SWNOVELXO Chapter 183 - 5×5 Battle (5)
Chapter 183: 5×5 Battle (5)
The last survivor, trembling in fear, was left alone after all his comrades disappeared.
Snap-.
A flash of light flared, and as everything before his eyes turned blindingly white, he realized that it was now his turn.
‘Ah…’
Nothing came to mind.
What to do, how to act.
His brain, seized by fear, couldn’t issue any commands.
And at that moment.
Thud-.
A hand emerged from the flash and violently grabbed his jaw.
“Ugh?!”
The last survivor, startled, opened his eyes wide.
‘Ah, it’s my turn now.’
In that instant of resignation, he gave up on resisting.
He finally recognized the form of the silent lightning.
‘Th-This guy?!’
Black hair and golden eyes.
Crack-.
The thunder that had taken his comrades wasn’t some ghost or spirit.
It was none other than Yuri Holland who emerged from the flash.
“Mmmpf!”
The survivor, who had realized the identity of the lightning ghost, tried to struggle and scream, but Yuri had already clamped his mouth shut.
“Urgh!”
Yuri grinned at the sight of the cadet flailing, trying to free himself from his grip.
“Oh, come on, just go quietly when I let you. No need to make this difficult for either of us.”
The face of the 50th cadet, who was caught in Yuri’s crazed smile, turned pale.
Thud-.
In an instant, Yuri’s fist struck the last survivor’s solar plexus.
‘Gah!’
Rendered speechless by the overwhelming pain, the 50th cadet’s vision went white.
Thud-.
Soon, with a dull sound echoing in the back of his head, he completely lost consciousness.
Tap, tap-.
Yuri dusted off his hands with a light smile.
“Done!”
Yuri, who had silently wiped out the Blue Team at the 5-2 territory, quickly moved to the center of the occupied area and checked the mechanism.
The hourglass had emptied to about half its original amount.
Yuri removed the Blue Team’s hourglass, replaced it with the one he had brought, and turned it to the left.
Click-.
Whirr-.
The mechanism operated normally, and white grains started to fall.
After finishing his task, Yuri carefully examined the hourglass containing blue grains.
‘The Blue Team hourglass turns right, and the White Team hourglass turns left.’
Lately, Yuri’s interest in mechanical installations had surged.
He showed a keen curiosity about the hourglass and the mechanism.
He then shook the hourglass in his hand.
Rattle-.
The sound was slightly off.
‘This… doesn’t seem like sand?’
Tilting his head slightly, he applied some force and smashed the hourglass.
Out spilled powder from within.
Yuri caught some in his hand and examined it.
The grain size, the texture.
And most importantly, the smell.
Yuri was certain.
This definitely wasn’t sand.
Furthermore, it was something Yuri was quite familiar with.
To be precise, it was something he had been passionately learning about recently.
“This… is gunpowder?”
Yuri’s face lit up with excitement.
His hands itched as he crouched close to the mechanism.
‘Once this quest is over, I’ve got to take this apart.’
Despite not knowing its exact purpose, Yuri decided to dismantle and study it anyway.
If his goal hadn’t been to defend this occupied territory, he would have already been dismantling mechanisms in other areas.
Tap, tap-.
While he was tapping the mechanism to soothe his disappointment.
“Yuri! Yuri! Yuri!”
Yuri’s head turned at the sound of his name being called.
“Yuri! Yuri! Yuri!”
There, waving both arms and running towards him, was Arin.
Yuri’s voice turned instantly sour.
“What the—? Why are you coming from over there?”
Arin responded with a bright smile.
“We finished everything over there, so I switched!”
“Switched?”
“I left others in charge of the territory, and I’m scouting now.”
“Ah, so you ran away from that pervert.”
Yuri nodded as if understanding, but Arin shook her head.
“No, that perverted senior isn’t there.”
“What are you talking about now?”
Finally able to fulfill her purpose in switching over, Arin eagerly began to chatter.
“That perverted senior went to Sector 3-5.”
“That’s… where Yulia is, right?”
“Yep. Gunther Ryder appeared there.”
Hearing this, Yuri grabbed Arin by the cheeks and stretched them.
“You should’ve… said that… first!”
“Ow!”
After enduring a prolonged cheek-pinching, Arin finally got released and clutched her cheeks.
Yuri was deep in thought.
‘3-5, huh… Not bad.’
No, for the White Team, it was actually the best situation.
Gunther had voluntarily walked into Yulia’s domain.
‘That’s… called martial arts, right?’
After the princess rescue quest, Theresia had told him about it.
The technique Yulia used against a five-dan certified Demon King with about fifty 49th cadets was called martial arts.
Having heard the overview, Yuri gave martial arts a brief evaluation.
‘That’s a total cheat skill!’
At the time, most of the fifty cadets Yulia had used for martial arts were uncertified first-dan or certified first-dan.
Under normal circumstances, they would have been wiped out by a certified fifth-dan in an instant.
Yet, the result was surprisingly in favor of the 49th cadets.
Even if the Demon King hadn’t fought at full strength.
Even if it had only briefly turned the tide.
With only that level of strength, they fought on par with a fifth-dan opponent.
‘Of course, there could be some weaknesses I’m not aware of.’
However, based on its revealed effects alone, it was a skill that could be considered the pinnacle of unfairness.
‘There are 24 people in Sector 3-5, excluding Yulia.’
Although there were fewer participants compared to the princess rescue quest, there were still some third-year cadets mixed in.
That would be enough to not render the skill completely unusable.
And if, as Arin said, Goetz had joined them?
‘It might be quite doable.’
There was just one concern.
‘I don’t know how strong the other side is.’
Aside from Gunther Ryder’s skill, the uncertainty of who else might be there was troubling.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter.’
Yuri lightly rotated his shoulders.
‘I’m not expecting a win; they just need to hold out until I get there.’
He spoke to Arin.
“Arin, cover me with the follow-up.”
“Follow-up?”
“Take that guy and tie him up over there.”
Yuri glanced at the unconscious 50th cadet and gestured toward the forest.
“I’m leaving. Make sure they’re tied up tight so they can’t escape!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Yuri turned and started running.
Towards the direction of Sector 3-5.
“Ah…?”
In the blink of an eye, Yuri had disappeared from sight.
Realizing it too late, Arin shouted in confusion.
“…Leaving? I mean, he left? Then what about 5-1?! You have to finish up there before leaving!”
Arin’s cries echoed, but there was no one left to hear them.
Arin, who had been sighing softly as she dragged the unconscious leg of the 50th cadet, sighed deeply.
“…I shouldn’t have come.”
Indeed, she had come for no reason and ended up with nothing but troublesome tasks.
Muttering softly to herself, she dragged the person towards the spot Yuri had mentioned.
Reaching the forest situated between Sectors 5-1 and 5-2, she froze at the sight before her eyes.
“What?!”
Thud-.
Startled, she dropped the leg she was holding.
“Oh my….”
Where her gaze landed, five people lay crumpled like discarded trash.
But what was even more surprising were the figures tied up tightly, hanging from a tree like tangled vines.
They, too, seemed unconscious, showing no signs of movement.
Arin began counting them.
‘There are six of them?’
Including the person she had brought along, the ones sprawled on the ground totaled six.
Then where had the ones hanging from the tree come from?
‘No way?!’
Realizing something, Arin sprinted towards the 5-1 territory.
It wasn’t long before she stood in the deserted 5-1 territory, staring in shock at the hourglass, now pouring out white sand.
‘It’s already… over?’
When she had last seen Yuri at the 5-2 territory, Arin assumed he had just dealt with it.
But she was wrong.
Yuri had already finished with 5-1 and was in the process of clearing 5-2.
‘Well, considering it’s Yuri… he probably made that judgment.’
Since Sector 5-1 was closer to the Blue Team, it was natural for it to have more sand than 5-2.
Thus, handling 5-1 first was the correct decision.
‘Wow… no matter how capable he is, how could he have cleared two territories so quickly?’
Arin clicked her tongue as she looked in the direction Yuri had disappeared.
“Haah, haah…”
Ragged breaths scattered into the air.
Enduring the throbbing headache, Yulia scanned her surroundings.
The ground was pitted and torn.
Marks crisscrossed the dirt in a chaotic mess.
All of this had happened in just about ten minutes.
Yulia gritted her teeth.
‘Twelve left.’
Her gaze briefly passed over the sprawled figures.
With no sign of movement, it seemed unlikely they would get up and rejoin the battle.
Yulia forced herself to maintain her composure and stared straight ahead.
‘We sacrificed twelve just to take down one?’
When Gunther and his group first appeared, Yulia saw it as an opportunity.
If she could hold off Gunther and his team, the White Team’s chances of victory would increase.
She was somewhat confident.
She had the martial arts technique and 24 people to utilize it with.
However…
‘…This is the result?’
Half of her forces were gone, and only one out of six of the enemy was incapacitated.
Even more despairing was the fact that Gunther hadn’t even actively participated in the battle thus far.
As Yulia bit her lip in frustration.
Tat-tat-!
Four of Gunther’s side rushed forward.
Leading the charge was Michel Ang, his red hair blazing.
Wielding two hatchets, he charged ahead, followed by the Krave siblings, Roup and Jeroen.
Aris Moore darted in from the left flank.
Yulia assessed the situation.
Throb-throb-.
She strained her mind, fighting through the throbbing pain.
Thanks to her efforts, she managed to devise a strategy to turn the tide.
“Three on the left, fall back four steps.”
She quickly issued the next command.
“Scatter formation!”
The soldiers didn’t think for themselves.
Instead, Yulia thought for them and relayed it through martial arts.
If Yulia was the head, the soldiers were the hands and feet.
“Rear support, form a defensive line!”
Commands from Yulia, using martial arts, were quickly and accurately transmitted to her soldiers.
They responded immediately.
More commands followed swiftly, and Yulia’s soldiers soon formed a formation that surrounded the enemies.
“Charge forward…!”
But before the next command could be issued.
Buzz-.
A sudden vibration cut through her command.
Yulia’s command was interrupted, allowing the enemies to push forward in that brief gap.
Bang!
“Argh!”
Another of her soldiers fell, struck down by Michel’s dual axes.
“Everyone, disperse!”
In the end, Yulia abandoned the encirclement she had painstakingly built and ordered everyone to retreat.
At the same time, she glared at Gunther, who was holding his sword limply.
His bastard sword, buzzing lightly, was the source of the vibration earlier.
This had been happening repeatedly throughout the battle, disrupting Yulia’s commands through martial arts.
Despite her use of martial arts, Yulia’s side was helpless against Gunther’s group.
Yulia’s face contorted in irritation.
‘He intercepted again!’
Martial arts delivered commands through a specific frequency of voice, functioning as a form of special hypnosis.
Thus, if one could discern the frequency, martial arts could be countered.
In theory, at least.
If it were easy to counter, martial arts would have been rendered obsolete long ago.
Even knowing how to counter martial arts, implementing it was extraordinarily difficult.
The problem was that Gunther was accomplishing this difficult task far too easily.
‘Once or twice might be a coincidence… but this is too much!’
When Gunther first disrupted the command structure by vibrating his sword, Yulia immediately changed the frequency.
But the issue was that after using the new frequency for a few martial arts commands, Gunther would swiftly identify and disrupt that frequency again.
‘Does he have perfect pitch or something?’
Could one person be blessed with so many talents?
If there was a god who made Gunther, Yulia wanted to question them loudly right now.
But she didn’t have the luxury for that.
The four enemies were already making their next move.
And.
Bzzzz-.
Behind the charging four, Gunther stood with a detached gaze.
His sword quivered madly, emitting a resonant hum.
As Yulia hurriedly tried to issue another martial arts command on a different frequency.
Whoosh-.
A sudden gust blew her bangs back.
‘Huh?’
Yulia froze upon seeing the figure that had appeared before her.
‘When did he…?’
Standing in front of Yulia was none other than Gunther, who had just been standing far off a moment ago.
He swung his sword towards her.
Swish-.
Even as Gunther’s sword approached, Yulia found herself unable to act.
She was utterly overwhelmed by Gunther’s sudden presence.
‘Ah…’
In the slowly flowing time, Yulia gave up.
‘It’s over.’
There was nothing more she could do.
Accepting this, she felt anger surge.
‘He could’ve done this from the start!’
Gunther Ryder could have ended it so easily, yet he had simply stood back and watched.
It was obvious what that meant.
Amusement.
To Gunther, watching her struggle was merely a source of entertainment.
Realizing she had been toyed with, Yulia felt an immense sense of humiliation and frustration.
“You bastard…!”
So, even if this was the end, she resolved to at least curse him once.
Just as she forced her reluctant lips to move.
Shhh-.
A sword slid between Yulia and Gunther.