The Hero Returns

Chapter 385: Chapter 385

Snip, slice—

Screeeeek—

Nahuru's face got pelted by the countless blade fragments, and he hurriedly retreated from there. His movements were surprisingly agile, and his reflex was quite commendable, too.

Tumble…

The hilt, or what remained of the shortsword, fell to the floor.

As for Su-hyeun, he was staring at the fallen shortsword despite standing in the middle of dozens of participants.

Plop—

Right after that, two other participants collapsed without warning.

"Just when did he—?!"

"Do not shrink back! What can you even do after getting scared by your enemy?!" Nahuru roared and yanked out another shortsword while gritting his teeth.

Although he got flustered just now, he quickly reined in his composure, and after his command jolted the others awake, the dozens of participants simultaneously roused up their magical powers and got into their battle stance.

"Dammit. Just how did he even find out?" Nahuru thought.

The reason why Nahuru agreed to lead this team was that he possessed the ability that specialized in assassination. His ability allowed him to cloak not only his presence and his magical energy emission but also everyone within a certain radius.

But now, his main ability was no longer relevant in the current situation. Su-hyeun had already discovered their position and closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Two of them had been defeated already, and Nahuru's weapon had been broken.

"However, we're still in the advantageous position." Nahuru gritted his teeth and then placed his palm on the floor.

Jiii-iiiiing—

When he did, the surrounding terrain was suddenly blanketed by deep darkness, and the thinly dispersed magical energy began vibrating viciously.

Shu-wu, shu-wuwuwu…

[Ghostly Night - Killing Five Senses]

Su-hyeun's surroundings had transformed into pure darkness. All presence seemed to have disappeared, and even his vision was blocked now.

"It's fairly similar to the skill Thomas uses," Su-hyeun thought to himself.

Having said that, it was certainly inferior to Thomas's skill, the Dark World.

Compared to the Dark World, which not only blocked off all five senses but also interfered with one's mind, this ability simply suppressed the target's five senses.

"Well, it seems like there's another effect of restricting one's physical abilities to a degree, but even then…"

Su-hyeun clenched and unfurled his fist a couple of times to experiment with the level of restriction this space exerted on him.

He discovered that its influence extended past interfering with his senses; it even messes with his equilibrium. To exert this level of interference to his perception in such a large area through their abilities, these people would have needed quite a lot of preparation.

"So the trap they had laid out for me was…just this?"

Su-hyeun knew they laid out a trap for him. He knew that they had dispersed magical energy over a wide area, and he was also aware that they prepared some kind of space-type magic. That's why he was kind of looking forward to this encounter, thinking that he might get to learn something here if all went well.

But this…

"What a letdown."

Swish—

Pii-pii-piiit—

Su-hyeun slightly tilted his body this way and that to evade the incoming shortsword. The sword swings were surprisingly well-honed without any wasted movements, and the speed was also on the "fast" side.

The shortsword itself was the same as the one Su-hyeun shattered just now.

"Not visible to one's eye doesn't mean one can't dodge it, though."

A fight wasn't fought using just one's eyes, but that also didn't mean one depended on all five senses all the time, either. No, it would be the sixth sense—the one sense that exceeded all the others.

Only when one was capable of combining extraordinary "instinct" and the necessary experience to merge all the senses together could one legitimately claim to be using the full extent of their abilities.

"Actually…"

Su-hyeun tilted his head to the side before slashing down with his sword.

Swiiiish—

Clang—, slice—

He felt the sensation of something breaking, followed by the tip of his sword cutting through something else, but then Su-hyeun's lips stretched into a smile as he remained in this world where all five of his senses were restricted.

"It's far scarier when you can't evade no matter what, even though you can clearly see it coming."

<hr />

Pant, pant…!

Nahuru was harshly panting at this point.

Driiiip…

The floor beneath his feet was getting soggy, but that's because of all the blood coming from the scattered corpses on the floor.

Around half of them had been defeated already in less than a few minutes, a proverbial blink of an eye.

And also…

"My…my arm…"

Nahuru's own arm had been severed as well.

Toss—

Su-hyeun discarded a severed arm in his hand on the floor. The displeasure on his face was like that of someone who just touched a disgusting bug or some such. However, not one trace of suffering from tiredness or anything like that could be seen on him.

"Huh? Did you run away? That was quick," Su-hyeun muttered quite annoyed, which sent a deathly chill down Nahuru's spine.

Did he say "quick"?

Nahuru used his team members as distractions and sneak-attacked from behind, but Su-hyeun easily countered that.

That counter couldn't completely be evaded; in the end, Nahuru had no choice but to give up his arm and quickly create some distance.

"His five senses should definitely be paralyzed by now, so how…?"

For someone suffering from such a restriction, his movements were just too natural. Actually, he was much faster and far more precise than people with perfectly functioning five senses.

Su-hyeun, who was moving around untroubled until then, suddenly furrowed his brow and softly muttered to no one in particular, "Hmm…This is a lot more uncomfortable than I thought."

Rumble—

When he did, his arm transformed into a flame. More correctly, it wasn't just his arm, but half of his entire body was instantly enveloped by the fierce flames as the light in Su-hyeun's eyes sharpened considerably.

[Flame - Transformation]

"Crazy son of a…!" Nahuru cursed inwardly and cried out loudly, "Everyone, duck—!"

Right after that…

KA-BOOM—!

Along with the noise of something blowing up, the darkness blanketing the surroundings was instantly overwhelmed by the bright light.

Ruuuuumbleeeee—

Nahuru flew himself to the side in a hurry, but his legs still caught fire. He thought he managed to evade, but in the end, he couldn't prevent the flames from reaching him.

"Aaaahk?! Ahhhk!"

Smack, slap—!

Nahuru urgently tried to put out the fire burning his legs by smothering it, but that didn't work, so he drove his magical energy to his hands and struggled in vain to kill the flames. However, the pain shooting from his burning legs only got worse.

"Aaaaahk?!"

"So, it was you? The one who swung around a shortsword?"

Trudge—

Hiss, sizzle…

Su-hyeun's voice came from near Nahuru's head, and at the same time, the fire burning his legs went out, and the pain lessened by a bit.

Nahuru wasn't the one responsible for killing the fire, but Su-hyeun was.

"Euh, euh…"

Even though Nahuru boasted strong tolerance to pain, a burn wound was easily the absolute worst pain a human being could experience.

He continued to moan in pain, but he still managed to suppress it to a degree. He then scanned his surroundings. He observed that the surface of the World Tree that didn't even get singed by regular flames had been melted down. On top of that, most of the participants that had formed the team with him were lying on the ground, unmoving.

As for the surviving few, they had already lost their will to fight.

Su-hyeun was perfectly fine even when compared to the beginning of this battle, while the space of darkness that Nahuru had constructed was gone as well.

There was no point in continuing with this battle anymore.

"If you were laying down a trap, you probably would've had better luck by coming up with a way to restrict my physical abilities, instead. Even if you worked hard to restrict my senses, it'd be useless if it doesn't work as intended, you see."

"But such a thing is impossible…!"

"Your trap is meant to interfere with one's senses by producing vibration through magical energy, after all. So, simply detecting that vibration will render your trap completely useless."

Crunch…

"Kkeuh," Nahuru moaned softly in pain when Su-hyeun stepped on his hand and pressed it down hard. The pain he felt should be as bad as his hand bones turning into fine dust, yet he still didn't scream. It seemed that his tolerance to pain was quite considerable.

"The burn wound on your legs can be fully healed if you deal with it as soon as possible. If you answer me truthfully, then never mind letting you go, I'll also heal you."

"What…what do you want from me?"

"I don't believe that this many people would've come together naturally. How did it happen?"

"If you're weak, then at least you should use the numbers game. You're asking the obvious here."

"So, you all just came together, is that it? Like, organically?"

"That's right."

"And you want me to believe that?"

"If you want me to come with a non-existent reason, then sure, I can do that. Is that what you want?"

"No, not really."

Stab—!

"…!"

Su-hyeun thrust his hand into the right side of Nahuru's chest. Although he was definitely not a fan of the sensation of torn flesh and blood wetting his hand, there was something he wanted that was embedded right here.

His action caused Nahuru to cough. "What are you—?"

"You didn't sound all that convincing with this kind of thing buried in your body, you see."

Ba-dump, ba-dump…

A rather small black sphere-like object was palpitating in Su-hyeun's palm. It looked like a small artificial heart. Despite having a hole in the right side of his chest, Nahuru still made a stupefied face after seeing a weird object getting pulled out from his body. "Just…what the hell is…?"

"You can see it for yourself right now."

"Kkeuh…"

"Kkeuh-aaaaahk—!"

Nahuru's comrades who were lying unmoving everywhere began screaming without any warning whatsoever.

They barely managed to survive after fighting Su-hyeun, yet they were now screaming with their eyes rolled over. Their blood vessels, now black in color, began bulging all over their skins as well.

Soon after that, their bodies withered at a visible pace to resemble mummies. Nahuru stared at this scene in an utter daze.

"Those bastards never planned to let you guys live in the first place. They are getting rid of you now since it's almost time, or they think you're no longer useful."

"Son of a—!"

"You probably have been thinking that you were actually using them for your own gain. Or maybe, you had to cooperate since you needed each other's powers. Judging from your personality, I'm guessing that you thought they were practically your comrades…"

Pop—!

Su-hyeun burst the palpitating black heart in his hand and continued to speak, "I hope you realized it by now, that you've been fooled."

Grit—

Nahuru touched the blood trickling down from the wound on his chest and bit down hard on his lower lip.

"That bastard definitely said it was an elixir that supplements one's magical energy reserve," Nahuru thought.

That was a lie, and he and his comrades all fell for such an obvious lie.

The reason for that was simple enough: if they hadn't accepted that explanation right away, they would have been killed on the spot, after all.

Even so, he wanted to believe that he became a team member with such powerful creatures.

"What with things like this, I'm sure you can no longer deny your connection to them. So, where are they right—?" Su-hyeun suddenly stopped talking and turned his head.

His sudden action caused Nahuru to make a puzzled face. "What is it?"

Paht—!

Right at that moment, Su-hyeun's figure vanished from the spot. Nahuru flinched nastily in surprise and urgently forced his body to stand up. "H—hey, wait! What about my legs… Eh?"

Gya-ong—

Lick—

Nahuru felt something wet and slimy behind his head. When he turned to look, he discovered a red dragon with a huge body was busy licking the back of his head.

"Huh?"

<hr />

Ka-boom—!

The Ruyi Jingu Bang that had been widened flew forward. Veins bulged on both of Sun Wukong's arms as he swung the gigantic Ruyi Jingu Bang around to sweep everything away in his vicinity.

Kwa-gagagagak—!

"Aaaahk!"

The Ruyi Jingu Bang enlarged to the size of a small mountain like this was an incredibly threatening weapon even if the wielder only moved it by a bit.

Sun Wukong maintained a grin on his face while fighting against dozens of participants that tried to pounce on him. "Been so long since I had this much fun!"

Swooooosh—!

One of his hands let go of the Ruyi Jingu Bang's shaft, and then, he spun around to punch with that hand.

Smash—!

At the same time, a sharp spike made out of bones collided with his fist to shatter into pieces before clattering to the floor.

"What the heck? Why is it so soft and squishy?" Sun Wukong smirked while withdrawing his hand before punching the air in the direction of the one responsible for throwing that bone spear or spike or whatever at him from far away.

POW—!

Ka-boom—!

The air expanding rapidly from his punch reached the participant in the distance and blew apart the latter's head.

"Didn't I tell you? The distance doesn't matter to me."

Shu-aaaahk—

Pahk…

The Ruyi Jingu Bang shrunk back down to its normal size and settled on Sun Wukong's hand. He then swept his gaze over the remaining participants.

A total of five were still on their feet, but they all seemed to have lost their desire to fight because they were stumbling back in fear.

"Tsk."

Sun Wukong took a look at them before tutting softly. For sure, it wasn't his style to fight against opponents who were not willing.

He then raised his head, and while staring at the empty air above, he said, "Stop spectating. Why don't you come out already?"