Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Shield and Sword
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"Sure."
Answering Damian's question about sparring,
Hae-jin immediately swung at him the moment his words ended.
Whoosh-!
Anyone watching might think it was dirty.
He'd agreed to spar, but attacked like a sneak assault right after responding.
But Hae-jin had his reasons for striking like that.
The reason was simple.
[Damian did exactly this yesterday.]
That's right.
In yesterday's spar, where Damian's wooden sword had split like tofu and stopped.
Damian had proposed sparring, then launched a surprise attack right away.
Wasn't the incident with his weapon splitting just a mishap from countering that surprise?
So Hae-jin started this spar with a surprise attack the instant it began.
He saw it as Damian's teaching.
And sure enough.
When Hae-jin slashed at him unexpectedly, Damian swiftly raised his shield to block.
Clang!
Damian blocked Hae-jin's surprise slash with his shield, then shoved forward.
Thud-!
Having knocked away the sword flying at him from Hae-jin's surprise attack with his shield, Damian said,
"Good. That's a real battle spar. Hah!"
Damian thrust forward right after batting away Hae-jin's sword with his shield.
Seeing it, Hae-jin blocked Damian's thrust with the wooden sword in his other hand the moment his slashing sword bounced back.
Clang-!
Unlike yesterday, Damian's wooden sword didn't split like tofu.
That was when it happened.
"The same trick won't work twice, Messiah."
With those words, Damian twisted his wrist slightly sideways.
His thrust pierced right through Hae-jin's guard, which had blocked the blade.
But Hae-jin wasn't so inexperienced as to take that lying down.
The moment he saw Damian's thrust slipping in from the side, he ducked his upper body and charged forward.
For an ordinary person, it would strain the waist and knees—an ultra-low stance as he dove in.
Seeing that, Damian tried to smash down with his shield.
"A shield isn't just for defense."
Swoosh-!
Damian aimed to smash the back of Hae-jin's neck with his shield as he ducked low and charged.
Hae-jin had only one option there.
"Whoa!"
If he stayed put, the shield would slam into his head or neck, so Hae-jin rolled sideways.
The ridiculous maneuver commonly called a "donkey roll."
Donkey roll.
It referred to lazily rolling on the ground like a slothful donkey, a comical way to somehow survive.
But as they say, even rolling in shit is better than the afterlife?
To Hae-jin, who'd thrashed desperately to survive in the Survival Game, a donkey roll was no laughing matter.
If it meant living, he could roll in actual shit.
Even before regression, for "survival," he and Leader Nam Joo-hyuk's team hadn't shied from shameful acts.
In the Survival Game, as long as you survived to the end, nothing else mattered.
Thinking that, Hae-jin rolled aside to dodge—Damian chuckled.
"Nice. Willing to look ridiculous for survival. No matter how skilled you are in combat, it means nothing if you don't live. It's not the strong who survive; survivors become strong."
Saying that, Damian charged at Hae-jin, who'd rolled aside to evade.
Shield first.
Seeing it, Hae-jin thought,
[He's using the shield aggressively as a weapon.]
Even as he thought that, Hae-jin could see why Leader Nam Joo-hyuk respected Damian.
Right now, Hae-jin was deliberately holding back his abilities during Damian's training to learn.
From his position having acquired Nam Joo-hyuk's stats, if he fought Damian for real, none of this back-and-forth would happen.
Why?
A sincere swing would shatter Damian's wooden sword and shield alike, possibly cleaving him in two.
But Hae-jin held back.
Overwhelming him outright would make it hard to incorporate Damian's sword-and-shield style into dual-wielding.
Restraining his power wasn't hard.
Nam Joo-hyuk had done the same when teaching team members.
Full power meant everyone ended up at least moderately injured, so he'd taught them to spar with controlled strength.
That was why Hae-jin could match Damian evenly now.
Anyway.
Holding back like this, Hae-jin pondered how to counter Damian's charge.
Damian barreled forward shield-first.
No different from a massive monster's rush.
And Hae-jin relied on his experience.
[For a charging brute, charge back too—hold your greatsword sideways like a baseball bat and swing.]
Charging brutes usually assume the opponent dodges or braces.
But Hae-jin charged right back instead.
That panics them, and by then it's too late to slow down—they're thrown into chaos.
Then, swing the flat of your greatsword low like a bat, and the impact sends them tumbling back.
[Damian charging shield-first... same deal?]
Thinking that, Hae-jin sprang forward too.
He held both wooden swords flat sideways, aiming for Damian's legs as he charged.
That was when.
Boom!
Damian, charging shield-first.
He suddenly halted, slamming his shield into the ground.
He'd spotted it mid-charge.
Hae-jin targeting his legs.
So he planted the shield to block Hae-jin's attack.
"Huh?!"
Hae-jin hadn't expected that block—he faltered briefly at Damian's move.
Damian guarded his legs with the planted shield.
Then he targeted Hae-jin with his sword.
"It's over."
He'd blocked Hae-jin's attack with the shield and exploited the opening, so he figured it was done.
But Hae-jin's combat experience wasn't shallow.
The moment his twin swords hit the shield, Hae-jin twisted his wrists.
The swords slid up the shield's face.
Damian's sword, aimed at Hae-jin's throat, was blocked by the upward sweep from below.
Clack-!
Hae-jin smirked at Damian, who'd declared it over.
"Not over yet?"
Right then, a massive jolt hit Hae-jin's jaw.
Smack-!
"Urk?!"
The heavy blow to his chin.
Damian's sword was already blocked, so it couldn't be that.
After taking the hit to the jaw,
Hae-jin saw it.
The wooden shield that had struck his chin, kicked away, rolling on the ground.
Hae-jin was floored.
"You kicked the shield to attack?"
Seeing the shield that had rolled and flipped over, Hae-jin asked Damian.
Damian grinned and nodded.
"Exactly."
"Haha..."
Honestly, Hae-jin hadn't anticipated such an irregular attack at all.
Damian had acted like it was over when aiming for his neck; Hae-jin thought blocking that was enough.
But Damian's real play was the shield, planted as if to guard his legs.
With his high stats, it did no real damage...
[If that were a sturdy iron shield, and against a monster or Survival Game enemy with stats...]
Gulp.
Hae-jin swallowed dryly.
In the Survival Game, letting such an irregular attack through might've killed him outright.
In that sense, Hae-jin thought,
[So that's where Leader's irregular assaults came from?]
The one on his mind was none other than Leader Nam Joo-hyuk.
Nam Joo-hyuk favored irregular attacks more than expected.
That was why Hae-jin, who swung greatswords straightforwardly, beat him in raw power but never in real fights.
Nam Joo-hyuk would say back then,
"Haha, I had a good teacher. Still, I don't use a shield, so count yourself lucky. Against someone who fights like this with one? You'd be stumped."
Honestly, Hae-jin hadn't gotten it.
He figured Nam Joo-hyuk's tricks stemmed from dual swords.
Irregular attacks with a shield?
Unimaginable.
No wonder.
Hae-jin had never considered using a shield as a weapon.
Plus, he'd barely fought shield users like this.
Survival Game shield foes all used them straightforwardly, defensively.
So Nam Joo-hyuk would say whenever facing such enemies,
"No one who really knows shields... lucky for us."
Hae-jin hadn't understood then.
Shields block enemy attacks.
Their foes had fulfilled that role perfectly.
Yet Nam Joo-hyuk always clicked his tongue.
Claiming they didn't know how to use shields.
Now he got it.
[If monsters or enemies used shields like this, it'd be a nightmare.]
Shield-bearing monsters and foes were typically straightforward.
And they could afford to be.
The Survival Game ones had overwhelming power—no need for tricks.
So now, matching Damian with restrained power, Hae-jin was genuinely surprised.
[Brute monsters and foes are easier opponents.]
Pure force could be met with pure force.
But Damian couldn't harm Player Hae-jin with raw power.
Yet in this one spar, he'd put Hae-jin in dire straits.
Making him roll on the ground, force desperate dives—not to mention, one could argue Hae-jin lost this spar.
In the end, Hae-jin raised both hands, admitting defeat.
"I lost."
"Heh heh, I got lucky."
"That's underselling how masterfully you used that shield irregularly."
"Truth is, this was your first time going easy on me. To me, it looked like you'd shown your hand—no way you'd lose to the same tricks again today. Feels like you have solid combat experience..."
Hae-jin flinched.
The spar had revealed his level of experience.
In that moment, Damian offered advice.
"Plus, you don't usually dual-wield."
"You saw that in the spar?"
"Yes. Plenty of chances to thrust at my openings, but you stuck to swings."
"Oh..."
Damian pointed out that Hae-jin's current twin swords suited thrusting, but he'd over-relied on slashes.
It made sense.
Hae-jin had always fought swinging greatswords.
Thrusts weren't instinctive; slashes were.
Yet Damian had spotted it perfectly.
Diagnosing that, Damian raised a finger.
"First off, what you need most, Messiah, is 'that.'"
Something urgently needed.
Hae-jin asked,
"What's that?"
"It's..."