Thick rain drenched him from head to toe. Soaked through, he stared at the unbelievable sight. Here and there, small puddles had formed from the downpour. That was it. The lake was completely gone. It was so absurd he nearly let out a hollow laugh, but there was no time for that.

With the water that had been blocking them now vanished, fire began to cross the boundary. He staggered slightly as he pushed himself up. Wet soil clung to his feet.

“Amazing.”

The words of admiration slipped out on their own, and Han Yuhyun beamed like a flower in full bloom. The weapon that had melted away through Sword Devourer seemed to have disappeared. Had he used the skill’s power in one go to blow away the lake? Even so, it was truly remarkable.

At the same time, his chest swelled with pride.

“To make you go all out like this—am I the first?”

One-on-one, against another Hunter. Han Yuhyun nodded.

“Yeah. Most of all, because I have you, Hyung.”

Even for the current Yuhyun—and the one before regression—giving his all must have been a choice he reserved for the very last moment. Especially since Sword Devourer was a high-risk skill. The reason he could use it was because I was here, left behind.

It must have been the same during the rankings, too. No matter how fun the fight was, if he sustained any significant injuries, it might have interfered with protecting me. That’s why he held back. He didn’t even participate in overseas competitions.

That might have been part of the reason he mostly picked fights with Chief Song Taewon, too. Because he was a safe opponent—he couldn’t recklessly harm a valuable S-Class Hunter.

“I was the shackle.”

And at the same time, right now—I was his only release.

Only I could bind him. And only I could set him free. I scratched my arm deeply with my fire-imbued claws and gripped the blood-soaked flame sword. Holding the sword loosely at my side, I faced my younger brother and smiled.

“Don’t say that, Hyung. I’m having so much fun right now.”

“Yeah. I can see that.”

I took a deep breath of the air thick with the scent of wet earth.

“I’m enjoying it too.”

Though it wasn’t real, just the fact that I could give my little brother this kind of experience made me incredibly happy.

I’d always been envious. I’d been jealous. He was my little brother. I was his guardian. But all I could do was watch. The people of Haeyeon Guild who stood beside him felt frustrating to me for taking him away. And I felt pathetic that I couldn’t stand beside him as his equal.

That’s why.

I didn’t want to end it here. I was at a disadvantage. All I could do was hold out a bit longer—there was no real chance of winning. But still, I didn’t want to stop. Not just because of Yuhyun, but because I, myself, didn’t want to stop. Even if the conditions were bad, my stats were S-Class, and my skills were above S-Class.

Back when I was an F-Rank, I spent years trying to reach Yuhyun. Now that I was S-Class, surrendering first? That made no sense.

I let out a short breath and slammed my foot into the ground. Charging straight at Yuhyun along an obvious path, as if begging him to strike. His red-tinged eyes narrowed for a brief moment. Though he doubted my reckless charge, he didn’t hesitate to swing the Ruler’s Sword.

Dodge! My Combat Intuition warned me of the sword’s path. But instead of pulling away, I narrowly avoided only the vital point.

Crunch!

The black blade pierced my shoulder, and at the same time, I transferred the pain twofold and swung the Black-Blood Sword. Perhaps he had expected me to use Noah’s skill—Yuhyun didn’t seem particularly rattled. Still, no matter how prepared you are, extreme pain is still extreme pain. As his body flinched reflexively, I drove my sword in deeper.

Clang!

His flame-forged sword collided with my arm. Even with the reinforced ceremonial armor increasing my defense, it couldn’t completely block the hit—it tore and left a long wound. I poured strength into my sword and froze the wet ground beneath Yuhyun’s feet. In an instant, the slick ice threw off his balance. Not missing the moment, I twisted my body sharply, pulled the sword from my shoulder, and launched a kick.

Screeeeech—

Yuhyun was dragged across the ice I’d created. But he soon dug in with the tip of his foot, shattering the surface and bringing himself to a halt. I’d predicted exactly where he would stop and teleported a step ahead.

Clang! Our swords clashed with a loud crash. Even with the impossible timing, Yuhyun had swiftly blocked the attack. But at the same time—

Crackle! Sparks danced in front of my reddened eyes. I drove my elbow, wrapped tightly in golden scales, toward his clavicle. The collarbone was one of the more fragile bones in the human body. Normally, even for an S-Class, the attack should have been enough to break it—but the ceremonial armor’s defense blunted the impact.

Yuhyun immediately ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) launched a counterattack at the weaker-than-expected strike. The dagger in his hand suddenly stabbed into my not-yet-healed shoulder. I spun my body quickly and flared my wings open.

Thwack!

The dragon wings burst out and slammed into Yuhyun’s wrist and chest with precision. Though the membrane made them seem weak, the wings capable of high-speed flight packed immense power. Struck hard across the body, Yuhyun was thrown backward as he hurled a wire. Whoosh—it coiled around the wings before I could even retract them, and I was dragged along with it.

Splat.

Muddy water splashed as both of them tumbled across the ground almost simultaneously. Dispelling his wings to escape the wire, he pulled bombs from his inventory and slid them across the muddy surface.

KWAANG! BAM! The soft lakebed sent up moist soil in towering plumes, obscuring all vision. Bursting through the downpour of mud, he charged in again. Han Yuhyun had already risen, a surge of flame roaring to life. The airborne chunks of mud were instantly baked?!

The superheated, hardened clumps were struck by his whip-like chained sword and came flying toward me. Perhaps because it wasn’t ordinary fire, it felt more like a barrage of metal chunks than mud. No sooner had I raised my shield to block them than Yuhyun was already right in front of me.

BANG!

The Ruler’s Sword slammed down onto the shield. The S-Class barrier skill shattered in an instant, and the blade came crashing toward my shoulder. I bent my knees and dropped backward, firing my gun. TANG! The bullet struck the sword, pushing it slightly off to the side—just enough to graze my shoulder instead of stabbing through it. As I rolled to the side, a lance of flame with an even deeper blue hue struck and exploded exactly where I had been.

The blast at that range left a ringing in my ears. I whipped out my tail through the flying mud and tripped Yuhyun’s legs. At the same time, I spread my wings. Using the wings to push off the ground, I shot up and, using that momentum, crashed into my brother, who had lost his balance from the trip.

“This’ll sting a bit!”

An item I’d bought from the shop before heading to the lake: Selmhae Nighthorn Thorn. I deactivated my poison resistance skill and drove the long, needle-like brown thorn straight into a tear in the ceremonial armor. Of course, my brother didn’t just take it—he sliced halfway through my wing with the Ruler’s Sword. Since the wing had no matching counterpart, I couldn’t even transfer the pain elsewhere. Though Yuhyun quickly pulled away and yanked the thorn out, the SS-grade paralysis poison had already begun to spread.

“Urgh…!”

Yuhyun collapsed, staggering to the ground, and I too slumped forward without strength. My back felt warm and damp from the blood seeping out of my wounded wing. I hurriedly used a healing skill, but the blood loss must have been greater than expected—I couldn’t muster any strength. As I turned my head while pulling out a potion, I saw that my brother was also pulling out an antidote from a short distance away. A faint glimmer flickered on the tiny ear cuff barely visible on Yuhyun’s ear. I hadn’t seen it before—apparently, it wasn’t a resistance item, but a temporary detox type.

With a poison resistance item, a temporary antidote, and a detox potion stacked, even an SS-grade paralysis poison wouldn’t last long. And as an S-Class awakened, his natural resistance was quite high too.

Still, I thought I’d be the one to get up first.

CLINK!

“What the—hey!”

Heat suddenly surged through the potion bottle I was holding, and it shattered. The spilled potion evaporated in an instant. Yuhyun’s flame.

“No way, how’d it—while I’m holding it… I have fire resistance too!”

I even got a burn on my fingers. Could it be that Yuhyun’s current flames were stronger than my fire resistance? But… they were skills from before the regression. Of course they were higher in rank. Still, I wasn’t even within range of that final melted door.

“I didn’t think… it would work either.”

My brother mumbled with a stiff tongue and still managed a smile. Having drunk the antidote, Yuhyun forced his upper body upright. The flame surrounding him was now closer to blue than black, curling around him like a living thing. Had the color shift granted it some special ability? Black Blood Flame also had the property of delaying recovery. That was likely why I’d been able to stab the thorn into his wound so cleanly and get the poison in.

I gave up on the potion and used my tail to support myself as I stood. Health potion was one thing, but not being able to use mana potions was a far bigger issue.

‘…No Grace.’

Thankfully, my real body still had Grace, so I wouldn’t run out of mana like I did during the fight with Seong Hyunjae. It definitely felt less taxing on my real body compared to that time.

Yuhyun tried to pick up the Ruler’s Sword he’d dropped when the paralysis hit. That sword is the biggest problem! Even if I ran at him now, it’d be too late—but I don’t need to move with my own feet. I activated my teleportation skill.

“Urk, Hyung!”

I wrapped an arm around my brother’s neck and rolled us both to the ground. The ground was slightly sloped, so I laid down a sheet of ice—shoooop—we slid together, tangled in each other, for quite a distance.

“Guh!”

Yuhyun jabbed his elbow hard into my side as I clung to his back. The impact knocked the wind out of me. Right after, he flipped his body to pin me underneath. At the same moment, I swung my tail—WHUMP—sending Yuhyun flying to the side. The paralysis effect was still in play, making his movements sluggish. They should’ve been sluggish.

FWOOSH!

But the speed at which he charged in, conjuring a lance of flame, was no different from usual. The ceremonial armor’s instant acceleration skill. KAKANG! I didn’t have time to draw out the Black Blood Flame, so I blocked the tip of the lance with my gun. A sharp screech carved a jagged line across the surface of the white firearm.

“I gave it to you, but seriously—it’s a pain!”

Seeing how well he used it, I couldn’t help feeling a little proud. Barely managing to twist the muzzle, I pulled the trigger. The magic bullet grazed Yuhyun’s hair. A few strands of black flew loose, and though slightly slower than usual, his punch—powered by the acceleration skill—was as strong as any S-Class Hunter.

Right after dodging the punch by tilting my head back, Yuhyun opened his hand wide. A blackish-green powder scattered from his outstretched palm.

“Poison.”

His voice, as if asking, “Will you detox me?”, left me speechless. The poison dust, scattered so close to my head, quickly began to take effect. I had no choice but to reactivate my poison resistance skill—and because of our close proximity, the paralysis poison fully cleared from Yuhyun as well, and he launched an attack with movements I couldn’t hope to keep up with.

My hastily raised shield shattered, and a clean kick to the chest sent me flying backward. I coughed, blood mixed in with the breath. While I activated a healing skill, the Ruler’s Sword returned to Yuhyun’s hand. Blue flames, with only a hint of black remaining at the core, flared up the blade.

At some point, even the pit that used to be the lake was filled with swaying fire. It expanded its territory, building heat as if it would soon devour everything—even me.

“…Yuhyun.”

Every breath I took filled my lungs with hot air. Covered in injuries and mud, my younger brother smiled. A perfectly satisfied smile. The face of a sated predator.

If—if I just left him like this, let him do as he pleased until the very end… Would even the blotches of black flame left in him turn completely blue?

The tilted moon scattered soft light behind my slowly approaching brother.

A whisper stirred deep in my chest, asking if this wasn’t what I had always wanted. I had wanted to help him grow, all the way. Not to be forced to let go early—but to care for him and raise him to the end.

I thought that had been taken from me completely. But the truth was, my little brother could only rely on me. If I gave everything up here and now, then maybe my duty would be complete.

‘…But there’s one more person.’

So—unable to let go of either, I rose to my feet again.

“Let’s wake up now.”

“Why?”

Yuhyun tilted his head as he replied. Well—why, he asks…

“I’ve done as much as you—”

“You said you were having fun too.”

SPLASH! Water burst from one of the few puddles that remained. Yuhyun shot forward in an instant, his foot slamming into the ground with force. The Ruler’s Sword sliced through the air. A long gash opened across my chest. I forged a sword from my own blood and blocked his follow-up attacks.

“Yuhyun!”

Even at my urgent shout, no response came. The biggest drawback of Diarma’s mental-type skill was that both parties had to want to exit for it to be released. Under the relentless assault, I kept getting pushed back. At some point, a steep wall loomed behind me.

THWACK!

A blow that grazed me slammed into the wall, sending clumps of dirt raining down. The surrounding flames rendered all vision-obscuring tricks useless now. The embers floating through the air became Yuhyun’s eyes, watching everything.

The air was so dry, it was difficult to draw out water or create ice. Not impossible, but the mana cost was extreme. Even teleportation only bought me a moment—he caught up almost immediately. If I could get to the sea, maybe I’d have a way. But there was no escape. Even the Lullaby skill was countered quickly—either by self-inflicted damage or detonated flames creating explosive noise.

“Guh-!”

I narrowly dodged the Ruler’s Sword, but the follow-up kick sent me flying helplessly into the wall. Yuhyun’s flames wrapped around my ankle. Thanks to fire resistance, it only felt a little hot—but strangely, my strength kept draining away.

A lance formed of flame was hurled with force. The edge scraped my twisted neck, searing hot. Blood seeped from the wound, soaking into my collar. I didn’t know how much time had passed—my mouth had gone dry.

This might actually be dangerous. If I’d had Grace, then even with a stat and skill gap, I might’ve been able to suppress Yuhyun.

Still, I hadn’t expected Yuhyun to lose control like this. His fast-approaching momentum made my whole body tremble slightly. I still had points left—if I used the right item and made it to the sea, I could…

CRUNCH!

“…Han Yuhyun!”

The Ruler’s Sword pierced not me—but its master’s own body. Yuhyun slowly blinked, the red hue in his eyes fading.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep