Chapter 63
“This is fucking insane!”
“Retrieve it!”
Han-seok spat out a curse, and Hyun-jun recalled the Butcher's Dagger. It was called telekinetic sword control, but against that thing, a dagger alone wasn’t going to do much.
The surface of its body looked as hard as a crustacean’s shell. It wasn’t quite at the level of Aura Armor, but it was packed with formidable mana. Its defense would be no ordinary thing.
“A human turned into a creature?”
It had happened right in front of them, but it was hard to believe. Han-seok looked genuinely shaken, while Hyun-jun stayed calm.
“Stay focused. We’ll take care of it and hand it over to the Special Police Bureau. That’ll solve the problem.”
“I showed a bit of a lapse. My apologies.”
“Focus now.”
Hyun-jun gave him a brief rebuke, then kicked off the ground. While Han-seok drew up his mana and began casting, he closed the distance to the monster in an instant.
I didn’t want to use this power, but... I suppose this is fate too?
As the creature raised the pincer arm that had once been human, black flames coiled into a storm. Hyun-jun lifted his shield, suffused with aura, to protect his body and drove himself deep into the creature’s reach.
T-This can’t be!
The creature’s voice held clear bewilderment, as if it had never imagined someone could break through a storm of flames. Hyun-jun swung his sword and severed one of the creature’s left pincer arms.
“Kraaaah! What are you doing!”
Spraying an obscene fluid that looked like blood, the creature hurriedly retreated.
“Fly!”
Han-seok’s body shot upward.
“Fire Cannon!”
A huge ball of flame targeted the creature.
I’m not going to just stand here and take this!
Waving its remaining pincer arm, the creature formed a spear of black mana and fired it. It pierced through the fireball and kept going, drilling straight into Han-seok’s body.
“Gah!”
With a sharp scream, Han-seok crashed down. Thanks to twisting his body to evade at the last second, the spear had pierced his shoulder instead of his chest. It was a magical attack so fast and sharp that even an A-Class Hunter had trouble responding properly.
“I’m fine!”
Han-seok shouted from behind him. Hyun-jun shook off his concern and charged the creature again.
“Aaaagh!”
The creature generated an Aura Blade on its pincer arm to meet him, but it wasn’t enough to force Hyun-jun back in swordsmanship. When his blade finally sank into the creature’s torso, it let out a scream and thrashed in pain. Hyun-jun did not stop. He drew the sword back and, at the same time, swung his shield into the creature’s face.
Bang!
With a thunderous impact, the creature’s grotesque head caved in. Unable even to scream, the creature staggered and collapsed limply.
“Is it dead...?”
He muttered to himself, then shook his head. It was a situation far beyond common sense, but after having its head smashed, it didn’t seem likely to still be alive. Once Hyun-jun judged the creature’s breathing had ceased completely, he immediately ran to Han-seok. The black spear that had pierced his shoulder had already vanished, but the wound looked deep.
“Are you all right?”
“I’ve already stopped the bleeding.”
One reason mage-type Hunters were said to be all-rounders was precisely because of hemostasis magic. They might not be able to learn recovery magic, but just being able to stop bleeding was enormously useful in itself.
“Shouldn’t we contact the Special Police Bureau?”
At Han-seok’s question, Hyun-jun shook his head.
“Even if we don’t call them separately, there was enough of a commotion here that a report has probably already been filed.”
People said the Special Police were corrupt, but once a report came in, they were still forced to respond.
“They should be arriving soon.”
He had just finished speaking when black flames rose from the creature’s corpse and swallowed it whole in an instant. By the time Hyun-jun rushed over, the body had already been completely incinerated. He checked the other masked men as well, just in case, but their corpses were untouched.
“Kang Hyun-jun. There’s something there.”
As Hyun-jun was examining the corpses of the masked men, Han-seok approached slowly and pointed to the spot where the creature’s body had been. A small crystal, apparently a magic stone, lay there. Unlike ordinary magic stones, it was black as pitch, steeped in darkness, and a faint, ominous mana seeped from it.
“A black magic stone...?”
He didn’t feel like touching it lightly. But soon there was a reason he had no choice.
Gilles de Rais, the Madman Who Reached the Truth, shows strong curiosity toward the strange substance before him.
At the voice, Hyun-jun let out a short sigh and picked up the black magic stone. If it meant gaining a reward, this wasn’t much trouble at all.
“I think we should leave before the Special Police get here.”
“True. I hate dealing with hassles too. Even without our testimony, the Special Police will handle it on their own.”
Han-seok nodded in agreement with Hyun-jun’s words. Entangling oneself with the Special Police often led to plenty of irritating complications, so people frequently avoided giving statements on purpose.
Still, it’d be better to erase any trace that I was here.
He drew up his mana and activated one of Hashashin’s blessings.
Hashashin begins his vile stratagem. The Shadow Behind You erases every trace connected to you.
Black shadows erased all traces of Hyun-jun and Han-seok. Even if the Special Police arrived now, they would find nothing tied to the two of them. He had erased his tracks like this before, so the effect was trustworthy enough.
“I feel stone-cold sober now.”
Han-seok said it flatly. Hyun-jun nodded in agreement. The pleasant buzz that had been settling over him vanished in an instant, leaving only an unpleasant chill behind. It was the cold mana leaking from the black magic stone.
“Mr. Min Han-seok. Let’s go to our guild office first. That seems like the safest option.”
It was late at night, but armed guards and a small number of Enforcement Division Hunters were still patrolling, so if anything happened, they could call on them for support. They could also go to his home, but he didn’t want to put So-jin and the others at risk.
“That does sound a lot safer than heading up to Seoul right now.”
Han-seok agreed as well. The two of them moved toward where the vehicle was parked.
“Team Leader! We were about to come looking for you!”
“Start the engine first.”
“Ah, yes!”
The driver started the car, and Hyun-jun and Han-seok climbed into the back seat, keeping watch on their surroundings.
“Drive.”
At Han-seok’s words, the driver nodded and took the wheel. The car carrying the three of them pulled out. The Wraith Guild office was less than thirty minutes away, so Hyun-jun thought there’d be no trouble, but that assumption was wrong too.
Hashashin’s sinister laughter warns you of danger. Someone is aiming for your heart.
Hashashin had warned him. And then.
“Looks like we’ve got a tail.”
Han-seok’s driver also noticed several black sedans following them and informed everyone of it.
“What kind of weapons does this vehicle have?”
“None. You’ve been watching too many movies if you think vehicles in South Korea can just be armed like that!”
Han-seok didn’t even get to finish speaking. The window of the sedan on the left rolled down, and a long gun barrel poked out.
“Sh-shield...!”
The defensive spell completed at the same moment the gunfire began. The shield spell held against the bullets, but it did not protect the entire vehicle. At best, it covered the back seat and the driver’s seat, and the gunman quickly shifted his aim to the tires.
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out. The tires couldn’t withstand the barrage and burst. Han-seok’s driver panicked and yanked the wheel hard to the side. Hyun-jun blocked the front with his shield and protected his body with mana, but he still felt the violent jolt sweep through him.
When the car slammed into a roadside tree and came to a halt, Hyun-jun tore open the door and got out to eliminate the threat. For an S-Class Hunter, ripping a car door off was nothing difficult. As he barely extricated himself, hostile presences gathered around him.
Seven.
He moved his eyes quickly and assessed the situation. Seven men and women got out of three black sedans. Two were armed with automatic rifles, while the others held swords and spears, suggesting they were C-Class Hunters or above.
“Aaaah!”
As the sudden accident and the armed figures appeared, pedestrians screamed and ran for their lives. Only a very small number of spectators remained nearby. Disregarding their own lives, they pulled out their smartphones and started filming as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
It was ridiculous, but that was one of the harms brought about by smartphones and the internet. Right now, what weighed more heavily in the spectators’ minds than the thought of survival was the desire to post this online and get attention for it.
“Oh, my head...”
Perhaps because he had failed to fully maintain his shield when the crash came as he was blocking bullets, Han-seok belatedly dragged himself out of the burning vehicle, clutching his head. Beside him was his unconscious driver. Looking at the masked figures slowly closing in while forming a loose encirclement, he opened his mouth with a fierce expression.
“You bastards? You dare aim for my hyung?”
He had never been given permission to call him that, and yet suddenly it was hyung. Hyun-jun stared at him, baffled, but Han-seok only...
“You saved my life, so I’ll treat you as my hyung!”
...said that and assumed a battle stance. It seemed Han-seok believed he had been saved from death in the fight with the unidentified creature.
“Do whatever you want.”
Hyun-jun shook his head with a tired face. There didn’t seem to be any immediate downside, so he might as well let it go.
“You have our ‘goods,’ don’t you? If you hand them over nicely, it’ll be better for you.”
The woman who seemed to be the leader spoke. She raised a hand, and the other masked figures aimed their weapons at Hyun-jun and Han-seok. They seemed to be talking about the black magic stone, but judging by the menacing atmosphere, even if they handed it over, it didn’t look like they’d be able to walk away unharmed.
“You bastards. Do you even know who this is?”
“We don’t care. We just want our ‘goods’ back.”
“This is none other than Kang Hyun-jun, the Wraith Guild Leader who was promoted to S-Class this very time!”
Not only the leader, but the eyes of the masked figures also trembled like the earth was shaking beneath them. The word S-Class that had come out of Han-seok’s mouth had rattled them.
“L-Leader...”
“He says he’s an S-Class Hunter. What do we do?”
“He’s lying. S-Class Hunters aren’t that common, and there’s no way one would be here.”
As her subordinates quailed in fear, the woman called the squad leader shrugged and said it. Watching that, Hyun-jun’s mouth curled upward.
“Telekinetic sword control.”
The dagger hanging at his waist floated into the air. As he fed mana into it, an Aura Blade formed along its edge.
“F-Fire!”
“Shield!”
Realizing too late that battle had started, the squad leader ordered them to fire, but Han-seok was faster. While his defensive spell blocked the bullets, Hyun-jun sent the dagger flying with telekinetic sword control.
“From this moment on, this is self-defense!”
And the slaughter began.