#39 Uprooting (3)
#39 Uprooting (3)
"......."
Intimidation had squeezed out roughly all the intel I needed. If I'd had another tail to work with, I could've cross-checked a few more details and tested how solid the information was—that part stung a little. While I was still turning it over, the tail who'd been crushed under the weight of my intimidation surfaced from his daze. The bastard was spiraling into self-loathing, realizing too late that he'd run his mouth and spilled everything. As if that changed anything.
'...There are more of them planted inside the clans than I expected.'
I didn't flatter myself that this one tail knew everything. So how many were actually in hiding, spread across the clans? The more I thought about it, the more absurd it got, and a dry laugh slipped out. Still, now that I had the intel, I might as well uproot the entire infestation in one go.
'Drag one out and the rest come with it.'
They'd all end up trussed like a string of dried croakers and yanked loose together. Just then, I caught the sound of something collapsing. The tail, who'd been lost in a fog of self-recrimination, snapped his head up the moment he heard it, like salvation itself had arrived.
As if something had just occurred to him. His face filled with hope—no, with venom.
"You'll end up dead in the end too...!"
Venom and madness. Everything flickering in his eyes met the Wolf's gaze and was immediately smothered by fear. As though he couldn't accept it, the bastard thrashed and struggled. But there wasn't much he could do with the tendons in his wrists and ankles all severed. In the end, the tail's struggles meant nothing. He collapsed and didn't rise again.
"......."
I'd wrung out everything there was to wring out of him. My business on Ganghwado was finished, but that sound from earlier still nagged at me. What I'd heard was unmistakably something massive crumbling and crashing into the water. —Judging by the direction it came from and the volume, nine times out of ten.
'Something brought down a bridge?'
It was hard to imagine anything else. For safety's sake, the smart play would be to withdraw into the Illusion Realm right now, but this might be a chance to get my claws on another one of their tails.
'And.'
The presence I sensed near the bridge was enormous. Almost certainly not human—a monster.
'...It wouldn't hurt to take a look.'
With that, the Wolf broke into a sprint, heading straight for the presence.
***
"Getting any further from here is going to be a problem."
"Fine."
Hong Yuri paid the fare and stepped out of the taxi, tilting her head. The reason the car couldn't go on was because the bridge had been severed. A sizable crowd had gathered, gawking like they were at a sightseeing stop.
"......?"
When Hong Yuri sensed something from the severed bridge and moved closer—
"Everyone! Get back... Miss, it's dangerous. Take another route."
"Ha...?"
A hunter managing the crowd stopped Hong Yuri. She furrowed her brow like he'd said something ridiculous. So he was looking at me like some little kid...? Just before every curse word she knew came pouring out, she felt a surge of mana. It was a fair distance away, but she could clearly make out the spray bursting from the water.
Her expanding mana caught two presences locked in combat underwater. And the moment she confirmed one of them was the Wolf she'd been hunting all this time, the corner of her mouth twisted.
"Found you."
***
[Abyssal Angler]
[Length 45.6m] [Height 11.4m] [Weight 251t]
[STR 514] [AGI 250] [VIT 501]
'With stats like these.'
The colossal monster that had destroyed the bridge—it looked less like an anglerfish and more like some unholy fusion of a pufferfish and a whale.
'Its stats look high, but.'
High STR and VIT, sure, but its AGI was low and, critically, it had no MP. To me, with my Amphibious skill, the thing looked like nothing more than a giant punching bag.
'Perfect for padding my experience points.'
More than enough to cover the thirty thousand I still needed. I dove into the water immediately, spray shooting up, but my Stealth held and the Abyssal Angler didn't detect me. Even when I closed right in on it, it never noticed my presence.
'Eyes first.'
Same as before, my tentacles and gusts formed propellers and a vortex. I accelerated forward with that speed and positioned myself directly in front of it in an instant. I launched my spines, and the creature finally sensed my presence, opening its enormous maw as if in belated realization.
"――?!"
Now I understood why the word "Abyss" was in its name. My vision went black, swallowed by its gaping mouth. Then it began sucking in water with terrifying force. The spines I'd fired lost their momentum and were swept away by the current. The water it swallowed flushed straight out through its gills, giving it thrust to charge.
'That's insane...!'
The creature came on with horrifying propulsion. Its enormous shadow slowly closed its mouth. Fighting the current was brutal. I unleashed my mana and Elasticity to push forward—riding the flow and slipping out through the gap in its gills.
'Did I underestimate it?'
Still, I didn't think taking it down would be hard. But Insight had only shown me its Status. I'd been a little complacent.
'No. Not complacent.'
A monster that moves using the thrust of water jetting out of its gills. Who the hell could even imagine something like that? Just how tough were those gills? It had probably used that same propulsion to destroy the bridge.
'Fighting it head-on is dangerous.'
I had to use its flanks and rear. I circled around, firing spines, but the water resistance and the creature's absurd bulk made the effect negligible.
'This won't be enough.'
I needed to deal heavier damage. I created a vortex, closed in around the creature, and formed as many spined tentacles as possible. Even with its massive body, I was far faster circling it than it was rotating to face me.
'Its speed doesn't compare.'
The creature's speed only came when it expelled water with gill propulsion—in other words, only when it moved in a straight line. I hardened each and every spined tentacle to make them tougher. The shadow of the tentacles and my spiritual field fused, forming countless blades that consumed the contacted area in real time.
'Good.'
Snatch Devour drained its vitality, and the stat boosts from satiety kicked in as well. By the time all preparations were in place, the Abyssal Angler was thrashing in agony.
'This will do it.'
The moment I advanced, riding a vortex stirred up by a gust, I pierced through its scales and tore the flesh beneath into dozens of shreds. As the creature writhed in pain and expelled a blast of water, I used that very propulsion to carve through its body.
"―――!"
The surrounding sea dyed red with the Abyssal Angler's blood. Massive size and 500 VIT. I felt a flicker of admiration that it still wasn't dead.
'Persistent...?!'
Just before I lunged, a chill shot through me and I had to spring back immediately with Elasticity.
[Weak Sixth Sense (E) Lv.4 proficiency at maximum. Weak Sixth Sense (E) Lv.4 → Weak Sixth Sense (E) Lv.5]
The moment I pulled back, the sea was dyed red once more. Not from the creature's blood...! The surrounding water temperature must have shot up dozens of degrees. I could see the form of the Abyssal Angler, now burning black.
'......!'
Mana I could never forget. I sliced through the current and dove deeper underwater. The Abyssal Angler sank belatedly and hit the bottom.
'Hong Yuri.'
That mana was unmistakably hers. Above the surface, Hong Yuri hovered on a mass of crimson mana coalesced like a cloud. How she had tracked me down was immediately obvious.
'Tracking Magic Eye.'
Everything, including skills of hers I'd never been able to confirm before, came into full view.
[Hong Yuri (Human)]
[Height 143.6cm] [Weight 32.7kg]
[STR 221] [AGI 247] [VIT 281] [MP 643]
[Skill List]
[Tracking Magic Eye (B)] [Mana Enhancement (C)] [Mana Concentration (C)] [Mana Regeneration (D)] [Intuition (E)] [Eye for Detail (E)] [Faint Poison Resistance (F)]
Daybreak's Dawn's greatest mage, Hong Yuri. This time, the reality of her lay bare before me.
Her other stats were comparable to mine or worse, but her MP alone was beyond any comparison. She might lack Great Magic Power, but the roster of skills she did possess was dazzling. She seemed to have practically every skill that touched on mana.
[Abyssal Angler consumed. Experience Points and Satiety increase.]
Those crimson eyes, burning like a red blaze, fixed squarely on me. A stare that seemed to pierce straight through, demanding I come out.
'.......'
My enemies were the Prodigal Sons, not hunters—only the turncoats. Hong Yuri was a hunter of the Dawn. Thinking rationally, I had no reason to fight her.
'The odds are slim to begin with.'
Judging coldly, I was currently on a level comparable to an A-Class hunter. And Hong Yuri was in a different league from your average A-Class. Her power lay in magic, something stats couldn't quantify. No matter how I thought about it, there was no reason to fight her. I knew the right call was to resolve this through dialogue.
But—
"Not coming out? So I can kill this thing, then?"
—Those words turned my vision red. I'd tried to hold back. Ihyeon Park. What happened in the Forest Dungeon—I'd already come to terms with it and moved on. Her trying to kill me at Waterfront Park had been the right call for a hunter. She'd only been doing her job. So I'd decided to let it go. I had decided. But...
"―――!"
My teeth clenched, and my breathing turned ragged. From the moment I saw Hong Yuri's hand, the corner of her mouth twisted in a sneer. From the moment I saw Perry pinned down under a curtain of crimson mana......!
'......!'
I stared up blankly. My brain conjured images of Perry's death on its own, and Hong Yuri's words echoed over and over. The instant I saw Perry limp and helpless, engulfed in crimson mana, the thread of reason I'd been barely clinging to pulled taut.
I held back. I did hold back. I understood her trying to kill me. Even when she picked a fight, even when she cast magic at me, I understood. She was a hunter. I tried to accept it, tried to make peace with the position she was forced into. Tried to tell myself it couldn't be helped. I tried to think that way.
"Kyuuuuu...!"
—The sight of Perry trapped in mana wiped my mind blank. Everything up to now. The path forward. Thoughts about the Prodigal Sons. All those calculations flew away. One by one, the threads of reason began to snap. My heart pounded like it was going to burst. My blood surged, flowing faster, rushing backward and heating my veins until they burned. When that boiling blood had circulated through my entire body, the final thread of reason holding the Wolf in place snapped.
"―――!"
***
She already knew about the Fairy Dragon. The Hermit's Forest Clan Leader had said the Fairy Dragon was being threatened by Alpha (the Jirisan Warg), but Hong Yuri didn't see it that way.
'That love-struck bitch should've gotten a good look at this mess.'
If the Fairy Dragon were truly under threat, there was no way it would help Alpha (the Jirisan Warg). If that were the case, she would've caught it the moment she ran into Kang Tae-ho in the Forest Dungeon. Convinced that Alpha (the Jirisan Warg) and the Fairy Dragon were cooperating, Hong Yuri decided that securing the Fairy Dragon was the priority. That way, it wouldn't be able to escape.
'Yeah. I was right, but.'
...She'd hit the nail a little too squarely on the head. The clan had already issued orders to capture it alive, so she'd had no intention of killing it. She'd only meant to hold it to keep it from escaping and open a channel for dialogue, but...
'...What a pain.'
There wasn't a single shred of reason left to be found in Alpha (the Jirisan Warg)'s eyes. More than anything—this chilling, bloodthirsty aura said the bastard would never back down.
"Hey...?"
She tried talking, just in case, but as expected, no answer came back.
A reverse scale. It seemed she'd touched it far too precisely. It might not have been a simple cooperative relationship, but something like family—or even more. Before she knew it, black flames had begun to burn, pushing back her crimson mana. As a ghastly killing intent spread and demonic energy blazed, just for one fleeting moment, the thought crossed Hong Yuri's mind: maybe she'd made a mistake.
"Fuck..."
Chewing on her lip, Hong Yuri pulled up her mana as if she had no choice.