The One Who Saved a World Before Will be Best at Saving Another

Chapter 28

This bastard’s body was exactly as it had been in his prime, but most of the experience and memories he had built up were gone.

I was the opposite. My experience and memories were intact, but my body had weakened.

“In that case.”

I swallowed dryly and muttered. In that case, it was doable.

If I played it right, a way to survive might open up. There really was a reason that guy in the hood had been able to capture such a terrifying opponent and get that collar on him.

It had become the ultimate match of strength versus skill. If I wanted to beat him, I would have to pour every bit of experience and know-how I had into the fight.

He would have to crush my skill with his raw power.

“This is just like a bullfight.”

Or, to put it another way, it was like a beginner who had just gotten their driver’s license racing a Porsche 918 Spyder against a Formula One champion driving a Kia Morning.

Either way, I started using every single thing I could.

Like a clothing store in the middle of a clearance sale, I was taking out every tool I had. If I didn’t, there was no way I could handle that kind of brute force.

“Kha!”

Absorbing as much of the impact as I could, I was flung back, smashing through about five sliding doors before I could come to a stop.

“Does he plan to smash up his own house?”

At his age, sleeping in a drafty spot like that would give him facial paralysis, but I guess being a corpse, it didn’t matter. I brought my hand to my shoulder and pushed with force. With a cracking sound, the dislocated bone went back into place.

I did my best to redirect the force, but things like this happen sometimes. The opponent was just way too strong.

“It’s fine. It’s fine.”

I muttered to myself as I stared at him. The Paradoxical Flame clung to the grudge enshrouding him, burning away. Normally, if it grew to the point where it slipped out of my control, that would be a serious problem.

But we were inside an Erosion Zone. In the end, time was once again on my side.

“I’ll endure.”

Even if it meant a few broken bones today, I would hold out until every bit of his grudge burned away.

“You are troublesome!”

Once again, he charged at me with reckless force, raising his sword high over his head. The dark grudge pouring from his body seemed enough to cover the whole sky.

It was an attack full of irritation, and though it missed me,

“Kagh!”

I needed to put at least a hundred meters between us to completely escape that range. But of course that wasn’t possible. In the end, part of the shockwave that spread from his downward slash hit me, and I spat blood.

With a thunderous crash, the building shook, and then with a rumbling sound my vision tilted.

“You crazy… bastard.”

I wiped my mouth and leapt into the air. The fortress, having taken the full brunt of the impact, was about to collapse.

“Begone. This is the land of my clan, and I am its rightful master. Those who will not serve me are not needed here, nor are they welcome!”

Failing to land a decisive hit despite his great power seemed to have him boiling with rage. The dark grudge pouring from his body grew thicker and thicker.

“He still has that much strength left?”

It really looked like he might split the fortress in two. He wasn’t even swinging the sword anymore. He would cut at the air, and the grudge, shaped like black mist, would form into a slash that flew at me with a wailing scream.

And those slashes were so fierce they could slice through an entire wall before finally dissipating after flying far beyond.

“Ugh, at this rate, I really might die.”

As the crisis pressed down on me, my head grew colder and colder, like it was being dunked in ice water. The danger of dying from a single mistake came without pause.

And I desperately searched for a way out. It was something I could do. This much was nothing.

“Burn. Without leaving anything.”

The grudge he had spread everywhere sent chills down my spine, but it was actually good for me. The Paradoxical Flame rising on my spear tip spread in all directions, using the grudge in the air as a fuse.

And as it consumed the grudge and spread, it reached his body too.

Black haze and black flame. Smoke and fire so tangled together it was impossible to tell them apart writhed like twin dragons, darting across the battlefield like rockets.

“Shouldn’t you be… getting weaker… on the way over here…!?”

The black half-moon slash that came flying again still hadn’t lost much power even as it burned with the Paradoxical Flame. I raised my spear, reinforced with mana, and avoided as much of the incoming slash as I could.

“…”

But this one, I couldn’t dodge. I clenched my teeth and moved my spear as much as possible to lessen its power, struggling to block the slash.

With a grinding sound, my mana reinforced spear and the slash clashed. I could see the spear shaft slowly being cut through.

‘It’s getting cut.’

The spear wouldn’t hold, and would be sliced in half. Then the aftershock of the slash would hit me.

One, two, now.

The moment it split in two, I shoved my shoulder guard into the slash and poured mana into it.

With a loud crack, the slash shattered the gifted shoulder guard and wrecked my shoulder. My arm hung limp from the destroyed joint.

“Another one huh.”

There was no time to flinch in pain. With my vision reeling, I dodged another slash that came flying at me. I wanted to burn away the pain, but doing so would extinguish the Paradoxical Flames still burning.

I just had to endure. I threw away the broken spear shaft, gripping the half that still had the blade with my good hand.

“Khmm…”

As he moved to attack again, his body suddenly staggered. Right, the entire fortress was practically burning with the Paradoxical Flame now. No matter how high his stats were, it was only natural that he’d start to feel it.

“Looks like you’re getting tired.”

Even after his first stumble, I had to hold out for another ten minutes. My body was covered in large and small wounds, bright red blood streaming from them.

The fortress had completely collapsed, leaving only rubble. The core that guarded this Erosion Zone and I kept fighting with the ruins behind us.

“To think this is all that’s left after burning, it’s ridiculous.”

The Paradoxical Flame went out. It had burned everything. The only grudge left in him now was the residue the Paradoxical Flame left behind. Even that residue was about on par with four of the headless samurai I had fought outside back then.

Just residue, and it was still that strong!

“You monstrous bastard.”

That was a compliment. I rarely called anyone a monster.

“Is that the end of your wicked tricks?”

“A walking corpse using the word wicked?”

That was like a domestic abuser lecturing a common thug about violence.

He raised his sword and came at me. I lifted my half-spear in one hand, ready to fight.

“You think you can win in that state? You’re a wreck!”

He shouted that and charged at me. His sword swung down. My foot stomped hard on it.

The blade was driven into the ground, and his body staggered. I drove the broken spear into the back of his head.

“Of course I can, you bastard. Goodbye.”

An undead’s specs ultimately came from the size of the grudge it carried. The fact that the leftover residue was that much was impressive, sure.

But impressive or not…

His memories were mostly gone, so he couldn’t even fight properly, and now he’d lost his overwhelming stats too. It would have been stranger if I had lost, right?

“I… I wanted this so badly, even if I had to become…”

“Not interested. Don’t drag it out pathetically, just disappear.”

He seemed to have something to say, but I had no interest in hearing a dying man’s last words.

I twisted the spear lodged in his skull hard, then pulled it out. That was the end for him.

“Woah, this sword…”

I checked the sheath and blade of the fallen corpse’s weapon. Even though I had stepped on it, it was undamaged. No bends, no nicks.

“Most swords would bend under that kind of force.”

I supposed this was what you called a fine sword, not one that talked or anything. There was a poem engraved on the blade.

[Even this charcoal was once a branch covered in white snow]

I thought they called that a haiku. I knew it was a Japanese poetic form.

“Looks like it was engraved later…”

From the look of the inscription, it didn’t seem like the original. Maybe he had read some Japanese poetry and been moved.

I stared at the characters for a moment, then slid the blade back into its sheath. Just then, there was a thud.

“Oh, a chest.”

Since I had beaten him alone, of course there would be only one reward. With some anticipation, I opened the large chest in front of me.

“So you wound me and then give me medicine huh.”

Inside was a spear. Strictly speaking, it was something you would call a partisan. The blade was blue and about forty-five centimeters long.

Counting the shaft, the whole thing was about two hundred thirty centimeters.

Narrowing my eyes as I examined the weapon, I let out a small laugh of disbelief.

“Wow, this thing…”

Leaving my broken hand alone, I gripped the spear with my other hand. As I poured mana into it, the shaft’s length and weight changed. When I made it as short as possible, it was practically a sword hilt.

“Let’s see.”

When I extended it fully, the spear’s length grew to about seven meters in an instant.

“Now that’s what I call a feature.”

It was far better than a weapon with a bunch of useless gimmicks. Spears had the advantage of being able to attack unilaterally if you kept your distance, but if you let your opponent close the gap even by mistake, things got troublesome.

Sure, hitting them with the shaft still hurt, but it wasn’t the same as hitting them with the blade.

No matter how good the weapon, if it was a spear, it couldn’t escape that weakness.

But if the shaft length could change freely, there would be no failure to maintain distance.

In other words, this spear’s feature erased a fundamental flaw of its kind. If weapons were people, it was like giving a bald man a full head of hair.

After looking it over for a bit, I felt my vision swim and let out a sigh.

‘Ah, that faint feeling before blacking out.’

I knew what the sensation before fainting felt like. In my blurring vision, I confirmed with relief that my body was being teleported out of the Erosion Zone.

* * *

Once Yoo Chan-seok went in, the Erosion Zone closed. Han Sang-ah stared blankly for a moment, then rummaged through the supplies she had brought.

“…”

After taking out the medical supplies and organizing them, some time passed. Sitting down and staring blankly at the sky, she rummaged in the supplies again.

Taking out a burner, a pot, and bottled water, she boiled the water, made a cup of tea, wrapped herself in a blanket, and sipped from the cup.

One yawn. Then she took out her smartphone and started browsing the web. Nothing in her actions showed much concern for Yoo Chan-seok in the Erosion Zone.

She drank four cups of tea, relieved herself three times, and eventually started nodding off.

“Ah.”

While she was dozing, she heard a faint light and a thud. Still groggy, she saw someone collapse and slowly stood up.

“He fainted.”

Han Sang-ah used the saline solution she had prepared to wash the wounds on Yoo Chan-seok’s body, then disinfected them.

For the ones that needed it, she used tourniquets. For the others, she used sterile gauze and pressure bandages.

Since his shoulder was broken, she immobilized it with a sling.

Injuries were common for Hunters, so this was taught at the academy. Of course, Hunters had high-speed recovery agents…

But those were only safe to use after all necessary medical treatment was complete, to accelerate healing.

If you just injected or applied them in a situation like this, nine times out of ten you’d end up with sepsis or bones that healed wrong, along with all sorts of side effects.

As she gave first aid, Han Sang-ah used her smartphone to contact the Hunter Association and request medical team support.