Chapter 397: Unquenchable Wrath (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 397: Unquenchable Wrath (3)
Gluttony.
The energy coiled deep in my chest swept across the battlefield.
Crunch!
I tore away another wisp of Red Aura.
[Starving Gluttony devours the Divine Authority of Wrath, ‘Unquenchable Wrath’!]
[The absorbed power of the Divine Authority is faint….]
The one that used to throw a tantrum like a picky eater now obediently followed my command.
No, to be precise, I was learning how to handle this energy.
[Starving Gluttony…!]
[The absorbed Divine Authority….]
In the end, it was a power that stole from others.
That was why I couldn’t use it recklessly.
I wasn’t fond of large-scale, bloody battles, but today, I was quite pleased.
Because I was finally figuring out the most efficient way to use this power.
“Kugh…!”
“Gaaah!”
“Kerg….”
I weaved through Lu Bu’s men, who were running rampant, empowered by the Red Aura.
With hands imbued with the energy of Gluttony, I pierced their circuits, extracting and absorbing only the Red Aura.
The men, robbed of their power, weakened rapidly.
And as they weakened, Chinese soldiers and knights of the Orthodox Church closed in.
Each time the unfavorable tide of battle turned, the mass of Red Aura stored within me grew larger.
“Just a little more….”
I could feel it.
The Red Aura, which had been dormant due to its meager power, was slowly awakening.
The moment I accumulated enough for it to flow through my body, it would awaken completely.
“Gah!”
And I would gain a new power.
I was tearing through the battlefield like a wolf freely roaming among a flock of sheep.
“This is the last one…!”
Just as I stole the Red Aura from the last man, finally reaching the desired amount…
FWOOSH—!
A tremendous roar tore through the cacophony of the battlefield and echoed fiercely in my ears.
Something was flying toward me.
Recognizing only that fact, I instinctively threw my body forward.
KWAAAAANG—!
A massive crater appeared on the airport floor where I had been standing just moments before.
Through the rising cloud of dust, I saw a long spear.
No.
What had been aimed at me was the Bangcheon Halberd, thrown by Lu Bu.
He strode leisurely through the battlefield, which had frozen for a moment at the shocking blow.
He stepped into the crater his beloved weapon had created, retrieved it, and aimed it at me once more.
“What strange trick did you use?”
It seemed he had noticed something was off.
Well, of course.
It would be stranger if he hadn’t, seeing as how his men lost their strength and collapsed one by one wherever I passed.
I shrugged at his murderous question and played it cool.
“Who knows.”
Am I crazy? Why would I reveal my hand to the enemy?
Displeased by my response, his thick eyebrows twitched.
“…For a young pup, you’re quite blunt.”
“Isn’t it ridiculous to be polite to an enemy?”
What a ridiculous guy.
He was the one who spoke informally to anyone weaker than him, regardless of age. Who was he to lecture me about manners?
He was the very incarnation of hypocrisy.
“…You’re not wrong.”
He conceded quickly.
It was a bit anticlimactic, but that was just how he was.
Maybe that was why he was so strong.
He was incredibly stubborn about the strangest things, but on matters like this, he had almost no pride.
“But that ends now.”
He wielded the Bangcheon Halberd, which easily weighed over 100 kg, as freely as if he were twirling a toothpick.
“You’ve piqued my interest. From now on, I will face you myself.”
He charged.
A terrifying speed that left a deep afterimage in his wake.
But not so fast that I couldn’t see him.
If I reacted calmly, I could parry his attacks.
The only problem was that speed wasn’t his strength; it was one of his weaknesses.
Lu Bu, known as the peerless warrior of the Three Kingdoms era.
The true specialty of this man, said to be his reincarnation or descendant, was his strength.
“Hah!”
KWAKWAKWAKWA—!
A strength stat of 120—a level of power that had reached an unprecedented realm.
The Bangcheon Halberd, swung with a physical force that far transcended the limits of humanity, aimed for my neck.
The option to defend was completely erased from my mind.
The only thing to consider was evasion.
Just because I could see its trajectory, it would be madness to think I could simply take a step or two back, dodge, and counterattack.
A strength of 120 created a blade-like wind that swept through the surroundings with just a simple swing.
So, when facing him, I had to always move as if his attack range was two to three meters longer than the halberd itself.
Just like now.
“Whoa.”
As I kicked off the ground with legs full of mana and leaped back, a fierce blade-wind swept past the spot where I had just stood.
FWHOOSH!
A violent roar tore through the air.
That was precisely why Lu Bu reigned as a figure of terror to his enemies.
The sound alone was enough to make one’s blood run cold, forcing them to consider the ‘what ifs.’
What would have happened if I had tried to block that attack instead of dodging it?
The thought of one’s own death that naturally followed would instill fear in the opponent.
The body would instinctively flinch, and the opponent’s attacks would grow ever more ferocious.
Yes.
The cause of defeat for most who faced Lu Bu was self-destruction.
They made an irreversible mistake while trying to escape the relentless terror.
After unleashing three consecutive attacks, he curled one side of his lip into a sneer.
“You’re as nimble as a rat.”
Then he immediately took his stance again.
“But how long do you think that will last?”
He was right.
I could never achieve victory by only dodging.
Wait for an opponent who attacked so fiercely to run out of stamina? That was also absurd.
That bastard wasn’t just strong; he had incredible stamina too.
FWOOSH—!
PANG!
KWAKWAKA!
It was a truly unfair fight.
To use a game as an analogy, Lu Bu was a broken character.
A ridiculously broken character whose every basic attack was on par with another character’s ultimate skill.
And yet, whenever I trained, I would sometimes imagine fighting him.
He was, without a doubt, the strongest.
An invincible foe who seemed impossible to defeat in a one-on-one fight.
That was why it was fun.
Constantly asking myself, ‘How can I fight against that absurdly powerful man?’ and finding my own answers was enough to make my skills improve noticeably.
I thought that answer would only ever exist in my head.
Because unlike my ambition to challenge him one day, my body was breaking down.
But now, the opportunity had finally arrived.
A chance to determine whether the answer I had devised was correct or not.
He shouted.
“How long do you intend to keep scurrying around like a rat?”
I answered.
“I was just about to engage.”
I stopped retreating and took my stance.
I could never win by just dodging.
So I had to face him.
I had to parry that seemingly unblockable attack.
There was a sword style I created for this very purpose.
“Reverse Flow Sword Style.”
Let’s see.
Whether the answer I’ve written for the test named Lu Bu is right or wrong.
* * *
Reverse Flow.
As one could infer from the name, the principle was very simple.
Instead of confronting the opponent’s fierce attack, you accept it and rotate your body.
You gather the force gained from that rotation into your sword and fire it right back at the opponent.
This was the entire principle behind the Reverse Flow Sword Style he had created.
In truth, it wasn’t much of an invention.
Using an opponent’s strength against them had existed long before the age of Hunters.
Therefore, Lu Bu wasn’t particularly surprised by his opponent’s move.
No one in the world could withstand his power head-on.
Opponents who knew this always schemed to use his own power to counterattack.
“How predictable.”
However, not a single person had ever succeeded in putting that method into practice.
Using an opponent’s power against them meant literally diving into the center of his attack.
And it was impossible without timing as precise as if measured with a ruler.
Did they think it would be easy? To entrust your body to a one-hit-kill attack swung with a strength of 120?
Anyone could think of it in their head, but a body consumed by fear could never pull it off.
Every S-rank Hunter who had stepped forward to defeat him and claim his fame had been the same.
That was why he had no doubt this time either.
That his Bangcheon Halberd would pierce and shatter the body of his opponent, who was using a move born of reckless bravado.
He was sure of it, and yet.
CLANG!
“……!”
He felt no impact from the attack he had put his all into.
Because the moment his Bangcheon Halberd made contact, his opponent’s sword and body rotated, deflecting the attack.
Lu Bu saw it clearly.
The unprecedented power and the gaze emanating from the body spinning fiercely like a top before his eyes.
“Impressive.”
He realized anew what it must have felt like for his opponents to receive his attacks.
And that made it all the more surprising.
That his opponent could redirect a force that even he himself wasn’t confident he could easily handle.
A sword strike, fully imbued with the fierce rotational force generated by his own power, flew at him.
SWIIISH—!
A move faster and sharper than any he had ever seen.
To block it, he raised the shaft of his Bangcheon Halberd.
KWAKWAKWAKA!
KRA-DEUK!
Lu Bu’s body was pushed back helplessly by the immense force.
After being pushed back more than five meters, he barely managed to block the attack and smiled at his opponent.
“Truly excellent.”
The highest praise, something that had never left his lips in his entire life, was showered upon Kim Do-jin.
But hearing this, he couldn’t smile.
It was his trump card.
A bold and valiant strike that could never be performed without the resolve to die.
Thanks to it, he had pushed his opponent back five meters and even received the highest praise, but…
‘Was it not the right answer?’
It seemed it wasn’t the right answer after all.
Clang!
Kim Do-jin dropped the sword he was holding.
He tried to hold on, but it was impossible.
Their weapons had only been in contact for a fleeting moment, yet his arm wouldn’t obey him.
“W-William. Your arm…!”
At the Saintess’s frantic cry from behind, Kim Do-jin finally looked down at his own arm.
The skin of the arm that had blocked Lu Bu’s attack had turned a dark, bruised color.
It seemed everything inside his arm—bones, muscles, everything—had been shattered and torn.
‘To do this to my arm in just a fleeting moment.’
Kim Do-jin assessed it himself.
The Reverse Flow Sword Style he had created to face him was ‘an incorrect answer that was close to being correct.’
But he wasn’t disappointed.
Because by his side was someone who could take his ‘nearly correct answer’ and refine it into one that was ‘infinitely closer to being right.’
“Saintess.”
“…Yes?”
“Please heal my arm. From now on, continuously.”
The Saintess, who possessed a terrifying healing power capable of reattaching even severed limbs.
A walking Elixir was alive and breathing by his side.