Chapter 254: The Hell King (4)

The Hunter who had just swapped out with another team staggered to the rear and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.

"Wow, damn. This is really killing me."

"I'm dying," a foreign Hunter groaned.

"What the @#$%!"

It wasn't just one Hunter feeling the strain. The ones who had rested earlier had recovered their stamina, but the mental exhaustion lingered. They shook their heads in disbelief.

A Korean Hunter, seated on the ground, lifted his head to watch the battlefield. All the Hunters participating in the operation had joined the hunt three hours after it began. Instead of launching a simultaneous assault on the Hell King, they had split into smaller squads, taking turns in carefully organized shifts.

"Hey, how many hours has it been?" the Korean Hunter asked the colleague across from him.

"Thirteen hours."

"This is insane."

It had taken thirteen hours just to injure the monster, and even then, all they'd managed was to blow off one of the Hell King's arms. At this rate, it could take much longer.

"Let's see, let's see..."

As time dragged on, doubts crept in about the soundness of this operation. But the Hunters didn't voice them. The strategists behind the plan were smarter and had more battlefield experience than any of them.

"Guildmaster Kim Ki-Rok is still going strong."

Kim Ki-Rok kept himself going by eating food from his subspace pocket and drinking potions instead of water, refreshing his buffs every time the Hell King unleashed a storm of blades.

He was drenched in sweat. Since dodging every attack perfectly was impossible, countless wounds marked his body, staining his clothes red. However, that was all. His focus and stamina remained unbroken, and he never flinched from the enemy's assault.

The Korean Hunter shook his head at the sight of Kim Ki-Rok, who looked as if he could keep this up for another forty-eight hours. Sighing, he reached into his own subspace pocket for food and potions.

—Ohhh!! Found it!!!

"Huh?"

A sandwich and a zero-cola-flavored potion...

"How did they even make a potion like this?"

The odd thought struck the Korean Hunter as he stared at the potion, but he quickly set it aside, focusing again on Kim Ki-Rok's voice coming through his earpiece.

—Attention, all Hunters except those in the last two deployed teams. I'll create an opening in thirty minutes.

They'd managed to sever the Hell King's left arm during the last one Kim Ki-Rok had created.

—This time, it's the leg and right arm. Even if we can't take the arm, we'll definitely take one leg. All Hunters, join other squads and wait for the signal.

***

With Time Rabbit's Carrying Pouch active, Kim Ki-Rok continued to dodge the Hell King's attacks, following Time Rabbit's advice to the letter.

In his previous Attempt, a reckless move to create an opening had cost Kim Ki-Rok his life. This time, his eyes were wide with focus, his movements shaped by hard-won experience and careful preparation.

He dodged and parried relentlessly. Whenever the gap between him and his opponent widened, he closed in again, drawing the monster's gaze and trying to confuse it. He even hurled a dagger at its eyes.

One minute.

Three minutes.

Five.

Seven.

Ten minutes passed.

The attack he had been waiting for came right on cue. Kim Ki-Rok raised both hands, catching the Hell King's fist and bracing with his fingertips. He intercepted the strike at the exact moment its force faltered, his body unconsciously processing it.

He triggered Guardian and activated every stat-boosting artifact he wore. The Hell King's eyes flickered with uncertainty as its left arm still hadn't regenerated. Even so, it lifted its right leg.

"Now!"

With a blur, Hunters using Blink magic appeared at Hell King's side, behind it, and overhead.

"Those without Blink, target the blades!"

Some Hunters surged forward to intercept the shadow blades, taking over from those who had just used Blink.

With its shadow blades sealed off, the Hell King spread its mana outward.

"Purify!"

Skill holders from the US and Japan used Purification simultaneously, weakening the Hell Mana.

The Hell King's demonic energy waned, and its blades were locked down. The Hunters' eyes blazed with hope. Kim Ki-Rok's target was the right arm and one leg; looking at the current situation, it seemed like they might even be able to finish it off for good.

—It might have the Berserker Skill.

But Kim Ki-Rok's warning snapped everyone back to focus. Two Hunters flanking the outstretched arm slashed with sword and axe.

"Ine!"

Lee Ji-Yeon, having Blinked in a moment later than the others, arrived just as Hell King's arm was severed. She wrapped her longsword in flames and stabbed down with full force.

With the right arm following the left, both were now gone. But the real target was the leg, and the arm was a bonus.

***

If Lee Ji-Yeon had been assigned the arm, Yoo Seh-Eun was responsible for the leg. Yoo Seh-Eun responded to Kim Ki-Rok's signal and Blinked into position but remained motionless. She hadn't missed this opportunity, but rather chosen to wait deliberately.

A Russian Hunter opened a wound with his sword, and a Chinese Hunter followed up by spraying a potion to weaken the monster. Another Hunter struck at Hell King's head, bracing for a counterattack, while the purification skill holder poured in more mana to amplify their power. The setup was complete.

"The end is near," Yoo Seh-Eun murmured quietly as she steadied her stance.

Her skill was the fruit of relentless training with Kim Ji-Hee and the spirits, including master swordsmen who rivaled Ainess.

"Draw," she murmured, unsheathing her blade in one smooth motion.

At this point, the King of Hell had lost both arms and its right leg. The glare it now unleashed was full of raw hatred.

"Purify...! Operation success! Retreat!"

Kim Ki-Rok called for purification reinforcements and stepped back.

The two Hunters responsible for purification, along with Lee Ji-Yeon, cleansed the right arm, weakening its power, while Hunters with teleportation skills pulled back to create distance from the Hell King.

"Mr. Tae-Min, wind."

They needed to clear the dust periodically. While mana sensing was possible for Hunters of this caliber, everyone preferred relying on sight.

"Of course, if it were intelligent, it'd play tricks with our sight," someone muttered.

If the Hell King were cunning, it would use misdirection and force the Hunters to rely on mana senses. But their foe behaved more like a brute child than a tactician.

Kang Tae-Min summoned a gust of wind to settle the dust.

—Isn't this an opportunity?

They saw the Hell King sprawled on the ground, struggling to rise but repeatedly collapsing. A Hunter's question crackled through the earpiece, but Kim Ki-Rok shook his head.

"It uses shadows and mana."

Even as Kim Ki-Rok finished explaining, shadows and mana gathered at its severed limbs, forming rough, imperfect prosthetics. The monster slowly struggled upright, adjusting to its new limbs, while shadow blades whirled around it, forming a shield.

"It won't move for now. Even when it does, adapting to the prosthetics will take one to three hours. So..."

Some murmured, hoping for a swift end, but Kim Ki-Rok smiled ruefully.

"We'll continue the long-term operation."

—What?

"We press on. There's a high chance the Hell King has the Berserker Skill, and now that it's cornered, it'll go all out," Kim Ki-Rok explained to the Hunter. "If we rush things, thinking the injuries give us an easy win, we risk heavy casualties. So we'll stick to the plan long-term, wearing it down until we can subdue it safely."

The shadow blades, having finished spinning, now pointed at the closest Hunters. Yet, the Hell King's eyes fixed not on those nearby, but on the one furthest away.

—It still sees Guildmaster Kim Ki-Rok as the top priority target, even though others cut off its limbs.

"It's probably because I gave the command," Kim Ki-Rok said.

He stepped forward. As he did, the shadow blades, instead of targeting the nearest Hunter, shot toward Kim Ki-Rok, the one who had closed the distance again. Even while the Hell King could barely move, Kim Ki-Rok played bait, channeling mana into his artifact.

Three blades came for him at high speed. He dodged one, blocked the other two with Guardian-clad hands, and grinned at the Hell King.

"We continue. We'll have him subdued in twenty-eight hours at the earliest, forty-eight at the latest."

***

Twenty-seven hours had passed since the operation began. Once, they'd nearly faltered when the Hell King adapted to the prosthetics, but with Kim Ki-Rok and the purification specialists leading the way, the Hunters pushed through.

"It's burning through mana to maintain those prosthetics, and it's leaking from the chest wound," Kim Ki-Rok called out, parrying another set of shadow blades as he advanced.

Facing the Hell King alone was the last step to subduing Gate Hell.

No, that wasn't quite right.

Kim Ki-Rok shifted his stance to dodge, taking another step forward. The true key had been choosing Time Rabbit's Carrying Pouch skill, bartering for it from among several time-related skills as part of his Gate rewards.

"No, that's not it, either."

With a punch, Kim Ki-Rok shattered a spinning blade and moved ahead.

"There were two missing pieces."

Battling the Hell King one-on-one to shake his allies' complacency and gather intelligence was one. Gaining Time Rabbit's Carrying Pouch, invaluable in both solo combat and the operation overall, was the other.

"But now it's over."

With support from the Hunters, Kim Ki-Rok blocked wave after wave of flying blades and advanced steadily on the Hell King. The monster's eyes trembled, and so did its makeshift limbs of shadow and mana.

Kim Ki-Rok smiled at his trembling adversary, then turned to the surrounding Hunters. "Who wants to finish it?"

"Guildmaster, you should do it."

"May I?"

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"You've been the bait for twenty-seven hours. You deserve it."

The Hunters nodded in agreement. Kim Ki-Rok inclined his head in thanks.

A shadow blade flashed toward him as he bowed, but the Hell King had reached his limits, body and mind. Kim Ki-Rok shattered it with a Guardian-clad hand and lifted his head. It stared back, shaking with fear.

"It really..."

Kim Ki-Rok drew a longsword from his subspace pocket, unsheathing it for the first time since the subjugation began. He drove it straight through the Hell King's heart.

"Took me long enough."