Counterattack
The sound of a faint scrape sliced through the darkness. In the past, the moment that noise reached his ears, a cold blade would have already been pressed against his throat. But after hundreds of loops and the hellish training he'd endured under Rolls, Tae-oh's senses had been sharpened far beyond human limits.
Tae-oh didn't open his eyes. Instead, he focused every nerve in his body to a razor's edge. The enemy's presence crept right up to the side of his head. The instant the cold killing intent froze the air, Tae-oh twisted like lightning, snatching the sword hidden beneath his pillow and swinging it in one fluid motion.
KAANG—!
“!!!”
Sparks flew in the dark. The assassin’s dagger collided with Tae-oh’s sword, ringing out a sharp metallic clang. Through the mask, the assassin’s eyes widened in pure shock. By every rule the man knew, this reaction was impossible.
“Hah… so you were even hiding your skill. What a dangerous bastard.”
Slitting the throat of a defenseless new recruit should have been easier for him than breathing. Yet the man standing before him now had blocked his strike and was glaring at him with eyes full of murderous hatred.
“I’ve been waiting for you, you son of a bitch.”
“Waiting? You knew you’d be assassinated? Sharp instincts.”
It was clearly meant as praise, but it only pissed Tae-oh off.
“You imperial spy piece of shit. You picked the wrong fucking guy today.”
Tae-oh muttered darkly as he leveled his sword at the assassin. The man moved like lightning.
KAANG—!
This time the eyes behind the mask looked genuinely surprised.
“You blocked that too?”
The swordsmanship Rolls had drilled into him shone through. Tae-oh deflected the force flowing down the assassin’s blade and immediately drove his foot into the man’s stomach.
THUD—!
With a dull impact, the assassin was thrown backward.
“Kgh!”
The man couldn’t hide his panic as he tried to create distance, but Tae-oh refused to let up. No—he couldn’t let up. The rage carved into his body after dying hundreds of times had finally erupted as razor-sharp killing intent.
On top of that, he had landed the first clean hit. Tae-oh’s brain was practically flooding with dopamine.
“Die, you bastard!!”
“Kgh! This is impossible!!”
The assassin spoke for the first time. His voice was thick with alarm. Tae-oh roared and thrust his sword forward.
“Haaahp!!”
Whoosh—!
The blade cut through the air with a vicious sound. It traced the exact trajectory he had repeated tens of thousands of times during sparring with Rolls, hurtling toward the assassin’s chest. The man instinctively crossed his daggers to block, but Tae-oh had already read the next move.
The moment the daggers crossed, Tae-oh used a flick of his wrist to change the sword’s path.
Slice—!
“Urgh!!”
A shallow gash opened on the assassin’s thigh. The man groaned and staggered back. A cold, bitter smile spread across Tae-oh’s lips.
This was the most valuable reward he could ask for. Compensation for all those hellish deaths—throats slit, hearts pierced, over and over. The assassin was rattled. The assassin was wounded. The assassin was beginning to fear him.
What greater catharsis could there be?
“This is only the beginning. I’m going to pay you back for every bit of pain I suffered.”
“What the hell are you babbling about!”
Tae-oh charged again. He didn’t even use the Potion of Swiftness. He was fighting the assassin on equal footing—actually pressuring him—using nothing but his own muscles and senses.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew inside the narrow barracks as swords clashed without pause. Because the assassin had used sleeping gas, no one woke up despite the violent commotion. Tae-oh had confirmed that fact several times in previous loops.
The assassin could no longer afford to hold back. He began pouring every technique he had into the fight. His dagger twisted at unnatural angles, aiming for Tae-oh’s blind spots. It was a trajectory that would have been impossible for the old Tae-oh to even perceive.
But now he reacted.
His left shoulder rose. It’s an upward thrust from below.
It was a skill he had learned from countless sparring sessions with Rolls—reading an opponent’s movement through the subtle shifts of bone and muscle. Tae-oh spun half a turn, dodging the attack by a hair’s breadth. Using the momentum, he slammed the hilt of his sword into the assassin’s jaw.
Crack—!
The man’s head snapped back. Tae-oh didn’t stop. He unleashed a relentless barrage of attacks. Rolls had always emphasized that once you seized the initiative, you had to finish with a continuous assault that left no room to breathe.
Tae-oh’s body danced without pause, chasing the assassin’s form. The man was trapped within those arcs, forced entirely onto the defensive.
“This can’t be! How can a guy who was just conscripted fight like this?! Who the hell are you?!”
The assassin screamed as if he’d seen a ghost. From his perspective, it must have been like a horror story. The bug he could have crushed yesterday had, overnight, become a swordsman capable of matching an elite imperial assassin. It was only natural he’d assume Tae-oh had been hiding his true strength.
But for Tae-oh, it hadn’t been one night.
The long, long years spent trying to kill this man were all contained in this single blade.
The battle grew fiercer. Furniture inside the barracks shattered, and clouds of dust rose into the air. The sleeping gas must have begun to wear off, because the squad members started waking up one by one.
“T-Tae-oh?! What the hell is that?!”
Kyle cried out in shock, but the words didn’t reach Tae-oh’s ears. His entire mind was consumed by the enemy before him—the bastard who had killed him countless times. He was hunting now.
The assassin threw something from his chest pocket as a last resort. Thick smoke billowed out, and his figure vanished.
A smoke bomb?!
In a situation where he couldn’t see even an inch ahead, Tae-oh still hadn’t learned how to track an invisible enemy. Damn it, this is bad!
Only now did he understand why his own smoke bombs had terrified enemies so much in previous loops. Using the right item at the right moment was incredibly effective.
“Shit… what a waste.”
Even as he muttered that, a smile spread across Tae-oh’s face. Then the assassin’s poisoned dagger grazed his forearm.
Swish—!
It was coated with a lethal toxin. Even a single scratch was enough to kill.
“Huff… huff. You monster. Just die quietly.”
“Tsk. If it weren’t for that smoke bomb…”
“Still acting cocky while you’re dying. Farewell.”
The poison began spreading. His body started to stiffen. Excruciating pain engulfed him, and Tae-oh coughed up blood.
“Cough—! Blegh!!”
To anyone watching, there was no way he could survive. That was when Tae-oh slowly opened his mouth.
“Why… exactly… are you trying to kill me…? No matter how I think about it… the Empire wouldn’t bother targeting a lowly grunt like me.”
Normally, the assassin would never have answered no matter what Tae-oh asked. But today was different. Perhaps out of respect for Tae-oh’s skill, the man actually replied.
“Isn’t it obvious? It’s betrayal. You weren’t supposed to stand out in the last battle.”
“What…?”
“We sent you here so it would be easy to kill you. Your friends will all die too.”
“Fuck… that… that can’t be right… I got dragged into this war… and now I have to die to my own side…?”
“That’s the kind of world this is. Farewell…”
“W-wait… I still have questions…”
But that was as far as he got. Tae-oh’s body had reached its limit. The poison was so potent he could barely move his mouth anymore.
“I’ll spare you the pain.”
Slice—!
The feeling of his throat being crushed hit him, and Tae-oh’s vision turned red. The assassin had severed his neck. In his fading consciousness, Tae-oh looked at the man and smiled bitterly.
Yeah… I died in the end. Still, I gained a lot.
But he didn’t feel bad. This time he hadn’t died helplessly. Using only his own power and the martial skills Rolls had taught him, he had driven an assassin to the brink. On top of that, he had gained information he never had before.
They were trying to kill him and his friends? He hadn’t gotten that impression when he saw the company commander… There was clearly still a lot to uncover.
But the biggest harvest was the confidence he had gained. He could finally see a path to survival. If he could hold his own with pure martial strength, what would happen if he mixed in the alchemical items he had painstakingly created?
Surviving the next loop wouldn’t be difficult.
Tae-oh’s consciousness was once again sucked back into the morning of the save point.
“Hoo…”
Tae-oh slowly sat up. The sensation lingering at his fingertips and the vibration of clashing swords still felt vividly real. He wiped away his sweat and let out a low, chuckling laugh.
Rolls, who had been stretching nearby, looked at him like he was crazy.
“Hey, what’s with you today? You look way too happy.”
Tae-oh gave Rolls a thumbs-up.
“Rolls, you look kinda pretty today, you know?”
“You insane bastard. Did you steal my drugs or something?”
Rolls backed away in disgust, but Tae-oh didn’t care. He had confirmed he could hold his own with pure martial strength. Now it was time to mix in his real specialty.
The assassin was no longer a major problem.
More importantly…
The fact that this very unit was trying to kill his squad. That was what truly mattered.