Chapter 6 - Act 2. Wailing Dragon Demon (3)

"Master Gwaecheon—"

"I know."

He had known that the two comrades he had left behind were no match for this Demon. Even so, he, the most advanced of the three, had taken charge of Yise to bring him even one step closer to Gwisu Temple. He simply hadn't expected them to fall so quickly.

Gwaecheon set Yise down and immediately drew up his Demonic Energy. The boy's battered body haunted him, but there was no other choice now.

"Go back. Take everyone left in Gwisu Temple and get as far from danger as you can."

There was no time to spare. The boy was exceptionally sharp; that much should be enough for him to know what to do. Gwaecheon immediately planted his spiked iron club upright on the ground and formed a hand seal with his free hand.

Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art

Shadow-Net Formation

In an instant, shadows were drawn out of the surrounding rocks, trees, and grass. For a moment, the uncanny phenomenon made their surroundings seem brighter. Then the shadows took the shape of a net.

Instead of fleeing at once, Yise put a little distance between himself and the combatants and watched. He could barely stand anyway. He wouldn't get far even if he ran. If Gwaecheon lost to the Wailing Dragon Demon, it would catch him no matter how hard he tried to escape. Better, then, to play the final card he had prepared and repay the kindness he owed with his life.

'The third rule of the Demon-Exorcizing Arts: judge every situation with a cool head.'

Those feelings aside, he had to assess the situation calmly. He would do as he had been taught.

'If I'm likely to get in the way, I'll run as far as I can.'

He would watch for just a moment. Yise's eyes gleamed fiercely.

The shadows Gwaecheon had drawn out spread into a net and swept over the Wailing Dragon Demon, as though to capture a savage beast. But the horns on its head flashed, tearing the shadows apart.

Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art

Four-Direction Strike

At once, four man-sized shadows burst from the earth. The four shadow hands surrounding the Wailing Dragon Demon slammed into the ground as though swatting a bug. It leaped clear with ease and let out a furious roar. The vibrations seemed to set the whole mountain humming.

Gwaecheon had already closed the distance. Gripping his spiked iron club with both hands, he swung it sideways. A shrill clash of metal against metal rang out. He had swung the blunt weapon hard enough to crush the Demon's skull, yet it was his club that shattered.

After watching that exchange, Yise realized just how thoroughly the Wailing Dragon Demon had treated him as an insect inside its barrier. An insignificant creature it could trample whenever it pleased—too worthless even to warrant its full strength. That was how the Demon had seen him.

'And this is only a mid-grade Demon. One at the very bottom, at that...'

How many far stronger Demons stood above it? It felt like facing a mountain that towered beyond sight. Yise quickly shook his head. He wasn't even certain he could survive the Demon before him. Thinking about those above it was sheer arrogance.

First, he tore a long strip from his sleeve and began winding it tightly around his arm, slipping a dagger into the wrapping. Then he began gradually concealing his presence with Dokkaebi Steps.

* * *

'If this drags on, I'll lose.'

A brief exchange of attacks and defenses with the Wailing Dragon Demon had convinced Gwaecheon of that.

The Demonic Energy he sensed from it and its cultivation stage were roughly equal to his own, but there was a distinct difference in Rank and experience. It countered every move he made, as though it had hunted countless Dokkaebi. Even if it meant risking his life, his best chance was to settle this as quickly as possible.

Those few exchanges had revealed exactly where his advantages and disadvantages lay. He fell short in speed and endurance. But in strength and short, explosive bursts of Demonic Energy, he could gain the upper hand. In that case...

'Give up flesh to take bone.'

Gwaecheon took the Wailing Dragon Demon's lightning charge head-on. He shrouded himself in Demonic Energy to block it, but the immense force behind its two horns drove them straight through his abdomen and out his back.

"Hup!"

He drew a deep breath and clenched his muscles. Then the sharp, broken end of his spiked iron club came down vertically toward the Wailing Dragon Demon's back.

A dull impact sent the Demon's blood spraying. A scream rang out. A second blow. A third. Every time the Wailing Dragon Demon struggled, its dragon horns churned Gwaecheon's abdomen; every time the club came down, it tore the Demon's thick hide to shreds.

It was a desperate close-quarters struggle, all but certain to end in mutual destruction. A contest to see who would die first. A race with the river of the dead as its finish line.

'I can kill it...!'

Gwaecheon tried to shout those words within himself, clinging desperately to his fading consciousness. But for an instant, he lost sight of the snake-shaped thing flying at him from the Wailing Dragon Demon's tail.

Like a trump card held in reserve, the snake Demon shot forward and sank its fangs into his shoulder.

'Poison...'

Deadly venom spread from his shoulder in an instant. Had he been unharmed, he would never have allowed such a fatal blow to land. But that hidden move made all the difference. Both Gwaecheon and the Wailing Dragon Demon sensed the end.

In that single instant when victory was decided and predator and prey alike were distracted, something dropped from the trees above.

"You... you!"

Yise, the human boy who should have long since fled back to Gwisu Temple, had landed on the Wailing Dragon Demon's back. Neither combatant had noticed him at all. That was how closely matched their struggle had been.

SKREEEE—!

The ambush apparently startled the Wailing Dragon Demon just as much, for it howled furiously.

"Why didn't you run? Do you want to die for nothing?"

"Hold it tight, Master Gwaecheon...!"

Only then did Gwaecheon notice the forearm-length dagger set with a blue jewel in Yise's hand. Auspicious energy flowed from it. It was undoubtedly a treasure from the Treasure Hall.

For a moment, the return of the boy he had tried so hard to save left Gwaecheon feeling that his efforts had been in vain. Then he immediately clamped an arm around the head whose horns had impaled him and seized the snake-tipped tail with his other hand. Something about the Wailing Dragon Demon's struggles felt strange.

He would not survive anyway. A third of his abdominal organs were gone, and the venomous snake had bitten directly into an artery. But he wanted, at least, to give the boy before him a chance to live.

OOOOOO—!

The Wailing Dragon Demon's agonized howl resounded through the air. Yise gripped the Meridian-Cutting Blade, secured to his hand by the tightly wound strip of sleeve, and drove it squarely into the middle of the Demon's spine.

The only place Gwaecheon had wounded. The single chance bought with his life. This Dokkaebi had thrown his life away to save him, but even if it meant letting him die, Yise could not strike before the moment was perfect.

Yise immediately brought his hand axe down on the Meridian-Cutting Blade's hilt, like a hammer driving a chisel.

Another piercing scream rang out. Not from pain. From fear. The Demon must have felt the Demonic Energy flowing through its body dissipating with every passing moment.

The Meridian-Cutting Blade was a weapon that severed the channels of Demonic Energy. Driven directly into a Demon's meridians, this supernatural treasure would drain the Demonic Energy from its body over time, leaving it powerless.

The Wailing Dragon Demon's thrashing grew ever more violent, as though it were becoming increasingly desperate. Gwaecheon gathered the last of his strength and struck its skull. Perhaps because the Demonic Energy shrouding it had vanished, the head that had felt like solid steel beneath his blows now crumpled like crushed tofu.

A fatal wound. But the price of exhausting the last of his strength was equally fatal. The Wailing Dragon Demon drove forward, shoving Gwaecheon back, then sliced diagonally through his body with its dragon horns. He vanished from sight without even a scream.

The Wailing Dragon Demon snorted as though it had finally disposed of a nuisance and began bucking wildly. Yet the leechlike little human would not fall off. Its Demonic Energy had already been drained away. It slammed its body into a tree to dislodge the human clinging to its back.

CRASH!

The tree split, and black blood gushed from Yise's mouth once more. Even though it surely could no longer use its Demonic Energy properly, its physical strength was tremendous.

But the Meridian-Cutting Blade, busy greedily devouring Demonic Energy, did not budge. With his hand tightly bound to it, Yise stayed on as well. Instead, he raised the hand axe in his free hand and swung at the Wailing Dragon Demon's mangled neck.

THUD! THUD!

Three blows. Four. The hand axe sank deeper into the Wailing Dragon Demon's neck, sending its blood flying in all directions. Sensing danger, it lashed its tail through Yise's body, but he did not stop.

Either could have died at any moment, but it was the Demon that collapsed first at the end of their struggle. Only then did the Meridian-Cutting Blade pull free, as though finally sated. The Demon died with its neck severed, and Yise sank to his knees, drenched in blood.

Everything he could see below his chest was red. He could not take another step. Survival seemed a distant prospect. Gwaecheon was nowhere in sight; finding and saving him would be difficult as well.

For his final act in life, Yise chose to hack the Wailing Dragon Demon's head free with his hand axe, then plant it upright in the earth. As though beheading an enemy commander and displaying the head. This was the second Demon he had hunted, and it would be his last. His vision blurred.

As his consciousness slipped away, he dimly saw a light flying toward him from the distant sky. The blue light trailed a long tail, like the Dokkaebi fire in the old stories adults had told him as a child. It was Mongryeon.

She leaped down from the light and swept a hand out, enveloping Yise in Demonic Energy. Then she clicked her tongue at the Wailing Dragon Demon's head, propped upright on the hand axe.

The boy's fixation on heads probably stemmed from seeing his family's bodies after the Wadu-Scholar had eaten their heads—some lingering reaction to that sight.

"What, is putting heads on display supposed to be your signature as a Demon slayer? You're still weak, and already you're showing off..."

Yise could barely speak. Yet strangely, ever since Mongryeon had appeared, the pain seemed to have vanished and his body felt at ease. He spat out what had pooled in his mouth, spilling a handful of black blood.

"In my robes... one medicinal pill... Master Gwaecheon..."

Understanding his meaning, Mongryeon immediately searched inside his robes, took out the medicinal pill, and put it in his mouth.

"Looks like there's a hole in your stomach. I wonder whether you'll be able to digest it."

"Why... me?"

"Gwaecheon is already dead."

"..."

"Fool. A Dokkaebi ought to act like one. Weaklings who hole themselves up in Gwisu Temple, yet they can't even run away. What did they think they could protect, rushing about like that? Tsk, tsk. Useless fools."

The medicinal pill's effect was unmistakable. True to its reputation as a cure-all and a heaven-sent elixir, it stopped his bleeding and began healing his wounds.

"... I'm sorry."

"What have you got to be sorry for? It's all because those youngsters weren't taught properly. But you—why were you dying when you'd brought such a precious pill? You should have taken it yourself."

"I don't think I was given permission to use it on myself."

"Bullshit. And they call this a miracle medicine that can raise the dead? It can't even plug a drafty hole."

She scratched her head vigorously, then opened her palm as though throwing caution to the wind.

"I don't know if I should be using Dokkaebi sorcery on someone who hasn't even awakened to spiritual energy."

After some hesitation, Mongryeon waved her hand, and the gaping hole began to close. It was a jaw-dropping miracle.

"... You truly are extraordinary, Master."

"Only just realized that, have you? This is a stopgap. Don't strain yourself until the pill takes full effect. More importantly, this bastard isn't dead yet."

Baring her teeth, Mongryeon growled and approached the Wailing Dragon Demon's corpse. It looked utterly beyond survival, yet she simply kept her teeth bared and spun her spiked iron club.

"You bastard. You hurt four members of my family, and now you're playing dead?"

She drew a deep breath. Her body swelled momentarily like a toad puffing out its belly. When Mongryeon reached toward the Wailing Dragon Demon, black energy began streaming from its corpse like water. It gradually gathered into a sphere, then burrowed into the Demon's body.

"Impossible... Its head is gone."

"It's fallen to Qi Refining now, but this monster once reached Core Formation. As long as traces of its golden core remain, destroying its body won't finish it. You have to destroy those traces."

Qi Refining. Core Formation. Yise recalled the stages of cultivation he had read about in books on Cultivators.

Qi Refining: the stage at which one begins learning to wield spiritual energy.

Foundation Establishment: the stage at which one purges all impure energy from the body, properly lays the foundations, and gathers vast quantities of spiritual energy.

Core Formation: the stage at which one creates an inner core called a golden core and truly begins approaching Immortality.

Nascent Soul: the stage at which one gains control over the soul and spiritual body, becoming capable of causing natural disasters and acquiring a body close to immortal.

Spirit Transformation: the final stage attainable in the human realm, at which one at last becomes a divine being capable of ascending to the celestial realm.

Considering that most Cultivators died without ever advancing beyond Qi Refining, and that reaching Core Formation alone was enough to be called a master in the human realm... this creature had truly fallen from the heavens to the depths of the earth.

Mongryeon pulled out the Meridian-Cutting Blade embedded in the Wailing Dragon Demon's back. At that, the head impaled on the axe screamed and flew toward its body.

"He went to all that trouble to cut it off so neatly, and you're sticking it back on?"

She spun her signature weapon, the spiked iron club called the Scarlet Ten-Thousand-Catty Club, then brought it down in a diagonal swing.

Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art

Thousand-Catty Strike

It was only a swing, yet the impact seemed to shake the earth to its foundations. All that remained was the Demon's pulped corpse.