Chapter 66: To the Snowfield (11)
Pushishi…
Black soot rose from the man’s neck.
Even Sa-hyeok, who had witnessed all kinds of death in Seoul’s District 3 three years ago, had never seen a cause of death like this.
“…This is insane.”
Sa-hyeok retraced the scene of the explosion in his mind.
Right before his head exploded, the healer was definitely flustered.
In other words, it meant he didn’t blow his own head up on purpose.
Probably, with high probability, a forced explosion by someone else.
Then, the important thing now was the question of who the third party was that caused this explosion.
That guess wasn’t difficult.
Swish
Sa-hyeok turned his head toward the inside of the hollow.
The inside of the hollow was covered in darkness.
But Sa-hyeok could feel it.
The presence of a person felt from inside the hollow.
Sa-hyeok threw words into the darkness.
“Come out.”
Whoosh!
At that moment, light shone again in the dark hollow.
The lighting devices that had been turned off began to emit light again.
As the light came on, what was hidden in the darkness was revealed.
“Huh……?”
Inside the darkness was a giant Snowman.
A huge body that would be ten times the size of a typical Snowman.
The boss of this snowfield dungeon, the Snow King.
But the boss’s dignity could not be found in him.
His body was bound with chains, horrific wounds covered his entire body, and several tubes were even inserted into his chest.
Nevertheless…
Flinch
The Snow King was still alive.
A miserable sight that ordinary people would turn their eyes away from.
However, Sa-hyeok wasn’t particularly disturbed even after seeing it.
The important thing was who, why, and how this had happened.
Step
Someone walked out from behind the Snow King.
He was a pretty big guy.
He was wearing black metal armor on his hands and feet, and his face was covered with a rough beard.
Sa-hyeok asked.
“Did you do this?”
“Why? Is it too gruesome for you to see?”
“No. I was going to kill it anyway, so if you killed it for me, it’s convenient for me.”
“Oh?”
“By the way, who are you?”
The man smiled faintly and replied.
“I was drawing the Snow King’s blood. There’s someone who needs this.”
“Someone who needs it…?”
“But direct sunlight shouldn’t touch the blood while it’s being extracted. So I was working in the dark. By the way, if the Snowman’s blood reacts to light…”
“Wait, I’m not really curious about that.”
Sa-hyeok cut off the man’s words and began his own.
“It was you, right? The one who blew up that healer’s head.”
The man grinned and didn’t answer.
Instead, he just collected the Snowman’s blood extracted through the tube into a case.
Sa-hyeok spoke again.
“Looking at how things are going, it seems like you blew the healer’s head off to silence him, right?”
“You’re quick-witted. Why didn’t you just run away with that good sense? Then you could have lived.”
“I would have been caught soon even if I ran away from someone like you whose Light Footwork has reached Treading Snow Without a Trace. I didn’t forget to run away, I just didn’t bother.”
Twitch
The man frowned.
A reaction as if he had been caught off guard.
The man said.
“…You have quite a sharp eye.”
“Then who told you to leave such messy footprints in the snow?”
“Kuh…”
Click
The man put the case containing the Snowman’s blood in his back pocket and said.
“I guess I’ll just have to kill you.”
“I agree.”
The trigger of murderous intent, which had been tightly loaded, was finally pulled.
The final battle in this dungeon had begun.
Whoosh!
The man closed the distance in an instant through a sprint.
It was incomparable to the movements of the corpse puppet he had fought earlier.
A truly well-trained, flawless, and clean footwork technique.
And that wasn’t the end.
Bang!
As soon as he approached within a certain distance, the man stomped the ground hard with his front foot.
Earth-Shaking Stomp.
A technique that lowers the center of gravity that had been lifted due to high-speed movement to the lower body and converts that acceleration into a strike.
Sprint, Earth-Shaking Stomp, Strike.
All of these techniques flowed seamlessly, striking towards Sa-hyeok.
Whoosh!
A fist aimed at Sa-hyeok’s left side.
Sa-hyeok extended his left fist to block the punch.
‘Kwonmu Fist Technique 2nd Form, Defense.’
Sa-hyeok’s left hand wrapped in the Iron Arms of the Bone King, the man’s right hand wearing a metal gauntlet.
The two fists collided precisely.
Clang!!
A sharp explosive sound and shockwave erupted upon contact.
It was enough to shake the air and the ground just from that.
Crash!
Sa-hyeok was pushed back a long way.
A shock that made his whole body tingle.
Sa-hyeok thought.
‘There’s nothing good about allowing close combat.’
He had only exchanged one blow, but he could feel it.
That his opponent was a martial artist who had reached a considerable level.
So there was no need to enter the field where the opponent had the advantage.
Sa-hyeok’s specialty was mid to long-range combat after all.
‘Let’s disarm him first.’
Woosh!
Sa-hyeok grabbed the man’s metal gauntlet with his telekinesis.
He was thinking of disarming him before fighting.
But the situation didn’t turn out that way.
The moment he tried to grab the man’s gauntlet with his telekinesis.
‘…What?!’
The gauntlet didn’t budge.
Was he resisting with his strength?
No.
The telekinesis itself didn’t work at all.
Sa-hyeok was bewildered.
At the same time, it was familiar.
This sensation, this feeling of telekinesis not working, was a sensation Sa-hyeok already knew.
‘This is the same feeling as when I use telekinesis on a living being…?!’
Telekinesis cannot interfere with living beings.
This was a law that had never wavered since Sa-hyeok awakened his telekinesis.
But the opposite was a first.
‘I used telekinesis on an inanimate object, but it’s not working…?’
Just in case, he tried to move the Mubuchamdo at his waist.
Slide-
The blade moved according to Sa-hyeok’s will.
‘It’s not a problem with my telekinesis.’
The cause lay with the man.
Sa-hyeok looked at the man closely once again.
Then he saw something he hadn’t noticed before.
Shimmer-
A transparent energy like a heat haze surrounding the man’s body.
‘What is that…?’
It was a phenomenon he had never seen before.
That unidentified energy surrounding his body.
It wasn’t difficult to guess that there was a connection between this strange phenomenon and the energy that prevented his telekinesis from interfering with the man’s equipment.
‘Is that energy blocking my telekinesis?’
But how?
By what principle…
‘Stop.’
Sa-hyeok put a stop to his own reasoning.
Judgment suspended.
What was important now wasn’t ‘why’ this phenomenon was happening.
The fact that this phenomenon was happening was already a given.
It was a definite fact that he couldn’t interfere with the equipment in contact with the man’s body using telekinesis.
If there is a fact that cannot be changed, accept it first.
And find a way to deal with it as quickly as possible.
That’s combat.
Exploring the principle can wait until after crushing the enemy.
Swish-
Sa-hyeok quickly surveyed the hollow.
Lighting devices lit up everywhere.
Wooden fragments scattered here and there.
And the material and strength of the floor, etc.
A scenario for the battle gradually began to form in Sa-hyeok’s mind.
The man said.
“I can hear the sound of your head working from here.”
The man’s sarcastic voice.
Sa-hyeok replied.
“If I don’t use my head, my body suffers.”
“That’s right. But if your body is good, you don’t need to trouble your head. Like me.”
Whoosh!
The man leaped in at a much faster speed than before.
But Sa-hyeok had no intention of allowing him to approach like before.
Crackle!
The Lightning Ring emitted electricity.
Sparks that spread out erratically, scorching the wide area in front of him.
The storm of electricity engulfed the man, and he momentarily stopped moving.
However…
“That stings.”
“What…?!”
The man was fine.
And Sa-hyeok saw it.
The heat haze-like energy surrounding the man’s body had deflected the electricity.
“What the hell are you? A martial artist who also uses lightning magic?”
At that moment.
Whoosh!
The man charged straight in.
A speed that would make anyone who didn’t know think it was teleportation.
It was a speed that would have been impossible to react to if it weren’t for telekinetic detection.
Clang!!
Their fists collided.
The close combat he had tried so hard to avoid had begun again.
Thud!
Bang!!
Crash!!
A fierce exchange of attacks.
Sparks fly from the friction of metal, pressure explodes, and the ground shakes.
Even though it was just fists being exchanged.
But it was clear which side was losing.
Naturally, it was Sa-hyeok.
Sa-hyeok was a mage.
Even though he could use martial arts, his body was only at the level of a trained ordinary person.
It was difficult to gain an advantage in close combat against a martial artist who had strengthened his body with mana.
Exchanging blows, Sa-hyeok gradually being pushed back.
But even in the midst of that, Sa-hyeok was looking for a kill shot.
Shing-
Two Mubuchamdo blades slowly emerged from their sheaths.
The man’s relentless barrage of punches.
Amidst that onslaught, Sa-hyeok found an opening.
The opening didn’t need to be big.
It was enough for just the tip of a thin blade to pass through.
Yes, just like this moment.
Swish!
Two Mubuchamdo blades flew towards the man.
One aimed for the forehead, the other for the neck.
An attack that would be instant death if either one landed.
However…
Crack!
The man grabbed the Mubuchamdo and stopped them.
“You’re using such pathetic tricks.”
Crack!
Sa-hyeok couldn’t believe his eyes.
The man had crushed the two Mubuchamdo blades in his hand.
“…Huh?”
This was a bit unexpected.
“Now just die.”
Whoosh!
The man threw a punch at Sa-hyeok’s flustered face.
But being flustered was one thing.
Sa-hyeok wasn’t the type to miss this kind of opportunity.
Woosh-
Hundreds of Mubuchamdo fragments scattered around.
Sa-hyeok grabbed the fragments with his telekinesis and launched them towards the man’s face.
Whizz!
Hundreds of fragments covered the man like buckshot.
“What…!”
The man momentarily raised his arms in a defensive posture.
Scrape!
The fragments scratched past the man, momentarily stopping his movements.
Whoosh!
Sa-hyeok used this opportunity to instantly create distance between himself and the man.
Securing distance.
With this, his initial goal was achieved.
Meanwhile.
Trickle-
A stream of blood flowed down the man’s cheek.
A mark left by the fragments grazing past.
The man muttered.
“Look at this bastard, piercing my Protective Aura…?”
“Protective… what?”
It was a term Sa-hyeok had never heard before.
But it wasn’t difficult to guess that the term Protective Aura referred to that heat haze-like energy.
The man said.
“Anyway, you damn rat, what kind of cheap trick…”
“But you just got bitten by a rat, didn’t you?”
“This bastard…!”
The moment the man tried to rush at Sa-hyeok again.
“But are you sure you’re okay?”
“What?”
“Your hands, you bastard, your hands.”
The man looked down at his gauntlets.
Crack-
There were severe cracks on the palms of both gauntlets.
It was damaged enough that it wouldn’t be strange if the gauntlets broke right away.
“Wh-What?!”
“That’s what happens when you grab anything carelessly.”
The cause was that he had just grabbed the Mubuchamdo with his gauntleted hands.
The Mubuchamdo was a blade that grinds its target through ultra-vibration.
Because he had gripped it tightly, his gauntlets had been ground down in return.
Shatter!
As a result, the metal gauntlets shattered and fell apart, revealing his bare hands hidden inside.
Sa-hyeok said.
“You can’t use fist techniques anymore, can you?”
“You bastard…”
Clank
The man took a step forward with his legs clad in metal combat boots.
He couldn’t use fist techniques anymore, but he still had leg techniques as a means of attack.
“So what if I can’t use fist techniques?”
“Hmm?”
“I can still finish you off with just leg techniques.”
The man’s words were not empty boasts.
In fact, the damage he had accumulated on Sa-hyeok’s body was considerable.
Even though he hadn’t been hit directly, the damage he had received while exchanging blows was embedded throughout Sa-hyeok’s body.
But that didn’t mean he was going to lose.
No, there was no reason for him to lose.
Because.
The game was already unfolding according to Sa-hyeok’s scenario.
A faint smile appeared on Sa-hyeok’s lips.
