgot his mindset from just now.

The size of the elemental hydra was overwhelming. Out of all the monsters Hyeonu had met, only one monster was comparable to the elemental hydra—Teramas. Only Baler’s pet, the turtle demonic creature, was of a similar size. The giants were very small compared to the cyclops in the Winter League, the dragon hatchling, and the elemental hydra.

The moment Hyeonu saw the elemental hydra, he activated all types of skills. The most spectacular skill among them was Guardian's Breath—the legacy of the Luos Empire that only guardians of the empire had learned. Its power started to emerge.

[The opponent isn’t human.]

[Guardian's Breath is activated.]

[All stats have increased.]

[The damage that the opponent will suffer will increase.]

[The other person’s stats will drop.]

Hyeonu took one step forward. As he took another step, another legacy of the empire appeared in front of him. To be precise, this wasn’t the legacy of the empire but the legacy of Larenix, the last pure-blooded emperor of the Luos Empire.

[Giant's Pride has been activated.]

[Your attack power has increased.]

[Defense has increased.]

In addition to the continuous effects, Hyeonu's attack power and defense had increased by 64%. It was a 20% increase compared to when he first got it. The current effect was achieved as a result of steadily increasing its proficiency through numerous battles.

‘Attack first to get victory!’

Starting from his initial first step, Hyeonu quickly expanded his stride, exponentially widening the distance he ran with every new step. He was even running through the air at one point. By Hyeonu’s side, the purple magic spirit was flying together with him.

Hyeonu prepared the most powerful skill available. It was a combination of Crescent Moon Cut and Mysterious Sky Range. The choice of this combination wasn’t simply the strongest.

‘I don’t know if the cut-off heads can regenerate or not but…’

It was a combination he truly believed in. This was Introduction to Disassembling.

[Introduction to Disassembling]

[The disassembling technique used and honed by the killer, Cruel, throughout his life. Can be used without holding a weapon.

Type: Continuous

Rating: Unique

Skill Proficiency: B+

Ignores 36% of the opponent’s defense. Has a certain chance to separate the area that is hit.]

For the current Hyeonu, ignoring the opponent's defense wasn’t very important. Rather, Hyeonu was trusting the certain probability of separating the cutting site.

‘The chances are higher if I hit it a lot.’

It would be advantageous even if only one head were cut off. No, he was going to cut one of the nine heads. Hyeonu entered the vicinity of the elemental hydra, pulled out the Mysterious Sky Sword, and swung it. Hundreds of crescent-shaped pure energies flew through the air toward the elemental hydra. The elemental hydra felt the terribly powerful force, and its head screamed in a different manner from before.

“Kyaaaaaah!” The nine heads opened their mouths at the same time. The open mouths were filled with magic power of different colors, appearing like black holes that sucked in the magic power around them.

‘This…’ Hyeonu felt a sense of incongruity and quickly left his spot. He stepped fiercely in the air and disappeared like a ghost as if he was teleporting.

‘It would’ve been serious if I didn’t discover this.’

The reason why Hyeonu was able to use Mysterious Sky Steps boldly in the air was due to his new discovery. He was able to move 10 steps in the air using the effect of his shoes. Then he had to step on the ground so he could walk in the air again.

However, Hyeonu previously moved through the air using magic power for a while. With this, the number of times he could walk in the air was reset. In other words, it was judged to be the same as stepping on the ground.

‘It is really comfortable because I can move as before, even if it resets once every 10 steps.’

This meant he was consuming less concentration. It was a great benefit to be able to devote that concentration on the opponent instead.

‘The complete freedom of movement in the air also played a part.’

In the spot where Hyeonu disappeared from, purple pure energy collided with the nine-colored sphere. The shockwave that was generated from the collision between the two swept through the surroundings. Hyeonu, who was floating in the air, was pushed back dozens of meters. The players of Crescent Moon in the distance fell down as well.

‘Is this the unlucky pattern?’

Hyeonu leaned his upper body forward and clicked his tongue. The elemental hydra’s Breath not only extinguished all of Hyeonu’s pure energy, but it also created huge craters in the ground.

“I didn’t think this would be an easy fight.”

Hyeonu had used all of the possible debuffs on the elemental hydra.

‘Fighting Energy Emission, Area Proclamation.’

He used these two skills, but there wasn’t as much effect as when he used them against players. Fighting Energy Emission only caused a slight decrease in stats, while Area Proclamation failed to bind the elemental hydra’s feet.

‘Dragon Fear, Seal.’

There were still two more things remaining. They weren’t skills that Hyeonu had learned but skills attached to the items he wore. Seal was an effect of his belt, and Dragon Fear was a set effect skill. Dragon Fear had the effect of reducing the opponent’s stats by 20%, while Seal sealed the opponent’s stats by 30% for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, 1% was restored every minute. In other words, the effect of the two skills combined would halve the elemental hydra’s stats for 30 minutes.

‘Thinking about the effect of Guardian's Breath, it will have terrible stats for the next 30 minutes.’

The elemental hydra had a pattern called Breath. Of course, it wasn’t possible for it to be a pattern if there was a limit on the number of times Breath could be used. Nevertheless, such a powerful attack couldn’t be used continuously.

“I’ll kill it when there is an opportunity.”

‘Giant's Power, Giant's Nature, Giant's Origin, and One Who Yearns.’

Hyeonu pulled out all of his available buffs. Then he immediately injected magic power into the Mysterious Sky Sword and swung it at the elemental hydra. Hundreds of pure energies filled the air again. It was Mysterious Sky Range.

‘Magic power is running short.’

Hyeonu paused momentarily when he felt the loss of power that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

In the meantime, the effect of Memories of Murder meant his magic power was recovered beyond what was consumed. Thanks to this, he didn’t feel a lack of magic power. This time, it wasn’t unreasonable to feel he was running out because he used magic power repeatedly and poured as much magic power as possible into the attack.

After all, a powerful attack required the right price, and for Hyeonu, that was magic power. However, such a sensation soon disappeared. It was because the shower of purple pure energies he fired hit the elemental hydra’s heads.

‘Good.’ Hyeonu trembled with satisfaction at the sensation of his entire body being filled with magic power. The trembling of his body stopped, but instead, Hyeonu’s eyes shook more quickly. It was due to the ridiculous sight in front of him.

Thump!

The elemental hydra’s head was cut off, and it fell to the ground. Blood sprayed out from the cut wound.

‘Amazing!’

Nonetheless, this alone wouldn’t have been enough to surprise him. It was that there wasn’t just one head that fell but six. He had cut off two-thirds of the total number of heads. However, Hyeonu’s eyes shook again. It was because the six cut-off heads of the elemental hydra were instantly regenerated.

“Kyaaaaaah!”

The elemental hydra’s anger-filled cry was a bonus.