Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert

Chapter 94

“Son of a bitch!”

“These damn moles!”

Jack and his raid team wore expressions of frustration.

They were advancing laboriously, their bodies smeared with the blood and bodily fluids of Hell Moles.

Thanks to the Inazuma raid team taking the vanguard, their situation was manageable. If Jack’s group had taken the lead, the casualties would have skyrocketed.

“Argh!”

“S-Save us…”

Awakeneds not part of the either two raid teams were swept away by the onslaught of Hell Moles, disappearing from sight in an instant.

Their fate was all too clear.

Jack shouted to Corner.

“Give us a buff.”

“Got it.”

A brilliant light emanated from the dwarf Corner’s body.

Those within the range of his light felt a surge of energy, their strength increasing.

Corner’s awakened ability was a buff.

While his direct combat power was weak, he was a valuable resource capable of temporarily boosting the combat abilities of his party members.

Just like healers, buffers were essential assets in dungeon raid teams, but they were rare and hard to come by.

So, the existence of a valuable buffer in Jack’s raid team was surprising in itself.

“Woooaah!”

Declan roared.

His eyes were bloodshot.

Declan was a berserker, and he was greatly affected by his older brother Corner’s buff.

Crash!

Declan used his massive body to crush any Hell Moles that came at him.

Seeing this, Kouji muttered.

“Good! We should be able to reach the boss room soon.”

Thanks to the dwarf Corner, the strength of the Inazuma raid team had also increased.

This made dungeon progression much smoother.

Suddenly, Shuhan’s voice rang out.

“We’re almost there. Just a little more effort.”

“Woooaah!”

“Kyaah!”

The Awakeneds gathered their remaining strength.

Bang!

With a loud noise, a giant stone door shattered.

Then, the Inazuma raid team, Jack’s group, and the surviving Awakeneds entered a massive room.

Finally, they had reached the boss room.

Kouji shouted.

“Block the entrance. Don’t let them join the boss.”

“Right!”

Byrun swung his axe at the pillars of the entrance. As a result, the entrance collapsed, preventing the Hell Moles from entering.

“Haah!”

“Huff!”

At last, the group could catch their breath for a moment. But it was only a brief respite; their peril was far from over.

Kuuuuh!

A strange sound echoed from behind.

“It’s the boss.”

“Damn it!”

The creature emitting the rough breathing was the Hell Mole boss.

True to its boss status, it was ten times larger than regular Hell Moles.

Its back was covered in thorns like a porcupine, and its snout was made of an unidentified metal.

But behind the boss, strange objects could be seen.

“What’s that?”

There were scattered rock piles in the form of stone monuments. However, protruding from the top of these stone monuments were human heads.

Zeon clicked his tongue.

“Tsk! The raid team that entered first.”

It seemed likely.

The Hell Moles were adept at dealing with humans.

They must have encountered the raid team that entered first.

Zeon’s gaze fixed on one of the stone piles.

He recognized a familiar face.

“Old Man Klexi.”

With his eyes tightly shut, his face devoid of any color, it was unmistakably Old Man Klexi.

“The Guild Leader.”

“There he is.”

Jack and the Awakeneds shouted upon seeing Old Man Klexi.

‘The Guild Leader? Yoo Se-hee was also called the Guild Leader. So, is he the former Guild Leader? Are Yoo Se-hee and him related by blood?’

If so, everything made sense.

Why Yoo Se-hee had such an anxious expression when she asked him for help.

For some reason, Old Man Klexi led a raid team into the dungeon first but went missing.

As Yoo Se-hee, she had no choice but to be worried.

‘The problem now is how to safely rescue Old Man Klexi from the boss.’

The stone monuments were one of the boss’s abilities.

Also known as the Chamber of Death.

It turned sand into stone and trapped living beings.

The trapped beings fell into a coma, and the boss absorbed their life force.

Of course, the ultimate fate of those whose life force was absorbed was death.

That’s when it happened.

Kieee!

The Hell Mole boss arbitrarily attacked the humans who had intruded into its territory.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Thorns on its back poured down like rain.

“Everyone, be careful!”

“Dodge!”

The Awakeneds each used their skills to block or evade the thorns.

They scattered, attacking the Hell Mole boss.

Boom! Crash!

Glorious skills erupted against the Hell Mole boss.

The boss couldn’t avoid their attacks and took the full brunt.

“It’s done.”

“We got him.”

Joyful light shone in the eyes of the Awakeneds.

On the other hand, Zeon’s gaze sank deeply.

They didn’t know.

The true ability of the Hell Mole boss.

Although It wasn’t particularly strong, it had quite a troublesome ability.

‘Crimson Cloud.’

Then, suddenly, a crimson mist began to spread inside the boss room.

“What’s this?”

“Watch out!”

Kouji and Jack shouted simultaneously.

As seasoned Awakeneds, they noticed that the crimson mist was no ordinary phenomenon.

The mist billowed out like clouds, quickly filling the boss room.

There was no space for the Awakeneds to escape.

“Urgh!”

“Breath… I can’t…”

The Awakeneds from the slums grabbed their throats and collapsed.

Yuri shouted.

“Everyone, gather around me.”

Wind swirled around her, creating a barrier.

The wall of wind prevented the crimson cloud from approaching. Thanks to it, the Inazuma and Jack’s raid team members gathered around Yuri remained safe from the crimson mist.

Yuri maintained the barrier and said.

“I can’t hold out like this for long. We need to defeat it within three minutes.”

“Got it.”

Kouji replied, taking a deep breath.

Then, Komein remarked.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Captain’s skill, Dance of Death.”

A skill that unleashed eighteen strikes in the blink of an eye with each sword stroke carrying the aura of death.

It was named Dance of Death because every sword strike ensured death.

“Let’s do this.”

“I can’t afford to lose either.”

Jack stepped forward as well.

If Kouji was the Captain of Inazuma, then he was also a Captain. He couldn’t afford to fall behind.

Swoosh!

The Dance of Death, and Jack’s skill, Quiet Funeral, were unleashed simultaneously.

While the Dance of Death delivered eighteen strikes in a single breath, the Quiet Funeral focused all its power into a single blow.

Except for the fact that they both involved swords, there was nothing similar about these skills.

Since their swordsmanship tendencies were different, their skills had evolved in completely different directions.

Keieee!

The Hell Mole boss let out a painful howl that reverberated throughout the room.

“It’s done.”

“We got him.”

Everyone cheered except for Zeon, who sensed the impending danger.

“Everyone, be careful…”

Crash!

Before his warning could even finish, the wall of the boss room collapsed. Something poured in.

“What’s this?”

“Aaaah!”

Shuhan and the dwarf Corner screamed simultaneously, trying to get away from the monsters. But there were too many of them to escape from.

At that moment, Zeon waved his hand. Instantly, a tremendous fire erupted, engulfing the monsters that had been covering the two.

“Aaah!”

“Kyaah!”

Barely escaping death, the two gasped for breath.

Zeon paid them no attention and looked at the collapsed wall.

Beyond the wall, more monsters were pouring in.

“The larvae of a Ghost Dragonfly. This is the real deal.”

The writhing monsters pouring in were the larvae of a Ghost Dragonfly Zeon had dealt with earlier.

The Hell Moles were undoubtedly a headache.

Especially in such underground conditions, they posed challenging conditions. However, as a boss of a dungeon, they were lacking.

That’s why he thought there must be a true boss elsewhere.

“But Hell Moles and Ghost Dragonfly larvae don’t seem like a suitable combination.”

Hell and Ghosts.

At first glance, they seemed like fitting words, but in reality, the two monsters had different habitats.

While Hell Moles were active underground, Ghost Dragonflies needed a high sky to thrive.

As larvae, they could function in such underground conditions, but to molt and spread their wings, they needed a clear sky.

The fact that there were so many larvae meant that there were many adult Ghost Dragonflies that had molted.

Those monsters couldn’t naturally inhabit such an underground environment.

Kuwoooooh!

To make matters worse, the Hell Mole boss who they thought was dealt with stood up and roared.

Despite the deep wounds inflicted by Kouji and Jack’s attacks, the monster remained unscathed.

“What’s going on now?”

“Dammit!”

Kouji and Jack couldn’t hide their bafflement.

Once again, the Hell Mole boss unleashed the Crimson Cloud. With the addition of the larvae, the room truly became a hell.

“Aaargh!”

“Help!”

Screams of the Awakeneds echoed one after another.

Zeon slightly raised his head.

“At this rate, everyone will perish.”

They were called dungeon raid teams, but they were completely unprepared to raid the dungeon.

They had raided dungeons quite a few times, but they had only tackled dungeons that occurred near Neo Seoul.

The types of dungeons near Neo Seoul were extremely limited.

Only dungeons with similar characteristics seemed to open up.

While they had raided dungeons many times, they hadn’t experienced a variety of dungeons, hence the delayed reaction when faced with such variables.

‘Are they half-baked?’.

He didn’t want to participate if he could avoid it, but at this rate, total annihilation seemed inevitable.

“Fire Rain.”

Zeon muttered as he waved his right hand.

Instantly, a rain of fire fell inside the room.

Using the Inferno Gauntlet, he unleashed the skill.

The fire rained down, incinerating the larvae of Ghost Dragonflies that filled the room and delivering a heavy blow to the Hell Mole boss.

Thanks to that, the raid team managed to escape the imminent threat of death.

“Hah! Hah!”

“Shit! We barely made it.”

Those who barely survived gasped for breath.

Kouji quickly looked for Zeon.

“What about him?”

There was no sign of Zeon anywhere in the boss room.

After saving the raid team from danger, he had immediately concealed himself. But there was no time to search for Zeon’s whereabouts.

The Hell Mole boss, affected by the Fire Rain, was staggering.

They had to defeat it before it could recover its strength.

“Damn it! Full assault!”