The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Strongest in Our Neighborhood (2)
Eldom, hearing his second-oldest sister Sairan’s words, nodded slowly.
“Right. Attacking the ogre will end up helping that continental stranger whether we like it or not, but what choice do we have?”
“Since that man drew the ogre’s attention, it’s made our ambush much easier. We can let that slide.”
Kairin, the eldest, smiled as she spoke.
“Besides, we trade with those bastards ourselves when we need to. Don’t be so hostile toward them.”
“Got it, big sister. But why is that guy running around naked anyway? It’s making me uncomfortable for no reason.”
At Eldom’s words, Sairan flushed red.
“Right. It’s embarrassing just looking at him.”
The three siblings moved silently between trees, approaching the ogre.
The ogre remained wholly focused on the man.
“Everyone, get ready.”
Kairin summoned the Wind Spirit and infused it into her arrow.
She drew and fired toward the ogre’s back of the head.
Whoooosh…!
Thwack!
The arrow meant for the ogre’s skull lodged in its shoulder instead, knocked off course by the creature’s violent thrashing.
Rooooaaaaahhh…!
The ogre chasing the man shrieked and whipped around, glancing about before its eyes snapped toward the three siblings.
“A single arrow? How disappointing. You’re going to die screaming.”
Though only one arrow, it was infused with Spirit Power—its impact was as devastating as driving a spear through the shoulder.
A critical wound, truly.
Sairan, the second sister, called forth the Water Spirit and hurled a massive sphere of water at the ogre.
The water sphere engulfed the ogre’s face in an instant.
Wha—?
The ogre gasped and swatted the water away with its hands, but the liquid reformed just as quickly, sealing nose and mouth shut.
“Eldom! Now!”
“Already on it. Been waiting for this.”
Before Kairin even finished speaking, Eldom had already infused the Wind Spirit into his spear and braced himself.
He hurled it directly at the ogre’s back.
Whirrrrr….
As the Wind Spirit sent the spear spinning, it carved a vortex so fierce it seemed capable of piercing stone itself.
“Shooooosh!”
Then the ogre opened its mouth wide, sucked in all the water covering its face, turned, and sprayed it back at the incoming spear.
Just as the spear’s momentum seemed to falter, the ogre swung its stone axe and batted the spear away.
Crack!
The stone axe shattered. The spear grazed the ogre’s shoulder and embedded itself in a tree.
Roooaaaagh…!
The enraged ogre kicked off the earth and charged at Eldom. Kairin quickly fired another arrow.
Sairan expanded her water droplets further to slow the creature, but the ogre had already learned the countermeasure—it sucked in all the water in one breath and spat it at the arrow, then charged Eldom without a care that weakened arrows were striking its body.
‘The ogre is—is this strong?’
Confronted with an ogre far more powerful than they’d anticipated, the three siblings were deeply shaken.
“Eldom, get back!”
Eldom, retreating on the wind, gasped in terror at the ogre’s reckless speed and hastily raised his Shield to block its fist.
Crash…!
The specially crafted Shield crumpled under a single blow, and Eldom bounced across the ground like a skipping stone.
“N-no, Eldom!”
“Big sister, I’ll draw the ogre’s attention! You get the youngest out of here!”
At her brother’s words, Kairin froze for an instant, then gritted her teeth.
Direct contact had taught them exactly how outmatched they were.
Killing the ogre seemed impossible—even escape might be beyond their reach.
“No, I’ll draw its attention! You take Eldom and run!”
The two sisters pushed their Spirits to the absolute limit and attacked the ogre almost simultaneously.
Whoooosh…!
Three arrows laden with wind tore through the air, while five massive water gelatins split apart to strike at limbs and face at once.
Roooaaaaahhh…!
The ogre, having learned its opponent’s patterns, showed no alarm—it dodged the arrows and thrust the water masses away with open palms.
Splat! Splat!
Yet after being pushed back several times, the water masses grew denser, clinging to the ogre and stretching as it moved.
The ogre’s movements began to slow.
“Wait, sister! I can’t hold much longer! Please, take Eldom and run!”
“Don’t say such things! We’ve already lost our parents to him—I won’t lose you too!”
“Sister, there’s no time! Ten seconds at most—that’s my limit! Go!”
Sairan squeezed every last ounce of strength into her body, drowning the ogre’s face beneath a torrent of water—twice as massive as anything she’d summoned before.
Her face had grown progressively ashen.
“Ugh! Sister, hurry!”
“We have to stay together!”
Kairin gritted her teeth and launched an arrow toward the ogre.
Whine. Thud.
But her strength was spent; the arrow merely glanced off the creature’s thick hide rather than piercing it.
Anticipating the turn of events, Kairin had already hoisted her unconscious younger brother onto her back.
“That’s it! Sairan, stop now and come here!”
“Yes, understood.”
As Sairan ran after her sister, the spheres of water that had enveloped the ogre lost their force and came cascading down.
An anguished roar tore through the air.
The ogre drew in a great breath and bellowed, then launched itself after the fleeing elf siblings.
* * *
“What are those people?”
Having escaped the massive ape that had pursued him and received aid from three strangers, Jang Ga-in caught his breath while observing the situation unfold.
“Are they… Celestial Beings? To command water and wind with such mastery—truly, a remarkable art.”
He himself wielded the Fengyun Shenfa to manipulate water and wind, yet he could never manifest them so completely. To achieve such a level would require internal power at least at the stage of Five Qi Towards Origin or Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.
Yet as Jang Ga-in watched the Celestial Beings battle the giant ape, something struck him as odd—despite commanding wind and water, they appeared to be losing ground steadily.
“This won’t do—at this rate, those Celestial Beings will be overwhelmed by the giant ape.”
Their martial skill was crude, and the destructive force of their water and wind far weaker than expected. In truth, it seemed less like martial arts and more like Immortal Technique or Immortal Art.
The real problem was simple: Celestial Beings so weak ought never to engage such a creature in combat.
Then why were they fighting at all?
‘To save me, a complete stranger? Even for Celestial Beings, when their own lives hang in the balance… can such a thing be? Or is it precisely because they are Celestial Beings that they can?’
Jang Ga-in hesitated for a moment, then clenched his teeth hard.
‘If I exert my Internal Power now, I may suffer Dantian Damage and hinder my recovery. Yet I cannot ignore the goodwill of Celestial Beings who have risked themselves for my sake.’
Jang Ga-in retrieved the spear that the male Celestial Being had hurled at the giant ape—the one that had missed—pulling it from the tree where it had lodged.
“For a spear wielded by a Celestial Being, it’s magnificently crafted.”
Its sharpness, its flexibility, its balance—it surpassed any spear he had seen before coming to the Immortal Realm.
A sharp intake of breath.
As he drew air into his body to activate his dantian, a stabbing pain shot through his lower abdomen as if carved by a blade.
‘My dantian may be irreparably damaged. I might become a cripple.’
Jang Ga-in drove his Internal Power forward, pursuing the giant ape that was chasing the Celestial Beings.
He unfurled the Fengyun Shadow Step at full speed, covering thirty spans in five breaths, then launched himself upward with such force that he rose to the height of the ape’s skull.
A furious growl erupted.
The giant ape, startled by the sudden presence, reflexively twisted its body and swung its fist, but Jang Ga-in flowed through the empty air like a fish gliding through water, evading the blow, and drove the spear into the creature’s temple.
A wet, sickening sound.
The spear entered through the ape’s left temple and emerged from the right.
Jang Ga-in released the weapon, kicked the creature’s chest to avoid its wild punch, and landed firmly on the ground.
* * *
Even as they fled, the two sisters continued to fire arrows and conjure water droplets to hinder the ogre—until they witnessed a naked human seize their brother’s spear and dash forward like the wind itself, leap impossibly high, and pierce straight through the ogre’s skull, their eyes widened in utter astonishment.
A heavy thud.
The ogre’s head pierced, it staggered for the briefest moment before collapsing forward.
Crash.
The sisters stopped their flight and stared in disbelief, their gazes darting between the fallen ogre and the human.
“Did you see that, sister?”
“Y-yes. I saw.”
“Who is that man? How is such a thing possible? He seemed incredibly powerful!”
“That’s what I’m wondering. But why did he run away so frantically before?”
“That’s… that’s what I want to know. Why did he?”
As Kairin spoke, she was startled to see the naked human suddenly collapse, coughing blood.
“He’s spitting blood! He must have suffered a grave injury.”
“H-how did he manage to kill the ogre then?”
“Perhaps… he pushed his wounded body to its absolute limit just to save us.”
As her younger sister Sairan hurried toward the collapsed man, Kairin followed close behind, her brother still strapped to her back.
‘Gasp!’
As Sairan drew near, her face flushed a deep crimson.
‘Wait, come to think of it—this man’s been naked this whole time!’
Feeling suddenly self-conscious, she turned her head slightly to the side rather than meet his eyes directly.
“Why did you suddenly cough up blood? Where are you hurt?”
“@$!*%$#…….”
The man uttered words she couldn’t understand, then lost consciousness and collapsed.
Just as he fell, the older sister arrived, carrying the younger brother on her back.
“Sairan, what was that man saying—wait! Ugh, ahem! First, cover up that man’s body with something.”
Hearing her sister’s words, Sairan hurried to gather nearby leaves and covered the man’s essential areas.
“Before he lost consciousness just now, I think he said something. What was it?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t Kram Language or Smed Language. It was a regional dialect I’ve never heard.”
“So he came from far away?”
“Given that he coughed up blood and lost consciousness, it looks like he has severe internal injuries. What do we do?”
“Hmm! If he’d only been thinking of himself, he could have easily escaped. But he got hurt saving us—I can’t just leave him.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
“What do you think we should do?”
“You want to treat him? I’m already at my limit. I’ve squeezed out every last drop of strength just to save Eldom. This is too much.”
Kairin set her younger brother down on the ground and gave a bitter smile at his words.
“If this man hadn’t helped us, we’d all be dead anyway.”
“But we’re alive now. If you heal him, what about Eldom?”
“We have to treat him too. You’ll just have to divide your spirit power appropriately between them.”
“That doesn’t make sense. If we split it evenly, we won’t be able to properly heal either of them.”
“Then at least keep them from dying. After that, we can take them to the Village and get them proper treatment.”
“Take this man to the Village? That’s insane. They won’t even let him inside, let alone treat him. And if we’re carrying both of them, it’ll take at least a week to get there. What about the monsters we’ll encounter along the way?”
“We’ll figure it out somehow. While we’re traveling, treat them both as you recover.”
“This is crazy! If I keep using healing magic, I’ll be completely drained. There’s no way I can fight and protect both Eldom and this man in that state.”
“Difficult or not, we have to try. We can’t abandon the man who saved us.”
“Sigh! You’re right, but… fine. I suppose there’s no choice. Though I’m warning you—if a strong monster shows up, I’m taking Eldom and running.”
“Do what you have to.”
“Really now. And how are we supposed to convince the elders? They’ll never let this man enter the Village.”
“We won’t take him all the way into the Village. We’ll set him up somewhere nearby and either find potions or ask one of the elders for help.”
“Where are we supposed to get money for potions?”
Sairan looked at something that had just occurred to her.
“Oh, that’s right! We killed an Ogre!”
“That’s the thing—this man killed it! Now go start the treatment. I’ll extract the hide and find the Inner Core.”
“Got it, sister. Be careful with the Inner Core. That’s the most valuable part.”
“Stop worrying and just do the treatment.”
“Understood.”
Sairan withdrew with a smile.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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