Demon Slayer (2)

I went at the Flame Demon with a steady calm.

I worked the steps up and down, left and right, in and out, and put a thrust through a leg, a flank, an elbow.

"If we'd been live, the donation alerts would've stitched a whole Milky Way across the sky, hyung-nim!"

Lee Hae-il yelled something absurd, both hands quivering.

"You think a streamer can't pull aggro?!"

Even as she said it, she swung her cavalry sabre and split the demon's attention.

"—!"

Skrrk — skrrrrk. Still on its knees, the Flame Demon flailed its hands in a blind frenzy. Five superheated blades ripped the air apart in every direction like a burning whirlwind, and even a graze of those claws across the basalt floor charred the stone.

"Aaaaagh!"

"Get clear!"

One hit and it was instant death. Lee Hae-il flinched and fell back, but I took a step forward instead. It was faster, and it was stronger, yet its technical finish sat at roughly the same level as that D-Rank demon. I slipped the claws dropping in from the upper right, let the fist raking the ground on my left slide past, and drove the estoc into the joint of its wrist. The meaningless blast behind me was nothing but a hot wind tossing my hair.

"—!?"

The C-Rank demon howled as if thrown off. It would never have needed to drill technique. Orcs and lesser demons could be overwhelmed by mass alone. But I had matched that weight class now.

Flame roared up. Of course, the thing was still overwhelmingly stronger. Even the D-Rank demon had weathered dozens of my cuts, and its regeneration sat nowhere near a level a thrust-focused fighter like me could burn out.

"Hyung-nim. Just land one big hit!"

Lee Hae-il moved as if she'd read my mind. She prowled among the rocks nearby, waiting on an opening, then burst in all at once. Now and then she made a choice bold enough to startle even me. She had run to me and matched my steps with an Amber Wyrm looming in front of us, and even after seeing that explosive power she had dropped the flame bats with a submachine gun. It was the same now. A whole cluster of the grenades she'd gathered earlier hung at her waist. The Flame Demon had quit its wild assault and sunk everything into recovery, just knitting the wounds at the back of its knee and at its ankle, on the verge of hauling itself upright.

I poured that same chain attack out once more. This time I didn't hunt several weak points. I concentrated on a single spot.

Pap-pap-pap-papak! Nine thrusts in a row hollowed the intact right knee as if I were boring out a circle. As the blade dug between stone, lava and fire leapt along the jewel-bright path of the estoc. One knee shattered completely, and the thing dropped to the earth. The head, crowned in horns, struck the rock and threw another burst of sparks.

"—!"

Lava and flame spilled from beneath the knee in a wave, enough that I had to scramble back. The stink of burning rubber rose thick off the soles of my combat boots.

"Fall back, hyung-nim!"

Lee Hae-il pulled the grenade pins one after another with practiced hands and rolled every last one of them under the body sprawled on the ground. A C-Rank demon, by nature, was a monster that could blow out a tank's engine with a look alone. But with its knee ruined and its face driven into the dirt, it had no way to send that gaze.

A huge blast went up, and the demon's massive body rocked. Flat plates of stony carapace flew in every direction.

"Did we get it?!"

Lee Hae-il stared at the Flame Demon, not quite sure.

"——!"

And the Flame Demon erupted with a horrific psychic wave as it heaved its upper body upright.

"Ack!"

Lee Hae-il let out a short scream, locked rigid, and toppled like a log. My own vision reeled. My head throbbed like a vicious hangover, and the world spun in front of me. A C-Rank, sure enough — the psychic wave alone was enough to keep a body from holding itself up. Only after several seconds did my sight settle back to what it had been.

"—, —!"

"Whoa..."

And then I saw it. The Flame Demon twisted a body made of wavering flame and roared. Stony carapace still clung to the lower half, but the upper shell had been blown clean away, leaving only shuddering fire — a brilliant white flame trying to swallow a dark crimson one, writhing with its whole body to devour a crimson blaze far larger than itself. It wasn't hard to understand the sight. Through its dominion over the elements, the demon was trying to swallow even the grenades' blast. All at once, that existence looked magnificent. The authority that ruled the elements and bent even the laws of physics burned so fiercely. I wanted to burn like that.

"Hah."

I let the estoc hang and kicked off the ground at once. I shot forward more than ten meters in a single stride and charged the Flame Demon. Just getting close sent heat rolling over me fierce enough to melt the combat suit. My face stung. My eyes shut on their own. I could feel skin searing, blisters rising. But the way of the sword always lay past that limit.

"Ha — aaaaaah!"

If prise de fer was a defense made with the blades engaged, attaque au fer was an attack made in that same engagement. This demon had no sword, but attaque au fer was one of the few attacks in fencing whose blade drew a line. A curve meant to break up the opponent's point — and the force that bent along it was immense.

Fwaaah! I scattered in every direction the white flames that made up the Flame Demon. A great blast lifted my body into the air.

Time stretched thin, the way it does when a life is meant to flash before your eyes. I'd felt it a few times in my athlete days, whenever I drove my focus to the limit. I remembered being taught it was the hippocampus and the cortical network lighting up all at once. I'd even trained to force the state on purpose. How had that gone? I couldn't quite remember. Whether the memory was truly gone, or whether handling the information crashing in on this moment was simply more urgent, I didn't know.

The density of the pain was high. Burned gloves stuck to my palms and sizzled. My throat burned too, maybe from the hot air I'd dragged in. But the density of the happiness was higher still. The sight in front of me was fantastic enough to make me forget even that pain. Flame split four ways whirled like a pinwheel and spread along the exact path my attaque au fer had drawn. White fire tore free of the carapaced lower body and was sucked up into the sky. It was mysterious, and it was majestic. I had done this. I was unbearably proud that my sword had produced a result like that.

"——!"

The Flame Demon burst a psychic wave like a last, desperate thrash and tried to haul the scattering flames back in. The pinwheel nearly collapsed into a vortex and a wall of fire, but even as my vision reeled I kicked my legs up. It wasn't over until it was over. I turned my body toward the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sky and drove the estoc into the heart of the raging flame.

The most basic thrust, and the cleanest. A point that had climbed to the realm of a skill after repetitions beyond counting pierced the magical beast's core.

Fwaaah! Even I thought it was a perfect strike. For a moment, it was as if silence had fallen over the world.

Then the blast. The Flame Demon tore into a thousand pieces and scattered, and the sight was exactly like fireworks celebrating my victory. I broke into a bright laugh and dropped toward the ground.

Formless energy seeped into my body.

"Ha...!"

My wounded body drank down the power the Flame Demon had held, the way parched earth begs for rain. A rapture as fierce as when I had slain the Amber Wyrm swept through me. A cool, itching, addictive fullness washed over every inch of me. I forced down the slack, foolish look trying to take my face and got to my feet.

"Th-this doesn't make any sense, hyung-nim. This is—"

"I know. Just enjoy it."

Lee Hae-il was wearing a similar expression, so she'd taken a share of the mana the Flame Demon had held. When a magical beast dies, its mana scatters, and the Awakened close by divide it and absorb it.

"Feels incredible."

I didn't even think it was a waste. There had been more than I could have taken in alone to begin with. I could feel that I had accepted the maximum I was capable of holding right now. A fullness like a solid meal filled my whole body — and it wasn't only a magical satiety. There was a spiritual fullness, too.

"Well done!"

Team Leader Yeo Baek came running up to me.

"Seong-min would not stop taking credit, you know. Said he'd barely managed to land a kid the National Police Agency and the big corporations were all eyeing. You were worth those terms!"

She smiled with her eyes, bright and refreshing as a bluebird. Hearing that, seeing that smile, the corners of my mouth tried to go slack and foolish all over again.

"...You are inviting misfortune upon yourself."

Choi Jong-hyeok broke his silence as well.

"But do you have the skill to keep misfortune from turning into misery? At the very least, you know how to tell the two apart."

"I would be grateful for your guidance."

His face was still sour, but I knew that a man who was truly displeased would not wear an expression like that. At the request for guidance, the corner of his mouth seemed to move — just a little.

"I will not drive you into a place to die if I can help it. So keep thrashing like that until the day you die, and make amends to this society."

Choi Jong-hyeok turned and walked toward the outside.

"Does he really have to say it... Don't mind him! He's always been that kind of man. Let's go! The air in here is bad."

Yeo Baek flicked a hand toward Lee Hae-il, and Hae-il's body lifted into the air.

"They're out!"

"They dead?"

"They're alive?"

We returned to the Saetbyeol branch. Unawakened hunters and Jeong Ho-min's crew had come all the way outside to wait for us.

"They lost their nerve halfway and crawled out. You can't even tell that much?"

Jeong Ho-min's eyes wavered on a silent There's no way they actually killed it. I understood the feeling. If he had any sense at all, he knew Hae-il and I had set ourselves against his crew. He might not know we meant to run the Scorpion Crew to ground, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he would understand this much: the stronger we became, the less ground remained for anyone on bad terms with us.

"Hae-il."

"Yes, hyung-nim!"

"That thing isn't heavy?"

"Not heavy at all! I'm hanging it in the living room when I get home!"

"Let's wipe it down once before we head out."

"I think that would be better, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠too."

I let out a short laugh and pulled back the combat uniform draped over what Lee Hae-il had been carrying. A massive head revealed itself, four horns rising like a crown. The lava and flame inside were gone, but the stony carapace remained, like the fossil of a skull.

"Whoa...!"

"Isn't that a C-Rank?"

"A Demon Slayer!"

The unawakened hunters flung aside even the cigarettes they'd been smoking and came running.

"You took this down on the first day? You two are no joke."

"What do you mean, 'you two'? They're Awakened hunters!"

"This is insane. This month's bonus is gonna be sweet."

Jeong Ho-min was left standing alone, shaking. Ash crumbled off the cigarette in his hand. I looked at him and smiled, bright and unmistakable.

"You ranked up too, didn't you?"

"Still E+."

"I shook off the minus. Hit D0."

"Congratulations, hyung-nim! As expected, you're the best! I think I'll hit D soon too, so I'll preorder a cake shaped like a D."

"Should we order a demon-head cake while we're at it?"

"Hyung-nim, you're a genius too."

I had called it out loudly enough for Jeong Ho-min to hear. His face twisted even further. The thrill of having landed a heavy blow sat right beside the steady satisfaction of tightening the noose around his neck a little more. At this rate, he might not even have a month left before he reached out to the Scorpion ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Crew.

Ah. I hadn't been posturing. I really had reached D.

In the hunter trade, every rank carried a meaning. F was the F in Fighter — the lowest seat among superhumans, the grade at which you set foot against a magical beast and could fight. E was the E in Elite — the grade at which you could fight one well. D was the D in Defender — the grade at which you could protect someone, or something. True to those words, today I had protected something inside myself.

"Team Leader. A word, if you would?"

A short while later, all of us rookie hunters gathered in the branch lobby. Yeo Baek and Choi Jong-hyeok stepped in.

"Not interested. I'll see you at the team leaders' meeting later."

Choi Jong-hyeok went straight up, and Yeo Baek frowned at his back.

"Everyone worked hard today. Go in, get some real rest, and eat a solid dinner."

The frown lasted only a moment. She looked at us and put on that usual smile of hers, the one that lived in her eyes.

"Starting tomorrow, you'll be formally assigned to your teams. A hunter's life won't be easy, but if you keep at it there's plenty to be gained, so let's give it everything. Fighting!"

"Thank you!"

The day ended there. I didn't even know whose team I would belong to come morning.