Spider Ghost (2)

We sprinted as if flying along the treetops and entered the western forest.

Bae Jonggwan shouted while running.

“Will it be okay for just the three of us to go?!”

Bi Sayoung shot back, full of confidence.

“Why?! You scared?!”

“No, not that, but the jungle’s pretty dangerous these days?!”

“Hah! With our three bodies’ external arts and movement arts, a pack of Wild Hound Ghosts won’t be any problem now! And if it gets bad, we can run! Besides, they said the Spider Ghost is in the eastern forest!”

I was thinking the same.

These days, not to mention Wild Hound Ghosts, even Owl Ghosts weren’t that frightening.

Of course, it only came out at night anyway, so there was no need to worry about it right now.

And I already knew she had been killed by a pack of Wild Hound Ghosts.

So as long as it wasn’t the Spider Ghost, I was confident we could at least escape even if we couldn’t win.

But leaving aside our lack of fear of Demonic Humans, finding one lady’s whereabouts inside the jungle was by no means easy.

We ran through the jungle for about the time of a stick of incense, yet found nothing of note.

Digging through memories of my past life, nothing came to mind beyond the fact that while the captains searched for the Spider Ghost in the east, the incident happened here in the west.

“Lady Son!”

“Lady Son Harang! Are you nearby?!”

We moved while calling her name; birds fluttered up everywhere, but there was no real result.

In the end, I stopped and spoke to my friends.

“Let’s split up for now. Don’t go too far—spread out at a set distance and search.”

There was no guarantee Lady Son was exactly here, yet my friends nodded without hesitation.

I felt freshly grateful for that trust.

Just then—

A woman’s scream tore through the air.

Deeper in the forest.

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

Startled, we traded glances and launched forward at once. A woman’s scream in this jungle—surely it had to be Lady Son.

“Go!”

My heart leapt in urgency.

A scream meant she’d encountered something.

Likely a pack of Wild Hound Ghosts, but if she’d run into a demonic lord of the Blood Demon Cult…

Given that most such lords were at least high first-class in skill, the three of us would be in over our heads.

But when we reached her location, we had to breathe both a sigh of relief and a groan of despair.

Relief—because her assailants were, as expected, a pack of Wild Hound Ghosts, not the Blood Demon Cult’s demonic lords or a Spider Ghost.

And despair because—

“Uaaaaaah! Adamantine Meteor!”

Bae Jonggwan charged straight at a pack of roughly twenty Wild Hound Ghosts.

It was a tremendous body slam, like a boulder hurled from a catapult.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-BOOM!

“Gyaaaark!”

“Kkiaaaang!”

The gathered fiends bounced away like pebbles, screeching like beasts.

I followed and crashed into the remaining ones.

“Haaap!”

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

The hounds Bae couldn’t finish went spinning into the air under my fists and elbows.

Hands as swift as wind and strikes as fierce as a typhoon—the Thirteen Storm Beats of the Seonu Clan’s striking art.

Then, in the brief clearing behind me, Bi Sayoung landed in front of a woman who looked to be Lady Son.

But upon seeing her, he bit his lip, unable to lay a hand on her.

“Damn.”

She was already dead.

Gnawed by the Wild Hound Ghosts, her arms, legs—her very torso—had been savaged.

I heard Bi Sayoung mutter.

“We’re one step late.”

One step… late?

In that instant, something felt off to me.

Considering the scream we’d just heard, yes—we were a step late.

But…

“Hup!”

Thwack!

I kicked away another rushing hound and looked over her body once more.

Her mangled corpse filled my eyes.

Up front, Bae Jonggwan had grabbed a hound by the leg and was swinging it like a club, battering back the ones that approached, buying me a moment.

But…

Something was wrong.

No matter how many there were, could they really have devoured her that far in such a short time?

Then, as my eyes swept her body, I suddenly noticed her neck—oddly intact—and her face, also largely untouched. And on that neck, four punctures, as if pierced by something.

…Four holes?

No way?!

I shouted, urgent.

“Jonggwan! Get back now! We have to run!”

At my frantic cry, both Bae Jonggwan and Bi Sayoung looked at me in confusion.

“We have to go right now! There’s a Spider Ghost nearby!”

Those four marks on Lady Son’s neck—I had seen them in my previous life: the bite of a Spider Ghost.

A Spider Ghost…

Why on earth would it be here?

But now wasn’t the time to ask.

We had to flee before it returned, even a heartbeat sooner.

I was about to shout again and bolt when I froze in place.

It was already there, in the trees in the direction we’d come from.

A naked Miao woman with black skin watched us, smiling.

Her mouth displayed four sharp fangs, jutting clear as day.

I muttered without thinking.

“Ah, hell….”

A Spider Ghost.

The strongest Demonic Human, one even peak masters couldn’t handle easily. It had already set its sights on us.

Bi Sayoung, who had spotted it like I had, murmured, face gone pale.

“It’s… smiling at us, isn’t it? For a Demonic Human.”

I swallowed hard.

I couldn’t even guess how high its intelligence ran.

And that wasn’t all.

It smiled—and opened its mouth.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

From its throat came a chilling woman’s scream.

The very scream we had heard earlier.

Bi Sayoung muttered, dazed.

“That scream… it made it? To lure us?”

At that level, you could call it a monster rather than a beast.

I gritted my teeth and spoke quietly.

“On three, we all run south. Ready—one, two, three! Move!”

With the words, Bi Sayoung and I sprang away.

Bae Jonggwan hurled the hound he’d been swinging and kicked off the ground.

When it came to movement arts, we had the confidence to rival peak masters.

Wild Hound Ghosts wouldn’t even nip at our heels.

But—

Skitter!

As we launched south, it leapt with us.

At nearly our speed.

Shocked, we pushed to our limits, but it kept pace at our flank, running side by side, grinning at us.

A spine-crawling smile.

In the end, we had to stop.

Bi Sayoung, ashen-faced, asked me,

“This is insane. It’s too fast. What do we do? Split up?”

The three of us, each in a different direction…

Coldly judged, it was about as fast as me, though not quite as fast as Bi Sayoung.

So if we split three ways, at least some could live.

But only two of us at best.

At minimum, one would become the sacrifice.

And that one would probably…

Bae Jonggwan suddenly spoke.

“Run, friends. I’ll hold it here.”

Behind his simple, reassuring smile, I saw the pack of hounds charging us like mad.

“Kyarr-rr-rr!”

“Kyaaaaak!”

And ahead, the Spider Ghost with that horrible smile.

In times like this, the choice for front-line personnel was clear: someone sacrifices themselves so those with the best chance can live. It was the unwritten rule of the front.

Knowing that, Bi Sayoung couldn’t meet Bae Jonggwan’s eyes—he only clenched his fists and trembled.

To let at least one of us live, we would have to abandon Bae first.

And my friend, as always, smiled simply and told us,

“Do my share, too. You must survive.”

He had done the same in my last life.

Too weak to even buy time, he’d sent me away, stayed behind, and with the same smile said the same words.

Something surged up inside me.

Blood burst from my lip as I bit down hard.

Stay cold, Seonu Jin. You have to stay cold.

I surveyed the situation as calmly as I could.

The pack of hounds nearly on us from behind; the Spider Ghost ahead, for some reason watching us like playthings instead of pouncing.

A happy ending where the three of us combined forces and broke through—was impossible.

All the captains had gone east; no rescue would come.

So someone had to stay to buy time so the other two—or at least one—could survive.

Yes. There was no helping it.

Having decided, I said to Bae Jonggwan,

“Jonggwan, take the hound pack.”

He nodded with that good-natured smile.

“Right. Leave it to me—go. Hurry.”

But then I turned to Bi Sayoung.

“Go, Sayoung. I’ll take the Spider Ghost.”

Bi Sayoung snapped his head up to stare at me.

Bae Jonggwan also cried out in shock.

“…W-what did you say?”

I forced myself to analyze the Spider Ghost, as coolly as possible.

Why wasn’t it attacking us at once?

I guessed it was because it didn’t want to lose any of the three of us.

If not three, then two.

So if one stayed and two fled, it would chase the two.

Then, if those two split again, it would catch one, then return for Bae Jonggwan.

But there was no time to explain.

I drew my sword slightly and clenched the blade in my hand.

A chill pain; blood welled out.

I flung that blood toward the Spider Ghost and shouted.

SPLASH!

“Go, Sayoung! Bring the captain—before I die!”

“Kiiiiiiii!”

Smelling my blood, the Spider Ghost’s face twisted monstrously. However clever it was, with the scent of blood it could no longer restrain its feral hunger.

My friends shouted in alarm.

“Jin!”

“What are you doing?!”

With my blood in its nose, I could no longer run.

It would prioritize me above all.

Realizing what I’d done, Bae Jonggwan hurled himself into the onrushing hounds.

“Uaaaaaap!”

Thud-thud-thud-thud-BOOM!

“Kieeeek!”

“Graaaar!”

He shouted to Bi Sayoung,

“Sayoung, go! Bring the captain and save Jin!”

Bi Sayoung groaned through clenched teeth.

“Ghhhhh!”

Tears streamed from his bloodshot eyes.

He kicked off and launched himself, shouting,

“Don’t you dare die, you bastards! If you die, I’m coming after you!”

I grinned and lunged at the Spider Ghost.

Idiot—if you try something that foolish, you think I’ll forgive you?

“Kiaaaaah!”

The Spider Ghost charged me at a speed worthy of a peak master.

“Haaaaap!”

I poured my all into my swordwork.

First Flash of the Divine Responding Wing of the Seonu Thirteen Swords.

In an instant, pale sword-shadows filled the space like vast, spreading wings.

But those wings were ripped apart by a single sweeping gesture as it shrieked.

“Kiiiiii!”

Ssshaaah!

It was a pity how easily the swordwork was broken—but I hadn’t unleashed it to fight head-on.

The instant it tore through my phantom blades, I was already leaping over its head to flee.

Realizing too late, it let out a furious screech and gave chase.

“Kiiiiii!”

This was my gambit.

No matter how its physique surpassed early peak masters, recognizing phantom blades for what they were required real mastery of martial arts.

Fleeing for my life with the Spider Ghost nipping at my heels, I cheered inwardly.

‘I didn’t stay to die—I had confidence in the plan!’

……

Okay, that was a lie.

I just moved as my heart told me.

Why?

Because after finally returning, after swearing I’d never lose my friends again, if I abandoned a friend once more, this second life would be a failure too.

I refused to repeat that life again.