Chapter 64

Chapter 64

As Tubartan fled toward the edge of the arena and grew distant, Dojae couldn’t hide his panic.

‘What kind of arrow….’

Though hidden by his robe, Dojae’s sword-gripping hand trembled.

The shock of parrying the arrow was so severe he nearly dropped his sword.

‘What kind of arrow is that? I’d believe it was a harpoon.’

Dojae looked at the arrows scattered around him.

They were made of iron, thicker than ordinary arrows by an incomparable margin.

It wouldn’t be strange if Dojae mistook them for harpoons.

‘Did I underestimate him because he’s young?’

Dojae had thought a little lightly of Tubartan because he looked so young.

But his youthful appearance was deceptive; he was likely much older.

Take Sari, for instance. She looked like a teenage high school girl on the outside, but hadn’t she lived for over 200 years and 45 years?

If Tubartan was 200 years old and had trained since age 100, that meant at least 100 years of training—a monstrously powerful being.

‘Should I summon the golem now?’

Dojae considered summoning the golem even now.

But he quickly dismissed the thought.

It was unknown how much the golems could withstand arrows that were surprisingly fast and powerful, even to himself.

‘Alright, let’s stick to the original plan.’

Dojae decided to fight with his sword, as he had originally planned.

There were several reasons for this. First, Dojae wanted to properly fight a Grey Elf.

He wasn’t just a warrior consumed by the will to kill; he genuinely wondered what the gray elf’s skill level was like as a warrior.

And he had sensed it watching the previous matches—they displayed strength beyond that of a Grade 5 monster.

Pishwuk-!

‘He’s faster than before!’

Tubartan fired another arrow, and this time, Doja dodged instead of parrying.

Kaboom!

The arrow flew from one end of the arena to the other, piercing the magical barrier and blasting a massive hole through the spectator stand wall.

Had the arena not been below the stands, the sheer force would have injured someone.

‘If I get hit by that, it won’t just be a loss. I need to finish this quickly.’

Dojae’s second reason for wielding the sword was to study the gray elves’ movements up close.

Their movements, far more flexible than a human’s, were wildly free-spirited and full of unpredictable shifts, offering much to learn.

Especially since Dojae had gained immense strength over the past few months but hadn’t been able to fully utilize it, he hoped that fighting the Grey Elves might lead to some kind of breakthrough.

However, since Dojae didn’t use a bow, there was nothing to learn from Tubartan, and he decided to eliminate him quickly.

Whoosh!

Doja closed the distance with Tubartan, his robe fluttering fiercely.

He swung his black scales toward Tubartan’s neck.

He felt not a shred of hesitation.

If he faced mortal danger, he would be automatically summoned to the healing station, where waiting healers would immediately cast recovery magic.

Clang-!

‘So it’s not just brute strength.’

The black scales, which had nearly reached the tip of his throat, were blocked by the bowstring.

The black scales and Tubartan’s greatbow clashed, sending sparks flying, and gasps of admiration echoed from the stands.

“Who are you?”

Tubartan asked, sword and bow between them.

“You heard me. Idojae of the Nightingale Forest.”

Dojae thrust his sword harder as he answered.

He intended to sever the throat right then and there.

But Tubartan resisted, veins bulging in his neck.

“Liar. There’s no one in our forest who goes by that strange name, Lee Dojae.”

“No, he appeared just a few days ago. But does that matter now?”

“Yes! What kind of village is ours! We can’t let a scoundrel like you impersonate our village!”

“Isn’t it a bit much to get so worked up over just using a village name?”

“What? That mere village?”

Another vein bulged on Tubartan’s forehead.

Then, this time, Dojae began to back down.

“Sure, I wasn’t born and raised in Nightingale Village, but what’s wrong with borrowing the name?”

“You bastard…!”

I learned later that for the Grey Elves, their village was their honor and pride.

Only now, after inheriting the remnants left by humans like kingdoms and such, did they adopt those concepts. Originally, they were a race with strong cohesion at the village level.

Especially Sari’s grandmother, Salirna, who rejected the kingdom system and returned to the village. Tubartan held her in the highest regard.

Clang!

Tubartan parried Dojae’s sword with his bow.

Then he created distance between himself and Dojae again.

No, he tried to, but failed.

“What the hell is this?!”

The sand clumps binding Tubartan’s legs.

Doja smirked and said.

“What a shame, the archer’s got his feet tied.”

The moment Dojae collided with Tubartan, he immediately used the golem’s nerves to pour the sand clumps from his pouch onto the floor.

If he tried to create distance and shoot an arrow, his arm muscles wouldn’t survive.

Since he had two matches today, it was best to finish quickly for the next opponent.

“With this measly sand!”

Tubartan flung the sand clump aside and charged forward.

But the tenacious pull of the sand mass robbed him of his initial swiftness.

Dojae kept sticking to Tubartan, swinging his sword.

Clang!

Clang!

The sand mass slowed Tubartan’s movements like a spider’s web, and that slight delay allowed Dojae’s sword strikes to become even sharper.

“Damn… Damn it!”

Tubartan began to sustain small wounds from Dojae’s black scales.

He desperately blocked with his bow, but the fact that the archer couldn’t shoot arrows meant he was already as good as defeated.

Finally, Dojae’s last strike snapped his bow and left a long gash across his neck.

“I’ve lost… Ugh.”

Tubartan spoke in a voice filled with sorrow, sweat pouring down like rain.

His words were so heartbreaking that Dojae, despite his victory, stood there awkwardly.

“Tubartan lost! That guy, Lee Dojae, won!”

“Guh! He handled that sword better than I expected? Hey, you bastard! Show us your face in the next match!”

After Dojae defeated Tubartan, the Grey Elves who had initially mocked him gradually began to warm to him.

‘That was close.’

Amidst the cheers from the stands, Dojae stared at the black scales.

During the final strike, the Black Scale had sucked up Dojae’s mana, then sliced through the steel bow and severed Tubartan’s neck.

Dojae thought that if he had been even a moment slower in pulling his sword back, Tubartan’s head might have been severed.

‘I almost killed a resident of Sari’s village…’

Anyway, having made a slight impression, Dojae pulled his disheveled robe back tightly over his head and headed for the waiting room.

***

Later, inside the waiting room.

While waiting for the official recording the match’s outcome to confirm the result, Sari and Osun visited the waiting room.

“Master! You must be exhausted!”

Ohson handed the cool water bottle she was holding directly to Dojae.

Sari also had a water bottle in her hand, but she headed toward Tubartan first, not Dojae.

“Tubartan, you’ve been through a lot.”

“Chief?”

Tubartan, who had been wiping sweat from his brow, looked at Sari with a surprised expression.

“It’s a shame you lost, but your bravery, Tubartan, has certainly been conveyed to this Sarieta.”

“Village Chief…”

Tubartan lowered his head.

He felt guilty for failing to show his best side to the village chief, especially since he had gone as the village representative.

“Raise your head, Tubartan. You did your best.”

“Th-thank you, Chief.”

Tubartan gratefully accepted the water Sari offered with both hands.

Then he asked why Sari was here.

“Chief, what about the village? Why are you here…”

“Hehe, the village has Grandma, you see. I came to cheer on Tubartan!”

“Sniff… You went to all this trouble… I’m so sorry…”

Tubartan began shedding tears like chicken droppings.

Sari quietly embraced him.

After crying for a while, Tubartan seemed to calm down and felt embarrassed.

“Tubartan. You said you came with your sister, right?”

“Yes.”

“The festival still has days left, and there’s the Hoya Festival too. Rest well, enjoy yourself, and come back.”

Sari placed a few gold coins into Tubartan’s hand.

“This is all I can offer you now. Thank you for letting the kingdom know that our village has a strong young man like you.”

“Thank you. I’ll train harder and return to the village as the champion at the next tournament.”

“Hoh ho, you sound dependable.”

Tubartan clenched his fist tightly.

“But Village Chief, do you know that man? They say he’s from our village, but I’ve never heard his voice.”

Tubartan glared at Dojae as he spoke.

“That’s right. He can be considered from our village. And you’ll naturally learn the author’s true identity once you return to the village.”

“Understood. I’ll be going now. My sister must be worried.”

“Alright. See you in the village.”

Tubartan greeted Sari and stepped out of the waiting room.

Dojae, wanting to lift Sari’s clearly sour mood, pulled a carton of milk from his pocket.

Sweet chocolate milk, to be precise.

“Want some? I think it’s your kind of thing.”

“Huh? Sure!”

Dojae opened the carton and handed it to Sari, who sipped it slowly, savoring it.

Seeing her eyes grow wider, Dojae thought, as expected, sweet things were the best for lifting spirits.

“Sari, you’re quite the village chief, aren’t you?”

“Pfft. Not just village chief—I’m the village chief of Nightingale Forest!”

“Right, Village Chief. What brings you to the waiting room?”

“I didn’t come because of Dojae! I came to comfort Tubartan. We’ve been close since childhood.”

Sari gazed at the empty space where Tubartan had been.

“I see. I’m sorry about that.”

“No, Dojae has nothing to be sorry about. It’s only natural since he was so strong. More than that, I never imagined Dojae could be that strong! Who on earth inflicted that wound on his chest?”

Dojae rubbed the wound on his chest.

The wound had completely healed and caused no pain, but he could never forget the moment that intense, pulsing blue mana struck him directly.

“There is. A human with the fundamental purpose of finding the leaves.”

“A human… Is that human Dojae’s enemy?”

“An enemy. Well, should I call them an enemy? What’s certain is they’re someone I absolutely must kill. I suppose I can call them an enemy.”

Sari tilted her head at Dojae’s ambiguous answer.

“It’s something that won’t concern you, Sari, even after a thousand years pass, so don’t worry about it. Now, go back to the stands. I need to go watch the next match too.”

Dojae removed his gloves and ruffled Sari’s hair.

“Master! I’ll cheer my hardest for the next match too! Win the championship! This Oson Iron…”

“Enough, let’s go, Osun! Dojae, I’ll cheer hard for you from now on too! To be honest, I was rooting more for Tubartan before. But from now on, I’ll cheer hard for Dojae! Hang in there!”

Sari nudged Osun’s back and led him out of the waiting room.

Dojae watched the two of them with a fatherly smile.