Chapter 51: Our Oppa (Hyung) Has Changed
Chapter 51: Our Oppa (Hyung) Has Changed
Idiots. Hyun and Yoojung had given no consideration to the defensive formation centered on Sol. It was fortunate that I had stayed as her keeper just in case. After shooting Yoojung a hard glare, I struck the tail flying diagonally toward us with the flat of my sword.
I was momentarily stunned by what happened next. I had put a fair bit of strength into the blow, but it was ultimately a defensive move meant only to deflect the attack’s trajectory. And yet, the tail I struck shattered into pieces with a sound like cracking shell. The monster that had ambushed us let out a mournful cry, snapping me back to my senses.
It was probably an effect of the Sword Specialist class or the ranks of my Special and Latent Abilities. Several thoughts crossed my mind, but I first needed to concentrate on the battle. I filled my voice with Magic Power and addressed everyone.
“These are Black Scorpions. Their tail stingers carry a deadly poison, so exercise extreme caution. Their weak points are the eyes and abdomen, but exposing the abdomen is difficult. Channel mana into your weapons and thrust with force.”
After I finished speaking, I glanced down and saw Sol, still gaping at me with a dazed expression. The thought that she could have died just moments ago seemed to have shocked her deeply. I felt a surge of frustration and snapped at her in a low voice.
“Ahn Sol. How can a Priestess stop her incantation in the middle of battle?”
“Ah…”
My words seemed to send a chill down her spine, and I heard her start muttering her spell again. I let out a sigh and looked forward once more.
The battle had entered a brief lull. Black Scorpions often moved in pairs and shared a deep bond. When the scorpion whose tail I’d shattered cried out, the one Ahn Hyun was fighting seemed to flinch and freeze.
But it only lasted a moment. Soon, the enraged scorpions let out a monstrous shriek and began to radiate an even more ferocious aura. They advanced, bellowing with aggression, their forms finally emerging from the darkness. When the others saw that they were nearly the size of tigers, the color drained from their faces.
We had been caught in a surprise attack, but thankfully, we were more or less prepared. This time, however, the Black Scorpions were approaching slowly. Both sides were sizing each other up, and it was hard to predict who would strike first.
Judging from our last exchange, fighting while maintaining our defensive formation seemed pointless. After a moment of assessing the battlefield, I decided to take the offensive and spoke up.
“Yoojung and I will take one. Hyun and Sol will take the other. Sol, bind its tail with a spell. Hyun, focus mana at the point of your spear and use the opening to pierce its body at one point. The shell is hard, so do not try to slash it. Yoojung, stand behind me. I will go in first and kick it over to expose its abdomen; wait for your opening and counter. Do not follow immediately. Move in after its tail strike passes.”
No one answered aloud, but I saw each of them nod. Meanwhile, the scorpions continued inching closer. When they entered Sensing and I stepped forward, the battle resumed.
Part of the scorpion’s stinger lay twitching on the ground, but the rest of its tail was still a deadly, venomous weapon. As the scorpion raised its remaining tail, I charged forward.
Once again, the sound of something tearing through the air echoed as the tail, dripping dark blue blood, lunged for my face. Its tail attacks were linear, so dodging was no problem at all. I took a single step to the side, and the tail, having lost its target, sliced harmlessly through the empty air.
In that time, I had closed the distance enough to get the scorpion within my range. Sensing Yoojung move behind me, I slowly lowered my sword. And in that instant, I saw what looked like a smile on the Black Scorpion’s face.
“Oppa! Behind you!”
I felt a cold presence at the back of my head. A Black Scorpion’s tail is long and flexible. While its initial strike had to be straight, it could bend and twist its extended tail to change its line of attack mid-air. It must have bent its tail into a U-shape the moment I dodged to aim for the back of my head. I smiled back at the scorpion and quickened my pace until our bodies were almost touching.
Just as the scorpion’s tail was about to strike me, I heard Yoojung’s scream. In that split second, I tilted my head to the right. I felt the tail graze my cheek, missing by a hair’s breadth. At the same time, I raised the sword I’d lowered, letting it make light contact with the tail as it passed my cheek, and gently applied pressure. I had redirected its path toward its own eye.
It could never have imagined I would evade at point-blank range, much less guide its tail with my sword. The technique I had just used was practically acrobatic. Taiji was fundamentally rooted in orthodox principles, yet an individual practitioner could produce tremendous variations. It was swordsmanship that most could only imagine and never reproduce in real combat.
The result was immediate. I watched as the Black Scorpion’s tail embedded itself neatly into its own right eye.
“Kwehhhhhhh!”
I gave a triumphant smile as I watched the creature howl. Then I drew my right foot back and kicked it straight up in the face. A dull impact shot through my instep as the scorpion’s body was launched into the air. With its two pincers spread wide as if cheering for the sky, it looked utterly ridiculous. Seeing its belly completely exposed, I shouted.
“Now!”
It wasn’t the most optimal timing for a counter, but Yoojung must have been preparing for it. A beat too late, I saw her duck under me. She planted her foot firmly, sprang up, and crossed the daggers in her hands in an X, slashing the scorpion’s belly like a flash of light. It wasn’t perfect, but I’d call the combination attack a success.
As the Black Scorpion shrieked, I placed a hand on Yoojung’s shoulder and vaulted into the air. I raised my sword high with both hands and brought it down with all my might on the center of the scorpion’s body, which was still suspended in mid-air. I hadn’t imbued my sword with magic, intending to crush it with pure strength, but my blade sliced through the scorpion’s hard shell as easily as if it were tofu. It hadn’t even been ten seconds, and we had perfectly dispatched one of them.
But there was still one left. I quickly turned around to see Sol just finishing her incantation, her staff glowing white as she thrust it forward. Just as I’d instructed, she aimed for the tail and spoke.
“Shackles!”
A blinding light like a camera flash filled the forest. It was an enormous display of Magic Power for a novice User. Hyun instinctively closed his eyes, then opened them to find the tail aimed at him frozen in place. His eyes gleamed.
“Hah!”
With a powerful shout, Hyun drove his spear squarely into the Black Scorpion. Unable to move its tail, the creature raised its huge pincers, but the spear had greater reach. The point broke through its hard shell and plunged inside. Even so, the scorpion merely growled low, apparently suffering little damage. Hyun had broken the outer shell, but his thrust had not penetrated deeply enough to injure its insides.
Ahn Hyun, flustered, pulled back his spear and thrust repeatedly, but Sol’s binding ended and the scorpion’s tail forced him to retreat. The threatening tail flexed unpredictably as it pressed him, throwing Hyun’s spearwork into increasing disorder until he could do nothing but defend.
“W-what? Why is he struggling so much?”
Yoojung muttered in bewilderment, and I frowned. Sol was also hesitating and merely watching. What were they doing? Had they come to observe a fight? I clicked my tongue loudly, ran forward, and shouted.
“Are you here to spectate? Stop watching and help him!”
As if finally snapping out of it, Yoojung and Sol looked up. Ahn Hyun was holding his own, in a way. He was dodging the scorpion’s tail strikes while occasionally parrying its pincer attacks. But that was it. He was so focused on defending that he couldn’t even think about attacking.
It was then that I had to admit my mistake. I had seen their stats and rashly assumed they would be competent. A life-or-death melee like this was where one’s true abilities were revealed, and I hadn’t anticipated that judging them solely by their stats would lead to this.
The kids were failing to use any of the abilities they possessed. My expectations were admittedly high, but they clearly had a long road ahead. Without their Sensing training, a disaster would already have occurred.
Only two monsters had appeared, and Yoojung and I had already dealt with one. The others could maintain the fight only because they were concentrating on a single scorpion. If more than twice that number had surrounded us, the situation would have been grim. Their armor was already poor because we had prioritized weapons; if they struggled this badly against one enemy, there was no need to imagine another scenario. I quickly knocked aside the tail aiming for Hyun’s back, giving him room to focus forward.
“Ahn Sol. Shackles again!”
“Yes! Shackles!”
As though she had been waiting for the command, Sol cried the activation word. Light flashed through the forest, and the scorpion’s main weapon—its tail—stopped again. Ahn Hyun’s face was bright red, apparently furious that he had been reduced to defending. As soon as Sol’s Shackles took hold, Hyun kicked off the ground and drove forward.
“You fucking bastard!”
With a coarse curse, Hyun drove his spear forward with all his strength. One strike did not satisfy him, and he began thrusting almost wildly. He was operating his mana at the limit; the spear ripped through the air and punched through the shell roughly once per second. The barrage was finally effective. Even a Black Scorpion could not simply endure it, and the creature wailed as it covered its front with both pincers.
“Hah! Hah!”
Despite putting all his strength into the assault, all he’d managed to do was make the Black Scorpion retreat a few steps. Of course, its shell was now in tatters, but the important thing was that Ahn Hyun was also exhausted. I sighed and took a step forward, planning to kick its belly again.
“Ahn Hyun! Move!”
Yoojung, who had been watching from the side, suddenly shot forward, running at full speed. The daggers in her hands hummed, a sign that she, too, had poured a great deal of magic into them.
Seeing Yoojung rushing toward it, the Black Scorpion raised its pincers high into the air. Its tail also began to twitch, a sign that the binding spell was about to break. But this time, Sol didn’t just stand by; I heard her casting another spell in quick succession.
“Unni! Protect!”
As Sol finished, a translucent barrier formed around Yoojung. Hyun, apparently unwilling to stand idle, resumed attacking with his spear to support her. I was relieved that they had finally begun coordinating, but they were still undeniably disorganized.
Under Hyun and Yoojung’s combined barrage, the barely standing Black Scorpion finally collapsed. Its corpse was truly hideous: the shell lay shattered, its flesh was exposed, and black blood flowed everywhere. I had never imagined they would kill a Black Scorpion through such a brutish method, and for a moment I was speechless.
Hyun and Sol lowered their weapons only after looking at the remaining scorpion, whose corpse was split relatively neatly compared with the one their group had destroyed. After catching their breath, Hyun and Yoojung stared at the mangled body in disbelief.
The difficulty was on a completely different level from the Rite of Passage, and they were already overwhelmed right from the start. The kids bit their lips for a moment before cautiously turning their gazes to me. If they had any sense, they would know just how pathetic their performance had been.
“You guys…”
I opened my mouth, intending to say something, but closed it again. I could not tell whether my standards were too high or whether this was normal for inexperienced kids. What in the world had they learned at the User Academy? They were far too different from me during my novice period. Honestly, I wanted to return to the city immediately and teach them again from the beginning.
“H-Hyung.”
“Oppa…”
When the blatant disappointment showed on my face, I saw them immediately grow anxious, but I deliberately turned my back on them. A sigh escaped me at the thought of the long, long road ahead.
I slammed my sword down on the ground. The blood clinging to the blade splattered onto the earth in a half-moon arc.