Chapter 143: The Hunt (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 143: The Hunt (2)
BOOM! The clash of our magic power kicked up a violent wind around us.
The curved swords in his hands swept in from both sides, aiming for my neck.
I quickly dodged back, pulling a dagger from my coat and throwing it.
Clang. Too bad. With a casual swing of his sword, he batted the dagger away.
‘…Well, it’s not like I’ve ever learned assassination techniques. No way I could land a significant hit.’
I’d brought it along to look the part of an assassin, but it seemed I wouldn’t be using it again.
“You… you’re no assassin.”
A murderous voice dripped with thick killing intent.
“…Is it that obvious?”
“No one who throws a dagger worse than I could with my foot could possibly be an assassin.”
This son of a bitch.
“And you? With a build like that, you should be carrying a greatsword, not some flimsy curved swords.”
He had to be over two meters tall, and his forearms looked twice as thick as mine.
“You’ve got indistinct features, and I bet your dick is small, too. Hey, be honest with me. The reason you keep getting dumped by women is because of your tiny dick, right?”
“…”
“…For real?”
Wordlessly, the man raised his curved swords. A red Sword Qi flared to life around them.
“I’ll cut off your limbs.”
“Wait, wait.”
A fight was a fight, but there was something I had to ask.
“But is it true?”
“…Is what true?”
“That you can’t get circumcised if it’s too small.”
BOOM! He shot off the ground, rushing toward me at a speed that didn’t match his size. The Sword Qi enveloping his curved swords had grown even larger.
I, too, drew upon my internal energy to form Sword Qi. I parried the curved swords, which swung fast enough to tear through the air, with my Black Killing Mad Demon Sword.
Befitting his size, the power behind his swords was considerable.
“You pissed?”
“…”
He looked like the stoic type, but wasting his magic power over a little taunt made him look like a complete amateur.
‘Still, I can’t let my guard down.’
He might just be some brute swinging around a pair of curved swords, but he could still be a high B-rank user.
And I had to fight him with the handicap of only using support magic.
Logically, it was a perilous situation, but strangely, I didn't feel tense at all.
Was it because he looked weaker than not only the Minotaur but also the leader of the bastards who’d attacked Cheon Yeo-hwa?
A laugh escaped my lips, and seeing it, the man charged at me first.
I met his attack with a light swing of my sword.
KAAANG!! Sparks flew where our Sword Qi collided. The impact kicked up a cloud of dust.
In less than ten seconds, we exchanged dozens of blows.
It was my first real fight in a while, and I could feel my senses sharpening.
I aimed for his vital points—neck, heart, solar plexus—without a shred of hesitation.
Still, he fought better than I expected.
He seemed to have reached a considerable level in his swordsmanship, as he blocked my every move. As if he didn't want a prolonged fight, he suddenly switched from defense to offense and unleashed a heavy strike.
I drew up my internal energy to counter the brightly glowing Sword Qi.
KWAAANG!! The shockwave from the collision of our Sword Qi forced me back a few steps.
In the tense silence that followed, the man glared at me.
‘This is my first time fighting against curved swords. They’re trickier than I thought.’
Wielding dual curved swords couldn't be easy, and for a man his size, his swordsmanship was surprisingly precise.
“…Why did you kill Go Namseok?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“I didn’t like his face.”
“…”
“I don’t like your face either, Small Dick.”
“…Small Dick? What does that mean?”
“Three-centimeter dick.”
The man’s face twisted instantly.
His already ugly and menacing face became even more grotesque. Just looking at him was starting to make me feel sick. If I’d known, I would’ve brought Noel along to cleanse my eyes.
The man, who looked like he could cast a curse with his face alone, suddenly changed his stance.
He flipped his curved swords into a reverse grip and dropped into an extremely low stance, reminiscent of a sprinter’s crouching start.
But since his hands weren’t on the ground, he looked like he could topple over at any moment.
Despite that, the aura he exuded was completely different from before.
A bit of tension started to creep in. His extreme stance meant I had the first move.
But I was curious to see what the hell he was planning, so I decided to let him have it.
KWAAANG!
With a deafening boom, the man vanished from my sight.
He hadn't turned invisible.
No matter what abilities Hunters gained upon awakening, most were simple ones like physical enhancement.
I could feel his presence with my magic detection and qi sense.
‘He’s ricocheting off the ground and trees at incredible speed.’
A momentary burst of acceleration. That must be his awakening ability.
An ability that really didn't suit his appearance.
Hoo. I took a deep breath and pushed my senses to their peak.
From the left to the upper right, then he pushed off the ground again, launching himself off a tree behind me.
[Thought Acceleration]
Everything around me slowed to a crawl.
I could clearly see the leaves falling in the wind and even the tiny insect flying before my eyes.
And, of course, the man hurtling toward me from the five o’clock position.
I wreathed my fist in aura and swung my arm.
CRACK!!
“Keok?!!”
Slamming into my fist at full acceleration, the man let out an ugly cry and crashed to the ground.
His nose must have been broken; blood gushed out, and the area around it turned bright red.
The impact was so severe that he couldn't get up easily.
“Is that all you’ve got?”
Honestly, I was a little disappointed.
‘At this rate, he’s not a high B-rank. He’s barely above average, if that.’
He didn't even come close to my expectations.
At this point, I started to suspect he’d been bluffing, overstating his own skills.
“I’ll… kill you…!! I’ll kill you, I swear it!!”
Grind. My casual remark seemed to have set him off. A powerful surge of magic power swirled around him.
His magic power was certainly on par with a high B-rank, but everything else about him was below average.
The simple-minded method he was about to use was proof of that.
Overburst.
A technique that detonated the magic power within one’s body to temporarily boost output, at the cost of immense magic power and stamina.
The side effects were so severe, often leaving permanent damage to one’s magic circuits, that the Magic Towers had designated it as a 3rd-grade forbidden art.
The man’s aura turned menacing.
He steadied his stance and charged.
This time, I didn't even hear him push off the ground.
Before I could even blink, his curved sword was coming at my side from a bizarre angle.
I leaned back slightly, dodging the attack.
I couldn't have blocked that. Even if I blocked one, there was still another curved sword.
Once again, the man vanished.
He was so fast that all I could see with the naked eye was a faint afterimage. In this state, magic detection and qi sense were of little use.
It seemed Overburst enhanced his awakening ability as well.
I had to admit it.
‘Looks like it’ll be tough to win without using my martial arts.’
I put the Black Killing Mad Demon Sword into my inventory and took out Gilenium.
As the demonic energy of the Black Killing Mad Demon Sword receded, the Diamond qi hidden deep in my dantian revealed itself.
Formless Vajra Art. Formless Electric Body.
My senses became preternaturally sharp.
The wind brushing against my skin, the earthy scent tickling my nose—everything felt twice as intense as usual.
I could even feel the two curved swords slicing through the air as they flew toward my neck from behind.
Two steps were all I needed.
To dodge the attack, swing my sword, and slice his neck.
Slice. The sickening stench of blood filled the air.
Fortunately, a breeze soon blew through, clearing the forest of the bloody scent. Looking at the corpse piled up before me, I felt a headache coming on at the thought of cleaning up.
It felt a bit gross, but I put the body in my inventory.
I’ll have to dump it in a suitable Gate or another world later.
I decided to leave the bloodstains.
With no body, the police wouldn't transfer the case to the Association.
They’ll probably just assume he was eaten by a magical beast and close the case. That would be the best outcome.
Of course, there was still a small chance the case would be transferred to the Association, but they weren't idle enough to worry about an incident in the middle of a forest far from the city.
I rummaged through the team leader’s bag, which was lying near a tree trunk.
Among a wallet, a dagger, and other miscellaneous personal items, I found what I was looking for.
[Information on the newly acquired item is being collected.]
[Anti-Hunter Restraining Chains
Grade: Rare
Temporarily suppresses the target's magic power flow.]
‘Anti-Hunter Restraining Chains.’ It wasn't an artifact, but its monstrous performance earned it the title of a quasi-artifact magic tool.
It specialized in subduing those who wielded magic power, like Hunters and mages.
However, depending on the concentration of the main ingredient, ‘Ines’s Blood,’ the price and effectiveness could vary wildly, from billions to hundreds of billions of won.
I’d heard some could even restrain a high A-rank Hunter, but this one didn't seem to be of that caliber.
They had estimated me to be a high B-rank, so it was probably strong enough to restrain at least a B-rank Hunter.
‘I know it’s expensive, but I don’t know the exact market price.’
Not that I planned on selling it. It was a magic tool that was so strictly controlled it was hard to get your hands on, even with money.
I’ll just keep it in my inventory. It might come in handy someday.
“Now, about the Director of Urban Planning…”
Vrooom. Just then, I saw a familiar license plate on the road.
I felt like my luck was finally turning around for the first time in a long while.
I threw myself toward the vehicle.
CRASH! I landed on the hood of the car.
The impact caused the rear wheels to lift off the ground before the car screeched to a halt.
Through the windshield, I saw Ham Seokjae, the Director of Urban Planning.
His eyes were filled with terror.
“Good evening, Director.”
It was a night where a strange sound echoed, impossible to tell if it was the cry of a roe deer or a human scream.
*
“Dammit, dammit!!!”
CRASH! CRASH! Yoo Jintae, the chief secretary of the Heuksan Guild, slammed his fists on his desk.
Under the fury of the A-rank Hunter, the desk was smashed beyond recognition.
The head secretary standing beside him quietly lowered his head and studied the pattern on the floor.
“All of them… how can they all be dead?!!”
Yoo Jintae, who had sent the First Response Team to Yongin with the authority granted by the guild master, felt his insides burn.
Normally, a regular report should have come in around dawn.
But even as the sun rose, there was no contact from the First Response Team.
Anxious, he had hastily dispatched more guild members, only to receive the grim report that bloodstains, presumed to be from the First Response Team, had been found.
Not even a body was discovered.
Instead, as if to mock him, traces of a battle, presumably between the team leader Cha Myungjin and a third party, were found scattered throughout the forest.
And not far away, on the road, the body of the Director of Urban Planning, Ham Seokjae, had also been found.
Thanks to that, the area around Namsa-eup was now bustling with an unprecedented number of people.
The only silver lining was that the members of the First Response Team were all taken from an orphanage and weren't even officially registered as citizens.
Even if the police found their bloodstains, it wouldn't cause any harm to the Heuksan Guild.
But problems still abounded.
The First Response Team was one of the guild's main forces, composed of members in whom the guild had invested its resources for ten to twenty years.
Not only had they been wiped out overnight by an unknown assailant, but the Anti-Hunter Restraining Chains, worth hundreds of billions, had also been lost.
There was no greater blunder.
Even so, Yoo Jintae felt it was incredibly unfair.
His plan had never included the premise of the First Response Team engaging the culprit in battle.
This mission was basically just for show, anyway.
He had sent them there so that, even if the Director of Urban Planning died, he would have an excuse for the guild master, proof that he had made an effort to catch the culprit.
Besides, the rest of the guild's forces had been guarding the Gyeonggi Province Governor last night.
“If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve sent the Second Response Team too…!!”
Yoo Jintae clutched his head as his blood pressure soared.
He had figured out that the culprit was targeting corrupt officials and several committee chairmen involved in the Taepyeong-dong redevelopment project, but he couldn't pinpoint the exact targets.
He’d had no choice but to disperse his forces to guard the other likely candidates, aside from the most obvious one, the Gyeonggi Province Governor.
Tiring-
The notification sound from beside him made Yoo Jintae flinch.
[Come up.]
At that short message, Yoo Jintae's legs gave out, and he collapsed pathetically to the floor.