Semifinals (2)

It felt like a dream.

He could no longer tell where the dream ended and reality began.

The thing spoke to him again.

A honeyed voice, whispering right against his ear.

Whenever he looked ahead, it was always there.

A shape woven of shadow, black-red and seething.

Heard aloud, it almost sounded true.

Wasn't his own life exactly like a dream?

Just as the thing said, he scanned his surroundings — and found them overflowing with blood and mounds of flesh.

The monster that had been the gate boss lay cleaved in two by a single stroke of his blade, its entrails scattered thick across the floor.

"Ah…!"

The intoxicating stench of blood. The swelling taste of superiority.

Unimaginable power thrummed through the sword in his hand.

"You… will lead… me?"

Merely hearing it sent lightning crackling down his spine.

At the same time, his throat went maddeningly dry.

Unless he grew stronger, this thirst would never — never — be quenched.

"I'll get stronger."

"Stronger… and stronger…."

"Stronger… so I can have my revenge."

On the two who had gifted him this endless dream.

He would deliver, without fail, the curse of the blade.

"You mean, about Sung-chan's condition?"

Yoo Ji-an carefully raised her teacup to her lips.

"Yes! Haven't you noticed anything, you know, off about him?"

"Hmm. He seems like his usual self to me?"

Watching her roommate rattle off such carefree nonsense, Ah Seo-ah clicked her tongue beneath her oversized wizard's hat.

"I'm more curious why you felt that way, Seo-ah."

"Because…! There's definitely something wrong with him!"

"And why exactly do you think so?"

"It's just… a feeling. Yeah, a feeling."

More precisely — ever since Lee Tae-hyun had come as a guest instructor.

Ever since Park Sung-chan had woken from that long coma, something about him had felt wrong.

"He was muttering to himself at the hospital, remember? And they said he was vomiting light!"

"Oh please, that kind of thing is common in long-term patients."

"…You can vomit light from being cooped up too long?"

"The other patients must have been seeing things. It is a hospital, after all."

There was nothing wrong with Yoo Ji-an's logic.

And yet the strange unease blooming in Ah Seo-ah's chest only fanned itself hotter and brighter.

Something's wrong with Sung-chan.

A mage's instinct was telling her so.

The Park Sung-chan of now had something else mixed into him.

"Forget it. I'll figure it out myself if I have to."

"Seo-ah? We ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have semifinal practice soon — where are you going?"

Ah Seo-ah ignored Yoo Ji-an's call and walked out.

If it's Lee Tae-hyun, he might know something!

He was the last person to see Park Sung-chan in his right mind that day, wasn't he?

And… something about that man made her feel like he'd fix it somehow.

After all, he was the man who'd crushed even her own insufferably prideful nose.

Creeeak!

The instant she opened the door to leave —

"Hiihk…!"

It was there.

A wave of killing intent crashed over her body in an instant, and Ah Seo-ah froze solid.

"Oh, it's just you, Seo-ah. Where are you off to?"

Just as quickly, the killing intent withdrew, revealing a familiar face.

Apart from the hair gone startlingly white and a body leaner than before, he looked no different from always.

"I… I was just…."

"Sneaking off to buy snacks again? Not that I care, but hurry back in~ Ji-an's been in a tizzy about semifinal prep."

"You should take it seriously too, Sung-chan. The semifinal is the quarterfinals' next step — it's practically the finals' gatekeeper."

"Can't I just keep doing what I've always done? Half-ass it, half the time."

"Honestly…."

A conversation no different from any other day.

Yoo Ji-an, laid-back yet strict. Park Sung-chan, careless about everything under the sun, exactly as he'd always been.

Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a normal day.

Right. Nothing was wrong.

"Seo-ah. If you're not going out, come in."

The way Park Sung-chan rested a hand on her shoulder was normal.

The crushing force of that hand, strong enough to snap her shoulder, was not.

"AAAGH… AAAAAAAAGH!"

"Whoa, sorry about that. My stats went up lately, so I can't control my strength very well."

The way an unidentifiable madness came pouring off the apologizing man's face was not.

"You're not going anywhere, are you? Seo-ah."

"N… no…."

Everything was fine.

It had to be fine.

The semifinals.

And of the two matches, the day Shinseong Hunter Academy took the field.

The prevailing sentiment was that further speculation was pointless.

And that was because the record Shinseong had been writing was simply staggering.

A freshly founded guild hadn't just clawed its way into the Guild War main tournament — it had stormed all the way to the semifinal four.

Even if they lost here, Shinseong's name would go down in history.

But once you got this far, one thing became impossible to resist.

A Shinseong championship.

An absurd notion — and yet a plausible one.

Even the people saying no out loud were nursing much the same thought beneath the surface.

Are they actually going to win it all?

For now, though, they kept it locked deep inside.

It was still too early to give that hope a voice.

At least until —

Until this match was over.

"Of course it had to be this event."

A bewildering, labyrinthine expanse of corridors and chambers.

I stood there, alone and isolated.

Maze Hunt.

The rules were simple: hunt artificial monsters throughout a labyrinth dungeon, rack up points, and victory went to whichever team's total was higher.

It was a team event, yet each member started in a separate location — unusual, if you wanted to call it that.

Ziing—

Right on cue, an artificial monster resembling a golem trundled past in front of me.

Small for a golem, so probably not one of the strong ones.

"Might as well test it out."

I drove my spear through its head, and it split clean apart and crumbled.

Points banked instantly with every kill.

Incidentally, there was one more route to earning points here.

Taking down the opposing team and plundering their points.

Which, in effect, forced a direct, physical clash between the two teams.

It was a spectacle-first competition, after all. Couldn't be helped.

I need to move fast.

Not because I particularly wanted to hunt a mountain of monsters.

Park Sung-chan.

No matter how I turned it over, that bastard gnawed at me.

If he's had an Otherworldly Fragment implanted too…

Then at the very least, that one I would have to deal with personally.

Because if he ever went the way of Yoo Sung-wook and fully became a Knight, I would have to kill him with these hands.

I cut down every golem that crossed my sight, one after another.

This place is absurdly huge.

It genuinely rivaled an actual labyrinth-type gate in scale.

The only real difference was that every monster in it was an artificial golem.

"Well, I do have to care about winning, so…."

Insurance, in other words.

"Let's bank exactly five thousand points."

I kindled my Karma Flame and swept the spear in a wide arc.

"Flame Soul Spear Throw!"

BOOOOOM!

The Karma Flame erupted, detonating the golems in a single mass.

Without pausing for breath, I cleaved through the golems nearby with the flat of my spear.

Nameless Spear Art

Chaotic Wind

A bewildering wind of spear-blades howled through the maze —

CRACK-BOOOM!

— and legions of golems crumbled into dust.

Half my target in a single sweep.

Still not quite comfortable enough to go wandering carefree.

"Doesn't matter — I've got Natural Recovery, after all."

I could afford to be a little extravagant.

I poured more mana into the hand gripping my spear and drew my focus to a razor's edge.

Moonlight Rain Dance Over All Under Heaven

A deluge of falling mana.

Thin, needle-sharp blades of force burrowed into the golems' weak points and shredded their bodies to pieces.

And that wasn't all.

GUWOOOOOOM!

A pillar of the labyrinth collapsed, and came down crushing every golem beneath it.

"Whew."

That put me comfortably in the safe zone.

I rested a while and let my mana recover.

I'd barely rested at all, yet more than half of my spent mana had already come flooding back.

Isn't this trait a little broken?

God, I was glad I'd picked it up.

Once things calmed down, I'd have to push Natural Recovery toward S-rank too.

"Time to move."

I hoisted my spear again and set off running between the maze walls.

Along the way, I spotted something built unlike any of the golems I'd seen so far.

What is that?

It was a golem, technically — but a type I'd never once encountered in all my hunting here.

A grotesque thing, as if a living monster had been stitched together into a construct.

"Only one way to find out."

Wrapping my spear in Karma Flame, I violently gouged into its chest, where I guessed its core would be.

SPLITCH!

The sensation of a core catching on the tip of my spear and splitting apart.

GUWOOOOSH!

Dead blood burst out in a flood, and the golem came tumbling down.

"…Chimera Golem?"

Not once among all the golems I'd hunted so far had there been a single Chimera Golem.

And it carried no Artificial prefix — and awarded no points.

"…which means, as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I suspected—"

"Ahhh~ that was one of my favorite children, you know."

A conspicuously relaxed voice drifted over from behind me.

"So it's your summon. Yoo Ji-an."

"It's been a while, Instructor."

The Summoner, Yoo Ji-an.

That trademark serpentine smile of hers greeted me.

She looked at the Chimera Golem I'd just destroyed and let out a long, theatrical sigh of regret.

"Its body was unstable, so its defenses had dropped, but it was a diligent little thing — hunted all on its own."

"Was it now? Terribly sorry about that. How shall I make it up to you?"

"Give me your points, Instructor! I'd say that's a fair trade, wouldn't you?"

"Ha! You want me to cough up points over a tattered rag you used and threw away? Bold-faced robbery, that is."

Yoo Ji-an narrowed her eyes slyly and hummed a little note.

"Hm~ It hardly matters, really. I've gathered plenty of points already."

It didn't sound like a bluff.

Given Yoo Ji-an's summoner kit, this kind of hunting event played straight to her strengths.

…Aren't summoners just completely overpowered?

"Oh? Then how about we each go our own way?"

"I'm sorry! That I'm afraid I can't do."

As she released her mana, magic circles large and small bloomed into the air around her.

And out of them poured summons of every conceivable shape.

"Sung-chan and Seo-ah both seem soooo interested in you, Instructor…."

"Ha. Jealous that your friends are paying attention to someone else?"

"Oh, perish the thought. I merely—"

ROOOOAR!

GRRRRR!

SKREEEE!

—an army of summons had already swallowed the space around us whole.

"—wish to know just what kind of man you truly are?"

And then, hundreds of shadows came hurtling down at once.