Moon's Labyrinths

Everyone had been calling it the defense of Armstrong city, but this was just a blanket statement. Armstrong city wasn’t the only location humanity had to protect.

There was the landing strip of the Aldrin spaceport, which stretched out of the city. The stake of the Mage city was the other vital location. After all, it was part of the mechanism that had created the force field and stopped the monsters from opening portals to Earth.

The location most difficult to defend amongst the three was the stake. The stake was incredibly large, and unlike Armstrong city, it lacked outer walls. This basically made it a large tower staked into the ground as it held up a large foundation.

This was the reason Armstrong's higher-ups had been most worried about the stake.

‘They came out in incredible numbers.’

Sungyoon admired the battlefield for a moment.

The monsters attacking Armstrong city had become a bit demoralized since they had met fierce opponents.

On the other hand, the monsters attacking the stake were full of spirit. They had the same enthusiasm that Sungyoon had seen when he had looked down at the monsters for the first time from the spaceship.

‘Thankfully, they can't use their portals to get there.’

It seemed the forcefield’s influence was active around the stake as the monsters couldn’t open direct portals to it. With that, the Connectors' side didn’t need to worry about a situation like in Armstrong city where the monsters had attacked from within.

However, Armstrong city was also unable to create portals near the stake. Therefore, Sungyoon’s party walked toward the stake and arrived near it.

- We’ve confirmed your location, Mr. Sungyoon. I see you're in the transport tunnel leading to the stake.

The Mayor checked Sungyoon's location as he spoke.

They had created a small transport route that connected Armstrong city to the besieged stake. Its purpose was to safely transport reinforcement and supplies, which made it the stake's lifeline.

- We’ve dispatched enough reinforcements to defend the transport route. We would like you and your party to support a different location. We’ll send you the coordinates.

Sungyoon's tablet displayed the new information.

His party started to run. It didn’t matter where they looked; fights were taking place in every direction.

As he ran, Sungyoon extended his hand toward the locations where the monsters had gathered en masse. Sharp stalagmites shot up from the ground and ruthlessly impaled the monsters.

While running to his designated location, Sungyoon did his best to help. He attacked where monsters had crowded and helped the places where monsters had overwhelmed the battle line.

‘This is the place.’

When they arrived at the location indicated on the tablet, the party saw an enormous army of monsters charging toward the front line defense in waves.

At a glance, one could tell that the fight here was fiercer compared to the other locations along the front line.

Without any hesitation, Sungyoon jumped into the battlefield. His party members followed suit and joined the front line.

The Royal Gem infused his body with power.

Sungyoon indiscriminately cut down any monster that came in his way. He didn’t even summon his shield, and solely focused on attacking. His right hand held his hammer, and his left hand held the ax.

‘I have to reduce the number of monsters here. Even if I get injured, I have a healer in Ms. Emily. I don’t have to worry about getting injured.’

He fought monsters of all sizes. Occasionally, he encountered some that could block his attack. However, he didn't get flustered; he calmly killed them all.

Some attacks got through his defense from time to time. However, none of them could break through his armor. Sometimes, the attacks were oppressive and overwhelming. In those situations, he immediately switched to his halberd. Whenever his halberd sliced through a monster, the discomfort he felt in his body melted away.

Suddenly, a large monster crushed the smaller monsters in its path as it charged toward him.

‘That's….’

It was a snake that creepily slithered across the ground. Overall, the monster didn’t look much different from a normal snake.

However, there was one big difference: its size.

The snake was the size of a house. Its venomous fangs, which could be seen within its mouth, were as long as a car.

At a glance, it looked similar to the Giant Snake Sungyoon had faced in the past. However, this monster was on a different level.

‘Jormungandr.’

Its name came from a monster in Norse mythology. The monster was as powerful as its namesake implied.

Jormungandr opened its mouth, and a liquid dripped down from its venomous fangs. The liquid fell on the corpse of a monster that Jormungandr had trampled.

The corpse melted away in an instant.

‘Its venom looks stronger than my ax's poison.’

Sungyoon saw the Connectors near him hesitantly step backward.

Jormungandr's head and upper body came to a stop, but its lower body, including the tail, continued to move forward as Jormungandr coiled upon itself.

Sungyoon could imagine what the snake was about to do next.

It shot its head forward like a bullet. All the monsters in its path were sent flying like the leaves caught in a fierce wind.

The Connectors in the battle line quickly dodged. However, two weren’t fast enough.

One of them collided with the bullet-like head of the snake. His armor shattered, and his body was ripped into pieces.

Jormungandr's fang grazed past the second Connector. The attack ripped open the man's armor and left a long wound. It was a shallow cut, but there was one problem: the venom. The injured Connector quickly retreated, and a healer moved forward to heal him. However, everything happened in an instant. The first appendage to melt away was his arm, then the venom invaded his main body. His flesh melted away, and liquid leaked out of the armor. The armor and the melting body fell to the dusty floor of the Moon.

‘Even a graze is a death sentence!’

Jormungandr's venom was frightening.Due to this snake, the battle line fell apart, and the monsters' attacks turned fiercer.

The monsters around Jormungandr charged forward.

‘Danger!’

Sungyoon unfurled his wings. He flew until he arrived under Jormungandr’s head.

‘Koohk!’

Jormungandr had a very quick reaction speed as it brought down its head toward Sungyoon. Its actions generated a small quake, and a large cloud of dust rose into the air.

‘It's no joke.’

Sungyoon dodged to the side in time as he assumed his fighting posture. However, the monster wasn’t done with its attack.

Jormungandr’s head pierced through the cloud of dust and moved across the ground like a whip. Innocent monsters in its path were sent flying like bowling pins.

Sungyoon quickly unfurled his wings once again and jumped backward. Jormungandr’s head passed through empty air instead of his body.

For a moment, Sungyoon exchanged glances with its red reptilian eyes.

‘Because of that size, its attacks are incredibly powerful.’

After crushing basically everything near it, Jormungandr raised its head.

‘As expected, we can't take them lightly on the Moon.’

On Earth, Sungyoon had the upper hand against Kevil and the Archdemons. Part of the reason he had been able to defeat them was that they couldn’t use their true powers on Earth.

In contrast, Sungyoon’s Gems had performed the same as they did on the Moon. Moreover, the source of magical energy had given him a buff.

Right now, the situation was different. Monsters could use their true powers, and while he had again received a buff from the source of magical energy, the buff was weaker than it had been when he had fought Kevil.

‘In some ways, this is the real fight.’

Jormungandr once again charged toward Sungyoon. It seemed the snake had become enraged after Sungyoon had dodged its attack several times.

It coiled its body once again, intending to use the bullet-like attack again.

Sungyoon gripped his halberd as Jormungandr shot toward him. However, he didn’t move this time around.

‘I don't need to fight it by myself.’

Someone in his party was more skilled at dealing with such attacks.

Tim appeared before Sungyoon, placed his large shield in front of him, and leaned forward.

Jormungandr’s face collided with Tim’s shield. Tim’s body skidded backward, but he didn’t lose his balance, and his sturdy shield managed to hold up.

Tim skidded until he reached Sungyoon, but in the end, he had stopped Jormungandr’s charge.

Sungyoon immediately moved. As soon as he moved past Tim, Jormungandr’s large face greeted him. Its venomous fangs were trying to pierce Tim’s shield, and Sungyoon could see the soft flesh behind those fangs.

He stabbed the roof of Jormungandr's mouth with the spear blade. Its flesh was tough, but in the end, the halberd pierced its mouth.

Jormungandr quickly retracted its head.

‘Jeez!’

Sungyoon also retreated.

‘I have to be careful of its venomous fangs.’

Those venomous fangs had missed him by several centimeters as they had brushed past him. He shuddered at the thought.

Jormungandr shook its head from side to side. The attack had been very painful for it.

It glared at Sungyoon. Its reptilian eyes had vertical pupils, and the slit looked sharper than ever.

Jormungandr opened up its mouth wide as if it wanted to swallow Sungyoon in one bite. Its mouth had almost opened at a 180-degree angle as it unhinged its jaws.

Suddenly, a lightning bolt hit Jormungandr. Grace had used her spell.

The lightning was already powerful, but it became more destructive since it had entered through Jormungandr's open mouth. Smoke started to come out of Jormungandr's mouth.

However, the monster didn’t fall over yet.

Sungyoon used his earth magic at this time.

Stalagmites erupted around Jormungandr and turned the nearby monsters into shish kebabs.

‘It works better than I expected.’

Until now, Sungyoon had used his spells strictly as support.

He focused on fighting close while rotating through his numerous weapons. Moreover, he had Grace for attack magic and Emily for healing magic. That was why he rarely used any of his spells as a pure attacking move.

Above all else, the part that held him back the most was the low rank of his magic Gems.

However, all of his Gems had gone through explosive growth when he killed Kevil.

Moreover, he had a Gem that increased the abilities of his other Gems, and it worked synergistically with the buff the Royal Gem gave to him. All of this made Sungyoon’s spells quite powerful now.

The stalagmites destroyed Jormungandr’s scales and pierced through its body.

However, even that wasn’t enough to kill it.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

While Jormungandr went mad from pain, Sungyoon ran up one of the stalagmites.

He reached Jormungandr’s head.

Jormungandr shook its head to regain its senses, and its red eyes started to search for its target once again.

Sungyoon jumped, aiming for the top of Jormungandr’s head.

‘Ha-aht!’

He gripped his halberd and thrust the spear blade with all his might. The spear blade broke through the scales and pierced deep within the monster’s head.

Jormungandr once again writhed in pain, and Sungyoon’s body was flung all over the place. However, he held onto his halberd.

‘I didn’t plan on killing it with this attack in the first place.’

He took a firmer hold of the halberd with his left hand and gripped his sword with the right. Then, he planted the sword right next to the halberd.

Jormungandr's struggles turned fiercer.

The sword discharged the lightning, but the attack didn’t cause much damage.

Since his posture was bad, Sungyoon couldn’t put much strength behind the sword strike.

He then raised his hammer and brought it down on the handle of his sword.

He kept pounding it.

Explosions kept occurring, and the sword went inside until only its handle could be seen.

‘Last one!’

Sungyoon swung his hammer once again. The sword accompanying the explosion completely pierced through the monster's head.

Jormungandr suddenly went limp. The momentum behind its thrashing remained as it fell to the ground. Its body squashed several monsters.

Sungyoon jumped off before the body hit the floor, and safely landed.

‘I did it.’

It happened as soon as Sungyoon let out a sigh.

In the distance, he saw a large cloud of dust, and out of it, came another large snake. There wasn't just one. Three Jormungandrs were coming toward the battle line.

‘Shit!’

Sungyoon was about to grab his sword once again when he saw two figures run toward the three Jormungandrs.

The first figure swung a sword and severed one of the snakes. The other jumped on top of the second snake and punched the head.

‘Sir Russell! Mr. Bruce!’

Reinforcements had arrived.