Pheromone Monster
Day four of Dark Hero Jupiter's activities. The hour of reckoning had arrived.
I strode toward one of New York's most famous luxury hotels without the slightest hesitation. People on the street went wild filming me with their cameras, yet none of them dared approach.
I flicked a glance at a beauty walking past.
Blonde women screamed and lost their minds.
"Kyaaaaah! Jupiter!!"
"Look at me!!"
"I'm going crazy! Jupiter! I want to have your baby!"
I smirked.
They couldn't hold themselves back and came charging at me. That was the effect of the Pheromone Burst Perfume. Those women genuinely wanted to get pregnant with my child.
"Everyone stay back. I'm going to meet Jack Taylor."
Jupiter's final job was to rescue Jack Taylor, who was being held under confinement at the luxury hotel.
Wreee-oo, wreee-oo, wreee-oo!
Sirens blared as police appeared and began controlling the crowd. They glared at me but made no rash moves. Word from higher up, apparently. Fair enough — ordinary cops picking a fight with me would only end up dead for nothing.
That was when a female reporter with a microphone burst out in front of me. The logo of a major network was printed on the mic.
"Mr. Jupiter! FKFK Broadcasting! Can we get an interview?!"
The long black-haired beauty shoved the microphone at me without preamble. I grinned and pressed my index finger to her lips. Soft.
"La. Ter."
"…Ah."
Her face flushed crimson. Under the perfume's effect, her eyes went hazy for a moment. She trembled at the thighs, then tried to chase after me again. Police stepped in and blocked her.
I walked down the road.
Vehicle control was already complete; the street stretched empty ahead of me.
…Did they predict I'd come here?
Information might have leaked from Bluecad.
Even so, the police response was lukewarm for that. And I couldn't sense a single hunter strong enough to stop me.
Maybe, like Sophia said, the American Hunter Association is helping me.
Or they were simply using me. Once everything was finished, they might try to seize me. The old proverb: discard the hunting dog once the rabbits are caught.
I pulled out my smartphone and searched for why the American Hunter Association wasn't intervening.
A massive dungeon gate near Brooklyn forced the entire New York branch of the American Hunter Association to mobilize… How convenient.
It was so blatant I almost laughed.
I pocketed the phone and kept walking toward the hotel. Whether the Association planned to discard me afterward or not didn't matter. Once this was done, I was going back to Korea. Freed Jack Taylor would take responsibility for Sophia's safety.
Light poured down from the sky. I glanced up and found a network helicopter hovering overhead. The whole thing was being broadcast live. Well within expected parameters, so it didn't rattle me. I lowered my gaze and headed for the hotel.
I stopped on the asphalt in front of the building. A killing intent sharp enough to cut flesh had just washed over me.
And right after that—
A man leapt from a high floor of the hotel. A mass of pure muscle dropped straight in front of me. The asphalt shattered; dust billowed up. The man casually straightened his knees and rose to his full height. Over two meters of bulk. Jeans and a white T-shirt — absurdly light gear. The presence rolling off him, though, was anything but ordinary.
"A criminal walking up this brazenly… End times, I tell you. End times."
I narrowed my eyes.
Over two meters of muscle, bald head, a sun tattoo under one eye. I knew who he was. Someone Sophia had mentioned before — one of Bossy's people. The same man she'd told me never to cross paths with.
"Chad Lovell."
The hunter known as Bloody Drake.
"You know me? Heh. Guess it'd be weirder if you didn't. This body is America's newest S-Class hunter!"
Chad had only become S-Class two months ago.
"I've met S-Class hunters before. Every last one of them was a monster. Their very presence was on another level. But I don't feel that overwhelming S-Class presence from you."
"I'm not S-Class? Hahaha. Wonder if you'll still be spouting that crap five minutes from now. I'll carve the reason I'm S-Class into that body of yours."
"Bossy's shit-wiper, Brown Drake Chad Lovell! Did you suck Bossy's dick too? No other way a bottom-feeder like you becomes S-Class…"
Chad's fist came flying. I reflexively threw both arms up into a guard.
Even with my lower body braced hard, I was driven back more than three meters. Chad's physical ability surpassed mine. And that punch probably wasn't even close to his full power.
"For all that big mouth, you're soft as hell. Mid A-Class at best. That's all you are."
Chad grinned. That cocky face grated on me.
Thunderbolt. Fall.
A portion of the mana in my body vanished, and lightning dropped from the sky. The blue-white bolt struck Chad square on the head.
He was fine.
His skin had changed — into dark-brown, rock-hard hide.
Drake hide from an A-Class boss monster… He swapped his skin in an instant with his mutation ability and tanked the lightning.
The reason they called him Bloody Drake: he could transform into a Drake. The "Bloody" part described his temperament.
Skill-wise, roughly peak A-Class. He's got the bare minimum to claim the S-Class title.
In raw physical ability, Chad had the edge. So I would answer with speed and technique. I summoned Stormbreaker into my right hand.
"Too slow, idiot."
At Chad's voice I looked up. The sound had clearly come from above, but Chad was nowhere in sight.
"Over here."
Chad, already at my back, drove a kick into me. The blow to my side sent me skipping across the ground like a stone on water.
I clenched my teeth against the impact and moved my mana. I couldn't just keep taking this one-sided beating.
Thunderbolt…!
Lightning crashed down on Chad. Five strikes in total. Not ordinary lightning — bolts charged with my mana.
"You know what? Drakes are tough enough to swim around in lava for fun. Lightning from the likes of you can't put a single scratch on me!"
Chad's right arm mutated into a Drake tail over ten meters long. He cracked it like a whip.
Charna
Remaining stacks: 6
I dodged Chad's attack and summoned Hwaryeonbido into my right hand.
BOOM!
The Drake tail smashed the asphalt road. Pavement shattered; fragments sprayed. Chad cackled and kept swinging the tail. It looked like wild thrashing, but if you watched carefully, a certain principle ran through it — whip technique Chad had forged through pure combat experience.
Charna
Remaining stacks: 5
Charna
Remaining stacks: 4
Charna
Remaining stacks: 3
I burned Charna stacks in rapid succession. It was the only way to slip past that whipping Drake tail and close the distance.
Body spinning — a cut that carves through and past.
I spun through him and cut as I went. Crimson lightning light carved deep into his side. Chad's blood sprayed across the ground.
I clicked my tongue inwardly. The wound was shallower than I'd expected. Still, I kept my face blank and sneered at him.
"Even Drake hide that swims in lava can't stop my blade, huh?"
Chad could transform his body into a Drake, but compared to a real Drake's power, he fell far short. There were limits to his mutation ability.
"You little shit…!"
He swapped the Drake tail back into a normal right arm and charged, trying to force an in-fight.
Confident, are we? Fine. I'll play.
I swung my blade; Chad threw punches.
Blood flew.
Most of it was mine.
Technique and speed alone weren't enough against a physical gap this wide — at least two full ranks of difference. The fact that I still wasn't fully used to Noecheonryu didn't help either.
A blade tip charged with thunderbolt sank into Chad's shoulder.
Barely a centimeter. But in this case, the fact that the tip had pierced his body at all was what mattered.
Crimson thunderbolt flows into the enemy's body — sealing their mana.
Crimson thunderbolt poured into Chad's body.
"Khuk?!"
His Drake-hide skin reverted to ordinary human flesh. That was the effect of Sealing Thunder — temporarily sealing the opponent's mana. With it, Chad's annoying defense was gone.
Of course, that didn't drop him to civilian level. Sealing Thunder only suppressed mana for a short time; it didn't erase physical ability.
Charna
Remaining stacks: 2
I used Charna the same way I had in the Dark Moon world — designing and preparing the next attack inside a slowed-down world.
The original Manryeo, remade in the Noecheonryu style. Crimson thunderbolt spins around Hwaryeonbido — thousands of lightning strands whirling, sweeping in every direction.
"KRAAAAAAAAGH!"
Chad screamed horribly and moved his hands. Both of them clamped onto Hwaryeonbido and ripped it free from his shoulder. Then he seized my throat and smashed my body into the ground without mercy. I gritted my teeth and kept controlling the thunderbolt. What had started as a technique fight had turned into pure grit.
I was the one who broke first. Midway through, Sealing Thunder's effect wore off and Chad could use mana again. That disgusting Drake hide flooded back over his skin.
"Hahaha. I win."
He laughed and tossed me aside like trash.
Sprawled on the ground, I couldn't move. My legs were broken; shattered bone fragments were stabbing into my organs. My right arm was relatively intact, but all it could do was barely keep hold of Hwaryeonbido. I didn't even have the strength to stand.
Complete… Recovery…!
Complete Recovery
My half-corpse of a body snapped back to peak condition.
I stood. The smart move was to run without taking any more risks. But I could see a path to killing him — and I had no intention of turning my back and fleeing. I would kill him here.
I summoned Stormbreaker. I fused Hwaryeonbido into it and gripped the great spear in one hand.
CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACK!
Crimson lightning soaked into the spear.
I hurled it at Chad with everything I had.
The spear flew literally like lightning.
Chad changed his right arm into a Drake's hind leg. A massive rear limb like a carnivorous dinosaur's kicked the lightning spear upward. Stormbreaker traced a red arc as it shot into the sky.
I walked toward Chad at a measured pace.
He laughed.
"Hahaha! Don't know how a half-dead bastard got back up, but… perfect! Cameras rolling, audience watching! Ideal stage for an execution show!"
Chad's body swelled. Over four meters of bulk — a hybrid of carnivorous dinosaur and human. Dinosaur fans might have gone wild for the look. All I felt was disgust.
"You reptile bastard…"
THUNK!
Stormbreaker, which had shot into the sky, came plummeting back down and drove into the ground. The landing point, by pure chance, was right between me and Chad.
Stormbreaker broke apart into fine pieces. Those blue-silver fragments flew to me and clung to my body, forming solid armor.
Kiiiiing.
Stormbreaker answered my will. Five swords split off from it and lined up behind my back, held aloft by magnetic force.
CRACKLE.
Crimson thunderbolt leapt threateningly from the armor and the blades.
Swift as the wind, sudden as thunder.
I seized one of the swords arrayed at my back and charged at Chad.