Episode 10: Calculations of Revenge / Chapter 174: Each’s Calculations (7)

TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk

In reality, the fight between Choi Hyuk and the head wolf was impossible to perceive. It was beyond just being too fast, it was literally on another level.

When spectating this fight, the head wolf’s enormous paw would suddenly appear and rip their heads, and the moment their gaze met Choi Hyuk’s black eyes, their hearts would be pierced. They were clearly dead, yet when they came to their senses, they were fine.

All that remained was a fear that made their bodies tremble from head to toe, a warning not to peep at the transcendent realm before them.

Warriors of higher levels could overcome this fear and observe the fight, but the fact that they still couldn’t perceive anything was the same.

When looking at the fight, they might feel like they saw something, but the memories remaining in their minds were a mess. They simultaneously saw Choi Hyuk leap up and pierce the head wolf’s head and the head wolf instantly breaking Choi Hyuk’s neck. One time, the head wolf howled after killing Choi Hyuk. Another time, Choi Hyuk sat on the head wolf’s head after killing him. At times, the two looked like triangles, straight lines, round spheres, and other shapes as they flew around and dizzily entangled together.

“A fight between transcendent warriors isn’t a fight that properly follows laws, but a fight that creates their own laws and reality.”

Someone explained, but they couldn’t figure anything out in the end. All they knew was that they were fighting.

The place Choi Hyuk and the head wolf were fighting was somewhere completely different from here, in other words, a place blocked by the ‘wall of laws’.

As these were the circumstances, even highest-ranked warriors didn’t dare join the fight, let alone high-ranked ones.

Since Ryu Hyunsung, who just reached the highest rank, flew towards that fight, those around him couldn’t help but cry out in astonishment.

“Euaack!”

Lee Jinhee tried to follow him, but Alexei stopped her.

“Director! You can’t!”

“Let go!”

Lee Jinhee struggled, but she couldn’t move forward when the other members of her troop also joined in to hold her back.

“Euaaaah!”

Lee Jinhee screamed in despair.

Having bitten her lips to the point of bleeding, she seemed determined as she glared in Ryu Hyunsung’s direction.

Lee Jinhee tightly gripped her Sword of Sentiment ‘Lee Jinhee’s Dream’ and poured all her karma into it before throwing it.

‘Protect Ryu Hyunsung.’

With this earnest wish.

Bang!

From the tips of her fingers, which had burst with blood due to being overloaded, ‘Lee Jinhee’s Dream’ shot out with a bright silver trail.

Lee Jinhee shouted,

“Baek hyung, what are you doing?! Cover Ryu Hyunsung!”

At her shout, Baek Seoin, who had been vacantly staring at Ryu Hyunsung, jolted to his senses.

If there was no way to stop Ryu Hyunsung, then it would be better to find a way to support him.

“Guardian! Support Ryu Hyunsungwith your karma! Naro! It’s fine if it’s only slightly, but reduce the aura of hostility! Zero, follow behind Ryu Hyunsung!”

While he personally couldn’t do anything, he found others who could help.

“Warriors at the highest rank! No, anyone! Support Ryu Hyunsung with your karma! Or at the sword Lee Jinhee threw!!”

It wasn’t easy. Ryu Hyunsung, who was now a highest-ranked warrior, was charging quickly, and ‘Lee Jinhee’s Dream’ was following behind him. Even if the warriors in the distance pooled their strength together, there was a concern their strengths would clash.

Baek Seoin shouted,

“It’s okay! Lee Jinhee’s Sword of Sentiment is special! Just send your support!”

{… Are you certain?}

“I don’t know. If we don’t send our support, then it’ll certainly fail.”

Baek Seoin brushed Naro’s question aside.

In the end, Baek Seoin was correct.

Boom!

Supported by other warriors’ strength, ‘Lee Jinhee’s Dream’ accelerated like lightning. As though it would cover the entire world, and while blazing a trail of silver light, it passed Ryu Hyunsung and opened a path for him.

Ryu Hyunsung’s body was also filled with karma sent by Bae Jinman and other warriors. Those who could send their strength further sent it to Ryu Hyunsung while those who couldn’t supported ‘Lee Jinhee’s Dream’.

Seeing ‘Lee Jinhee’s Dream’ pass him, Ryu Hyunsung tightly gripped his sword.

**

A fight between transcendent warriors was fundamentally different from all the fights he had experienced until now.

Transcendent warriors were those who had completed and declared their fate to the universe.

Like how a flap of a butterfly’s wings in Beijing could become a typhoon in New York, fate was created through the accumulation of very trivial actions.

Each fluttering strand of the head wolf’s mane, each breath the wolf let out from his long mouth, and the karma that acted as his bones and heart steadily drove Choi Hyuk into a corner like on a chess board.

It wasn’t a traditional fight where they simply aimed their sword or teeth at their opponent’s neck. When the wolf moved his head, he crumbled or expanded the space Choi Hyuk was standing in. Each fluttering strand very slightly dispersed Choi Hyuk’s surroundings. Even after it seemed like the head wolf had swung his paw, as though on repeat, his paw swung out yet again. Every time the wolf did so, Choi Hyuk’s breathing would stagger. With these as his groundwork, the wolf would ensnare Choi Hyuk and tear his limbs off with his paws, making Choi Hyuk a sacrificial lamb in declaring the second coming of the ‘Blue Manes’.

The head wolf leisurely and diligently pushed Choi Hyuk into a corner.

However, Choi Hyuk had a cheat-like trait.

“Whoo…”

After catching his breath…

Shik!

Accompanied by the sound of air escaping, when ‘Choi Hyuk’s Denial’ cut through the air, it would cleanly erase all the groundwork the head wolf had laid down. The distorted space would return to normal and the wolf’s tricks in dispersing Choi Hyuk’s surroundings would immediately stop. Rather, it was the wolf who lost his breath.

The head wolf laid the groundwork to kill Choi Hyuk, and Choi Hyuk laid the groundwork to find and negate the wolf’s groundwork. It looked like a dance as they approached while glaring at each other before separating, repeatedly laying down and erasing groundwork.

The head wolf was irritated by this situation.

If this was chess, this was the same as his opponent clearing the board whenever he gained an advantage. There was no way he wouldn’t become annoyed.

Still, the head wolf barely managed to hide his irritation as he disguised his composure.

{How long are you going to do this? Until all your subordinates are dead?}

At the head wolf who was trying to provoke him, Choi Hyuk simply replied,

“Yeah, bark, bark.”

He meant to cut the crap.

Because the Net of Fate had already disappeared, he really sounded like he was barking.

{Grrr…!}

On the other hand, the head wolf, who was more skilled at using his power than Choi Hyuk, could understand what Choi Hyuk was saying. He became provoked even though he was the one that attempted to provoke Choi Hyuk.

Like an unending fight, the two tangled and separated again. Even though Choi Hyuk was in a disadvantageous situation, he wasn’t impatient, calmly nullifying the head wolf’s attacks again and again.

While waiting for a new variable to appear,

While waiting to discover an opportunity to attack,

However, the variable that arrived was much different to what Choi Hyuk expected.

Choi Hyuk and the head wolf sensed that Ryu Hyunsung was approaching them at the same time.

Their judgments differed.

‘Hmm?’

The head wolf glanced at him before ignoring him. A mere highest-ranked warrior, there was a qualitative difference in strength between them. The head wolf was certain that Ryu Hyunsung wouldn’t even be able to get close.

‘Ryu Hyunsung…’

On the other hand, Choi Hyuk’s gaze deepened.

He saw Ryu Hyunsung’s clear eyes. Determined to risk his life… No, rather, his eyes looked like they weren’t determined to do anything. Rather than being determined, his eyes were filled with the tenacity and will to inflict even the slightest wound on the head wolf. As though his entire life was for this moment, a sword strike containing his own self.

Choi Hyuk was moved by those eyes.

‘Either way, it’s difficult to reverse the situation like this.’

The head wolf, who had combined with a monster, was stronger than he imagined, and if things continued like this, the punitive force would be the one who would eventually face defeat.

Still, since there was no other way, he thought to find the wolf’s weakness while enduring, but Ryu Hyunsung was a better alternative at this moment.

Choi Hyuk resolved himself to bet on Ryu Hyunsung.

The air changed.

{Grrr…}

The head wolf’s howl rang out longer and spread wider than before.

{… Something’s changed? Did you decide to halt your futile attempts in resetting the playing field?}

Up until now, Choi Hyuk had always been on the defensive. When the head wolf laid down the groundwork to end Choi Hyuk’s life, Choi Hyuk focused all his power in breaking that groundwork. However, Choi Hyuk began to prepare for an attack.

Not acting to break the wolf’s groundwork, he moved in order to slice the wolf’s neck the moment he slipped up.

The start of the true fight.

Choi Hyuk no longer reset the playing field and began moving his pieces one after the other.

This was the moment the head wolf was eagerly waiting for.

He even became suspicious because things went so smoothly.

‘Perhaps there’s something special about the approaching warrior?’

However, there really wasn’t anything special about him after a second glance. He was simply a reckless warrior. No matter how much he thought about it, the wolf believed that there was no chance that a weak highest-ranked warrior could approach and land an effective blow on him.

‘How foolish. Does he even see me?’

While ridiculing Ryu Hyunsung, the head wolf’s lips widened.

{Good thinking. It’s a very foolish decision.}

Grrrr. An unpleasant laughter rang out.

Choi Hyuk reacted indifferently to the wolf’s laugh.

“Yeah. Bark, bark.”

However, unlike his confident attitude, Choi Hyuk’s situation instantly became disadvantageous.

Since Choi Hyuk wasn’t his opponent in terms of level or strength, Choi Hyuk wouldn’t be able to last long in a head-on fight without his power to ‘deny’.

It only took an instant.

A metallic scent wafted in the air, and the wolf’s body looked like it split in two.

Thinking he could avoid it, Choi Hyuk dodged, but the wolf’s enormous paw was swinging down at him. He had to move more in order to avoid the wolf’s attack.

Everything became a mess. The wolf’s breath which he thought he heard from his right was actually coming from his left. His foot tripped over empty space, and he faltered. He saw the wolf’s fluttering mane yet he couldn’t see the actual wolf. The wolf that had clearly moved in that direction was standing in place.

Space and time, order and law, all of these were moving in a direction advantageous for the head wolf. If he still didn’t ‘deny’ soon, then Choi Hyuk really wouldn’t last long.

“Huu.”

Yet, Choi Hyuk took a deep breath.

He poured karma into his sword and waited for the right opportunity.

{Krrrauuuh!}