Episode 11: The Grand Scheme / Chapter 189: Dark Clouds (4)
TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk
‘Crazy bastard.’
Night Sovereign Ding coincidentally saw Chu Youngjin.
Because he would only end up becoming mesmerized by the fight between transcendents, he was trying his best not to look at the fight and eventually forgot about it while fighting the monsters. That was why he unexpectedly discovered Chu Youngjin. Their gazes had coincidentally met when Ding was looking around to check on his subordinates.
Chu Youngjin was going crazy trying to overcome the ‘wall of laws’.
‘Tsk, tsk. Though they say there’s no one in their right mind amongst the Berserkers, he’s a highest-ranked lunatic. His lunacy must have been bad to be chased out of the Berserkers… but he’s still like that?’
The incident where Chu Youngjin was exiled from Dragonic was famous. An extremely bloody wind blew that time. There was a reason why the talented amongst earthlings, Ding included, attempted to tame or keep the Berserkers in check. Because they were scared. If it was insane, humans were even scared of a crazy dog the size of their forearm, yet they were like crazy tigers.
‘If he’s going to die, he should die while being beneficial for others. He’s also acting recklessly like that.’
Last time, he was beaten to a pulp by Choi Hyuk after coming at him. This time, he was struggling to join a fight between transcendents as a highest-ranked warrior.
He looked utterly shabby compared to his grand reputation.
The battlefield of the transcendents.
Chu Youngjin arrogantly jumped into the space that was blocked by the ‘wall of laws’, which prevented even highest-ranked warriors from perceiving it. However, he ended up nailed to the middle of the wall. He couldn’t go forward or retreat backwards like a butterfly on a pin. His body shook like a bug zapped by an electric fly swatter.
‘Haa, that must hurt.’
He felt like he could hear the crackling sounds all the way over here. His body was bent at an impossible angle, and it looked like his left arm was rolling up, piercing through his mouth and then out again. His body was flipped inside out, and his leg grew impossibly long as it coiled like a snake.
Seeing a body that should be dead squirming was very grotesque. The object, which was almost too pitiful to call Chu Youngjin now, squirmed as it continued to burrow its way through the wall of laws.
“Chu Youngjiiiin!!!”
A pretty face, but seeing her frighteningly armed state, she was undoubtedly a warrior of the Armored Soul Tribe. She stood next to him, uncertain of what to do, as she wailed. But this didn’t concern Ding. Ding turned his head back.
“Not one of you die! You hear me? Dying here is a dog’s death! You must survive and push towards our target spot!”
Ding shook and slapped his dazed subordinates, grabbing them by their collars, as he instilled them with fighting spirit.
“Let’s live high and big!”
Seeing his subordinates get in formation, Ding nodded.
Before he focused on fighting again, Ding glanced at Chu Youngjin, who continued to advance while enduring the pain. A firm resolve shined in his eyes as he looked at Chu Youngjin with pity.
‘Idiotic bastard. I would never degenerate like him.’
**
The three monster brothers, Kwe, Jae, and Myeol, were the perfect party.
Kwe used the overflowing number of monsters to control the battlefield. The wave of monsters it caused obstructed Choi Hyuk’s view or restricted his movements and, alternatively, assisted Jae and Myeol’s movements.
Jae moved quickly as it nibbled away at Choi Hyuk’s strength. A dreadful curse was present in its brown breath and its saw-like blade, which was carefully and secretly scratching Choi Hyuk. Whenever the curse invaded Choi Hyuk’s karma, Choi Hyuk felt his arms and legs tremble and he felt like vomiting.
Yet, Myeol was the highlight of the group. With its overwhelming power, it clashed with Choi Hyuk head-on.
‘I think I can understand the feelings of a monster in an RPG game….’
Choi Hyuk smiled bitterly.
To a monster facing a party of adventurers, it was advantageous if it took out their healer, magician, or even their archer first.
Yet monsters would foolishly attack the close-ranged warrior in front and die in vain. Choi Hyuk had thought this was due to the limit in artificial intelligence.
But his thoughts had changed now.
Riiiip!
“Keuk!”
He unconsciously groaned.
“You can’t lose focus. I’m Myeol! Mother said I was the most special amongst us five brothers!”
The monster boasted like a child. However, its uncultivated fists were endlessly sharp and heavy. If Choi Hyuk even momentarily tried to keep Kwe or Jae in check, Myeol would notice and approach to launch a fist at him.
“Do you really have to boast what the queen told you to your enemy? Huh, youngest?”
Jae grumbled as it swung its sword at Choi Hyuk, who became rigid after blocking Myeol’s heavy fist.
Seeing how one called her mother and another called her queen, he could clearly tell who was more special.
Myeol was strong enough to justify it. He couldn’t get rid of it at all.
‘Yeah. It’s not that the monsters aren’t able to ignore close-ranged warriors because they’re dumb. It’s because they can’t.’
The wound Jae inflicted on him throbbed. Heat blasted from his nostrils and his mind became dizzy as though he had a fever.
Even at a time like this, a small fist surged towards his chin yet again.
Baaang!
Choi Hyuk barely managed to deflect Myeol’s punch with the side of his sword. Even though he deflected it, his body shook as though it was hit by a cannonball. His hand, which was holding his sword, burned like it was on fire and his head felt faint. Would Earth split apart if it was hit by its fist?
However, Choi Hyuk smiled.
While he wasn’t some pervert, it felt like his head was becoming clearer and clearer the more he got hit.
Shhhaaak!
A black blade covertly aimed at Myeol’s throat. While it looked like he unconsciously launched an attack the moment Myeol hit him, that wasn’t true.
It was a sword strike to determine the victor that was fully infused with Choi Hyuk’s talent. Like how hot steam suddenly escaped from a pressure cooker when opened, this was Choi Hyuk’s best counterattack, one where he had been waiting to be hit by Myeol while he kept Kwe and Jae at bay. His karma could ‘deny’ anything. This strike would disintegrate highest-ranked warriors just brushing past them.
Piik.
Yet, Myeol avoided his perfect counterattack. While his sword brushed past its forehead, its eyes were calm. He couldn’t ‘deny’ Myeol with this sort of injury.
What was worse was that it countered right away. Choi Hyuk felt shivers as he saw its fist nail into him.
Jjooong!
‘Ah…’
He almost lost consciousness again. It was like this when he was hit in the chin, but it was his side this time. A pain that felt like his flesh was being ripped apart followed after.
A shout now erupted from deep in his heart.
‘So you can be this strong at this rank.’
Choi Hyuk had always faced opponents that were of a higher rank than him.
If the fight was difficult, it was because their rank was higher than his.
However, currently, Myeol was of the same rank as him. Yet, this fight was more dangerous than fighting higher ranked monsters before. Even though Kwe and Jae were supporting Myeol, he thought it would be an equal match if they fought one-on-one. That was why, while Kwe and Jae were assisting it, he was being beaten one-sidedly.
“Kaaff!”
He was hit by the wave of monsters while he attempted to keep Myeol at bay. When he barely managed to push his way out of the attack that felt like his entire body was being fed into a shredder, Jae hacked at his shoulder with its cursed blade. By the time he barely managed to squeeze out his recovery ability against the dizziness that almost made him flop down, Myeol’s fist smashed into his gut.
This was the first critical blow he had taken.
His strength slipped from his body. It felt like his karma, which was embedded in his body instead of muscles, was being torn into pieces. Drool flowed from his mouth, and a cold sweat ran down his back.
The fact that a warrior made of karma was drooling and sweating meant that his karma was currently in the process of collapsing. This was a very bad condition.
Yet, Choi Hyuk didn’t lose consciousness.
A single thought filled his mind.
‘So you can be this strong!’
What he grasped in his fight against Myeol was a possibility. A possibility that surpassed simply increasing in rank and allowed one to reach the highest peak of their current rank.
Choi Hyuk was currently seeing and being hit by this possibility, which he had simply vaguely assumed previously.
At the same time, he realized how strong he currently was and how much stronger he could get.
Jjong!
Even though he was dealt a big blow by Myeol just now, Jae’s terrifying sword swung at him without rest. Blocking its attack with his sword while his mind was befuddled, Choi Hyuk smiled again.
After getting hit, it became bearable, and after blocking their attacks, it became possible to block them.
He blocked them without thinking about blocking them, and he had a premonition he blocked them before he actually did. He didn’t know, yet he did. Choi Hyuk’s subconscious rose up and became one with his conscious.
A bead of sweat followed Choi Hyuk’s hair and then dripped down.
Choi Hyuk bared his teeth as he clashed with the monsters.
‘Th-that monster-like bastard.’
Even though Kwe was a monster, that was the only way it could describe him. They were three out of the five brothers that the queen used her heart and soul in creating. While the queen made them after Choi Hyuk and Flame-Rain left an impression on her, the reason why they were dispatched wasn’t to face Choi Hyuk, a single transcendent warrior. They were the monsters among monsters that were sent to end the Exalted Wings.
Yet, three out of five of them were busy fighting Choi Hyuk.
Though Choi Hyuk was the one being constantly hit, and the fight with him always seemed to be on the cusp of ending, it didn’t. Kwe cheered when Myeol’s fist landed on his gut. Kwe thought that this fight would finally end. Yet, after that, the bastard was now unbelievably dodging their attacks. No, it felt like he was getting better at avoiding and enduring as time passed even though Kwe wasn’t sure if that made any sense.
Kwe felt an unknown sense of fright.
“Just die!!!”
With his shout, monsters swarmed towards him. Like hardcore fans in a frenzy in an enormous concert hall, the monsters shoved and stepped on each other as they rushed towards Choi Hyuk with an explosive vigor as though a blocked floodgate had opened.
With Kwe’s ability, the densely packed monsters overcame their limits as they attacked Choi Hyuk with fervor. Exhausted, Choi Hyuk would have no choice but to pushed back by their might.
Swiiish!
When Choi Hyuk pushed his sword out, the tidal wave of monsters instantly crumbled into pieces. Black blood fluttered like cherry blossoms, and their thinly minced pieces of flesh were burnt by black flames. It was such an extreme change that one might mistake it for a spring breeze of flower petals rather than a tidal wave of monsters.
“Huh?”
A bit later, Kwe let out a dull sound. The figures of Jae and Myeol, who were running around while hiding behind the tidal wave, were exposed within the slowly fluttering pieces of monster flesh.
Then Kwe saw it.
Choi Hyuk’s gaze was locking onto Myeol.
“Ah, Noo!!”
Kwe instinctively shouted.
Just then, Choi Hyuk ridiculed the charging Myeol.
“You did well, but why haven’t you advanced?”
There was no doubt that he couldn’t even see its fist in the beginning, yet he could now clearly read its path.
It was clearly a blow that could instantly knock him unconscious in the beginning, yet he could now sufficiently disperse its impact.
What was more…
“Let’s end it now.”
He could now land the counterattack that was unsuccessful previously as though it was nothing.
This was the moment he had been waiting for.
Slice!
‘Choi Hyuk’s Denial’ cleanly sliced through its neck.
“Huh? Huh?”
It made a dazed sound as though it couldn’t believe its neck was cut.
Though it looked like a young boy, it was a monster.
Sticky, black blood shot out like tentacles and attempted to stick its head back on.
However, since his sword, which was filled with the power of denial, precisely sliced through its neck, the monster didn’t have the opportunity to activate its regenerative ability. Its surging blood caught on fire and evaporated before it could touch Myeol’s neck. Like flames on an oilfield, blood endlessly surged out and disappeared after being burnt up by the flames.
Aware of its own death, Myeol mumbled as only its head remained.
“This isn’t… possible. Mother said I was special… There’s… There’s no way…“
“There is.”
Choi Hyuk mocked as he turned his gaze away.
He aimed his shining black sword at Jae and Kwe. Jae, who had been rushing at him along with Myeol, had at some point retreated and was now standing next to Kwe. He could see the confusion and nervousness in its eyes.
It wasn’t a bad feeling.
“H-how? It’s not like your rank increased?”
Kwe asked in confusion.
Wiping away the sweat from his forehead, Choi Hyuk said with a refreshed expression,
“Yeah. I didn’t increase in rank. I became able to properly manipulate my rank.”
‘Should I thank them?’ While he was happily thinking about this, he suddenly felt a powerful karma and turned around.
A powerful karma swept through the area where the three transcendent warriors and the seven transcendent monsters were fighting. A fourth transcendent warrior, who had suddenly appeared, reversed the disadvantageous situation as he trespassed onto the battlefield.
Choi Hyuk’s smile thickened when he felt the familiar karma.
“Just what was that just now?!”
Choi Hyuk looked at Kwe, who was almost foaming at its mouth, as he happily said,
“What do you mean what? It means you’re all dead.”
