The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 26



25 – Human Bomb

Mini forest keepers born from the fruits scattered everywhere.

They may be called mini, but their actual size is at least a head taller than an average adult man.

Forest Keeper Phase 2.

This is the resurrection pattern of the forest keeper.

If all the forest keepers born from the fruits are not defeated within the given time,

the forest keeper returns to the first phase.

This is practically considered a failure to攻略 the forest keeper.

The party, having already exhausted their strength in the first phase, has no chance of capturing the forest keeper again.

So, we must stop the Phase 2 resurrection pattern at all costs.

“Everyone, listen up.”

I pointed to each of the fallen fruits.

“The forest keepers born from the fruits get stronger as we defeat more of them. So, we’ll take out the ones on the outside first, and then we’ll all hit the one in the center together.”

Given the urgency of the situation, I conveyed only the key points.

Everyone nodded with understanding faces.

“Poara, you focus on recovery from now on. There will be a moment when you’ll need to fire again. The same goes for you, Saint.”

“Yes!”

“Understood.”

The remaining forest keepers must be dealt with by Seron, Aisha, and me.

“Goguma, how do you know so well how to handle an apostle you’ve never seen before?”

Seron asked me, gripping his axe.

Is he really curious about that at this timing?

“I studied.”

In times like this, it’s best to be shameless.

“…I also studied at the academy, but I have no idea.”

“Then, you must have studied less.”

Before Seron could get annoyed, I ran ahead.

As the battle dragged on, many gray zones appeared.

Since stepping on them would result in a significant loss of stamina, I had to run with utmost caution.

The reason I told them to handle the outer ones first was because of the gray zones.

If we caught the inner ones first and the forest keeper ran inside, it would be troublesome.

Fortunately, everyone understood this without me having to explain.

In the distance, Aisha and Seron began to ambush the forest keepers.

Aisha was, of course, exceptional, and although Seron grumbled, his skills were outstanding.

After confirming that the two were facing the forest keepers, I looked up.

Then, I saw the forest keeper, swinging the vines extending from its body.

Four sturdy legs and two arms.

And vines wrapped around its entire body.

The stem is poisonous, so if it touches you, your skin will melt away.

Swish!

Slash!

But for me, with my steel skin, it doesn’t matter.

I cut the flying stem with the edge of my hand and grabbed my shield.

Boom!

At that moment, the rock projectile shot from the stem hit the shield.

This is the basic pattern of the forest keeper.

Attack with a poisonous stem, then fire a rock projectile.

The forest keeper is moving as I remember.

That means I can proceed with the usual strategy.

I take a deep breath.

I move my body to prevent my muscles from stiffening and making a mistake.

This is my first real battle.

I will have to fight countless apostles in the future to prevent a bad ending.

This battle is like the first button in a series of fights with such apostles.

‘To be honest.’

I’m scared too.

I’m charging directly at a monster a head taller than me.

The pressure is completely different from the mock battle.

In the mock battle, there were professors and assistants who would save my life.

But now, this is real.

There is no one to save my life.

This is a place where you have to take care of your own life.

That place was the demon palace.

That’s why, even more so,

I must not be afraid.

If I get scared, my muscles will shrink, my vision will narrow, and my mind will fall into panic.

More boldly.

More surely.

I recall every strategy to defeat the apostle and achieve victory.

My hand blade once again slices through the incoming tendril.

The shield I pulled in blocks the rock bullet.

Before I know it, the distance between the forest keeper and me is barely 2 meters.

The forest keeper also realizes the narrowing distance and stops swinging the tendril.

Instead, it swings its muscular arm, reminiscent of a gorilla.

A massive blade, like an axe, is attached to its arm.

If it hits, even I would suffer a fatal injury.

My body, which was rushing forward, suddenly lowers rapidly.

As if the constant training with Aisha was not in vain.

The forest keeper’s arm brushes past my head, which is lowered along with my skillfully extended leg.

I dodged the first close-range attack.

But I did not let my guard down there.

‘Once more.’

Bang!

A sound of something bursting came from the end of the forest keeper’s swinging arm.

It was the sound of the heat fruit attached to the end of the forest keeper’s arm exploding.

With the explosion of the heat fruit, the forest keeper’s arm swung fiercely at me again.

This is the combo pattern where it launches a second attack even if the first one is dodged.

A massive arm, larger than my head, flies towards me.

I kick the ground hard in the same forward-running posture.

Boom!

The forest keeper’s arm, aiming for my lowered body, swings low.

I evade with a leap and stomp on the forest keeper’s shoulder right in front of me.

Then I twist my hand blade with all my might.

The forest keeper’s head stupidly looks at me.

It realizes its mistake, but it’s too late.

Crack!

My hand blade, filled with all my strength, pierces into the forest keeper’s head.

My hand penetrates the forest keeper’s thick outer skin and digs inside.

A nasty foreign sensation was felt inside.

In that state, I swung my hand blade further, digging into the forest keeper’s head and pulling my hand out.

My hand was covered in purple blood and brain matter.

There was no time to be disgusted.

I kicked the collapsing forest keeper’s body and landed on the ground, not in the gray area.

“Whew.”

A short breath escaped my lips.

I am grateful for Vickerman’s body.

If it weren’t for Vickerman’s body, which is good for movement, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I thought.

Of course, I had prepared a number of measures to prevent mistakes.

That’s why I could move without fear.

You have to be prepared for anything.

‘Now it’s just one.’

There are still plenty of forest keepers left.

No time to stop.

Keep going.

* * *

Thanks to the efforts of Aisha, Seron, and myself, the number of fruit forest keepers quickly decreased.

But from the point when it was reduced by half, the speed started to slow down more and more.

As mentioned earlier, the resurrection pattern of the forest keepers is that the fewer the number, the stronger the remaining ones become.

So, as the number was halved, the time to deal with the forest keepers, which had become twice as strong as before, increased more and more.

The patterns of the forest keepers began to diversify.

The last forest keeper we will catch will handle all these patterns.

It was good to definitely feel it with my body during the battle.

“Heck, hey, don’t you guys ever get tired!?”

Seron, who had caught a forest keeper with an explosive axe, shouted at Aisha and me.

If he has the strength to shout, I wish he would put in a little more effort.

Aisha and I ran to catch the next forest keeper with unaffected faces.

“Compared to the daily physical training.”

“This is easy.”

Aisha started, and I followed.

I became stronger thanks to the endless hellish training with Aisha.

Not to mention, Aisha, who designed the training course.

“Hmm, should we call you the Iron Man of the Great Sword or the Iron Man of the Hand Blade?”

Sirmiel, who was watching us from afar, smiled kindly.

At this rate, we might really be called by such nicknames.

“Senior Hanon, the roots are moving again!”

At that moment, Poara pointed to the roots above the dark clouds.

As Poara said, the roots started moving again.

It was a sign that the resurrection pattern was progressing.

‘It’s more urgent than I thought.’

It takes too much time to avoid the gray areas and catch the forest keepers.

Unlike the game, this is reality now.

Paying attention to the ground and the forest keepers.

My nerves were scattered everywhere, so it took a lot of time.

‘Should I have saved some of Poara’s firepower?’

It’s better to use the hidden card, the Spirit Lord, than to have casualties in Phase 1.

The resurrection phase was more troublesome than I thought.

“Seron, no time to rest! Get up and catch one more!”

“Ugh, I know!”

Even while groaning, Seron got up and ran towards the forest keeper.

“Senior.”

In the meantime, Aisha approached.

“At this rate, we’ll be late.”

“…Yeah, we might be late if we’re not careful.”

Aisha nodded.

“Senior, isn’t the main reason we’re late in catching the apostle because of the gray areas?”

That’s right.

It’s not that difficult to take down the forest keepers themselves.

But paying attention to the gray areas underfoot.

Too much time is being spent.

“Just once.”

Aisha tightly gripped the greatsword.

“I can make sure you don’t have to worry about the gray zone. How about it? Can you handle it within that time?”

My eyes slowly opened.

I realized what Aisha was trying to do.

“Leave it to me.”

I immediately distanced myself from Aisha and ran towards Poara.

In the meantime, Aisha slowly lowered her stance with the greatsword in hand.

At that moment, I grabbed Seron, who had caught a forest keeper.

“Hey, hey, what are you doing!”

“Poara! Can you attach a lower spirit of wind to me?”

“Yes, yes, I can do that much!”

I didn’t answer Seron and shouted to Poara.

Then Poara hurriedly summoned a lower spirit of wind and attached it to my back.

The small butterfly-shaped lower spirit fluttered its wings.

I threw Seron between Poara and Sirmiel.

“Sage, a gale will blow soon.”

I looked back at Aisha, who had lowered her stance as much as possible.

“Can you avoid getting caught up in it?”

“Of course.”

Sirmiel prepared a defensive blessing along with a prayer.

In the meantime, Aisha began to spin in a sitting position.

Voom, voom, voom, voom-

The spinning speed gradually became ridiculously fast.

Before long, the wind started to blow around Aisha.

All the wind was drawn towards Aisha.

Even the forest keeper began to be lifted into the air and pulled in by the strong wind.

“…Is she really the same as us?”

Not even a spirit lord.

Seron looked aghast as he watched the forest keeper being swept away by the wind Aisha had conjured alone.

Indeed, Aisha was beyond human.

But that made her the most reliable at this moment.

Sirmiel had bestowed a protective blessing upon this place.

Thanks to that, we weren’t dragged away by the wind.

“Poara, get ready!”

With that protective blessing, I started running towards Aisha.

It’s coming.

The wind is coming.

The moment the fierce wind blew around Aisha.

As the massive greatsword Aisha was wielding was lifted above her head.

It was brought down towards the ground.

Boom!

And then a storm hit the ground.

Crash!

In an instant, everything on the ground was lifted into the air by the storm.

The forest keepers, caught off guard, were all swept up by Aisha’s wind, entangled with each other.

Seeing this, I shouted to Poara with my hand outstretched.

“Launch!”

With my shout, Poara, the spirit of the wind, launched me.

My body soared into the air.

But charging recklessly like this would only be like a steel cannonball hitting something.

At this moment, I had to become a cannonball that could blow away all the forest keepers.

So I pulled out the trump card I had saved until now.

On my skin.

The magical inscriptions began to rise and emit light all at once.

Magical engraving.

From noble mtl dot com

A technique I learned from Sharin.

Originally, the magic engraving should be inscribed on a tool, not on human skin.

But what is my skin?

It is steel skin, tougher than most armors.

So, I directly engraved the magic on my skin.

If I hide the engraved magic with the veil of bandages, no one will know of its existence until it manifests.

My body started to heat up and catch fire.

This is the ultimate move I prepared for a day like today.

The magic I engraved is explosive magic.

It is also the magic that Sharin helped me inscribe.

‘I am a human bomb.’

My body, which reached the clustered forest keepers, was instantly engulfed in light.

The belated struggles of the forest keepers were meaningless.

‘Take it sweetly.’

BoooM!

It was the moment when an unprecedented explosion occurred on the first floor of the Gray Forest.