Tearing the Gate Apart - Chapter 31

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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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Episode 31.
Slash! Slash-slash!
In the blink of an eye, the Crack Swarm had multiplied into five creatures.
Then they pulled countless barbed tentacles from the fissures in their bodies.
At the same time, hundreds of thick tentacles came whipping down.
It was like a tempest itself.
The Raid Party formed their formation in an instant.
Ha Gyeong quickly ducked behind the wall created by the Tanks.
Crash-crash-crash-crack!
A thunderous boom followed, along with a heavy shockwave.
The sound of barbs at the tentacle tips raking across shields.
Ha Gyeong felt goosebumps across his entire body.
‘If I took a hit like that, I’d be ground meat in an instant.’
He’d thought a sub-Tank could easily handle this creature.
But without a shield, there was no way.
It made sense.
After all, this was an Extreme Difficulty dungeon.
Ha Gyeong crouched as low as he could.
He was enduring the impacts.
Then suddenly his eyes met those of a blond foreigner with a playful grin.
His name was John Neiger, if he recalled correctly.
“Oh! Nice to meet you, bro. I’m John. Not John the pervert. Just John.”
“This hardly seems the time for introductions, but it’s good to see you all the same.”
“What’s the situation? We’re doing fine. That slab of meat is a living thing too. It’ll tire eventually.”
His speech was halting, but it carried conviction.
He wasn’t wrong, after all.
Even a Guardian couldn’t sustain infinite attacks.
Ha Gyeong watched the Crack Swarms extending countless tentacles.
But John’s optimistic interpretation clashed with reality.
They kept attacking without tiring.
Ha Gyeong shook his head slowly.
‘Approaching is impossible. I can’t clear this without cutting off that endless loop.’
And the Crack Swarm had no discernible head.
Its appearance was so alien that he couldn’t read its movements.
At this rate, they wouldn’t even get to attempt anything.
Kang Woo-jin didn’t seem to have a clear strategy either.
He could only endure, waiting for his opening.
But then something caught Ha Gyeong’s attention.
His Soul Stigma sense was telling him something, specifically.
Ha Gyeong peeked his head up over John’s shield.
‘The tentacles don’t come up from above.’
The Crack Swarm’s tentacles only swept in a doughnut-shaped radius.
If he could just leap over that, he could strike the body itself.
Of course, he’d need to climb tens of meters into the air.
Even with an Awakener’s physical prowess, that was impossible solo.
But with someone’s help, things would change.
Ha Gyeong made eye contact with John.
“Hey, John.”
“What?”
“Can you bounce me up high with your shield? That way—way up there.”
“Okay. You want a boost?”
“A what?”
“A boost. Like this—you put your feet on my hands and I throw you up.”
“Right. Go on then. One, two, three!”
Tap-tap-tap! Whoosh—!
John planted his shield against his shoulder, standing firm.
The moment Ha Gyeong’s feet pressed down, he launched.
John hurled him upward with all his might.
Like a strong Tank should, Ha Gyeong soared dozens of meters into the air.
John watched his back disappear and shouted.
“Go, Unbreakable Bad King!”
At first Ha Gyeong had no idea what he meant and ignored it.
But soon enough, he understood.
‘Ah! That’s my nickname. But why Bad King of all things?’
It felt oddly twisted somehow.
Still, even a foreigner knew it.
His fame was becoming tangible.
Snapping out of his distracted thoughts, Ha Gyeong drew his Karambit.
‘I’m falling. I need to focus.’
An Extreme Difficulty Guardian was no light matter.
Not long ago, in the Association’s massive dungeon—
One harder than the Abyss of Fusion.
The Guardian he’d seen there.
The Crack Swarm would be far more formidable than the Gear Crusher.
Ha Gyeong traced a parabolic arc through the air.
‘It’s reckless, but this is the only way.’
If crisis struck, he was confident he’d survive.
The Tyrant’s Bracelet would regenerate his body no matter what.
Soon Ha Gyeong descended above the Crack Swarms.
‘Unless they’re idiots, there won’t be a second chance.’
This was the moment for a final, all-out strike.
[Homogeneous Predation skill target locked.]
[Target: Crack Swarm.]
Ping—!
A sharp noise pierced Ha Gyeong’s ears.
Then a substantial surge of Abyss Energy flooded into his body.
As the oppressive sensation gripped his frame, Ha Gyeong gritted his teeth.
‘Keep going like this!’
[The Abyss Challenger’s Compression authority increases the density of Abyss Energy.]
Hum—!
A grayish-white blade burst from Ha Gyeong’s Karambit.
Normally it would flicker with flame.
But his Abyss Refining had taken the smooth form of Stage 2.
The Compression authority had seized the Abyss Energy tightly.
Ha Gyeong deployed his True Soul in that state.
“Haahhhh!”
Whoosh-crack—!
A ten-meter blade burst forth against the Crack Swarm.
He couldn’t tell where its weak point was.
It was just too grotesquely shaped.
So Ha Gyeong rammed his blade into one of the fissures in its body.
Clang!
Then something shocking happened.
The Crack Swarm suddenly sealed the fissure shut.
Ha Gyeong’s blade was caught fast.
Snare! Crack-crack-crack-crack!
It was genuinely absurd.
His masterful strike had come to nothing in an instant.
But Ha Gyeong didn’t retreat. He pressed on.
‘So what if it’s caught?’
He poured Abyss Energy and mana into the blade.
With no thought of maintaining the True Soul’s form.
Just as much as he could pour in.
The Crack Swarm’s body began to swell.
Groan! Groan! Grooooan!
Soon an ominously dangerous sound came from the creature.
It felt like it might burst.
But that misfortune never came.
The Crack Swarm opened the fissures across its body.
Whoosh—!
A grayish-white aura that had filled its interior erupted outward.
Enough to lift Ha Gyeong’s form slightly off the ground.
‘Good. I’m going in through the gap.’
He deployed his Compression True Soul again.
Dragging his Karambit with all his strength, crimson liquid burst out.
Whoosh-crack—!
Ha Gyeong had finally completed the strike.
Recoil sent him careening outward.
For a moment, he surrendered to the momentum.
‘Dizzy. I used way too much power at once.’
Something warm trickled down his upper lip.
His nose was bleeding.
It was the natural consequence.
Once you pushed beyond your limits, you paid the price.
Then Ha Gyeong suddenly came to.
‘Oh hell. I’m falling, aren’t I?’
Plummeting from dozens of meters up?
No Awakener could survive that.
But he had no strength left to move a finger.
Then, in that moment—
Swish!
A pure white aura seeped into his entire body.
Then a strange vitality surged up.
Turning his head slightly, Ha Gyeong saw the Great Sage looking at him.
She’d briefly stopped supporting the front line.
Casting a recovery skill on him instead.
Thanks to her, Ha Gyeong could move again.
‘Good.’
He quickly flipped his body.
He was aiming for a stable landing.
But then a heavy impact came from the side.
Thump!
“Ugh!”
Ha Gyeong gasped at the sudden blow.
But after that, there was no pain.
Just a gentle landing sensation.
Ha Gyeong turned his head in confusion.
John’s face came into view, beaming with a smile.
“Yo! Bad King. John saved you. Isn’t John awesome?”
“Thank you.”
“Why do you sound like that? You don’t think I just horned in when you could’ve landed yourself, right?”
Suddenly John’s speech accelerated dramatically.
His pronunciation became crisp and precise.
His linguistic skills had exploded from Ha Gyeong’s reaction.
Ha Gyeong quickly shook his head.
“No. I was just so disoriented…”
“Yes! Now I’ve got a story for my foreign friends forever. I did a princess carry rescue of Bad King.”
“A what?”
He was clearly just dangling there like cargo.
Where did the princess carry come from?
Ha Gyeong stared in bewilderment, and John waved his hand with a laugh.
“Hey! Just joking. No joke, John’s not spreading weird rumors, so don’t worry.”
“Ah, okay.”
Ha Gyeong found himself letting out a small laugh.
John then stood his shield up with a satisfied expression.
While Ha Gyeong caught his breath, ready to protect him.
Ha Gyeong calmed the churning Abyss Energy within.
‘But what happened?’
Of course, even as he did, his curiosity was irrepressible.
He needed to know how effective his attack had been.
Ha Gyeong quickly eased the aftereffects.
He carefully rose and took in the situation.
As if reading his movements,
John explained the situation.
“You crushed it, Bad King. You’re the best. Now those weird meat lumps are getting beaten down by us!”
“Please, John, could you stop calling me that?”
“Why?”
“It just sounds a bit off.”
“Like a tyrant in bed? Pretty good, if you ask me.”
…….
He clearly wasn’t a man bound by ordinary common sense.
Meanwhile, the Raid Party was merrily pounding the Crack Swarms.
Already the second one had fallen silent.
Only three remained.
As John said, it was all thanks to Ha Gyeong’s strike.
By severing the barbed tentacle storm, he’d opened the path to counterattack.
Ha Gyeong watched the fight with genuine admiration.
‘The abnormally large front line actually turned out to be an advantage.’
If the Tank numbers had been fewer, they’d have already collapsed.
They’d have broken without withstanding the storm of attacks.
And the matchup was favorable for their counteroffensive too.
Five Crack Swarms could be tanked simultaneously.
So the raid seemed to be proceeding smoothly.
Until the cornered Crack Swarms curled inward.
[Crack Swarm deploying Swarm Consolidation.]
The Crack Swarms began to mass around the corpses.
Then they writhed, returning to their original form.
Their size and appearance hadn’t changed, but they’d become one.
Up to this point, there was nothing particularly worrying.
But the moment the Crack Swarm showed its true power,
The Raid Party found themselves in crisis instead.
Hundreds of tentacles being driven into the ground by the Crack Swarm.
[Crack Swarm ultimate ability activated: Spike Eruption.]
[An unstoppable wave of Abyss Energy is detected.]
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Massive spikes began erupting from the earth.
Even Ha Gyeong and John, standing at a distance, weren’t safe.
“Run!”
“John already running like crazy!”
Ha Gyeong sprinted in a frenzy.
He kept changing direction sharply.
Dodging the constantly erupting spikes.
Rolling across the ground, he turned back toward the main group.
‘This is bad. Too many teammates hit by the Crack Swarm’s ultimate.’
The weakness of Kang Woo-jin’s raid composition was exactly this.
Strong front line, but relatively weak support coverage.
Ranged damage that lacked punch.
The instant the Tanks crumbled,
There was no time to do anything before it collapsed.
At this rate, failure was a certainty.
Ha Gyeong suddenly made eye contact with John.
The foreigner was grinning despite the hardship.
John called out in his halting accent.
“Bro. That thing you did before? Do it one more time?”
Ha Gyeong hesitated for a moment.
He’d already used Homogeneous Predation once.
His condition wasn’t good.
He’d suffered internal wounds from pushing beyond his limits.
Even with the Great Sage’s care, his Abyss Energy reserves were depleted.
He couldn’t just stand here waiting to recover, though.
Ha Gyeong took a deep breath.
‘Don’t overthink it. Just cut off the Guardian’s attack like before. Besides… I’m the only one who can do it.’
The Raid Party was tanking the Guardian’s ultimate ability.
Ha Gyeong was the only free agent left.
He looked at John and spoke.
“Can you boost me even higher than before?”
“How high?”
“About a hundred meters?”
…….
John’s confident expression faltered.
Gate Ripper
Author |
Morae-top
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Samyang C&C Corporation
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Editorial Department
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Samyang C&C Corporation – Dream Books
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© Samyang C&C Corporation – Dream Books. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission.

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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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