The Hero Returns

Chapter 386: Chapter 386

Act 5

Shu-rururu…

The space above with seemingly nothing in it blurred and wavered around.

Sun Wukong planted the Ruyi Jingu Bang on the ground, then stood still while watching the wavering space above.

A short while later…

Split—!

A huge black eye opened its firmly shut eyelids and finally revealed itself.

"Is it an Evil Eye Phantom? But it's kinda too big for that," Sun Wukong muttered while recalling a certain Yogoe existing in his world that happened to be a floating eyeball like this one. "I guess only your looks are the same and not much else, judging from how different you feel. Hey, you! Where are you, anyway?"

"You actually discovered me?"

"There's no way I'd miss something as grotesque as you. It's not like I'm blind or anything, anyway. Stop hiding like a coward and come out already." Sun Wukong pointed his Ruyi Jingu Bang at the eyeball. "I want to fight you."

"Fight me, huh?"

The wide-open eye slowly narrowed to a slit. It wasn't simply narrowing, though, but it actually looked like it was smiling.

"That sounds like an amusing proposition."

"You think so, too? It's gonna be fun, right?"

"But why should I do that? If we get technical about it, is there a reason for me to fight you in the first place?"

"What's wrong? Too scared and wanna run away?"

"I'm not running away. Surely, you also don't consider yourself running away when you ignore a barking mutt, now do you?"

That remark was meant to completely look down on Sun Wukong. It would've only been natural to get angry at that, but he didn't lose his cool. He had already won the fight to fall for such an obvious provocation like that, after all.

"You look like you're enjoying yourself."

"Obviously. I've already outpointed you, after all. Wouldn't you say?"

"That's an immature way of thinking. A victory achieved without fighting is the truly worthy victory."

"Nah, that's the excuse of a coward running away."

"Is that so? There's no helping it if you think that way. I'll just take back my interests from here now, then."

"Your interests?"

Kkeuh-aaaaah—!

A scream suddenly resounded, but it didn't come from just one place; several screams broke out in several places simultaneously.

Sun Wukong quickly shifted his gaze to the screaming participants, the enemies that he had been fighting against not too long ago.

"W—what the heck?" Sun Wukong got flustered while witnessing them become emaciated rapidly, but it didn't take him long to realize why this was happening. He gritted his teeth, "Hey, is this your doing?"

"These pawns weren't as useful as I thought, you see. I was thinking of retrieving them at the end after acquiring the points, but now, my schedule has been brought forward by a little bit."

"Was this your true intention when you started gathering all these people?"

"Obviously. Should there be another reason? You thought I'd really act together with them to clear this mission?"

The eyeball's voice was filled with clear ridicule.

"No, they were simply tools to make my life a little bit easier, that's all. It would have been preferable if they succeeded in hunting you down, though."

"You stinking little punk…"

Grit…

Sun Wukong's expression distorted hideously.

The eyeball merely blinked several times in confusion at his rage.

"What's the matter? Weren't you trying to kill them earlier? I do not understand the reason for this anger."

"You think this and that are the same?!"

"Dying is still the same either way. I'm still not sure what's different about it."

"I'm not angry about their death but pissed off at what you did just now."

"Is that so? Does that mean I've outpointed you now, then?" answered the eyeball's voice thickly laced with mocking laughter. "I've managed to make you angry, after all."

Those words finally flipped Sun Wukong's switch. "You as*hole! Where are you right now?!"

"Hmm…I wonder. Where could I be? But I don't see why I should tell you that now and have to deal with you at this junc—"

Right at that moment, the voice suddenly came to a stop, and the eyeball opened even wider. Silence descended in the area.

On the other hand, Sun Wukong's eyes that were filled with rage until then suddenly shifted in the opposite direction. "Looks like they found you," he said, the corners of his lips curling. Then, he lifted up the Ruyi Jingu Bang that was resting below him in the air. After pointing his trusty staff at the floating eyeball, Sun Wukong opened his mouth and commanded, "Extend, Ruyi."

Whoooosh—

Stab—

The Ruyi Jingu Bang rapidly extended and stabbed straight into the center of the large eyeball, and then…

"Get bigger…"

Gigigigik—

Ka-boom—!

"Ruyi."

The Ruyi Jingu Bang heeded Sun Wukong's will and grew dozens of meters in width, utterly ripping apart the eyeball in the process.

"Well, that makes me feel a bit better." Sun Wukong shrunk the Ruyi Jingu Bang before slinging it on his shoulder. Soon after that, moisture rapidly gathered in the air above to create a cloud. He lightly jumped up on the cloud that was created through his Dao energy. "Alright, let's go."

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Ruuuumbleee…

Crumble, tumble…

Humongous walls of flames blanketed the entire area. It was none other than Su-hyeun's doing.

Su-hyeun rode on the Somersault cloud at its fastest speed to arrive at the top of the World Tree, and the first thing he saw after he got there was a man who was sitting cross-legged on the ground by the corner. The moment he confirmed this sight, Su-hyeun spread his divine Flame around to isolate the surrounding space.

[Flame - Territory Declaration]

This ability of his burned the ones deemed his enemies while blocking all space-type magic spells; an average opponent would've been burned to ashes simply by being inside it. However, this man showed no signs of getting burned, and he simply stood up on his feet.

Nonetheless, he did look somewhat stunned. "How did you find me?"

"Not finding you would've been even stranger after you acted so openly like this."

"But you definitely…" The man furrowed his brow.

He had been observing countless participants through equally countless eyes. That was this man's—the predator's—ability.

His reason for spying on everyone was quite simple: to locate everyone so that they could be eliminated at any given moment.

"Cannot be here."

As such, the predator was deeply puzzled by Su-hyeun's entrance.

He definitely had been observing Su-hyeun with one of his eyes. The latter had eliminated all the participants trying to sneak attack him and was currently headed elsewhere.

But now, Su-hyeun had appeared in this place somehow. It was such a bizarre thing for two of the same person to exist in two different places.

"It's not that hard to fool a single eyeball, though," said Su-hyeun.

"Illusion" was the field of magic Su-hyeun specialized in, after all, and he had been focusing most of his studies on this field and worked hard to master it because he had been wondering if the tower's system was an extension of the illusion-type magic.

Of course, no matter how much Su-hyeun trained in the illusion-type magic, he still wouldn't be able to fool the predator standing right before him. However, what he cast the illusion on wasn't the predator's main body but just a single eyeball out of over a thousand being controlled by the monster.

"Hah…" the predator sighed, quickly realizing what had happened even without listening to Su-hyeun's explanation. He also realized that Su-hyeun traced his position by using the eyeball. "Well, that was my mistake, indeed."

The predator had taken his opponent too lightly. He had no choice but to accept that fact. He certainly didn't expect not only Sun Wukong but also Su-hyeun to easily detect the positions of the eyeballs he had assigned to them.

Moreover, he never imagined that Su-hyeun would use that very eyeball to track down his position like this. "It seems there was someone smarter than my initial estimation."

"My third brother is a bit simplistic, though."

"Well, you're right about that. I mean, he figured it out so late when it's this easy and all."

Rumble…

Luslec said that while entering the divine Flame's space Su-hyeun had created. This was possible because Su-hyeun didn't recognize him as an enemy. The divine Flame didn't harm anyone Su-hyeun had acknowledged as his ally, after all.

"But, well, that's one of his charming points," Luslec smirked and stared at the predator.

The creature frowned slightly as if that smirk soured his mood. He then lightly waved his hand around, causing the space Su-hyeun created to briefly ripple.

What happened was that the predator used his power to get rid of this space and failed at it.

"What's wrong? Are you trying to flee from here?"

Shu-wuwu…

The aura oozing out from Luslec's body canceled the aura coming out from the predator. The latter's expression became even more displeased at how this newcomer was interfering with his power.

"Or you got too scared and wanted to call a friend? Maybe your mommy? Choose wisely, though. Someone that will definitely be of help, in any case."

"You bastard…"

"Eh? Are you angry? Wow, you're angry, aren't you? Goodness me, you should've said so sooner. I would've started mocking you even sooner if you did, you know?" Luslec cackled annoyingly.

Maybe it was Luslec's trademark flippant cackling or the contents of his words, but whatever it was, the predator's face stopped maintaining that calm look and distorted even further in rage.

Soon after that, a dense murderous aura leaked out from the entire figure of the predator. His eyes shone in a nightmarish crimson hue as he glared at Luslec. "Don't think you'll enjoy a painless death."

"Sure, sure. Thanks for that corny line that I'm so sick of hearing."

"Come, then."

Riiiip, tear—!

The moment the predator said that, the space behind Su-hyeun and Luslec tore open, and two more figures—a man and a woman—appeared. Su-hyeun and Luslec looked at them and immediately realized that the pair were also predators.

Luslec made another quip, "Are you two feeling alright? I mean, forcing your way in here must've taken a lot out of you two."

"You can still run your mouth off in this situation? That is certainly amazing. I acknowledge that."

The aura leaking out from the figures of the two new predators spread around suspiciously.

Rumble, hiss…

At the same time, the divine Flame Su-hyeun had spread out grew blurry by a little, and the space seemed to ripple. Then, the aura leaked out by the trio of predators began taking over the surroundings.

The predator that had been there from the beginning smirked deeply again. It was a grin of someone who had regained his composure. "It seems that our side has a higher number now, doesn't it?"

"Really?"

"…?"

Just as the predators grew puzzled by Su-hyeun's reply…

Paht, pahat—!

Both Su-hyeun and Luslec quickly leaped from their spots as if they had a prior agreement.

"Get bigger—!"

Whoosh—!

A loud voice powerfully rocked the surroundings.

"Ruyi!"

KA-BOOOOM—!

Almost right away, the Ruyi Jingu Bang that had grown large enough to sweep the entire terrain slammed into the figures of all three predators.

Creak, creaaaaaaak—!

Two of the predators were pushed back, but they also raised their hands simultaneously to block the Ruyi Jingu Bang and managed to withstand the impact force.

Shrink—

When that happened, Sun Wukong shrunk the Ruyi Jingu Bang back and retrieved it. He opened his eyes in amazement and stared at the predators. "Oh, you actually stopped that?"

His face showed how excited he was right now. However, the light burning in his eyes was completely the opposite of what his smiling lips were expressing.

His eyes burned scarily as if he was deeply angry right now. It seemed that he was still enraged by what happened earlier.

Ache, burn…

The two predators who managed to block the Ruyi Jingu Bang felt the numbing pain shooting from their palms and clenched their fists tightly.

It might have been a brief exchange of moves, but that was already enough.

"He wasn't an ordinary man, then."

"Is he also a hound?"

The two grinned widely enough to display their pearly-white teeth. They had been itching for some action, after all.

"Looks like now we have some parity in numbers."

The two predators chuckled after thinking that they might get to enjoy some proper fighting now.

But then…

"Our numbers, you say? You think so?"

Poof, poof, poof—!

Suddenly, a thick fog descended everywhere. Right after that, hundreds of clones with the exact same face as Sun Wukong completely filled up the surroundings.

The predators gradually froze up while watching these "Sun Wukongs" who were all carrying their Ruyi Jingu Bangs on their shoulders appear.

"Alright. How about now?"