The Leader of Legendclad (IV)

Sangwoong stood there silently, like he was processing and analysing both outcomes but in actual fact, he was lost in his own thoughts and recklessness that he became a lost deer when he had his motivation and goal taken away.

"This is exactly the feeling I don't want anybody feeling, not when I'm leading the company as well," Seunghyuk asked and walked forward, putting a hand on Sangwoong's shoulder and asked again, "Do you want this fight?"

The atmosphere seemed to freeze but Sangwoong looked into Seunghyuk's eyes, the resolution of fire rekindled in his eyes as he replied, "Yes, I want this fight."

Seunghyuk wasted no time at all and used his skill Short-Fused explosion to raise his stats.

"Conqueror's Name: Choi Seunghyuk (Male) (Leader of Legendclad)

Conqueror's Level: 4

Strength: 22 (Raised by 5 temporarily)

Agility: 22 (Raised by 5 temporarily)

Defense: 22 (Raised by 5 temporarily)

MP: 22 (Raised by 5 temporarily)

Skills: Short-Fused Explosion (1 out of 5 stars)

Eye of Detection (1 out of 5 stars)

Heart of Cold Steel (2 out of 5 stars)

Ancient Language Comprehension (1 out of 5 stars)

Snake Of Ophiuchus (0 out of 5 stars)

Dancing With Fire (3 out of 5 stars)"

Seunghyuk realised his stats raised by 5 instead of 4 this time, then he immediately realised it was due to the mastery level of the skill Short-Fused Explosion. Comparing his stats to Sangwoong, he definitely had the advantage and clearly, the difference was obvious.

"You wanted the fight, so now I'm giving it to you," Seunghyuk dashed forward with his upgraded self, sending a huge purple snake out from his palms as the snake of Ophiuchus slithered around in midair menacingly, its fangs revealing partially as if it was trying to scare Sangwoong off, "You are throwing away your power with the pill, so I don't see any reason to give you mercy."

Seunghyuk willed the snake of Ophiuchus to swirl and slither forward, gripping Sangwoong's upper body and squeezing it tight like a clamp on a wooden block, almost breaking Sangwoong's body through. Sangwoong immediately raised his hand up, trying to break free, but he had realised the gap between his skills and Seunghyuk's had increased all of a sudden. Sangwoong grunted in confusion as he quickly used his skill of Feigned Charm, which surprisingly worked on the snake of Ophiuchus barely. However, the "barely" was able to allow Sangwoong to wriggle out of the loosened grip of the snake and he immediately casted Light Spread on the snake of Ophiuchus, blinding it for a moment. Seunghyuk had a feeling that the snake was getting overpowered by the flurry of attacks, so he immediately conjured a flame in his hands and shaped in thinly in the form of a long, sharp flame needle. Seunghyuk tilted the needle forward and pushed it, sending the flame needle surfing through the air rapidly and sinking into Sangwoong's skin, causing an irritating burn.

"Ahh! What did you do," Sangwoong forcefully pulled out the flaming needle, scorching his hand in the process, but the real danger was the snake of Ophiuchus that had recovered from the attacks and it slithered forward angrily, letting out a shout, "What...Ahh!"

The snake of Ophiuchus sent a purple energy pulse in the shape of its fangs out, sinking it into Sangwoong's chest area, poisoning him internally. Seunghyuk had never knew his snake could do that even at 0 out of 5 star mastery, but all he could do now was to put that newly-discovered to good use.

"Again!" Seunghyuk ordered as the snake slithered backwards and shot out fangs and fangs of poison, which Sangwoong activated his Champion Of Dodging skill again to avoid all the fangs, "Well, damn. System: Take back the Snake of Ophiuchus."

The snake was attacked by Sangwoong's light spread and reeled back before it was retrieved by the System. Seunghyuk immediately decided not to waste anymore time dragging the fight on. Seunghyuk initially wanted to see how far he can push Sangwoong before he would crack under the pressure, as this would benefit Seunghyuk in knowing one of the members more in the future when he actually has to lead a whole company. However, currently he had to manage a whole crowd of people out there at Level 1, Seunghyuk knew that he had to portray an image of a leader so that the people would be willing to follow.

"Sangwoong, I hope you'll learn a lesson from this fight," Seunghyuk said out of the blue and Sangwoong merely nodded as he rushed forward using his skill of Wolf Pack, summoning a dozen wolves dashing hungrily at Seunghyuk and Seunghyuk silently said, "Wolves...Yeah should have remembered that he hadn't used that..."

Seunghyuk wasted no time and immediately conjured flames in the tip of his toes, swiping his flaming kick across to the left, slapping rows of wolves as they reeled back scathed. Seunghyuk did not give Sangwoong any time to think of a counter plan and he immediately picked up two wolves with each of his hands and bashed then against each other, watching both of them disintegrate into thin air. Seunghyuk summoned the snake of Ophiuchus again and it bitten the rest of the wolves to death before being called back by Seunghyuk. Sangwoong watched as Seunghyuk slowly closed the distance between them and he dashed forward, and stared Seunghyuk hard in the eyes.

"Your opponent used the skill Feigned Charm on you and Heart of Cold Steel is activated. Opponent's Feigned Charm skill is rendered useless."

"You can't charm everything through, Sangwoong," Seunghyuk raised his fist and delivered a merciless punch to Sangwoong's stomach, sending him backwards, "Is this the end?"

"Maybe..." Sangwoong laid down panting again, and he felt his body compress internally like he was being digested and grinded, grimacing in unknown pain, but Seunghyuk knew exactly what was happening so he said, "Sangwoong, you took the pill so be ready for the pill's effect. You're going to lose at least a quarter of your stats and skill mastery."

Sangwoong nodded solemnly, then he abruptly broke out a smile in endurance of the stinging pain from inside. Seunghyuk bent down and Sangwoong slowly sat up to meet Seunghyuk's eyes.

"Choi Seung...Mr. Choi, thank you for the lesson..." Sangwoong said and Seunghyuk smiled, smacking Sangwoong in the face to send both of them out of the Battle space as he said, "Don't thank me. Thank your will and sacrifice."

Seunghyuk had won his 11th fight in a Battle Pod and just four more wins, he could get his hands on the Common Statpack, which sounded like an upgrade of the Beginner Statpack. With his mysterious ring, Seunghyuk could probably get quite a number of stat points from the Common Statpack and that gave him something to look forward to.

Seunghyuk closed his eyes and willed himself back to reality, opening his eyes, he spotted a figure sitting outside the Battle Pod and he laughed. Seunghyuk quickly opened the glass door and came face-to-face with a worried-looking Jisung.

"Jisung, I'm done. Why are you here?" Seunghyuk asked and Jisung seemed to return to reality from staring into space, which made him sighed greatly in relief, "Why? Were you that worried about me?"

"Seunghyuk-hyung! You had the right to stop the match when you've seen that stupid Sangwoong take the pill. It was not allowed in the first place! You could've been injured in there, even though you don't feel any pain when you exit the Battle space, but you'll still feel it in there," Jisung sounded genuinely worried and nagged on like he was Seunghyuk's motherly or "wife-ly" figure, "Like...Yumi couldn't come up because she had to control the members downstairs at Floor 1 so I just rushed up here when I saw Sangwoong take the pill, and we couldn't risk losing someone like you by being damaged mentally due to fighting with a pill abuser."

"I'm fine," Seunghyuk merely said as he stood up stretching, then dropping his hands down to loosen his jacket tied around his waist, then put it on normally, "But I won, so it's no big deal. Also, don't punish Sangwoong or anything, I've made an agreement in there with him. Yeah, I think I can call that an agreement."

"What! Did you just say you won? And why can't I punish Sangwoong! He abused the rules by taking the pill and—" Jisung was silenced by Seunghyuk's finger on his lips and Jisung smacked his lips out childishly to push away Seunghyuk's finger, "Why did you shush me!"

"Jisung, calm down. Sangwoong had his reasons for doing all this and I just find myself relating with him. I am sure he learnt his lesson, and all he wanted was to get better, but the people around him weren't helping. Jisung, looks like not every Gold-ranked member is like you and Sangwoong, are they?" Seunghyuk said and Jisung sighed, placing both hands on Seunghyuk's shoulders before pushing him out, "Oh, I didn't realise you were that tall, Jisung, you could actually reach me unlike Yumi."

"I'm not Yumi, and time to address the crowd," Jisung basically pushed Seunghyuk around like someone shopping with a shopping cart, then Jisung let his hand go when the doors opened to Level 1. Sangwoong stood at the side of the lift door and Seunghyuk caught many looks of disgust from the members around him.

Seunghyuk shook his head lightly as he waded through the crowd from the back, and many members took notice of his existence, making way. Seunghyuk noticed the change in attitude towards himself from the members and he was contented, making his way to the front of the crowd with Yumi.

"You did great just now, I don't know how you actually won, but good job!" Yumi spoke under her breath and Seunghyuk almost replied but Yumi stuffed the gum of sound amplification into his mouth and he chewed it reluctantly, "Okay, so I'm sure everybody has watched the fight between Sangwoong and me. Firstly, I know Sangwoong took the pill, which was not allowed even in a Battle space. However, if anyone actually heard during the battle, I have said that everybody wants the best, and just because not many people actually show their ambitions for striving to surpass, that doesn't mean that you people are allowed to look down and speak lowly about those who have those ambitions."

Seunghyuk eyed the crowd warily and those Gold-ranked members staring at Sangwoong with disgust at the back of the crowd earlier shifted uneasily.

"Would those who think they've done what I have described above step out, I'm not going to take any of your lives or anything, so please don't be afraid to hold some weight of consequences. If any of you still do not want to come clean with your actions, I don't mind adding the weight you would have to carry if I find out who did it."

The crowd shifted uneasily and Jisung merely showed an awkward box smile, not knowing how to react to the situation.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This chapter is for the chapter 2 days ago, and as explained in the previous chapter, I was unable to write a chapter during that day, so I am compensating what I owe now. Please wait for a few more hours for the next chapter which is supposed to be yesterday's chapter. Please continue to support Legendary Conqueror, your support would fuel me greatly:) Thank you.