Chapter 35 - Crumbling Winter Wind (1)
TL: Boko
Editor: Frost
Eun Joo, radiating a brilliant light, shot towards the S-rank monster, the Lava Warrior, and forcefully swung her greatsword, clad in white light.
The Lava Warrior raised its shield, coated in a fiery aura, in an attempt to block her strike, but Eun Joo was stronger than most Hunters, so its aura couldn't withstand her blow.
"Ha!"
Eun Joo didn't miss the opportunity, taking advantage of the Lava Warrior's flustered state, and quickly swung her greatsword, severing its right arm. Rather than blood, flames spurted out.
"Please, hurry and go!" Eun Joo yelled. Sung Joon started dashing towards the Winter Sovereign with Jang Hoon. Shin Chul and eight other teammates followed behind them.
The remaining team members maneuvered so that they could fight off the group of monsters that had approached.
"Damn it! There are too many monsters!" someone yelled.
As soon as they got closer to the Winter Sovereign, the monsters that were accompanying it and acted as its minions began to move seriously.
Sung Joon and Jang Hoon avoided battling as much as they could, and were in the process of moving through the path they had created, but they were surrounded, and the encirclement narrowed more and more.
"Is this it…"
Sung Joon paused and surveyed his surroundings. Because there were four S-rank monsters blocking his path, he couldn't proceed any further.
"Our retreat path is blocked off," Shin Chul reported.
Just like Shin Chul said, Sung Joon felt the monsters' presences behind him, as well as their killing intent.
"There's one S-rank and ten rank monsters," Rishubalt said.
The strength of the monsters blocking their path was considerable. Sung Joon organized his thoughts quickly and ultimately made his decision.
He opened his mouth with a calm expression.
"I'll plow through the monsters towards the Winter Sovereign. For everyone else, when the monsters focus their attention on me, please secure a retreat path, and run away."
The Hunters nodded their heads. They didn't possess any patriotism, and were only moved by money. However, two of them, only two of them didn't agree with him.
"I heard that the more bait you have, the better."
"Park Jang Hoon. You sure put yourself in a cool position."
They were Jang Hoon and Shin Chul. Surprisingly, while the others were deliberating over to run away or not, the two resolved themselves, ready to die here.
"I won't stop you if you plan on following me," Sung Joon said. Right now, he needed all the help he could get. The two wordlessly stood beside Sung Joon.
"Let's go," Sung Joon ordered, and the two moved nimbly. There were two S-rank monsters in front of them, but Sung Joon killed one of them with a sharp surprise attack.
Jang Hoon, aided by Shin Chul's attack magic, was able to softly parry the other S-rank monster's attack and advance forward.
The monsters attempted to pursue Sung Joon, Jang Hoon, and Shin Chul, but since their high speed movement was so fast, the monsters couldn't easily close the distance.
"I'm sorry. I'm at my limit…"
However, Shin Chul was the first to be fatigued. He turned towards the pursing monsters and opened his mouth.
"I'll take care of this. Team Leader, please keep going."
"Yoo Shin Chul… You…!"
Jang Hoon was infuriated, but Shin Chul just wordlessly shook his head. Seeing the quickly approaching monsters, Jang Hoon and Sung Joon could do nothing but turn towards the Winter Sovereign.
"Before the Winter Sovereign reaches Seoul, the other S-rank Hunters will not intervene. Ever. Team Leader, I leave it all to you!"
Shin Chul raised his staff and drew his mana. His vision was obscured by the countless monsters, but his characteristic expressionless face didn't change.
"Fire Wall!"
They pushed past Shin Chul, who yelled out the magic activation words, and Sung Joon and Jang Hoon began running once more. They didn't know how far they had plowed through, but there was almost no monsters' presence around them.
"This is strange. There's no way there'd be this few minions around."
Jang Hoon expressed his confusion at the small amount of minions; there were far less than he had expected. Sung Joon concentrated and tracked the movements of the monsters nearby the Winter Sovereign.
Aside from a small portion of them, most of the monsters were moving west. The fact that the monsters which were supposed to act as the Winter Sovereign's minions moved meant that they were being attacked on the outside.
"It seems as though Alpha Team One is in the area," Sung Joon said. If Alpha Team One, led by Na Joon Yeol, began their attack on the Winter Sovereign, everything would make sense.
"This is our chance. I'm attacking the Winter Sovereign," Sung Joon said, and Jang Hoon nodded his head. He spread his senses, but there weren't many monsters nearby guarding the Winter Sovereign.
"Gale Sword!"
As soon as they got close, the remaining monsters hurriedly blocked his path. There were two rank monsters mixed in, but they couldn't compete with Sung Joon.
Most of the monsters were swept away with one Gale Sword. Its power was limited, but Sung Joon, seeing it sweep away thirty monsters in one go, was excited to see what its full force could do.
"Ha!"
The two rank monsters had endured, but Jang Hoon swung his greatsword and took care of them. Because they had sustained damage from the sword winds, it was easy for him to defeat them.
"They're coming again!" Jang Hoon yelled, and they fought against another group of monsters.
Sung Joon supplemented his mana and stamina through Mana Absorption, but his consumption became greater the longer the battle lasted. He had to save as much mana as he could for the Winter Sovereign.
Befitting a top tier rank Hunter, Jang Hoon himself looked like a monster that could swing a greatsword at lightning speed.
"Hoo! Is that all of them?"
Jang Hoon killed the last remaining rank monster, and asked. His combat abilities were superb, but he wasn't very good at detecting presences.
"There's one still remaining."
"If there's only one remaining, then it should be an S-rank monster, right?"
"Probably."
Jang Hoon seemed to briefly ponder the matter and made his decision.
"I'll face the S-rank monster. Team Leader, please take care of the Winter Sovereign."
"Can you do it?"
"If it's at around the Orc Blademaster's level, I can win somehow. If not, then I can only hope that you take care of the Winter Sovereign as quickly as possible, Team Leader."
The two of them dashed towards the Winter Sovereign once more and soon encountered the S-rank monster.
"Damn…"
Jang Hoon grimaced. The S-rank monster they found was a monster that was renowned for being extremely tough to beat, the 'Spirit King'.
"What are you going to do?" Sung Joon asked. A stronger than expected enemy had appeared, so he wanted to know whether they would kill it together. However, Jang Hoon shook his head and opened his mouth.
"Nothing's changed. There's only one enemy, so I'll keep it busy."
"I won't take long."
Sung Joon utilized his high-speed movement first. The Spirit King moved as well, but Jang Hoon blocked its path.
"You're mine."
Jang Hoon smirked. The Spirit King said nothing but unleashed a tempest of fire at him, marking the start of their battle.
"I'm counting on you!"
Sung Joon didn't look back and used his high-speed movement towards the Winter Sovereign. He soon reached the yeti, whose huge body was about five meters high.
When he looked up close, it was indeed big enough to emanate danger.
"Are you the one trying to stop our grand plan?"
Surprisingly, the Winter Sovereign could speak in the other world language. Seeing that, Rishubalt opened his mouth while sporting a grave expression.
"It's intelligent. It's definitely part of the Species Alliance*." (*Changed to this. I'm not quite sure why I originally translated it as Allied Species. It's highly likely that Allied Species just flowed better the first time it was used in a sentence.)
Sung Joon nodded his head and raised his sword.
"It has a tremendous amount of mana. The release of your killing intent should be ineffective," Rishubalt reported. The larger the divide between his mana and his target's, the more effective the release of his killing intent would be, so it was difficult to expect his killing intent to do anything against the Winter Sovereign.
"If it's the Species Alliance, it's my enemy."
Sung Joon drew his mana. There was a storm that raged beyond his silent eyes. He didn't raise his synchronization rate, but he dashed as quickly as he could towards the Winter Sovereign.
"Summon."
The Winter Sovereign looked a bit surprised because his high-speed movement was faster than it had expected, but it reacted calmly. It raised its summoned shield and used its aura shield on it.
A blue aura coated his shield.
"Slash!"
Sung Joon unleashed an aura slash, but it was blocked by the aura shield and dispersed. The effectiveness of the aura shield differs based on the user's level of skill, but it could block an aura based attack a few times.
'Even so, it can only block my attacks a few times.'
Sung Joon didn't stop. The Winter Sovereign raised its gigantic square shield that covered its entire body, and reinforced its aura shield.
"Illusionary Sword!"
The moment he decided that he'd gotten close enough, he unleashed his decisive blow, the 'Illusionary Sword' technique. Thirty one blades composed of aura sought the Winter Sovereign.
"T-This is Roukel's Illusionary Sword! Was it not lost…!?"
Seeing the complete Illusionary Sword, the Winter Sovereign panicked. The Illusionary Sword was a technique that vanished along with Roukel in the Ridonia Great Plains.
However, an other worlder known as a Hunter was using that technique perfectly, right before its very eyes.
'Those who see all thirty one of those blades die.'
Sung Joon smirked. The thirty one illusionary blades beat on the aura shield. The Winter Sovereign's shield was durable, but the moment the twentieth illusionary sword struck the aura shield, the aura shattered.
The remaining illusionary swords cut through the iron shield as if it were paper, and slashed the Winter Sovereign.
"AH!"
The Winter Sovereign spurted blood and collapsed.
Thud.
As soon as its enormous body toppled onto the floor, the ground shook as if there had been an earthquake.
"How does a mere other worlder know of Roukel's Illusionary Sword!?"
The Winter Sovereign's sonorous voice shook the trees. Sung Joon simply raised his sword.
"I don't know you, but it seems like you know my sword…"
The Winter Sovereign thoroughly inspected the sword Sung Joon raised, Roel, and his eyes shook greatly. Seeing that, Sung Joon smirked.
"Am I wrong? Winter Sovereign."
"How do you have Roukel's sword…? Other worlder! Where did you get that sword!"
"I won't tell you. There's no reason to, and there's no need."
Sung Joon's eyes gleamed coldly.
"Perhaps your friends who've gone to Hell ahead of you might know. Go and ask them."
Sung Joon's body disappeared. The Winter Sovereign felt killing intent from behind it and hurriedly stood its body up. Contrary to its huge five meter tall body, it stood up quickly, and a strong gale erupted.
"It won't be as easy as you think!"
In the midst of seeing a lost technique, the Winter Sovereign had been flustered and Sung Joon managed to land a hit on it. But now, the Winter Sovereign attempted to use all its strength, but it wasn't easy as its injuries from the Illusionary Sword were severe.
"Ugh!"
Sung Joon slashed deeply into the Winter Sovereign's left leg. The entire blade cut through its flesh, but its body was so large that it wasn't a severe injury.
The Winter Sovereign shrieked and a gust of wind blew, mixed with sharp ice shards. Sung Joon hurriedly retreated to avoid it and sorted out his thoughts.
'Its skin is too tough for my sword winds to be effective. If I want to inflict a fatal wound, then I have to use either my Illusionary Sword or aura slash.'
However, it wasn't easy.
His mana was almost empty so he couldn't use his Illusionary Sword, and an aura slash had a large preliminary movement while the Winter Sovereign moved a lot faster than he had expected, so he didn't have a lot of options to counterattack.
"Rishubalt," Sung Joon said, softly calling out to his ever trusty spirit aide.
"I am always at your side, my lord."
"I'm raising my synchronization rate to 45%."
"Your body won't be able to endure," Rishubalt advised. Sung Joon smiled cynically and opened his mouth.
"I've just met one of my long awaited enemy, so if I can't overpower him completely, I'll lose face," Sung Joon replied, and Rishubalt smiled.
"I agree."
//