Betrayer
"Kuh. Kuhuhu! Kraahahahaha!! Who would've thought we'd meet in a place like this! Betrayer!!"
"Who the hell decided to call me that? You're pissing me off."
"Hey. Ever thought about joining the Alliance? They'd all welcome someone like you with open arms."
"You lunatic. Who'd team up with trash like you?"
"Kuhuhu. That's a real shame. I've changed my mind. My goal today was just terrorism, but I've found something way more important. Even if you say no, I'll just break you and drag you along."
Betrayer. That was Seo Chaerim's epithet.
And Seo Chaerim hated her own epithet.
The reason she was called the Betrayer was simple. Her ability controlled monsters. Or more precisely, it was a bit different, but that's how the public saw it.
An ability more alien than any other, and one that was despised in equal measure. For turning humanity's enemies into allies, she had to bear labels like witch or traitor to mankind.
Hence, Betrayer.
Because of this power, Seo Chaerim couldn't join the Hero Association and ended up with the organization Hwang Yerang belonged to.
The Villain Alliance had a list of villains they prioritized recruiting as comrades. At the top of that list was Seo Chaerim—the Betrayer.
The moderate faction within the Alliance argued that the Hero Association had to remain for the sake of social order. The biggest reason backing their claim was the existence of monsters.
Without the Association, there'd be no one to fight the monsters. Even the Alliance, which hated the Association, didn't want humanity wiped out by monsters.
That's why the moderates hesitated to fight the Association. But if they could recruit the Betrayer, they could command monsters under their banner. That would massively boost the Alliance's strength and give those cowardly moderates the push they needed.
So Stormbringer decided to revise his plan, putting the terror attack on hold to capture Seo Chaerim.
Even if she refused, he could just crush her with force, kidnap her, and torture her until she complied.
"Come on! Show me what you've got!"
"Piss off."
At Seo Chaerim's command, six black dogs lunged at Stormbringer. They were more wolf than dog in size—monsters scattering in different directions, probing for openings from all sides as they charged.
"These puny things can't stop me."
But Stormbringer whipped up a powerful gale around him like a curtain, and the black dogs were flung back, tumbling across the floor.
"Tch. No good, huh."
The black dogs—named Black Hounds by Chaerim—weren't particularly strong monsters. They were a hassle to deal with thanks to their speed and coordinated, intelligent movements, but they were a bad matchup against someone like Stormbringer who could unleash wide-area attacks.
Still, her goal was just to buy time until Jeong Yuseong took down Nam Hyunsu. She had plenty of other monsters she could summon, but the bigger ones would be tough in tight indoor spaces, and escalating the fight could drag innocents into it.
The Black Hounds rose and circled Stormbringer, growling low. The moment he showed an opening, those black dogs would bare their vicious fangs and tear into his throat.
But Stormbringer watched them leisurely. To him—one of the stronger radicals in the Alliance—a few mutts posed no threat, no matter how many.
Soon, the Black Hounds prowling around him bared their teeth and pounced all at once.
Instead of the gale from before, Stormbringer compressed the air into blades and sliced the frontal dog's torso clean in half.
Splatter—the bisected Black Hound collapsed, spilling guts and blood across the floor.
Five left. Two more were cleaved before they could reach him.
As the remaining three's fangs closed in, Stormbringer rode the wind, slipping through their encirclement with agile precision.
The dogs, suddenly missing their target, crashed into each other and sprawled on the ground. He finished them off with compressed air blasts.
"Miss. If you're holding back to avoid collateral damage, give it up. I don't plan to kill you, but losing an arm or leg won't stop you from using your power, right? If you wanna keep all your limbs intact, surrender quietly—or come at me with everything you've got."
Seo Chaerim bit her lip, racking her brain at Stormbringer's display of power.
If she summoned her strongest monster, killing him would be easy. But that would wipe out the hospital and the whole area around it.
Might as well let him carry on with the terror attack—at least that way, more survivors.
Her goal was buying time anyway, so she decided to stick with defensive-specialized monsters.
She summoned again, and slime-like monsters appeared—resembling clumps of mud slapped together.
"More stalling? Boring."
Stormbringer blasted wind at them. The hit monster exploded with a pop!, splattering black mud everywhere.
But the mud slithered back together, reforming quickly and lumbering toward him at a sluggish pace.
"Hm. This type's a pain. Not my favorite."
Unlike his grumbling, Stormbringer charged without hesitation. Cannonball-like gusts from his hands burst the monsters like balloons. He slipped through their reforming barrier on the wind, closing in on Seo Chaerim in a flash.
"But this slow? No way you can stop me."
As he bore down to slice her legs, a dangerous presence rushed him—he yanked his arm up to shield his face.
Crack. A black-feathered bird appeared from nowhere, stabbing at his arm with its beak.
"Whoa. You handle rare monsters, huh."
"Still got time to act cocky?"
Seo Chaerim smirked, and a bizarre humanoid shadow monster erupted from the floor—like darkness sculpted into a man. Towering over two meters, it seized Stormbringer's shoulder.
Its belly split wide with a rip, revealing jagged fangs.
Crunch.
"Guh!!"
The monster chomped his torso; ribs shattered with a chilling crackle echoing through.
"This is such a hassle. Individually, they're no threat, but pulling out every damn monster freely? Annoying as hell."
Yet even with broken bones, Stormbringer grinned casually. Blade-like winds swirled around him, shredding the clinging monsters to bits.
"What the…"
"Makes me want this power even more. I've gotta take you with me, no matter what."
Stormbringer pulled a syringe of liquid from his coat's inner pocket and jammed it into his heart, injecting it.
Moments later, his broken bones realigned in a flash, wounds knitting shut.
"No way."
"Impressive, right? Our doc made it. Side effects are rough, and tomorrow I'll feel like dying, but hey."
He tossed the empty syringe aside and sauntered toward Seo Chaerim.
'Damn it. No usable monsters left for this situation…'
Judging she couldn't stall anymore, Seo Chaerim gritted her teeth and swept her hand through the air.
"Still got something left? Show me. I'll wait."
"Ha! Ballsy. Don't blame me if you regret it."
Stormbringer shrugged off her taunt lightly.
As she slashed the air, cracks split reality, birthing a massive frog.
Unfurling from the rift, it wasn't your average frog. Easily two meters tall, standing firm on two legs.
"Run!"
"Ribbit!"
Clinging to the frog's back, Seo Chaerim yelled. It bolted on bipedal legs.
"Last resort is a getaway? Not a bad stalling tactic, but I won't let you off easy."
The Betrayer had to be secured here, no matter what. Stormbringer cloaked himself in wind and gave chase, soaring after the fleeing frog.