Chapter 103
Theseus’s thoughts went white. Small thoughts began to fill his mind which had become like a new sheet of paper.
‘What just happened?’
He didn’t usually think these kinds of thoughts, but it seemed he was thinking about it often today. How long had it been since he had to look up at someone? If you didn’t count those huge Giants, it had probably been a few decades at this point.
It was probably when he saw Poseidon for the last time.
‘My strength disappeared in an instant.’
At the moment when he used the sea water to glide, Theseus felt for an instant that all his strength had drained away. As the water disappeared, he lost his balance, and then he had fallen to the floor as if he had collapsed.
This was the reason that Theseus was now looking up at YuWon.
“So you can’t do anything when the water is gone?” YuWon muttered to himself in disappointment as he clenched the 「Divine Sea Stone」 in his hand. “You’re like a fish.”
Crunch—
A blood vessel popped on Theseus’s forehead.
The person in front of him was none other than the player that he was instated to be the test examiner for. It was someone who should have been looking up at him, and it should’ve been quite difficult for him to look up at that.
“You dare say such a…”
Shwaaa—
Water started to gather around Theseus’s trident. The compressed water held great power. The size was small, but it held enough power to rival that of a tsunami.
The moment he stood up to swing the trident at YuWon…
“One can only say who ‘dares’ when they have the right to do so.”
Bang—!
The bubble gathered around the trident exploded, and water spilled out in all directions.
“But it looks like you don’t have that right.”
“What the hell is this…?”
It was another unbelievable situation.
Theseus had felt that his power had been dispersed by something interfering, and there was only one thing that he could think of that could be the source.
Vwooong—
The stone in YuWon’s hand was only the item that could make the one who owned it the god of the sea.
Grind—
He ground his teeth. His pride had been damaged.
No matter how strong the item was, no matter if YuWon was nicknamed the strongest player, for the testee to make him kneel in the test that he was the examiner for…
“You dare, you dare, you dare…!”
Theseus lifted the trident high into the sky again.
He didn’t use mana because it was obvious that the water-attribute mana that he used would be nullified by the effects of the 「Divine Sea Crystal.」
Vwoosh—!
A spear that was swung with only strength alone.
YuWon looked at the tip of said spear and clicked his tongue.“Looks like you can’t understand me.”
Vwoooong—
Mana flowed through YuWon’s sword. It was difficult to use 「Kyneē」 right now, but he still had enough mana and health left.
[Cinder Eyes reads the path.]
[Activating Sensory Field.]
Thanks to the combined effects of both skills, he could clearly see the trajectory of the spearpoint of Theseus’s swing. The ripple of muscle, the intensity of his strength, and even his footwork.
YuWon’s sword moved slowly.
After lightly parrying away the trident, YuWon’s sword swung past the shaft and went straight for Theseus’s neck.
Shwing—
Fwit—
The sword that slashed at Theseus’s neck was unbelievably faster than when he had parried the spear.
Fortunately for Theseus, he quickly moved his head away and didn’t end up getting sliced on the neck, but his blue hair got cut, and a clump of it fell on the ground
Tang—!
Theseus’s trident and YuWon’s sword clashed.
The sword didn’t budge.
YuWon supported his lacking strength with Arcane Power, and soon he moved his sword away from the trident and swung it at Theseus again.
Vwoong— Vwong—
Clang! Ka-ka-klang—!
The sword flew in, targeting his blind spots.
The attacks weren’t strong enough to be unblockable. Even though Theseus didn’t use magic power, his crushing strength was much stronger than YuWon.
However…
‘Why is this so difficult?’
Even though he was receiving the attacks, Theseus couldn’t predict the trajectory of the blade. Even though the sword was slow enough for him to see coming, since it evaded his sight and came from his blind spot, it was difficult to react to it. On top of that…
‘He’s already ready to dodge even before the spear moves forward.’
He could sense that he wouldn’t be able to hit YuWon at all. It was as if he was facing a slippery eel rather than a man. Just like the movement of his sword, YuWon’s movements weren’t that fast either, but he was still dodging all the trident strikes by a hair’s breadth.
‘What can I…’
As he was racking his brain for a way out while being careful of YuWon’s sword, Theseus was struck with inspiration.
‘If I don’t use my mana to manipulate water…’
Theseus was of Poseidon’s bloodline, so he had to learn and polish skills related to water. The nature of his mana was the same. He was born with talent in water-attribute mana, so he had been able to change the nature of mana freely even when he was a newbie.
But this was a situation where all his means had been blocked off.
However, just because he was good at one thing didn’t mean Theseus hadn’t learned any other skills.
Gwiiiiing—
Mana gathered at the point of Theseus’s trident.
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It wasn’t a special skill. It was an arcane spear created from pure mana without changing its nature.
Bang—!
Karakak—
The spear fell and pushed down the sword. Being unable to overcome the power, YuWon’s feet dug in and sank into the ground.
‘He’s calmer than I expected.’
Theseus’s biggest weakness was his mentality. After being shocked once, YuWon expected he would take quite a while to recover, but he seemed to have snapped out of it earlier because the shock was greater.
“Hand it over—!”
Bzzzzt—
The penalty flowing through Theseus became stronger. It was probably quite painful, but he didn’t relent and pushed through with his strength.
“Give the Stone—!”
Crash—!
The ground underneath YuWon broke away as an effect of Theseus swinging his trident.
YuWon was able to move away quickly after leaping twice in a row using 「Hermes’s Treads.」
Clench—
Theseus clenched his trident tightly and glared at YuWon, who had flown into the air.
YuWon would have the advantage now.
But then…
“Theseus!”
The Rankers of Olympus who were on his side came and grabbed Theseus’s shoulders.
Theseus glared at them, thinking they were obstructing him, and his expression was full of bloodthirst, looking as if he would kill anyone regardless of if they were his ally or enemy. However, they couldn’t afford to step away just because of his bad expression.
“Look over there.”
Only then regaining his senses, Theseus turned his head and looked around.
The black wave of monsters had come closer, including the Leviathan that could be seen from afar.
“Now’s our only chance of getting out of here. The Giants are here as well, so we need to hurry.”
“Run away?”
Theseus’s mind was in chaos.
The 「Divine Sea Crystal」 that was flashing in YuWon’s hand and the tens of thousands of monsters that were beginning to come onto land from the sea.
If they landed, then they really wouldn’t be able to turn the monsters back. Just like they said, they really might lose their last chance of running away.
However…
“Find the Stone.”
Even at this moment, the words of his father, Poseidon, were swimming in his head.
“If you do, I’ll acknowledge you as my son.”
Theseus’s expression crumbled.
It was the thing he had been looking for this whole time. He would’ve been content with just being acknowledged as his son. It was a promise from Poseidon that he felt would forever be impossible to accomplish, but the thing he had been longing for all his life was right before his eyes.
“…We’re retreating.”
But the only decision he could make right now was to run away.
Looking around, he saw that Suhtahr had already defeated four Rankers. Even this time, he wasn’t able to fight to the end, but the situation was completely different.
He looked back at YuWon, who was still completely fine.
While Suhtahr was busy fighting the four Rankers, Theseus wasn’t able to break YuWon and take the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 from him.
‘Even though he had the Stone with him, in the end, I wasn’t able to overpower him.’
That was the truth.
From the first clash of his trident against his sword, Theseus hadn’t treated YuWon as a player. If not for the penalty that was flowing through his body, he might’ve even forgotten that Yuwon wasn’t a Ranker but just a player.
‘Kim YuWon.’
Theseus glared at YuWon with killing intent.
Because of the current seaside location and the giant obstacles, he could do nothing, but that was only the situation right now.
‘Someday, one day, I’ll definitely kill you myself. And then…’
That treasure, the 「Stone of the Sea,」 would be recovered by him.
“Let’s go.”
Theseus got on the 「Sun Chariot,」 and after all the Rankers got inside, it shot up into the sky.
And at that moment, Leviathan arrived.
“Gyaaaaah—!”
An enormous tail that could even block out the sun struck the roof of the 「Sun Chariot.」
Bang—!
The tail and the 「Sun Chariot」 struck the sea, breaking the water’s surface again. The water flew back up into the sky, and for an instant, it blocked everyone’s sight.
And then a little bit later…
‘They got away.’
YuWon could see a small sun flying through the sky. Even if it was just a replica, a 「Sun Chariot」 was still a 「Sun Chariot.」 It probably wasn’t that hard to dodge the tail of the Leviathan.
“Did we… win?”
There was an acute feeling of uneasiness.
Suhtahr wasn’t the one who stopped the fight nor the one who decided to retreat first. Rather, at this moment, it was the opposite.
Suhtar looked at his surroundings. The remaining Giants, the monsters that were moving around in the sea according to YuWon’s commands… It felt real.
“…We won.”
It was the first victory in the long history of the Giants.
“Cheers!”
“Yeaaah—!”
Tang— Clang—
Wooden and glass mugs collided. The liquor inside rocked and spilled onto the floors.
The Giants were in a festive mood. They were victorious for the first time in their confrontations against Olympus.
“Here, here! Get another drum of beer!”
“Get it yourself, you punk!”
“Meat, bring me meat!”
“Am I your goon? Huh?”
It wasn’t a big battle like the Gigantomachy, but it was still a victory, and oh how sweet this victory was.
YuWon shook his head as he heard the rowdy sounds coming from outside.
“Seems everyone is excited.”
“Even I didn’t know we would celebrate with food and drinks like this right after we returned.”
Urpha clicked his tongue and muttered, “Kids these days…” but his expression was still pleased.
The joy brought by this victory was that great for him. If he didn’t have to care about his outer image, he may have gone outside to party and drink with them as well.
“Why don’t you go and enjoy yourself with them? You’re the main star of the party.”
“One drink of theirs would be like an entire barrel for me. It’ll be a burden, and I don’t particularly enjoy drinking that much.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Urpha’s happy and smiling expression suddenly turned dark.
“But it’s worrying. It was true before as well, but Olympus will harass you more severely now.”
The 「Stone of the Sea」 was the 「Divine Sea Crystal」 that Poseidon had wandered thousands of years in search of.
One didn’t even need to elaborate on his obsession, and after learning that it was in someone’s possession, Poseidon wouldn’t give up so easily.
“They probably won’t do that.”
However, YuWon didn’t treat Urpha’s worry as that important. Although he said ‘probably,’ it was an answer that held a bit of certainty.
Urpha doubted this a little and asked again, “‘Probably not’?”
YuWon didn’t answer.
Urpha saw that he knew something. He saw a small smile creep across his mouth because YuWon was then thinking of his conversation with Hercules.
