A Star, and a Star (3)
Acquired: Natural Recovery (A)
Exiting the Training Ground.
Only after securing the second trait I'd set out to claim, Natural Recovery, did I finally leave the training ground.
“Ugh, my stomach…”
The training method for Natural Recovery was poison detoxification.
Swallow a hallucinogenic toxin and neutralize it yourself. That was the whole exercise.
I'd somehow managed to endure through Bell-Drop Arrow Poison, an A-rank cut, stumbling around like a walking corpse — but Poison of the Dusky Night, an S-rank cut, had defeated me completely.
“Hurk…!”
The instant it touched my tongue, my nervous system seized up and the world spun wildly out of control. In the end, it took another dozen-odd rounds of vomiting before I could finally call the training quits.
Too bad I couldn't clear the S-rank one.
Even so, I'd gained a perfectly solid trait.
Increases natural recovery rate by 70%.
A trait that would heal most wounds instantaneously, all on its own. Regardless of the situation, it was a reliably good performer.
And on top of that, this "recovery" wasn't limited to physical injuries alone.
It applies to stamina, ki, and mana too.
In terms of pure versatility, it didn't lose to Flame Dominion. I'd grabbed it as a priority precisely because I expected it to prove invaluable in the days ahead.
“Basic preparations are done.”
All that remained now was dragging that bastard down off his stage.
As the announcer's voice rang out, Yoo Sung-wook curled his lips into a slick smile.
His condition today was flawless. The mere thought of grinding Lee Tae-hyun's face into the dirt made energy surge through him from out of nowhere.
Flag Capture. The team holding the flag at the center of the arena when time expired won. Among all the Guild War formats, it was the most popular event — the one guaranteed to produce the most clashes.
Aren't we just unbelievably lucky? Kek kek kek!
In an event where combat broke out constantly, it would be all too easy to fake a mistake and carve Lee Tae-hyun apart.
Licking his lips, Yoo Sung-wook took his position on the arena floor. It was an artificially constructed environment, but the blazing sunlight was indistinguishable from the real thing. Fine sand swallowed his ankles.
Tch. So we draw this dump of all places.
Even as that thought soured inside him, the face he showed the world kept its upstanding, handsome angles.
“Yoo Sung-wook! Fighting!”
“Win it!”
“Yoo Sung-wook! Yoo Sung-wook!”
“Oppaaaaaaa!!”
Ignoring the deafening roar of his fan club, he fixed his gaze straight ahead. And there, in the distance, stood that familiar doll of a man.
“Lee Tae-hyun…!”
Chills crawled up his spine, as if he were meeting a long-destined fate. Finally. Finally I get to shatter you in front of everyone.
Unable to contain his euphoria, Yoo Sung-wook rested his hand on his sword hilt.
The instant the match began, he ignored the flag entirely and charged straight for Lee Tae-hyun. The flag could wait — he'd collect it at his leisure after trampling that bastard into the sand.
Entertain me, then!
“Chaaarge!”
Sword raised, he hurtled forward the moment the match started.
Whooooom!
Four flame spears tore loose at terrifying speed, almost simultaneously.
“…Huh?”
KWA-BOOOOOM!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-KRAKOOOM!
“Oh.”
Far across the arena, a chain of Karma Flame explosions blossomed.
At the very start of the match, I had fired off a Flame Soul Spear Volley through Flame Dominion. Both the speed and the accuracy were visibly far beyond what my bare hands could manage.
I'd intended to take it easy, just feel things out.
Two members of the enemy team had just dropped flat from that single volley.
“Monstrous growth, again…”
“See! I keep telling you, Hyung has no limits!”
Baek Seo-ha shook her head as though beyond exasperation, while Shin Min-woo's eyes only grew brighter. I scratched my cheek awkwardly and took up another spear.
“Don't let your guard down. Seongun Guild was always practically a one-man team anyway.”
And true to my word — one of them had barely dodged the opening attack.
“Kahaha! Not bad at all, Lee Tae-hyun!”
His clothes were a little scorched, but his skin bore not the slightest wound. And what could possibly be so delightful that he was grinning ear to ear about it?
“Looks like you've picked up a few tricks!”
Yoo Sung-wook was sprinting toward me at full speed.
“Still, we should be fine, right? You took two of them out for us already, Hyung—”
“No. Look carefully.”
Baek Seo-ha's expression tightened for an instant as she warned us.
“Those two… they haven't fallen yet.”
Just as she said — the two I'd assumed had collapsed from the Flame Soul Spear Volley were slowly rising back to their feet.
Both of them were in a different state than before. Muscles swollen to grotesque proportions, eyes bloodshot scarlet.
“Guess you two shouldn't relax, huh?”
That had to be some kind of dirty trick.
Elixir poisoning. And from the looks of it, a particularly filthy grade of it, too.
Overdose on elixirs, or consume them in a hyper-additive combination, and every side effect in the book came crawling out. The partial blindness that had claimed half my vision in the past had been one such symptom of elixir poisoning.
Pushing physical stats to their absolute limit at the cost of your reason, with side effects that linger after —
that meant they'd ingested an extremely vicious class of elixir. The kind potent enough to be outright lethal to anyone without serious specs.
“Win. No matter what. If you lose, I'm taking back everything I've ever given you.”
“Obviously!”
“I have no intention of losing before I become Sect Master.”
Kicking off the soft sand, I surged forward.
“Min-woo, I'll leave the flag to you.”
“Yes, sir!”
Shin Min-woo drew threads of mana from his fingertips and coiled them around the flag.
Whip-swish!
In an instant, the flag was reeled into his hand.
At that, two hulking figures lunged at Shin Min-woo simultaneously.
“Fl… flag… give it… here!”
“Have… to win….”
They were staggering under the elixir's side effects, yet the very augmentation ravaging them lent the pair a threatening, berserk strength. What brought their charge to a grinding halt was a barrier of frost-blue blades.
Blue Dragon Seven Forms
Fourth Form — Chaotic Wind
Whooooom!
The blade-storm slashed in, carving long gashes across their bodies as it wedged itself between them and the flag.
“The flag isn't going anywhere.”
Her silver-white hair, bound up high, scattered beautifully in the wind.
I could leave that corner to the two of them.
Now, then.
“LEE TAE-HYUUUUUN!”
My turn.
The main skill Yoo Sung-wook habitually relied on was this one.
Meteor Sword Aura (A)
A simple skill that coats the blade in sword aura to amplify its power.
But ever since he'd transplanted a Fragment into his heart, the skill had undergone no small evolution. Namely —
Vmmm…!
He could now discharge the sword aura outside the blade itself.
“Sword strike!”
He swept his blade, and a translucent sword-wave shot along its arc.
“…?!”
Lee Tae-hyun, who parried it, looked visibly rattled. Drunk on euphoria, Yoo Sung-wook flung the sword aura about with abandon.
“I'll dice you into pieces!”
WHOOOOOM!
Sword-waves whirled in from every direction like a cyclone. An utterly irregular style of assault that had been impossible before. A vertiginous sense of omnipotence electrified his whole body.
“Wh-what the…!”
Lee Tae-hyun bit his lip, desperately fending off the aura blades with his spear.
“How do you like it?! This power! Trash like you was never even a match for me!”
It felt as though the boulder that had been crushing his chest was finally shattering. And there was Lee Tae-hyun, drenched in sweat just struggling to block the sword aura!
“KAHAHAHA! This is where you and I always should have stood!”
His heart pounded harder, wilder. Vitality coursed through every inch of his body.
Toy with him for a while — then, at just the right moment, carve off every limb.
“If you admit defeat and get on your knees right now, I might even go easy on you?”
“You… you…!”
Lee Tae-hyun spoke through the sweat dripping down his face.
“Seriously… this is all you've got?”
He was so incredulous his jaw was practically trembling.
“This is seriously everything?”
The bewilderment on Lee Tae-hyun's face was utterly genuine. Too raw, too heavy-handed to be acting — or even a provocation.
“Ha, shit. And here I thought I was being careful, grinding all that poison training for this…!”
Disgust so sincere it came off him like steam. His eyes narrowed in what looked like sheer disappointment in himself, and he heaved a long, deep sigh.
“…What?”
Veins bulged across Yoo Sung-wook's forehead.
“Spare me the bluff, Lee Tae-hyun!”
“It's not a bluff, though—”
“I'll pulp that mouth of yours RIGHT NOW!”
Yoo Sung-wook condensed his sword aura. Unlike before, it was no longer translucent — it had taken on a thick, saturated density.
“Single strike!”
KWAAAANG!
A colossal sword-wave came roaring toward Lee Tae-hyun, kicking up clouds of desert dust in its wake.
“Die split in half!”
The attack looked devastatingly powerful. But the man facing it remained remarkably composed.
“An A-rank potential, and this is the ceiling?”
Did he not train at all, or what?
“Tsk.”
Truly a pearl necklace hung around a pig's neck.
Having thoroughly wallowed in the pity of it, I —
Shhk!
— spread my spear art.
Nameless Spear Art
Crying Thunder
A form of the Nameless Spear Art now steeped in far denser energy than before. A single thrust shattered the concentrated sword aura as if it were a mirror.
“H-how—?!”
Yoo Sung-wook's face twisted with panic and fury as he raised his sword aura yet again.
“DIE! Just die already!”
Sword-waves howled in a dizzying storm, all converging on Lee Tae-hyun —
“Isn't this getting a bit pathetic?”
Nameless Spear Art
Calling Flame
A mere handful of thrusts neutralized the lot of them. And that spear —
It's getting stronger the more he swings it, isn't it?!
Like a leaf catching the wind, its power swelled with every motion.
“Call me crazy, but it looks like you got drunk on raw power and never actually trained your skills or swordsmanship.”
Lee Tae-hyun's words were the plain truth. After the transplant had granted him the ability to project sword aura, all Yoo Sung-wook had done was farm easy wins against second-rate opponents in exhibition matches for show.
“Handing a loaded gun to a suckling infant doesn't make it a tiger slayer.”
“SHUT UP!”
Fine, then — no more ranged sword-waves. He'd close the distance himself and cut the man down. Yoo Sung-wook pushed his sword aura to its limit and drove his legs forward. The Fragment's power ran rampant, lending fresh strength to the hand gripping his sword.
The commentators' chatter never even reached him.
“Let's see you break THIS one, then!”
His sword collided with Lee Tae-hyun's spear — and in the instant before impact:
“Yeomhon.”
Scarlet flame bloomed to life.
“Flame Dominion.”
Karma Flame layered itself over the spear.
Flame Dominion was never just about damping the backlash of the Karma Flame.
The fire gradually coalesced, taking on concrete form — until at last the spear became a woldo, a crescent-moon blade wrought entirely of flame.
Break it, you said?
Then I'll oblige, exactly as you wish.
The tip of the flame-blade shimmered like a mirage.
“Hwaran — Fire Barrier.”
Tracing a half-moon, a scarlet arc of embers was drawn through the air. A motion unbroken and fluid, without the slightest hitch.
CRUNCH!
Shards of a blade scattered in the wake of the sweep. Yoo Sung-wook's sword — sword aura and all — had been pulverized in a single motion, and the reflected, amplified recoil slammed back into him at full force.
“Khhak…!”