The One Who Sees
The capital hunter lay in two pieces, upper body torn from lower half in a death too gruesome to look at. The instant I and the three delinquents understood what we were seeing—
It landed in front of us.
A grotesque living thing, its body pitch-black, red eyes studded across its flesh. In its hands it gripped a pair of long, sword-like weapons.
Inside the Third Eye, a black flame roared and thrashed. It burned as though it would swallow us whole and reduce us to cinders at any second.
All three of them moved at once. My own feet shot forward. I knew in my gut that if we failed to stop it in this single heartbeat, we were dead.
But the one who made the right call was Ilekdra. His battle axe wasn't pointed at the monster. It was pointed at the ground. Every ounce of power packed into those swollen muscles poured into the weapon.
The floor shattered with a deafening roar, smoke billowing upward in a choking cloud.
"EVERYONE RUUUUUN!"
At Ilekdra's desperate shout we all spun on our heels and sprinted from that spot with everything we had.
"You idiots! What the hell were you thinking, trying to fight that thing?!"
Ilekdra bellowed as we tore madly through the city streets. He was right. We'd been about to throw ourselves at it, hell-bent on killing the monster.
"If we'd even thought about running first, it would've targeted us."
Ban's words weren't wrong either. If we'd so much as hesitated, that thing would have come for our lives.
"Damn it. What the hell is something like that even doing here?"
Jeina shuddered, a visible chill running through her. Even they had never seen a monster like that crawl out of a large-class beast.
I couldn't join their conversation. The Third Eye could see more than they could — and right now, it was looking behind us.
The humanoid monster we'd just encountered was eating the capital hunter it had cleaved in two. It wasn't paying us any particular attention. Its meal mattered more for the moment.
In that instant, the flame it carried swelled larger than before.
Could it eat flames too? The way the Third Eye on my arm could?
No. Something's different.
It was only a gut feeling, but something about it sat subtly wrong. The sense of dread, though — that was certain.
"Let's go to Krevan. We need to get out of here right now."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing!"
Ilekdra made the call quickly, the way a team leader should. Stay any longer and that monster would start killing the other hunters too. The capital hunters were one thing — but we couldn't let Laoren hunters die as well.
"Ban, find Krevan!"
"Got it."
Ban leapt onto a rooftop at once to search for Krevan. He bounded upward with nothing but light hops, springing from ledge to ledge — proof of how light on his feet he was.
"Kieeeeeek!"
"Gieeeek!"
Meanwhile, monsters poured into the street ahead of us. Ilekdra and Jeina raised their weapons, and I thrust my hand forward. We slaughtered our way through them at a full sprint.
Overhead, several more meteor-like figures streaked across the sky. Those had to be capital hunters as well. No doubt they were heading in to fight that thing. We needed to get clear before we got caught in the crossfire.
"Kh!"
Ilekdra took a wound to the leg — a careless mistake, born of rushing while the small-class monsters came flooding in. The cut wasn't deep, but bleeding makes a person weak.
"Tattooed pig, get your damn head on straight!"
"Don't worry, it's shallow!"
"Who said I was worried?!"
Ilekdra paid her no mind and kept swinging his battle axe in wide, punishing arcs. His speed had dropped a little, but the power was still there.
Then the ground shuddered. Things weren't looking good. A medium-class monster, drawn by the commotion, smashed through a building and hauled itself into view.
"I'll take it!"
I ran toward it without hesitation.
"Junior!"
Ilekdra shouted after me, but I was the only one who could stop a medium-class monster right now. I leaned my body far forward, shield first.
The thing was shaped like a tiger — except it had four pairs of legs and a tail like a snake. I scooped a stone off the ground as I leaned and hurled it. The monster smashed the incoming rock with its tail and looked my way.
Its gaze locked on. The moment I saw it, I spun and ran, and it came after me at once.
I headed for an alley — a narrow passage walled in by stacked stone. The monster chased without a second thought. True to its feline nature, as long as its head could fit, it squeezed through. But the tight space kept it from building speed. I, on the other hand, had room enough to pour it on.
Now.
I rounded a corner, stomped on a pile of boxes, and launched myself upward. I kicked off a groove between the walls, shot up, and grabbed a clothesline. The line was sturdy enough to take my weight, so I used it as a pivot and swung a full circle.
The medium-class monster slammed into the corner as it appeared. It was big, but it only ever looked straight ahead — its field of vision was narrow. It never noticed I'd already climbed the clothesline.
This was my chance.
I let go of the line and kicked hard off the adjacent wall. My body plunged and landed squarely on the monster's back. It felt the weight and jerked its head up — but my hands had already locked onto its hide.
The snake tail whipped into the air, aiming to bite me off its back and fling me to the ground. But the moment I was on it, the fight was already decided.
The life flame — seized and wrung dry.
I seized its flame and wrung it with everything I had. The tiger-monster's body locked up, every hair standing on end.
Die.
The flame snuffed out in an instant. Stealing a flame of this size was no longer difficult. The monster's head hit the ground, and it stopped breathing.
I caught my breath and slipped out of the alley. A few small-class monsters gave chase along the way, but I dispatched them quickly.
In the distance I could see the three delinquents. I was about to rejoin them when—
A chill crawled up my spine. An intense gaze. The same kind of gaze as the humanoid monster that had killed the capital hunter.
This didn't feel right. If I followed them now, that thing would show up. I was sure of it.
"Junior! We found Krevan! Get over here!"
Ilekdra's voice carried over — a voice that trusted I'd come back after taking down the medium-class monster. We'd only known each other a day, but they'd put their faith in me. Not just as a fellow disciple of the same school. As a hunter.
So.
"Go on ahead!"
I didn't want to watch them die.
"What are you— Junior! Junior!"
Ilekdra cried out after me, but I was already running. I had to get as far from them as I could. With that single thought driving me, I raced between the buildings.
The humanoid monster's gaze never left me. Had all the capital hunters who'd appeared a moment ago already been taken out? Rotten luck.
I was running for my life when the Third Eye flashed. Beyond the buildings, I caught a black flame roaring violently.
Instinct screamed.
Throw yourself at the ground. Now.
I hurled myself at the ground with everything I had.
Something passed over my head with a sound like tearing silk. The buildings on both sides of me were sliced clean in half and collapsed in a grinding roar — right where my skull had been a heartbeat before.
A crawling, electric dread climbed up from the pit of my stomach. If I'd been even a fraction slower, my head would have been gone.
But there was no time to linger. I got up off the ground and sprinted, veering away from the black flame.
It didn't last long. A sound rumbled up from beneath the stone floor. The Third Eye picked out a black flame moving under the ground.
Oh, hell.
The instant I kicked off the floor, the stone was sliced open and a black blade erupted upward. There it was — the humanoid monster I'd seen before. It twisted its head this way and that as it slowly climbed up onto the ground, then fixed me with its countless eyes.
I steadied my breathing and drew my arm forward. The black flame blazing on the creature burned vividly in both my eyes.
"Hey. Why are you chasing me?"
I threw the question out as a test. No answer came. Instead, it tilted its head from side to side, then slowly raised its blade.
It wanted to fight.
I had a rough idea why it was after me. The Third Eye embedded in my arm. The Instant Death Magic. The same way I could see its flame, it was sensing something through me.
Can I take it down?
A bead of cold sweat rolled down my forehead. It was fast and strong. The cutting power of the blade that had bisected a capital hunter in an instant was grotesque. And when it sliced through the stone buildings, something like a sword wave had come out of it. There was a real chance I wouldn't even be able to close the distance.
But I had to. If I didn't, I was dead.
The moment I made the decision, I stomped the ground hard. One opening. Just one. Grab its flame with my hand and snuff it out.
I started to move into that opening when I felt something wrong behind me — a purely instinctive flinch. I yanked Oble's shield up and wrapped it around my body.
Something slammed into me from behind, and my body smashed through several walls. Pain so intense it blurred my vision hammered through me without mercy, the kind of force that sends a person tumbling through masonry like a rag doll.
I somehow held onto consciousness and lifted my head. Oble's shield. It had been punched clean through, wrecked beyond any hope of use. If I'd gone even a little farther forward, that strike would have pierced my heart.
The shield was finished. Without it, I would have been dead.
Oble.
I never thought I'd owe that guy my life.
I was trying to push through the pain and get up when agony exploded in my arm — pain so intense it felt like it was boring straight through my skull. The source was the Third Eye. My body locked up from the sudden shock.
At the same time, I sensed the monster's presence in the distance. It wasn't going to miss an opening like this. The distance between us vanished in an instant. Its blade rose toward me, and my vision swam.
Why now, of all times?!
I wanted to scream, but it was too late. I twisted my body as best I could. The monster's sword was faster.
The blade was going to cut my throat. The moment I realized it—
It stopped.
The monster's sword halted right in front of my neck. Or maybe it had been just a fraction too late. Blood beaded where the tip of the blade had kissed my throat, and droplets traced slowly down my skin. If it had gone any farther, my head would have come off.
Cold sweat stood thick on my forehead. The monster didn't push the blade any farther. It simply stared at me with its countless eyes. Then it withdrew the sword, suddenly burrowed into the ground, and vanished.
"Hah... hah."
A ragged breath escaped my mouth as I sank to the floor. I had come genuinely close to dying just now.
I hurriedly checked my arm. The eye engraved there was closed. Between that and the sudden pain — what the hell had just happened? I couldn't make sense of it.
A sound of rushing wind came from above. Someone landed with a faint gust of air.
A man stood there, holding a long staff, his eyes half-lidded. Bald head. Long robe. A mage. The skin visible through the folds of his robe had been strangely replaced with metal. This was no ordinary mage.
Had they summoned a mage now that all the capital hunters were dead?
He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow.
"Hey. Wasn't there something here just a moment ago?"
For a mage, his tone was surprisingly mild. One of the moderate faction, at least.
"Ah, yes. There was a black monster in human form."
"Hmmm. So it sensed me and ran. Sharp instincts on that one."
This mage knew something. But he already looked ready to leave, as if his business here was done.
"Ah — sir, forgive me, but could you tell me even a little about what that red-eyed monster is?"
The humanoid monster had targeted me. It might come after me again. If I wanted to live, I needed to know something — anything.
The mage's body went still. He slowly turned to look at me, his brows drawing together.
"You."
Had I said something wrong? I was about to apologize when the mage was suddenly standing right in front of me.
That was the last thing I heard before my vision flipped in an instant.
Wind slapped my face. I flinched and looked up — and the entire city of Jefran spread out below me.
In other words, I was flying.
"Uh, sir?"
"I've got questions of my own, so just come along quietly. If you fall, you're the only one who'll regret it."
Below, I could already see three large-class monsters smashed across Jefran, crushed beneath enormous slabs of rock. I didn't need to think hard about whose work that was.
"Y-yes."
I had no idea what was going on, but for now I'd sit tight. Fall from here and I'd die like a dog.