As expected of the strongest Connectors, Russell and Bruce lived up to their name.

Each man fought a Jormungandr, and they held a decisive edge in their respective fights.

 Sungyoon immediately ran toward the remaining Jormungandr.

While Sungyoon, Russell, and Bruce occupied the three Jormungandrs, the war turned competitive again.

Sungyoon had become pretty strong, but he couldn’t be compared to Russell and Bruce yet. Russell and Bruce killed their monsters much faster than him.

 Sungyoon looked at the two men.

Wink!

Bruce winked at him and wagged his index finger as if to say Sungyoon had a long way to go.

Russell became exasperated on seeing Bruce’s antics.

 He then looked straight at Sungyoon, nodded, and focused on killing the other monsters.

‘The two of them haven’t changed at all.’

It seemed they wanted Sungyoon to take care of the remaining Jormungandr.

‘I won’t let them down.’

Sungyoon took up his halberd and attacked the Jormungandr once again.

Was it thanks to having a backup? In this fight against the same foe, his movements became less desperate.

 He slowly pushed the Jormungandr back against the wall, and finally, he took a big swing at its neck.

‘Huh?’

Surprisingly, he didn’t face any resistance as he cut through its hard scales.

 He felt as if he were cutting through an overripe fruit that was about to go rotten.

His attack cut open over half of the Jormungandr’s neck.

 Blood sprayed into the air. The monster's neck hung on the remaining flesh as its corpse fell to the ground.

In contrast, Sungyoon landed softly.

‘This is….’

It was a familiar power. The nearby monsters rushed at Sungyoon, but he severed their heads with just one stroke of his halberd.

‘I knew it!’

It was the power from the source of magical energy. Moreover, this was completely different from the power the Royal Gem generated. It was the power that he could tap when fighting the Golems and Kevil.

Sungyoon turned his head. He saw several more Jormungandrs appear on the battlefield. However, that wasn’t the important part.

‘Let me strengthen my vision.’

He activated his spell, and his vision became clearer. A figure standing atop a Jormungandr entered his sight.

‘Glaia.’

She had the upper body of a human woman and a lower body of a snake. She was an officer that was on par with Kevil.

Sungyoon tapped his communication device in a particular sequence. 

It was one of the signals that had been set up beforehand.

- Is it an officer? Glaia?

Tap!

- Shit!

The Mayor swore.

- We’ve also confirmed the presence of several more Jormungandrs. It seems they are like Kevil’s Archdemons and function as her personal troops.

Since Glaia was standing on top of a Jormungandr’s head, his theory was likely to be true.

- Mr. Sungyoon. I would like you to fight Glaia with Sir Russell and Mr. Bruce.

‘We’ll go right now.’

Sungyoon signaled his party members.

‘Still, I’m wary about fighting Glaia with just the three of us.’

It would be a problem if he didn’t have anyone to help him, but he had his party members. Moreover, they would be fighting alongside the two greatest Connectors of Earth.

‘I’m worried I might fall behind them….’

He decided to trust the power coming from the source of magical energy.

One of the Jormungandrs broke off from Glaia’s group. It intercepted Sungyoon, who was running toward Glaia.

 Revealing its sharp venomous fangs, it threatened Sungyoon.

‘Fuck off!’

He threw his hammer. The hammer spun through the air as it landed on the Jormungandr’s head.

 An explosion erupted.

Hwee-chung!

The Jormungandr’s face turned into a bloody mess.

Sungyoon flew above its head, changed directions, and dived downward. He also put his Gravity spell on himself. Then, he

 took out his halberd and pointed the spear blade down.

As he shot

 forward like a bullet, he 

used the momentum to pierce through the Jormungandr’s head.

‘Ughh!’

The

 blood and gore of the Jormungandr covered his entire body.

‘I did it because I wanted to end this fight as soon as possible, but I might have overdone it!’

He tried to brush off the fluids with his hands, but it wasn’t enough. In the end, he gave up.

‘Let’s just consider myself lucky for not getting stuck within its head.’

Sungyoon started moving once again, and he fought another Jormungandr.

This time, he didn’t use the bullet plan, and

 took the normal route. He used his sword as a nail and pounded it into the Jormungandr's head with his hammer.

As expected, killing the monster was easier than before.

‘Next…!’

Standing atop the Jormungandr’s corpse, Sungyoon was about to look for his next target when a liquid came flying toward him.

 By the time he realized it, the liquid was too close to him.

Flap!

Sungyoon instinctively unfurled his wings and flew backward. The liquid lost its target and fell on the Jormungandr's corpse below.

 The corpse melted away.

‘What the…!’

This sight terrified Sungyoon. He had seen a lot of poisons in this battle, and he had also used his ax's poison. However, he had never encountered a poison of this caliber.

 It was like pouring boiling water on the ground covered by a snow layer. In a flash, the Jormungandr's corpse melted away without any delay or resistance.

‘Koo-ooh-oohk!’

Sungyoon suddenly felt his arm pain.

‘What the hell!’

He quickly looked down.

‘Shit! The poison!’

A couple of drops had splashed onto his arm, creating holes in his armor. Sungyoon quickly unsummoned the armor on his arm, but it was too late. He saw a couple of small holes on his arm too.

However, the damage didn’t stop there.

‘The wound is getting bigger! The poison is spreading!’

It was an extremely toxic poison that had melted a Jormungandr’s corpse in an instant.

 Sungyoon immediately took action without thinking. He summoned his halberd and cut off his arm at his shoulder joint with the ax blade.

The severed arm fell to the ground

 and instantly melted away.

‘Koo-ooh-oohk!’

He bit his lips. Despite being in pain, he shuddered as he witnessed the poison's power.

Sungyoon looked at the source of the poison.

 Her beautiful yet terrifying eyes looked down at him in an arrogant manner.

‘Glaia. This is the poison of an officer.’

Sungyoon

 didn’t think too long about it.

‘Shit! This hurts! I have to get this fixed first.’

He had cut off his limb. As an excruciating pain hit him, he felt his blood and his life force drain out of him in real-time.

‘I should retreat for a short time.’

Sungyoon possessed a healing Gem, but it was still a Rainbow rank Gem. That was why he had mostly let Emily do the healing and focused on developing his attack power.

Therefore, he couldn’t regrow his arm. He could only stop the wound from worsening.

‘No. It isn’t as if I’m out of options.’

Sungyoon held the halberd with his remaining left hand, then moved toward the location with the most monsters.

 He cut down a careless monster. His balance was off, and the pain ate away at his mental state. However, he could still fight.

Moreover, he was fighting against small fries.

‘Is it getting a bit better?’

He looked at his wound, which was still letting out blood.

‘I have to kill a couple more.’

Sungyoon swung his halberd. Since the source of magical energy kept infusing him with power, he didn’t have a tough time killing the monsters.

 The blood loss rapidly decreased as he cut down more monsters.

Soon, his wound closed, and his arm slowly started to regrow.

After cutting a monster in half, Sungyoon looked down at his right arm again. Instead of a wound, there was now an uninjured arm there, and he could move it through his own volition.

‘It's fine now.’

He had leveled up the halberd a lot, and its healing ability had become strong enough to regrow a body part.

Sungyoon resummoned his armor on his healed right arm. The holes made by the poison were still there.

He

let out a sigh of relief, then chuckled in dismay at his intact arm.

‘Have I become way too tough to kill?’

He had acted in desperation, but when he looked back on it, he had done something incredible.

 Even though he was trying to save his life from the poison invading his body, he hadn’t hesitated to cut off his own arm. Then, he had killed monsters with one arm.

H

e could tell other Connectors were glancing at him. They looked a bit overwhelmed by what he had done.

‘If I saw someone like me on the battlefield, I would've looked at him with a similar gaze.’

Sungyoon took his eyes off the Connectors and looked at Glaia.

While he had been focused on his recovery, Russell and Bruce had started fighting against Glaia.

‘I hope I didn’t put them in a tough spot.’

Sungyoon quickly joined the fight.

 Russell looked at Sungyoon, then rubbed his right arm.

‘He’s asking if my arm is ok….’

Sungyoon raised his thumb.

 Russell looked relieved as he moved.

‘Oh no!’

Sungyoon quickly retreated. Russell also quickly got out of the way. A caustic liquid splashed the area where they had been standing as it shot forward in a straight line.

‘It’s the poison again!’

He had to cut off his arm thanks to this poison, so Sungyoon shuddered.

He quickly checked if any poison had splashed onto his body. Thankfully, not a single drop had hit him.

After Sungyoon and Russell confirmed that they were alright, they charged at Glaia.

 Bruce jumped in between them. He kept moving his mouth as if he were saying something. It seemed he was complaining that they had taken too long by his gestures.

However, Sungyoon couldn’t know for sure since there was no sound. He just shrugged.

‘What should we do about her now?’

Russell and Bruce had engaged Glaia for a moment, but they hadn’t been able to gain the upper hand.

Sungyoon remembered that they had attacked Glaia before, but it had been a losing proposition. At most, the battle had been a standstill.

‘I can’t compare this to the time when I had killed Kevil. Unlike it, Glaia can use her full power.’

Sungyoon decided to use his ax as little as possible. Since Glaia's ability was poison-related, he didn’t think the ax would work against her.

He

summoned his halberd.

The three men attacked Glaia at the same time.

‘Let’s kill the Jormungandr first.’

Glaia was riding the head of a Jormungandr, and the Jormungandr threatened the three men with its mouth wide open. Its fighting spirit was in full view.

It seemed Russell and Bruce had the same thought as Sungyoon. They didn't jump up toward the head and immediately attacked Jormungandr’s stomach.

Bruce punched, and as if a ripple had moved outward from its stomach, the Jormungandr’s body shook.

‘A human would have

 instantly

died from that blow.’

He already had four weapons he used on a regular basis, yet Sungyoon thought it would be great if, like Bruce, he had a gauntlet.

The Jormungandr went crazy.

‘I would have reacted the same way.’

After Bruce’s attack, Russell had slashed it with his sword. Its black scales had fallen apart, and a large cut had appeared on its stomach. Then, Sungyoon had stabbed his halberd through the open wound.

Sungyoon retreated, leaving the halberd in its stomach. Bruce punched the handle of the halberd.

 In a flash, the halberd shot forward and pierced through the thick body to exit on the other side.

Afterward, Russell and Sungyoon attacked it with their swords. They kept hacking away at the open wound, and in the end, they cut the Jormungandr in half.

The three men jumped backward as its upper body fell to the ground.

‘Jeez!’

Sungyoon quickly retreated when the poison flew toward him again. A caustic gas rose into the air as the poison created a hole in the ground. Then, something landed right in front of them. She had the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake. 

‘She’s going to fight us for real now.’

Sungyoon took a firmer grip on his halberd as 

Glaia’s long slitted eyes looked at the three of them.

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