Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Encounter (3)
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I drew my sword.
The blade I’d given to Noll wasn’t long enough or thick enough to counter Hecate’s strikes with equal force. My strength might edge hers out just a bit, but the sword wouldn’t hold up.
Focus on winning.
But I couldn’t swing right away.
“You cut your hair.”
Hecate said it while poised to unleash a strike at any moment.
“It suited you longer.”
“Yeah?”
I muttered, running my left hand through the hair covering my nape.
“It was pretty long before, yeah.”
Truth be told, I didn’t remember cutting it.
I just woke up one day and it was short. It took a while to even notice how long and flowing it had been.
But who cares now.
Hecate tensed her legs.
“You still remember the imperial tongue?”
“Yeah. For now.”
“I gave Kyle plenty of warning.”
The Creatures didn’t approach us.
Some kept charging at Sylvia nonstop, though. She carved through them with a face half annoyed, half satisfied.
She wouldn’t let them get close.
I drew breath, ready to dodge any incoming attack.
“I thought Hildebert might make a different choice.”
Kwaaaang!
A building collapsed.
Hecate’s slash had neatly bisected it. I ducked the shockwave and leaped back, biting my lip as I widened the distance.
“But Kyle didn’t listen to me.”
Kugugugu, thump!
“Either he trusted you too much, or…”
Kwaaaang!
“…or he figured you had no reason to choose otherwise.”
Am I going to lose?
It hit me just how much I’d deteriorated. Hecate was renowned for her exceptional leadership and unyielding loyalty, but her swordsmanship was top-tier too. Neither Kyle nor I had ever disputed that.
And I thought I’d regained a decent chunk of my old skill.
At this rate… not even close.
“You’ve really gone to shit.”
Kwang!
My forearm sliced open diagonally.
Blood sprayed. The strike’s remaining force shredded everything behind me on the road.
A streetlight pole split in two, a motorcycle too.
I cleaved a Creature lunging at my side, then reset my stance.
“Captain.”
Hecate’s low call threw off my form.
I didn’t think she’d pull something that stupid. I thought she’d come prepared. But that familiar voice made my grip slacken for a split second.
In the lightless city, Hecate stared straight at me.
Orange eyes.
“Even so,”
They still burned with imperial pride.
“I never thought you’d hand over my sword to a mere human.”
Kwagwagwagwang!
Kuung!
…Deflected.
Good sword after all.
I looked down at the blade—chipped but still intact.
Hecate’s massive slash.
Too big to evade, I’d barely redirected it skyward. Couldn’t fully deflect, so my forearm got gouged.
A standard-issue blade wouldn’t have even managed that.
I stared at the blood-soaked sword, then gripped it firm.
Time’s short…
[Support unit arriving in 10 minutes.]
“You lost your memories, right?”
Yoon’s voice crackled from the comms at the exact moment Hecate spoke up.
I blinked, closing the distance.
“Huh?”
“I heard it all. Your chat with that subway human.”
Oh.
Jin.
Jin Silver. The name flashed in my mind, laced with guilt and pain.
His ash-gray arm too.
The arm that looked like it’d been dipped in cement and pulled out.
Now that my memories were partially back, I knew what it was. Those who survived the Curse of the Divine Tree but absorbed too much energy had skin that turned to stone. Slowly petrifying, until they crumbled to dust.
Jin probably never knew why his arm had grayed.
“I couldn’t believe it for a while, but seeing you now… it’s true. Selling out your comrades and conveniently forgetting. What a coward.”
“Did you kill him?”
“That’s what worries you?”
Hecate flashed a venomous grin.
“That’s your first question to me? Still fretting over these things?”
Kwaaang!
Flesh tore from my left arm.
I kicked off simultaneously, closing in. This sword couldn’t deliver a decisive blow. Nor could I parry Hecate’s strikes head-on.
But I wasn’t out of options.
Turns out these worthless squadmates were useful after all.
Thump!
Dodging her attack, I loosed a light slash.
It hit a grenade rolling on the ground, slicing the pin.
Kwaaaang!
“Mommy!”
Lucia Kwon, who’d wandered into the zone, screamed.
Sorry, Senior Kwon.
But thanks for dropping that grenade. No idea how you manage to litter the floor with them.
I rose from behind building rubble, sending silent thanks she’d never hear.
Grenades pack a punch.
Way more against us than Badgers, with their inferior regen.
I eyed Hecate, blood trickling from her leg where shrapnel had torn through.
She rolled her eyes.
“I wanted a more dignified fight.”
She flicked debris off her blade with the tip.
“Gone this pathetic… unbelievable.”
Hecate had no real shot at victory anyway.
She knew it too. One-on-one, she’d crush me.
But this wasn’t that.
Choi Yoon was here.
Strong enough to behead her the moment we teamed up. But at my request, he was ripping out a giant’s throat instead.
Once he and Leonard joined, she was done.
Plus, the force that saved the surrounded Badgers was inbound.
And no matter how rusty I was, I could hold out ten minutes. Hecate, the brilliant commander, knew that.
So she’d either come for mutual destruction with me, or just to scout.
Probably the latter at first.
Just the start.
“Hecate.”
I called to my foe, who’d lost reason and was flailing wildly.
My kin, unable to leave me be.
Beneath the feigned composure, I spotted her state instantly—a former subordinate’s.
“At this rate, you’ll die by human hands.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you.”
“I’ve got no right to ask, but…”
“Shut up.”
“I don’t want to watch you die like a dog.”
“Shut it!”
I sighed at my kin, rage overriding sense.
Don’t lose it here.
I haven’t regained the skill to take your head yet. I don’t want to see you perish by human hands.
“You cowardly traitor!”
Kwagwagwagwagwang!
Five-pronged slashes.
Impossible to dodge—a masterstroke. It tore asphalt, carved ruins in its path, and bore down on me.
I charged straight into it.
A flawless attack. One razor edge pierced my gut, and as it passed, I swung.
My slash hit the grenade at Hecate’s feet.
Kwaaaang!
“Urghaaak!”
“Haha! Serves you right!”
“Cough.”
Lucia Kwon flew back amid grenade shards.
Jerry Jones beside her tumbled across the asphalt too. Caught full blast, it seemed.
Friendly fire’s on me.
Meanwhile, my kin—who’d perfectly parried the blast with her sword—laughed sharply.
“To think the captain would stoop to such trash attacks!”
Charging the slashes let me detonate the grenade where I wanted.
“Seeing you fallen like this is delightful!”
Hurts like hell.
I clutched my spilling guts with my left hand, gasping bloody breaths.
Total chaos now. Allied troops caught in the blast. Upside-down asphalt and choking smoke. Hecate spewing hate-filled laughter. Sylvia steadily closing in.
She hasn’t noticed. Lost all reason to rage.
Hecate no longer saw any foes but me. Keep this up, and she’d truly die by human hands.
Yoon’s or Sylvia’s, from the looks.
I didn’t want to see that.
Gotta fix this quick.
I dragged my heavy body a few steps, peering into the gaping crater from the grenade.
Sewer exposed by the blast tearing asphalt.
“Hecate.”
I ripped away the skin shredded by her clean strikes.
Took a few steps and dropped it into the sewer, muttering.
“Sorry for showing such a pathetic sight.”
“Ah, whatever. I’m having a blast right now. I expect nothing from trash like you anymore anyway.”
“I started this, so I’ll clean it up as best I can.”
I watched the flesh plop into the water.
A resolve I’d held since regaining some memories.
But one I never needed to share with outsiders—I told my old comrade now.
“I’ll kill my kin with my own hands.”
The sewer water churned.
“And I’ll die by yours.”
In Black Badger, it could happen anytime.
No ignoring what I’d done. I still couldn’t fully recall why I sided with humans, but remembering wouldn’t change much. I’d pointed my sword at Kyle, aided in killing kin. Helped humans win the war against them.
So I’d see it through—help humans to final victory.
And perish by kin hands while cleaning my mess.
On the battlefield…
To the Creatures they command. Or their strikes. If I outlast even the last of them, I’ll gladly borrow kin hands for my end.
A traitor’s resolve.
I couldn’t kill myself.
Nor watch my kin die by bloodthirsty human hands.
“You saying you’ll die now?”
Hecate snorted, raising her sword high.
Too thrilled by my openings, blind to Sylvia charging from behind.
“Asking me to kill you? I’ll grant your coward’s wish, Captain. That’s what I wanted t—”
Kieeeek!
A Creature burst from the water.
From the ruptured sewer pipe. Its massive body filled my vision.
Hard scales gleamed faintly under moonlight.
Water Dragon Leviathan.
Resident of B-6 Zone, only surfacing for sun—hard to kill or control precisely.
So it wasn’t under Hecate’s orders.
Letting me issue clumsy commands.
Our secret method, one Kyle once boasted about.
I hadn’t recalled it in the coliseum, nor used it often before.
Desperation brings it out.
“Swallow.”
I pointed at Hecate, ordering the Water Dragon.
I could control this hefty beast for exactly one minute.
Plenty to achieve my goal.
“Swallow and leave.”
So she wouldn’t die by human hands.