In the Name of a Knight (5)
At the same moment Junil was locked in a desperate struggle with the draugr on the floor below, another battle was unfolding on the rooftop.
A clash between two Level 40 Death Knights and Kang Hae-il’s party.
Compared to the fight happening downstairs, it might have looked like nothing at all. But for Kang Hae-il’s party, it was nothing short of a disaster.
Kang Hae-il had been forced to the rear due to his injuries, leaving the other three to handle the threat alone.
“I’ll push them back!”
“I’ll block them!”
“I’ll try shooting from here.”
The three of them tried to coordinate as best they could.
Kim Ri-el kept blasting them away with wind, Lee Suyeon continuously cast protective shields, and from a distance Yu Jihun hurled countless ice blades.
The knights couldn’t easily close in thanks to the wind, and even when they did, Lee Suyeon’s barriers stopped them cold. Then Kim Ri-el would push them again while Yu Jihun rained down more ice blades.
The Constellations cheering them on were practically mocking their fighting style. That was how desperate the battle had become.
Wasn’t this always how the weak had to fight?
They had no choice but to win like this.
But—
“Hah… not even one hit lands…” Yu Jihun muttered, sounding utterly defeated.
This world offered only despair to the weak.
The Death Knights swung their massive longswords with lazy ease, as if they could see exactly where Yu Jihun’s blades were aiming. Every single one was knocked aside.
Level 40 Death Knights.
These were seasoned warriors.
No matter how strong the firepower, clumsy attacks were easily predicted and completely blocked.
It was the same as a child holding a better gun still being unable to assassinate a target faster than a trained operative.
Yu Jihun might have been a veteran Awakened who had been through the wringer in Korea, but against knights who had lived and died waging nothing but war, he was still just a child.
Clang! Clang! Clang…!
The knights leisurely swatted away Yu Jihun’s barrage of ice.
Worst of all, the matchup was terrible.
The dead were naturally resistant to cold.
The freezing effect that came with the ice blades wasn’t building up at all.
“U-um… what do we do? I think I’m out of mana now…”
Suyeon asked, her arms trembling violently.
It looked like she couldn’t maintain the barrier any longer.
Crackle…!
The edge of the shield was flickering like her own shaking hands.
Mana wasn’t displayed as a number, but Awakened could instinctively feel when they were reaching their limit.
When remaining mana dropped below twenty percent, their thoughts grew sluggish as if their minds were clouded with fog, and their breathing turned ragged.
Kang Hae-il, still seated in the back, spoke up.
“Stop keeping the barrier up nonstop.”
“Huh?”
She had been maintaining it for far too long.
“It’s inefficient.”
She only needed to activate the shield the moment a Death Knight broke through Kim Ri-el and Yu Jihun’s attacks.
Even Kang Hae-il—who boasted muscle-car levels of terrible fuel efficiency when it came to fighting—said Suyeon’s approach was inefficient.
But there was a reason for it.
“What if something happens?! What if they suddenly throw a sword from range and we all die?!”
She was terrified.
Here, the word “what if” didn’t end with losing money or feeling a little heartbroken.
It meant losing your life.
So it was understandable.
But.
“No. You’re not scared. You just don’t trust them.”
“…Huh?”
“You don’t trust their abilities. Or your own.”
“!”
Trust. In Kang Hae-il’s eyes, that was the biggest problem with this party.
They didn’t believe in each other.
It might look like two Death Knights versus three Awakened, but it wasn’t.
In reality, it was three separate one-on-one fights between two Death Knights and one Awakened each.
On top of that, their goals were all different.
“Do you even realize we’re in this mess because of you?!”
Just like Suyeon had shouted, she didn’t want to kill the World Boss here.
The same went for Yu Jihun. It was hard to tell what Kim Ri-el was thinking, but he usually followed the team’s opinion.
In the end, only Kang Hae-il wanted to kill the boss.
Since they couldn’t abandon him, they were holding out like this.
But now Hae-il’s resolve was wavering at the same time his power was fading.
He couldn’t even fight properly.
Crack…!
There were cracks in the barrier—and in the team as well.
Everything felt unstable.
‘I… I have to do something.’
Kang Hae-il could feel it.
Even though his power wasn’t being used properly right now.
He had to do something.
‘Ignition.’
His most basic flame generation skill.
Fwoosh…!
He tried desperately to rekindle the tiny spark left in his heart.
But the fire was weak.
‘Ignition!’
Fwoosh…!
All that rose from his wounded fist was a faint flame no stronger than a lighter.
It wasn’t enough.
At this rate, nothing would…
‘Damn it.’
Having once held S-rank power only to have it all taken away—the feeling was utterly devastating.
Any ordinary person would have given up and retreated by now.
Maybe Hae-il wanted to do the same.
Maybe Sagosul had been right after all.
That was when it happened.
Inside the tiny spark, he saw someone’s back.
A sturdy man was walking into the flames.
Little Hae-il asked that back.
“Dad, aren’t you scared of fire?”
“I am.”
“Then how can you go in?”
“Do you know the difference between an adult and a child?”
“Height?”
“No. An adult is someone who does what must be done. Even if it’s scary, even if it’s difficult, even if it seems impossible…”
“How do you do something impossible?”
“Because it must be done.”
Fwoosh!
The man stepped into the flames.
Sasaengchwiui—to throw away one’s life and seize righteousness.
And he had broken through the impossible.
In a massive fire where he thought he couldn’t save a single life, not even his own, he had saved one child.
Hae-il realized it too late.
‘Huh…?’
Tap tap tap—
His own legs were already moving.
“M-my mana’s completely gone!”
Was it because of Suyeon’s scream?
Because the barrier had disappeared?
No.
He only realized that later.
The only thing Kang Hae-il truly understood was one thing.
‘Because it must be done.’
He had to protect them here.
He was the only one in this world who had received S-rank power.
In the end, it had to be him.
There were countless reasons it seemed impossible—his power was gone, the enemy was too strong. But none of that mattered.
The choice given to him wasn’t between impossible and possible.
It was between something that must be done, and something that didn’t have to be.
If that was the case—
‘I’ll do it.’
Flash!
Kang Hae-il activated Flash Step and instantly closed in on one of the Death Knights, slipping inside its sword strike.
“H-Hae-il!!”
Yu Jihun’s eyes widened.
It looked like suicide.
He was a rational person. Against knights who wielded their swords like extensions of their own bodies, closing the distance was never an option.
But—
“!”
WHAM!
Kang Hae-il’s fist smashed into the Death Knight’s jaw and twisted it.
The flame was faint, but it seemed to be enough to overcome the cold of the dead.
Flash!
A ring of fire spread outward, erasing the aura of death.
The full physical force contained in Hae-il’s fist had been delivered cleanly to the enemy.
In other words, a living man’s honest punch had slammed straight into a corpse’s body.
Without any correction from magi, frost, or even mana.
It was a pure contest of physical power.
Crack—
The jaw split in two and collapsed.
The knight, whose undead power had suddenly scattered, was now nothing more than an ordinary corpse.
Kang Hae-il threw another punch.
Whoosh—
The knight, already missing its jaw, couldn’t keep its balance.
It took the second blow head-on.
“!”
——WHAAAAAM!
The Death Knight’s face completely caved in.
Bonus for defeating a higher-level monster
First-time monster defeat bonus
S-rank bonus
Then—
[All stats +30]
[Mana recovery 100%]
[Stamina recovery 100%]
[New skill unlocked]
More messages poured in.
Fwoooooosh!
His body recovered in an instant, once again engulfed in flames.
“……What the.”
Even the Death Knight beside it muttered in disbelief.
“Why did you recover?”
“None of your business.”
Kang Hae-il immediately swung his fist at the other Death Knight as well.
Whoosh—
‘It’s different.’
The strike was incomparably stronger than before.
Flames surged across his entire body and shot through his fist toward the enemy.
KWAAAAAANG!
The Death Knight blocked the blow with its sword, but it couldn’t deflect the flames that followed.
Fwoooooosh!
Incredibly, the cold corpse caught fire.
“……”
Yu Jihun, who had been watching from behind, wore a completely dazed expression.
“He… he got even stronger.”
Everyone except Yu Jihun, who felt a strong sense of rivalry, was overjoyed.
Kim Ri-el let out a sigh of relief and sat down on the rooftop.
Lee Suyeon even threw both arms into the air in celebration.
“W-we won!”
But that was far too hasty a conclusion.
Slither—
Far in the distance, two black hands were clasped together as if in prayer, weren’t they?
They suddenly came apart.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say they bloomed.
Suyeon thought that description fit better.
Especially when she saw the wicked fruit inside, releasing a sweet fragrance that tempted all who gazed upon it.
“Huh…? Who’s that ridiculously handsome guy?”
Suspicious Young Man Lv.???
A handsome young man with brilliant golden hair stepped out of the flower and onto the rooftop.
The corners of his red lips curled up beautifully.
Unpleasant yet captivating magi swirled around him like a vortex.
The space around him began to distort.
That was when—
Flash!
Another flash of brilliant golden hair whipped in front of Suyeon.
It was a white dog mask.
“G-Gosul Girl?”
“……It’s dangerous.”
It was Isilen.
She had originally intended not to intervene.
‘Junil really doesn’t want any of them to die here.’
She could sense it with the unique perception of elves.
Junil did not want any of them to die.
Not Kang Hae-il, and not anyone else present.
Especially Lee Suyeon, who had quite a connection with him.
If they were all wiped out here, Junil wouldn’t be able to endure it.
If the hero chosen by the World Tree couldn’t hold on, then Isilen would have failed in her duty.
Although non-intervention was the principle, anything directly tied to the hero was an exception.
She felt she had to at least make them retreat, even if she couldn’t intervene too heavily.
‘Something’s wrong.’
To her senses, the current situation was not normal.
She also spoke to Kang Hae-il, who was walking straight toward the handsome blond man without hesitation.
“Oppa? How about coming back?”
Kang Hae-il didn’t answer.
Nor did he rush forward.
He simply walked slowly.
Because he still hadn’t decided whether he should kill the World Boss or not.
Isilen tried to persuade him again.
“You can’t win right now. Why don’t you come back?”
Hae-il wasn’t convinced by Isilen’s words.
But when even Yu Jihun added his voice, Kang Hae-il wavered once more.
“That’s right, Kang Hae-il. Think of all the Awakened who haven’t reached Level 30 yet. If they lose their power, Chapter 3 is over. Are you going to abandon the porters too?!”
Porters…
That was the problem.
It kept weighing on his mind.
Hae-il’s flames began to die down.
At that moment—
“You there. You have good eyes.”
The handsome blond man spoke.
“What is your name?”
Isilen’s eyes trembled violently.
‘No.’
The intention behind asking for a name was too obvious.
He was trying to make him reveal his own name.
The moment he did, there would be no turning back.
“I’m Kang Hae-il.”
“I—”
Flash!
Isilen cast a spell.
Extremely fast, wide-ranging, and utterly silent.
A transparent wave spread out, canceling the words the blond man was about to speak.
“■■■■■■.”
The sound vanished.
The handsome man looked at Isilen with a slightly displeased expression, tilting his chin up.
“You won’t allow it?”
“……Allow what?”
“Haha. Playing dumb, are we? I already know my role here. I also know exactly what you’re doing.”
From the moment he crossed dimensions and arrived here, he had clearly not been an ordinary demon.
He already possessed some kind of ‘awareness.’
Just like the elves who had reached the pinnacle of ‘Ersaren.’
Simply by existing, an invisible ‘wall’ trembled faintly.
That was why Isilen decided to answer him.
“I won’t allow it. Not yet.”
At the very least, not until Junil made it up here.
“Then I suppose there’s no helping it.”
The handsome man gave up easily.
He knew he shouldn’t clash with Isilen.
“However, if the adversaries of this place have the will to fight me, even you won’t be able to stop them, will you?”
“……”
He had never intended to create a troublesome conflict with Isilen in the first place.
After all, he had plenty of methods available to him.
…For example, a single sentence.
“By the way, Kang Hae-il. Your name sounds familiar.”
Yes. To shake the very center of this world, one sentence was enough.
“Weren’t you the one who fought my golem in the graveyard?”
“……What?”
Flames ignited in Kang Hae-il’s eyes, which had been filled with hesitation.