Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 462

464

– Pee-eep!

As the whistle blew to signal the start of the match, Prisika, Rakami, and Irolita surged toward Beomseok. Their combined momentum was so intense that he couldn’t even think about directly confronting them. He could only retreat, swinging his long spear wildly to keep them at bay.

Irolita, startled by the harsh sound of the spear slicing through the air, stopped short. After making sure the spear tip had narrowly missed her, she immediately leaped forward, bringing her sword down toward Beomseok’s head.

“Iyaaah!”

Beomseok, barely managing to block the overhead strike by raising the spear shaft, hastily twisted his upper body as Rakami lunged in, extending her sword. This caused him to momentarily lose his balance, a dizzying sensation washing over him. If Prisika had attacked at that moment, it would have been the end for him. However, to his relief, Prisika was half a beat late, allowing him to regain his footing.

Rakami wore a dissatisfied expression as she watched Prisika’s sword being deflected away with a loud clang. Even though it was just a brief delay, she couldn’t believe Prisika had missed such a clear opportunity.

Not only had she been easily defeated by Beomseok, who had lost an arm in the first round, but now she was making such a basic mistake in the second round. It was incredibly frustrating.

“Prisika! What are you doing! You should have attacked sooner!”

“S, sorry, Sister.”

“Were you spacing out again?”

“N, no. My legs just got tangled; that’s why I was late.”

Rakami bit her lip and shook her head. Although she was annoyed, she couldn’t continue to scold her for being late due to an unexpected stumble.

“Tch. Don’t make mistakes like that again. Opportunities to defeat Beomseok are rare, you know.”

“Y, yes, I understand.”

Prisika, readjusting her grip on the sword hilt, raised her sword high and approached Beomseok. Rakami and Irolita circled around, attempting to surround him.

‘I absolutely can’t let them surround me. I’ll be finished if they do.’

Beomseok, his expression tense, continued to move around. With three opponents, exposing three sides was unavoidable, but he couldn’t expose his back under any circumstances. Without eyes in the back of his head, he would be helpless against a surprise attack.

He looked at Prisika, who was giving him a sharp, focused gaze, and his face contorted as if he were taken aback. She seemed to have regained her energy, and her expression looked very determined.

‘No. When did Prisika recover! If she’s back to her old self, does she intend to take me down for good?’

Beomseok hurriedly moved his feet. He had accepted this match believing in her occasional absent-mindedness, but this was becoming very troublesome. No matter how much of a ‘graze’ it was, it was incredibly difficult to fight and win against three S-class gladiators attacking with all their might. Moreover, Prisika was a gladiator with far more outstanding skills than the other two.

At that moment, Prisika raised her sword with all her strength and charged toward him.

“Prepare yourself!”

Beomseok barely blocked the swiftly executed horizontal slash with his spear shaft and pushed forward. In response, Rakami and Irolita completed the encirclement and extended their swords toward his back.

It was a moment of crisis, but Beomseok, anticipating this move, pushed Prisika away and rotated his spear 360 degrees in a low arc. Since blocking all three sides simultaneously was impossible, he intended to temporarily halt their advance.

As the rotation stopped, he immediately leaped toward Irolita and thrust the spear tip forward.

“Iyat!”

Irolita hurriedly extended her sword to block the spear. However, the spear shaft suddenly bent sharply downwards, struck the ground, and then whipped upwards toward her thigh.

Clang.

Irolita, feeling the sword vibrate intensely in her hands along with a clear, ringing sound, looked at Beomseok, who was passing by her side, with a terrified expression. It was clear that the attack had been a feint to break out of the encirclement, but from her perspective, it had felt incredibly threatening.

If she had been just a fraction of a second slower in reacting with her sword, she would have had her thigh cut and been partially incapacitated.

At this moment, Rakami’s shrill voice snapped at Irolita. It was because of her hesitation that Beomseok had managed to escape the encirclement.

“Irolita! What are you doing, dodging like that!”

“Then what am I supposed to do! Just stand there and get hit!”

Rakami’s face flushed at Irolita’s defensive excuse.

“Is it such a problem if you get hit right now? If you had been prepared to take the hit and blocked Beomseok’s path, we could have immediately rushed in from behind and subdued him! Didn’t you even realize that!”

Irolita scratched her head, feeling foolish. Because the situation was unfamiliar and unfolded so quickly, she had momentarily forgotten her role.

Team play was largely divided into two roles: one was to take on the main attack and focus on defeating the opponent, and the other was to focus on defense and disrupt the opponent’s moves. The latter was the role that Irolita, being the weakest of the three, was supposed to play. She had survived, but she couldn’t claim to have fulfilled her duty.

Irolita’s former team was the Devil Spirits, where she had been the second-in-command. Consequently, she had always been the main attacker in team play and had rarely played a support role. Naturally, she struggled to recognize her duty and react appropriately in a fast-paced crisis. Plus, she was in a phase of desperately seeking attention since finding an owner [a wealthy patron who supports a gladiator] recently.

If she attracted media attention with a splendid performance, her owner would be pleased, so she wasn’t happy with this kind of support play that didn’t garner public attention.

“I understand. But you really need to concentrate from now on. Got it?”

“Yes. I understand.”

Rakami, nodding, approached Beomseok, who had created some distance. She inwardly regretted missing two good opportunities, but there was no point dwelling on it. Opportunities would arise again.

“Okay. Everyone, charge in at once!”

The sounds of weapons clashing echoed in rapid succession. The power of the three S-class gladiators attacking with fierce momentum was truly immense, and Beomseok could only barely survive by constantly retreating. The relentless, deadly offensive was pushing him to the brink.

‘This is driving me crazy. I confidently said I would face them head-on, believing only in Prisika’s occasional lapses, but I’m being treated like this. If I lose the second round like this, my reputation will be ruined. First of all, Director Clark will be all over me. But why is Prisika flying around like that! Damn it!’

Beomseok’s expression was filled with worry. Judging from Prisika’s performance so far, he could tell that she had overcome his mental manipulation. Otherwise, there was no way he would be pushed back so miserably.

He barely managed to regain his balance after each collision and faced off against the three S-class gladiators from Kerot.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.

The swirling, rotating spear tip flew toward Prisika’s face. However, as if she had anticipated it, she easily deflected it with her sword and launched a series of rapid sword strikes. Beomseok quickly stepped back, deflecting Irolita’s sword strike with the spear shaft. Following that, Prisika and Rakami, charging in simultaneously, extended their swords toward him.

It was a moment of crisis. He saw the sword tips flying toward his face, but he couldn’t block them all.

“Damn it!”

Clang! Two sword blades grazed past both sides of his helmet with a clang. Their swords, aimed at the same spot at the same time, collided in mid-air, causing their trajectories to deviate. Beomseok, who barely survived, immediately raised the spear shaft to knock the swords away and hurriedly retreated.

‘What? What happened? I thought I was done for?’

Ignoring the bewildered Beomseok, Prisika spoke to Rakami in a sharp tone.

“Sister. Why did you attack there? If I had aimed for the face first, you should have targeted another spot.”

Rakami looked at her with an embarrassed expression. Given that her sword was slightly late in timing, Prisika’s dissatisfaction was understandable. If they had executed the team play properly, their swords wouldn’t have collided in mid-air, and they could have definitely caught Beomseok this time.

“Ah. Sorry. The timing was so coincidental; there was nothing I could do.”

“Well. If that’s the case, there’s nothing to be done, but please make sure to do it properly next time.”

“Ah, I understand. Don’t worry.”

Prisika let out a sigh mixed with annoyance. She might have been feeling uncomfortable, but Beomseok tilted his head as he looked at her.

Originally, Prisika was very lenient toward her teammates’ mistakes. In recent times, her personality had become somewhat impatient after the emergence of himself, Jakid, and Amelie, but she still wasn’t the type to scold the older Rakami for a minor mistake. And the two attacks that they had launched simultaneously just now didn’t have much of a difference in timing, so it was difficult to determine who was at fault.

‘Are the two of them having a power struggle within the team? There’s a bit of a difference in skill, but their rankings are similar, and Rakami is older, so she might be trying to push Prisika aside and take control of the team.’

However, Beomseok shook his head as if his current reasoning didn’t make sense. Prisika was going to leave the team after this World Cup, and Rakami was a gladiator nearing retirement, so they weren’t in a position to fight over team leadership. If that was the case, there was only one reason: she was holding a grudge against Rakami for scolding her earlier.

‘Prisika is secretly petty. It’s something she could be angry about in that situation.’

Beomseok brought the spear tip forward again and prepared for the attacks of the three S-class gladiators from Kerot. Rather than paying attention to their conflict, it was better to do his best to overcome the current crisis.

“Okay. Here I come!”

This time, he attacked first. He had realized that he couldn’t beat those three with ordinary methods, so he needed to use spear techniques with a lot of variation. Of course, it had the disadvantage of consuming a lot of stamina, but if he thought about the subsequent rounds, he would definitely lose the second round.

Soon, he feigned an attack toward Rakami’s face, then twisted his upper body and swung it toward Prisika and Irolita, who were approaching from behind.

Whoosh!

Beomseok’s spear, drawn back and swung with a rough sound of cutting through the air, was once again brought down toward Rakami’s head. She, who had been trying to charge in, hurriedly raised her sword to block the unexpected attack, but it didn’t even graze the spear tip.

Beomseok subtly pulled the spear shaft to change its trajectory. Soon, his spear bounced off the ground and then stretched out long, heading toward Rakami’s abdomen.

Rakami, who barely dodged by leaping away, quickly stood up and shouted.

“Everyone! Be careful! Beomseok’s movements are no joke……”

However, she couldn’t finish her sentence and leaped away again. Beomseok quickly approached and slammed the spear down as it was. Fortunately, Irolita blocked the attack in the meantime; otherwise, she would have definitely been hit by the next attack.

Irolita stood next to Rakami, who was barely regaining her posture without even having time to dust herself off.

“Sister. It seems like Beomseok is overdoing it. It’s powerful, but if he keeps using those kinds of movements, he’ll get tired soon.”

Rakami nodded at the astute observation. He was swinging his spear without stopping for a moment. He wouldn’t last long in this state.

“Okay. Then let’s just focus on defense and wait for him to run out of stamina.”

At that, Prisika, who had joined them, shook her head.

“No, we have to attack and take him down in one go.”

“What are you talking about? We’ll definitely win if we just stall for time?”

Prisika unfolded her thumb from her clenched fist and pointed to their base. Because the three of them were missing, the Kerot team was being unilaterally pushed back by the Avon team at their base. If the situation turned into a melee in that state, they would be annihilated in an instant.

Rakami nodded. Her mission was to somehow finish off Beomseok while their base was holding out. If she kept spacing out like this, her mission could end in failure.

“I guess so. There’s no helping it.”

“Then I’ll go in first. Follow me and support me.”

“Okay. Prisika. I’m counting on you.”

Prisika, smiling slightly, rushed toward him with fierce momentum. Afterward, Rakami also followed her, coordinating with Irolita.

‘Tch. Here they come again.’

Beomseok, who had taken a short break while they were talking, frowned and gripped the spear shaft tightly. Since stalling for time was advantageous for them, he couldn’t have been happy about the newly started battle situation. However, he couldn’t go back to being on the defensive again. He took a long, deep breath and leaped forward with all his might.

“Okay. Come on!”

The spear tip, flying with a ferocious momentum, was blocked by Prisika’s sword and twisted. It would have been wise to quickly recover the spear for the next move, but unexpectedly, Beomseok pushed straight through.

The direction he was pushed in was unfortunately toward Irolita’s thigh. He felt a heavy sensation as the spear tip grazed her and barely blocked Prisika’s sword strike, which was flying toward his waist, with the spear shaft. Then, he rotated his body greatly, swung the spear toward her lower body, and retreated.

He was trying to create a slight gap to confirm the unbelievable result he had just achieved.

‘I, I hit Irolita.’

To be exact, she was in a state of partial incapacitation. Right now, Irolita couldn’t use her left leg, but there wasn’t much of a problem with the movement of other parts of her body. However, the fact that she couldn’t use one leg was a fatal loss for Irolita. Since she had lost her mobility, it was impossible to coordinate with other markers.

============================ Author’s Notes ============================

Sigh. My head is killing me. I went to a beer bar with someone I know who was treating, and I drank cheap liquor, and my head hurts. For some reason, my head hurts whenever I drink liquor. Is it because of my constitution? Or is it because I only drink cheap liquor? ㅠㅠ. I think I’m going to have a hard time tomorrow.

Then everyone have a good day. I’ll see you again tomorrow.