Episode 10: Calculations of Revenge / Chapter 173: Each’s Calculations (6)
TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk
As the clash between Choi Hyuk and the head wolf became increasingly serious, the universe began to squirm. It was a fight between transcendent warriors that was rare even throughout the history of the universe.
To the point where powerful warriors even felt nauseous, space-time, as well as all order and laws, shook violently.
“Damn it! Gather! Maintain our formation!!”
{What? What are you saying?!}
Due to the completely erased Net of Fate, the species couldn’t communicate with each other.
It was a pandemonium of pandemoniums.
Stars and planets that couldn’t endure the constant clash of power and changes in laws exploded.
Boooom-!
An enormous explosion. Their surroundings vibrated, and a sun, which hadn’t been there, appeared. Day suddenly arrived for this dark space, and all sorts of fragments and gas formed a tidal wave that swallowed the space whole.
Baaang!!
Like lightning, day and night switched, and the warriors cursed as they were hit by the broken fragments and died one after another.
Under the torrential rain of fragments, Baek Seoin felt an unease crawl down his spine.
“Hieh!”
With a strange shout, Baek Seoin flung his body away, and the silver ‘Meteor-Chasing Wolf’ dropped down on his previous spot.
{Grrrrr… How did you dodge?}
“What are you saying? All I hear is you barking.”
Baek Seoin grumbled while awakening his senses to their limits.
Vring! His Sword of Sentiment ‘Baek Seoin’s Premonition’ rang out as he held it up. When Premonition rang, the part of his body that his enemy would attack would ache.
This was the reason why Baek Seoin, who was only a high-ranked warrior, could endure against a highest-ranked wolf. With his innate skill ‘Intuition’ and his Sword of Sentiment ‘Baek Seoin’s Premonition’, he could narrowly avoid his enemy’s attacks due to the unease and pain he felt beforehand.
However, this also meant that all of Meteor-Chasing Wolf’s attacks were savage enough to put his life in danger. Baek Seoin could die at any moment because of a slight misjudgment.
The angle he held his sword, the distribution of karma in his body, his gaze… nothing was easy. Every trivial decision was followed by a life-threatening unease, and Baek Seoin had to analyze them all in detail before moving. He needed to find a place where he didn’t feel uneasy or ache.
{I can help you.}
Though Naro showed his intent in helping him, Baek Seoin refused.
“No, Naro. If you’re exposed now, your life might be in danger. Hold your breath until we at least set up a defensive line.”
While Naro had awakened as a highest-ranked warrior, his body was still that of the enormous spaceship. Because he would be at an absolute disadvantage in a close combat fight against the wolves that excelled in maneuverability, Baek Seoin decided not to expose Naro at the risk of his own life.
{You’ll die! It’s not even certain if you’ll be able to set up a defensive line or not!}
“If you act now, you’ll die immediately! Hieh! I have to concentrate so don’t talk to me! Look after Lee Jinhee and Ryu Hyunsung instead of me!”
The silver wolf followed after Baek Seoin like a meteor. Narrowly, as though he could die at any moment, Baek Seoin dodged his attacks and survived.
Everyone was in a similar situation. While they endured for now, they would soon collapse. The formation where they were scattered and killed off one by one changed again. The warriors were pushed into groups and crushed. Due to the lack of space, it was common for allies to be wounded by other allies. While they did their best to push their enemies back and regain some space, what returned was death. The corpses of warriors mixed together with the fragments of smashed stars and drifted away.
The fear of ‘defeat’ and ‘death’ permeated them.
Everyone was clearly fighting desperately.
Choi Hyuk, who had only been a highest-ranked warrior, fought evenly against the head wolf, and the seven highest-ranked warriors and five Berserker executives had yet to die whilst facing opponents stronger than them. However, they didn’t have the strength to reverse the situation because the Blue Manes had become stronger than they had imagined after cooperating with the monsters. All Choi Hyuk could do was not be one-sidedly pushed back by the head wolf. The rest couldn’t even do that.
“We were too rash…”
“What was I entranced by to come here…”
The young warriors of the top four tribes let out sighs. Flames dimmed dangerously, and metal creaked. Darkness paled, and the light became faint.
Ryu Hyunsung endured the planet wreckage that was powerlessly falling on him as he looked at the situation.
Lee Jinhee was wounded all over her body as she took on two high-ranked wolves, and Lee Jinhee’s unit, which went to save her, was surrounded by other wolves and couldn’t move. Ryu Hyunsung couldn’t even see his own troop members.
As Ryu Hyunsung didn’t have a special skill like Baek Seoin, he couldn’t face off against the highest-ranked wolf, ‘Crushing Mane’, with his strangely increased ability. The wolf had turned Ryu Hyunsung’s body into tatters in 20 passes.
The reason why Ryu Hyunsung was still alive was because the wolf considered him already dead and was slaughtering others around him.
Ryu Hyunsung’s head, which had surged with rage and curses, finally cooled.
‘I’m really going to die now.’
As he thought this, the madness that filled his mind disappeared, and like a kaleidoscope, his surroundings clearly entered his vision.
‘So this was my final battle.’
As soon as he thought this, a lofty feeling and a wronged emotion surged within him.
Baang!
Somewhere, another planet exploded, and his vision brightened like it was daytime. As though he had suddenly awakened from his sleep, everything looked clear.
It was a strange feeling. His mind was cool, yet his heart was sharper than ever. Ryu Hyunsung clearly felt this situation.
An encircled situation.
The enemies blocked the front and they didn’t have anywhere to retreat to.
The fear-stricken rookies of the alliance kept being pushed back when there was nowhere to retreat to.
Ryu Hyunsung ridiculed them.
If there was a path, it was in front of them. Even if it was as small as the eye of a needle, they had to find it. Without madness or fear, with all their concentration and strength, they had to defeat enemies stronger than them.
His reasoning and emotions became one as they proposed a path. To push past the enemies in front of them.
‘However… I can’t even move the tips of my fingers.’
Suddenly, he felt like he knew what to do and could succeed, yet he couldn’t even move his own fingers.
‘Is this really the end?’
While he had always inwardly hoped to die, he didn’t want this sort of death.
He didn’t hope for a death so vain and weak.
The moment he thought this-
“Director Ryu Hyunsung!! Run!!”
He heard Guardian Bae Jinman’s voice. He had approached under Zero’s covert escort and was squeezing his karma to heal Ryu Hyunsung.
When Bae Jinman’s golden karma permeated his body, his body, which had been ripped to shreds to the point of being unrecoverable, began to regenerate like a miracle. That moment, what Ryu Hyunsung felt wasn’t relief like ‘I’m alive…’
‘Ah, I can fight again.’
He held expectations that he could fight properly this time.
A mysterious phenomenon. Ryu Hyunsung’s body didn’t simply stop at being healed.
The karma that made up his body was redistributed and was being replaced with different properties.
His eyes shined blue.
A genius. While this word was most suitable for Choi Hyuk, Ryu Hyunsung had, in fact, grown up while hearing he was a genius.
A genius swordsman. Since he was young, he received attention as a rising sabre star of Korea and was selected as the youngest national representative ever. There were even big talks of him defeating the top-ranked swordsman in the world during his practice games. Yet, that was all. Ryu Hyunsung didn’t win a single medal throughout his four years at Korea National Sport University. ‘Training-purpose’ was the label given to him. During friendly matches and practice, he was a genius swordsman stronger than anyone, yet he lost powerlessly in real matches.
The length of two finger joints. That distance was always the problem. He lacked the determination to pierce through his opponent’s malice that wanted to kill him and stretch his sword out first.
He believed that he had overcome this weak point after the recruit training began and he joined the Berserkers, killing people and monsters.
‘That wasn’t it.’
Ryu Hyunsung finally realized that he was still running away. He was in an ambiguous state where it was too painful to live yet he couldn’t die. Perhaps this was why he couldn’t leave the Berserkers since, if he stayed with Choi Hyuk, they would always have a goal. Whether it was right or wrong, whether he liked it or not.
He had always been in this ambiguous state. It was no different from his past days as a ‘training-purpose swordsman’.
‘Advance.’
Ryu Hyunsung finally realized the true meaning of the fate given to him when he became a high-ranked warrior.
At first, he was confused. ‘Advance’? To be honest, how he clung to his life while living and fighting was closer to ‘evasion’ than ‘advancing’. He constantly evaded to his past. He also evaded his past. He fought to forget about his memories and fought while thinking of his memories. To call that ‘advance’?
However, now that he thought about it, it was a desperate manifestation of his subconscious. A warning that he was fated to disappear if he didn’t ‘advance’.
Ryu Hyunsung finally realized this meaning and wholly accepted it.
My path is in front of me.
Now was the time to move forward.
If he didn’t, he would die. He didn’t have the energy to think about victory or defeat, only to find the path. It was time to open a path with his cold reasoning and wild nature.
At some point, his tattered body had completely recovered.
Ryu Hyunsung turned his back on Bae Jinman, who held his hand out towards him, and Zero and shouted towards all the fear-stricken warriors,
“Open your eyes properly, you dimwits! Break through them!”
Unlike his ragged beast-like voice before, his voice rang out clearly this time. His voice, containing his enlightenment, was clearly transmitted to the warriors who couldn’t understand Korean.
Everyone’s gaze momentarily fell on Ryu Hyunsung.
Ryu Hyunsung stretched his leg out. He turned his waist like a top and flung his arm forward like a fishing pole. His karma, which explosively surged in his body, was pushed forward like a river without any hesitation. He passed through the length of the two finger joints that he had always lacked.
Crash!
Slash!
‘Crushing Mane’ charged at him like a cannonball as soon as he heard Ryu Hyunsung’s voice. His body passed by Ryu Hyunsung’s chest, and Ryu Hyunsung’s sword slashed his mouth.
{Kyaah!}
The first attack Ryu Hyunsung landed on ‘Crushing Mane’ was a fatal blow. While three streams of blood flowed from Ryu Hyunsung’s chest after the wolf passed by him, he didn’t bat an eye.
He only saw a clear sword path to kill the unpleasant wolves. A thread-like path. Nonetheless, a clearly existing path.
A beautiful sword path was drawn with his hand.
Ryu Hyunsung easily caught up to the wolf that was shaking his head and retreating from him. He pushed his claws down and slashed his neck before the wolf could dodge it.
Slash-
The highest-ranked wolf, ‘Crushing Wolf’, couldn’t even yip before his deeply slashed head was thrown into space.
Slash!
Ryu Hyunsung’s sword slash left a trailing afterimage as it slashed through a corner of the battlefield. The wolves in its path were simultaneously split in two, and a canyon was drawn on a small natural satellite that was in its path.
His sword slash seemed like the work of a sword god.
“Ryu hyung? Wh- what is this?”
Despite being pushed towards the defensive, Lee Jinhee was at a loss for words. It was the same for the two wolves that had attacked her. While their mouths were agape, Ryu Hyunsung passed through the wolves and sliced the heads of the two wolves off their bodies.
“Did you reach the highest rank…?”
Lee Jinhee said blankly.
Yet, Ryu Hyunsung didn’t reply, only shooting out after patting her head. This time, to help the seven highest-ranked warriors who were struggling.
**
Due to Ryu Hyunsung, the mood of the battlefield changed. With his help, the strongest warriors of the alliance could defeat the wolves that were holding them back, and the freed highest-ranked warriors went out to help others. It was now time for the deeply infiltrated wolves to be pushed back.
The front lines were formed, and their defensive line stabilized.
Seeing this, Baek Seoin shouted in an almost singing voice,
“Now’s the time! Naro! Restrict them!”
{I’ve been waiting for this!}
The wave of karma that spread from Naro’s spaceship snared the wolf that targeted Baek Seoin and the wolves that infiltrated around them. ‘Meteor-Chasing Mane’s highest-ranked karma was instantly degraded to that of a high-ranked warrior. The wolves that noticed this change targeted Naro, but the flow had already been reversed. A threefold defensive line had already been set up in front of Naro.
“That’s it! It’s working! We can fight!”
The fight between ‘Meteor-Chasing Mane’ and Baek Seoin, in which Baek Seoin was one-sidedly on the defensive, had turned into a close fight. Recovering his composure, Baek Seoin glanced in Choi Hyuk’s direction.
“Now… If the leader wins…!”
While the situation had improved, that didn’t mean they were winning. If Choi Hyuk quickly won, then, no matter how large the losses were, it would be the alliance’s victory. However, if Choi Hyuk couldn’t in time, then the inferior punitive force would face the chance of being annihilated.
For some reason, it currently seemed like Choi Hyuk was being pushed back.
Just then, Baek Seoin saw Ryu Hyunsung.
He, who had created balance in the battlefield, was charging towards Choi Hyuk and the head wolf, who were fighting over there.
“Hey! Ryu Hyunsung! Are you crazy?! Where do you think you’re going?!”
Baek Seoin heard her scream.
Bang, bang, bang!
Another star exploded brilliantly. His surroundings brightened as though it was daytime.
Note: Baek Seoin’s Sword of Sentiment was briefly mentioned as a shield in a previous chapter. This might be changed in the future.