Chapter 290 Independence -19
Chapter 290 Independence -19
Alex swung his sword, eyes bloodshot with fury.
'Can't use Black Darkness.......'
He couldn't. At close range, he'd be caught in the blast himself.
But as if he'd anticipated that thought, Alex kept swinging his sword while his other hand conjured Black Darkness and hurled it diagonally.
The idea was to detonate it behind Jiha, putting only Jiha in the blast radius.
"You think the world works the way you want it to?"
Admirable, the way he used his head. But against Jiha, who'd already seen him use it on Lowchen, it was never going to work.
Jiha met the blade head-on and drove in with his shoulder. Alex, at a disadvantage in weight and physique, had to retreat.
Even with Mana reinforcing his durability, mass was mass.
Boooom!!
The explosion boomed from behind, but only Jiha's hair fluttered in the blast.
"Guhh!!"
Alex clenched his teeth and called up his Mana, but Jiha kicked him square in the gut.
Alex had assumed Jiha would naturally counter with Mana. Instead, the kick sent him staggering far back.
"You really are a sloppy bastard."
A pampered young master from a noble house—when would he have ever fought a dust-and-grime brawl?
Against Lowchen, tricks like this wouldn't fly. But Alex was easy to toy with.
"You—you son of a bitch!"
Reflexively, Alex conjured Black Darkness again. But Jiha had anticipated that too, summoning a Shadow Hand that latched onto Alex's leg.
Caught off guard, Alex canceled the Black Darkness and frantically shook his leg, throwing off the Shadow Hand.
It was possible because he was using Unique Grade Mana stolen from Gashiel, but still—
"You don't have the right to wield that."
Jiha was already charging in, hand swinging. Alex, who'd naturally expected a sword strike, hesitated for an instant.
When a bare hand came flying at him, he doubted it. What technique was this? Was it a fake?
Sssslap!!
He hesitated, and the slap caught his cheek. Alex reeled backward, his face twisting.
He, who'd grown up wanting for nothing, had been slapped. And by another man, no less—an insult beyond measure.
"You lowborn wretch!!!"
"There we go. The prince finally shows his true colors."
Humiliated, Alex fired Black Darkness in a spasm of rage. But this time, Jiha didn't charge in. He pulled back immediately.
Alex had expected Jiha to use the same counter as before—predict the blast point and rush in. He stared blankly.
"What....... Aaaagh!!"
Boooom!
Absurdly, Alex was caught in his own explosion and screamed.
It looked like stupid self-destruction, but from Alex's perspective, he'd set the blast near himself on purpose. He'd figured Jiha would close in like before. Giving flesh to take bone, or so he'd planned—detonating it close.
Jiha had read that too and simply withdrawn.
The guy's intentions were written all over his face. Who'd fall for that?
"Think a little head-work is enough to beat me?"
"Haaah, haaah."
His smooth face split open, bloodied and raw, Alex gnashed his teeth and glared at Jiha.
Every move he made was being dismantled. Jiha was making a fool of him, and Alex had no idea how he could possibly win.
Seeing his wavering eyes, Jiha sneered.
"You think having more Mana and faster recovery makes you strong? Strength is knowing how to use power, you moron."
By specs alone, Alex was strong.
Stealing Gashiel's Mana put his quantity and recovery rate at Unique-class.
His Special Abilities, Black Darkness and Intangibility, were excellent, too.
He wasn't one of the Five Kings of Ouroboros for nothing.
But he was far too easy to cook.
Rattle his mental state by bringing up Gashiel. Dismantle what he considered his clever moves. That was all it took.
He'd always lived looking down on others, and in a fight, he'd always overwhelmed his opponents with superior Mana and abilities.
This was the first time Alex had ever been in a mud-fight, a battle where he might actually die.
"Guess he really is a eunuch little shit......."
Good specs, zero experience. A fine weapon in his hands, but no idea how to use it—an idiot.
If Jiha had been overwhelmed by Alex's specs and abilities from the start, he couldn't have cornered him this way.
Because Jiha hadn't flinched at the opponent's flashy stats and had steeled his fighting spirit, he could grind a privileged young master into the mud.
When Jiha approached at a leisurely pace, Alex involuntarily stepped back.
His body was afraid, recognizing an opponent he couldn't handle.
"After you got Gashiel's Mana and Special Abilities, you must've felt pretty proud of yourself. Must've thought you'd reached the upper echelons of Ouroboros, of Warsland. But you didn't stop there—you trained, didn't you?"
"......."
He didn't answer, but his face said everything.
It wasn't that Alex hadn't trained. He had combat experience.
The way he practiced detonating Black Darkness behind enemies after acquiring it, so he wouldn't get caught—that showed effort.
"But at the end of the day, you're still a young master raised in silk. This is the first time you've ever really gambled your life in a fight."
"......."
"And that's why you're losing and dying today."
Jiha, on the other hand, had participated in the Summoning War even when he had no power at all, when he'd had limbs torn off in one-sided battles.
He'd kept racking his brain to win, and when an opponent was unbeatable, he'd shaped the situation until he could claim victory.
The accumulated experience was different.
That was why Jiha could dominate Alex.
Edging backward to avoid Jiha, Alex realized that at this rate he'd be pushed all the way to the ice holding Gashiel captive.
At his hesitant reaction, Jiha laughed scornfully.
"Ah, right. You want to run to big sis and beg for her tits, is that it? Your hobby was playing with Gashiel's rack while falling asleep?"
"......You bastard!!"
Even while being completely overwhelmed, Alex bristled again.
Judging he couldn't retreat any further, Alex suddenly charged, swinging his sword in a horizontal arc and activating Intangibility.
The target was Jiha's neck. The plan: phase through whatever defense Jiha put up and re-materialize the moment the blade touched his throat.
If it failed? He'd just try again.
Intangibility cost a lot of Mana, true, but Alex was stealing a Unique's Mana, so he could use it limitlessly.......
But Jiha ducked his upper body to evade and drove his arm forward in a light thrust.
Shhnk.
"......Huh."
Alex stared wide-eyed at the sword buried in his stomach.
The cold sensation piercing his belly, the blazing pain that followed—Alex screamed.
"Grrruuugh!!"
"You know it hurts, so quit with the dying gasps."
Unfazed, Jiha pulled the sword out.
Clutching his stomach, Alex gasped for breath and stumbled back.
"Wh-why......."
"Told you, you don't have the right."
Alex could spam Intangibility all he wanted, and trusting in his infinite Mana recovery, he'd rushed in with it.
But Jiha had already faced Intangibility—Heinrich's.
Alex knew Jiha had taken Heinrich down.
Alex, phasing through the chimera's body to escape, had revealed his Intangibility to Jiha.
Alex should have connected those three facts.
That Jiha would have a way to deal with Intangibility. That he needed to be cautious.
But he didn't think.
Jiha had simply aimed for the moment he returned to solid form and stabbed him.
Exploiting the fact that you can't dodge at the instant you strike.
A simple trick, but Alex fell for it because he never dreamed he'd take a counterattack.
"Because you're a man of high station."
"......."
Alex's expression screamed 'why?'
Collapsed onto his knees, pressing his stomach, Alex met Jiha's gaze as Jiha spoke again.
"Because you're a young master raised in silk. Because you've never lost. Because you've never rolled in the dirt and swallowed mud."
He'd lacked caution.
Even Lowchen, a seasoned expert, had been cautious facing Jiha.
What's more, Alex himself had admitted Lowchen would beat him in a fight.
So when facing Jiha—who had defeated that same Lowchen—why was he so brimming with confidence?
Ultimately, he hadn't truly accepted the possibility that he might lose, that losing might mean dying.
Arrogance, forgetting that trying to kill someone meant you could be killed yourself.
"You deluded yourself into thinking you were invincible because you borrowed Gashiel's power."
Jiha delivered the explanation calmly to the gravely wounded Alex.
Alex, his face screaming he couldn't accept reality, just bit down on his fury.
Well, no need to bother with someone who can't understand anyway.
He'd be dead soon enough.
Losing interest in Alex, who was just gasping for air, Jiha approached the ice encasing Gashiel.
Alex's voice rang out reflexively from behind.
"Don't you touch my sister!!"
"Think I'll stop at touching?"
"You—, guurgh......."
Alex tried to force himself up but collapsed back down. With a sword wound through his abdomen, overexerting himself only damaged his own body further.
Sneering at Alex, Jiha gently stroked the ice holding Gashiel with his hand.
"Nnggh......."
Just that alone made Alex bite his lip in fury, blood streaming down and soaking his chin.
Not even touching Gashiel's body—just the ice imprisoning her—and that was his reaction.
"Wow, seriously, this guy's insane....... Did you actually come down here and jerk off to Gashiel?"
Jiha tsked, genuinely appalled.
Alex couldn't answer right away. Whether that was because the remark hit a nerve or because of his injury was impossible to tell.
Either way, Jiha didn't want to know.
What was certain was that even grievously wounded, Alex's obsession with Gashiel remained.
"Grruuuuugh."
Alex ground his teeth in fury and conjured Black Darkness.
It looked like he planned to hurl it at Jiha. But wouldn't the ice holding Gashiel get caught in that too?
Seeing his eyes roll back in rage, he must've decided that rather than letting another man touch Gashiel, she was better off not existing at all.
"Anyway, how do you crack this thing open?"
Fully aware of Alex's inner thoughts, Jiha pretended ignorance and drove a Mana-wreathed fist into the ice.
Craaack!
The sound of splitting ice turned Alex's face pale yellow.
"S-stop! Stop it, you crazy bastard!"
"I'll let a lot of things slide, but not that. Who're you calling crazy?"
For all his talk of blasting his sister to pieces, the moment Jiha hammered the ice, Alex threw a tantrum.
What was this—he could accept killing Gashiel himself, but he couldn't stand watching anyone else do it?
Jiha raised his sword and, very visibly, called up his Mana. Alex's face went white this time.
"N-no. Wai—wait. Wait!"
"Wonder if this'll break it."
Jiha swung the sword without a care.
Craaash!!
Channeling a heavy mass of Mana into the strike, he did manage to crack the ice a little.
Just the outer shell, nowhere near Gashiel's body, but if he kept at it, it would break.
"Wh-what? What are you thinking? What do you want?!"
Alex was shrieking now.
His reaction made it clear he truly had never imagined Jiha would do this.
Jiha played it brazenly.
"Huh? To get Gashiel out, I've gotta break the ice."
"Then my sister can't possibly survive!!"
"She can't?"
Jiha pretended he'd just realized it.
"Oh, like a fish trapped in ice. If you break the ice, the fish breaks with it?"
"Y-yes. Don't do it. Please don't......."
Now Alex was begging.
His face was that of a man who couldn't bear to see his sister killed by someone else—couldn't bear to watch such a gruesome death play out before his eyes.
"But I'm an ignorant brute. This is the only way I know how to get her out."
Besides, was it absolutely necessary to keep Gashiel alive?
Jiha judged coldly. Would she obediently come under Jiha if he freed her from the ice?
Alex was about to die...... and it wouldn't be strange if she came for Jiha's throat with a blade, calling him her brother's murderer.
With a lunatic like that for a younger brother, there was no guarantee the sister was sane.
Even setting that aside, her original affiliation was Purple. No guarantee she'd submit to Jiha.
'Odds are higher she becomes an enemy if I keep her alive.'
If he freed her alive, he could drink her blood and gain a Special Ability.
But was that one benefit worth taking the risk?
"W-wait! Wait!!"
When Jiha raised the sword again, Alex's complexion turned white. He reached into his coat and produced a red orb.
Alex hesitated briefly, but the moment Jiha brought the sword back to the ice, he crushed the orb in his hand.
Wooong.
A vibration ran through the chamber. Then came the change.
Crrrrick.
The ice encasing Gashiel began to melt away.