Chapter 127 - Kill a Spirit Soldier
Thud! Splash!
The heap of meat consisting of Ye, Hei, Lian, and Pang Ja-Kyung precipitously fell into the freezing ocean waters. Even though the spirit soldier Pang Ja-Kyung did his best to avoid ending up in the water with his flying ability, he alone was unable to hold such a large amount of cargo. So, all he got was just to slow down the falling a little.
The one to suffer the most significant impact was Ye, who first came to touch the water. However, Ye had a resistant body due to the Law of Metal, and therefore that fall had no major consequences on her. Immediately after Ye, Pang Ja-Kyung suffered the most from the fall. Hei had, in fact, controlled the descent so that his enemy would first fell into the water. In doing so, he sharply reduced the impact for him and Lian behind his back.
The four, after coming into contact with the surface of the water, continued to sink. Ye had wrapped her tail over Hei and Pang Ja-Kyung and was dragging them down until she stopped about 5 meters underwater. After reaching five meters, Ye stopped and turned to look at Hei.
'Big brother, now what? Do you want me to finish this one here?' Ye asked as she tilted her head and uncovered her fangs as if she meant she could easily bite Pang Ja-Kyung.
'No, go back to Xing. Kill that second-level seagull and recover its body. Even if you have reached the second level, you are just advanced. I have faith in you, and I know that both of you can kill such an enemy on your own, but since we are in advantage, why do we have to risk suffering deep wounds? There are still enemies around us, and it is better to save our strength.' Hei replied to his little sister via spirit message.
'Alright. Then I'll go immediately. I’ll come back in a little while.'
At that point, the large three-meter snake began to rise rapidly to the surface. Pang Ja-Kyung raised a sigh of relief within himself. For a moment, he had believed that his end would come at the hands of that hideous creature, but it hadn’t happened. He didn't know why they hadn't finished him, but he couldn't waste that chance. With all his might, he tried to fly up to the surface. However, Pang Ja-Kyung soon realized that no matter how hard he tried it, he couldn't move from where he was.
The reason? It was simple - the ribbon Lian had tied around Hei and Pang Ja-Kyung. Lian had put her spirit power into this ribbon and had hardened it. By commanding it through her spirit power, she could cause the ribbon to remain motionless at a specific point, thereby immobilizing those who had been trapped.
'Lian, go. Stop anyone from coming down here.' Hei quickly ordered Lian to continue with the plan he had formulated to counter Pang Ja-Kyung. Hei had already planned to move the combat underwater to counter the enemy's flying ability; it was just that the presence of the seagulls’ flock and the second-level seagull had forced him to modify the details of his plan in a short time. But in the end, things had gone smoothly.
Lian nodded and quickly returned to the surface as well. Now, five meters underwater, there were only Hei, and Pang Ja-Kyung squeezed in that strange cocoon of spiderweb and hair, held in place by the silver silk ribbon with reddish veins. Even though Lian had returned to the surface, with her spirit power, she could still control the five-meter long ribbon.
'So Pang Ja-Kyung, how about seeing who resists most underwater?' Hei faintly smiled as he addressed these words to his enemy a few inches away.
'Crazy! What do you think this farce is for? Do you want to turn our fight into a shallow breath-holding game? Don't make me laugh; I'll definitely kill you.'
'Shallow game? Pang Ja-Kyung, this isn’t a game. It is a hunt, and the situation you are in now is nothing more than the trap I have designated to hunt the prey known as Pang Ja-Kyung.' With those words, Hei slowly started to move his neck to rest it on Pang Ja-Kyung's.
'Hey! What are you doing? What do you want to do?' Pang Ja-Kyung asked in an agitated voice, unable to understand the reason for that move. Wasn't it a dispute to whoever breathed the most?
'Spider Bite!'
Two half-moon blades of spirit power emerged from the two lateral sides of Hei's throat. These blades impacted the defensive layer that still protected Pang Ja-Kyung’s body. However, that defensive layer had previously been eroded by the consecutive attacks of Ye and Xing. Indeed, Pang Ja-Kyung had spent much of his spirit power to resist the spider and snake pair, even though their attacks hadn’t lasted for a long time.
The trap Hei had devised wasn’t a simple competition of holding their breath. With Spider Bite, he could continue attacking without repercussions despite the situation he was in. It didn't matter that he was underwater or that his whole body was tied to the enemy’s, as long as his head remained free, Hei had multiple ways to continue the fight. This notion, however, wasn’t true at all for Pang Ja-Kyung, who could only hope that his spirit power would last long enough for someone to come and save him.
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Out of the water, he still had his Great Black-backed Gull, who was currently fighting Xing. The two creatures were tight in a deadly dance as they flew quickly around the battlefield. The second-level seagull, despite being in the middle of combat, had noticed the danger of its master, but it couldn’t get rid of that spider that was sinking her legs on its body. Its beak, whom it was so proud of, was unable to break the armor-like exoskeleton of that purple spider with silver patterns.
Keow! Keow! Keow!
Therefore, the Great Black-backed Gull ordered the members of its still-alive flock to go and save its master in its stead. The flock gulls immediately obeyed its command, interrupting their attack on the artifact ship.
"What's going on?" Ho Yeon-Hong wondered to herself.
The gray-haired young woman was breathing heavily, and her sword had now turned scarlet red from the gull blood with which she had stained herself. On the ship's deck, there were dozens of bodies of seagulls with visible blade wounds. Around the ship, an azure-colored oval barrier had been erected by the new defense mechanism of the artifact ship.
“They aren’t withdrawing. Lady Ho Yeon-Hong, I think they are going to where Master Hei is.” Old Tohyon guessed from the flight direction of the seagulls where they were headed.
"Towards Hei? Then we have to chase them! Hei has left me the task of holding back the flock, and I will complete that task. Old Tohyon, go at full speed."
"All right, leave it to me, Lady Ho Yeon-Hong."
Quickly, the artifact ship used the propulsion system as it launched in pursuit of the flock of seagulls. Thanks to the speed provided by the formation engraved on the ship, the artifact ship was able to bridge the gap from the flock and soon reached the destination point.
Standing above the surface of the water, a young blue-haired woman was dancing on the water while waving a silver ribbon with reddish veins. It was as if her tape was alive. In a certain sense, she reminded of a beautiful flower and the roots that kept that flower anchored to the earth. However, the 'root' that kept anchored that beautiful young woman was currently protecting that 'flower' from the attack of the fearsome seagulls who wanted to tear her up and dive into the water.
Without delay, Old Tohyon pushed the artifact ship forward and rammed a pair of seagulls that wanted to hit Lian. The impact was so strong that the two affected seagulls were made flew several meters.
“We have come to help! Where's Hei?” Ho Yeon-Hong shouted as she started hitting the seagulls.
Lian looked at her briefly and nodded her head to indicate the water. Ho Yeon-Hong immediately understood what Lian meant. The meaning of that gesture was quite intuitive, and there was no need for further explanation. Old Tohyon also understood Lian's message and reactivated the barrier around the ship again.
Now part of the flock was being blocked by the artifact ship while Ho Yeon-Hong continued to cut numbers. Their intervention greatly reduced the burden on Lian's shoulders, who had more room to breathe. Unfortunately, at the moment, she only had one ribbon as the other one was tight around Hei and Pang Ja-Kyung, so it was difficult for her to block so many enemies on her own.
This situation continued for some time. But in the end, the seagulls' efforts to save Pang Ja-Kyung were in vain. Indeed, they only led to the death of all of them. Ye had reached Xing, and, taking advantage of her sister's spiderwebs, she had reached the spider and the seagull in the sky. In a short time, the two divine beasts slaughtered the Great Black-backed Gull, securing its body. They then returned to where Lian was and joined the group to finish off the remaining seagulls.
From beneath the surface of the water, Pang Ja-Kyung's face became increasingly white as the water was colored red because of the blood lost by the seagulls. But the decisive turning point came as soon as the Great Black-backed Gull died. The breaking of the spirit pact caused him a spirit wound that conspicuously weakened him. Before long, the defensive layer of spirit power that protected his body was broken, and Hei's half-moon blades of spirit power finally sank into Pang Ja-Kyung's neck, thus ending the life of the spirit soldier.
As soon as Hei killed Pang Ja-Kyung, he used his body to jerk the ribbon that wrapped him fifteen times in a row with a two-second interval between each jerk. It was the signal he had previously agreed with Lian to communicate when he would accomplish his task. At the moment, the range of his spirit message wasn’t such as to bridge the distance that separated him from Lian, thus forcing him to that stratagem.
Lian noticed the signal being sent and waited for the fifteen tugs to end before maneuvering her ribbon to return to her. Quickly, Hei came out of the water and was still tied to Pang Ja-Kyung's corpse.
Hei slowly looked up at Lian and the others. Since he had had to stay underwater all this time, except to perform Spider Bite, Hei had reduced his body's activity so as to keep the air inside his body and not die suffocated. However, even though he was still alive, the time spent holding his breath had still left him very fatigued.
Without wasting time, Lian dragged him to herself, and with the ribbon still wrapping Hei and the now lifeless Pang Ja-Kyung, she brought the two men on board the ship where she finally untied the grip of her tape. Soon after, Xing used her sharp legs to cut the spiderwebs that held her big brother in one fell swoop.
"Cough, cough! I'm fine. Give me a moment.” Hei struggled to answer the worried looks of Lian and his little sisters.
While Hei took deep breaths to regain air after that long apnea period, Ho Yeon-Hong also approached him. The gray-haired young woman hadn't immediately approached Hei for fear of Xing and Ye. So far, she had only seen them in their petite form, and although she knew they were strong since they had helped Hei kill the whale, she didn't think they were capable of increasing their size up to that point.
"Are you okay?" Ho Yeon-Hong asked nervously.
“I'm fine, thanks for holding back the flock of seagulls. Without you, we would have really been in trouble.” Hei thanked the young woman.
They weren’t words spoken out of politeness. It was really what Hei thought. Without the help of Ho Yeon-Hong, who held back the flock of seagulls, Hei, Lian, and even Ye and Xing would most likely have been in danger. If something had gone wrong, they could have lost their lives. After all, their opponent was a spirit soldier who commanded a second-level spirit beast.
Hearing Hei's words of thanks, Ho Yeon-Hong blushed, although it was difficult to notice given the gull's blood that covered her body. Hei didn’t see it and stood up to look elsewhere.
“We killed Pang Ja-Kyung, but the battle isn’t over yet. Old Tohyon, take us where the Pirate Generals and their officers are fighting. Let's see if we can take out other spirit soldiers."