Chapter 45 : last-ditch effort (2)

“Is that it?”

With the unique agility of a Fighter, leaving her sluggish younger sister far behind, Yejin reached the vicinity of the target first.

Standing on one side of the athletic field, she looked up at the school where the criminal who had thoroughly provoked her Master… no,

Oppa, was hiding.

The school, built with utterly ordinary red bricks, seemed to have been officially closed since last year.

Normally, no one would visit an abandoned school, so it would have been a perfect place to use as a base without being discovered.

However, now that he was caught by Oppa’s tracking magic, his chances of escape were almost nil.

Although unreliable, hundreds of government-side users had been mobilized, and she and her sister, both rankers, had also rushed out to

catch this man.

So this was, in a way, a stomp.

A stomp where the quantity and quality of allies overwhelmingly surpassed the opponent, literally crushing the enemy.

“So it should be okay to relieve a little stress.”

Seeing the Undead Ogre standing guard near the main gate far away, Yejin loosened up her body with simple stretches.

She had heard that due to user riots, no ordinary civilians lived in this vicinity.

That meant there was no one to complain even if she made a bit of a ruckus with that ogre friend.

” Denim! Block intruder!”

Since she approached without deliberately hiding her presence, the creature quickly noticed someone was there.

Undead Ogre.

A monster with ridiculously high HP but low attack power, threatening to beginners but becoming nothing more than a combat power meter,

a punching bag, as levels increase.

Looking at it, the Black Magician who created it seemed to have put some effort in, as it looked considerably stronger than a normal ogre, but

it seemed it couldn’t overcome the ‘species limit’ in the end.

The species limit, meaning unless it was an awakened boss monster level, it was ultimately just a slightly tough punching bag for Yejin.

“Intruder! Intruder stay away from main gate. If pass here, Denim get scolded.”

“…Really? But I think I need to go inside this building.”

“Cannot pass!”

“I said I’m going to pass, didn’t I?”

“Stupid cat beastman cannot understand words! Denim ignore beastman words.”

Saying that the cat beastman was stupid for not understanding after being told several times, Yejin’s eyes showed a spark of interest as she

watched the ogre stomp its foot on the innocent ground in frustration.

Such a highly intelligent individual capable of this level of conversation? She rather liked it.

“Its appearance isn’t my type, but…”

Staring at the creature’s sagging layers of fat, she continued.

“It talks well… and most importantly, the feeling of hitting it seems like it wouldn’t be too bad.”

Perhaps taking her remark, which was basically calling it fat, as a provocation, the ogre abruptly charged towards Yejin.

The massive greatsword it held swung towards her.

-Crash.

A huge gash appeared on the athletic field, which should have been extremely hard, covered with hardened concrete and sand.

Momentarily surprised by the attack power exceeding expectations, Yejin lightly dodged the greatsword swung again with a backstep.

‘Of course, since it’s undead, I thought its strength would be weak compared to its appearance, making it unable to wield the greatsword

properly and just flail around…’

It was a more interesting punching bag than expected.

Still, just a punching bag.

[Shaolin Secret Art – Hundred Step Divine Fist]

The most famous fist technique among the commonly known Seventy-Two Supreme Arts of Shaolin unfolded from her hands.

Golden energy enveloped her hands and wrists, and the immense ki gathered in her fist was discharged.

A rough energy, identical to the energy waves fired by characters from a certain Japanese manga derived from Journey to the West, pierced

through the ogre.

Due to the nature of the field being full of sand, the ogre’s form, instantly flung backward, was obscured by a suddenly rising sandstorm.

As if not wanting to miss this timing, the ogre quickly got up and hid its body within the sandstorm.

It was a move to look for a chance to ambush.

Unfortunately for it, Yejin’s ki sense captured all of its movements.

‘…Its intelligence is incredibly high. It doesn’t just talk well, it can even use basic tactics. Ambushing while vision is obscured by a

sandstorm… Is it really undead?’

Yejin couldn’t stop admiring the ogre’s attempt to overcome this crisis-like situation with a strategy, albeit simple, yet somewhat tactical.

A Black Magician capable of creating such an intelligent entity was highly dangerous.

Quickly dealing with the gatekeeper and capturing its master before he tries any funny business would prevent future troubles.

If a Black Magician decided to seriously cause chaos, it would be nearly impossible for Yejin, who had no expertise in magic, to handle the

aftermath.

Examples included spreading plagues or creating undead that could infect even ordinary people and releasing them onto the streets.

If something like that happened, she might get seriously scolded by Oppa and punished.

…Huh. Maybe that’s slightly okay.

As if telling her not to think about other things in front of it, the ogre emerged, cutting through the sandstorm, roaring as it brought down its

greatsword.

However, unlike before, Yejin did not dodge the greatsword.

[Shaolin School Secret Art – Guanyin Hand]

Despite the greatsword crashing down before her eyes, Yejin maintained her composure, circled her hands once in the air, and brought them

together in a prayer position.

Instantly, behind her back, about a hundred afterimages of hands formed a spectacular shape, like the hands of the Thousand-Hand Guanyin,

said to possess a thousand hands.

[Guanyin Hand] was a technique boasting powerful attack strength, as it had defeated Hyewon instantly, but fundamentally, it was a

defensive secret art meant to block attacks coming from blind spots.

-Thud.

The greatsword that had split the hard field in two was caught with almost absurd ease.

Of the hundred golden hands, only three had grabbed the greatsword.

But the ogre couldn’t pull its greatsword out from those shining grips.

It strained so hard that veins popped on its forearms, thicker than Yejin’s waist, but nothing changed.

[Wudang School – Void Cloud Following]

A movement skill that meant chasing clouds in the void, causing one to fly into the air, was activated, and Yejin’s body naturally soared

upwards.

Naturally, the greatsword held by [Guanyin Hand] also flew up into the sky.

And naturally, the Undead Ogre, foolishly still clinging to the greatsword, likewise floated up into the night sky.

“This method is perfect for catching guys with lots of HP.”

Seeing the ground gradually receding, the ogre belatedly realized what she was going to do and tried to let go of the greatsword, but Yejin

used the remaining ninety-seven afterimages behind her back to hold onto the creature so it wouldn’t fall.

Literally forced into a state where it couldn’t move at all, the ogre continued to struggle desperately.

Despite being an undead that had already died once, it seemed to possess the will to live.

However, with 97 hands, when just 3 had overwhelmed its arm strength, there was absolutely nothing it could do.

After rising quite high, to an altitude where passing cars far below looked like toys, Yejin threw the creature up into the sky.

It would be simple if it just fell and died like this, but the creature was an undead based on an ogre with high HP and excellent regeneration.

If it didn’t die instantly from the impact of the fall, there was a high chance it would regenerate its body and challenge her again.

More importantly, setting aside the trouble, falling to its death like this didn’t seem like it would relieve her stress either.

She intended to deliver one serious blow, completely blowing away the school where the criminal was hiding and cooking up schemes down

below.

Whatever trump card the guy was hiding, she planned to obliterate that trump card along with everything else.

If he was a somewhat skilled Black Magician, he’d probably survive somehow, whether by using sacrifices or blood magic.

With that irresponsible thought, Yejin checked the positions of the target school and the ogre.

The ogre, suddenly thrown into the air, couldn’t hide its bewilderment, flailing its arms and floating momentarily before starting to fall

rapidly.

The [Guanyin Hand] that had reliably protected her back disappeared as its duration ended.

It was time to use a different skill, not a defensive one like [Guanyin Hand], for the first time in a while.

It was difficult to use until recently, but now, thanks to Oppa’s help and sparring with her sister, it was a chance to test her proficient main

skills in actual combat.

It was also a chance to relieve stress, and Yejin wasn’t one to pass up such an opportunity.

The thin but pure energy characteristic of high altitudes gathered on her skin, and the internal energy (Naegi) within her Dantian began to

swirl fiercely.

As Yejin struck her fists together, Blue Flame (Cheongyeom) enveloped the caster’s entire body, following her Dantian.

The flames, formed from her thick, pure ki, took the shape of twin blue dragons following the movement of the internal energy within

her Dantian.

Thus, Yejin, along with the blue Dragon King enveloping her body, flew through the sky and struck down the body of the ogre falling towards

the distant ground.

The ogre’s massive body directly hit the school where its master was presumably hiding, tracing a beautiful trajectory like a blue meteor.

The potential energy from falling several kilometers from the sky,

And the acceleration far exceeding the speed of sound,

The ogre’s weight, easily surpassing an elephant’s,

Finally, Yejin’s immense internal energy and secret technique.

All these factors combined, Yejin’s insane act, producing power exceeding that of a small meteorite, had exactly the effect she desired.

No, accurately, it had an effect greater than she had desired.

On the outskirts of Chungju city, at the school that had been abandoned for over a year— a giant mushroom cloud bloomed.