Surviving Restructuring

“Team Leader!”

Eun-Ho was back.

“Mister! Why did you only just—huh?!”

He stood far away from his companions, right in the middle of the enemy formation. To be precise, he stood at the very heart of death, where black toxic miasma lay thick.

The director’s voice rang out, irritation crushed tightly into every syllable. “Lee Eun-Ho.”

“Eun-Ho!” Ji-Eun shouted over him, her voice bursting with relief and joy, like a water balloon hitting the ground.

Absolute hostility and unconditional welcome collided in the air.

“There seems to be an uninvited guest,” Eun-Ho addressed the hostile one first. “I believe I told you it would be best not to go out of your way to visit.”

The director’s eyebrow twitched.

Eun-Ho tracked the movement with his eyes and added calmly, “You must be terribly bored.”

“You impudent brat! If I spared you once, you should’ve known to bow your head and stay in line!”

“Oh? You spared me, Director? I must have missed that.”

“Tolerance is granted only once.”

Only once?

Eun-Ho recalled words spoken lightly after the auction at the tea meeting.

“Oh, and you don’t need to trouble yourself by coming all the way to my land. I’ll visit you when I can afford it.”

“What?”

“To outsiders, it might look like you’ve got nothing better to do.”

It seemed the director remembered them too.

Therefore, Eun-Ho returned the favor. “The same applies to you.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Then, Eun-Ho raised the Sky-Shattering Blade, which writhed like a freshly caught serpent. “Mercy is given only once.”

“What?!”

“If you’ve been beaten once, you should know when to give up. Did you really think throwing more bodies at it would change anything?”

“How dare you!” The acrid smoke surrounding the director shimmered like a heat haze. He furiously roared again, “Who do you think you are, spewing such drivel?!”

Sssss—

The pitch-black smoke carpeting the ground began to stir.

“I’ll melt that wicked tongue of yours first!” shouted the director.

The smoke surged like a wave.

“Kyaaah! Mister! Watch out!”

“Young Man! Get over here!”

The billowing wave into a towering tide, higher than a man.

“It’ll take time to put the barrier back up! Hurry!” shouted the security guard.

[You have been exposed to the aura of death.]

However, standing before the oncoming banquet of death, Eun-Ho did not retreat.

“Guardians!” he shouted to the Guardians, who kept watch over the forest with iron-clad will. “Protect the owners of this land from the profane miasma and from my own blade.”

“By the master’s will!”

“By the master’s will!”

“By the master’s will!”

The Guardians answered in unison, lashing out steel-like roots.

“W-wait! Aaaaargh!”

“C-Captain! Please!”

The enemy soldiers bound by roots were blown apart in an instant. The Guardians lifted Eun-Ho’s companions onto massive branches like sparrows on a tree, then immediately withdrew.

“Kyaaa!”

“Team Leader?! Why are you sending us away?!”

“E-Eun-Ho!”

Only after confirming the area was clear did Eun-Ho step forward. He braved the wave instead of waiting for it to crash down on him.

“Open it,” he ordered his Skeleton Knights.

“Y-yes sir!”

The rotten earth sank beneath his feet like a swamp.

Fwaaaaash—

[You have opened the Loyal Retainer's Path.]

He stepped onto the faintly glowing road laid out by Skeletal Knights.

“We will protect you!”

“For our Commander!”

With one step, the black haze swallowed his ankles.

[Lofty loyalty shields you from death.]

With two steps, a flash of brilliant silver exploded like a flare.

[Your inherent vitality has not been drained.]

[Stamina reduction has been prevented.]

With three steps, the road of light stretched forward and collided head-on with the wave of death. They locked into a clash of wills and shattered.

[Unyielding loyalty has driven away negation and despair.]

[The sparks of positivity and hope have been preserved.]

Then, at last, he stood face to face with the director.

“You’ve picked up quite a few tricks.” the director spat out the words in a low, phlegm-choked voice. Perhaps death itself lingered in his throat. “That ability of yours is unfamiliar—”

Eun-Ho cut him off, unwilling to indulge the revolting sound. “Sword Gale Tempest.”

He let his sword, its dark blade reflecting black light, hang loosely at his side. White scars, like lightning etched into steel, flared across the edge. From there, blue energy surged outward, covering the entire blade in rolling waves. The wind that would cut down everything except Eun-Ho himself rose.

“Oh gosh!”

A whirlwind slowly took shape, and dazzling particles of light swirled violently. Shards of glass-like blades danced within the vortex. It was a storm of slicing gales that would tear flesh to ribbons at a touch.

Facing it head-on, the director shouted urgently, “O’ primordial death! Your executor proclaims! Stop it!”

Fwaaash—!

Death condensed and compressed, forming the shape of an unbreakable fist that slammed down from above.Black death wrapped around the forest. Following that, a storm rose, fierce enough to scatter not only death itself, but the lingering shadow in everyone’s hearts.

The director let out a low groan. “Keugh...”

It was impossible to tell whether it was because the acrid miasma had been swept away by the storm, or because the Sword Gale Tempest had grazed his shoulder as he staggered back.

“You contemptible wretch! You were hiding power like this all along?!”

One thing, however, was certain. The savage force of death that had once forced all living beings to their knees was now trapped inside the storm, rendered helpless.

The director was furious at being unable to move even an inch. “Suppress this filthy wind at once! Or I will chew you down to the marrow!”

His face, long hidden behind a mask of benevolence, flushed red and blue with rage.

“Well,” Eun-Ho said mildly.

It would be troublesome if he was already this angry when things had only just begun.

“Did you really come barging onto someone else’s land without being prepared for this much?”

***

“Move in!” the Division One leader barked as he reset his stance.

Even though keeping their footing against the raging storm was a challenge on its own, they chose to advance instead of retreating. The reason was simple.

“If even a scratch appears on the director’s precious body, we’re all dead men!”

They knew better than anyone what fleeing before the enemy would mean.

Suddenly, a massive tree was caught in the storm and shredded into pieces. A nearby soldier was ground to nothing before their eyes.

“Aaaaaargh!”

After witnessing that horrific sight, not a single soldier was foolish enough to take another step forward.

“T-the storm is too strong!”

“If we rush in, we’ll end up like him!”

To protect himself, the director unleashed a deathly aura, condensing it into a spear and shield known as the Death Hand. It could instantly drain a target’s vitality and convert it into power. Yet the supposedly invincible weapon had been swallowed by the enemy’s storm, and even began turning against them.

“T-the storm is growing! Fall back!”

The larger the black grasp grew, the more violent the storm became. The director himself was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, Eun-Ho, now bearing glossy black wings, rose into the sky. Amid the raging storm, he held a sword crackling with blue killing intent.[1]

“H-he can fly?!”

On the ground, death, blade fragments, and flesh were flung about by the howling winds. Above it all, Eun-Ho ascended, gazing down at his prey with the lofty poise of a predator.

The leader was thrown into confusion. “This has never been observed before!”

A Sword Gale Tempest and wings, on top of that? the leader thought.

The new abilities themselves were not what shocked him. What was truly astonishing was that Eun-Ho had never once revealed them until now. That fact could mean only one of two things. First, that he had never fought at full strength before. Or second, that he had grown at a terrifying pace in an incredibly short amount of time.

He’s frightening either way.

A chill ran down his spine.

Eun-Ho was either a man with the monstrous restraint to hide his true power until the decisive moment, or a warrior rising at a pace no one in the combat unit could hope to rival.

Let’s hope it’s the former. If it were the latter, there will soon be no one left who can oppose him.

Especially for those within the company, who lived stagnant lives in frozen time.

As the leader subconsciously rubbed the back of his now-chilled neck, a thunderclap of an order struck from within the storm.

“Capture him!” the director ordered.

Startled by the command, the soldiers snapped to attention.

“Yes sir!”

“Disruption unit! Deploy!”

“Yes sir!”

No matter how frightening this man is, we would win this battle!

Repeating that obvious truth to himself, the combat leader issued his orders with renewed resolve. “Everyone, stay sharp!”

“Understood!”

Then came the special attacks.

“Fire!”

Firearms discharged from the soldiers’ hands. They were specially commissioned mutant pollen, able to block Eun-Ho’s escape and suppress his abilities. Shells of multicolored powder flew through the air like artillery.

This was their chance as he seemed distracted.

“You little bastard! Get over here!” said the cleaning lady.

However, in the blink of an eye, the precious pollen bombs were sucked into a rake-like spear tip.

“W-what the—”

Damn it. That cleaner’s ability was only supposed to suck in objects right in front of her. How is she pulling in bombs from this distance?!

“Next!”

Fine. Then the next item!

[Shadow Snare has been activated!]

“Throw it high!”

A disruption unit soldier hurled the shape of a coiled, sinister snake. “Yes sir!”

As long as there was light and shadow, the Shadow Snare could seize anything. With this, they could drag that bastard down from the sky, wings and all.

[Shadow Snare has been activated!]

[Shadow Snare has been activated!]

[Shadow Snare has been activated!]

...

At least one of them would land. That was what they firmly believed.

“Jin-Sol! Cha Jin-Sol!”

“Hey! I saw it too!”

However, what dozens of traps ended up catching was monkeys that had swung in from the trees.

“Rock... monkeys?!”

“Kiiik! Kihiii”

“Kik kik!”

“Ugh! Damn it! Where did these things even come from?!” the leader shouted.

No matter how powerful the traps were, they were useless. Every time they were thrown, something completely unrelated got caught instead.

“Captain... Could this be—” a deputy commander began, his face twisted.

“Just retarget,” the leader snapped. “There’s nothing to worry about!”

He would not allow doubt to spill from the mouth of someone meant to command the battlefield.

Everything was proceeding according to plan, he repeated it to himself like a mantra as he pressed the attack.

[Pursuit Arrow has been activated!]

[Targeting...]

The tracking arrow, meant to be the decisive blow, left the bowstring.

However, as if it had been waiting for that exact moment, a Skeleton Knight hurled some finger bones. “Bone Bomb... on its way!”

Boom—!

The precious arrow exploded along with the bones. At that point, there was no choice but to admit it.

“Information’s leaked!”

“What?!”

Their responses were too precise and too prepared. It was as if the enemy knew exactly what item would be used, and when.

Fueled by the filthy sensation of being played in the palm of someone else’s hand, the leader dashed into the storm. “We need to report this to the director!”

Just then, Lee Eun-Ho’s calm voice drifted down from above. “You don’t really have the luxury to look away right now.”

“W-when did you get this close?!” The leader’s heart pounded. Sweat ran down his spine and his legs trembled. “You bastard!”

Still, he endured. He could not allow a mere team leader, someone of employee rank, to seize the initiative. Lee Eun-Ho was not the only one skilled with a blade!

To prove it, he lifted his greatsword. “Blade Command Art!”

The massive sword, wrapped in black killing intent nearly identical to its master’s aura, rose into the air.

Snap—

The greatsword hovered there, radiating a sinister presence. Its edge gleamed with murderous intent, mirrored by the cold, razor-sharp gaze fixed on Eun-Ho.

Then, its wielder said again, “I was planning to leave you for the Director, but—”

“Sword Thread,” Eun-Ho said.

Dozens of invisible strands sliced through the man, carving him into chunks of flesh.

“Aaaaargh! The director won’t let this hap—!”

That was what he believed. However, it was meaningless.

The words he never finished were like his body, scattered across the filthy ground in useless fragments.

***

“Aaaaargh!”

The dying scream of his subordinate rang out.

Upon hearing that, the director’s rage blanketed the sky and shook the earth. “You wretch!!”

Liquefied black miasma burst upward through the storm akin to an erupting volcano.

“You dare slaughter two of my limbs?! I swore I would never use this, but I have no choice!”

Sssss—

Then, a rotting, lake-like grasp swallowed the raging storm whole.

“I’ll rip out your tongue, your head, your spine! And melt them all!” the director roared.

Let’s evade first, Eun-Ho thought.

“Acc—”

Eun-Ho was about to twist the axis of time he had been saving. However, just as he moved to escape, the Forest Guardians hurled themselves forward all at once.

“You foul servant of death!”

“Face us first!”

Roots and vines that touched the Death Hand blackened instantly. Lush greenery rotted and collapsed before their eyes. Anyone could see it devouring the life force around it.

“W-what is that?!”

“Does it kill you just by touching it?! This is insane!”

Murmurs spread among the team members who had been clashing blades with the enemy.

“I’ll handle it!”

“Me too!”

A few brave souls fired holy water, arrows of light, and bullets forged from condensed mental power. However, the Death Hand wrapped around the director like a flower bud, and he vanished.

“Huh?”

“He disappeared!”

“You think such attacks could harm me?!”

Then, the director reappeared far away. The black grasp dissolved into smoke, only to manifest again somewhere else over and over. It was as if the man and the death miasma were being broken down to the molecular level and reassembled, which was a horrifying sight.

“Is that t-teleportation?!”

“Can we even shoot arrows at him?!”

The director’s ghostlike movements left everyone stunned.

“Lee Eun-Ho,” he called from atop the undergrowth.

After effortlessly dodging a rain of arrows, he called again from the roof of the log cabin, “Lee Eun-Ho!”

Then after evading even predictive shots, he called again from the clearing where he had first appeared, “Lee Eun-Ho!”

The third invocation felt persistent and ominous, akin to a grim reaper summoning a soul to the afterlife. A shiver ran down Eun-Ho’s spine.

Draped in the Death Hand like a cloak, the director advanced with his arms spread wide, his face twisted between laughter and rage. “Become part of me!”

“What kind of insane bullshit are you saying?” Eun-Ho muttered.

“There is only one path of atonement for you. Become nourishment for my exalted body!”

“That phlegm-looking bastard really talking big—” Swear-Master muttered.

“That’s enough,” Eun-Ho said.

Well if you want to absorb something so badly, then I’ll let you just as you wish.

“Acceleration.”

Go on. Look forward to what that filthy body is about to absorb.

1. ***E/N: he’s the storm that is approaching ☜

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