Here's an Opportunity-Chapter 223: The Duels (5)

Kim Ki-Rok had been stuck in a real-life loop, reliving the same life over and over until he reached some kind of ending. With no natural talent to fall back on, he spent each run grinding away at every skill he could, trying to brute-force his way through it. When it came to perseverance, though, he was second to none.

He caught Mammon's demonic sword on his Guardian Gauntlets, twisted midair, and landed hard on both feet. Mammon was already charging straight at him. Rolling his shoulders, he summoned mana from his core and split the flow: seventy percent to the left shoulder, thirty to the right.

Their physical stats were worlds apart. Even with every potion, skill, spell, meal, and trick he had used to buff himself, he still couldn't keep up with a Greater Demon, especially now that the demon was going all out.

The blade ripped through the air with a sonic boom. Ki-Rok pivoted on his right foot, leaned back, and let the strike shear past. As his attacker closed in, he drove a fist into his chest.

Mammon skidded back, carving deep furrows in the ground, then raised his head to meet his gaze. Feeling the distance between them, Ki-Rok sprang back, landing in open ground.

"This is only our second time, right?"

"Yes," Ki-Rok replied. "Our second duel."

"Then how did you..." Mammon trailed off, then shook his head with a faint frown. Deciding there was no point in talking, he charged in again.

Well, his surprise is understandable, Ki-Rok thought.

He watched Mammon barrel toward him for a few beats, then burst into motion.

Since the foes inside the Gates never changed, the man cursed with endless lives had come to know them all too well. Every new Attempt brought the same enemies, over and over again. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

If he had real talent, or if he could accumulate strength through these experiences, he would have simply overwhelmed those familiar foes. But he had neither, and that would never change. Only his memories survived each time, so the only thing he could do was study the enemies whenever he could.

Kim Ki-Rok tracked the flow of Mammon's mana, the twitch of muscle, the tilt of his gaze, and even the rhythm of his breath.

Now I just need to block his combo, he thought while raising his arms.

Kim Ki-Rok braced and took the first hit head-on. Absorbing it instead of deflecting spread the strain across his body, but it couldn't be helped; dodging through Mammon's scripted follow-ups would have cost more.

"How are you predicting my movements?" Mammon finally asked, stepping in until their foreheads were almost touching.

"Do you remember the terms of our last bet?"

"I remember."

"Do you also remember that strange toy flying above us?"

"Yes, I do recall that."

"That toy was our dimension's version of the image recording bead," Kim Ki-Rok explained.

"An image recording bead?"

"That's right. I watched the recordings over and over to learn how you fight."

"I see. So your predictions aren't granted by some kind of ability."

"Right. It's just the power of repeated observation and research."

Now Mammon understood how someone with far lower physical stats and inferior burst mana could still block him.

"That means there's no way to prevent your predictions," said the Greater Demon.

"That's right."

In the span of a duel, he couldn't identify, let alone correct, the subconscious habits he had never noticed. Mammon sighed, then stepped back, kicked off the ground, and came in again. If he couldn't stop the predictions, he would overwhelm them with force instead.

With a grunt, he raised his blade and chopped down. In that instant, Ki-Rok felt the sharp flare of mana along the aura-slick edge and knew Mammon had pushed his stats even higher. He chose to evade, crouching to launch himself sideways.

"Shield!"

Black shields sprang up to his left, right, and behind. Trapped, he brought both arms up to guard. A blast erupted as blade met Guardian Gauntlets, and a dense smoke cloud billowed out.

The original team of Hunters watching from afar flinched. With them were Yoo Seh-Eun and Lee Ji-Yeon, who had slipped in moments earlier. The two quickly threw up their hands to hold back the DG Guild Hunters who were about to charge in.

"He's still alive. Just wait for the signal."

"Our Guildmaster wouldn't die from something like that."

The smoke thinned. Everyone waited in taut silence for the result.

Driven to a knee, Ki-Rok looked up. Mammon glared down, killing intent rolling off him.

"Ah!"

"Haaaah..."

While some Hunters let out shaky breaths of relief and others smiled as if they'd never doubted, Lee Ji-Yeon and Yoo Seh-Eun quietly drew their weapons.

"Get ready."

"Everyone, finish preparations. We're just waiting on the final signal."

***

After slitting a Black Wizard's throat with a single swipe, Lee Chil-Sung turned toward their final target.

"What a mess," the Black Wizard Yoost said with a deep sigh, meeting Lee Chil-Sung's gaze.

Once every duel but Mammon's had been decided, the victors split into two teams and moved to the next phase. One ringed Mammon while the other broke up to hunt the Black Wizards observing from afar.

Before the duels, the Black Wizards had felt no need to worry, certain the demons would win easily. They kept their distance instead of staying close enough to intervene, concealed their vantage with magic, and settled in to watch.

"You have no intention of letting any of us escape, do you?" Yoost asked.

Lee Chil-Sung slowly nodded.

All thirteen Black Wizards had come equipped with artifacts that erased presence and masked mana fluctuations. When the victorious Hunters fanned out to search, the Black Wizards trusted their gear and stayed put. They kept careful eyes on the visible searchers and, in doing so, missed the real threat.

Yoost examined Lee Chil-Sung's equipment. Like the Black Wizards, the Hunters with Lee Chil-Sung were all wearing artifacts that could erase their presence and conceal their mana fluctuations. However, while that might have kept the Black Wizards from noticing them, it didn't explain how these stealthy Hunters had managed to find the Black Wizards' hiding spot in order to launch their surprise attack.

"Did you find us with a skill?" Yoost asked.

Lee Chil-Sung gave no answer. He and his Hunters, tightening their circle, focused on Yoost's remaining mana.

Yoost stared at the silent Hunter for a moment, then glanced at his surviving companions. Only two had survived the initial strike. Because they had been fixated on the duel victors, they hadn't noticed the ambush until it was too late.

"It seems there's no way out," Yoost admitted wryly.

If they wanted any chance at survival, they needed to flee into the wilderness. However...

"Given the situation, if we retreat, the Hunters who won their duels will be free to attack Mammon," he said.

The Hunters stayed silent. Lee Chil-Sung's eyes didn't waver, but some of the Hunters beside him couldn't help reacting.

Yoost chuckled at that and murmured, "What to do, what to do...?"

Was there any hope of escape? And even if they escaped, could the Black Wizards recover from this?

"Once the demons are dead and the Archwizard leaders are slain or scattered, the Black Kingdom will collapse. News of the demons' deaths will send the timid fleeing and draw the ambitious High-Circle Black Wizards to the capital, where they'll start a civil war to seize what's left. The Continental Alliance and the Hunters will exploit the chaos to launch the next phase of their counterattack," Yoost said with a heavy sigh.

Lee Chil-Sung signaled his people.

As the Hunters closed in, Yoost's voice rose, as if he were no longer muttering to himself but addressing someone unseen. "And when the demons are dead, the three Archwizards empowered by them will face dire consequences."

He could see the future plainly.

"So that's how it is," he said, sighing again.

With the demons gone, the tottering Black Kingdom mired in civil war, nothing would stop the Alliance and the Hunters from striking again and again until they reclaimed all their lost lands.

Shaking off the omen with a wry grin, Yoost triggered a stored attack via his Memorize Magic.

"Dark Cannon."

***

The amount of time Mammon had left was... Ki-Rok tried to recall as he raised both arms to shield his face.

He caught Mammon's strike on his guard and twisted his right wrist to glance at the watch-shaped artifact strapped there.

"Wow... I must be going crazy," he muttered, then laughed.

Three full minutes remained, and even though it had only been seven minutes since he'd last checked, it had felt much longer. Shaking it off, Ki-Rok moved again, angling his body to slip past most of Mammon's blows by reading ingrained habits, and bringing up the Guardian Gauntlets to catch what he couldn't dodge.

As the lethal exchange wore on—where a single mistake meant death—he kept an eye on Mammon's condition. Sweat rolled down the Greater Demon's face, and his sword, dulled by repeated clashes with the Guardian Gauntlets, now showed a small crack right at its center.

—Guildmaster.

The voice didn't come through his earpiece. He had pushed himself so hard dodging and blocking that the device had shaken loose and fallen. Anyone who wanted to reach him had to use Magic Voice.

Yoo Seh-Eun's voice flickered through his head, distracting him for a heartbeat. He steadied, threw a punch into Mammon's next swing, and the resulting explosion shoved them both back, carving new furrows as they slid. They raised their heads at the same moment, staring across the torn ground.

As Ki-Rok smiled, Mammon chuckled and asked, "What about the rules of our duel?"

"There's no need to follow them anymore," Kim Ki-Rok said shamelessly.

If he held on, he would win. After going all out, Mammon had less than two minutes before his reserves ran dry. If he could sustain full power to the end, it might be different, but he couldn't.

"There are two minutes left, and my opponent is gradually getting weaker," he added.

From the tightening ring, three Hunters suddenly burst forward, charging at Mammon.

"I'm the kind of man who ignores the rules to make victory certain," Kim Ki-Rok said with a smile, pulling a scroll from his subspace pocket. "This is inscribed with a movement-sealing spell. The Tower of Wizards made it, then modified it to run on divine power instead of mana."

He tore the scroll. A magic circle in pure white light bloomed across a wide swath of ground.

***

—It's over.

The Hunters who had won their duels and then played bait to keep the Black Wizards distracted clenched their fists as Lee Chil-Sung's voice came through their earpieces, announcing the operation's success.

Team Two abandoned their sham search and peeled away from the field. As they ran for base, their leader shouted to the other bait teams, "Fall back to the hideout."

***

"We've been informed the Black Wizards have been subdued," said a Hunter from the reserve unit, which had been assigned a role similar to Lee Chil-Sung's ambush team. Rising with the rest, he added, "Now it's our turn."

"Everyone, get the circle ready and wait for my order," declared an Elder from the Tower of Wizards, one of the neutral forces that had joined the Continental Alliance.

"Yes, sir," the other wizards replied, taking their positions around a large magic circle.

"We should get ready as well."

Another group of middle-aged men, armed with swords, daggers, spears, and more, stood and limbered up. A few moments later, Team Two's leader arrived with reinforcements.

"All twenty Hunters have arrived."

At that, the wizards began to activate the circle. The middle-aged warriors, warmed up and weapons ready, stepped in first, followed by Team Two's leader and the nineteen other Hunters. Finally, the Elder of the Tower of Wizards and five High-Circle Wizards stepped forward to address those gathered within the circle.

"We'll teleport you to a small cabin about thirty minutes from the Black Kingdom's capital. The Black Wizards who accompanied the demons here have been annihilated, but it's likely they still managed to relay news of the duels and the demons' losses by some unknown means. Stay cautious."

With that warning delivered, the Elder stood just outside the circle, raised his staff, and cast, "Teleport."