Solo Leveling Chapter 163:
The king? Who was?
Choi Jong-In couldn’t even begin to figure out heads or tails of what the angel statue was saying and asked back in a daze .
“What did you just say… . ?”
However, the angel statue didn’t reply .
Would a human bother to converse with insects? The same principle applied to the angel statue, too .
For now, it simply had to assume this form due to some unavoidable circumstances, but it was still a superior creature nonetheless . It had no thoughts of having a Q&A session with this insignificant human being .
If an insect proved to be annoying, swat it to death and that would be the end of it .
The angel statue raised its fist up in the air and smashed it down like a hammer . It descended at a super-high speed straight towards Choi Jong-In’s head .
Swish-!!
Choi Jong-In’s heart tumbled down to the pit of his stomach . However, he didn’t turn his head away . Do not give up, right up until the very last moment – that was what he always told his teammates, after all .
Before the fist landed on top of his head, though, a flash of light streaked past his eyes .
Boom!!
He opened his eyes to see the blade made out of pure light wavering in front of his face . Choi Jong-In’s eyes went extra round .
“Hunter Cha?!”
Cha Hae-In was standing there, blocking the angel statue’s fist with the skill ‘Blade of Light’ . If she was late even by a millisecond, Choi Jong-In’s head would have been splattered into a gooey mess .
While he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, she spoke to him in no uncertain terms .
“I’ll take over from here, so please go help out other Hunters, Chairman . ”
“Got it . ”
Choi Jong-In went away and began providing support to other Hunters busy battling the stone statues . Meanwhile, the angel statue stared down at Cha Hae-In’s sword, now glowing with light, and its eyes quickly filled up with curiosity .
“Haha . ”
To think, there was yet another human besides Jin-Woo that could block its attack .
“You are very amusing . Very amusing, indeed . ”
The angel statue put more strength into its fist . Cha Hae-In’s knees bent down slightly . She had managed to stop its attacks, but still, she was losing out in terms of raw strength .
“Euh-euhk… . ”
A thin, weak moan leaked out of her finely-shaped lips . Her wrists began trembling imperceptibly, as well .
“There, there . ”
The angel statue smirked derisively and applied more and more power as if it was turning up the heat on the stove . The ground beneath her feet shattered and cracks spread out on the stone surface .
Just a single arm, yet it was laden with a nonsensical amount of power already . Cha Hae-In bit her lower lip .
‘At this rate… I won’t be able to endure it . ’
She determined that she’d not be able to last long at this rate, and focused all of her strength in an instant and forced the angel statue’s fist back .
As expected of the explosive strength befitting Cha Hae-In, ranked as one of the very best even among the rank S Hunters!
The angel statue smiled again as it was forced to take a step back .
“Haha . ”
It considered her as a simple fun distraction, yet she managed to entertain the statue beyond its initial expectations . It seemed that there was more enjoyment to derive out of this human after all .
“Very good, very good . ”
This time, magic energy began pooling on both hands of the angel statue .
Gulp .
Cha Hae-In swallowed down her dry saliva . An immense level of power was oozing out from the clenched fists of the angel statue . She wanted to escape from this place if that was at all possible right now . That’s how scared she felt .
‘However… . ’
With Jin-Woo lying on the ground unconscious, there would be no one capable enough to face off against this monster if she were to turn her back and run .
Her glare became even sharper than before .
In complete contrast to her, the angel statue grinned carefreely and took a large stride forward to stand before her . The huge enemy nearly three metres tall kept forming that loose grin . And then, the b*stard’s attacks commenced for real .
Just like what it did against Jin-Woo, the angel statue punched out indiscriminately with both of its fists . It was somewhat regretful that it now had only two arms, but that was still more than enough for the level of this human .
The clenched fists rained down like a barrage of bullets .
Dududududu-!!
Cha Hae-In’s brows shot high up .
‘Sword Dance!’
Her movements quickened up significantly as if she was performing a dance, and her sword drew stylish arcs in the air . Unfortunately, the punches of the angel statue were far too quick and, instead of attacking back, she could only defend herself desperately .
The flurry of fatal attacks rained down on her constantly, with each one powerful enough to kill her if she made just one mistake .
Khang! Ka-gang!! Khang!! Khang! Khang! Khahang! Ka-gang! Khang, kahng! Khang! Ka-gang! Khang! Khang! Khahang! Khang!
“That’s right . Right, like that . Haha . ”
The angel statue was really enjoying itself as it continuously poured out the types of attacks that regular Hunters would never be able to follow with their naked eyes .
Cha Hae-In was being pushed back bit by bit, her entire body soaked in sweat .
Was that why? Or did she finally reach her limit?
Her wet hands slipped and she missed one of the attacks from the angel statue . It was a painful mistake on her part . Her sword failed to deflect the punch, and it hit her on the shoulder before sliding past her altogether .
Pah-gahk!!
“…!!”
Cha Hae-In quickly retreated while gritting her teeth . Unfortunately, her bones must’ve broke, because she couldn’t feel anything from her shoulder .
And so, she lost her left hand in that fashion . She looked at her limp left arm with a dismayed, regretful gaze .
“Haha . So, is that all? Is that as far as you can go?”
The angel statue rapidly closed the distance again . The b*stard didn’t even give her a small break . The attacks that were briefly paused for a moment or two, rained down on her again .
Khang! Ka-gang! Khahang!!
She had trouble defending against these attacks when both of her arms were still functioning . Therefore, having only one arm was simply not going to be enough . She missed more and more attacks and gradually, her body got destroyed .
Puhk! Puh-buck! Puhk!
Her bones broke, and her flesh tore away . And then, the deciding blow landed on her .
Puhk!!
The angel statue’s fist dug deep into her lower belly, and her feet left the ground . She coughed out a mouthful of blood .
“Keok!”
Her bent figure rose up in the air .
Obviously, her movements in the air would be restricted, and her preparation to deal with the next attack would be left incomplete .
The angel statue had finally lost its interest with the broken toy at this point .
To finish the proceedings off, the angel statue approached the woman falling head first to the floor . It straightened its hand into a blade and took aim at her chest .
But then… .
A wave of blue light suddenly surged out and enveloped Cha Hae-In .
She suddenly opened her eyes wide in the midst of powerlessly falling to the floor . She rotated her body once and swung her sword, hard .
Flinch .
The angel statue quickly came to a stop and leaned its head back, but the tip of the blade still managed to brush past its brow .
Slice .
A thin line was drawn on the face of the angel statue .
Taht!
Finally succeeding in landing a single counterattack, Cha Hae-In regained her balance with some difficulty and landed back on the ground . Thanks to that timely healing spell, she was able to somehow get out of that really sticky situation .
She got really lucky on that one .
However, what was a fortunate event for Cha Hae-In didn’t prove to be as fortunate for everyone else .
Swish!
The angel statue’s head swivelled in the direction where that healing spell came in from .
‘D*mn it!’
Cha Hae-In quickly looked at the Healer and cried out .
“Get away from there!”
The main Healer standing behind the Tankers and casting various healing magic spells until then heard her cries and flinched grandly .
“Pardon me?”
But, by the time he looked to where Cha Hae-In was, the angel statue was blocking his line of sight already .
“Ah… . ”
The mouth of the main Healer went slack .
The angel statue unhesitatingly did what it wanted to do to Choi Jong-In earlier .
BOOM!
The Healer’s head was smashed down straight into the ground . His legs quivered and trembled for a short while, before ceasing their movements altogether .
“Oh god, no!!”
The Hunters surrounded the angel statue and pounced at their enemy while not even bothering to hide their rage . Unfortunately, they were going up against an impossible force . Their measly strength couldn’t defeat the angel statue .
Pow, pow!!
Every time the angel statue threw a punch, rank A Hunters died powerlessly as if they were low ranked Hunters standing before a powerful monster .
“This is no fun . This is boring, humans . ”
Now that the fun time was over, this superior being didn’t feel the need for mercy anymore .
Once the number of Hunters standing towards the rear decreased, the line of Tankers dealing with the **** statue as well as the stone statues began collapsing in no time at all .
It was pure pandemonium .
The balance of the engagement broke down in an instant .
Boom!!
The **** statue avoided the Tankers and slammed its huge fist down, resulting in the immediate death of two Hunters on the ground .
Afterwards, stone statues carrying weapons surrounded the Hunters with a scary efficiency and began rushing forward .
‘God d*mn it… . !!’
Cha Hae-In rapidly cut down four of the stone statues persistently sticking close to the Hunters and pounced on the angel statue . No matter what, this b*stard had to be stopped .
However, the angel statue lightly blocked her descending sword with its wrist and kicked her unguarded side .
SLAM-!!
Now that the angel statue decided to get serious, she too could no longer be considered its opponent anymore .
Having witnessed Cha Hae-In fly away helplessly like that, Choi Jong-In tightly grasped the shoulder of Woo Jin-Cheol next to him . The latter had just finished pounding one of the stone statues down to the ground and quickly looked behind him in surprise .
“I’ll try to gather their attention to myself . Chief Woo, you go and wake up Hunter Seong . That’s the only way . ”
“Excuse me? But, I thought Seong Hunter-nim is unconscious because he was defeated?”
“No, he’s not . He’s simply asleep . Both his breathing and the flow of magic energy are stable . The way I see it, he’s not injured, either . ”
Could it be that he got done in by sleeping magic or some such?
Choi Jong-In thought that the reason for the angel statue not allowing any attack to fall on the sleeping Hunter Seong was probably because it didn’t want the youth to wake up .
‘I don’t know anything about this king’s sleep or that, but… . ’
Choi Jong-In recalled the angel statue desperately moving to ‘protect’ Hunter Seong . Without a doubt, the youth waking up would prove to be somehow fatal to the monster .
“Hurry!”
Woo Jin-Cheol nodded his head .
Meanwhile, Choi Jong-In roused up every ounce of magic energy he possessed .
Soon, a giant circular shaped mass of flames formed on top of his hand, and it began spitting out countless sparks to all over the place .
Each of these sparks flying in a straight line caused powerful explosions to resound out every time it touched an object .
Swish-!! Swish-!!!
Boom!! Ka-boom!! Boom!! Kwa-boom!!
Naturally, the attention of the stone statues was directed on Choi Jong-In . While he was buying time in this fashion, Woo Jin-Cheol hurriedly ran to where Jin-Woo was .
He prayed that Choi Jong-In’s estimation wasn’t off the mark .
Just as Choi Jong-In and Woo Jin-Cheol were doing their best to wake Jin-Woo up, the angel statue stood before Cha Hae-In as she lay on the ground while panting heavily non-stop .
Every rib bone on one side of her body got broken when she was kicked just now . She still tried to reach out and grasp the sword she had dropped . However, the angel statue stepped on her arm before that happened .
Kwajeeck!
“Aaaaahk!!”
Cha Hae-In grabbed her broken arm and screamed out .
The angel statue had already killed off all those humans possessing the ability to heal others, and this woman had received a grievous wound that disabled her from fighting anymore .
This was the moment that the lone threat among the humans had been eliminated .
“Haha . ”
The angel statue formed a blade with its hand again .
“This is the end, then . ”
The human female glared at the statue, her breathing still rough and heavy . Everything was indeed over, yet she didn’t show one hint of giving up on her struggle here .
She certainly resembled that man in this regard . That man named Seong Jin-Woo . When the angel statue met that man for the first time, he too carried around those eyes .
Smirk .
The corner of the angel statue’s lips arched up, and it thrust its hand at Cha Hae-In’s chest . No, it tried to . It had to stay its hand just before piercing into her heart .
The angel statue flinched slightly and took a step back . Because… it only now discovered that there was a lone Shadow Soldier hiding in her shadow .
Because of the rule in this chamber, that soldier couldn’t come out of her shadow, but regardless, its existence was not in question .
Seeing the surprised face of the angel statue, Cha Hae-In formed a puzzled expression of her own .
‘… . . ??’
That b*stard could’ve ended her at any time it wanted to, yet now, it looked like it was hesitating somewhat .
Indeed, she was correct . The angel statue was really hesitating right now . This was a human that the king had chosen to plant a soldier within her shadow . Did he have a special plan for her?
Of course, there was a possibility that the human did this, not the king .
However… .
‘Without a doubt – the king and the human are currently mixed as one, although it is only by a small amount . ’
In that case, how was the statue to know whether this action was from the will of the king or from the will of the human? If the king had a plan and planted the Shadow Soldier in her, then the statue knew it couldn’t carelessly touch her .
That was why the angel statue asked the human female .
“Why did you come here?”
“… . ”
Cha Hae-In didn’t reply . When the silence deepened, the angel statue decided to change the question .
“What is your relationship with Seong Jin-Woo?”
“… . ”
There was no reply from her, still .
Cha Hae-In knew very well that she had no obligation to answer her enemy’s questions .
At this rate, it’d be impossible to make her talk . The angel statue figured as much, thus deciding to change its tactic .
Snap .
The angel statue snapped its fingers . And that brought about the immediate stop to the screams of the Hunters .
As if the **** statue and the stone statues had received a command, they stopped fighting all at once and slowly turned around, before walking to one side of the chamber . Then, the angel statue extended its hand .
Woo Jin-Cheol, busy approaching Jin-Woo, was pushed down by the ‘invisible hand’ and got planted on the ground .
“Keu-heuk!”
He tried his best to resist against the power pressing down on him from above, but he couldn’t even move an inch . Woo Jin-Cheol’s tightly-clenched fist trembled noticeably as pained moans escaped from his lips .
The angel statue pulled its hand back .
It didn’t miss a single movement taking place within the chamber . No matter how much these humans struggled, they were all trapped within its palm, anyway . That was the difference between the superior existence and these measly humans .
It was almost impossible to bridge that gap .
“I shall ask again . ”
The tip of the angel statue’s finger now pointed at Woo Jin-Cheol .
“If you do not answer me this time, I shall kill that man, as well as every single one of your comrades . ”
“… . Fine . ”
Cha Hae-In nodded her head .
If she could buy more time this way then that alone was already a good result . The angel statue stared at her as she forced her upper torso up, and quietly asked her .
“What is your relationship with Seong Jin-Woo?”
“… . A friend . ”
“And, why did you come here?”
She thought for a little while, before making her answer .
“To save Hunter Seong Jin-Woo . ”
After hearing that answer, a deep smile formed on the face of the angel statue . Just who was saving who now?
The statue was sure of it . These humans had no idea what was going on .
It felt embarrassed for even suspecting that the king had a plan for her . No, these humans only knew about the human ‘Seong Jin-Woo’, and that’s why they came knocking in this place .
The angel statue could no longer hold back and began guffawing out loudly . And then, it spoke to her .
“I shall bless you with an opportunity . ”
“… . What opportunity?”
“Today, in this place, one of the noble Sovereigns shall descend upon this world . I shall bless you with an opportunity to witness this glorious moment in history . ”
Until the angel statue could confirm the intention of the king, it couldn’t do anything to Cha Hae-In . So, it had to keep her alive . However, she was the sole exception and it didn’t plan on letting other humans live .
“But, every other human beside you… . ”
The smile was gone from the face of the angel statue, and its expression became incredibly murderous .
“… . Will die here today . ”
Indeed, it wouldn’t do for all these uninvited pests to be present in this glorious moment, would it? However, the reply didn’t come from the front but from the back, instead .
“Says who?”
“… . . ?”
Before the angel statue could even turn around, a fist flew in and punched its face, hard .
Ka-boom!
The statue flew away and crashed into the far wall .
BOOM!!
Cracks ran against the surface of the wall from the sheer impact force and rubble tumbled down to the floor . Just before the angel statue could slide down to the ground, Jin-Woo stood before the creature . He tightly grasped its neck and growled at it .
“You . ”
Jin-Woo’s other hand was pressing against his right chest .
Indeed, he wasn’t dreaming of it .
There was one more heart beating away within the right side of his chest . Jin-Woo clenched the neck of the statue even harder and asked .
“What the **** did you do to my body?”
< Chapter 163 > Fin .