Chapter 32: Free-for-all (4)

The hunting dogs could only panic.

“Why would a Judge?”

The Judges were the ones who made them into hunting dogs.

They were the ones who forcefully attached the Lightning Runes and ordered them to hunt, so why was a Judge attacking them!?

But, Woo was only expressionless.

When he stretched out his hand, the Blazing Spear returned to him.

Afterwards, without any mercy, he started to hunt.

“Why on Earth…!”

“Gaaaaackkk!”

Woo could not be stopped with only 20 hunting dogs.

As soon as the hundred people behind him joined up with them, the situation was quickly resolved.

Taehwan just gawked at the scene.

His head wasn’t able to process the situation fast enough.

He could only recover his senses after Muyoung approached him.

“Hyungnim. How, how did this happened?”

“Why did you leave the rocky area?”

Taehwan gulped his saliva as Muyoung asked instead of replying.

Hup. He felt choked.

He thought he was being scolded by being asked what he had accomplished while Muyoung had finished his preparations. Truthfully, Taehwan didn’t do anything besides driving his comrades into danger.

Nothing.

There was a common saying that it is better to remain silent than risk being thought as a fool.

Taehwan was the latter.

Because he was weak. He just acted with reckless bravado.

“…I didn’t want to just hide.”

“I guess it’s in your nature.”

Muyoung chuckled as he turned around.

Muyoung believed he needed to slightly adjust his thoughts about Taehwan.

‘If there are people who change, there should be others who don’t.’

The people who were praised as true heroes like the Dragon Lord, all were strong-spirited in nature.

What is a hero?

People who cannot let injustice pa.s.s by even if they knew that the situation was hopeless.

Therefore, most lived a short life. But if they were to survive, they would leave a mark in this world.

‘He became stronger.’

And Taehwan became stronger.

With a glance, Muyoung could tell that Taehwan had changed.

When he saw that the shape of his s.h.i.+eld had changed, he realized that it probably had a secret option.

He didn’t seem like a fool who simply followed his will.

Probably… When people talk about what qualities a hero possessed, they were probably referring to people like Taehwan.

The problem was surviving and that was solely Taehwan’s responsibility.

Muyoung couldn’t do anything in that area.

It was probably only possible for him to push his back a little.

‘They were worth being respected.’

Muyoung thought of the heroes he had killed with his hands.

At least, they weren’t like the monsters that moved for their selfish motives who Muyoung loathed, they were upright in their beliefs.

The problem was that they made up only a few people and most were hostile towards them.

A lot of things could have been different if they didn’t die by those monsters who used the Forest of Death to do their work.

At least, it wouldn’t have hopelessly collapsed like that.

The reason why Muyoung aimed for an absolute power that no one had ever achieved was because he felt it was meaningless to fight with them.

He wanted to give off the impression that if they messed with him, everything would be destroyed and use that to stop them in advance.

The Underworld was a world where the winner gets all.

If he stepped on them so that even the new sprouts couldn’t shoot up, no one would attempt to crawl all over him.

Therefore, it was true that he had positive feelings towards Taehwan who had the qualities of a true hero. At first, he was negative towards him, but after seeing how his actions, his perspective had changed.

Muyoung spoke quietly.

“Follow me. Desperately learn and master with your eyes and movements. After you become strong, you won’t need to hide any longer.”

Muyoung only had one goal.

Using Fire Dragon Woo to rally up people and have a real ‘free-for-all’ fight!

The four Judges could not be handled by just Woo and Muyoung.

However, things would change if hundreds of people were gathered.

The Judges would falter thinking that Woo betrayed them and he was going to squeeze in through that gap.

Also, Muyoung knew who the first person to let their guard down would be.

‘Code.’

One of the Judges, second daughter of the ‘Lawless Clan’.

She was engaged with Woo.

For the Fire Dragon Clan, the engagement was supposed to be the footsteps towards becoming part of the Five Great Clans. And, to progress their relations.h.i.+p, the two were placed in the same trial.

However, Woo had already become an undead.

Muyoung could hide in the shadows and attain the reward when Woo kills Code by exploiting the flaws of the Box of Trials.

‘It was highly likely that they were trying to make their rising stars more compet.i.tive and stronger. They would have had to include terms if a Judge killed another. And it wouldn’t have been a petty reward either.’

After all, the Five Great Clans and the Nine Guilds are all compet.i.tive with each other.

It was obvious what kind of trial they have set for the Box of Trials.

Was someone killed by Woo?

There could be an uproar, but that was it.

On the contrary, the Fire Dragon Clan might be happy about it.

As Woo would have demonstrated enough power for the Fire Dragon Clan to be well-known throughout the Underworld.

Of course, they couldn’t just be happy about it…

‘Woo will disappear.’

However, he couldn’t just let Woo go after everything was complete.

Even if he was half dead, he was still an undead.

There will be some who would recognize him.

And Muyoung’s ident.i.ty would be revealed.

He needed to design a meticulous plan that would certainly work.

Zaap! Zaaaaap!

Then, a lightning storm raged from afar.

Within the lightning storm, a figure flew towards them.

And below, people who had lost their will followed one after another.

It was the person who had placed Lightning Runes on people and turned them into hunting dogs.

“You traitor! You even dare to turn your back on me?”

Code had appeared.

Code’s appearance was faster than Muyoung had imagined.

However, the other 3 Judges hadn’t appeared.

They might not have wanted to get involved in a love quarrel.

‘They were strengthened.’

Muyoung’s gazed was focused on the hunting dogs Code had brought with her.

As if they were drunk, their eyes seemed out of focus and as if their muscles expanded, their bodies had become larger.

About 50 people.

While Muyoung led a number a bit over 150.

Even though there was a definite difference in numbers, there was no way to guarantee a win.

“Gaga. Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? Are you crazy?”

Code’s face turned red as she raged at him.

As they were already engaged, they called each other differently.

However, Woo’s expression didn’t change.

“So you’re not going to speak? You want to hang around with these bugs instead of us, right? Okay. Then, I will kill you all. It’s not like your Fire Dragon Clan can do anything against my Lawless Clan.”

‘Attack.’

An undead could be ordered through his consciousness.

Woo grabbed hold of his Blazing Spear and swung it around.

Swoos.h.!.+

He moved without the slightest hesitation.

Zaaap!

The spear brushed against Code’s neck.

He wanted to finish her off in one shot when her guard was down, but it only left a scratch.

A layer of lightning around her acted as a s.h.i.+eld.

“You, you tried to attack me? You dare attack me? Me!?”

Splaatt!

A wide shockwave of lightning spread out from Code’s entire body.

The ground shook and it was hard to even approach her.

If you just looked at their stats, Code was a level higher than Woo.

However, Woo became stronger as he became an undead.

First, the fact that he no longer feared death was a very big factor.

‘Use Rain of Fire.’

Woo, the Blazing Spear Soldier, moved as he heard Muyoung’s order.

As he courageously stepped in the shockwave made of lightning, he produced his Blazing Spear and pierced it multiple times.

Meanwhile, Muyoung never forgot to look around.

“Taehwan. You lead the rest of the people.”

Taehwan’s eyes widened.

“You, you mean me?”

“You are the third strongest person here. You can have some confidence.”

“Third…”

Taehwan nodded as if he thought it was quite the compliment.

“I understand.”

A fight had started, the hunting dogs against the humans.

‘Remove the core of the electric s.h.i.+eld.’

Meanwhile, Muyoung focused on ordering the Blazing Spear Soldier.

He wasn’t used to these types of fights, but Muyoung was still able to think a few moves ahead. If he could recognize the opponent’s movements ahead of time and ordered him accordingly, that was enough.

Through the Blazing Spear Soldier, Muyoung was able to move in a way his current body couldn’t.

The core of the electric s.h.i.+eld. As he stopped the path that the lightning flowed through, the raging lightning calmed noticeably.

“You’re just making a last frantic attempt! Gaga won’t be able to win against me. You should know well yourself. Hanging around with a bunch of bugs, did you forget your position? Then I’ll teach you again, properly.”

Code was also part of the inferiority complex Woo had.

Woo always had his tail between his legs as Code was one of the geniuses of the Lawless Clan.

However… Would Woo know?

That if they just looked at their strength, Woo was comparable to Code.

That he was never able to pa.s.s over his own limits due to the surrounding pressure and his inferiority complex.

As he was able to borrow Muyoung’s eyes, he was not the same as he used to be. If he was stuck, he would force his way through.

‘Now.’

The soldier slammed the ground as he quickly jumped up. 

The soldier moved as though it was one with Muyoung.

As the two slowly blended, it was no different than Muyoung moving on his own body.

‘I want to win.’

Muyoung could also hear the cry of Woo’s soul.

This was how Muyoung could understand how great of an inferiority complex he had against Code, the person who was supposed to become his closest.

Muyoung could read the flow of the lightning.

Since the lightning flowed in a single direction, it wasn’t impossible to reach Code if they moved to the side.

Code trembled as he slowly moved closer.

“H, how?”

He tossed the flowing lightning aside with his spear.

The fire spread apart and neutralized the lightning.

The flow of the fight had changed. Muyoung wasn’t naïve to give back the momentum he had attained.

Wasn’t Muyoung the type who would never let go after grabbing hold of a chance to win?

Code raised her hand to create lightning and continuously tried to attack him, but they were unable to reach him.

“Lies! There is no way Gaga could destroy my lightning!”

Even that bias showed that she had already let her guard down.

Letting one’s guard down would result in a loss.

Also, Code had never lost in her life. She was weak in these situations.

Soon, the Blazing Spear Soldier stood right in front of her as he pa.s.sed through the lightning.

An emotionless face.

Because of it, she was more afraid.

After seeing him like that, Code could only tense up.

“You, you aren’t going to kill me, right? You wouldn’t kill me. I will take back what I said before…”

The soldier raised his spear high in the air.

Staab!

There wasn’t even a second of hesitation.

The spear pierced through Code’s neck.

At the same time, a long message appeared on top of his Status Viewer.