Joint Operation (4)

“Is he a Scavenger?”

Il-hyun murmured and looked down at the fallen man.

The man had a long beard and messy long hair. He had a black tattoo around his neck.

When Il-hyun took off the man’s defense coat, his eyes caught tattoos covering both of the man’s arms.

“I heard that there are a lot of thieves overseas.. Awakeners scavenging, huh.”

Even if the man could go invisible, it is always difficult to go to a site unnoticed.

“But, I did it, too..” Ilhyun recalled and laughed.

He was also a Scavenger not too long ago, so he is not one to judge.

Perhaps, this man also had a good reason to do this.

Everyone had their own circumstances.

A single B-ranked core sold on the black market can earn someone enough money for a lifetime, and there are a lot of B-ranked monsters here.

Anyway, the man collapsed in just a single attack by the Phoenix.

He’s not that strong.

“Okay, I’m going to tie you up. I need to take care of urgent things first,” Il-hyun told the unconscious man.

Monsters are still coming out in hordes, and there was no time to evacuate the man.

The location Jeong Jin-sung sent him for his next assignment is blinking significantly on his GPS.

Il-hyun pulled metal bars from the wreckage of the building nearby and transformed them into a sturdy rope.

The man is an Awakener, and he could not take any chances. He tied him up tightly and pinned him to a wall.

Meanwhile, the man still showed no signs of waking up.

Il-hyun then made a wall to completely cover the man, in case monsters, came here. The unconscious and tied up man wouldn’t be able to defend himself.

Once he was done, he climbed onto the wolf’s back and quickly leaped over the ruined buildings and roads, with the Phoenix flying above his head.

“Found you!”

Il-hyun only took moments to arrive at the location.

There are about twenty Creeps and a Craig.

Il-hyun jumped off as the wolf immediately took on the Craig, while the Phoenix flew to the direction of the Creeps.

Bang!

The Creeps didn’t even have time to react as the Phoenix struck them.

Behind them, there was a huge battle between the large wolf and the Craig.

While the wolf has the Craig’s attention, it was time for Il-hyun to take care of the rest.

“From above and below!” he yelled as he slammed his hand on the ground, and suddenly, over twenty giant worms popped out.

The worms appeared to have heavy armor throughout the body and started to entangle the Creeps, while the Phoenix was diving in and out, hitting them.

The worms had huge mouths filled with spikes and started biting the Creeps with it.

Il-hyun jumped in to finish the Creeps off with his AT sword easily.

There was blood all around him, in the middle of the city.

Il-hyun gasped and wiped the sweat flowing over his forehead.

It took more power to use that ability. I think I’ve used up too much energy.

Aside from facing and defeating six other B-ranked monsters one-by-one, he also had to use his ability against the unidentified man.

Suddenly, he heard a crash.

Kwajik!

He quickly turned to look and saw that the wolf had been thrown against the building.

Soon, the wolf’s figure collapsed, and the connection with Il-hyun was lost.

Still, it was successful in buying him time against a B-rank monster while he cleared out the Creeps.

The Craig turned its back on him, ready to attack with its black poison.

It sprayed over his direction, dissolving some of the worms.

Just before it hit him, the Phoenix flew in and spread its wings to protect him.

Wow!

As the red flames and black poison collided, thick black smoke rose.

Soon, the Craig ran out of poison, and Il-hyun was still standing safely behind the Phoenix.

However, the Phoenix has lost its brilliance. It turned to an ashen color and slowly fell to the ground, its burning body fading to embers.

But –

Shhh!

From the embers, the Phoenix burst out again, and with more intense flame this time!

It showed off its gem-like feathers as it spread its wings even wider than before.

Each of Il-hyun’s summons had the qualities of the original, not only in appearance but also in abilities.

It was based on how Il-hyun imagined them.

Of course, the Phoenix’s ability was a powerful one – immortality.

It will not die.

It will keep being reborn from its ashes, even stronger than before.

The only way to defeat it is to incapacitate its summoner, Il-hyun.

The Phoenix spun once in the air and charged at the Craig.

Kuung!

The Craig’s body exploded in flames!

The Phoenix escaped the explosion and soared to the sky. Meanwhile, Il-hyun used his Transformation ability.

Dozens of thorns formed and stabbed Craig from all directions, even from the bottom of his feet.

The Craig lost its balance as one of its feet was wounded severely, then the Phoenix dived in on its head as it fell.

Quaang!

Once again, there was a violent explosion and flame, and the shock brought the Craig to its knees.

Wow!

The Craig spat while it knelt.

It took a lot of damage, but it was still not enough to knock it down.

The remaining worms crawled over it and clung all over its body, biting it with their huge mouths.

The Craig’s blood was spurting from its wounds, but it was still able to catch a worm and crush it powerfully.

Even if Il-hyun has already used a great deal of ability, the B-rank ace monster wasn’t easy to shut down.

Il-hyun had to make his finishing move now.

The soaring Phoenix dived in once more, and the Craig’s arms rose to defend itself, while worms still hung from its bleeding body.

Quaang!

The Phoenix’s flame bounced off the monster’s huge arms.

However, the Craig didn’t see what was coming.

Il-hyun was wielding his sword at the back of the translucent hawk.

He summoned the hawk quickly and jumped on its back in one swift motion.

“Now!”

He managed to give a mighty swing while keeping his balance on the hawk’s back

With a cracking sound, two-thirds of the Craig’s neck was chopped off.

Keeeek!

The head slowly rolled off to the side, and the huge, headless Craig remained kneeling for a few moments, before crashing to the ground with a thud.

“Hoo!”

Il-hyun quickly turned off the worms.

The worms disintegrated into asphalt and cement from which their bodies are formed.

They have been using up a lot of mana because of their size and numbers.

Il-hyun exhaled heavily as he looked down at his blood-stained AT sword.

It was made of ether core and dealt devastating damage.

Suddenly, Il-hyun felt something approaching, and he turned around quickly.

-Be careful; there are..

Even before Lee Soo-yeon’s voice speaking over the communicator finished, there was a large explosion.

Wajangchan!

The mall building next to Il-hyun came crashing, and from the dust and smoke, Il-hyun saw figures emerging.

Il-hyun stepped back.

“What – three of them?” he said, surprised.

He had grown rapidly over the past and is now able to defeat B-ranked monsters, but three at the same time..

In his current fatigued condition..

It does not look good for him.

The three Craigs screamed ferociously as they saw Il-hyun.

Il-hyun quickly tried to summon the hawk to escape; however, he heard Ghost over the communicator.

– Hyung, the spears are flying over there. Don’t get hit.

“What are you talking about..”, he responded, confused.

Qawah!

Suddenly, a huge spear loudly came flying in and penetrated a Craig’s head.

The Craig’s head was cracked open, and it crashed to the ground.

The two other Craigs looked dumbfounded and struggled to look around, trying to find out where the spear came from.

Not even Il-hyun knew.

Kwah! Bang!

Spears continued flying in with tremendous power, and the two other Craigs were sorted out in an instant.

One had been hit in the head twice.

Il-hyun approached the corpses curiously and picked up one of the spears.

These spears are so huge that they could almost be siege weapons.

Moreover, they are treated with high-ranked ether core.

These are definitely too costly.

If anyone had enough money to purchase these, it was surely Aegis.