A/N: In apology of the last chp, here's a new one! Hope you all enjoy!

Just as Dal had been finishing her fight, Yong Hwa was still standing off against three assassins. With the same formation, there were only two who were up front fighting him while the one in the back tried to find a chance to impale him. As they desperately fought, a bright light suddenly illuminated the night behind Yong Hwa.

When the assassins who were fighting him up front saw what the situation was like on the other end, they both nodded their heads at each other as one fell back slightly. As that assassin fell back, he gathered the darkness around him and cloaked it around his figure, making it very difficult for anyone to see him. Afterwards, he jumped to the side and sped past Yong Hwa while the other assassin engaged him and the one in the back raised an earth spike behind him to block his path.

Seeing their actions, Yong Hwa realized their plans. Kicking the assassin in front of him in the chest, he let out a roar as he slashed Azuron’s Requiem upwards to the sky. As the sword slashed up, a large wall of ice rose up in front of him. The ice wall expanded for twenty yards in each direction and had a height of twenty feet.

As the ice wall rose, Yong Hwa experienced severe dizziness as he expanded a large part of his energy. The majority of times he used that skill was only when he decided to flee since it consumed so much energy. Still, he shook his head a couple of times and rushed toward the assassin that ran off. As he saw the direction the assassin was running toward, he saw Dal, who was on sitting one knee. Immediately, he called out to her to warn of the impending danger.

“Dal! Behind you!”

Right as he yelled out though, he knew it was too late. The assassin was too close and Dal wasn’t able to move fast enough. Gritting his teeth, Yong Hwa hastily gathered all the remaining energy in his body and communicated with Azuron.

’Azuron, I’m going to need your help with setting up the domain.’

‘…With your current energy, you’ll only be able to maintain the domain for a couple of seconds before your energy dries up.’

‘That’ll have to do. We have no other choice if we’re going to save Dal.’

‘..Haa. You’re right. Alright then, I’ll start releasing the domain.’

As Azuron agreed, Yong Hwa poured all the energy he collected previously into Azuron. Even though he had indeed reached the level of one with the soul, he did so just recently so he didn’t have many experiences of setting it up himself. At the moment, it was more effective if Azuron set it up so in true times of need, he would use it like that.

Within a moment, Yong Hwa saw snowflakes appear around him and time slow down drastically. Without any hesitation, he immediately sprinted at the fastest pace he could. Soon, he arrived in between the slowly moving assassin and Dal. Just as he did though, he felt the last of his energy disappear from his body. Knowing he had only a split second left, he came to the decision to sacrifice his left arm so that he could slay the assassin.

-----

“Sheesh, you’re so loud. I’m still alive, you know?”

Hearing the familiar voice, Dal rushed forward. What greeted her sight was the assassin who was now impaled on Yong Hwa’s sword in mid-air and the dagger, which was deeply stabbed into Yong Hwa’s left forearm. From the wound, trails of blood started to stream down to the elbow, and drop onto the ground. Seeing the scene, she realized that he must’ve raised his arm to defend his body from the dagger while he killed the assassin.

With a painful grunt, Yong Hwa kicked the carcass in the stomach and pulled his sword back out. As the weight drastically decreased from his right arm, he released a sigh and loosened his tense muscles. Afterwards, he tried to make a few motions with his left arm, but flinched immediately at the pain. At that time, Dal’s slightly shaking voice sounded out.

“Are you alright?”

Hearing the concern in her voice, Yong Hwa felt as though receiving such concern wasn’t so bad. Looking at her with a smile, he tried to relieve her worries.

“Although it’s a little painful, it’s not that bad. How about you, how’s your body holding up?”

Relief flooded her when Dal saw Yong Hwa’s smile and heard what he said. She really didn’t know what she would do if he received a fatal injury because of her.

“That’s good to hear. My strength is returning a little bit, but I’m out of energy. Other than that, I have no large injuries.”

“Our bodies are in a similar condition then. What to do about the last two assassins though…. The ice wall should hold fo….”

“BANG!”

Just as Yong Hwa was about to say the wall should hold for a little longer, an ear shattering bang rang out as an object smashed through the ice wall and then collapsed on the ground, staying still forever. Seeing the unbelievable sight, Yong Hwa stared wide eyed through the hole created in the wall. The outline of a male was visible and as it approached them, he saw a familiar face. Seeing who it was, he finally relaxed and summoned Azuron’s Requiem back inside him.

Dal, who also saw the person approach, shouted out in an excited voice.

“Geum ah!”

“MY LADY!”

When Geum saw Dal’s state, he showed a rare expression of emotion. Panicked, he speeded up and arrived in front of her in a moment before he carefully inspected her for injuries. When he saw that Dal only had a few scratches and no severe injuries, he let a sigh of relief out. Immediately, he kneeled down in front of her and lowered his head.

“My lady, please punish this servant of yours! Even though you were in danger, for the sin of not being there to protect you, I plead for you to punish me.”

Seeing Geum’s actions, Yong Hwa’s eyes opened in shock while Dal only smiled bitterly. Moving forward, she tried to bring him up, but her strength wasn’t able to hold out and she started to fall. Startled, Geum immediately stood up in a flash and supported her. With eyes full of worry, he tried to find out what was wrong.

“My lady, what’s wrong?”

“Ah, Geum ah. Thanks, my body’s just not listening to me well as I exhausted my strength in that fight. Anyways there’s no need to feel so guilty. Luckily Yong Hwa was here and helped me.”

Hearing what his lady said, Geum turned his head toward Yong Hwa for the first time, and with a face full of gratitude, bowed to him.

“Thank you for helping my lady in the time of her need. Whenever a time comes when you need help, I will waste no time to come and assist you.”

At Geum’s sudden transformation, Yong Hwa’s face twitched before his expression turned strange. He really didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry at the moment.

“I get it so there’s no reason to stand on grounds. I’m sure you ran into some trouble also for you to be delayed in coming to Dal’s side.”

When Geum appeared, Yong Hwa had noticed the cuts in his clothes. Even though there were no traces of blood or injury on him, he was sure Geum encountered assassins on the way too. Although he really couldn’t stand him, Yong Hwa at least recognized him for his loyalty to Dal.

“Anyways, I don’t think this operation was so small that it only encompassed us. Let’s find out how the situation is for everyone else. Geum, help support Dal.”

With those words, Yong Hwa slowly started to walk toward the center of the inn. With just a thought, the ice wall crumbled upon itself and disappeared. Deep inside, he was worried about Uncle Ray, Seol Hwa, and Chang.

-----

“Alpha group, create a perimeter around the inn, I don’t want anyone coming close without us knowing. Bravo group, go help take care of the injured and get accountability of everyone! Charlie group, I want you to get rid of all the damn corpses! Move out!”

“””Yes, sir!”””

In the courtyard at the center of the Millennium Inn, Uncle Ray was giving out commands to a group of people who were in a formation in front of him. After receiving the command, everyone bowed and they rushed off to execute their orders. Thankfully, when the assassins arrived, the Samjoko members acted quickly and evacuated all the customers before they got involved in the incident. Thanks to that, no civilians got injured.

Behind Uncle Ray, Yong Hwa was currently sitting in a pavilion with Dal and Geum. Even though he told her that it was alright, Dal had rushed to her room and retrieved a small container of medicinal powder to help treat his forearm wound. Right now, she was holding Yong Hwa’s left arm out and spreading the powder on the deep wound. Although he wasn’t pleased to see his lady do such work, Geum turned his eyes the other way this one time.

Seeing Dal’s face so close and her forehead creased in concentration, Yong Hwa’s heart started to pace more quickly. Yong Hwa had to admit that Dal really was a world shaking beauty. With her beautiful face, jade like skin, and seeing her work so hard, he really thought there wasn’t a more beautiful scene. Just as he was appreciating the view, a large commotion broke him out his trance like state and made him raise his head.

“Yong Hwa! Thank god you’re alright.”

Twenty feet away, there was a muscular man running to him. Seeing the guy run toward him, Yong Hwa’s face flinched. To go from seeing such a nice sight to having to look at that, it really was looking at heaven then looking at the earth.

“Haa.. Yo Chang, it looks like you’re doing well.”

As Chang got closer and was planning to leap on Yong Hwa, he finally saw the full scene and stared wide eyed at Dal wrapping some bandages over Yong Hwa’s left forearm. Awkwardly laughing, he started to turn around.

“Ah, ha… I didn’t see that you were also, Lady Dal. Well then, I just remember something I need to do… I’ll leave you all to yourselves…”

At the sight of Chang’s awkward acting, Yong Hwa could tell exactly what he was thinking. Baffled, he was at a loss for words. Dal also noticed what Chang was implying and blushed a little. Tying the bandage up, she immediately distanced herself a little from Yong Hwa. Geum, on the other hand, was staring daggers at Chang.

“Oi! You bastard! Get right back here, Chang! It’s not what you’re thinking you idiot!”

Finally regaining his speech, Yong Hwa stood up and roared at Chang. Confused by Yong Hwa’s angry voice, Chang turned around with a confused expression. Shrugging his shoulder, he started walking back to the pavilion.

After Chang sat down in the pavilion, the two talked about their encounters. Hearing Chang talk about how he disposed of seven assassins, Yong Hwa nodded his head. Dal though, was shocked when she heard that Chang was able to kill seven assassins. She and Yong Hwa had struggled bitterly against five each. When Yong Hwa saw her face, he began to laugh before explaining to her.

“Haha Dal, it’s because you’ve never seen Chang fight. Out of the hundreds of times the two of us have sparred, I have not once defeated. The guy’s become so monstrous with his damn spear that even grandpa Shin has a hard time against him.”

Dal’s eyes opened wide in surprise at Yong Hwa’s revelation. Even though she had defeated easily in the spar earlier, that was because they didn’t use their beast souls or energy. With his higher leveled soul, it would basically turn into an even fight. Still, for this Chang to easily beat Yong Hwa and never lose to him? Just how monstrous does someone have to be?

Yong Hwa and Chang laughed at Dal’s expression. Yong Hwa never felt embarrassed about his losses to Chang, as he was just too far ahead and also his best friend. He was proud to have such a strong friend. As the laughter went on, a person sped forward and kneeled before Uncle Ray before he made a report.

“Leader, lady Seol Hwa is missing!”