Chapter 18: End Game

The hunters knew the webs were giving the Spiderlings and the Broodmother an advantage.

The webs gave an increase in movement speed and improved the regeneration while in its vicinity.

The hunters recognized it because they had previously hunted the Spiderlings. And felt that the advantage of webs was not such a big deal since the hunters, in the end, still could kill the Spiderlings.

However, the difference they were facing right now was the Broodmother. From fifteen hunters on the spot. Five of them got forced to fight against Spiderlings in a one-by-one situation.

While ten of the hunters included Park Jae-jin, confront the Broodmother.

The unfavorable conditions put pressure on Park Jae-jin and forced him to change his strategy.

“Make the Broodmother busy a little bit, don’t let it know I’m missing from the formation.”

Park Jae-jin gave his authority to the squad hunter second in command.

Four hunters with four large shields covering their body push their way to the front and hold the Broodmother’s legs to restrict its movement.

“Do it now!”

Two hunters were ready to unleash their magic power.

“Trozo de Magic of Ice!”

“Schalen Magic of Water!”

Chink, Chink–

Shrass, Shrass–

Three of the sharp chunks of ice appeared above the Broodmother. And also, the water came out from below, covered the ground under the Broodmother. It made it couldn’t move and easily got restrained by the tanker hunters.

Wosh, Dang–

That chunk of ice fell, hit the Broodmother. When the collision crashes, the four tank hunters immediately back away while maintaining their shield in front of their bodies.

The ground got crushed from the impact of the shock wave.

A cloud of dust covered the Broodmother area.

Looking at this attempt from his comrade hunters, Park Jae-jin smiled and knew it didn’t affect the Broodmother. But, it was enough to buy him a little time to slip away from the Broodmother.

Park Jae-jin moved to another battlefield then entered the domain of Spiderlings’ fight.

The Broadsword he wielded activates its ability. Park Jae-jin moved faster than before.

Cirp, Cirp–

“Thunder Roar!”

Cracks of lightning appeared on the Broadsword.

Crat–

Keuhk, Keuhk–

One Spiderling instantly died, and it didn’t have a chance to regenerate because of the lighting paralyzed effect.

Cirp, Cirp–

“Thank you, Hyung!” A voice from The hunter that faced the Spiderling that just got killed by Park Jae-jin.

Cirp, Cirp–

Park Jae-jin didn’t have time to respond. His fast move, slashing the Spiderlings, came to a halt. He then pulled his back and raised one leg a little bit. Then he turned with his other foot that was still on the ground to face the other Spiderlings.

After turning around, the legs were raised, stomped to the ground. And made Park Jae-jin leap forward faster with the following burst of lightning on its way.

Daar–

Ziert, Ziert–

Crat–

Keuhk, Keuhk–

Another Spiderling died without even being able to retaliate.

The Spiderling’s advantage with the webs was useless because of the Broadsword’s ability, lighting paralyzed.

Cirp, Cirp–

“Hyung!” The hunter was glad for Park Jae-jin’s help in killing the Spiderlings in his front.

Park Jae-jin with The frog-mouth helm on his head, looking at the two hunters that he helped. And he nodded at them.

The two hunters understood the meaning and nodded back at their leader. Park Jae-jin wanted to create a situation where they fight five versus three, favoring the hunters.

And with 30 seconds away from the dungeon owner was enough to let Park Jae-jin kill two of the Spiderlings.

But sadly, this window of time was not enough to distract the Broodmother.

Park Jae-jin couldn’t leave his other group of hunters facing the Broodmother for too long without him.

Triszz, Booom–

Suddenly, a big shock wave brushed the wind to the side of Park Jae-jin. He had a bad feeling about that.

“I go! Regroup as soon as possible!”

Park Jae-jin hoped the five hunters could kill the remaining three Spiderlings faster and join the other hunters to fight against the Broodmother. Right now, he was desperate to have all of the hunters that were available in the den.

“Yes, Hyung~nim.”

Park Jae-jin didn’t want to waste any moment and quickly used his lighting move to reach the Broodmother spot. The ground he was using to stamp his feet cracked.

Daar–

Ziert, Ziert–

Park Jae-jin could see the hunters getting pressed by the Broodmother’s ability again, Insatiable Fear. 

Hwa, Hyaa–

The wicked cry this time forced all the hunters in front of Broodmother to fall on their knees.

Now, Park Jae-jin didn’t have his shield anymore to deflect the Insatiable Fear like before. He had no choice but to try to push his way to get close to Broodmother and hit it head-on with his Broadsword.

However, Park Jae-jin’s footsteps got forced to stop on their own. He fell on his knees like the other. He still held onto his Broadsword to support him from falling to the ground.

Park Jae-jin gritted his teeth. Inside the frog-mouth helm, his ears start to bleed.

“Huarrggg!” Park Jae-jin shouted out loud. He charged again with the lighting move with such harsh conditions.

Daar–

Ziert, Ziert–

Park Jae-jin held his sword tightly with both of his hands.

Cirp, Cirp–

The Broodmother senses a danger coming close to it. Stopped its Insatiable Fear and jumped off from the current spot to the wall.

Fshaa, Fshaa–

Park Jae-jin’s move couldn’t hit the Broodmother, but his purpose to stop the wicked cry got accomplished.

The Broodmother did not want to let the hunters recover and pose any threat to itself. It wants to kill all of them.

Hywaaaa—

The Broodmother cried out in a piercing tone.

Abruptly, a gradation of coercion in Mana was getting huge between the Broodmother and the hunters.

The Mana Presence from the Broodmother caused suffocation to the one that had a large discrepancy in Mana.

‘Damn, it’s almost like the Broodmother is going berserk at this point.’

Park Jae-jin stood in front of other hunters at the moment. All of them recover a little bit from the Insatiable Fear.

“Tsk, so noisy.”

Park Jae-jin then looked to the side and spoke to one hunter, “Make it quiet. It’s time to end this game.”

The hunter put the palms of the hands together in front of his chest.

“Fimethart Magic of Fire!”

Hfoosh–

The hunter spat fire from his mouth towards the Broodmother.

The Broodmother wasn’t happy with the fire and jumped back to the ground.

Park Jae-jin then heard the hunter’s voice from afar.

“Hyung! We here!”

“We are done with the Spiderlings. So, we can help to end the game.”

Park Jae-jin smirked.

“Let’s put an end to this beast!”

Now, with fifteen hunters ready to fight. Park Jae-jin’s confidence skyrocketed in defeating the Broodmother faster.

Fshaa, Fshaa–

The Broodmother opened its mouth and used another ability, Spider Bite.

The Broodmother’s showed a violent lust for vital fluids. Its teeth have venom that could cripple the hunters.

The venom was the same as its spit from before.

At this time, the Broodmother’s appearance got changed. Its body color originally was black and red. Now, it became full red.

However, it was not enough. Even a domineering Mana Presence couldn’t make the hunters back off.

Fshaa, Fshaa–

“Stand on your feet!”

The hunter’s sheer willpower didn’t waver and had a firm resolution to fight.

“Annihilate!”

—- —-

Kim Ji-woo, in a safe place, could know the situation in the Broodmother den.

Even though he couldn’t see it directly, he could still feel the Mana from them.

‘There is a twenty-one entity. Fifteen of it are the hunters from Park Jae-jin’s side, and the rest must be the Broodmother and Spiderlings, perhaps?’

Ji-woo shook his head.

It had been an hour since they separated.

And now, the porters started to become restless. The two hunters that stay behind begin to worry about the frontline.

“Mister Lee, relax. We need to trust them. Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”

Mister Lee glanced at Ji-woo, then back to look down at the ground. His forehead was already sweating so much that it seemed like he needed to take off the artifact suit helmet to cool off.

To be the truth, Ji-woo himself didn’t have confidence when he said that word. Because now, the gap between Mana was too far apart.

At first, Ji-woo felt composed after-felt there were five small Mana disappear. Since the Mana, he felt was different from the hunters. He was sure that they had done well on the hunt.

Yet, a moment ago, before Ji-woo spoke to mister Lee.

The Broodmother huge Mana getting bigger and widen its gap from the hunters in there.

After that, Ji-woo began to worry too.

Some people might think Mana was unnecessary for a battle as long as they had more experience in fighting. But, having enough Mana could increase the survival ability of its owner.

If someone had unlimited Mana, any fighting strategy would get broken. Any tricks up the sleeves wouldn’t work anymore.

And if Broodmother used that Mana to increase raw power or use magic spells. The hunters didn’t stand a chance even though they had a lot of fighting experience.

It was useless.

Ji-woo was thinking about how to help without showing his capability in this End Game situation.

Showing off an ability carelessly without a perfect plan was a stupid move for Ji-woo.