Chapter 104

Chapter 104

“……!”

“……?!”

Suddenly, a strange man’s voice came from behind me. I flinched and quickly turned around to look in the direction of the voice. Standing there, bathed in brilliant sunlight, was a man radiating a dazzling light.

“That should have been a trial no human could pass… How on earth did you manage to get through it?”

His golden hair gleamed under the sunlight, and the eyes beneath it were as transparent and lustrous as if they had been carved from emeralds. He wore a simple crown atop his head and a splendid robe of black fabric embroidered with gold thread. Thanks to that, I recognized him instantly.

“King Arthur?”

“…Indeed. I am Arthur Pendragon, the king of old Britain.”

Beneath the radiant sunlight, a man exuding a charisma befitting the name of a king approached us. His gaze passed over me and Jeong Seojin before settling on Caliburn, which I held in my hand. I reflexively tightened my grip on Caliburn’s hilt.

“Seeing you hold Caliburn, you’re hardly a rude intruder…”

“Are you the final boss of this dungeon?”

Unlike me, who was flustered by the sudden appearance of a ‘person,’ Jeong Seojin seemed unperturbed, as if the situation wasn’t surprising at all. He appeared to have judged King Arthur as a monster in human form, nothing more, nothing less.

I clutched Caliburn to my chest and bit my lip lightly. Come to think of it, that was probably right. There was no way a human other than us hunters would be inside a dungeon.

“‘Dungeon’ and ‘final boss’…? Do you refer to the forsaken world and the Administrator with such terms?”

“What?”

“……?”

But ‘King Arthur’ gave an answer that was far from our expectations. With an expression that seemed to show strong interest, he approached me and Jeong Seojin again.

“Yes, perhaps this is for the best. It’s not to my taste to forcibly continue a story I’ve concluded with my own hands, so I locked it away and went into hiding…”

Clang. Jeong Seojin aimed his sword at the golden king striding toward us. Even with the silver aura threatening his neck at any moment, King Arthur showed no surprise or panic. Instead, a smile of interest spread across his previously expressionless face, as if proclaiming his royal dignity.

“If the representatives of the ‘living world’ prove more disappointing than I expected, I wonder how I might move.”

“……?!”

“Kugh!”

The moment he finished speaking, King Arthur lunged at Jeong Seojin in an instant. Clang! Jeong Seojin’s silver sword and the golden sword King Arthur had drawn clashed, sending sparks flying. Only then, seeing the golden sword in King Arthur’s hand, did I realize that the golden sword I had been clutching in my arms had vanished.

‘…Caliburn?!’

Caliburn, which had been in my arms just moments ago, was now in King Arthur’s hand. Clang! Metal clashed against metal again. King Arthur’s golden sword gracefully deflected the silver strike aimed at him, then immediately lunged at Jeong Seojin’s opening.

“……!”

“Mr. Jeong Seojin!!”

Boom! With a thunderous roar that seemed impossible for the sound of metal, Jeong Seojin’s silver sword blocked the golden blade. For an instant, a hot emotion like ecstasy flickered through King Arthur’s green eyes. And right after, a golden magic circle formed at King Arthur’s feet.

“Fortunately, it seems you’re not so fragile that you can’t even withstand a single blow.”

“My, you talk a lot.”

Whoosh! Light spread around Jeong Seojin in an instant, and dozens of swords materialized around him. Jeong Seojin picked up one large, thick sword from among them and this time charged at King Arthur first.

Once again, gold and silver clashed with immense force. The backlash from the collision of power swept around the two men. I crouched as low as I could to avoid being caught in the blast that tried to push my entire body away, watching them.

Clang, clang-clang, clang!

Swords clashed at a speed too fast for my eyes to follow. Jeong Seojin and King Arthur constantly probed each other’s openings, continuing their offensive and defensive exchange. A silver sword floating in the air shot toward King Arthur’s neck, while the blade of the golden sword in King Arthur’s hand appeared from thin air, aiming for Jeong Seojin’s throat. To an onlooker, it might have seemed like a fierce, evenly matched battle.

But I subconsciously knew that wasn’t the case. It was because, through my ‘connection’ with Jeong Seojin, a faint sense of his growing urgency flowed into me.

‘An S+-Rank hunter… facing an opponent he’s struggling against?’

Sword clashed against sword, scattering blade aura in every direction. *Kwaang!* The immense forces collided once more, sending a blast wave surging through the surroundings. I pressed my body as flat against the ground as I could and gritted my teeth.

‘What the hell… is he? There’s no mention of him in the bestiary either.’

The ‘Monster Bestiary’ that the system provided to all Awakened by default had always been shoddy in many ways, but even so, there had never been a monster with no mention at all. …No. That wasn’t quite true. I clenched my fist tighter, recalling the unidentified enemy I had faced alongside Mr. Yoon Juyeong.

‘So King Arthur is one of those… unidentified enemies too?’

Before long, the battle between King Arthur and Jeong Seojin had progressed to the point where anyone could see which side held the advantage. Caliburn, held in King Arthur’s hand, was wreathed in a dazzling golden light as it swung toward Jeong Seojin. Jeong Seojin reached out a single hand toward the wave of golden mana rushing at him.

With a faint mutter, space itself began to warp. Amid the continuous roar of sound, a small voice that could easily have been missed slipped out.

“Blo—ss—m.”

The barely audible mutter was swept away by the wave of golden mana King Arthur had fired. I reflexively tried to shout his name, almost like a scream, but then realized that the ‘connection’ hadn’t been severed.

“Indeed, it seems our compatibility is quite favorable in many ways.”

“If you’re calling this favorable, you might need to get some glasses.”

Jeong Seojin stood perfectly straight in the spot where King Arthur’s golden wave had receded. As if insisting he had taken no damage at all. But I knew that, despite appearances, he had taken a considerable hit. Suppressing the dry coughs that kept trying to burst out, Jeong Seojin glared at King Arthur.

“No, our compatibility is indeed favorable enough. If you were not an unbeliever bearing the Pioneer’s sword and armor, you would have died the moment you received my first strike.”

“…That’s some serious arrogance.”

“Arrogance, you say.”

A small laugh slipped through King Arthur’s teeth. It was a laugh that seemed like a sneer at something ridiculous, yet also like a sympathetic smile toward something pitiful and lamentable.

“Then let us see if you can withstand this next strike.”

*Clank.* The golden sword was raised once more. King Arthur’s legs spread to shoulder width, and Caliburn in his hand was lifted high, as if to pierce the sun. A flicker of tension crossed Jeong Seojin’s face. Something was coming. Both I and Jeong Seojin could feel the immense flow of mana surging toward King Arthur with our entire bodies.

“—‘Unbeliever’s Step’!”

Jeong Seojin seemed to have no intention of waiting for King Arthur to finish using his skill. He shouted the skill name—which had been barely a mutter before—loudly and began to seize control of the mana in the surrounding space. The space around Jeong Seojin and King Arthur warped entirely. *Kugugugugung.* A formless, shapeless force began to press down on the entire area where they stood.

Jeong Seojin didn’t stop there. Hundreds of silver swords materialized around where he stood. Each sword, varying in shape and size, began to hurl toward the target the moment Jeong Seojin pushed off the ground.

“Activate, Pridwen.”

But the torrent of swords couldn’t pierce the blue blessing that enveloped King Arthur. The barrier of blue mana and the silver swords clashed, scattering countless sparks. The seemingly endless wave of swords finally ended when Jeong Seojin, who had somehow positioned himself behind King Arthur, swung his sword at him.

As always happened when immense mana clashed, there was a light so bright it was hard to keep one’s eyes open. The roar came after. A deafening blast erupted, light flashed, and a shockwave followed the collision of power against power. I kept my posture low, watching the outcome of the sharp clash unfolding in the distance.

“…Ha.”

The result came with someone’s hollow laugh. Jeong Seojin’s sword had pierced King Arthur’s shield. But it hadn’t run him through. King Arthur dodged Jeong Seojin’s strike with a fluid movement, then thrust his sword in a flowing motion. Red splattered. It took me a moment to realize that red was Jeong Seojin’s blood.

“—Mr. Jeong Seojin!!”

A cry close to a scream burst out not long after. I pushed myself up from the ground where I had been keeping as low as possible. *Cough.* Staggering as he spat out a dry cough, Jeong Seojin drove the sword in his hand into the ground to support himself. In that state, he raised one hand toward me.

Don’t come.

Through the ‘connection,’ his intended words transmitted clearly into my mind. Honestly.

Honestly, it was the biggest load of bullshit.

King Arthur’s sword was raised once more. Caliburn, now glowing with a radiance I had never seen before, was clearly aiming for Jeong Seojin’s neck, about to swing down. I couldn’t breathe. Urgency and anxiety clenched my heart like a vice.