Ch. 2

Chapter 2: Flash (2)

Baek Yu-Seol could feel the pulsating blood vessels at his fingertips. They wriggled as if they were alive. 

Gazing into the eyes of the archer who met his demise under his own hands, he did not even feel a shred of guilt. 

Even though it was his first kill, he felt no fear since he only killed to ensure his survival.

“What... What’s wrong with that bastard? He just used Flash, right?”

The leading warrior shouted when he saw Baek Yu-Seol’s quick and agile movements.

“He’s using unusual movements! Hurry up and kill him!”

Flash’s cooldown was not yet complete. Baek Yu-Seol turned the archer’s body and pushed it away with a kick.

Thud! Splatter!

“Ugh!”

A shower of blood gushed out from the corpse, obscuring the sight of those approaching him, and one even crashed into the corpse.

While holding the arrow stolen from the archer in his hand, Baek Yu-Seol hurriedly rolled on the ground and used Flash toward the tree branch located diagonally above.

Thunk!

It was his first time using Flash in the upward direction, so the distance adjustment was confusing at first. He could not place his foot properly and slipped.

Barely grasping the branch with one hand, he gave it all his strength. Surprisingly, his tough shoulders and back muscles lifted him from the tree at will.

Without a moment to tie the string to the bow, Baek Yu-Seol quickly hid behind the wooden post, barely dodging the sea of flames that engulfed the tree in the next second.

Boom!

The small explosion ripped through the top of the tree, but the fire did not persist.

It was probably because the tree was moist due to the snow.

Squeak!

Baek Yu-Seol armed the string with an arrow, used Flash on a branch towards the opposite side, and fixed his aim at the back of a sloppy spearman, who was chasing his afterimage.

“Ahhh! My foot, ahhh!”

‘Missed.’

The aim was slightly off, and it ended up hitting the spearman’s foot.

Although arrows in this world had some degree of ‘aim guidance’ magic on them, he still missed it because he had never used an arrow in his life before.

Luckily, he was able to hit his feet.

‘Nevertheless, I’ve made it impossible for him to move anymore. Moving on to the next one.’

Another ball of flame came flying toward Baek Yu-Seol, but he jumped off the tree without any regrets.

“Ah…!”

However, since the altitude was quite high, he could break a bone or two if he fell down.

A guy stood at the position where Baek Yu-Seol seemed destined to fall and raised his arms in anticipation, but Baek Yu-Seol thrust the dagger into the gap between his arms.

Stab!

The loud noise that followed was more fitting to describe a collision than being stabbed by a sword.

Just before Baek Yu-Seol crashed into the ground, he forcibly righted his body toward the front and used his Flash skill.

One of Flash’s unique traits:

The momentum before using it would be conserved.

“Ugghhh!”

As he took a deep breath while looking at the mage casting spells from the front, he was overwhelmed with shock.

Bam!

“Fire B… Ugh!”

‘Ugh…’

As Baek Yu-Seol rolled on the ground pathetically, he could feel the swirl of mana.

It was the first time he felt mana today, but due to the prior experience, he realized what this phenomenon was called just by instinct.

‘Magic Rebound!’

It was one of the phenomena that occurred when magic casting failed. When a rebound occurred, an explosion prevailed according to the scale of the caster's strength, and the caster took the damage.

In the game, the mage would have suffered damage from the explosion alone, but was that the same in real life too?

Having gotten to that point, Baek Yu-Seol crouched down as much as possible.

Boom!

The entire vicinity was engulfed in a small explosion. Baek Yu-Seol rolled over the ground several times to lessen the impact.

Perhaps the level of the mage was lower than expected; the rebound explosion was nothing like a powerbomb. However, since he was close, his skin was slightly burnt.

Baek Yu-Seol was forcibly coughing due to the stinging pain, but at the creepy sensation of something approaching his head, he instinctively bowed.

Whoosh!

An arrow flew past his hair and hit the tree next to him.

“Huh, that’s very unusual.”

The only remaining pursuers were a warrior with armor and a magic archer.

Since both of them had their necks exposed, it would be possible to get rid of them if Baek Yu-Seol aimed for that vital spot.

Slowly holding the dagger, he got up and took a stance.

The warrior raised the corners of his mouth to speak.

“Your reaction speed is unreal and you use unusual magic. Who the hell are you?”

Baek Yu-Seol’s reaction speed was far better than that of any professional gamer, so he always appeared on special broadcasts in any game.

He had also won first place in a world competition where they tested the speed of response with clicks.

However, no matter how fast humans were, they could never avoid arrows, especially with their backs facing them.

Moreover, they were even more difficult to dodge when fired at such close distance.

“If you were a skilled mage, it would still be understandable with your enchanted senses… But you’re just an idiot who can’t even use magic. I don’t understand. Why don’t you tell me before you die?”

Mana Leakage Disorder, which strengthened all human senses, was practically useless in the magical society, but it surprisingly offered such amazing physical abilities.

However, Baek Yu-Seol didn’t have any intention to talk, and the warrior giggled as he noticed it.

“Yeah, let’s see if you can move around with that injured body of yours."

A provocation always felt childish to Baek Yu-Seol, and he often refused to respond to such crap.

“… Do you have any potions?”

“I have something to drink.”

“Good.”

Baek Yu-Seol took a stance as he drew the dagger little by little.

"Once I kill you, I’ll take it, so don’t lose it."

[Flash]

At the moment when Baek Yu-Seol’s body became blurry, the warrior raised his shield and covered his neck and face.

‘I’ve already figured out how you use Flash!’

Previously, when he activated Flash, he would swing the dagger after his body became stationary, so it never carried the momentum of Flash. Moreover, the dagger he wielded was not very threatening.

The rest of the warrior's body was protected by armor, so he decided to only protect his face and neck. On the other hand, Baek Yu-Seol approached the opponent’s face with deadly concentration while using Flash.

The warrior felt proud of his intelligence, raised his shield, and at the same time, slammed his foot hard on the floor.

‘Wave Break!’

Immediately after, the ground in front of him caved in as the powerful waves spread, making a fan shape, and the vicinity trembled along with its rhythm.

Crack!

“I’ve got you, you bastard!”

Class 1 basic magic that destroyed the enemy’s stance within a certain range! Normally, this would be enough to bind his opponent’s movements.

“Die!”

Convinced that Baek Yu-Seol was stunned, the warrior swung a large two-handed sword.

“… Huh?”

‘I have 10 years of PVP experience. Even though this is my first time fighting an actual battle, I’m so familiar with magic warfare that it makes me pity you.’

Baek Yu-Seol had met enemies who couldn’t keep up with his Flash and activated wide-range skills in front of him.

‘...I'm behind you!’

With lightning speed, he appeared behind the warrior, dagger poised to strike at the archer's vulnerable back.

But the archer's instincts kicked in and he sensed the danger. Swiftly, he rolled across the ground, narrowly evading Baek Yu-Seol's attack, and retaliated with a rapid barrage of arrows from his crossbow.

Thwip! Thwip!

“Ugghhh!”

If he could use continuous Flash, such a counterattack could have been easily ignored, but it was currently impossible. He had no choice but to dodge the arrow by rolling even if he regretted it.

[Flash cooldown: 2 seconds]

Baek Yu-Seol hurriedly looked up and saw the warrior approaching him, while the large two-handed sword in his hand formed a huge shadow above him.

[Flash cooldown: 1 second]

After rolling back one more time, Baek Yu-Seol got up and looked in the opposite direction.

The warrior exclaimed, giving up the thought of following.

“He’s gonna Flash over there!”

They realized it too. The direction of his gaze before activating Flash must have given away his target.

However…

It was just a decoy he set to make them think he was using Flash in the first place.

Baek Yu-Seol turned his body once more, taking advantage of the recoil of his former roll, and fired a kick.

In response, the warrior raised his elbow in embarrassment.

Crack!

“Ugh!”

“Cough…”

His elbow barely succeeded in defending him, but Baek Yu-Seol suffered boundless pain as the armor cracked his shin. The warrior staggered from the impact and Baek Yu-Seol activated Flash.

[Flash]

The archer, who had just fired an arrow betting that Baek Yu-Seol would Flash in that exact spot, widened his eyes when he suddenly approached him. He hurriedly leaped backward.

However, his reaction was delayed because he was aiming from the crossbow.

Pukkk!

Baek Yu-Seol’s dagger successfully pierced through the archer’s neck.

“Keugh….”

Thud!

“Ugh….”

After the archer fell, Baek Yu-Seol also couldn’t stand the pain in the shin and felt the urge to kneel.

“Whew…”

‘It hurts. It hurts so much that I want to cry.'

But Baek Yu-Seol gritted his teeth and struggled to endure the pain.

Looking back slowly, he found the warrior glaring at him with blazing eyes.

“You ran away like a rat who’d never fought a battle before, and then your mood suddenly changed?”

“I hadn’t before. Thank you for letting me gain that experience.”

The reality was different from the keyboard and mouse games. Baek Yu-Seol learned that lesson right through his aching bones.

And it made him realize that this world was real.

“Now that you’re alone, what are you going to do? If you’re waiting for two people to come to join you and attack me at the same time, wake up from your dream.”

The warrior’s eyebrows twitched.

“You rotten child…”

“You really thought five of you would be enough to catch me. You must never have imagined it would feel so ugly to get beaten like that?”

Actually, this was a lie. Baek Yu-Seol didn’t even know what they were doing. He was spouting nonsense to weaken the other party’s fighting spirit.

But instead of getting discouraged, the warrior raised his two-handed sword.

‘Fuck.’

Baek Yu-Seol’s leg bones were almost broken, making him unable to move freely anymore. But there were already too many restrictions to rely on Flash alone to win the battle.

When he tried to hide the wound on his leg and aim the dagger at his neck, the warrior hardened his expression and covered his upper body with the shield.

In the meantime, Baek Yu-Seol was frankly admiring the guy’s ability to manage his facial expressions.

‘I guess he’s trusting that guy who’s pretending to be passed out behind me.’

Earlier, he confirmed that the spearman, who had been hit by his misdirected arrow to the foot, had fallen to the ground while sobbing.

The spearman had not yet died, nor had he lost his consciousness. Baek Yu-Seol’s sixth sense, which was sensitive thanks to the Mana Leakage Delay, made him feel his breath.

The distance between him and the unconscious spearman was only three meters. If Baek Yu-Seol moved even a little closer, he would be able to stab and subdue the man in a single moment.

‘What should I do?’

'Should I throw the dagger backward to subdue him? No, that’s not right. There is no guarantee that I’ll be able to kill him with my shitty aim, and the risk of losing my only weapon is high. Did I not realize it when I shot the arrow? I’m a beginner with no skills at the moment.'

Even so, it was burdensome to use Flash. Baek Yu-Seol’s distance from the warrior was only five meters.

The moment he used a backward Flash to kill that bastard, the warrior would immediately narrow down the distance. He couldn’t cover all eight meters.

The distance was short, and he also had a magic skill that could shake the ground

‘I must not use Flash to kill him.’

When he thought about it up to that point, he acted as if he had thoroughly calculated everything.

He lowered his center of gravity and threw his legs back slightly as if he were about to charge at the warrior in front of him.

As he retreated a bit like that, the distance to the rear became closer. However, his spear hadn’t moved yet. It was a distance that barely reached the tip of the spear, but he was aiming for a more certain timing.

However, such a golden opportunity would never return.

When Baek Yu-Seol’s body moved, the warrior immediately reacted and swung his shield, but without using the Flash, he ran backward and stabbed the back of the spearman with the dagger held in both his hands.

He died instantly without even being able to resist.

Immediately, he took the spear and stepped back slightly. The warrior, who had narrowed the distance, raised his shield again. Since the Flash remained, it was not easy to approach Baek Yu-Seol.

“This guy…!”

The warrior tried to say something, but Baek Yu-Seol threw the dagger without giving him a chance to speak and accurately aimed for the opponent's stomach.

Naturally, the warrior raised his shield and casually deflected the dagger. However, this was nothing but a preparation for what was about to come next.

Baek Yu-Seol was looking at the side of the warrior. The spear rotated in his hand, taking the shape of a big swing.

As if trying to Flash behind the warrior.

At that point, the warrior made a decision.

'… Right. His forward Flash can be counterattacked by my magic, so after tricking me to defend my front with a dagger, he’s going to move to my side and aim at my back!'

The warrior immediately spun his shield behind him, and the transition was instantaneous. If his judgment was correct, he would have been aiming at his side and rushing in to attack.

'Huh?'

However, there was nothing behind him.

Because Baek Yu-Seol had even expected that, and this time, he really dug into the front.

‘Shit!'

The warrior looked forward again with a desperate expression, but it was already too late.

The tip of Baek Yu-Seol’s spear had reached his throat.

Puhhh!

[Episode 1 ‘Escape from the Pursuers’ has been completed.]

[EXP acquired!]

[By uniquely developing the story, the Constellation Project promises additional rewards.]

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