Chapter 170
Chapter 170
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 170
Chapter Title: Territory Reclamation Battle (1)
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I had often sparred with Kyle.
Even after taking the position of Knight Commander and barely seeing each other, we still sparred whenever we had time. And every time, I never once let go of my tension.
The moment I did, the tendons in my wrist would be severed.
Kwaaaang!
Our sword strikes, lunging honestly at each other, clashed in the middle.
Hecate shouted sharply.
“ I’ll support you, so push him back!”
“ I’ll handle it.”
Ye-hyeon muttered calmly, as if reading a report.
“ You focus on Kyle.”
Silver butterflies scattered.
The heavy presence of creatures could be felt. The summoner seemed to be concentrating them here. There were many flying types and ones burrowing underground to approach.
The invisible burrowing creatures could be a threat to the Badgers.
But I decided to trust the skills of the seniors behind me.
Above all, I had no spare capacity to warn them.
Kung!
The sword strike spinning to target my side was neutralized.
Fury-filled golden eyes flashed within the white smoke.
Kyle.
Creatures blotting out the sky blocked the sunlight.
“ Is this the result you wanted?”
Kyle growled, putting strength into his arms.
“ Why not just say you were scared?”
Something hot surged up from within me.
It was a mix of anger, resentment, guilt, and shame. The emotions were so intense that facing them properly would leave me unable to move.
So instead of answering, I sharpened my senses.
Kyle despised tricks.
That tendency showed in his swordsmanship too. He favored raw power and control. He always had more strength than me, and he knew how to use his advantages well.
But if victory were decided by strength alone, things wouldn’t have gone this way.
I looked down at him from the slope.
I unleashed a sword strike sliding down the blade.
A creature bursting from the ground blocked the path.
Taaang!
A bullet pulverizing the creature.
Support from Karl.
The sword strike proceeded unimpeded.
Kwaaaang!
Neutralized again.
Strangely, our skills were still evenly matched now.
Why? How did your skills regress to my level?
Why can’t I remember that final day when my memories cut off? What did I go through when I stepped up to stop you?
Now wasn’t the time to seek answers.
If we kept this up, we’d clash until we collapsed from exhaustion hours later.
Hecate and Ye-hyeon knew that well.
“ Kyle, use your power!”
“ Air support.”
Hecate shouted while attacking Ye-hyeon, and Ye-hyeon recited calmly.
“ Fire.”
The flying creatures had already vanished.
Ami must have taken them out. The asphalt was covered in chunks of their corpses. Muscle and hide fragments were scattered on my shoulders, and on Kyle’s and Ye-hyeon’s too. The stinging sunlight heated the fishy-smelling debris.
The shadows Ami cleared were reborn from the drones.
Ye-hyeon, leaping behind me, yanked me back abruptly.
Tadadadadang!
Tadadadadang!
Tang! Tadadadang!
“ Crazy.”
He doesn’t care about friendlies?
“ Don’t come out.”
Ye-hyeon muttered as he dragged me under the building.
“ Titans don’t recover instantly.”
My vision was engulfed in light.
My ears went deaf from the barrage of dozens of drones.
There were many grenades. Even those aimed at kin and creatures ricocheted, striking Ricardo, Ami, and Sophia several times. But the three kept firing amid the chaos. The guns in their hands were aimed steadily at the slope below.
I sharpened my senses to check the enemies’ status.
Kyle and Hecate took no damage. They were skilled enough to protect themselves from the pouring attacks.
But it was different for Sequoia and Sion.
Relentless strikes pounding the creatures blocking the bombardment with their bodies. Amid that frenzy, the seniors’ bullets sliced through the air.
Sequoia tumbled over.
“ Kyle!”
Sion shouted.
“ Kyle! Advance!”
I felt Kyle twist his body.
I leaped out of the building. The seniors shouted something, but I didn’t hear. In battle, victory or defeat is often decided in split seconds of divided attention.
That’s what I’ve survived on until now.
I dashed out and stood on the slope.
I saw the kin.
I wanted to end it here.
I had no intention of dragging it out and waiting for the next chance. Even if it meant charging into the drone barrage, I was resolved to finish everything today. Opportunities like this wouldn’t come often.
I just wanted it to end.
The moment I saw Kyle walking toward Sequoia, I swung my sword.
Kwa-gwagwagwang!
A grenade pierced my arm, but the sword strike flew true.
I watched the white sword strike pierce through the bombardment.
Kyle kneeling beside Sequoia, lying under the rock-type creature.
He must have sensed the strike coming, yet Kyle didn’t stop advancing.
My chest tore apart.
Kwaaaang!
Hecate neutralized the sword strike.
“ Hilde!”
Ami shouted from behind.
“ Fall back!”
No.
If I hesitated, I’d break.
Gritting my teeth, I scanned the slope. Creatures summoned by Hecate and Sion were blocking the drone bombardment. Creature corpses piled up like mountains around the kin.
But Sequoia’s absence was glaringly obvious.
I had to push now.
“ Come on.”
After unleashing three curving sword strikes, as I tried to charge, Ye-hyeon’s voice came.
“ I’ll strike.”
Someone yanked me back fiercely.
It wasn’t Ye-hyeon. He was sprinting fluidly through the bombardment.
Now I understood why he was evaluated as having the most ‘balanced excellence’ in combat among the Badgers. He precisely read gaps between shells and planted his feet. Grenades pierced his body, but it regenerated quickly, and his speed didn’t drop.
Kyle rising, his black hair swaying.
The distance between him and Ye-hyeon closed.
“ Get a grip.”
Unable to tear my eyes from them, Ricardo muttered.
“ You’re too scattered.”
I couldn’t respond.
Now Ye-hyeon and Kyle faced each other. They were within arm’s reach.
Why get that close? Ye-hyeon could attack from range with his weapons.
Getting closer just put him in Kyle’s range.
As I tensed to rush out, silver thorns spread from Ye-hyeon’s toes.
The thorns stretched beautifully toward the kin.
“ Supreme Commander.”
Kyle’s low voice rang out.
“ Good to see you.”
It was laced with clear hatred.
There was no sense of betrayal like when he spoke to me. No resentment or sadness.
Pure hatred alone.
“ Good to see you too.”
Ye-hyeon’s husky reply followed.
“ Thinking of surrendering?”
Kyle scoffed.
Kwaaaang!
Ye-hyeon and Kyle were engulfed in the explosion’s shockwave.
It was from Kyle’s sword strike and Ye-hyeon’s grenade. The immense force shattered all the surrounding buildings’ windows. A piercing flash swallowed the area.
They both took hits.
Ye-hyeon rolled backward and stood, while Kyle, pushed back, absorbed a creature.
Golden eyes flashed sharply through the hazy smoke.
“ Commander.”
Ricardo reported into the comms, gripping my nape.
“ Bombardment in one minute.”
Ah.
Only then did I see the missiles slicing through the sky.
Ye-hyeon was right. We couldn’t detect lifeless things. Drones, or those missiles beyond the barrier.
I felt Ye-hyeon retreating swiftly.
At the same time, singing reached us.
“ What?”
Ami muttered in bewilderment at the sky.
“ Who’s singing?”
Goosebumps rose all over my body.
It was a familiar melody. Echoing from the ruins.
It was the song Beast Tamers chanted in unison to summon high-grade magical beasts.
The tune for drawing the most difficult ones.
A sacred chorus enveloping the drone propellers and incoming missiles.
Spreading my senses, I felt the distant Beast Tamers.
And the oppressive presence approaching with the song.
“ Ye-hyeon!”
Grabbing Ricardo and Ami, I dragged them back while shouting.
“ Fall back!”
The ground surged.
Kuwoong!
My senses were overwhelmed by the shockwave.
The moment the missiles hit, angels burst from the ground. The massive impact sent people tumbling together. I felt the explosion crush three angels outright. They were nearly three stories tall.
Grayish-blue wings and bodies made of hundreds of eyeballs.
Three or four remained intact.
This was bad.
Even one was plenty dangerous.
“ Cover your ears!”
I shouted to the Badgers.
“ Duck down!”
The angel flapped its wings.
Ah ah ah ah ah!
Eardrums burst.
Heavy pain slammed through my body. The Badgers bent at the waist, clamping their ears. Hands over ears stained with blood. Feeling my hands grow sticky, I barely lifted my head.
The angel’s call repelled our bodies.
Sword strikes and bullets wouldn’t fly easily.
The ceaseless call halted the battle. Drones in the sky were wrecked by the shock, and the seniors strained just to hold ground with ears plugged.
The missiles should have obliterated them all. Advancing before the call ended would be tough.
While we couldn’t move, Sequoia finished recovering.
At that moment, Ye-hyeon rolled toward us on the shockwave.
The man, tumbling over, stopped by scraping the asphalt with both legs right in front of me. I narrowed my eyes to check his condition. He’d been near when the call erupted, so the damage was severe.
Frowning at the blood streaming from his eyes.
I opened my mouth for a harsh word.
But Ye-hyeon spoke first.
“ Objective achieved. Fall back.”
Objective?
What objective?
“ Missiles will hit here.”
Ami, crouching and enduring, toppled.
The weakest were pushed first. With a strangled “Uwaak!”, I snatched the rolling Ami. Ricardo and I grabbed her together, her legs flailing in the air.
Ye-hyeon reached out and caught the collapsing Sophia.
I had no spare attention to check Sophia’s face.
“ Jump through the portal.”
The Supreme Commander commanded calmly, spitting blood.
“ Rear guard: Ricardo and Hilde.”
No one objected.
They quickly grasped the order. Rear assigned by strength. No hesitation. Ye-hyeon entrusted himself to the shockwave right after, clutching Sophia and Ami.
I felt Karl, ambushed in the building, following him.
Turning from the seniors heading to the portal, I looked at the kin.
Kyle charging with sword in hand.
He aimed to cut down the retreating foes.
Attacks continued. Hecate’s triple-pronged sword strikes overtook Kyle and approached.
Ricardo neutralized them.
Kwaaaang!
Three silver thorns rising from the ground.
They precisely blocked Hecate’s sword strikes. But the silver thorns couldn’t stop the leaping Kyle.
In an instant, Kyle reached me.
Long black hair whipping in the angel’s cry.
Amid the scattering black hair, golden eyes gleamed.
Chaeng!
Our blades met.
Just like the old days.
Such a familiar sensation.
Feeling his merciless power shoving me back, I smiled bitterly.
Strangely, having him before me kept bringing smiles.
“ Cowardly bastard.”
“ You begged me to trust you.”
I couldn’t understand why such words spilled from me.
But I couldn’t stop the unconscious utterances.
“ No bluff, no exaggeration. I begged you like that…”
To save as many kin as possible, I’d do anything.
I hated humans as much as I loved them.
I hated the humans who left me with only one choice.
You never trusted me in the end, but I wanted to stand with you and face humans without regret.
I wanted to fight alongside you all like back then.
Because my kin were more precious to me than any humans in the world.
So I reached this conclusion. To fulfill Kisis’s order. To save as many kin as possible. To honor the final command from the one I served.
But why did it come to this?
I couldn’t remember.
Frustratingly, I still couldn’t recall it.
“ Kyle.”
I chanted, putting strength into my sword.
“ Why didn’t you trust me?”
Kwaaaang!
My sword went upward, Kyle’s downward.
A sharp clash of blades unleashed heavy shock around us. Cracking asphalt and scattering corpse fragments.
Ricardo shouted.
“ Hildebert!”
I felt a grip on my clothes.
“ Retreat!”
“ Where to…”
As Kyle assumed an attacking stance, the surroundings darkened.
Missiles rained down.
Kwaaaaaang!
I rolled head over heels.
Reflexively hugging the senior to shield from the shock. We tumbled backward like that, but my body wouldn’t move easily.
No telling if more missiles were coming.
Cheek to the ground, thinking, someone sprang up and dragged me.
Letting myself be pulled, a strange sensation hit.
“ Ah.”
As it faded, the air’s scent changed abruptly.
Noise shifted in an instant.
Staring blankly at the ground, I muttered.
“ Did we portal back?”
The one who dragged me didn’t reply for a while.
Then wordlessly extended a hand to pull me up. Roughly grabbing my arm and yanking upward, then pinning my staggering self in place.
I blinked blankly.
Clear green eyes.
Eyes whose depths I couldn’t read.
Their owner muttered lowly.
“ Stop crying already.”
We had returned behind the barrier.