LRAB Chapter 402: Hostile Trade (2)
Chapter 402: Hostile Trade (2)
【Lateral Shift】
He took his back perfectly.
A position that suited an assassin down to the bone.
Just as a sinister dread crawled up the back of Fredo’s head and he hurriedly tried to turn—
【Dark Energy Ignition】
Kang-hoo scattered a thick layer of Dark Energy over the steel hose attached to Fredo’s back, then ignited it.
That modified steel hose—meant to absorb earth-force—was another foundation of Fredo’s power.
Cutting it with a dagger didn’t look feasible, so he used Dark Energy Ignition to burn it down in one go.
It was a clever call tactically as well: the steel hoses spread out like spider legs, and if he got close trying to land Great Decapitation, he risked eating a counterattack instead.
-Ugh! Uuugh! This is far too cowardly! A fair, head-on duel is what you should be doing!With a look that said pathetic, Kang-hoo deployed Lateral Shift again.
His immediate objective—neutralizing the steel hoses—was achieved.
Panicking, Fredo hurried to tear the hoses off.
Even so, he seemed to have learned from being flanked just now, rotating his body as he moved.
It looked like a determined attempt to avoid giving up his back, to track Kang-hoo’s movement no matter what.
From Kang-hoo’s perspective, that wasn’t bad either.
If Fredo was fixated on him, it meant he couldn’t pay attention elsewhere.
Bang!
Like right now.
Urk!
Pssht!
Ayane’s Full-Round Strike landed.
Exactly what they wanted.
When the boss monster’s attention was locked onto one person, the other person exploited the opening.
With Fredo’s focus glued to Kang-hoo, Ayane—who had been patiently waiting for her window—got a clean chance.
0Ngh...!
Because it was a high-output, current-focused round, Fredo was shoved backward for a long distance even after his shoulder was pierced.
His shoulder was already a bloody mess, and he staggered, unable to recover from the shock.
【Acceleration】
【Leap】
To deny him any room to retaliate, Kang-hoo closed in immediately and then—
【Thunderstrike Tremor】
—dropped Thunderstrike Tremor right at the point of contact between himself and Fredo.
It was an ideal deployment because the pouring bundles of electricity didn’t affect the caster.
Ugaaagh!
Even Fredo’s massive frame couldn’t avoid being stunned by the festival of current forcing its way into the shoulder wound.
His high magic-resistance stat kept it from being fatal, but it was more than enough to induce a brief paralysis.
After seeing Fredo’s focus loosen—
【Curtain of Artifice】
【Stealth】
Kang-hoo slipped behind him inside the curtain.
With stealth layered twice, unlike earlier, Fredo couldn’t track Kang-hoo’s position.
‘Now.’
The back of Fredo’s neck was clearly exposed. With the steel hoses stripped away, his broad back lay unobstructed.
【Leap】
【Great Decapitation】
Thunk!
Kraaagh!
Kang-hoo closed the distance in a single Leap and drove Great Decapitation straight into the back of Fredo’s neck without hesitation.
The dagger bit so deep into muscle that it stuck for a moment, almost refusing to come free.
Rather than forcing it out, Kang-hoo drew his offhand dagger and immediately stabbed into Fredo’s side as well.
It was the cleanest route to create multiple deep wounds at once while minimizing his own motion.
-I’m! I’m furious!
Kang-hoo gave a bitter smile at Fredo’s nonstop mouth even in this state.
The original story’s boss monsters were often like this.
To give them “personality” as living beings, they were assigned all kinds of concepts—and the chatterbox archetype showed up a lot.
At least Fredo’s speech was bearable. Some others had used cutesy, mismatched speech that clashed with their looks entirely.
Thinking back, if they’d just shut up, they’d have been tolerable... those kinds of concepts.
Either way, after taking repeated Great Decapitation strikes, Fredo’s entire body turned crimson.
A display of rage.
At the same time, it was a signal that he had entered an awakened state—his body advancing to the next stage.
In other words: he gained additional attack power with the awakening, but paid for it by greatly losing defensive capability.
As the enraged Fredo tried to strike Kang-hoo with the arm that still functioned—
Bang!
-Kk!
Ayane’s Full-Round Strike—freshly reloaded—slammed into Fredo’s upper shoulder.
He was moving, so she didn’t replicate the earlier clean penetration, but it was enough to create a gap.
【Lateral Shift】
Another back take.
It felt good—like he hadn’t had his fill of striking from behind in ages. It was the assassin’s essence: hunting the enemy’s back, not their front.
【Distorted Diagonal Line】
And while he was at it, Kang-hoo let down a thread of death and leapt onto Fredo’s shoulder—
Kagagak! Kagak!
—then activated distortion while coiling it around Fredo’s neck.
He meant to grind the neck away entirely.
He’d already stabbed Great Decapitation in twice, but whether because Fredo’s Toughness stat was high, it still hadn’t become a lethal wound.
So he switched from Great Decapitation—which wasn’t giving a satisfying result—to a method that could decisively cut off breath.
Distorted Diagonal Line was classified as magic, after all.
By feel, Fredo was clearly a boss monster whose Toughness was far higher than his magic resistance—a physical-type brute.
-Ugaaagh!
As Fredo’s throat began to be shaved from the front while he was still alive, he released a grotesque groan and his body trembled.
Kang-hoo’s attack—both hands clamped around the death thread like his veins might burst—was all-out.
Right then—
Bang!
This time, Ayane’s gunshot sounded different than before.
Crack! Crsk! Crshk!
From the way flesh burst in multiple places from a single shot, it was clearly Pellet Strike rather than Full-Round Strike.
Unlike Full-Round Strike, which used a current-focused mana bullet, Pellet Strike split the mana round at the final moment of offense.
So, like now—
Kyaaaagh!
—it punched multiple small and large holes across the target’s body.
That shot had targeted both of Fredo’s ankles.
With those thinner-than-average body parts injured, Fredo wobbled.
Only briefly.
Kooong!
A giant like him couldn’t support his weight on shredded ankles.
Fredo finally dropped to his knees.
“Not like you made your neck out of steel...”
Kang-hoo, meanwhile, tied off Distorted Diagonal Line around Fredo’s neck like a knot, then pulled back.
No matter how hard he tried to pull the death thread taut with brute force, it didn’t look like it would cut through Fredo’s neck.
To do that, he’d need to add even more power to the grip of both hands—and he was already at his limit.
So the complaint wasn’t just a joke. Fredo’s neck really was that stubborn.
They needed a definite finisher.
With his neck half-choked, Fredo didn’t seem able to escape the pressure of Distorted Diagonal Line anytime soon.
He also couldn’t track Kang-hoo’s position properly, and with both legs collapsing, his defense had dropped sharply.
‘Then...’
【Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet – Kill】
A skill that, given even a little time, could shred a target to pieces with certainty.
It was time to use Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet – Kill, the skill he’d copied with permission from his master, Celestial Assassin.
Ssssh.
When he crouched,
Dark Energy rose from Kang-hoo’s entire body.
It branched like twigs, then spread outward as a net of Dark Energy.
It happened in an instant, like watching plant roots grow at high speed.
Before anyone could blink, the Dark Energy net had grown large enough to wrap not only Fredo in front of him, but everything around them.
Just watching it made the spine chill.
It was a skill filled with pure darkness, and even Ayane—keeping her distance—could feel it.
-Hah... haah...!
Fredo, breathing raggedly, still couldn’t escape the pressure of Distorted Diagonal Line.
There was no better opening than this, so Kang-hoo contracted the net of Dark Energy at maximum spread.
Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet – Kill triggered.
SwhAAAA!
With a tearing air-splitting sound, the death net snapped tight in an instant, binding Fredo’s entire body at once.
A spray of blood erupted in every direction as a bonus.
Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet – Kill was several times stronger than simply turning Distorted Diagonal Line into a multi-strand net.
It was no different from being shaved alive by dozens of blades.
Pulverization might have been the better word.
Ggagagak!
“......”
Arms folded, Kang-hoo watched Fredo’s end as he died without being able to move even a single finger.
He was feeling, with his own eyes, the power of the skill he’d received from his master.
It required that much setup to cast, but once it succeeded, death was guaranteed.
A single death thread from Distorted Diagonal Line might, by some stroke of luck, have an escape route.
But the death net created by Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet – Kill looked—no matter how he considered it—nearly impossible to break out of.
Even though it was his own skill, Kang-hoo couldn’t immediately imagine a clean counter.
“......”
Meanwhile, seeing Fredo dying well enough on his own, Ayane lowered her barrel.
She didn’t feel like adding extra effort to a result that was already certain.
Gulp—.
Without realizing it, she swallowed the saliva pooling in her mouth.
The skill she had just witnessed from Kang-hoo wasn’t merely a Dark Energy skill— its manifested form was so bizarre she couldn’t even think of any similar skill to compare it to.
A “murder net”... would that fit? No other nickname came to mind.
In any case, this was a middle boss monster in a demanding dungeon.
They had entered the fight with the firepower and confidence to suppress it, yes, but she hadn’t predicted a one-sided slaughter like this.
“Murder net” clearly possessed destructive power that casually crushed even Fredo’s superior physical specs.
If Ayane herself were exposed to that kind of skill, she couldn’t honestly guarantee she’d walk out alive.
She always marveled whenever she saw Kang-hoo’s skills, but this time she felt a deep dissonance.
Like they lived in different worlds.
Like she never wanted to imagine a different “worldline” where they weren’t allies.
She’d synced with Kang-hoo plenty of times now, and she’d thought she knew all the skills worth knowing.
That was a huge mistake.
As if from an inexhaustible spring, Kang-hoo had yet another skill waiting in reserve.
Whether he’d possessed it from the start or acquired it recently, she had no way to know.
Right then—
Snap!
Ppppp-BOOM!
With the snap of Kang-hoo’s fingers, Fredo’s entire body—still writhing in the pain of death—detonated in a crimson explosion.
It was Kang-hoo’s signature finish, a perfect proclamation of finality to a dying body.
At the start of the fight, he had held no certainty of victory against a middle boss monster.
But as always, the result of fighting alongside Kang-hoo was “victory,” as if it were an unchanging truth.