Chapter 415 – The Moon Rises (3)
Han Yoojin took another step back. His back brushed the wall. More than ten strands of moonlight struck the wall and rang out with clear, chiming sounds.
After a short silence, the two moved at the same time.
Jjajajajak—an icy path spread out over the paving stones, and Han Yoojin slid sideways along the wall. It was to escape the position where both the front and the rear had been cut off. The moment Han Yoojin lowered his body, golden chains that had immediately followed him tangled chaotically with the silver chains. Amid the noisy metallic ringing, Sung Hyunjae ran parallel to the ice path being extended.
Screeech. At the point where the ice ended, Han Yoojin's boots ground to a loud stop. He had passed the building that had been directly behind him and now reached an open intersection. Sung Hyunjae, who had caught up with him immediately, stretched out a hand. Han Yoojin had not even had time to right his posture yet.
He could have used teleportation, but instead of a skill that came with delay, Han Yoojin, still sliding over the ice, raised the gun he had pulled out.
Just before Sung Hyunjae's hand touched him, the magic bullet fired first by the slightest margin.
Boom!
The magic bullet hit Sung Hyunjae's forearm and burst. Since the charging time had been short, it was no more than a light blow. But the recoil sent Han Yoojin's body springing back.
Having widened the gap and bought himself time, Han Yoojin transformed the flame in his hand into a spear and hurled it with all his strength. Sung Hyunjae twisted his shoulders slightly and dodged the ferocious black spear. Then he put strength into his feet. Crunch, the soles of his shoes shattered the black-and-white-striped asphalt, and Sung Hyunjae's body shot forward.
"There's a weight-class difference, and you keep forcing it into close range! And on top of that you're using those longer legs!"
Blocking the kick flying toward him with both scale-covered arms, Han Yoojin grumbled. Even if both were S-rank in terms of stats, the difference in reach was obvious. If both threw a punch at the same time, only one side would get hit.
"It would have been the same against the young master."
"That's different. Younger brothers always look small even after they grow up. And besides, Yoohyun will always be younger than me forever."
Dodging the punches thrown at him one after another, Han Yoojin bent one leg and raised it high. As though they had coordinated it in advance, Sung Hyunjae's knee strike came in exactly beneath Han Yoojin's foot as though propping him up. Tak! Stepping on Sung Hyunjae's knee, Han Yoojin shot up into the air.
In the meantime, the retrieved golden chains stretched after Han Yoojin with a clanging sound, only to be blocked once again by the silver chains.
"Use a weapon, a weapon! Your inventory must be full of them!"
Han Yoojin said that while standing atop a traffic light. His gaze flicked briefly toward Noah, and seeing that, Sung Hyunjae curled up the corner of his mouth.
"When your opponent uses teleportation, the basic principle is to keep them as close as possible. Aren't you deliberately not using it because you're waiting for an opening?"
"You know that we—"
Kwarreung! A bolt of lightning struck the traffic light. The traffic signal flickered for an instant and burst, and the current leapt violently all the way to where Han Yoojin stood. At the same time, Han Yoojin threw a wire toward a streetlight, and yanking hard on the line wrapped around it, he left the spot at once.
Skreeeeech—the streetlight bent, unable to withstand the force. Han Yoojin's body landed on the sidewalk across the street much faster than if he had used a flight skill, and the instant Sung Hyunjae caught up close behind him—
Kwaaang!
A bomb exploded. Han Yoojin and Sung Hyunjae were both blown into the air at the same time. Han Yoojin's back slammed hard into the wall of a building, while Sung Hyunjae's shoes gouged a long furrow into the asphalt. Neither of them came away unscathed from that powerful mana explosion that had gone off right in front of them.
The arm Sung Hyunjae had used to defend against the explosion was in tatters, not just the clothes but the flesh itself. Beneath his disheveled hair, one ear had been ripped open as though split apart, blood wetting the back of his neck. Noah, who had been healing Han Yoohyun, reflexively started forward, but the distance was too great to use a healing skill.
Instead of turning back to receive healing, and without even using a potion, Sung Hyunjae rushed straight at Han Yoojin again.
Han Yoojin, who had deliberately refrained from even using a defense skill in order to draw his opponent fully in, was still in the middle of healing his wounds when he flung his body sideways. Kwaddeuk! Sung Hyunjae's toe carved through the spot Han Yoojin had occupied, slicing a long line through the building wall. Exterior material rained down as though there had been an earthquake, raising dust.
Han Yoojin planted a hand on the ground and spun his body around. The moment he got upright, Sung Hyunjae stepped right onto the split-open wall and leapt up, bringing his heel straight down from the air. There was no time to dodge, and the force in it was too great to block.
Under the wildly billowing hem of Sung Hyunjae's coat, Han Yoojin finally used a teleportation skill.
The moment Han Yoojin's figure vanished, Han Yoohyun and Bak Yerim raised their senses to the utmost. Of the two, it was Bak Yerim who moved first. A freezing mist spread out about ten meters away from the three of them, and right within that zone, Han Yoojin appeared.
"I knew it! That's exactly my skill's maximum range!"
"Our Yerim-ah, this time you really did do well."
Han Yoojin immediately raised flames and pushed the mist away, but there was no helping the brief opening that appeared. Not missing it, Han Yoohyun was about to run straight out, then noticed Noah and stopped. Instead, he pulled a spear from his inventory and hurled it at Han Yoojin.
"Make him widen the distance."
"Okay!"
Bak Yerim also created ice spears and fired them to restrain Han Yoojin. Crunch! The metal spear stabbed down in front of Han Yoojin's feet, and the ice spears flew in one after another. Knocking the ice spears away with a spear of black flames, Han Yoojin was forced to retreat, clicking his tongue.
"They're growing too fast."
To use other people's skills, a brief taste of them was never enough. Even overlaying and upgrading a skill he had already once gotten used to was not easy. That was why, except for skills taken from the dead like those of the pre-regression Han Yoohyun, Han Yoojin's versions of borrowed skills could only grow weaker with time compared to those of their original owners.
And the double effect only applied to attack skills. It did nothing for support categories like resistances.
By then, Sung Hyunjae had closed in as well. Beneath Silekia's coat, already regenerating on its own, glimpses of his arm muscles treated with a potion flashed into view. Han Yoojin turned his head slightly to glance at him.
"Should I go look for Chief Secretary Song now after all? Or won't you at least give me a hint?"
"If it's any other question, I'll answer as much as you like."
"Ah, this is troublesome."
Han Yoojin scratched the back of his head as if troubled. He was confident he could get away right now if he wanted to. If no one present knew where Song Taewon had gone, then there was no reason for him to remain tied down here.
He would have just gone around Seoul searching with all he had.
But because Sung Hyunjae was here, and because getting Song Taewon's destination out of him would be faster, he could not leave his spot. It had been the plan from the start.
"I really didn't want to say something like this."
Han Yoojin said that while slowly backing away. The silver chains returned to circle around him. Along with their chiming melody, silver eyes narrowed.
"Even if it's safe because it's an avatar body and all. Is self-harm really completely impossible?"
The expressions on people's faces froze in an instant.
"Fine, let's say I can't touch the body itself. But what about the thing inside it? That's me, isn't it. Right, Yoohyun-ah?"
"…Hyung."
"If it were me, I could never just sit back and watch a younger brother with a bad habit of cutting down his own lifespan like that. The crescent moon is influencing me, but it's still me."
Han Yoojin's gaze, which had been on Han Yoohyun, shifted back once more to Sung Hyunjae. He tapped his own temple lightly with his fingertip.
"What about mentally? Though I guess it wouldn't matter to you, Sung Hyunjae-ssi. As long as it understands orders and can move, maybe a shell that can't pull anything strange would be easier for you to handle."
"If I had wanted such a thing."
Sung Hyunjae carefully stepped toward Han Yoojin. The golden chains coiled around him like snakes ready to shoot out at any moment.
"I'd have already stored it carefully in my residence."
"Oh, come on. It's not like there was never even once that you wanted it. Should I grant my partner-ssi's wish while I'm at it?"
Something had appeared at Han Yoojin's fingertips as though he had taken it from his inventory. Sung Hyunjae's body sprang forward. Even faster than that, however, a golden chain wrapped itself around Han Yoojin's wrist. In that brief moment when Han Yoojin's movement was stopped, Sung Hyunjae grabbed the wrist wrapped in chains.
And just like that, he put into his own mouth the thing Han Yoojin had been holding between his fingers.
"It's dried fruit."
"And what if it had been poison pretending to be dried fruit?"
Han Yoojin said with a smile as he reached out and smoothed Sung Hyunjae's coat collar as though straightening it.
"If you turned off your poison resistance and swallowed something strong, that'd probably do it. So, what'll you do?"
"You should think of your younger brother."
"Yoohyun would love me no matter what kind of me I was. Unlike you."
"Hyung!"
At Han Yoojin's words, Han Yoohyun shouted.
"Even so, I hate it when you hurt yourself!"
"If I just stayed quietly at home, Sung Hyunjae would lose interest in me too."
"That—"
"Han Yoohyun, are you crazy? Why are you hesitating? Ahjussi! Don't do anything weird!"
"That's right, Yoojin-ssi!"
"The kids really are nice."
Han Yoojin pulled his wrist free and stepped back.
"Don't chase after me. You people have no way to stop it. I'll give you time to think. Let's see, there's still quite a bit of time left, so… about three minutes?"
Sung Hyunjae, who had been about to go after Han Yoojin, stopped in his tracks. After crossing the road and reaching the sidewalk on the opposite side, Han Yoojin waved toward Sung Hyunjae and the other three.
"Kids, try persuading Sung Hyunjae-ssi for me~"
"Ahjussi, seriously!"
Bak Yerim, shouting angrily, had her shoulder tapped by Noah. Then he whispered something in a small voice to both Bak Yerim and Han Yoohyun. Bak Yerim frowned and beckoned to Sung Hyunjae.
"Seseong Ahjussi, come here for a second. Ahjussi really looks like he's going to do it."
Sung Hyunjae went over to the three of them, and low voices were exchanged again. Han Yoojin tilted his head as he looked at them.
"It's nice seeing the four of you getting along, but Sung Hyunjae-ssi really doesn't belong in that age bracket, does he?"
"Sorry for making you lonely. By age, I should have gone to Han Yoojin-ssi's side."
"My body's twenty-five, though. Well, thirty is right. Physical age can still be in your twenties even at forty if you manage yourself well enough. Anyway, now this—"
Han Yoojin raised his bare wrist and spoke as though checking a watch. Sung Hyunjae stayed where he was, and instead Han Yoohyun, Bak Yerim, and Noah stepped forward. Han Yoojin's eyes rounded.
"Huh? What's this. Are you stepping up while protecting Sung Hyunjae-ssi? Do you think I won't be able to pull something in front of the kids?"
"If Chief Secretary Song dies, Ahjussi will definitely be deeply hurt by it."
"Or maybe not. Yerim-ah, don't talk to me too much. The brakes on my tongue are broken right now."
"I'm used to hearing things painful enough to make me cry."
"Then should I just kill your uncle's family after all? And just because you get used to being hurt doesn't mean the wounds are shallower or heal any faster."
Saying that, Han Yoojin rolled his eyes around. Han Yoohyun was in front, with Noah behind him, and Bak Yerim after that. Noah spread his wings wide and rose into the air beside Bak Yerim.
"Wow, you really have changed. You look cool."
"Thank you."
"But it kind of feels like you're openly shouting for me to target you."
Was the plan to push Noah out as bait and make sure he got caught? Even so, it was sloppy. Han Yoojin kept tilting his head as he looked toward Sung Hyunjae. Sung Hyunjae had completely turned his back on them.
"Sung Hyunjae-ssi! Did you cut off sound too? It's harsh enough that you're protecting Chief Secretary Song that far. You said I was your one and only partner."
While Han Yoojin grumbled, Han Yoohyun charged. Silver chains shot toward him, and the black blade curved in an arc, cutting the air. Karang, kang, kagang! The wave-like flexible sword cleverly knocked every single chain away. The chains retreated and lunged again as though alive, but this time Bak Yerim fired ice spears to protect Han Yoohyun.
"So that was what the two of you were coordinating?"
Unlike before, the division between offense and defense was now clear. Bak Yerim's ability, which would only get in the way rather than help in close combat, was perfect for blocking long-range attacks.
Crackcrackcrack. Ice climbed up along the silver chains, slowing their movement. Without getting greedy for more, she blocked only the chains and then pulled her hand back.
In the meantime, Han Yoohyun closed in on Han Yoojin. Kagagak! Weapon collided with weapon, and Han Yoojin retreated half a step.
"It's way too obviously a trap, and yet it's too tempting to ignore."
As long as Noah stayed where he was, it was hard to deal with Han Yoohyun and Bak Yerim appropriately. To incapacitate them, Han Yoojin would have to inflict such severe injuries that Noah's healing skills couldn't easily recover them.
So in order to safely block the two of them, he had to take out Noah first.
Han Yoojin clicked his tongue and twisted the Black Flames Sword. As though making a path for it himself, he opened the way, and the Ruler's Sword dug straight into Han Yoojin's arm without hesitation. Blood spurted high into the air and instantly turned into black flames, obscuring Han Yoohyun's vision for a split second.
Right after that, Han Yoojin detonated a smoke bomb. Red mist spread in an instant, and Han Yoojin's body disappeared from the spot.
And into Noah's wing—
Crunch!
"...!"
"I'm sorry, Noah-ssi!"
Han Yoojin said that as he slashed deep through Noah's long golden feathered wing. He had deliberately attacked the wing in order to avoid Silent Scream, intending to immobilize and capture Noah with poison strengthened by the doubled buff. And just as he nearly cut away almost half the wing and pulled out a wire—
"Aaaah!"
Han Yoojin's scream rose sharply. His body dropped to the ground at once, and rough breaths burst from him. Violent pain hammered through his whole body. Fighting to keep his mind together, Han Yoojin used a spare teleportation item with a trembling hand.
Kwaagwa!
The moment he dodged through teleportation, a sword wrapped in flames carved deeply through the place he had been standing.
"Hahk, ngh… Noah-ssi. Your skill..."
He had definitely attacked the wing, but the place the pain came from was inside Han Yoojin's chest. It felt almost like his heart had gone into arrest.
"Yes. Ngh, it changed."
Noah, now landed on the ground and healing his wing, answered. Han Yoojin, gasping as he rose to his feet, widened his eyes fiercely.
"Sung Hyunjae...!"
At some point, his figure had vanished completely.
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