novelraw Chapter 38 : I Got the Hang of It
Chapter 38 : I Got the Hang of It
Chapter 38: I Got the Hang of It
Somewhere inside a damp, dark cave.
A man wearing a helmet raised his body.
There was no trace of light, so nothing entered his vision.
Clatter.
The sound of wooden cuffs catching on his wrist irritated his ears.
The man groped along the ground.
After finding some stone fragments, he threw them forward.
Tap. Tap.
Listening closely to the sound of the stones, the man threw another one to the side.
Left, right, back, above.
After throwing stones several times and focusing solely on his hearing, the man let out a faint smile.
“Kidnapping people, what a vile bunch.”
The man tilted his head all the way back and slammed the cuffs with his head.
Crack.
With the sound of wood splitting, both his hands became free.
Stretching as he loosened his body, the man walked diagonally.
His steps held not a trace of hesitation in the pitch-black darkness.
“Torgen, Mirian, Felix. Should I say it’s fortunate you’re all in one place.”
The man wearing the helmet—Brandok—felt a rough head under his hand.
It was Torgen.
Mirian and Felix were also lying not far off.
Their breathing was steady, as if they were deep asleep.
“Since everyone is asleep, excuse me for a moment.”
Brandok removed his helmet and stood before the wooden bars.
For someone who even avoided showing his face to his comrades, it would have been shocking if anyone had seen.
He pulled the hand holding the helmet up to his chest.
Crack!
The helmet shot forward like an arrow and smashed through the wooden bars.
Creak, crackle.
After repeating the same action several times, a hole large enough for a person to pass through appeared.
Having completed his task, Brandok put the helmet back on and strode through the cave.
The way he moved, as if freely in his own home, was so natural one might mistake him for someone who had lived there for years.
Tap. Totok.
Even as he walked, Brandok continued tossing pebbles.
The stones striking the walls told him the structure of the cave.
He was constructing a map in his head in real time.
Once he grasped the general layout, Brandok arrived at a small room.
A room existed inside the cave—just like that.
Light even seeped through the ceiling, allowing him to see ahead.
“The kidnappers aren’t very bright. Storing valuables in one place like this.”
It was where the Blue Wing Mercenary Band—no, the bandits—had piled up the goods they had plundered so far.
Merchandise from merchant companies, monster corpses, weapons of mercenaries—everything was here.
Brandok equipped daggers, a spear, and a bow, then scanned the surroundings.
From the uneven walls, he read something.
Approaching the wall, Brandok brushed it with his hand and let out a deep breath.
“A stroke of luck, catching a mouse while walking backward. To think it would be here.”
He checked the other walls just in case, but they were ordinary.
Returning to his spot, Brandok spoke.
“Borna Al Gul, Mira Del Born. Eshu Lins, Kalim Ora.”
Rumbleee.
As soon as Brandok finished speaking, the solid wall collapsed.
Beyond the fallen wall was the inner side of a waterfall.
Watching the slowly brightening dawn, a thin smile curved across Brandok’s lips.
“I’m glad I followed you, Calimacos.”
At the far end of the hidden space lay a stone emitting a blue glow.
Carefully placing the stone inside his clothes, Brandok let out a quiet laugh where no one was present.
***
Robin rubbed his face roughly with a handkerchief.
The handkerchief was stained with sticky tears, snot, and blood.
Calimacos searched through the weapons scattered across the floor for anything usable.
Only silence existed between the two.
After a lull, awkwardness arrived.
Robin felt embarrassed for having cried, and Calimacos felt uneasy for having shown a moment of madness.
Still, they couldn’t remain like that forever.
Once they regained their composure, both thought of the mercenaries somewhere in the cave.
“Robin, go ahead. I’ll look for the others.”
Robin wanted to help Calimacos too, but just this once he held back.
His right arm throbbed every time he moved. He would only get in the way.
“I’ll wait with Paul.”
“It won’t take long.”
Robin used his sword as a cane and started moving.
Calimacos strapped on two swords in decent condition and went the opposite direction.
It was where Tupi had dragged Paul.
Crack, crickle.
Without warning, a strange pattern formed on the floor.
A geometric sigil completed itself in an instant, and blood gathered along its lines.
Robin’s feet wouldn’t budge, as if glued to the ground.
Calimacos also froze in place.
The floor bubbled like boiling water, and Robin’s feet slowly began to sink.
‘What now?’
Calimacos drew his sword and struck fiercely at the ground.
Freed from the restriction, Calimacos leaped toward Robin.
He tried to pull Robin out as he sank, but nothing moved.
“Captain, the blood trail connected to my feet!”
A trail of blood, branching like a wooden root, was attached to Robin’s feet.
When Calimacos sliced the blood trail with his sword, the sinking stopped.
“I have no idea what’s wrong with this cave.”
Clicking his tongue, he tried to lift Robin, but he didn’t budge.
“Where do you think you’re going.”
Making a guttural, phlegm-filled sound, Ralph appeared.
Robin was baffled.
‘He’s not dead yet.’
Having felt Calimacos’s murderous intent earlier, someone like Ralph felt insignificant.
Rather than fear or crisis, only doubt arose.
‘How is he alive after all that.’
Calimacos wondered that as well.
He had been slaughtering indiscriminately and hadn’t cared where the boss had gone.
Ralph didn’t like the look on their faces and raised his eyebrows.
“If you thought you’d wreak havoc like this and walk away alive, you’re mistaken. I’ll chew your bones to pieces.”
“Do you not see the corpses lying around? You ran away in fear, so what are you spouting now.”
Ralph’s face twisted with anger at the direct hit to his pride.
“You’ve brought death upon yourself. Since you spilled so much blood, I’ve been reborn as something entirely different.”
Calimacos’s eyes sharpened.
So much blood—and the sudden sigil on the floor.
With the stench of miasma thick in the air, it wasn’t hard to figure out the situation.
“You offered a sacrifice to the Demon Tribe, didn’t you.”
Wind swirled violently around Ralph.
Despite being in a cave where natural drafts couldn’t flow, his appearance was almost surreal, as though he were using magic.
Robin braced himself.
He thought everything was over, but a new variable had appeared.
Judging from Calimacos and Ralph’s conversation, this was serious.
“Strike first, win fast.”
Calimacos gripped his longsword again and charged at Ralph.
Ralph stared at him with a mocking expression.
Clunk.
Robin’s eyes widened.
Ralph lifted a club and blocked Calimacos’s sword.
He didn’t simply block it.
The blade never even touched the surface of the club.
There was a faint gap between the sword and the club.
Even though the two weapons hadn’t collided, Calimacos’s sword stopped with the sound of thick metal being struck.
Whoosh!
Before Calimacos could pull back his sword, the club crashed toward him.
He tried to evade and continue with a counterattack, but it was impossible.
Ralph’s speed had grown incomparable to before.
The club that must have once threatened innocent people now chased Calimacos’s sword relentlessly.
Buaang!
The more attacks continued, the faster the club became.
Ralph looked at it with satisfaction as he pressed Calimacos back.
“Kahahahat! Looks like you’re going to get beaten to death by the bandit boss you used to look down on!”
“You bastard… it’s just been a while since I felt this strength, so I was momentarily caught off guard.”
Cold hostility overflowed in Calimacos’s eyes.
Robin flinched.
‘If the Captain gets swallowed by bloodlust again…….’
He had just witnessed the horror of Calimacos’s frenzy.
If Calimacos unleashed his killing intent, he could probably defeat Ralph easily.
The problem came afterward.
Calimacos’s sense of self would be in danger.
Robin watched the fight with that anxiety sitting in his chest.
Kaang!
For the first time, Calimacos’s sword made contact with Ralph’s club, which wielded some unknown power.
Ralph’s lips twitched.
“That’s not how you use that power.”
Calimacos slid his blade along the surface of the club and continued as if scolding him.
“When you receive that power, you get drunk on confidence and omnipotence. But that doesn’t make you invincible.”
“Bullshit!”
Ralph’s forearm swelled.
His attacks, now swung with his oversized arm, broke Calimacos’s rhythm.
The club darted around as if determined to snap the longsword in two, but it wasn’t easy.
In terms of speed and strength, Ralph had the advantage.
But Calimacos didn’t fall easily.
Robin watched every detail of Calimacos’s swordsmanship—deflecting, dodging, and targeting small openings.
‘Everything I’ve seen until now was nothing. Is this the Captain’s true ability?’
He couldn’t be sure.
They were in a tense deadlock, but Calimacos still had strength left.
Whether that was killing intent or some hidden technique, Robin didn’t know.
“You! It looks like your sword could break at any moment, so why aren’t you dying!”
The club was still powerful, but the longer the deadlock continued, the more anxious Ralph became.
Calimacos’s blade remained unyielding.
The balance between them began to tilt.
“Compared to that thing, you’re crude, but I’ll acknowledge the strength you gained. I suppose I should thank you. Thanks to you, I got the hang of it.”
Despite saying he should be grateful, Calimacos’s expression was cold.
His eyes blazed with the intent to eliminate the enemy before him.
“Stop spouting crap and die! I said die!”
Shiiing.
Holding the longsword in one hand, Calimacos drew another sword with his free hand.
The blade in his left hand and the one in his right slid side by side along the surface of the club.
Though the mysterious power should have prevented the swords from touching it, they clung close—like peeling fruit—aimed at Ralph’s hand.
Slice.
“Graaagh!”
Ralph’s fingers were severed.
“I’m still! Fine!”
Screaming wildly, Ralph grabbed the club with his other hand.
It wasn’t a lie.
He became even faster.
Even with Robin’s accelerated perception, it was noticeably faster.
“A gift. I’ll show you something precious.”
Calimacos leaped back.
Ralph mocked him for retreating and widening the gap after barely gaining the advantage.
“A man whose life amounted to less than a pebble on the roadside. I endured contempt and completed my wrath.”
‘That stance!’
Chills ran down Robin’s spine.
Calimacos spun the sword in his left hand and the sword in his right before crossing his arms.
“To the shadows of the past, ruthlessness. To the indomitable will, exaltation.”
His accelerating arms were already spread wide.
‘I couldn’t see it.’
Robin watched with accelerated perception.
Though time slowed, Calimacos’s hands were far too fast.
“Heh! Swinging at nothing—was it all just bluffing……?”
At the same time Ralph lifted his club toward Calimacos, the club dropped to the ground.
“Ah……?”
Thud. Thuk.
The club fell apart, and long diagonal lines crossed Ralph’s entire body.
His clothes were sliced, and his body fell apart.
“This is impossible……”
Thump.
His body, quartered into four pieces, collapsed to the floor.
It was a gruesome end befitting a bandit who had plundered merchants.
At the same time, the light of the sigil carved into the floor faded.
Robin’s feet were freed as well.
“Captain, just now… that was……”
“Consider yourself lucky. I don’t show that to just anyone.”
Robin had many things he wanted to say.
Whether the sword technique came from where he thought.
Whether Calimacos’s body was all right. What they should do from now on.
Countless questions rose, but Robin stayed silent.
“Let’s go. If we stay any longer, I think I’ll lose my mind.”
“Yes.”
Losing his mind.
Robin never imagined those words could sound so frightening.
The cave, soaked in blood, was littered with corpses.
It was no place for a person to remain for long.
“You worked hard, Captain.”
“Yeah. Now let’s hope it was worth the effort. These bastards… they didn’t all die, did they.”
The bandit group had been annihilated.
‘I wonder if the others are all right.’
Robin worried whether the remaining mercenaries were safe, but quietly stepped outside.
When they exited the cave, daylight was rising.