Chapter 185 (2/2)

Luslec snapped his twisted wrist to set the bone. Hercules, who had been watching Luslec from a distance, looked down at his shoulder.

<<If I didn’t have the skin of the Nemean lion,>> Hercules thought, <<my shoulder would have been penetrated.>>

It was a sharp sword. Hercules never imagined that there would be a sword that could penetrate his item. He had lashed out with his club in embarrassment, so his hit missed its target. If not for that, he would have hit Luslec’s skull in.

<<Well. Still, the fight’s over,>> Hercules thought.

His opponent had several wounds. It would take quite a long time for him to recover from that. From now on, Hercules thought, he had the upper hand.

“This guy is stronger than I expected. I guess fighting in close combat against him who specializes in hand-to-hand battle will be hard…” Luslec mumbled.

“What are you muttering?”

Whiz—

To finish the battle quickly, Hercules rushed to Luslec again. His raised club stretched above Luslec’s head. It hung in the air. It looked like Hercules was going to cave Luslec’s head in, but…

Grab—

A giant hand stretched out from behind Luslec and grabbed Hercules’s club.

“What the…?”

Rumble, rumble—

The thing that grabbed the club wasn’t the only hand. Unidentified spirits rose from all sides. At the faceless shadows, Hercules was embarrassed.

<<I can’t get it!>>

Hercules couldn’t draw his club back from the giant hand. He held it more tightly and began to struggle mightily with that huge hand. He finally managed to get his club back. But the relief at getting his weapon back didn’t last long. He looked around.

<<What the hell are these?>>

The faceless, ghost-like shadows surrounded him. They were all different shapes and wore different types of clothing. If they were monsters like zombies or skeletons, they would all look similar. But they all looked different, except the fact that their clothes and skin were dark. That made it even creepier. It was as if the dead had come back to life.

“There’s a lot of them, isn’t there?” Luslec said.

Hercules looked at Luslec, who was surrounded by shadows. He didn’t even raise his sword again. He looked perfectly at ease.

“How many will you able to pass? Pass through them and come to me.” Luslec bobbed his finger.

At his provocation, Hercules, with his bad temper began to rush forward.

“All right! I’ll break them all!”

Roar—!

He shouted like a lion.

Boom, boom—!

Crack—!

Hercules started to smash at the shadows blocking his way.

Act 5

Drip, drip—

The man, who never seemed to lose, lost. His arms were held, and he was bleeding from wounds all over his body. The dark shadows surrounding Luslec grabbed Hercules’s body tightly. They kept him from getting closer to Luslec.

“Stop.”

At Luslec’s order, the dark shadows let go of Hercules’s arms.

Thud—

And his body fell to the ground.

“Winner, Luslec!” The host declared the winner.

Roar, roar—

The first round of the quarterfinal was over. People shouted and cheered. Luslec waved his hands with exaggerated gestures and came down from the stage. Throughout the game, Su-hyeun’s attention was fixed on the dark shadows that Luslec had made.

<<He even didn’t move,>>Su-hyeun thought.

Luslec had said to pass through them and come to him. That wasn’t a vain provocation. He had placed the stronger shadows closer to him, as if he was testing how far Hercules could break through. He controlled the level of difficulty like level one, level two, just like a game.

The second game of the quarterfinal was Chun Ha-jin’s turn. He played the game like he always had, a one-sided beat-down. With overwhelming power, he penetrated his opponent’s defenses and took his neck in hand. And he used his Force Absorption skill to take his opponent’s magic and even life. After his game, Chun Ha-jin looked down at Su-hyeun as if to tell him his turn would be next. Su-hyeun looked back calmly. He wasn’t scared.

Stomp—

Su-hyeun saw Chun Ha-jin, too. But he didn’t say anything, just stepped onto the stage.

“Ha-ha.” Chun Ha-jin, who was still standing on the stage, burst into laughter when Su-hyeun came up the arena.

Su-hyeun looked at the dried-up body who had been Chun Ha-jin’s opponent. So far, Su-hyeun had not been killing anyone, unlike other players, and Chun Ha-jin was laughing at it.

“Just wait for a moment,” Su-hyeun said quietly when he passed next to Chun Ha-jin. “I am going to kill you.”

“Don’t lose this fight,” said Chun Ha-jin.

Su-hyeun nodded at his word and looked at his opponent in front of him. The stadium, which had been destroyed a lot, returned to its original form already. Su-hyeun’s opponent wasn’t an ordinary person. The man, named Ifrit, had a blurry body. He was like red smoke in the shape of a person. Su-hyeun had seen his fighting several times.

“Give up,” Ifrit said, “I’ll make an allowance.”

He was so confident, and there was a reason for that. The whole tournament, all the way up to the quarterfinals. Ifrit and Su-hyeun stood still, facing each other.

Whoosh, whoosh—

Ifrit’s body turned to red flame. The body, blurry like smoke before, now sizzled like a fiery devil. Once he had changed like that, nobody was able to attack Ifrit at all. Not only did physical attacks fail but no skills worked against him either. Ifrit, once he had finished his transformation, smiled like a devil.

“You won’t be able to even touch me—”

Wham—!

Ifrit’s face twisted.

“…!”

And, at the same time, his real body was revealed and flew away.

“I touched you,” Su-hyeun muttered quietly while looking at Ifrit who was flying far, far away.