-This…

Mayhab’s voice was now more hoarse. He still kept his shape, but he was constantly melting away.

-You wanted to win in this embarrassing way?

“Yeah, you son of a b*tch,” Dohyuk spat as he tightly held onto Mayhab. Mayhab was infuriated.

-You… ugh!

Dohyuk shoved his finger into the figure’s mouth, melting the tongue and the vocal chord.

“You’ve talked enough. Shut up now.”

Mayhab tried to move frantically to pull himself away from Dohyuk.

“That’s embarrassing.”

Dohyuk took some severe damage. His fingers that he shoved into the mouth were cut and every part of his body was either burnt or his bones were crushed.

But even then, Dohyuk did not back away. When last of his fingers was cut down in the mouth, Dohyuk added, “You want more?”

He then pushed his arm deeper into Mayhab’s throat.

-…!!!

It was then that his leg that melted down and Mayhab flung backwards. Dohyuk also dropped, but he couldn’t speak any longer either as his nose and mouth were all burnt.

Yet on top of Mayhab, the Dohyuk that lost his leg jumped up.

“Oh, look! I have two more hands here?”

Dohyuk flashed his hands, and that was the last thing Mayhab could see.

With the hand wielding the heat, Dohyuk gouged Mayhab’s two eyes.

“Say something if it hurts!”

He couldn’t speak of course the other Dohyuk who was almost unconscious still had his arm in his throat.

“Or get lost if you got nothing to say!”

Dohyuk kept on pushing down, wishing that Mayhab had formed his pain receptors in this body so he could feel every bit of pain until he won.

“Honestly…”

Yuri glanced around at the place of massacre with no blood. Most of Mayhab’s soldiers were either limbless or had stakes in their bodies. Their metal bodies kept them alive, but there was no difference from dying in that state.

“I don’t think this is a favorable outcome.”

Giwon, who was in the process of gathering powerless soldiers, asked, “Why is that?”

“We won too perfectly. We have no casualties.”

“If Boss hears you speaking like that…”

“Oh, I know, I know. I am aware that I mustn’t speak like this. That’s why I’m talking to you.”

Yuri spoke annoyingly as she waved her hand. “You know what I mean, right? Of course, it’s good that no one’s dead and…”

Yuri looked at the dome across the sea.

“Another legend will be added for Yoo Dohyuk. Another perfect victory.”

“…”

Giwon did not stop her. He too understood what she was trying to say.

“This isn’t good.”

Yuri lashed her whip at the ground where a soldier who was pretending to be powerless was trying to throw a sword. Instead of throwing the soldier away with her whip, Yuri pulled it and sliced off the soldier’s head.

If Yuri was late even for a slight second, the soldier would’ve thrown the sword at the city wall and killed someone, a person in the crowd that was cheering for Dohyuk right now.

“I’m not trying to discredit it for being an easy victory… but you know it better than me. It’s already the second time. Both were perfect victories.”

“…It’s better than failure.”

“Really? Well, I guess so. But can you be certain that it’s better than a ‘bit of a failure’? Say, better than having maybe about 1000 dead in the previous or this battle?”

Of course, Lee Yuri did not want that to happen. She was part of the city now, and she did not want to lose anyone from the city population.

However, she realized that the people of the city were now getting used to ‘easy victories’.

For example, if the city had lost a thousand lives in today’s battle, it would have been great loss to the city. But when that was done, the people would become stronger. Some might not be able to withstand the trauma, but it was necessary.

It was possible to lose or die.

It was necessary to realize this when going into a fight. Corrupted or not, this did not change.

“We will fail soon or later. I’m not saying this because I don’t trust Boss. And…”

The later the failure, the greater damage it will inflict onto the people who were too used to the victories.

“Look at today’s fight. Some were a bit afraid, but there weren’t much who were terrified. And to see that coming from our people who had such little experience in battle… it’s not normal.”

“…Right.”

“They will be more confident in the next battle. They’ll fight well, but there might be deaths. And if that number grows…”

Yuri continued, “It will be traumatizing. It will take them a long time to accept that, or even never recover from it. And maybe… maybe… I might be overthinking it right now, but…”

There was a chance that people will blame Dohyuk for the losses.

“Maybe our boss knows this. He’s ‘the man’ after all. Right?”

“That’s why he’s trying hard.”

“That’s the problem.”

Lee Yuri turned against the dome.

“I hope we never fall, but if we do, the boss will be the one who will take the most damage.”

“…”

Giwon did not respond, but that was because he agreed 100% with her.

…

‘Don’t remove the dome.’

If it wasn’t for the message Dohyuk sent from the inside, Heeyun could have died as she was on the dome to dismantle it.

The Inside of the dome was filled with incredible heat right now. If it were removed, the heat would explode out and kill Heeyun in seconds.

‘Get away as far as you can.’

‘Don’t do it at once, and start with a small hole.’

Dohyuk carefully sent each messaged to Heeyun. It was Heeyun who was in a hurry after all. She couldn’t bear to watch Dohyuk in his blackened state from the burns.

But she calmed herself and followed the orders. She walked into the sea and began dismantling the dome little by little. The heat began to seep out and when people on the city wall felt the temperature getting hotter-

“Dohyuk!”

Heeyun ran toward Dohyuk.

But…

“….!!’

Heeyun stopped and cupped her mouth. Dohyuk was in a terrible state. Heeyun also saw Dohyuk in the burnt state from outside, but his condition up close was much worse than that.

First, he had no nose. Did he have eyes? She couldn’t see as his eyes were too swollen. And his entire body was very thin, as most of his skin and muscles were burnt. It was hard to see as all of it was black, but it was possible that some of his bones were even revealing themselves.

“A-are you.. okay?”

The reason she couldn’t go closer wasn’t because it was so terrifying. She was too worried that even the slightest touch might kill him.

“…”

Dohyuk did not speak. Instead, he slowly waved his hand.

‘It’s okay.’

“E-equipment. I’ll bring… many as I can…”

“…”

Heeyun then quickly ran toward the city as fast as she could. Dohyuk did not follow her. He knew he can still stand. There was one more thing he had to check. To the side of the place where the dome was placed, there was one more thing that Heeyun had successfully managed to pull off.

“…”

Cactus Bill was lying down in the state that didn’t look any better than Dohyuk’s. But with Heeyun’s Nature covering him, there seemed to be no more wounds.

As Dohyuk lowered himself down, he felt his leg bones getting crushed, but he didn’t care.

Slowly, he moved his shaking hand over to Bill’s chest.

“…!”

He felt Bill’s heart still pounding.