Chapter 653

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Chapter 653: The Great Prison Break (2)

Time to dig up the ground.

In other words, wasn’t it time for the Presidents—who were already smashing Kaujo apart with nothing but a single sword—to even don their armor?

“You mean digging the ground… literally?”

When Yeongwoo asked this, the long-haired man grabbed Yeongwoo’s forearm instead of answering.

—Lend me Vesedel’s sword. If you give permission in place of Dogo, that should suffice.

He was asking for the Bastard.

Even in the middle of this chaos, the name “Dogo” still carried enough weight that one had to politely ask for permission.

So Yeongwoo held out the Bastard to the man and said,

“This sword used to be mine once, so I’ll grant the permission.”

—Interesting.

The man grinned.

Then, as he grabbed the Bastard that Yeongwoo held out, he gave a warning.

—Hold on to me tightly. We’re going straight into the middle of the battlefield.

“…Excuse me?”

A 3rd-grade being wouldn’t say nonsense, so Yeongwoo must not have heard wrong.

And indeed, the man began to move.

Hwaeaaaet!

Carrying Yeongwoo half slung over one shoulder, he leapt high into the air.

Not only that—he vaulted over the frontline where the two forces were fiercely clashing and was now flying straight toward the center of the enemy formation, where Kaujo swarmed thick.

“Uh? Uaaagh! Sir?”

Seeing the ground below packed with pitch-black Kaujo, Yeongwoo screamed involuntarily, and then—

Kuuuuung!

The man landed while impaling one of the Kaujo beneath his feet with the Bastard.

At once, the Kaujo filling every direction began stabbing their swords toward the long-haired man—and Yeongwoo—without the slightest hesitation.

“Aaaaargh!”

The only thing Yeongwoo could do was cover himself with Aratubank while screaming, and in truth the man handled all the fighting alone.

Kwigigit!

With movements unbelievably fast, he knocked away the twin blades flying in from every direction… no, from all eight directions.

Then, in the briefest gap, he flicked a finger and remotely snapped the neck of one of the Kaujo.

—As expected of Vesedel’s sword. It moves astonishingly well.

“No, sir! The force gathered here is battalion-level. If we come this deep in, aren’t we already dead men?”

Even this long-haired man—when he had once been fully armed in his younger days—hadn’t been able to endure a company-sized force of Kaujo.

At this, the man spoke again while crossing blades with the Kaujo from all eight directions.

—Others will soon respond.

“Respond?”

The moment Yeongwoo asked this, part of the prisoner formation launched themselves toward the vicinity of the long-haired man and Yeongwoo.

Kwaeaaaeeet!

They had willingly added their strength to what was essentially a suicide mission.

As a result, the attacks aimed at the long-haired man naturally began to disperse, and in that gap the man stabbed the sword into the ground.

Kwaak!

Then the hand gripping the sword began to turn a deep blue.

“…?”

Yeongwoo didn’t know what it was, but he could at least tell that a tremendous energy reaction was occurring in the man’s forearm.

Soon even the crimson Bastard turned bluish, and something like a gigantic magic circle appeared across the entire ground.

“What is this…?”

Just as Yeongwoo’s eyes widened with the intuition that something was about to happen, the man shouted loudly.

—Get away!

At that, the 3rd-grade prisoners fighting nearby against the Kaujo all leapt into the air at once, and at the same time the ground exploded.

Peeeeoooooong!

What he had said earlier about digging up the ground had been meant quite literally.

Of course, Yeongwoo—who was closest to the blast point—received the full force of the explosion, and the long-haired man as well.

Kwaaaaaaaa!

“Ughaaack!”

While Yeongwoo groaned behind the Aratubank he had barely thrust forward, the man stood bare-bodied within the pillar of fire.

And finally—

Hwaaaat!

When the aftermath of the explosion subsided and gray smoke began rising from beneath the ground, the Kaujo—who had been swinging their swords in perfect coordination—flinched.

And the reason was—

Uuuuuung……

Some kind of vibration coming from beneath the shattered ground.

“Sir, what kind of sound is that?”

As Yeongwoo stuck his head out from behind the Aratubank and asked, the man swept back his singed hair and replied.

—The sound of weapons coming to find their masters.

“Find their mas—”

Before Yeongwoo could finish the sentence, a sound came from deep beneath the ground.

Weeeeeeeeeng!

It sounded like cars speeding through a long tunnel.

And then—

Chwaaaaaak!

With the sound of air tearing apart, all kinds of equipment burst upward through the gray smoke.

“Uh…!”

From vicious-looking blades to helmets, armor, boots, and even accessories.

The sight of all sorts of gear scattering through the air was somewhat comical, but what happened next was anything but.

—Ah.

—Finally.

—It’s here.

As the 3rd-grade prisoners stretched out their hands, the equipment in the air shot toward their respective owners like arrows.

Swaeaaaaaak!

In the blink of an eye dozens of prisoners had finished fully arming themselves, and the effect this event had on the frontline was enormous.

With the fully armed prisoners forming the spearhead and stabbing deep into the Kaujo formation, the entire situation collapsed in an instant.

■ Stop them! Don’t let these bastards escape outside!

■ Activate the alarm!

Even as the tide of battle completely overturned, the Kaujo—true to being the Police Bureau’s strongest strike force—held their positions.

Even when a comrade’s head burst open right beside them, they did not spare it a glance.

And soon after, they themselves also lost their lives.

Each time it happened, the large goggles worn on the Kaujo’s heads shattered, making it look as if black fireworks were exploding all around.

“My god.”

A clash of the strong against the strong, with the ending gradually beginning to appear.

And at some point the prisoners had already seized the central sector of the security block, so additional “digging” was now being carried out.

Peeeeooooong!

Someone had dug up another underground armory.

Swaeaaaaaak!

Once again dozens of pieces of equipment shot into the air with a chilling tearing sound, and for the first time the long-haired man raised his arm.

—It’s truly been a long time.

The moment those words ended, what flew into his hand was a massive greatsword so large it completely blocked one side of his vision.

A black greatsword whose blade was so dark it looked as if one might be sucked into it.

Then a suit of light armor made from deep-navy metal wrapped itself around the man’s entire body.

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“…!”

And the moment Yeongwoo saw the color of the armor, he realized.

“Katangdal…?”

—You have sharp eyes.

Then the man grabbed Yeongwoo with his left hand and, with his right, swung the greatsword as he advanced through the Kaujo.

Taaaaat!

And then—

Hwaeaaaaaak!

As if space itself had been sliced apart, a pitch-black trajectory carved away a whole cluster of Kaujo.

In a single strike, a two-squad-sized group of Kaujo vanished.

‘Damn… So that’s why the first containment failed.’

And right now the man didn’t even have a single piece of his original myth-grade equipment.

So in the true “wild,” he must have been far stronger than this.

At last Yeongwoo understood why the Police Bureau didn’t waste resources on petty criminals like himself.

Monstrous criminals like these were drawing all of the Bureau’s attention.

In a way, thanks to these big shots, small fry like Yeongwoo had been able to grow.

“Sir—no, President! You must survive and get out!”

Moved by emotion on his own, Yeongwoo shouted toward the back of the man’s head.

Immediately a pitch-black arc flashed, and the corpses of the Kaujo split into two halves and scattered through the air.

Pwaaah!

—We’ve already crossed the line, so there’s no choice but to escape.

Around then, the ground on the other side exploded once more.

Teoooooong!

Another armory had been opened.

■ ……!

At this, several Kaujo turned their heads slightly and looked at the newly risen equipment.

‘They’re finally starting to waver.’

Even an ultimate strike force that dealt only with big shots couldn’t help being affected by morale, as long as they were living beings.

After all, more than half of the 3rd-grade prisoners were now armed.

Meanwhile the Kaujo, who once filled the entire security block, had only two companies remaining.

In truth, every Kaujo here could already be considered as good as dead.

The remaining question was simply whether their deaths here would be meaningless—or not.

—Thanks to you we managed to save many lives, but time is still short.

“Time is short?”

—The Kaujo must have sensed defeat early and sounded the alarm, so forces from headquarters will already be on their way.

“Th-then those guys…”

When Yeongwoo looked at the Kaujo still fighting bravely, the man said briefly,

—They’re buying time. Not a single one here believes they will survive.

That applied not only to the Kaujo but also to the 3rd-grade prisoners here.

Kuuuuung!

Another armory opened, and meanwhile one company of Kaujo was cut down, essentially clearing the path toward the security block’s exit.

—I have already seen my own fate many times, so this time I will stake everything on yours.

Yeongwoo might be a petty criminal, but at the same time he was a wonder of the universe.

The man was saying he would trust Yeongwoo’s unfolding path.

Taat!

As the man moved beyond the central sector of the security block, the laser barrage that had momentarily slackened began again.

Piit, piiiiit!

And behind them came a savage bursting sound announcing the annihilation of the last Kaujo company.

In the end, the prisoners had wiped out every last force in the security block.

“…!”

When Yeongwoo turned around, he saw heavily armed 3rd-grade prisoners rushing out in droves, black fireworks exploding behind them.

‘I… what have I done.’

Cold sweat suddenly broke out.

Had he perhaps committed an irreversible mistake—one that would greatly disrupt the balance of the universe?

“……”

As Yeongwoo quietly clutched his stiffened chest, the man split the sealing plate of the security block’s exit in two with a single blow.

Kwaeaaaaak!

At that moment, the closed block—where prisoners of grade 4 and below were imprisoned beneath iron bars—spread out before Yeongwoo and the man.

—Waaaaaah!

—A prison break! Is it a prison break…!

—Save us too!

With the roars of countless prisoners who, sensing the time had come, boldly broke the rule of “silence.”

The man lowered the black greatsword to the ground and asked briefly.

—Decide quickly. Will you release them as well? Herisa likely did not intend this much, but if you wish it, they too will become free.

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