The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 582: Preparing the Ingredients (4)

I immediately cast the Teacher skill on Yuhyun. Naturally, the backlash slammed into me.

“…Ugh.”

The skill was being fiercely rejected, but thanks to my improved mana control and the fact that he was a registered keyword target, I could just barely endure it. Even so, my vision spun and I staggered for a moment – and in that instant, my little brother charged.

Instead of sinking into the loose sand, Blue Willow Leaves formed under his feet. With just two low, skimming strides, he closed the distance in an instant.

I could feel every movement through the Teacher skill, but my body was way too slow to dodge. Still, I had Grace. As long as I didn’t get grabbed and have Grace stripped away, or have my throat pinned, at the very least I wouldn’t lose—

Vwoom–

Yuhyun swung the sheathed sword. Not at my body, but slightly in front of me. I flinched for a second, then realized why. Direct hits were blocked anyway. So instead—

Shrrrk!

The aftershock of the strike. The violent arc through the air sent sand exploding upward, burying me in a gusting sandstorm. I raised both arms on instinct, but my whole body was shoved back, tumbling across the ground. Right – Grace couldn’t block that kind of thing.

Yuhyun moved in to grab me while I was down. If he pinned me like this, it was over. But I didn’t have time to stand and dodge. So instead—

Boom!

I detonated a bomb right under my sprawled body. The blazing heat and sharp fragments were blocked by Grace, but my body shot straight up into the air. In an instant, the ground was a distant blur beneath me.

‘…Ugh, dizzy.’

I struggled to steady my spinning vision and summoned the mist. The item Chatterbox had lent me – Pearl of the Mist Sea. An item that summoned mist formed from pure mana. Just from the name alone, you could tell it had something to do with King of Harmless.

Thick mist spread rapidly over the desert. The mist itself was largely harmless. It just couldn’t be removed, and it bolstered its owner’s mana–related abilities. Combined with my stealth skill, it made it practically impossible even for S–rank Hunters to find me.

I felt Yuhyun coming after me, stepping on Blue Willow Leaves as he rose into the air. I pulled out another small bomb and detonated it together with a smoke round.

Bang!

With a boom, my body slammed back down to the ground. Thanks to the Lynx set effect and the fact that this was a sandy desert, I managed a passable landing and darted quickly into the mist.

‘Yuhyun really doesn’t have any openings.’

People said everyone had a weak point, but how big that weak point was varied a lot. And you could train to cover those weaknesses.

‘And Senior taught them too.’

When Young Chaos trained Yuhyun and Yerim, the very first thing he started with was recognizing and handling their own mana. The better you controlled your own mana, the fewer gaps you had – obviously. He couldn’t erase them completely, but compared to other S–rank Hunters, Yuhyun’s openings were smaller and shifted faster, making them that much harder to exploit.

Yuhyun dropped back down. I could feel the mist coiling around his body as it flowed over him. Thanks to that, I could sense Han Yuhyun’s presence and his mana’s movement even more clearly, but—

‘…My ability just isn’t enough.’

If I were A–rank, or even just B–rank, maybe I could have narrowed the gap somehow. But Yuhyun never relaxed his guard, so my only real option was to get in close and attack with the muzzle practically pressed to him. And with my physical stats, that was just not happening.

If I couldn’t do it with my own strength—

Just then, heat rose around Yuhyun. Dark blue flames leapt up, melting the sand. But the mist only rippled between the flames; it wasn’t affected at all. Ordinary mist made of tiny water droplets would have evaporated immediately, but this mist couldn’t be dealt with, not even by Yuhyun’s fire.

Face set in a cool, hard expression, Yuhyun slowly rolled his eyes toward the mist wrapped around him. And then—

“…Han Yuhyun!”

The color of the flames cleared in patches. Clumsy, translucent blue flames bloomed out and swallowed the mist. I panicked and yanked the mist back from between us. My brother’s eyes turned to me.

“What the hell are you doing?! Stop that right now!”

“Why?”

His low voice asked back. Why, he says.

“Iryn said using that eats away at your lifespan! You still can’t even control it properly, and you’re trying to burn through all the mist here, damn it!”

The curse slipped out on its own. With the voice chat turned off anyway, I yelled at him, asking if he was out of his mind. No matter how much Chatterbox guaranteed our safety, that was power that had erased part of the system itself once. It might affect his real body too. But Yuhyun just looked at me with slightly cold eyes, like he didn’t see any problem.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What?”

“My lifespan is the same as yours. So using it to protect you is actually protecting me.”

“That…”

Technically, he wasn’t wrong.

“That’s not what you should be saying right now!”

“Why not?”

Yuhyun took a step toward me. I reflexively stepped back, watching him, ready to spread the mist out again at any moment.

“…Yuhyun.”

He looked angry. No, he was definitely angry. His lips twisted faintly, his teeth clenched.

“I hate it.”

He glared at me sharply, like he could shred my throat. More precisely, he was glaring at my mana imprint.

“If my fire can burn anything, then it should be able to burn that too.”

Even without knowing exactly why, Yuhyun felt a strong revulsion toward Chatterbox interfering with my mana. I hadn’t expected him to hate it this much.

I stepped back again. But I couldn’t move the mist. If I tried to hide in it again, Yuhyun would just burn it with Blue Flame. Instead, I focused on the other mana sleeping inside me.

“He’s my brother.”

He growled it under his breath, and his body sprang toward me. This time, Ruler’s Sword came out of the sheath bare. At the same moment, he hurled the scabbard; it grazed my leg and stuck into the ground behind me at an angle. The heel of my retreating foot clipped the scabbard with a solid tap.

Pale blue fire clung to the pitch–black blade. Instinct said even Grace would have trouble blocking that. Grace nullified attacks. But Blue Flame would swallow that nullifying power itself.

If I raised Grace to SSS–rank, or even L–rank or higher, the rank difference might let me block it somehow. But even a Mana Spring couldn’t sustain an L–rank item for long. And there were still plenty of people left besides Yuhyun.

Thump!

With one last leap, Yuhyun was right in front of me. Instead of dodging, I dropped my body low. I grabbed the scabbard lodged behind me and held it up over my chest, over my heart, and the moment I did—

Clang!

The curved black blade smashed into the scabbard.

“Kh!”

My abraded skin burned. I couldn’t withstand the force hammering down, and I toppled onto the sand. Then, stomp – Yuhyun’s foot came down on the scabbard pinning me in place.

“…What the hell did they do to you, hyung.”

His voice sounded a little sad. Ruler’s Sword lifted. My brother’s eyes fixed on my neck. My chest was crushed, and I panted shallowly as I raised my hand.

If it was impossible with my own strength—

The sword dropped toward me. My outstretched hand met the tip, palm open. And then—

Crunch!

“…?”

Blood splattered. Yuhyun’s eyes went wide. Blood welled up between his lips. In his eyes, I saw my reflection – pitch–black eyes with a needle–thin red dragon’s slit pupil in the center.

Right before Ruler’s Sword could pierce my palm, the blade had bent. Toward its owner.

“…Hyung, this…”

“…I have the Black Dragon. And I have your blood.”

The blood of the sword’s master, and the dragon’s heart that formed the sword itself. Normally, I couldn’t handle power that wasn’t mine. But right now, I could wield that mana as if it were my own, at least temporarily. On top of that, I was linked to Yuhyun through the Teacher skill.

“I’m you, and at the same time I’m that sword, so for a moment I could move Ruler’s Sword.”

“…Hyung, you…”

Yuhyun coughed up blood again. It was basically the same as him stabbing himself with his own strength, blindsided by an attack he never saw coming. It was a lethal wound he wouldn’t be able to endure for long. But his expression relaxed. He almost looked like he was smiling.

“My… sword…”

He twisted his grip on the sword. Crunch – the already huge wound was ripped wide open. Blood pattered down onto me. Even knowing he wouldn’t die here, my face tightened.

“You… use… it…”

“…What?”

Drenched completely in blood, Ruler’s Sword slid out. Swaying hard but still managing to stay on his feet, Yuhyun held the sword out to me. Now he was definitely smiling.

“You’ll… be able… to use my blood…”

I hurried to catch the falling sword. Yuhyun’s body collapsed as well. I threw my arms out, but before I could pull him into a hug, he vanished. Only gold coins dropped down with a jingle.

“…Yuhyun, you little…”

I wrapped my hand around the hilt. It was the sword Young Chaos had refused to let me touch, saying it was too dangerous for me – but now it was quiet as a lamb. A black blade soaked in its master’s blood; until that power ran dry, it would display its full abilities even in my hands.

“…Ugh.”

All at once, a dull ache throbbed around my heart and in my back. It felt like something was pounding from the inside, and then—

“Hold on, ngh!”

A stabbing pain hit, hard enough that I almost couldn’t breathe. Curled up, I barely managed to force out a breath. My palm gripping the sword flared hot for a brief second, and then—

“…Haaah!”

The pain vanished. I pressed a hand over my still–throbbing heart and let out the breath that had been stuck in my chest. What the hell was that. A side effect of dragging on mana that wasn’t mine?

Meanwhile, the scenery around me shifted back to the ash–covered forest. I looked down at the gold coins scattered over the charred ground and started picking them up one by one.

“…This really leaves a bitter taste.”

I’d have to spill everything when this was over. It wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about telling them beforehand. But if I had, they might have all ganged up to stop me. If even two or three of them grouped together, it would become really hard for me to win. The items wouldn’t help, either. Strictly speaking, the die Chatterbox had given me just changed the battlefield to match the number rolled. Everyone within a certain range was dragged into that altered space, so if several people were clustered together, it was hard to force a one–on–one situation.

I didn’t really have any right to complain about Yuhyun using Blue Flame, either. Seriously. Still, I’d find a way to accept it. That contract.

I sheathed Ruler’s Sword and put it in my inventory. Hauling my blood–soaked body up, I looked at the map. The number of dots had shrunk again.

‘Peace and Gyeol were probably made to forfeit by Yuhyun and Seong Hyunjae.’

Kang Soyeong was gone too. If she wasn’t planning to attack me, it made more sense to forfeit and keep her coins. Or pick a fight with someone she’d always wanted to test herself against.

‘Hyunah and Liette sticking close together is probably… huh? Yerim?’

Yerim was with Chief Song as well. It might just have been because they were teammates, but considering Yerim had gone up against Seong Hyunjae several times… did that make Chief Song her target this round?

‘That’ll help in a lot of ways. It’s better to approach people once one side has already won their fight.’

On the map, Seong Hyunjae was on the move as well. He quickly closed in on another Hunter, and in an instant, one of the dots disappeared. I swallowed dryly without thinking.

‘I’m going to have to face him at least once.’

There was a high chance Seong Hyunjae would sharply pick up on my condition, too. Maybe not as keenly as Yuhyun, but there was no way he’d treat me lightly. I rotated the map view a little, checking the Hunters around me. Evelyn was nowhere to be seen, like she’d forfeited early. Maybe she thought attacking me would be too awkward. Another nearby Hunter vanished. Noah was standing where that dot had been.

‘Mr. Noah doesn’t really like fighting.’

Was he taking out other Hunters for my sake? I wanted to confirm it, but Noah moved too fast for me to chase. Instead of following him, I chose a Hunter on the opposite side as my next target.

I activated my stealth skill and slowly spread the mist. The Hunter, who’d been cautiously watching his surroundings, frowned when he saw the mist creeping around his feet.

“A skill?”

Hiding my body within the mist, I drew Ruler’s Sword. I was reluctant to burn through the strength Yuhyun had poured into it, but I needed to test just how far it would go. From Myungwoo’s pouch, I pulled out a toy car and set it down behind a tree.

“Who’s there!”

As the mana within the mist became more distinct, the Hunter raised his weapon.

“We don’t need to fight each other! Let’s talk first!”

Thanks to the mist, he seemed to think it was another Hunter approaching, not me. I stepped quietly through the deepening fog. Once I reached right behind him, I pressed the remote.

Honk honk!

The toy car let out a cheerful beep and rolled forward. The moment the Hunter’s attention locked onto it—

Slash!

I swung the sword. I’d aimed for a gap in his mana, but it was still surprising how easily the blade bit into his neck. The Hunter vanished without even a scream. Dark red flames briefly wrapped Ruler’s Sword and then scattered.

“…Wow.”

A soft breath of awe slipped out. My chest warmed just a little. It felt a lot better than relying solely on Chatterbox’s items.

‘I’ll have to conserve this as much as I can, though.’

Still, just having a close–quarters option that worked on S–ranks made me feel a lot more secure. I checked the map again, and—

Rumbleeeee–

The ground shook.

Hyunah and Liette, of course.