I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 102

102.

Whirr-

With a single swing of Alice’s staff, following Ignis’s instructions, a multitude of [Salamanders (fire elementals)] materialized on the ground.

The hunters, familiar with the [Salamanders] from previous encounters, flinched initially but were relieved to realize they weren’t the targets.

Despite the sudden appearance of the Salamanders, the battlefield remained eerily silent, like the eye of a storm.

The black snake’s six yellow eyes remained fixed on the ground below, resembling moons in the dark night sky. Their unwavering gaze was unsettling.

“Why are those eyes staring like that? It’s creepy,” Kim Su-hyeok grumbled, drawing his weapon, ‘Midnight,’ and loading it with a *clack*.

As if that sound served as the starting gun, the battle erupted once more.

Whooshhhhh-

One of the snake’s heads unleashed a torrent of black smoke towards the skeletons. In response, the skeleton soldiers surged from the holes with renewed speed and ferocity.

Alice swung her staff again, and the Salamanders advanced to engage the skeletons.

Ignis, observing the situation from beside Alice, flew towards Yoo Ji-an.

[I’ll handle one head.]

Ignis glared at the [Black Magician (Evolved)] black snake with palpable anger, fueled by the years of torment and imprisonment he had endured due to its mental magic.

Yoo Ji-an, without a word, summoned his hawk, ‘Kian.’

Kian, with Yoo Ji-an mounted on his back, ascended rapidly into the sky with powerful wingbeats.

Soon after, Ignis soared towards the remaining head.

‘He’ll be okay.’

Seo-ah briefly glanced at Yoo Ji-an before refocusing on the battle against the relentless skeletons. Still feeling she had some leeway, Seo-ah quickly drank a mana potion. Then, she busily moved around, casting buffs on her party members.

“Hunter Park Seo-ah!”

Song Jin-ho abruptly grabbed Seo-ah’s arm, halting her movement.

“Don’t wander too far from me.”

“Ah, yes. I understand!”

The skeletons emerged endlessly from beneath the steep cliff, resembling a swarm of insects crawling, sending shivers down her spine.

“Ugh.”

Seo-ah spotted a skeleton attempting to breach the barrier and swatted it with her toy hammer.

“Go back in!”

Bbyok!

Fortunately, the blow seemed to knock it off balance, preventing it from gaining a foothold.

However, that was just one skeleton dealt with, and in the meantime, even more skeleton soldiers had risen to the ground.

“Let’s start cleaning up.”

Kang Hae-in initiated the counterattack by unleashing a [Water Bomb (a skill that creates a large sphere of water)], sweeping away a large number of skeletons. The dislodged skeletons tumbled down, colliding with those attempting to climb up.

Despite the significant number that had fallen, many still remained.

“Eat this!”

This time, Kim Su-hyeok transformed ‘Midnight’ into a machine gun and unleashed a hail of bullets at the standing skeletons.

The skeletons struck by the bullets disintegrated into bone powder, which rained down the cliffside.

The Salamanders also provided a fiery barrier, preventing the skeletons from advancing further.

The battle on this front seemed to be progressing favorably.

But suddenly,

“Be careful!”

Yoon Ah-jeong swung her falchion and activated the skill [Sand Armor (a defensive skill that creates a protective layer of sand)], spreading it over a wide area.

Just before the Sand Armor fully deployed, something whizzed through the air and embedded itself at Seo-ah’s feet.

“What is this?”

It was a small, black, and shiny scale from the black snake’s body.

The snake was using its scales as projectiles. The edges of the scales were sharp and dangerous.

While most of the scales were directed at Yoo Ji-an and Ignis in the sky, some also rained down on the ground.

Fortunately, most of them were deflected by Yoon Ah-jeong’s [Sand Armor]. Simultaneously, Yoon Ah-jeong defended and attacked with [Stone Arrow (a skill that launches projectiles of stone)].

The skeleton soldiers were pummeled by the stones, falling like rain.

Meanwhile, Seo-ah’s buff skill duration expired, prompting her to reapply the buffs to her party members.

Thanks to Seo-ah’s enhancements, the hunters were performing significantly better than usual, but as the number of skeletons increased, they began to be pushed back gradually.

Skeleton soldiers swarmed around Seo-ah and Song Jin-ho, who were positioned relatively in the rear.

Dealing with one or two skeletons would be manageable, but with Seo-ah’s E-class ability, she couldn’t handle such a large group.

Seo-ah hesitated, clutching her toy hammer, but Song Jin-ho stepped forward.

“I should save it, but….”

Song Jin-ho sheathed the mace he had been using to crush the skeletons and switched to a rod.

“Hunter Song Jin-ho?”

It was the first time she had seen Song Jin-ho wielding a rod.

Song Jin-ho smiled at Seo-ah, then raised the rod high and slammed it forcefully on the ground. The bell at the end of the rod jingled, and a wave of light emanated outwards.

It was Song Jin-ho’s [Area Heal (a skill that heals all allies in a certain radius)] skill.

Normally, it would simply heal allies within a wide area, but the situation was different now. These skeleton soldiers were undead-type monsters summoned by the [Black Magician]. Healing skills inflicted direct damage to undead creatures.

In the ‘Parasitic Desert,’ Seo-ah had temporarily zombified enemies using an item, and Yang Tae-woo’s healing skill had damaged them as a result.

The skeleton soldiers within the range of Song Jin-ho’s [Area Heal] disintegrated into dust instantly.

“Wow.”

Seo-ah looked at Song Jin-ho with a mixture of admiration and curiosity. Sensing her gaze, Song Jin-ho smiled awkwardly and said.

“You’re wondering why I didn’t use it sooner, right?”

“Well… yes.”

“There’s a downside. After using this, I can’t use normal healing skills for 10 minutes.”

“Ah… really? Oh no, 10 minutes.”

“Got it! So try to hold out well for 10 minutes!”

She overheard some grumbling from the others at Song Jin-ho’s shout, but she couldn’t make out the words clearly.

Of course, Song Jin-ho wasn’t just standing around because he couldn’t use healing skills. He retrieved his mace and resumed swinging it with renewed vigor.

Thanks to him, the ground team gained some breathing room, and Seo-ah looked up.

A spectacular battle was unfolding above, with lightning flashing on one side and blue fire erupting on the other.

Yoo Ji-an was battling the snake’s head while riding on Kian’s back.

The snake’s scales flew like a swarm of locusts, relentlessly pursuing Yoo Ji-an, while Kian maneuvered swiftly, engaging and disengaging from the snake in rapid succession.

Kwarururung-

Each time Yoo Ji-an swung Ruin Blade, streaks of light descended from the sky, accompanied by thunderous rumbles.

Yoo Ji-an and Ignis alone were engaged in a far more intense and challenging battle than the one below.

Yoo Ji-an was the primary damage dealer against the black snake, while Ignis’s role was to prevent the other head from interfering with Yoo Ji-an.

Suddenly, one of the giant snake’s heads was severed by Yoo Ji-an’s swordsmanship and plummeted to the ground.

[Kuaaaaaak! How… does he know my weaknesses so accurately?]

As the black snake howled in pain and shock, a team chat message appeared in the members’ system windows.

– Kim Su-hyeok.

“Wow, isn’t Ji-an crazy? What is he sending in the middle of this?”

– Why?

Kim Su-hyeok clicked his tongue but answered faithfully.

– Prepare.

It was a terse instruction, but Kim Su-hyeok immediately took his position and reconfigured ‘Midnight’ into a sniper rifle.

“Ha… how many lives does that hyung have?”

He sighed as he aimed at the snake’s remaining head.

Yoo Ji-an was perched atop the bloodied snake’s head, holding on with Ruin Blade.

An average person would have been blown away by the bullet Kim Su-hyeok fired, but Kim Su-hyeok trusted that Yoo Ji-an would be fine.

– Shoot.

At Yoo Ji-an’s command, Kim Su-hyeok aimed the gun precisely at the snake’s eye and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The bullet fired from Midnight pierced the snake’s yellow eye without an inch of deviation. Simultaneously, a massive explosion erupted.

[Kuaaaaaak-!]

Fire and smoke billowed outwards, and the charred snake’s head crashed to the ground.

“Hunter Yoo Ji-an….”

Seo-ah watched with a nervous heart, searching for him.

“He’s okay, he’s safe over there.”

Looking closely at the spot Song Jin-ho indicated, she saw Yoo Ji-an performing a somersault through the smoke of the explosion and landing safely on Kian’s back.

“…Ah.”

Seo-ah visibly relieved, tried to turn her attention back to the battle on the ground.

But then, the head that Ignis was guarding broke through Ignis’s flames and lunged forward.

“There…!”

Despite its head being engulfed in flames, the snake ignored the pain and suddenly spewed a thick cloud of black smoke at Yoo Ji-an in the air.

[Did you think I would be defeated like this!]

Yoo Ji-an frantically directed Kian to evade the attack, but the smoke’s range was too vast.

The smoke pursued Yoo Ji-an relentlessly, like a living entity, and quickly enveloped him, forming a dense barrier around him.

Trapped within the thick barrier, Yoo Ji-an lost his balance on Kian’s back and plummeted downwards.

“Ji-an hyung!”

Witnessing the scene, Song Jin-ho and Kim Su-hyeok sprinted towards the point where he was falling.

Kang Hae-in and Yoon Ah-jeong also glanced back, but they couldn’t abandon their positions guarding against the skeletons.