The First Strike
Their reaction was faster than I expected. Whiiiirrr―
The bombs came hurtling down. BOOM―!!
“Krrghhh!!”
Of course, none of them were stupid enough to just stand there and take an aerial bomb to the face. The three from Ilseom Guild used their signature movement techniques to slip outside the blast radius, while the man who looked like their leader layered thick Magic Shields to block it. But it seemed even that wasn’t enough. The hastily cast barrier vanished without a trace, leaving only his tattered robe flapping in the wind. He must have taken a decent amount of health damage too.
I hadn’t dealt any major blow, but I hadn’t thrown it expecting to. The risk of taking the initiative was something I’d already calculated. These guys would probably direct most of their rage at Yeonhee instead of me.
“That crazy skeleton bastard!!”
“Lee Yeonhee!! That bitch attacked first!”
‘Bitch? That’s a bit harsh. You’re really asking to die, huh.’
The ones who had retreated far outside the bomb’s range slammed their momentum into the ground. Shaaaaah―! Their legs scraped across the earth, kicking up a thick cloud of sand and dust that spread in every direction.
“I was already pissed that she was in the same party as that rabbit bitch…”
“Seniors! This is perfect. Let’s just clean them up right now!”
As the dust settled, they glared at me and Yeonhee with pure murderous intent.
‘Nice reaction. Now I feel like it’s perfectly fine to kill them.’
“Huh…? Suddenly?”
“...I don’t know either.”
“U-um… hic-! Ilwol…?”
Jua’s eyes were wide as dinner plates from the sudden bombing, while Arin met my gaze and gave a firm nod. Unfortunately, Yeonhee had started hiccupping again. If she could just hold her breath for a minute it would stop, but it was a shame I couldn’t tell her that.
“Whoa… what kind of destructive power…?”
“He’s actually using Fireballs?!”
It wasn’t just our party that was shocked. Hunters from the other parties stood with their mouths hanging open, each reacting in their own way. I was just starting to feel a pleasant little thrill in my shoulders when the brown Mimic, Tiny, began drumming on his box like it was a percussion instrument.
“That’s it!! That’s the one!! Heheheheee!! Bonus points!! Bonus points!!”
The Mimic suddenly burst into manic laughter, then shouted “bonus points” as he cracked open his lid just a little. A brilliant beam of light shot out in every direction.
“apomónoti Gooooooo―”
With the Mimic’s incantation, a semi-transparent membrane instantly formed over a fifty-meter radius. It was an isolation spell that cut everyone inside off from the outside world. The hunters trapped within would remain completely severed from the rest of the world unless they killed the Mimic who cast it or dispelled it themselves.
What made this isolation spell different from the barriers cast by enclosure mages was that people from the outside could still freely enter. Of course, once they came in, they wouldn’t be able to leave again.
Even though they were all D-rank hunters, I could feel the crowd growing restless. I was surprised too.
‘......Is this guy insane? What kind of spell level is this?’
A monster that merely mimicked a wooden box was casting magic that only high-ranking mages should be capable of? The hunters who had briefly let their guard down quickly realized the severity of the situation and crouched low, focusing all their attention on the Mimic.
“Just like that person did earlier, you guys do the same!! Do it? Try it? Whatever!!”
While the Mimic’s words stumbled all over the place and people hesitated to step forward, a thin chain of mana suddenly connected our party with the three members of Ilseom Guild. A chain of power that no one had noticed forming. And that gave the other hunters one clear hint.
‘The first to strike chooses their opponent.’
A single rule surfaced in everyone’s minds.
Baek A-rin and 3 others — Lee Seung-jun and 3 others will now fight. Immediately.
A sharp, high-pitched tone rang out, and the message appeared right after. It looked like we weren’t the only ones who saw it. The hunters, now in an unmistakably clear situation, acted immediately. Each party began frantically searching for opponents they could handle more easily. There was no sign of anyone wondering why they had to fight or whether they could sit this one out. Had they all collectively lost their minds?
No. This was simply how hunters were supposed to be. No matter what sudden abnormality occurred, you couldn’t afford to hesitate. It was a basic virtue that any hunter who had reached D-rank should naturally possess—
“Hic-!”
‘......’
“I-Ilwol, hold my hand. My hand—! Hic-! Hngh!”
‘......I guess Yeonhee will be fine as long as I’m here…’
Soon, explosive sounds signaling the start of battle rang out from all around us. The gap between the chains grew shorter and shorter until only our group and the opposing party of eight were isolated in our own separate space. Strangely, no other hunters could enter this area. The same would apply to us, of course.
“Haa~ Seriously. Arin sunbae-nim~ Is this really how it’s going to be?”
The moment the space isolated itself, our opponents looked visibly relieved, as if a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. Especially that woman who called herself Arin’s junior… no, the one named Heo Min-sol. She stepped forward with an incredulous gesture.
I didn’t know how much they were underestimating us, but it seemed they were completely discounting Ham Eun-yeong as a fighting force.
“Ugh… mirror… the mirror…”
‘......’
Eun-yeong looked so anxious and out of it that it was understandable they’d treat her as a non-combatant. Still…
‘Even so, you should at least assess the enemy’s minimum fighting power… Tsk. Looks like that old man’s influence hasn’t completely disappeared.’
“What the hell are you trying to say now?!”
Arin couldn’t hold back her mockery and shot back in her lisping voice. The enemies burst into loud laughter and sneered at her.
“Look at her getting all worked up. Her true nature’s coming out.”
“Ugh! Will you shut the fuck up, you bitch?!”
“What?”
“Stop talking shit about my friend, you brain-dead bitches! I stayed quiet and now you think we’re pushovers? You wanna die? Should I trap you inside a rock and throw you into a lake for the rest of your lives? You rat-faced freaks dare to run your filthy mouths?! I’ll sew them shut for you!!”
Bae Jua finally exploded. Her emotions were so intense that it felt like she was the one who had been through the same thing, and the rest of us couldn’t help but feel the same surge of anger.
“W-where—”
Heo Min-sol tried to strike back immediately, but—
“Shut your trap before I really rip your skin off.”
Jua’s barrage of curses left Heo Min-sol speechless.
‘Shall we begin?’
Just as the real show was about to start—
“Wait a moment… Everyone, please calm down and listen to what I have to say. This seems unnecessarily heated.”
The man who had been traveling with the three Ilseom Guild members and staying mostly silent finally stepped forward.
‘He’s strong… So that’s Lee Seung-jun.’
From the message, it was clear he was the leader of their party. In my eyes, Lee Seung-jun was strong, calm, and quick to assess the situation.
“Do we really need to fight?”
Just the fact that he was trying to buy time proved it. But that wasn’t going to work. The only mistake Lee Seung-jun had made was teaming up with trash like Heo Min-sol.
Step. Step.
“Hm?”
When I stepped forward alone, Lee Seung-jun and the others stared at me with puzzled expressions. Of course, if I’d been holding a bomb in my hand, their reaction would have been completely different.
“Clack. Clack. Clack…”
A person should know when to cut ties cleanly. They were the ones who provoked us first, but since the bomb had started this fight, I figured I should be the one to end it neatly.
“Wait, Ilwol—”
Clack— I raised my hand and gestured for my party members to stay back. Even if they were lunatics, they were still from Ilseom. If our relationship with them went sour, there were people even Kang Yeonsu couldn’t protect us from. So even if they were from the same guild, I had to crush them in a way that no one could make excuses for. Being taken down by a single summon should be enough.
“Hey, Lee Yeonhee? Looks like you’ve gotten a bit famous lately and now you’re looking down on us. If you don’t want to regret it, you’d better throw everything you have at us, don’t you think?”
‘Is this guy crazy?’
The words came from the man who had his arm slung over Heo Min-sol’s shoulder, standing with his legs crossed. He had allowed me to approach so easily that he didn’t even seem to realize I was now well within striking distance. It was proof of how excellent my ability to conceal my mana was, but still…
‘What a pathetic bastard.’
Taaaah―!
The moment my foot touched the ground, I poured lightning-like energy into it. Pssht— A tiny spark flared at the tip of my foot for a brief instant, allowing me to start much faster than usual. I’d just been testing it… but it actually worked?
Hm. Sometimes you need a little luck like this.
Reckless Charge + Concealment
Shhhhhhhhhh―!
“――!!”
Flame Slash
The man threw himself sideways in a hurry, but he was far too late.
Slice―!
“Aaaaaaaaagh!!”
He should have at least tried to defend the body part that entered my attack range with mana. Thud―! My powerful upward Flame Slash sent the man’s ankle spinning several times in the air before it hit the ground with a heavy sound.
His left ankle was gone. And he was a swordsman? In battle, that meant he was effectively incapacitated. Being rendered combat-ineffective inside a dungeon meant becoming useless dead weight—nothing more than trash to be weighed on the scales of whether to abandon or not. Since we weren’t far from the entrance, that concern was slightly lessened, but still.
‘......’
My hesitation didn’t last long. Killing him outright was excessive. But I needed to leave him half-dead. I had to make sure he wouldn’t foolishly harbor any thoughts of revenge against us. This had probably been the predetermined course from the moment we first entered the Mimic’s range. If I hadn’t started it, maybe I could have stopped. But now that I had taken the step, I had no intention of slowing down.
Suddenly, No Hayun came to mind—the one who had excited me so much before. She had been rather unlucky back then. She had provoked me shortly after I encountered the serial killer Lee Yeong-cheol. The rage that even my Cold Mind trait couldn’t suppress had only happened that one time… Come to think of it, No Hayun had been pretty impressive, hadn’t she?
Anyway, the situation now was different from back then. First of all, No Hayun was the daughter that the ‘Witch’ cherished dearly, while these people were nothing but cancerous lumps within the Ilseom Guild. Since I had helped with the guild’s purification work, that old man Hyeon Jung-gil should actually be thanking me.
“Whoa~ Look at that skeleton…”
“The Fireball wasn’t even the problem. His swordsmanship is crude, but his movement is insane.”
“We’re fucked. I can’t even see how the skeleton is moving. What are we supposed to do?”
“This isn’t a deathmatch where only one team survives, is it?”
Although they couldn’t interfere with our battle, the other hunters were watching me fight. Of course, not many had the luxury to spectate other parties’ fights, but the fact that those who could had considerable ‘speaker power’ was reassuring. I hoped they would only report exactly what they saw.
‘Deathmatch… I doubt it’ll come to that.’
Step.
“Hiiik!! S-surrender!! Fuck, stay away! I surrender!!”
Whoosh― Whoosh―
The Ilseom Guild swordsman, now lying pathetically on the ground, swung his sword wildly. It would have been even better if I could record this sight on video. What a shame.
Stab―
I pierced the severed ankle with my dagger and lifted it up.
“Uwaa… P-please!! Don’t… Please, ughhh… I was wrong. I’m sorry… Please stop…!”
He was quick on the uptake. He must have realized immediately what I was about to do.
Fireball
Boom!
Fwoooosh―
The moment I detonated the Fireball against the severed ankle, I felt the others rushing toward me. Come at me if you dare. A severed body part could be reattached with quick first aid and a high-grade potion. But regenerating a completely lost body part was impossible with potions alone. Only something like a legendary elixir might manage it.