Chapter 18
“What are you planning to do?”
Han Siwoo asked while looking in the direction the others had fled.
“Who knows? We’ll figure something out somehow.”
Kim Jihoon muttered quietly.
He looked calm on the outside, but his eyes trembled as he stared at the swarm of spiders.
Pretending to be relaxed whenever things became tense.
It was a habit of his.
Only Han Siwoo, who had known Kim Jihoon for a long time, noticed it.
“What is there to worry about when Hyung is here!”
“Your legs are shaking for someone saying that.”
Just as Kim Taeyoon said, Lee Dohyun’s legs were trembling like leaves.
Lee Dohyun jumped as though he had been stabbed.
“W-Who says they’re shaking?! I’m just so moved by how cool Hyung is that my body started dancing on its own...!”
“Hey. All of you are just getting in the way. You know that, right? It’s still not too late, so run. Siwoo and I will somehow handle things here.”
Tsk.
Kim Jihoon clicked his tongue and summoned his shield while glaring at the approaching spiders.
Two.
Four.
Six...
He soon gave up trying to count them.
“There sure are a disgusting number of these bug bastards.”
A few things had changed after he awakened.
One of them was that he could now see the names of monsters.
Above the spiders swarming toward them like ants appeared the words:
[Watcher Spider]
It was the same name as the spider they had killed earlier.
Individually, they were not especially powerful.
One or two could be dealt with.
Hell, even if there had been around ten or fifteen, he might have thought they had a chance.
But...
Why are there so damn many...?
Ever since awakening, whenever he saw a monster, fear had been replaced by an intense urge to fight and win.
It was almost as if his instincts were screaming at him to kill monsters.
But as he watched the spiders fill the hallway in black, the fear that had been hidden beneath that fighting spirit slowly began to return.
He acted calm, but no one could truly remain unaffected when their life was in danger.
He was human too.
And this situation terrified him.
Still, he couldn’t run.
There was nowhere to run in the first place.
And if he fled now, that damned brat would get dragged into this mess too.
They weren’t close enough to genuinely care about each other.
But whatever else could be said about him, he was still someone’s older brother.
“Hy-Hyung... no, Hyung. I-I’ll take the front, so you take the back...”
“Your legs are shaking.”
“Y-Your voice is shaking too, you know?”
And if possible, he wanted these two noisy idiots to survive too.
Clack.
Kim Jihoon raised his shield and blocked an incoming spider attack.
Then he glanced toward the path leading to the rooftop.
That path, which had been clear moments ago, was now blocked by newly appeared spiders.
Damn it.
“There really are too many.”
“Wh-What do we do?”
On top of that, fighting while protecting these deadweights was impossible.
He had enlarged his shield with [Shield Reinforcement] and was holding them off for the moment, but he knew even that had limits.
The hand gripping the shield began trembling more and more.
At this point, there was no point holding anything back.
Kim Jihoon quickly abandoned the escape route he had been forming in his head.
“Lee Dohyun. Take two knives out of the bag on my back.”
“Y-Yes!”
Ziiip.
The moment the sound of the zipper closing reached him, Kim Jihoon shouted.
“You guys grab a knife each and fight too.”
“What?”
“Huh...?”
Before their confusion could even end, the shield barely holding back the spiders collapsed.
One spider leg slipped through the opening.
Iron Armor.
Kim Jihoon activated one of his skills, [Iron Armor], instantly increasing his defense.
At the same moment, the incoming leg pierced deeply into his shoulder.
“Ugh!”
Even after using [Iron Armor], it still did this much damage.
Kim Jihoon swallowed a groan while looking at his burning shoulder.
At that moment, another spider leg shot toward his back.
Slash!
Han Siwoo hurriedly cut it off.
Thud.
He crushed the twitching spider leg beneath his foot and asked,
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. This much is nothing.”
“U-Uwaaaah!”
A loud scream suddenly burst from Lee Dohyun, who had been looking behind them.
A massive wave of spiders was rushing toward him like a towering tsunami.
Clackclackclack.
While fighting off part of the surging swarm, Han Siwoo shouted urgently,
“Lee Dohyun!”
But there was nothing a weak, unawakened human could do.
Lee Dohyun stood frozen stiff.
Realizing that death had finally come for him, he squeezed his eyes shut.
Thoom!
The pain he expected never came.
Hearing a heavy sound beside his ear, Lee Dohyun cautiously opened his eyes.
Kim Jihoon had summoned a secondary shield at the last possible moment.
He slowly caught his breath.
“Haaah...”
All strength left Lee Dohyun’s body, and he collapsed onto the floor.
Thank god.
Relieved, Han Siwoo turned toward Kim Jihoon.
“We can’t keep this up. What are you planning?”
“What else? We make them awaken.”
Crack.
The shield had barely managed to endure until now, but under the countless attacks, cracks finally began to spread across it.
Could it last another thirty seconds?
Thick beads of sweat ran down Kim Jihoon’s forehead.
Kiiiiiik!
Frustrated that their attacks kept being blocked, the spiders began thrashing even more violently.
Kim Jihoon bit his lip and shouted through clenched teeth.
“I don’t think I can hold this much longer! If you don’t want to die, swing something!”
Bzzzt.
Two shields in front and behind.
Another two on both sides.
Four shields in total.
But even that wasn’t enough.
His mana was draining rapidly under the nonstop impacts.
At this rate, we’re all going to die.
If they were going to die anyway, at least they should struggle until the end.
That way, there would be no regrets.
His forehead was drenched in sweat.
Kim Jihoon activated another skill, [Endure], while enduring a pain that felt like his heart was being squeezed.
Every second, it felt as though the strength was being drained from his entire body.
The shields started breaking more slowly.
Now, only two possibilities remained.
