Guuuuuuuuuuh!!
“Shut up, you little sh*t.”
Just a moment ago, Minota was rolling his eyes without saying a word when I kicked him.
Now, with just one belly slap, he started whining.
As his head started to calm down, he began to regret what he just said.
[Oh dear! No matter how angry you get, you must watch your tongue!]
‘Oh sh*t. Please tell me no one heard that?’
The sparring ground system wasn’t working because someone spilled tteokbokki.
Thanks to that, my voice wasn’t amplified, so the people watching couldn’t hear what I was saying at all.
The evidence was the spectators’ expressions, which all read, “How did they live?”
It wasn’t a look of understanding.
However,
The expressions of Hyeji and Jeong Ahyeon, who were near the sparring ground, were somewhat different.
Their expressions mingled with two feelings: concern for me and a hint of suspicion.
‘Did they hear me? Those two?’
[They might have heard a little, but luckily it seems Elcia didn’t.]
‘I hope she didn’t. Anyway, let’s deal with the beef in front of me first!’
At that moment, the balding professor yelled at me.
“Hey! Student! Do you know how much it cost to bring that over here? Don’t injure him!”
“Professor! Calm down! He’s an academy student!”
“Hey! You don’t know how much he’s worth!”
Just because I slapped him once, the balding professor was freaking out and pointing fingers at me.
[This guy is out of his mind. Blaming me for hitting a monster when it’s his lab’s fault.]
‘Mind your own business. There are plenty of parts to hit. It’s beef full course today.’
[Oh! The Busan full course is fake, but the beef full course is the real deal!]
Of course, I didn’t care.
My life was on the line here.
Meanwhile, Minota, who had stopped whining, regrouped and charged at me with his horns raised.
This time, the number above Minota’s head didn’t change, so it looked like he hadn’t regressed.
[Are you going to block?]
‘I’m going for a horn grab kick, not a horn grab punch!’
But I had one thing I had forgotten for a moment.
This creature had the intellect to regress.
Just before he rammed into me, Minota suddenly decelerated, grabbing an axe from the air and throwing it.
His sudden slow-down meant I couldn’t grab his horns in time.
A half step. Just half a step short.
As my hand cut through the air, Minota clenched his empty fists and smashed the ground.
‘Ah, f*ck. He’s using Alista’s WQ, that bastard.’
[At least he doesn’t have blink.]
The ground trembles, and my balance shakes.
Minota’s devastating punch aimed directly at my head.
In a panic, I reinforced my right hand and tried to swipe at Minota’s forearm.
Luckily, I avoided a direct hit, but
Due to not being able to hold my stance properly and the incomplete physical enhancement, the bleeding from my fingers got worse.
On top of that, my body was now lying defenseless on the ground.
Not good.
At that moment, the axe Minota threw earlier landed sharply in his hands as if magnetically attracted.
Immediately, he began swinging the axe at me.
– Kerrang!!
Rolling to the right, I barely dodged as Minota’s axe plunged into the spot where I just was.
He must’ve hit it really hard since it went in deep.
I see Minota straining to pull the axe out.
Opportunity.
Seeing the axe stuck in the ground, I pushed off the ground and stomped on the axe handle.
Minota tilted his head in surprise at my sudden interference.
Guuuuuh?!
“I’ve used all my skills, you beefy idiot!”
Stamping on Minota’s hand holding the axe with my other foot, I leaped.
I only reinforced my right elbow.
As I tried to slam down onto the top of Minota’s head,
The number above Minota’s head clicked up one, and a mirror fragment appeared.
In that fleeting moment, I saw Minota raise his head, piercing my body with his horns.
‘Ah, f*ck, these horns are so troublesome.’
[If you aren’t in a relationship, it’s better to smash.]
‘Why are those a charm point in romance novels but a kill point for me?! Damn!’
Returning to the original moment.
First, I forcefully dispel the physical enhancement I’d advanced to my elbow.
The unnatural flow interrupts from my heart to my elbow and back.
The price pays on my body.
Blood bursts from my elbow.
But my arm isn’t broken yet.
I could still fight.
I recalled the direction of the horns Minota had aimed at me in the pre-regression future.
I prepped both my hands accordingly.
As Minota charged towards me, I grabbed his horns tightly with both hands.
Once again, a red number rose above Minota’s head.
Minota looked shocked as if it was impossible.
But there wasn’t time for concern, so I reinforced my right knee and prepared for a strike.
I immediately pulled the horns toward me and landed a knee strike to his face.
– Thwack!!!!
“Guuuuuh!!!”
“Not my sample!!!!”
“F*ck you!!!”
However, having finally seized an opportunity, I was not ready to finish him yet.
This time, I enhanced my arms and back.
As a result, fresh blood oozed from my right arm once more.
[Can you still use your right arm?]
‘It’s still fine!’
But regardless of that condition, I resumed action.
Keeping the knee strike against Minota’s face, I pulled my arms back with all my might.
To break free, Minota let go of the axe.
Instead, he chose to slam his fists into my sides.
– Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
“Guuuuuh!!!”
“Ahhhhhhh! F*cking Black Angus!!!! Who used anabolic steroids for too long!!!!”
[Hang in there! We’re almost there!]
With each hit, my body reverberated.
Bones creaked, and muscles screamed.
As my breathing became difficult, the scene in front of me blurred.
Yet I did not relent.
I couldn’t stop here.
Finally, my painstaking efforts bore fruit.
– Crack!!
“Guuuuuuuuuuuuuh!!!!!!”
I ripped off both of Minota’s horns that were obstructing me.
“Getting supplies for beef head soup is such a hassle.”
[From now on, don’t make it yourself; buy it instead.]
“Ugh!!! What have you done to my specimen, you bastard!!!!”
Last, I kicked Minota in the face and pushed away from him.
I didn’t need the horns, so I casually tossed them into the electric field.
For Minota, they were a proud partner and life companion.
But to me, they were just trash.
Minota was weeping, cradling his horn-less head as if this whole ordeal were a dream.
He acted like the moment was a lie.
But those torn-off horns would not return.
Then, seeing me toss away the horns like trash, he was overtaken by intense fury and charged at me instinctively.
“Guuuuuuh! Guuuuuuuuh! Guuuuuuh!”
“Why are you throwing a rage pattern here out of nowhere?!”
[My dear! During a rage pattern, the flesh will weaken!]
‘Really?’
Minota moved much faster than before.
If there was any good news, it was that he had become simpler.
As Minota passed by me, he immediately picked up the fallen double-edged axe.
Then when he turned to charge again,
He spun around and brought down the axe with force.
But,
– Swish!
Minota didn’t dodge the axe.
Instead, he took it directly on his body without regressing.
And that was the correct answer.
His anger had hardened his body to the point of nullifying the damage caused by the axe entirely.
Naturally, I never predicted this scenario.
Since Minota hadn’t regressed.
‘……’
[……]
‘……Isn’t this supposed to weaken him?’
[……I’m sorry. This is different from Monster Hunter.]
‘Damn.’
In that instant, I took a clean hit to the head.
It hit hard enough to send me farther than Minota had, slamming me into the ground.
[Come to your senses!]
‘Ugh, CC was perfectly applied. I’m so dizzy right now!’
[At least your head was solid; you only got CC’d.]
“Good!!! Go get him, my friend! Finish him!!”
“Guuuuuuuuuh!!”
“You son of a b*tch!! You called a calf a king of cows in the meantime!!!”
The professor, who had been overly interested in my death from earlier, echoed me.
Responding, Minota nonchalantly yanked the axe embedded in his body.
There was nothing tough about it.
The axe was barely lodged in there at all.
Holding the axe, he slowly approached me, raising it high over his head.
‘Please stop! You US Prime bastard!!’
[You have to move!]
But contrary to my desperate wish, the axe swung down mercilessly.
I shook my head in resignation, trying to steer my head away to avoid the path of the axe.
“GUUuuuuuuuh!!!!”
– Swoosh!!!!!
Minota swung the axe down with all his might.
The moment the axe’s blade collided with my head,
– Crash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The double-edged axe shattered into pieces.
It didn’t come without shock; my head throbbed a bit.
‘Tch, that really hurt.’
[……How is it that you can match that and just end up with a headache?]
To the onlookers, it seemed utterly nonsensical.
“….Jeong Ahyeon. Shinwoo, did that bastard break a steel axe with his head?”
“….Seems like it.”
“……”
“……”
“…..What about Hyeji?”
“She fainted long ago.”
With Hyeji and Jeong Ahyeon having their red numbers rise in sync, many others also had their red numbers go up silently.
The most surprised of all was Minota.
“Guuuh?…..Guuuh?”
He tilted his head in confusion about the situation.
He looked utterly dumbfounded.
Not missing this opportunity, I picked up a piece of the shattered axe and made an X-shaped gash across my right palm.
Then I bolted towards Minota, who still hadn’t regained his senses.
“Guuuuuuuuuuuuuh!!”
Only then did he come to, swinging both hands to stop me.
But even faster than his swinging arms,
I pierced Minota’s solar plexus with a straight right punch.
With my left arm fully reinforced.
– Woosh!!!!!!
The fierce strike smashed through thick muscle.
This time, Minota couldn’t even scream, only gasping.
In that instant, a number rose above Minota’s head again, and a mirror fragment appeared.
It felt like a final desperate act, but I didn’t bother to look closely.
I didn’t need to see to know I would win.
Instead, I stepped forward and stretched out my reinforced right arm.
“Meat it tender!!”
“Stop!!!!!!!!!!”
[Make it thick and juicy!!]
“Guu….guuuugh.”
My open right palm.
Just before it touched Minota’s body, I recalled Cheonma’s teaching.
– Gather the leaking qi energy into one point.
Something was seeping out from the wounds on my arm.
It was a translucent haze.
Imperfect in form but seeming to open the road ahead.
In that moment, my right arm gushed blood once more.
Some fingers bent in a direction they shouldn’t.
A shaking arm that proved my limits.
I even heard something snap.
But I could still move.
[Wrap it up!!!]
‘Die!’
Finally, my palm made contact with Minota.
In that moment, something condensed and exploded.
At the same time, a sharp pain shot from my palm.
I saw my palm wound burst open wider.
The price was steep, but
The effect was clear.
Minota’s body that had been touching my palm exploded.
Literally, his upper body shattered into pieces.
Chunks of flesh once making up Minota flew up into the air before raining down.
The only part that maintained any semblance of form was Minota’s head from his non-existent upper body.
“Ah……my experiment…”
The balding professor, feeling despair, sank to the ground.
Regardless of him, I kicked away Minota’s remaining lower half toward the electric field.
The violently trembling electric field gripped the protein mass,
And suddenly there was a sound of something cooking as the electric prison dissolved.
What remained was the delectably fragrant, perfectly grilled lower half of Minota.
Just smelling it made my hunger surge.
As if drawn by instinct, I blurted out.
“Short ribs… melting in my mouth.”
[You should’ve smeared butter on it before grilling.]
It’s a pity there are no ribeye steaks with the upper body destroyed.
It was a moment of victory that made me crave beef intensely.
