"You dare humiliate me? I said come down on my side, not the other side!" The King started to lose his temper, and his tantrum was audible.
Everyone thought it was nothing much, except for the elders who have seen the King's might and wrath themselves. Just as Seunghyuk's scary thought had warned him, the King was a dangerous existence. Even the elders, being the most skilful Nighthowlers, were easily pressed down by the King's aura pressure. Slowly, unsettlement started to settle in and slowly, that feeling grew into fear.
"Quick! We have to go! The King's power is not to be underestimated!" One of the elder Nighthowlers immediately said with a hushed and rushed tone, prompting everybody to instantly take off running, which everyone did.
Seunghyuk watched as the five elder Nighthowlers ran one by one, then Jisung followed behind at a slower pace, cautiously running at an angle that it would not trigger his injury's pain. Seunghyuk ran behind the six of them, carefully pacing himself so that he was always running behind the group. The night was chilly with the cold, untouchable moon sitting silently atop the darkened clouds at night, emitting coldness from every angle. However, the cold and shivers that Seunghyuk was starting to feel were not due to the cold night, but the impending danger coming from behind. It was only a matter of seconds before the Nighthowler King, Kim Yangwon, somehow leaps over the tall wall and gets to them.
Seunghyuk's thoughts were somewhat accurate, but like a dart's trajectory when shot, it doesn't always land a bullseye. Instead of leaping over the wall, it seems like the King merely just passed through the wall like some sort of unregistered entity in a game world. Seunghyuk made eye contact with the dangerous King and the smirk that was once on the Nighthowler King's face had been completely erased and redrawn over with an unsatisfied frown. Danger built up layer by layer, then it tiled up block by block, slowly, the threatening aura of the King had reached not only Seunghyuk but Jisung who was running in front and also the elder Nighthowlers that were leading the group.
"The King got over! He somehow passed through the wall like it was nothing!" Seunghyuk informed the rest of them who were running hastily in front, even though they already knew something was off, being informed by Seunghyuk made them dash at an even faster speed.
Seunghyuk leaned his body weight forward and ran faster, grabbing Jisung's wrist to pull him forward, forcing him to run faster despite his injuries. Seunghyuk was deep in thought as he continued to push forward, catching up with the five elder Nighthowlers, thinking about how he was able to use a similar skill as the King like during the arena match where he had seemingly passed through the competing Conqueror's huge palm. However, Seunghyuk knew fairly well that he was only able to create that illusion of warping distances as his body travelled faster than the speed of light so the naked eye could not detect the movements. Similarly, Seunghyuk flew to the sides out of the arena stage to avoid the palm, then ran back to the stage centre at an impossible speed, so it seemed like Seunghyuk had passed through the palm when everything happened in less than half a second at that point in time.
Yet what scared Seunghyuk was that the wall was stretched out all the way to separate the path into two halves, so there was no way that moving to the side and back was possible; the wall was giantly tall, looming over human figures like humans were mere dogs and cats, so it was near impossible to scale over the wall and land on the other side within less than half a second. Only one thing was left, and it was that one thing that Seunghyuk did not want to admit deep down in his heart, but unfortunately, what the King might have done was probably actual intangibility.
"I already made myself crystal clear that not a single soul will leave here unscathed!" The King roared inhumanely, and let both his palms shake at a crazy speed, building up visible tension in the palms, then with one foot as a pivot, the King spun himself around and swiped both his palms forward with so much power that the air in front of him started to twist and bend abnormally, pushing through the atmosphere as it accelerates towards Jisung, currently the last person running behind the group, dragged along by Seunghyuk.
Seunghyuk immediately summoned a wall of fire behind of Jisung, but the attack seemed to twist the flame activity as well, pushing through the fire wall at a lowered speed. Seunghyuk did not take chances and instantly flicked his wrist forcefully to the front to send Jisung forward, allowing the incoming attack to slam into his back as he grimaced silently in pain. Even though the attack's speed was not as fast as it was when it was first launched out, it still sealed quite a significant damage to Seunghyuk's back. At that point in time, after he had seen and felt the King's attack in action, he suddenly remembered the skill that the King had used-Tornado Claw. Jisung worriedly look at Seunghyuk with eyes that seemed to say: Why did you do that? Are you crazy? However, none of them stopped running but continued to press forward despite Seunghyuk being in pain.
"Quick! He's catching up!" Seunghyuk shouted loudly and earned maniacal laughter of a drunk man in a bar from the King behind him, but he did not bother to turn his head behind and slow himself down, so he ran forward like a 200-metre sprint race athlete, dragging a tired out Jisung behind him like a balloon where he stopped beside the five elder Nighthowlers, hearing one of them chant, "Nepowa Latropia!"
Seunghyuk heard the foreign sound enter his eardrums but it travelled into his brain with the medium of a familiar language instead. It was a weird process that Seunghyuk knew he had to get used to with his skill of Ancient Language Comprehension.
"Did you open a portal?" Seunghyuk asked the elder Nighthowler that chanted and pasted a shocked face on him as the elder Nighthowler probably did not expect to see Seunghyuk understanding the Nighthowler's language, but he stabilised himself and replied to Seunghyuk with a hushed and rushed tone yet again, "Yes, we have to get into the kingdom itself so that the King will not be able to kill us so easily with all the Nighthowlers there watching him. The King would not be willing to cause panic in his own kingdom."
Seunghyuk understood the elder Nighthowler's point and was about to get himself focussed on reaching the opened portal before he heard another angry roar from behind. The existence of the King had knocked himself into view, and with a dramatic entrance, sending three sets of attacks from the skill Tornado Claw, which forced the group to stop in their tracks to defend. Seunghyuk learned his lesson after being hit once and summoned the Snake of Ophiuchus, turning the snake's tail to gold with the sub-skill of Serpens Cauda Strengthen. Two of the claw attacks were stopped by the snake but one twisted its way through and slammed hard into Jisung which opened a wound on Jisung's back.
"Jisung! God damn it, just run!" Seunghyuk frowned intensely and ran with Jisung following closely behind, the elder Nighthowlers still leading the way to the portal, but not long after, the air felt denser and the air particles almost seemed like it vibrated out of position.
"Even if it doesn't work on you, puny humans, I'm pretty sure taking down five out of seven is a good trade!" The King laughed again with heavy hints of madness, using his skill of Aura Pressure to press the elder Nighthowlers' bodies down to the ground, immobilising them almost completely as he mocked again, "What do you do now, human? Attack me again? You can try!"
Seunghyuk did not know what to do, and he knew it would be useless to try and forcefully pull the elder Nighthowlers up as the Aura Pressure was too strong and effective against Nighthowlers themselves. Seunghyuk stood there like a lost goat and Jisung stood behind the lost goat looking worriedly at the situation unfold right in front of his two eyes.
"G...Go! Now!" One of the elder Nighthowlers used his strong willpower to force his lips to move and his vocal box to vibrate despite being pressed downwards by strong pressure, "Fro...front! Straight!"
Seunghyuk had nothing else to think about but run, run and run like a mad dog with its tail on fire looking for a pool of water to extinguish the flame. Jisung was dragged along by Seunghyuk as the two of them flew down the path that seemed to never end as the five elder Nighthowlers were slowly able to stand up as their bodies got used to the pressure. It seemed clear to Seunghyuk that the elder Nighthowlers wanted to sacrifice themselves and their safety to help him and Jisung get to the portal.
Hence, Seunghyuk did, and never once turned his head back, only continuing to sprint down the path with amazing stamina.
At the back, the five elder Nighthowlers have all shapeshifted into Nighthowlers and they all leapt up towards the King, claws gleaming brightly in the moonlight as the five pair of claws scratched and slashed multiple times on the King's body, but the King seemed unfazed.
"That was all that is for me?" The King mocked and rushed forward, hopping up into the air and swung his right leg like a rotating axe, ramming it into one of the elder Nighthowler's neck, "Oh, what have I done? Have I broken one's neck?"
The other elder Nighthowlers growled angrily and lashed out instantaneously, sending red claw marks that seemed to fly out from their claws and accelerating towards the King. Just when the hammer was thought to hit the nail on the head, the wood shifted due to pressure and the nail bent to the left disobediently, causing the hammer to miss the nail. The King used his skill of Shadow Movements to switch his position with his shadow, which teleported him down to a lying position on the ground as it was where his shadow was situated. Though awkward, the King had at least avoided a flurry of attacks for the elder Nighthowlers and send a Tornado Claw attack from the lying position as a counterattack, which worked perfectly to knock down another elder Nighthowler.
At this point, all light seemed faint and all exits seemed distanced far away. The remaining three elder Nighthowlers that are still standing have seen hopelessness in each other's eyes and uselessness in their own actions and attacks. All of their minds gave rise to that one single thought: succumb to and give up.
The King laughed and stood up, dusting his shoulders and knees, then raised his hand high up to slam it downwards as if his hands were strong mallets.
Then, the King's actions stopped halfway, then his whole body just started to lose control, like he was drugged halfway through the fight somehow.
"We...We're saved? What happened?" One of the standing elder Nighthowlers asked in confusion, and they were given a clear answer that sucked out all the doubts in their heads like a vacuum.
"You're saved, for now at least and what happened, you ask?" Seunghyuk appeared as he walked out of the darkness and joined the five elder Nighthowlers, helping the fallen ones to stand up slowly while Jisung warily checked the state of the King as Seunghyuk continued, "I couldn't just leave you there fighting without me doing anything. It just does not sit well with me, so I still ended up coming anyway."