EP.190 Say You Want to Live - 6
Instead of psychological warfare, Ulpen resolved to kill me with only strength and ki techniques.
Damn, he saw through my weakness: I’m weak in a pure physical fight. How cowardly.
Sigh. So the easy life ends here.
Now all I can do is really, truly stall. I had to buy time using every tool at my disposal.
“Finishing move!”
The revolver had five bullets. What remained was an empty gun.
A gun without bullets is useless. I boldly hurled the empty gun.
“Gun toss!”
Clang. The flying gun was blocked by a short sword. Having used the gun throw to deliberately create an opening, I immediately rolled on the ground and hid in the gap between buildings.
A narrow path between buildings. A cramped alley where two people coming from opposite directions would inevitably feel awkward facing each other.
I dashed into that alley and pulled out my next card.
Diamond 8. All things long and slender.
Chains, wires, threads, iron strips, rubber. Magic circuits.
Among the many kinds of knots contained in the card, I chose wire. I hooked a pre-knotted wire onto one railing. Clank—the knot passed through the railing like magic and held firm.
Having set up three wire traps in rapid succession, I deliberately plucked one to reveal its presence. Ulpen, who followed behind me, saw the taut wire and couldn’t rashly charge in.
‘...Traps? Troublesome. Breaking through by force is risky.’
Ha. How’s that? Since ancient times, the best way to catch beasts has always been traps. Since you decided to rely only on strength, can you really enter this alley?
‘I’ll have to kick off the walls and jump over.’
Now that’s cheating!
Pat, pat. Ulpen lightly kicked off the walls on both sides and soared 10 meters into the air. Then, with one foot against a wall, he slid down as if descending a slope.
No time to watch idly. With my best trap neutralized, I immediately threw myself out of the alley. Ulpen closed the distance in an instant as I fled.
‘Got you. Now you can’t escape.’
I had just rounded a corner, and Ulpen drew his short sword to aim at my back. As he leaped down from the end of the slope and tried to change direction, he landed on the ground.
Poof. The ground collapsed. His sleek landing form plunged straight down.
For a fleeting moment, losing his footing, Ulpen was greatly flustered.
‘A trap? When did he—’
The road, with only a thin layer peeled away, was dirt. I had removed all that dirt beneath, so when Ulpen landed heavily, the road vanished as if sucked underground.
A sinkhole trap created by earth magic. Reading Ulpen’s bewilderment, I immediately brought out a card I had saved meticulously.
Diamond 10, Sword and Shield.
A small buckler appeared on my left hand, a straight sword about the length of an arm appeared in my right. Thrusting the buckler toward Ulpen’s face, I simultaneously stabbed with the straight sword into his blind spot.
A masterstroke, putting my whole body into it, perfectly targeting the opponent’s gap.
Thwack. The buckler slammed exactly into Ulpen’s face. At the same time, my straight sword slashed his shoulder. The collar tore long, blood spurted above it.
‘He got me one.’
But no time to savor the achievement. Even flustered, his clear will to attack was aimed at me.
‘But it’s light. Easy to endure.’
His head, pushed back by the buckler, returned, and Ulpen’s eyes glinted ominously. At the same time, a pitch-black blade shot up from my left. The dark murky ki, swallowing even light, exquisitely aimed for my life.
Sensing the killing intent, I gritted my teeth, twisted my arm and waist tightly, and pulled the buckler back. Without sparing an ounce of my scant ki, I coated the buckler.
Screeeech.
The sturdy buckler blocked the darkness-tainted sword at an angle. A clash of sword and shield—common sense says the shield should hold the advantage.
But in a clash between ki-infused sword and ki-infused shield, the stronger ki wins.
Crack. The buckler, which had held for a moment, split miserably. Like frozen bread dropped on the ground, it cracked, shattered, and fulfilled its role as a shield. The short sword, having smashed and torn the buckler in an instant, sliced deep into my left arm, leaving a gash.
“Aaaah!”
Damn, it hurts so much!
No time to groan in pain. To block his attack, I needed a sword more than a shield. I tried to pull back the straight sword that had torn Ulpen’s shoulder and slice his arm.
However.
“Weaker than I thought.”
Clap. Ulpen grabbed my straight sword with his bare hand. He seized the blade, barehanded.
That alone was enough; the straight sword froze as if embedded in rock.
“Tch!”
If caught like this, I die. I let go of the straight sword and immediately rolled backward. Blood gushed from my crushed left arm, but I had no time to tend it.
In contrast, Ulpen walked forward as if his shoulder wound was nothing and muttered.
“It was all petty tricks. Alchemy, all sorts of mischief—deceptions to hide your weakness.”
It’s all laid bare.
Well, if I can’t block a sword with a shield and give up my left arm, it’d be strange not to feel it.
Still, I couldn’t afford to lose my composure. I had to buy a little more time.
Still feigning relaxedness, I raised my bleeding left arm.
“Ta-da. How was it? Fun?”
“Quite. Magician, you might have the makings of an assassin surpassing even Bon.”
He brought his hand to the shoulder wound cut by my straight sword. Surging energy seeped into the wound, and the blood hardened black, quickly stopping the bleeding.
Ulpen, having effortlessly nullified my all-out strike, removed his hand and muttered.
“One. This world is strength. In the end, those without strength are bound to be broken, and those with strength reign. That is the way of the world.”
“I get your enlightenment. So what?”
Ulpen looked down at me as if I were a foolish child, with utter contempt.
“If you wanted to live, you shouldn’t have blocked Bon’s path. You were foolish, Magician. You dreamed too big for your station.”
“Haha. So your dream is so humble that your plan was to borrow the military state’s power to clean up the back alleys and claim an ownerless territory?”
“Standing in the midst of the weaker is the perfect way to reign completely.”
“You’re just a small-minded citizen.”
“I know my place. Unlike you.”
He’s serious. Ulpen was truly the classic remnant of the kingdom era: strong to the weak and weak to the strong.
Ah, how dull.
Compared to his power, his actions are nothing but those of a petty citizen. Just a little stronger than ordinary people, a little more rational, a little luckier.
“Boring. Truly, you’re the type who survived by luck alone.”
I lamented and flipped my hand. The few remaining diamond cards were caught between my fingers.
Diamond 7. Magic Staff.
The card instantly transformed into a long staff with a curved handle. Regardless, Ulpen no longer bothered to be cautious and trudged toward me.
“Everything’s read. No longer will I be swayed by cheap tricks. Bon will approach you like this and take your life; not even your brilliant deceptions will save you.”
Ah, seriously. Is this the end?
My left arm throbs. Ah, a magician’s life is in his hands and arms. Even with such a loss, must it end like this?
That was when. From the sky, something fell with an urgent voice.
It was a golem.
»Dodge!«
With those words, the golem blocked my front. Unlike the stationary surveillance golem, this was a synchro-type that could move on its own.
Wow. Seeing one after so long, it’s a bit welcoming.
Swallowing the stinging pain in my left arm and the feeling like tears would burst out, I asked.
“Captain. Did I buy enough time?”
The synchro-type magitek golem stood as if shielding me and shouted.
»Affirmative! Sir, if you just hold out a little more…«
Before the Captain could finish. Ulpen’s dagger was driven into the torso, the golem’s voice cut off as if fading, then with a grinding sound, it collapsed powerlessly.
Unable to endure even a second, its functions ceased. I cried out toward the Captain.
“Captaaaaain!!”
You should’ve lasted a bit longer! What’s the point of a cool entrance if you exit so pathetically! It drains all my strength!
“Time’s been wasted enough.”
Since you said that, Ulpen is now all heated up to kill me!
‘No more dragging this out. Die.’
Tak. Kicking off the ground in one leap, Ulpen raised his short sword. Without wasting more energy, he channeled it solely into his body and blade, aiming to kill me squarely.
Clear killing intent and the power to execute it. In the face of that, powerless me could do nothing but helplessly offer my neck…
Yet, overcoming such a situation is the pinnacle of magic.
In this desperate crisis with no apparent escape, only by fleeing in an unimaginable way… do I have the right to call myself a magician.
“Perhaps, the card I hold….”
I scattered my right hand. A new card appeared at the end. I deftly picked up the card with two fingers.
The single card I had prepared in advance for the shadows.
The weapons forged from diamonds were merely pawns for this one card.
“You didn’t think I only had weapons, did you?”
The card I flipped like that was Clover 1.
Unlike the sharply angled red diamonds, a round tree rooted in the ground and grown appeared before Ulpen.
‘Cheap trick. Won’t be fooled. Whatever pops out, I’ll keep my eyes wide open and respond.’
I’m the boy who cried wolf.
Repeated lies breed deep distrust and force the opponent into an unshakable stance.
Thank you. For keeping your eyes peeled for my final magic.
Flipping the clover-engraved card, I unleashed the magic stored inside. The condensed mana surged toward the lone clover, blazing white-hot.
Ulpen frowned at the shining card.
‘Trying to obscure my vision with light? Just what are you hiding?’
Wrong.
It’s not about hiding with light; what’s hidden is light itself.
Watching the clover gradually brighten, an ominous thought belatedly flickered through Ulpen’s mind.
‘…Could it be, magic? No way!’
Too late to realize. The magic had already been cast.
Let there be light.
“Fiat Lux.”
Since he had fully sheathed his energy, the darkness cloaking his entire body was now gone. Without scattering ki in all directions, diverse responses were impossible.
In other words, Ulpen was completely defenseless.
The condensed light at the center of the clover exploded.
Every shadow in the street vanished. In an instant, incandescent white light began pouring from the card’s surface.
An overwhelming brightness, as if a window had been opened right before the sun.
Even eyelids could not filter the light. Through the transparent skin, the shadows of bone and veins seemed visible.
To erase shadows is light. Struck head-on by its counterpoint, Ulpen hurriedly covered his eyes, but the light momentarily stole his vision.
“Lucky your ki is of the dark attribute. You won’t be blinded. But movement will be difficult for a while.”
“You bast—! Magician!”
Darkness covers the eyes, but light blinds them. You and this spell are in a perfect superior-inferior relationship.
Losing his sight, Ulpen leaped backward and scattered his sword in all directions. Dark murky energy burst from his entire body again. To preempt any attack slipping in during his inability to respond.
But it’s useless.
Though better off than you who took it directly, I can’t see much either. Not like I can attack anyway.
“Keugh...!”
“Thank you for watching till the end, Ulpen Penstein. You were a dull man, but a fairly decent audience. But to defeat you who follows the logic of power, one must be stronger than you. In that sense, I’m unqualified.”
“I’ll kill you. On the honor of the Shadows, you and all around you! I’ll slaughter you all!”
“Ah, right. Goodbye then.”
With that farewell, I fled down the escape route I had scoped out beforehand. The street consumed by light hid figures better than darkness. No one saw me escaping.
Though I couldn’t see ahead either and banged my head while fleeing, well, anyway. I succeeded in escaping into a building.
My role ends here. Dangerous, but somehow it worked out.
Next is the military state’s turn.