When Seunghyuk Goes Berserk (III)

"Jisung was hurt by people like you..." Seunghyuk circled fire all around him and sent it outwards, spreading the flame as it deflected all the arrows coming his way, then Seunghyuk retrieved the Nighthowler King's Mask from behind of him, wearing it carefully as he said, "Now that you're silent, you're less of a bull, but since you're an animal, I should stoop down to the same level."

When Seunghyuk finished, the whole arena watched silently as the open night sky of the arena turned pitch black with hints of red, and the crescent moon that once hung amongst the clouds had slowly shapeshifted into a full moon. The moonlight together with the red hues came together and dawned a red-white pillar of light down towards Seunghyuk. When the light and smoke dissipated together, what everyone had seen was no longer a human body, but a two-metre tall body of a Nighthowler.

"Oh, but I'm deeply sorry to say...A Nighthowler is way out of class to be able to stand on the same level as you..." Seunghyuk provoked, but this time the provocation did not do as much, because the Conqueror was already at an unconscious state, being only able to fight but not able to do anything else, so Seunghyuk stuck with only action without words.

The Conqueror pulled his right arm back and slammed it forward, sending a huge fiery palm ripping up the arena ground tiles as it travelled towards Seunghyuk. The arena was rumbling with the roaring sound of the raging palm while the audience watched on the edge of their seats. Jisung slowly propped himself up from the lying position as he sat up, watching the intense fight while muttering some inaudible words under his breath with a worrying frowned expression.

Seunghyuk's anger was slowly boiling when he had seen the tainted face of losing purity on Jisung's face, as if someone had destroyed his one and only artefact. The palm was only inches away from Seunghyuk as he placed both his palms right in front of both his feet, then instantly, Seunghyuk warped right through the mega palm as the audience watched the humongous palm slam into wall behind Seunghyuk. Jisung watched wordlessly, completely different from the audiences that started conversing amongst themselves about what they have just seen. The masked nighthowlers that were once working as the judge's bodyguards had started staring at each other, while pausing their movements there. With the masks on their faces, no one could see their expressions, but Seunghyuk could feel the shocked and flabbergasted expressions on their face as their exchanged glances.

"It's unfair that you're not feeling all these since you're somewhat unconscious..." Seunghyuk spoke to the Conqueror but it seemed like he was speaking to the wall.

The Conqueror stood there expressionless, raising spikes out from the ground as Seunghyuk's Nighthowler form dashed around the arena stage easily, dodging all the spikes like they were nothing. Seunghyuk leapt up into the air, feeling the wind blow past him in the opposite direction as he landed above the Conqueror, raising his hand behind his head then slamming it down with so much force that a red claw flew out from Seunghyuk's hand.

Seunghyuk was of course curious about how he was able to shoot a whole claw out from his Nighthowler paws, but at that time anger overwhelmed him and clouded his thoughts. When the Conqueror beat Jisung up and mercilessly wanted to take the life of Jisung, Seunghyuk was unable to do anything. However, at this time, Seunghyuk got in contact with the Nighthowler King's Mask and was given a chance to save Jisung. Most importantly, give eternal punishment to the Conqueror.

Seunghyuk immediately made used of his newfound Nighthowler skillset, dashing around the arena stage space while delivering lethal blows by shooting red claws towards the Conqueror.

One by one, then two by two, and Seunghyuk got more and more agitated as time passed, conjuring fire and wrapping it around his hands which were paws at the moment, sending painful claws that sunk into the Conqueror's skin. The audience saw the helplessness of the Conqueror as Seunghyuk continuously slashed off the skin layer of the Conqueror with no intentions to stop, then they did what they have always done—Fanning the flames even further.

"Kill him off!"

"Make sure he doesn't leave in one piece! Slice him up!"

"Go! Go! Wolfboy!"

Seunghyuk, who once hated the audience's attitude immensely, instantly started standing at the side of the audience and immediately raised up both his claws, the two eyes of his Nighthowler face flashed red with uncontrolled anger.

"Look! The audience that you wanted to side with you so much have turned on you! Let's listen to them like you've always did, okay?" Seunghyuk shouted out to the Conqueror, currently struggling to even stand up, then leapt forward mercilessly, swinging his dominant arm forward to send a colossal claw forward towards the Conqueror to finish him off.

It was all going to come to an end, a bloody and gory end filled with nothing but anger, vengeance added with the audience's bystanding opinions. Still, like the skies we all look up to every day, we would see it blue and pristinely clear for most of the day. However, there will be some instances where the beautiful, azure skies will turn into a gray, stormy sky, full of hatred and unsettlement. At this time, people have to pay the price for the gray skies' tantrum and tolerate a whole period of thunderstorms and needle-like rain. Only to be put to a stop when a rainbow, full of colour and brightness, casted out across the black sky to force the negativity to dissipate, leaving only the same clear and azure blue skies like before. Just like being a rainbow in someone's cloud, Seunghyuk always had a rainbow beside him.

"Seunghyuk! Hyung! Stop it...Stop it!" Jisung's voice cut through all the audience's shouting like a knife easily slicing through a sponge, then reaching Seunghyuk's ears as Seunghyuk instantly stopped what he was doing, and asked himself with his lips trembling, "What was I doing...No way..."

Seunghyuk dropped to the ground, his Nighthowler form slowly disappeared like skin peeling off from his body, then his Nighthowler King's Mask also cloaked itself with the help of the System, and tears formed in his eyes for the first time in many days. Seunghyuk had announced his hate for the audience out loud. He hated their arrogance, hated how they were going to say and do anything they want just because they were on the sidelines as bystanders. He hated those that followed the audience chants just to make themselves feel good that they are supported, but, Seunghyuk had become one of those that he said he hated so intensely much before.

The Conqueror dropped to the floor, fully unconscious without even being able to stand up anymore, and the match ended with the audience muttering in annoyed tones that Seunghyuk should have finished off the Conqueror and that he was a wimp for not being able to do that. Seunghyuk was at breaking point, but he tried to stay strong, tried to look like he was all okay. All that stress built up inside of him, it was like insects biting the insides of him which made him feel increasingly uncomfortable. Seunghyuk had won on the surface, but deep down, he had lost to himself. He had let himself get angry, and too angry to the extent that he let himself go overboard, breaking all his promised that he had made, breaking Jisung's pure heart and belief for him. They were all gone, like light disappearing into the singularity of a black hole.

"Hyung...Are you okay? You're okay right?" Jisung came to Seunghyuk's side and placed a hand on Seunghyuk's shoulder while continuing on to apologise," Hyung...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lost the match, then you wouldn't have to get so worked up and...and..."

Seunghyuk raised his head that was once burrowed into his arms, then stood up to full height, looking at the worried Jisung with his red eyes from silent sobbing. The words seemed to stay at the edge of Seunghyuk's mouth, but it would not come out, so Seunghyuk just dropped his gaze at Jisung, and closed both his eyes while leaning forward.

"Hyung...What..." Jisung was shocked when Seunghyuk hugged Jisung completely, but Jisung just tipped his toes in order to be able to reach his hand over Seunghyuk's shoulders and started soothing the big baby that was Seunghyuk, "Hyung, it's okay. I mean I'm safe and you're safe, so it all came out okay."

Seunghyuk smiled at Jisung's still retained purity and released the tight grip on Jisung as he stated right into Jisung's eyes which made Jisung feel weird.

"Jisung, you don't know how much you've done for me. Thank you," Seunghyuk said and immediately just walked off the arena stage, leaving a whole annoyed audience behind that just looked at the scene of chaos without knowing how to react but to feel annoyed that they were not given a proper fight between two Conquerors.

The judge had seemed to wake up from all the commotion but one of the Nighthowlers standing behind the judge slammed the side of his palm into the neck of the judge, and rendered the judge uselessly fainted again. Seunghyuk immediately wanted to leave Arena Mightchaser to vamoose everything that he had done wrong behind and to just continue on with his not-so-normal life. However, he kept feeling regret and remorse tugging inconspicuously deep down inside of him, but when Seunghyuk turned his head slightly to look at Jisung smiling at him, Seunghyuk's negative thoughts would immediately perish, and replaced with one single thought:

At least Jisung's still here with me.

The Nighthowlers rushed out of the arena following behind Seunghyuk and Jisung then the five of them started to unmask themselves one by one, revealing black and gray, furry faces of Nighthowlers.

"My...My king...Please listen to what we have to say!" One of the Nighthowlers were about to go on his knees but Seunghyuk's strong arm grabbed onto the Nighthowler's shoulder and pulled him up to full height again, then Seunghyuk said, "Please don't kneel before me, all of you are still the elders."

The Nighthowlers exchanged looks with each other, then the same Nighthowler that spoke before opened his mouth to speak again, "We were skeptical of your Nighthowler King's identity before, but we couldn't ignore the Nighthowler King's Mask even if we had any suspicions. However, after we have seen your shapeshifting in action and the skills you have shown in the arena match, we were sure that you are the King of Nighthowlers. Only the King of Nighthowlers can change between human forms and Nighthowler forms, so we are certain. Our king...We have found you yet again after so many years."

Seunghyuk smiled to himself and shook his head while saying, "All five of you knew from the start that I wasn't the real King, don't all of you? Even now, all fine of you Nighthowlers still think I'm just a human that somehow got my hands on Nighthowler blood, right?"

The Nighthowlers looked downwards at their feet in shame when their internal thoughts have been inferred so easily by Seunghyuk, but Seunghyuk neither shouted angrily or blamed them. Similarly, the five elder Nighthowlers did not call Seunghyuk a traitor and start pawing Seunghyuk apart or anything like that.

"We know you're human...but we have to take any chance we can to save our kingdom right now," The Nighthowler said solemnly and the other four nodded, but Jisung and Seunghyuk stayed confused, "I'm sorry for not explaining but...Long story short, our original king was murdered by a secret evil force that even today, no one knew who or what. Currently, the selfish son of the late king had sat on the Nighthowler's throne, acting selfishly and without any discipline whatsoever. His name is Kim Yangwon, half human and half Nighthowler due to the fact that the late queen was of the human race like you," The Nighthowler's brows furrowed even further when he continued on, "All of our food supplies and our fortune have been spent foolishly and extravagantly on unneeded things, but none could stop him because of Kim Yangwon's absolute power. He was capable of possessing that ultimate power of the Nighthowler King because he inherited the secret arts from his father, the late king."

The Night howler knelt so quickly this time that Seunghyuk was unable to grab on to him, then the others knelt in accordance to the first one.

"Please help us, we have escaped from the Nighthowler's Kingdom and hid ourselves as bodyguards in the human world. Now, you are out only help, so please, you have to assist us! We are running out of time, as it is only a matter of days before Kim Yangwon throws the whole Kingdom into chaos," The Nighthowler said, and was about to continue before Seunghyuk, together with Jisung had heard a deep voice from their left, which stirred uneasiness from the five Nighthowlers.

"Well...Well...Well...If it isn't my five favourite elders, now that I've found you, I didn't expect all five of you to be kneeling in front of a human!" The voice rang in Seunghyuk's ears and he found it loudly annoying.

"Kim Yangwon!" The Nighthowler that spoke to Seunghyuk stood up agitatedly and was about to launch a huge claw at the so-called king, but the other elder Nighthowlers held him down, only to hear Kim Yangwon snickered as he said, "I'm sorry, but you're supposed to call me...King."

The five Nighthowlers were pressed to the ground with the pressure pouring out from Kim Yangwon's body aura, which completely dominated the outside of the arena. Seunghyuk stood in front of Jisung in protection as he knew that he would get into another trouble very soon, not only because he wanted to help the Nighthowlers himself, but...

"Misssion IV: The Real King

Objective: Defeat Kim Yangwon and take the King's seat

Destination: Nighthowler's Kingdom— Arkawarenia

Rewards: Rare Statpack x1

Skill Star Mastery Upgrade x1

Scroll of Secret Arts from Nighthowlers (S-GRADE)"

Now Seunghyuk had two big reasons to do it, so no running away.