I Pull Out Excalibur

11 – Discord (2)

“Horse and I have been deceived too!”

A loud, echoing voice. Najin pushed aside the organization members gathered in front of the tavern and advanced.

“Step aside.”

“Ah! Who… Najin?”

Najin grabbed the back of the organization member rushing towards Arnold, pulling him back. As Najin stepped forward, the remaining members hesitated and retreated. Thus, a brief moment of stillness ensued.

Breathing heavily, Arnold looked at Najin.

“Who are you?”

“Najin. Ivan’s representative.”

Najin tapped the hilt of the knife at her waist.

A symbol almost synonymous with Ivan.

“If you have something to say, say it.”

“Bring Ivan…”

“Nonsense. Do you think we’ll readily let you meet the boss and a high-ranking member of a rival organization just because you look like you have some circumstances? So, before we follow the rules and cut off an arm, speak if you have something to say. I’ll give you ten seconds.”

With a sound, the knife was drawn from its sheath. Najin, gripping the sword, aimed the tip at Arnold.

“If you don’t talk, it will cost you a limb.”

“The arrogant brat…”

“Who does he think he is, being so arrogant? Is he here to pick a fight because he’s disappointed by something?”

Najin let out a short breath.

“Either say it or put up a fight.”

Thud. Arnold clenched his fists.

Ten, nine, eight… as Najin counted down, Arnold finally opened his mouth.

“…It’s not Jose.”

“What did you say?”

“Jose didn’t come here to pick a fight with you. We were just being used by that lunatic.”

While listening to Arnold’s story, the members surrounding Arnold trembled. Najin also swallowed his breath. With widened eyes, he looked at Arnold.

Thump. Something fell.

What fell was dark red blood.

Blood dripped from Arnold’s iris, mouth, ears, and nose. Arnold, who was about to speak, casually looked down. He laughed upon seeing the spreading pool of blood and the red-stained view beneath his feet.

With a mixed laughter, he lifted his head.

“Hey, kid.”

Arnold looked at Najin and spoke.

“Immediately pass this message to Ivan.”

As he vomited a mouthful of blood, he made a final remark.

“The drug dealer, Hakan, has made a move.”

Najin’s eyes widened.

2.

Horse’s hideout connected to the underground passage.

Ten years ago, during the civil war, the underground passage where Horse resisted until the end. Ivan and Open, who infiltrated there, proceeded deeper into the passage, suppressing any sign of their presence.

“From what I see, it’s not a cockroach but either a mole or an ant. Why did they dig such a deep burrow?”

“Lower your voice. Did we go through all this trouble to get caught?”

“I don’t even sense any presence. Weird.”

Ivan shrugged his shoulders.

Open didn’t deny his words either. While there were quite a few personnel near the entrance, they couldn’t feel any presence as they went deeper into the passage.

A quiet passage, as silent as a dead mouse.

Ivan felt discomfort in this atmosphere. The alleyway was unusually quiet. It wouldn’t have been a problem if it was just quiet, but the road was too open. There were no common traps set up.

“It’s too easy. Suspiciously easy.”

It wasn’t like this before.

During the civil war, Ivan tried to break through this alleyway but failed in the end. There were traps everywhere he stepped, and Horsey’s arrows would fly from the darkness.

Horsey was a ranger, and a ranger pushed into a corner could be quite annoying.

That’s why Ivan gave up on finishing Horsey and didn’t end the civil war. Of course, now he had confidence that he could break through the alleyway with Open by his side… But still…

“This is strange.”

Ivan frowned.

Just as he started to think that this alleyway itself might be a trap, he felt a sense of danger. A sense of danger that could be felt deep within the alleyway. Ivan tightly gripped his sword hilt.

A brief eye exchange.

Immediately after, Ivan and Open dashed forward. They ran towards the deepest part where the sense of danger could be felt. A wooden door placed at the end of the alleyway. Ivan, who reached the door front before Open, didn’t slow down.

Bang!

Instead, he put more force into it and swung his sword, accelerating even more. The blade that struck the sword sliced through the wooden door. As the door broke apart, Ivan slipped inside, widening his eyes to secure his line of sight.

Inside the broken door appeared a spacious area.

It was a large dome-shaped complex.

Alleys that spread out like ant tunnels intersected. Railroad tracks, like spider webs, were entwined for transporting ores. Ivan frowned as he confirmed that there were holes leading to different paths in every direction.

“Was this space here before?”

During the civil war, when Ivan had stepped into the alleyway, he hadn’t seen this kind of space. With this, it’s impossible to know which way to go. There are dozens of open paths, but it’s impossible to search through all of them.

That moment.

Thunk.

The sound of a small stone fragment falling on the ground. Ivan’s head quickly turned toward the sound. The path above where the railroad was cut off. Someone stood there.

“Oh.”

Ivan burst into laughter.

“No need to search for you, I guess. Spider, did you come to greet me?”

Spider Horsey.

He revealed himself, holding a crossbow in one hand and wearing a hood pressed deep.

“It’s been a while, Ivan.”

“Indeed. I tried to catch and kill you if you stood out, but you remarkably evaded.”

Ivan snickered.

Fixing his grip on his sword, he signaled to Open. It seemed like he was preparing to move if Horsey made even the slightest move.

“So, what’s your move?”

Passthump.

A blade shot up above Ivan’s sword.

“Step into my range. Are you confident?”

Ivan was a knight who had reached the pinnacle of sword expertise. For someone like Ivan, the gap between him and Horace right now was almost nonexistent. A distance that could be narrowed with one or two leaps.

So, why did Horace reveal himself?

Horace was a ranger. He could never gain an advantage in close combat against a knight, especially in a situation where there were two sword experts, like now.

“Is there a hidden trick?”

But in this distance, it would be meaningless.

Before he could make a move, he knew he could snap his neck. It was the moment Ivan exhaled, pushing the ground.

“Not confident.”

Horace spoke.

“Honestly, Ivan, I don’t want to fight you. The scars you’ve carved still ache. Why do you think I hid my body for the past decade?”

He took a step forward. In the shadows untouched by the light of the ore lamps, Horace emerged.

“But what can I do?”

Where the light of the ore lamps reached.

The dim light of the ore lamp illuminated Horace’s face. His face, hidden in darkness, was revealed. As if urging to be seen more closely, he took off the hood that had been tightly pressed.

“To survive, I had to lure you.”

A grotesquely distorted half-face. A cloudy, discolored eye that seemed blind, losing focus with each word. Horace’s mouth twitched with spasms every time he uttered a word. It was a symptom commonly seen in drug addicts.

“You…”

Before Ivan could say anything.

“To survive that lunatic, there was no other way.”

Horace pulled the crossbow’s trigger.

But what he aimed at was not Ivan. The arrow was headed toward the dome-shaped ceiling of the common hall. Horace hit something hanging there with an arrow.

Zzzzrrr…

A strange noise echoed throughout the hall.

The nature of the noise was unknown, but it was certain that Horace had done something cunning. Ivan rushed towards Horace, driving into the ground.

No, he tried to.

Ivan stopped in his tracks. Stopped in his tracks, Ivan chuckled at the inexplicable sensation coming from all directions. Paths extending in all directions from the hall. Footsteps echoed from dozens of corridors.

It wasn’t just one or two.

It wasn’t scorching.

With irregular footsteps, numerous people poured out from the corridor. Their pupils lacked focus, and saliva flowed from their open mouths, as if they were intoxicated.

“What’s that…”

Iban furrowed his brow.

In their hands, there were daggers, but they weren’t particularly threatening, given their intoxicated and sluggish movements.

“What’s the intention?”

Estimating the number, Iban turned his gaze to Horsay. Horsay was smiling wryly.

“It’s just a little game, Iban.”

Given the situation and information provided, Iban assessed the situation. Through judgment, he understood. This place itself was a trap. The internal conflict, seemingly incited by Horsay, was a lure thrown by someone.

“What’s the bait for?”

The answer came quickly.

A lure to draw him and Offen here. Then, who orchestrated this? The stench of the vibrating drugs in the underground city hinted at the answer.

One of the three rulers of the underground city.

The ruler of the landfill, who remained motionless even during the internal conflicts and frequent power struggles.

“Alchemist Hakan.”

The alchemist of the landfill had intervened.

However, Iban didn’t know why Hakan had plotted to bring him here. Lack of information about Hakan and ignorance about his alchemist lineage were the reasons.

“Iban.”

Offen was in the same situation.

Offen also didn’t know much about Alchemist Hakan. However, he was well aware of the alchemist’s lineage. During his time as the leader of the mercenary group, he had performed several missions for those damn alchemists.

In other words,

“Step aside.”

Offen knew how alchemists utilized humans. Pushing aside Iban, who was about to swing his sword, Offen stepped forward. He kicked the approaching person at the forefront.

The person stumbled briefly after being kicked.

His body swelled significantly, then exploded with a bang. As blood and flesh rained down, Offen sighed deeply.

“Be careful of those who spill blood and float their bodies.”

Offen spoke as if his patience had run out.

“Because that’s a living bomb.”

Najin opened his eyes.

“Hakkan, the drug dealer, made a move.”

It wasn’t because Najin understood the meaning of Arnold’s words. What Najin’s widened pupils saw was a expanding flow centered around Arnold.

An expanding flow. Arnold spewing blood.

The ground trembling faintly around Arnold.

And Arnold’s expression, as if sensing death.

Four pieces of information obtained through his pupils.

In that moment, a sentence popped into Najin’s mind: ‘You need to create distance.’ Something that spontaneously surfaced in his mind during battle. It had been his reliance since he was very young.

Intuition, that’s what Najin understands it as.

But this is far from something ambiguous like intuition. Najin’s talent is seeing. It’s an extension of that talent. Making immediate judgments based on the information obtained as a spring.

Innate talent. And the combat sense honed in real battles. The fusion of these two creates a temporary foresight.

Bang!

Najin, without hesitation, possesses the judgment to execute it straight away. Charging forward, Najin kicked Arnold, who was spewing blood, with his foot.

Thunk, a kicking sound accompanied by the foot landing on the abdomen.

As Najin’s foot reached Arnold’s abdomen, he straightened the knee that had been bent. A kick aimed at pushing. Arnold, pushed by the impact, crashed into the alley between buildings.

“Right now!”

Immediately after, Najin turned around and shouted while running.

“Everyone, retreat!”

Najin frowned at the sight of the organization members hesitantly stepping back. Grabbing the neck of a nearby member, Najin threw his body.

Right after.

Kwaaah!

With a loud noise, Arnold, who had crashed into the alley, exploded. In the aftermath of the explosion, the surroundings became chaotic in an instant, with members of the organization falling and people witnessing the sight of a person exploding, screaming.

Fleeing organization members and civilians screaming.

In the midst of the chaos they created, Najin grinned. The horse organization’s executive had said, “The drug dealer has made a move.” And only then did Najin realize the identity of the stench he had felt a moment ago.

The stench he had smelled when he had caught and beaten an addict trying to release drugs in Ivan’s territory.

A nauseating odor mixed with hallucinogens and various chemical substances. That’s what vibrated in the exploded alley where Arnold was. And Najin had smelled the same stench before coming here.

Thud.

Najin kicked the ground and ran.

As he ran, retracing the path he had taken, the stench brushed past his nose. Swiftly, Najin turned his head, and his gaze fell on an alley locked with iron bars.

‘There.’

Sewage, sludge, and garbage disposal site in the underground city. It was at that moment that Najin lost his mind.

Thunk.

The grip on the bars from within the iron grating. The convulsions of that grip. The swelling grip reaching its climax and exploding.

Kwaaang!

The iron bars warped with a roar.

Beyond the darkened iron bars, someone walked out in the stench-vibrating place, a woman who had just turned the spilled blood of a recently exploded person upside down.

She and Najin locked eyes.

The moment their gazes met, Najin felt his entire body sharply convulsing. Something he had felt even in the recent duel with Ivan. Something like the oppressive feeling from a powerful opponent who has reached a certain level.

That.

The woman standing in front of him was telling Najin who she was. Najin immediately drew his sword. With a clatter, the sword, pulled out as if it would break the scabbard, was clenched by Najin, who widened the distance.

The woman watching him lifted the corners of her mouth.

“You’ve got a good sense.”

She flicked her finger.

At that moment, a buzzing sound, like a bug crying, echoed. Najin didn’t know what the echoing sound was.

He didn’t know.

But right after the sound echoed, dozens of human movements felt beyond the woman and the explosive sounds coming from various places in the underground city suggested some connection with that sound.

And.

“Do you know who I am?”

The identity of this woman as well.

“Alchemist.”

Najin answered the woman’s question.

“Alchemist Hakan.”