Crossfire of Rivals

Kaya's fury was no surprise.

He had effectively stolen her technique and used it as his own; of course she would be furious. What he had not expected was that she could sense a technique used from so far away and come hunting for him.

No. I got too careless.

How much power the Rune of Glory had unlocked in Kaya was still an unknown. He should have approached her more conservatively.

Still, it was fine earlier…

Do-yun glanced toward the direction she had come from and promptly shut his mouth. The Nightmare she had been fighting had long since been smashed to pieces. Of all the timing in the world, he had been caught right when she finished wrecking it and started looking for her next target. A mistake born of being completely absorbed in the vampire.

"That technique is a secret passed down only in our tribe."

Kaya fixed him with the narrowed eyes of a predator. Claws extended, she looked ready to drive them into him depending on his answer.

What she overlooked was that the two of them were not alone.

"Where did you learn the manners to cut in line without waiting your turn?"

Just as Kaya was about to press Do-yun, murderous intent flared behind her. She twisted her body on pure reflex. A greatsword wreathed in ashen energy slammed into her claws with a ringing screech of metal.

Clang!

El Sion's hair was dyed the same ashen gray as his blade, and his eyes burned with raw fury.

He had fired off his ultimate the instant Do-yun nearly caught him off guard. Kaya's sudden appearance had rendered the skill he had just spent completely useless.

"What a weird power you've got."

Kaya frowned down at the claws that had blocked El Sion's greatsword. The ashen energy pouring off the blade was slowly corroding them. Without the Rune of Evolution reinforcing her body, they would have blackened and rotted away in seconds.

Whoosh.

She sprang backward and raked both hands through the air. Blades of compressed wind howled toward El Sion like a storm.

"Hup!"

Instead of defending, El Sion charged straight through them. He trusted the defensive power of his armor. Exactly as he expected, the wind blades failed to leave so much as a scratch and scattered into empty air. Without slowing, he closed the distance and raised the greatsword high.

Kaya, already gathering wind to meet the blow, could only widen her eyes.

"Hand over everything you know about the system!"

El Sion had never been aiming at Kaya. His target from the start was Do-yun. Since he already possessed means to extract information even from a corpse, he had no reason to hold back for persuasion or capture.

"Not a chance!"

Before Do-yun could even react, Kaya shot forward and caught El Sion's greatsword in his place. Do-yun stared blankly for a second before the irony of the situation finally clicked.

Both of them still have questions they want to ask me.

Unlike El Sion, Kaya would never get her answers if Do-yun died. That was why the same woman who had body-slammed him earlier was now protecting him so fiercely.

"Anyone watching would think you two were allies."

Do-yun made a face that said he could not believe this was happening, then checked his own condition. Ridiculous or not, the fact that Kaya was currently shielding him was real.

He checked the number and let out a long sigh. With a total HP pool around four hundred, fifty-three was pitifully low.

It was full before Kaya hit me…

He shook his head left and right. He had thought he was the only one cheating the system, but the others were just as ridiculous. One Rune of Glory and her attack power jumped this high? It was absurd.

Clang! Clang!

Even so, El Sion was managing to block a fair amount of Kaya's empowered strikes. On the ninth floor Do-yun had shut him down with nanomachines the moment he transformed, so he had never fully appreciated it—but El Sion's ashen energy made his defense against external attacks extraordinarily high. Petty blows bounced off the armor; anything lethal enough to pierce it was caught on the greatsword.

Without Sun Swordsmanship I never would have killed him.

Without the combination of nanomachines and Sun Swordsmanship, Do-yun himself would never have broken that defense. The same was true of Kaya even with the Rune of Glory active. Right now she looked like she was completely dominating. Armor crumpled wherever El Sion failed to intercept a blow. If she kept up the hit-and-run and forced attrition, he would eventually go down.

Time, however, was not on her side.

"Once the Rune of Glory wears off, she won't be able to put out damage like that anymore."

Kaya's true strength was high-speed mobility combat. The fact that even light jabs could dent armor was purely thanks to the Rune of Glory. If El Sion simply survived until the duration ended, he still had a path to victory.

"Wh-who should we hope wins?"

Ciel fluttered over while Do-yun watched the fight, head swiveling nervously between the two combatants. He answered without looking away.

"Whoever wins, it's the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠worst for me."

Either outcome left him in a bad place. Both of them were only fighting to satisfy their own questions. Worse, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he had already killed each of them at least once. The Rune of Resurrection had brought them back, but that history did not disappear. Even if their curiosity was sated, the odds they would simply let him walk away were zero.

From Do-yun's perspective, the best move was to snatch the fisherman's profit while the two of them tore into each other.

He drew a slow breath and pressed his palm against the edge of a blade lying on the ground.

Shhhk.

He dragged his palm along the edge again and again—deep enough that, without the HP system, it would have been a thin cut. Single-digit damage numbers flickered across his vision in a constant stream. The moment his remaining HP dropped below ten percent, the edges of his sight bled red.

Near-death state.

He had felt this once before, fighting the Sentinel on the ninth floor. Deliberately diving into critical condition when every point of HP mattered had a simple reason.

The dog tags around his neck flared brightly, announcing the option's activation. With that, Do-yun became a glass cannon whose raw attack power could stand against anyone.

"Wouldn't it be better to top up your HP first?"

"I'd love to."

Ordinarily he would have stacked every last point of health he could. Mana was not an issue, and a few uses of first aid would have raised his safety margin dramatically. The problem was how special this situation was.

"Even a graze is a critical hit out here."

Kaya who commanded wind. El Sion who commanded ashen energy. Full HP did not feel reassuring in front of either of them. Better to sharpen his offensive edge even if it meant becoming a glass cannon.

Entering the near-death state also amplified the potion buff he was already under. His body felt roughly one and a half times lighter.

Shame I can't stack potion buffs.

If drinking a new potion did not overwrite the previous one, he might have swallowed every last bottle he had right then and there.

Preparations complete, Do-yun looked at the two figures still locked in combat. The moment he moved, their all-out brawl instantly cooled into a wary stalemate. Their true goal was securing him; even while fighting each other they stayed hypersensitive to his every shift.

"It would be better if you didn't move."

El Sion leveled the greatsword at him, voice low. Ashen energy at the tip swelled, sending out a murderous pulse.

"Don't touch him. I still have questions left."

Kaya gathered wind around her body and shot El Sion a razor-sharp glare. Tiny whirlwinds spun at her feet as the tension climbed.

"You know what? This is ridiculous."

Do-yun looked at the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠two of them and let out a short, incredulous laugh.

"Who the hell do you think you are, giving me orders? Are either of you ranked higher than me?"

Of course he knew ranking was not everything. That was exactly why he had prioritized safety so obsessively—to avoid carelessness or arrogance. But leaving him out of the conversation while they decided his fate among themselves was something he could not swallow.

"Silphy. Help me one more time."

The buff he had cast earlier had been interrupted when Kaya hit him. Even so, enough of Silphy's power remained for another three-second cast.

Whoosh.

Wind wrapped gently around him again, lightening his body. Kaya's face hardened the instant she sensed the shift; she lunged. Do-yun's sword was already swinging.

A heat-laden blast of scorching wind poured toward Kaya and El Sion. At a glance it looked like a desperate, ineffective thrash—but Do-yun's abnormally inflated attack power turned that heat wave into a genuine weapon.

Sizzle.

Skin that touched the wind cooked red. Damage that widespread and that severe should have been impossible from dispersed heat, yet there it was. Startled, both of them scrambled out of the blast zone. The instant Do-yun prepared to charge in, ready to burn a life if he had to—

Brilliant light poured down from the sky and regenerated every wound. The seared skin of Kaya and El Sion healed instantly. So did Do-yun, who had deliberately driven himself to the brink of death just to stack attack power.

What now…?

Before he could even lift his head toward the disturbance above, a cheerful chime rang out and a new alert filled his vision.