The first thought that Seo Jun-Ho had when he saw the dragon flying toward him was whether to dodge or not. Kal Signer might not know, but the fact that he even considered it was impressive.
‘…No, I can’t.’
But Seo Jun-Ho quickly realized that he couldn’t dodge as the Storm Dragon flew closer and closer.
‘It’s too fast. Even if I move now, I’ll get hit in one of my arms and legs.’
This meant that he had to block the powerful attack. But how? Seo Jun-Ho’s eyebrows furrowed, but he already knew the answer.
‘I’m an idiot.’
He had been too careless. His stats were like a level 100 Player, and after he cleared the Cave of Trials and the Proof of Knighthood, he had gotten too cocky.
‘Get it together, Seo Jun-Ho.’
He was no longer the strongest person in the world, and he wasn’t the only one who thought that. But deep down, he must have been clinging to the glory of the past.
‘How could I defeat a High Ranker without even using my full strength?’
He already had two skills that no one else had: Watchguard of Darkness and Frost. But he wanted to defeat the Demon Bow without them?
‘I really have to get it together. I was way too reckless and arrogant.’
He acknowledged his arrogance and felt ashamed for showing such a weak side to a formidable opponent.
“…Phew.” He looked past the Storm Dragon and stared at the fiend with a dark expression and burning eyes.
‘He’s trying his best to kill me…’
The weaker party between the two had underestimated the stronger one. Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t help but chuckle at himself. His magic burst out as he raised his hand.
His current magic stat was 150. It had been 183 when he was Specter. Since his magic stat was now close to his previous stat as Specter, it was overwhelmingly powerful.
“Explode.”
All the magic within him released at once, creating hundreds of icicles.
Craaaaack.
It was more than enough to shred Kal Signer’s dragon into pieces.
“…?!” Signer’s face fell as he felt the heavy surge of magic. Something was wrong.
Stab stab.
Then hundreds of icicles dug into the dragon’s body before he could even shout.
“…Ice?” he whispered in a daze, staring up at the spikes floating in the air. He finally processed what had happened.
‘The Storm Dragon’s Arrow…Exploded? Why is there ice?’
His questions only brought on more questions before he finally arrived at the answer.
“…No way. Really?” Seo Jun-Ho had been hiding his abilities. There was no other explanation for this. What was more shocking was that Seo Jun-Ho was able to shatter his most powerful technique. “Impossible…” He couldn’t finish his sentence.
In the span of an hour, he saw too many things that were impossible. But first, he had to complete his mission.
‘I have to make use of an archer’s characteristics.’
He felt pathetic, but it would be dangerous to continue to face Seo Jun-Ho directly like this.
‘I have to put some distance between us.’
Kal Signer turned around and started to run. Seeing the Demon Bow running away from a level 34 newbie would be a comedic scene for any other Player.
‘Is he trying to create distance?’
Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes narrowed as he watched him flee. It was obvious, but he had no intention of letting Kal Signer go like this.
‘Archers are harder to deal with when they’re further away.’
It would even be more difficult now that his enemy was the Demon Bow. If he couldn’t reach him in time, he would be sniped after swatting away the arrows.
“Curtain of Darkness.” Seo Jun-Ho gripped his fist and darkness covered them both.
“…!”
Kal Signer was caught by surprise and whipped around. There was nowhere to run in this world that had been swallowed by darkness.
“I can just cut through it!” He pulled out a sword from his inventory and infused it with demonic energy before he slashed at the curtain. It made a loud ripping sound as if cutting through leather, but it didn’t leave a single scratch.
“It’s no use. I didn’t make it easy to escape.”
Kal Signer turned around at the sound of Seo Jun-Ho’s voice, glaring. “Who are you?”
He could understand the ice skill. In fact, he thought that it was better that way.
‘It makes more sense that he had been hiding a skill than it being some unexplainable power.’
Kal Signer even let out a sigh of relief when Seo Jun-Ho used it because it meant that he had been pushed into a corner. He was confident that he would be able to kill the latter if he could just create distance between them.
‘But…’
Two elements? The ice element was rare enough, but the darkness almost made him yelp in surprise.
‘The Fiend Association has been trying for decades to create it…’
They had even created Paradise to try to reproduce it unsuccessfully.
“Who are you? What are you planning?” Kal Signer judged that Seo Jun-Ho wasn’t working alone because it was impossible for one person to have two elemental skills, let alone the fact that one was ice and the other was darkness. Even if the world had to rebuilt again, it was impossible.
“I already told you.”
Seo Jun-Ho had told him that there were things in the world that surpassed common sense and that he was one of them. Despite his words, Seo Jun-Ho wasn’t feeling all too happy.
“If possible, I just wanted to use Frost.”
He originally didn’t want to leave any traces of Specter since it was possible that there was a skill that could discover his identity.
“But what can I do?”
He had already revealed his skill. There was only one thing left to do—he had to kill Kal Signer here.
“I can’t let a witness live.” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes were cold enough to make even the fiend, who had overcome countless life-or-death situations, shiver.
“So you won’t tell me what you are?”
“It’s only fair. You wouldn’t even tell me where you were going to take me.”
“…Fine. I’ll make you talk.”
Kal Signer pulled out a new bow from his inventory. As he drew the string back, dozens of arrows formed, they were filled with demonic energy.
“Rain Arrows!”
Ffft!
As they shot into the air, the arrows came down in a downpour, multiplying into the thousands in the blink of an eye.
“No matter how fast you are, you can’t dodge the rain.” ｂｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
Clothes would become wet even with a sprinkle of rain. The arrows he used weren’t tenacious like the darters, nor were they fierce like the Storm Dragon. They were just normal arrows infused with demonic energy, but there were thousands of them.
‘He’ll be able to block it if he focuses on defense, but he won’t be able to reach me if he does that.’
In other words, Kal Signer was buying time to prepare for a big attack.
‘The Storm Dragon’s Arrow didn’t work…’
He didn’t have a technique that was stronger than that. His next attack would have to be a primitive onslaught.
“Open inventory.”
Kal Signer’s second nickname was the Collector. Bows, crossbows, ballistas, and even automatic canons filled the air. Every type of arrow-wielding weapon surrounded him, numbering 142 in total.
“If I can’t kill you with a technique, I’ll overwhelm you with numbers.” Kal Signer steeled himself as his face scrunched in pain. 142 bowstrings were slowly being pulled back. “I’ll finish this with one strike.”
***
‘Shit. How many damned arrows?’
Seo Jun-Ho’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked up at the sky.
Tututututu
The sound of the multiplying arrows sounded like rain.
‘He’s trying to corner me.’
It was obviously a distraction. Kal Signer’s weapons caught Seo Jun-Ho’s eye.
“So is this how the Collector fights?” He sighed, his back was covered in cold sweat. There was no way for him to know what kind of effect each of those weapons had.
‘The bow that he just used had the ability to multiply its arrows.’
Which meant that there were over a hundred weapons with similar skills he didn’t know of. The best way to deal with this would be to kill Signer before the weapons were fired.
“Booster,” he whispered.
Wooooing.
His body was already as hot as coals. If this took too long, his brain would get fried before he could even reach his enemy.
‘But I don’t have enough time to block all the arrows first.’
Kal Signer had the advantage of time. Seo Jun-Ho had to reach him no matter what. But if he dashed forward without a plan, thousands of arrows would pierce through him until he resembled a porcupine. He had to run forward while blocking them at the same time.
As soon as he kicked off the ground, he left a mirage behind as he shot forward.
Thud thud thud.
Immediately, the sound of arrows hitting his head was heard. But they weren’t actually piercing through his head.
‘Please, hold…!’
It was an ice shield. Thousands of arrows fell on his ice shield that he was using to cover his body.
Crack!
But it started to crack after it received a few dozen arrows filled with demonic energy.
“…!”
Seo Jun-Ho gnashed his teeth, but he didn’t let his concentration slip even as he continued to sprint forward. Right as it shattered, he created another shield with his free hand and covered his head with perfect timing so that not a single arrow got through.
“You fucking monster!” Kal Signer cursed at that. His usually smug face slowly showed unease as Seo Jun-Ho came closer and closer to him.
‘Dammit, I’m not ready yet…’
If he had 10, no, 7 seconds, he would be able to strike, but looking at Seo Jun-Ho’s speed, it looked like he would reach him in 5.
“Tsk.” In the end, Kal Signer compromised. Out of the 142 weapons, he would have to use the 72 that were ready. He felt like his head was about to explode from controlling so much demonic energy, but he closed his eyes and raised his hand.
“Die!”
He had long forgotten about Nazad Hallow’s order to bring Seo Jun-Ho alive. After all, if he went easy on Seo Jun-Ho now, he would die.
When the arrows were released, it sounded like an entire army had fired them. They rained down like petals.
‘Flower Rain.’
It was a technique that covered the entire field with arrows. It looked beautiful from afar, but it looked like hell to its victims.
“You can’t block this.” All the bows in his collection were Rare and Unique, and they had the effects to match. Fire arrows, illusory arrows, exploding arrows, and even arrows that ignored defense… A single ability was already difficult to deal with, and there were 72 of them. There were hundreds of arrows falling from above and hundreds of arrows with special abilities in the front. It was a catch-22; there was no escape.
“Not even your corpse will remain.” Kal Signer smiled wickedly. He looked at Seo Jun-Ho, expecting his face to be dark with despair.
“…What?” His face fell. “Why…Why are you smiling?”
Seo Jun-Ho was smiling wickedly just like him. He stood straight and readied his body as he looked up at the arrows. His magic wavered and wrapped around him like yarn.
‘I was waiting for this.’
He couldn’t use the skill carelessly because it consumed so much magic. As such, he hadn’t used it yet in this battle. He waited for the moment when Kal Signer thought that he was dead, and when he let his guard down.
“Shadow Step.”
Seo Jun-Ho’s body melted into the darkness.
1. Lit. name is ‘filled sky flower rain’