LRAB Chapter 353: Observation (3)
Chapter 353: Observation (3)
Battle start.
【Cutiee!】
As he sprinted at Sebum, the first option Kang-hoo pulled out was Cutiee!.
Squish!
A sturdy, oversized slime suddenly appeared, and Sebum’s killing beam aimed at Kang-hoo went wide.
The reason was simple: spending a killing beam on a slime felt too wasteful, so Sebum tried to chase Kang-hoo instead.
“Pfft.”
Watching live from the rear, Emilia burst into laughter.
Soon, the slime took Sebum’s killing beam and met its end with X-shaped eyes—but at least the cuteness on site would live on forever.
By then, Kang-hoo had already slipped off to the flank and was disrupting Sebum’s line of sight.
【Illusion Art】
【Shadow Step】
The two skills—now a bundled option for confusing the enemy—linked together.
Shadow Step was a handy skill that let him swap positions with his shadow at need.
Since learning it, he had used it steadily—practically a steady-seller.
As Kang-hoo watched the movement of the shadow he sent aggressively toward Sebum, he gauged the timing to switch positions—
Kwagagaga!
Sebum’s eyes flared a murderous red as it spun in place, spraying killing beams in all directions.
At the same time, it extended the beams’ range, drawing a pinwheel-shaped kill zone.
‘A textbook counter.’
As a result, illusion and shadow alike vanished in one sweep, leaving only hazy smoke.
“...”
The four legs perched menacingly atop Sebum’s shoulders glowed red-hot.
Like a human, it had two “arms”—really just more spider legs—and two legs to stand on.
The other four legs branched from the back, that is, starting at the shoulder blades.
Those legs moved freely like a rig strapped to its back, hunting targets.
Ordinarily, calculating a close approach against something like this would be foolish.
But Kang-hoo thought differently.
‘The closer you stick to an enemy with dangerous ranged checks, the better.’
Once he got in tight, at least he wouldn’t be exposed to Sebum’s killing beams.
Unless it wanted to kill itself, Sebum couldn’t fire a killing beam at an enemy hugging its body.
And if it did go crazy and shoot, he could simply disengage—he fully intended to hedge for that contingency.
Tadadadak!
Resolved, Kang-hoo charged Sebum again and used the brief lull to add another layer of prep.
【Poisoned Blood】
【You coat your weapon with your own blood to grant toxicity.
On a successful hit, the target may suffer Paralysis, Sleep, or Poison.
With current mastery, the guaranteed success chance is 22.2%.】
Aside from the cost of his own blood, Poisoned Blood demanded nothing—always worth using.
Sliiide.
Blood ran down the wound he’d made on his middle finger along the edge of his dagger; the dagger greedily drank it in.
Krdrrrk.
Having reacquired Kang-hoo’s position, Sebum swung its killing beams back toward him.
Judging from the way its eyes flashed, those eyes even served as aiming scopes—an accuracy boost.
Then—
Thunk!
Kang-hoo hurled a spare dagger forward with all his strength and pulled out a second option to counter Sebum’s attack.
【Green-Distortion Array – Within a 5 m radius, the enemy’s view of you is distorted. You may designate the enemy. Your own vision is unaffected.】
The key to a sight-distortion option was that it forced the opponent to choose.
Imagine something whose position you must track flying at you from straight ahead—and then it suddenly vanished.
You couldn’t be sure it’s still coming along the original path, and you couldn’t be sure it’s deviated—either way, you must decide.
That was exactly this.
As the Green-Distortion Array deployed and absurdly warped Sebum’s straight-on view of Kang-hoo, its gaze wavered.
Since it had been watching Kang-hoo already closing in, Sebum frantically searched for his position.
It conserved its killing beams cleverly.
Clever from Sebum’s perspective—but the problem was, its opponent wasn’t only Kang-hoo.
Kwoaaaa!
After a fairly long charge—
A purple heat-lance left the tip of Emilia’s parasol with a sonic rip and smashed into Sebum’s left shoulder.
“Kh!”
Fueled by the time Kang-hoo had bought, Emilia’s fully powered shot knocked Sebum’s body askew.
It narrowly avoided losing its left arm, but blood streamed down along the shoulder line.
There was also a temporary effect that intensified the wound with strong acidity—lethally painful for the victim.
Timing his approach, Kang-hoo drove in another strike to dig into the wound.
They hadn’t planned this link in advance, but there was no more exquisite combo than this now.
【Blood Flower】
Boom-boom-boom!
An explosion blossomed.
He had drafted a path to push in from the right from the start, anticipating Emilia’s support—and it landed perfectly.
With the added damage secured, Sebum’s stubborn intent to fire a killing beam finally broke.
Sebum ended up allowing Kang-hoo into reach—close enough now for an embrace.
The next moment—
Thud-thud!
Kang-hoo planted another spare dagger in the ground. This time, to lay a Red-Slow Array.
【Red-Slow Array – Enemies passing through this 5 m radius have movement speed reduced by 65%. You may designate the enemy.】
Whether to finish it within the array or to make an organized retreat, he intended to choose, so he dropped it without hesitation.
Thoom!
Sebum toppled backward.
Even so—
To check Kang-hoo somehow, it heaped strength into its ragged arms and jabbed for his chest.
The way mana condensed to a dense degree at what counted as its “hands” didn’t look like a normal strike.
‘In that case!’
【Wall of Impeccability】
No reason to skimp—he unfolded the defense most specialized for blocking.
Whatever destructive force that attack had, the Wall of Impeccability would cleanly stop it once.
Confident—
While Sebum’s double-arm lunge crashed in, Kang-hoo already had a spare dagger in his right hand.
There was no need to doubt whether the defense would succeed. Instead of defend-then-counter, he could counter immediately.
【Fire-Dragon Lance】
Fwoooooosh!
Igniting flame on the spare dagger, Kang-hoo hurled it straight at Sebum’s face.
At the same time—
Thoom!
“...!”
Sebum’s blow slammed into the Wall of Impeccability, but, as expected, it was neatly nullified.
In fact, the wall shoved Sebum backward, leaving it reeling.
Meanwhile, the Fire-Dragon Lance drew Sebum’s focus to a single point.
Taaang!
Barely—Sebum hauled four back-mounted legs forward and managed to block the Fire-Dragon Lance.
Up to that point, it could have been a flawless, eye-pleasing exchange of offense and defense, but...
【Flame of Death】
Then came the problem.
Chained immediately after the Fire-Dragon Lance, the Flame of Death was already wreathed around Sebum’s face.
“Kraaaaaah!”
Irresistible.
With no time to interpose anything, Sebum’s bare face took the flames head-on and burned.
Its skin melted away in an instant, and where boundaries had been was now only a sloughing mask.
Kang-hoo did not stop.
【Qi Blast】
Another check!
Robbed of its timing by the Flame of Death, Sebum struggled even to block the incoming Qi Blast.
Worse, its eyelids and surrounding skin had melted, gumming up; even securing vision faltered.
In that state, a Qi Blast screaming straight for its face had to be blocked first.
It was a desperate response that could think only as far as block now—not block-and-then-calculate.
And then—
A critical hit struck Sebum, too busy swatting away the Qi Blast.
【Soaring-Heaven Kick】
Using Sebum’s bent-backward knee as a step, he sprang up and drove a single Soaring-Heaven Kick!
For the first time since learning it, Kang-hoo could see what happened when a jawbone met a nasal bone.
Launched at full force, Sebum’s shattered jawbone crushed upward into where the nasal bone should be.
The place where its mouth, lips, and teeth had been caved inward.
‘Not yet. Not yet.’
Though the flowing combo had every right to make him cocky, Kang-hoo cooled his emotions.
It wasn’t over until it was over; no one was dead until death was confirmed.
Allowing a string of hits didn’t mean Sebum was dead now—only that it was in mortal danger.
Just then—
As Sebum flailed its arms hideously and toppled backward, Kang-hoo unfolded another skill to strike it from an unseen angle.
【Thorn Hell】
From behind—not the front—Thorn Hell rose from the ground, where Sebum could not see it.
And—
Thunk!
“Ghk.”
Sebum let out a short groan.
The Thorn Hell that pierced in through the back of its head was a different order of blow than the earlier ones.
Skewered square through the back of the skull, Sebum now looked propped diagonally on the thorn.
Strictly speaking, the thorn hadn’t completely penetrated the head; it had driven in partway and stopped.
The problem was, even a tiny movement would likely drive the thorn the rest of the way through.
Unless someone gripped the thorn and lifted it to free Sebum, there was no way out—checkmate in all but name.
And by that moment—
【Line of Distortion】
Kang-hoo had gripped the Line of Distortion taut in both hands, cranking its killing power to the maximum.
【Sacred Leap】
And on top of that, Sacred Leap to add as much thrust as he wished—everything was set.
“Kh-... heh-heh... heheheh!”
Sebum rolled only its eyes to check the situation, then laughed like a madman.
From the start, it had planned to target the lone assassin hunting it and fight obsessively!
Yet despite aiming and preparing—look at it now.
With its head half-hooked on a thorn, in a state where the slightest move would mean instant death.
And with something guillotine-like glittering in the assassin’s hands, how could sanity hold?
Sebum worked the four legs attached to its shoulder blades this way and that.
Kachut. Kachut. Kachut.
And just barely, it caught the thorn. If it gripped the thorn tight, it looked like it might pull its head free forward.
Was there, after all, a way out when the sky was falling?
At that very instant, as it poured strength into the four legs to clamp down—
Ta-ang! Swae-eng!
Slash!
Channeling the full thrust of Sacred Leap into the Line of Distortion, Kang-hoo flashed past Sebum’s flank like an arrow.
The next moment—
Whooom...
Sebum’s head lofted helplessly into the air—the last journey of a masterless head.
In the dimming consciousness at the end, Kang-hoo’s chilly murmur stabbed in like a dagger.
“Did you really think that would work?”