Chapter 73 – Dark Elven City (6)  

Sungjin charged towards Calian with only Blood Vengeance while keeping his hand on the Moon Specter. He was planning on using Ghastly Wail to find the opportunity to strike him down using the empowered Blood Vengeance.

But that was no easy feat. Once Sungjin got close

“Woosh woosh”

He swung with both swords nimbly. Sungjin backed off while parrying the strikes with only Blood Vengeance.

From experience, the effect of “Ghastly Wail was stronger the closer he stood to the enemy. But Calian was too strong to use it in close melee.

Sungjin couldn’t help but back further up as he continued to block Calian’s attack with one hand before shouting

“Ghastly Wail”

He quickly activated the ability and drew out the blade.

“Kyaa~”

An earsplitting screech reverberated through the air, and the ever-confident Calian backed off with a surprised look on his face.

It didn’t look like the Ghastly Wail applied full effect upon him, but it was enough. It was a golden opportunity.

‘I don’t know if I will get any other chance to take him down.’

Sungjin charged at him. But

“Light of Aeon.”

Something glowed brightly from under Calian’s armor, and he returned to normal.

Sungjin quickly swung his reddened Blood Vengeance, but

‘Clang!’

Calian crossed his blade and blocked the blow. Sungjin gritted his teeth and swung his swords twice more

“Clang! Bang!”

Calian didn’t counter attack and only blocked the oncoming strikes. He had even less opening then when he was also counter-attacking. Failing his attempt to catch his opponent off guard, Sungjin backed off.

‘What a monster.’

Sungjin swore under his breath and pressed the side of his sword. The Baptism of Blood ended. There was no reason to needlessly drain his HP.

This time Calian charged towards Sungjin. He was slightly stronger than Sungjin in swordsmanship.

The two fighters would occasionally graze against cloth or skin, but no one took significant damage. And during the fight

‘What a ridiculously strong opponent.’

Besgoro said what was on Sungjin’s mind. If Sungjin at least had Cain or Soldamyr, it would have made things easier, but their activation period was already over.

And for some reason, Sungjin wished to win 1 on 1 against him.

“Clang clang click clack!”

The two fighters and their four swords clashed mightily but to no conclusion. Meanwhile

‘...kill’

It was a voice he hasn’t heard in a long time; Yanhurat’s whisper. Sungjin ignored it as he continued to fight. But for some reason, Besgoro responded to the voice.

‘What’s this sound?’

He must have heard it somehow as well.

‘Kill...’

‘Did it say kill?’

Sungjin was busy fighting for his dear life, and two ghosts were chattering away. Getting distracted, Sungjin used his two swords to push Calian away and made some distance.

“Ah shut up!”

Meanwhile, Calian chanted a spell.

“Lance which pierces all! Lightning Bolt!”

Sungjin tumbled to the side to dodge the spell. Now that he thought of it, This Dark Elven Swordsman knew how to use magic. But Sungjin was the same.

‘Eye for an eye, magic for magic.’

“What is real is fake and what is fake is real!”

He had Besgoro start an incantation first and then used the spell he wanted to try using in conjunction with substitute chanting. As Besgoro began his chant, Sungjin also recited an incantation.

“Burn everything in your path!”

Last time, there was a slight delay between the casting of two spells, but this time Sungjin matched the timing perfectly.

“Illusion!”

Sungjin’s body split into 6.

“Fire Ball!”

Six Fireballs were shot from six Sungjins, all in different directions. Of course only one was real, but it looked as if six were fired at once.

Calian who took on the Ghastly Wail without batting an eye panicked. He didn’t know how to dodge the attack, so he backed as far as he could, using his swords to shield his body.

“Boom!”

Calian was lucky. The farthest fireball was the real deal. But it was still effective. The incendiary secondary effect put his mantle on fire.

It was certainly an effective method, so there was no reason not to try again. Sungjin chanted the spell again.

“Fireball!”

But

“Reflect Magic”

He muttered something, and his right sword glowed bright purple. He watched the six fireballs carefully and reflected only the real one.

‘What?’

The fireball changed directions and came flying towards Sungjin. Sungjin’s eyes grew wide as he rolled over to the side and yelled

“Solidify!”

And shortly after

“Boom!”

The ball of fire exploded. Although Sungjin had surprised him the first time, he already figured out a way to tell the real attack by the next cast.

‘My god... after just once... he was able to tell the real from fake.’

Without watching the fireball explode, or without knowing which one is the real caster, it is an impossible feat.

Sungjin stood up once Solidify was over. He pulled out his swords. After the last counter attack, he made up his mind.

‘This guy is too strong to take it lightly.’

He had forgotten for a long time; The raid was a game where you had to put your life on the line. If he is unable to defeat the enemy in front of him, he will die. Once he prepared himself, he asked Besgoro

“Mr. Besgoro, you said that Frenzy increases attack speed the more I attack?”

‘Specifically 10% for each hit you land.’

Sungjin didn’t listen to him all the way as he took out the Yanhurat’s Necklace from his pocket.

“Equip”

He put it on instead of Basilisk’s Eye. Snake Eye would be an interesting ability to try out against Calian, but to make sure the job gets done, this way was better. Once he had Yanhurat’s Necklace on

‘Kill! Kill!’

The voice grew faster and faster. Besgoro seemed to be sensitive to its voice.

‘Kill I say... Kill...’

It must have had a stronger effect on him due to his long career on the battlefield. Sungjin answered the two ghosts.

“I will.”

Once he was done making preparations, Sungjin once again

“Baptism of Blood”

Activated Blood Vengeance’s active effect and fed it his blood. Sungjin noticed Calian get excited after seeing Blood Vengeance glow crimson red.

And it was right for Calian to be; sacrificing his own HP to empower his strike was nothing short of telegraphing that a large attack was coming. Calian took precaution.

“Protection of Darkness, return everything to null, Dark Shield!”

Soon his entire body was enveloped by a dark aura. Black magic which raised the defense. Sungjin had seen someone use that in the past.

‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’

‘Let’s go kill him! I want to see that elf’s blood!’

The ghosts were getting out of hand. Sungjin shouted

“Frenzy”

Besgoro’s ‘Frenzy’ mode was activated. And finally

‘Kill kill kill kill!’

He finally accepted Yanhurat’s plea.

“Zealot”

Baptism of Blood, Frenzy, and Zealot. Using all three effects simultaneously, Sungjin charged towards Calian like a banshee.

Calian was caught off guard at Sungjin who began moving three times as fast as before. He had to put everything he had into defense, using both of this swords to protect himself.

‘Clang clang ching clack!’

Calian was a master at swordplay. He was able to keep up with Sungjin who was moving three times the normal. But even he could not block all of Sungjin’s blows.

In the middle of his iron defense, just once

‘Pew~’

Moon Specter grazed against his upper arm. And this was just the beginning. Frenzy kicked in, and Sungjin began to move even faster.

Calian took a few steps back to defend but

‘Woosh’

Blood Vengeance grazed against his calf. He thought to himself

‘Its still okay. I didn’t get hit in the vitals.’

But the danger of ‘Frenzy’ was in these little hits. Each time an attack successfully landed, sungjin’s power and speed would grow, giving up more and more hits. Calian gave up a third hit.

This was the end. The Ghosts who saw blood shouted loudly

‘Kill kill kill KILLLLL!”

‘Finish him off Kei! Cut off his head, and lets see his blood!’

Drowning in the frenzied shouting of two ghosts, Sungjin lost his sanity.

*

[...Clear]

When Sungjin came to, the combat was already over. He heard the Operator’s warning.

[Warning! Half HP]

‘Hmm?’

Sungjin was surprised and immediately turned off the Baptism of Blood. Now that he thought of it, he didn’t need to keep this one on either.

After two or three hits, bonus damage didn’t matter after all. Keeping Baptism of Blood active in an unconscious state was a dangerous gamble.

‘I’m just lucky that there are no enemies around...’

Sungjin turned around. Calian’s corpse was cut apart to pieces until it was no longer recognizable as a body. Sungjin held up his blade to respect him.

‘An amazing adversary. If it wasn’t for my items... I couldn’t have hoped to defeat him.’

After thinking so, Sungjin held Yanhurat.

“Unequip”

And returned it to the cube. Besgoro was still frenzied.

‘Kill them all! Kill them!’

“Unequip!”

Sungjin took off Besgoro for now and held it on his side. Sungjin sat down for now and took a breather.

“Whew...”

He was a powerful enemy. Most hidden bosses were difficult to defeat with the cooperation of five hunters, but this ‘Calian’ was strong even among them.

It was the first enemy in a while that could reawaken a sense of peril in Sungjin.

‘Now that I think of it... once I began buying stuff in Darker than Black... I stopped investing in myself.’

As the chapters progress, enemies continuously grow stronger. And the further the chapter goes, the bigger the difference between each successive chapters. If he couldn’t keep up with the pace, he would perish.

Once Sungjin obtained ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, he felt that he relied on the item too much. Sungjin turned around. The book was laying on the ground nearby.

He had dropped it at the start of the fight due to being charged at and interrupted. Sungjin walked up to the book and dusted it off.

He thought to himself.

‘These ‘book’ items have such glaring weakness...’

It took too long to read out the passages. After all, the item depended on the tank providing the time to read the passages safely without interruption. Its previous owner had done the same.

‘For one reason or another... it’s time I looked for upgrades.’

Sungjin put away the book. He asked the Operator about the time.

“Operator, how much time passed since the Raid’s start?”

[24 minutes 32 seconds have passed.]

“Ok...”

He still had some time. And he had lost a great deal of HP and MP. Sungjin re-entered the cavern.

He planned to kill a few more enemies to replenish HP and MP. There wouldn’t be any troll as strong as Calian, but there was always a possibility that he would get outnumbered.

Before going back in, he reequipped ‘Basilisk’s Eye’ and ‘Besgoro’. The moment Besgoro returned to Sungjin’s head, he shouted out in glee.

‘Hey, Kei, why didn’t you use that item earlier? That combined with my Frenzy would make you unstoppable!’

Sungjin thought to himself rather than reply

‘Sigh... such a good item... but why does it have such a weird passive?’