Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 039
Chapter Title: Counterattack Begins, Gyo-nam-dong Recapture Operation (6)
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10.
Yeah.
There was a nightmare there.
With its freakish wings spread wide.
High in the sky, close enough to touch the electric barrier.
Glowing blue eyes. The orbs staring straight at this place sparkled like stars.
Cold sweat trickled down.
I had to dodge right away. But what about Kim Gye-sang, groaning beside me?
“G……o……s……ir…….”
In that instant, my body flew through the air.
What? I turned my head and saw a massive pale green tentacle shoving my body aside.
Kim Gye-sang’s [Pellion’s Mystery]?
How are you doing that?
I rolled across the ground like I was springing off it and looked back. Far away, Kim Gye-sang was visible. Still collapsed, but barely stretching his wrist toward me.
“No…….”
My lips twitched.
In that moment, a meteor struck there.
A deafening roar. The ground swelled like crashing waves. Dirt and debris erupted violently, hitting me with a rush of earthy smell.
“Ah…… no……!”
A cracked voice escaped my lips.
In the corner of my vision, something reduced to a bloody lump flew through the air and tumbled across the ground.
It was Kim Gye-sang.
I ran over frantically.
He was alive. Alive.
But most of his right side was gone…… It was a miracle he was still breathing.
His guts spilled from his crushed flank, and his throat was clogged with bloody phlegm, making his breaths ragged gasps.
“You can’t die. Gye-sang, you can’t die.”
I frantically rummaged through Kim Gye-sang’s belt.
Three Star Cloud Liquid syringes were shattered, but luckily one was intact.
I immediately jammed the needle into Kim Gye-sang’s neck. At least get him breathing.
“You said you were going to build a school. You can’t collapse like this.”
Did his breathing ease a bit?
Kim Gye-sang spat out a rough spray of blood. For some reason, it seemed like he wore a faint smile.
“You said it, didn’t you? So hold on until I get back.”
My hands trembled violently.
Can I do it? I have to.
Like I saved Shin Tae-yeop, I can save Kim Gye-sang too. Please…… I prayed it would be so.
It was a gamble I’d tried once before.
A gamble I’d succeeded at once before.
But it was still just a gamble.
“I’ve got two more.”
Choi Uk approached, recovered from his stunned state. He pulled out a syringe and injected it into Kim Gye-sang’s grievous wounds.
“Go first. We’ll join you right away.”
As soon as Choi Uk finished speaking, Im Yong-gon came over and forcibly hauled me to my feet.
“Get a grip.”
“……!”
“It’s not over yet.”
Right, yeah.
This was the chance bought with Kim Gye-sang’s sacrifice.
That roar and aerial drop were such powerful moves, but it had only used them once since the initial clash.
“That means it must have some kind of cooldown.”
Im Yong-gon’s guess was spot on.
Right now, Arishel’rab had no powerful skills left. Which meant.
“We have to finish it in that window.”
No need to hold back reserves—we had to pour everything into an all-out assault.
──Kiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaa!
A whirlwind of dust stormed forth.
Arishel’rab burst out of it, and Im Yong-gon swung his iron mace into the air.
“Let’s go.”
I kicked off the ground at the same time.
Passing Choi Uk and Kim Gye-sang, I closed the distance to Arishel’rab at full speed.
Distance to the subordinate: just 10 meters.
Arishel’rab swung its left arm.
A ferocious charge that tore up the earth. Im Yong-gon blocked it with his iron mace.
A backlash like a blade whirlwind.
I charged straight through that slashing wind.
It slammed down its right arm.
This time, a shell flew in and struck the left arm. Too weak to fully deflect the attack, but enough to delay it slightly.
That was plenty.
It bought me the leeway for one final step.
I kicked off the ground.
My amplified leg strength sank the earth and launched my body into the air.
The sword tip’s target: its eye.
I landed atop its massive head and thrust the blade in with all my might.
Dawn Sword’s tip pierced the tough scales, burrowed deep into the eyeball, severed the lens, and burst out the other side.
=====
[Raging Despair, Arishel’rab]
[■■■■■, ■■■■□, □□□□□]
=====
Now its right field of vision was blind.
Just like with Kim Gye-sang, I’d focus on shredding the right side.
──Gruaaaaaaaaah!
Dodging the gushing blood carefully, I gripped Dawn Sword’s hilt with both hands and pulled.
[Unique Skill, 《First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 activated.]
- Succession Progress 13%: Duration (16) seconds.
Dawn twin swords gleamed in my hands. One more brilliant than any other, the other more sinister than any other.
The laws of time bowed before this light.
A world dyed in dawn’s light.
Here, the only one moving at normal speed was me. Just me.
──Chaaaaang!
The hand lumbering slowly toward me.
I slashed upward viciously with the blood-red blade. Then immediately swung the golden one.
First, the right arm.
One. Two. Three. Five.
The連斬’s speed accelerated steadily.
………Huh?
It hurts.
It hurts like mad.
[Unique Skill: Time remaining (14) seconds]
I was the one attacking, yet my wrist felt like it would shatter.
Single-handed swings can’t pierce that exoskeleton……?
But without this speed…… Without Kim Gye-sang’s support, there’s no way to beat Arishel’rab.
Aim for the relatively fragile joints.
Slash at them relentlessly.
Despite the pain of my wrist bones grinding away.
Despite the agony of my skin melting from the spraying blood.
I had to keep slashing.
[Unique Skill: Time remaining (10) seconds]
Just before the right arm crushed me.
Its right arm joint tore apart, spewing blood.
“Damn it……!”
The problem was my right hand was wrecked too.
Maybe from repeating those rock-shattering strikes.
The pain of my wrist bones piercing through muscle and skin made my mind go white.
Focus, focus. Hurry. Time’s running out…….
=====
[Raging Despair, Arishel’rab]
[■■■■■, ■■■□□, □□□□□]
=====
I landed on the ground.
Precisely on its right flank. Arishel’rab thrashed wildly in fury.
Im Yong-gon and Choi Uk’s support came slowly.
A shell embedded in the tattered arm, and the iron mace crushed down on the intact left arm.
=====
[Raging Despair, Arishel’rab]
[■■■■■, ■■□□□, □□□□□]
=====
Meanwhile, I danced around in nimble steps, circling to its right hind leg.
Faster. Even faster.
The blood-red blade slipped in at a sharp angle.
But.
That ankle was harder than steel. The blood-red blade──kaaaang──sparked and bounced off.
Again. Again.
Again. Again.
A sense of helplessness crashed over me like despair.
Why.
Why?
Why can’t it pierce?
[Unique Skill: Time remaining (4) seconds]
Again, again, again.
I gripped the blood-red blade tight.
Slash the exoskeleton again and again. Slash mindlessly again and again.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
A trail of blood-red.
Only dawn’s one face danced wildly in the air.
=====
[Raging Despair, Arishel’rab]
[■■■■■, □□□□□, □□□□□]
=====
Barely dodging its enraged kick.
When it tried to turn, I circled behind. I parried its tail swipe and kept swinging.
But. But. But.
[Unique Skill: Time remaining (2) seconds]
It was no use.
No use, no matter how frantically I slashed.
One hand, one sword couldn’t sever that rock-solid exoskeleton……
=====
[Raging Despair, Arishel’rab]
[■■■■□, □□□□□, □□□□□]
=====
The effective hits on it came not from me, but from Im Yong-gon and Choi Uk’s precise combo attacks.
=====
[Raging Despair, Arishel’rab]
[■■■□□, □□□□□, □□□□□]
=====
I didn’t know.
Didn’t know Kim Gye-sang’s absence would loom this large.
[Unique Skill: Time remaining (0) seconds]
It happened in an instant.
Suddenly──kang──a sharp metallic clang.
My wrist went numb to the bone, the sword flew into the air, and morphed into a broken greatsword.
Wha──
[Unique Skill, 《First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 time expired.]
- Reuse available (0 / 1)
──Time’s up?
In the heartbeat that followed.
All creation regained its temporal order. Dawn lifted from the world, darkness settling once more.
“Do──”
Right then.
A desperate warning shout flew in.
──dge!”
I snapped to, but it was too late.
A tail covered in rugged scales was barreling right at my face.
Too fast to track with the eyes, no reaction possible.
The tail smashed my lower body.
Unbearable agony exploded, my body launched into the air, the [Electric Barrier] spinning in the sky.
I crashed headfirst into the ground.
Tried to stand immediately, but couldn’t.
My legs…… my legs……
My lower body was gone.
Cleanly severed below the pelvis. My spine protruded visibly.
Adding insult to injury.
The Arishel’rab blood that splashed my face began to boil.
Pain. That horrific pain.
My face melted grotesquely, a fishy taste filled my mouth, my vision stained red.
Into that vision, someone crawled.
Kim Gye-sang.
A horrific sight.
Maybe I looked worse now…… But he fumbled with his tongue and barely spoke.
“Baek-jun.”
He groped at his waist.
Soon, a [Star Cloud Liquid] syringe appeared. One Choi Uk left?
“Where you’re headed now, I hope you meet those kids.”
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Because Kim Gye-sang injected the [Star Cloud Liquid] not into himself, but into me.
“Thanks to you, I could dream even in a world like this.”
I couldn’t respond.
Kim Gye-sang forced a smile through his blood-soaked face.
“This is a small token of thanks.”
He reached out toward me.
Clearly overexerting. Three tentacles burst from his hand.
“Live.”
The tentacles wrapped around me.
They wrapped around Choi Uk and Im Yong-gon too, cornered by the rampaging Arishel’rab in the distance.
Time expired, maybe.
The electric barrier was slowly lifting. The tentacles hurled us outside it with all their strength.
Kim Gye-sang remained below.
Intense acceleration hit, and soon we arced through the sky in a massive parabola.
Kim Gye-sang alone, left below.
Through my blurring vision, the school.
The guide point came into clear view.
Kim Gye-sang was still down there.
The subordinate, frenzied at losing its prey.
I saw it spot the lone remaining hunter and charge ferociously.
Ah…… tear-blurred vision.
As consciousness faded, I closed my eyes.
Mixed with the horrific ground-shaking…… like dry branches snapping…… a gruesome crunch of bone…… faintly echoed.
That was the last I saw of Kim Gye-sang.
11.
Kim Gye-sang.
To the Hong-eun Elementary kids, he was “Chicken Teacher.”
Taught them the hanja for chicken (鷄) in class, and that’s how the mess started.
The nickname was that tacky.
But.
Kim Gye-sang was actually an elite who’d leave your jaw on the floor if you knew.
Top of Seoul National University’s Education Department.
Plenty of teachers urged him down other paths. From childhood, he was the genius type who “teaches one and awakens ten.”
“Gye-sang, you punk, talents like you should go abroad and raise the nation’s prestige, not bury yourself in some elementary school smelling like cafeteria slop.”
“Why not?”
“Your talent rots that way! Ever seen women in their 30s compared to 20s? All wrinkly? Your brain’ll wrinkle up just like that in a snap.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not. We professors met and decided. Here’s the transfer approval. And this is from Stanford──”
“──No need.”
Kim Gye-sang’s dream never wavered.
Graduated university, finished military, finally became an elementary teacher and got posted to Hong-eun Elementary.
“Crazy bastard, you a lolicon or what?”
Jokes from college buddies.
“Already busted?”
“You maniac. Professors sending you love calls everywhere.”
If Kim Gye-sang weren’t so handsome, it might’ve been suspicion, not jokes.
His obsession with elementary education was pathological.
Well, he never told anyone. Born in an orphanage, abused at elementary school.
As a young boy.
His good looks were poison. Target of sexual abuse from both male and female teachers.
“Teacher’s doing this because we love you. Got it, Gye-sang?”
A truly unfortunate life.
Might’ve killed himself anytime. Then in 5th grade, he met hope.
“You fucking brat, why you always walking with your eyes down? You guilty of something?”