The Birth of Calamity
Crack!
Creeeak!
Spliit! Crackle!
Hundreds of eggs began to fracture simultaneously.
"Han Sion, freeze them quickly—"
Before Choi Muryeong could finish, Han Sion shook his head.
"It's too late. They're already hatching. It won't work."
Just as Han Sion said, the viscous fluid had already drained from the cracked Kappa eggs, rendering freezing magic far less effective.
Freezing them solid to shatter them was no longer an option.
All that was left was a direct confrontation with the newly hatched Kappa hatchlings.
There was only one problem.
Kieeeeee!
The new Kappa hatching from the eggs were completely different from the ones they had faced before.
It took barely a minute or two for the hatchlings' beaks, shells, and claws to fully mature.
Bulge!
Bulge! Bulge!
Their bodies rapidly swelled to two or three times the size of the original Kappa.
"...Everyone, prepare for battle," Choi Muryeong ordered.
Someone swallowed hard.
They all knew instinctively that these hatched Kappa were on an entirely different level from the ones they had encountered earlier.
However, there was one person who remained oblivious.
Nakamura Ryohei.
Before anyone realized it, Nakamura had already drawn the Momotaro Wooden Sword.
The camera zoomed in on him, capturing his determined expression.
I can redeem myself...!
Nakamura was calculating his odds.
Kenji was dead, but that didn't matter. Not a single Korean hunter had died yet.
Besides, Lee Taepyeong was here—the monster who had wiped out the Kappa across Tsushima Island.
Nothing disastrous could possibly happen now.
And on top of that, the only enemies left were mere hatchlings.
This is more than enough.
It was the perfect footage to show the Japanese public, who were eagerly awaiting news of the successful raid on the Tsushima Island Demonic Outbreak.
A national hero who, despite losing his comrades, overcame his grief to eradicate the Kappa once and for all!
Nakamura Ryohei, avenging his fallen teammates and the people of Japan!
His name would dominate the headlines once again, and the news channels would broadcast breaking updates non-stop.
With this, the reputation of Japan's strongest hunter, Nakamura Ryohei, would soar to even greater heights.
Whoosh!
Having finished his calculations, Nakamura lunged forward.
On this stage, he had to be faster than Lee Taepyeong and the Korean hunters.
He had to kill more of them!
Driven by that single-minded obsession, Nakamura swung the Momotaro Wooden Sword.
But then...
Slash! Thud!
Slice! Thud!
Bizarrely, the Kappa collapsed before Nakamura's attacks could even connect.
Without even a chance to scream, they fell in heaps, one after another.
Only the specific Kappa Nakamura targeted were dropping dead.
Consequently, the scene unfolding was vastly different from what Nakamura had envisioned.
The camera captured him in real-time.
"Huh? What?!"
He was doing nothing but swinging wildly at empty air.
Why was this happening? Was Nakamura's skill lacking?
No. Nakamura Ryohei was still Japan's strongest and the world's rank 4 hunter.
It was simply that...
Slash! Swoosh! Slice!
Lee Taepyeong was always exactly one step faster.
Taepyeong was deliberately sniping only the Kappa that Nakamura was aiming for.
Captivated by such overwhelming martial prowess, the camera had shifted its focus entirely to Lee Taepyeong.
"Damn it...!" Nakamura gritted his teeth, struggling just to keep up with Taepyeong's pace.
To make matters worse, Nakamura's Samurai trait concentrated all of its offensive power at the very beginning of a battle.
This meant that as time dragged on, his combat efficiency would rapidly decline.
Because Taepyeong kept stealing his targets, all of Nakamura's major attacks missed their marks.
Now, exhausted and depleted, he couldn't even kill a Kappa in a single blow.
Without his support team to back him up, he was completely helpless.
Clang!
Kieeeek!
Overwhelmed by the swarm of Kappa he could no longer handle, Nakamura turned and fled.
Up in the helicopter, the cameraman filming the scene panicked.
"Wait, what is that?!"
"Is... is Nakamura Ryohei running away?!"
"Cut! Cut the feed! Stop filming!" the director screamed.
"I can't! The broadcast settings are locked to prevent any signal drops...!"
Indeed, to prevent any accidental transmission cuts during the raid, the system had been configured to stream continuously. Pressing a button wouldn't stop the broadcast.
"Damn it, then pan the camera!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
The camera hastily panned away from the fleeing Nakamura, turning back toward the opposite side of the battlefield.
Slash!
Kieeeeee!
Slice!
Unlike Nakamura, Lee Taepyeong was busy carving through the Kappa like a whirlwind.
Just then, the camera lens caught the light and flashed.
Several Kappa noticed the glint and looked up at the helicopter.
Kieeeeee!
Spotting the aircraft, the monsters began to screech in frenzy.
As the Kappa prepared to leap toward the helicopter, Taepyeong shouted, "Maeng Hyung! Temptation!"
Hearing the command, Maeng Juim immediately activated his skill.
Poof!
A pink, heart-shaped mist erupted and scattered across the field.
Kieeeek!
The Kappa that had been targeting the helicopter instantly turned their aggression back toward Maeng Juim.
"Aaaaah!" Maeng Juim shrieked in terror.
Fortunately, Taepyeong's blade was faster.
Thwack!
The Sword of the Successor (Incomplete) flew through the air, skewering three Kappa in a single line.
"I-I almost died..." Maeng Juim gasped, clutching his chest.
"I told you, you won't die," Taepyeong said with a smirk.
He pulled the sword free, sliding it out of the three skewered monsters.
Clang! Clashing! Crackle!
The battle raged all around them.
Thanks to Maeng Juim's Temptation, the Kappa swarmed toward a single point, allowing the Korean hunters to unleash their full arsenal of attacks.
Thud! Boom! Crash!
Seo Inha's forcefield magic detonated the Kappa mid-air.
Han Sion's freezing magic and Ban Haeyeong's dual axes followed up in a devastating combo.
Choi Muryeong was practically flying across the battlefield, his telekinetically controlled swords carving paths of destruction.
Yet, even among these elite hunters, Lee Taepyeong stood in a league of his own.
He was slicing... no, literally mincing the Kappa that rushed toward Maeng Juim.
The camera captured every single second of his overwhelming dominance.
Meanwhile, in the global community forums...
Japan was in complete chaos. Meanwhile, in Korea...
It was practically a festival. Media outlets were already churning out articles about Taepyeong, with some even prematurely reporting the successful clearing of the Tsushima Island Demonic Outbreak.
Oblivious to the online frenzy, the camera kept rolling, broadcasting every detail of Lee Taepyeong's slaughter of the Kappa swarm.
Time to wrap this up...
There were fewer than a hundred Kappa left.
...Shall I finish them all at once?
Non-stop.
Taepyeong signaled Choi Muryeong.
Understanding the cue, Choi Muryeong ordered the other hunters to halt.
And then...
"Whew."
Taking a deep breath, Taepyeong dashed forward.
Shring!
The Sword of the Successor (Incomplete), already drenched in Kappa blood, tore through the monsters with even greater sharpness.
Head.
Crunch!
Chest.
Splurt!
Abdomen.
Rip!
Normally, a blade should grow dull the more it is soaked in blood. Yet, the Sword of the Successor (Incomplete) only grew sharper, as if hungering for more.
Elf craftsmanship really is something else.
Taepyeong marveled as the Kappa were sliced apart as easily as soft tofu.
I didn't think I'd like longswords, but using one isn't half bad.
Were the second-generation Kappa hatched from the eggs stronger? That meant absolutely nothing to Lee Taepyeong.
No matter how strong they were, they all died the same.
Slash!
Twenty.
Slice!
Fifty.
Clash!
Eighty.
Thrust!
One hundred.
Without a single pause, Taepyeong slaughtered the Kappa in a flawless hundred-hit combo.
Having drunk its fill of blood, the Sword of the Successor (Incomplete) glowed brilliantly.
At that moment, a radiant light enveloped the blade.
[The Sword of the Successor (Incomplete) trembles at its master's overwhelming slaughter!]
[The Sword Holy Spirit bestows a name upon the Sword of the Successor (Incomplete).]
[...]
[The Sword of Calamity cries out its name to the entire world!]
[The siblings of the Sword of Calamity shudder...]
[You have received the blessing of the Sword Holy Spirit.]
[Sword of Calamity Passive: Inflicts Fear]
"...Huh?"
I turned the sword over in my hands, examining it from different angles.
The Sword of the Successor (Incomplete), which had previously looked like a standard elven blade, had undergone a dramatic transformation.
The blade was now a blood-red color, and the hilt was pitch-black, as if carved from darkness itself.
From the void stone embedded in the hilt, a faint, wailing sound could be heard.
Kieeeeee...
Listening closely, it was unmistakably the scream of a Kappa.
The void stone had absorbed the terror of the hundred Kappa I had just slain.
It seemed that terror had manifested as the weapon's passive skill, Inflicts Fear.
Did this mean the passive skill would grow stronger the more living things I killed with the Sword of Calamity?
I thought it was a flawed weapon because it was labeled incomplete...
But it was quite the opposite.
This thing was incredible.
Droplets resembling fresh blood flowed and pooled along the red blade as if they were alive.
It might have looked grotesque to others, but I actually liked it.
It looked powerful!
"Hehehe..."
The weapon wasn't the only thing I gained.
Although clearing a Demonic Outbreak didn't reward me with a chest like the tower did, it showered me with a massive amount of experience points.
Thanks to that, my level, which had been crawling up at a snail's pace, finally shot up!
[You have acquired a new skill.]
[Execution Scaffold: When landing a critical hit on a weakness identified by Execution Eye, the special skill "Execution" is triggered.]
[Execution: The touch of death executes the target.]
A combo skill.
But what exactly did the special skill Execution do?
The touch of death executes the target...?
I wouldn't know for sure until I tried it out.
I decided to test it later and closed the skill window.
Now that all the Kappa had been dealt with...
It was finally time to leave Tsushima Island.