Vampire (3)
The sounds of flesh tearing and bones shattering echoed through the chamber. Crunch!Thud!Splat!
“Fuck! Heal! Use healing magic!”
“The front line’s collapsing!”
“There’s too many of them!”
It was pure chaos. A massive melee where countless monsters and hunters were tangled together in a brutal free-for-all. Individually, the vampires held the advantage in raw power, but thanks to Park Jihun’s familiars, the hunters had overwhelming numbers. When it came to teamwork and synergy, the hunters were far superior. The battle remained dead even.
“Kyaa! I’m not a vampire, I’m a succubus!”
“Ah… s-sorry about that.”
“...Wow. Never thought I’d live to see a hunter apologize to a monster.”
“Have you ever seen them actually fighting together like this?”
At first, the hunters had been thrown off by the lack of clear friend-or-foe identification. But these were veteran high-rank hunters after all. They adapted in seconds and were now fighting seamlessly alongside the familiars.
“Hmm.”
But there was one being who could shatter the delicate balance of this chaotic brawl. And she was finally starting to move.
Vampire Queen Trene.
She didn’t like how this drawn-out stalemate was playing out.
“Bloody Spear.”
To end the fight quickly, she summoned dozens of massive spears. They were forged from blood—crimson spears sharpened to a lethal edge. Even an A-rank hunter’s thick defenses would be skewered like paper.
Just as she was about to flick her wrist and unleash them—
“Hey, hold up a second?”
At Park Jihun’s shout, her hand froze mid-motion.
“......”
Of course, she hadn’t stopped on purpose.
Enemy temporarily stiffened and intimidated.
“...Who dares to stop me?”
Furious, Trene whipped her head around and glared daggers at Park Jihun.
“Hold up? As expected of Sunbae. Your word choice is merciless as always.”
“...Sometimes I seriously question what the hell is going on inside your head.”
Meanwhile, Park Jihun and Shin Jiyeon were casually trading jokes.
“Just die already.”
Trene hurled all dozens of blood spears straight at Park Jihun.
Kwaaaaang!
The massive blood spears rained down like a crimson storm, slamming into the spot where he had been standing in the blink of an eye. Under normal circumstances, he should have been dead.
But—
“Whoa, shit. That was close as fuck.”
Thanks to his insane agility, Park Jihun had already darted backward, completely avoiding the attack.
“Starting the interview with such a prickly attitude, huh?”
Grinning, he weaved through the blood spears and charged straight at Trene.
“Jiyeon! Support me from the side!”
“Yes, Sunbae!”
His opponent was the boss of a near-S-rank gate. She undoubtedly possessed monstrous stats. Normally, it would take at least five A-rank hunters working together to barely take her down. No matter how strong Park Jihun was or how good Shin Jiyeon’s support was, facing her alone was insane.
He should have brought all his familiars, but they were busy holding back the other vampires who were rushing to stop him from charging their queen. The other hunters had no reason to divert their forces to protect him either, so the familiars had to stay in the thick of the melee.
Still, that didn’t mean the hunters were useless.
“Hunter Park Jihun, fall back! The boss is too dangerous!”
“So this is the boss raid team?”
The leader of Piece’s Team 8, along with several other A-rank hunters, came rushing over. That’s right—Park Jihun wasn’t alone even without his familiars. There were other raid parties here too.
People tend to think alike. Everyone had sent a portion of their forces to form a dedicated boss-killing squad. If the boss died, the gate would be cleared. The remaining vampires would lose their leader and turn into a disorganized mess.
“Forget that, just support me!”
Park Jihun shouted as he nimbly dodged another volley of blood spears.
“What the—?”
One of the hunters looked like he was about to argue with the order, but—
“Wait.”
The leader of Piece’s Team 8 stopped him.
“...Is that really the movement of a B-rank hunter…?”
He stared in stunned silence at Park Jihun’s footwork.
Dozens of spears flying in the blink of an eye. Park Jihun dodged them with fluid agility. The ones he couldn’t avoid, he shattered with his mana-infused sword. His explosive speed when dodging. The raw power behind his strikes. And the mana output strong enough to clash with magic attacks from a near-S-rank gate boss.
That wasn’t B-rank.
That was almost…
“Practically S-rank.”
An average stat total of 500 or higher. Those who had surpassed the limits of humanity and earned the title of S-rank—special existences above A-rank.
Of course, Park Jihun’s actual average stat total was around 450. He hadn’t crossed 500 yet. But thanks to his high-level martial arts skills and the buff he’d received from Ruze right before charging in, he was displaying physical ability on par with someone who had an average of 500.
‘I honestly underestimated him…’
The leader had assumed Park Jihun’s A-rank raid party rating came entirely from the combined combat power of his familiars. He knew about the stat growth ability and the special skills that boosted stats, but he’d figured the man’s base abilities were only slightly above a normal B-rank—at best barely scraping into A-rank territory.
No matter how much his stats rose, there was no way he could get several times stronger.
‘If a skill like that existed, it would be a game-breaking bug.’
But seeing it with his own eyes, he finally understood.
‘That… is a bug.’
Park Jihun’s very existence was the bug.
“...We’ll provide cover. The Italian team and I will support from range. The Japanese leader will stick close to Hunter Park Jihun’s partner and provide close-range support.”
“What? We’re supposed to babysit a B-rank?”
Some of the hunters still couldn’t accept it and protested, but the leader of Piece’s Team 8 pointed at Park Jihun, who had already closed the distance to the Vampire Queen.
“Does that still look like a B-rank to you? Then go back and hunt some vampire minions instead. We’ll send someone else.”
“......”
At his words, the others fell silent and began following orders. They understood it logically. Their brains just couldn’t keep up with what their eyes were seeing.
Unlimited familiar taming. The ability for those familiars to grow. His own stats growing too, plus his combat stats more than doubling against female opponents?
If this were a game, players would have banded together to spam the GM with complaint tickets demanding an emergency patch.
But this was reality. There was no GM to balance things.
The only way to overcome this situation was to give their absolute all supporting the strongest person here—Park Jihun—so they could take down the boss.
Click.
The leader of Piece’s Team 8 pulled out a magic tool that looked exactly like a gun. It was literally a gun. Except instead of normal bullets, it fired mana-infused magitech rounds. A special piece of equipment.
“Silver-plated rounds loaded. Entering covering fire.”
“......”
The vice-leader and long-range dealer from the Bianco raid party of Italy’s Nerito Guild also drew her weapon. Three massive spears were strapped to her back. She pulled out two of them—the ones with slightly curved blades—and click, locked them together. Then she connected the tips with an incredibly tough-looking cord.
In an instant, it had transformed into an enormous bow.
She then nocked the remaining spear onto the bowstring.
“Huh. I thought she was a spearman.”
The leader let out a dry laugh at the bizarre sight. Right after, the two of them took aim at Vampire Queen Trene.
“Firing.”
Rat-tat-tat—Swooosh—Thwoong!
The rapid burst of gunfire mixed with the heavy twang of a bowstring. Shining silver bullets and a massive spear flew toward Trene at the same time.
“Hmph, pathetic little things…!”
Shweee—Kwaaaaaang!!
Trene snorted and spun her body, easily dodging both the bullets and the spear. They slammed into the ground instead.
The spear, as big and heavy as a person, created a massive shockwave on impact. The castle floor cracked open and began erupting upward.
“Tsk.”
Trene clicked her tongue in annoyance.
And right in front of her—
“Hup…!”
Shweee—
Park Jihun’s sword, wrapped in blue mana, came flying in.
“...!!”
Her balance was already off from dodging the bullets and spear, and the ground was unstable from the shockwave. Avoiding Park Jihun’s sword in this situation seemed nearly impossible.
But—
“...How laughable.”
Trene smirked and shot straight into the air, completely evading the attack. She had flown upward.
“...Fuck. If you can fly, you should’ve said so from the start. Lying during an interview is a big no-no.”
He’d thought that last strike had been perfect. Park Jihun let out a deep, disappointed sigh.
‘I attacked with the intent to kill.’
Since his opponent was who she was, he figured he needed to go all-out with lethal force just to barely avoid killing her while still subduing her. He had attacked with everything he had. The long-range hunters’ covering fire had been perfect too. It was the kind of attack that would be great if it hit, but even if it missed, it would throw off her posture.
But it had failed.
“Lowly creature. I have no idea what nonsense you’ve been spouting this entire time.”
Floating in the air, Trene looked down at Park Jihun with clear disdain.
At that moment, Shin Jiyeon and one of the hunters from the Raijin raid party joined him.
“Whoa, it’s me.”
“Oh, she’s flying.”
Both Park Jihun and Shin Jiyeon looked up at the sight and thought the exact same thing.
‘I can see her panties.’
‘Unnie’s panties are white. Gap moe? Holy shit, that’s hot.’
They were both openly staring at Trene’s panties.
‘...What the? Why do I suddenly feel a chill down there…?’
In that instant, Trene felt a sensation far colder than Park Jihun’s sword strike earlier—right between her legs.