Not A Regressor - Chapter 370

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 370
Black Star Constellation (6)
“What, what is this?!”
Ha-eun screamed as she stood atop the mudflat that undulated like waves.
Her body swayed back and forth like a balloon figure in front of a newly opened shop.
No matter how superhuman one’s physique might be, maintaining balance while sinking knee-deep into a mudflat that heaved like the tide was nearly impossible.
“Tsk.”
Kwon O-jin clicked his tongue as he barely managed to steady himself atop the churning mudflat.
One could say he’d let his guard down.
No, I had to admit my thinking had simply been shallow.
‘The reason they didn’t erase their footprints.’
If they boldly left their traces yet still concealed their bodies, there could be only one explanation.
‘The footprints themselves were the bait.’
They must have known I would move the moment the Black Star Constellation appeared.
I’d fallen for the trap beautifully.
“Iheehiehiehihing!”
A pack of horse-headed demonic beasts emerged from the undulating mudflat.
With webbed feet as broad as duck flippers on their soles, they glided across the heaving mudflat as if surfing on a board.
They had arrived on Earth three days ago by crossing the Dimensional Rift, and had been hiding beneath this mudflat without venturing anywhere since.
‘That’s why they were impossible to find.’
As the saying goes, the darkest spot is beneath the lamp.
I hadn’t anticipated they would remain at their initial arrival point without taking a single step, waiting for me.
‘Anyway.’
I gazed at the horse-headed demonic beasts that were now emitting cries nearly identical to actual horses.
Horse heads atop bodies covered in hard scales, hands and feet sprouting webbed appendages and sharp claws.
I’d already seen their appearance in the footage.
“Could it be because they’re seahorses that they look like that?”
Good grief.
They looked deplorably thoughtless.
It seemed like they were created with some crude notion—’Seahorses are horses of the sea, right? So just slap a horse’s head on a vaguely fish-like humanoid body and call it done!’—a demonic beast born of lazy design.
“Iheehiehiehihing!”
Whether the seahorses knew my thoughts or not.
They surrounded my group, who were struggling trapped in the mudflat, and released grotesque cries as if mocking us.
The leading seahorse raised its scale-covered arm.
Squelch.
Its forearm split open, and needle-like spines protruded sharply.
A fishy stench emanated from the violet liquid beading at the spine tips.
‘Poison.’
I gazed at the violet liquid gathering at the spine tips with narrowed eyes.
I couldn’t tell if it was the same type of poison that had afflicted Yoko before, but regardless, being poisoned would certainly become quite troublesome.
Whoooosh!
A seahorse gliding across the mudflat that undulated like ocean waves.
Sharp spines bored toward Kwon O-jin’s throat with lethal intent.
It was an awkward attack to evade while mired in mud up to his knees, unable to move his body properly.
“For something so grotesque, its attacks lack conviction.”
Kwon O-jin used Lightning Step to launch himself into the air, effortlessly dodging the spines.
A sharp whistle cut through the air.
He drew Dantalian from his waist, transformed it into the shape of a spear, gripped it in reverse, and drove it downward with devastating force.
The spear pierced through the seahorse’s brow and impaled itself into the ground below.
Death came so swiftly the creature couldn’t even shriek.
Landing back in the mud, Kwon O-jin reached toward the spear lodged in the seahorse’s skull.
Crack!
The spear shattered through bone and slipped free from the seahorse’s head as if possessed by life itself, returning to Kwon O-jin’s grasp.
‘Movement is hindered, certainly.’
But I hadn’t lived such a fragile life that I’d be helpless simply because of inconvenient footing.
Of course.
The same held true for his companions gathered here to face the Black Star Constellation.
“Hyaaaaaaagh!”
Sakaki charged forward with a roar that shook the earth, seizing the seahorse’s shoulder in an iron grip.
He locked the creature’s shoulder firmly in place, then brought his forehead down like a hammer.
“Heave!”
Crunch!
The seahorse’s head caved inward.
Still gripping the crushed head, Sakaki hurled it at the swarm of seahorses rushing in behind it.
The massive seahorse—weighing hundreds of kilograms—shot forward like a cannon shell.
“Are you watching, Koshiro?! A true man overcomes such disadvantages through sheer spirit!”
“Yes, Oyabun!”
Koshiro answered with a powerful voice, spreading both arms wide.
The stigma of Cassiopeia blazed with light, conjuring dozens of translucent shields around his body.
“Protect!”
Dozens of shields unfurled like a curtain in midair, launching toward the seahorse swarm.
Screech!
The seahorses, driven back by the translucent shields descending from all directions, tumbled backward across the slimy mudflat.
The shields possessed almost no offensive power, merely forcing the tide of seahorses to retreat momentarily.
Yet even that was enough to create an opening for counterattack.
“May I borrow your shields for a moment!”
Lee Woo-hyuk drew his sword and leaped onto one of the translucent shields floating through the air.
With feline grace, he landed atop the shield and raised his blade high.
“Strike them down!”
The stigma of Leo blazed with fierce radiance as a savage gale swept forward.
Each gust was composed entirely of sharp blade energy.
The fierce wind converged toward Lee Woo-hyuk’s raised sword.
“Ugh!”
Like crossing stepping stones, Lee Woo-hyuk leaped and sprinted between shield and shield.
Toward the seahorses scattered and blocked by the shields, he wielded his blade wreathed in wind with savage intensity.
Crunch crunch crunch!
The seahorse’s body tore apart as if mauled by a lion’s fangs.
Crimson blood cascaded onto the mudflat.
“Huff.”
Having swept away dozens of seahorses in a single stroke, Lee Woo-hyuk landed back on the mudflat, breathing heavily.
“Move! Move! Move!”
“Hm?”
An urgent voice rang out.
Lee Woo-hyuk instinctively dodged at the warning.
And then.
Whoooosh!
A massive inferno swept across the mudflat, engulfing the crawling seahorses.
The damp, waterlogged mudflat transformed into a parched desert in an instant as an intense heat storm ravaged the surroundings.
“Tsk!”
A low hiss escaped Lee Woo-hyuk’s lips.
Despite the considerable distance, the heat was intense enough to scorch his skin.
For a high-tier awakener’s body to be singed by ambient heat alone meant that an ordinary awakener would have been charred to ash by the surrounding flames.
‘What kind of power is that…!’
Lee Woo-hyuk turned to stare at the origin of the inferno with wide eyes.
There stood Ha-eun, her blindfold removed, scratching her head with an awkward smile.
“Ehehe. Sorry, I still can’t control the firepower very well~”
“….”
She’d created that tidal wave of flame with such a carefree expression.
Lee Woo-hyuk shook his head in disbelief.
“Ugh. Damn, this is so inconvenient to move in.”
Ha-eun frowned as she looked down at the mudflat that swallowed her thighs.
She called out as she surveyed the mudflat that had dried from the intense flames.
“Kwon O-jin! Should we just burn this whole place dry with fire?”
“Wait a moment.”
With Ha-eun’s power, she could sweep the entire area with flames and dry out the mudflat, but doing so would catch everyone else in the inferno as well.
‘And.’
Kwon O-jin narrowed his eyes as he examined the spot where Ha-eun had unleashed her flames.
The mudflat that had dried from the tremendous heat was rapidly becoming damp again, transforming back into sticky mud.
‘Evaporating the moisture won’t help.’
This place bordered the Sea.
If it sinks, I simply fill in what’s lost.
“Grrk! O-jin! The mudflat is getting deeper!”
Lee Woo-hyuk, who had been savagely slaughtering seahorses, cried out with furrowed eyes.
He was right.
Legs that had been submerged to the knees were now sinking into the mudflat up to the thighs.
As if being sucked into a swamp.
‘Wait.’
Getting progressively deeper?
“….”
Kwon O-jin surveyed his surroundings with narrowed eyes.
One thing.
Something that should have been visible was nowhere to be found.
“…Where is he?”
[What are you looking for?]
“That Constellation of the seahorses, obviously.”
Right now, as seahorses crawled from the mudflat and swarmed toward my group like a swarm of bees.
This would be the perfect timing to pick off my party members one by one.
So where was Anselladus, the Constellation of the seahorses?
[Perhaps he’s standing idle and watching? Constellations tend to dismiss humans for that very reason.]
“Would such a being set a trap like this?”
If Anselladus were truly dismissing my group,
there would be no reason to set such a troublesome trap in the first place.
The fact that he wasn’t appearing despite not ignoring us meant….
“Ha.”
As I continued my thoughts, a faint laugh escaped my lips and I wiped my face.
“…I was thinking about this wrong.”
I bit my lip, watching the swarm of seahorses crawling up from the mudflat.
‘He wasn’t trying to ambush us using geographical advantage.’
I had been thinking about this wrong.
I had been making a careless assumption.
Because it bordered the sea, because it was made of sticky mud.
I had naturally assumed this place was a mudflat.
“This isn’t a mudflat.”
This place.
Is a ‘swamp’.
“Those seahorses were bait to keep us trapped here from the start.”
Not an ambush using geographical advantage,
but the geographical advantage itself was the most threatening attack.
Squelch!
My body, which had been submerged to the thighs, suddenly sank up to my waist.
“What, what is this?”
Ha-eun struggled to pull herself free from the mud with a panicked expression, but her body wouldn’t budge—as if some colossal beast had her in its grip.
“Kwon O-jin, this is….”
Lee Woo-hyuk turned to me with a rigid expression etched across his face.
Even if it was true that escaping from mud was difficult once you sank in, that principle applied only to ordinary people.
Every single member of my group had reached at least the 9-Star awakener rank.
We were superhumans capable of escaping effortlessly even if buried up to our necks in earth.
But.
“Ugh! O, Oyabun, my body…!”
“Koshiro! Focus your spirit! Hold on through sheer willpower!”
The mudflat—no, the swamp consuming them held even these superhuman bodies in an iron grip, savagely dragging them deeper.
It was as if the entire earth spanning several kilometers had come alive with malevolent intent.
Only one entity could manifest such a supernatural phenomenon.
And that entity was now hidden beneath the swamp, pulling them down into its depths.
“Vega.”
[My, my child! You must escape this place at once!]
“I know.”
I retrieved the wire shooter from my wrist and handed it to Vega.
[What is this…?]
“Bind the others’ bodies with the wire and deliver them to Sakaki.”
Escaping the swamp was impossible without the monstrous strength of a Taurus awakener.
[Ah, understood!]
Vega swiftly traversed the empty air, binding Ha-eun, Lee Woo-hyuk, and Koshiro with wire before handing the shooter to Sakaki.
Sakaki accepted the wire-connected shooter and turned his head toward me.
“What am I supposed to do with this, little brother?”
“Stand on Koshiro’s shield and pull the others free from the swamp!”
“But even so….”
Sakaki surveyed the surroundings with an uncertain expression.
The swamp encroaching on the Coastal Beach stretched for several kilometers.
Even if we pulled them free, they’d sink right back in unless they could fly through the air.
“Ten seconds is all I need.”
“Hmm. Got it.”
Sakaki nodded and shouted toward Koshiro.
“Koshiroooooo! Send your shield this way!”
“Yes, Oyabun!”
A translucent shield flew toward Sakaki.
“Hnnnngh!”
The Taurus stigma blazed brilliantly as Sakaki’s legs tore through the mud and broke free.
Standing atop the shield Koshiro had conjured, Sakaki stomped his feet with brutal force.
“Hyaaaaaaaaah!”
Kuuuuuung!
Sakaki shot upward, soaring dozens of meters into the air.
“Kyaaaah! I’m flying! I’m actually flying!”
“Ugh…!”
Ha-eun, Lee Woo-hyuk, and Koshiro—all connected by wire to Sakaki—were lifted skyward alongside him.
Unless they could actually fly, they’d sink back into the swamp within moments.
“That should be enough time.”
It was all I needed.
Crackle crackle crackle!
Savage blue lightning erupted in furious torrents.
My right arm exploded outward, and from within it emerged an arm composed entirely of lightning.
I plunged the Thunder God’s Arm deep into the swamp, my lips twisting into a cruel smile.
“Stop hiding. Come out, you horse-headed bastard.”
Crackle crackle crackle crackle!
A devastating torrent of lightning infused with tremendous power spread throughout the entire swamp.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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