The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 323: Sibling Fight (3)

His heart pounded hard. The pain in his arm faded, his insides burning with heat. Han Yuhyun looked at his brother. Amid the collapsing, crumbling, and melting scenery, he alone stood out—clearly visible, perfectly intact.

The upper floors of a building tilted and came crashing down. Moonlight poured in through the now-exposed sky. The round moon, even bigger and whiter than the one on Chuseok, hung above them. That pale halo of light blended with the rising flames.

The air was thick with heat, and fire flickered even at Han Yujin’s feet. Flames climbed up his shoes like long tongues, but he walked across the crumbling ground without a care. Seeing that, Yuhyun’s heart pounded even harder.

It wasn’t because of any item or equipment—his brother, like him, possessed fire resistance and held black flames in his hand. Though they were siblings by blood, they’d always been so different. But right now, in this moment, he felt like his brother was his only true kin—his one and only equal.

A world of black and blue flames, where no one else could tread.

“It’s a skill that can be weakened with painkillers.”

Han Yujin spoke. Han Yuhyun listened, as if spellbound by that voice.

“But I wouldn’t recommend it. It dulls your senses.”

With those words, fwip—his golden wings spread wide. As Yujin shot into the air, Yuhyun’s vision was filled with the sight. He felt his whole body flush with heat. His fingertips twitched reflexively. Shrouded in intense battle-lust, he spread his blue willow leaves and leapt up, his mind still cool and calculating.

Toward the lake. He couldn’t allow him to reach that advantageous location. Yujin’s flight speed wasn’t particularly fast—it was like he was trying to lure him. His stealth skill was also deactivated. Still, the distance between them had already widened.

Han Yuhyun stowed the Ruler’s Sword back into his inventory and extended one arm forward. At his fingertips, flames flickered and formed the shape of a bow. Naturally, the arrow of flame was aimed at the golden wings. His brother wouldn’t be hit so easily. So—

“Iryn.”

With a soft call, the bow was fired. The arrow tore through the air and scorched its path—then a second, a third, a fourth! A rapid barrage of arrows followed. They came so fiercely that even simple flight couldn’t avoid them all. Han Yujin folded his wings halfway and teleported. At that moment—

FWOOOSH!

A massive imugi surged up in a blaze of fire and coiled around Han Yujin. He couldn’t use his teleportation skill in quick succession—Yuhyun had aimed for that gap. The red dragon’s claws tore at the golden wings and gripped them tight. Fangs wreathed in blue flames clamped down fiercely on the black flame blade.

As the two dragons and the imugi tangled together, Han Yuhyun ran swiftly across the air using his willow leaves, rapidly closing the distance. The Ruler’s Sword was already back in his hand. The highest priority target—

‘The stealth skill.’

Stealth and teleportation. Either one alone wasn’t too hard to counter, but used together, they became a serious threat. Yujin even mixed in feints, using his skills with deft precision. There was no way to stop teleportation—it was a personal skill. But stealth, that could be dealt with by disabling the buff—it would drop back down to A-rank.

Their eyes met as Yuhyun reached his brother. Han Yujin looked back at him with a faint smile, his pupils slightly thinned from partially dispersing Iryn to shake him off.

“Hey, using Iryn like this is cheating. That’s alpha-stage.”

“Really? Sorry.”

With that brief apology, Yuhyun grabbed one of the half-folded wings. Then, with a firm grip, he pushed down, slamming Yujin’s body toward the ground. Unable to withstand the force, Iryn vanished, and Yujin plummeted.

THUD!

Debris flew and dirt rose with a loud crash. Yuhyun followed through, trying to swing his sword down while pinning his brother. But before he could, poison surged up, and a dragon’s tail shot toward him like a spear. Yuhyun blocked the tail with his sword, burned the poison with fire, and dodged—all while grabbing and tearing at Yujin’s jacket with his other hand.

RIIIIP—! The jacket, partially transformed to accommodate the wings, tore loudly. Yujin rolled out from under Yuhyun and frowned slightly as he glanced at his now-tattered jacket. It was damaged enough that it was useless.

“Damn it! Good thing it’s not the real one!”

Instead of replying, the Ruler’s Sword came flying at him. Han Yujin quickly leapt back, keeping low as the blade skimmed in with a slicing motion. Just as he lifted off the ground, a wire shot toward him, and the Ruler’s Sword curved to follow right behind.

Attacks came from different directions simultaneously—while airborne. Even Combat Insight wouldn’t help him now. And he failed to teleport too. In a rush, Yujin blocked the Ruler’s Sword with clawed hands formed from his weaponization skill and let the wire wrap around his leg. The wire yanked hard—

“Ugh!”

He lost balance and slammed into the ground. Then—

SCRAPE! Yujin dug his claws into the floor and resisted, firing his gun behind him. The magic bullets clanged off the Ruler’s Sword—ping, ping!—and bounced harmlessly away. Sword strikes followed, and Yujin rolled across the ground to narrowly evade them. Each time the blade brushed past him, the ground dented and debris scattered.

Han Yujin, now covered in dirt, tried to get up, but every time he did, Han Yuhyun yanked the wire to stop him. The attacks never let up, leaving no room to cut the wire. Spitting out the dirt that had gotten into his mouth after several tumbles, Yujin muttered,

“I wasn’t planning on using this.”

There was no escaping without pulling something cheap. Twisting his body to dodge a slash grazing his waist, Yujin suddenly—

“Sleep tight, my little Yuhyun~”

—started singing. A lullaby. Lullaby, an A-rank skill. If the user performs an action intended to lull the opponent to sleep, it can induce sleep. Singing a lullaby counted as such an action.

“…Hy-hyung!”

Caught off guard by the unexpected skill, Yuhyun stumbled for a moment. Yujin didn’t miss the opening and cut the wire binding his leg.

“Sleep tight, my little Yuhyun~ Such a good sleeper, our Yuhyun~!”

“Hyung! That’s dirty!”

“All’s fair in battle, isn’t it?”

As the powerful skill began taking effect, Yuhyun’s vision briefly blurred. To snap out of it, he ran his palm along the edge of his sword, drawing blood and shocking himself awake.

Meanwhile, Yujin was widening the distance, leaping toward the buildings. Instead of landing, he planted his foot against the wall and ran along it. Naturally, he didn’t forget to fire suppressive shots.

Bang, bang, bang!

Dodging the precise magic bullets, Yuhyun also took off in pursuit. Each time his feet struck the ground, cracks spiderwebbed outward. Though he had left the Last Gate’s active zone, as long as the skill remained active, the accumulated stat boosts stayed. With the enchantment’s burst acceleration added in, he closed the gap to Yujin in an instant.

As the brother on the wall and the brother on the road ran side by side, a bomb and a sword strike exploded simultaneously. Boom! KWAANG! Collapsing buildings and thick dust clouded the view. Unfazed, Yuhyun infused mana into his blue willow leaves and scanned the area. But his senses picked up nothing.

“…Hyung?”

This time, he was genuinely confused. No matter how quick his movements were, there was no way he could have dodged every single scattered leaf. And with teleportation alone, Yujin couldn’t have escaped that far. Yet there was no trace of him.

Yuhyun quickly stepped on a leaf and leapt upward, bursting through the dust cloud. From high in the air, he spotted a glint of gold heading toward the lake. It was Han Yujin, in partial draconification, looking unusually small. It wasn’t just the distance.

“Oh.”

Minimini Cookie. He had shrunk his body to slip through the willow leaves. At under 20 centimeters in size, it was entirely possible to avoid contact. That he thought to use the cookie in that brief moment…

“Lost you, hyung.”

He said it with regret, yet smiled as he did. A fierce exhilaration gripped his entire body, far beyond anything he’d felt before. The battles until now felt like child’s play—this moment was pure joy. His heartbeat refused to slow. It only grew faster.

RUMBLE—!

A building collapsed behind Han Yuhyun. The active area of Last Gate had begun to resemble a lava field. Flames engulfed buildings, the ground boiled, and fire spread beyond the skill’s range.

Roads, houses, trees, vehicles—everything was burning. Melting, boiling, and surging heat shot upward like it could pierce the moon.

Yuhyun waited until his stats had reached their maximum accumulation before moving. Flames spread rapidly behind him, chasing him as he reached the lakeshore.

“Yuhyun.”

Floating lightly above the rippling lake was Han Yujin. White mist over the water had frozen solid, and dozens, hundreds of orbs of water trembled. They weren’t just pure water—some carried electricity, others poison. The black flames in Yujin’s hand also brimmed with venom.

The overwhelming cold formed from that vast volume of water swept toward Yuhyun. Heat rose to meet it, neither side yielding easily.

Yuhyun gazed up at his brother through the white mist, awestruck. A shiver ran down his spine. He felt like rushing in with his sword right this moment, and—

“Hyung, I really like you.”

“…Why’re you getting all sentimental now?”

Please don’t tell me that was part of the strategy too. Yujin shrugged. Outside the lake, everything was black and red. The entire city was moments away from being consumed by flame. At the very front of that firestorm stood Han Yuhyun. Maybe it was just his imagination, but the flames around him looked even bluer than before.

THUNK! An S-rank longsword from Japan slammed into the ground in front of Yuhyun. Then another sword, a dagger, and a saber followed. Seeing them, Han Yujin’s eyes twitched slightly.

“Yuhyun. Hey. You said you liked me.”

“Yeah. I like you. I love you. So much that I’m actually disappointed I can’t melt the Ruler’s Sword.”

Han Yujin swallowed dryly as he looked at his smiling brother. Was he really about to use Weapon Devourer too? He figured he should stop him… but had no way to. Park Yerim might have flooded the entire lake or collapsed the terrain, but Yujin didn’t have that level of control.

Ssss—

The weapons surrounding the longsword heated up and melted in an instant. Molten red metal traced smooth arcs as it circled around Han Yuhyun. At some point, his eyes had turned crimson as well. Bit by bit, everything he’d been suppressing was released every time he clashed with Han Yujin at full strength.

‘How far can I go before it becomes too much? When should I hold back again?’

Those thoughts were swept away in the heat of excitement. Maybe it was okay to unleash everything. Maybe it really was. The blue water ahead, the chill in the air—it only stoked the fire hotter.

“Hyung.”

With a voice full of affection, Han Yuhyun called out. Han Yujin caught his breath. Even though the location now worked in his favor, he still had a bad feeling. His stats and gear were at a disadvantage in several ways. He could stop it now. If he said, “Let’s end this and go back,” his brother would surely, though reluctantly, agree.

But he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

While he hesitated, Han Yuhyun began to move. Without pause, he ran straight into the lake, stepping on willow leaves and gliding across the surface as if it were solid ground. Watching his little brother rush toward him, Han Yujin pressed a button.

BOOM! BOOOM!

Bombs planted in the water exploded, shooting up towering columns of water. Han Yujin couldn’t manipulate large volumes of water directly like Park Yerim. Instead, he used the bombs’ power. The geysers crashed down toward Yuhyun. Mixed among them were frozen spear tips.

Despite the overwhelming torrent and dozens of sharp icy spears, Han Yuhyun charged forward without hesitation, hurling the molten weapons overhead. Scorching heat collided with freezing lakewater. A deafening hiss, rising steam, ice spears shattering—clang, crack! Yuhyun burst through the cloud of mist, leaping at Han Yujin.

Yuhyun swung the Ruler’s Sword wide and planted his left foot on a willow leaf, rotating his entire body into a kick. Thud! Han Yujin blocked it with both weaponized hands. At the same time, droplets of water around his head froze instantly, only to be shattered by the blade. The curved chained sword wasn’t completely stopped, but its trajectory was altered just enough. The twisted Ruler’s Sword narrowly skimmed past the top of Yujin’s head.

Han Yujin ducked and twisted Yuhyun’s leg, which he still held. With his weaponization skill and an added strength buff from Noah’s support skill, he applied a crushing grip. Rather than resist, Yuhyun let himself spin, going with the motion. Ice crawled up his leg, freezing it—but only for a moment. Blue flame surged, and the molten metal swirling around Yuhyun solidified into dozens of arrows and shot toward Han Yujin.

Their ferocity was enough to make blocking them head-on unthinkable.

Han Yujin released his grip on Yuhyun’s leg and retreated. An ice shield formed in front of him. Arrows struck—CRACK! SNAP!—and the shield splintered instantly. It couldn’t withstand a barrage of SS-grade weapons. But there was plenty of water. Another shield formed, then another. It took five layers of ice for the arrows to finally lose momentum.

“Completely busted—haah!”

Just as he thought he’d barely fended them off, the Ruler’s Sword once again pierced toward his chest. Close-range was hopeless. Han Yujin used teleportation to retreat, lowering himself near the lake surface. At the same time, he hurled several poison-infused water droplets, elongated like spears and frozen on the outside, at Yuhyun.

The venom-tipped ice spears flew fast. Han Yuhyun made no move to dodge; he simply charged in, sword-first.

CRACK! CRASH!

The ice spears shattered, releasing the poison within. The cold momentarily suppressed the flames around Yuhyun, and in that opening, the toxin seeped in. He wore poison resistance gear, but the grade difference was vast. He was definitely poisoned—yet he didn’t care. He simply kept charging at Han Yujin.

This time, droplets infused with electricity blocked his path. The current inside twisted violently—

BOOM! BOOOM!

—and exploded with thunderous force. It wasn’t perfect electrolysis, just a rough imitation, but it was enough to buy time.

Scattered droplets, rising jets of water, bombs detonating beneath the surface—walls of water blocked Yuhyun, and ice spears aimed at his entire body. Magic bullets sliced through the water toward him.

Meanwhile, Han Yuhyun’s long-range attacks were thwarted by the endless layers of water and ice shielding Han Yujin.

“It’s going to be hard to reach me until all the lake water’s gone, Yuhyun.”

So, what’ll you do? Han Yujin asked with a light breath. Han Yuhyun smiled faintly.

“Just like you said.”

“Hm?”

“I’ll get rid of all of it.”

The melted blades that had been fending off the water and ice coalesced in Han Yuhyun’s hand. Dark blue flame enveloped the molten metal, and Yuhyun hurled it with all his strength toward the lake.

SSSSHHHH!

It pierced the lakebed, evaporating water instantly as it drove deep down. The blazing weapon unleashed overwhelming heat. Then—

KWA-BOOOOM!!

“Ugh—what the—?!”

A pillar of fire erupted from the lake’s bottom and exploded. The shockwave slammed into Han Yujin like a hammer, sending him crashing into the ground—onto the half-dried lakebed. Dazed, he blinked at the enormous crater in front of him. And then—

Patter, patter.

Rain began to fall from the sky.

SHHHHHHH—

It lasted just over ten seconds. Then it stopped. The lake was gone. At the center of the empty basin stood Han Yuhyun, looking directly at his brother.