Arena Chapter 45:
Chapter 45 Escape (Part 3)
When you summon a spirit and the time runs out, the summon time recharges when the spirit is not summoned .
The recharge is one minute every five minutes .
Because of that, I would usually summon Sylph every five minutes and send her to scout for 1 minute .
There was the discomfort of having to summon her again every five minutes and then return her repeatedly, but I was able to sustain the summons time in case of a fight .
But now, the situation is very different .
I had no idea that the silver clan’s leader would suddenly draw near and unbeknownst to us, shoot arrows .
We cannot go without Sylph for five minutes . So I’ve changed the summon time from the five minutes to 25 seconds .
I summon Sylph every 25 seconds and ask her .
“Where is he?”
And then Sylph will draw a number for how many meters away he is .
I return Sylph quickly before it reaches 5 seconds and call her again 25 seconds later and ask the same question .
The silver leader sometimes is further than 100 meters, and when checked at other times, as close as 60 meters, repeatedly drawing nearer and farther, making us nervous .
1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 4 seconds…
This situation where I have to constantly keep track of every second of time is making me lose my mind .
But I have go this far to spare the summons time if we are not to lose .
‘At this rate, I’ll become exhausted first . ’
The position of having to track the 25 seconds while escaping is miserable .
But the bigger problem is our stamina .
‘He is probably thinking tactically, to just spend half a day chasing us . ’
Will we be able to run for half a day without rest?
It is possible .
But the story becomes different with chasers on our tails .
He repeatedly shortens and lengthens the distance between us, making us extremely anxious . He occasionally shakes us up by shooting arrows towards us . He enjoys the tension between himself and the escaping prey .
We are mentally exhausted .
I am having problems, but Hye-su is struggling even more . With her weaker physique and the mental shock of Joon-ho’s death, she gets exhausted even faster .
‘This won’t do . ’
I have to end this fight, no matter what .
No matter how smart or strong this **** is, if he gets shot in the head, he’ll die regardless .
I make an order to Sylph .
“Sylph, take the gun and go to his back and shoot . ”
-Meow!
Her strength gets weaker as she gets farther from her summoner, me, but she should have enough power to pull the trigger .
Sylph takes the Mosin-Nagant and moves . A moment later,
Tang-Kkang!
The gunshot and the sound of metal rang at the same time .
It’s a fail .
He blocked the shot with his shield .
Tang-tang-tang-
The gunshots continue to ring but the only noises to follow are the sound of them getting blocked on the shield . A moment later, Sylph has shot her five bullets and returns .
‘How does he know from which direction the shot is coming from?’
It is impossible that he senses the bullet coming in at supersonic speed . It means he catches on before it is shot .
Does he have a way of sensing where a spirit is?
I don’t know .
I am so mentally exhausted that my head isn’t spinning right .
Even after that, I attempt to snipe him a couple more times but they all failed . All it did was use summon time .
Time passes into daybreak .
“Oppa…”
Hye-su calls to me with a tired voice . She hands over her item bag to me .
“Oppa, you take this . ”
“What?”
At my surprise, Hye-su weakly laughs as she speaks .
“Just in case, you know . ”
In case…
Hye-su is probably thinking that of the three of us, she will be the first to die .
“Don’t think like that . ”
“Take it, quick . ”
“Hye-su…”
“My arm hurts . ”
Eventually, I take the item bag from Hye-su .
“I’ll give it back to you after the exam . ”
“Yep, when the exam is over . ”
I get the item bag over from her and say ‘unequip . ’ As I do so, the item bag disappears . It means the item bag is now in my possession .
Hye-su grows tired quickly .
In the suffocating anxiety, we don’t rest and keep walking and to her, it is too difficult . I feel like death myself, and she’s suffering even more .
This heart suffocating pressure…
My sense of duty to not let Hye-su die too, makes me more impatient .
I summon Sylph one more time .
“Sylph, attack him one more time . This time, from the right . ”
-Meow!
Sylph takes the rifle and moves to the right .
Succeed this time!
But this time too, the shot is a failure .
Tang-kang!
The sound of the bullet hitting the shield rings hopelessly . The five shots consecutively get blocked by his shield .
But then after all that .
-Meeeow!
Sylph comes back in a hurry and gives a sharp alarm .
‘No way?!’
It’s the impossible .
An arrow comes flying in . The **** has come close and started a counterattack .
Thankfully, the arrow is blocked by Sylphs knife wind . She has understood the command from before to block any incoming arrows .
The arrows keep flying in .
And every time, the knife wind obliterated them .
But the knife wind uses a lot of power . The more it is used, the summons time shrinks!
“Sylph, hurry, reload!”
I shout as I hand her a 5 bullet clip .
Sylph continues to take down the arrows with her knife wind while she loads the gun .
But as she does it, like a lie, the arrow attack stops .
Sylph draws a number 43 in the ground with her tail . 58, 75…the **** is backing away .
‘Damn it . ’
No one is injured but we’ve taken on a lot of damage . Just now, blocking the barrage of arrows, all we have done is use up a **** ton of Sylph’s summons time .
The silver clan’s leader is extremely intelligent . It’s almost frightening how smart he is .
“He’s caught on to the fact we have to reload after every five bullets . That’s why after blocking the five bullets, he brazenly counterattacks . ”
At my words, Kang Chun-seong sounds a subdued groan .
For a lycanthrope that has no experience with a gun, having found that out is an impressive feat .
“No one is hurt?”
At my question, Kang Chun-seong nods his head .
But Hye-su is in a poor state . She isn’t injured anywhere but she’s gripping her sword tightly with both hands and shaking .
“I can’t take it anymore… hu hu huk!”
Hye-su drops her sword and explodes into tears . She is in a complete panic from the terror and exhaustion .
“Hye-su . I know it’s hard but you have to pull through . ”
Hye-su sits on the floor, crying .
“I’m sorry, oppa . I don’t think I can make it . It’s too hard to keep walking . ”
“Let’s get a little farther, Hye-su . ”
“Just leave me and go please . I can’t . I’m exhausted!”
“Stop saying **** like that!”
I yell in anger .
“I’m sorry, oppa…”
She explodes into tears again .
Kang Chun-seong was staring at us and speaks .
“Let’s rest and continue . I am too tired . ”
“… alright . That sounds fine . ”
We all fall to the ground where we are standing and take a rest .
But we didn’t rest even for a minute . It’s because we heard the **** speak .
“You are tired now?”
“…?!”
His voice is heard from a relatively close distance .
We’re startled and get up .
“I am sure the spirits powers are pretty much done as well?”
“Why don’t you test it?”
It was an accurate point but in order to hide it, I don’t back down and talk back to him .
But the bastard’s chuckling can be heard all around us .
“You cannot trick me . I gathered as much from your tenacious attempts to see an end to the fight . ”
“So test us . ”
“Haha, you are a fun human . Of all the humans I’ve seen, you are the most intelligent and you are mentally strong . ”
“…”
“You threw all those villagers out as bait and attempted to flee, it’s impressive . I thought maybe, and pursued . You will be the first fun hunt I’ve had in a while . ”
Hunt…
To him, all this is but a mere hunt .
I grind my teeth .
“Every now and then there is a human that runs away from the village . And every time, I go on a hunt like this . I invest the time, going slow . I shoot my arrows to instill fear, tormenting . Until the human succumbs and falls to fear and stress . ”
Then he laughs .
“Can you picture it? When I revealed myself, he was actually relieved . His expression, it begged me to kill him quickly, to get it over with . Seeing that moment when terror surpasses the desire to survive and live, I see that and feel a sense of accomplishment . ”
He is so wicked .
He is intelligent and malicious . He has enjoyed toying and gaming with the minds of humans .
Because he is this kind of being, it is probably how he came to raise humans as livestock like ranches .
“It is okay to be prideful . I have enjoyed this game so far, and of all the games, no humans have lasted this long . I kind of want to enjoy it longer, but I will end it for you . I will see to it that we finish . ”
I take the gun over from Sylph .
From a close distance, the knife wind is better than the gun .
The bush in front us moves and one being reveals himself .
Revealing himself to us for the first time, he is in his human form .
He is a handsome man with tall height and shining silver hair . This must be his human transformation form .
In one hand, a shield, and in the other, he is holding a bow .
“Introductions first, I am the silver clan’s leader, Leon Silver . ”
Leon Silver’s appearance starts to change .
Fur starts to grow all over his body and his build gets bigger . His nails get longer . And he becomes neither a human or beast, covered in silver fur .
He is a lycanthrope larger than any other .
I am overwhelmed for a while and come to my senses and shout to Sylph .
“Attack!”
-Meow!
Sylph shoots out her knife winds .
At the same time, Leon Silver moves too .
Chwak, Chwak-
The **** moves left and right like a flash of lightning and avoids the knife winds .
Kang Chun-seong heads in with a kick, but Leon lays flat to avoid it .
Then he crawls on all fours and approaches me, fast .
I use the Mosin-Nagant and load and aim and pull the trigger .
Tang-pak!
A tree is hit by the bullet .
Then he just comes in with his claws .
“Kuk!”
In my surprise I collapse onto my back . By the skin of my teeth, his claws barely brush over the top of my head .
-Meow!
Sylph shouts as she sends out her knife winds .
Like a ghost, he leaps and escapes them all .
He delicately lands and this time, Leon Silver goes for Hye-su .
“Hye-su!”
I quickly pull the trigger but my inaccurate aim cannot hit the quickly moving **** .
Hye-su is clenching her jaw and gripping her sword tight . Leon Silver, as if the whole thing is absurd, flippantly smiles .
“I’ll make it comfortable, miss . ”
“Ahhhh!”
Hye-su screams and swishes her sword . It’s a pitiful resistance .
Pook!
That second, it was like the world stopped .
In that frozen time, I looked on, blankly, at the scene before my eyes .
It was a dream .
It is a despicable nightmare, four long claws piercing through Hye-su’s body to the other side .
“Ku huk!”
Hye-su lets out a moan and lifelessly collapses . Her body falls effortlessly to the ground, and in Hye-su’s last moment, she is looking at me . She is looking at me with tears in her sad, sad eyes .
I’m sorry, oppa .
I’m going first .
At last, Hye-su can rest in peace .
“Hye… Hye-su!”
I scream, close to tears .
Leon Silver stares at me in my state . His eyes are laughing . As if he was wanting to see the look of despair on my face .
“Ugh AHH!”
I am my gun at him and pull the trigger .
Tang!
As the gunshot rings, the **** easily steps to the side . He is moving out of the way by seeing where the barrel of the gun is pointed .
I pull the bolt and get rid of the shell and shoot again .
It doesn’t shoot . I’ve used all five bullets .
“Eek! Shang!”
I take the bullets out of my pocket and reload . My hand’s won’t listen to me . They shake and cannot properly grab the bullets and put them into the chamber .
The **** is looking at me try, and laughs .