Episode 111.
The death knight looked a little different from the enemies Jung Si-woo had faced until now. He thought it looked like its mana was condensed to an extremely high density. Even though she was standing still, she looked like someone who mastered martial arts. And if a huge amount of mana were in harmony with that skill, it would be difficult for Jung Si-woo to deal with.
“Uh, if I were just a high-level player, I would have already retired at this point…”
Yong Se-ha murmured helplessly, recalling the time when he retired. Jung Si-woo vaguely guessed his thoughts and decided to get rid of his anxiety with a refreshing declaration.
“Don’t worry. She’s weaker than me.”
[You are full of confidence. However, how long do you think you can sustain that shield of the divine power?]
A moment after the death knight threatened him, she rushed forward. She was wearing black armor, but her rush was as agile and sharp as a black leopard. However, she seemed to have one misunderstanding. The divine power wasn’t the strength of Jung Si-woo.
“Sigh.”
Jung Si-woo swung his hammer, stepping out against her rushing. If it were a baseball that was coming straight, it would have definitely been a home run. However, the Death knight leaned forward quickly as she had expected it, dodging the hammer and pushing past Jung Si-woo’s arms. He would have done the same if he were her.
“Get bigger!”
“Well, I don’t think that you need that sound effect!”
[Kahak!?]
However, the hammer suddenly enlarged, and the death knight was hit, bouncing back. The mana gave power to the blow, and the damage was pretty big. The only drawback was that the top layer of the castle wasn’t wide, so if the hammer were enlarged, it would get stuck.
“Okay, good start…Hmm?”
Jung Si-woo took a defensive posture by turning the hammer back to its small size after the hit. But the enemy didn’t counterattack, as he expected. He was taken aback and looked at Death Knight because he was expecting a big battle between them.
“What is that?”
Jung Si-woo’s eyes lit up in the dark. Something was hidden by unknown magic that he didn’t notice until now.
“A coffin…?”
[You…]
The Death Knight gritted her teeth. Or that’s what it sounded like. There was a coffin the size of a human behind her back.
“Oppa, is that?”
“Right. The fragments of Setnak are in there.”
No…that expression wasn’t really appropriate. He changed his words.
“Is the coffin itself the fragment of Setnak?”
[Die!]
Shortly after the blue flame burned roughly in the Death Knight’s eyes, she rushed at a pace faster than earlier. The hammer enlargement attack wouldn’t work anymore, so Jung Si-woo used his mana to counter her. The real game had just begun.
“Huh!”
[Kuuhaaa!]
He countered the sword with his hammer! Surprisingly, the head of the hammer cracked with a sound of destruction at the moment of the collision, but the Death Knight was pushed back.
“Hahhhh!”
Jung Si-woo didn’t care whether the hammer broke or not and added mana to push the Death Knight to the end. The Death Knight’s resisted the mana, but Jung Si-woo overwhelmed her with pure power. That was because his power came from an area that had nothing to do with mana!
[How can a human being…hmph!]
The Death Knight found out that she was behind in the power showdown and immediately shifted her stance. She pretended not to beat his rush and quickly pulled back, then swinging her sword to hit him in the neck!
“Now we’re talking.”
[Kkkkkkkak!]
Jung Si-woo looked like he was going to let go of the hammer but instead took a step further and hit the Death Knight’s torso hard. Like the strong undead, the Death Knight tried to lift her sword without giving in to the shock, but her arm was caught by Jung Si-woo, and she couldn’t swing properly. In the first place, Jung Si-woo’s body tackle was just the cornerstone to approach quickly and hold her arms.
[Human…!]
She noticed only then. She narrowed her distance by judging his huge hammer, but it didn’t matter to Jung Si-woo if he had a weapon or not. It was already too late when she realized. He subdued her movements and released mana throughout her body to lift her up and shoot her back!
“Let’s see what you’re guarding!”
[Kuuhukk!]
If she were a normal creature, her spine would’ve been crushed. Backdrop! Jung Si-woo threw the Death Knight back and disarmed her while skillfully taking away the wrapped coffin. To put it bluntly, no matter how well the Death Knight was skilled in martial arts, she couldn’t have beaten Jung Si-woo in a physical fight.
“Ha.”
Jung Si-woo held the black coffin with one hand and stroked his stomach with the other. He could feel red blood coming out. Although his abdomen didn’t burst, it was still a deep wound. In terms of pure damage exchange, Jung Si-woo suffered a loss.
“Oh, shit. Isn’t it cheating to have a knife sticking out of your abdomen?”
“Some of the high undead are black magicians! …I didn’t think she was one of them.”
Soo Ah-rin quickly used recovery magic to restore him. Despite her divine power, the deep wounds didn’t recover quickly, but as long as he didn’t die right away, they were fine. The pain was nothing to him.
[Give it back!]
However, in the short moment when Jung Si-woo was examining the wound, the Death Knight was thrown into the corner and rushed at a surprisingly fast pace. Jung Si-woo swung the black coffin and struck her.
[I’m gonna kill you!]
“Hmm?”
But somehow, her reaction was weird. Contrary to Jung Si-woo’s expectation that she would ignore his attack and counter him, the Death Knight stepped back in fear as if something big happened if she touched the coffin.
“Did Setnak tell you to protect it no matter what?”
It was understandable, but there was one thing left that he couldn’t understand.
“But this must be stronger than your armor?”
[You make me angry!]
Not answering Jung Si-woo’s question, the Death Knight Beache raised her spirit, causing her whole body to shine. It was like an elite monster who had been strengthened by the power of Setnak himself. The overwhelming torrent of mana made her previous attack look like a joke!
“Whoo.”
Jung Si-woo took the terrible mana from the black coffin. However, he couldn’t consume it recklessly. The force of Setnak should be used to give mana to the death knight’s core.
[Don’t damage it!]
Black lightning struck the ground. Beache charged faster than before. It was pathetic, but he wouldn’t have known without his visual skills.
“Ha!”
[Kuuuuuu!]
Jung Si-woo swung the coffin as if he were swinging his hammer and attacked her. The Death knight made a quick turn and attacked him from another direction. It seemed that the battle was a hindrance, and her only intention was to retrieve the coffin from him.
“Isn’t she a fool?”
“I think you’re the fool.”
Was Setnak’s setting wrong? No, the Death Knight must be an undead who had both soul and body, but there was something wrong that she couldn’t judge the situation properly. Jung Si-woo intentionally swung the coffin in a large motion as a test, and Beache caught it in a pleasing manner. Jung Si-woo’s full-fledged kick blew her away again.
“She wouldn’t fight properly since the beginning?”
“Just kill her.”
“I won the game anyway.”
Jung Si-woo’s voice was displeased. The only part that she was ahead of Jung Si-woo was mana. At the same time, there was a limited means to shape that mana and hurt Jung Si-woo, so if you saw all of it, the game was over at that moment. He could kill her even if he dragged on for an hour like this.
“But it won’t be fun if I do that.”
He wanted to develop his five senses skills and intuition in a battle where he had to risk his life. But what was this? There is no need for intuition, let alone five senses, against the Death Knight that only focused on the stolen coffin. He could kill her if he just attacked her at the right timing.
“The durability of the coffin is stronger than that of the Death Knight itself. Even if you are ordered to keep your guard, you don’t have to avoid touching anything. That means…”
[Huaaaaaa]
Jung Si-woo lowered himself to accept the Death Knight’s charge. The Death Knight threw her sword and charged! She seemed to be trying to distract him by using a faint skill with her body movements, but Jung Si-woo, who didn’t lose his seriousness even when he looked down on his opponent, couldn’t have fallen for such a trick.
“It’s what’s inside, isn’t it?”
[Hmph!?]
Her flames fluctuated. Interestingly, he could read the emotions contained in it. It was amazing that the undead Death Knight showed such blatant feelings, but Jung Si-woo decided not to care about it.
[Koooooahhhh!]
At the moment when their bodies collided, Jung Si-woo lifted the coffin high, deflecting the Death Knight’s attack while kicking her torso. It was a kick that captured the power of Cruel Charge and Heavy Strike at the same time. He used mana control, which calculated the short trajectory of the leg movement as a rush and invoked the skill. At the end of the trajectory, the Death Knight collapsed.
“Oppa, blood! Bones!”
“It’s okay. Just cast a healing spell on me.”
At the moment of the blow, a knife rose from Beache’s abdomen and tore his foot apart, but this was nothing compared to the blow she suffered.
“How important is the coffin to you? What’s so important inside that you’re embarrassing yourself? Is the real Setnak inside it? No matter how hard I throw it around, you know it won’t get damaged. But if you keep running at it like that, I can’t think of anything else but your master being inside.”
[Youuuu…!]
The Death Knight came at him again. Only her mana was incredible, but her body movements were already worn out. That was how Jung Si-woo realized. This was a glitch. He didn’t know what Setnak did or if he was evil from birth, but this wasn’t a proper Death Knight. Setnak, you’ve got a dirty form, but your 73rd castle was really nothing.
“Phew.”
After a quick series of judgments, Jung Si-woo threw the black coffin. It flew quickly and stuck in a corner. The Death Knight ran after it, but in that short time, she was blocked by the front paw that Jung Si-woo took out.
“I wouldn’t touch that.”
[What…?]
Even the death Knight was confused by Jung Si-woo’s silly remarks.
“So don’t waste your time like a mob and show me your skills.”
“Oppa…are you stupid?”
“No.”
He made a serious combat posture and faced the Death Knight, whose eyes changed. The five senses, intuition, and passive skills that he had were all activated to the fullest. He felt the protection of the Courage of the Ignorant skill. Maybe it activated because he just made a fool of himself, but he didn’t want to believe that.
“I’m going to work on my five senses here somehow. No, even a sixth sense.”
And if he really thought he was going to die, then he could just retrieve the coffin again! He didn’t have to say it, but Soo Ah-rin guessed what he was thinking by looking at Jung Si-woo’s relaxed expression.
“You’re cool, okay.”
[You…are you a knight of the other world?]
Finally, a normal response came back from the Death Knight. She managed to regain her mind when she stopped caring about the coffin. Now, she had become a real Death Knight.
“Well, let’s say that’s true.”
[…Thanks.]
Surprisingly, the Death Knight bowed her head toward him. The supporters decided to give up judging the situation.
[Then, let’s fight properly.]
The Death Knight’s momentum had changed. The same sharp mood returned she launched the first surprise attack on him. Jung Si-woo felt it and smiled satisfactorily, rushing to face the Death Knight’s sword.
The two strong individuals clashed properly this time.
