Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 64 - Galjeo (1)
Chapter 64 – Galjeo (1)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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A smile reaching all the way to the ears.
Someone’s smiling face can sometimes lower another person’s guard.
However, the instant he saw that sort of smile on someone he was asking for help, the boy felt a fierce malice that went beyond mere unease.
-Flinch!
Because of that, his steps faltered.
But the other two boys did not.
“Huff, huff! Hey! Help us! Some monster-like wolf is chasing us.”
They ran toward Mok Gyeong-un, asking for help.
At that, the boy cried out in alarm.
“W-wait, stop…”
He did not even get to finish those words.
The moment the boy who had run over for help reached right in front of him, Mok Gyeong-un very naturally grabbed his neck and twisted it.
-Crack!
“Ghk!”
With a dying scream, the boy with the broken neck collapsed to the ground.
At this sight, the other boy was so shocked that he fell backward.
“Hik!”
-Thud!
As Mok Gyeong-un moved as if to approach that fallen boy,
“Y-you bastard, what the hell are you doing?”
the boy who had stopped because of a bad feeling shouted.
Mok Gyeong-un merely smiled casually, then lightly sprang forward and shoved out his palm as he kicked the head of the fallen boy, who was trying to scramble backward to escape.
-Crack!
He kicked so hard that the boy’s head snapped backward.
The way he lay there with his mouth open, he seemed dead on the spot.
Seeing this, the remaining boy was left speechless.
‘Th-this lunatic… just what…’
Even if they were in a competitive relationship, they were not in a situation where they were fighting over a flag right now.
Yet he had simply killed someone asking for help the instant they met.
What kind of madman did that?
It was just as he was left dumbfounded.
-Kkwek, kkwek!
A pig-like cry came from behind.
Along with it, the bushes shook.
“Damn it.”
A harsh curse burst from the boy’s mouth.
He truly was caught between two dangers.
Behind him stood a ferocious beast, and in front of him stood a madman carrying out indiscriminate slaughter.
No, the saying “a tiger in front and a wolf behind” might fit even better.
‘It’s either die or live.’
The boy’s face was drenched in cold sweat, and his choice was neither front nor back, but the steep mountain cliff to the right.
“Uaaaaah!”
With a shout, the boy hurled himself to the right.
-Tap!
If he would lose his life whether he went forward or backward, then he had no choice but to leave it to luck.
It was right as he thought that.
He felt the strange sensation of something tugging the back of his head.
Along with that, the boy’s body, which had been about to fall, floated backward with a whoosh and flew back.
Then,
-Smack!
the boy’s head was caught in Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.
‘!?’
The boy’s eyes widened.
What was this?
He had not pulled him directly with his hand.
Could it be that this was grasping objects through the void, where a master of the internal school could draw in an object or something with true qi?
‘…No way.’
It was hard to believe.
How could a fellow of his own age possibly possess such profound true qi?
Moreover, right now their qi gates were blocked by the Forbidden Gate Lock.
Then just how had he done it?
It was as he was thinking that.
-Kkwek, kkwek!
With a pig-like squeal, a huge wolf with red fur on its head and rat-like eyes burst through the bushes and appeared.
Its sharp teeth spread wide, and they were thickly stained with blood.
Seeing it, Mok Gyeong-un raised one eyebrow and muttered,
“And what is this?”
The boy whose head was being gripped hurriedly spoke in a frightened voice.
“I told you. Something like a monster was chasing us.”
“Was that it?”
“This isn’t the time, we have to run!”
He said that, but it already seemed too late.
The distance between the ferocious beast and them was at most only about twenty to twenty-five paces.
It was far too close to run from a ferocious beast that fast.
-Kkwek, kkwek!
The ferocious beast came forward, drool running down from its mouth.
As if it thought it could catch them whenever it wanted, it slowly narrowed the distance one step at a time.
Feeling extreme terror at this, the boy muttered in a blank voice,
“You damned bastard. This is all because you brought…”
-Tap!
The boy had not even finished speaking.
Mok Gyeong-un released the boy’s head and quickly formed hand seals.
-Pak! Pak! Pak!
Soldiers. Combat. Split. Arrange.
It was the hand seals of the Nine Word Living Method.
‘What the hell is he doing?’
The boy stared in confusion, and Mok Gyeong-un made a square with the index and middle fingers of both hands and aimed it at the approaching ferocious beast.
Then,
-Paaaaaaah!
Four invisible pillars rose around the approaching ferocious beast.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un quietly said,
“Four Peaks Chain Locking Technique.”
Then surfaces formed between the four pillars, which thickened in an instant.
The boy could not see it, but in the eyes of the ferocious beast, the thing blocking it was perfectly clear, so it stopped and rolled its eyes.
Then, as if it decided to force its way through, it hurled itself forward.
-Pak!
-Kkweooook!
The beast that had lunged forward struck something and was thrown backward.
“W-what?”
The boy could not understand this sight.
There was nothing visible, so why was that monster-like ferocious beast acting like that?
Had this fellow really done something?
As he watched, Mok Gyeong-un opened his palm toward the trapped ferocious beast and then made a grasping motion.
“Contract!”
-Paaaaaaah!
At that instant, the four enclosing surfaces trapping the beast compressed and rapidly closed in.
As the space narrowed, the ferocious beast seemed startled and began thrashing wildly.
Watching that beast, Mok Gyeong-un clenched his hand even harder.
-Kkwek, kkwek!
-Papapapak!
The interval of the beast’s thrashing grew narrower and narrower.
It was at the moment when the gap had shrunk to the point that it was almost unable to move.
The beast bristled the red fur around its head and then let out a tremendous roar.
-Kkweoooooooook!
“Agh!”
The sound was so loud that the boy clapped his hands over his ears.
Mok Gyeong-un endured it by force and tried to crush the beast to death by clenching his hand tighter, but
-Jjeojeojeojeok!
at that instant, cracks spread across the compressing surfaces.
Then,
-Chaekakakang!
the Four Peaks Chain Locking Technique shattered in an instant, and the beast burst out.
‘Damn.’
When a technique filled with the practitioner’s power broke, the backlash struck the caster.
Mok Gyeong-un’s body was pushed back about two steps.
-Papak!
-Kkwek, kkwek!
The beast that had burst outside scraped the ground wildly with its feet in agitation and gave an angry cry.
“Hik.”
At that, the boy who had been covering his ears planted his hands down and tried to retreat backward in panic.
But unlike its angry bellowing, the beast stared fixedly at Mok Gyeong-un, then turned its body and, as if fleeing, vanished into the bushes.
“Huff… huff… haa…”
Watching that sight, the terrified boy let out a sigh of relief.
It was hard to believe even after experiencing it himself.
To drive away such a monstrous existence with such a bizarre method.
The voice reached his ears at that moment.
“Why are you feeling relieved?”
‘!?’
The boy’s eyes widened, and he hurriedly tried to rise.
But it was already too late.
Mok Gyeong-un twisted the neck of the boy who had been trying to get up.
-Crack!
When the boy died, Mok Gyeong-un first started with the boy he had killed earliest and absorbed the death aura with the Form of Attachment.
That was because the more time passed, the more death aura was lost.
Only after finishing the absorption of the death aura did he speak.
“What was that red-haired wolf just now?”
-Well. It is my first time seeing one directly, but judging by its appearance and that pig-like cry, it seemed to be a Galjeo.
“Galjeo?”
-It is one of the strange creatures that inhabit the North Sea near Mount Bukho.
“I know it’s one of those creatures.”
From its appearance alone, it looked completely different from an ordinary animal.
And since it was a strange creature, it would naturally be affected by occult arts.
What he had wanted to ask was that, seeing how it had broken the Four Peaks Chain Locking Technique, it did not appear to be a low-grade creature.
“Seeing how it broke the spell, it didn’t seem low-ranked.”
Occult Practitioner Jo Ui-gong had said that the Four Peaks Chain Locking Technique had originally been created to eliminate vengeful spirits, so it could only handle something like the very lowest rank of ferocious beast.
The ranks of strange creatures were divided into ferocious beasts, monster beasts, demon beasts, devil beasts, spirit beasts, and divine beasts.
To Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Blue Spirit replied.
-I think I heard that a Galjeo is called a monster beast once it reaches adulthood. But judging by its size earlier, it is not an adult yet.
“It isn’t an adult?”
-That’s right. Even so, it will still be incomparably stronger than ordinary ferocious beasts. You should probably think of it as having power somewhere between a ferocious beast and a monster beast.
“So that was it, after all.”
That seemed to be why the Four Peaks Chain Locking Technique had broken.
It had exceeded the size that the spell could handle.
Against the strange creature called Galjeo, it seemed to be no more than a method for stalling for time, so there did not seem to be much point in using the technique.
Mok Gyeong-un rose from his place and said,
“This is troublesome.”
-Why? Your internal power cannot be used, and even the spells you worked so hard to learn do not work well. Are you only now getting scared? If that is the case, then I…
“No. It’s not that. It seems I need to hurry.”
-Hurry?
“Before that strange creature interferes with my meal, I need to move more diligently. No, it may be better to deal with it first.”
-……….
Ah.
So that was his point of view.
What he was worried about was that the strange creature would kill more boys than he did.
Blue Spirit clicked her tongue inwardly.
* * *
Meanwhile, the team led by Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley was moving carefully.
However, three of them were panting as they carried the iron weight at the bottom of the flag together, while the others clung close around them in a circle.
One of the boys carrying the iron weight complained.
“We’re going to look for a different kind of flag anyway, so do we really have to carry this around like this? Can’t we just break off the top part and go?”
At the boy’s complaint, Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley snapped at him.
“Quit complaining and do as you’re told. If my guess is right, you bastards will be thanking me.”
At those words, the boys shook their heads.
Did it really make sense that that monster-like ferocious beast had been afraid of a mere flag and avoided it?
No matter how much they thought about it, they could not understand it.
Rather than lugging around a flag so inefficiently like this, they thought it would be better to snap the flagpole and move quickly to reclaim or find another flag.
It was while they were thinking that.
Somewhere, a sound was heard.
-Kkwek, kkwek!
At the sound, they froze where they stood in alarm.
It was definitely that thing.
-Puseuseuk!
The bushes to the northwest shook, and soon the ferocious beast revealed itself.
Seeing it, the boys were about to set down the flag they had been carrying and prepare to run, when
“Stay still.”
Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley restrained them.
No, they either had to run or join forces and fight it, so what did he mean by stay still?
That was what they were thinking.
The ferocious beast looked at the flag they were carrying, then recoiled, turned its body, and went back into the bushes.
“Huh?”
The ferocious beast had really seen the flag and avoided them.
At that, Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley spoke in a triumphant voice.
“See?”
He had confirmed that his judgment was correct.
But after confirming it, this thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘If I use this well, I can take advantage of it.’
There were probably hardly any fellows yet who knew the fact that flags served a protective role.
The corner of Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley’s mouth curled up sinisterly.