Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 71 - True Intent (2)
Chapter 71 – True Intent (2)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Well now… there seems to be one vacancy over there.”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s sneering words, the boys were left dumbfounded.
Who could possibly have predicted that, in such a desperate situation, someone would throw a stone and kill one of the team members?
To them, Mok Gyeong-un spoke again.
“What will you do?”
“………”
At that question, the boys were left speechless.
There were only about two gak left until dawn.
If they were lucky and even one person happened to appear, they could replace the dead boy, but if no one showed up…
“Damn it.”
“What do we do?”
The boys whispered quietly.
They were angry that the boy with whom they had shared life and hardship was dead, but they had to judge rationally.
There was no point in blaming that brat, because he too had made what he believed to be his own right decision.
“There are still two gak left.”
“That’s true, but what if no one comes?”
“………”
“He’s right. Let’s just accept him.”
“But…”
“Do you think that brat is the type to give up?”
“Even so, even if it’s just this once, there is such a thing as loyalty to the fellow who fought together with us…”
At that moment, they saw Mok Gyeong-un stoop and pick up another stone.
He was not picking up just one. He was grabbing whatever he could get his hands on.
At that, the boy who had been speaking swallowed dryly and said,
“…Let’s accept him. That bastard picked up stones.”
“Madman.”
If they did not accept him, it looked as though he would throw stones at the other boys too.
Thus, in the end, they had no choice but to accept Mok Gyeong-un as a team member.
Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly as though nothing had happened and said,
“Thank you, everyone. You are all very kind.”
‘Son of a bitch.’
Everyone cursed Mok Gyeong-un inwardly.
If only that bastard had not appeared just now, everyone would have been able to get a result they were satisfied with.
After all, they had all united in purpose and come to understand what cooperation was.
But now, to pass the gate, they had no choice but to swallow their resentment and accept this lunatic.
-Sseuk!
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un placed his hand on the flagpole.
One of the boys, trying as hard as possible to suppress his emotions, said,
“Be careful. Even if it’s only two gak, the flag has to remain safe.”
“I know.”
“If you know, then don’t touch it.”
Despite the boy’s words, Mok Gyeong-un did not stop touching the flag.
The boy was angry, but he could not bring himself to say anything more.
Perhaps because he had seen the monstrous strength with which this fellow had nearly pierced a face by throwing a stone just moments ago, and had seen the same thing back in the iron-ball struggle, he simply did not have the confidence to start a fight with him.
‘…….Once the Forbidden Gate Lock is undone, just wait.’
According to what he had heard through the grapevine, the Forbidden Gate Lock would be removed after the early phase of the gate passed.
When that happened, he would deal with this bastard one way or another.
That was what he was thinking, when Mok Gyeong-un opened his mouth.
“Did you perhaps find any flags other than this one?”
“Other flags?”
At those words, the boy shook his head.
They had been lucky.
After finding this flag, two different teams had attacked them, yet they had defended it to the end.
“We defended this one without losing even once.”
The boy spoke in a proud voice.
At that, Mok Gyeong-un let out a sigh.
“Hoo.”
“What’s with that sigh? Forget flags, you lost your own teammates.”
At last, one boy could no longer hold it in and snapped at Mok Gyeong-un.
Then Mok Gyeong-un shook his head and walked over to the boy.
The boy flinched for an instant, but then squared up to face him.
“What, what? What are you going to do? Are you upset? Even so, it’s true. And though we accepted you because we had no choice, if we’re both going to pass, then you know as well as I do that a fight is unnecessary…”
-Pak! Eudeudeuk!
At that moment, the boy’s neck twisted.
Unable to finish what he was saying, the boy’s breath ceased at once and he collapsed.
‘!!!!!’
At that, the other boys could not hide their shock.
“Th-this bastard really is crazy, isn’t he?”
“No matter what, this is too much. Even if he got upset, dawn is about to break. How can he kill someone on his own team? He’s out of his mind…”
-Peok! Dudeudeuk!
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un’s knife-hand struck the neck of the boy who had been shouting.
With the sound of muscles and bones in the neck breaking, the boy’s neck bent into a curve, and with a dying groan he died on the spot.
Once he had killed two already, the boys could not hide their bewilderment.
‘H-he’s insane.’
‘What is this?’
Did he truly have no intention of passing the gate at all?
As they were thinking that, Mok Gyeong-un stretched out his hand toward yet another one among them.
-Pak!
“Hik!”
One boy failed to dodge and was seized.
At that, the minds of the other boys went completely blank.
Passing the gate or not no longer mattered. The only thought they had was that, in order to survive, they absolutely had to run.
So instead of helping the boy who had been caught, they fled.
Mok Gyeong-un hurled a stone with all his strength at one of those boys.
-Peok!
“Kuhk!”
The flying stone pierced into the back of one fleeing boy’s head.
Naturally, the boy who had been struck in the back of the head died and simply collapsed forward.
-Thud!
Mok Gyeong-un picked up another stone, but the remaining three had already scattered in different directions and disappeared into the brush.
‘I won’t get them all. In that case…’
“Take care of just two.”
With those words, Mok Gyeong-un threw one stone with full force toward the brush.
Then, from within the brush, there came a cry of pain and the sound of something toppling over.
It seemed he had struck true.
At that, the boy who was still being held trembled in fear and said,
“W-why are you doing this? You know what happens if we fail to pass the gate. If you kill your own teammates like this…”
“You were never going to pass anyway.”
“What?”
“I said you were not going to pass.”
“W-what nonsense is that? If you had not done something like this…”
“You were so focused on guarding it that you did not even inspect the flag properly.”
“What in the world are you talking abou…”
-Tak!
Mok Gyeong-un took the boy’s head in both hands.
The terrified boy pleaded, but
“P-please spare…”
-Crack!
Mok Gyeong-un twisted his neck without the slightest change in expression.
Then he took hold of the flagpole planted beside them and crushed it inward with one hand as he muttered,
-Kkigigigik!
“Time has gotten rather tight.”
There were two gak remaining.
Within that time, he had to find another kind of flag.
The formula engraved on the flag now was the same as the one Mok Gyeong-un had memorized.
* * *
At the same time, on the mountainside.
With not much time left until dawn, two teams were locked in a standoff as they fought.
“Huff… huff…”
Everyone was exhausted, and harsh breathing came from here and there.
Strangely, this standoff looked different from an ordinary flag-defense battle.
That was because both sides possessed flags.
One side had firmly planted its flag into a blocked mountain wall and was forming a half-moon formation to protect it, while the other side seemed to have carried its flag around, with two people guarding it and the remaining six targeting the side in the half-moon.
‘This is bad.’
On the guarding side were Mo Ha-rang of Mo Hwa House, the short-haired girl, and Mok Yu-cheon, the youngest of Yeon Mok Sword Manor.
Mo Ha-rang, who had been searching for a new flag, had somehow joined the team that included Mok Yu-cheon, and they had endured until now while defending the flag.
Judging by how much the sky had brightened, there was not much time left until dawn.
She had been beginning to feel relieved, and then these people had appeared.
“How much longer do you think you can last?”
A shirtless boy holding a stone axe.
This boy whose whole body was covered in strange patterns was Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley.
‘Damn it.’
Mok Yu-cheon glared at him and cursed inwardly.
He could not understand why they were aiming for the flag.
That was because on the waist of one of the boys guarding the flag was another flag with its pole broken.
Which meant,
‘They found both kinds, so why are they doing this?’
He could not understand it at all.
If even one of their companions fell while fighting like this, then they would fail the gate.
Did they truly intend to reduce the number of rivals even while bearing such risk?
It seemed like an unbelievably foolish decision.
Mok Yu-cheon spoke quietly to the boys beside him and to Mo Ha-rang.
“Let’s just hold out a little longer.”
At those words, the boys, including Mo Ha-rang, nodded.
The moment dawn broke, this kind of thing would become meaningless.
But in response to that strategy, Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley let out a sneer.
‘Do they think all they need to do is hold out?’
If so, they were gravely mistaken.
They possessed a strategy that ensured victory.
They had already wiped out three teams with it, so it had been fully proven.
Yeom Ga raised his left hand.
Then,
“Waaaaaaaah!”
“Yaaaaaaaah!”
The two boys guarding the flag suddenly began shouting loudly.
But it was not only them. Even the boys who had been fighting raised their voices and started yelling even louder.
‘What is this?’
‘Damn it! Why are they suddenly doing that?’
Those on the defensive side could not understand why they were behaving this way.
They were shouting far too excessively.
They were shouting so loudly that, because this was the middle of the mountain, their cries echoed through the surrounding area.
‘What kind of trick is this?’
Mo Ha-rang of Mo Hwa House glared at Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley, who was sneering.
The instant that crafty bastard raised his hand, those fellows started behaving like that.
There was no way they would act like that without some aim.
‘………’
In the end, she decided she could not just leave them alone.
It would not be enough merely to defend the flag. She would have to kill one or two of them.
Only then would they retreat.
Gripping her sharply honed stone dagger tightly, she said in a low voice,
“You must never break formation.”
“What, surely you don’t mean…”
Mok Yu-cheon tried hurriedly to stop her, but
-Pat!
Mo Ha-rang had already launched herself toward one of the boys.
Her qi gates were blocked, but everyone knew that she was a fighter of astonishing dagger skill.
That was why, once she seriously moved in, they widened the distance and fell back.
At that, Mo Ha-rang chased after them, determined not to let them get away.
It was at that very moment.
‘I’ve been waiting for this!’
Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley seized that opening and rushed toward the boys maintaining the half-moon formation.
At once, Mo Ha-rang changed direction.
‘I knew it.’
She too had expected this.
She was the strongest force among them.
She had thought that if it were Yeom Ga, he would first pull her away and then target the half-moon formation.
-Whish!
Mo Ha-rang threw her sharply honed stone dagger at Yeom Ga’s back.
At that, one boy from Yeom Ga’s team flung himself forward and blocked it.
-Stab!
“Kuh!”
The stone dagger lodged between the left side of the boy’s chest and shoulder.
But because of that, Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley was able to bring his stone axe down toward the head of one boy standing in the half-moon formation.
“No!”
At that moment, Mok Yu-cheon slid forward and aimed at Yeom Ga’s legs.
At this, Yeom Ga gave a short smirk, threw himself sideways, and hurled the stone axe.
‘Huh?’
The place Yeom Ga was aiming for was none other than
‘Damn it!’
the flag they were protecting.
Yeom Ga’s true target was not the boys.
The stone axe flew while spinning toward the pole of the flag, but
-Chakang!
Was it heaven’s favor?
The axe glanced off the flagpole and bounced away.
It left a small blemish, but luckily the flag was only grazed, and the pole did not break.
Seeing this, the boys sighed in relief.
“Haa.”
If that pole had broken, then this would no longer have been a defense battle and they would have had no choice but to change course and somehow seize a flag from those bastards.
‘I’ll kill him!’
-Pat! Tatatatatak!
Mo Ha-rang of Mo Hwa House ran toward Yeom Ga.
She could overlook the others, but this bastard was best killed here and now.
He was the most troublesome of them all, scheming and using any means necessary.
“Mo Hwa House. Are you saying you want to take me on?”
Yeom Ga, who had rolled his body and gotten up after throwing the axe, assumed a ready stance toward Ma Ha-rang, who was charging at him.
Putting aside the fact that she was a woman, she was one of the opponents he most wanted to test himself against.
It was right then.
-Kkwek! Kkwek!
A strange cry was heard from somewhere.
At that, the two who had been charging toward one another both stopped.
The other boys on both sides, who had been locked in fierce battle, did the same.
-Thud! Thud!
The sound of the ground shaking.
They could feel some massive thing approaching.
Because it had grown quite bright, they could see a giant shadow forming through the brush.
Then the boys on Yeom Ga’s side moved all at once as though they had been waiting for it.
They fled toward the two boys holding their flag.
-Paseuseuseuk!
At that moment, something gigantic emerged from behind where they stood.
‘!!!!!!’
Everyone’s face stiffened.
-Jureureuk!
Something appeared with drool streaming from its mouth.
Its head was covered in bluish fur, its ears stood sharply upright, and it possessed hook-shaped claws.
Its appearance resembled a wolf, but in size,
“Wh-what is that?”
“What in the world is this?”
it looked almost three times larger than an ordinary wolf.
It was a monster radiating such overwhelming pressure that it seemed capable of devouring even a bull in one bite.
At the sight of it, cold sweat dripped from Mok Yu-cheon.
‘It… it got bigger.’
He had seen that monster before while struggling desperately as he roamed the mountain.
He had survived it by luck, but it had grown much larger than when he saw it then.
What in the world had happened in the meantime?
“Th-that monster wolf.”
Another boy who had been in the same team as Mok Yu-cheon also spoke in a voice full of fear.
Two of their teammates had fallen to that thing, so no one knew better than they did just how dangerous it was.
-Tatatatatak!
At that moment, Yeom Ga ran over and pressed close to the place where their own flag stood.
Seeing this, the boys on Mo Ha-rang’s side who were holding the half-moon formation wore puzzled expressions.
The fellows from Yeom Ga’s side were actually closer to the monster than they themselves were.
So rather than throwing away the flag and running, why were they instead clinging even more tightly to it, as though determined to defend it to the end?
‘What?’
It was just as they found it strange.
-Sseuk!
The monster wolf, which they had naturally thought would attack Yeom Ga’s side first, moved past them.
Then it began coming toward Mok Yu-cheon and the boys who were forming the half-moon in front of the mountain wall.
‘What?’
‘Why?’
They could not understand the reason.
Why would that monster pass those bastards by and target them instead?
Could it actually distinguish between people?
‘The flag?’
But there was someone who had guessed at the reason.
That person was Mo Ha-rang.
She found it strange that, despite such a monster having appeared, those fellows were not even taking up a defensive posture but instead were pressing closer to the flag.
So, on a sudden hunch, she shouted,
“Stick close to the flag!”
At that shout, those who had been hesitating over what to do shuffled backward toward the flag.
They were not idiots themselves, so at Mo Ha-rang’s cry they became conscious of what Yeom Ga’s teammates were doing.
That was why they chose first to get close to it.
But then,
-Papapapapak!
At that moment, the monster wolf charged at them with incredible speed utterly unfitting its enormous body, even as they retreated toward the flag.
“Aagh!”
“Hik!”
“M-move!”
The monster wolf charged at them regardless of whether they were near the flag or not, and everyone scattered in terror.
But one boy was trampled directly beneath the monster wolf.
-Thud!
“Agh!”
Blood burst from the mouth of the boy who was trampled.
Its enormous weight was bad enough, but the hook-shaped claw had dug into his back and torn apart his organs.
“Damn it!”
Seeing this, Mok Yu-cheon turned back around in mid-retreat.
His instincts were screaming at his legs to run, but that boy had accepted him into the team and had shared life and hardship together with him.
So he could not simply abandon him and run.
-Pak!
Mok Yu-cheon snatched up a stone from the ground and threw it at the creature’s face.
-Peok!
The monster wolf, struck in the face by the stone, whipped its head around.
-Kkweok! Kkweooooook!
The moment he heard the pig-like cry it let out, goosebumps rose all over his body.
The monster wolf fixed its gaze precisely on Mok Yu-cheon.
‘Damn it.’
Had he done something foolish?
Should he simply have run after all?
It was at that moment.
-Pak!
Someone suddenly leaped high into the air, planted a foot on the monster wolf’s back, climbed onto its neck, and tried to drive a sharply ground stone dagger into its eye.
It was none other than Mo Ha-rang.
But,
-Pahk!
“Hup!”
Before Mo Ha-rang’s dagger could stab into its eye, the monster wolf violently swept above its head with the opposite front paw.
She tried to dodge it by jumping away, but it grazed her back.
Her flesh was torn away by the hook-like claws, and her back was instantly soaked in blood.
And then,
-Kudangtang!
she rolled over several times.
“Ha-rang!”
After rolling wildly, Mo Ha-rang tried to stagger to her feet.
But after suffering such an injury in a bare body with even her qi gates blocked, there was no chance she could rise easily.
-Thud!
One of her knees hit the ground.
Seeing this, the members of Yeom Ga’s team of Crimson Kill Valley, gathered around their flag, grinned in delight and sneered.
One might call it killing with a borrowed knife.
They had already fed three whole teams to that monster wolf by using exactly this method.
‘Do not feel too wronged, Mo Hwa House girl.’
Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley curled the corner of his mouth upward in a sinister smile.
There was no such thing as fairness or uprightness here.
Whoever survived to the end by any means and eliminated their worthy rivals was the true victor.
-Kkwek, kkwek!
The monster wolf bared its teeth and walked toward her.
It was not a simple beast.
As though it intended to make her choke on terror, this monster wolf was approaching slowly, one step at a time.
“Haa… haa…”
‘Dawn is about to break.’
Mo Ha-rang bit her lower lip hard as she looked up at the sky.
With only one gak remaining, was she really going to lose her life here without even passing the gate?
Her vision was blurring from the blood loss in her back.
-Thud!
-Thud!
-Thud!
The monster wolf came right up before her.
She could see Mok Yu-cheon and one other boy shouting and desperately trying to draw its attention, but it was already too late.
The next prey of this monster wolf was her.
‘Do I… look… delicious?’
-Grit!
Mo Ha-rang clenched her teeth and tried to force herself upright.
She thought that even if she died, if she at least stabbed a piece of flesh from this monster wolf, she would not die with quite so much resentment.
It was at that very moment.
As though it had been waiting for this, the monster wolf tried to throw itself at her.
-Pat!
‘Come!’
It was then.
-Pak!
The body of the monster wolf, which had been leaping forward, suddenly stopped.
‘!?’
Rather than having stopped on its own, it was as though something had bound it in place, fixed with both front paws raised, and no one could understand what was going on.
“Wh-what is this?”
“Why is it doing that?”
As everyone stared in confusion, something grotesque came into view in Mo Ha-rang’s blurring sight.
Countless chains rising from the ground were binding the monster wolf’s whole body.
-Chakang! Chakang!
-Kkweooooook!
The monster wolf roared and tried to break free, but the chains only tightened further and bound it so that it could not move.
‘What is this?’
Just what were these chains?
And then a voice came from somewhere.
“Ahhh. What a relief. To think everything I needed is gathered here.”
At that voice, she turned her head.
There she saw someone walking over with the corners of his mouth raised.
‘That brat…’
It was Mok Gyeong-un.
But what in the world was that thing standing right beside him, transparent and blurred?
-Flinch!
It was a girl with chains all over her body and half-white hair, and the moment their eyes met, goosebumps ran over Mo Ha-rang’s whole body.