Chapter 94. The Hunt (2)
“Eek…!”
The hostage flinched in panic, and the moment dark crimson mana leaked from Jeonghyeon’s hand, he spun around and bolted.
Swoosh-!
“He’s fast.”
“Nah, that thing’s even faster.”
Philip was shading his eyes with his hand, marveling at how far it had gone, but Jeonghyeon shook his head.
“Maybe I need to threaten him more.”
Jeonghyeon concentrated mana into his sword, then slashed the air, unleashing a blade wave.
A sharp ripping sound tore through the air with the simple motion, chasing after the hostage like a predator.
“Hiiik!!”
Only then did the hostage activate the gear strapped to his legs.
Creak- Boom!
Ignirn’s red mana briefly swirled through the device as it powered up, and then he shot off like a bullet.
Swoosh-! Leaving an afterimage of Ignirn’s flames in his wake, the bastard fled.
“Whoa. So that’s his real speed. We’re gonna lose him, huh?”
Philip glanced at Jeonghyeon.
“Didn’t we lose him already?”
Jeonghyeon shot back with a deadpan look.
“I didn’t lose him, man. You guys are supposed to catch him.”
“What?! We’re the ones catching him?!”
“What, you think I gotta chase him down myself on my dime, you punk?”
“Then say so beforehand!”
Philip, apparently used to Jeonghyeon’s curveballs by now, didn’t even flinch. He just griped about the late notice and got ready to sprint.
Jeonghu, on the other hand, stared quietly at the fleeing figure.
He knew he could channel intense mana throughout his body using Leap for explosive speed anyway.
“Jeonghu.”
“Yes.”
Jeonghyeon reached out and placed a hand on Jeonghu’s shoulder.
He could feel Mirtus’s mana spreading through the young man’s body.
Jeonghyeon poured even more of his own mana in through the contact.
“Think you can catch up?”
“Anytime.”
Jeonghu seemed confident, smirking with one corner of his mouth.
“In that case…”
Jeonghyeon snapped his fingers.
“Storm Dragon Fist…!”
“Go.”
“Leap!”
At Jeonghyeon’s signal, a gust of afterwind howled around them, and Jeonghu’s form vanished, leaving only a fleeting afterimage.
Bang!
“Whoa… he’s insanely fast.”
“What’re you standing around for? Chase him. You and Jeonghu handle this hostage grab. Let’s see how well you two sync up.”
“Got it!”
Damn guy’s slow on the uptake sometimes, but he never flakes. That’s what I like.
Jeonghyeon’s subordinates, Philip and Jeonghu, had come a long way from their early days. Now they followed any order without hesitation.
Whether it was their loyalty levels maxing out or just Jeonghyeon only raising reliable types, who knew.
Didn’t matter.
Jeonghyeon shared some of his mana with Philip too.
“Let’s go!”
Philip gathered mana into his mace, swung it to trigger an explosion, and rocketed forward using the recoil.
Already pulling off applications like that? Not bad.
Pouring out mana explosively in the opposite direction for propulsion.
Same principle as Leap.
In an instant, his two trusted aides blasted off to hunt the hostage.
***
“Huff… huff…!”
Thanks to his boosted Demon King power, Jeonghyeon could now partially tap into Jeonghu and Philip’s vision.
Just as they could sense his emotions.
“Ngh! Faster!”
Through his vision, Jeonghyeon saw Jeonghu and Philip racing through the desert canyon like characters in a third-person game, vivid as could be.
“Tch. No way they catch him.”
He was certain they’d fail.
“Why not? They’re way faster. What’s the issue?”
Nus popped out of his inventory, perching on Jeonghyeon’s shoulder and asking.
Familiar sharing vision, huh…?
“Look, he’s almost got him.”
Nus cut off his thoughts and continued.
As Nus said, Jeonghu was weaving through the canyon gaps, exploiting Leap explosively on the straightaways, nearly upon the hostage.
But Jeonghyeon shook his head.
“In a chase, the most crucial thing—the one surefire way to shake a much faster pursuer—is one thing.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
Jeonghyeon grinned at Nus.
“Knowing the terrain inside out. That hostage punk’s been through here multiple times grabbing Rock Dwarves. He knows this place like the back of his hand.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“Jeonghu and Philip? First time here. Watch— he’s not running out of gas, but he’s slowing down.”
Sure enough, as the hostage neared the canyon’s end where a massive river flowed, he braked to a full stop.
“Gotcha…!”
Jeonghu arrived first and poured power into his gauntlets.
“Storm Dragon Fist, One Strike!”
He thrust his fist straight at the hostage.
“Hmph. Knew you’d try that!”
The hostage kicked his legs skyward, spewing Ignirn’s flames, then slammed them down into the ground.
Boom-!
The earth quaked with a deafening roar, acrid smoke billowing up.
“?!”
By the time the smoke cleared and Philip arrived, the hostage was gone.
“What the— we lost him?!”
“Looks like it…?!”
Jeonghu scanned around for the sunken-into-the-ground hostage— and then his body abruptly sank into the floor.
“Jeonghu!”
Jeonghyeon, watching it all, looked intrigued.
“A tunnel, huh.”
Even he hadn’t seen that coming. If they’d dug a tunnel, it wasn’t just one path.
Next time they came for Rock Dwarves, they’d take a different route.
“See? That’s why I sent my guys ahead—to scout their playbook early.”
“Who said otherwise?”
“Not saying that, but if I’d gone myself, he’d be caught already.”
“Fuck off. Shut up and worry about your subordinates.”
“…You’re such a pain.”
Even if he was the boss, having his familiar nag like this was annoying.
Jeonghyeon made a mental note to hunt down a tamer—a pet master from Afraksas—someday, then refocused on Jeonghu.
“Ngh! Ack!”
Jeonghu tumbled relentlessly, slamming into the tunnel walls.
“Damn it!”
He barely jammed his gauntlet into the wall to halt the endless fall…
“Where… is this…?”
Pitch blackness everywhere, no way to make out surroundings.
He’d already dropped dozens of meters.
“Ugh…!”
Head-up was probably the way out. Climb slowly?
But what if he lost the hostage?
Jeonghu pondered briefly, then started descending carefully.
Crack! Thunk!
Pulling his hand out slowly, then stabbing the gauntlet lower down.
“Philip’s up top anyway… If it gets dicey, Master Jeonghyeon’ll save me.”
Jeonghyeon’s mana pulsed vividly within him.
Sharing his power.
Aside from the disorientation from lost gravity and direction sense, the mana dulled any real pain.
“Wait, then…”
As he lowered himself, Jeonghu suddenly realized something and looked down.
“Why not just drop?”
A choice that had Jeonghyeon, watching, clapping in approval.
How’d he end up like Philip, all straight-line brute force?
“Hup!”
Jeonghu yanked his hands free and plummeted straight down.
***
Thud!
The landing came after what felt like forever.
“Guh…!!”
He’d distributed mana to his legs anticipating it, but it still hurt like hell.
Thankfully, Jeonghyeon’s mana hadn’t faded much, so Jeonghu pressed on with the search.
In total darkness.
“Which way’s forward…?”
Kneeling, he released excess mana onto the floor.
A radar-like emission of his internal mana.
Same trick he’d used to find the boss on Tower floor 30.
Hummm-. Hummmm-.
But the more he poured out, the more it splintered into branches— no trace of the hostage.
Then, a faint odd sensation.
“Hold on…”
Jeonghu closed his eyes, focusing deeper.
A tiny, subtle void where mana didn’t register.
“!?”
He jerked his hand from the floor and sprang up.
Whirr-!
Somewhere in what he’d thought was solid ground, intense mana surged, on the verge of exploding.
Only then did Jeonghu scan the invisible surroundings and realize.
“This place… it’s all laced with mana…?!”
Exactly like facing the floor 30 boss.
It wasn’t that Ignirn’s mana was absent.
The tunnel was saturated with Ignirn’s residual mana everywhere, masking the hostage.
“Shit.”
No light, no visibility.
Mana sensing blocked too.
Utter isolation.
And if that Ignirn mana triggered an explosion…
He’d be blasted underground for sure.
“We’re screwed.”
Jeonghyeon sensed it too.
The hostage had played a crafty hand— and handed over some key intel.
Jeonghyeon immediately channeled mana to his mouth and throat.
—Withdraw now, Philip.
If Philip attacked the ground even by accident, Jeonghu could get caught in the blast.
The instant the order hit, Philip whipped around and raced back to Jeonghyeon.
“Nus.”
“On it.”
Jeonghyeon infused mana into Nus.
Nus seeped his body into the ground cracks.
“Scan the whole area. I’ve got a rough on Jeonghu’s position— find the hostage first.”
“Leave it to me!”
Nus spread through rock fissures and vanished from sight.
“This just got tricky.”
Jeonghyeon backtracked Jeonghu’s path to find him.
***
Ten-odd minutes of sprinting, meeting Philip midway for guidance, and reaching the drop spot— an unexpected snag awaited.
“Uh… he definitely fell here, right?!”
Philip knelt in dismay, stroking the now rock-hard sealed ground.
“Yeah… we got properly had.”
The hole Jeonghu had fallen through was gone.
Jeonghu was fully trapped underground.