Chapter 187: A Bloody Revenge
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 187: A Bloody Revenge
Of course, I had no intention of fighting them head-on. If we clashed directly, I could only handle two of them at most, and that was including Park Hyeri. But I had no intention of giving up on my revenge, either. If not now, I had no idea how long it would take, so I was determined to kill them in this swamp. If that was impossible, I had to at least take care of Park Hyeri.
“That son of a bitch!”
As I turned and ran in the opposite direction, a shout echoed from behind me. I didn't think of stopping. First, I needed to recover my stamina and assess the situation. Seeing me pull back, the magician stopped casting. He must have assumed I was retreating.
I had no idea why the Spiders had suddenly appeared as a group.
But Park Hyeri’s earlier remark gave me a rough idea.
‘I told you, I don’t care about the Witch of the East or the Queen of the North.’
She had definitely mentioned the Witch of the East. It was only natural that they had gathered for a purpose. That purpose was likely a meeting—they were probably planning to show up at the conference where the rulers of the great cities were gathering. I didn't know how they got their information, but I figured there was a high probability that one of the human leaders from the East, West, North, or South was a mole.
The question was, how were they traveling?
The answer was already clear.
‘Someone with a movement ability.’
I couldn't be certain, but the Spider Clan had a teleporter—someone with an ability similar to Storm Shadow’s.
I pushed mana into the ring and kept moving. Park Hyeri’s sound attacks and Lee Hyunhak’s slashes rained down on me, but I moved swiftly to escape their range.
[Jang Ye Ri.]
[You called? Perfect timing. I was just waiting for the others to arrive.]
[Get out of there now. The meeting location has been leaked. I just ran into members of the Spider Clan. I can’t be sure, but their destination seems to be the meeting place, and it’s likely a trap. Be wary of the Sword Saint of the West or the King of the South....]
Even the small amount of mana the ring consumed was precious right now. I relayed the message to Jang Ye Ri and immediately cut the connection.
If there really was someone colluding with the Spiders, it was highly likely to be the Sword Saint of the West, the one who organized the meeting. Of course, that was just speculation. But the Spiders weren't stupid enough to charge into a place where all their enemies’ forces were gathered. They always operated in small groups. They must have been promised support from the Sword Saint or the King of the South.
The most plausible explanation was that they had been hired for a job, and that was why they were on the move.
“I’ll kill you.”
Park Hyeri charged toward me, her daggers crossed. I gripped my spear, using its long reach to draw their attention and keep them in check. If I decided to retreat with all my might, only two of them could keep up with me: Lee Hyunhak and Park Hyeri.
Go Woongjin was fast, but he was ultimately a strength-type warrior. The magician was out of the question. They wouldn't be able to catch me.
Lee Hyunhak thrust his longsword at me. I parried the blade with my spearhead, then threw a dagger I had recovered earlier. He leaned back, easily dodging it, but the dagger wasn't aimed at him—it was headed for the magician. I switched the dagger for my greatsword, and the massive blade continued its trajectory, falling right on the magician.
“You bastard!”
Go Woongjin must have been protecting the magician, because a curse flew from his lips. I swung my spear down at Lee Hyunhak, and he blocked my attack with his longsword. Just then, Park Hyeri’s dagger shot out. In an instant, I swapped the spear for Levatain and summoned its flames.
“Levatain!”
The world-devouring Ancient Flame surged forth. I had hoped to engulf them in fire, but Lee Hyunhak casually spun his longsword, batting the flames away.
Fucking bastard.
If I used my Dominion, I could definitely inflict damage, but I was low on mana. It was time for Dainsleif, but using it now was clearly premature.
But I wouldn't go down easily. As I continued to stall, they seemed to be growing anxious. Gripping my spear, I once again recalled the movements of the Queen of the North.
Her movements from that day were still seared into my mind. I used the spear to keep them at bay, sometimes spinning it, sometimes using it as a pole to vault away, constantly widening the distance between us.
I couldn't dodge all of Park Hyeri’s sound attacks, so the wounds were piling up, but if my goal was to create distance, I could say I was succeeding.
By this point, they were getting desperate. It seemed their operation time was drawing near.
“We’re out of time.”
I heard the magician speak from behind them, and they slowly lowered their swords. Park Hyeri, in particular, stared at me with an incredibly frustrated look.
But…
I had no intention of letting them go.
“I’m not letting you leave. You rats.”
[Dainsleif - Activating the item effect of the Cursed Sword, Dain’s Legacy.]
I swapped the spear in my hand for the cursed sword and immediately formed blades of blood, firing them at my enemies.
Lee Hyunhak and Park Hyeri would dodge them, but wounding them was the priority. I shot through the space between them and lunged toward the magician.
Go Woongjin swung his blunt weapon in a flash. The mana-infused mace descended, carrying enough power to guarantee instant death on impact. I ducked low, switching Dainsleif to Levatain for a split second, then back to Dainsleif again.
No matter how outstanding a warrior’s defense was, they were still vulnerable to a critical wound. And for an enemy who had no information on me and was overconfident in his own body, the conditions for inflicting an injury couldn't be better.
As I swung Dainsleif, he confidently extended his arm, intending to catch my sword.
“Idiot.”
“Arrrggghhhhh!”
With a satisfying sound, a fountain of blood erupted from Go Woongjin’s arm. I had swung with the intent to sever it completely, but I had to be content with leaving a deep gash. The blood that sprayed from him was now under my dominion.
I glanced back to see Lee Hyunhak thrusting his longsword at me. I formed a shield from Go Woongjin’s blood and blocked his blade.
Without looking anywhere else, I kept moving.
“I’ll kill you! You demon bastard! Haa… haa…”
Go Woongjin’s roars echoed behind me, but I had no intention of fighting him. The battlefield was vast. Guerrilla warfare was more than possible.
With them all clustered together like this, the magician wouldn't be able to use his magic properly either. I vanished into the forest.
“You!!”
Park Hyeri gave chase, but she was too busy blocking the barrage of blood blades I sent her way. Lee Hyunhak’s sharp sword was a threat, but with the blood Go Woongjin had shed, it wasn't impossible to block.
“...............!”
Suddenly, an explosion erupted with enough force to swallow the forest, so loud I wanted to cover my ears. Spheres the size of human heads came flying toward me.
An attack I can’t block.
This was an attack I had to get as far away from as possible. I quickly turned and used the blood still pouring from Go Woongjin to form thorns, sending them toward the magician behind him.
“Tch!”
As expected, Go Woongjin blocked the attack aimed at the magician with his other hand. It was an obvious move, but I had to disrupt his mana control as much as possible. I had to redirect the incoming attack, which seemed to have a will of its own.
It was a bomb-type magic. It would detonate on impact. I threw a dagger at an approaching sphere, and a tremendous boom erupted from the red orb.
“BOOM!”
Even detonated from a distance, its power was immense. It was certainly worth the long casting time. In the blink of an eye, Park Hyeri charged through the explosion. I instinctively swung Dainsleif, and an unpleasant sound scraped past my sword.
Park Hyeri had used her unique ability on me. A slash of pure sound. My entire body was drenched in blood, but my mind remained clear.
The problem wasn't this attack, but the ones that would follow.
An assault rained down on me, looking as if it would slice me in two at the waist. Lee Hyunhak swung his longsword, fully charged with mana. I raised a curtain of blood once more, but his sword pierced through the wall and came for my torso.
I raised my spear to block the attack and used the recoil to escape its range. But waiting for me was Park Hyeri, who had already passed me. She plunged her dagger down at me. I blocked her blade with my greatsword, which was lying far away.
I had decided it was better to endure another sound attack than to suffer a fatal wound.
Screeeeeech—
With a sickening sound, slashes of sound rained down on my body. I cauterized the gushing blood with Levatain and escaped the area. In the process, I sent the blood that had pooled on the ground shooting into Park Hyeri’s side.
It hit.
I had bought a little more time.
“Hoo…”
As I slowly backed away, watching them, I saw Lee Hyunhak looking at me with an amused expression.
“You truly are a strong demon.”
“I’m going to kill you.”
Park Hyeri pressed a hand to the bleeding wound on her side and charged at me again. She had realized their situation wasn't good, either.
The magician was nowhere in sight, likely hiding and preparing another spell. In his place, Go Woongjin was lumbering toward me with heavy steps.
I didn't bother creating a soundproof barrier for Park Hyeri’s attack. I needed mana more than stamina. I would take any non-critical hits with my body.
“Damn it, it’s time. If we don’t go now, the Master will definitely…”
“It seems that demon has no intention of letting us go. This is quite a predicament.”
Go Woongjin and Lee Hyunhak conversed as they moved. In the middle of it all, the explosion magician was probably chanting a spell somewhere. I needed to get out of range again, but Park Hyeri was sticking to me relentlessly.
Park Hyeri was the one dealing consistent, unavoidable damage. Go Woongjin was the one swinging a mace with power I couldn't handle. But the trickiest of them all was Lee Hyunhak. The way he calmly assessed the situation and sent slashes my way was far too relaxed.
A slash aimed for my neck even curved as it flew. I thought I had dodged it, but it sliced off one of my ears. Still, I wasn't without my own successes. I had managed to land another blow on Go Woongjin.
The more wounds, large and small, that appeared on their bodies, the more power I gained.
The reason I could sustain such a prolonged battle was that I was constantly replenishing my mana and health with the World Tree’s Long Spear. However, it would take time to gather enough mana to use Levatain and Aegis again. That was why I had to be more cautious.
Just then, a spear of fire shot toward me from somewhere. It was incredibly fast. The hidden magician had completed his spell. Its firepower was likely reduced because his allies were nearby, but its lethality was more than sufficient.
As if they had been waiting for this chance, they closed in on me systematically, trying to obstruct my movements to ensure the homing-missile-like spell would hit.
Go Woongjin slammed his massive body into me, pushing me back. Park Hyeri’s sound attacks continued to pour down. I raised a wall of blood, but it only reduced the damage; the wounds kept accumulating on my body.
It was just as I was about to pour mana into Aegis.
The spear of fire, streaking toward me like lightning, was suddenly split in two in mid-air. Having been split apart, the spear of fire lost its trajectory and crashed into the ground in the wrong place with a tremendous roar.
“Krrrr-unch!”
It didn't explode as I expected, but after gouging a long trench in the ground, the spear of fire finally dissipated.
For some reason, I felt a sense of déjà vu.
Soon, a very familiar figure entered my vision.
The body of the one who had cut the spear of fire was unmistakably that of a warrior. The Orc, holding an absurdly large longsword just like Lee Hyunhak’s, vanished once more. He reappeared behind Lee Hyunhak, and the sound of their swords clashing echoed continuously.
I looked at the Orc’s single, loose sleeve and bared my fangs.
I wasn't the only one with a debt to repay.
And I wasn't the only one who had striven to become stronger.
I knew this warrior—the one who, in a battle three years ago, had left behind an arm and his name alongside his brothers.
“For Blood Dagger!”
It was Half Blade Gark, the greatest swordsman of the tribe.