White Tiger (2)
“Seems like I’m right.”
Though he did not receive an answer from Seon Yul, White Tiger interpreted the silence as affirmation and nodded as he muttered to himself.
‘It must be White Tiger… but if assassination is his specialty, why is he talking so much?’
Seon Yul, too, instinctively realized that his opponent was White Tiger. However, what puzzled him was White Tiger’s behavior.
He did not know what White Tiger’s awakened ability was, but if it were truly specialized for assassination, then instead of continuing this conversation, he should have already launched a surprise attack.
“You’re probably thinking something like this… Why isn’t this guy quietly launching a sneak attack and instead just talking like this? Right?”
Once again, Seon Yul did not respond.
Instead, he stared at White Tiger, contemplating whether to launch a preemptive strike or wait a little longer.
“But this is just how I am. I’ve assassinated and killed countless people so far… and this is how most of them died.”
‘This feels bad….’
Sensing something ominous, Seon Yul immediately positioned a GAU-19 at the entrance of Absolute Space [Tatto] opened in his right palm.
“Because whether they die this way or that way, the dead don’t speak.”
Swish.
As he spoke, White Tiger took a step sideways.
Behind the open door, a single painting had already been drawn in midair.
[Real Painting [Black Shadow Legion] activated.]
White Tiger stepped aside and infused mana into the Real Painting he had prepared behind him.
At once, black human-shaped figures… seemingly made of shadow, began pouring out from the painting.
This was the ability he had used most frequently while killing countless mana users.
It was an ability perfectly suited to the saying that no one can withstand overwhelming numbers. As long as White Tiger continued injecting mana, shadowy humanoid figures kept emerging from the painting.
Though each shadow figure might be weak, once their number climbed into the dozens or hundreds, they became naturally difficult to handle.
Most summoning-type awakened abilities had fixed limits on the number of summons they could call forth… but White Tiger’s Real Painting had no such restriction.
Thus, he set up all of his equipment to maximize his total mana pool and mana regeneration per second.
In this way, White Tiger fully exploited the limitless summoning potential of his awakened ability, and it had worked exceptionally well in practice.
In an instant, the hotel rooftop was filled with shadow humans. All of them rushed toward Seon Yul, and it seemed as though he would be surrounded and captured at any moment.
But at that very instant…
Seon Yul’s right palm erupted in flames.
Vrrrrr… dudududududududududududududu!
The number of shadow humans climbing from dozens into the hundreds was certainly threatening.
But Seon Yul possessed a rate of fire that overwhelmed that number.
An enchanted GAU-19 capable of firing 3,900 rounds per minute.
As it roared to life from within Seon Yul’s right palm, the countless shadow humans charging toward him were shattered into pieces and scattered apart.
Bangbangbangbangbangbangbang!
No matter how quickly shadow humans emerged from the ‘Real Painting [Black Shadow Legion]’ drawn in midair, only one or two could appear per second.
Yet Seon Yul unleashed 3,900 rounds per minute.
Even if each shadow human absorbed roughly 10–15 bullets before dissipating… the difference in speed was inevitable.
Thus, in an instant, the shadow humans vanished from the hotel rooftop.
At this turn of events, White Tiger was slightly startled.
But he still had many more paintings he could draw.
Using the Mana Brush in his right hand, he quickly began drawing another image.
This time, however, he painted not in the air… but on the ground.
The image he drew was a crude ‘hand.’
To be precise, it was a hand drawn up to about the elbow. The name of this painting was ‘Real Painting [Black Hand]’.
Black Hand was, quite literally, a black hand formed of shadow.
And compared to Black Shadow Legion, this painting produced virtual mana lifeforms faster and in greater quantity.
Papapapapapat!
Black hands began bursting out from the entire hotel floor.
Seon Yul immediately turned the GAU-19 toward the ground and opened fire.
Dududududu! Kwagagagagwang!
But this time, unlike with the shadow humans, the rate at which the shadow hands were resummoned exceeded the rate at which his firepower eliminated them.
Naturally, this kind of battle of attrition did not benefit Seon Yul.
Moreover, his bullets were not only destroying shadow hands… they were also damaging the rooftop itself. The hotel roof looked as though it might collapse at any moment.
‘I need to target the summoner, not the summons!’
Seon Yul recalled the fundamental weakness of summoning-type abilities and immediately shifted his aim from the shadow hands to White Tiger.
Dudududududududu!
Bullets poured toward White Tiger.
But as if he had anticipated this, White Tiger stacked layers of shadow hands in front of himself.
Bangbangbangbangbang!
The piled-up shadow hands formed a living shield, blocking every bullet from Seon Yul’s right palm.
‘I’ll punch through!’
Seon Yul focused even further, concentrating his fire on a single point.
He intended to break through the shadow-hand defense with a point-penetration strike and hit White Tiger directly.
Bangbangbangbangbang!
Bullets drilled into a single point, gradually piercing the defensive wall of shadow hands.
But at that moment, White Tiger began merging all the shadow hands into one.
Zzzzzzt!
Hundreds of shadow hands fused into a single gigantic shadow hand… this was ‘Real Painting [Great Black Hand]’
Now unified into one massive hand, it began enduring Seon Yul’s concentrated fire.
More precisely, wherever Seon Yul’s focused barrage tore through it, smaller Black Hands were rapidly summoned to fill the gaps, but the important point was that it was withstanding the assault.
Moreover, the Great Black Hand was not merely enduring… it began advancing toward Seon Yul.
It felt as though Seon Yul was being pushed back in this contest of firepower.
‘It’s pushing me back?’
Seon Yul even found the situation slightly absurd. He had roughly grasped his opponent’s ability, but he had not expected to be pressured like this.
‘Is this the limitation of Absolute Space [Tatto]?’
Because the entrance that Absolute Space [Tatto] could open was relatively small, there was inevitably a ceiling to his firepower.
Frankly, if he had opened a full-sized Absolute Space portal and used a minigun alongside the GAU-19, he likely would not have been pushed back and might have succeeded in breaking through.
In any case, Seon Yul lost the first round of the firepower clash… and as a result, the Great Black Hand slammed down upon the spot where he had been standing.
KWAAANG!
Seon Yul immediately ceased firing and threw himself backward. The Great Black Hand left a massive handprint etched into the rooftop.
‘In the end, I have to target the main body….’
After evading the Great Black Hand by leaping back, Seon Yul understood that continuing this struggle against the summons was meaningless attrition. He needed to strike White Tiger directly.
Shrrrrk.
This time, instead of the Gatling gun, Seon Yul drew out a wire.
Swooooosh! Drrrddrk!
He hurled the wire, wrapping it around the Great Black Hand.
Then, pulling the wire taut, he flung himself forward.
The plan was to bind the Great Black Hand momentarily and use the recoil to close the distance to White Tiger in a single motion.
But White Tiger perceived the intent and dispersed the Great Black Hand back into hundreds of smaller shadow hands, unraveling the wire and halting Seon Yul’s advance.
Seon Yul, who had been about to launch himself forward, abruptly stopped in place.
“Tch!”
At that precise moment, White Tiger swiftly drew a black lightning bolt in midair.
Incredibly, genuine black lightning began falling from above Seon Yul’s head.
Flash! KWAANG! KWAGWANG!
Four bolts of black lightning struck… one of them hitting Seon Yul directly.
Chiiiiii.
“Ghh…!”
It was not true lightning, but its power was substantial, clearly inflicting damage on Seon Yul’s body.
Of course, his hyper-regeneration ability instantly healed the wounds and damage, but in that brief moment, the dispersed shadow hands latched onto his entire body, gripping his legs, torso, and arms tightly.
“What the… that regeneration ability… just what are you?”
Though it was White Tiger who had landed the attack, he looked at Seon Yul in astonishment.
In that instant of White Tiger’s surprise, Seon Yul swiftly maneuvered the wire in his right hand, slicing through all the shadow hands clinging to his body.
Shrrrrrrk. Slice–drrrk!
The wire spun rapidly around his body, cutting away every shadow hand, allowing him to move freely once more.
And thus, the two returned to their starting positions.
“Hoo….”
Seon Yul steadied his breathing slightly, gripping the wire tightly in his right hand.
“Regeneration that looks like super-healing, an attack ability like carrying a machine gun inside your body, and on top of that, absurd wire control… The more I look at this, the less believable it is.”
White Tiger also muttered, holding the Mana Brush in his right hand, with a baffled expression.
‘When he draws, it becomes real? But… it doesn’t seem to become completely real.’
Seon Yul briefly pondered White Tiger’s ability.
If it were truly the power to turn drawings into reality, then it would be one of two types.
Either summoning-type or materialization-type.
But based on the battle so far, summoning-type seemed more likely.
Even the lightning Seon Yul had just been struck by had not felt like genuine lightning, but rather something resembling artificially created lightning… an energy-based summon.
‘And the fact that all the summons are black… is that because every drawing is made in black? Or because the pattern of mana infused into the summons is fixed to a single type?’
Seon Yul considered various possibilities.
Amazingly, most of his deductions were correct.
White Tiger’s awakened ability, Real Painting, produced creations infused with his unique mana… commonly referred to as ‘shadow mana.’
And this was also the reason his awakened ability belonged to the summoning category rather than materialization. True materialization would mean manifesting imagination into actual reality… but White Tiger did not turn imagination into true reality. Instead, he infused imagination with shadow mana to create virtual summons.
Though the ability was called Real Painting, it was not truly real.
While Seon Yul analyzed White Tiger’s awakened ability, White Tiger was likewise rapidly analyzing Seon Yul’s.
But no matter how much he thought it over, he could not even begin to guess.
For a single mana user to possess near-super-regenerative healing, machine-gun-like offensive capability, wire control as though manipulating a living creature, and on top of all that, an incomprehensibly powerful long-range bombardment ability…
It was impossible to make sense of.
‘No matter what, he must die here.’
At this point, the conclusion became easy.
If he were not killed before his level rose further and his proficiency deepened, he would undoubtedly become an uncontrollable monster.
Especially since it seemed a grudge had already formed, even if White Tiger simply opened a door with ‘The Door’ and fled, this opponent would clearly become an even greater threat later.
No… not just a greater threat, but an unmanageable one.
‘He must die!’
Having reached that conclusion, White Tiger immediately moved the Mana Brush, beginning to draw upon his own body.
Zzzzt.
This was the most powerful Real Painting he could use.
A special level reward he had obtained upon reaching Level 100.
Real Painting [Descent of the Black God]
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