In genre fiction the ghost family is usually immune to physical force.
They go around beating people diligently themselves, and yet the moment that person tries to hit back they shout 'physical attacks don't work! Without a spiritual element it'll pass right through!'
The setting of the comic 《Codename: Baby》 was similar.
Physical force did not work on soul-type Otherworld Creatures or ghost-family Phantasms.
More precisely, it worked only in a limited way. Just as I had defended with the Twin Dragon Swords against the Yeommae trying to chew me up.
『Huuuuuungry!!!』
"Kh!"
Therefore, when the bastard was not attacking me, beating on its body for a hundred days would only have everything pass through.
That I was doing nothing but dodging one-sidedly was entirely because of that.
'Why aren't they coming......!'
Did they all die separately on the way? It's not as if this is far from the dormitory; it's a walking path where you only have to pass through the rear garden, so why is nobody coming?
'I don't have the confidence to hold out long either!'
The reason I had volunteered to buy time was one.
It was the most efficient, and the damage was less.
Rather than entrusting it to kids who plainly looked like they had no actual combat experience, my staying looked like the highest survival rate.
After all, what's the meaning in shoving it onto someone else and running if the one left behind gets killed in an instant? If anything, wouldn't it only raise the chance of the back I showed while running getting jumped?
The moment your back is targeted, even I would find it hard to guarantee survival. That's just how fighting is.
'I thought they'd come within two minutes at worst......!'
On top of that I had Shadow-Stepping, an evasive-maneuver cheat key, and the Twin Dragon Swords, which were in no danger of being smashed by a mere Yeommae.
At the very least, the moment I rescued a cadet's head from between a baby's teeth, I even gained the certainty that the Yeommae was not an individual so fast I could not handle it. Meaning I gained the confidence that I could definitely buy a few minutes.
So I stayed, and volunteered to buy time.
Because I thought the kids would call reinforcements within two or three minutes at worst. Because once reinforcements came, from then on it wouldn't be my business!
『Aaaaaagh!!』
"Ugh!"
But the reinforcements simply would not come.
And that despite my having believed that Pyo Do-hyeok at least would do his utmost to call for reinforcements. It was truly enough to bring tears.
Or, right.
Did something happen over there too? But in a rear garden of a mere thirty or forty meters, what on earth would have to happen for there to be no word at all? Did a fight break out among yourselves on the way? Is that it?
I deliberately brought up that sort of joking. Without it I felt I would be crushed by the tension, so there was no helping it.
A ghastly scream kept tearing at my ears.
『Aaagh! Aaaaaagh!!』
"Ugh......"
Saying my ears were torn here was not simple figurative speech.
As befitted the guess that it was a high-Grade individual, even the scream the Yeommae let out was a kind of attack. The inside of my ears, that is, my eardrums, really did tear.
Beeeeee──
A stinging pain spread around my ears and then promptly turned into a ringing. The world's sounds went muffled.
'At least this means I'll hear the screaming less.......'
Should I call this a good thing, or call it horrific.
Given the choice I wanted to flee to the reverse side of the shadow, but that too was not feasible.
If I stayed in the shadow too long the Yeommae would turn its head toward the dormitory. Toward the side full of cadets with no ability to resist the Yeommae yet, just as the ones who had run away had been.
『I told you I'm huuuungryyy!!!!!』
That, that I could not sit and watch. I did not want my squad members, my friends, exposed to danger on even the smallest chance.
I can hold out with difficulty, but Kim To-eun, Yi Hoe-uk, Sa Seo-yeon plainly could not resist it.
Tadadadak!
Just then the Yeommae charged at me. The problem was the form of that charge. It was not a pattern I had seen so far.
'Wait, the speed is——'
Not an approach for biting, but a full-force ram. It seemed to have learned that it could not break through the Twin Dragon Swords.
I hurriedly activated Shadow-Stepping. But was it the price of my torn ears. My head spun for a moment and my reaction came half a beat late.
CRASH!
At the same time as entering the underworld my body floated up as if struck by a car and rolled along just like that.
"Kuh."
So the shock received right before entering does not vanish but carries over.
I gained a realization that was useful but that I did not want to have right now. My arm hurt.
『Master.......』
『This is......』
Having a shield does not mean the shock of being attacked all disappears.
What's more, the Twin Dragon Swords were not a proper shield. Meaning the surface area was small and there was no curved or angled face, so the shock was not properly dispersed.
Because of that the shock of colliding with the Yeommae transmitted straight into my arm. It did not seem broken, but I was certain it had cracked. It hurt that much.
'......Should I just stay here?'
Having come in urgently I had not properly caught my breath. But right after obtaining Shadow-Stepping, what I had managed intensively was lung capacity.
If I did not perform any particular movement I could hold out another twenty or thirty seconds. And in that much time there was a high chance the Yeommae would leave the spot.
'But.......'
But so what? Where the Yeommae goes once it takes its eyes off me is obvious, isn't it?
I already knew the ending of my not moving.
『Take us.......』
『It is hard.......』
What about drawing the Twin Dragon Swords instead. It was not as though I had not thought of it.
But could I properly use the Twin Dragon Swords once drawn? Would swinging that violent power and precisely 'intercepting' the Yeommae — and hitting it while excluding the dormitory building and so on — really work?
'Let's leave the Twin Dragon Swords as a last resort. The risk if I miss is too great.'
Collateral damage was not the only problem. I also had to consider that one swing of the sword had left me floundering for over ten minutes.
If the attack went astray, I would have to face the Yeommae in a state where even walking was hard. I really could not use it rashly.
'No but seriously why are they not coming!'
I watched the Yeommae in the living world and my coordinates in the underworld cross. The Yeommae seemed to be pondering where I would appear from.
The ghost with a bamboo tube attached like a tail clacked its teeth. It really was a horror game in its own right.
'Horror stuff was all banned for me so I have no tolerance for it as it is—— wait. Bamboo tube?'
The Yeommae's true body is a ghost, that is, of the soul family, so it is hard for me to strike it directly.
But what about the bamboo tube the Yeommae is in? That is an object with a physical form, isn't it? Then couldn't I hit it too, regardless of whether the Yeommae is attacking?
'Even if I hit the bamboo tube the Yeommae wouldn't take damage, but.......'
At the very least I could change its physical position. For instance, just as the Yeommae in the cadet's hand earlier had flown up bamboo tube and all.
'If it doesn't work I can just come back to the underworld.'
If it fails I break even; if it works I gain one more route for buying time. I threw myself into my hypothesis at once.
My body, popping out into reality, swung the bundle of Twin Dragon Swords with everything I had. Because I had appeared suddenly, the Yeommae could not respond.
WHUMP!
Like a puck struck by a hockey stick sliding away, the bamboo tube went flying off in the direction opposite the dormitory. So did the Yeommae inside it.
'I did it......!'
My guess that the Yeommae existed in a form bound to the bamboo tube's physical position hit the mark. A shallow elation surged at that fact.
'At this rate holding out longer isn't impossible!'
This was an attack that would be hard to counter even if the Yeommae learned it. Meaning the game of tag could be drawn out. The chance of holding out until an instructor came had increased.
My eyes doggedly chased the flying Yeommae.
"Cough."
Then, wait. A coppery tang of blood suddenly filled my mouth.
"Kuh."
Was it that I could not endure the thick sensation striking my throat and spat out a deep breath.
Splash. The pale yellow earth, packed firm for easy walking, was stained with blood. Not a lot, but not an amount you could call little either.
"Hh......"
What's more, the color of the blood soaking the ground was not at all good. Even in the dim lighting it was a hue that left you with the gut feeling of 'ah, that color's a bit strange, isn't it?'
At that point I noticed a major fact I had missed.
First, the Yeommae was not a simple ghost. It was a vengeful spirit made for the sake of a curse.
A ghost holding a grudge is dangerous enough to begin with, and yet the Yeommae is a ghost whose very reason for being created is to curse another person.
Also, curses generally do not take a physical form. That is why they are feared and why they are dangerous.
'......They say a target the Yeommae invades suffers in the head and suffers in the belly.'
That is, sickness. The Yeommae made its target sick.
A sickness that would not heal until the Yeommae was recovered.
『Dangerous.』
『Grave.』
But I had no ability to seal the Yeommae. And fleeing to the underworld was not going to cure this illness either.
If an instructor came they would somehow take me to a hospital and treat me, but.......
『Draw us.』
『Take us in hand.』
Would an instructor who has not come until now come a few dozen seconds from now? And even if they did, would I be alive by then?
When the moment I became aware of it I could feel my whole body rotting. A curse that vicious.
『Cut down the Yeommae.』
『When the source is gone.』
『The curse too is gone.』
『The sickness will be erased as well.』
There was only one method.
『Cut it, you.』
『Cut it just so.』
Not being allowed to draw the Twin Dragon Swords without permission and all that. The penalty for breaking a restriction is also something you can only receive if you are alive.
'There's...... just enough time.'
I could see the Yeommae, which had flown far off, recovering its balance. Since the side of the walking path was slightly sloped, it looked as though it would take a little more time for the bastard to reach me.
"Twin Dragon Swords."
Watching that, I called my last redoubt. The Twin Dragon Swords ripped the seal to shreds as if they had been waiting.
『This time you use me?』
Last time I had swung White Fang, was it.
It was not intended, but this time Black Fang came into my hand. Since I could not swing both, grabbing just one had resulted in my grabbing Black Fang.
One of my hands gripped the hilt wrapped in black leather and the other stripped off the scabbard.
It was not so easy. The rotting skin and the cracked bone hurt infuriatingly. And seeing my field of view suddenly redden, the blood vessels in my eyes seemed to have burst too.
Tadak, tadadadak. The Yeommae began to charge at me.
『I shall live up to the expectation.』
Then, as I took the stance before a cut with Black Fang in my grip. When the distance between the Yeommae and me had closed to about 15m.
『One sweep and all is swept away.』
My reason asked me one last time.
Whether this was really right. Whether this truly was the only method.
『Blood dyes the mountains and——』
Whether releasing this enormous power, one utterly savage dragon, out into the world was the only way to use the Twin Dragon Swords.
"No."
A Temporary Contract is still a contract. In that case it is only right that I should be able to control that power too.
"I never said I'd do that."
I don't want to die. But I also don't want to live my whole life swung around by the Twin Dragon Swords' power.
This was my life.
I will decide, and I will choose.
"Just stay still, would you."
It's the first time that's hard; is the second time hard?
Instead of releasing the power raging inside Black Fang, I tried to endure it by force. Up to here was something I had managed for a second or two last time as well, so it was not difficult. It was merely hard.
"The swinging is my part."
But I did not stop at that. From there I went one step further.
Going beyond gripping and enduring a power so rough that merely holding it was hard labor, I drew it in inside my own hand.
『......Haha! Hahahahaha!!』
Had I seized a storm. Or caught a tidal wave.
Golden flames climbed my hand and arm and spread over my body.
And the distance to the Yeommae was now 5m. Since it crawled with its arms, it was slow until it built up acceleration. In terms of time, two seconds left.
『That spirit — you are more than qualified to be Black Fang's master!』
I wanted to pour this rough power outward at once, wanted to be made comfortable by it. But I gritted my teeth and bore it.
The Twin Dragon Swords were a Phantasm contracted with me. The Twin Dragon Swords were my power, and the Twin Dragon Swords' power was mine.
『Swallow greedily! Use us as you please! Break our will and swing us as you intend!』
My power must not do harm to me.
『We are tools made for that very purpose!』
In an instant, the storm stopped. No. Now I was the storm.
A black dragon settled into my body.
『Huuuuungryyy!!』
And when the Yeommae had reached right in front of my nose.
Black teeth split the Yeommae in half.
Tab 24