Chapter 60 – Tahrakhan Plateau (5)

The Harpy’s song traveled through the air, and Sungjin felt his head go empty.

‘Ah... why is it me...’

But dodging her sound attack was not possible. Sungjin tried to sit and lower himself, but his body looked up instead.

Sungjin tried to look towards the right at Cain, but his neck turned the wrong way; This was the effect of the sound wave of Confusion.

His body looked up when he wanted to look down, and looked to the left when he wanted to look right. Sungjin couldn’t help but shout out his name.

“Cain!”

“Grr~”

Cain jumped towards Sungjin like a bullet to protect him.

“Kaaa!”

Several harpies tried to attack Sungjin while he was under the effect of the Harpy Queen’s song but were scattered like pigeons when Cain batted them away with his paws.

“Uryah!”

The Pugilist next to him was busily punching and kicking empty air. It was fast and filled with power, but he couldn’t land a hit.

He quickly became bloody due to all the harpies clawing away at him. The strange thing was that no one was running to his aid.

If it was any other team, they should have formed a sense of camaraderie and actively act to help one another, but the other three hunters were busy attacking other harpies without caring. Even while his head was spinning, he could easily tell

‘There’s no such thing as teamwork in this party.’

After 6~7 seconds Sungjin felt his senses returning to normal, so he pulled out his swords. The Harpies attacked rapidly from the sky, but Sungjin’s swords were much faster.

“Kyah!”

Sungjin quickly mowed down the harpies flying near them, but he could hear the Harpy Queen charging up for another shot.

“Ahoo~~”

“Cain!”

Before Sungjin even finished verbalizing his name, Cain separated from Sungjin immediately. Once Sungjin and Cain were separated by a safe distance, they resumed hunting nearby harpies. The Harpy Queen’s song became

“Hoooo~”

And the song faded away. Sungjin wasn’t the target this time.

‘Who is it?’

Sungjin looked around while swinging his sword. The ‘Treasure Hunter’ and Soldamyr were fighting against confusion while blinking and frowning.

Try as they may, it wasn’t something they could overcome on their own. Sungjin realized this from being hit.

“Kyaa!”

Sungjin called for Cain while facing off against the harpies.

“Cain.”

At Sungjin’s single word, Cain charged towards Soldamyr and bit his legs. Soldamyr’s eyes opened wide.

He stood by the ‘Treasure Hunter’ who was still asleep standing and fulfilled his order diligently.

‘Soldamyr, stay close to that Treasure Hunter and protect him.’

“Paralyzing currents, Electric Shock!”

He fired bolts of electricity towards the harpies that were flying his way. Once nearby Harpies were taken care of, Sungjin looked up to check the queen. The Queen was still floating gracefully in the air.

“Pa!”

Blood Vengeance flew out of his hands. When the Queen noticed the sword flying her way, she nimbly dodged out of the way before the sword even reached the halfway point. Sungjin immediately recalled his sword.

“Haa!”

The sword returned without delay. Once she was gone the rest were easy enough to clean up. But she kept her distance and only used her ranged sound attack.

‘She’s too far to use any long ranged attacks... how can we fight her mid-air...’

Sungjin saw the harpy corpses in front of him and got an idea.

“Awaken and become my slave! Rise of the Dead!”

One of the dead harpies raised its head. Sungjin climbed on top and commanded

“Fly.”

The Harpy flew into the air, gaining altitude little by little. It was slower than when it was alive, but this much was fine since he had a hidden card to play.

And riding the Harpy, Sungjin slowly approached the Harpy Queen. Several harpies came to intercept him, but it was already his second aerial combat.

Sungjin cut away at the harpies without much problem and continued to make progress towards the Queen.

Because of the Zombie Harpy’s slow advance, the Harpy Queen was only slowly backing up as well, keeping distance.

‘Your arrogant display of confidence ends here.’

Sungjin rang the ‘Manyata – Master’s Bell’ and then held on tight.

“Go!”

The Zombie Harpy flew forward much faster than normal towards the Harpy Queen. The flock of harpies protecting the queen shouted out in alarm.

‘Kyaa!”

Sungjin stood on top of the Harpy and swung his sword once he was in range.

‘Woosh’

He felt something hit his swords. But because of the speed, he couldn’t tell what he had hit. He ordered his Harpy

“Hey hey! Turn around!”

Only then did the Harpy turn around. Checking the queen, she was untouched; Several of her guards were falling towards the ground.

‘Damn’

The guards were working hard to protect their Queen. Sungjin prepared for another high-speed charge, but

“Ahoo~”

The Queen began to sing. Sungjin had a bad feeling about this one.

‘This isn’t good...’

He was up in the air, and no one was in any position to help him. Confusion and sleep were both lethal in his situation.

“Let’s go! Quickly!”

Sungjin urged the Harpy forward. The Zombie Harpy flew towards the Queen like a bullet but

“Hoooo~”

Queen’s song finished. Suddenly Sungjin’s vision began to whirl; The Zombie Harpy had begun spinning midair while carrying Sungjin.

The Zombie Harpy was spinning so fast that no other harpies could get close, but Sungjin was about to puke from motion sickness.

The Zombie Harpy, still under the effect of the confusion, finally crash landed on the Plateau ground.

“Ugh...”

Sungjin gagged and dismounted the Harpy. There was no damage taken, but it felt terrible. Sungjin called upon Soldamyr.

“Soldamyr.”

He answered from afar.

“Yes, master?”

“Is there a way to bring that Queen closer to the ground?”

“Well... There is one high-cost magic I could use. Due to the consumption, I can only use it once.”

“Ok, go ahead and use it. Once is enough.”

But He heard the Queen’s voice again.

“Ahooo~”

Sungjin gritted his teeth. He was going to try resisting confusion or sleep. But the target wasn’t him. This time the Inquisitor and the Pirate were affected; This was a great opportunity for Sungjin.

‘Harpy Queen is so irritating as an enemy. And none of the allies are remotely helpful.... I’m going to end this in one go.’

Sungjin immediately put his plan into action. Gripping the Blood Vengeance tightly, he began.

“Baptism of Blood”

Small knives came out of the sword’s handles and dug into Sungjin’s hands. Blood flowed from his hands as a sacrifice for the Blood Vengeance.

Once the Blood Vengeance had a taste of its master’s blood, the blade of the sword emitted a violet light; this was the ‘Baptism of Blood’. The sword caused damage to the master as it explosively raised the offensive power.

He wasn’t sure if it was entirely necessary, but he didn’t want to miss this chance and take up more time. So Blood Vengeance was just a bit of insurance. Once the blood sacrifice was done, Sungjin called for Soldamyr.

“Soldamyr!”

“Please give me a moment.”

Soldamyr glared at the Harpy Queen, who was singing before he began his incantation.

“Invert up and down. Reverse Gravity”

The harpies who were floating high above the ground suddenly lost their sense of balance due to gravity pointing the wrong way. It was the first time when the harpies, who spent their entire lives flying, had experienced loss of balance in the air.

In order to fight against the new source of gravity, they struggled to flap and ‘climb’ with their wings. But ‘Reverse Gravity’ was aiming for this to happen.

Once the gravity returned to normal, the harpies, who were flying to fight against the artificial gravity, suddenly dropped in altitude.

“Kyahh!”

Several Harpies crash landed on the ground with their heads first. The Harpy Queen attempted to reorient herself to the changed gravity once more, but she did not manage to do so before a scary man wielding two swords arrived next to her.

Sungjin didn’t hesitate to swing both of his blades; Blood Vengeance and Moon Specter. Sungjin’s Blood Vengeance with Baptism of Blood enabled had enough power to kill bosses in a single strike.

The Operator gave an announcement.

[‘Harpy Queen’ Laliha Cleared.]

Once the Queen was dead, the remaining harpies quickly turned to run. If this were like any other time, Sungjin would have chased after them, but this time he let them go.

If it was trash mobs, he could kill plenty of them in other raids. Since the raid was complete, Sungjin returned the swords back to their sheaths and returned to the hunters’ side.

The ‘Treasure Hunter’ was without a single mark of injury. Soldamyr had dutifully carried out the order. He looked exhausted as he said

“Master, I am low on Mana so...”

“You’ve done well. Please go rest.”

“Thank you, Master.”

With his parting words, Soldamyr returned to his lamp. Sungjin tapped the shoulder of the Treasure Hunter and said

“The reason why I kept you alive...”

But

“You fucker! You wanna have a go?”

“I guess your only ability is to get mad at those who save your life!”

The Inquisitor and the Pugilist were holding each other by the collar. It looked like a fight could break out at any moment. Sungjin turned to the Treasure Hunter and asked

“Why are they acting like that?”

“Ah...because one of them hit the other too hard to wake up from the sleep...”

‘Are they kids?’

Sungjin couldn’t help but sigh. He walked up to them.

The Inquisitor held his mace high threateningly, and the Pugilist looked poised to throw a kick. Sungjin stared at them for a moment.

‘If they were to become trolls after fighting...’

If the two men were to fight, he could obtain four additional items. Once he realized this, he no longer wanted to stop their fight.

If they were the type of people to start petty fights with teammates, they deserved to die here and now and go to the Purgatory early. Sungjin stopped his footsteps and stood by like an observer to a caged fight.

Soon

“Woof woof!”

Cain returned to his side and sat down. Sungjin kneeled and matched Cain’s eye level.

“Who do you think will win? I’m curious.”

“Woof”

Because of that, the two men stopped to look at him. They had seen Sungjin’s overwhelming power when fighting the boss, so they couldn’t help but be wary of him.

The two men who were about to begin exchanging blows put away their weapons and stood back up straight. They exchanged stereotypical dialogue.

“You’re lucky you got off easy.”

“Yeah right. You should count your blessings that you got saved this time.”

Sungjin replied exasperated.

“What? No fight?”

The two men did not answer. Sungjin patted Cain’s head one more time before standing up.

“If you wanna fight, go for it. The winner will have to fight me though.”

At his words, not only the two men who were about to fight, but the Pirate also tensed up. Sungjin turned to look at the Pirate and their eyes met.

He quickly looked away. Sungjin had no definite proof, but he must have been waiting for some kind of opportunity.

But due to Sungjin’s oppressive power, he couldn’t bring himself to act upon his wishes. Seeing his actions, Sungjin thought

‘I guess... there are times when I should be hiding my power...’

There was no need to trick people to fight each other, but there was also no need to prevent those who wanted to troll from trolling either.

‘I guess I’ll just let it slide this time.’

Sungjin turned around and returned back to the Treasure Hunter who stood away from the rest of the group.