Knight of Extinction (1)
“Urghhh….”
Park Sung-chan's vision scattered in every direction.
His eyes rolled about so wildly it felt as though he were staring in a dozen places at once.
He's definitely not in his right mind.
Baek Seo-ha narrowed her eyes, sword leveled at him.
Even at his best, the man in front of her was anything but normal.
His body shuddered in intermittent spasms, his mouth curled into a slimy grin.
And layered on top of that came a ceaseless stream of deranged muttering to no one.
Just as Ah Seo-ah had said — it felt as though something had draped itself over Park Sung-chan's body, or fused into it.
“You… you…?”
A gaze steeped in chilling madness turned toward her.
But Baek Seo-ha did not retreat a single step.
If Ah Seo-ah was right, that thing's goal was to murder Lee Tae-hyun.
Which meant she could never let it pass.
“You… are… what…?”
“You don't need to know.”
She had not yet become Sect Master, after all.
“You're not reaching Lee Tae-hyun.”
She couldn't afford to fall here — or to send this thing to him.
“D-Don't kill him! We have to subdue him, remember?!”
Ah Seo-ah, who had been reading Baek Seo-ha's lips, shrieked in a frantic panic.
Park Sung-chan was in an abnormal state right now.
Ordinarily he had been directly controlling her, which made it impossible for her to receive outside help so easily.
But in a tournament, the rules were different.
If they were going to subdue her, now was the moment.
“I'll help too, so…!”
Ah Seo-ah gathered her mana, loading up her magic.
“No! Don't do that!”
Shin Min-woo, still recovering his body, jumped in to stop her right at that moment.
“What's your problem?! I saved your butt and I don't even get a thank-you?!”
“Every single one of your spells is wide-area attack magic! Seo-ha noona's going to get caught in the blast!”
Shin Min-woo knew Ah Seo-ah all too well.
They were both Hunter Academy alumni, and he'd been 'hunted' by her more times than he could count.
As far as he remembered, her magic consisted entirely of flashy, destructive attack spells and nothing else.
“Y-You idiot! Like I wouldn't know that?!”
For some reason her face had gone red as she bit her lip in irritation.
Then she muttered under her breath.
“I'm not as dumb as I was back then, okay…?”
“What?”
“Ugh! Move!”
Ah Seo-ah shoved Shin Min-woo aside and unleashed her magic.
Contrary to everyone's expectation of an attack spell flying out —
[Chain of Sealing]
[Shackles of Decay]
[Curse of Blind]
“Grrrrgh! Aaargh!!”
A barrage of debuff spells lashed around Park Sung-chan all at once.
“What the—?!”
That Ah Seo-ah, casting something other than attack magic?
Shin Min-woo's face froze in sheer astonishment.
“Hmph! If you've got time to stand there gawking, go finish healing and give me a hand!”
Her face had darkened rapidly.
No matter how remarkable Baek Seo-ha's growth had been.
Whether she could beat Park Sung-chan as he was now remained an open question.
CLANG!
Blade met blade, and sparks flew.
“Hhk…!”
A violent shock traveled up through her hands.
So this was the sword of someone bearing a triple-stacked curse magic.
It won't be easy.
Baek Seo-ha put distance between them and readied the Seven Forms of the Azure Dragon.
But Park Sung-chan gave her no room to breathe, charging straight in.
“I'll… cut you… all… down!”
A blood-red aura came crashing in without rhyme or reason.
It was a sword style she had never once seen before.
The blade's path bent erratically, carving in from angles no one could have predicted.
It's like someone is standing behind him, gripping his arm and moving it for him!
Fighting this was close to facing two swordsmen at once.
Baek Seo-ha narrowed her eyes and deflected Park Sung-chan's blade away.
Don't rush it.
The accumulated impacts made her shoulders ache as if they'd be torn from their sockets, and feeling had gone numb in her fingers.
Still, she forced her mind to stay calm.
Forget the idea of turning the tide in a single blow. Take the advantage bit by bit.
Words someone had once drilled into her.
Back then she'd thought it an insolent, presumptuous lecture.
Strip the emotion out of your attacks and put reason in their place. If you can't land a blow on your opponent, then make your opponent walk into your attack.
Now those words were the signposts that guided her.
“Kehi… haha… haha!”
His sword grew wilder and wilder.
He flashed a sneer at Baek Seo-ha, who was hard-pressed even to defend, let alone attack.
“You can't… beat… me!”
Little by little.
His sword grew crude.
Save the unpredictable moves for the one moment that truly matters — and seize your opening.
Endure, and endure again, until the gap appears.
And when the flaw shows itself, sink your fangs in deep with the conviction that you will never let go.
That was the way the weak fought.
Move.
Just like Lee Tae-hyun would!
“Seven Forms of the Azure Dragon…!”
The dragon uncoiled from its coil.
Raging Wind • Chain
Into the spaces between Park Sung-chan's blades.
Into that tiny gap, she hammered her sword forms one after another.
“GRAAHK!”
With the conviction that there would be no second chance.
She poured everything into this first and perhaps final opening.
Because that was what Lee Tae-hyun would have done.
“GRRAAGH!”
A storm of blades swept through Park Sung-chan's body.
“Ghk…!”
A moment later he dropped his sword and collapsed as though losing consciousness.
“Haah… haah…”
“Y-You actually won!”
Ah Seo-ah cried out, clapping her hands over her mouth.
She'd heard the White Dragon had been on a steep growth curve lately.
But never had she imagined she'd beat Park Sung-chan in that state.
“Is this enough…?”
Baek Seo-ha peered down at the fallen Park Sung-chan, her voice worn out.
The wounds looked a little deep, but nothing appeared fatal.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Then as promised, your points are mine?”
Ah Seo-ah's goal had never been winning the Guild War in the first place — it was subduing Park Sung-chan.
The points could wait; she'd just get an earful from Yoo Ji-an about it later.
“Fine. Then first, let's get Sung-chan—”
“Wait a moment!”
It was then that Shin Min-woo, having just finished his recovery, shouted.
“It's not over yet!”
“What… what do you mean?!”
“He has a skill! A skill that keeps him from ever blacking out!”
An S-rank skill Park Sung-chan possessed.
Rank:S
Grants the bearer unbreakable consciousness — no matter the circumstances, they will never lose their mind and will fight on to the very end.
With a skill like that, he'd lost consciousness to a sword strike?
“He's faking it — he's pretending to be knocked out!”
“What…?!”
The instant a startled Baek Seo-ha turned around —
SHUNK!
The sword ran her through.
I'd burned quite a bit of time on my fight with Yoo Ji-an.
Still, thanks to that, I no longer needed to spend any time hunting at all.
Find Park Sung-chan as fast as possible.
I threaded through the maze, pushing my senses to their limit.
[Heightened Senses]
The sharpened perception mapped the maze's structure and sorted out the paths I needed to take.
“I can feel impacts from this direction.”
A faint tremor carried over from somewhere not far away.
That meant someone was hunting — or fighting.
But thanks to the maze's nature, heading straight for where I wanted to go was next to impossible.
“Well, if there's no road.”
I'd just make one.
Flame Soul Moon BladeFire StakeBOOOOOM!
I launched fire stakes toward the direction of the tremors.
The Karma Flame tore the walls apart, forcing a path straight through.
“Should've done this from the start.”
[+ 350pt]
“Oh.”
Looks like a few golems got caught in the blast — points had been deposited.
I veered to one side and sprinted through the now-empty front.
“…!”
The closer I got, the more an alien presence brushed against my skin.
“No way, already…!”
My legs pumped harder.
And then, far in the distance, a vague silhouette began to take shape.
A colossal humanoid form made entirely of shadow.
At its center stood Park Sung-chan.
I don't know what that thing is.
But one thing was certain — it was a bastard I had to crush.
The moment I broke into a run and prepared to unfold my spear art —
[The skill of 'Park Sung-chan', 'Star's Grace (S)', is being DESTROYED!]
A crackling message flickered into view before my eyes.
“Skill destruction?”
It was a concept I'd never seen, either before or after my regression.
A skill being destroyed.
Was that even possible in the first place?
So the wall that had annoyed me most had finally come crumbling down.
Then a deep, low voice flowed into my ears.
The voice of that shadow-like being.
I thank you, young swordsman.At last, I shall claim this body for my own.
'Star's Grace' — the skill that kept one's mind unbroken, unbowed in any moment, under any circumstance.
Now that it was destroyed.
“…Damn it!”
Too late to unfold my spear art.
I quickly raised the Karma Flame and formed throwing spears instead.
Flame Soul Throwing Spear
I had to shatter that body before it was too late.
“Before it becomes a 'Knight'!”
The spears, laden with my will, exploded one after another.
Dust billowed up in thick clouds.
When I finally reached the spot where the thing had stood, the first thing I saw was the ground slick with blood.
“What the….”
“Ghhk… kgh….”
“Ughh….”
Shin Min-woo and Ah Seo-ah lay unconscious, their entire bodies soaked in blood.
The most critical of all was Baek Seo-ha.
“….”
Blood was pouring freely from her abdomen.
Had the wound landed even slightly differently, it wouldn't have been strange for it to have killed her outright.
“…One look is enough to tell this is outside the bounds of the tournament — and yet there's still no outside intervention. Which means.”
I stood up slowly as I spoke.
For the benefit of whoever was listening from within that dust.
“You put up a barrier, didn't you?”
“Your depth of thought isn't bad.”
The dust settled completely, revealing the thing's full form.
Its knight-transformation was nearly complete — its outer skin had hardened into something like armor.
Within the helmet, maddened eyes glinted.
“As I thought… this body is not bad at all. That blasted skill gave me trouble, but it was potential worth the effort.”
Quest — Guild War
▷ Win the Guild War.
▷ Reward ① Victory: 300 Exp
▷ Reward ② Slay the Knight of the Grand Duke, 'Yoo Sung-wook': 300 Exp
▷ Reward ③ Survive the Knight of Extinction, 'Park Sung-chan': 「Cobalt Key Fragment」
The Knight of Extinction.
So that was the name of that godforsaken thing.
“You are an individual capable of speech.”
“I find the word 'individual' distasteful… but as a memento of acquiring this fine body, I shall grace you with an answer.”
The Knight of Extinction tilted its chin.
A rattling clatter of metal stung my ears.
“There are grades even among knights. Those who command a low-grade body cannot manage language — nor can they even fight properly.”
Certainly, the 'Knight of the Grand Duke' manifested in Yoo Sung-wook had been unable to speak.
So even an A-rank potential body counts as low-grade to these things?
It seemed a knight needed to command at least an S-rank body or better to gain the use of language.
“What exactly are you people?”
“That much you have no need to know.”
The thing raised its sword.
At once, a blood-red aura burst forth like liquid.
“For soon, you will become rust upon my blade.”
“What is it with you tin-can bastards and your heavy mouths?”
Before my regression, the Iron Blood Monarch had commanded a great many knights.
Among them, the special individuals granted legions of their own, who led forces independently, were called by a particular name.
Corps Commander.
I was certain of it.
Park Sung-chan's mutated form — the Knight of Extinction.
It was a Corps Commander-class knight.
“…Maybe I'll have to beat your mouth open, then?”
“How arrogant. You cannot defeat me.”
Corps Commanders were strong.
Entities beyond all standards — sweeping away packs of hunters single-handedly, splitting the earth itself with their sword strikes.
Can I beat it as I am now?
My eyes drifted to the contents of the quest.
③ Survive the Knight of Extinction, 'Park Sung-chan': 「Cobalt Key Fragment」
Not slay.
The condition was to survive.
Which meant….
“…Kgh!”
If I killed the thing.
Just what kind of reward would they give me instead?
“What's so funny?”
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking — this whole thing is absurd.”
I pointed my spearhead at the thing's head.
“All that talk about my heavy mouth, and here you are with no mouth at all.”
I had to fight regardless, one way or another.
So don't think about whether you can win or not.
Rather than wasting thought on that.
“I'll just have to punch a hole for a mouth.”
“…You insolent—!”
Think, one more time, about how you can win.
Because that's my way.