Chapter 173: Tier 5: The Other Groups

Ji-woo was still able to outperform the seven Red Undead Knights. The swing of the blades was hard enough and capable of repelling the creatures so that he had time to take turns facing each other. Unfortunately, that didn’t totally give him the advantage.

Ji-woo couldn’t finish off a single creature even though he kept repelling them. At every opportunity, the other Red Undead Knights would approach and disrupt the flow of his attacks. That led to a stalemate situation against the seven beings.

However, even though the battle dragged on for a long time, the one that took the most damage was the seven Red Undead Knights. Meanwhile, Ji-woo, despite suffering several cuts from the swords of the creatures. He still looked strong, and there was no sign of being overwhelmed.

Now, three of the seven Red Undead Knights had lost their swords as they shattered against the heavy swing of Ji-woo’s blade.

“If you guys want to call for reinforcements, just do it. I won’t try to stop that.

“But otherwise, entertain me.”

Ji-woo said while making a ‘come here’ gesture with his finger while his hand was still holding the Shadow Blade.

The humiliation certainly didn’t affect the Red Undead Knights. They were not the type to get easily provoked and attack carelessly. On the other hand, they agree that Ji-woo was not just any human they could deal with without ganging up.

One didn’t need to bother to go anywhere to just call for reinforcements. Just explode the battlefield, and the rest of the Red Undead Knights would swarm in an instant.

One Red Undead Knight then charged towards Ji-woo while the others followed after.

Ji-woo raised one eyebrow when he saw the advancing Red Undead Knight was the one who had no weapons.

‘Does my blade swing feel light!? Very funny! To let the ones who go first are the creatures without weapons.’

“I’ll let you guys taste despair!”

Boom!

Out of nowhere, the Red Undead Knight, who went first, instead let out flames all over his body and blew up the area. The massive explosion covered a large area and caused a cloud of smoke to rise upwards.

The incident could even get seen from where Dal-soo’s group was. The hunters saw the high smoke for a moment, stopping them in their tracks, but knowing that Dal-soo wasn’t flinched by the incident, they continued on their run.

It also became an eye-catcher for the Red Undead Knights scattered in the volcanic area. And that automatically made the creatures approach in large numbers. Like the ants were trying to loom the sugar.

“Crazy!”

Ji-woo exclaimed while checking his armor, which turned out to be okay. He was surprised by the sudden burst of a tremendous fire. However, he wasn’t worried about his safety but his armor instead.

Suddenly, Ji-woo turned back and swung the Shadow Blade, which slashed the chest of the Red Undead Knight who appeared behind him to attack. He didn’t stop there and plunged the Diffusal Blade into the wound.

The Red Undead Knight felt his Mana get absorbed uncontrollably. He twitched and tried to remove the blade from his chest while terrified. But, it was all in vain.

The other Red Undead Knights also arrived to attack Ji-woo. Four creatures were swinging their swords. But, Ji-woo managed to dodge by leaving the Diffusal Blade stuck.

Two sword-less Red Undead Knights attacked Ji-woo with massive fireballs that had no effect at all. The magic attack was dispelled efficiently by Ji-woo.

Meanwhile, the Red Undead Knights saw their comrades writhing in pain, trying to remove the strange blade. No one wanted to hold the sword out of fear because they felt a drastic decrease in Mana. In the end, they let their dead comrades disappear and rush to attack Ji-woo again.

The Red Undead Knights then averted their eyes only to find Ji-woo had disappeared from his place.

On the spur of the moment, Ji-woo appeared amid the six Red Undead Knights and swung the Shadow Blade swiftly. However, four of the six creatures managed to jump back to avoid Ji-woo’s attack. Meanwhile, the other two didn’t have time to dodge and lost their heads in one fell swoop.

Ji-woo took the Diffusal Blade and planned to continue his pursuit of the four remaining Red Undead Knights. However, he stopped in his tracks when he realized and saw that dozens of new Red Undead Knights had arrived.

Ji-woo didn’t flinch in the slightest, seeing the situation of one against dozens of creatures with a strength slightly above S-rank hunters. He even smiled widely from ear to ear.

“F*cker! Took all of you long enough to gather! Now is the time for destruction!”

Ji-woo roared and made the Red Undead Knights intimidated by his passion. The creatures, of course, immediately attacked simultaneously without much ado. He also used the Aura of Fear. Although, it didn’t have much effect. It was enough to slow the movement of the Red Undead Knights by instilling a hint of fear to disrupt their ferocity.

On the other hand, it was a real test for Ji-woo to push himself to the limit in a situation. Whereas his strength and speed greatly got reduced due to the weight of his wrists and ankles. He needed to pass the ordeal to develop one further stage of his existing strength.

Meanwhile, in an iceberg environment, Gang-ho’s group proved to be struggling to fight with just one White Undead Knight.

The hunters managed to hunt down and isolate one of these creatures. So far, their plan was going well, especially with Gang-ho and In-ah as the vanguard, who took care of the White Undead Knight’s attack.

But not long after, to defeat that one creature was a complex matter for the hunters.

The A-rank hunters used elemental fire magic with destructive damage. However, it did not affect creatures whose magic used the element of ice.e

Gang-ho and In-ah also didn’t stay still, trying to attack. But it still got blocked by the White Undead Knight because his sword attacks were always dangerous. It left the two S-rank hunters with no chance to counterattack other than defending.

Gang-ho glanced at In-ah and nodded as if they had a tacit understanding of it. He used water magic and wrapped his sword with it. In-ah also did the same as him.

The two S-rank hunters jumped and charged at the White Undead Knight. The two of them simultaneously also emitted fire magic from their other hand.

The White Undead Knight responded to the fire magic aimed at him by stomping his feet, and a block of ice shot out, extending relatively high from the ground.

Kaboom!

The smoke explosion occurred due to the collision of the ice blocks and the bursts of fire. However, the two S-rank hunters’ attacks didn’t stop, even though their field of vision got narrowed by the smoke.

Teng, Teng–

The sound of swords clashing with each other got heard, and soon Gang-ho and In-ah emerged from the explosion smoke. The White Undead Knight also jumped backward, arising out of the cloud of smoke.

At least, the two-on-one battle was even. Now, it was only how Gang-ho and the others could use their numbers against that White Undead Knight.

“The two of us will restrict the creature’s movement, and you try to attack at all times. Wrap your weapons with fire magic and use water magic to open gaps when you want to advance and come back later.” Gang-ho whispered.

Some of the A-rank hunters then dispersed and informed the other hunters of the plan.

Gang-ho and In-ah attack again by wrapping their swords in water magic. The White Undead Knight responded and took the two S-rank hunters’ attacks head-on.

The two swords with water magic enveloped successfully restrained by the creature. However, the two S-rank hunters didn’t let their attacks halt.

Gang-ho retreated his sword. And let In-ah keep the White Undead Knight’s sword alone. He then swung the weapon from above, and the creature got forced to restrain it with the other hand because the blade couldn’t get used to parry.

The White Undead Knight managed to resist even though his arm armor got penetrated. At that moment, he realized an additional attack was coming from behind. The first was the fireball attack that made an imprint on his back. It got followed by several hunters jumping with heavy weapons wrapped in water, about to hit him.

The White Undead Knight let out an avalanche with his body. And Gang-ho interfered with that by casting water magic and making the ice avalanche melt. In-ah also did the same as her Headmaster guild.

This incident made the detention of the White Undead Knight loose. He finally could move his sword again and swung violently to knock In-ah and Gang-ho back at once.

The White Undead Knight managed to escape and immediately turned around to attack the hunters who had already jumped at him.

Just before the White Undead Knight’s attack could injure the hunters. Several visible blue threads suddenly wrapped around the creature’s arms and legs, stopping the movement and swing of its sword.

Gang-ho and In-ah were surprised by that. However, they did not intend to waste the opportunity.. They immediately closed the distance with the White Undead Knight and slashed at the creature’s body simultaneously.