‘What a strange guy.’
The stranger’s eyes were like bottomless wells, and Solitary Blade couldn’t stop staring. His first attack was nothing to write home about. Of course, that didn’t mean he was weak. The blow he blocked was heavier than that of Iron Fist Marang.
‘I didn’t know there was another person like that with Silent Flare.’
He couldn’t comprehend the whole situation yet. While he might feel he was ahead of or at least equal to Solitary Blade, that wasn’t enough right now. He had intruded into the fight suddenly, but his skills weren’t strong enough to completely reverse the situation. Solitary Blade looked at him and laughed. His sword made a sound. It sounded like the mournful cry of a dying child.
Lee Sungmin looked at Solitary Blade’s sword. His martial arts were incomparable to Solitary Blade. But he couldn’t step back. He held the spear. He closed his eyes once, opened them, and evened his breath. There was no shortage of qi in his Dantian. There were no delusions in his mind. There was only a strong resolve.
‘Strange.’
Solitary Blade straightened his posture.
‘It should be easy to beat him… so why does it suddenly not seem easy anymore?’
Those bottomless eyes gave him a strange feeling.
He stopped hesitating. They both leapt forward to strike at each other. Lee Sungmin didn’t hold back and used Shadowless and One Thunder simultaneously to leave an afterimage as he ran forward. Solitary Blade slashed his sword sideways as he took half a step forward. Lee Sungmin gripped his long spear tightly and stabbed forward.
There was no clashing sound. The attacks were in vain. The stabbing spear soared upward in a straight line. Solitary Blade swung his sword at a shorter height while turning his upper body at an angle.
Jjooong!
There was definitely a clash of weapons this time. He turned his entire body without looking back and exerted all the power he could in the attack. His hands felt numb. Lee Sungmin’s knees buckled slightly. It looked like he had been pushed back by force, but in reality, he had taken several steps back voluntarily.
Solitary Blade was like a rabid dog that would not miss any prey around it. He remembered what Chiwgeol said. The way Chiwgeol was wounded. What had happened to Chiwgeol’s ripped off arm.
He went for a one-shot attack, with dozens of blades in it. It would not cause a simple flesh wound. Simply grazing by would be enough to draw blood.
The spear pierced through the air, and Solitary Blade’s eyes shifted quickly. He distinguished between the false and true spearheads that shot at him in rapid succession.
‘What an expert. You seem young and full of energy… Hu-hu! But something is strange.’
A sly look arose on Solitary Blade’s face. He couldn’t rest yet. The sword shot out with a piercing sound and parried the spear’s attack.
‘Although it seems like an attack, it’s quite restrained. You know when to retreat and when to advance. Indeed… Right now, you’re at an advantage.’
There was no reason not to attack aggressively. Lee Sungmin didn’t want to allow Solitary Blade to find any gaps to take advantage of.
Half a step.
It was Solitary Blade who took half a step forward. The Defense Aura wrapped around him greatly increased. Lee Sungmin’s sixth sense was alerted, and his body responded immediately by switching to the Nine Heavenly Spears technique. The spear aura burst forth like red waves, and a sharp spearhead pierced out through it.
He sensed a sharp attack coming. The clear sword collided with the spearhead.
‘No.’
It wasn’t the main attack. There was more to come. Solitary Blade Dokgo was no wolf. He was more like a snake. The sword of the Solitary Blade slithered up the spear and aimed for his neck. Lee Sungmin changed his pace. Instead of backing down, he charged ahead.
Paak!
Solitary Blade’s sword cut through his afterimage. The afterimage divided into many and then scattered away. He twisted his body in anticipation of an attack on his side. He couldn’t tell where Lee Sungmin was attacking from. He had to admit it even if he didn’t want to. Solitary Blade spun and released many swords of qi. Lee Sungmin pulled his arm back in response.
They kept on going. He shot dozens of spearheads at the swords launched toward him. Seeing at the successive explosions, Solitary Blade could no longer hold back his excitement and laughed. He threw out a stroke as he stopped laughing. Lee Sungmin twirled his spear.
Kkaaang!
Lee Sungmin deflected the sword using the Ran technique and immediately pushed forward. One step, two steps. That’s how he began. His life and spear force entangled and exploded toward Solitary Blade. Solitary Blade threw the sword that was in his right hand to his left. The sword dispelled Lee Sungmin’s move in the air. The remnants of the attack scattered away.
‘No?’
But Solitary Blade had missed the spear. The spear slashed from bottom to top. Skill Stealing. It was a move that surprised Solitary Blade, but he was not panicked by it. Instead of retreating, he wielded his sword. It was said that Solitary Blade’s swordsmanship was like using many blades with one sword. He was one of the best swordsmen Lee Sungmin had seen. His Skill Stealing technique was blocked. Lee Sungmin immediately stepped aside with the One Thunder technique. Lee Sungmin, who had split his afterimage into dozens, surrounded Solitary Blade with all of the illusions holding up their spears.
“Hahaha!”
Solitary Blade laughed out loud. He moved forward and cut a huge arc with his sword. The sword that swept over the surroundings and dispersed all of the afterimages in one go. Lee Sungmin seemed to be at a higher level than he had assessed previously. Solitary Blade greatly revised his initial impression of Lee Sungmin. He wielded the spear with agility and sharpness, and his movements could confuse one’s eyes.
‘I wonder how old you are.’
If he only looked at his martial arts, he was no different from an old man who had polished his skills for a very long time. Was there a young spear-wielder who had such excellent skill? If there was, there would have been many rumors about him.
‘I’d like to fight a little more. But there is no time to keep going.’
Iron Fist Marang was the problem. Iron Fist, who had been fighting with Baek Sogo in the meantime, was unable to back down and was being suppressed by her. The outcome of their fight would be settled before long. Solitary Blade couldn’t stand him. If Iron Fist Marang died, Baek Sogo and Lee Sungmin would join hands with no hindrance, and Solitary Blade would be unable to hold them back.
‘It’s not common to be able to have such an exciting fight. I suppose it can’t be helped…’
Solitary Blade’s line of thought was cut off soon enough.
It happened very quickly. The wall of the flesh that was right next to him was torn, and black torrents rushed out from it to strike Solitary Blade’s body. He never imagined there would be such an attack and could not even defend himself.
It wasn’t that he had poor defense. Solitary Blade’s Defense Aura was intact and was protecting his body. But that wasn’t the problem. His Defense Aura in itself was not strong enough to protect him against an attack of such a caliber.
Despite tearing down the wall, the power of the attack did not decrease at all. The upper half of his body was blasted off before he could even scream. However, as he was flying in the sky, with blood spraying out of his body, Solitary Blade had one final thought before his consciousness faded away.
‘Black Dragon… ? Minor Heavenly Demon? Why…’
Bang! Solitary Blade’s body crashed onto the floor. Lee Sungmin looked blankly at his state. The fearsome Solitary Blade had been taken down with a fatal injury in an instant and was beyond saving.
The fight between Baek Sogo and Iron Fist Marang stopped. Iron Fist glanced down with a pale, tired face. The dreaded Solitary Blade’s body had completely stilled.
Solitary Blade Dokgo was dead.
“Minor Heavenly Demon…”
Iron Fist Marang stuttered out. Baek Sogo’s mouth was half-open. Lee Sungmin looked down at Solitary Blade’s body emotionlessly. The Solitary Blade Dokgo, the one with that ferocious swordsmanship that swung down mercilessly, no longer existed. The only thing left was a destroyed body with the upper half crushed. He moved his stiff neck and turned his head.
It was the black cloth that was currently lying on the ground limply that had killed him. Lee Sungmin knew what it was. He hadn’t seen it directly but had learnt about it from the information purchased from Erebrisa.
Wijihoyeon walked out through the cracks in the wall. She just glanced at Solitary Blade’s body and said nothing. Seeing those unfeeling eyes, Lee Sungmin realized that it was her Doppelganger, and not the real Wijihoyeon.
The Doppelganger was holding someone’s head in its hand. Lee Sungmin knew who it belonged to. It was Crimson Elder. But seeing that there was no blood flowing from it, the head likely belonged to Crimson Elder’s Doppelganger and not the real person. The road where the two Doppelgangers were together. It seems those two were Wijihoyeon and Crimson Elder’s Doppelgangers.
“Minor Heavenly Demon… Why… !”
Iron Fist Marang shouted out. He still didn’t realize that they were Doppelgangers. However, Lee Sungmin and Baek Sogo knew. They took a few steps back.
It would have been much better if it was Wijihoyeon. He might have been able to think of a solution by talking somehow. However, the other person was a Doppelganger that was incapable of communicating. Even if a Doppelganger’s power was not quite the same compared to the real person, this was on a completely different level.
Wijihoyeon was overwhelmingly strong, which meant that even her Doppelganger would at least have the strength of a transcendent. Solitary Blade’s death was proof of it. Solitary Blade Dokgo… aside from Wijihoyeon, he was probably the strongest in the dungeon. Yet he couldn’t cope with her Doppelganger’s attack and died.
“… Sungmin.”
Baek Sogo said with a trembling voice. Lee Sungmin bit on his lower lip while staring at Wijihoyeon’s Doppelganger. He thought it was strange. People were divided evenly on the four roads, but all of them died except for Wijihoyeon. The Doppelganger must come out through the walls to kill everyone, even in his previous life.
‘And then, Wijihoyeon must have killed her own Doppelganger.’
Then the rumors would spread outside of the dungeon. She killed all of them. It wasn’t completely wrong. Even if she said she didn’t kill anyone, if her Doppelganger acted like that, to others, it would be no different from Wijihoyeon killing them herself.
“Minor Heavenly Demon!”
Iron Fist Marang shouted in a harsh voice.
“What the hell are you doing ?! Why did you kill Solitary Blade Dokgo?! And why are you holding the Crimson Elder’s head!”
Iron Fist Marang did not know about the Doppelgangers. That was because he hadn’t encountered any of them on his way here. That’s why he was sincerely yelling at Wijihoyeon’s Doppelganger like that.
“Even if you said you wouldn’t take us in, we considered you as our master. When you reigned the world one day… I wanted to be there to see it. It was just that… !”
Iron Fist Marang spat out such words. He strode forward with eyes full of rage and disbelief. He exuded far more killing intent while yelling at the Doppelganger than he did during his fight with Baek Sogo.
“But why… ! Even if you didn’t accept it, Solitary Blade truly followed you!”
Wijihoyeon’s Doppelganger didn’t respond to him. It just watched Iron Fist Marang with unfeeling eyes. Looking at those eyes, Iron Fist Marang couldn’t stand it anymore. He yelled and lunged at the Doppelganger. He already knew what the end would be like. There was no way Iron Fist Marang, who had followed her for so many years, was not aware of Wijihoyeon’s monster-like strength.
But he had no choice. Even if he knew that he would die, he couldn’t live with himself any further without attacking Wijihoyeon. So then Iron Fist Marang reached the ending he had imagined himself. The Black Dragon exploded toward him, and Iron Fist Marang was turned into a meatball.
Lee Sungmin opened his mouth as he watched the rain of blood and guts.
“Baek Sogo.”
“Uh… Huh?”
“Run.”
After all, that’s what he came here for.