Chapter 18
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 018
Chapter Title: Ice Awakener Baek Dam-bi [3]
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Ever since that hallucination involving Baek Dam-bi a short while back, teleporting beyond my line of sight had become far smoother. I spread out my mental web and quickly pinpointed my teammates' positions.
And then, teleport.
There was my hunter team, holding position on the road.
"Miss me?"
Seong Mun-yeong turned at my words.
"Hyung, you can't just go off on your own like that!"
He didn't have the luxury to chew me out for saving over two hundred lives just now. Monsters were swarming this spot too.
"Front! Fire!"
Four Deathclaws charging straight at us.
They never ran in a nice straight line, perfect for shooting. The bastards zigzagged in bizarre patterns, leaping irregularly several meters at a time with each bound. Even Stormtroopers aside, it looked impossible to land a single hit on them.
To somehow tag the damn things, our hunter team kept firing and firing.
Who was holding the line at the front of the team?
Baek Dam-bi.
There she was, up front, unleashing a light machine gun. Even just her crop top and the long hair falling to her waist made it obvious who she was.
The light machine gun in her hands spat fire without end.
I'd heard during training that she didn't need barrel swaps or coolant no matter how long she kept shooting. As an ice ability user, she could lower the temperature of objects with just a glance or touch.
Under fire from Baek Dam-bi and the rest of us, three Deathclaws finally took hits and tumbled to the ground.
All three looked dead. Just one left.
"Here it comes, here it comes!"
One Deathclaw finally closed in, but Baek Dam-bi showed no panic. She didn't flinch or try to dodge.
A shrill 'Kak!' pierced my ears—the Deathclaw's scream.
An ice spike erupted in front of the charging Deathclaw, halting it dead. The spike shattered instantly under the beast's furious swipe, but that brief delay was all we needed. Everyone fired at once, dropping it.
That proved it: calling an ice ability user no better than a regular unawakened civilian was bullshit. It just meant her power wasn't worth billions in contracts.
Not just me—the other team members clearly saw her contribution too. Seong Mun-yeong muttered in a voice thick with tension.
"Dam-bi noona, nice..."
I'd finished swapping magazines by then and was about to join in, but all the nearby Deathclaws were already down and sprawled out.
Finally catching a breather, I checked on the team.
"Everyone okay?"
"Y-Yeah..."
They all seemed unscathed, no fatalities. Makes sense—this was the rear of the operational zone. Relatively safe. Even here, they'd been blasting away to survive, eyes bloodshot, but still alive.
Bang, bang!
Gunfire echoed everywhere. Hunters were arriving late, forming a containment line.
In the meantime, I'd gotten spare magazines from the team, chugged some water, scarfed an energy bar for calories, and prepped for round two.
Then we waited, catching our breath.
Just gunning down small fry was something any regular hunter could handle. Unless it was a pinch like before, no need for me to step up and rack up a few more kills.
Guys like me—Awakener hunters—had a different job.
Take down the real heavy hitters.
Like that one that jumped the helicopter earlier...
Gates always spat out monsters with a leader-type mixed in. Not just a pack boss, but something exceptionally tough.
Too fast for rocket launchers or recoilless rifles, too sturdy for small arms.
My mission was handling those. My hunter team's job was attending me or acting as meat shields to keep me alive. Whether the monster targeted them first or they took it down before it reached me—as long as I survived, mission accomplished.
It didn't take long for my prey to show up.
The radio blared a scream-like transmission.
📡 Radio: "Force Field Body! Force Field Body appeared!"
I knew what a Force Field Body was from training. The one I'd seen earlier.
Spreading my mental web caught something moving unusually fast.
"I'm heading out first—move to the radioed location!"
I focused and teleported beyond my line of sight.
Even crossing space like that, I was already too late.
The stench of blood hung thick. Amid scattered corpses, I spotted a muscular body with guts spilled and throat sliced clean through.
Fuck.
Even in death, it gripped a hunter rifle—a Physical Enhancement Awakener. Muscles that could've blocked bullets below a certain caliber were neatly severed.
Brown skin. Original nationality? Laos? Cambodia?
Anyway, a hired foreign Awakener. Gut and neck both slashed—he'd kept firing his hunter rifle through fatal wounds till the end.
But even that struggle wasn't enough. Throat cut, lights out.
His assigned Incheon hunter team lay scattered nearby too.
For the warrior who died defending the city, I offered a silent moment of respect in my heart.
Then I eyed the monster behind it all.
The same one from before. Leaped once and took down a hovering helicopter, walked off the crash unscathed.
Humans aren't the only ones who awaken—animals and monsters can too. Deathclaws as a species are all innate force field blade Awakeners, and a few exceptional ones awaken not just that, but another force field power.
Force field exoskeleton.
For humans, awakening this catapults you straight to A-rank with no training—the most combat-specialized ability out there.
It wraps the body in a barely visible force field. Hit one spot hard? It doesn't just pierce there—the field redistributes, covering the damage from elsewhere. Can't harm the body until you shatter the whole thing.
Like reinforced exoskeleton, the field has its own power source. Not just superior defense—it amplifies strength beyond biological limits. That insane leap? Definitely the exoskeleton.
That's a Force Field Body. The kind that jacks an Awakener's value a hundredfold.
"Hey there."
The thing recognized me too. No greetings or roars of threat.
Everything it did was fast—too fast.
Vision blurred, and suddenly it was swinging hook-claws right in my face.
Instinctive teleport or I'd be headless.
I gritted my teeth and squeezed the trigger at its exposed back.
30mm autocannon rounds hammered its field in bursts. Shells long as three palms stacked. Hit flesh? Doesn't punch holes—shreds or bisects.
This one? Like BB pellets.
It spun and lunged again, leaping arrow-fast. No guarantee dodging by foot.
Teleported to the rooftop of a building across the road.
Saw it graze where I'd been.
Missed twice—getting pissed now? It threw its head back and howled.
Awooooooo... A call for backup, apparently. Blood-smeared Deathclaws poured from nearby villas, all glaring at me.
They started scaling my building.
Over ten, but no need to fight them all at once. My mental web still tracked my team approaching.
"Fire!"
Team reached the spot, laying down cover fire for me. Deathclaws plummeted from the walls as my one-on-one resumed.
From that far rooftop, the Force Field Body leaped at me.
My building was taller, distance decent. Plenty of airtime—I emptied the hunter rifle's magazine entirely.
Dusk falling, city darkening.
Muzzle blasts traced thick golden lines through the gloom. The lines nailed the airborne beast dead center—no dodging midair.
How much kinetic energy in those golden streaks? Even I'd turn to mincemeat on contact.
The monster pierced the barrage and landed on the roof.
Zigzagging at me, I backpedaled, firing. My aim's superhuman. Tagged its body repeatedly, but not a drop of blood—it closed relentlessly.
Die already, please.
Getting anxious. A few 30mm rounds should've shredded any normal Force Field Body—what the hell was this one? Fields vary by individual, sure, but this was exceptional.
Like fighting an RPG boss. Whittle HP all you want—no visible wounds. Moves unchanged till zero, and no HP bar to boot. Despair-inducing.
No, wait. My shots so far must've cracked its field plenty. Just no clue how much more.
"Fuck you, bastard."
And it arrived.
Thud—it leaped from close range, arrowing at me.
Too fast; mistimed the teleport. So?
Dropped the rifle, twisted sideways like dodging a straight.
Ah...
Pain bloomed on my cheek. Hook-claw nicked my ear and a chunk of face.
But that was it.
As the Deathclaw sailed past, I grabbed its foreleg.
Slammed it down. Boom!
Physical Enhancer super-strength smash. Roof concrete pulverized, debris flying—but still no blood.
Lifted for another slam; mid-swing, it slashed with the other foreleg.
The scythe grazed my gripping hand. Three fat maggots—middle, ring, pinky—flew off spewing red goo.
Fingers gone? Whatever. Thumb and index enough to hold.
Slammed again. Thung!
Not boom—thung. Felt the change.
Cracks like shattered glass spiderwebbed its body, exploding outward.
Field broken at last.
Final thrash—I crushed it down. Field gone, its body—untouched by cannon fire before—couldn't withstand my forearm, pulped on impact like tofu.
Panting before the wreckage, I laughed.
I won. Again.
"Ah."
The crowd's cheers echoed in my head once more. Victory flooded me with power.
The beast's everything—its soul—seeped into me.
Awakeners grow at different rates and limits, but I feel mine's fast. New strength surging tells me just how potent this soul was.
Ignoring the omnipotence surging through me, I radioed.
"Force Field Body down!"
Cheers and praise came back. Situation under control, great job, take a break.
📡 Radio: "Great work out there. No injuries? The rest of us hunters here will clean up—Kim Geuk, go rest!"
But then.
Something exploded.
Turning toward the sound, I saw flames and debris bursting from the 10th floor of an apartment.
Gas explosion? Yeah. But no coincidence in this mess.
I could guess the culprit.
Spirit...
Gates pour out monsters, but monsters can't open gates.
Spirits open gates.
Spirits and monster packs are symbiotic. Spirit opens gate; waiting monsters pour out and rampage.
In the chaos, spirit slips away to hunt humans, fattening its soul safely.
I eyed the apartment rooftop where the blast happened. Survivors huddled there, unrescued.
Imagined the Flame Spirit reveling below.
I stood. Across on that rooftop lay the hammer I'd dropped earlier. Teleported there, steeling myself.
The hunt wasn't over.