This time, it was a quad.
(This is where the free preview ended.)
As Seowoon spoke, channeling a surge of inner power, the man's previously relaxed smile began to stiffen.
"I heard the Shin Gangnam Sect backed off out of fear. I guess it makes sense now. I can tell you're not the type to obediently follow orders. Fine. Let's see what you've got."
The three men spread out in a fan shape, facing off against Seowoon.
Hammit, wrapped around Seowoon's hand, spoke excitedly.
—Kekeke! Finally, it's my turn! Master! Spin it!—
A spinning wheel, visible only to Seowoon, appeared before him.
As he reached out and spun the wheel, the three men narrowed their eyes at him in suspicion.
—trrrrrrr… DING! Electric Shock! Enjoy it for a day, master!—
In that instant, the Electric Shock skill imprinted itself in his mind.
A skill that allowed him to imbue his fists or weapons with electricity to attack enemies.
The moment he understood the skill, blue sparks crackled across Seowoon's fist, wrapped with Hammit, causing his figure to blur.
He split into six and shot toward the three men, two clones per target.
The first to react was, unsurprisingly, the bald man wielding magic.
—Shushushushush!—
Small, glowing fragments like shards of glass quickly filled the air, rushing toward the six Seowoons.
Just before reaching the enemies, five of the Seowoons vanished.
The remaining Seowoon struck away the magic with his electrified fist and charged at the man in the black shirt.
—Pop! Whoosh!—
Aiming for his guard, Seowoon slammed his forearm down. Electricity surged, and blue sparks danced across the man's arm, but he didn't even flinch. Instead, he drew a real sword and swung.
Seowoon bent backward, narrowly avoiding the blade, then stepped in closer, stealing the space needed to swing a sword. The man instinctively leaned back and thrust his blade forward.
Anticipating this, Seowoon countered with a straight punch.
Seeing Seowoon confidently punching at his sword, the man grimaced, but it was too late to retract the thrust.
Seowoon had already trained through real combat to strike at sharp weapons without hesitation.
As his rotating arm struck the flat of the blade, it veered sharply to the side. For the first time, the man looked flustered, leaping into the air and twisting to narrowly evade the punch.
To use such a large movement to dodge a single punch meant the man was clearly a skilled fighter.
Just as Seowoon was about to follow up, a wave of mana pulsed from the side.
Knowing a spell was incoming and the man would likely counter with a sword the moment he blocked it, Seowoon backed off. At that moment, a man in a sleeveless shirt charged in, slamming his shoulder forward.
—Thud!—
Their shoulders collided.
With a Strength stat of 55 and Endurance of 63, Seowoon met power with power.
In his experience, if you let enemies regroup and gain time in a group battle, your chances of winning dropped drastically.
Instead, it was better to stay relentless and knock them out one by one.
Even with his reason clouded by rage, Seowoon was no stranger to combat.
His battle instincts kept his mind cold, preventing reckless self-destruction.
—Crackle!—
The man had expected to knock Seowoon away instantly, but his eyes widened in shock as his arm—blocking Seowoon's punch—got electrocuted.
As he recoiled from the pain, Seowoon immediately rushed at the mage.
He had already figured them out.
A dumb brute like a knight, a swordsman who relied on technique, and a mage.
A perfectly balanced team—an absolute pain to face. But oddly enough, their formation was bad.
A mage's best position is in the back, protected by a knight or warrior. But this one stood exposed—an easy target for Seowoon.
—Sua!—
A stone wall shot up from the ground, blocking his path. At the same time, he sensed the two others catching up behind him.
But Seowoon had dealt with similar situations while fighting Kichan.
Without hesitation, he leapt over the wall—and saw massive stone golems, each over three meters tall, rising to the mage's sides.
—Kraaaah! Boom!—
One of them roared and slammed both fists toward Seowoon.
The other blocked the mage with its hulking body.
It was Seowoon's first time facing summoning magic.
He focused his inner power into his fist and struck the golem's leg.
The heavy impact made the golem stagger and plant its hands on the ground—but just then, the two men behind him attacked simultaneously.
—Papat!—
He dodged the brute's charge and struck his side with a blow. The man flinched but didn't seem seriously hurt.
Seowoon then blocked the incoming sword strike with his Hammit-wrapped hand and backed off for now.
"So the reason the mage was standing alone… was because of those golems."
Even though he had aimed to blow the golem's leg clean off, it only cracked slightly and looked otherwise fine.
—It's no ordinary golem. You must destroy the core.—
"Core?"
—Hmm… I sense a magical core in its head. You'll have to crush the head to eliminate it.—
It had been a short clash, but Seowoon's expression didn't look good.
If it were one-on-one, they wouldn't have seemed like much, but dealing with all three at once made it hard to finish them off quickly.
Just as the regrouped enemies smiled confidently and charged at Seowoon, the sharp sound of an engine echoed louder and closer.
VROOOOM! VROOOOM!
The four of them turned their attention toward the noise, and in that instant, a Haabusa launched off a small set of stairs and soared into the air, entering their line of sight.
VROOOOOOM!
The bike, spinning midair and roaring with engine noise, tilted sideways and flew straight toward the golem.
BOOM!
The golem swatted the incoming bike aside, sending it crashing into the ground—but in the same moment, a softly glowing yellow orb flew straight into the golem's head.
CRACK!
The golem's head shattered, and its massive body crumbled into chunks of rock, scattering across the ground.
As the golem broke apart, the bald man's face twisted in anger, and the man with the sword swung it through the air.
CLANG!
Just as he landed, Kichan dodged sideways, but the sword slash came flying in fast and shattered his shield with a single blow.
Backing away quickly, Kichan retreated toward Seowoon and cast a new shield.
A staff had appeared in his hand at some point.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. You got here fast."
"I pushed it as hard as I could. I don't know who these guys are, but we're not getting out of this fight, are we?"
"There's no way I'm negotiating with bastards threatening my parents."
At Seowoon's words, Kichan began storing new magic into his staff.
Sensing the powerful mana waves, the bald man spoke.
"He's no rookie. At least a 5th Circle."
Everyone in the battlefield, who had been glaring at each other, suddenly charged as if by silent agreement.
Keeping a reasonable distance, Kichan and the bald man both cast support magic toward their allies.
Kichan's support was exceptional.
Even though his spells activated slightly slower than the bald man's, he cast ones with properties that countered the enemy's magic, weakening it and annoying the two men fighting Seowoon.
Having spells fly in from behind was a nuisance to both Seowoon and his enemies alike.
One of them now held up a massive shield, standing directly in Seowoon's path, blocking his attacks, while the other moved swiftly, slashing with his sword—their coordination was disturbingly precise.
Seowoon had tried multiple times to knock the bulky one away with direct strikes, but every time, the man lit up his shield and blocked the blow with skill that was far from average.
Seowoon even tried punching with raw power to bypass the shield entirely, but for some reason, his strength weakened when hitting the glowing shield.
It felt like none of his strikes could break through.
Even when he tried to flank them using the illusion technique of silent footwork , he was thwarted by incoming magic and sword attacks.
The intense battle dragged on.
After another clash, both sides retreated briefly to regroup. Kichan whispered:
"It's turning into a stamina fight. The side that runs out of inner energy or mana first will lose."
"I'll end it before that."
At Seowoon's reply, Kichan nodded.
He knew better than anyone that Seowoon hadn't yet revealed his full strength—they had fought brutally under the guise of training for the past three weeks.
"Jongcheon's tougher than expected."
At that, the bald man Lee Daljin nodded toward the shield-wielder Goo Chil-sang.
"This isn't beginner hunting. If we're not careful, we'll be the ones getting wrecked."
The sharp-eyed man called Jongcheon smirked and replied.
"Let's cut the jokes. Time to finish this. That young mage in the back was unexpected, but he's not bad. Let's wrap this up and drag him back—train him to be obedient."
With that, he pulled a translucent glass bottle from subspace.
"You're using that? That stuff's expensive!"
"Screw expensive. We'll squeeze it out of them later somehow."
Jongcheon uncorked the bottle and drank a few gulps of the liquid inside before passing it on.
The other two sighed but also took swigs from the bottle.
"What the hell are those bastards drinking mid-fight?"
"Probably enhancement potions."
"Those exist?"
"They temporarily boost certain stats. Likely agility or strength. Be careful. Think of them as being 10 to 20 percent stronger now."
Seowoon nodded and raised both fists.
CRACKLE!
Brilliant blue sparks surged even more fiercely over his fists.
"Let's finish this!"
As Jongcheon shouted confidently, Seowoon shot back without hesitation.
"Yeah, it's about time I tore that mouth of yours off."
Seowoon lunged like a flash of lightning, but Chil-sang rushed in, shield raised.
BANG!
Unleashing a strike without holding back his inner power, Seowoon forced Chil-sang to grimace and take a half-step back.
A sword tip skimmed just past Chil-sang's ear, aiming for Seowoon's throat.
CLANG!
Seowoon blocked it with his forearm wrapped in hamit, and intense sparks surged along the blade, forcing his attacker to recoil.
Jongcheon's arms were already numb. Every time his sword clashed with Seowoon's blows, a stinging pain built up—and now it was spreading down to his whole arm.
Even so, Jongcheon was certain of victory.
Seowoon had finally started to read the enemy's attack pattern.
A close-quarters combat style that relentlessly closed distance and countered every strike with another strike — pure melee aggression.
The enemy also used clones that turned out to be mere illusions, but they weren't a threat. Dalljin, who was already on alert, would erase them all with magic from behind.
'So this is all he's got.'
If he could capture the guy, break his will, and draw him to their side, it wouldn't be a loss. The process wouldn't be easy, but it was just something that had to be endured.
After all, Seowoon himself had once vowed to tear apart this damned organization — and Kang Cheol-oh — with his own hands.
His hatred for Kang Cheol-oh hadn't vanished, but in the end, that bastard had been forced to make the same choice as him.
Now, both sides revealed their hidden hands.
Just as Seowoon cast Ice Lance and Wind Blade at close range, Jongcheon — who had been hiding behind Chilsang's large shield — pulled out two more swords.
With a sword in each hand and another floating above his head like a flying sword, he leaped toward Seowoon.
Seowoon fired the Ice Lance at Chilsang's unprotected leg, stopping his movement. Then he launched the Wind Blade at Jongcheon as he fell, swinging his fist at the same time.
Three swords came flying at him at once — unexpected, but Seowoon's martial art had no form for pulling back a fist once thrown.
He parried the first sword with a deflection, blocked the second with his forearm wrapped in Hamit, and then—
The third sword came straight for his forehead.
Gritting his teeth, Seowoon stabbed forward with his fist, turning his head as much as he could while continuing to drive his punch in.
Thud!
The sword barely grazed his cheek as it missed his forehead, and his punch landed squarely on the enemy's shoulder.
He was about to follow up with another blow when the grazing sword twisted in midair, slashing toward his neck. With no other choice, he twisted his torso and ducked, narrowly dodging the blade before stepping back.
The arm holding one of the twin swords trembled ever so slightly.
Landing that hit had been worth it.
The Electric Shock had worked.
Blood was flowing from both of the enemy's cheeks. He had somehow managed to block the Wind Blade, though the bleeding showed it hadn't been easy.
Thud!
Chilsang smashed the ice at his feet with his shield, freeing himself. He and Jongcheon charged at Seowoon simultaneously, and Seowoon rushed in to meet them.
Then—
Whoosh!
A white light flashed, distorting Seowoon's vision as the surroundings began to change.
"Hyung! The di–!"
Kichan's voice shouted something from behind, but the words were cut off.
A familiar sight filled Seowoon's eyes.
A giant statue and a lush green forest.
Players in strange outfits appearing one by one.
"Damn it. Of all times…"
That was when Seowoon spotted Kichan.
Kichan saw him too and grinned brightly, running over.
"Hyung! You got dragged into the same game again? No way…"
But Kichan stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Seowoon's stiff expression and followed his gaze.
There, in Kichan's view, were the three men Seowoon had been fighting to the death just moments ago.
They, too, had spotted the two and twisted their lips into unpleasant smirks.
– Thank you for participating in Cloyd Survival.
– 400 participants. Cloyd Survival begins.
– Language synchronization… 30%… 90%… 100% complete.
– The game begins. Difficulty: High-Mid. Rank within the TOP 120. Attacks between players are invalid in the current lobby.
– Assigned map: Sanctuary of Kutrapa. Rewards distributed starting from TOP 40.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]