Chapter 51: My Brother Has Changed |
How foolish. Hyeon and Yu-jeong weren't considering the defensive formation we'd built around Sol at all. It was a good thing I'd decided to play keeper, just in case. I shot Yu-jeong a sharp glare before striking the diagonally incoming tail with the flat of my sword.
The result left me momentarily stunned. I had put some force into the blow, but it was meant as a defensive move, purely to deflect its path of attack. However, the tail that met the flat of my blade shattered with the sound of cracking chitin. The mournful cry of the monster that had attacked us brought me back to my senses.
It seemed the rank effects of Sword Specialist or my other special and potential abilities had kicked in. A dozen thoughts crossed my mind, but I needed to focus on the battle. I infused my voice with mana and addressed the group.
"These are Obsidian Scorpions. Be extremely careful; the stingers on their tails are highly venomous. Their weak spots are their eyes and underbelly, but forcing them to expose those is difficult. Infuse your weapons with mana and thrust hard."
As I finished speaking, I glanced down to see Sol, still gaping with a dazed expression. She seemed completely shocked by the realization that she could have died just moments ago. I found it pathetic, but I still snapped at her in a low voice.
"An Sol. You're a priest. What do you think you're doing, stopping your chant in the middle of a battle?"
"Ah..."
My words must have sent a chill down her spine, because I heard Sol begin to mumble her chant again. I sighed and looked forward once more.
The battle had entered a brief lull. Obsidian Scorpions often travel in pairs. As such, they share a deep bond. When the scorpion whose tail I'd shattered cried out, the one An Hyeon was facing seemed to flinch and freeze.
We'd been caught in a surprise attack initially, but thankfully, we were more or less prepared. But now, the Obsidian Scorpions were approaching slowly. Both we and the scorpions were wary of each other, making it hard to predict who would strike first.
Judging by the previous exchange, fighting while maintaining the defensive formation seemed pointless. After assessing the battlefield for a moment, I decided to take the offensive and spoke.
"Yu-jeong and I will team up. Hyeon and Sol, you'll take the other one. Sol, bind the scorpion's tail with a spell. Hyeon, use that opening to focus mana at the tip of your spear and pierce its torso in a single point. Its carapace is tough, so don't even think about slashing it. Yu-jeong, stay behind me. I'll go in first and kick it to expose its belly. Wait for the opening and land a counter. Don't follow me in immediately; wait until after its tail attack has passed."
No one answered, but I could see them nodding. And all the while, the scorpions continued to creep closer. The moment they entered my detection range and I took a step forward, the battle resumed.
A piece of its tail, stinger and all, lay twitching on the ground, but the rest of it was still a deadly, venomous threat. Watching the scorpion raise its remaining tail, I charged forward.
Once again, the sound of something slicing through the air reached me as the tail, dripping dark blue blood, shot toward my face. Its tail attacks were linear, so dodging was no trouble at all. I took a single step to the side, and the tail, having lost its target, harmlessly cut through the empty air.
In that time, I was able to close the distance, bringing the scorpion within range. Feeling Yu-jeong move behind me, I slowly lowered my sword. And in that instant, I saw what looked like a smile on the Obsidian Scorpion's face.
"Su-hyeon! Behind you!"
I felt a chilling presence at the back of my head. The Obsidian Scorpion's tail is long and flexible. While its initial strike had to be straight, it could bend and curve its extended tail to change the attack's trajectory mid-course. It must have bent its tail into a U-shape the moment I dodged to aim for the back of my head. I smiled back at the scorpion and quickened my pace, closing the distance until our bodies almost touched.
Just as the scorpion's tail was about to strike the back of my head, I heard Yu-jeong scream. In that split second, I tilted my head to the right again. I felt the tail graze my cheek, missing by a hair's breadth. Simultaneously, I raised my lowered sword, letting it lightly touch the tail as it passed my cheek, and then gently applied pressure. I had redirected its path toward the scorpion's own eye.
It never would have dreamed I could dodge at such close range. And of course, it wouldn't have anticipated me using my sword to redirect its tail. The sword technique I'd just used was practically acrobatic. My swordsmanship was fundamentally based on orthodox principles, but a user could adapt it in incredible ways. It was the kind of technique you could only imagine in your head, one that was considered impossible to use in a real fight.
The result was immediate. I watched as the Obsidian Scorpion's own tail neatly embedded itself in its right eye.
"Keeeeeeek!"
Seeing it shriek, I grinned in satisfaction. Then, I drew back my right foot and kicked straight up into its face. A dull impact resonated through the top of my foot as the scorpion's body was launched into the air. In a way, it looked rather comical, as if it were cheering with its pincers spread wide toward the sky. Seeing the scorpion's exposed underbelly, I shouted immediately.
"Now!"
It wasn't the optimal timing for a counter. But she must have been preparing for it, because I saw Yu-jeong duck under me, a beat too late. Yu-jeong planted her foot firmly, pushed off, and crossed her daggers in an X, slashing the scorpion's belly like a flash of light. It wasn't perfect, but I'd call the combination attack a success.
As the Obsidian Scorpion shrieked, I placed a hand on Yu-jeong's shoulder and vaulted into the air. Raising my sword high with both hands, I brought it down with all my might onto the center of the scorpion's body, which was still suspended in mid-air. I hadn't infused it with mana, intending to crush it with sheer strength, but my sword sliced through the scorpion's hard carapace as easily as if it were tofu. It hadn't even been ten seconds, and we had already perfectly dispatched one of them.
But one still remained. I quickly turned to see Sol finishing her chant and thrusting her glowing white staff forward. She aimed at the tail, just as I'd instructed, and spoke.
"Shackles!"
The moment she did, a blinding flash of light, like a camera flash, filled the forest. It was an incredible amount of mana, unbecoming of a novice user. Hyeon reflexively shut his eyes, but when he opened them, his eyes lit up as he saw the tail that had been aiming for him was now completely still.
"Hah!"
With a powerful shout, Hyeon's spear struck the Obsidian Scorpion's body dead-on. With its tail immobilized, the Obsidian Scorpion raised its large pincers, but the spear was longer. The spear broke through the hard shell. However, the scorpion only let out a low growl; it didn't seem to have taken much damage. He had succeeded in breaking the outer shell, but the spear hadn't penetrated deep enough to damage its insides.
An Hyeon, with a flustered look, pulled his spear back and thrust repeatedly, but he was forced to retreat when the scorpion's tail, now free from the binding, attacked. The menacing tail whipped and flexed unpredictably as it pressed forward, and Hyeon's movements grew increasingly frantic until he was completely on the defensive.
"W-what? Why is he struggling so much?"
Yu-jeong asked blankly, a bewildered look on her face. I frowned. Sol was also just standing there, hesitating and watching. I was dumbfounded. What are they doing? Did they come on a field trip to watch a fight? I clicked my tongue loudly, dashed forward, and yelled.
"Did you guys come here to spectate? Stop watching and help!"
As if snapping out of it, Yu-jeong and Sol looked up. An Hyeon was holding his own, to some extent. He was dodging the scorpion's tail attacks left and right while occasionally parrying its pincer strikes. But that was it. He was so focused on defense that he couldn't even think about attacking.
It was then that I had to admit my mistake. I realized I had jumped to the conclusion that they would be good just by looking at their stats. It's in a life-or-death close-quarters battle like this that one's true abilities are revealed. I never expected that judging them solely by their stats would lead to this result.
The kids weren't utilizing their abilities at all. Of course, my expectations were high, but it was clear they still had a long way to go. If it weren't for the detection training, something disastrous would have already happened.
For now, only two had appeared, and Yu-jeong and I had taken care of one of them. They were only able to maintain the situation because they could focus on a single target. If more than double the number of scorpions had appeared and surrounded us, it would have been truly grim. Their armor was already lacking because we'd prioritized their weapons. If they struggled this much with just one, there was no need to imagine other scenarios. I quickly slapped away the tail aiming for his back, giving Hyeon the breathing room to focus on what was in front of him.
"An Sol. Shackles again!"
"Yes! Shackles!"
As if she'd been waiting, Sol shouted the activation word as soon as I finished speaking. Once again, a flash filled the forest, and the scorpion's main weapon, its tail, froze. An Hyeon's face was beet red, as if he was furious with himself for only defending during the fight. The moment Sol's binding spell took effect, Hyeon shot forward as if he'd been waiting, powerfully kicking off the ground.
"You damn bastard!"
With a rough curse, Hyeon thrust his spear forward. Unsatisfied with just one strike, he began to stab wildly. He must have been pushing his mana to its limit, because his spear was tearing through the air, piercing the scorpion's carapace once every second. This time, it was definitely taking some damage. Under this relentless assault, even an Obsidian Scorpion couldn't endure it forever. It let out a mournful cry and shielded its front with its two pincers.
"Pant! Pant!"
Despite straining himself to attack for some time, all he had managed to do was make the scorpion retreat a few steps. Of course, its carapace was also in tatters, but the important thing was that An Hyeon was exhausted too. I sighed and took a step forward, planning to kick its belly again.
"An Hyeon! Move!"
Yu-jeong, who had been watching from the side, suddenly burst out and started running. The daggers in her hands hummed, indicating that she, too, had poured a great deal of mana into them.
Seeing Yu-jeong charging at it, the Obsidian Scorpion's pincers shot up high into the air. Its tail also twitched, a sign that the binding was about to break. This time, however, Sol didn't just stand by; I heard her continuously casting spells.
"Eonni! Protect!"
As Sol finished speaking, a translucent barrier formed around Yu-jeong. Hyeon, too, had no intention of standing idle. He began to wield his spear again, providing cover for Yu-jeong. I was relieved that they were finally starting to coordinate, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was still a chaotic mess.
Soon, under the fierce combined assault from Hyeon and Yu-jeong, the barely-standing Obsidian Scorpion couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed. Its corpse was truly, utterly gruesome. Its carapace was shattered to pieces, exposing all of its flesh, and it was bleeding black blood everywhere. I never thought they'd take down an Obsidian Scorpion in such a brutish manner. For a moment, I was speechless.
Hyeon and Sol only sheathed their weapons after seeing the other scorpion's corpse, which was split relatively neatly(?) compared to the one they had dealt with. Hyeon and Yu-jeong, who had been panting for a while, stared at the scorpion's corpse with disbelief.
They were already overwhelmed by the difficulty, which was incomparable to the Rite of Passage. After biting their lips for a moment, the kids cautiously shifted their gazes to my face. If they had brains, they would know full well how pathetic their performance had been.
"You guys..."
I opened my mouth to say something, but then just closed it again. I couldn't tell if my expectations were too high or if this was normal for kids at their level. What on earth did they learn at the User Academy? It was so different from my own time as a novice user. Honestly, I felt like taking them back to the city right now and teaching them everything from scratch.
"S-Su-hyeon."
"Su-hyeon..."
When a look of blatant disappointment appeared on my face, I saw them immediately grow anxious, but I deliberately turned my back on them. The thought that we still had an incredibly long way to go just made me sigh.
I slammed my sword onto the ground. The blood on the blade splattered onto the ground in a crescent shape.