The Strongest Spirit Master Duo (2)

They weren't this weak the last time I saw them. Before the regression, Karolina and Rafael's party members had lagged behind the two of them, true enough. Even so, they had at least pulled their own weight. The ones trailing them now were half-baked hangers-on who couldn't manage even that.

"Nyaang?"

Leo gave a small cry and looked up at Jin-soo. The meaning came through clearly enough: he wanted in.

"Go on."

"Nyaang!"

At Jin-soo's leave, Leo shot forward, delighted.

Not a party so much as extras Karolina and Rafael drag around because they need the bodies. No reason for me to step in myself.

Jin-soo laid the summon-exclusive buffs over Leo and the undead summons, the Demilich among them.

"Kuoohhh!"

"Uwoooogh!"

Wrapped in auras of pure white and pitch black, the Demilich and the rest of the undead surged in power. Blasts tore through the melee.

"Guhk!"

"Aagh!"

The party members who had been closing on Jin-soo were driven to the brink in a heartbeat. The swelling ranks of undead had already put them on the back foot, and with Jin-soo's buffs and Leo added to the mix, they had nothing left to answer with.

"Nyaaang!"

A storm of tiny punches hammered home.

"Why did these things get so strong all of a sudden?!"

"What the hell is that crazy cat?! My strength just drained right out of me!"

"We're all going to die at this rate!"

"We can't handle this!"

"Fall back, now!"

Karolina and Rafael's party members broke and fled.

It isn't only their skill that's lacking. They don't even think of themselves as one party. The fight had certainly turned against them once the buffs landed. Even so, if the party members simply abandoned the battle, the burden on Karolina and Rafael could only grow heavier. They should have given ground while drawing aggro, or linked up with Karolina and Rafael and pooled their strength. Instead, the route they ran lay in the exact opposite direction.

So long as they live, nothing else matters. It was as if they wanted the Demilich and the undead summons' aggro to lock onto Karolina and Rafael—and Jin-soo was not the only one who read their flight that way.

"What do you think you're doing?! Get back here this instant!" Karolina's voice cracked like a whip, sharp with fury.

"And why should we?!"

"That's right! We said from the start we ought to steer clear of that undead pack! You two were the ones who insisted we hunt them!"

"And this fight with those Players started because the two of you attacked first! Why should we share the blame?!"

"You've been working us like dogs the whole time—pack mules and meat shields! What, did you actually think we were dogs? Did you think we'd wag our tails and stay loyal to the bitter end?!"

The party members shouted right back, refusing to yield an inch.

"That was a rightful contract! You agreed to it yourselves! Don't tell me you mean to break it simply because the situation has turned difficult!"

"Rightful? That contract was a scam!"

"We only endured it because we feared retaliation from you two! We've wanted that scam of a contract torn up as soon as we could!"

"Retaliation? You feared the price of breaking the contract, nothing more! Do I look as though I harbor even a speck of attachment to dead weight such as you? If anything, I was the one who honored the contract and paid refuse of your caliber more than you were worth!"

Karolina and the party members tore into each other.

"If you've been listening, you'll know we aren't to blame. So just let us go."

With that, Karolina and Rafael's party members begged Jin-soo to release them and fled with everything they had. Leo followed at an easy pace, tail swaying.

The rift between them ran deep. Having grown familiar with Karolina and Rafael before the regression, Jin-soo could piece the situation together well enough. They were simply sick of each other. The pair had surely snapped, again and again, at party members whose skill fell short of the high pay they had promised, while those same party members nursed their own resentment at being worked like slaves for a pittance in points.

Leo went after them, so he'll handle the rest. No need to kill them. The situation wasn't bad, either. Jin-soo's aim was to bring Karolina and Rafael into his party. Had their bond with the others been tight enough that they would stake their lives on one another, that aim would have grown difficult. A coldness like this—people who cared only for their own skins and wouldn't spare a thought for whether Karolina and Rafael lived or died—made it easier.

A contract, though. Forming a party that way is exceedingly rare. A party lived or died on trust, and yet they had written terms and bound themselves by them. That was proof neither side trusted the other much at all. Which is why I contracted Sua when I recruited her.

Jin-soo and Shin Sua had not trusted each other either, so they had formed their party through a contract. He had not wanted a bond held together by force of contract alone. He had worked at it without rest, and now they had built enough trust that the contract could lapse and it would not matter. There's no chance Karolina and Rafael put in that kind of effort.

It was not simply that the two of them were arrogant and foul-tempered. Their party members didn't meet their standards, so they decided there was no need to respect them. Before the regression, for all their arrogance and nasty tempers, Karolina and Rafael had shown Jin-soo a measure of courtesy, because they had recognized him as a power worthy of respect. Anyone who failed that measure, they showed no mercy. Their contempt for the weak had been especially severe. Which is how things came ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to this. And they don't even see it.

The split unfolding now laid bare the limits of a party bound by contract alone. Fear of the penalty for breaking it kept them from splitting or turning on each other easily, most of the time. The moment their lives were on the line, that changed. Nothing mattered more than staying alive, so they had no room left to care how many stats they lost.

Don't tell me they were under contract with their party members before the regression, too? The thought occurred to him that they might have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been. Even then, Karolina and Rafael's party had shown no tight trust among its members. If anything, it felt like a thoroughly businesslike arrangement. So why choose that?

Jin-soo was curious why they formed parties through contracts. Perhaps their temperaments were simply that rotten, or perhaps they were afflicted with a distrust so deep they could rely on no one. Whatever the reason, it did not matter. The mere fact that Karolina and Rafael bound their parties by contract was nothing but good for him.

I can't fully trust Karolina and Rafael either. Their skill was beyond question. In every other respect, they were deeply flawed party members. And they won't be able to trust me, either. In that case, a contract was best. Bind them by contract, and I can put a collar on the both of them.

Under ordinary circumstances, Karolina and Rafael would never accept terms that looped a leash around their own necks. In a situation like this, though, it was entirely possible.

A tremendous boom shook the field.

"Cough—! That old human is a monster, Karolina!"

"Ghk! How can a human possibly be that strong?!"

Karolina and Rafael had been the first to aim for the lives of Jin-soo's group, and anyone who reached for another's life had to be prepared to lose their own. Before the regression they had been called the strongest duo on the Tower's upper floors, and the combination of the two was formidable. Even so, they could not surpass the pairing of Cheon Museong and Shin Sua.

If Cheon Museong had clung to his identity as a martial artist the way he used to, relying on martial arts alone, they might at least have managed to flee. But after obtaining the class of Undying Knight, he had grown stronger still by using skills without reservation, and he no longer hesitated to match his rhythm to his comrade, Shin Sua. He made full use of Taunt, a tank-exclusive skill, pinning Karolina and Rafael in place, while Shin Sua layered buffs and support skills to cut off their escape.

"Rafael! Hold for a moment!"

With that short cry, Karolina shifted her attack onto Jin-soo.

Did I look like an easy mark? Jin-soo was faintly incredulous. Thinking it over, though, he supposed it made sense. Karolina and Rafael believed he was a necromancer. To the party members who had fled, the Demilich and the undead summons were a wall they could barely dent. To Karolina, they were scarecrows she could topple with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ease.

Steel sang as Jin-soo drew Baekcheonsingeom and the Blood-Sucking Sword. From the twin blades, a pure-white aura and a blood-red aura erupted at once.

"Huh?"

Shock flooded Karolina's face. She was already too late. The pure-white aura carved the white lion spirit lunging at him clean in two. A tremendous boom followed, and the body of the spirit she had summoned shattered apart and was forcibly unsummoned. Jin-soo rode the momentum and swung the Blood-Sucking Sword.

Rafael's black lion spirit, which had barely been holding Cheon Museong at bay, failed to stop the blow. Its body tore to shreds. Another great boom rolled out, and the black lion spirit Rafael commanded was forcibly unsummoned as well.

"Aaaagh!"

"Guaaagh!"

The backlash of the forced unsummoning hit them at once. Karolina clutched at her heart and writhed, while Rafael coughed up red blood and sank weakly to the ground.

But in a situation like this, they have no choice but to accept. Not if they wanted to live.

Jin-soo walked over to where Karolina and Rafael twisted in pain.

"You have worked hard, My Lord."

"You as well, Elder Cheon."

"Jin-soo, should I heal them?"

"Give them a light heal."

"Yeah, got it."

With his permission, Shin Sua used a recovery skill on Karolina and Rafael. With her recovery skill, even internal injuries should mend to some degree.

Unlike other summons, a spirit's bond with its summoner—the spirit master—was abnormally strong. That was both a spirit master's advantage and their flaw. To control a spirit as if it were one's own body, rather than merely issuing simple commands the way Jin-soo did, was an enormous strength. Depending on the spirit master's ability, a spirit's combat power could soar.

The drawback is that when a spirit takes a hit, the damage passes to the spirit master as well. Minor wounds amounted to little more than a twinge of pain. A blow severe enough to forcibly unsummon a spirit, though, could inflict a fatal wound—the kind that put the spirit master's life in danger, just as it had now.

"Ugh... what do you want from us, human?!" Rafael shrieked, his eyes brimming with the sting of injustice.

"You attacked first. What exactly are you so wronged about?" Jin-soo was genuinely dumbfounded.

"Purging an evil necromancer is only right."

At that, Jin-soo let out a short, empty laugh. "Oh, is that so? Then what do you think I, the evil necromancer, am going to do to you?"

"Obviously you'll bind our souls, turn us into undead monsters, and work us for eternity."

"Fine. If that's what you want, I'll do exactly that."

Jin-soo said it with a bright smile, and the blood drained from Rafael's face. Already pale, he went corpse-white.