EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school-Chapter 1017: Stream (18)

Baek Ho-gun recognized that the great sword I was holding was Baek-A.

First, I disrupted his composure, even if only for a moment, and made a move.

But this wouldn’t last long.

As expected, Baek Ho-gun quickly returned to his usual emotionless state and added strength to the hand gripping the great sword.

In that moment, the blades facing each other suddenly became heavy.

‘Heavy...! Even with Baek Ho-gun’s power, it’s like this?’

I hadn’t fully realized it before, since I’d been fighting so well, but it seems that the debuff from Baek Ho-gun's divine beast status is significant.

If I were fighting the Wung tribe or their allies, I could probably get permission from the Divine to lift the debuff and fight.

Of course, the Divine wouldn’t grant such a favor while Baek Ho-gun was facing him.

If it were a pure power battle, I’d surely lose, so I let the blade slip sideways as soon as we clashed, and Baek Ho-gun stepped back and lowered his body.

‘A stance for leaping. He plans to disregard me and join the boss enemy immediately.’

He’d pretend to give me a chance to survive but then try to kill me, and even though he’d set up for a fight, he’d turn around to join his friend.

Baek Ho-gun of this era spared no means when it came to fighting.

Perhaps because it was a time when mere strength couldn’t guarantee survival, it seemed to have made him even more ruthless.

I could deceive most opponents, but I had sparred several times with the White Tiger who was stronger than Baek Ho-gun, so I could read his moves.

Thwack!

Just as Baek Ho-gun was about to leap, I targeted his foot and swung Baek-A.

Baek Ho-gun immediately stopped and lowered the great sword to defend.

As Baek-A struck low, it shone briefly, and the ground seemed to turn pale for a moment.

If I had leapt right then, I might have landed a wound, but unfortunately, I missed the opportunity.

“Your explanation isn’t over yet.”

At my taunt, Baek Ho-gun didn’t respond.

I heard that he used to talk a lot in the past, but now it seems he only shuts his mouth when he's angry.

Instead, Baek Ho-gun’s eyes gleamed like a wild beast’s as he charged at me.

Every time a heavy strike came, I kept recalling my sparring sessions with Baek Ho-gun.

‘Baek Ho-gun has been through many battles, so he couldn’t do the pressure techniques he usually boasts about.’

If he forced his power, he could probably blow this area away.

With his strength, Baek Ho-gun could knock down the enemies and target the raid members advancing toward the boss enemy.

However, if he did that, his friend, whom he was trying to protect, would also be hit.

I began eliminating the moves that Baek Ho-gun couldn’t afford to make from my mind.

‘Just like what happened in the Yunyun Hall, I can’t summon the Shadow Tiger either. Besides, he’s not experienced enough. The Baek Ho-gun in front of me makes moves that are much simpler than the one I knew.’

I read each of Baek Ho-gun’s moves and responded one by one.

Baek Ho-gun must have felt like I was reading his mind.

Was it because Baek Ho-gun had read my mind all this time? Fighting against Baek Ho-gun, who couldn’t read me, turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable.

However, even if I could read his moves, there were limits to how much I could move my pieces on the board.

‘The available time for the Light Domain is running out faster than expected.’

The time for the Light Domain seemed to be influenced by my condition.

Baek Ho-gun’s Light Domain originally consumed a lot of time, but due to lack of sleep, it was depleting even faster.

Soon, the player trajectory usage time would end.

Even if I knew what Baek Ho-gun was about to do, it would be meaningless if I had no means to stop it.

Still, I had one more move left.

I hadn’t used the ‘Fate of the Nameless’ yet.

“You are the best imitation of me.”

Baek Ho-gun said as he aimed the great sword at me.

‘Imitation’?

It seemed that there were imitators of the White Tiger of the Mythological World besides just the Wung tribe.

But why was he saying such useless things at this critical moment?

He was likely buying time while preparing to use a major technique.

I pretended not to notice and said while preparing for a counter.

“It’s an honor. Thank you.”

“Your manners are quite good.”

At those words, it suddenly hit me.

When I met Baek Ho-gun, I had unconsciously used informal speech right away, but now I didn’t feel like doing that with this Baek Ho-gun.

Was it because I had known Baek Ho-gun since childhood through dreams?

I was lost in useless thoughts as I adjusted my grip on Baek-A.

Wheeeing!

Suddenly, I heard a ringing in my ears.

It hit me too late.

Everyone thought the boss enemy wouldn’t have any strength left for that, but the boss enemy had thrown away his own safety and squeezed out the last of his strength for Baek Ho-gun.

The boss enemy had tried to cover Baek Ho-gun, and Baek Ho-gun, noticing his friend’s intent, distracted me with unnecessary words.

I read Baek Ho-gun’s moves, but I couldn’t read the boss enemy’s move.

‘I can’t see in front of me!’

The boss enemy had aimed directly at my eyes, which were locked in battle with Baek Ho-gun.

Though his strength was weak, given that he was forcing it, my vision became impaired.

Just the moment my sight dimmed, my balance easily shattered.

I quickly raised Baek-A to block my vitals and moved my body, but dodging Baek Ho-gun’s strike was impossible.

Baek Ho-gun didn’t miss the gap and sent out a wave of sword energy.

Crack!

My shoulder was searing with pain, and soon my entire body felt as if it was freezing.

At the same time, the broken goggles and torn neck warmer scattered in front of me, and the cold wind cooled my bloodied face.

With one strike of Baek Ho-gun’s sword energy, all the armor I was wearing became useless.

If I had been a little more off, my neck would’ve been pierced, or my arm would’ve been severed. Thankfully, it stopped at a cut on my right shoulder.

However, the aftermath left my right hand, which was holding Baek-A, powerless.

My right arm was now barely hanging on, like a decoration on my body.

“Is your explanation over?”

When my explanation finished, the raid members would die, but there was no way it would end here.

I desperately racked my brain, trying to think of my next move.

The Light Domain time was about to end, so I had to grab the Fate of the Nameless first.

Just as I was about to pull the item from my inventory, Baek Ho-gun swung his great sword.

Swish!

Before I could pull out the Fate of the Nameless, I had to dodge a sword energy aimed at my neck.

As I did, the wound on my right shoulder opened wider, and blood from it soaked my team uniform and dripped down the hand holding Baek-A.

When I tried again to pull the Fate of the Nameless, Baek Ho-gun was already right in front of me.

“Suspicious, whether you block or not.”

Baek Ho-gun said indifferently as he looked at my blood-soaked face up close.

It was as if a tiger was looking down at its prey before delivering the final blow.

If I fell here, the raid would end in failure.

Were the raid members still coming?

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It seemed like they were still stuck fighting the foreign enemies, as the boss enemy had helped Baek Ho-gun.

Beep!

≪Health has significantly decreased. Use items or abilities to recover.≫

≪30 seconds until forced termination of the Otherworld Simulator.≫

A notification from the Otherworld Simulator popped up in front of my blurred vision.

I hadn’t thought I’d taken enough damage to die immediately, but it seemed the system had judged I was close to death and about to end the simulation.

‘But there are still 30 seconds left. It’s too early to give up.’

However, before I could think of my next move, the time for the Light Domain ended, and Baek-A disappeared.

Seeing me empty-handed, Baek Ho-gun immediately brought the blade to my neck.

Sss...

The shadow beneath my feet moved unnaturally.

Baek Ho-gun, thinking I was up to something, immediately lifted his great sword to end my life, but his movement stopped abruptly.

The shadow had wrapped around both of Baek Ho-gun’s hands like a puppet's string, tightly binding them.

The shadow thread tried to move Baek Ho-gun’s arms into an awkward position, but before that, Baek Ho-gun snapped it with his strength and retreated.

“Cutting it with strength? How did you stop the ignorant Hojo?”

“Too strong. We can’t face him head-on. Don’t go near him!”

I heard the voices of Lu Bo-won and Yao Ruichi.

It seemed that Yao Ruichi, instead of coming here, had joined forces with Lu Bo-won after the raid members had advanced toward the boss enemy.

Seeing them come this close, Lu Bo-won must have suspected the Hojo performer and continued tracking him.

“There are a lot of things to turn into puppets here. Let’s knock them all down!”

With a swing of his hand, hundreds of shadow threads extended from his fingertips, heading toward the foreign enemies' corpses.

Not only the corpses but also the still-living enemies were pierced by the threads.

The enemies ensnared by the shadow threads rushed toward Baek Ho-gun, and Yao Ruichi, holding a Diz, ran toward the boss enemy’s music area to prepare for the performance.

‘Why are they helping me? Did they decide it was too difficult to face Baek Ho-gun?’

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If Baek Ho-gun defeats me and joins forces with the boss enemy to unleash a large-scale attack, there’d be nothing even Lu Bo-won could do, no matter how good he hid.

It was better to cooperate for the raid, but still, wasn’t there no need for them to appear at the timing when they could save me?

I pushed the thoughts aside and was about to pull out the Fate of the Nameless to activate 100 seconds of grace when—

“I’ve come to repay the favor.”

While Lu Bo-won was causing a ruckus, another member of the Chinese team appeared.

It was Li Wei.

Li Wei’s hand was covered in flames, and when it touched my shoulder, my bleeding stopped, and the warning messages from the simulator disappeared.

It seemed Li Wei was using the power of Emperor Shen Nong to heal me.

“Huh? You said earlier that if we couldn’t stop the Hojo, the raid would fail, so you agreed to cooperate...”

“The Korean team saved Yao Ruichi.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Li Wei looked at Lu Bo-won with disdain, as though he found his actions pitiful.

But did Li Wei use his precious power just for saving Yao Ruichi?

Li Wei whispered to me in a voice so soft that Lu Bo-won couldn’t hear.

“Lord Hyeonmu said that when you owe the Nameless Supernova, you must repay it.”

Had Hyeonmu told him this in advance?

I couldn’t tell if it was because of the Korean team’s favor or the favor for defeating the Demon King, but for Li Wei, it was probably both.

Either way, now I had more moves I could make.

“Thank you. I can fight again.”

“What? You still aren’t healed enough to face that Hojo...”

“Aaaah! I’m going to die!”

Lu Bo-won, tugging on the cut shadow threads, retreated.

Though he was whining, he seemed to be retreating to conserve his strength before launching another attack.

I used the Fate of the Nameless card, activated the Light Domain again, and charged toward Baek Ho-gun.

〈Light Domain, ‘Player Trajectory’ is being used.〉

〈The target character’s Light Domain, ‘Pauncharoi (破雲斬雷)’ summoning Baek-A, is being used.〉

Baek Ho-gun, holding Baek-A again, stared at me as I blocked his path.

I was in much worse shape than when we first clashed, but I must have looked even more relentless and frustrating now.

Kaaaang!

The moment Baek-A collided again, Baek Ho-gun’s eyes blurred slightly.

I didn’t need to turn around to know.

The raid members had finally reached the performer.

“Baek Ho...!”

I heard a youthful voice from afar.