Return of the Shattered Constellation - Chapter 165

Chapter 165

Nicolas Fouquet flinched because although he wasn’t sure yet, it was safe to assume that Chang-Sun wasn’t a rookie anymore and instead was actually as skilled as most rankers. He knew he shouldn’t let him interfere with the fight for that reason. Otherwise, the French volunteer Players could just embarrass themselves again. Reaching a conclusion, Nicolas smiled and stepped between Henri Bosque and Chang-Sun as he said, “Hahahaha, I think there has been a misunderstanding—!”

“You! You’ve done something to Mireille, haven’t you? Explain what in the world you have done!” Henri interrupted Nicolas and stepped forward, making Nicolas’ expression crumple up further.

The idiot was so blinded by his emotion he couldn’t even make head or tail of the situation, Nicolas wanted to yell at Henri to stop, but Henri was already opening up his magic storage.

[The ‘Deceased Dragon’s Storage’ has opened!]

The space behind Henri split as if someone cut it with a sword, revealing a glimpse of the Skeleton Dragon. As the dragon’s skeleton gleamed in the gray light, it glared at Chang-Sun with its blue eyes, allowing Chang-Sun to feel Henri’s fury. He wanted to defeat Chang-Sun even if it meant having to pull out his Skeleton Dragon.

“Didn’t I tell you?” Chang-Sun’s eyes turned cold.

“No, Henri!” Nicolas flung himself at Henri upon realizing something was odd with Chang-Sun’s eyes, but he was too late.

Chang-Sun was already right before Henri. “I’ll kill you if you get on my nerves again.”

[A Skeleton Dragon has appeared!]

At the same time, Henri finished opening up his magic storage. He wasn’t a fool, though. He had no intention of pulling out the entire Skeleton Dragon, which would destroy the last compartment of the desert train. He planned to fight Chang-Sun using a different method.

Executing [Bone Armor] and [Bone Blade], the Skeleton Dragon’s disassembled hand bones quickly flew out of his magic storage and covered his upper body. He was then equipped with a long bone sword. Any necromancer that usually worked with Skeletons could use these basic skills, but they could no longer be treated as basic if the necromancer was working with Skeleton Dragons.

Henri’s Skeleton Dragon had also been upgraded by the Revenant Clan members several times, so its durability and purity were incomparably better than most artifacts. To top it all off, Jacque Valentine—the Revenant Clan leader, a French hero, and the ‘Immortal Overlord’—had blessed the Skeleton Dragon during its last upgrade!

Click! Click!

‘I’ll have my revenge for the humiliation I suffered last time!’ Henri thought confidently.

Although he retreated back then because Chang-Sun used a trick that he couldn’t identify, he confidently thought this battle would have a different result since they were now directly colliding with each other. Henri flew at Chang-Sun, wearing the Skeleton Dragon armor and holding a long bone sword.

[The Player ‘Henri Bosque’ has activated the Skill ‘Deceased Dragon’s Vigor,’ mixing it with his mana to enhance the damage of the ‘Bone Blade’!]

Paah―!

As Henri swung his [Bone Blade] in the air and approached Chang-Sun…

Clang!

… Chang-Sun pulled out [Tiamat’s Snaggletooth] and used it to parry the [Bone Blade] upward. Feeling the rebound through his arm, Henri gritted his teeth and drew up his power and the Skeleton Dragon’s power to crush Chang-Sun completely.

Click, click.

Even at that moment, the Skeleton Dragon’s bones flew toward Henri to serve as his armor. Nevertheless, Henri held his breath and opened his eyes wide in the middle of delivering his attack.

‘…Heup!’

Bounced quite a distance away, Henri tried to straighten his posture, but he couldn’t because Chang-Sun had grabbed his face.

Crack!

As soon as Chang-Sun grabbed his [Bone Helmet], which was made from the Skeleton Dragon’s skull bones, it cracked with ease despite being known to be sturdier than diamonds. The cracking sounds were like the grand prelude to Henri’s doom. A moment later, his world quickly turned upside down.

Boom!

“Urgh!” Henri groaned.

Still grabbing Henri by his face, Chang-Sun slammed him against the compartment floor. The Revenant’s proud ‘weapon’ was now covered in cracks, but not for long. He crushed Henri’s [Bone Helmet], [Bone Armor], and [Bone Blade], their fragments scattering in the air and dropping to the ground. Henri’s bloody and half-crushed face was now out in the open. Nothing could protect him from Chang-Sun, who wasn’t done just yet.

Paah―!

As if he no longer needed to bother himself with Henri anymore, Chang-Sun moved straight to Nicolas without paying Henri any more attention.

Woosh!

Nicolas’ eyes widened as Chang-Sun flew at him, his Jigwi’s wings spread wide.

‘He has become stronger than the last time I met him—!’ Nicolas’ train of thought got abruptly cut off.

Swoosh―!

[The Title ‘Jigwi Demon Incarnation’ has been applied!]

Chang-Sun had swung [Tiamat’s Snaggletooth] frighteningly quickly in Nicolas’ direction. He concentrated the fire covering him like armor on his dagger, creating a sturdy Aura Blade. Just the sight of it made a shiver run down Nicolas’ spine. He realized Chang-Sun had gotten stronger—no, he likely had been hiding his true power, which he couldn’t have won against either way. While attracting so much attention, Chang-Sun was careful enough to hide his true power.

In a short amount of time, Nicolas concluded that Chang-Sun could almost be considered a high ranker. Otherwise, his [Monster’s Sharp Intuition] wouldn’t be alerting him this noisily. It had only been three days since the welcoming party took place. It didn’t make sense that Chang-Sun could get stronger in that short amount of time.

Chang-Sun’s Class had become stronger in less than an hour, but there was no way for Nicolas to know that. In the end, Nicolas changed his mind. ‘It’ll be better to defeat him here and get the upper hand now, considering things have already turned out this way.’

Even though Chang-Sun was a world-famous super rookie and the White Tiger Clan’s proud franchise Player, he was just a junior who was much younger than Nicolas. Nicolas was also the executive of the major Clan named Revenant, while Chang-Sun was just a ‘team leader’ in the White Tiger Clan. Taking those into consideration, Nicolas decided to teach Chang-Sun a lesson as his senior. He was going to show that the Revenant Clan was stronger than the White Tiger Clan to stop this from ever happening again.

‘I’ve already been humiliated by Hyeon-Ryong in the past. I won’t let this young bastard do the same!’ Nicolas thought.

When he sparred with Hyeon-Ryong about ten years ago, Nicolas suffered a devastating defeat, having been taken down in a single attack. He was incomparably weaker back then and hadn’t really fought in actual battles, but the experience shocked him so much that it traumatized him. After that sparring, Nicolas started feeling gut-wrenchingly annoyed whenever Hyeon-Ryong treated him like a subordinate.

Although Chang-Sun wasn’t Hyeon-Ryong, he was still Korea’s proud rookie Player. Defeating him should help Nicolas vent his pent-up anger to some level. Unfortunately, he didn’t know Chang-Sun hadn’t simply gotten physically stronger.

[The Attribute ‘Eon Wind’ has been applied, amplifying the damage of the Effect ‘Single Eon Fire’!]

[The Title ‘Jigwi Demon Incarnation’ has taken on the Attribute of a demonic deity.]

Demonic incarnation and demonic deity didn’t really sound different. Nevertheless, the title granted Chang-Sun incomparably stronger power. When Chang-Sun fiercely swung [Tiamat’s Snaggletooth], he struck Nicolas’ stomach with the dagger that emitted a vivid navy blue light.

Rumble―!

Just like Henri controlled the Skeleton Dragon, Nicolas controlled a monster named Zombie Wild, which was how he acquired his signature skill [Monster’s Scarlet Heart]. Having surpassed human limitations, the monster’s heart gave Nicolas a significant amount of strength and mana. With it, he thought he would be able to easily extinguish Chang-Sun’s fire.

However, Nicolas realized the errors in his judgment during his first clash against Chang-Sun. The moment Chang-Sun hit Nicolas’ stomach with [Tiamat’s Snaggletooth], Nicolas could no longer draw up mana from his heart because his mana circulation abruptly stopped for some reason.

‘How did he…!’ Nicolas bit his upper lip.

[Viper Eyes], the skill that could be used to instantly discover the opponent’s weakness, had shown Chang-Sun where the core of the link between the Zombie Wild and Nicolas was. Chang-Sun then hacked it using [Perfect Marksmanship], the Authority that ensured he would always hit his target.

[The State ‘Cruel Tiger’ has been activated, activating the Additional Skill ‘Cruel Tiger’s Venomous Fang’!]

Boom―!

The rebound that came from his connection to the Zombie Wild being forcefully terminated rendered Nicolas unconscious before he could even scream. In the end, Nicolas was sent flying backward like a balloon letting out air. He knocked down several seats before he ended up on the floor.

Woosh!

At the same time, Chang-Sun created a raging, heated wind that rushed over not only the last compartment but also the other compartments of the train.

Shatter, shatter―!

Every glass window of the train shattered, and all the fragments dropped outside. The fire scorched the train’s floor, wall, and ceiling as the heat dented the nearby seats.

[You have activated the Skill ‘Tiger Kill’, overpowering everyone on the battlefield!]

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

All the French Players watching the fight froze up when [Tiger Kill] mixed together with the fire that Chang-Sun had started and took the shape of a several-meter-tall tiger. The tiger looked so real as it glared at them that the Players held their breath. Chang-Sun wasn’t done. After grabbing [Tiamat’s Snaggletooth] with his left hand, he pulled the [Yuchang Sword] and activated Double Sword Resonance.

The four energies—divine energy, demonic energy, Eon Fire, and Eon Wind—chaotically blended with each other and boiled up as if they were going to explode any second. The sight was intimidating enough to frighten the spectators. What terrified the French volunteer Players even more was the fact that the train compartment still hadn’t been completely destroyed even though Chang-Sun was exuding those energies so violently. After all, that evidenced that he was controlling them really well.

If he decided to make his energies explode, he could create an incomparably larger explosion than the one that had taken place in the train station, reducing this train to dust. Unlike the French Players, Baek Gyeo-Ul and the other Team L members were watching Chang-Sun with amazement.

“If there is another bastard that wants to come at me, try,” Chang-Sun growled, revealing his fangs.

Every time Chang-Sun took a step forward, the French Players unwittingly took a step back. Although Ludovico of the Orlando Clan and Grizman Adelie of the Youth Fountain Clan were the most renowned French Players among the volunteer Players along with Nicolas, they felt their backs sweating and couldn’t even dare think about going up against Chang-Sun. After nervously swallowing his saliva, Ludovico said, “Mr. Lee Chang-Sun, why don’t you calm down—”

“Calm down? We went through so much trouble to rescue one of your Players from danger only for him to threaten my team member in return. Did you really just ask me to calm down after I saw that with my own eyes?” Chang-Sun smiled crookedly. “If so, then I can just beat you all up and tell you afterward to calm down instead of getting angry, can’t I?”

“You’re crossing the—!” Ludovico tried to snap back.

“Didn’t I tell you to come at me if you have a problem?” Chang-Sun interrupted, making Ludovico just clench his fists.

Ludovico momentarily pondered if he should attack Chang-Sun, but no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t bring himself to pounce on Chang-Sun. After all, he subdued Nicolas with one strike. Considering even Ludovico couldn’t defeat Nicolas in such a way, he had to admit Chang-Sun was stronger than him.

‘If I join forces with Grizman…!’ Ludovico clenched his fists.

He might have a chance if the ‘Iron Mask’ helped him. Grizman was the strongest among the French volunteer Players and had fought countless battles since he used to be a demonic being.

‘I’m not sure if Grizman will help me, though…!’ Ludovico thought. Grizman was an unreadable man.

Ludovico secretly glanced to the side, but Grizman just crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, showing no intention to interfere in the fight. He didn’t even look in Ludovico’s direction, which meant he didn’t care how the fight would turn out. To make matters worse, Joachim was standing right beside Chang-Sun, openly taking the Korean Players’ side.

‘Shit!’ Ludovico gritted his teeth.

Although being overpowered by a Korean rookie Player made him feel humiliated as a French Player, Ludovico had no other choice. The dominant principle among Players was that the strong took everything, so if Ludovico wasn’t strong enough, he had to yield.

‘Thank God I’m a Revenant Clan member… Damn those bastards! I’ll blame everything on the Revenant Clan once I return,’ Ludovico decided and finally took a step back.

Following the Eastern courtesy, Ludovico slightly bowed. “I apologize on the French Players’ behalf, so why don’t you calm down and put an end to this fight?”

Regardless of how reckless Chang-Sun was, the way Ludovico apologized was bound to stop him from continuing the fight because if he didn’t stop, he would be in trouble later on. Moreover, Ludovico had to save the other volunteer Players’ faces since this fight could escalate into a battle between the two nations otherwise. Hence, he decided to worry about what to do about Chang-Sun later. He would get the chance to get his payback while the Players were still in this Dungeon anyway.

“Who do you think you are to put an end to this fight?” Chang-Sun coldly asked, making Ludovico raise his head as his eyes widened. Chang-Sun curled up one end of his mouth. “I haven’t even started yet.”

“Wa—!” Ludovico raised his hands.

“Clench your teeth,” Chang-Sun warned Ludovico.

“…!” Watching Chang-Sun quickly throw a punch, Ludovico suddenly remembered the nickname that Chang-Sun had before he acquired the nickname ‘Tyrant.’

‘Mad Dog!’ Ludovico shut his eyes.

Smack!