The Support Ate it All-Chapter 556: Finals Week 17–18 (11)
Most of the group members were already in a combat stance.
From the moment the monsters started pouring out in a mass, they’d sensed it—we’re about to have a big one.
They moved to their positions in perfect order.
The mages and some of the ranged classes took their seats at the turrets they’d been assigned.
And the instant they caught Song Cheon-hye’s signal, they opened fire.
THOOM—! THOOM—!
The turrets took turns spitting fire, and multicolored explosions bloomed among the monsters.
Even so, the bastards didn’t slow down at all. If anything, it looked like they were more afraid of the volcanic eruption than the turrets.
They were already down at the base of the hill.
I scanned the monster lineup.
Almost all fire goblins.
They were moving in tight clusters, centered around the shamans.
And there were dozens of those clusters.
And a few turtles and hermit crabs, too.
Those guys swam through lava, so they could shrug off a volcanic eruption, but it seemed they couldn’t stand being constantly shaken by the quake.
And in the middle of that massive horde, just two—two half-human, half-dragon figures wrapped in red scales.
Dragon-scale soldiers.
It didn’t look like they’d been aiming for our base from the start.
This was probably more like they got carried along and ended up here.
Whatever the intent, from our side they were a serious risk factor, so I put [Amplification] on Seo Ye-in and gave her a quick cue.
“You see those two?”
“Taking them out.”
She gave a tiny nod and pulled out her sniper rifle.
The muzzle kept spitting blue fire.
THOOM—!
A dragon-scale soldier twisted instinctively, but it couldn’t dodge completely. Its shoulder area burst open.
Since it was basically made out of scale material, its defense was pretty high—but its other stats were nothing special.
So I left it to Seo Ye-in and looked back over the battlefield.
KABOOM KABOOM KABOOM KABOOM—!
The ranged classes carpet-bombed the area with AoE attacks.
With dozens of people firing at once, the firepower was absurd. The monsters were getting swept away the moment they tried to set foot on the hillside.
The problem was the hermit crabs.
Thanks to the boulders on their backs, it didn’t look like their bodies were taking much damage.
They kept halting for a moment whenever they got hit, then trudged right back to climbing the hill.
SKREEK, KRRRK!
The shamans whipped their staffs through the air as they yelled, and the fire goblins immediately tucked in behind the hermit crabs.
Using the boulders as cover.
Song Cheon-hye caught on too and shouted,
“Hermit crabs first! Target the hermit crabs first!”
KABOOM KABOOM KABOOM—!
The concentrated ranged attacks shaved rock away and cracked it, but the boulders were so hard it didn’t look easy to fully break them.
The distance between the hermit-crab–fire-goblin formation and our base kept shrinking.
Which meant close combat was about to happen, and the tension in the air spiked.
Park Nari, standing next to me, looked paler than usual.
So I asked her,
“You got an impact-type skill?”
“Impact...?”
“Yeah. Something heavy would be nice.”
Park Nari thought for a few seconds, then nodded.
“I don’t use it often... but yeah. I do.”
“Good. I’ll show you a demo.”
Leaving that behind, I started trudging toward the lead hermit crab.
I gathered wind into my hand, compressed it, then shoved it—like I was slamming the boulder aside.
WHUMPH—!
A brutal physical force hit, and the hermit crab started rolling down the hill with the boulder still on its back.
In the blink of an eye, it picked up terrifying speed—and it crushed every fire goblin in its path, grinding them flat.
I took a satisfied look at the scene, then turned back to Park Nari.
“See? Super easy, right?”
“......?”
“Try it once.”
“.......”
Park Nari hesitated, wavering.
It looked like she wasn’t sure she could do it.
Beomi couldn’t stand watching and let out a short sound.
“GRRRM.”
It nudged its owner, then ambled forward.
Maybe that gave her a little courage, because Park Nari began murmuring her spell under her breath.
A faint green glow settled across Beomi’s whole body, and in that state it charged the lead boulder-crab.
“GRAAAH—!”
With a single roar, it threw its entire body into it and kicked the boulder with all four paws.
BOOM—!
The boulder dented inward from the impact and rolled backward, tumbling away.
I said, as if I’d expected it,
“See? Easier than you thought.”
“U-uh... yeah...!”
While Beomi prepared to launch again, I looked over at Son Hyeong-taek and Bukgung Hansol on the other side.
“Hyeong-taek, you try too.”
“Don’t order me around.”
Maybe because I’d beaten them up so much before, the answer came back sharp.
But after catching Bukgung Hansol’s signal, they moved out without complaint.
The two of them stepped in fast toward a hermit crab, then thrust out a fist and a palm at the same time.
WHUMP!
Same result as us.
Other group members started using their own impact-type skills too, shoving boulders around, and the fire goblins trying to follow behind them could only get crushed without being able to do a thing.
“KRK! KRRRK!”
Some of them desperately tried to dodge sideways, but at best that only bought them a few extra seconds.
Once the cover was gone, they were nothing but food for ranged attacks.
An executioner was about to throw a burning cleaver when a thin stick stabbed right into the center of its forehead.
SMACK!
It was a chopstick Shin Byeong-cheol had thrown.
He scanned for the next victim and smiled arrogantly.
“A hidden-weapon genius who even dares to insult the Tang Clan.”
“You want me to tell your sister?”
“Ah, let me have my moment. Honestly, I’ve gotten better, haven’t I?”
SMACK!
Another executioner got tagged by a chopstick.
He really had improved a lot compared to before.
Way too much combat power for a “future teahouse owner.”
I nodded, then slammed another boulder with Wind Force.
WHUMPH—!
After a stretch of the same kind of fighting, not a single monster managed to reach our base.
At the bottom of the hill, boulders were piled everywhere.
KRRRK, KRRK!
Maybe they decided this wasn’t working, because a bunch of goblin shamans gathered in one spot.
They formed a circle and began chanting.
A large-scale spell.
They were focusing everything, trying to throw their last trump card.
Sensing something bad, Song Cheon-hye pointed at them.
“We have to cut it off!”
Ranged attacks poured in and knocked a few down, but the shamans kept chanting without flinching.
RRRRRUMBLE.......
The piled boulders and debris floated up, fused together, and started blazing like they’d caught fire.
Then the mass gradually took on a human shape and slowly rose to its feet.
A golem.
With multiple casters and that much material, of ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) course the result was gigantic.
It climbed the hill one heavy step at a time.
THUD, THUUUD,
Behind it, every remaining fire goblin latched on and followed.
The key is how fast we bring the golem down.
That was the only way to stop our base from taking damage.
Song Cheon-hye looked like she was thinking too, weighing options.
Then she scanned the group and gave an order.
“Go for the legs. Focus on the left.”
Until she found a sure method, she was betting on at least tying its feet.
Attacks poured into the giant golem’s left leg.
KABOOM KABOOM KABOOM KABOOM—!
But the goblin shamans didn’t just watch.
They started chanting again.
FWOOSH—!
The flames burning across the golem’s body flared even fiercer.
Maybe it was a defensive spell, because the damage was less than expected.
Song Cheon-hye’s face hardened, but it looked like she judged she had no other choice for now.
“Keep attacking.”
KABOOM KABOOM KABOOM—!
Maybe the damage was stacking up, because the giant golem started limping little by little.
But it kept trudging forward stubbornly, which meant we needed a decisive hit.
Song Cheon-hye fell into grim thought.
“......!”
Then, as if something struck her, her brows lifted sharply.
She walked up to Bukgung Hansol and asked,
“Can you freeze that?”
“If it’s only for a moment.”
“I’ll match the timing. Please.”
“Okay.”
Then Song Cheon-hye gave the waiting people another instruction.
“Guard them.”
To let Bukgung Hansol focus purely on their role, we had to protect them from interference.
So the escort became several melee-class members—me and Park Nari, and for some reason, Seo Ye-in too.
We all went down the hillside together.
As we approached the giant golem, Bukgung Hansol began drawing up their internal power, preparing an ultimate technique.
A chilling presence started taking over the area.
“SKREEK!”
“KRRK!”
The fire goblin shamans spotted us, and executioners surged in.
We stepped forward immediately to meet them.
“Break through!”
“GRAAAH—!”
Beomi leapt into the fire goblins and swung its front paws.
Chaemi swept past with its wings spread wide, and monsters started dropping as if they’d been sliced by a razor-sharp blade.
Even while that was happening, Bukgung Hansol’s body kept holding more and more intense cold.
Looks like it’s almost ready.
I figured I should add some force too, so I extended my staff toward the golem’s leg.
WHIIIIIRR—
A vortex of wind gathered and compressed hard.
Then Bukgung Hansol sprang up lightly, thrusting both palms forward, and a freezing tension blasted out.
[Ice Extreme Snow Soul Palm]
SNAP SNAP SNAP—!
The golem’s left leg—still blazing—froze solid in an instant.
Then the compressed wind exploded.
WHUMPH—!
Opposing forces collided, the structure weakened, and Spiral Explosion’s defense-ignoring effect applied on top of it.
Song Cheon-hye didn’t miss that opening and shouted from the base.
“Now!”
KABOOOOM—!
A full barrage poured in, and the golem’s left leg finally couldn’t hold. It collapsed with a crash.
But the damn thing was stubborn enough to try crawling forward with one leg and two arms.
I asked Bukgung Hansol,
“You need a break, right?”
“I can’t do anything for a while.”
Fair. They’d just dumped out an ultimate technique like that.
Still, if we held and ran just a couple more cycles, we could probably bring it down.
Meanwhile, Seo Ye-in was firing an assault rifle into the fire goblins—then she stopped and formed a lump of light in one hand.
And with a flick, she hurled it at the golem.
[Trap Toss]
The trap activated the moment it touched the golem’s upper body, setting off a blue explosion.
WHUMPH!
A chunk of rock got gouged away, but the golem was so massive it didn’t look like it took serious damage.
“.......”
Seo Ye-in stared at it for a moment, then cast Trap Toss again.
The lump of light flew—and the instant it touched the golem’s chest—
SHRRK—!
A single slashing line carved diagonally across.
It was so sharp it felt like the whole area had been split in half.
The giant golem stopped, frozen in place, unable to crawl even an inch.
Then it collapsed, exposing a clean, razor-edged cut.
RUUUUMBLE.......
“.......”
“.......”
The battlefield went silent, like someone had dumped cold water over it.
With everyone staring, Seo Ye-in’s gray eyes glinted, and she said one word.
“......Expert.”
“I—I’ll clean up!”
Song Cheon-hye, snapping out of the shock, stammered out orders, and the barrage that had paused resumed—this time falling on the remaining fire goblins.
SKREEK?
KRRRAAAK!
Only then did they seem to feel more fear toward the unfamiliar intruders than the volcanic eruption, because they scattered and fled away from the hill.
Leaving behind heaps of glittering things.
Empty crystals and item cards were strewn everywhere.
