Ch.110110. Declaration of a Monster

Koo Sang-heon did what he had to do in the midst of the chaotic battle.

He decided to target the ones casting debuffs first, channeling magical power into his sword.

‘It’s going to be tricky to break through.’

But monsters and humanoid creatures were causing havoc at the front.

Calculations began in this genius’s mind.

Different from Do Jong-hyun’s calculations.

While Jong-hyun relied on extensive knowledge and judgment, this genius calculated with instantaneous wit and resourcefulness in unexpected situations.

And the decisive difference was his combat simulation predictions.

Enemy attacks and movements. He was assessing everything within his field of vision.

‘They have human faces, interesting. Like unfinished monsters.’

Pushing his excitement aside as danger approached, he began to move.

First, an orc knight’s mace swung along its trajectory, but he dodged it by a hair’s breadth.

Like an acrobatic feat, Aerial appeared beside him as he moved.

Aerial was destructive. She literally pulverized a monster with what felt like a crushing blow.

‘She’s strong~’

However, perhaps because of this, he couldn’t easily approach the ones casting buffs.

Koo Sang-heon was technically evading enemy attacks.

Suddenly, when his foot was caught in what felt like a trap, he instinctively used magical power to strike the ground harder than necessary.

As his body lifted, the attacks aimed at him passed by harmlessly.

Leaping in mid-air, he stabbed a humanoid creature right in front of him.

Vitality surged through his body.

“Instructor, nice buff!”

The instructor had somehow appeared beside him for support.

As a monster made a simple sweeping attack, he began evading with artistic boxing footwork.

Feeling vibrations from the ground, Sang-heon jumped nimbly. A predator worm with a human face was staring at him.

“I’m not sorry, but thankful.”

Sang-heon instead plunged his knife into this predator worm creature that had lunged at him.

Then, with all his might, he leaped toward the buff-casting creature, turning like a swimmer.

[Ah…]

“The monster can talk?”

He sliced through the startled creature in one go. Of course, even he couldn’t guarantee his survival after this.

Because he was right in the middle of monsters.

The instructors were busy handling S-class or higher monsters themselves and couldn’t easily provide support.

‘I’ve dealt with the buff-caster, but how do I get out of here?’

Sang-heon calculated once more and had no choice but to run.

Like an acrobat, he was using magic to blind the monsters and trying to escape.

Wind was howling in his ears. Not a gentle breeze that softly rustled hair, but a fierce storm that could blow his head off.

When Sang-heon turned his head, he saw a martial artist approaching with a moth attached to its body.

A fist extended from the statue-like face and sturdy body.

‘I can’t dodge this one, can I?’

Sang-heon felt death approaching.

A strong gust blew. The martial artist thrust his fist forward, creating another pressure wave in the opposite direction.

‘The opposite direction? Then where did that first gust come from?’

The martial artist’s fist stopped right in front of him.

The aura of death had narrowly missed Sang-heon.

Sang-heon saw powerful claws before his eyes.

It wasn’t like a bird snatching prey, but rather gentle and light, yet the martial artist had stopped his attack.

‘It flew in from behind. What kind of speed was that?’

As Sang-heon was about to fall from mid-air, three fingers similar to human hands but much larger grabbed his arm.

Two wings fluttered behind. The wingspan must have been over 4 meters, an astonishing sight that would leave anyone’s mouth agape.

“A bird…?”

Before him was a humanoid monster covered entirely in feathers.

Like a bird, completely feathered with the fierce impression of a hawk.

“Wow, this is new. Is it related to that hawk from earlier? More human-like?”

Half-bird, half-human. Do Jong-hyun faced off against the martial artist after saving Sang-heon.

*

Traits: Hawk’s Eye (Flight, Agility, Strength, Stamina rank 1 increase), Tool Use (When using sub-cards, skill power and strength rank increase), Weak Point Detection (Analyze opponent’s movements and discover weaknesses), Tenacity (When injured, stamina gauge rises to maximum)

Strength: A

Agility: SS

Resistance: A

Magic Resistance: B

Stamina: S

Magic Power: B

Skills: Target Lock, Feather Throw, Whirlwind, Echo

Evolution: Avian, Half-bird Half-human

Sub-cards: Wind Magic (Envelop the body in wind attributes), Instinct (Temporarily maximize wild instincts, dramatically increasing agility. All skill damage increases proportionally to agility)

I became the half-bird half-human form I chose, and as my wings on my back moved, I leaped forward.

A body slightly larger than a human’s, with wings that must be the largest in the current world.

With one flap of my wings, my body was already in front of Sang-heon.

I reflexively raised my foot into the trajectory of the opponent’s punch.

And when I applied force, the attack miraculously stopped.

More precisely, the martial artist tried to withdraw his arm. This half-bird Sura had blocked him unexpectedly.

While holding Sang-heon who was about to fall, I raised my feathers.

And feathers shot like thorns riding the wind in front of me.

The martial artist endured the attack with his body tensed and hardened.

Simultaneously, I could see his weaknesses. The wind passing through every corner of his body was revealing them.

His body was automatically mapped in my mind, with subtle points marked everywhere.

Without being told, I knew these were weak points.

The throat, solar plexus, sides – these vulnerabilities must be targeted.

At that moment, Sang-heon, hanging from my arm, shouted:

“Hey! Whatever you are, dealing with that moth on its back would make things easier, right?”

“…”

Even though I might be in bird form, he’s quite bold to speak to me so casually.

“What? Not a good idea?”

No, I agree. An instructor might be more skilled, but I’ll trust Sang-heon’s instincts this time.

The martial artist, relying on the butterfly monster on its back, was evading and attempting to attack other monsters.

“It’s deliberately leading us, right? Trying to get us to its advantageous battlefield? Am I right?”

Mostly correct. I might not have known when it first appeared, but since this creature attached the butterfly, it had been focusing on massacring others rather than targeting the instructors.

But why suddenly head toward where its allies are concentrated?

I flapped my wings and moved instantaneously.

[Hawk’s Eye trait effect applied]

-Strength: S

-Agility: SS(+)

-Stamina: SS

In an instant, I flew over the instructors and saw one being threatened by a monster.

[Whirlwind]

As I used the Whirlwind skill, winds gathered in my hand.

I dispersed this with magic power.

Here, I used the sub-card Wind Harmonizer.

To target only monsters with this magic-infused whirlwind.

Intense whirlwinds began to sweep between the monsters, blowing them away.

“Amazing! It’s only targeting the monsters.”

Sang-heon, hanging from my hand, was clearly enjoying this. He really is bold.

But the real challenge starts now, as the martial artist tries to lunge at me again.

However, with my wind-controlling abilities, disrupting its path is easy.

As I raised winds to interfere, suddenly Sang-heon jumped.

“Huh?”

“Send me over with the wind!”

It happened in an instant. But as I used Wind Harmonizer to send him over as requested, I saw the moth being split in half.

“Geniuses really are different.”

Thanks to him, the martial artist fell. As I rushed in to strike its weak points, the martial artist parried my attack with his arm.

Parry.

After parrying a series of consecutive attacks, he threw a punch aimed at my chest.

Magic power exploded in front, and the martial artist regained his stance.

Living up to his reputation?

But I have my own plans.

[Sub-card Change]

-Combat Manual (Enhances combat abilities. Affected by stamina and strength values.)

-Humanoid form only

-Tool Use trait effect applies.

[Skill]

-Wind Magic (Wind increases resistance and magic resistance by 1 rank, Weak Point Detection performance improves according to stamina value.)

As wind surrounded my body, I moved my wings powerfully.

Using all my stamina to the extreme to finish this quickly.

My entire body heated up, filled with the desire to move and pulverize this opponent.

It’s similar to that primal feeling from dinosaur times. But I can control it.

The martial artist glared at me, but being airborne gave me the advantage.

And I understood.

I could see his movements and rushed in instantly.

How his hand extends, the connected movements, how to strike his weak points.

[Combat Manual]

I deflected his slow arm and immediately attacked according to the combat manual.

Chest, chin, side.

But something was strange. The opponent was frozen before me. Frozen…? At that moment, I realized the flow of space-time was different.

The martial artist’s fist and expression were changing slowly.

Only I could move freely here.

The extreme of speed. When I finished all actions, the world returned to normal.

As I turned my body accompanied by wind, a status window appeared.

[Mission Success!]

-Monster Points 2 acquired!

-Apocalypse Risk reduced

Fast. The martial artist had died standing.

“Why isn’t he attacking?”

“What just happened?”

The attack was so fast that even others around couldn’t comprehend it.

Well, let them figure it out themselves while I earn some points.

Now I focused on clearing the remaining forces.

I quickly picked out only the humanoid creatures and threw them from the air.

“Should I keep one alive?”

I deliberately threw one to the ground to be taken hostage.

And as I raised my head, I could see fighting outside the botanical garden as well.

“So that’s why support couldn’t come easily.”

Such a massive attack near the botanical garden? Someone targeted it deliberately.

But I couldn’t stay any longer.

I changed all my sub-cards to smoke bombs, detonated them, and left the botanical garden.

I successfully rose so high into the sky that I was barely visible and quietly landed on a mountain near the area.

A mountain near the botanical garden. This way there was no risk of being discovered.

My phone started ringing.

*

On this day, South Korea took notice of the existence of “Goein” (monster-humans).

Not only was the botanical garden damaged, but guilds that came to help outside also suffered.

This time, casualties couldn’t be prevented. First-years, second-years, and even instructors were killed or injured.

And they all spoke of these beings called Goein.

[They called themselves Goein.]

[They claimed to have evolved from humans and betrayed humanity.]

The Association, which had kept the existence of Goein secret, now faced these creatures openly declaring attacks.

And on this day, mysterious USBs arrived at broadcasting stations.

They showed human-looking individuals reading a declaration:

[We have chosen new evolutionary possibilities and the extermination of humanity. Anyone who interferes is our enemy!]

If it were just this, the impact wouldn’t have been significant, but shocking scenes followed of humans transforming into monsters.

Until now, cases of humans becoming monsters were limited to monster-humans disguised as humans. But now the boundaries blurred with cases of humans becoming monsters.

For Do Jong-hyun, this meant an unwelcome and more treacherous path ahead.

The Monster Apocalypse Group seized this opportunity to talk about peaceful coexistence, bringing up helpful monsters like Do Jong-hyun.

“We can communicate with and control monsters. Since such monsters exist, we cannot kill all monsters. We must choose coexistence.”

For them, although the uncontrollable Do Jong-hyun wouldn’t help, they exploited the fact that he wouldn’t speak out publicly either.

As Goein and the Monster Apocalypse Group began to actively operate, one of the crucial events, the Incheon Airport Occupation, was drawing near.