Dungeon Predator

The layout of the Guntrak Castle was simple; the entrance led to a gigantic hall, and players could reach the upper floors via the circular stairway.   

After ascending the stairs, another hall would be awaiting them. Upon reaching the end of the hall, there would be yet another stairway awaiting them. 

'I think the boss monster's at the top.'

Kang Oh stepped forward.

Upon contact, he heard a 'click' and his Hyper Intuition warned him of danger.

'A trap!'

Kang Oh didn't have time to warn her, so he pulled Asu towards him and jumped away.

"Huh?"

Asu widened her eyes at his sudden action.

At the same time...!

Whoosh!

Sharp needles popped out of the red crosses on the ground.

Thud.

Kang Oh landed on the floor, his body still wrapped around Asu's body.

"Oppa, are you ok?" she asked worryingly.

"Yeah. It's a good thing I dodged the trap." 

Kang Oh smiled.

The two stood up, and the sharp needles slowly receded into the ground.

"I forgot that Guntrak has a ton of traps."

Kang Oh scratched the back of his head.

"We should check for traps as we go," Asu said.

"Yeah, we should."

They progressed carefully.

A short while later...

The two encountered another evil spirit, but it was different from the ones they’d encountered prior. 

This evil spirit had long hair.

'It's a resentful evil spirit.'

There were a variety of different evil spirits; resentful evil spirits specialized in throwing ice spears.

Kang Oh and Asu engaged the resentful evil spirit. 

Gyaaaahk!

The evil spirit gave off an ear-splitting shriek and threw an ice spear. 

Kang Oh took care of the ice spear with his demon sword's special ability, which could absorb magic every 30 seconds, and cut through the evil spirits. 

Gyaaahk!

A resentful evil spirit wouldn’t die in peace; it would scream instead. 

After that...

They encountered several different types of evil spirits. Some emitted sound waves from their mouths, others possessed flaming bodies and charged at their enemies; there were also hand-less evil spirits with gigantic mouths, etc.  

Although they encountered a variety of evil spirits, Kang Oh and Asu were able to advance with ease. 

To be more specific, Asu fought well, but Kang Oh completely overwhelmed the ghosts.

They continued on, disarming the occasional trap, and eventually reached the top floor.

"This is the boss room."

The door was closed shut on both sides.

"Our mission is to defeat the Cannibalistic Evil Spirit, Alky, right?"

Asu recalled their mission.

"Yeah. Let me tell you what I know about Alky."

"Ok."

"Alky was the original owner of this castle, but he engaged in cannibalism; he was cursed and then became an evil spirit."

"Cannibalism... Ugh."

Hearing that, Soo Ah furrowed her brow.

"He's a piece of shit, so don't show any mercy."

"I'll do my best!" Asu pledged.

"Let me explain his attack patterns."

Kang Oh continued his explanation.

"... and that's all you have to do! You good?"

"Be careful of the traps and evade Evil Spirit's Ring at all cost. For everything else, we just adapt to the circumstances, right?"

"Good. Let's go."

Kang Oh forcefully opened the door.

Screech. 

The door 'screeched' as it scraped on the floor.

Thud.

Once the door was fully opened, they could see the boss room in its entirety.

The floor was filled with red crosses, and black smoke gathered at the center of the room like a black cloud. 

Uha!

The black smoke began to take shape. 

---

 [You have discovered the Cannibalistic Evil Spirit, Alky.]

---

It was none other than Guntrak's boss monster, Alky!

At that moment...

'It's transforming. If that's the case...'

Kang Oh assumed an iaido stance and swung diagonally.

Tempest Tiger!

The golden aura pounced on Alky.

Boom!

Tempest Tiger swept through the boss. 

Alky was in the middle of transforming, so it was a direct hit!

The black smoke comprising Alky's body dispersed, and shards of light spurt everywhere.

"Go!"

Kang Oh kicked off the floor.

He took a few steps, triggering a trap. Sharp spears burst from the ground.

Kang Oh wasn't surprised in the least and avoided the trap. He then continued to advance forward.

He knew that the boss room was rife with traps, so he had no reason to be surprised.

Anyway, Kang Oh avoided a trap and approached Alky, but Alky had already finished transforming and had assumed his original form.

Like other evil spirits, Alky possessed an upper body but no legs. Of course, it was quite large for an evil spirit.

Its body was disproportional. In other words, its head was large, but its body was comparatively small.

Half of Alky's round, black face was its mouth; its gaping mouth reminded him of Pac-Man.

Then...

What looked to be lumps of charcoal popped out of its mouth and came for Kang Oh.

Flaming evil spirits!

Kang Oh avoided the evil spirits via his Hyper Intuition and evasion. 

Bang, bang, bang!

The evil spirits passed him; as they collided with the floor or the walls, they exploded like firebombs.

However, Kang Oh wasn't interested in the fire show behind him.

Instead, he swung his demon sword at Alky with all his might.

Swish!

His sword sliced through Alky's face. No, it should've, but...

It felt different from all the other times he'd cut through ghosts.

'It feels sticky!'

He supposed this is what it felt like when you picked up honey with a spoon.

Kang Oh swung once more, but it didn't cut through; instead, it stuck to Alky's body once more.

Despite that, his demon sword was still effective against it. He hadn't attacked its weak point, yet red shards of light burst from Alky's body regardless.

Huwaah!

Alky began its counterattack. It expelled flaming evil spirits from its mouth once more.

Kang Oh quickly twisted his head to the side, but wasn't able to dodge all of them. In the end, he was struck by one of the evil spirits.

"Ugh!"

The damage was substantial.

He gritted his teeth and swung his sword.

Kang Oh's sword cut through Alky, but he wasn't able to go all the way through. 

'It may be an evil spirit, but I can't forget that it's a boss.'

He thought he'd be able to take down Alky in the single strike like the other evil spirits. But now, he realized that the battle could go on longer than he'd first expected.

'It's fine. It doesn't change the fact that I'm going to win.'

Kang Oh cleaved upwards.

Slash!

Swish.

A white line cleaved through Alky's body.

Kang Oh kept swinging his sword, pressing his offensive.

Asu fiercely swung her cold imbued sword from beside him.

Ptui!

Alky spat out all kinds of evil spirits.

Evil spirits that either threw fire with two hands, emitted sound waves from their mouth, or launched ice spears!

These evil spirits flew around Alky and attacked Kang Oh and Asu with fire, ice, and sound attacks.

They reminded him of a Carrier and its interceptors from Starcraft.

Kang Oh and Asu dodged their attacks, and leaped in different directions.

But Asu triggered a trap, causing a sharp spear to pop out of the ground.

She gritted her teeth and jumped away, dodging it by a hair's breadth. Then, an ice spear came flying at her. Asu was forced to jump away once more.

Kang Oh, however, had a much easier time than her.

After dodging the traps and the evil spirits' attacks, he threw a dagger at the ghosts guarding Alky.

Swoosh!

Thwock!

The horn dagger pierced the evil spirits' face.

Bzzzzt!

His dagger possessed the power of lightning!

Thus making it effective against evil spirits too.

After that, Kang Oh aimed for Alky.

Darkness Strike had activated just in time.

Boom!

Alky was swept up by an even deeper darkness.

Then, the spirits flying around Alky initiated a suicide attack against Kang Oh.

Kyaaaahk!

It was chaos.

Kang Oh retreated, and parried each and every spirit with his sword. His demon sword allowed him to cut through all of them.

At that moment...

Grr...

More evil spirits popped out of Alky's mouth. It looked like there were more than thirty of them.

But these ones seemed lackluster.

They weren't aflame, didn't hold ice spears, or emit sound waves; they just looked like tadpoles.

 "It's using Evil Spirit's Ring!" Kang Oh yelled.

Huaaang!

The tadpole-like spirits were spinning around Alky.

At some point...

Five of the evil spirits, now linked together in a circle, flew towards Kang Oh and Asu. 

This was Evil Spirit's Ring!

Six of these rings flew towards them. 

"Concentrate. Remember to watch out for traps too!"

"Ok!" Asu replied strongly.

The rings gradually widened, but that was all. They didn't feel threatening at all because of how slow they were.

Kang Oh and Asu were able to dodge them with ease.

However...!

This is when the rings would become dangerous.

The rings passed them, bouncing off the walls and floor, and caused chaos to ensue.

The evil spirits came from every direction.

"Dodge or parry them. And be careful of the traps too!"

Kang Oh did as he instructed as well.

"Ok!"

Asu carefully followed his instructions.

The evil spirits came from everywhere! Kang Oh and Asu could also trigger traps at any time too!

Kang Oh and Asu hectically dodged and parried the ghosts repeatedly.

'Good.'

At some point, Kang Oh's eyes gleamed.

He'd stayed next to her so that he could help her out if she needed it. 

However, Asu didn't need his help, and was holding out just fine on her own.

If that's the case, then...

'Let's finish this.'

Kang Oh moved his body around as if he were dodging gunfire from a shooting game, and rushed towards Alky.

Alky was maintaining the Evil Spirit's Ring, so he was completely defenseless.

"Huahp!"

Slash!

He slashed its face diagonally.

Then, he cut, stabbed, etc... But was forced to roll onto the floor due to the incoming evil spirits.

He pushed off the floor with his hand, but felt like he'd triggered a switch of sorts. Sharp needles immediately popped out of the ground.

'A trap!'

Roll, roll.

Kang Oh rolled to the side twice and stood up immediately. Then, he continued his assault!

Kyaahk!

Alky shrieked.

"Shut up!"

Kang Oh swung downwards, squashing Alky's face.

Pitter-patter.

It seemed as though Evil Spirit's Ring was over, as the tadpole-shaped spirits fell to the floor.

Kya!

Like it'd done before, Alky spat out flaming spirits.

Bang, bang, bang!

Flames arose from the walls and the ground!

After that, Alky attempted to spit out more evil spirits to protect itself.

"Just die already!"

Kang Oh thrust his sword into its mouth.

Tempest Tiger!

Whoosh.

Tempest Tiger bobbed up and down deep within Alky's mouth like a deep nail.

Alky's body swelled with the addition of the Tempest Tiger in its body.

Then...!

Bang!

---

[You have defeated the Cannibalistic Evil Spirit, Alky.]

---

A combination of black smoke and red shards of light flew through the air, and then disappeared on their own.

"Mission complete."

Kang Oh grinned.

"Hoo, hoo."

Asu caught her breath.

"Good work."

Kang Oh gave her a thumbs up, and then picked up the items Alky had dropped.

It was a worn-out and shabby hair pin.

'This is...?'

Kang Oh recalled what he'd seen on the post regarding Alky.

"Here."

"What is this?"

"It's a keepsake of all of Alky's victims. If you bury this in a sunny place, then you should get a reward."

Though it wasn't a huge reward.

The spirits of the victims would appear, give some experience, and then express their thanks.

"Understood."

Asu placed the hair pin into her inventory.

"Let's head back to the studio and finish things up."

"Alright."

Previous Chapter Next Chapter