Chapter 369
Chapter 369
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 369
Chapter Title: Sewer Rat (4)
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“Kuhahaha!”
Jack felt pure ecstasy.
The power boiling throughout his entire body.
Vitality and energy dwelling in every single muscle.
An overwhelming strength surged within him, something no amount of exercise or doping could ever grant.
The wicked witch Bianca had unexpectedly prepared a most useful gift.
Even if it came at the cost of his subordinates' lives, Jack didn't regret it in the slightest.
“This is power! Kuhahaha!”
The omnipotence swirling through his body restored the confidence Jack had long forgotten.
Right now, he felt like he could kill even the witches who had terrified him before.
The days of living like human livestock were over.
He could return to his past glory, to the hitman days when the name “Knife-Hand Jack” struck fear into hearts.
The intoxication like being high on drugs and the endless craving for blood burned fiercely.
His skin turning dark and mottled didn't matter.
Nor did the clusters of eyes sprouting up his arms for some reason.
None of it was a problem.
He would repay all the persecution he'd endured back onto the witches.
Rape those haughty bitches, kill them, devour their stigmas.
That alone swirled in his mind like his sole purpose on earth.
“Oh, you're still hanging around?”
After laughing in place for a while, Jack tilted his head crookedly and eyed the enemies before him.
The man who had just turned his subordinates into half-cripples in an instant, and the apprentice witch trembling pale beside him.
The man's body was now clad in black armor, unlike before, but it didn't matter.
Even recalling the display that man had put on earlier didn't fill him with dread.
Because now, he was stronger.
Vigorous energy coursed through his body, giving him that unshakable certainty.
“Kukuku, acting tough on some puny power.”
“R-run away... That thing's a homunculus...”
Diana called out to Siu in a quivering voice.
Siu was far stronger than Diana had anticipated.
The way he'd taken down the thugs in the blink of an eye looked as effortless as a stroll.
“It's fine. I can handle this much.”
But this was different.
She had no idea how a normal human had mutated into a homunculus, but it was one nonetheless.
The witches of creation—a monster even seasoned witches wouldn't hunt unless they were beyond the 15th rank.
And this one had seventeen eyeballs.
He might run rampant against human criminals and their guns, but no single witch could handle it alone.
“N-no! Absolutely not! We have to run and call for help!”
Diana desperately tugged at Siu's arm, trying to drag him out of there.
No matter how urgent the escape, she couldn't leave him behind.
She couldn't just watch the man who had saved her once before choose the path to death.
“What bullshit.”
Irritated by the melodramatic scene, Jack flashed a cruel smile and spun the dagger in his hand.
His gaze, brimming with desire more than ever, fixed on Diana.
“Listen up, apprentice witch. Right in front of your eyes, I'm gonna snap that bastard's limbs one by one.”
“Eek...!”
“Can't wait to see what happens to you once your savior's gone, huh?”
Siu blocked the blatant lust and threats with his broad back.
“Nah, not curious at all.”
Jack cackled as he glared at Siu.
“Oh, you should be looking forward to it too. I'll make your last sight on the way to hell be that witch bitch I carved up while you tried to protect her.”
Jack began bounding around the warehouse like a cat loosening up, his body twitching in place like a boxer.
It wasn't ordinary running.
As if testing his new power, he freely bounced off walls and ceilings, circling Siu and Diana like a black whirlwind.
“Kuhahaha! Kuhahaha!”
Amid laughter spilling from his superhuman three-dimensional maneuvers, Jack suddenly lunged at Siu.
The moment Diana's eyes widened, unable to track the shadow properly.
“Watch out...!”
Diana's imagination had painted Siu shredded to pieces, just as Jack threatened.
However.
-Kwang!
“Kuaaaak!!!”
The sound of iron being struck.
As Siu planted his feet firmly, rotten straw scattered around him.
He slightly bent his knees, then thrust out his elbow right on cue as Jack charged, landing a perfect counter into Jack's chest.
Jack had charged at superhuman speed.
Hit by a mana-enhanced explosive counter, it was natural for him to crash into the warehouse wall.
“Uh...”
Diana wasn't the only one stunned by the unexpected turn.
Buried in a pile of crates, Jack stared blankly down at his chest.
His shirt was completely shredded by the shockwave.
Beneath it, his chest bone was caved in like it'd been hammered by a sledge.
But the homunculus power granted terrifying regeneration, healing the wound in reverse as if rewinding time.
Jack rose again.
There was no fear.
His fighting spirit didn't waver.
He just hadn't adapted to the new power yet.
With this much strength, how could he lose to some spell-slinging nobody who wasn't even a witch?
“Kuhaha! Not bad at all! Then how about this!”
His melting reason was no longer human.
In exchange for the entity possessing his body, Jack instinctively knew what weapon he wielded and how to use it—no teacher needed.
Standing tall, he gripped his dagger.
Naturally guided mana dyed the blade red.
It would push the dagger's cutting power and durability to their limits.
That seemingly thick armor? Useless.
One touch, and it'd tear like paper.
Jack's mind was already painting rainbows of pleasure.
Revenge by ripping apart the witches who scorned him, satisfying his desires.
“Bloom.”
Siu raised his spear while drawing ten ribbons at once.
He wove shadows into a long, sturdy spear.
Jack kicked off the ground and charged again.
“Hup!”
Siu braced his legs solidly, inhaled deeply, and thrust the spear straight.
Spear techniques he'd practiced in preparation for fully controlling the red branches.
The Contract of the King of All Diseases inherent in his stigma, combined with explosive power usage, elevated his nascent spear skills to first-class level.
“That won't block this!”
Grinning ear to ear, Jack effortlessly sliced the thrust spear.
The shadow spear, hardened by applying elemental laws, boasted strength like cutting-edge materials.
Yet the red aura on the dagger severed it like dry grass.
The ribbons lashing out from all directions for restraint? Sliced just as easily.
Jack had slit countless throats with a single blade.
His confidence in his skills was unmatched.
“Gotcha...!”
Once inside the spear's reach, the dagger's domain allowed free swings.
Half-convinced of victory, Jack thrust at the gap between helmet and armor.
In that fleeting moment of overconfidence, Siu's breath slipped through his visor.
“Hoo...”
-Kwaaang!
The flash exploding before his eyes corrected the hasty illusion.
The spear shaft spinning like a windmill from Siu's embrace smashed into Jack's temple.
“Gueeok...!”
A blow that would've crushed a human skull and snapped the neck—but Jack's homunculus body barely endured.
Tumbling pathetically across the floor several times, Jack finally realized something was off.
“Th-this can't be...!”
He'd assumed an apprentice witch's escort might handle minor magic.
That complacency hadn't even considered defeat.
He'd only been pondering what fun party to throw after killing the trash.
“You done?”
But something was wrong.
Strength and dynamic vision beyond human limits.
Right now, he felt he could slice through a hail of machine-gun fire.
Yet Jack hadn't even registered what hit him until he was sent flying.
“You fucking bastard...”
Staggering to his feet, Jack finally began to guard against Siu properly.
He assumed a stance, focused to end it for sure.
But.
“If you won't come, I will.”
He was coming.
By the time Jack sharpened his nerves, the spear was already swinging at point-blank.
So fast it created an optical illusion of the shaft bending midway.
A heavy whoosh impossible for a swung spear tore through the air.
-Bwoooong!
Jack gritted his teeth and arched back to dodge.
But no room for counterattack.
The moment the spear swing missed, Siu's leg arced in rotation.
-Bwoong!
“Kyaak!”
The relentless second strike burrowed precisely into Jack's side.
In terms of magic alone, Siu wasn't that strong.
Pure magical power might match a 17th or 18th rank witch at best.
But judging solely by personal martial prowess? Different story.
He'd been trained by Eloa Tiphereth, the War God herself.
And he held the Contract of the King of All Diseases, allowing mastery of any weapon.
If the homunculus possessing Jack spewed specialized nature magic like a drowned witch, it might've been tricky.
But with Jack opting for close-quarters brawling, the gap in fundamentals was insurmountable.
The fight turned one-sided from there.
Jack swung his dagger wildly, relying on overwhelming regen and toughness, but Siu never yielded distance.
He battered Jack ceaselessly with the spear's long reach, and when Jack lunged recklessly, he flattened him barehanded.
-Puk! Puk! Peok! Puk! Peok!
Over ten sincere spear shaft flurries per second, like a rainstorm.
“Gueok! Keok! Keuok! Khek!”
Jack screamed nonstop like a glitched fighting game character.
Three minutes of blows shattering bones and twisting organs with each hit broke his will.
Even for Jack, who'd survived on evil and grit, Siu's sharp strikes were too much.
“Khek... Keugeok...!”
“Hoo...”
Soon, Jack flopped in a pool of black blood, limbs twisted.
Turning a normal person into this might spark some guilt, but not here.
No sympathy wasted on a death-row convict for attempted murder, kidnapping, and gang rape.
If anything, it felt refreshingly stress-relieving.
His blackened skin returned to normal, the eyes on his arms vanishing.
Seeing Jack writhe face-down, Siu released his armor.
“Shall we go now? Let's report it quick.”
Diana stared at Siu with dazed eyes, as if reality hadn't sunk in.
Her small mouth hung wide open as a bonus.