Chapter 166: Nightmare
Chapter 166: Nightmare
Positional Exchange. Simply put, it could be defined as a technique for instantly swapping locations. Using this Ability left an afterimage at the original position, allowing the user to appear at their new location before the opponent’s eyes or senses could register them. Slower opponents would often fail to realize it was just an illusion and be fooled by the lingering afterimage.
Of course, this all varied from person to person. If an opponent had sharp senses and was more skilled than the user, they could easily detect that Positional Exchange had been used. And with enough skill, it was even possible to counter it.
Nevertheless, the reason this Ability was so highly regarded was because countering it was only possible in theory. It was merely possible, but there were very few users who could actually execute such a counter. To begin with, there weren't many users who could even detect Positional Exchange, and if you narrowed it down to those who could predict where the user would reappear and attack in advance, "very few" would become "almost none."
That was why most methods for dealing with Positional Exchange started with defense. While I had only ever used it as a life-saving last resort, the user who taught it to me had often used it to great effect against opponents of a higher level.
And the technique I was about to use now was that very Ability: Positional Exchange.
Every time I thought of Kim Yoohyun and Han Soyoung, a corner of my heart ached. They were my rawest wounds. My chest burned with searing rage, but the killing intent flowing through my mind and pouring from my eyes had turned chillingly cold. Staring down Horrence, I surged the magic through my circuits and stepped forward. And then…
Sssst.
There was no presence, only the faint sound of the wind. The only difference was that I was no longer looking at the front of Horrence, which had been facing me from a distance, but at its back. Without hesitation, I smashed my sword into its spine with all my might.
CRACK!
With a sound like a bursting ball, its body pitched forward, and the darkness clinging to its back roiled violently. At the same time, the afterimage at my original position, which it had been focused on, distorted like a bad TV screen before quickly fading away.
“Grrrr!”
It hastily righted itself and spun around, but I had already moved into its blind spot again.
Horrence swung its arm at the remaining afterimage. But its black sword only cut through empty air, not touching me in the slightest. It was nothing more than an image, a lingering sensory experience. Having taken its back, I swung my sword with all my strength at its wide-open defenses.
Thud. With that sound, the Doom Knight’s right arm fell to the ground. I could see the clean cross-section where my single strike had severed it. Darkness immediately swarmed around the stump of its right arm, but the speed of its recovery was not what it used to be. It still hadn’t fully regenerated its left arm, and now that the darkness was divided to work on the right, the process seemed to have slowed even further. It was proof that the darkness it had absorbed was reaching its limit.
And with that, Horrence had lost both its arms. It could still attack using the darkness, but that would mean splitting the energy being used for recovery three ways. In exchange for piercing Yoojung, it had taken enough damage from me, Ko Yeonju, and Vivian to be pushed to its absolute limit.
“Grrr…”
Horrence seemed to finally grasp the situation, as it began to back away hesitantly. But it was far too late. In just two moves, I had seized an overwhelmingly advantageous position. All that remained was to punish it for its provocation.
Horrence immediately conjured a great mass of darkness around itself. A glance at its arms showed that the regeneration had stopped, making me doubt if it was even progressing at all. It seemed to have wrapped itself in darkness in all directions, desperate to survive.
A cruel smile spread across my face as I pushed the magic in my sword and left hand to its absolute maximum and shot forward. For a moment, the same sharp spear that had pierced Yoojung shot out from the darkness, but I simply reached out, grabbed the darkness, and ripped it apart with all my strength. As the darkness tore like paper, I saw two black, sunken eyes within. As it desperately tried to pull back, I sent magic through my circuits to activate Positional Exchange.
Sssst, thwack! One. Sssst, thwack! Two. Sssst, thwack! Three. Sssst, thwack! Four. Sssst, thwack! Five. Sssst, thwack! Six. Sssst, thwack! Seven. Sssst, thwack! Eight. Sssst, thwack! Nine. Sssst, thwack! Ten.
Sssst… As I moved to strike for the eleventh time, I had to pause. I remembered slicing its head, torso, legs, and neck in order, but after that, it stopped reacting, so I just kept swinging at whatever I saw. By the time I stopped, its body was horrifically twisted. It was barely maintaining its form, the darkness melting off it here and there like a half-dried painted statue on a rainy day. I tilted my head for a moment, but then calmly shoved my sword into its right eye socket.
Slowly, its body began to show signs of collapsing. I forced myself to reach out and grab its staggering head, then brought my knee up, pulling its head down toward my thigh. A dull impact hit my knee, and I felt the sensation of something caving in travel up my leg. I then threw it to the ground and was about to stomp on it when…
Tap!
“User Kim Soohyun. Stop.”
“Hm?”
“Stop it. It’s not reacting anymore.”
I turned my head at the feeling of a hand on my shoulder and saw Ko Yeonju standing there, though I hadn’t noticed her approach. I read Horrence’s status with my Third Eye. Just as she’d said, it had stopped reacting midway through my assault. The darkness cloaking its body was slowly melting away and vanishing, and its body was becoming translucent.
The Veil of Darkness it had conjured just before must have been the last of its strength. The moment I tore it apart, it must have suffered an irrecoverable blow and perished in the middle of my Positional Exchange attacks.
After a little more time passed, the Doom Knight vanished without a trace, leaving only a fist-sized, black orb behind. I bent down, picked it up, and quietly tucked it away. A wave of emotions like hatred and resentment flowed into my chest, and for some reason, it felt comforting. Ko Yeonju watched me, then tilted her head and spoke.
“You’re calmer than I expected.”
“What do you mean, ‘than you expected’?”
“You know, like in comics or novels. When a cherished comrade gets hurt, the protagonist has a rage explosion! Ah, or should I say, goes berserk?”
“I didn’t go berserk. Did it look like I did?”
The Shadow Queen nodded immediately. I tilted my head slightly, inviting her to explain, and she continued right away.
“You just seemed to be pushing yourself too hard. Before the kiddo got hurt, you were clearing the dungeon steadily and safely, even if it was a little frustrating to watch, right? But then… how should I put it? I got the feeling you were suddenly in a huge rush.”
“I see.”
I gave a faint smile at her words and turned away. Her words had hit a little too close to home, and I didn’t want to answer anymore. But Ko Yeonju followed me, continuing to speak. However, perhaps reading my expression, she shifted to a slightly different topic.
“Anyway, the kiddo is fine. We used recovery on her quickly, and Aga was practically spamming Cure. Well, the shock of it will probably linger a bit, though.”
“She’ll have to overcome it. She could suffer even greater wounds in the future. It would be a problem if she whined over a scratch like that.”
“Huuuh? You say that, but I don’t think that’s what you really feel. The look on your face earlier was no joke. ‘You don’t need to provide any more support.’ That’s what you said, right?”
Ko Yeonju giggled as she mimicked me. She didn’t seem very interested in the fact that we had defeated Horrence. Then again, if she and I had gone all out from the start without leaving room for the others to intervene, Yoojung would never have been hurt in the first place. Honestly, because of my memories from the first run, I had been surprisingly tense when we first opened the door, but now I could say with certainty: in this second run, I was strong.
When I didn’t respond, Ko Yeonju peeked at me from the side.
“Still, it looks like a part of you is hurting. Don’t worry about it too much. There’s nothing wrong with a leader caring for a member of his caravan.”
At those words, I turned my gaze to Ko Yeonju. Unlike her usual playful expression, she was looking up at me with calm, subdued, ash-gray eyes. A deep, probing look was settled in them. I met her gaze without avoiding it, and eventually, she was the one who looked away first.
During the brief silence that followed, I was lost in thought. She was right; I had been angry. But whether that anger was because Yoojung was hurt by Horrence, or because Han Soyoung’s image had overlapped with hers, was something to consider. No, actually, I already knew the answer. And just as those thoughts were about to connect with the look in Ko Yeonju’s eyes…
“Hyung!”
“Orabeoni!”
“Kim Soohyun!”
The voices of my party members called out to me from ahead. For now, I put aside my thoughts about the look in Ko Yeonju’s eyes and raised a hand in response.
*
“Yoojung-ah. How are you feeling?”
“Uhm… I’m okay now, Oppa. Ugh!”
“Looks like it still hurts a little.”
“That’s because Oppa is pressing so hard… But Oppa, your hand…”
As Yoojung mumbled with a beet-red face, I sighed and removed my hand from her stomach. Her visible wounds were perfectly healed. Seeing several empty potion bottles rolling around, it seemed she’d received excessive treatment. However, the magic inside her body was in a state of shock, so she would need to rest for a while.
“Hey. Your belly button is surprisingly pretty.”
“Ahn Hyun. Shut your mouth. Do you know that’s sexual harassment?”
“Fuck. Hyung was straight up touching you and you didn’t say a word, but you’re coming after me? Are you discriminating against people right now?”
“Hmph. You think Oppa is a pervert like you? And don’t talk like that. It’s annoying to listen to.”
Ahn Hyun was cracking lame jokes, unlike his usual self, and snickering. Yoojung, perhaps sensing this was his way of comforting her, just snorted lightly and turned her head away. Just then, someone approached from behind and stood beside me to speak.
“Soohyun. I’m sorry. Because I had to retire in the middle of the fight…”
The user who spoke to me was Jung Hayeon. Her face was so pale it was devoid of color, but seeing her standing on her own two feet, she seemed to be doing much better. I shook my head at her as she trailed off, unable to finish.
“No. It’s fine. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. In fact, I want to express my deep gratitude to all of you for fighting so well against a boss monster.”
At my words, the party members’ expressions seemed to brighten a little. However, Ko Yeonju was standing off to one side, silently watching me with her arms crossed. I hadn’t liked that gaze of hers for a while now. But with the raid on the Cave of Screams complete, the time to decide how to deal with her was fast approaching, so I decided to let the subtle shift in atmosphere slide. It was all a matter that would be settled in ten days anyway.
I didn’t know what Ko Yeonju had been thinking while watching me and the party, but I took the orb from my pocket and showed it to everyone. It was the Magic Core that served as the heart of the Doom Knight. Of course, there might still be undead wandering the cave, but with this, we had taken everything worth taking from the Cave of Screams. It was safe to say the raid was a success.
As everyone’s eyes focused on the Magic Core, I spoke in a powerful voice.
“As of this moment, I declare the exploration of the Cave of Screams complete. You have all worked very hard. However, it’s not completely over yet, so please don’t let your guard down. We will take a short break to regroup and then begin our return journey immediately.”
Most of the party members responded to my declaration with bright cheers. And only then did I see Ko Yeonju’s eyes curve into a slight smile as she watched the celebrating group.