CHAPTER 89: IT EVEN ACTS LIKE HER!

"Yoon Seoyul, you need to come here quickly and see this!"

Cheon Areum shouted excitedly, keeping his eyes on the spider-alike human or human-alike spider boss. His control was slipping away because he didn’t have enough negative energy to hold the boss for longer. The glassy black eyes were fixed on watching him, as if waiting for an opportunity to pounce on Cheon Areum.

"Hey, Yoon Seoyul, what are you doing? Come here for a second. Forget about the underlings; I won’t be able to hold onto this thing for long anyway."

Yelling loudly, he walked closer to the thing and cleared out the sticky hair from its face. No matter how much he stared at that face, it was undoubtedly...

"Wow... As expected... Yoon Seoyul, this thing looks exactly like Lee Nari. Come here and take a picture of this thing and me. I’ll photoshop the hair, change it to pink, and show it to her. Poor Lee Nari, she’s missing out right now. The least I can do is get some photos as souvenirs for her..."

Rambling on and on by himself, Cheon Areum held the spider-alike human or human-alike spider’s face before getting annoyed at Yoon Seoyul’s unresponsiveness and finally turning around to him, but all he saw was a bunch of monsters ganging up on Yoon Seoyul, and all of them were now crawling on the ground like they were filming a horror movie without a single second of CGI.

"Yoon Seoyul, are you holding up alright? It seems I have lost control over them!"

Cheon Areum asked, seeing a dozen of them jump on Yoon Seoyul, and suspiciously turned back to the spider-alike human or human-alike spider, making eye contact with the thing.

"You’re controlling them, right? Don’t you know who that is?"

He pointed to Yoon Seoyul, who was barely visible now under the creepers.

"Lee Nari wouldn’t like you if you attack Yoon Seoyul, you know...."

Cheon Areum’s voice slowly trailed off as the spider-alike human or human-alike spider thing slowly twisted her neck towards him, despite him trying to keep her as still as a statue.

"Ah, you found your real target after all..."

Before he could activate another skill or even summon a spade card from his inventory, the thing lunged at him. Cheon Areum’s breath hitched as its weight slammed into him, sending him sprawling onto the cold, packed snow. His back hit the ground with a thud as he instantaneously crossed his arms over his face just in time, shielding it as the creature’s twisted, clawed limbs pinned him down. Its mouth was gaping unnaturally wide, black mist pouring out onto his face. The stench of decay and something sour filled his nose. Two long, curved fangs gleamed dully in the dim light, descending toward him like daggers.

"Not my face! Bite me anywhere else, just not the face! Ahh!"

Cheon Areum screamed—not in terror, but in sheer dramatics—as he flailed backwards, narrowly dodging the snapping fangs that went straight for his face. The thin black mist seeping from the creature’s mouth coiled around him like a living thing, and he held his breath with a scowl, waving a hand as if offended by the scent more than the danger.

"Disgusting! You need mouthwash and manners—!"

He raised his leg, ready to kick the spider-alike humanoid abomination straight into the next life, when suddenly—

*WHOOSH*

The creature was violently ripped off him, its elongated limbs screeching against the ground as it flew through the air like a cheap voodoo doll. It crashed into the mountain ahead of Cheon Areum and just behind Yoon Seoyul, sending a tremor through the snow-covered stone. He stood there with one hand outstretched. His expression remained blank, barely acknowledging the twisted thing now half-embedded in the rock behind him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah... But next time, try yeeting it before it breathes death fog into my pores. And how did you get covered in blood?"

Cheon Areum spoke, brushing the frost from his clothes as he stood up from the snow, his expression caught somewhere between annoyance and disbelief. Without responding, Yoon Seoyul turned away from him, his black eyes fixed on the abomination slithering back out from the cracked rock—its limbs bending in impossible directions, spine arching as it twisted its body to regain balance.

It skittered unnaturally fast toward them, all jagged motion and gurgling screeches, coming back to attack as Yoon Seoyul punched it square in the center of its deformed chest. A bone-breaking crunch echoed through the snowy valley as its body slammed hard into the mountain with enough impact to leave a deep dent in the rock. Snow dislodged from the cliff above, dusting down around the cratered site.

Cheon Areum blinked, stunned into a pause, his breath caught in his throat. His eyes trailed after Yoon Seoyul, who, without hesitation, leapt forward and butchered the spider-alike human or human-alike spider into the mountainside with a flurry of brutal strikes. Each hit landed with bone-shattering force, sending rocks and debris flying in every direction. The creature screeched, twisted, and crumbled under the onslaught, black goo splattering across the snow like spoiled blood.

Cheon Areum didn’t move—his eyes wide, lips slightly parted as he fumbled to get the megaphone out of his inventory. Directing it to Yoon Seoyul, he spoke urgently.

"Yoon Seoyul, that’s the same mountain we left Lee Nari on! Change your location, or you’ll collapse the whole mountain down! The gate is on that mountain too!"

Seeing that Yoon Seoyul had no intention of relocating to another mountain or even backing off, Cheon Areum’s eyes widened slightly. Without wasting his time, he dropped the megaphone. His hand shot up, fingers tightening in the air.

The crumbling rocks above them froze mid-fall.

With a sharp breath, Cheon Areum focused, binding the collapsing debris and fractured stones together with the mountain using his energy. The tremors dulled beneath his control, the cracks sealing just enough to stop a total collapse.