The Support Ate it All - Chapter 650: No. 104 Black Serpent Fang (4)

Then the difficulty dropped dramatically.

There was no way the Black Serpent Fang Lord was going to throw away the poison art he had used his whole life and suddenly switch to a different martial art.

If your combat power was high enough, even one party—or less than that—would be perfectly sufficient.

Kim Ho had also judged that the three of them alone could handle the boss raid.

The important part is the process.

How easily could they bring him down, and with how little damage?

As Dang Gyu-ri was thinking that, the Black Serpent Fang Lord bent his body ever so slightly, then suddenly kicked off the ground and shot forward.

As if they had been waiting for it, the Gyu shadow undead attacked from both sides at once.

Deep wounds were carved into the Black Serpent Fang Lord’s shoulder and upper arm.

But it seemed he had calculated even that from the start, because he ignored it and kept charging.

Straight toward Hong Yeonhwa, descendant of the Flame Tyrant and champion of duck stew.

Of course, there was no way Dang Gyu-ri was going to let that happen.

Cutting in between them, they swung the club at the black claws slashing down.

Unable to withstand the force of the impact, the Black Serpent Fang Lord was pushed back about half a step.

A look of surprise surfaced on his face.

“To think I would be the one at a disadvantage. You truly are an expert. However—”

Stepping with movements like a snake, this time he lunged at Seo Ye-in.

Just like before, Dang Gyu-ri intercepted him, and he paid the price for driving himself right into the middle of enemy lines.

Dark-Shadow Commander and Blood Sword Commander stabbed and cut, mana rounds slammed into him, and flame magic poured over him.

The Black Serpent Fang Lord’s body stiffened for just an instant, then suddenly erupted with pitch-black demonic energy and poisonous miasma.

He was finally beginning to fully deploy his demonic arts.

Not only that, but the wounds covering his body rapidly began to heal.

Showing his teeth, he laughed.

“Heh heh……. I am immortal.”

For a long time now, Black Serpent Fang had been carrying out a great demonic art using the young people of the region as vessels.

They had failed to take the waiter from the duck stew inn, but countless lives had already been sacrificed.

As a result, Black Serpent had gained a body he could call immortal.

Not that he was actually immortal.

He just has an absurd amount of health.

That was another reason so many people were recommended for the raid.

The battle was guaranteed to drag into a long fight, which meant greater consumption of stamina, mana, and all other resources.

And if the fight dragged on, poisoned status conditions would linger that much longer too.

Which meant even more pressure on the detox specialists.

That made Dang Gyu-ri think the same thing again.

But we have ★All-Poison Immunity★, don’t we?

Without the poison threat, the Black Serpent Fang Lord was just a scarecrow with a lot of health.

Even so, they wanted to end this as fast as possible if they could, because the bet Dang Gyu-ri had made with Kim Ho was tied directly to that.

Back during the strategy meeting, Dang Gyu-ri had casually thrown out a question.

Kim Ho had answered flatly.

No matter how overwhelming the firepower of those three was, taking down the Black Serpent Fang Lord in a short time was impossible.

That had been his prediction.

He expected the Black Serpent Fang Lord to still be alive even after the infiltration squad completed its objective, defeated White Serpent, and rejoined them.

At that, Dang Gyu-ri had asked again with a playful smile.

That essentially meant he would grant them anything.

For Kim Ho, it had been an unusually bold offer.

Of course, it also meant he was that confident.

Sometimes we need to land one on him too.

If it had been just Dang Gyu-ri alone, maybe not—but with Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeonhwa joining in, it felt possible to go beyond Kim Ho’s prediction.

Naturally, those two had already heard about the bet too.

Dang Gyu-ri smiled at them.

“A wish ticket depends on how you use it. So cooperate.”

“……!”

If they used their heads right, everyone could end up happy.

Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeonhwa were clearly thinking the same thing, because their eyes lit up and their fighting spirit flared.

Each of them already imagining what they would ask for if they somehow won.

“……?”

At that, the Black Serpent Fang Lord’s brow twitched.

Because in the middle of battle, a suspiciously pink atmosphere had suddenly started drifting around.

“So you have enough room to be distracted by other things.”

“Too much room, actually. Try harder.”

“……I’ll see how long you can keep fooling around!”

The Black Serpent Fang Lord and Dang Gyu-ri clashed once more.

Then, in the next instant, his body seemed to blur, and he began wildly raking through empty air.

Ink-dark aura blades swept in every direction.

The poison might not matter, but if those aura blades hit, they would still hurt.

So each of them evaded in their own way.

The Black Serpent Fang Lord watched that carefully, then his eyes sharpened.

He had found a tiny opening.

Now!

Pushing his footwork to the extreme, he lunged at Seo Ye-in.

Then he slashed diagonally with his extended claws—

But hologram Fast-Luckless jumped in and thrust the pot forward.

If it had been the Immortal Pot, it would have blocked it easily.

Unfortunately, the hologram pot’s defense was somewhat lacking.

It was instantly shredded to pieces, and the follow-up strike carved a long wound across Fast-Luckless’s body too.

Fast-Luckless’s new body seemed to grow faint.

Then she simply vanished.

Having landed his first successful hit, the corner of the Black Serpent Fang Lord’s mouth lifted.

Got one of them.

But just then, a WHOOM—! sounded from a short distance away as light gathered, and Fast-Luckless appeared again.

Then she spoke in a familiar line.

“……!”

She blurred and vanished again, then reappeared somewhere else with another WHOOM—! sound effect.

And spread both arms out to the sides.

“……!”

A thick vein stood out on the Black Serpent Fang Lord’s forehead.

Meanwhile, Seo Ye-in, looking more tired than before, said to Fast-Luckless,

“My mana…….”

Stop taking it.

*****

A great rumble carried over from the distance.

At the main gate, the Gyu party should have been in the middle of a fierce battle against Black Serpent and the Black Serpent Fang members.

Judging by how sharply the number of people stationed inside had dropped, they seemed to be doing even better than expected.

Meanwhile, we were moving along the maze-like corridors on our own.

Some of them had mechanism formations installed.

Others had elite martial artists waiting in ambush.

This would’ve been easier if trap master Shin Byeongcheol had been with us.

Since he was not, all we could do was avoid the mechanism formations.

Even so, despite taking wide detours, we were actually moving faster than expected.

Because the sword-wielding couple were cutting down every enemy they encountered on sight.

Then, after eliminating yet another witness, Han Somi spoke.

“Perfect crime!”

She had clearly been deeply influenced by my ideology.

It really was true that people grew close when they talked often.

Eventually, we arrived in front of the lord’s storage room.

After instantly taking down the elite martial artists guarding the area, we took the key and opened the door.

Before stepping inside, I said to the two of them,

“Go stand farther away. Over there.”

“I shall.”

Go Hyeonwoo nodded readily.

Then he led Han Somi down the corridor.

I glanced at them once, then finally stepped into the storage room.

All kinds of precious and valuable goods were stacked in neat piles.

But every single one of them had black talismans attached.

They were poison talismans made through the Black Serpent Fang Lord’s martial arts.

If someone touched one, the room would instantly fill with poisonous smoke.

So what?

The moment I grabbed a porcelain vessel nearby, black smoke immediately started pouring out from all directions.

This is why I told them to go farther away.

Those two did not have ★All-Poison Immunity★ yet.

I casually waved my hand through the air a few times and looked around.

Now that the poison talismans had become useless, this place—once a deadly trap-filled chamber—had been reduced to nothing more than an ordinary storeroom.

The number of things I could take had increased dramatically.

Unfortunately, only some of them counted as actual items.

Still, this is plenty.

For a bonus reward, it was a pretty generous haul.

I stored everything I could take into my inventory, including the [Lord’s Black Chest] hidden away in one corner.

Then, feeling nicely reassured, I left the storage room.

Go Hyeonwoo came over at once and asked,

“Are you done?”

“I’m done. Now it’s your turn.”

“……!”

Tension rose across Go Hyeonwoo’s face.

At last, it was time for him to meet White Serpent again.

At the same time, I could also see several complicated emotions mixed together there.

Excitement at meeting the opponent he had waited so long for.

Anxiety because he could not know whether he would win.

Guilt over using the sacred relic on his own terms.

All of it seemed tangled together.

Even Han Somi, whose expression had been bright until now, looked serious and worried at this point.

But Go Hyeonwoo quickly regained his calm and said,

“I am ready. Let us go.”

“That’s more like it.”

I grinned and took the lead, with the other two following behind me.

Not long after that, we found a place wide enough.

Plenty wide for two excellent swordsmen to settle things.

Next we need to meet White Serpent.

As the hidden boss, he was the only true variable in the Black Serpent Fang clear.

He wandered aimlessly wherever he pleased, and if your luck was really bad, you ran into him.

Back then, Go Hyeonwoo and Shin Byeongcheol had been that truly unlucky case.

But I think our luck’s pretty good today.

So far, not a single white hair of White Serpent had appeared.

Naturally, this too was expected.

I knew a method to find him.

And I had an even better method.

All I have to do is call him out.

Soon, I reached into my inventory and pulled out an object with multiple bells hanging from it.

The soul-summoning bell.

Then I said to the two of them,

“Cover your ears.”

It was A+-rank, and saturated with negative energy.

Simply hearing it could damage the mind.

Covering their ears would only help so much, but it was still better than not doing it at all.

For the record, I was being protected by the Sovereign’s reliable mental barrier.

After confirming that both of them had covered their ears, I shook the soul-summoning bell wildly into the air.

“……?”

Han Somi went blank almost immediately.

Maybe she was more easily affected by the soul-summoning bell because she was an idiot.

Seeing Go Hyeonwoo endure it at least somewhat made that guess feel more convincing.

As I was having that useless thought, I sensed a presence approaching from far away.

Soon, the one who appeared was an old man white from head to toe.

His clothes were white, his pale skin was white, and even the pupils of his eyes were white.

He was the hidden boss.

And an elder of the Demonic Cult.

White Serpent.

His gaze went straight to me, then shifted to my hand.

“……So the soul-summoning bell of our cult has ultimately fallen into the hands of an outsider. What a truly lamentable thing.”