Urek Mazino

"What fun would it be to become the king of the Tower? Tell Zahard to keep his boring seat. I will get out of the Tower. Outside the Tower, there exists a vast world, rolling skies stretch endlessly, and countless stars illuminate the darkness. A place that is a thousand times -- no, a billion times wider and freer than the tower. Once you imagine that such a world exists, don't you think all those things you want are all so trivial?"

- Urek Mazino, describing his ambition to return to the outside

Urek Mazino (우렉 마지노, "Urek Majino") is an Irregular, currently 4th in Rank. He is the strongest active Ranker and also the most recent to be part of the Top 5 High Rankers inside the Tower.

He is considered to be on the same level as Phantaminum by weaker Rankers, however, his true rank is almost impossible to determine in terms of the Top 4 ranks, because the other three Rankers are inactive and thus cannot be compared with Urek. He is currently frolicking on the 43rd Floor.

Appearance and Personality
Urek is a tall man, noted to be handsome. He has blonde hair, piercing red eyes and a well-defined musculature with a tattoo of his name and the Wing Tree symbol on his back. He generally wears a snapback backwards on his head and has a 'rapper' look about him.

Urek is said to have a ruthless personality, leading him to be respected by all those who dare call themselves men and at the same time seems to be disliked by seemingly every woman he meets.

History
At some point Urek tracked Phantaminum and followed him inside the Tower. It took Urek only 50 years to pass every test and climb all the way up to the top of the Tower. He is recorded as the fastest person to climb the Inner Tower through an orthodox method and it would probably be accurate to say he scaled the Tower faster than Zahard himself.

During his climb Urek took Arie Hon's special test on the 100th Floor; the task was for Urek to endure his attacks for 10 minutes, but Urek fought evenly causing him to become the most famous Ranker in the Tower as a result. After becoming a Ranker, Urek used his reward from the test and took control of the 77th Floor; he then transferred the control again to Baek Ryun, who set up the stronghold of the Wolhaiksong there.

There was a time when Urek, who had a complaint about his rank being lower than Phantaminum's, broke into the Ranking Administration Office, captured Robert Aisand and threatened him to raise his rank. To Urek, who asked, "Have you ever seen me fight Phantaminum?" Aisand answered briefly and without hesitation "You will be the loser". Urek Mazino, shocked, could do nothing but go home bitterly. As a result of this incident, a number of jokes about Mazino emerged and nicknames like Urek Ma-Loser and Loser Mazino appeared. This climaxed into the production of comic strips featuring the incident which Baek Ryun said would "prove quite useful in the treatment of chronic depression". It appears that Urek has managed to get over this incident.

Urek appearance on the Tower upset the High Ranker rankings which had been frozen for some time.

At some point he fought the High Ranker Quadrado and took the Ignition Weapon Kranos from him.

Sobriquet
Urek's sobriquet is Ray Barracuda (레이 바라쿠다, "Ray Barracuda"). Ray refers to his combat style, in which he fires Shinsoo at the speed of light. Barracuda is the name of the most aggressive and ferocious White Steel Eel in the Tower. Although his formal sobriquet is Ray Barracuda, just Barracuda can also refer to Urek in the Tower.

As the strongest currently active Ranker, as an Irregular and as one of the founders of the Wolhaiksong, Urek Mazino is one of the most influential and feared people inside the Tower. Moreover, it is not an overstatement to say that his every single move affects the future of the Tower.

Flower of Zygaena
Urek Mazino ventured inside Zygaena with the goal of finding Zygaena's Child for Yuri, a request from Repellista Zahard. While doing so he killed several Rankers who were also after the flower. While inside Zygaena, Urek took a nap because he felt that it wasn't time to leave yet. He woke up when he sensed Team Tangsooyook coming inside, meeting Kang Horyang and Prince later on. He was about to kill them but upon realising that they were just Regulars, he decided to let them walk out alive if they gave up on the test. Viole came in and refused to give up and challenged Urek. Since he found this amusing, Urek accepted and decided to play a game with Viole, stating that Viole had to get the flower before Urek caught and killed him. He gave Team Tangsooyook time to gather and attack him. He easily swatted away their attempts and plunged in after Viole. Just as the two of them were about to exchange blows, Miseng jumped in between them while she was attempting to grab the flower on Zygaena's child. Viole protected her, resulting in him becoming severely injured.

Urek is impressed at this and lets them have the extra flower that just grew and decided instead to take Zygaena child. As he left, Team Tangsooyook was shocked to learn that he was Urek Mazino (after seeing the tattoo on his back). Urek exited Zygaena to find three Rankers waiting for him. He easily killed two of them and disabled Noma. Noma demanded to know who he is and Urek replied, "Isn't it on my back? 'Mazino'". He left the testing area and met up with one of his followers, Yuje, telling him to tell Yuri that he got what she was looking for. He handed him the baby and discovered that Viole had managed to scratch him. He then told Yuje to have the new Slayer candidate watched. Because of Mazino decision, he was responsible for dispatching Hachuling (who hired Lero-Ro and Quant Blitz to help him) to tell Baam that he wanted to meet him.

The Floor of Death
Urek appeared with Yuje having helped to save Yeon Yihwa and Hong Danhwa from the aftermath of Yuri Zahard's decimation attack. When Danhwa awoke, he asked if they had seen a small crocodile anywhere but Urek replied that Yuje had only seen and saved the two of them. Then, after hearing that Baam's team had gone to the 43rd Floor, Urek suggested they better go there too.

After arriving at the 43rd Floor, Yuje gave Urek a special anklet that masked his power but would break if he used more than 5%. With Urek nonchalantly brushing it off, Yuje added that the boss said not to break it or Garam would dump him. Once inside the 43rd Floor, Urek tracked the scent of a girl's perfume until he encountered Karaka assaulting Ha Yura. Challenging them to a fight by telling them he wouldn't even need to use 1% of his power against them, he played around while Karaka attacked him.

Powers and Abilities
Although his main Position is Fisherman, he is proficient in almost every other Position and very aggressive when performing in any of them. As one of the top 4 strongest Rankers in the entire Tower, he excels in all fields of battle, outmatching almost everyone in agility, strength, Shinsoo Control, etc. After entering the Tower, he was able to pass all of the Floors to become a Ranker the fastest out of anyone in the Tower's history, taking only a tenth of the average time people usually scale the Tower in (50 years). Prior to the Zygaena's flower test on the 21st Floor Urek killed several Rankers that were sent after him and after the test, he completely foddered the three Rankers that came to stop him. He also claims that in order for him to not be embarrassed while talking about it, it has to be at least 1000 other Rankers against him. When Shinsoo is controlled by Urek, it takes on a yellow-white hue. Urek Mazino, while standing on his final Position, had once knocked down a Light Bearer who was also on their final Position; figuratively speaking, it's similar to a goalkeeper scoring a goal from across the entire field. Yu Han Sung said to Lero-Ro that the only known person to use Shinsoo without a contract from the Guardian and not from a Great Family is Urek.

Urek has been extremely powerful even back when he was just a Regular climbing the Tower. The "god" of guardians said Urek was definitely stronger than him when the latter encountered him on the Hell Train. Even more impressive was that he was also able to evenly match Arie Hon, the strongest of the 10 Family Heads, in battle and was the first person in the Tower's history to pass his special test. Not only did he pass his test, he denied the rules of "enduring" his attacks and instead battled him equally; regardless of their even skills, Arie Hon would admit after the fight that Urek was "far better".

His immense prowess was highlighted during his most recent skirmish with the Slayer Karaka. Despite limiting himself to a max of 1% power output and using only his index finger, Urek still managed to effortlessly overwhelm his opponent.

Immense Shinsoo Resistance: Urek has demonstrated unseen levels of shinsoo resistance. He can resist Lighthouses without effort and has claimed that even Opera can only stop him for a fraction of a second. In a later fight, he came out completely unscathed from Karaka's shinsoo attack.

Extraordinary Speed: People who have seen Urek Mazino in combat have evaluated his combat style as "aggressive, ferocious and fast, but very beautiful". Mazino has enough raw speed of movement in that he can travel roughly fifty metres from one stance to a mid-air kick in a literal instant. Shinsoo Mastery: He has been seen creating massive explosions and controlling Shinsoo with minimal effort, as if by pure bodily instincts. Urek possesses the ability to shoot Shinsoo at the speed of light. This seems to be displayed when he fires a massive white Shinsoo beam that obliterates two Rankers before they could even get close.

Flight: Urek is able to fly, levitate and stand in mid-air as if he is standing on a solid ground. Supreme King's Scorching Fist of Death (패왕열사권, Paewangyeolsagwon, probably 覇王熱死拳): A technique that Urek claims is "legendary". It was powerful enough to completely incapacitate, severely injure and almost kill Viole in a single strike, despite being used with very minimal power (granted, Viole was shielding someone but it would have made little difference). It can be inferred that its true destructive power and lethality, when used at full power, is many magnitudes greater.

Spatial Distortion: Urek is able to distort space in order to quickly travel across far distances. As Zustand noted, it is a very dangerous technique and can have serious consequences on every organism on a floor.

Relationships
His relationships are somewhat dull, partly because of his masculine manner. He has a magnanimous personality but is very unpopular among women. It is rumoured that he has a crush on one of Zahard's Princesses, Garam Zahard, but Garam herself hates Urek Mazino. Of course, this is not actually confirmed. He is also acquainted with another Princess, Ha Yuri Zahard, and this is because she was present at the planting of "Wolhaiksong". Yuri spoke of him and stated, "He's the best man to fight with, but the worst man to live with". On the other hand, he has great support from men. 'White Sword' Arie Hon praised him as a true warrior after he fought him; this was when he took Arie Hon's test. Koon Eduan picked Urek as "one of the people I wish to battle". Urek's best friend Baek Ryun said that Urek is the number one comrade and man. Baek Ryun, who is one of the first members to plant 'Wolhaiksong', has a special relationship with Urek and the two's influence inside the Tower is comparable to one of the 10 Great Families.

It is rumoured that Urek is Joochun's drinking buddy, however, this is not confirmed.

Urek has taken an interest in the new Slayer candidate Jyu Viole Grace, partly because of Viole's status, partly because Urek is impressed with Viole's character and partly because Viole managed to scratch Urek in the cheek even while he was protecting Miseng.

Notes and Trivia

 * Because of his exploits, everyone compares him to Phantaminum on who would win.
 * Koon Eduan has stated his desire to battle Urek, because it was Urek who pushed him out of the Top 5 Rankers.
 * A mistranslation once stated that Urek can create life using shinsoo. However, it is not Urek, but Enryu, who can do this.
 * After Yuri gave half a Wingtree symbol to Ship Leesoo, she told him to give it to Baam along with the message: "Come to the Seventy-Seventh Floor, Urek Mazino is waiting". Urek Mazino may know about or have an interest in Baam.
 * Despite his appearance, Urek Mazino is not a good rapper.
 * Although Urek met the god of guardians, he did not undergo Revolution. (The comic originally stated otherwise, but SIU explained that it was a typo. )
 * SIU plans to deal more deeply with Urek at a further point in the story.
 * SIU named him after the Rockfish (우럭, Ooreok in Korean) and the Maginot Line.

Quotes

 * (To Noma) "It's written on my back! 'Mazino'. If there's anyone who has a problem with what I do, tell them to come find me. I'm not afraid of anyone."

Alternate Translations

 * (Korean pronunciation) Oo-rehk Mah-ji-no

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Urek Mazino