A Convenient Hostage

They moved differently than I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠expected. I'd figured they would tuck tail and run, or maybe try an ambush. Instead, they came out and stood right in front of us, surprisingly straightforward about it. They weren't even wearing Armor Knight plate.

"It's another party."

Lina, who had no idea what was going on, assumed they were just another hunter team. The murderous atmosphere rolling off them, however, quickly changed her mind.

"There's something off about that party."

There were three of them. The one standing in the center took a step forward.

Yeonji went rigid, glaring them down. As party leader, I raised my voice and called out.

"Who are you?"

"What happened to the party leader and Jinyong?"

He asked that out of nowhere. I nearly told him the two of them had dropped dead and gone to heaven, but I swallowed it down and kept up the act, burying what I actually knew.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"So that's how you want to play it. Fine. If you're not going to talk, I'll just have to pry your mouth open."

He pulled a round sphere from his pocket — something that looked like a water balloon, or maybe a rubber ball — and hurled it at the ground with everything he had. Even at a glance, the thing reeked of danger.

Boom!

The sphere burst with a crack far brighter and cheerier than any birthday popper, and yellow gas billowed out in every direction from the point of impact. For a second I thought they'd set off a tear-gas grenade, but there was no sour, nauseating stench at all.

Poison gas.

They had no reason to set off a surprise party cracker for us, so poison gas it was. I used Light Cure immediately, neutralizing the status effect before it could take hold.

"Kill them!"

They lunged forward all at once. Sujin and Yeonji, who had already been braced for this, attacked without a second's hesitation.

"Water Arrow!"

Sujin had been locking her eyes on their heads from the moment they'd opened their mouths. She would already have been lining up the shot in her mind.

The arrow of water streaked toward them, scattering a brilliant, crystalline aura in every direction. It was the same devastating projectile that had dropped a Dark Goblin in a single hit — but these men were Dungeon Hunters who'd eaten more than a few dungeon meals of their own.

"Not a chance!"

The water arrow's trajectory suddenly bent hard toward the ground. One of them had used an ability. I'd already heard about their kit from Jang Jicheol.

Gravity Control, Acceleration, and Healing Mastery.

They were running a two-DPS, one-healer setup. Taking out the dealers first was the priority. Leaving Lina and Jisu behind — both of them still reeling from the sudden appearance of Demonic hunters — I stepped forward. My target was the bastard using Gravity Control: Seo Mungap.

Gloves of light sealed themselves around both of my hands. The moment I moved to close the distance, Seo Mungap thrust a hand toward me — and my body suddenly felt several times heavier.

Gravity Control was exactly what it sounded like: an ability that manipulated gravity. I drove power into both legs, shoved back against the weight crushing down on me, and launched myself forward. My Strength was close to 300. A mere fewfold increase in gravity wasn't going to pin me in place.

"I don't know who you people are, but PK? Have you lost your minds?!"

I bellowed it at them, voice ringing off the dungeon walls. I knew exactly who they were, and I knew exactly why they were attacking us.

The way I kicked off the ground and sprang at him like a beast was clearly outside his calculations. His brow furrowed; he didn't even try to hide the panic.

"Fuck. This is why the party leader and Jinyong got wrecked. Crazy bastard!"

The gap between us shrank to a few inches. In a scramble, he threw both arms up, trying to settle into a boxing guard.

He was a Dungeon Hunter, so his physical stats would far exceed an ordinary human's. That wouldn't be enough to stop a fist wrapped in a Holy Gauntlet, but it might have taken some of the sting off. I didn't wait around for him to get the guard up, though.

Time Acceleration!

Twenty seconds wasn't much — but for me, right now, twenty seconds was more than enough time to beat him into the ground and then some. The moment the skill kicked in, the world around me began to slow. In reality I was the one who'd sped up, but speed is always relative.

It was as if the entire world had slipped into a slow-motion replay. I could read every twitch of muscle in the arms he was still trying to raise. The look of despair that crossed his face as he registered my sudden burst of speed was a masterpiece — I wanted to freeze-frame it and keep it.

Thud!

My fist smashed into Seo Mungap's face. I felt it all with vivid clarity through my knuckles: his cheekbone shattering, his eyeball bursting from its socket, his brain turning to pulp. It was a blow carrying nearly 300 Strength, then doubled again by Time Acceleration. There was no way a Natural-type ability user was going to tank a punch that could pulverize stone with nothing but his bare body.

His body went flying. The soul had already been knocked out of it; what hung in the air was a lump of meat. I dropped Time Acceleration, and the world snapped back to its own pace.

"Oppa!"

Jisu's scream cut through the air. One of them had locked a thick forearm around her throat. Kang Mungi, if I remembered the name right. His ability was Acceleration.

"Fuck! What the hell is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this?! This isn't how it was supposed to go at all!"

Watching me drop Seo Mungap in a single hit, he'd decided there was no winning this in a straight ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fight. So he made the best play available to him. He took a hostage.

If I'd wanted to, I could have stopped him. I deliberately let him grab her. The reason was simple: I needed justification for killing them.

They'd already declared a PK, which made anything we did self-defense — but Lina and Jisu might not see it that way. If these bastards took a hostage and started making threats with their own hands, though, that changed the story.

"Hey. Calm down. You're already finished. Doing something like that will ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only add to your sentence."

I said the least helpful thing possible for an actual negotiation. The point was to provoke him.

Of course, if he actually tried to hurt Jisu, I'd kill him on the spot. But a hostage's life was their life. They knew that as well as I did.

"Fuck! Fuck! What the hell happened?! The poison gas didn't work at all, and this bastard… why is he so strong?! This is all your fault, you bitch! Fuck!"

"Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!"

Jisu's face was turning blue. If you traced it all the way back, the reason these men had cooked up this whole scheme was to recruit her.

The responsibility for this sat entirely on them, of course. But criminals never take the blame themselves. Which is exactly why criminal scum like this need to be killed down to the last man.

"We're already done for! We'll die if we stay here, and we'll die if we leave. So… I'm taking at least one of you with me."

A vicious light flared in his eyes. I triggered Time Acceleration without a second's hesitation and loosed a Holy Arrow.

The aim was perfect. The sacred arrow punched through Kang Mungi's skull. An arrow meant to purify the wicked had done its job.

"Hah… hah… hah…"

Freed from his grip, Jisu dropped to her knees, palms on the ground, dragging in ragged breaths. The imprint of his hand stood out livid on her throat.

A good chance to score some points. I walked over and patted her on the back.

"Jisu! Are you okay?"

"Hah… hah… Y-yes…"

Her face said she was anything but. While I was comforting her, Sujin and Yeonji pinned down the last one. He wore the look of a man who had already given up on everything.

We left the dungeon. The one who'd survived, we handed over to the Association as a current offender. Management of Demonic hunters fell under the Hunter Association, not the police.

The appearance of Demonic hunters sent the Association into an uproar. A full-scale investigation naturally slammed into the Ecster Clan, the organization he belonged to. The Ecster Clan, equally naturally, cut off the tail and threw them under the bus. I hadn't expected this to be enough to really screw them over.

For the time being, though, the Hunter Association would be watching them closely, which meant the Ecster Clan wouldn't be able to make any aggressive moves. According to the news, they were getting hit with a sweeping tax audit and a pile of other pressure besides.

In any case, the incident was closed as a handful of rogue Ecster Clan members assaulting another party. Among cases involving Demonic hunters, it was a fairly common story.

Our party scrapped every plan we had and went on break for a while. Jisu was taking the incident hard. The angry red marks on her throat had faded, but the memory of being attacked by a fellow human being was still there, still eating at her.

We gave her the time she needed to recover. In the meantime, I spent those days pounding Sujin and Yeonji.

"Jisu's not in great shape, so let's put her on hold for a bit. I'm starting to want to fuck Lina."

Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap!

I said it while cheerfully railing Sujin from behind. Talking about another woman while you were inside one. I broke the single biggest taboo in romance without so much as blinking.

"Nngh~! Nnngh~! So you want me to help?"

"Yeah. I think I've closed the distance quite a bit. Doesn't seem like she's completely uninterested in me, either."

"Hiiiit! Hiiit! Nnngh~!"

"I've got a rough plan worked out. There isn't much I'll need help with. If things go well, I might be able to take her within a week. Are you listening?"

"Hyaaaaah~! If you… pound my womb that hard while you're talking… I can't concentrate…! Hiiiit!"

I rolled my hips like I was working a mill. The mortar was Sujin's pussy; the pestle was my cock. Her cunt had become exclusively mine by now. The size fit me with exquisite precision, which made using it incredibly comfortable — a pussy as cozy as coming home.

"Ah. I'm cumming."