novelraw Chapter 127 : Summit Showdown (2)
Chapter 127 : Summit Showdown (2)
"Let's take down the Blood Fiend first."
In this situation, the biggest threat was undoubtedly the Blood Fiend. The real nightmare would begin when they broke free from the sword formation and started rampaging.
"But it's difficult to join an already completed sword formation."
Namgung Dohyeok objected, but I had a different idea. Now was the time for a bold decision. That's why I looked at Baek Hasin.
"Still, it would be easier than jumping into a den teeming with monsters alone. Wouldn't it?"
"Yes."
He was a genius. He would probably be able to find a gap to intervene even in that ceaselessly continuing sword formation and inflict a fatal wound on the Blood Fiend.
"And Senior Cheon Ga-seong, too. You're hiding your skills, aren't you?"
"......"
At this side's confident remark, he stared from beyond his slightly covered wavy hair.
In fact, Cheon Ga-seong's original realm was not this level. By the time he graduated, he would have reached the realm of Transformation.
It was a martial prowess that far surpassed the student level. Even for the golden generation, which was evaluated as the best in history.
Although Cheon Ga-seong was older than he looked, to be at the Transformation realm around the age of thirty. He was truly a monster.
Such a person was staring at me quietly. With a question of how I knew. It was information I could say because I knew the original story, but here I decided to get by with a mix of lies.
"I saw something unusual when you sparred with Chief Professor Gu Ja-beom last time. You were much more amazing then."
Although I hadn't seen it myself, he must have used his full power during the sparring. They said the surrounding terrain had changed.
In terms of martial prowess alone, he could be said to be a cut above Namgung Dohyeok, so he could also break through that sword formation and eliminate the Blood Fiend.
"It seems better for those two to join the Blood Fiend side, and for the two of us who are skilled in multi-person combat to take care of the rest. What do you think?"
"You've already said everything and now you're asking."
Namgung Dohyeok grumbled subtly but gave his permission. Anyway, the limit of who could join a sword formation of that level of completion was about two people. Thinking so, this arrangement was correct.
And so, while Baek Hasin and Cheon Ga-seong joined to cut down the Blood Fiend, what we faced was a group of a hundred Blood Cultists.
'Did they still have this much strength left?'
As expected of the enemy's main camp, it seemed they had brought in more troops in the meantime.
I drew the First Blade, facing the Blood Fiends who were starting to rush in.
Since I had used a large amount of mana on the previous Flame Lightning First Blade Spear, I was planning to prioritize using the First Blade, which consumed relatively more internal energy.
A fan rib floated in the air and cut the neck of a Blood Fiend.
"The Art of Controlling the Sword with Qi?!"
"An artifact! It's an artifact!"
The Blood Fiends rushed in with shouts of astonishment.
One First Blade alone was not enough, so I shot several flame bullets and blew off the heads of the guys who were approaching.
In the midst of that, perhaps because I lacked strength, the tip of the First Blade, which had pierced the Blood Fiend's heart and flown away, shook and was blocked by the sword swung by the Blood Fiend behind it and bounced off.
"That's not how you throw it."
I heard Namgung Dohyeok's voice. He flew daggers at a speed that was invisible to the eye and slaughtered the Blood Fiends in all directions.
"Pay more attention to the trajectory. The result varies greatly depending on the proportion of power you put into the dagger. Watch carefully. From the rotational force imbued in one dagger to the energy that circulates inside."
Perhaps because of a chronic disease unique to educators, Namgung Dohyeok continued his explanation even in this urgent situation.
I wondered if it was okay to do this, but seeing that his hand that was flying the daggers didn't stop, it seemed he hadn't forgotten his original role as a killing machine.
I subtly watched Namgung Dohyeok's hand movements, which were slowly showing me the wrist snap and the grip of the dagger.
In an instant, I saw a powerful qi form at one end of the dagger and rotate internally. Then, the dagger was flung from his fingertips and pierced the Blood Fiend like a shot.
Like a boomerang, it drew a graceful trajectory and sequentially exploded the heads of all the Blood Fiends in a spiral like fireworks.
'If I could also handle the First Blade like that...'
I could perform a much more diverse range of attacks. Keeping Namgung Dohyeok's hand skills in my mind, I faced the approaching Blood Fiends.
And then I controlled the First Blade.
From a straight line, it rushed along a gently curving arc, then soared like a sword path and split the Blood Fiend's upper body.
'It works.'
I had a hunch that I could handle the First Blade in more diverse ways than before. Around the time I was cutting down the Blood Fiends. As I was cutting the enemies, I felt something hard in the middle.
At first, I thought it was a point like a bone, but when I expanded my senses further, I could perceive things I hadn't felt before.
'The organs that manifest in each Blood Fiend are different.'
Some had hands, some had legs, some had back or chest muscles, etc. Wherever the blood vessels passed, there was a specialized area that was always strengthened.
I got a strange inspiration from that.
'What if the demonic blood could also be in a constantly strengthened state like that?'
It meant I could strengthen my body while on auto-hunt.
It would be an incredibly difficult and body-consuming act, but it was worth a try, trusting the adaptability of [Transcendent Growth] and [Indestructible Body].
Constant activation of demonic blood. If I got used to strengthening my whole body in a weak state, I would be able to fight in a naturally strengthened state without even being conscious of the demonic blood in my body.
Of course, it was a point to try after getting out of this situation.
For a while, while cutting down the Blood Fiends, I carefully observed the amount or type of blood gushing from their wounds to understand their blood vessels and flow.
'Did they strengthen their grip by controlling the blood flow in their blood vessels like that? This is worth applying.'
It was a cruel sight, but since each of them must have devoured at least a few innocent people, I felt no sympathy. I continued the massacre, sucking up the rampage know-how that each of the Blood Fiends possessed.
Every time the First Blade flashed, the necks of the Blood Fiends were severed.
As the corpses piled up around me, the number of Blood Fiends approaching this side gradually decreased.
If they approached, they were cut down by the First Blade, and if they tried to run away, they were pierced by a spear of flame lightning.
In the midst of that, the sight of a Blood Fiend with a gaping hole in its chest, engulfed in flames and burning, was fear itself.
The Blood Cultists, who saw me cutting and burning the Blood Fiends with several spears of flame lightning floating in the air, began to step back.
Among them, the leader-class Blood Demon also rushed in, but it was just crushed by Namgung Dohyeok's dagger.
Looking back, the enemies were also strong. It was just that our combat power was higher than the opponent's.
"R-run away!"
"Are you going to disobey the order?! You, and you call yourselves members of the Great Blood Cult...!"
The neck of the guy who was just giving orders was severed, and the Blood Fiends began to flee from us.
In the first place, they were guys who killed people to covet their power. With their morale at rock bottom, they had no loyalty to risk their lives. Though there were some remnants who, drunk on blood, rushed in without knowing any better.
Just as we were repelling the other Blood Fiends and the group of archers, a creepy monstrous roar was heard from behind.
"Wooooooooooh!"
We immediately turned our heads.
There was the figure of a Blood Fiend, screaming while scattering blood.
Cheon Ga-seong had finally cut off one of the Blood Fiend's wrists. A fatal wound, but it was a mistake not to have aimed for the neck in one blow.
On the contrary, the enraged Blood Fiend had begun to go berserk.
What happens when a Transformation monster goes berserk? The answer to that was simple. It can't be stopped. Until it's killed.
An enormous energy burst out from the Blood Fiend. It was an overwhelming power that could create a gale by itself.
Against an opponent of that level, I couldn't even stop it by hitting it with the Great Blood Art. In the first place, it was impossible to even approach, but since the berserk state achieved at the peak of the realm was close to completion in itself, there was nothing to forcibly induce.
It was a killing machine itself, rampaging like crazy until it died.
"The sword formation is breaking!"
The Blood Fiend's claws drew a long line on the ground and broke the sword formation.
Chwaak-!
Park Hwang-ryeok was thrown back, and the members of the Blue Dragon Unit who were trying to fill the spot were torn to shreds by the Blood Fiend's grasp.
'I have to stop it.'
I prepared the Flame Lightning First Blade Spear while running toward the battlefield. While imbuing it with all possible mana, I recalled the blow that utilized the subtlety I had learned from Namgung Dohyeok.
'Unlike before, I'll increase the output by adding rotational force to a curved shot with a change. And I'll create a flow inside it, change the trajectory additionally right before the blade tip reaches, and explode the power at the end.'
Simultaneously with the thought, the First Blade was already shot, piercing through the air.
Unlike before, the Flame Lightning First Blade Spear flew toward the Blood Fiend in a spiral, not a straight line.
The Blood Fiend, who was about to deflect it straight away like last time, flinched for a moment at the strangely bending trajectory in the air, then twisted its arm to block it.
A blow that was all about disrupting one form. But that was enough.
Next, dozens of daggers, compressed with Namgung Dohyeok's lightning, were shot like a machine gun. The Blood Fiend, who was deflecting them, revealed its fangs and was about to leap out, leaning its body's center of gravity forward.
Cheon Ga-seong brought down a powerful sword imbued with a blackish powerful qi on its head and drove the Blood Fiend back.
Ka-ga-ga-ga-gang!
A barrage of powerful qi with an incredible power incomparable to before. In addition to Cheon Ga-seong, Park Hwang-ryeok, who had recovered from his internal injuries, joined in.
The berserk Blood Fiend was certainly incredibly threatening, but it was difficult to overcome the pincer attack of three super-masters in a state where it had already lost one hand and its momentum.
Seo-geok-
Soon, the Blood Fiend's remaining wrist is also cut, and its neck falls at the following black trajectory. Looking at the scattering drops of blood, I staggered, falling into a state of exhaustion.
'That was close.'
It was fortunate that the Blood Fiends had poor teamwork. If the two of them had coordinated and gone berserk, we would have been the ones to die by now.
All that was left was the female Blood Fiend, who was confronting Baek Hasin. The opponent, who had a spiderweb-shaped scar on her face, was scattering powerful qi in all directions, unable to break through the sword formation formed by the instructors of the Martial Academy.
If we just deal with that, it's our victory. I retrieved the First Blade and moved forward. Perhaps because the battle had dragged on, the morning was slowly breaking.
Just as everyone was running to help Baek Hasin.
Kuuuung-
A huge vibration, as if an earthquake had occurred, was felt along the ground. It was a sensation of something fitting together in my head.
The sense of unease I had felt since I first entered this place. The grand formation that was spread throughout the Blood Mountain was reacting.
"The monster is running away!"
Just then, an instructor shouted. The female Blood Fiend, who had been staring blankly at the earthquake, had fled to the entrance. It was a completely different reaction from when she had been trying to break out of the sword formation and kill us.
Even though she had lost her reason, she was still a Transformation master, so we couldn't stop her from escaping. In the first place, it was a natural result since we had been able to hold out until now thanks to spreading a defensive sword formation.
However, I didn't care about that fact. Instead, I was recalling one of the developments from the original story.
'Don't tell me...?'
The sign like an earthquake and the return of the Blood Fiend. It pointed to only one thing.
The super-grand formation of the Blood Mountain had been broken. The very super-grand formation that the Blood Demon had activated to trap the five people, including the Martial Alliance Leader, Seo Won-dal, along with his direct subordinates.
The transparent barrier that had been covering the sky crumpled in an instant, and the space that had been hidden until now manifested in the world.
We instinctively raised our heads and looked at the opposite side of the Blood Mountain in the distance.
What was there was disaster itself. A house-sized thunderbolt flashed, and the soaring mist of blood was annihilating everything it touched, as if carving out the mountain peak.
A shockwave that seemed to turn the heavens and the earth upside down, and a sword trajectory so fast that it was hard to follow with the eyes, were erasing the forest, and the terrain was changing just from the clashes in the air.
I stood on the spot and witnessed that scene. It was truly a natural disaster. In the silence where no one could say another word, only I was running toward that place.
'If I leave it like this, Cheon Mu-jin will die.'
I shook off the restraining voices that followed and rushed toward the mountainous area on the opposite side along the slope.
In the hellish scene where only blood, lightning, and sword strikes that cut down the ground were rampant, the Blood Demon, Namgung Honpyeong, and Cheon Mu-jin were engaged in a life-and-death struggle.
(End of Chapter)