Ha Joon's face.
Pale skin.", "Black and brown mud finding the grooves of it.", "Giving it color it hadn't asked for.", "The red beneath his nose running thin lines down through the mud.", "Mixing with it.", "Becoming part of it.",
---
His breathing.", "In and out.", "Each breath like swallowing something that cut on the way down.", "Like fire that had decided to become something sharper.",
---
His hands shaking.", "His body swimming in the mud beneath him.", "Everything wet.", "Everything heavy.", "Everything reporting back at once.",
---
"Get up."
---
Chi-Long.", "Standing in the golden light.", "The sun low now.", "The wind low too.", "Both of them finding her at the same time.", "Giving her something that had no right to belong to this moment.", "A kind of awe in the image of her.", "Her red lips holding their red.", "Her eyes dark golden brown.", "Lifeless the way certain deep things are lifeless.", "Still.", "Absolute.", "Her ponytail moving with the wind.", "Dancing.", "Patient.",
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Below her.", "Eun Byol.", "Screaming.",
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Chi-Long's hand moved.", "The knife leaving her fingers.", "Finding the mud beside Ha Joon's face.", "Close.", "The blade standing upright.", "Trembling once.", "Then still.",
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Their eyes met.", "Ha Joon and Eun Byol.", "One second.", "Just one.",
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He tried to get up.", "The pain moving through him.", "Finding every place it had been accumulating.", "Every wound.", "Every impact.", "Every session on every floor.", "All of it present.", "All of it speaking at once.",
---
He got up anyway.
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The knife in his right hand.", "His teeth finding each other.", "Holding.",
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Then the dark.
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Not his eyes closing.", "Something else.", "Something internal.", "A darkness with dimension.", "With depth.", "With a small blue spark moving through it.",
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And another spark.", "Somewhere else in that dark.", "Moving toward the first.",
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They found each other.", "The two sparks.", "Dancing around each other first.", "Circling.", "Reading.", "Then slowly.", "Inevitably.",
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Becoming one.
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The explosion small.", "Contained.", "Blue.", "Powerful in the specific way that small things are powerful when they have been waiting to be what they are.",
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The blue flame.", "Transforming outward.", "Finding the knife.", "Finding Ha Joon.", "Blue veins appearing across both.", "The blade.", "His skin.", "His arms.", "Glowing.", "Pulsing.", "Alive with something that hadn't been there before.",
---
The system spoke.
---
*Both Hunters have reached Level 5.*
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*Ha Joon.*
*Level 5 Hunter.*
*Mana and Body — Level 4.*
*Cultivation — Level 4.*
*Path: Destruction.*
*Diamond Rank Skill.*
*Skill Name: Daemerion Slash.*
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*Eun Byol.*
*Level 5 Hunter.*
*Mana and Body — Level 4.*
*Cultivation — Level 4.*
*Path: Purification.*
*Gold Rank Skill.*
*Skill Name: Hyper Regeneration.*
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Ha Joon's grip tightened around the knife.
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Blood dripping from his face.", "From the nose.", "From the cut above his eye.", "Finding the mud below him in slow drops.",
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The blue flame erupting from within him.", "Not outward.", "Inward.", "Moving through channels the body hadn't known it had.", "Too much.", "Too fast.", "The level too new.", "The skill too large for what the body currently was.",
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He fell.
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The mud receiving him.", "The way it always did.", "The blue light still moving across his skin even as he lay there.", "Still pulsing.", "Still trying.",
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Chi-Long.", "Standing above it all.", "Looking at what had happened.", "At the knife glowing in the mud.", "At Ha Joon face down in it.", "At Eun Byol beneath her.", "Face in the earth.",
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"HA JOON."
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Eun Byol's voice.", "Tearing through the forest.", "Through the golden light.", "Through the wind.", "Through everything.",
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The birds lifting again.", "From whatever branch they had just found.", "Gone.",