Chapter 208: Episode 208

Episode 208

“A-Ack!”

The moment his eyes met Hong Yul’s, Frost’s face went deathly pale. He bolted straight off the stage and fled.

Hong Yul moved to give chase, but Thunder Emperor Han Jeonwoo and Unix’s elite hunters planted themselves in front of her like a wall.

“Move.”

“I’m sorry, President. I can’t do that.”

Hong Yul let out a short, derisive laugh.

“I’m not the President anymore. He is. Dumbass.”

“…Please forgive me.”

Violent lightning surged around both of Han Jeonwoo’s arms. At the same time, the other hunters drew their hunting devices and charged.

“Fine. So everyone’s just doing their job, huh?”

Hong Yul’s face twisted into a mad grin as she clenched her fist and hurled herself forward.

A ferocious explosion erupted on the stage, flinging the hunters away like toys. The shockwave split the ceiling with loud cracks, and the reporters ducked low, scrambling out of the press hall as it turned into a war zone.

“Hah…! Hah…! Hah…!”

Frost, fleeing with his security team, switched on his radio.

“This is the President! A demonkin disguised as Hong Yul has appeared in the press hall! Declare a Calamity State of Emergency immediately and concentrate the full strength of the Association, Unix, and all allied guilds! Lock down the internet and ruthlessly delete any videos or posts related to Hong Yul…”

Frost’s words cut off as a leg blurred into view, swinging toward his face.

THUUUUD!

His body skidded backward across the floor. Shards of ice fell from his forearms, which he had crossed in an X to block the blow.

“What’s the rush?” Yusin asked, lowering his leg with a crooked grin. “Got your present from Russia. Thanks for that.”

“Kim Yusin…! You came back alive too?!”

“As you can see.”

Clicking his tongue, Frost gestured sharply. Hunters from the Executive Division sprang out from all sides and surrounded Yusin. In that brief window, Frost bolted for the opposite door, shouting as he ran.

“Use any means necessary and kill him!”

“Unbelievable.”

Yusin snorted.

’For a certified rank 2, I expected him to at least fight me directly, but he’s just running for it. Maybe his actual combat ability is nothing special.’

The six hunters encircling him charged all at once.

Yusin activated Devastar on his right leg, stomped down, and launched himself forward. As his body shot past them, the hunters skidded to a panicked halt. Yusin reached back and grabbed the handle of the Specter strapped to his back.

SWISH!

A single Specter blade teleported into the spot where the hunters had clustered together, its surface covered in countless magic circles.

The hunters gasped.

Yusin clenched his fist, and the sixth-order “Flame Taurus” spells detonated in unison.

The hunters were swallowed by the explosions and hurled in every direction, slamming into walls and floors with bone-rattling crashes.

Yusin casually raised his right arm. With a sharp POP, the Specter snapped back into his hand, and he brought it down in a clean arc.

CLANG!

“Ack!”

A swordsman with an invisibility ability burst into view, having forced his way through the explosions.

“Archmage! Since when do you use a sword?!”

“Why so surprised? I’m allowed to use weapons too, you know.”

CLANG!

The hunter knocked the Specter aside and retreated.

Yusin let the sword slip from his hand and thrust his arm forward. A Fire Cannon formed and blasted toward the man. The hunter clicked his tongue and scrambled backward.

THUD!

The hunter froze.

At some point, the Specter had repositioned itself behind him.

<Wind Sagittarius>

The shockwave erupted from behind, slamming into the hunter’s back and leaving him no room to dodge before he crashed headlong into the fireball in front of him.

Watching the explosion cloud billow out, Yusin turned away.

’Ea. Track Frost’s escape route for me.’

—Yes. Initiating detection magic.

By the time he finished speaking, the Specter had already returned to its place on his back, as if it had never left.

* * *

Ea successfully locked onto Frost’s location. Yusin sprinted along the shortest path, smashing through window after window.

’This building is insanely huge, seriously!’

—Target is 330 yards ahead!

’Got it.’

Yusin kicked open a door and burst into a wide central concourse. It was a shopping mall district, but everyone had apparently evacuated; not a soul was in sight.

Far ahead, he could see Frost getting into an elevator with his security detail.

“Frost!”

Hearing Yusin’s shout, Frost’s face twisted into a scowl. The elevator doors were about to close.

’If I use Devastar, I can get there in one go…!’

“Oh no you don’t.”

An attack rushed in from the side, and Yusin hastily leaped back.

“You’re fighting me.”

Blackjack appeared in front of Yusin with a soft tap of his shoes on the floor. In that brief moment, the elevator doors slid shut.

“Looks like you picked up a weapon since I last saw you,” Blackjack taunted. “Couldn’t cut it with just your fists, so you switched to being a swordsman?”

Yusin smiled and lowered his stance. Behind him, Fire Cannons flared into existence, glowing hot.

“I’ve been wanting to see you again, Blackjack. Getting my ass kicked by you stuck with me for a long time.”

“You’re the type to hold a grudge, huh,” Blackjack snickered.

Just as Yusin was about to fire the cannons, there was a sharp SNAP, and the magic circles wavered and dissolved into ambient mana.

“Have you already forgotten about me?”

The Wave Master stepped out from behind a pillar.

’Right, he was here too.’

“With this, your specialty—magic—is sealed. Same situation as last time.”

Blackjack smirked and pulled his right hand out of his pocket. Mana gathered around his fist, leaving strange afterimages.

“Sealed, my ass.”

Yusin opened his palm. In an instant, Wind Sagittarius magic circles bloomed all around Blackjack. His expression froze for a split second.

’He’s fast!’

“Block this,” Yusin said.

He clenched his outstretched hand, and the magic circles detonated without delay.

Blackjack was blown away by the impact, and the Wave Master’s wave rippled uselessly through empty air with another sharp SNAP.

“Huh?”

This was the fruit of Yusin’s trial. The Wave Master’s stunned expression was a sight to behold.

Blackjack’s body slammed into the display of an accessory shop. Necklaces and rings rained down over his head. He spat out a gold ring that had gotten into his mouth with a disgusted “Ptoo!” and yelled.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?!”

“I—I did it the same way I always do…!”

Yusin gave a crooked grin and this time cast a magic circle right in front of the Wave Master’s face. The Wave Master panicked and tried to clap his hands together.

<Wind Sagittarius>

The shockwave exploded against his face, smashing the back of his head into the pillar behind him. The hands he had been about to clap sliced through empty air.

“Aaaaah!”

He dropped to his knees, clutching the back of his head. Even with the suit’s force field active, the impact was brutal. His skull felt like it had been rattled loose, and the world looked shattered into pieces.

“Show me the grit of a certified rank 3, will you, old-timer?”

Yusin strode toward him. As his fingers danced in the air, magic circles appeared all over the Wave Master’s body. The man frantically tried to clap again.

But Sagittarius hit his side first.

Once again, the wave went off a beat too late. The Wave Master trembled, frozen in mid-clap.

This time, the blast hit his chest. His body was shoved backward and pinned flat against the pillar.

CRACK!

Next was his abdomen. The Wave Master doubled over, gagging. The suit’s force-field gauge drained completely, leaving him defenseless.

The beating turned one-sided. A certified rank 3 was toying with another rank 3.

“Come on, this is boring. Put some effort into it. You’re supposed to be my hard counter, remember?”

“P-Please… stop! Ack!”

After a single trip through the trial, the matchup between them had been completely reversed.

Now, Yusin was the faster one.

The Wave Master gritted his teeth and tried to clap faster, or even trigger his ability without clapping at all, but the waves either went off in the wrong places or fizzled out, making things worse. There was no way he could get good results by abandoning his usual routine and flailing around.

As he fired Sagittarius in rapid succession, Yusin shifted his footing and leaned to the side. Blackjack’s kick sliced through the air where he had just been.

“You bastard!”

Blackjack landed, his foot skidding across the floor, and whipped around. The Wave Master was lying there, completely unconscious.

“…What the hell happened to you in that dungeon?!”

“Nothing special. Just think of it as a few new patterns getting added to the ones you guys already figured out,” Yusin said, drawing up more mana. “Of course, that changes my entire fighting style.”

“Get over yourself!”

Blackjack dropped into a charging stance. Yusin spread his palm, laying a sixth-order magic circle in front of him, then immediately clenched his fist.

Flame Taurus exploded, but Blackjack’s body slid sideways, leaving afterimages behind.

Hmph.

Yusin’s eyes narrowed.

’He’s not just a standard speed type. It’s a rare innate ability that boosts speed and creates illusions at the same time.’

The first time they had fought in Russia, Blackjack had given him a real headache. This time, Yusin summoned Ice Javelins in rapid succession. With the Wave Master down, he could freely use second-order spells.

—Target position confirmed. Commencing launch.

Guided by Ea, the spears of ice shot forward one after another. Blackjack weaved through them with bizarre footwork, his body tracing countless afterimages as he closed the distance.

“Ha! You think that’s going to hit me?”

As he slid to the right to dodge a spear, a magic circle was waiting in the air right beside him. Startled, he twisted his body in a panic.

The magic detonated faster than he could move, and Blackjack went tumbling across the floor, his force-field gauge dropping significantly.

“Looks like it’s hitting just fine to me.”

“You little shit!”

The Ice Javelins orbiting Yusin didn’t let up, raining down relentlessly. Blackjack slipped and slid through them, leaving afterimages as he dodged, but Taurus spells, placed with uncanny precision along his predicted path, kept exploding in his way.

’He’s mixing two spells together!’

Straight-line Ice Javelins and instant Taurus explosions that triggered from fixed points in the air. Blackjack had no idea which rhythm to follow.

’Fine. Then I’ll fake him out too.’

He leaned his body to the right. Immediately, a Taurus appeared on his right side. Blackjack smirked and cut left instead.

’You’re not the only one who can play with timing—’

CRUNCH!

Pain shot through his right leg, and his body lurched. While he had been fixated on the Taurus, an Ice Javelin had nailed him.

No, that wasn’t all.

’The ice spears are all moving at different speeds.’

Yusin had delegated most of the Ice Javelin casting to Ea, but he was personally modifying the formulas on a few of them, accelerating those spears and firing them himself. Blackjack had to track the Ice Javelins flying at him, anticipate the placement of the Taurus spells along his path, and somehow account for the different speeds of the spears Yusin was personally accelerating.

They might both be trickster types, but they were on entirely different levels.

“Grrrrr!”

The suit’s force field shattered, and the ice spears began to drive directly into Blackjack’s flesh. The wounds were bad enough, but the cold was worse; his blood chilled, his body temperature dropped, and his condition deteriorated rapidly. Thighs, arms, calves—ice spears pierced him all over.

“Aaaaah!”

If this kept up, he would just be humiliated until his stamina ran out.

Blackjack slammed his foot into the ground and charged straight in. Six more ice spears buried themselves in his body in an instant, but he ignored them and threw a punch.

Yusin didn’t dodge. He simply raised a hand and casually deflected the incoming arm.

Blackjack’s eyes widened.

Grinding his teeth, Blackjack pulled his arm back and threw a left hook. He sent the afterimage toward Yusin’s midsection and aimed the real punch at his face.

But his fist cut through empty air.

Yusin had ducked under the blow, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

“You—!”

As an enraged Blackjack tried to follow up, the world lurched with a sharp CRACK. Yusin’s kick smashed into his face, twisting his features and slamming him into the floor.

“Predictable. Way too predictable, Blackjack.”

Yusin lowered his leg and grinned wickedly. Blackjack recoiled in horror, scrambling backward.

“I told you I’d been holding a grudge, didn’t I? While I was away, I spent every spare moment studying you, running simulations of this fight in my head. In the end, your afterimages are just a glorified sleight of hand.”

“Kim Yusin…!”

Growling with rage, Blackjack suddenly whipped his head around.

“Now! Fire!”

Unix guild troops who had been hiding in front of and behind Yusin opened fire all at once.

<Round Shield>

A barrier of mana wrapped around Yusin, deflecting the hail of bullets.

“So you were going to use your underlings anyway, but you still tried to act cool.”

“Shut your mouth!”

Yusin snorted and pulled the Specter off his back. Then he etched a series of second-order magic circles along the surface of the greatsword.

Shing. Shing. Shing. Shing.

With the Specter now covered in magic circles, he lifted it one-handed and swung.

The Specter vanished from his grip and reappeared in the middle of the soldiers packed together behind him, burying itself in the floor. Startled, all their eyes snapped toward the blade.

“Activate.”

Fire Cannons, Ice Javelins, and Wind Cutters erupted in a torrent from all sides.

In an instant, the formation of soldiers was obliterated by the barrage of spells. Everyone could only stare, their mouths hanging open.

“Guh! Keep firing!”

“Break through that barrier!”

The soldiers at the front ramped up their firepower.

Yusin looked at the enemies ahead and thrust both hands forward. Mana flared in his right eye like a blazing flame.

’I’ll be putting this to good use, Sunbae.’

He murmured quietly, then a wide grin split his lips as he unleashed the spell.

<Winslow Original – Rock Gravity>

RUMMMMMMMMMBLE!

A crushing pressure detonated in all directions.

“Urgh!”

“What the hell is this?!”

The guns and cannons of the front-line soldiers were forced toward the ground. Some were crushed by the weight of their own gear, dropping to their knees or collapsing flat on the floor.

“Th-This is… a gravity spell!”

“Hold your ground! If he’s maintaining this, he can’t attack either!”

Yusin snorted at that.

“Of course, the real attack is coming from above.”

The entire ceiling came crashing down, and the debris buried the soldiers beneath it.

Screams and panicked shouts erupted from all around. Yusin lowered his arms and straightened his posture.

“…You monstrous bastard!”

Blackjack yanked a radio out of his jacket and slammed his thumb down on a red button.

A thunderous boom drew Yusin’s attention. One side of the wall blew apart, revealing a massive, bizarrely designed artillery piece.

“Wow, you’re even bringing out tactical weapons now? You guys have really gone off the deep end.”

“Die!”

Blackjack jabbed the firing button.

“…?”

Click. Click.

No matter how many times he pressed it, the weapon remained unresponsive, as if it were completely dead.

Panicking, Blackjack mashed the button in desperation.

“Why isn’t it working?!”

“That’s a PHC product, right?”

“H-How the hell would you know that…?”

Yusin chuckled under his breath. Since he knew White Wing was involved, he had naturally prepared for this.

[PHC model registration number SAO-55671. Hacking complete.]White Wing

“You think I can’t hack something I’ve already hacked once before?”

Yusin closed one eye, curled his right hand into the shape of a pistol, and aimed at the turret.

sixth-order Sagittarius magic circles stacked one over another at the center of the weapon.

<Minerva Original – Over Shooting>

A huge hole was punched through the middle of the PHC turret.

It crackled with static for a moment, then exploded with a deafening bang.

“Wh-What is this…?!”

Yusin blew lightly across the tip of his index finger, then lowered his arm. Blackjack didn’t even have time to close his gaping mouth.

“Now then, shall we settle the score?”

Yusin’s fingers danced.

Steel rebar shot up from the magic circle on the floor and tightly bound Blackjack’s fallen body. He was yanked upright against his will.

“…Khuhuhu! Fine, I admit it. To reach a second-class level in such a short time… that’s impressive.”

Blackjack laughed, blood streaming from his mouth.

“But you’ve never fought a real second-class, have you? Once you meet Lord Frost, you’ll—”

“Man, you talk too much.”

Yusin flexed his fingers, his knuckles popping.

“I’ll beat you to within an inch of your life. No further.”

“W-Wait! I surrender—!”

Yusin’s fist slammed into Blackjack’s cheek with a deeply satisfying impact.

Broken teeth flew in every direction.

“That’s what you get for backing the wrong horse.”

* * *

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