Chapter 173 – #37_Friendship?(6)
#171
1.
Having exhausted all her mana, Sharon was no longer of any help in the fight.
Rather, she was a liability, as Siwoo had to protect her from the swarming black dogs.
Protecting Sharon, dealing with the hordes of black dogs, and preparing a final blow for the mother dog still desperately trying to climb the building’s side—it was a triple burden.
But he had plenty of similar experiences.
In situations where retreat was impossible, the ‘magic’ Siwoo had meticulously built up always ensured the success of his plans.
All Siwoo could do now was trust in his own power.
“Get back further!”
Siwoo shouted at Sharon, thrusting out a shadow spear with all his might.
Sharon knew she was of no help.
But it was frustrating to watch Siwoo’s struggle, stomping her feet in place.
If only she hadn’t wasted her mana trying to make a decision earlier, she could have been of some help.
“H-Hang in there! Siwoo!”
In the end, all Sharon could do was cheer him on.
The spear twisted at a bizarre angle, piercing two black dogs simultaneously, while his shield smacked away another black dog flying in from the side.
His left and right hands moved in completely different ways, yet it was as fluid as a flowing stream.
“Bloom!”
At the same time, Siwoo amplified his mana.
He absorbed mana with his left eye, which he had given the cool name ‘Magic Eye,’ and amplified it.
Amplified it, and amplified it again.
From a normal perspective, this was an extremely dangerous act.
Mana amplification was a process that generated noise, so it had to be done with great care and meticulous calculation.
Otherwise, the mana mixed with noise could short-circuit the mana pathways, potentially causing serious internal damage to the caster.
At the very least, it wasn’t something you could do while moving your body vigorously.
But mana amplification and noise rectification were among Siwoo’s greatest strengths.
During his slave days, Siwoo had honed and refined this skill to activate large-scale magic formulas with a body that couldn’t store even a drop of mana.
“Ah…”
Sharon watched the dangerous, acrobatic feat with a pounding heart.
Her helplessness was fleeting, and she couldn’t help but gape at the wondrous sight.
Siwoo’s amplified mana was as dense as the mana she could wield at her peak condition.
Moreover, Siwoo wasn’t just amplifying mana.
He was instantly converting the amplified mana into shadows.
On the side of the rooftop where Sharon and Siwoo stood, a massive amount of shadows was piling up.
The appearance of the shadows was different from usual.
Before, the particles were so fine that they felt like smoke, but now they were closer to iron sand.
“Kuh!”
Siwoo swung his shield, knocking away a dog that had been biting his arm.
The teeth that pierced his armor had reached his forearm, causing a burning pain.
It seemed that calculating while fighting was detrimental to his performance.
But there was no other way.
If he was going to die anyway, he might as well take a gamble.
Siwoo recklessly drew out shadows with his amplified mana.
As you could see from the particles, these shadows were not the same as usual.
They were shadows compressed to be denser than mercury and overwhelmingly heavy.
They were combined with the earth element to maximize their weight.
It was similar to creating shadow wings or reinforcing his whole body with armor.
But now, without thinking about anything else, he was simply adding weight.
The shadows, imbued with the maximum mass Siwoo could give, were growing on one side of the rooftop.
At first glance, this act seemed meaningless.
Simply having a lot of mana was different from having the ability to control it.
Similarly, no matter how much Siwoo amplified his magic and copied shadows, he could barely use them.
At best, he could only control the shadows to keep them from scattering.
But this preliminary work would be his trump card.
-Kukukukung!
The building shook violently.
The mother dog, having leaped from afar, had latched onto the middle of the 30-story building.
The entire building swayed as if caught in a major earthquake, beginning to tilt like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
“Si… Siwoo! They’re coming even more! The building is going to collapse!”
Sharon’s face was pale as she looked down at the hundreds of black dogs swarming up.
It was like being soaked by a drizzle.
No matter how much Siwoo had the upper hand against these pathetic dogs, the sheer number made it a different story.
And now that they were on the rooftop, there was nowhere to run.
“Just a little more…”
It wasn’t enough yet.
He needed to gather a little more.
If he didn’t end it with one blow, they would be cornered.
Siwoo kept amplifying his mana and drawing out more shadows.
His head and eyes were starting to hurt.
The mana pathways throughout his body were screaming in pain due to obvious overwork.
It was a terrible sensation, like hot flames flowing through every corner of his blood vessels.
-Kuoohhhhhh!!!
“She’s almost! Almost all the way up!”
A roar of joy, as if the prey was right in front of her, echoed, threatening to burst his eardrums.
The mother dog, having dug her claws into the building, had succeeded in her precarious climb.
She was close enough that he could smell her foul odor.
“Done!”
Siwoo swung his ribbon with all his might, knocking away all the homunculi around the rooftop.
He quickly stepped back, wrapped his arm around Sharon’s waist, and simultaneously injected mana into all the shadows he had gathered.
“Bloom.”
And at the same time.
-Kiiiiiiiiik!
With a chilling screech, the building tilted and began to collapse.
2.
The idea Siwoo came up with was simple.
In a way, he could say he was inspired by the sight of the department store collapsing earlier.
The impact of the department store collapsing was a mass weapon in itself.
It was an impact and force close to a disaster, incomparable to any common accident.
A building was not an impregnable fortress.
Even the twin towers, which were meticulously designed to prevent terrorism and accidents, had crumbled after colliding with airplanes.
When demolishing a building, removing only a few load-bearing pillars would cause the rest to collapse under its own weight.
The building Siwoo had retreated to was already tilting, with the middle and lower parts collapsing due to the homunculi’s rampage.
In other words, it was in a state where it could collapse at any moment.
So, was there any reason not to take advantage of that?
Siwoo simply added a little something to the situation.
The shadows were created to determine the ‘direction’ and ‘timing’ of the building’s collapse.
And so, tens of tons of shadows piled up on one side of the rooftop.
Of course, even a weakened building could withstand this much.
But what if he injected mana into it instantaneously and gave a simple command?
It didn’t need to be a complex command like creating a spear or armor.
Siwoo’s mana control was too lacking for that.
But a simple execution like ‘amplify the mass for a few seconds’ was possible.
Siwoo poured all the mana he had amplified into the shadows at once, giving them all the mass he could.
Here’s the question.
What would happen if the mass, which had increased by thousands, no, tens of thousands of tons in an instant, was concentrated on the weakened side of the building?
The answer was simple.
It would collapse in the direction the monster was rampaging.
The heavy shadows and the weight of the entire building crushed the homunculus climbing the outer wall.
Even the screams of the homunculus were buried in the thunderous roar, as if thunder had struck right next to them.
The thick dust was quickly washed away by the timely downpour.
3.
“Ugh… Uwaaaah…!”
With a nauseous feeling as if he had been punched in the stomach, Siwoo vomited up bile while lying on the ground.
Sharon, covered in dust, patted Siwoo’s back.
“A-Are you okay?”
The ruined Shinchon Rotary.
The scenery, where he had often visited for everything from exploring restaurants to handing out flyers, was desolate, as if a bombing had passed through.
“I… I feel like I’m going to die…”
To sum it up, Siwoo’s gamble of destroying the building to defeat the homunculus had been a resounding success.
The homunculus, crushed under the shadows that had momentarily swelled to tens of thousands of tons, was then repeatedly hit by the collapsing debris of the building and crushed to death. Siwoo had managed to escape with Sharon by extending his ribbon to the next building, barely making it.
It was a stunt action he never wanted to do again.
It was fortunate for Siwoo that the small homunculi that had come out of the mother dog’s body all died as soon as she did.
Judging by his physical condition, if that hadn’t happened, he would have ended up being eaten by the small fry after defeating the boss monster.
“Ugh…”
“Siwoo! You can’t die!”
As Siwoo groaned and sprawled out on the ground, Sharon was shedding tears as if he were on his deathbed.
Even if she was a spirit, it was obvious that she would be in trouble if she was treated this roughly.
“I’m not dying… I just want to lie down for five more minutes.”
“Here, lie here.”
Sharon quickly knelt on the ground and lifted Siwoo’s head onto her lap.
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s the bare ground, your knees will hurt.”
“I’m fine. I couldn’t do anything, so let me do this at least.”
Sharon said with tears welling up in her eyes.
Knowing her personality, that she hated being indebted to others, and not having the strength to bicker over trivial matters, Siwoo quietly accepted her lap pillow service.
“Ah… you really went through a lot.”
“You went through a lot… you did everything…”
“No, still, if you hadn’t been active in the middle of the building, I would have been caught and eaten by the dogs.”
“If you hadn’t carried me, I would have been eaten a long time ago, right? When we jumped into the building, you grabbed me so I wouldn’t get dragged away. I was so grateful.”
The two praised each other for their contributions to today’s raid.
But even Siwoo thought, and Sharon thought, that today’s fight was a one-man show by Siwoo.
Escaping from under the collapsing department store, running away from the pursuing monsters, figuring out the identity of the culprit, and finally, dealing damage all by himself.
But to admit it all felt a bit embarrassing and awkward.
It wasn’t purely skill; there were many lucky elements involved.
Siwoo lay comfortably, feeling the raindrops tapping his cheeks.
The sense of accomplishment when all the plans came together.
The thrill of analyzing the enemy’s strength and figuring out a strategy by comparing it with his own.
It was a thrilling and exhilarating moment, though he was only thinking about it now that he had survived.
“I was out of my mind…”
“Huh?”
“It’s nothing.”
Siwoo turned his head slightly to look at the remains of the building that had become the homunculus’s grave.
Between the large concrete chunks were protruding deformed rebars, bent I-beam steel frames, and wires, a pile of miscellaneous things he couldn’t even identify, and acrid smoke was seeping out from within.
It was a bonus that the black dogs that had tormented Siwoo and Sharon were crushed or torn apart and stuck in between.
-Kugugugung…!
“Ah, please, not again…”
But the peace didn’t last long.
The debris of the building began to stir, and the concrete chunks that had been precariously piled up began to collapse.
The homunculus buried below was trying to get up and break free.
Was the damage output not enough?
It had fallen freely from tens of meters in the air, and on top of that, it had been hit and buried by all that debris, yet it was still alive?
Siwoo was amazed by the homunculus’s incredible durability.
“Siwoo! Get on my back!”
As he was regretting why he hadn’t escaped sooner, Sharon quickly lifted Siwoo up.
“I can walk on my own.”
Siwoo staggered, trying to run away, but stopped in his tracks.
-Krooooo…
Finally, the homunculus emerged from the largest piece of debris.
Its appearance was clearly not normal.
All but one of its front legs were cut off, and the red eyes that had been shining all over its body were burst or crushed, with black fluid oozing out.
Instead of a deafening roar, only the metallic sound of a dying beast could be heard.
“That’s good.”
He was also a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to recover the core.
Siwoo got out of Sharon’s support and created a shadow spear.
He stood in front of the homunculus’s head, holding a spear that was as sharp and pointed as possible.
Even just the head alone was the size of a mid-sized sedan, so it must have still been alive despite the impact.
Siwoo could see.
The four pairs of eyes that had not lost their light in the dog’s head.
The bizarre gaze, which he couldn’t tell where it was looking, was staring straight at Siwoo, who was about to cut off its breath.
“It’s your karma, so accept it.”
He felt a little strange attacking a defenseless opponent, but the opponent was a monster that ate humans, caused disasters, and had tried to make a snack out of Sharon and Siwoo tonight.
Siwoo aimed the spear at the center of its head and stabbed it deeply.
