Chapter 112: 10-Quad. The Final Battle (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 112: 10-Quad. The Final Battle (2)
Seo-un returned to the Turtle Ship just as his Immortal Qi was on the verge of depletion. His teammates greeted him with bright, relieved faces.
“Did it go well?”
In response to Li Min’s question, Seo-un gave a thumbs-up and issued a sharp order.
“Let’s go!”
It was finally time to put an end to their long-standing plan.
“Even if the attacks are concentrated on us, we should be able to hold out for a while. Don’t stop for anything—just charge in.”
Li Min smiled confidently.
“Don’t worry. Even if this ship sinks, I’ll make sure those islands are slammed right down their throats. Just focus on refilling your Immortal Qi!”
The Turtle Ship began its approach toward the distant, heated battlefield.
At first, none of the enemies paid much attention to the uniquely shaped vessel approaching slowly from afar. Everyone knew that the winner of this game would be decided by the current melee. In the midst of a crucial, blood-spattered fight against powerful foes right in front of them, they had neither the need nor the leisure to worry about a single ship crawling up from the rear.
However, that changed the moment the Turtle Ship reached the very edge of the battlefield, where melee and magical combat were at their peak.
“What are those crazy bastards doing?”
“Ignore them! Maintain the Barrier! Focus on the enemy’s magic!”
“No, that’s not it… Those lunatics are wedging themselves right between us!”
Thud!
With a heavy impact, the Turtle Ship forced its way between the enemy vessels, making it impossible to ignore any longer.
Boom! Boom!
The enemy ships began to fire their Magic Cannons from both sides, hammering the Turtle Ship as it squeezed through the gap.
“Seo-un! Not yet? We’re right in front of them!”
Seo-un, who was preoccupied with refilling his Immortal Qi with his eyes closed, remained motionless despite Li Min’s urgent cry.
“Damn it! I hope we’re not too late…”
Li Min savagely turned the helm left and right, pushing off enemy ships as he continued to drive the Turtle Ship forward. Finally breaking through the line, the Turtle Ship charged toward Gwang-gun’s fleet.
“What on earth is that?!”
Only then did the enemies notice the four islands being towed behind the Turtle Ship, and panic began to spread.
“Shit! Everyone, move to the adjacent ships! We’re going to get swept away!”
As two enemy ships were caught and dragged along by the islands, Gwang-gun’s thunderous roar erupted across the water.
—Everyone, concentrate your fire on that strange ship!
Having belatedly identified the ship dragging entire islands into the battlefield, Gwang-gun’s command caused all magic to be focused on the Turtle Ship. Not missing the opportunity, the other enemy ships began to concentrate their magic on Gwang-gun’s fleet instead.
[Hull damage at 60%. Due to the 'Death Strike Charge,' there is no reduction in mobility.]
K-boom!
The moment the Turtle Ship doggedly pushed forward and slammed its figurehead into an enemy vessel, Seo-un’s eyes snapped open.
“Abandon ship!”
Shouting to Li Min, Seo-un roughly pulled out several strands of his hair and tossed them into the air, summoning three clones. Li Min didn’t forget to cast the Turtle Ship’s skill, 'Sea of Mist,' before escaping.
As the dragon-headed figurehead spewed out a thick, blinding fog, Seo-un looked at his clones.
“Phew. You must make this succeed.”
The three Seo-uns nodded with grim expressions. Simultaneously, Seo-un and Li Min threw themselves into the sea.
The Turtle Ship had stopped, but the four islands, still moving with the massive momentum of the tow, slammed into the Turtle Ship, nearly obliterating it.
—Juriel… will you be okay?
—Don’t worry. Just give me the signal without any delay!
Seo-un’s expression was dark as he pulled Li Min, who was holding his breath, deep into the water.
—Everyone! Escape! Get away from those islands—!
The moment Gwang-gun screamed frantically, Seo-un gave the order.
—Open it!
—This is…
Seo-un’s eyebrows twitched at Juriel’s flustered voice over the team chat. At that moment, a notification rang out.
[Juriel of Jin Seo-un’s Squad has found and obtained the treasure.]
Hardly had the notification finished when the underwater area where Seo-un was located lit up brilliantly, followed by a deafening roar.
Rumble-boom-boom-boom-boom!
K-whaaaa!
Crash!
Amidst the aftermath of the explosion—which caused the sea to erupt, ignite, and collapse, illuminating even the deep waters—Li Min urgently tapped Seo-un’s shoulder. When Seo-un turned, Li Min gestured frantically and sent a message through the team voice chat.
He saw Juriel, who had somehow escaped the blast but was now bleeding and sinking into the depths. Leaving Li Min, Seo-un rushed to her. She was unconscious, clutching a golden compass tightly in her hand.
He quickly grabbed her and moved away from the battlefield toward the surface. She opened her eyes with a struggle.
“Puh! Cough! Cough!”
Watching her cough, Seo-un spoke.
“Are you okay?”
He pulled several Recovery Scrolls from his subspace and pressed them into her hands. With trembling fingers, she barely managed to tear them. Only after using three scrolls did she finally regain her senses and speak urgently.
“It—it’s an Epic Monster!”
She explained that the moment she opened the chest and grabbed the golden compass, a peculiar ship rose from the island and began to sail across the land as if it were the sea. She had barely managed to cling to that ship and jump into the ocean just before the explosion. Seo-un tilted his head in confusion.
“Did the Epic Monster get caught in the explosion and die?”
“That’s impossible. They are…”
Gi-chan’s voice interrupted her over the team chat.
—Hyung! Now’s the time!
Right on cue, Seo-un's transformation wore off as his Immortal Qi ran out. Simultaneously, two Sirens that had gathered around Seo-un supported him and Juriel, heading toward the battlefield where the massive explosion had occurred.
Standing atop the Sirens, they converged on the battlefield as if running on water. Atop the burning ships, several enemies could be seen in terrible condition.
Seo-un spotted Senrurk—his silver hair stained with blood and half his cloak burnt away—with the Devil Twins guarding his side. Seo-un shouted to his approaching allies.
“Sa-gwang! Can you handle them?”
“No problem.”
[Ding! The Epic Monster, 'Sealed Pirate Ship,' has appeared. The game moves to Chapter 3.]
[If the player holding the Absolute Compass leaves the Mirage Sea, all players who failed to escape must fight the Undead Pirates. Conversely, if the player holding the Absolute Compass fails to escape, that player’s squad loses their qualification to participate in Cloyd Survival.]
—We have to open a path for Juriel to escape!
As soon as the notification ended, Seo-un issued his orders. The situation was now clear. If his gut was right, hunting that Epic Monster was practically impossible. Furthermore, if they couldn’t get Juriel out, they would be disqualified and fail to survive.
As he ordered his team into a formation to protect Juriel and moved the Sirens toward the island, Gwang-gun, as if seeing through his plan, landed on the island a step faster. His eyes gleamed with murderous intent as he blocked the shore of the fractured island.
—We were going to clash eventually.
Seo-un nodded at Nam Sa-gwang’s words. Although about thirty enemies remained alive, fewer than twenty were gathered around Gwang-gun.
As they rushed toward the island, passing between blazing ships, magic flew from Gwang-gun’s formation.
Fwoosh!
Cr-crack!
Seo-un’s formation split to avoid the freezing magic that turned the water to ice and the intense wind magic. Among them, Jin Long and Nam Sa-gwang ran across the frozen sea to charge the enemies, while Juriel, wearing her Killing Mask, and Gi-chan and Lyle returned fire with magic.
Crash!
In the midst of it, Nam Sa-gwang, Jin Long, and Dump collided with the enemies. Seo-un, staying close to Juriel, also stepped onto the shore and clashed with the waiting foes.
“Push them back! By any means necessary!”
At Seo-un’s cry, his teammates, fighting with life-or-death determination, redoubled their efforts.
Clang! Clang!
The burning Aura on the tip of Dump’s sword, as he struggled against three enemy knights, gradually expanded its range, forcing the knights back. When nearly half of his blade was consumed by the shimmering Aura, the knights blocking him retreated, opening a path.
Nam Sa-gwang was handling the Devil Twins and Gwang-gun alone. Even for someone of his caliber, it was a difficult task, and he remained locked in a tense, even struggle.
Clang!
While Seo-un was pushing back two knights and a martial artist, a shimmering, burning sword lunged toward his side. The power behind the blade he barely blocked was immense; had he been pushed back, Juriel, who was firing magic from behind him, might have been hurt.
While engaged in a test of strength, blocking the enemy’s sword with the Sword Aura gathered at his fingertips, Seo-un kept a wary eye on the other enemies looking for an opening. Just then, Li Lingwei, having poisoned the enemies she was fighting, rushed over.
Li Lingwei had transformed into a terrifying figure; her hair had turned white, and her entire body had blackened. She charged forward ruthlessly, poisoning any enemy who stood in her way with a single strike.
The Mukdok Faction’s technique was essentially a suicidal poison. Once consumed, it filled all Qi Channels and blood vessels with an incurable toxic energy, turning the hair white and the body black. From that point on, it was no exaggeration to call the user a 'Poison Human.' A terrifying being whose very breath was a lethal toxin.
However, that poison would eventually claim the user’s life. Depending on one’s level of cultivation, she likely wouldn’t be able to last even ten minutes after consuming the Mukdok Faction poison.
Nevertheless, she had swallowed it without hesitation. It wasn’t simply because dying here didn’t mean the end of her actual life. Swallowing the poison and bracing for ten minutes of excruciating pain was an impulsive act she did without thinking the moment she saw Seo-un cornered.
She didn’t even know why she did it; her only thought was that she had to protect him. She didn't have a single thought about protecting Juriel to win the game. She simply couldn't stand to watch Seo-un being cornered and troubled by enemies.
“Kyahaaaaa!”
Letting out a screech like a wild beast, she lunged at the Sword Emperor who was pressing Seo-un. Seeing the knight instinctively thrust his sword at her, her lips twisted into a grimace.
Stab!
She didn't reject the sword piercing her chest; instead, she walked forward into it. It was the knight who was flustered. Gripping the burning Aura Sword that had pierced her chest, she spat a mouthful of black blood directly into the knight’s face.
Splurt!
The moment the sprayed black blood touched the knight’s face, his skin began to turn dark and mottled.
“Aaargh!”
As the knight stumbled back, unable to open his eyes which felt like they were burning, Seo-un, teeth clenched, made his move. Pouring attacks onto the enemies who were momentarily distracted by Li Lingwei, he instantaneously tore through an enemy knight, breastplate and all.
The moment a gap appeared in the enemies' tense line, Seo-un and Juriel bolted. Senrurk, belatedly realizing the two had broken through the containment line, shouted.
“Don’t let them get away!”
He screamed and, leaving the twins behind, pursued Seo-un alone.
Enduring the concentrated magic with his Barrier and his own body, Seo-un finally brought Juriel to the shore where the water sparkled with a particularly deep blue hue.
Thwip!
At that moment, accompanied by a sharp sting, a thin rapier pierced through his chest. Simultaneously, Seo-un drew upon all his Internal Power to block the pressure that threatened to tear his chest apart. He gripped the protruding blade and looked at Juriel.
“Hurry… go…”
As soon as he finished speaking, she cast a sorrowful look at him and threw herself into the sea.
“No!”
Senrurk screamed from behind, but she had already escaped the Mirage Sea.
[Ding! The hunting time for the Undead Pirates has begun.]
Simultaneously with the notification, a massive sailing ship erupted from the sea where she had disappeared. As if a sunken ship had been salvaged, undead pirates began to pour off the vessel.
Seo-un, who had been holding the sword until then, stepped forward to free himself from the blade embedded in him.
“Cough!”
Spitting out blood, Seo-un turned back and lunged at Senrurk.
Whoosh!
Avoiding the rapier that thrust through the air as if to shred it, Seo-un’s Blood Bone Claw, imbued with his Aura, aimed for the man’s head.
Clang!
Barely blocking the Blood Bone Claw with his sword guard, Senrurk stepped back a couple of paces and shook out his rapier.
Flick!
Shaking off the shock and pain remaining in his hand, he glared at Seo-un and spoke.
“I’m being held back by you again.”
“Exactly. Isn’t it a relief?”
Crunch!
As Seo-un spoke, he crushed the head of a half-rotted pirate lunging from the side. Senrurk also lopped off the heads of three pirates swinging machetes and replied.
“Now all that’s left is to fight these things until we’re trapped here and our strength fails.”
“Right. So, let’s make the end a friendly one.”
“Let’s do that.”
The pirates, despite having just been killed, rose from the ground again, laughing as if they were enjoying themselves. Pirates covered in barnacles and wearing clothes so decayed they seemed ready to crumble began to surround the two men.
The two charged toward the pirates surrounding them.
Seo-un crushed the head of the last pirate, whose lower jaw was a rattling white bone and whose upper face was covered in rotting skin. Simultaneously, he turned and ran toward Senrurk.
Senrurk, having just killed the pirate he was facing, also charged toward Seo-un without hesitation.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The exchange between the man thrusting his rapier, leaving afterimages, and Seo-un, who blocked the attacks with fingers imbued with Aura, was incredibly fast.
Eventually, the Devil Twins died, and the remaining players fell one by one. In the midst of it, even Nam Sa-gwang, who had been injured but was singling out and beating female players to death, was overwhelmed by the swarming Undead Pirates.
Watching the pirates who rose again no matter how many times they were killed, and the Force Field that was now tightly constricting the island, Seo-un panted with exhaustion.
“Haah… haah…”
Senrurk was in much the same state.
“Haah… you stubborn bastard.”
The TOP 1 spot already belonged to Seo-un’s team. Even in this situation, Senrurk was sickened by Seo-un, who refused to give up and kept aiming for his life until the very end.
“Look who’s talking… It would be nice to go out peacefully at the end.”
“For whose benefit? I’m definitely going to take your head off.”
Now, with only the two of them left, hundreds of Undead Pirates surrounded them and charged all at once. At that moment, the two also charged at each other.
Even as the pirates’ weapons were driven into their bodies, the two did not take their eyes off each other.
Crunch!
Stab!
Seo-un’s hand tore through Senrurk’s ribcage, while the rapier pierced Seo-un’s heart with pinpoint accuracy. And the pirates drove their weapons into every part of both men’s bodies.
[Ding-ding-ding-ding! Cloyd Survival has ended.]
[Ta-da-da-da-da-da! Congratulations on becoming the Final 2!
You have earned the qualification to participate in the next game.
You receive the first and greatest reward from this game.]
Hearing the notification that they were the Final 2, the corners of Seo-un’s mouth curled up as he closed his eyes.