The Support Ate it All-Chapter 558: Finals Week 17–18 (13)
The duration ended, and the mana eye in the sky vanished.
A little while later, [Observe] activated again.
There was no way they’d burned that kind of rare item twice in a row, so it had to be a different group.
We answered the same way again—by striking our ★Victory Pose★.
‘We only gave them the bare minimum.’
The number and composition of Kim Ho’s party, and the fact that our current position was near our main base.
But the most important thing—where we’re heading—wasn’t revealed, so from their perspective it would still feel awkward to move.
‘They’ll use it again, one at a time.’
After letting it sit for a while.
From our side, that meant we’d been given time.
So I told my party,
“From now on, we’re picking up the pace.”
“Yeah......!”
“Confirmed.”
Soon, Park Nari climbed onto Beomi’s back, Seo Ye-in grabbed my hand and cast Feather Step, and we started sprinting at the same high speed as yesterday.
As volcanic terrain and monsters whipped past on both sides of my vision, I sank into thought.
‘Our clear advantage is what we pulled from the Card Shop.’
One [Bombardment] and three [Duplication].
Bombardment would be used late tonight again—to ruin Group C’s sleep.
If I really wanted to, I could even add Duplication and hammer them with four straight Bombardments, but—
‘At best, that’s just harassment.’
It doesn’t help much with the side quest.
▷Objective 3: Destroy an enemy team’s Crystal Tower(-/1 time)
If the tower is F-rank or E-rank, it’s theoretically possible to break it with Bombardment.
‘The problem is that it’s random.’
Even four in a row is only eight hits total.
Among all the different facilities, the chance of the Crystal Tower being selected twice in a row isn’t that high.
And if the opponent raises the tower’s rank further?
You’d need more hits, which makes the odds even worse.
More than anything, for a goal this important, you don’t gamble on luck—you handle it cleanly.
‘We’ll raid the base and break it ourselves.’
Whether it’s Group A or Group C, I intend to hit a main base at least once.
But considering all three groups’ strength is roughly even, charging in blindly is a bad call.
They have to allocate some people to base defense too, so if anything, they’re short-handed.
And like we experienced during the monster wave, the attacker has terrain disadvantages as well.
Still, if there’s a way to seize the win—
‘Item cards.’
Even the fairly common [Discharge] has an effect strong enough to flip an entire fight.
With a stronger card, it goes without saying.
‘Getting those is a pain, though.’
It’s not enough to beat strong monsters or pull from the Card Shop—you have to achieve a Hidden Piece.
Of course, I knew the methods like the back of my hand.
And the reason we were heading to our destination right now was for exactly that.
On the first day, we’d gone in some distance and then cut toward Group A or Group C territory.
But today, we were doing nothing but moving straight ahead.
The further we went, the more extreme the rises and drops became, and the volcano that had felt far away started filling my entire view.
‘It should be around here.’
I ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) slowed down and told the others,
“First, we need to find a sanctuary.”
“A sanctuary...?”
Park Nari asked timidly. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
We’d already fully charged our crystals before coming, so she clearly didn’t understand why we needed to find one.
So I added,
“Strictly speaking, it’s like a sanctuary—but a little different. And you can’t really tell the difference just by looking.”
“Ah...!”
Park Nari nodded, understanding.
When you’re not sure, the safest play is to find everything and verify one by one.
Soon, we started combing the area for sanctuaries like we were turning it upside down.
As always, we borrowed Chaemi’s superior vision, and for places we couldn’t confirm from the air, we went in ourselves.
For a while, it was nothing but misses.
Every time I saw a shabby stone tower, I thought—
‘Not it.’
‘Just a normal sanctuary.’
‘Not this one either.’
‘Not this one.’
Over and over, disappointment piled up—until we stopped in front of the next tower.
Seo Ye-in’s eyes, for once, lit with genuine curiosity.
“......?”
Beomi let out a low growl too, sniffing the air.
Park Nari looked at me and asked,
“Is it...?”
“Nice find. This is the one.”
I moved the others back and cast Wind Force lightly.
—WHOOOOOSH—!
The piled-up stone dust, volcanic ash, and bits of wood got swept away in an instant, leaving only the stone tower and a small altar in front of it.
Looking down at it, I asked the obvious question.
“Doesn’t it look like something you’re supposed to put an offering on?”
“Crystals.”
Seo Ye-in answered with a small chin-tilt.
She dug out crystals and set them onto the altar one by one.
At first, there was no reaction—until the moment the fourth one landed.
—FSSSSSS...!
All the crystals turned to powder and scattered into the air.
But the energy contained inside them kept whipping around, then settled into the altar, and soon a thick pillar of light erupted upward.
—ROOOOOAR—!
It rose with force that looked like it could punch straight through the sky.
While the others stared up with curious eyes, I gave calm instructions.
“This is the start. Get ready.”
We were fairly close to the volcano, and we’d basically put up a sign that screamed, We’re doing something suspicious right here!
There was no way the monsters—especially the dragon-tooth soldiers—would just watch.
Sure enough, not long after, Chaemi, who’d been circling overhead, let out a sharp cry.
“BEE-EHHHNG—!”
“O-Oh, they’re coming...!”
As Park Nari said that, she quietly cast buff magic, and Seo Ye-in switched her sniper rifle into assault rifle form.
What came down from above was a pack of monsters.
Their shapes varied—huge hulking masses, four-legged beasts, humanoids—but they all shared one thing: their entire bodies were made of flame.
‘Flame spirits.’
And mixed in among them were dragon-scale soldiers, controlling them.
You could feel the hostility even from far away, which meant the fight would start the moment they arrived.
I stepped forward beside Beomi.
“Those things self-destruct. We have to block them so they can’t get past us.”
“Grrr?”
Beomi growled, sounding puzzled.
Like it was asking, Then what about me?
Maybe it was worried about its fur getting singed.
I lightly patted its head and wrapped it in Sylphid Armor.
—WHOOOOOSH—!
“Of course we’ve got defensive magic.”
“Grrrng.”
Only then did Beomi relax and lock onto the front.
It crouched low, coiling like a spring.
Then, the moment Seo Ye-in opened up on the enemies entering range—
—RATATATAT—!
“KWUH-HUHNG—!”
Beomi shot forward like an arrow.
It landed in front of a flame spirit and started hammering down with both front paws, alternating strikes.
—WHAM, WHAM-WHAM—!
‘It’s basically kitty punches for something that big.’
Still, it had enough force behind it that the flame spirit couldn’t even mount a proper counterattack—it just got battered around.
Then it flared violently and exploded.
—BOOM!
The Sylphid Armor pushed the rushing flames back.
And Beomi kept tearing up the enemy line.
I was stopping the ones that tried to slip past.
I gathered Wind Force into my hand and swung—sending a flame spirit flying away before it exploded at a distance.
Meanwhile, the dragon-scale soldiers were lurking for an opening to strike.
And just as one of them finally stepped toward Beomi—
—RATATATAT!
Mana bullets came flying in, slamming into its head and chest with dull, repeated impacts.
Seo Ye-in had been aiming only for them from the start.
▷Objective 2: Defeat dragon-tooth soldiers(dragon-scale soldiers:2)
▷Objective 2: Defeat dragon-tooth soldiers(dragon-scale soldiers:4)
Park Nari rotated buffs across us, and sometimes cast wood-and-earth magic as well.
The coordination clicked perfectly, so we dropped them quickly and collected the dropped item cards and empty crystals.
We were about to take a short breather, but—
“Another wave.”
A monster pack of similar size was approaching.
The moment they realized the first wave had been wiped, they sent another.
Since this entire volcano was the Flame Emperor Dragon’s territory, there would be more monsters than we could count.
Once you draw attention here, it’s endless.
—RATATATATAT—!
The assault rifle spat blue fire again.
And in the middle of the fight—
—FWASH—!
For a moment, the pillar of light intensified, then it slowly died down.
Dropping a card.
[Freeze]
▷Renders 10 random targets in front unable to act.
▷Targets affected by [Freeze] cannot be attacked.
▷Duration:1 minute
The power matched what we’d sacrificed.
If [Discharge] applies to three random people, [Freeze] hits ten—more than triple.
‘And it’s not just the number.’
[Discharge] has the effect of “returning the target,” so it’s worthless at an enemy base.
They’d shoot up and then drop back down and that would be it.
But [Freeze] works even when you’re attacking an enemy base.
It’s a little annoying that you can’t hit frozen targets, but even so—just being able to isolate and pick off the rest is a huge advantage.
‘But I want something else.’
It was a good card, but it wasn’t what I was aiming for.
So I told the group,
“Let’s pull one more.”
“Yeah...... I’ll try.......”
While the battle continued, Park Nari placed crystals onto the altar one by one.
Whenever we ran short, Chaemi darted off to another sanctuary, charged more, and brought them back.
When four crystals gathered on the altar, the pillar of light shot up again.
—ROOOOOAR—!
We held our line for a long time, cutting down the swarming flame spirits and dragon-scale soldiers—and then another card dropped.
[Freeze]
“Grrrng?”
Beomi turned to me, dissatisfied.
Like it was asking, That’s it now, human, right?
“One last one. If it doesn’t show even then, we leave.”
We couldn’t stay here forever.
Our stamina had limits.
To make it worse, the enemies were getting stronger bit by bit.
More dragon-scale soldiers, and now even a dragon-tooth soldier mixed in.
‘If we stay longer, dragon-turtle soldiers will come down next.’
Or, depending on how bad it got, a top-tier entity might move.
Three pulls was the right cutoff.
‘If it doesn’t drop for us, we just have to hope Go Hyeon-woo or Hong Yeon-hwa pulled it.’
I’d told those two the method as well, to increase our overall odds.
If they didn’t get it either, then we’d have to consider the next best plan.
Soon, Park Nari gathered four charged crystals and raised the pillar of light again.
—ROOOOAR—!
Maybe because the enemies sensed this was the last one, their assault grew even more intense.
Even more dragon-tooth soldiers now.
I slammed them with Ice Shard Bombs, shoved them back with Wind Force, grabbed and tore at them in every way I could, buying time.
Then the pillar finally flared with brilliant radiance.
—FWASH!
I snatched the third card out of the air and ordered the others,
“Pull out.”
And we all broke away.
As we sprinted at full speed, the distance between us and the pursuing monsters widened rapidly.
Seo Ye-in glanced back over her shoulder, judged we were safe, then leaned toward me.
“Did it drop?”
Only then did I check the card, my mouth curling into a grin.
“It dropped.”
[Defection]
▷Changes the user’s affiliation to another group.
