87.
‘There’s nothing wrong with being careful.’
Thinking so, a faint voice came from behind Lena, who was crossing the lobby.
“You’re unnecessarily quick-witted.”
The woman slowly walked out of her window. But she looked bizarre. Her upper body was human, but her lower body was that of a beast.
“A monster?”
When Lena asked, the woman frowned and answered.
“No, I’m not?”
“You’re a monster no matter how I look at you?”
“Just shut up!”
Two goat-like legs spurred the ground and charged at Lena. A hammer appeared out of nowhere with a sharp sound cutting through the wind and landed on Lena.
However, it was easy to dodge her first attack as she had been on high alert from her instincts.
“I’m not wrong.”
Lena laughed at the woman and drew her own weapon. Just in case, she looked outside and saw that the battle had already begun on that side.
‘Then I just have to do my own thing.’
Outside, there was Seon-woo, the Guild Leader. Because Lena absolutely believed in him, she decided to focus on the battle right in front of her.
“Come on, come on.”
When provoked by flicking her fingers, once again the beast’s legs spurred the ground and lunged.
Thud!
Right after Ji Seon-woo felt that something unusual was happening in the lobby of the building, something fell on top of the car. As a normal car without any extraordinary measures, it was immediately crushed on the spot and became useless.
They were quite deep in the woods, so this was bothersome.
Seon-woo swept his hair backwards and looked at the man who straightened up from his crouching body.
“Bacardi.”
“Call me Bacardi-nim. How dare you!”
At the same time, the hard floor melted, and a familiar barrier encircled the surroundings.
“You’re not alone.”
“Fighting is done alone. This is just because I was afraid you would run away.”
“Isn’t that person familiar? What did you just say your name was? Bacardi?”
“That person is the Guild Leader of the Phoenix Guild!”
His whole body was taut with tension. Even so, they prepared for the situation without collapsing in the slightest. The opponent was Bacardi, but they had Ji Seon-woo, the best Awakened in Korea. They didn’t think Seon-woo would lose to Bacardi.
“No, there you go again. Because today my goal is you. The other kids will deal with your lackeys.”
As soon as the words came, several people suddenly appeared, and their appearances were strange. It was as if people and monsters were mixed together.
The guild members of the Seon-Hyeon Guild immediately started fighting with them. The only ones who were relaxed right now were Bacardi and Seon-woo.
“What do you mean by I’m the target?”
“You’re Ji Hyeon-woo’s younger brother, Ji Seon-woo.”
Seon-woo blinked slowly. And soon he understood the whole situation. Since Bacardi couldn’t beat his Hyung one-on-one, he conspired to hold him hostage.
“Hmm.”
He had a different feeling. He never thought he would be treated like this because of his strong Hyung. It felt good to hold his Hyung in high esteem, but he did not wish for himself to be underestimated.
“Then let’s fight!”
Bacardi jumped from the top of his car and lunged at Seon-woo like a wild boar on fire. Even though the floor had turned into a swamp, they didn’t seem to care at all.
Ppak!
As he snapped his fingers, the swamp froze, grabbing Bacardi’s leg.
“This much is nothing!”
The ice shattered with a thud sound. However, Seon-woo was already preparing for the next attack. The water droplets that floated in the air rotated like crazy and were shot at Bacardi’s body.
With a sound like a hammer hitting his leather drum, Bacardi’s flesh dented here and there, but he didn’t stop charging.
Seon-woo turned and evaded, but Bacardi easily caught up with him despite his large body. Attack, dodge. As time passed, the two realized one thing.
At this rate, they wouldn’t know when the battle would end. It was because they both matched in skills. Bacardi, who had been pounding the ice wall with his fist like crazy, stopped in place at some point.
His hands, which had been bloodied by his sharp ice, were quickly restored.
“Well, I predicted this much. It’s surprising, but I have to admit it. You are strong. Although you’re worse than Ji Hyeon-woo.”
“I’m not happy to be praised by someone who’s trying to play dirty.”
“It’s mean. That’s one way. And this is one way.”
Bacardi took something from his bosom and gulped it down. At first glance, it looked like a pill.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
With the shout, Bacardi’s body swelled increasingly. Then, the copper-colored skin began to turn darker and darker. Red and blue veins thickened and stood out like the traces of a snake crawling over his skin, and several horns sprouted from the top of his head.
“He’s a monster.”
“Monster, huh! Haha, this feels good.”
Bacardi, who now had a grotesque look, jumped up from his position laughing. The huge, swollen body grew faster.
“Now for the second round.”
Before he could finish his words, Bacardi disappeared. It wasn’t that he suddenly got more powers. He just sped up so fast he couldn’t even follow it.
As soon as he realized that Seon-woo spread the water droplets around him. And he found out where Bacardi was through the quiver of the water droplets. Now, he was right behind Seon-woo.
“Guild Leader!”
The guild members who were fighting while away shouted with surprised expressions.
Seon-woo immediately used ice to build a wall behind him and poured out attacks on Bacardi. However, he had moved to another place before he knew it.
“Good, good. That’s it!”
With an ecstatic expression on his face, Bacardi stretched out his hand.
“Cough!”
The one caught in that hand was Lena. After fighting the woman in the lobby and winning, she aimed for Bacardi’s back.
“You shouldn’t interfere with the fight, huh? I gave you the perfect match for the first time in a long time.”
Seon-woo stopped dodging and immediately started attacking Bacardi. Countless drops of water and pieces of ice floated in the air and aimed at Bacardi, but they were forced to stop. It was because he put Lena in front of him.
“It’s not fun if you do this.”
Bacardi grumbled and threw Lena away.
She immediately tried to get back up, but soon she was forced to freeze on the spot. It was because of someone else standing in her way.
“Come on, you want to watch it with me too?”
A black-haired woman appeared before she knew it and smirked as she looked down at Lena.
“Don’t interfere.”
“Look. If it takes too long, I might have to intervene.”
Tiamat ran her fingers through her long hair. In fact, she really wanted to intervene. And she wanted to tear Ji Seon-woo’s limbs apart, torture him, and see blood. No, if that didn’t work, even others were not enough.
The sharp pupils of the eyes flashed strangely.
‘I want to see blood.’
She was told that she could see a lot of blood, so she stuck to this side, but she couldn’t fight as much as she thought. Because of that, she changed a lot of people under her as a way to vent her anger, but that wasn’t enough. She wanted to fight a stronger human.
While not even thinking about attacking Hyeon-woo, she longed for a powerful opponent. It was overly contradictory.
Excluding non-standard monsters like Ji Hyeon-woo.
“Tiamat-nim.”
Kai called Tiamat’s name.
“I know, I know. When I am patient, I know how to be patient.”
Tiamat swallowed her saliva and narrowed her eyes. In the meantime, Bacardi was driving Ji Seon-woo into a corner. Bacardi, who constantly received demon energy and took medicine to make himself more powerful, was demonstrating superpowers that were more than twice his original strength. So there was no way Ji Seon-woo would win.
‘If the end is fixed anyway, wouldn’t it be better to just get rid of him quickly and take him away?’
‘Why do you have to fight?’ Tiamat bit her lip due to the surging desire.
“Laugh!”
Ji Seon-woo was a strong Awakened, but there was a limit to his power. And that limit seemed to be approaching. The rain of water and ice that had been pouring incessantly was dwindling. In the meantime, all other guild members of the Seon-Hyeon Guild had collapsed.
Some died, some seriously injured. And the end of the battle was slowly approaching.
***
Hyeon-woo frowned as he watched the silently moving hands of the clock.
“Seon-woo’s late.”
“Maybe he’s busy with work?”
“But he said he would come in the evening.”
“Is it six o’clock now?”
Ga-jun replied in a ridiculous tone.
“It’s six o’clock.”
“I thought Ji Seon-woo was the only bro-com, but this one isn’t easy either.”
Glancing at Ga-jun saying that, Hyeon-woo drew his leg and held him in his arms. That pushed Alberg, who was about to lie down with his head on his thigh, away, but he didn’t care.
“Are you nervous?”
“Unn. I have a bad feeling.”
“Hmm.”
“First of all, Do-jin Hyung said he would ask Elisha.”
At that time, Hyeon-woo, who felt a presence at the door, jumped up from his seat.
“Do-jin Hyung!”
“Hyeon-woo-ya.”
“Did you ask?”
When he approached with quick steps and asked, Do-jin answered with a puzzled expression.
“I did ask.”
“What did she say?”
“They lost contact 30 minutes ago. They seem to be checking the situation, but it seems that neither the phone nor the walkie-talkie works.”
When he heard Do-jin’s words, his heart sank.
Support on Kofi
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Credits:
Translator: Hoshi Miya
Editor/Proofreader: Davine, YaagRabRag
HM: Tan-tan-taaaaaan! As much as I like cliffhangers…
Davine: Now we will see the older Bro-con becoming a demon for his dongsaeng.
YRR: What business did they have that they were so easily duped?
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