Chapter 51

Sung Jin-Woo stood atop the back of his wyvern, Kaisel, the wind tearing past him as they hovered in the open sky. His eyes locked onto the mutated ant, Tyrant, who floated several meters ahead, cloaked in a shimmering red aura.

‘He has aerial superiority,’ Jin-Woo assessed, his gaze flickering between the glinting blade-like wings and the turbulent ocean far below. ‘If I can clip those wings, I might be able to ground him… or drown him.’

He glanced downward, considering the surface of the sea as a potential trap.

But when he looked up again, he stared at empty air where the ant used to be.

Tyrant was gone.

Jin-Woo’s eyes widened. “Where...”

A sudden pressure bloomed behind him.

Too late.

A clawed arm, laced with scarlet energy, slammed down onto the back of Jin-Woo’s neck.

Boom!

A black streak was launched from the sky like a comet, skipping across the ocean surface in explosive bursts. Each impact sent geysers into the air, the ocean trembling beneath the shockwaves.

For a brief moment, silence returned, until Kaisel reformed in a flash of shadow beneath his master, catching Jin-Woo just as he emerged from the crashing waves.

Dripping with seawater, Jin-Woo rose slowly to his feet on Kaisel’s back, jaw set, eyes cold.

‘He’s fast. Ridiculously fast,’ he thought grimly.

His mind flashed back to the instant before the blow had landed. In that sliver of a moment, his shadow had flared with life.

Igris’s blade had emerged, without his input, intercepting the strike.

The sheer force of Tyrant’s attack had obliterated the manifested weapon, disintegrated Igris’s body, and reduced Kaisel to shreds of leaking darkness. Only Jin-Woo remained, barely intact.

‘If Igris hadn’t intervened… that would’ve taken my head clean off.’

His fists clenched.

‘He’s stronger than Baran. Far stronger. And that’s without counting the aerial dominance.’

Something in Jin-Woo’s demeanor shifted. His breathing steadied. His focus sharpened.

---

[Skill: Speed LV MAX] has been activated.

---

A ripple of force pulsed through his limbs, the world sharpening around him as if time itself had slowed. Every gust of wind, every flick of the ant’s wing, every ripple of mana in the air, he saw it all now.

Or at least he thought he did.

Kaisel dipped to avoid another blur of motion, Tyrant had circled back, not giving him a moment to breathe. The ant’s claw cut through the air where Jin-Woo had just been, splitting the clouds in its wake.

Jin-Woo flipped off Kaisel’s back, free-falling for a split second before slamming his dagger into the wyvern’s side to anchor himself. Kaisel rose into the sky in a reverse swoop.

Another sonic burst echoed.

Tyrant came at him again, this time from below, carving through the wind with his claws glowing red-hot from friction.

Jin-Woo twisted midair, kicking off Kaisel’s wing. He used the brief lift to leap high above the ant and hurled a dagger down, an opening move, not an end.

The blade crackled with energy and exploded on contact with Tyrant’s exoskeleton. The ant twisted out of the blast, unharmed, but slowed just long enough for Jin-Woo to descend like a bolt of dark lightning.

He closed the gap.

Steel met chitin in the sky.

Tyrant lashed out.

Jin-Woo parried, but it was clumsy. Floating midair with nothing to brace against made it harder than he expected. For every attack he launched, the ant dodged or countered, using the freedom of the sky to its full advantage.

A spiral of red energy wrapped around Tyrant’s legs, and he spun, delivering a whiplike kick that Jin-Woo narrowly avoided, though the air pressure alone sent him hurtling sideways.

Kaisel darted in beneath him, just in time.

Jin-Woo landed in a crouch atop Kaisel’s back, his breath ragged, a thin trail of blood running down the corner of his mouth.

‘This isn’t working. He’s not even trying…’

His eyes narrowed as he watched Tyrant hover several meters ahead, wings beating slowly, almost lazily. The mutated ant wasn’t attacking, he was watching, not just Sung Jin Woo, but...

Jin-Woo followed his gaze, looking miles down to the shimmering platform of solid water far below, where the two girls stood, unmoving. His gaze was drawn to one of them, the younger one.

Then he realised, since the start of the fight, Tyrant hadn’t taken his eyes off her.

Jin-Woo’s mind clicked.

‘He’s waiting for her. Anticipating her next move… That’s what’s holding him back.’

Then another realization struck, and his eyes widened.

‘The girl… That’s it.’

Power flared within him. His eyes shimmered with radiant blue light, a glow that reflected off the storm clouds gathering above.

He raised a hand.

The ocean responded.

---

[Skill: Commander's Touch] has leveled up.

---

A deep rumble tore through the waves.

Chunks of ocean burst into the sky, massive spheres of seawater spiraling upward like summoned meteors. Embedded within them were broken fragments of the warships, steel plating, shattered turrets, tangled rigging, all rising like puppets on invisible strings.

Tyrant tilted his head, curious, then darted sideways as the first sphere hurtled toward him.

He danced around the next one, weaving through the airborne wreckage with practiced ease. Despite the sudden chaos, his expression didn’t change. These weren’t threats. They were mere distractions.

And that was the point.

Jin-Woo’s gaze sharpened as he extended his hand further, controlling the ocean’s projectiles like stepping stones in the sky.

“[Commander’s Touch] may not be as overwhelming as [Commander’s Authority]...” he muttered, flickering across the scattered debris.

His boots touched down on the first sphere of water, then the next, and the next, each blob of sea and steel holding just long enough under his control to launch him forward again.

“…but it can do this much.”

In a blur of motion, Sung Jin-Woo vanished from Tyrant’s line of sight.

And then reappeared, directly behind him.

[Critical Strike]

Jin-Woo’s daggers exploded into motion, flashing with blinding speed as he unleashed a flurry of slashes. Dozens of strikes rained down in the span of a heartbeat, each one precise, lethal, and aimed for a vital point.

Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-CLANG!

The air rang with the violent clash of steel and chitin.

Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed, the faintest flicker of surprise flashing across his face.

Tyrant hadn’t moved from his position.

With a single clawed hand, he had blocked, no, parried, every one of Jin-Woo’s attacks.

Effortlessly.

However… with most of Tyrant’s focus locked onto the shorter girl far below, and the rest occupied parrying Jin-Woo’s relentless barrage, he didn’t notice the massive shadow descending from above.

By the time he realized, it was too late.

A colossal, shadowy maw snapped shut around him, Kaisel’s jaws clamping down with crushing force, the wyvern plummeting like a missile.

Boom!

The ocean erupted as Kaisel slammed into the surface, dragging Tyrant beneath the waves in a thunderous crash. Water surged skyward in a geyser, scattering wreckage and foam in all directions.

Beneath the churning sea, Tyrant screeched, an unearthly, distorted sound echoing through the deep. His claws gripped both halves of Kaisel’s jaw, and with an annoyed fury...

He pulled.

Darkness tore apart.

Kaisel split in two with a sickening rip, his form unraveling into shreds of dissipating shadow as Tyrant emerged from the water.

Tyrant rose slowly from the sea, wings spreading wide with a low, mechanical hum, his frame drenched but gleaming. The crimson glow pulsing through the minute cracks in his exoskeleton, although they healed instantly.

Above him, the clouds twisted violently, roiling with unnatural heat and pressure, as if the sun itself had drifted closer to the Earth.

Tyrant glanced upward, just in time to see a roaring cascade of fire descending from the heavens.

A waterfall of flaming destruction.

Boom!

The sky ignited.

Flames washed over the battlefield, swallowing Tyrant in a torrent of molten mana. The ocean below erupted once more, geysers blasting upward as the firestorm struck, steam hissing violently from the surface.

High above, Sung Jin-Woo narrowed his eyes.

The floating platforms he had conjured, solidified spheres of seawater, were now filled with hundreds of shadow soldiers, each standing at attention.

Tusk stood at the center, hunched and grinning, the [Orb of Avarice] clutched tightly in his clawed hand. He belched another wave of hellfire downward, joined by a chorus of shadow mages all channeling their mana into the storm.

Jin-Woo’s eyes snapped open, reflex firing before thought.

Above!

He raised both daggers and crossed them just in time to catch a descending strike. The sheer force of it sent shockwaves through his arms, his body flung backward like a cannonball. He crashed through the platform he was standing on, sending multiple shadows to their deaths, and skidded across another of the water platforms he had summoned earlier.

Tyrant was already in front of him again, claw raised.

Jin-Woo ducked and countered, his blade dragging across Tyrant’s arm, but again, it was deflected. The ant’s wing lashed out like a blade, and Jin-Woo leaned back just enough to avoid being decapitated.

'This pressure...'

Another flurry of attacks. Blades and claws collided again and again, each one echoing like thunder across the open sky.

Sung Jin-Woo and Tyrant vanished in an instant, transforming into twin streaks of color, one a bloody crimson, the other a piercing blue.

The sky above the ocean lit up like a battlefield of stars.

Across the floating platforms, brilliant lines of red and blue crisscrossed in a chaotic dance, weaving and colliding at impossible speeds. Explosions of force rippled through the air with each clash, sending shockwaves that fractured the atmosphere itself.

Each impact left behind thunderous echoes and brief flashes of light, like stars colliding across a midnight canvas.

The platforms, still suspended in the sky, became staging grounds for the spectacle, until, one by one, they began to rupture.

With every passing second, Sung Jin-Woo’s mental grip weakened. His focus split between combat and maintaining the structures, and the strain finally gave way.

In just four seconds, the last of the water spheres popped, collapsing into crashing torrents as the entire skyfall of seawater rained back into the ocean.

The battlefield, now cleared of platforms, left only two streaks, red and blue, still tearing through the open air.

Tyrant, still holding a clear advantage in the air, launched himself toward a momentarily vulnerable Sung Jin-Woo. The mutated ant tore through the sky like a missile, wings slicing the air with each powerful beat.

‘Kaisel!’ Jin-Woo called out mentally, expecting the familiar surge of shadows beneath him, his trusted wyvern answering the summon.

But nothing came.

---

Far below, on the ocean’s surface, Kaisel writhed in place, struggling to dissolve into shadow and slip away. He twisted and flared, his form warping erratically, trying to obey his master’s call.

But it was no use.

A pair of hands held him firmly, soft, yet somehow immovable.

“You’re so cute, aren’t you?” Kaede cooed, her arms wrapped tightly around Kaisel’s neck. “You wanna come home with me, right?”

The wyvern shuddered. Something was wrong. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t phase through her grip. It was as if the very concept of his intangibility ceased to function under her touch.

Standing nearby, Kanae raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she looked up at the aerial battle unfolding high above.

“Don’t you think Jin-Woo needs his dragon back to fight properly?” she asked, arching a brow.

Kaede tilted her head, thoughtful for a beat, then gave a casual shrug. “Probably not. Didn’t you see back there? He copied my move. I don’t think he’ll mind if I borrow his pet for a while.”

She ran a finger along Kaisel’s snout, watching the wyvern twitch in silent protest. “Besides, I think he looks better in my colors anyway.”

Kaisel let out a muffled, growling screech of protest as Kaede gently tickled him behind the ears, completely ignoring his struggle.

Try as he might, the proud shadow beast could do nothing… except endure the indignity.

---

Then it happened.

Unsure of Kaisel's whereabouts, Sung Jin Woo tried to counter Tyrant's strike, unleashing a barrage of strikes even as he fell.

One of Jin-Woo’s daggers caught on Tyrant’s claw, locked just long enough to create an opening.

Tyrant lunged.

His other hand pierced forward, straight for Jin-Woo’s heart.

...

...

"Ah. The odd guy lost."

"I knew you should have returned his dragon!"