Chapter 44
They mobilized every informant they had planted here and there, spreading the ridiculous rumor everywhere that Wraith had cleared a hidden dungeon and obtained “something special” as a reward. The rumor traveled fast. And it stirred the greedy.
The Gold-tier guilds had excellent intelligence networks, so they knew at once that it was a fabricated rumor, one deliberately spread, and they stayed their hand. Silver-tier guilds were different.
“Shouldn’t we send in the enforcement division?”
“We don’t know what the hidden dungeon’s ‘reward’ is, but it could be the key to promoting us to Gold tier.”
The Silver-tier guilds began watching one another. Their intelligence departments were not bad, but they were not good enough to determine whether the rumor spread so deftly by the forces behind the scenes was true. As each watched the others, the notoriously vicious Andersen Guild among the Silver tier convened its enforcement division before anyone else.
Late at night, three transport vehicles disguised as armored security company trucks entered Suwon. Inside, more than thirty enforcement division hunters from the Andersen Guild were riding in separate groups.
“Our opponents are only the enforcement division of a small guild and a handful of armed guards. We will win, no matter what.”
Inside the first vehicle, the vanguard squad leader was rallying his men.
“I’ll say it again. The objective is to capture everyone alive. Secure them. That’s what upper management wants.”
“And if capture becomes impossible?”
“Then kill them all by whatever cruelest means you can manage. We need to scare the hell out of the other side.”
At the vanguard leader’s words, the hunters nodded. All except one. He raised a hand cautiously, his face tangled with conflicting emotions, and spoke.
“Some of the targets seem to be children... Do we apply the same lethal force criteria?”
The vanguard leader didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stepped close and kicked him in the shin.
“Ghk!”
“Since when did Andersen’s enforcement division get so damn chatty?”
“S-sorry.”
The hunter who had asked the question lowered his head, and the vanguard leader swept a sharp gaze over the others in the transport compartment before speaking again.
“We’ll arrive soon. Everyone, put your masks on.”
Everyone pulled their coverings up over their noses and put masks over them. Soon after, the three transport vehicles came to a stop at once. The rear doors opened, and the thirty-plus enforcement hunters all got out together. They secured the surroundings with crisp, practiced movements, and the vanguard leader unfolded a map.
“The target point is north of here. If we move at full speed, we can get there in five minutes.”
“Does the vanguard go in first?”
Someone asked. The leader nodded and pointed to a spot on the map.
“Right. We infiltrate first, neutralize the guard force, then signal. Squad Two will infiltrate and link up. Squad Three will spread out around the target area and cut off their retreat.”
“Understood, Squad Two.”
“Squad Three, confirmed.”
Once the orders were relayed, they moved quickly. They kept their bodies hidden in the dark as they pushed ahead at speed. As hunters, they could run faster than an ordinary person at a full sprint while still maintaining stealth.
-Target confirmed.
A voice from the enforcement hunter who had arrived first in the vanguard crackled through the earpiece radio. The vanguard leader nodded and brought the microphone close to his mouth.
“What about the guards?”
-None at the front gate or on the outer wall. They seem to be stationed inside, but we can’t confirm from here.
“Infiltrate first.”
-Understood. Vanguard infiltration begins.
Five of the vanguard squad climbed the wall first.
-No issues. Three armed guards subdued.
As soon as the report came in, the vanguard leader sent a hand signal to the men at his side, then climbed over the wall with them. In the yard, three armed guards in black clothes were collapsed and bleeding, while five Andersen enforcement hunters kept watch around the area.
“Most of them seem to be inside the building. Should we call in Squad Two?”
One of the enforcement hunters reported. The vanguard leader nodded slowly and spoke.
“Bring in Squad Two. Then we move inside.”
“Yes, sir.”
The order was passed along. Soon, Squad Two climbed the wall as well.
“Squad Two, all members linked up.”
“We’re entering the building.”
The vanguard and Squad Two moved in perfect synchronization. They advanced as if surrounding the manor building, while part of the force rushed toward the front entrance like the tip of a sharp spear.
“Reconfirm the plan. Kill everyone except the target.”
The hunter at the front spoke into the mic, reaching for the doorknob at the same time.
Slash.
His right arm was cut off, and a fountain of blood burst into the air.
“Mmmmf!”
He barely held back the scream that nearly ripped out of him as he staggered back.
“A-attack...?”
“Find the position.”
A B-class hunter had lost an arm in a single strike. Just before the spray of blood erupted, he thought he had seen a pale face emerge from the darkness, but he couldn’t be sure. It had vanished too fast.
“I can’t sense anything.”
“C-can’t identify the position.”
“I have no idea. It vanished like no one was ever there to begin with.”
Hit by the sudden attack, the vanguard and Squad Two, more than twenty Andersen enforcement hunters in total, were thrown into utter chaos.
“Ghk!”
“Ugh!”
This time, two more went down.
“They’re already dead. One strike to a vital point.”
At the subordinate’s report, the vanguard leader rushed over and examined the corpse.
A ghostly level of skill. No presence at all.
His trembling eyes searched the surroundings, but even his senses as an A-class hunter couldn’t catch anything.
Did some damn S-class hunter get involved?
Only hunters with advanced assassination training, at the A-class or S-class level, could conceal their presence this thoroughly.
“Squad Two leader.”
The vanguard leader called out in a voice that trembled with unease. The Squad Two leader, who had been guarding the area with a short sword in hand, came closer.
“What is it?”
“I think something’s gone badly wrong.”
“We’ve walked into a trap?”
Squad Two leader asked. The vanguard leader nodded.
“Looks like we’ve been thoroughly screwed.”
The moment he finished speaking, two more people dropped. Both were seasoned B-class enforcement hunters, yet they couldn’t even cry out, much less resist, before collapsing helplessly. Watching that, fear slowly began to rise in the hearts of the others.
“Position unknown!”
“At this rate, we’ll be wiped out.”
“G-get inside!”
The Andersen enforcement hunters all drew their weapons at once and started running toward the manor. They looked less like people moving to kill than people fleeing for their lives.
“Aaaagh!”
“Ugh!”
Four men near the entrance let out cries of agony and sprayed blood into the air. The others froze in shock, and then the darkness peeled away in front of them, revealing a man holding a sword and shield. He slowly lifted his head.
“W-Wraith Guild leader Kang Hyun-jun?”
Someone blurted it out. They had prepared for a battle with him, but no one had expected an entrance like this, and everyone was stunned.
“Forget about walking out of here alive.”
Hyun-jun said. At the same time, he raised his sword and shield.
-Sidenmiller’s valiant sword stands with you. So long as righteous courage does not break, the blade shall not break.
-Carthago’s righteous shield protects you. So long as great guardianship remains with you, nothing that can threaten you will stand.
-Dantzig’s will descends upon you. So long as there is someone you must protect, you will not fall.
Three blessings manifested in succession. Aura settled into the sword and shield, and faint mana flowed across his entire body and danced in the air.
“I order the enforcement division!”
“The guild enforcement division awaits the guild leader’s command.”
As he shouted and raised his sword, now wrapped in a clear Aura Blade, the manor windows and front doors flew open, and Wraith Guild enforcement hunters in black suits poured out. Armed men appeared not only on the roof but also beyond the wall.
“T-this...!”
“We were surrounded from the start?”
Only now did the vanguard leader and the Squad Two leader realize how serious the situation was. This wasn’t a simple pit trap. It was a cliff dropping into an abyss with no bottom in sight.
“T-the bastards from Wraith brought their entire enforcement division...”
One of Andersen’s enforcement hunters said in a trembling voice. Wraith’s enforcement division wasn’t especially high-level, but the addition of dozens of armed guards left them hopelessly outnumbered. Already mentally worn down by losing nearly ten men in the sudden ambush, they trembled with even greater despair and fear at the appearance of so many enemies.
“Don’t let a single one escape!”
Hyun-jun shouted. Then Tae-min and Jong-seo emerged from the darkness. At the same time, the armed guards stationed on the roof pulled their triggers as one. With the thunder of gunfire, bullets poured down like rain on the Andersen force.
“Aaaagh!”
“Gaaah!”
Hunters could exceed human limits, so they weren’t easy to handle with modern firearms, but hunters at around C-class couldn’t withstand concentrated firepower from machine guns and automatic rifles on this scale.
“Aaaagh!”
Screams erupted from everywhere. Most of the C-class hunters fell, leaving four B-class hunters, along with the A-class vanguard leader and Squad Two leader.
“Squad Three is under attack too!”
Squad Two leader shouted. While the battle continued, Andersen’s hunters kept dropping one after another, but when Wraith’s hunters were hit, a burst of pure white light would erupt, healing their injuries in an instant and sending them back into the fight.
“There’s at least an A-class healer on their side!”
“Damn it! At this rate, kill Kang Hyun-jun even if that’s all we can do!”
The vanguard leader, the Squad Two leader, and the remaining survivors moved in perfect unison. Their target was the guild leader, Kang Hyun-jun. They didn’t know it now, but that was an incredibly stupid choice.
“I’ll handle this myself.”
Hyun-jun stepped forward, blocking Tae-min and Jong-seo as they moved to join the fight. Two Andersen hunters charged in first. One thrust a spear from the front and drove straight in fast, while another raised a massive greatsword from directly behind. It was a variable, threatening attack, but Hyun-jun’s face was full of ease.
I can see everything.
Thanks to repeated practical training in the Dream Room with excellent teachers like Carthago, Hashashin, and Sidenmiller, he had acquired killing techniques and combat insight on the level of a human weapon.
Bang!
He deflected the spear with a swing of his shield and, at the same time, brought his aura-laden sword down in a slash.
“Kkh!”
His throat split, red blood spraying out as the spear-wielding hunter collapsed limp to the ground. Hyun-jun stepped on the man’s back and leaped, landing behind the greatsword wielder.
“Y-you bastard!”
With a curse and a horrifying surge of killing intent, the greatsword hunter twisted around.
“It’s over.”
Hyun-jun’s sword had already swept through, carving a deep diagonal line across the man’s upper body. Blood spurted out, and he fell weakly to the ground. The vanguard leader and Squad Two leader charged next, but the result was no different. Before the dazzling blade work of Hyun-jun’s sword, the two A-class hunters could not even last three minutes.
“Aaaagh!”
“Ghk!”
The vanguard leader lost his right arm, and Squad Two leader lost both legs. Hyun-jun raised his sword to end their lives, then reconsidered something and put the weapon into his subspace pouch. He gestured to Tae-min and called him over.
“Enforcement chief.”
“Yes, Guild Leader?”
“Send Andersen a message. Something saying we’ve got several of their people with us should be enough.”
“They’ll deny it on their side.”
Tae-min said. Hyun-jun then lifted the corner of his mouth.
“Either way is fine. Sending the message is only the advance preparation for a warning.”
It was time to bare the claws he had kept hidden all this while.