Chapter 160
Chapter 160
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 160
Chapter Title: Rune Clan's Binding
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"You're totally screwed."
At that moment, Baek Eun-seong's body vanished. A powerful gust of wind erupted simultaneously, and he reappeared right in front of Elrin.
As he closed in on her, another pillar of flame surged up from the ground in front of Elrin.
But Baek Eun-seong didn't dodge. Instead, he reinforced his entire body with protective aura and took the hit head-on. It was a strategy of sacrificing flesh to preserve bone.
"You gotta fight crazy with crazy!"
With that, Baek Eun-seong slammed a powerful kick into Elrin's body with his foot.
"Gah!"
Elrin let out a scream of agony as she rolled across the floor. Then, with a wretched heave, she vomited blood onto the ground.
s o o
At the same time, the barrier enclosing the two of them vanished.
But Baek Eun-seong had no intention of fleeing. He immediately thrust his spear forward, aiming to pierce Elrin's head.
Just as the spear tip was about to touch her skull...
Thump!
Baek Eun-seong instinctively felt a chilling sensation.
It wasn't his head warning him—it was his raw instinct that halted the attack on Elrin and made him leap back.
And then.
Bam!
"Argh!"
A sphere infused with lightning magic shot from somewhere and engulfed Baek Eun-seong's arm.
"Aaaagh! Uwaaaagh! My arm!"
Crackle. Crackle-crackle!
Electricity coursed through his body, burning him everywhere. Baek Eun-seong gritted his teeth and stared at his arm. One arm was gone. He quickly used mana to staunch the bleeding.
"...Ngh. What the hell?"
The magic shot just now.
No mana could be felt from it.
Baek Eun-seong hurriedly turned his head toward the direction the spell had come from.
He caught sight of someone wearing a deeply pulled-down hat.
It was a face he knew.
No, he could never forget.
That hat and that black jacket.
It was the guy who, during the Cup of Life incident in Incheon, had shoved a massive middle finger at him and said, "Eat shit."
"You... you! That rune clan bastard from back then!"
At Baek Eun-seong's shout, Elrin's eyes widened like saucers as she lay there spitting blood on the floor.
Baek Eun-seong glared at me with eyes full of murderous coldness. Even with the hat and mask, he recognized me at a glance.
It must've been because I was dressed the same as during the Incheon Cup of Life incident.
His words kept echoing in my ears, though.
Rune clan? Me?
"Ngh!"
Baek Eun-seong writhed in pain, clutching the stump of his missing arm.
I watched him, lost in thought.
Calling me part of the rune clan was probably because of the Rune Binding I used.
Teresa...
Did she pass on info about me the moment she was captured?
Even so, connecting the Incheon Cup of Life incident to the Night of the Forerunners based on just a mustache? That's some imagination. Of course, it wasn't entirely wrong. But that's not the point. The situation was turning sour.
I'd tried to assassinate Baek Eun-seong to save Elrin, but failed.
I'd even concealed my mana, yet he dodged instinctively like a feral beast.
A truly insane animal sense.
"Hoo."
At least I'd blown off one of his arms.
If he were a manifestation-type sorcerer, it wouldn't matter much, but he's a reinforcement-type who wields a spear.
Plus, his weapon, the glaive, is heavy, so his movements would be severely restricted...
Then Baek Eun-seong gripped the spear with one hand and casually spun it in the air.
As if to say one hand was no problem at all.
"Lucky for me it was my left arm."
He smirked at me, curling his lip.
"Heh heh. I wanted to see my ex again. Not only did you feed me shit, you took one of my precious comrades too. Honestly, all I had was that mustache clue, but now I'm sure."
Baek Eun-seong wiped the smile away and spoke in a chilling voice.
"You're the rune clan member Teresa mentioned."
I didn't respond. I just kept my tension high and glared at him.
"Hold up. What the hell are you talking about?"
Then Elrin wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand and cut in.
She looked at me with trembling eyes.
"...That guy's from the rune clan?"
At Elrin's words, Baek Eun-seong looked puzzled.
"He is rune clan. Why so shocked?"
As he said that, his gaze shifted to Elrin's hand.
"Right. Come to think of it, some of the rune clan had magic circles tattooed on their bodies like that."
Suddenly realizing something, Baek Eun-seong clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.
"Kuhuhu. What? You too? What kinda coincidence is this? Kuhahaha!"
After laughing for a while, Baek Eun-seong hid his smile and looked at me.
"Fun times. But chit-chat's over."
That instant.
A terrifying surge of mana erupted from Baek Eun-seong's body, and his figure vanished before my eyes.
He closed in right to my face, thrusting his spear.
I'd half-expected such a sneak attack, so I didn't panic and immediately activated Instant Acceleration.
Instant Acceleration
Time dilation effect / Cooldown: 3 min
Whoosh!
His spear barely missed my waist, stabbing into empty air.
At the same time, I activated Fighting Spirit and Heart of Great Nature while manifesting magic.
And dove toward the inside of his severed arm stump.
"Kuh!"
Spotting the opening, Baek Eun-seong showed a flash of panic.
He hurriedly deployed protective aura. But aura alone couldn't fully block magic.
I unleashed lightning-attribute magic straight into his side.
Crackle-crack!
"Argh!"
Baek Eun-seong's body was flung back hard.
Instant Acceleration ended.
Time returned to normal, but I didn't stop, firing dozens of magic spheres at him.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As I kept blasting magic, I racked my brain on how to handle him.
I'd already used one ultimate skill.
Instant Acceleration's cooldown was 3 minutes.
How to hold out for the remaining 3?
"Haaap!"
Then Baek Eun-seong spun his spear, blocking all my incoming attacks, and charged at me.
I calmly activated my next skill.
It bothered me a bit using this ability in front of Elrin, but the situation left no choice.
Vwoooom!
Light erupted from the floor, and dozens of beams shot up.
His spear thrust toward me simultaneously, coming right up to my nose.
Truly right up to my nose.
The spear halted there.
If Rune Binding had been even 0.5 seconds slower, my face would've been impaled.
"Ngh!"
Dozens of light beams tightly constricted Baek Eun-seong's body.
"Is this the magic Teresa mentioned?"
The beams gradually wrapped around his entire body. Then they squeezed his hand, forcing the spear to drop.
Clang!
"...Ngh! What kinda magic is this strong?!"
Baek Eun-seong thrashed wildly to escape the beams.
But Rune Binding was one of the strongest binding spells in magical history.
No matter how monstrous Baek Eun-seong was, he couldn't break free on his own.
Then my mana started draining rapidly.
Training and traits had greatly extended the duration, but Rune Binding's mana consumption was beyond imagination.
I couldn't hold it long.
I glanced at Elrin.
She stared at me in stunned shock.
"What are you doing?!"
At my words, Elrin snapped out of it.
"Uh, yeah? No?"
"Don't just watch—do something!"
"Y-yes! Sir!"
...Sir?
Elrin's eyes returned to normal in an instant, and she activated the magic circle on her arm.
Vwoom!
Dozens of ice spikes floated in the air. They shot toward Baek Eun-seong.
Fwhoosh!
"Argh!"
The spikes kept firing. Baek Eun-seong used protective aura to minimize damage, but it was just mitigation.
The hits kept stacking up.
Finally, my mana bottomed out, and Rune Binding released.
"Kuh!"
Baek Eun-seong collapsed to his knees, body in tatters.
I used Grasp of Great Nature to pull the fallen glaive from the floor into my hand.
Swoosh, thump!
Seeing that, Elrin's face showed fresh surprise.
"Hoo."
I'd managed to inflict some damage, at least. Against such a monster, it was just that—damage.
Then Baek Eun-seong ground his teeth and forced himself up.
"Ngh! If only my arm was intact! I could've taken you all out in 5 minutes!"
His face twisted in injustice and rage.
"Can't swim and now I gotta swim!"
This guy's a total psycho.
He could just run now, but fleeing wasn't even an option in his head.
As I stared at him in disbelief...
My Killing Intent Detection trait triggered.
It wasn't Baek Eun-seong's. It came from far away, somewhere else.
At the same time, powerful mana pulsed from the distant darkness.
My body reacted on instinct. Dodging after seeing the attack would be too late. I had to predict and evade preemptively.
Fwhoosh!
I concentrated mana in my legs and dashed sideways.
Something lightning-charged flashed where I'd stood, then vanished.
Then.
Kaboom!
A massive explosion roared from far behind, out of sight.
"...Hah!"
Cold sweat poured down. I'd never seen magic with such discharge speed. Like a real bolt of lightning—too fast to track visually.
Only one person on this ship could cast something like that.
"Took you so long, I came to pick you up. What's with the arm?"
"Heh heh. Bert."
From the darkness emerged a woman with flashy golden blonde hair—Bert.
She glanced at me and Elrin, then fixed her gaze on me.
"...Not bad. You're the first to perfectly dodge that."
To be precise, I hadn't dodged—I'd predicted and moved.
"Baek Eun-seong. Let's go. The Association's coming soon."
"...What about these guys?"
"Mission's done. No point dragging it out."
"...Tch. Fine."
Baek Eun-seong glared at me.
"Next time, I'll kill you with my own hands. Stay alive till then."
Baek Eun-seong reached out.
The glaive in my hand was yanked by a strong force straight to his.
It was the special effect of the glaive, "Owner Recognition."
"This thing broken? Can't even recognize its owner and flies to that punk. Tsk..."
With that, Baek Eun-seong vanished into the darkness with Bert.
Only Elrin and I remained underground, silence settling in.
"Shouldn't we chase them?"
Why's she been so polite all of a sudden? Doesn't suit her.
She'd never used formal speech even once in the original.
"Nah. Why bother."
We couldn't win chasing them anyway.
"...Then I'm off."
Using Rune Binding in front of Elrin left a bad taste. I wanted to get out before trouble brewed.
As I moved to leave...
"W-wait! S-sir! Hold on! I'm from the rune clan too!"
I stopped in my tracks.
...Sir.
I hadn't misheard.
Turning back in bewilderment, she repeated politely.
"No, not sir. My apologies. Honored practitioner!"
"...What? Honored what?"
"I saw you use Rune Binding! It's the clan's secret technique. Only clan practitioners of honored rank can learn it."
I'd never heard of that setting for Rune Binding.
"As an honored practitioner, you must know Douglas-nim, another clan practitioner."
Who's that?
"I was raised by him, the last surviving clan member. For reference, Douglas-nim passed from illness 11 years ago. His dying wish was for me to find the clan's secret technique, Rune Binding."
A headache pounded in my skull. She's seriously mistaken.
As I opened my mouth to deny it...
I clamped it shut.
If I denied being rune clan...
I had no way to explain using their secret technique.