Chapter 282
A tidal wave of sand rose into the air.
The enormous mass of sand completely engulfed both Moby Dick and the demonic beasts as it spun at tremendous speed.
KRAAAAAK!
The fine grains scraped away at the beasts’ shells and hides with a horrifying grinding sound.
KIEEEEK!
KRAAAH!
The Ogre and the Giant Spider, and the Crimson Drake all let out agonized screams.
No matter how numb beasts were to pain, even they could not ignore the agony of having their surfaces ground away.
The A-rank beasts were at least in a somewhat better situation.
Their force fields still held to some extent.
The B-rank beasts, however, were shredded apart together with their force fields almost instantly.
This was Sand Mixer unleashed at full power.
Its might existed on an entirely different level from anything Zeon had shown before.
The B-rank beasts released desperate screams.
The hides and outer layers protecting them disappeared instantly alongside their force fields, exposing bright red internal tissue.
FWHAAAA!
Flames erupted across the exposed muscle tissue.
It was the fire generated by Zeon’s Superheated Gauntlets.
The ultra-high-temperature flames instantly burned through the insides of the B-rank beasts.
Sand attacked them from the outside while scorching flames incinerated them from within.
B-rank beasts were erased in moments.
The A-rank beasts finally regained their senses and tried to attack Zeon.
But their attacks never reached him.
“Sand Gehenna.”
The sand beneath their feet melted and transformed into lava.
The sticky molten mass swallowed their lower bodies in an instant.
It was like a swamp from which escape was impossible once trapped.
The more they struggled, the deeper the A-rank beasts sank into Sand Gehenna.
The Gray Ogre and Giant Spider, both famed for their overwhelming defenses, screamed madly.
Only the Crimson Drake, born with fire affinity, stubbornly endured the flames.
The Crimson Drake stretched out its forelimbs and grabbed the baby whale.
It intended to devour the weaker calf and replenish its strength.
—Piiiiii!
Captured by the Crimson Drake, the baby whale let out a sorrowful cry.
Moby Dick blinked its enormous eyes and looked toward Zeon.
It looked as though it were begging him to save its child.
Zeon nodded.
“Alright. At least your child… I’ll protect it.”
SHWAAAAK!
The instant his words ended, dozens of streams of sand erupted from the ground and attacked the Crimson Drake.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Bombarded relentlessly by the Sand Blasters, the Crimson Drake released the calf and was driven backward.
KUUUOOOAR!
The enraged Crimson Drake roared, but Zeon immediately forced sand into its mouth.
Once its stomach filled with sand, the Crimson Drake gagged and convulsed violently.
At that moment, Zeon gave the command.
“Claymore.”
BOOM!
The sand inside the Crimson Drake’s stomach exploded.
No matter how powerful the Crimson Drake’s defenses were, it could not withstand an explosion occurring inside its body.
The Crimson Drake exploded apart, its remains scattering everywhere.
Next came the Gray Ogre and Giant Spider.
With a gesture from Zeon, chunks of lava forced their way into the beasts’ mouths.
KRAAAAH!
KIEEEK!
As the molten lava melted through their throats, the Gray Ogre and Giant Spider rolled across the ground in madness.
They tried desperately to vomit up the lava inside them, but it was useless.
Zeon coldly delivered the final death sentence to the suffering A-rank beasts.
“Fire Rain.”
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWANG!
A rain of ultra-high-temperature flames descended.
The Gray Ogre and Giant Spider, whose force fields had completely vanished, melted beneath the fiery rain.
“Insane…”
Claire’s eyes widened in shock.
From the moment Zeon appeared until he completely annihilated the beasts, barely a minute had passed.
In that short time, he had exterminated three A-rank beasts and countless B-rank monsters.
It was a display of divine power that no Awakened in Neo Seoul could possibly replicate.
For a moment, Claire wondered whether the being before her was truly human.
She even found herself thinking he might actually be a Dragon using Polymorph magic while merely wearing a human shell.
That was how far Zeon’s power exceeded her common sense.
Just looking at him made her body tremble and her breathing quicken.
The fear he inspired was overwhelming.
Then—
“Zeon!”
Lee Jeongho, who had been blasted far away while completely defenseless, charged back toward Zeon.
His face was filled with fury.
Being hurled into the ground by the sand pillar had deeply wounded his pride.
An Aura Blade had formed along Lee Jeongho’s sword.
SHIIIK!
The Aura Blade shot toward Zeon’s throat.
Zeon used Sand Step to evade the attack.
Lee Jeongho immediately pursued him, swinging his sword repeatedly.
SHISHISHIK!
In terms of cutting power, no weapon of the modern age could compare to an Aura Blade.
If struck even once, the result would at minimum be a grave injury.
“CHAAT!”
With a shout, Lee Jeongho’s sword traced a strange curved trajectory.
The blade flew low, like a swallow skimming the surface of water.
There was nowhere to dodge.
It was Lee Jeongho’s unique skill, allowing him to alter the sword’s trajectory the instant Zeon tried to evade.
‘Swallow Blade Flying Sword.’
A technique born from thousands upon thousands of repetitions and refinements.
The moment Zeon used Sand Step, the blade curved through the air and pursued him.
“Sand Blaster.”
At Zeon’s gesture, dozens of Sand Blasters fired forward.
An ordinary Awakened would have panicked under the barrage of compressed sand attacks.
But Lee Jeongho was no ordinary Awakened.
“CHAAT!”
With a shout, he spun his sword at terrifying speed.
The Aura Blade rotating alongside the sword formed a shield-like barrier before him.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
The Sand Blasters collided with the Aura Blade and scattered in every direction.
Neutralizing the Sand Blasters instantly, Lee Jeongho closed the distance with Zeon.
His sword thrust toward Zeon’s arm.
“Even if I cut off both your arms, guiding the way shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“You think you can cut them off?”
CLANG!
Zeon answered coldly and deflected Lee Jeongho’s blade with his gauntlet.
Even after blocking the Aura Blade, the Superheated Gauntlet did not receive so much as a scratch.
And Zeon did not stop at merely deflecting the sword.
He unleashed Vipers.
Dozens of sand serpents shot toward Lee Jeongho like venomous snakes hunting prey.
SHWAAAAK!
Lee Jeongho swung his sword and sliced the sand snakes apart in a single motion.
At that instant, thick clouds of sand dust rose around him.
Zeon had caused all the sand on the ground to levitate at once.
Sand poured into his eyes, nose, and mouth.
Lee Jeongho immediately shut his eyes and held his breath.
An ordinary Awakened would have feared closing their eyes in battle, but for Lee Jeongho, it posed no issue at all.
To begin with, his physical eyes were merely decorations.
Since he perceived the world through Mind’s Eye, a little sand in his eyes meant nothing.
The moment he focused on his Mind’s Eye, Zeon’s presence became even clearer.
Lee Jeongho unleashed a secret technique toward him.
‘One-Point Thrust.’
BOOM!
Rather than a “thrust,” the word “shot” suited the attack better.
Like a fired bullet, his sword launched forward at terrifying speed.
Its target was Zeon’s forehead.
Just before the blade reached him, someone appeared in front of Zeon.
A Sand Soldier.
BOOM!
The Sand Soldier took Lee Jeongho’s attack in Zeon’s place and shattered apart.
Lee Jeongho’s blade pierced straight through it.
But before the sword could reach Zeon’s forehead, another Sand Soldier appeared and blocked the path again.
Not just one—
Three of them.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Only after piercing through all three Sand Soldiers did Lee Jeongho’s sword finally stop.
It halted just short of Zeon’s forehead.
Lee Jeongho’s expression twisted.
His decisive strike had been blocked by mere soldiers made of sand.
The thought that Zeon was looking down on him caused his rage to explode.
“How dare you!”
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
At that instant, the sand beneath his feet exploded.
Zeon had activated Claymore.
The overwhelming shock made Lee Jeongho’s body sway like a reed in a storm.
Fortunately, the instant the explosion occurred, instinct caused him to deploy Aura Shield around his entire body.
Aura Shield was the strongest defensive technique a martial-type Awakened could use.
Its weakness was its enormous mana consumption, but its strength was that ordinary attacks could not even scratch it.
Lee Jeongho intended to release the Aura Shield and counterattack the moment the hellish sand explosion ended.
‘I’ll finish this with Meteor Severance.’
The ultimate skill that recreated the speed and energy of a meteor crashing down to earth.
Zeon was such a formidable opponent that Lee Jeongho had been forced to reveal a technique he had never shown anyone before.
Using Mind’s Eye, he observed Zeon’s movements and waited for the perfect opening.
But because all of his concentration was focused on Zeon, he failed to realize that his lower body had sunk deep into the sand.
He only noticed after hearing a horrifying sound.
GAAAAAAANG!
The sand around his lower body was spinning violently.
“This is bad—!”
Sand Mixer.
He had already seen Zeon use this skill to grind apart demonic beasts.
Even monsters possessing overwhelming force fields and defenses had been shredded by it.
Against an ordinary human body, it was a terrifying skill capable of reducing flesh to powder in moments.
Only the Aura Shield was allowing him to endure temporarily.
If this continued, the shield would inevitably break.
Lee Jeongho realized he did not have much time left.
Even now, his body was being dragged deeper and deeper into the sand.
If his head became submerged, escape would become impossible.
‘Damn it!’
Lee Jeongho bit his lip until it bled.
His entire body felt cold.
Only then did he realize just how much he had underestimated Zeon.
The very belief that he overwhelmingly surpassed Zeon in one-on-one combat had been a fatal miscalculation.
Zeon was clearly extremely experienced not only in fighting monsters, but also in fighting Awakened like him.
Otherwise, this kind of response would have been impossible.
GAAAAANG!
Even at that moment, Sand Mixer continued spinning furiously, grinding away at his Aura Shield.
Cracks began spreading across the shield.
At this rate, he would be shredded by the sand without accomplishing anything.
Rather than die helplessly, it was better to gamble on something.
“CHAAT!”
Lee Jeongho swung his sword with all his power.
In that instant, the aura surrounding the blade exploded outward.
BOOOOM!
The massive explosion blasted away the sand surrounding him.
At that moment, Lee Jeongho burst free of the sand and launched himself into the air.
“Meteor Severance!”
Then came his trump card.
Like a meteor crashing down upon the earth, his sword descended toward Zeon.
Lee Jeongho and his blade glowed crimson like a falling star.
It was a terrifying sight.
If struck by that attack, even Zeon could not emerge unharmed.
‘If he gets hit, that is.’
Naturally, Zeon had no intention of allowing the attack to land.
If the enemy possessed one devastating strike, then Zeon would overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
Fortunately, the desert contained an infinite amount of sand.
Zeon intended to demonstrate the ultimate form of overwhelming firepower.
“Sand Blaster. Infinite Bombardment.”
SHUSHUSHUSHUSHUK!
The instant his words ended, hundreds—no, thousands—of Sand Blasters rained down upon Lee Jeongho.