Jincheong and Miryeong moved first to the front of the carts.
Miryeong looked back and spoke.
"We'll check it out first."
"In the rear, don't let the formation break and move as fast as possible."
Leaving those words behind, the two headed straight for the narrowing pass.
Before long,
Miryeong's expression immediately hardened.
"What... the smell of blood."
Jincheong also immediately surveyed their surroundings.
"There's definitely something here."
The two did not slow their steps.
As soon as they reached the pass, they quickly scanned left and right.
Miryeong spoke in a low voice.
"All around..."
Jincheong discovered several arrows stuck in the ground and bent down.
"So a fight already went down..."
Instead of answering, Miryeong turned toward the direction where the smell of blood was thick.
Corpses were strewn about the edges of the forest surrounding the pass.
They had all already gone cold.
Those toppled behind trees, those collapsed while clutching bows,
even those thrust into the slope below as if cut down while fleeing.
Their attire was not uniform, and neither were their armor and weapons.
Miryeong narrowed her eyes.
"They're not mercenaries."
Jincheong said while scanning the surroundings.
"They're bandits. Looks like they were trying to ambush here..."
Miryeong stopped in front of the nearest corpse.
A thin sword mark that grazed below the neck.
A wound that had ended the vital point without leaving time to react.
Miryeong's gaze sank.
"...This sword wound."
Jincheong asked.
"The one from yesterday?"
Miryeong answered shortly.
"Yeah. The one who killed the mercenaries."
A brief silence fell.
Miryeong looked around between the corpses.
The bandits had already died here.
But those corpses drew the eye to both sides of the pass,
and the smell of blood muddled the entire forest.
Her expression suddenly hardened.
"...We were tricked."
Jincheong's gaze immediately turned to Miryeong.
"What?"
Miryeong gritted her teeth.
—
Even after Miryeong and Jincheong went ahead,
the delegation did not slow its pace as it quickly continued toward the narrow pass.
Bido kept worrying about Miryeong, who had gone ahead.
It was in that moment that he absentmindedly clutched his necklace.
The Deraul Stone in his pocket suddenly heated up, scorching his thigh.
At the same time,
something tore through his mind like a laceration.
'Danger!'
Without even time to think, Bido drew his sword.
Clang!
A sharp sound of metal clashing head-on burst out.
"...Huh?"
Bido's eyes opened wide.
Right in front of his nose,
a figure wearing black armor with a red pibulla emblazoned on it stood there.
Bido's sword
had already blocked the figure's sword.
A voice from beyond the mask leaked out low.
"...Why is it coming undone?"
He lightly stepped back.
At that sight, Edgar immediately shouted.
"Ambush!"
At those words, the entire group reacted.
Wolryeon was already aiming his heavy crossbow,
and the guards and military police hurriedly drew their weapons as well.
It was then.
The black-armored figure blurred as if shaking.
And then disappeared just like that.
"What...?"
Wolryeon muttered low.
Bido instinctively realized.
"Mirkin...!"
In that instant, Bido didn't hesitate.
He didn't keep the power he had drawn up within himself; he pushed it straight out to his surroundings.
A red aura spread like a stain.
The surrounding air distorted,
and something that had been hiding was forcibly pushed out.
The black armor revealed itself once more.
The gaze from beyond the mask turned toward Bido.
"Ah... you did this."
The next moment—
Shhk!
Red blood sprayed into the air.
Blood burst from a military policeman's neck.
In that spot stood another black-armored figure.
In both hands were jagged daggers like saw blades.
The military policeman collapsed without even time to clutch his neck.
"Heheh..."
A chilling laugh flowed from beneath the mask.
"There are so many to kill...."
And before anyone could even shout,
"Ugh...!"
Edgar tumbled across the ground.
His forearm was torn long and stained red.
In the spot he had just dodged,
yet another black-armored figure stood holding a long sword stained with blood.
That man spoke as if mocking.
"What. I heard there was nothing much except the White Haraia."
Bido took a sharp breath.
Three.
Only now did he see them.
Bido immediately opened the Wolhyeol.
A crescent moon rose above his forehead,
and at the same time, he drew up even the power sleeping within Tiamar's Sword.
Red scales sprouted as if spreading across the backs of his hands and beneath his eyes.
Hadin, seeing that appearance, spoke low.
"So it's true."
A cold smile was mixed into the voice from beyond the mask.
"Filthy bloodline of the curse."
The next moment,
Hadin dug into Bido.
Clang!
The long sword came down heavily.
Bido's sword barely caught its trajectory.
It was a blow that would have taken his head off if he hadn't blocked it.
Feeling the resistance transmitted to his fingertips, Hadin spoke as if interested.
"To be this capable at such a young age..."
Shell laughed from beside him.
"Hehe..."
"Pathetic."
Without hesitation, he cut down another nearby guard.
Blood burst from the neck,
and the person's body folded and collapsed.
Thud!
Soon after, Wolryeon's heavy crossbow bolt flew in, but
Tiller twisted his sword and deflected it far too lightly.
Clang!
The crossbow bolt lodged in a random tree trunk.
In that time, two other guards and watchmen charged at Shell.
But Shell did not face them head-on.
Slipping between their swords as if playing,
he slashed flesh with nothing but the trajectory of his passing.
With short screams, the two collapsed clutching their legs and sides.
The moment Shell tried to slit another watchman's throat—
"Hey!"
A strong gust of wind struck Shell from the side.
Shell twisted his body bizarrely and barely deflected the wind.
The black armor shook greatly.
He turned his head.
Miryeong, who had only just joined them, stood there exhaling roughly.
The flow of wind still remained at her fingertips.
Shell laughed unpleasantly.
"Is that the White Haraia?"
From behind, Tiller spoke briefly.
"You take her, Shell."
"Fine."
Laughter was mixed into Shell's voice.
Meanwhile, Bido was being pushed back by Hadin's sword strikes.
Clang! Clang!
Hadin's sword was not showy.
But there was no waste.
It aimed only for the neck, heart, and vital points.
A single moment of disorder would mean instant death.
Bido gritted his teeth.
The moon's power.
The sword's power.
And his own vitality.
Somehow, just once,
he had to create an opening to stab in.
Red scales already thickly covered the backs of his hands and beneath his eyes.
'Just once...!'
Bido forcibly widened his vision.
Hadin's shoulders, wrists, toes.
But nowhere beneath the black armor and mask was a noticeable gap visible.
Rather, Hadin spoke even lower.
"Are you looking?"
The tip of his sword flashed toward Bido's neck once more.
Bido inhaled more deeply.
Something like black water flickered at the edge of his vision.
But right now, he didn't have the luxury to care about such things.
The expansion of senses that Miryeong had spoken of.
Putting strength into his eyes, following the flow.
Very faintly, the sword strike before his eyes seemed a little slower than before.
And then he saw it.
Between the swords, a single point on the neck that the armor couldn't completely cover.
A very thin gap.
A graze would be enough.
Just touching it would be enough.
Bido gritted his teeth and deflected Hadin's sword.
And immediately thrust his sword toward that gap.
Hadin's voice flowed low.
"Nice reflexes."
Clang!
Bido's sword was deflected greatly to the side.
The moment he thought he had stabbed, it was already blocked.
Hadin didn't stop there.
Riding the rebound of the deflection,
his sword immediately came back toward Bido's neck.
'I'm going to die.'
In that moment—
Rattle!
A chain wrapped around Hadin's sword.
"Hm?"
Bido's eyes opened wide.
Ayla, who had leaped from the cart at some point, stood there gripping the end of the chain.
Her breath was rough, and her fingertips were still trembling.
Even so, her eyes glared straight at Hadin.
Clenching her teeth, Ayla spoke low.
"Those damned bastards..."
Hadin followed the chain to Ayla's red hair and spoke indifferently.
"So you're the mercenary who survived."
"I don't know how you lived."
In that moment,
his arm moved greatly to the side.
Snap!
The chain couldn't endure and broke.
Cut pieces of metal scattered in the air.
Hadin slowly turned the tip of his sword toward Ayla.
"If I slit your throat, you'll die this time."
Ayla didn't step back even one step.
Pulling another chain from her bosom, she forcibly suppressed her trembling voice.
"Try it."
The chain trembled briefly in her hand.
"You son of a bitch."
In that moment,
a blue light blazed in Ayla's eyes.
—
"Hahaha! You're really interesting!"
Shell burst into laughter and swung his sword at Miryeong in succession.
Slashing, thrusting, and digging back in as if grazing—the trajectories were dizzying like a sword dance.
Miryeong gritted her teeth and let each attack flow past her.
Not taking them head-on, twisting, deflecting, and stepping aside by half a pace as if riding the wind.
"Crazy bastard..."
Muttering like that, Miryeong glanced absentmindedly toward Bido.
Shell didn't miss that brief moment.
"You can't let your eyes wander!"
Shhk!
The tip of the saw-blade-like dagger grazed Miryeong's forearm, shallowly tearing her flesh.
"Tch..."
Miryeong immediately drew up wind and drifted sideways as if floating.
But Shell chased even that.
"Fast, so fast!"
Footwork that bent bizarrely.
At a speed that didn't seem human, Shell dug into Miryeong's empty spot.
In that moment,
Miryeong's eyes blazed crimson.
Whish—
An invisible trajectory grazed Shell's side.
For the first time, Shell dropped his smile and pressed his body flat against the ground.
Crack!
One of the cart wheels behind him was cut clean and rolled off to the side.
A brief silence fell.
Shell raised the corner of his mouth again.
"Quite skilled, aren't you?"
Feeling the blood flowing down her forearm, Miryeong gritted her teeth.
This guy wasn't simply trying to kill her.
He was holding her in place.
"Damn it... where'd he go again."
Wolryeon gritted his teeth.
The moment just now when Bido blocked Hadin's sword strike,
the red aura that had spread to the surroundings shook and disappeared.
At the same time, Tiller's form blurred and twisted again, disappearing.
Wolryeon held his breath and turned his heavy crossbow.
Edgar also forcibly held his injured arm, sweeping his surroundings with a blood-soaked hand.
A single moment of carelessness meant death.
That wasn't a statement that applied only to himself.
Anyone nearby could have their head taken off the moment he looked away.
And—
Edgar's eyes opened wide.
He turned his head with the face of someone who had suddenly realized something.
"Bido!"
At the same time as that shout,
the empty air behind Bido quietly split open.