Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Hero
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Reincarnation. Possession. Time travel. Anything like that.
It was a story that made no rational sense. The Great Hero Enoch Războinic had undoubtedly been slain by the hand of the great previous Demon King. It was an indisputable fact, now etched into history itself, unquestioned by anyone.
But his instincts—the instincts of the captain of the Demon King's direct assassination unit—were screaming like they were on the verge of hysteria. The being before him was Enoch Războinic.
Reason recoiled in denial, but instinct grabbed it by the throat and shook it violently. Confusion reigned.
Yet his body, honed to perfection as an assassin, moved mechanically toward its target.
It didn't matter who the opponent was. Assassinate the target. That was all.
Sip—
Do-yoon and the Finance Minister both drew in their first breath simultaneously.
One second passed.
Before he knew it, the Finance Minister held a pitch-black dagger in his other hand as well, already swinging it toward Do-yoon's throat. It was another utterly silent strike, slicing through the air without a whisper.
Do-yoon tilted his head back to evade the dagger. But midway through its arc, the blade twisted with a flick, gripped in reverse, and thrust straight for his Adam's apple.
Do-yoon twisted his head to dodge the follow-up, but the dagger's tip grazed from his jaw to his ear, leaving a long gash. Then the dagger from the other hand plunged toward his heart. At the same time, the one he'd just avoided came crashing down toward his skull.
The relentless barrage offered no room to breathe, accelerating without mercy. Soon, the Minister's blade seemed to multiply into dozens, filling every blind spot and tightening around Do-yoon like a noose.
This was no attack Do-yoon could endure. He leaped backward, twisting his body to barely evade the lethal strikes aimed at his vitals.
It was the pinnacle of evasion maneuvers, driven by the Hero's battle sense. But Do-yoon's current body couldn't keep up. Inevitably, the strikes he couldn't fully dodge shredded his flesh.
Shoulder blade, collarbone, chest, flank, thigh. Crimson lines etched across Do-yoon's body. Fresh blood sprayed into the shadowed air.
The first breath ended. Four seconds had passed.
'I can't win.'
Do-yoon made his judgment before his feet even touched the ground.
His eyes and battle sense caught every attack. But his body couldn't follow his mind.
Compared to Enoch at his peak, Han Do-yoon was pathetically weak. His divine beast physique kept him from being hopelessly outmatched, but the gap in mana was vast.
He finished the calculations in his head. In ten seconds, his head would be severed.
Yet Do-yoon's golden eyes remained utterly calm. A brush with death was as routine as breathing for him.
He'd always fought unwinnable battles and always emerged victorious. That was why he was called the Hero.
Born a nomad, he had toppled the Demon King. Impossible was not in his vocabulary.
Do-yoon quickly assessed the battlefield.
He caught the faint tremor in his opponent's breathing. It was unmistakable bewilderment, even for an assassin of such mastery.
Figuring out why was simple.
'This dagger technique—it's the Secret Shadow Sword of the Demon King's direct assassination unit.'
And the execution was flawless. Weakened only by the sacred stone's influence, it was top-tier even among the assassins.
'The one who fought me a hundred years ago.'
Just as Do-yoon had recognized him, the man had surely recognized Enoch. He saw the dead Enoch in Do-yoon and was rattled by it.
He couldn't win. But Do-yoon had lured him to this remote spot for a reason—he had a plan.
'One breath.'
Exploit the confusion for just one breath's worth of time.
A fleeting moment. Do-yoon finished his calculations and moved.
Thus, Do-yoon and the Finance Minister inhaled their second breath.
Four seconds passed.
Mid-spin in the air, Do-yoon extended his right foot to land. The Finance Minister didn't miss it.
Just before his toes touched down, a dagger whipped toward his outstretched ankle.
The pitch-black blade sliced silently through Do-yoon's ankle—or so it seemed. But he landed cleanly.
The Finance Minister narrowed his eyes.
It had looked like a clean cut, but there was no sensation of severing flesh. It was Do-yoon's signature evasion from the tournament match against Torn—exquisitely precise.
And at the same time, the evasion technique from the Enoch in his memories, a century old.
The Finance Minister's breathing faltered ever so slightly.
'Five seconds.'
The second breath ended. The third began.
Faintly, Do-yoon's breath came a fraction quicker.
The Finance Minister swung his dagger at Do-yoon's flank—a slash that would cleave his waist in two if it landed true.
But it was a feint. The real strike was the soundless, invisible blade severing his throat.
Secret Shadow Sword secret technique: Phantom Sword.
But Do-yoon was familiar with this attack. He spun his body, slipping past both strikes by the width of a sheet of paper.
Channeling that spin into his waist, he drew his sword from its sheath.
The emerging blade gleamed brilliantly, enveloped in golden sword aura. It accelerated mid-draw, vanishing from sight. Only trails of golden aura lingered like afterimages, the sword becoming light itself.
A draw infused with the essence of Localized Acceleration Control. This was the true Golden Radiant Sword, unlike the earlier one.
Just as Do-yoon knew the Secret Shadow Sword, the Finance Minister knew Do-yoon's techniques. He didn't flinch at the unpredictable trajectory, simply ducking to evade effortlessly.
But his pupils trembled violently as he watched the golden afterimage.
Exactly as the bards described: an accelerated blade laden with radiant sword aura. Unmistakably Enoch's signature move from his memories.
The Finance Minister's breathing disrupted once more.
'Eight seconds.'
The third breath ended. The fourth began.
This time, Do-yoon was a full breath faster.
Do-yoon's training sword couldn't withstand the sword aura. Even though it only cut empty air, it shattered into fragments upon reaching its mark, scattering into the air.
Shards still glowing with golden aura twinkled like a starry cluster in the shadowed void, resembling a flowing yellow galaxy.
From within that stellar haze, the Finance Minister's blades whipped out.
The pitch-black daggers devoured light, painting dark trajectories across the air like strokes of midnight.
The same barrage as before. Dozens of visible strikes, laced with Phantom Sword subtlety—unseen killers targeting Do-yoon's vitals.
No escaping it. Do-yoon had already swung and yielded the initiative, his wounded body refusing to obey.
This was the tenth-second assault that would claim his life.
In the radiant galaxy, countless blades arced like black crescents. The dark moonlight shredded Do-yoon's body, painting it red.
A blade pierced an eye, stealing vision. His shoulder was deeply gashed, arm dangling limp. Lungs punctured, blood filled his breaths; severed fingers spun through the air. Do-yoon's body became a ragged mess.
The onslaught continued endlessly. And at its climax, the Minister's left-hand dagger plunged into Do-yoon's flank.
Ten seconds.
'It's over, Războinic.'
His right hand swung to behead Do-yoon. The predetermined death sentence at ten seconds.
But Do-yoon had already seized control of the fight's flow.
'Four Taels to Move a Thousand Catties.'
He was one breath ahead of the Finance Minister.
Boom—!
Do-yoon's right foot slammed into the ground. Concentric shockwaves rippled out, shaking even the building.
In this eerily silent battle that devoured sound, it was the first thunderous noise.
The ground quaked, and the Minister's blade missed. Its tip barely grazed Do-yoon's throat, harmlessly slicing empty air.
And with that shockwave, the tiger's whiskers twitched.
The Finance Minister flicked his missed blade into reverse grip mid-swing, thrusting for Do-yoon's throat.
But he...
'Ah.'
In that instant, he knew.
'Retreat.'
He should have pulled back without swinging. There would be no more chances to kill Războinic.
One breath. He had fallen one breath short of slaying him.
He looked down. Războinic grinned, gripping the Minister's hand—still embedded in his flank—tightly.
Preventing any retreat.
And then...
'Danger...'
Kaboom!!
With a ferocious roar like a raging storm, the building wall exploded inward.
Do-yoon glimpsed a thick whirlwind streaking past. A horizontal vortex of razor-sharp wind pressure swept through the Finance Minister and the ground where they stood.
At its core gleamed an ivory spear, spinning with the essence of World-Reversing Thrust, tearing the air asunder.
An overwhelmingly powerful thrust.
Thud... thud...
"..."
The Finance Minister's form was blasted back, smashing through the opposite outer wall and embedding in the debris.
Between the hole in the building wall and the Minister hung a tunnel of air, perfectly circular like a magnified bullet path, lingering as an aftereffect.
"Tch..."
From the rising dust, someone emerged, hefting an ivory spear over their shoulder, striding forward steadily.
"What a damn mess."
He swept back his bangs with a palm, muttering irritably.
The tiger-thick skin of his face twitched.
"You're late."
The one called the White Tiger of Bilren, inheritor of the Războinic title.
"Shut up."
The Hero, Heineken.