TL: pineapples
ED: Aa88
***
“Phew, it was difficult trying to find you. The hallways here are way too convoluted. I regret not cutting off one of your fingers.”
The man shakily approached them, pretending to be all worn out. As he did so, he saw the child’s shoulder and frowned.
“That must hurt. Will you come over here? I’ll make it so you won’t be hurting anymore.”
The child shook her head and hid behind Aku Ryun.
Seeing that, the man chuckled.
“Cute. Yes, this is the definition of cuteness. Am I wrong?”
As the distance between them shortened, Aku Ryun took a step backwards with the child hidden on his back.
He couldn’t tell if the wetness on his back was the child’s tears or his own cold sweat.
Aku Ryun didn’t take his eyes off the man while whispering softly to her,
“Young Miss, when I give you the signal, throw the red orb. Right after that, you have to enter the secret tunnel.”
The child didn’t respond.
But he could tell what she was thinking.
‘She didn’t want to run away by herself.’
Aku Ryun stretched his hand behind him to grab the child’s blood-stained hand.
“This time, I shall go with you.”
“… really?”
“Yes.”
At his terse but determined answer, the child grabbed tightly onto Aku Ryun’s hands.
Aku Ryun infused all of his internal qi into his sword.
Wooong.
The sword rang with a heavy sound. The silver blade then slowly turned bluer and bluer.
Faced with that kind of extraordinary energy, the man’s expression changed.
“Doesn’t matter. With you alone, you can’t survive. But if you’d be willing to give me the child, I’ll let you live.”
Without any intention to reply, Aku Ryun continued to feed energy into the sword.
The power felt from the sword wasn’t ordinary. It was actually already past the level at which these assassin grunts could deal with.
‘Looks like he purposely didn’t show all of his skills to buy time.’
The man’s forehead wrinkled.
“Considering your age, this is indeed very astounding . But could you be able to take us all down? That sword is probably going to break before you could even finish dealing with ten people. After that, are you gonna fight with your fists then?”
“I don’t need the sword.”
“… what?”
Aku Ryun forcibly thrust his sword downwards.
Startled, the man jumped backwards and raised his eyebrows.
However, even though the man gave Aku Ryun enough opportunity to attack, Aku Ryun didn’t attack.
‘What is he waiting for?’
At the moment, the man tilted his head,
Crunch!
With a terrifying sound, the sword shattered then. At the same time, the sharp blade fragments flew and scattered everywhere.
Unable to even get a chance to defend themselves, the assassins fell over without even a moan of pain.
The man then muttered in disbelief.
“Sword Breaking Art?” (The art of breaking swords and attacking multiple enemies)”
It was a technique that would’ve taken sixty years to master. It was simply unthinkable for this boy to have learned such a technique that only seasoned masters knew.
This was an absurd turn of events.
“I thought you were just a measly son of a bitch. Turns out you’re quite special after all.”
The man laughed furiously, but then suddenly realised that he couldn’t see on one side, nor could he even feel his face.
Where his eye was supposed to be, was replaced by a sharp iron shard.
At that moment, he began to feel the pain.
“Euh, euh, akkkk!”
The man shrieked while grabbing his face.
At the same time, Aku Ryun yelled.
“Young Miss!”
“Yes!”
The child threw the red orb at the man.
As soon as the red orb hit the air, Aku Ryun dragged the child into the secret passageway.
Boom!
Even though they hadn’t moved very far, the passageway was still vibrating.
‘The red orb had exploded nicely.’
Aku Ryun turned his back towards the child.
“Get on my back.”
“No, no, I’m fine. I don’t want to be carried.”
The child flatly refused.
Rather now, he had to stop the child from jumping around.
“I understand. Please stop moving around .”
The child who had just calmed down searched her pockets and took out a round bottle.
“This… this is a medicine that you put on your wounds. If you rub this on me, I’ll be fine.”
When he took the bottle and smelled it, he could sense the unique smell of the Golden Medicine.
Aku Ryun poured a lot of the Golden Medicine and spread it onto the child’s shoulder.
He then tore his collar to cover the wound tightly.
“Are you all right?”
“Wow! It doesn’t hurt at all!”
Drawing a sharp breath to endure the pain, the child smiled brightly.
But even though the Golden Medicine could treat any kind of wound, it couldn’t reduce pain.
“You put it on, too. You’re hurting a lot.”
“I’m fine.”
“Do you want me to put it on?”
“……I’ll do it.”
Aku Ryun couldn’t overcome the child’s insistence then applied the Golden Medicine onto his wound.
Afterwards, he started walking while holding the child’s hand.
The child’s hands were getting cold little by little.
‘Did she bleed too much?’
He couldn’t tell if she had injuries that couldn’t be treated even with the Golden Medicine.
‘Please, please. Please, help the child.’
He didn’t know who he was begging. But he kept muttering the same thing as if he was praying.
Then something touched his fingertips.
It was the door on the other side of the passageway.
‘We’re here!’
When he opened the door, he saw a staircase that crossed the flower garden and went down towards the village.
Aku Ryun awkwardly crawled out of the passageway with the child.
“Haak, Haak!”
“Haaa, haaa, haaa!”
He suddenly had a strong feeling that those assassins were getting closer.
Aku Ryun dragged the child, who was struggling to breathe, to the stairs.
The child had followed him without any complaints of pain after all. But eventually in the end, she couldn’t help but slow down.
It was already a miracle that the child managed to even follow him here.
Aku Ryun turned around to carry the child but once he did, he froze in place.
Behind him was the man standing quietly, with a sword fragment still in his eye.
Subsequently, the other assassins had already surrounded the area as well.
‘Did he manage to avoid the explosion? Damn it!’
Aku Ryun quickly hid the child behind his back.
“Good job getting here.”
“…”
“I already thought wherever you went, you’d still end up going down to the village. This Mister is smart as well after all.”
The man who was tapping his head, approached Aku Ryun with a long curved sword.
“A few of our guys died because of your Sword Breaking Art. I was also hurt. So even though it’s a pity, I have decided not to kill the two of you painlessly anymore.”
“…”
“First I’ll dig out your eyeballs. Thus, it will be better to stay still. If you struggle, I’ll dig out the eyeballs of that kid that you so preciously treasure as well.”
Giggling, the man pulled his sword out in front of Aku Ryun’s eyes.
Aku Ryun looked closely at the end of the sword.
‘He couldn’t dodge. The child will be in danger. Teacher will be here soon, so he needed to hang in there until then.’
“Oh, my mistake. My hand slipped.”
The curved blade grazed the eyebrows of Aku Ryun.
Blood quickly dripped over Aku Ryun’s face, covering half of his face with blood.
The man simply looked at Aku Ryun’s face as if he were admiring it and shook his shoulders.
“Well, let’s do it again. Don’t worry about it. I’ll get it right this time.”
The man raised his blade with a joyful face.
Aku Ryun gritted his teeth, anticipating the pain to come.
“Stop it!”
The child suddenly screamed and swung something at the man.
The man dodged backwards and smirked.
“What, it’s just a branch? Kid, you have to pick up a rock and throw it…”
Even before the man’s words finished, the flowers on the end of the tree bloomed.
At the same time, cold air oozed out from it.
It was unusual energy, but it was not helpful in the current situation at all.
It couldn’t even kill an ant.
But the moment the man snorted, it started snowing.
Suddenly without anyone noticing, snowflakes were falling everywhere.
Fascinated, everyone looked at the phenomenon of snow falling on a midsummer night.
One of the assassins stretched out his hands and caught the snow that was falling.
“A flower…?”
It was not snow but flowers. A white flower with cold energy.
As soon as the flower touched his palm, it melted and seeped inside.
“Oh, oh, oh, ahhh ahhh!”
The screams of the grunt tore through the night sky.
He was wriggling like an earthworm that fell on a salt field.
After spitting out a white breath, the assassin was frozen like an icicle.
It had happened in a flash.
The man grated his teeth while looking at the blue fingers of the frozen assassin.
“It’s ice magic! Get out of its range!”
Even though the ice flowers didn’t have intelligence, they targeted the enemy accurately.
It was just cold snow for Aku Ryun, but it was deadly to the assassins.
The extreme coldness would quickly penetrate the skin and freeze the whole body.
The assassins scattered in all directions. The man escaped from the ice and escaped behind the tree.
Aku Ryun did not miss the opportunity. He began to run after grabbing the unconscious child.
Avoiding the stairs on purpose, he went down the dark mountain road filled with trees.
Blood blocked his view.
No matter how many times he shook his head, new blood covered it again.
Aku Ryun wiped the blood off his shoulder and took off again.
He hadn’t even descended very far yet, but his legs were already hurting.
He had spent so much energy using the Sword Breaking Art that he didn’t even have the strength to walk.
“Haaa, haaa”
To make matters worse, the unconscious child gradually became heavier.
Blood trickled down from Aku Ryun’s lips as he tried to keep the child from slipping.
Aku Ryun bit down his lips, digging in further with his teeth.
Rather than fainting and dropping her, he thought it was better to lose some of his lip flesh instead.
But suddenly, his back became lighter.
Someone had taken the child from him.
“No! If you hurt Young Miss, I’ll kill you!”
A big hand patted Aku Ryun’s head, who was struggling fiercely.
“Ryun.”
Aku Ryun closed his eyes and wiped away the blood.
When he looked up, he saw a man standing tall like a mountain holding the child with one arm.
“Well done.”
“Teacher…”
Aku Ryun fell on his knees.