I’m not a Regressor - Chapter 234: A Hero for the Downtrodden (4)

The chill in the air felt sharp enough to penetrate flesh, and white puffs of breath left his lips like cigarette smoke.

Thump. thump—

The sound of his heartbeat was like thunder in the otherwise silent cave. Ohjin gulped as he looked down at the unconscious Namgung Hui.

‘For him to become like this means that the monster within the cave is at least 10-Star…’

Of course, it was true that Hui had just become a 10-Star and was weak in comparison to real 10-Star Awakeners like Isabella, but that still didn’t mean he would be easy to beat. Putting the man’s personality aside, Ohjin couldn’t deny that he was talented and had earned the right to be a candidate for the Seven Stars.

That only went to show how powerful the black-ranked monster within the cave had to be to overwhelm Namgung Hui and knock him unconscious.

“It looks like their warning was warranted, huh?” Ohjin scoffed as he recalled how they’d been warned about the monster. A cold sweat ran down his spine as he clutched his spear and walked deeper into the cave.

A wide, open cavern appeared at the end of the long, icy passage, and a stream of white light shone from a hole in the ceiling, reflecting off of the ice to light up the interior as bright as day.

A monster wearing a black necklace stood within the radiance of the sunbeam. Blue armor covered its body, a rusted sword hung from its waist, and dark-red eyes glowed from within its helmet.

The monster was similar to a human in size and looked almost like it could have just been a person standing in full armor. Rather than a monster, it was more appropriate to call it a ‘knight’.

‘Living Armor?’ That’s the first thing that came to his mind, but… ‘No.’ He shook his head. The monster didn’t give off the ghost-specific eerie and subtle energy that a Living Armor did.

“Just what kind of monster is this?” He frowned and observed the blue-armored knight.

Seeming to feel his stare, the knight, who’d been staring up toward the hole in the ceiling, lowered its head and locked its dark-red eyes onto Ohjin, who was half-hidden behind a pillar of ice.

“…!” That brief moment of eye contact was enough for Ohjin to completely understand and realize everything he needed to.

‘Damn.’ His teeth chattered, and chills shot through his body like blades. He was so cold that he felt like he would freeze to death at any moment. “What the…?” Ohjin swallowed and clenched his trembling fist.

The blue-armored knight removed its rusty sword from its waist, slowly lifted the weapon, and gently lowered itself into a stance.

Clang—!

A flick of its sword was all it needed to deflect an arrow headed toward it from behind.

“Keuk! N-no way! It wasn’t even looking this way!” a young, blond man with a distinctive leaf bow exclaimed from behind a pillar of ice on the other side of the cave—Orlando Bale, a high-ranking archer of Sagittarius.

“Hmph! You stupid archer! You didn’t even get it right with a surprise attack?” A bald man yelled out as he ran from the pillar with a look of disdain on his face—Jason Hardy, the high-ranking Taurus Awakener known as the ‘Iron Fist’.

“Shut up! I shot at it from a blind spot. Didn’t you see it?”

“Hey! That’s why I said I don’t need a surprise attack!” Jason jumped at the blue knight. Befitting his title of ‘Iron Fist’, his clenched fist shone silver like steel. “Duck!” His punch broke the sound barrier as it headed toward the blue knight.

The knight took a slight step forward, and…

Shlink—

Rather than the roar and clash of great forces colliding that one might expect, they heard a sound similar to that of a deflating balloon.

“Huh…?” Jason gave his arm, which was severed at the wrist, a wide-eyed look. “Wh-what?” His so-called ‘Iron Fist’ rolled across the ice like a piece of rotten garbage. “What the hell is this?!”

The fear he felt at that moment overrode the pain he felt from his severed hand. “H-how…?”

Rattle, rattle—

Jason calmed his trembling legs and clenched his left fist. “Don’t think you’ve beaten the “Iron Fist” yet, you monster!” His stigma of Taurus shone brilliantly, and a powerful surge of water flowed down his arm and poured toward the blue knight like a tidal wave.

-Krrrrrrrng! Craaaash!—

The blue knight vanished like it’d been an illusion just before the wave hit it, and it reappeared directly in front of Jason.

“Huuup!” Jason tried to step back, but the knight’s gauntleted fist slammed into his stomach before he could dodge.

Thwump—

The blow sounded like a club hitting wet leather. Afterward, Jason flew back like a cannonball.

“Keuk!” He slammed into the ice wall and slid down to the floor, clutching his stomach.

The blue knight turned its head, no longer interested.

“Keuk!” Meanwhile, Orlando’s shoulders shook as he tried to aim his bow at the knight from a distance. “Celestial of Sagittarius, Keiron, bestow upon your apostle an arrow that can pierce the heavens!”

A brilliant light flared from his leaf-adorned bow, and like a certain, mythical archer who was said to have shot down a star, Orlando released his arrow.

Swoooooosh—!

A dizzying roar echoed through the cavern as the icy ground of the glacier split open behind the arrow’s path.

The blue knight stopped in its tracks. Perhaps feeling that the attack would be impossible to avoid, its dark-red eyes burned even more fiercely as it lowered its stance and sheathed its sword.

* * *

* * *

The knight stomped the ground, and a white sword aura flew forward, cutting Orlando’s arrow in half. As the two halves flew in either direction, the floor tore into a V shape.

“Heuk, heuk, heuk, heuk! Damn…” Orlando panted and cursed as he retreated. “Wh-what kind of monster did those bastards from the council release?”

Before Orlando could escape, the blue knight leaped forward and grabbed him by the neck.

“Keuhuk! keuk!”

The monster lifted Orlando with one hand and slowly turned its head to look at where Ohjin was hiding.

“Fuck…” Ohjin cursed, and chills ran down his spine again. He wanted to ask the same thing Orlando had—just what kind of monster had those council bastards brought out?

He’d expected the monster to be powerful, but it far exceeded his expectations. Having seen all he needed to, he quickly made a decision: ‘Let’s run.’

Using Heaven Unfolding would be one thing, but he couldn’t deal with it otherwise.

The moment he turned to leave, five other candidates entered.

“You’re saying the black-rank is here, right?”

“For sure!”

“Do the points go to whoever lands the last hit?”

It looked like they’d partied together because they thought the monster would be hard to defeat solo; then they saw Jason—who was lying down with his hand amputated—and Orlando—who was being held by the neck.

“Huh…?”

“Wh-what the hell is this?”

“Isn’t that Jason and Orlando?”

“Damn! Those two got defeated?!”

There was no sign of damage on the knight.

“…”

“…”

Cold silence filled the cave. The five candidates looked at each other and all turned to run at the same time.

“R-run!”

“I can’t beat that!”

They ran without looking back, and Ohjin followed not far behind.

‘It’s following.’ He turned to look and nervously bit his lips. Sure enough, the knight was chasing after them.

“Fuck.” He looked at the other candidates ahead of him and thought of how he could avoid the knight’s pursuit. ‘Just buy me a bit of time.’ Right when he was about to shoot a wire toward the candidates in an attempt to catch up with them…

“Gahh, ahh! N-no way! Wh-why is such…”

He saw Namgung Hui, who had woken up, at the front of the cave

The five candidates shouted and ran toward Hui as if they didn’t know he’d already tried to run from the knight in blue armor.

“Namgung Hui? That’s Namgung Hui, right?”

“Awakener Namgung Hui! The black-ranked monster is over there!”

Hui paled and looked at the five candidates. “D-don’t tell me… The monster in there…? Oh, no, then…”

“Mr. Namgung Hui?” The candidates seemed confused by Hui’s muttering.

“Wh-what happened to that monster?” Hui asked them in a trembling voice.

“It’s chasing after us!”

“Not that!” Hui shouted, going blue in the face. “The monster’s necklace! Does it still have it?”

The candidates looked at him like they couldn’t understand what he was talking about.

“What?”

“Of course it was wearing a necklace.”

“Don’t all the monsters in here wear necklaces?”

Namgung Hui reached down and lifted a monster that looked like a gorilla from the floor without saying a word. They all noticed it was missing a necklace.

“Why doesn’t it have a necklace?”

The candidates’ expressions stiffened.

-Thud, thud—

The knight walked out of the cave and looked up into the clear sky with its dark-red eyes. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” it cried out as it lifted its rusty sword. “Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” The cry resonated over the area, and monsters cried back from all over the snowy field as if in response.

Rather than just being from the snowy area, the monsters were roaring in unison all over the dungeon.

“Shhhhhh.” The blue-tinted knight’s dark-red eyes burned violently, and it slowly raised its hand to grasp the black necklace hanging from its throat.

Crack—!

The necklace fell to the floor and shattered.