Chapter 950 – 950. Savior Of The Academy
“You don’t want to contract with me? But you must pay the price for entering my territory… The price is your life!”
Am-oh rushed towards me.
I calmly used Flash to evade his charge. I had half-expected Am-oh’s actions. His contract terms were closer to demands that someone who had no intention of contracting with me would make.
If he truly intended to contract with me, he would have offered reasonable terms.
“Am-oh! What are you doing?! He is my student!”
Kales shouted.
“Just because he’s your student doesn’t mean he’s my contractor. I miss human flesh… This one’s flesh will surely be of the highest quality…”
Am-oh’s long body seemed to soar into the sky, then dove straight into the darkness of the floor. It took less than three seconds for his massive body to disappear.
My golden eyes moved ceaselessly. I could see Am-oh’s movements as he crawled through the darkness.
“…So what you said earlier wasn’t a joke.”
“Didn’t I say I’m bad at jokes? I haven’t made a joke today.”
Am-oh’s voice echoed from the darkness. Kales bit her lower lip slightly.
“…Am-oh. I beg you. Please let me and my student go.”
“Kales. Stay still. I have no intention of killing or eating you. My only goal is to devour that traitor’s bloodline. Ah, if I devour him… I’ll surely become stronger. I can’t wait.”
Am-oh’s body emerged from the darkness.
Behind me.
I summoned Stormbreaker, a longsword, into my right hand. Blue sword energy and lightning raced along the blade.
“Die, centipede.”
Shadow Heaven Style (影天流) Lightning Flash (雷光).
A blue streak cut through the giant centipede’s body. Just as Am-oh’s severed body was about to fall to the ground, it reattached itself as if time had reversed.
“I am darkness. Do you think such an attack will work?”
“Such a bluff.”
The attack worked. The blue lightning remaining on Am-oh’s long body was proof of that. Am-oh was both darkness and a real being. And he had materialized to devour me. The attack was effective enough.
“Am-oh!!”
Kales rushed in front of me. Am-oh’s red eyes narrowed.
“Get out of the way, Kales. I have no intention of killing you.”
“I can’t understand your actions, Am-oh! You’re usually so cold. What’s the real reason you’re trying to kill Eugene?!”
“I can smell and sense the traitor’s presence in him. I heard the story. That the traitor had a child. The traitor’s bloodline must be eliminated here. This is my last warning. Get out of the way, Kales.”
I realized that the traitor Am-oh was talking about was Sung Hari. I remembered the Spirit King saying that I was the traitor’s kin.
“Calm down. Eugene isn’t the traitor you’re talking about. This is just a tantrum.”
“I must have this tantrum. The traitor ate my friend. Me swallowing him is my revenge. As a bonus, I can become stronger. Power and revenge together. Isn’t that killing two birds with one stone?”
“You’ve changed a lot since I last saw you. The Am-oh I know wouldn’t do this. Did you perhaps get another contractor?”
“I did get another contractor. I learned a lot thanks to him.”
“Who did you contract with…!”
Before Kales could finish her sentence, Am-oh charged. Kales’ reaction was a bit slow, as she didn’t expect him to actually attack.
‘Kales can’t get hurt! Flash!’
I grabbed Kales’ shoulder and jumped to the side, evading Am-oh’s attack.
Clack, clack. Am-oh’s jaws moved threateningly.
Screech, screech. Am-oh approached me, crawling on the ground.
“Moka!!”
I summoned the thunder owl, Moka.
“Koo-ook!”
Moka, immediately understanding the situation, scattered lightning in all directions. Am-oh, who was approaching by crawling on the ground, was startled and retreated into the darkness.
I frowned. I couldn’t find Am-oh even with my Spirit Eye. He must have used a special ability comparable to my Spirit Eye.
‘Am-oh is wary of Moka.’
It wasn’t good luck. Moka, a lightning spirit, was a top-tier intermediate spirit looking to become an advanced spirit, and had an advantage in compatibility over Am-oh, a darkness spirit. Am-oh couldn’t take Moka lightly.
“Teacher. Can you get up? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“…Do you think I’d get hurt by something like this?”
Kales got up with a gloomy expression. She looked around and bit her lower lip.
“The contract was unilaterally broken. Am-oh… no, Am-oh really intends to kill us.”
“Is it possible to unilaterally break a contract?”
“It’s possible. Because that’s what kind of contract it was.”
I didn’t know the details, but it seemed that Am-oh had the upper hand in the contract.
“What do we do now?”
“Now that Am-oh is acting like this, there’s no way to calm him down. We need to get out of the mountain before sunset.”
Weeeeeeeeee!
Something flew towards us with an annoying, loud sound. It was a palm-sized dark mosquito. Before I could even swing my sword, Kales reacted. She took out a dagger hidden in her thigh and quickly swung it, cutting down the mosquito. A jet-black sword aura flickered on the dagger’s blade.
‘That’s right. Kales’ dagger skills were S-rank.’
An A-class hero and former assassin. She wasn’t a woman I could ignore.
“Let’s go this way.”
“That’s not the way back, though?”
“Am-oh would have prepared traps on the way back. There’s no need to fall into his traps.”
“Indeed.”
I ran after her.
Am-oh jumped out. He was getting impatient because we weren’t going where he had set his traps. Am-oh targeted Kales’ legs, not me.
Kales jumped up, evading Am-oh’s first attack, but was in danger from Am-oh’s subsequent attacks.
“Moka!! Lightning Speed!!”
Moka, covered in lightning, flew and collided with Am-oh’s body. Am-oh’s body was sent flying and crashed into a tree. Am-oh’s legs twitched in anger.
“You damn bird…!!”
“Koo-ook, koo-ook!”
Am-oh wrapped his long body around Moka’s body as if coiling. Moka, who was surprisingly temperamental, didn’t avoid it. Rather, she took his attack and released currents in all directions as if retaliating.
Crackling, crackling!
Hundreds of lightning bolts illuminated the darkness.
“Teacher! Let’s go!”
“…What? Like this? What about the thunder owl?”
“Moka’s fine. I’ll reverse summon her if it gets dangerous.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to fight together….”
“Over there?”
Kales closed her mouth. The place where Am-oh and Moka were was dark. Unintelligent dark spirits were writhing, and Am-oh’s legs were twitching. Even with the advantage in compatibility, Moka was still only an intermediate spirit. On the other hand, Am-oh had been the master of this area for over 200 years. In a one-on-one fight, Moka could barely hold her own.
Kales ran towards a place with little darkness. I followed her, watching Moka’s situation with my Spirit Eye.
‘Moka. You did great. Go back. You know where the spirit orb I prepared for emergencies is, right? Eat one and recover.’
Koo-ook.
Moka’s weak reply echoed in my mind. Moka had done well. Thanks to her, Am-oh had suffered critical damage. He wouldn’t be able to chase us carelessly.
“Teacher Kales. Don’t you feel like something’s off?”
I watched her closely. Her face was as hard as a rock. Sweat was dripping down her smooth, brown skin.
“…Am-oh played a trick. We can’t leave the mountain without Am-oh’s permission.”
I took out my smartphone. It wasn’t connecting to the outside world. Am-oh’s power was interfering with the signals.
‘……It seems like I can still summon spirits, so I can ask for help.’
Spirits and I were connected. I could explain the situation to Makina and get Sung Hari’s help.
‘That won’t work. Sung Hari will make this incident public. If that happens, Kales will be fired from her teaching position….’
Kang Ji-young, who recommended Kales as a teacher, would also be affected. In many ways, we would lose more than we would gain. It was best for Kales and me to resolve this here.
“We need to change our approach.”
“How?”
“From running away to fighting back. It’s hard to kill Am-oh… but we can inflict a critical blow. Am-oh wouldn’t want to die either, so he’ll let us out.”
Kales quietly raised one hand. Darkness gathered around her and spread in all directions.
I sensed two darknesses. Kales’ darkness and Am-oh’s darkness. Am-oh’s darkness was superior, but Kales’ darkness wasn’t weak either.
Kales had activated her trait, Forest of Darkness (A+).
“I found where Am-oh is. He seems weakened from fighting the thunder owl. This is the best opportunity we can’t miss. Eugene, I need your help. Your lightning power can inflict critical damage on Am-oh. Can you do it?”
“Of course. We have to if we want to live.”
“……!”
Kales’ eyes widened. I tilted my head.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. It’s just… I was reminded of a past memory. It was a similar situation.”
Kales didn’t say anything more.
I quietly checked her favorability.
『Kales’ Favorability: 70』
『Kales’ Psychology: It was like this when I first met Daehyun….』
With a favorability of 70, Kales’ psychology was visible.
I swallowed hard. More important than her psychology was the fact that Kales’ favorability had rapidly increased to 70.
‘A favorability of 70 means marriage is possible…. In other words, if the opportunity arises, I can knock her down right away…!’
•••
We found Am-oh.
Am-oh was curled up under a large tree, resting. Wounds were visible all over his body. They were wounds he had sustained while fighting Moka.
Kales gestured to me. We had planned our strategy before arriving here. She would draw Am-oh’s attention, and I would take advantage of the opening to inflict critical damage on Am-oh.
Am-oh’s antennae twitched. He must have sensed our presence, as he immediately opened his eyes and rose to his feet.
“Did you come looking for me? You fools.”
“The sun is up. There’s really no hope if it becomes night, so we just made a rational choice.”
“Kales. I’ll give you one last chance for the sake of our past relationship. Offer him to me. Then I’m willing to contract with you again.”
“…How pathetic. Are you in that bad of shape?”
“You need my power, don’t you?”
“I don’t need it. I’m a teacher at the academy now.”
Kales ran. At the same time, I ran to the side, targeting Am-oh. Am-oh ignored me and moved as if he had decided to deal with Kales first. It was going according to plan. However, the small bugs around Am-oh rushed towards me.
Shadow Heaven Style (影天流) Flowing Line (流線).
The sword moved naturally, like flowing water. I started with the closest bug and cut, cut, and cut again. The bugs were caught in the flow of the sword and died.
The dark bugs didn’t leave corpses. When cut by the blue sword energy, they turned into darkness and disappeared.
‘Flash!’
While dealing with the bugs, I suddenly turned my body and aimed for Am-oh’s back, who was fighting Kales. Thwack. Stormbreaker’s blade pierced Am-oh’s back.
“You disgusting bastard…!”
“You did great! It was a surprisingly perfect surprise attack!”
Am-oh and Kales’ reactions were opposite.
I inhaled and unleashed lightning. Crackling! Lightning raced through the dark centipede’s body through the sword.
“Kuaaaaaaaaaaak!”
Am-oh let out a scream filled with agony. Dozens of his legs moved rapidly, crawling into the darkness. I gritted my teeth and clung tightly to his back. Sticky darkness clung to my body. The darkness became pressure and tried to shake me off.
It was my limit.
Eventually, I lost my grip and, unable to move while engulfed in darkness, could only open my mouth wide and shout.
“Moka!!”
“Koo-ook!”
I summoned Moka, who had recovered more than half of her strength by consuming the spirit orb. Moka tore off Am-oh’s antennae with her sharp claws and relentlessly dropped lightning.
“N-no…! How can I die so meaninglessly… Kuaaaaat!”
Am-oh tried to escape into the darkness, but Kales intervened at the right time. She temporarily took control of the darkness, preventing Am-oh from escaping.
Soon after, Moka’s lightning claw spikes shattered Am-oh’s body.
