Beginning Beyond The Horizon

The clanking sound of weapons clashing on the chessboard made the cheers of the large group of gathered people even louder. The sound of stomping feet from hundreds of feet shook the seats in the coliseum.

Yul quickly said, "Michio and Bong, protect U-ri." He sheathed his sword and rushed forward to meet the other team members rushing towards Abrafo, Lixin and Fufu.

Bong and Michio stood in front of U-ri protecting U-ri and watching their friends fight the seven men.

"This has nothing to do with chess. It's just a fighting competition, so why do they have to fight on this chessboard," U-ri said, looking at the black and white squares on the floor. As he stared at the black and white squares on the floor, he suddenly had the feeling of being on a rickety ship. He quickly closed his eyes and shook his head.

"U-ri," Michio asked. "What's wrong?"

U-ri said, "There's something wrong with that chessboard."

Bong looked at the chessboard, then at U-ri and asked, "What?"

U-ri said, "This must be some kind of trick or something. The more I look at it, the more I feel like I'm on a boat."

Bong and Michio stared at the floor, then turned to U-ri. "Agreed," they said in unison.

"Do not look at the floor!" U-ri shouted.

Bong said, "No matter how skilled they are, if they continue to fight to the last man, it will be difficult for them to beat everyone. We need a solution, and we need it now."

U-ri continued to watch the evenly matched battle unfolding before him. He noticed that Fufu were fighting with the two female competitors in the middle. On the right side of the chessboard, Yul were fighting two male competitors. On the left side of the chessboard, Lixin were fighting against a female and a male competitor. Abrafo was the only one fighting against an older male competitor. U-ri continued to observe, and he finally came up with a plan to reduce the alertness of his competitors.

U-ri said, "Michio, I need you to fire some arrows at the people Lixin is fighting but wait until I say so."

Michio looked at Abrafo and found that there were two people fighting with Abrafo, so he turned to U-ri and asked, "Which one?"

U-ri said annoyingly, "Whoever fights Abrafo. Get your talisman ready." He looked at Abrafo. "Hey Abrafo, make your opponent angry."

Abrafo avoided his opponent's attack and looked back at U-ri. "What?" He shouted, quickly dodging another attack.

Bong shouted, "Angry that bastard!"

Michio took out the yellow paper talisman from his sleeve. "I'm ready," he said.

Bong asked, "Everyone has a job, what about me?"

U-ri said, "You have the most important job." He smiled at Bong. "Your job is to protect me." He looked at the eleven people a few yards away from him. "Yul! Swap opponents with Fufu!"

Bong turned to looked at U-ri in disbelief. "What? Are you out of your mind?" Bong said with a worried look.

Fufu kicked the woman in the leg, causing the woman to kneel down on one knee. She swung her sword at the woman standing to her left. The woman took a step back, then threw the kyoketsu shoge blade at Fufu, who knocked the blade to the ground with her sword and quickly aimed the shield at the left ribcage of the man standing to the right of Yul.

Yul retreated behind Fufu and kicked the woman kneeling on the ground. Yul's kick pushed the woman all the way to the edge of the sideline. The woman banged her fist on the floor and was about to stand up to rejoin the fight but found that she had been pushed out of the chessboard.

Michio sends his paper talisman directly to the man on the far left fighting Abrafo. The man fighting Lixin pulled away from Lixin and jumped forward to intercept the arrow aimed at his friend.

Lixin took the opportunity to stab the woman standing in front of him with his sword. The woman threw the ring of the kyoketsu shoge at Lixin, and Lixin reached out and grabbed the ring. The woman stepped on the iron chain with her right foot, then quickly rushed forward with a her kyoketsu shoge blade in her left hand, preparing to stab Lixin in the neck.

Lixin pulled the chain hard and shook the chain up and down twice, causing the woman to lose her balance. Now Lixin used the female's kyoketsu shoge weapon against her. He swung the chain twice, forming a circle around the woman's right hand. Lixin swung his sword forward and pointed it at the woman's left hand, knocking off the kyoketsu shoge blade on the woman's left hand. The tip of the sword was pointed at the center of the woman's forehead.

"Surrender," Lixin said, coldly.

The woman looked at Lixin, her eyes full of fear, her lips trembling, and she whispered, "No, kill me if you dare."

Lixin looked at the woman and said, "Trying to get me disqualify? How pathetic."

Lixin glanced at the woman coldly, turned his sword horizontally, and hit the woman's head hard, knocking her to the ground. He shook off the kyoketsu shoge ring off his hand and fired a beam of energy at the man fighting Fufu on the right.

Seeing the energy wave coming towards him, the person on Fufu's left quickly did two backflips to avoid Lixin's attack.

The woman who was fighting with Yul raised her kyoketsu shoge blade and tried to block Yul's sword, but the power of Yul's sword broke her kyoketsu shoge blade in half, and Yul's sword continued to slash at the woman's shoulder, causing her left shoulder to be injured.

Yul jumped forward, unleashed three consecutive kicks at the woman, then jumped over the woman and rushed directly towards the man who had just dodged Lixin's blow. With all his strength, he clenched his left hand into a fist. As soon as the man landed, Yul's fist hit the man in the middle of the upper abdomen, sending the man flying out of the stage and landing violently on the ground before the seated Librarians. Yul turned his sword backwards and swung the sword at the back of the calf of the man who had left his position to intercept Michio's arrow.

Abrafo avoided his opponent's attack and continued talking. "Listen, man, your team members are disabled now. You alone can't fight us. Let me tell you." He blocked the man's kick with his left hand.

The more Abrafo talks about how poor his opponent's skills are, the more aggressively his opponents attack him. He needs to quickly find a way to make his opponent angry. After thinking about it, he suddenly remembered that Bong would get angry every time he sexually harassed Bong.

"You know," Abrafo said, waving his sword at his opponent. "I want to know what you look like under these clothes." Abrafo flipped his sword and pushed his body forward towards his opponent. His left hand touched the opponent's right chest, and the opponent grabbed Abrafo's wrist. Abrafo squeezed the man's right breast twice.

"Nice and firm," Abrafo smiled at the middle-aged man. "I bet your tits are delicious."

"You..." The man gritted his teeth in anger. He grabbed Abrafo's arm and moved his head forward, trying to knock Abrafo down, but instead Abrafo moved his head to the side and quickly kissed the man's right cheek. 

The crowd started laughing and applauding Abrafo's actions.

"Ah...." U-ri chuckled. "Although Abrafo went a bit off script, but he just wanted to make the guy angry." He looked at Bong.

Bong turned to U-ri and said with gritted teeth, "Really? Why did I see them flirting."

U-ri smiled nervously and said, "It's the same way you and Abrafo fought during that time when you tried to kidnap me."

Bong crossed his arms across his chest and breathed angrily through his nostrils.

The crowd's laughter made the leader angry, and he punched Abrafo hard in the stomach, but then had to quickly raise his kyoketsu shoge blade to block Yul's sword. He staggered further to the sideline. Abrafo took the opportunity and quickly fired seven darts at the leader. The lead player quickly avoided Abrafo's darts, not realizing he had crossed the sideline. Once the leader avoids all of Abrafo's darts, he rushes back to attack Abrafo.

"Hey!" Abrafo shouted. "Look at your feet."

The leading man looked down at his feet and found that he had stepped outside the chessboard. He raised his head and stared at Abrafo angrily. Then he looked at his teammates scattered throughout the arena, who were seriously injured and unconscious. He sighed and said, "I surrender."

The crowd cheered.

"Sir U-ri, you are really a genius," Fufu said with a smile walking towards U-ri, Bong, and Michio with the others. "I don't want to be on the opposite side of you on any battlefield."

U-ri smiled and said, "As long as you don't attack Tanzang, you will never stand opposite me on the battlefield."

Abrafo smiled and said, "But if you choose to attack Tanzang, you must first conquer our indestructible military base and magic fortress before you can step into our land."

The librarians quickly helped remove the wounded from the fighting site. A librarian walked up to Ru and whispered in Ru's ear. Ru looked at the arena and smiled. He stood up from his seat and started walking towards the four Tanzanies and the others.

Just when the two Tanzanies, Lixin, and Fufu reached U-ri, Michio, and Bong, the head of the next opponent had already poked out from under the chessboard.

"Without a break, when we face the last opponent, we will probably be defeated within a few moves." Lixin said.

Abrafo looked at Lixin and sneered. "Man, say something to boost up our morale and not lower down our morale," he said.

U-ri said, "What can I say? We agreed to play their game, so we have to abide by their rules. Let's wait and see who our next opponents are. I need to see their fighting skills before I can make any decision."

"How is that possible?" Fufu said. "I remember they were sitting in cubicle number fifty-five and why suddenly became our next opponent."

Abrafo walked towards Ru angrily and shouted, "Hey, this is cheating. I remember they are much higher than us."

Ru smiled at Abrafo and said, "If both parties are willing to change numbers, there is nothing we can do. Besides, your team is marked, any team can challenge your team at any time."

Wadi stepped forward and said, "And it's not against the rules."

Ru turned to looked at Wadi and his teammates and said, "You and your members are all veteran, so I don't need to explain the rules of the arena."

Wadi said, "We already know of the rules."

Ru said, "The winner of the first group decided not to continue the competition, while the forty-two teams decided to withdraw from the competition. So, now there are only two of you teams, so whoever wins in the end wins." He looked at Lixin and Wadi. "Does any of you want to withdraw?"

Lixin said, "We are entering Eternal Library."

Wadi smirked at Lixin and said, "We are also ready."

Ru said, "Since you two have agreed, lets the fight began." He left the center of the chessboard and sat back in his seat.​

Anu grabbed Wadi's upper arm and pushed Wadi back. "No need to speak too much. Chia!"

Chia stepped forward and released many talismans from his sleeves on the four Tanzanies and their friends. The released talismans suddenly turning into magical spikes shooting directly at the four Tanzanies and their friends.

The four Tanzanies and their friends were preparing to be hit by hundreds of magic spikes released by Chia, when Hajime's bracelet fell on them. Once the magic spike collides with the bracelet's protective wall, the spikes fall to the ground and disappear.

Wadi and Anu were stunned. Their magic spikes were unable to penetrate the opponent's protection.

"Hajime..." Yul whispered. He looked up at the crowd in the arena, searching for Hajime in the crowd.