Chapter 90. Timur Khan (1)
Timur Khan finally withdrew his gaze from the sky and turned his body.
He saw Dong Bong-su's entire body, reduced to a complete wreck. His blood had dried and formed layers of crust whose number could not even be counted, covering his body, but in Timur Khan's eyes, what stood out first were the patches of pus caught here and there between the torn clothes.
"You were eaten by a black monster."
"That's why there's no time."
Did that mean there wasn't much time left until death? It probably did, but it was hard to be certain. Until now, every movement Dong Bong-su had shown had gone beyond all expectations. Even if those words came out of his mouth, they didn't seem especially trustworthy.
Timur Khan opened his mouth again.
"Just what is it that makes you keep fighting even after ending up like that? You're going to die soon anyway."
"You're not dead until you die."
Dong Bong-su answered while giving his Wanderer's Sword a light shake, flicking the newly stuck blood onto the ground.
Timur Khan thought again that he was an interesting fellow, raised a finger, pointed at the sky, and said,
"Well? Is that really so? Just like all the people you killed, you too will soon be up there. Same for me."
That was the end of the conversation.
Because Dong Bong-su's Wanderer's Sword drew an arc and swept across Timur Khan's upper body like the tide rushing in.
Clang!
Timur Khan hurriedly met it with his own sword and deflected Dong Bong-su's blade.
In that instant, Kaiji raised both front legs and attacked Timur Khan's lower body as if clapping.
He had no time to get angry at Kaiji's change of heart, who until recently had been his loyal dog, and was forced to retreat backward like a receding tide. Because it was his wolf, he knew well just how powerful Kaiji's attacks were.
Wooooong—.
Timur Khan was not merely stepping back.
His longsword began to spin at high speed like a top.
"...!"
Seeing that, Dong Bong-su could easily tell what Timur Khan was trying to do. That was without a doubt Mamorota's Great Power Dominating Rotation applied to a sword. Since Timur Khan's martial arts were higher than Mamorota's, there was no need to even talk about its power.
Hwoong—!
Timur Khan's Self-Rotating Sword shot straight forward, and Dong Bong-su's two hands urgently moved above his own head toward Timur Khan.
"...!"
Timur Khan hurriedly twisted the direction of the sword that was thrusting toward Dong Bong-su upward. That was because something enormous had suddenly appeared above his head and was falling down.
It was a trebuchet. Dong Bong-su had taken it out of his Inventory to block Timur Khan's attack.
Puh-beobeong!
Pulled by gravity, the trebuchet naturally fell straight down onto Timur Khan's head, and collided with his Self-Rotating Sword Energy, shattering into pieces.
Thudududuk.
As the fragments of the trebuchet that had reached the end of its lifespan rained down, Dong Bong-su and Kaiji's attacks were once again unleashed toward Timur Khan.
Timur Khan had his sword stretched upward, so it seemed there was no way for him to block.
But!
At the moment of absolute crisis, his body began to spin like a top. Moreover, around that body, a bulletproof energy was wrapped in a ring shape.
Boom!
Body Ring. It was Timur Khan's unique martial art that extended the Realm of Sword Ring to the body itself. Its power did not fall short of Sword Ring in the slightest, so even though Dong Bong-su and Kaiji had the initiative, they were instead blown backward by the bundle of ring-shaped energy erupting from Timur Khan's body.
Pat!
Keeping Body Ring deployed, Timur Khan flew straight toward Dong Bong-su. That was the very art that had made Timur Khan the strongest in the north—Flying Ring Sword Unity!
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!
As his body spun in midair, the size of the Body Ring grew even stronger and larger.
The floor of the fortress wall that entered its radius was mercilessly gouged and split apart. If Dong Bong-su and Kaiji were to enter that killing range, they would be torn apart like sheets of paper.
At the moment Timur Khan's Self-Rotating Sword Ring was about to touch Dong Bong-su, Dong Bong-su and Kaiji disappeared. They had evaded Timur Khan's attack using a movement technique.
But a movement technique could only be used once.
The rotation of death that Timur Khan was unleashing had not stopped yet. He once again flew toward the spot where Dong Bong-su had appeared. He was rotating at such a tremendous speed that he couldn't secure his vision, but with battle sense, he could track Dong Bong-su's position as much as he wanted.
Now his rotation had become even faster, to the point that marks of Body Ring were left across the entire fortress wall.
Watching that, Dong Bong-su's eyes sank deeply and reached the realm of nothingness. He was not waiting for death. Until death itself drove the tip of its sword into his neck, such a thing would never happen.
That was Dong Bong-su.
Dong Bong-su suddenly held his sword in reverse and stabbed his own pus-filled body here and there.
Blood and pus spurted out like a fountain, and were immediately swept away by the whirlwind Timur Khan had created, scattering in all directions.
[The player's HP has fallen below 20%, all stats increase by 10%.]
[Survival Instinct Lv.2] has been activated.
In contrast to the pain sweeping over his entire body, Dong Bong-su's eyes sank even lower.
Hwoong hwoong hwoong—!
The sword tip that formed the axis of Timur Khan's rotation swept around at a speed beyond imagination and closed in right in front of Dong Bong-su. It looked so terrifying that it resembled the huge drill of a machine boring into the ground.
Dong Bong-su dismounted from Kaiji's back. Then he sent Kaiji behind him, and held the Wanderer's Sword horizontally with its tip facing forward. Then he raised [Sword Energy] and thrust it toward Timur Khan.
Straight Piercing the Yellow Dragon, an ordinary skill, an ordinary thrust.
Like a firefly before the full moon.
To anyone, Dong Bong-su's sword energy fell far short of the momentum of Flying Ring Sword Unity that Timur Khan had unleashed.
If they collided like this, Dong Bong-su would obviously be swept away by that rotational force and shredded in an instant—!
Clink.
No. A collision between JP and true energy occurred. However, contrary to expectations, the sound was not that loud. Timur Khan's flying speed was enormous, so Dong Bong-su was being pushed backward, but he was not completely swept up in that rotation. He was simply being pushed back by the charging force.
That was because the tip of Dong Bong-su's sword had pierced exactly into the rotational axis of Timur Khan.
If it had been off by even 1 mm, he would have been swept into the Self-Rotating Sword Ring Timur Khan had created, but by stabbing the axis of the top without the slightest error, it became independent of the rotation. No matter how fast a needle spins, the very tip at the exact center is no different from not spinning at all.
An accuracy that would be unthinkable for anyone but Dong Bong-su.
Even so, at the end of Timur Khan's Self-Rotating Sword Ring, an enormous force was loaded.
Crack.
Blood seeped out through Dong Bong-su's mouth.
Zzzzzzt—.
The [Wanderer's Leather Boots] Dong Bong-su was wearing scraped across the floor of the fortress wall, causing tremendous friction. Sparks flashed.
Dong Bong-su was pushed back endlessly. If he were pushed just a little more, the tip of the Wanderer's Sword would waver and he would be swept into the Self-Rotating Sword Ring in an instant.
It was then.
Dong Bong-su's mouth opened, and a sword appeared between his upper and lower teeth.
Perhaps because he had suffered internal injuries and part of his organs had been torn, fragments of viscera flowed out of his mouth together with the sword.
Despite such horrific pain, Dong Bong-su precisely, with extreme precision, stabbed that sword into the point where the Wanderer's Sword and the Self-Rotating Sword were connected. It was said to be a stab, but in truth, it was more like lightly touching the tip of the Self-Rotating Sword.
[2-hit Chain Strike failed. The player strongly pushes the enemy backward.]
With the activation of [Chain Strike], Timur Khan was knocked back.
Dong Bong-su dragged his body, which felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and once again extended the Wanderer's Sword, stabbing it precisely into the tip of Timur Khan's Self-Rotating Sword. Of course, this time too, the sword popped out of his mouth and reached the same spot. It wasn't enough to pierce through Timur Khan's Body Ring, but the system recognized that action as an attack, and it was sufficient to activate [Chain Strike].
Timur Khan was pushed back again.
Up to this point, Timur Khan had not realized at all that he himself was being pushed back. He thought only that Dong Bong-su's energy was being forced backward. But soon he realized that was not the case. Because there was almost no clash of energy waves. His Self-Rotating Sword Ring and the enemy's sword had collided—how could it be this quiet?
Since the Self-Rotating Sword was a one-strike kill martial art, in proportion to its power, the consumption of cultivation power was enormous.
Ten times.
He was pushed back.
Timur Khan finally stopped spinning and landed on the ground.
"......."
Dong Bong-su was fine. He was bleeding from the corner of his mouth, but his expression was no different from when they had first met. No, rather, the way he stood there expressionlessly somehow looked incredibly relaxed.
How?
But contrary to what Timur Khan thought, Dong Bong-su was in fact utterly exhausted, and his insides were completely overturned from internal injuries.
Timur Khan too, from the sudden massive consumption of internal energy, had his insides in a complete mess.
He looked at the eyes hidden behind Dong Bong-su's bangs for a moment, then lifted his head again and looked at the sky. Unlike the blood-red land, the sky was still blue.
"Do you know why the sky is so blue?"
Dong Bong-su did not answer. Even so, Timur Khan continued speaking.
"People like you and me, after we die and cross that blue river, our souls are purified. That's why humans don't need to fear death. So don't hesitate and die. Don't endure any longer for nothing."
Timur Khan raised the sword he had lowered for a moment. This time, instead of above his head, he held it horizontally to the side and fully extended his arm. Now, instead of the sword, his head became the axis of the top.
And once again, he began to spin.
Woooooom—!
If earlier it had looked like a high-speed rotating awl, this time it looked like a shot putter spinning his body before throwing the shot.
Dong Bong-su once again watched Timur Khan's rotation with indifferent eyes, then began spinning in the same direction in exactly the same way. His posture was no different from Timur Khan's at all. If one had to find a difference, there was only one.
The rotation speed was incomparably slower.
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