Chapter 166
Chapter 166
Pathfinder (2)
When it came to understanding the sword, Tapas was overwhelming. If judged purely on swordsmanship, there was likely no one who could rival him.
Why such a master was in Bennett City was another matter entirely.
In the end, even a fighter of that caliber couldn't land a fatal blow on Kairus. From Kairus’ perspective, it was almost enough to boost his confidence.
“What an optimistic beast you are.”
Breaking the sound barrier, Kairus came crashing down on Tapas. Tapas’ sword rose to meet him.
Kairus’ blade, infused with countless mysterious techniques that defied comprehension. A conical shockwave exploded behind Tapas.
“Even when dragged to the slaughterhouse, you look for a way to survive?”
The ground behind them split in two, burying what was left of Tapas’ mansion beneath the earth. Yet, somehow deflecting the impact, Tapas remained unscathed.
It wasn’t just that last strike. Tapas’ body withstood every attack that followed, without a single scratch. Instead, the area around him was being completely obliterated.
It felt like fighting a phantom that defied the laws of force.
‘I’m not at a disadvantage.’
Kairus hadn’t managed to wound his opponent, but it was too soon to say he was losing.
There was only one problem.
A time limit.
This fight had to end before the other members of the Operations Committee arrived.
“Downward.”
At the moment Kairus murmured the word, a dominant downdraft surged across a radius of several hundred meters.
“Brute….”
The pressure was strong enough to stagger Tapas, who had been poised and waiting for a chance to strike. Kairus didn’t miss the opening and accelerated.
As Kairus charged, the rainwater burst apart, leaving a long tail-like trail behind him.
They exchanged greetings just a breath apart. Close enough for him to see the raindrops clinging to Tapas’ eyelashes.
“Hello.”
“Yes, hello.”
Suddenly, Tapas greeted Kairus, and Kairus, half-lost in a trance, responded in kind.
And with the greetings over—
The onslaught began without restraint. A tremendous blast burst from behind Kairus.
Maximum output of the Veil of Plumed Mist. With a thunderous boom, Kairus darted behind Tapas and unleashed a follow-up slash.
Tapas’ body spun like lightning to block Kairus’ strike. In that instant, Kairus accelerated again.
‘If I don’t push the limits, there’s no chance of winning.’
He couldn’t expect to win with the sword alone. Tapas’ swordsmanship was superior to his.
He accelerated to several times the speed of sound, and if an attack failed, he braked sharply, changed direction, and accelerated again.
“Khk….”
As Kairus repeated this cycle of acceleration and sudden stops, the shockwaves from breaking the sound barrier began to gnaw away at Tapas’ body.
A thin stream of blood ran from the corner of Tapas’ mouth. But even so, he didn’t stop his blade.
“Is output the only thing your weapon is worth boasting about?”
Swish— The sword slipped out from the broom and claimed a spot in midair. Kairus had no choice but to stop.
Had he continued to accelerate, his own neck would have been severed before he could control the speed.
“Pathetic.”
Now that he had halted, the shockwaves that had been tormenting Tapas’ body also ceased.
“What are you talking about? I’ve got plenty of tricks.”
At Kairus’ response, Tapas’ gaze shifted to the Veil of Plumed Mist. Three wind orbs, each the size of a watermelon, revolved around the dark green blade. Each orb held enough force to create a dragon spout on its own.
“!”
Tapas’ expression froze for a moment as she felt the power within the orbs. Before she could respond, Kairus pointed his sword at her and detonated all three orbs.
Wind surged in the direction his sword had aimed. Like a flood released from a broken dam, a savage storm came roaring forth.
“Raise your spirit high.”
As if whispering a hypnotic chant to herself, her expression tense, Tapas moved her sword. Sword light flickered in the air like clusters of stars, creating and fading countless slashes.
“Crazy… bitch.”
Kairus’ vision, blurred from sheer exhaustion, caught the sight of the storm's current slowly dying down.
Had he not been so fatigued, he could’ve crafted five of those wind orbs.
“…Is that all? Your petty tricks?”
Kairus gave a weak laugh as he watched Tapas swing her sword in a flick and return it to the broom. In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance and answered with another slash.
Tapas’ figure blurred for a split second, narrowly dodging the attack.
She had managed to evade, but the ground where she had stood could not. It split apart, forming a long, deep trench with no end in sight.
Now countering, Tapas unleashed a flurry of strikes aimed at Kairus. He blocked the assault and grinned slyly.
“Hey, you’re trembling.”
Even as he hovered on the edge of sleep, Tapas’ trembling was obvious enough to notice.
Which meant—it hadn’t been easy for her to block him.
Taking a step back and looking at her own hand, Tapas clenched her fist. The trembling subsided slightly.
“Even if I fall, it’ll be after your head rolls. Thanks for worrying. And…”
Tapas abruptly stabbed a syringe into her own neck. Her once-clear eyes, which had regained focus, rapidly grew hazy again.
Was it a narcotic painkiller? Or just a drug? What mattered was the assumption that Tapas had a reason for injecting something into herself.
A few hidden tattoos rose to the surface on her shoulder. The tattoos pulsed rhythmically, as if they were alive—like a beating heart.
“It ends. What’s coming.”
Tapas’ words, now spoken with a dazed expression, grew shorter once again. It was the price of ignoring all injuries and pain through the power of the drug.
But the effect was undeniable—Tapas moved again just as she had at the start.
‘To stop that…’
There was no way but to take off her head. It was clearly a powerful narcotic. It ignored pain and injected vitality into the body—an incredibly potent effect, but ultimately, one that destroyed the person.
However—
“I’ll fall apart before that bitch does?!”
Clang-clang-clang-clang! Kairus blocked the rain-like torrent of blades crashing down on him.
He was exhausted to death, while Tapas brimmed with life as if there were no tomorrow.
Kairus had already reached his limit.
‘My vision…’
He could barely see. Until moments ago, he’d been hanging on with caffeine and tension, but the encroaching sleepiness had reached its peak. Even if a cliff were right in front of him, he’d probably doze off and fall to his death—that was the state Kairus was in now.
Please.
Responding to Kairus’ will, a chunk of the dark clouds above dropped and came crashing down to the ground. A bombardment from the heavens, each cloud carrying an enormous amount of water.
Even a direct hit wouldn’t matter—and even if it missed, the sheer force could flatten a person entirely.
“Repeat. Pathetic.”
Slaaash! With a resonating sound, Tapas drew her sword from the cane and swung it, cleaving the falling cloud in half.
A single blow, carrying the satisfaction of splitting a watermelon with an axe.
‘That’s why…’
He hadn’t used it. Kairus bowed his head, nearly dozing off, before shaking himself awake and stumbling back a few steps.
At this point, he wasn’t even sure if he was still fighting—or what he was even doing.
He just…
Wanted to sleep. He was so sleepy that drool dribbled from his mouth, and his eyes felt gritty, as if packed with sand. The back of his neck throbbed, nausea rose from his stomach, and his brain felt like a dried and roasted filefish—crackling and crumbling.
“Whew…”
For a moment, the word “truce” almost slipped from Kairus’ lips. He batted away the sword that flew toward his throat and then, with full strength, slapped himself across the face.
Wham! The impact was so intense that droplets around his cheek scattered through the air. If it were an ordinary person, their head might have flown into orbit.
But the alertness only lasted about three seconds. The drowsiness he had just fought off surged back like a crashing wave.
Stronger than before. Kairus even nearly dropped the Veil of Plumed Mist from his hand.
This was the terror of sleep deprivation. When it hit the limit, it made demons dance on your eyelids. Ignoring the bizarre sensation of his twitching eyelids, Kairus raised his sword toward his opponent.
“Laughter. Fool.”
But the sword wavered like seaweed soaked in black water. Watching that sight, Tapas let out a mocking sneer.
“….”
I didn’t know anymore. I just wanted to give up on everything. If I died here, would I be freed from this drowsiness?
The goal of revenge. My anger toward His Majesty the Emperor. The will and desire to see it through no matter what. The resolve that I couldn’t die here.
All of it collapsed like a breakwater crumbling under endless waves. Like cotton candy thrown into water, it melted away.
I wanted to sleep. I just wanted to close my eyes and submit to the present.
“End.”
After checking my condition, Tapas stepped forward and drew her blade in a single motion without sheathing it. The sword was going to take my neck.
Sleep, as good as death. Sleep bringing death with it.
It approached me.
“?”
But the sword moved. In my half-dreaming state, I moved the Veil of Plumed Mist in my hand and blocked Tapas’ strike.
Bloodshot, unfocused eyes stared at Tapas. In truth, I couldn’t see anything. Senses drowned in sleep drifted far away from the world.
My mind, which had been forcibly resisting the demon of sleep, sank inward on itself.
“Ecstasy…?”
Tapas frowned as she looked at me blocking her attack.
More precisely, it was a trance. A state called hypnagogia. As I endured and endured the death-like sleep bestowed by Sopor, I slipped into something else.
“Naah… is….”
Drool streamed from my mouth as I muttered. My appearance was unmistakably that of a madman. Tapas knew that state well.
It was a state easily entered through drugs.
I no longer had the presence of mind to properly use Swift Blade or Cloud Seizing Art.
Kill the enemy in front of me. My brain, ravaged by extreme drowsiness, shut down every thought except that single one.
My movements changed. Thinking to finish me off before it was too late, Tapas charged in again.
“This is.”
I knocked her blade aside and counterattacked. The edge of my sword licked across Tapas’ upper arm.
Her left arm sagged limply as the tendon was severed.
“….”
A faint yet grotesque sound came from my joints. The transition from defense to counterattack had overloaded them.
Even though they should have been reinforced by the procedure of the Featherwing, it was a reckless counterattack that pushed them into overload.
“Ah… ah.”
That wasn’t the end. Completely lost in the trance, I charged at Tapas without caring for my own body.
Every joint, tendon, and muscle in my body creaked and screamed, “Don’t move like this!”
Yet all that pain and agony felt unbearably distant to me.
I kept moving. A relentless onslaught. Storms and dark clouds went mad as well, swept up in the movements of their master who had lost his mind.
“Kh… haaack?!”
“Ggh, ugh….”
The wind ground everything down without distinguishing between master and enemy, hurling lightning indiscriminately.
Two people were crushed by the wind.
Two people were struck head-on by falling bolts of lightning. No matter how hard Tapas tried, there was no way she could properly respond to an enemy who charged through lightning strikes alongside her and swung his sword.
In the dead of night, a woman intoxicated by drugs and a man intoxicated by sleep tangled together, rampaging like lunatics in the rain-soaked outdoors.