That was the only thing. He didn’t want to die. He could not die. There was no reason to think about why at this point. He couldn’t die already. He just couldn’t. Sungmin heard Scarlett’s warning in the distance. Gripping his spear, he lowered his stance.
Aine’s fist techniques were unrefined. She was able to use all the martial arts that Xeon was capable of using, but that didn’t mean that she was as proficient as him in using them. She had the same level of skill as him, but Aine herself was unused to using the fist.
However, her style of battle was one that made her cover up those deficiencies with enormous magic energy and the transformation of her body. If Scarlett did not support him, Sungmin would have died by her hands already.
No, perhaps right now.
A tentacle grazed past him. Sungmin’s strength was too lacking to deflect Aine’s attacks using basic moves; everything sounded distant to him; he forgot to breathe and charged forward; the tentacle changed shape and now rushed at him from behind; he could feel that with his sixth sense.
Shadowless Phantom, second move – Shadowless Step. His shadow danced around. Sungmin’s body produced afterimages. With his forward momentum, he attacked with the first move of the Nine Skies Infinity Spear – Soultracer.
Aine did not avoid this. She met it head on with her armor-clad body. Claaang! Along with a metallic sound, the spear in Sungmin’s hand trembled. Even though he exerted so much of his internal energy into it, he was incapable of penetrating Aine’s armor-like body.
He didn’t have the leisure to exert more strength and try to penetrate through the armor. Sungmin retracted his spear retreated. When he moved out of his place using the Shadowless step, Aine’s fist struck where he had been.
Even the slightest of mistakes weren’t allowed in this battle. Just like the time with the ogre chimera; no, even moreso. When he fought the chimera, Sungmin had some leisure to think, but nothing like that existed now.
‘If Miss Scarlett wasn’t here….’
That was what he thought – that he was so powerless. He realized this in Prescan’s dungeon. How puny and weak were peak-level experts. He thought to himself that he had grown somewhat, though not so strong, but in actuality, he was just a puny existence.
The opponent was freakish enough to make him feel that.
Even though she possessed the same heart that Sungmin had, she was incomparably stronger. She killed Xeon and drove Lloyd almost to death.
‘Would I be able to do it?’
Against Xeon, the leader of Corona Mercenaries? Or against Lloyd?
What would he gain from thinking such things? What would change from it?
He wanted to see the limits of martial arts.
He thought that. When he just left Mount Msh, Sungmin was under the assumption that he was walking on a lonely path of martial arts. He packaged himself, his lack of talent, his luck, and his encounters all as effort. Yes, back then, he was like that.
However, right now.
His weakness – What if it was Wiji Hoyeon, or Baek Sogo instead of me? – Thinking about other people was just running away from reality. He had half-given up putting in effort as well. Even though he resolved himself see the limits of martial arts, that he would exert the effort to do so; even though he resolved to train himself, he tried to break through his bottleneck relying on something like the magic armor.
Even though he never attempted to break through by himself.
This was because I now know reality – he said to himself several times before he slept. Doing missions was easy, but at most, they were S-rank. His skills did not improve, and neither did his achievements in martial arts. Outside of Mount Msh, hard effort wasn’t rewarded the same. That was why, he ran – from effort; from training.
So, would he die now?
Boom! Sungmin’s body rolled across the ground. The magic armor on Sungmin’s body, albeit without its original function, still played a splendid role as a defensive item, fortunately. Without it, rolling on the floor wouldn’t have been the end of it.
Despite that, his injuries were heavy. Although it didn’t show on the outside, his internal injuries were rather critical. Aine jumped towards Sungmin rolling on the ground, and Scarlett hurriedly cast magic to interfere.
The internal pain, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, the sounds of destruction all around, his aching head… the pounding of his heart in his chest.
Sungmin heaved a breath and stood up. His waist ached, be it was because he was hit, or from when he rolled on the floor, or both.
Night arrived, and the surroundings were dark. The magic that Scarlett was casting seemed amazing even from Sungmin’s view, who was practically clueless about magic. Every time Scarlett’s hands waved through the air, unknown characters filled the air and invoked magic.
Seeing that, Sungmin felt that the bitterness in his mouth was like poison. The thing coming out under his tongue was no saliva, but poison. He hated it. He hated himself for being powerless. Sungmin dragged his feet.
‘I.’
…Need to change. He wanted to change. He knew that the world changed as ‘he’ changed. He learned that in Mount Msh. At that time, he had definitely changed. The him before he entered Mount Msh and the him after he left Mount Msh had changed.
It was just that he was lacking. Some people, like, for instance, the so-called ‘geniuses’ have an easy time doing anything they do. Whether it was progressing forward, or being changed. Every step that a genius takes was equivalent to several or perhaps several dozen steps for an ordinary man.
As someone who’s not a genius, Sungmin had to keep walking forward. One realization was not enough. He had to come to several realizations.
About himself; and about reality. He needed to know how different his ideals and the reality in front of him were.
‘I do.’
Connecting the disjointed thoughts he had, he gripped on his spear with whatever strength he had left. He knew that he was puny, that he was worthless, and that he was no genius. He also knew that the ‘change’ he experienced wasn’t anything that great. Even though he acted like some hermit that decided to see the limits of martial arts, he fell too easily in front of a bottleneck.
Despite that, he was looking too high.
His goals were too idealistic.
He wanted too much.
Amidst his self-loathing, Sungmin quietly walked forward. Although Scarlett was an exceptional mage, her Spell Engraval was a field of magic that was incomplete. Thanks to that, the efficiency of magic energy consumption was not that good. Yes, the Qimendunjia and Onmyoudou-based Spell Engraval was an effective method of attack against Aine, who had magic immunity.
However, it lacked the decisive factor. With the firepower that the current Scarlett had, it was insufficient to deal a decisive blow. Aine possessed immense regenerative powers, and was enough to be called the ultimate lifeform. She recovered her injuries endlessly and pushed Scarlett back.
Sungmin watched that happen.
Amidst the disgusting self-loathing, he was pressed down by his own powerlessness. He hated it. And that dejection was what made him move. He didn’t want to let Scarlett die. He didn’t want to die either. There was a reason he couldn’t die here.
He had not changed yet.
Aine, who was attacking Scarlett, suddenly sensed something sharp approaching behind her. Although it was a shallow attack that she could ignore, she turned around anyway. In the first place, what ticked her off was not Scarlett but Sungmin.
Aine did not know who Sungmin was. However, she didn’t like him, and he kept ticking off her mind. She did not know how to solve these kind of troubles, and she had come to her own decision about this.
Wouldn’t it stop if she killed him? Seeing Sungmin lashing out with his spear, she grinned. It was a light, and shallow attack, it wouldn’t matter if she was hit by it head on.
As she thought, Aine’s light swing of her hand easily deflected Sungmin’s spear upwards. his palms ripped, and his elbows could barely hold, creaking. He instinctively spun around his chest in order to dodge Aine’s sharp hands. Screech – and the section of armor around his waist was torn apart. A shallow wound on his waist gushed out blood. Any deeper, and his innard might have fallen out.
He couldn’t be relieved yet. Aine was the predator, and he was the prey. The predator was now about to play around with her prey. A fight between a rabbit and a tiger was impossible. No matter how desperate the rabbit is, it would die with a single swing from a tiger.
Sungmin ran like a rabbit. Or perhaps, it might be more correct to say that he was a flea instead. He ran from Aine to survive. He endlessly stepped according to the ways of the Shadowless Phantom, and forced his arms to use the techniques of the Nine Skies Infinity Spear. Scarlett was no longer able to support Sungmin. She gasped and calmed down her magic energy, and only looked at Sungmin with complicated eyes.
Sungmin wouldn’t resent her even if she ran away. However, Scarlett had no thoughts of fleeing. She was seriously considering whether to use her last resort.
Of course, Sungmin was not aware of this. Nor did he think about it. Boom! Sungmin’s body flew backwards from Aine’s kick. He almost fell down without any power in his legs, but he forced himself up. Black blood gushed out as he bit down on his lip. Aine giggled out loud. Her transformed hands were massive and razor-sharp.
His spear felt heavy.
This sense of heaviness was something he hadn’t felt in a long time. He hadn’t felt this way since Mount Msh. His body was heavy as well. His ears were being tortured, and the metallic scent of blood pervaded his mind.
Death.
Was this it? He wasn’t able to meet Wiji Hoyeon again, he wasn’t able to save Baek Sogo, and he got even Scarlett involved in it all too. A sudden death, like always. He still had some internal energy in his dantian. His body just didn’t live up to the task. Sungmin suppressed the urge to laugh in self-loathing and pulled out his internal energy. He circulated… the Purple Cloud Divine Art. He circulated his energy. Watching as Aine ran towards him. He thought that, it still wasn’t time for his death, just yet.
Why? Because he could still move.
There aren’t many people that accept death as a joyous thing. If someone had the slightest bit of longing left, then they would not long for death. Even someone without any desire wouldn’t be calm in front of death. Most people struggled in the face of death. Sungmin included. He struggled. He had numerous reasons he could not die here, and that became a longing for him which made him move.
There was no one that could save Sungmin here right now. There was no WIji Hoyeon or Baek Sogo. There was no Lloyd. To survive, he had to rely on himself. He could not rely on someone else. Like how the world changed with him changing, everything was up to him.
He felt that his had head cleared up a little.
Scarlett came to a decision. She only had two conclusions she could come to. Either she fled, or she fought. Of those, fleeing was no option. The reason she still hesitated, was because it was too much of a waste.
However, she couldn’t care about that in a situation like this. Scarlett clicked her tongue and reached inside her chest. But at that moment.
Purple fog was released from Sungmin’s spear. Aine instinctively realized that it was dangerous, and immediately stopped to retreat.
The fog swirled around and was compressed into the spear. It became a lingering light around the spear. No, it also looked like a burst of flames. Aine, who saw that scene for the first time, watched as it happened with her eyes wide open. Sungmin, who had become pale after losing all that blood, looked down at the purple flames surrounding his spear.
He wanted to cry.
When he lashed outwards, he was not moving according to the Nine Skies Infinity Spear, but the first of the three basic moves, pierce. Yes. It was just a simple piercing action. Although it was not that fast, Aine was no longer able to ignore that attack. She met it with a stiff expression. Her hands, clad in armor, approached to defend against the spear.
She could not defend. The moment the spearhead came into contact with her armored hands, the armor scattered apart, and her hand was penetrated before the tip of the spear reached her. Speed and strength didn’t matter any bit here. The spearhead pierced her right shoulder.
Aine screamed out loud. Although she did not know of pain, the feeling she had right now was strange. The wound was not regenerating. Aine changed her scream into a shout and swung her left hand. Sungmin took half a step back and spun his spear.
Aine’s left arm was caught in the rotation and it was ripped off. Sungmin didn’t need to exert his strength that much, and Scarlett turned stiff in her position. Aine’s eyes widened in shock. Sungmin was not thinking complicated thoughts. He continued to attack Aine in the three basic moves of the spear, and Aine rotated her body in fear. The spear grazed past her waist and the grazed waist split apart and spurt blood.
“Ah, ah, it hurts!”
Aine screamed. Even though she wanted to cover up her wounds, she had neither of her hands. Aine jumped backwards, and then started fleeing without hesitation. Sungmin tried to chase her, but fell down without walking a few steps. His head was spinning, and he had a nosebleed. Scarlett also did not chase her and came to Sungmin.
“…Ah.”
Sungmin did not see Aine as her figure became smaller. He only looked at the spear in his hand. The flames that clad the spear was no longer there.
“I did it.”
Letting go of his fading consciousness, he muttered those words.
What he used just now was spearforce.
***
T/N: I hate these stream of consciousness-like chapters, it has no consistency… (yeah it’s not my fault, it’s the author’s.). Actually, I hate this novel in general. It’s too much of a pain to translate…
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