Requiem Of A Failed Hero



[Your dark soldier 'Cheche' has died]

[Your dark soldier 'Cheche' has returned to the embrace of emptiness]

[You don't have enough darkness to reach the emptiness beyond the darkness beyond death]

"..." Raith was dumbfounded.

'I mean I knew he sure as hell wasn't going to be able to defeat him but--?'

Raith was lost for words, it was no news that Cheche wasn't strong but he had placed an expectation on the little man even though he very much expected the permanent deletion of his soul.

What a bad Monarch.

He simply looked for an excuse to displace a dark soldier that was weak to him because he was desiring the thing before him, two things. His eyes glanced at Chozek that lay dead on the floor, his mind fathomed how impressive and strong he was going to be the moment he extract his soul.

Even amidst all these, this was Raith's focus.

[You have failed the challenge]

[You will randomly lose a dark soldier as a penalty]

Raith's eyes immediately widened.

"What?!!"

Whoom!

He couldn't see it but he felt it, following Cheche's deletion was the deletion of another dark soldier.

Horror overwhelmed his face, no doubt he was now regretting his decision.

[The trial will restart]

[You cannot choose a champion due to penalty]

'...then I will have to fight him myself?' Raith was optimistic, he even sighed because he was sure this would end well. So easy right?

[Due to the penalty, every time you die a random dark soldier will be completely deleted]

"Ah!" He couldn't help but let his voice out loud, with widened opened eyes.

Never, never will he test the abyss penalty again. He was about to lose a lot because of his selfishness. The price he was to pay for coveting something was heavy. The least Raith could do was wish a dark soldier like Kortopi, Jarvis, or Fenrir won't be deleted.

The red Orc chief stood over the looming darkness of the orc he had just smashed his head together with a slap. The darkness slowly blew away with the mountain wind.

Raith's scornful eyes rested on the monster and the monster returned the gesture but his with a wry smile and taunting eyes that said to Raith, 'Is that all you've got?'

"Hisshh... I will beat the shit out of you." Raith mumbled and swung something out of the space.

Mok Jae-Hwa grinned from where he stood, 'So he is finally going to start taking this seriously uh'

In Raith's hand was a gleaming blade, its edge was honed to a razor-sharp edge. But what was more eye-catching about the sword in Raith's hand was the hilt of the sword, a brilliant white that seemed like it was glowing under the crimson sky.

The white silk wrap was wound tightly around the grip, each strand perfectly placed. The menuki, the decorative ornaments that adorned the hilt, were intricately carved and plated with gold. Raith twirled the sword skillfully and pointed it forward to the red Orc, narrowing his eyes to a slit.

Wham!

As if both of them were waiting for it, they disappeared, leaving a strong dispersal of wind that blasted off but was stronger on the red orc's side.

 The two collided with a massive shockwave that eluded from the collision of Raith's weapon against the Orc's fist. The two of them pressed for a few more minutes and pushed each other away. As Raith landed back with one foot, he launched forward again with the other‐ in the same sense the Orc chief charged forward, slamming its fist into the ground– the ground shook with an immense impact that peeled off the ground sending large stones to Raith's path.

But with finesse, Raith weaved the stones, shifting left and right as needed while still keeping his movement forward. He swung the katana sword in a wide arc, the blade sang through the air of the darkness as it sliced towards the Orc's neck.

Whish!

Regardless of its big body, the red Orc chief was very quick– it ducked beneath Raith's sword and launched forward in an instant delivering a bone-crushing uppercut to Raith's jaw that immediately dislocated his neck.

Without spacing out the monster swept in another blow from behind guided by a gale of wind that was gathered due to the strong force of the red Orc's punch.

WHAM!

Air blasted out of Raith's left side as the punch carved into his right side, the higher layer of the ground was razed by the tremendous force that Orc discharged upon the moment of impact. Raith's body lunged into the distance, crashing into the settlements, and didn't stop until it was probably embedded in rocks.

Mok Jae-Hwa's mouth fell, his face trembled and his eyeball shook. "H-H-H-Hunt-t-ter R-R-Raa-aven!!!!" He shouted leaping out of the mountain where they were all watching from.

"Damn!! Hyung!!" Sung Min shouted and leaped after him with a serious frown.

The others followed suit, with a serious demeanor, even Chong-Yol who was probably despising Raith had a face full of regret as he landed on the ground.

A wide grin spread across the red Orc's face as it beheld the faces on their faces as they revealed themselves. It was obvious the monster was enjoying the rain of despair that fell upon them.

"Jae-Hwa, I know you are probably very angry right now. But this thing killed a catastrophe-rank hunter in one sweep. Don't we need to think right now instead of acting on our anger?" Yujin suggested all of them were intensely in a different mood than they had been since they came into the guild– all of them were wearing a frown on their faces and were ready to attack at any time at the expense of their lives.

They just saw the monster kill a catastrophe-rank hunter but none of them showed any signs of fear not even in the slightest.

Mok Jae-Hwa stretched forth his hand with one ahead of the other as if he was getting ready for a jabbing session, his fist was clenched and what he was about to do looked like a clear act of stupidity– the red Orc's fist was ten times big than his and he was still putting up a fist.

"Activate, spirit fist! Deadlock!!"

Wham!!

Mok Jae-Hwa launched forward a fist as he spoke and following it was a purple aura that surged out of his hand propelling it forward, the red Orc countered Mok Jae-Hwa's fist with his– the collision of their fist was massive such that it caused the wind to surge with dust.

Mok Jae-Hwa's eyes widened, the orc was still standing against his magic weapon which had fully taken the form of a gauntlet except that it wasn't directly on his hand but was being held together by an aerogel.

'What?! It cracked?!'

A magic weapon that was one of the best of Tae Dong-Hyun's creation cracked from the impact of attack from an S-rank red Orc, a weapon he has been effectively using for over five years.

The others had the same gobsmacked expression as they saw that the Orc stopped Mok Jae-Hwa's attack, although they didn't know that it cracked.

The Orc clenched its other fist and immediately brought it swinging towards Mok Jae-Hwa but before it could reach him Mok Jae-Hwa disappeared– to be exact something blasted into the tiny distance that was in between the two of them and carried him out faster than any of them could follow. What they just saw was Mok Jae-Hwa was standing next to them and Raith was already standing before the Orc again.

Something was different about him.

"He didn't die?!" Chong-Yol cried out, he was relieved at the same time was distressed, his tone sounded like he was having a hard time picking between the two states.

"Of course! He's a catastrophe rank hunter!" Shin responded with a gladly lit face, spreading his arms joyously into the air.

"Ah, shit... you had me for a second there..." Mok Jae-Hwa mumbled to himself.

Raith tilted his head backward at them, "Don't you dare try to take what is mine" He warned, his eyes exuding zenith hostility such that his hair was dancing as if they were being blown by the gentle wind that swirled around him.

 His jaw was completely fine and his hands were tightly clenched on the white katana.

His brows furrowed even harder as he turned to the red Orc who first looked at Raith blankly, it was sure its blow would kill him.

"Surprised I'm still alive?" Raith said to it with narrowed eyes.

"Chaayk kyah kiiu kuaaah! (I will kill you this time!)"

"Yea, you can try."

The Orc charged forward with yet another war cry, raising both hands in the air for a downward smash on Raith. But Raith quickly sidestepped, barely evading the smash, the impact of the Orc's fist on the ground was so strong that it sent him stumbling away although he didn't receive any serious injury.

 He immediately flipped up before the Orc could reach him for a follow-up attack, he countered with a swift flash from his katana but the red Orc deftly parried the sword with its bare hands. Just as Raith jumped back before it came again, the Orc suddenly disappeared and appeared behind him, lunging its fist into Raith's belly.

[You have died]

[You have received the Penalty the third time]