Chapter 935 – #203_Crossroads(4)
#929
1.
A witch’s battlefield expands in proportion to the power of her magic.
-Kugwagwagwang!
Rinne and Priscilla shattered the ceiling of the underground space amidst their fierce battle, escaping to the outside.
Urshula and Siwoo were left alone on the platform.
“Sss… Hooo…”
Urshula didn’t rush.
She simply took a slow drag from her pipe and offered a proposal to Siwoo with her emotionless single eye.
“Don’t you think we could resolve this peacefully, fellow one-eyed? I don’t like unnecessary fights.”
“……”
“Your nanny is gone too. You can drop the pretense and whine, I’ll understand.”
He adjusts his armor and regrips his spear.
It could be called an intuition honed through many encounters with enemies.
Urshula was a rather easy type of enemy to understand.
An arrogance that despises all beings except witches.
And the strength to back up that arrogance.
Although he had only seen her in videos, it was enough for Siwoo to understand the level Urshula had reached.
The 22nd tier, which had been a wall of despair for Siwoo.
Bianca, Dorothy, Rinne.
If only considering the results, it’s win, win, loss, but in reality, it’s not a record he can proudly boast about.
The reason he could beat Bianca was due to the unconscious rampage that occurred with his death.
And because Bianca herself narrowed the battlefield, he couldn’t utilize his strength of ‘one-sided ranged attacks’.
Dorothy also focused all her efforts on capturing Siwoo alive.
Even then, she didn’t use her full power, so he was able to build up and make a comeback.
He was utterly defeated by Rinne, who used her full power.
He did tear off one of her arms, but that was it.
Even that was an opportunity he could seize because Rinne was considering capturing him alive.
In other words, even if Siwoo had become stronger than before, facing her alone meant risking his life.
Even if he had gained inhuman power, he only had one life.
He had always wanted to avoid a fight to the death.
If this was only Siwoo’s problem.
If it was only a matter of Siwoo’s safety.
Perhaps he might have accepted Urshula’s proposal.
Even if not negotiating, he would have tried to stall for time by continuing the conversation and avoiding direct combat.
“Bloom.”
But there was a lot at stake in this fight.
Right now, his master is fighting the King of Beasts alone.
Rinne is fighting Priscilla with her life on the line.
Also, if he doesn’t get the gate, it will be difficult to get Dorothy back.
Defeat or surrender in this battle doesn’t just put Siwoo in danger.
The weight on his shoulders was heavier than the fear implied by death.
Shin Siwoo is a coward.
But he is a coward who can be brave for a very short time for the people he loves.
“How boring.”
Without prolonging the conversation, Siwoo kicked off the ground explosively, entering subsonic speed.
Urshula, facing him, sighed and spread her hand.
“Be crushed.”
-Wooooooong!
What scattered like sand from her white palm were the black spheres he had seen before.
Judging from the situation, each one was a substance with powerful gravity.
Siwoo dodged the spheres that scattered in all directions like shrapnel from a claymore with his deformed movements.
The dance of the black armor, which demonstrated even the reverse movements as smoothly as flowing water with the aid of magic enhancement, was so splendid that even the witch lost track of him for a moment.
-Bang! Kwabang! Bang!
A strategic movement that induced a point attack with a straight-line acceleration and deflected it with a variable variation.
By the time the relatively slow black spheres had torn through and shattered the tracks, Siwoo had already escaped the line of fire, using the ceiling and walls as footholds.
His movements, which surged forward, backward, left, and right with explosions, as if mocking the laws of physics, were like a black beast.
“You’re fast.”
Urshula raised her eyes as if impressed.
The long afterimage left by the red spear tip in the darkness connected to Urshula’s neck in the blink of an eye…
“Enough already. You’re kicking up dust.”
-Kwajik! Kwajik! Kwajik!
A three-wave pattern spread in all directions from Urshula’s feet.
A simple idea that if you can’t follow the movements one by one, you can just crush everything around you.
It was, in a word, an overwhelming suppression.
The force acting downwards to the limit of the limit.
It was simply a short-term enhancement of the gravitational binding that no object with mass could escape, by several squares.
“……”
Siwoo, who barely dodged the aftermath of the area attack, felt a chill run down his spine.
The idea was simple, but the result was not.
The ground that was caught in the shockwave was lowered by tens of meters.
The terrain, which should have been hard and solid enough to house underground facilities, was crushed flat like a chiffon cake that had been stepped on.
Soil, gravel, tracks, wood, etc., compressed to an impossible level, stirred the atmosphere of the underground space, emitting high heat.
How did Urshula fold an aircraft carrier in half and sink it?
Siwoo understood intuitively.
What would have happened if he hadn’t given up the attack midway and entered the attack range?
Wouldn’t he be a bloody mess along with his armor, sizzling on a grill as various firewood?
The cards Urshula held were not utilities using multiple artifacts like Bianca, or flashy techniques like Rinne.
“It feels good to just go all out after dealing with small fry.”
Power.
Just overwhelming power.
She simply used physical force that was easy to imagine and predict as a weapon to the extreme.
“I get a rough idea of what it’s like.”
Urshula’s body floated up.
The black spheres that had been moving in groups like meteor showers scattered like pollen and then melted away.
It’s not good to give too much of an opening.
Siwoo understands from various experiences the opportunity that a gap gives to the enemy.
Even if it’s a reconnaissance phase where they don’t reveal everything, if he allows a big technique unguarded, he can’t guarantee his safety.
“Hoo…”
He takes a breath and spreads magic throughout his body.
The magic circuits heat up and vitality settles into his muscles and bones.
Siwoo, who closed the distance again with a single leap, takes Urshula’s flank.
In a battlefield where a moment’s judgment can change life and death, every action must be based on reason.
Siwoo’s rush was also an action based on sufficient reason.
Urshula unleashed an omnidirectional attack with no blind spots.
This is probably because she can’t follow Siwoo’s movements.
Or perhaps because she wants to fight at a sufficient distance like other witches.
If so, he can use that intention by utilizing his mobility to the extreme.
The consumption values of Siwoo, who simply uses spirit body enhancement, and Urshula, who has to fire in all directions, are different by orders of magnitude.
He can induce an overreaction by hitting and running, and if there are any more hidden cards, he can force her to reveal them.
In addition, he can set it up so that she perceives Siwoo’s cards as only close-combat, making her response slower at the crucial moment.
“This…!”
However, the situation did not flow as intended.
The moment he took a step, Siwoo felt a powerful distortion.
A trap of gravity that acts arbitrarily in all directions, front, back, left, and right.
If the action of gravity in this space were marked with arrows, it would look like a cork board densely packed without any gaps.
The power itself is not strong.
Subjectively, it’s only between 10 and 20 times the normal gravity.
A normal human would have their limbs twisted if this much force pulled their body from all directions, but for Siwoo, who is beyond ordinary, it only causes a confusion of his sense of direction.
And that itself was what Urshula was aiming for.
The vestibular system in the ear, which controls the sense of balance in the human body.
Its action is based on detecting changes in gravity and gravitational acceleration.
In fact, Siwoo was suffering from motion sickness as if he had become laundry in a washing machine just by moving a little.
“Now you can’t jump around, can you?”
Since the opponent is confident in close combat, she completely blocks close combat itself.
Siwoo tried to exploit the weakness of her utility skills, but for Urshula, who had gone through countless battles against witches, this level of application was simple.
“You’re as amazing as the rumors say.”
Unlike Siwoo’s expectations, Urshula was not being careless.
The fact that he had single-handedly killed Rosie in the ‘Silent Witch’s’ attack was secretly known, and the rumor had reached Urshula’s ears.
The expression ‘rookie’ doesn’t suit someone who can kill a great witch.
He is a full-fledged great witch-level force.
“But that’s it. After all…”
What does it matter if he’s a great witch-level force?
“I’m stronger.”
Urshula’s magic gathers above Siwoo’s head, whose mobility is blocked.
This time, she will crush all the bones in his body.
She will deal with Shin Siwoo first and then join Priscilla’s side to fight Rinne together.
Even if she is half-dead due to her lack of control over her power, Priscilla will save her if she is still breathing.
-Kuuung!
The space is crushed as if a giant had stepped on it.
Urshula, who had been impassively accepting the hot wind blowing through the swirling dust, saw it.
-Shhhhhh!
A red spear strike piercing towards a single point.
-Thud!
Urshula was shocked, but her reaction was not delayed.
She blocked the space itself by crushing it again in all directions.
Shin Siwoo, as if he had anticipated it, leisurely widened the distance and circled like a kite looking for prey.
The sonic booms that burst out white with every movement proved that his speed was not decreasing but rather accelerating.
“How is he moving like that?”
Surely his world is full of chaos, enough to make him want to collapse after just three steps.
Up, down, sideways, diagonally.
The space of random gravity that acts arbitrarily requires a massive overload on the sense of balance just by walking.
In fact, Siwoo’s sense of balance was being affected.
He had just adapted in a short time.
The tedious training he had not neglected for a single day.
The combat simulations he had done whenever he had time, following Rinne’s meditation.
There is no need to be deceived by the senses.
Believe in the fruits of your efforts, which have been accumulated through tedious and painful times.
The body remembers the effort.
“Haaap!!!”
Finally found an opening.
Siwoo found the rule of Urshula’s omnidirectional attack.
There is an interval of about 0.7 seconds that always exists after three attacks.
The tip of the spear, drawing a red spiral, tore through the weak flesh, piercing through the moment.
