Adel did not stop.
When he emerged from the forest,
his field of vision had already opened wide.
Beneath the light of the full moon, there was almost nothing that could be hidden.
The light did not fall only from above.
Moonlight shattered upon the river’s surface, leaping up along the ripples,
clinging thinly to armor and blades.
Holding one’s breath was useless.
The moment a breath lifted a shoulder,
that movement disturbed the light.
If a toe pushed against the gravel,
even that minute tremor was revealed.
Adel did not fear that exposure.
Rather, the brightness of the full moon seemed to confirm who was standing where.
Those blocking his path had been clear from the start.
Rangnan, Muryeong.
And Aslo.
The three stood without scattering.
They did not appear to have any intention of retreating or stalling for time.
Adel’s gaze passed beyond them.
Behind them.
At the very rear,
a beat farther back than the others.
A black-haired girl stood there.
The sword was not in her hand.
It remained strapped to her back,
while she neither lowered nor raised her stance.
Adel did not take his eyes off her.
Though there was no movement, she did not seem empty.
It felt as if the place he had to approach had been decided from the beginning.
Rangnan spoke briefly.
“Mendel.”
There was no answer.
Mendel’s arm swung in a wide arc.
The water flowing along the river lost its direction for an instant.
The surface rose as if being lifted up,
and before the wave could even take shape, it came crashing toward Adel.
It was not a simple flow of water.
It was a mass carrying weight and pressure together.
Adel did not dodge.
His greatsword flashed.
The wave was split cleanly apart,
and the water scattered to either side.
But he came to a halt where he stood.
As if the divided water were gathering again,
the scattered streams struck his body as they were.
Water ran down his soaked armor.
It did not merely wet him.
It seeped into the gaps of his armor and made his joints heavy,
while the leather straps drank in water and sagged, stealing the “give” from his movements.
The cold came late.
The sensation of wet steel stealing the heat from his skin.
Adel did not endure that feeling.
There was no need to endure it.
He had stopped not because he was drenched,
but to confirm the first flow his opponent wanted.
Something larger would come next.
And after that, it might not be blood,
but a force that overturned the battlefield itself.
Without lowering his sword,
Adel let the droplets fall as they would.
So that the brief stillness would not turn into time to flee.
Seeing that, Miryeong’s face twisted.
“Ugh, seriously…”
Her reaction bordered on disgust.
An expression that said she could not understand him.
Adel stood as if catching his breath, his sword still raised.
With water soaking his body, he did not take even one more step forward.
His gaze still remained fixed on the rear.
Yet a subtle sign showed that something in him had gone awry.
“Must we,”
Adel said.
“see blood?”
There was no answer.
Instead,
the color of the axe Muryeong was holding changed.
Its dark surface slowly reddened,
and light spread out from the inside of the blade as if gathering there.
At the same time, the air split.
Lightning flowed.
And it connected straight to Adel, who was soaked with water.
There was no time to resist.
The current ran along his armor and wrapped around his body,
and Adel’s body stiffened for an instant.
The current flowed through the metal.
It felt as though it struck his bones before his skin.
Not as if his breath were “blocked,” but as if he had briefly forgotten how to breathe.
Adel’s fingers trembled faintly around the hilt of his greatsword.
It was a tremor that fought not to let go.
Even while his muscles refused to obey, his will alone held fast to the hilt.
A brief burnt smell rose.
Not the smell of wet armor,
but the scent left behind after a living body endured an electric current.
Even as that smell spread, the full moon did not conceal him.
And so Adel tried to answer more quickly by “not stopping.”
“Grrrgh—”
A short groan escaped him.
A faint wisp of smoke rose.
At that moment, the air warped.
Adel’s Idrin burst outward.
An immense amplification of life force spread around him like a wave.
It was not merely for recovery.
It carried a pressure as if his very existence had swelled by a level.
Under that pressure, Rangnan and Aslo,
and everyone except Muryeong, flinched for an instant.
Their bodies reacted first.
It was a power they had already experienced once.
Even so, it was not something they could grow used to.
Miryeong muttered as if gritting her teeth.
“Even seeing it again…”
“…He really is a monster.”
The smoke had not yet fully cleared,
and the light of the full moon did not hide that pressure.
Adel did not stop.
On the contrary, he grew faster.
If his earlier movements had been probing,
now they were a conclusion.
His greatsword swept through the air.
Before its trajectory could be seen, the impact arrived first.
Bido could not follow that flow to the end.
Before his gaze could reach it, the next motion had already followed.
A roar burst out.
Muryeong raised his axe and received Adel’s greatsword.
It was not the sound of metal striking metal,
but the sound of masses colliding.
The shock spread through the ground,
and the gravel along the riverbank leaped up.
Rangnan and Aslo immediately scattered to the sides.
There were no words.
Rangnan moved to the right,
Aslo to the left.
They widened the angle,
placing Adel at the center.
It was not encirclement, but a movement to disperse pressure.
Adel did not allow them that opening.
The greatsword came down again.
Once,
twice.
Successive slashes tore through the air.
Muryeong did not retreat.
He lowered his axe, then raised it again, receiving every attack.
The impacts traveled up his arms,
but his stance never once broke.
At that moment, Miryeong’s expression changed.
“I can feel it.”
She spoke shortly.
“The others are coming too.”
Without turning his head, Rangnan replied.
“Prepare.”
Mendel no longer stepped forward.
Retreating one step from the riverbank,
he lowered his stance.
His fingertips and gaze began measuring the water’s flow at the same time.
And the air around Rangnan changed.
A presence brushed past, as if electric currents were gathering from within his body.
For an instant,
a fierce surge of electricity seemed to envelop Rangnan’s body,
then immediately contracted.
The lightning did not scatter,
but gathered at his fingertips.
Light formed at the ends of his fingers.
The shape of claws made of lightning revealed itself.
Aslo also raised his longsword.
After drawing a deep breath,
he pulled his Idrin up to its limit.
The air grew heavy,
and a minute pressure formed around him.
The sword had not yet moved,
but his preparations were already complete.
The river continued to flow.
The full moon still illuminated everything.
And now,
this place was no longer a boundary.
Adel, Muryeong, Rangnan, and Aslo were already within one another’s range.
The greatsword descended,
and the axe met it head-on.
Lightning grazed past,
and the longsword cut through the gap, driving in.
The air continued to tear, and the impacts shook the ground.
Then,
a shout came from behind Adel.
“Sir Adel!”
The voice was clear.
It was Rina.
Behind Adel in his red armor,
three knights leaped forward at once.
Silver armor flashed beneath the full moon.
Their speed was great, and their spacing precise.
It was not simple support, but a coordinated charge.
Mendel raised both hands.
He put strength into his entire body as if lifting some invisible, heavy object.
And then,
he dragged them upward on a diagonal.
The river responded.
It was far larger than the one that had struck Adel earlier.
The water surged higher,
and spread wider.
The wave changed direction and swallowed the path the knights were leaping through.
There seemed to be no room to evade along that route.
The silver armors were submerged,
and their bodies staggered in midair.
They were swept away by the current.
The river pushed the knights toward the forest at the side,
hurling their bodies among the dense trees.
Not one of them fell.
Their armor absorbed the impact,
and each of them quickly recovered their stance.
But when they raised their heads—
ahead of them,
a powerful explosion erupted.
Erdin was already moving.
The fists of both his hands touched a tree,
and in that instant, Explosive Fist burst forth.
The thick trunk shattered from its center.
With the sound of wood splitting, fragments scattered in every direction.
The splinters of the broken tree struck the knights as they were.
The impact was brief, but heavy.
The silver armors shook all at once, and their formation broke.
No one had fallen yet.
But the battlefield was clearly
changing in a direction that was not favorable to them.
Beneath the light of the full moon,
the collision was already no longer confined to a single point.
Miryeong moved first.
There was no longer any hesitation.
She kicked off the ground and drove straight toward the three knights.
The earth beneath her feet burst upward as if exploding,
and the air followed belatedly.
The wind ran.
Until now, what Miryeong had handled had been a sharp and swift current.
But this time, the power surrounding her was different.
The air twisted and whirled around her body,
and the wind became not a line, but a mass that raged around her.
It looked as if she were dragging the very heart of a storm with her.
Her teeth grazed together.
Gritting them, Miryeong shouted.
“Rina!”
A single name spread through the torn air.
Beneath the light of the full moon, the wind was no longer something auxiliary.
Miryeong’s movement itself had become the center,
and the surrounding air was forcibly drawn in.
The branches of the forest bent,
and blades of grass were uprooted.
The next moment,
Miryeong’s body plunged into the battlefield together with the storm.