Chapter 22

Holding a kingdom soldier’s spear that shimmered with a black light across its entire length, Taewoon closed the distance in a single bound. Mid-motion, as if swinging the spear horizontally, he swiftly shifted his movement and drove the blade down onto Iosis’s instep.

“Ho.”

Iosis noticed and quickly stepped back, but Taewoon did not relent, ruthlessly continuing his low-level attacks with blinding speed. The instep, the knee, the thigh, and then the flank.

By appropriately mixing in feints, his onslaught was as fierce and sharp as a raging tide—enough to make any ordinary opponent break into a cold sweat.

However.

“Not bad. I apologize for judging you too hastily by your appearance.”

Since the initial feints, Iosis had been stably blocking or parrying Taewoon’s attacks.

Whether it was an attack mixed with subtle movements or one that relied honestly on speed and power, they were all practically useless before him.

‘Is this the extent of the gap…?’

【Condition Fulfilled】

【Cinema Skill: The Red Man】

In an instant, Taewoon kicked off the ground explosively and thrust his spear relentlessly toward Iosis’s torso.

The change in speed was so intense that it almost felt as if he had vanished and reappeared instantaneously, but Iosis, facing it, showed not a hint of panic.

It meant he was leisurely reading every single one of Taewoon’s movements.

The dust from the high-speed dash and a dull impact sound—too blunt to be the clashing of steel on steel. When the noise subsided, Taewoon felt a flicker of genuine misery at the sight before him.

“…Your attacks are impressive for your age. I’ll give you that.”

“But what about your defense?”

Iosis, who had caught the spear Taewoon thrust with all his might using only one hand, muttered in a calm voice. He then thrust his black-green spear with lightning speed at Taewoon, whose movements were restricted by the captured weapon.

‘I can’t pull it out…’

Realizing this, Taewoon’s first action was to resign and retreat. Quickly retrieving the hand that held the spear, he used the ability of The Red Man to slide away into a space a short distance away.

“Do you abandon your spear so easily? Your movements are good, but as a warrior, you are a failure.”

From Taewoon’s perspective, it was the best course of action, but Iosis, the attacker, clicked his tongue shortly as if disappointed and took his stance.

Then, he tossed Taewoon’s captured spear back through the air, urging him to attack once more.

“Take it, young soldier.”

It certainly wasn’t mockery.

If anything, it was an action born from a slight sense of boredom and curiosity.

However, Taewoon felt an unbearable sense of helplessness. He bit his lip slightly and lifted his spear with a dissatisfied expression.

“Does receiving pity from an enemy make you uncomfortable?”

“No, I’m just infuriated by my own inadequacy.”

To be honest, until now, Taewoon had believed he had reached a considerable level in handling weapons.

He had won an overwhelming victory in a non-match against Yongcheol, had been invited as a teacher for Minjun and Harim—Baran’s rising stars—and had never felt a lack of technique even against monsters in Dungeons.

But looking at it now, how arrogant and ignorant were those thoughts?

Taewoon felt an endless sense of shame for having fallen into complacency.

There are still many above him in the world, and as Hongyeon said, he is still nothing more than an infinitesimally small existence.

Facing the opponent before him, he had come to realize this once again.

‘Whew.’

Having finished his thoughts, Taewoon closed his eyes for a moment and began to concentrate.

‘Think. What exactly is the difference between his movements and mine?’

Of course, Iosis had an overwhelming advantage in physical ability, but crucially, there was a significant gap in combat technique and the finesse of spear handling.

As Taewoon finished his thoughts and his sharp Aura began to transform in an instant, even Iosis looked at him with a surprised expression.

“Do you still have strength left?”

A raw diamond of talent is not uncommon when walking the battlefields, but among them, Taewoon certainly felt different.

At the chill of the spear tip, which had grown even more intense, Iosis’s expression brightened noticeably.

“A fine talent. Had you been a soldier of the Empire, teaching you would have been a pleasure.”

“…Then, here I come.”

Taewoon rushed at Iosis again with high speed, but the speed was not significantly different from his previous attack.

Without panic, Iosis leisurely blocked the attack using the shaft of his spear and muttered disappointedly.

“Your spirit was good, but it seems nothing has really changed.”

“I don’t think so.”

The impact of a sudden follow-up force knocked Iosis’s arm aside. He narrowed his eyes and rotated his spear back to its original position to defend against the subsequent blow.

However.

Using the ability of The Red Man to quickly take Iosis’s rear with two rapid changes in direction, Taewoon feinted a strike to the upper body before shifting his posture to launch a sweeping low attack across the ground.

Iosis didn’t panic and quickly jumped and turned his body, but his balance was slightly disrupted. The current Taewoon had no intention of missing such a sliver of an opening.

The spear was deflected again, and a tide-like succession of strikes was unleashed.

With a loud thud, Taewoon stepped forward strongly with one foot, and with a powerful charge, he rotated his spear as if sliding it past the opposing weapon, driving a direct hit into Iosis’s torso.

It was the first moment in this battle where a significant attack had succeeded.

“It seems I underestimated you.”

Iosis praised Taewoon with a fresh smile that felt out of place on a battlefield.

However, Taewoon now accurately recognized what such behavior implied.

The amusement was over; Iosis would now use all his strength to kill him.

In an instant, three spear strikes were unleashed at a speed beyond Taewoon’s perception, leaving a long laceration on one side of his face.

And then, as if from some unknown moment, sharp tree branches burst through the ground and lunged at Taewoon.

‘As expected, this guy is…’

He was a man so strong that it was nearly impossible for the current Taewoon to reach him.

Even as his abdomen was pierced and one arm was completely torn away by another thrust, Taewoon avoided a fatal wound that would cause instant death and launched one final strike.

‘Just a little… more…’

But he didn’t reach.

With only a faint sound of friction, Taewoon’s spear tip weakly brushed the edge of the shining armor. Staring at it, Iosis looked satisfied. He passed by Taewoon’s collapsing body and left a final word of praise.

“Farewell, nameless warrior of the kingdom.”

That was Taewoon’s first death in the Theater of the Final Rampart.

‘…’

When he opened his eyes again, the interior of a stylishly decorated viewing room unfolded around Taewoon.

It was a starkly different development from before, when he had always been thrown back to the Theater’s starting point.

And thanks to the characteristic messages that began to appear in succession, it wasn’t difficult to figure out the reason.

【You have died.】

【Please reset your Starting Point!】

▶【Tilen Imperial Army Foot Soldier】

▶【Arman Kingdom Army Foot Soldier】

▶【Wandering Drifter】

‘In the end, it came to this.’

He had already given up on the idea of clearing it in one go from the moment he first chose the Theater of the Final Rampart.

Still, he hadn’t expected to feel the limits of his raw power so purely.

‘Is Iosis, one of the Empire’s Seven Knights, effectively the greatest enemy of this Theater?’

If looking purely at strength, that seemed likely, but honestly, Taewoon didn’t feel he had come that close to clearing the Theater in the first Cycle.

Above all, a clear means of defending Milev Fortress—which was practically the kingdom’s final bastion—had not been identified.

‘I’m not certain, but it’s probably because I died too quickly.’

He felt there must have been more core elements of the Theater after that, but by being killed by Iosis, he ultimately failed the defensive battle of the second day.

In the end, regardless of the path, it meant that Taewoon’s own strength was still insufficient.

“Should I fight on the side of the kingdom once more?”

Having experienced it once, he felt confident in conducting the defensive battle more skillfully than before, but honestly, he didn’t know if he could create a variable against an overwhelmingly strong opponent like Iosis.

‘But to turn my back and fight on the side of the Empire…’

He didn’t think the world worked that simply.

The tide of war he saw in the first Cycle was an overwhelming advantage for the Empire, but it was certain that the Empire would also face massive obstacles like Iosis in the future.

If not, the balance wouldn’t make any sense no matter how he thought about it.

‘In that case, the Starting Point for this second Cycle should be.’

【You have selected Wandering Drifter!】

【The screening of the 2nd Cycle will begin in 10 seconds!】

When he opened his eyes, Taewoon was in the middle of a city that made his heart swell with majesty just by looking at it.

‘This is…’

Two tickets revealed their presence in his pocket, and one of them burned away and vanished weakly.

Taewoon’s starting point in the second Cycle, having chosen the Wandering Drifter, was the capital of the Arman Kingdom, Berbylle.

‘…The atmosphere isn’t great.’

It was only natural, but even considering that, the situation was far better than at Milev Fortress.

To be honest, Taewoon’s body and mind were exhausted from a fierce battle he had never experienced before, so he felt a certain sense of stability in this quiet and secluded atmosphere.

“Excuse me. Has there been any new news regarding the front lines?”

“Hmm? News? I heard they’re continuing to retreat, pushed back by the Imperial forces, but I don’t know anything beyond that.”

If so, the timing roughly matched the early stages of the Theater as Taewoon remembered.

However, he had absolutely no clue what he should do here.

“Seeing as you carry a spear, do you intend to volunteer for the kingdom’s army? If so, try going in front of the Training Institute this evening.”

“…Thank you for the advice.”

It seemed that a Wandering Drifter could also volunteer for the kingdom’s army in the capital and head to the front lines.

At that moment, Taewoon remembered the advice of Dorban, who had sighed, saying it was a waste for such skill to rot in the position of a mere soldier.

‘First, I should find someone plausible and have a conversation.’

Taewoon spent the day lightly moving his body and resting until the sun set. As soon as the designated time arrived, he immediately visited the Training Institute as the passerby had suggested.

And there, he was able to pick up some quite interesting information.