Chapter 118 – Liberation (Part Seven)

“Ugh…”

A man was dragged in, leaning on another prisoner’s shoulder.

He was foaming at the mouth, his body paralyzed by a potent poison.

The prisoner who entered the eastern sector threw the injured man to the floor and glared around fiercely.

There were many armed prisoners standing around, but among them was one man sitting in a chair, unarmed.

Scowling, the prisoner strode toward him.

“Hey, when the hell are you going to be ready!”

“I told you, my power hasn’t fully returned. You want me to drop us all in the middle of the ocean?”

“Dammit! Monsters are breathing down our necks, and you’re taking your sweet time. If you’re thinking of ditching us, I’ll hunt you down and kill you…”

“If you want to get out of here, then shut your mouth!”

The man shot to his feet to confront him, and the two prisoners moved toward each other as if ready to brawl.

But the other prisoners nearby quickly swarmed in and pulled them apart.

Normally, they would have egged on the fight and watched with amusement, but this time, their own lives were on the line, so they did their best to stop it.

“Spider monsters in the middle of the ocean… I thought Gates only appeared on land.”

“Every one of them seemed to be at least C-rank. Maybe even B-rank… Was it the monsters that suddenly shut down the suppression devices?”

“Whatever the case, it’s a stroke of luck for us. I’d rather be eaten by a monster than keep rotting in this shithole. Thankfully, we have a chance to escape.”

The prisoners looked at the man who was trying to cool his temper.

A mysterious barrier surrounded them, blocking their way. If anything happened to the spatial ability user who could get them out, escape would be impossible.

To make matters worse, several incredibly strong monsters had descended and were attacking them, and the potent venom spewed by the spiders was contaminating the air.

Even among the prisoners not involved in the fighting, those with weaker constitutions were already succumbing to the poison and collapsing one by one.

In other words, if they wanted to survive, they absolutely needed the help of the spatial ability user to get out of here.

*Crash! Screeeech!*

Suddenly, the wall behind them crumbled, and a giant spider appeared through the opening, shrieking.

While everyone was disoriented by the debris and dust from the collapsed wall, the spider’s foreleg impaled a prisoner.

*Squelch!* Blood burst in all directions.

“Fuck, kill it!”

“Where is he? Get our escape route to the back!”

The prisoners shouted as they drew their weapons.

No matter how long they had been inactive, they were still Awakened, and some of the most vicious criminals in the world.

They weren’t the type to panic and flounder in the face of a monster.

After first moving the Awakened with the spatial ability needed for their escape to a safe location, they engaged the monster in combat.

Numerous swords and spears swung by the Awakened aimed for the creature, but they only produced dull thuds, failing to pierce its hard carapace.

“Out of the way!”

A brawny, muscular prisoner rushed forward and brought his axe down on the spider’s foreleg.

*Crack!* A wound opened, and green spider blood gushed out from within.

The splattered green blood sprayed onto the face of the prisoner who had landed the successful attack, getting into both of his eyes.

“Aaaargh!”

The prisoner dropped his axe and rolled on the ground.

An excruciating, burning pain seared his skin and eyes where the spider’s blood had touched. His eyes were blinded, and he could no longer see.

However, the spider that had been wounded by the attack didn’t seem to have taken much damage and immediately swung its leg.

*Thwack!*

The impact was immense, like being hit by a building pillar, and prisoners were sent flying.

The giant spider was agile despite its size, and it wasn’t easy to react and dodge its attacks even after seeing them coming.

It was no different for the prisoners who normally possessed the skill to evade such an attack.

Their bodies, which had become little more than half-corpses while locked up in prison, had not yet recovered.

Furthermore, it was their first real combat in a very long time.

Their senses were dulled, and even simple movements were incomparably sluggish compared to before.

*Ssssk!*

The spider retreated from the prisoners who, having no other choice, tried to overwhelm it with numbers.

Then, it coiled its body and leaped into the air.

The prisoners stared, mouths agape, as its massive body soared upward.

*Thump!* The spider landed lightly on the ceiling and, as if in response to the prisoners’ expressions, opened its huge mouth wide.

*Whoooosh!*

A thick green fog spewed from the giant spider’s mouth.

The creature had been exuding a foul poison just by being there, but as the toxic mist poured out, the prisoners were poisoned one after another and collapsed to the floor.

They hadn’t even managed to land a significant blow on the monster, yet dozens were already unable to continue the fight.

“Dammit, get that thing down from there!” a man screamed in frustration at the sight of the spider freely crawling on the walls and ceiling, spewing poison.

In response, one of the prisoners who had been cautiously watching from the back threw a powerful punch.

It was a swing at empty air, hitting nothing.

But an invisible shockwave shot out in the exact direction his arm had extended, grazing the spider’s side.

*Boom!*

The shockwave’s impact caused a part of the ceiling to collapse, and the spider, which had been clinging to it upside down, slipped and fell to the floor.

Flames created by another Awakened swept across the floor, perfectly timed with the spider’s fall.

The fierce flames were a powerful attack, enough to inflict significant damage even on the thick-carapaced monster.

But that was precisely what caused a problem.

“Aaargh!”

“What the hell are you doing!”

The flames had engulfed not only the spider but also several nearby prisoners.

Even with multiple Awakened possessing special powers, the space was tight, and they had never coordinated before, making it difficult to fight effectively.

*Kieeeek!*

Moreover, the giant spider, its body engulfed in flames, rampaged wildly, perfectly suited to drive the prisoners into a state of terror.

Prisoners were sent flying, either by being run into or struck by its burning legs.

“This is insane…! How are we supposed to stop that thing!”

“Ugh…”

As the spider’s flesh burned, the poison spreading through the air intensified, making the situation even more dire.

As more and more people collapsed from the poison, the prisoner with the spatial ability felt a sense of crisis and began to back away, looking for a way out.

“Dammit… I have to go alone.”

“What? Are you trying to backstab us?”

“You want me to die with you? Get lost!”

*Thwack!*

The spatial ability user kicked away the prisoner grabbing his arm and quickly activated his power.

A small circle of shimmering black light spread out beneath his feet.

Since his power hadn’t fully recovered, it was absolutely impossible to take everyone as he had initially promised. His plan was to escape the prison by himself.

But things did not go his way.

Flames suddenly erupted from thin air and engulfed him.

“Aaargh!”

The man collapsed, his strength failing him from the pain of his lower body being set ablaze, and his ability was canceled.

He struggled to lift his head and glared at the flame user who had attacked him.

Or rather, he tried to glare.

But the only Awakened here who used a flame ability had already been the first to be trampled and obliterated by the enraged spider.

“Then who… what is this.”

The spatial ability user muttered with a dumbfounded look.

A fox had appeared out of nowhere before him as he panted heavily.

The small fox with glossy, crimson fur swayed its nine tails, and the man rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was hallucinating.

But no matter how many times he rubbed his eyes, the nine tails were still there.

“Yip!”

The fox lifted a cute little paw and bonked the man on the head. He fainted from the immense power contained in that tiny foot.

The other prisoners nearby, having witnessed the absurd spectacle firsthand, froze in place, unable to move.

Their only means of escape had just been knocked out so anticlimactically that their ability to react momentarily shut down.

While they stood frozen, the fox, after looking around, made the first move.

The red fox drew in the flames that had been burning on the spider’s body and all other embers in the vicinity.

The gathered flames formed a large sphere, which then exploded with a deafening roar, sweeping through the area.

*BOOM!*

Everything in the vicinity was engulfed in the fiery explosion, except for the spider.

The fox then used its telekinesis to retrieve the flames that had swept through the area, gathering them into one and swallowing them whole.

It licked its lips with a satisfied expression.

“Phew, is this the place?”

Il-hyeon’s head popped through the collapsed ceiling.

Seeing the sprawled-out prisoners, as well as the fox and the spider staring blankly at him, Il-hyeon descended through the hole in the floor.

The fox immediately scampered over and leaped onto Il-hyeon’s shoulder.

Il-hyeon chuckled and stroked the creature’s head as it licked his cheek enthusiastically.

“You’ve been well?”

“Yip.”

It hadn’t been that long since they were apart, but it felt like they were seeing each other after a very long time.

Il-hyeon first turned his head and healed the spider injured in the battle.

Il-hyeon’s Transmutation ability flawlessly restored its scorched skin and shattered carapace to their original state.

The life-or-death struggle of so many prisoners was ultimately nullified by a single gesture from Il-hyeon.

‘As expected, the poison is more effective than I thought in an enclosed space.’

Considering that the battle would take place in the sealed depths of the underground, Il-hyeon had recalled the Russian spider monsters that had given him trouble in a similar environment and summoned them.

The creatures exuded a virulent poison from their bodies, causing it to fill the entire underground complex.

The spiders’ poison was extremely effective against a large number of opponents who lacked Defensive Coats with purification functions.

“A spatial ability user capable of large-scale transport… or he was one.”

Il-hyeon looked down at the man lying there, beaten to a pulp.

As long as he could stop those with spatial abilities, he could prevent all the prisoners from escaping, making them the top-priority targets to be dealt with first.

Il-hyeon’s original summons, including the fox, had already entered the underground complex beforehand. While Il-hyeon and the spider swarm pushed down from above, they moved through the prison’s interior, subduing those with spatial abilities.

Since he could share senses at a high level with summons permanently bound to his core, relaying the targets’ faces was a simple matter.

“Only three left, huh… I need to pick up the pace.”

Most of the nearly thirty spatial ability users had now been subdued.

Not a single prisoner had managed to break through Hyeon-seo’s barrier and get outside.

*Crack!*

Il-hyeon flicked his fingers, and dozens of spiders surged forth.