Confession of the Dead (1)

The enraged dragon was powerful.

“Dammit, hyung!”

“Shut up! I need to concentrate!”

It was strong enough to test their brotherly bond. Edvar and Vincent were covered in sweat as they dodged each black spear that came every second.

Dammit… Do dragons have unlimited magic?

This is too much. 

Every time they dodged an attack, they would instinctively look up at the sky. But the number of floating spears wasn’t decreasing at all.

Woooooshhh!

Every time a spear was thrown, a new one formed in its place. An enormous wall was forming before them.

When will this fucking attack end?

Will it ever end?

A person can properly run to the end when they see a finish line, but the Shadow Brothers ran in circles with no end in sight. All they could do was waste their stamina.

If our attacks could reach it, we could at least fight it out properly…

Those fucking scales. We can’t even make a dent because they’re so hard.

They’d run into a dead end. And just as they started preparing themselves for death, all the color drained from their faces.

“……!”

“……!”

A fearsome storm had started to fly in. It made their hairs stand on end.

Behind it! You’re telling me there’s a new attack pattern?

Shit, is this where we die…

Just as they started to accept their fate, an arrow carried by the fierce winds pierced through the Nameless Dragon’s eye.

————!

It opened its jaws wide, its painful shriek shaking the air around it.

Wooshhh!

The dragon’s blood spurted like a fountain, raining on the brothers and the earth. They looked at each other, jaws slack.

Was that…

Seo Jun-ho? 

They quickly realized at the same time that he was supporting them. They also realized the reason behind it.

Well, it’ll just be harder for him if we die. 

It’s impossible for him to kill it alone.

Regardless of what happened after, the three of them had to work together to fight the Nameless Dragon. They’d become enemies again after the battle was over, but they would have to cooperate if they wanted to live. A new hope burned in their eyes. They’d given up before, but now, they had something to cling onto.

“Let’s fall back when the opportunity arises.”

“Of course. Since he’s attacking from that direction, it’s obvious where the Nameless Dragon will turn to.”

They finished their calculations and started to dodge the black spears that were falling again.

* * *

“I feel sorry for them…” Seo Jun-ho muttered dryly, lowering his bow. After he’d shot the arrow, the Shadow Brothers had become lively again. He’d given them hope. And it wasn’t hard to guess what exactly they were hoping for.

“They’re probably waiting for the Nameless Dragon’s attention to turn to me.”

But that would never happen.

“So optimistic… It’s not an oasis. It’s a mirage.” If he simply wanted to grab its attention, there was no real reason to attack like this. The Shadow Brothers had made the wrong assumption. Seo Jun-ho was confident that he could defeat the Nameless Dragon on his own.

Still, pulling the Shadow Brothers in made it easier.

There’s no need to make it harder than it has to be. 

Seo Jun-ho raised the Tempest Butterfly again. He was aiming at neither the Nameless Dragon nor the Shadow Brothers, but at the grey sky.

The scales really are tough. Most attacks won’t break them. Even powerful attacks would only be able to damage the eye. And if I make a big blow…

The Nameless Dragon would change its target. An enemy that threatened its life was more worth fighting than ants who didn’t even try to attack.

“So I have to finish everything in this next attack.” It would be better to finish this sooner or later.

A delayed attack. Pouring multiple hits into one attack so that it wouldn’t be able to react. It was one of the merits of ranged weapons, unlike melee weapons.

Seo Jun-ho aimed the bow at the sky and poured all his focus into his sight. He blocked out all the sounds around him, forcing himself into a trance. It was as if he was the only person left in the world. As the solitude feeling wrapped around him, he started to make the calculations.

Damage area confirmed. Arrow trajectory confirmed. I’ll attack at 0.5 second intervals. 

He finished fine-tuning and glanced up at his hair blowing in the wind.

“Wind speed and wind direction… There’s no need to calculate those.”

He stared at the bow as he muttered to himself. The Tempest Butterfly was only a Rare-grade weapon, and there were many bows that were higher in grade. But there was a simple reason as to why it had become a national treasure.

The ability to create a storm. 

Every arrow that was shot from the Tempest Butterfly carried a storm with it. Whenever an arrow was released, it would create a strong air pressure and rip through all the winds it met.

That’s why the wind speed and direction don’t matter. 

The wind was an age-old enemy for all archers, but once the Tempest Butterfly came into play, its effects disappeared like a ghost.

That’s why it became a national treasure, and why the fiend Kal Signer was so interested in a Rare-grade bow.

Seo Jun-ho pulled the bowstring as far as it would go, but there was nothing nocked.

The Nameless Dragon is a lot bigger than I thought, so an arrow won’t work. He started to gather his magic, creating an arrow made of darkness on the bow.

Actually, it was much too big to be called an arrow.

“Dark spear.” It was a two-meter-long spear with a pointy tip. He hadn’t summoned it for show.

Darkness is a power that corrupts everything. A weapon made of darkness would even ignore the effects of defensive magic. That’s why people had called it ‘Specter’s strongest spear’ in the past.

Woooooshhhh!

Seo Jun-ho let go of the bowstring without a second thought. A powerful rush of wind pressure hit him, but he didn’t stumble and repeated the motion instead.

Wooosh! Woooooosh! Wooosh!

By the time he shot twenty projectiles, only seven seconds had passed. Each spear had their own trajectory as they shot into the sky.

They’re all going in the right direction. A skilled archer knew the outcome as soon as they let go of the bowstring. Having perfectly launched his attack, he remembered his next goal.

“I should get going.” The hunt had finished with this. Now it was time to catch the hunting dogs.

Seo Jun-ho, that fucker…

Why isn’t he attacking?

The Shadow Brothers were starting to panic. After shooting an arrow into the Nameless Dragon’s eye, Seo Jun-ho hadn’t attacked again.

As they started to wonder what was wrong, a voice came from behind them.

“Why are you playing some barrage game instead of hunting like I told you to?”

It was a voice that they shouldn’t be hearing. The brothers yelped as they whipped around.

“You crazy… Why are you here?!”

“Weren’t you supporting us from the back?”

“I did.” Seo Jun-ho looked up at the sky and jutted his chin. Naturally, they followed his line of sight.

Twenty stars were falling.

…Stars? No, wait, they’re spears. Black spears! Is it the Nameless Dragon’s attack?

No, those… Those are a little different from the dragon’s spears. 

For the first time since the battle started, the spears fell on the Nameless Dragon instead of the Shadow Brothers.

– ”…?”

The Nameless Dragon turned at the sound of rushing wind.

Stab!

A black spear pierced through the Nameless Dragon’s body. It didn’t even have time to scream as the spears kept coming. They penetrated through all 15 meters of its body from head to tail, pinning it to the ground.

– “Kiaaaaaaaaahhh!”

It let out a cry so loud that nearby rocks went flying. It thrashed its body in pain, but the spears kept it pinned to the ground and didn’t let it move. As the Shadow Brothers looked upon the dragon writhing like a bug, they started to tremble.

He defeated the Nameless Dragon so easily? It was so strong!

With such a powerful delayed attack? Wasn’t his main weapon a sword?

His weaponry skills were good enough to make them go pale, and the spears were filled with a mysterious power. They quickly realized the situation they were in and waved a white flag.

“Hey, since we fought together, how about we talk it out?”

“You know that we’re just small fries. Spare us and we’ll tell you the fiends’ meeting point.” It was a pretty good trade and would let him catch bigger fish.

But the look in Seo Jun-ho’s eyes didn’t change.

“No. I have no thoughts of letting you go. Fuck off.” He knew that, if they left the Gate alive, things would only get more difficult.

Even if they try to escape, the Fiend Association won’t stand idly by. They’d either use a telepath or torture to make them spit out everything that had happened in the Gate. And then the Fiend Association would start to suspect the origin of my powers. 

Killing them would be the most efficient option. Seo Jun-ho unsheathed his sword.

“You think we’ll go down without a fight?!” Vincent cursed as he realized Seo Jun-ho wouldn’t negotiate.

Stab!

There was a familiar sound.

Huh? This sound…

It was a sound that he heard often. His favorite sound of a heart being stabbed.

But this time, it was exceptionally loud. As if it was coming from inside his body instead of out.

“…Ah?” Before he knew it, he was on his knees, vomiting blood. He felt at his chest.

A sharp sword stuck out through the front side.

When did… he?

He couldn’t process what had happened.

“VINCENT! You bastard!” Edvar’s enraged shout rang in his ears. Vincent barely managed to turn his head as the life started to fade from his eyes.

The last thing he saw before he died was Edvar being beheaded by Seo Jun-ho’s sword.

Vincent chuckled as the blood dripped from his lips.

What kind… of bullshit…

The fiend, Vincent, died comfortably and cleanly.

“…Am I getting softer? I sent them off too easily.”

Seo Jun-ho shook the blood off his sword and looked down coldly at the two corpses before him. Killing people always felt icky, but if they were fiends, there was no reason to feel that way.

They’d probably already taken hundreds of lives, and that number would only multiply if he let them live.

“If there’s an afterlife for the lot of you, you should spend the whole time repenting.”

– “Kyaooooo!”

Seo Jun-ho slowly walked over to the Nameless Dragon as it thrashed. The overwhelming pain wouldn’t let it gather its magic, even if it was a dragon. In other words, it was defenseless.

– “……”

As he got closer, its bright red eye stared at him. He didn’t know why, but he felt like it was full of sadness.

“What’s with that look?” Seo Jun-ho started to feel uneasy, but he raised his sword. A black sword aura covered the blade. If the Three Reapers of Gangnam saw, they would have spat out the orange juice they were drinking.

“Goodbye.” Seo Jun-ho got on top of the dragon’s body and stabbed his sword through the reverse scale. The Nameless Dragon convulsed, and then went still.

[You have cleared ⟪Island of the Forgotten Dragon⟫.]

[You have received 「Dragon Bones (20kg)」 as a reward.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have…]

[All stats have increased by 5.]

[You have regained 2 Magic stats.]

[You have regained 2 Stamina stats.]

[You have regained 2 Strength stats.]

[The Gate will automatically disappear in 1 hour.]

His level had increased by 5 as a reward for clearing the Gate, but it had gone up a total of six.

Hunting other players gives you EXP too. That’s why fiends loved PK*.

(*Player kill/killing.)

Seo Jun-ho scanned the island before he started toward the Shadow Brothers. It had gone quiet.

“I can finally test this out.” The C-rank skill he’d received for killing the Tricker at the Curse of Dawn: Confession of the Dead. It was a peculiar skill that let him see the memories of the dead.

[You have recalled the memories of ‘Vincent’.]

[The confession of the dead has begun.]

A window labeled ‘Memory Projection’ appeared.