Chapter 32. Red Sword (2)
Chapter 32. Red Sword (2)
A spray of blood shot up.
-Kieeeek!
A goblin let out a long scream.
Within my time, the screams never ceased.
-That's one.
Blood spattered into the air. Red. The blood was the same color as the rain. While the droplets of blood still drifted through the air, before the raindrops could even fall, the world between blood and rain was red.
I adjusted my grip on the sword.
-Next, take out the one on the left.
And I swung.
-Kreeeeek!
Two.
Before the first goblin had even finished dying, the second goblin was cut down. It was a single instant. Blood surged up from both the right and the left.
The monsters never even saw my sword as they screamed in unison from both sides.
As one died, another.
As that one died, yet another.
-Eeeeeek!
-Ee, eeeeeek!
-Kiiiiii!
Just before a monster's scream cut off, another monster began a fresh scream.
Therefore, the screaming around me never ended.
A performance of the sword.
My sword was like a conductor's baton leading a chorus of screams.
-One second has passed.
The guardian spirit spoke.
-Don't swing your sword in separate strokes, Gong-ja. Don't separate one strike from the next. Connect them. Cut in a continuous flow.
I swung the sword.
-Cut from above to below. Just because the sword that was above has gone below doesn't mean your strike is over. It's no different from music. Think of it that way. If a single note descends low, it is only so that it may rise again.
A scream rang out.
-Connect them! If your sword has gone down, continue the motion and cut upward. Then your sword will flow on without end.
Another second passed.
-The sword is a battle of time! The unskilled can only command a single second at best. They swing once, and that's the end of it. They go blind. They don't know how to continue the strike into the next. But one who is a little more skilled can command five seconds.
The enemy bled.
My body shed breath.
-Do not let time slip away!
Before the blood finished flowing.
Before the breath finished leaving me.
-Do not waste it! Cutting down one enemy is not the end. Nothing has ended. Know in advance where you will swing your sword next! Ordinary people simply let time flow past them. But a swordsman must not! Do not throw away a single second. Live that second completely.
Between the enemy's blood and my breath, the blade flowed.
-A swordsman is one who lives by the sword.
I swung the sword.
-Did you think living a single second was easy? Are you truly alive?
I swung the sword.
-A person is not alive when they let time flow past them. They are alive only when they devote their time to something. Gong-ja, you are a swordsman. Therefore, you must live by the sword.
I swung the sword again.
-Burn hotter!
A goblin clawed at me, and blood burst from my forearm. Ah, my head spun. My heart pounded. Even in the midst of that terrible pain, I swung my sword and glared straight ahead.
-Kieeeek!
-Grrrr, grr......
-Krooooooar!
Countless monsters.
Beyond the red dust cloud, monsters were pouring out. Countless enemies. Countless malice. Monsters that wanted to chew up my body and drink my blood. They charged at me, drenched in the red rain.
-That's ten seconds now.
This was ten seconds.
All of this was only ten seconds.
-Burn hotter, Gong-ja. Don't let your life flow away. Burn it.
I gripped the hilt with all my strength.
-Show them who you are.
And I roared.
Woooooooah!
My roar echoed through the place where the gate had collapsed into a mere gap, through the heart of the battlefield, through the very front line of this war. The soldiers firing arrows from atop the wall flinched. The monsters charging through the dust cloud hesitated.
-Yeah. Fuck, that's it.
The guardian spirit cackled.
-Now you're finally shaking off that zombie look. You little shit!
I charged straight ahead.
-Groo......?
I targeted the goblin whose feet had frozen for a moment. Shwaaak! Before it could even react, I sent its head flying. The goblin's head soared into the air, its jaws still gaping.
I swung my sword.
-Krur, r.
Next, I targeted an orc standing dumbly to the side. Seogeok! Before it could even raise its club, I drove my blade into the orc's skull. A fountain of blood erupted.
I swung my sword.
'A little more.'
A skeleton.
'A little more.'
Another goblin.
'Just a little more.'
Countless orcs.
'More! Just a little more!'
Toward the endless monsters.
'Look at me!'
I swung my sword.
'Look at me!'
I am alive.
When I swing my sword, I am alive.
-Kroooooooar!
An ogre.
From the red dust cloud, an ogre emerged, swinging a massive club.
Once. Twice. Every time the monster moved its club, a gale blew. The dust cloud that had settled thickly over the collapsed gate was swept away by the wind.
Small goblins and the like were caught up in the ogre's club swings. Smack! One goblin went flying and slammed into the wall. With the sound of bones shattering, the goblin was reduced to pulp.
Indeed. That thing had no sense of camaraderie. It likely had no sense of kinship either. No sympathy for anyone, no compassion, no mercy.
Therefore, the thing was a beast.
A hideous beast.
-Wooooooah!
The beast howled ferociously.
It bared its teeth at me alone.
'Come.'
And here stood a lone hunter.
A hunter stalking the beast.
'I'll show you.'
Kung!
The ogre took a step.
The corner of the wall that had barely held on without collapsing crumbled helplessly.
Kung!
The hideous beast had enormous feet. Every time it took a step, the ground shook. The wall that had protected the empire crumbled. Shaking the earth and shattering the barrier, the ogre charged toward this place.
-Plant your feet on the ground.
But.
-Look forward with your eyes.
What I had to do did not change in the slightest.
-Cut the enemy with your sword.
I charged at the monster.
Kung!
The massive beast planted its foot. I aimed for that moment. The instant the ogre raised its club to swat my body away, I twisted my blade directly in front of it.
A white light.
The light of the holy sword pierced into the ogre's eyes.
-Groooooo!
The ogre had already committed to its swing.
It was difficult for the thing to change the path of its attack.
'Why.'
Now, in this moment where time had stretched endlessly and become an instant.
As I dodged the club and surged toward an orc, I was thinking about something.
'Why did they give an EX-rank skill to a bastard like that?'
Thoughts about Flame Emperor Yoo Soo-ha.
Thoughts about this tower that had granted him a regression skill.
'Well, he didn't need to be some great saint. If they'd just given the skill to someone a little more sensible. Someone a little more sane. Then there wouldn't have been any problem. But why. Why, of all people, that psychopath.'
Bwoooong!
The ogre's club grazed past the tip of my nose.
Blinded for just a moment by the holy sword's light, its attack had gone astray.
Thanks to that, a split-second opening appeared.
'Could it be... that?'
I leaped.
'That the tower can't be conquered unless it's Yoo Soo-ha? That to reign at the top, you have to be exactly like him?'
The ogre's eyes widened as it saw me fly into the air.
The monster tried to swing its club again.
But it was already too late.
'Don't make me laugh!'
I will show you.
'I'll clear the 20th floor in place of the Flame Emperor.'
It wasn't just the twentieth stage.
'The 30th floor too.'
The fortieth stage too.
'The 50th floor too.'
The sixtieth. The seventieth. The eightieth. The ninetieth.
Even the ninety-ninth stage.
'All the way to the hundredth floor!'
Until I finally set foot at the summit.
'I'll show you!'
Therefore.
[Your existence becomes even more distinct.]
I swung my sword.
[Hunter Kim Gong-ja's level increases.]
The blade precisely split the ogre's throat.
A spray of blood shot up.
The monster's hide was tough, but it was not sharper than my sword. The monster's life was tenacious, but it was duller than my aura.
Even in its final dying moments, the ogre swung its arm somehow. As if refusing to die quietly. There was no need to panic now. I simply struck once more.
[A skill slot expands.]
[Your hunter rank is now D-rank.]
The ogre's head fell.
Kung!
A moment later, the monster's body collapsed.
[May fortune be with you all.]
Gradually, the red dust settled.
-Kirrrrr......
-Kii, ki! Kiiii.
The monsters came into view. The monsters that had been pouring through the collapsed gate. The creatures that had seemed eternally countless began to hesitate at some point. They had seen the massive beast fall and lost their nerve.
Silence.
Nothing could be heard except the sound of falling rain. The empire's soldiers stared down at me from atop the wall, and the Demon King's monsters kept stumbling over their own feet. The surroundings were quiet. Where gazes drew near and footsteps drew back, I stood alone.
-Congratulations.
The guardian spirit grinned.
-That's thirty seconds.
Then, someone passed by my side.
I could tell who it was just from the back. A black suit. White hair. Sword Saint sprinted through the puddles. The strongest hunter in this tower drew his sword and swung it in a wide horizontal arc.
Shwaaaaak!
In a single stroke, dozens of goblins lost their heads, and dozens of orcs lost their torsos. Thus, dozens of fountains of blood erupted all at once.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
It was only a brief moment, but in that brief moment, I saw it. The streams of blood shooting up toward the sky were darker than the streams of rain falling from it.
"......"
Sword Saint slowly turned to look at me.
With the spray of blood he had created behind him.
The old man parted his lips.
"......"
I couldn't quite make it out.
My time was still slow.
"Hm."
Perhaps he had noticed that my condition was not ordinary.
Sword Saint smiled gently.
And this time, he spoke with aura infused into his voice.
"...That was magnificent."
The old man raised his hilt.
Rain fell.
Because the rainwater was red, even after the water flowed away, the sword remained red.
"My name is Marcus Calenbury, young man."
I realized that this was the old man's own way of showing respect.
"......"
I closed my mouth.
The second time.
This was the second time I had heard a name directly from a rank 1 hunter.
The first time was when I was still wandering the 1st floor.
In some corner alley, the Flame Emperor had grabbed my head and whispered.
-My name is Yoo Soo-ha.
-Farewell.
That day, I was killed.
Today, I heard a name for the second time. It was a different name, and a different person.
Suddenly, I felt that I, too, had changed.
And I knew that what I could never do in that first experience, what I had absolutely never done, I could do now.
"My name is Kim Gong-ja, sir."
Today.
I spoke my name.