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 was the strongest active Ranker before Zahard became active once again. He is also the most recent person 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 mentioned to Baam on the 43rd Floor that they would meet again later on the 77th Floor, then left the floor. His current location is unknown.

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 backward 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.

Despite his ruthlessness and boastful nature, he can be assumed to have noble intentions, as he has saved the jewel from going extinct and saving Baam and his companions a few times.

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 realizing 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. He defeated Karaka using only his finger. He then took Wangnan and Yura towards Hell Joe, revealing to the two that he met Joe in a previous visit to the floor and gave him the Red Thryssa, never imagining that he would become a tyrant.

On the way to Hell Joe, he encounters Garam in the tunnels and hides, thinking Garam would never love him if she found out he gave Joe the Thryssa. He wanted to defeat Joe without her knowing, being banned by her from the floor of death after failing too many times to win her heart. Hockney persuades her to (unknowingly) forgive him, however, and Urek offers his help officially, going with Yuri and Baam to confront Joe.

Urek asks Joe why he became the dictator of South City when he wanted to use his power to free people from the floor, and Joe told him about the complacency of the citizens, the corruption of the Grand regime, and his eventual coup before attacking. Urek and Baam retreated, and Urek takes off his anklet to release his full power. Yuri attacks him and accuses him of being a prisoner, but Urek explains that he has a syringe with a liquid from The Workshop to separate the Thryssa from Joe.

Urek again confronts Joe and mourns for Joe's past, telling him he and his dreams have become smaller. He tells Joe he'd be obliterated if he went into the tower, and Baam helps him get close by controlling the Shinsoo bubbles so that he can use them as platforms to jump across. He tells Joe how scared and weak he's become and provokes the Red Thryssa to fully take over Joe. The Thryssa thanks him for allowing him to revive, then attacks with a wallop of punches and more laser beams. Urek is knocked back, but unhurt, and he succeeded in injecting Joe with the syringe. He then forcibly removes the Thryssa from Joe's body and crushes its neck while telling Joe he doesn't need such a corrupting power. He then enlists Baam's help to stop the Thryssa's self-destructing shinsoo explosion, having him control the shinsoo to create an opening for him to send a baang into the weak spot, destroying it once and for all. He finally thanks Baam, and asks if he'd be interested in joining Wolhaiksong.

They regroup with Baam's companions where he introduces himself, but the other regulars accuse him of being a creep. Yuri asks him how he knows about Garam, but he runs away to check on Joe. He tries to converse with him, but Joe accuses him of not being there when he needed him and then stealing his power. Urek encourages him and apologizes for corrupting him, saying he can be himself again and wants Joe to continue his original goal of breaking out of the floor. Joe retorts that Urek could never understand him and wants Urek to leave, but suddenly begins to disappear as White sucks up the souls in the spirit room. Yuri finds Urek and mentions the spirit room might have something to do with it, and an enraged Urek immediately departs to find Karaka and White and make them pay.

Urek, Yuri, and Baam's team find De Jah dead at the entrance, and Hwa Ryun offers to show Urek the path to the culprits, but the two unfortunately took a different path, and he uses Spatial Distortion to come to Yuri's group, finding the culprits and his acquaintance Po Bidau Gustang, who has already thwarted White's efforts and removed the souls. Urek demands the souls and his friend back, but Gustang lectures him that he is too powerful to have friends, and has no equals besides the other Family Heads before finally returning the souls and reviving the citizens.

Urek returns to Joe one last time to tell him he and Gustang could find a way for Joe to leave, but Joe declines, citing his weakness. Urek fails to encourage him, hurt that he could not help him, and finally retreats. Gustang soon finds him moping, telling him not to be surprised and that Joe was just a bug beneath him. He asks him if he should spare Joe when he wipes the floor's memory of recent events, but Urek declines, wanting Joe to regain his instincts to escape the floor.

Urek finds Baam's team again and warps them back onto the train, where he and Yuje tell Baam they met Ehwa and Danhwa, but not Rak. He also confirms that Baam is an irregular, and tells Baam not to be entrapped by the tower's systems and others' burdens, and instead to be true to himself. He says his final goodbyes, then leaves with Yuje, believing he'll meet Baam again in a higher place. But as he leaves, he can't help but feel like he's forgetting something...

The Hidden Floor
It is revealed that Urek had entered the Hidden Floor at one point, clearing most of the stages quickly. But in saving his data, he was so powerful that it would forever be unstable. This angered him so much that he smashed the mirror as he left, causing an error in the stage and his sworn enemy, an incomplete version of himself, to continue existing, resulting in Big Breeder Hwang creating the Bug Room to fix things, where the mirror fragments and Urek's incomplete enemy data resided. However, the error also caused Hwang to take an interest in the outside world.

Shortly before Data Zahard's duel with Baam, Urek's enemy data was waiting for Hwang to recover the final mirror fragment. On the day of the duel, he is brought to Rachel's team to help destroy The Scale That Shows the Past and get himself deleted, agreeing with Urek himself that his sworn enemy should be perfect and not look like he currently does, adolescent and corrupted. Urek's enemy takes the regulars to the hidden area of the hidden floor to lure out the scale, and they trick the scale into glitching, moving into the bug room and effortlessly destroying the scale after it taunts him. He regroups with Hwang and Rachel's team to reflect the mirror and scale, but unwittingly began the collapse of the floor and summoned the data of a fragment of King Zahard's power. Though he does not save Hwang from being impaled by it, he quickly dispatches it afterward and encourages Rachel and Yura to escape while he himself stays behind.

Powers and Abilities
Although his main Position is Fisherman, he is proficient and very aggressive in almost every other Position. As the 4th ranked Ranker in the entire Tower, he is tremendously powerful and has tremendous ability 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 soon after easily beat back Team Tangsooyook and nearly killed Baam with a single tremendous attack, although Baam managed to scratch him before going down and he was protecting Miseng. After the test, he completely foddered the three Rankers that came to stop him within seconds. 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 much stronger than him when the latter encountered him on the Hell Train and he is among the few, with the only other exception being Zahard and the 10 Family Heads, to have ever defeated him. Baam later stated that while the "god"'s tremendous power was similar to Urek, Urek's power felt much greater. Even more impressive was that he was also able to fight on the same level as Arie Hon, the strongest of the 10 Family Heads, and was the first person in the Tower's history to pass his special test, in which the rules were of "enduring" his attacks but Urek's exceptional power and skill allowed him to deny the rules and instead battle 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. With just 10% of his power, Urek easily overpowered Hell Joe empowered by Red Thryssa, astonishing him with his immense power. Even after Red Thyrassa fully awakened, Urek was only pushed back because he allowed it and soon easily turned the tides and managed to extract it off Hell Joe and easily kill it with a single attack, preventing its self-destruct explosion, although he did have some aid from Baam in the latter.

Immense Shinsoo Resistance: Urek has demonstrated unseen levels of immense shinsoo resistance. He can effortlessly resist almost any Lighthouses to the point that he openly brags on how useless lighthouses are against him and has claimed that even Opera can only stop him for more than 0.1 seconds. In a later fight, he came out completely unscathed from Karaka's shinsoo attack. While he was knocked back by Red Thyrassa's beams, he sustained no injuries.

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 meters from one stance to a mid-air kick in a literal instant. In his fight with Hell Joe, Urek was able to effortlessly jump from Baam's Shinsoo Bubble to another to avoid Hell Joe's attacks and was able to quickly catch him off-guard and grab his arm as well as stab Hell Joe with the syringe to remove Red Thyrassa from him without him even noticing.

Shinsoo Mastery: Urek is extremely proficient in the use of Shinsoo, as he has been seen to be capable of controlling Shinsoo with great ease, as if by pure bodily instincts, to tremendous effect, able to create large explosions and powerful Baangs as well as greatly enhance his punches with minimum effort and can unleash Shinsoo at the speed of light. an ability that is fired with enough power that even specialized equipment cannot block it, as shown when he fires a massive white Shinsoo beam that obliterates two Rankers before they could even get close. His Shinsoo's mastery and power is even so great that with only 10% of his power, Urek effortlessly outmatched Hell Joe powered by Red Thyrassa, able to easily send him flying a great distance and with a single beam fired from the simple flick of his fingers, completely dispersed an attack from him, utterly shocking Joe with his exceptional power over Shinsoo. With a single Baang, he easily destroyed Red Thyrassa when hitting its weak point.

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 in which Shinsoo is gathered entirely into the fist and released in a giant explosion. Urek claims it is a "legendary" technique. Even while he massively held back the strength of the technique, it was powerful enough that Urek was able to easily severely injure someone of Viole's level of Shinsoo resistance in a single strike although it should be noted that Viole was shielding Yeo Miseng and was not fully focused 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 Gustang noted, it is a very dangerous technique and can have serious consequences for 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 rumored 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 rumored that Urek is Joochun's drinking buddy, however, this is not confirmed.

Urek met Hell Joe once on the Floor of Death and was fascinated by Joe's huge dream of getting every inhabitant of the Floor out. He was interested enough in him to give him Red Thryssa and told him on the holes to help him. When they meet again, Urek was visibly shocked and disappointed on what he became and uncharacteristically chose not to kill him to kill the monster for good but instead holds back to have Red Thyrassa take over so he can remove it.

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.
 * At one point he arrogantly proclaimed himself as the Champion of the Tower.
 * He calls many people babe.

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."
 * (To Po Bidau Gustang) "The reason that fish try to reach the sea isn't because of memories - it's because of instinct."

Alternate Translations

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

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Urek Mazino