Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Duel Over Hellcannon
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Dart froze and lifted his head.
He took a couple of steps back.
A voice that had been echoing from quite a distance suddenly rushed right up close.
While weaving through alleyways searching for Hellcannon, Kaisha belatedly remembered her Fly skill, took to the skies, spotted Hellcannon, and landed nearby.
Thud.
She immediately thrust out one arm to block Dart.
“……?”
Dart was momentarily stunned.
In the meantime, Kaisha glanced at Hellcannon and gasped in shock, drawing in a sharp breath.
His injuries were far too severe.
Hellcannon stared up at Kaisha with a face that couldn’t believe this situation.
On the other hand, Dart—who had roughly pieced together the situation from the way Kaisha looked at Hellcannon and her protective stance—wore an incredulous expression.
“You right now,”
Kaisha turned her head back toward Dart and said.
“Hellcannon saved one of my guildmates.”
“……What?”
Dart’s face said that was utter nonsense.
Kaisha continued.
“Hellcannon rescued Kirin-nim, who had been taken hostage. Kirin-nim himself just confirmed it as fact.”
“……So you’re going to let that bastard live? What about the safety of my guildmates?”
“That’s……”
Dart said in an anger-filled voice.
“That bastard came out of the gate and pointed his sword at the hunters! You can capture the other heroes however you want, but that fucker’s the leader of the traitors—he has to die!”
“!”
At the words that Hellcannon was the leader of the traitors, Kaisha’s breath caught in her throat.
It wasn’t wrong.
Hellcannon was an exceptionally strong hero, and it was true that his guildmates and people throughout the world lived in fear because of the heroes unleashed upon the world.
“……”
Kaisha glanced back over her shoulder.
Even so.
The image of Hellcannon secretly carrying Kirin-nim and running away was still vivid in her mind.
No matter how she looked at it, Hellcannon seemed blameless, and right now, his injuries were so severe he couldn’t even hold a sword.
However, even if Hellcannon harbored goodwill toward Fullminak, if his heart was filled with vengeance, Kaisha had no room to argue against handing him over.
She had to turn him over.
Having understood Dart’s point to some extent with her head, Kaisha proposed a compromise.
“Fine, so let’s ask the guildmates who were still there and confirm it, then decide. For now, I remember that even inside the gate, Hellcannon ultimately didn’t fight in the end. And above all, Hellcannon is completely defenseless right now.”
“Kill him while he’s weak. What if this dangerous bastard escapes? There’s no law that can punish him, and normal people can’t even hold him down.”
“……”
As Kaisha fell silent, Dart spoke in a sigh-mingled voice.
“Don’t go soft in a place like this.”
Dart, sword in hand, tried to pass Kaisha roughly, but she didn’t budge.
Dart looked at Kaisha.
Even after staring her down persistently, she wouldn’t move, and soon Dart’s expression turned incredibly fierce.
“……Not moving?”
Amid his sharp gaze, Kaisha bit her lip hard. The moment she stepped aside, Hellcannon would die right there.
Logically, Dart was right.
One of Spaceking’s guildmates had already died inside the gate, and whether Hellcannon was the leader of the traitors or not, he was too dangerous in terms of combat power—this was the chance to kill him, and that was correct.
But wasn’t it also wrong to kill people so easily?
Moreover, amid the gate’s hellish chaos, Hellcannon had saved Kaisha’s life in a moment of crisis.
At last, Kaisha’s mouth opened.
“Hey.”
“……What.”
“Let’s do a real PK.”
“……”
“Whoever wins, their call.”
Dart seemed momentarily flustered, then spat out a double curse through a hardened expression.
A murderous glare shot out, as if he’d slice her alive, and Kaisha tensed inwardly, swallowing dryly.
Scary bastard.
But truthfully, this was the Dart she knew well.
Dart, not wanting to argue with Kaisha over this anymore, gripped his sword with a face on the verge of losing rationality to rage.
“Remember one thing.”
“What.”
“Even if you win, that bastard will die by my hand someday.”
Dart pointed his sword tip at Hellcannon—who was barely breathing, leaning against the wall—glaring as if to kill, then fully turned his back.
He moved away from the building to create space for the fight.
As Kaisha went to the opposite side, she said.
“What if Hellcannon never killed any of your guildmates, won’t threaten you in the future, and was a lifesaver who helped your guildmates while we were gone?”
Drip.
It sounded like the snap of rationality breaking.
Dart’s footsteps suddenly halted, and Kaisha reflexively flinched, raising her sword.
A ferocious aura exploded outward.
“Quit talking bullshit—!”
Dart spun around and charged, swinging his sword.
Clang! Claaang!!
Two skill-less swords clashed, but an invisible, fierce battle of wills raged between them.
Aura ready to erupt into skills at any moment churned around them.
Boom!
The two blades collided head-on and trembled as if vibrating.
Screeech—
“Urgh……”
Kaisha’s sword was pushed back.
Just like during their first PvP, Dart had dumped everything into intelligence early on, but afterward, he’d poured stats into strength.
In the end, she was lacking in strength stats, and psychologically outmatched too.
An unease that maybe she’d fallen for Hellcannon, that personal fangirling was ruining things.
Kaisha, barely holding on, shifted her stance and smacked the sword away with all her might.
Clang!
Kaisha finally activated a skill.
KABOOM!
As if he’d been waiting, Dart threw up a shield and twisted his lips ferociously.
Ever since hearing the news of his guildmates’ deaths, Dart’s eyes had been boiling with rage and killing intent toward the heroes.
“You wanna go?”
Dart drew up his energy.
Kaisha matched him, channeling her mental power, and wind whipped through the area.
Just like in the game, space faintly warped and distorted in a bizarre phenomenon—but no one noticed.
Boom! KABOOM! Boom!!
Dart unleashed sword skills and magic skills, while Kaisha countered with sword skills and powerful defensive buffs.
Her heart raced amid his frenzied attacks.
Even so, neither was going all-out in this situation. But if one of them lost control……
“Calm down!”
As Kaisha shouted, Dart glared at her with a face full of fury.
“Shut up!”
Kaisha, jumping straight into battle after exiting the gate, hadn’t heard about Spaceking’s guildmate deaths.
Fullminak’s situation was comparatively more relaxed.
That made Dart even angrier.
“Fuck! This isn’t even a siege, and you’re PKing me over one damn NPC?!”
Boom!
Kaisha protested loudly.
“I just want to confirm if Hellcannon’s dangerous or not! What if he holds no malice toward your guildmates?!”
“Quit, your, bullshit!!”
Hellcannon had joined the rebellion inside the gate and hadn’t denied it.
Kaisha shouted again, trying to persuade him.
“You regret it too, don’t you! Killing NPCs so carelessly!”
She flinched.
Dart halted his movements at Kaisha’s words, gripped his sword tightly, straightened his stance, and glared at her savagely.
Thud.
Whoooosh—
Dart’s blue energy blazed ferociously, swirling violently.
“I don’t regret it. Not one bit.”
A voice spat through gritted teeth.
It was an attitude that screamed too much denial meant the opposite.
Stabbed by the killing intent crackling savagely through every nerve, Kaisha likewise ramped up her full power.
“I do regret it.”
So she couldn’t yield.
Grip.
Dart’s hand tightened.
His breath grew ragged at Kaisha’s words, so easily admitting the painful guilt he hated even facing.
The eyes of the two staring at each other finally gleamed with true murderous intent.
At this point, it was all or nothing.
Skills kept exploding around them—anyone who wanted to live had already fled.
Kaisha and Dart shared that thought, tossed rationality in the trash, and pulled up their game skill windows.
No half-assing it against this opponent, and they couldn’t anyway.
Crackle!
Craaaackle—
Instead of game graphics, something unknowable in real space rippled, tore, and sparked repeatedly.
Tension built.
As the prelude to the ultimate ‘real PK’ between PvP elites was about to rise.
Swoosh—
“!”
Startled by the ambush charging at him, Dart quickly threw up a shield.
Boom! KABOOM!
The Abyss attacked Dart smoothly a couple times without a sound, cast a deceleration debuff on the area, then nimbly retreated.
Slaaash—
Blocking Kaisha’s front, she threateningly raised the dagger obtained as gate loot.
The Abyss glared at Dart.
Then, footsteps and presences approached from the other side.
“Hah, crazy! It was real?!”
Kali, along with numerous other guildmates, and even Elfer and a few heroes mixed in.
Haa.
Kaisha quietly sheathed her sword, secretly sighing in relief.
This bought them some breathing room.
“You two lost your minds?! Do you know how shocked Elfer was seeing you guild masters fighting?! Why the hell are you clashing in this situation, ughhh!!”
Kali, running toward Kaisha, spotted the bloodied Hellcannon and cried out in shock.
Spaceking’s vice guild master Nix, who had rushed over after hearing the news like Kali, alternated glances between Hellcannon and Dart before saying.
“No way, over this bastard?”
At Nix’s words, the guildmates who had arrived looked like it all made sense.
They exchanged glances.
As Abys guarded Kaisha, Nix went to Dart’s side, crossed his arms, and brazenly declared.
“Hellcannon’s obviously Dart’s.”
Kaisha and Dart both looked at Nix with puzzled eyes.
To the two who had been fighting over whether to kill Hellcannon right then or not, it was incomprehensible.
Kali protested.
“Wow. What funny bastards. Hellcannon saved our guildmate—why are you suddenly claiming ownership? This isn’t Midgard, it’s the modern world?”
Abys chimed in briefly.
“Back in the gate, they were trembling at the sight of Hellcannon.”
Then, another Spaceking vice guild master, Binu, who had appeared out of nowhere, interjected.
“I was watching the rear the whole time, and honestly, Hellcannon never fought once inside the gate either. And the first one he saved was our guildmates.”
Nix picked up.
“Right. We’d have all been massacred by the heroes if not for Hellcannon.”
He was referring to how Hellcannon had used his ultimate to take out heroes, showing off to Kaisha behind the building.
Word spread that Kirin-nim had been helped too, flipping hunter opinion.
Hellcannon’s one of us.
“And what I mean isn’t claiming ownership—it’s that Hellcannon’s already under Dart, so we obviously can’t hand him over.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Kali fumed at the Spaceking vice guild masters chattering away.
“Wow! Have you ever seen such ungrateful bastards! If you survived the gate thanks to Kaisha, you should at least hand over her favorite!”
Even Spaceking’s vice masters and guildmates flinched a bit at that.
“Heh, pick something other than Hellcannon.”
“Your heroes all betrayed you—what’s there to pick, you bastards!”
The top executives firmly believed the guild masters had fought over ‘Hellcannon’s ownership’ and argued fiercely.
Of course, the real reason Dart and Kaisha fought was the exact opposite.
Dart’s mouth fell slightly open.
“……”
Stunned by the shocking truths spilling from his Spaceking vice guild masters’ mouths, Dart stared blankly.
Dart swallowed hard and looked at Kaisha with trembling eyes.
Kaisha, having heard the guildmates’ conversation right in front of her, smiled beautifully—tinged with faint killing intent.