The main story related to Sion, “The Broken Crown,” might seem complicated when you look at the details, but when you see the big picture, it’s not that hard.
People who don’t have the power to directly harm Lord Seolho.
They just have sinister intentions and are targeting his not-yet-mature bloodline.
The role and purpose of the protagonist in Abyss City are also simple.
It’s like playing a defense game to make sure those things don’t get close to or get discovered by Noah Frozenheart.
If they fail, it’s not that something big happens to Noah, but rather, it’s an ending where all the elves who fled from Tigroba get wiped out.
“I’ll finish everything today.”
Knowing that, Rohan made a firm resolution.
From now on, failure is not an option.
“I’ll go ahead.”
Just as Rohan, holding a longsword, jumps down at the right timing.
Clara, sitting on the tunnel, moves her fingers.
She moves as Rohan instructed and matches the rhythm. A sense of satisfaction and an unknown heat fills the girl’s mind.
“Arachne.”
Right in front of Rohan’s landing point, the loosely laid thread on the road suddenly tightens.
A pitch-black thread, barely visible, is laid horizontally in front of the tunnel.
The approaching vehicle is like a moth flying into a spider’s web.
Clara’s thread, forged like a famous sword with concentrated magical power, shows a deadly cutting force.
Peep──! Tidid──!
The lead vehicle passes through the thread Clara laid.
Rohan, holding a sword, lands on the vehicle, which is so precisely split that it doesn’t even feel real.
Thud! A fall imbued with magical power.
The windshield bursts from the impact, showing the effectiveness of Clara’s trap.
The vehicle starts to show signs of being loosely cut.
Rohan stabs the longsword into the driver’s seat without hesitation.
He swings it around, messing up the passenger seat as well.
‘Dead.’
The blade pierced through things that had already lost their lives after passing through Clara’s thread.
There’s the sensation of cutting through flesh and bone, but no screams or reactions.
The parts cut by the thread split open and twist, causing the wheels to lose control and head towards the wall.
Rohan kicks off the car and lands inside the tunnel.
Squeak──! Crash!!!
The tunnel becomes a mess in an instant.
The vehicles following behind also pass through Clara’s trap, their wheels spinning chaotically.
Crash──!!
Rohan dodges the tumbling vehicles. His vision quickly reads the situation.
The tunnel is blocked like a painting due to the vehicle collisions.
‘How many are still alive?’
How quickly did the vehicles in the lead detect the anomaly and aggressive magical power, and how did they deal with the unavoidable trap even if they slowed down?
That was the key.
‘It worked up to the second line.’
Looking at the cut fragments, it seems they forced open the vehicles with punches or kicks.
Rohan also thinks that breaking out like that is an effective response.
With one gesture from Clara, the vehicles themselves are all messed up.
But there are cars with empty interiors and no dismembered bodies. Sadly, it means they didn’t manage to kill everyone.
─ Ugh, damn it… Where’s the boss?
─ Hey, you crazy bitch! Who do you belong to! *Cough*…!
Chaotic noises echoed from outside the tunnel, but Clara would handle it.
Rohan didn’t need to go outside right now.
‘Nice. Jackpot.’
The guy who neatly escaped through the cut ceiling without rolling outside was still inside the tunnel.
That guy casually slipped away just before crashing inside.
“Hey, doggo. I’ll slap some soybean paste on you.”
Rohan held his longsword and let his voice and footsteps echo inside the tunnel.
He had no intention of backing down.
“Huh… No wonder today’s fortune reading was trash.”
Akin Doberman, the Doberman beastman and leader of the group.
He stared at Rohan, chewing on a cigarette before spitting it out. Even after surviving a near-death ambush, he looked unfazed.
*Click!*
Doberman held a crossbow, commonly called a “steel bow,” in one hand.
Modernized and sleek, its frame gleamed, complete with a scope.
Except for the fact that it fired arrows instead of bullets, it looked no less than a gun.
That’s why Rohan was on guard.
In a world where anyone can easily get their hands on a gun, meeting someone who uses bows or crossbows as weapons isn’t something to take lightly.
It means they’re confident that shooting arrows is stronger and more effective than guns.
‘Focus. I need to distribute my mana properly.’
He remembered the Bulldog brothers, the big guys he usually hung around with, and prepared accordingly.
But it seemed they had either escaped outside the tunnel or fled toward Clara.
Without those meat shields clogging his vision, he felt a breath of fresh air from the start.
*Thud. Thud. Thud.*
Seizing the opportunity, Rohan closed the distance without a word.
Doberman raised his crossbow and aimed at Rohan.
“I’ve got too many grudges to even know who sent you.”
Doberman infused the arrow with mana.
And fired without hesitation.
Rohan had been focused since the moment mana surged around the arrow.
As his fingers twitched, he swiftly raised his longsword.
*Clang!*
The blade blocked the mana-infused projectile.
It rang out like it had been struck by a hammer.
‘Heavy.’
His palm ached from gripping the sword.
*Thud!*
From walking to sprinting.
Rohan kicked off the hard ground, closing the distance in a straight line.
“Not bad, gutsy.”
Doberman watched as his opponent charged straight at him without zigzagging and raised his crossbow.
*Click!*
A battle of timing in an instant.
Rohan and Doberman locked eyes as the crossbow was aimed between Rohan’s brows.
Without flinching, Doberman fired the arrow.
Rohan kicked Doberman’s hand upward.
And swung his skill-enhanced, crimson-stained sword.
*Whoosh—!*
The blade sliced through the air.
Rohan chased after Doberman, who was retreating, while kicking a side mirror rolling on the ground.
“I said I’d slap some soybean paste on you, right?”
Doberman, who dodged by tilting his head, let out a faint laugh.
“Into the pot you go…”
“It’s not my day. I haven’t had human flesh in a while, and I’m craving it. Offer me your neck. I’ll chew you down to the bone.”
Doberman leaped backward and pulled a short arrow from his coat.
He loaded it, infused it with magic, and took aim.
Doberman executed every action as smoothly as flowing water, continuing his rough scuffle with Rohan.
*Whoosh!*
An arrow grazed past his shoulder.
*Swoosh!*
A hot blade narrowly missed him by a hair’s breadth.
The edge of his coat was singed black just from the graze.
In between, there were close-quarters struggles and shoulder clashes to disarm each other.
Doberman wasn’t lacking in close combat either.
Punches and dogfights were his weapons of survival before he mastered the crossbow.
Even though he couldn’t gain an advantage over Rohan, who wielded a longsword as his main weapon, he wasn’t completely helpless.
“…”
Neither of their breaths had faltered yet.
It felt like a different world compared to the screams echoing outside the tunnel.
Both of them thought the same thing at the same time.
‘This guy’s style is way more annoying than I expected.’
They adjusted their weapons.
*Sssk!*
Rohan took a low stance, like he was trying to catch a wary wild animal.
It almost looked like a dog trainer and a wild dog.
‘That dog. He’s a pain when it comes to creating distance in an instant.’
Doberman was faster than Rohan.
But he wasn’t as agile as Sion or Clara.
Despite that, he had a particularly noticeable skill.
His footwork, honed by experience, stood out.
‘Even so.’
Rohan felt no anxiety.
In this situation, it was the beastman who was getting impatient.
Even though he was holding a crossbow with a calm face.
‘If I play defensively, he’ll eventually have to show his hand.’
Patience brings its own rewards.
Rohan knew that.
*****
Akin Doberman focused on the opponent in front of him while analyzing the sounds picked up by his keen hearing.
Outside the tunnel, his subordinates were dying at a rapid pace.
‘Is the woman on top of the tunnel handling the outside?’
Judging by the general sense of the situation, one might think the leader’s opponent was that woman.
But for some reason, Doberman felt the current setup was justified.
As he had learned while wandering the back alleys of Yama, superior magic and physical abilities didn’t guarantee victory.
It only increased the odds. There was no absolute certainty when life and death were on the line.
‘The one who’ll really be a pain if left alive… is that guy over there.’
Doberman had a gut feeling.
To survive here, he had to kill that man first.
‘My magic reserves…’
He could still use his skills.
But if he kept firing arrows like this, even that might become impossible.
‘I’ll use it.’
If he used this and still couldn’t kill him, it would be a disaster. But since that hadn’t happened yet, he was still here.
“…”
*Tap. Tadak—. Tap. Tadadak—.*
Doberman’s footsteps changed.
It sounded like multiple people were walking with slight time differences, even though only one had stepped forward.
Rohan felt it too.
“!”
Then, Doberman multiplied.
He moved, leaving behind thick afterimages.
Rohan is surrounded in a circle as he tries to grasp the situation.
Everyone moves in unison.
Doberman’s illusions are low-level, but illusion-based skills are extremely rare.
If you’re seeing it for the first time, it’s hard to respond easily.
The fear that acting rashly could make you sink deeper is palpable.
“Let me kill you cleanly.”
“Let me kill you cleanly.”
“Let me kill you cleanly.”
··
··
The voices, scattered in multiple directions, echoed through the tunnel.
Doberman doesn’t have the luxury to maintain the skill for long. Pretending to stay calm, he picked up his crossbow.
‘It’s coming.’
Rohan, seizing the opportunity he had been waiting for, gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, ready to shatter it.
The illusion was fascinating. A strange sensation crept into his limbs.
Even though he knew about this skill, the vivid and lifelike visuals, smells, and sounds planted a tiny seed of doubt.
As Juyun had warned, the less confidence he had in himself, the harder it seemed to break free.
But Rohan had no hesitation.
There was a reason he had been waiting so desperately for this.
Rohan had a more reliable method than what he had been taught at the Academy.
‘When I get back, I should buy Ichinose some snacks.’
The breakthrough that Ichinose Yui had accidentally created while demonstrating her sword technique.
The unexpected use of the status window.
Rohan recalled that moment and awakened his consciousness.
‘Status window.’
A semi-transparent window appeared before his eyes.
Rohan’s gaze ignored everything else and focused on the ‘status.’
『Name: Rohan
Health: 88%
Mana: 71%
Affiliated Nation: Southern Wasteland (Remnant)
Affiliated Organization: Orion Academy
Attributes: [Physical] [Fire]
Status: Confused (Illusion)
Remaining Points: 3,772P』
It was written in the status. I’m under an illusion.
It gave him certainty.
That alone was enough to break through this level of illusion.
[The void of the illusion has been discovered.]
[You are fully aware of the illusion.]
[You are freed from the illusion.]
“Let me kill you cleanly.”
A clear voice came from the right.
The illusion before his eyes was gone. The discomfort in his limbs had vanished.
The taste of breaking free from the subtle charm of the lowest-level illusion.
It felt more refreshing than expected.
Rohan channeled his mana in an instant and took a step forward.
He swung his sword like lightning.
[One Sword – Flame Sever]
