Too Slow
"Ghhk."
The A-class hunter holding the axis of the tank line crumpled slowly. Blood gushed in thick pulses from the wound across his chest — the kind of injury that meant certain death without a top-grade recovery potion or A-class holy magic.
The rear line had already collapsed. In a fight this frantic, there was no time to even reach for a potion. The collapse of the tank line was all but guaranteed.
Nngh! This can't be happening!
Yang Qian's face twisted with pure dismay. What the hell had the mages in the rear been doing?
Why were they just standing there like idiots only to drop dead as a group?!
She hadn't sensed Zaug at all — his presence had been erased so completely that none of them had registered the disaster unfolding behind them. If she and the other A-class hunters had been waiting in the rear, this mess never would have happened. Still ignorant of the true situation, she silently cursed the dead mages.
It's not over yet.
Right. Defeat wasn't sealed.
Shiiing!
Aura clashed against Aura as Yang Qian met the Death Warrior blow for blow, the forces canceling each other out.
"Kill!!"
To stand against Aura, you had to answer it with equal force. The blue light wreathing their weapons dimmed as the power was spent. Restoring it demanded focus.
Yang Qian steadied her breathing. By the time she drew her next breath, her Aura had fully recovered — proof she stood at the absolute peak of A-class.
"Kill!"
The problem was that damned undead was exactly the same.
Given enough time, I can destroy it.
Their swordsmanship and understanding of Aura were evenly matched. But when it came to supporting skills and passive abilities that tipped a fight, Yang Qian held the edge. A few exchanges had made that clear.
Three against five. Numerically disadvantaged, yes — but still a fight she could win if she played it right.
The bitter taste in her mouth came from knowing that dropping the Death Warriors wouldn't end anything. The victory condition hadn't changed: break through the entire undead army and either kill Minho or take him down.
Their feet are tied up just as badly as ours.
Isra and the Tempest Knight Order had shattered the core of the tank line, but the melee was so chaotic they couldn't easily disengage.
If I can just cut down that cackling undead, he'll be in range.
Decision made, Yang Qian activated her message stone at once.
—I need the two of you to open a path.
—Seems that's the only way left.
—Take him down before they take our heads.
The other two A-class hunters understood her intent instantly. To reverse a fight that had tilted so hard against them, they had to raise the stakes.
We should have prepared as if we were hunting an S-class.
Regret always arrived late. Brooding over how they'd trusted the Superhuman General Bureau's analysis wouldn't change a thing. Stay still and they died anyway. The only moment left to gamble was now.
Deadly Burst
Blade Storm
The two A-class hunters poured every scrap of Aura they had into their weapons and swung in perfect unison. Condensed blue force from a warhammer traveled through the ground and slammed into the Death Warriors all at once. A howling gale laced with Aura scythed across the front line with a harsh kakak.
"Ki……!!"
The damage was light compared to the Aura spent. The Death Warriors deployed the Imperial Sword Style with practiced ease, shielding themselves with the bare minimum of power. Even so, their formation rippled — a hairline gap opened — and Yang Qian did not miss it.
Wind Walk
She slipped past the cluster of Death Warriors on steps light as the wind itself. One of them swung.
Sword of Judgment
One of the signature techniques of Jeong Seungil — the SS-class hunter famous as the Executioner. No half-hearted defense could turn it aside.
Seok—!
As if to prove the point, her left arm dropped cleanly away. Fiery pain seared through her, but she only frowned and endured it.
I'll give you an arm.
Reminding herself once more of the victory condition, Yang Qian closed the remaining distance to Minho in a single surge. Nearby Turang hunters moved as one with her, bodies flowing in perfect sync.
Mana Release
They unleashed mana in a simultaneous blast, shoving back the Skeleton Royal Guards and Armed Zombie Strengthened Soldiers. Both undead types wore armor Minho had crafted with meticulous care, their defense exceptional — yet raw output still told. Several went tumbling.
At last, a path to Minho lay open.
If I don't put him down in two moves, I kill him.
She remembered how he'd reacted to the ambush right after leaving the gate — a necromancer casually catching a sword stroke. Capture had been the original plan. But give him time and her own life would be forfeit. She changed her mind.
Aura flooded her blade. The tip angled toward Minho's shoulder blade.
One step. Just the span of a single inhaled breath and she would have him—
Banish
—she wouldn't.
Her vision lurched. She was hurled fifty meters backward.
Yang Qian clenched her teeth.
Fifty meters even while resisting. If I'd done nothing, it would have been a hundred or more.
The instant the expulsion magic took hold, instinct had driven her to fire Mana Release against it. She'd taken the best countermeasure possible — and still been thrown that far. It meant the caster's mastery of Banish had reached one hundred.
She forced the shock down and steadied herself. Once hit by an expulsion spell, the body retained significant resistance to the same skill for several seconds. The identical trick wouldn't work twice.
This time for certain. She drove power into her legs, ready to seize Minho—
Blink
—and her target vanished from right in front of her.
I already knew about that one.
Thuk!
Puk!
Ignoring the petty cuts as she charged, she felt wounds multiply across her body. She couldn't stop. Two A-class hunters alone could not hold five Death Warriors. The moment she left the line, this had to end in a result.
Capture be damned. This strike kills him!
Murderous intent flooded her sword. This time the tip locked dead-center on Minho's heart. Blink was hard to chain. Resistance to the expulsion spell still lingered. Every variable sealed, she thrust—
and her eyes met Minho's.
"This is my escape route."
Death Space
—Retrieve Sir Isra.
—Summon Sir Isra.
A woman erupted between Yang Qian and Minho. Sir Isra wore a captivating smile.
"Too slow."
What was too slow?
Strange. Why was the strength draining from her arm?
Yang Qian never solved the sudden doubt. She toppled with a heavy thud, cut down by Sir Isra's preemptive stroke — the classic art of striking second yet landing first. She may not even have registered her own death. A single fragment of question remained frozen in eyes that never closed.
The snowball Zaug's ambush had started rolled bigger and faster by the second. One A-class hunter had overcommitted and gone down with almost insulting ease. After that, the already crumbling tank line was thoroughly trampled underfoot. Sir Isra, the Tempest Knight Order, and the Tigris pack could finally move freely.
"Search and Destroy! Leave not a single one standing — slaughter them all!"
"Living ones. All. Kill!"
The Abyss Revenants that had been pinned by the tanks began to run wild in earnest. Large-type correction gave them over-spec performance; they lacked the Death Warriors' polish, but under Sir Isra's influence they could wield Aura all the same.
"……!"
"……."
Masked hunters scattered like autumn leaves in a gale. Crushed, coughing blood, yet not one of them uttered a word. It was impossible to guess how deep their loyalty — or sheer grit — ran.
"They may have a seal placed on them, you know."
"A seal?"
"You can set a duration so that no voice comes out."
Honestly. The lengths people went to just to hide their identities.
Ingrid reached toward a fallen masked hunter and came away with something in her hand.
"A message stone. They were sharing thoughts with this."
"Thought-sharing, huh."
So they'd been conversing and issuing orders without so much as moving their lips. Attackers who had scrubbed every scrap of identifying detail — a reasonable suspicion filled my head that China's Superhuman General Bureau was behind this.
"Hah."
I let out a long breath and shoved the stray thoughts out with it. The fight wasn't even finished. No room for anything else.
"My lord, hold that position."
"We'll handle the rest!"
【Slightly. Recovered.】
My summons' answers settled something warm and solid in my chest. With multiple A-class hunters dead or badly wounded, the attackers could no longer contain the rampaging undead.
Puk!
A bone spear punched through a masked hunter; the body shot several meters into the air before slamming back down with a heavy thud. Tzugaaak — an Armed Zombie Strengthened Soldier's axe split another enemy clean in half.
"Kill!"
Under the Death Warriors' coordinated assault, the remaining two A-class hunters dropped to their knees. The encirclement shattered in an instant.
"……!"
Some of the masked hunters lost their will to fight and fled.
"Sir Isra."
"Worry not. I shall leave not a single one alive."
Hey now, friends. You can walk in whenever you like — leaving is another story.
"Keep a few of them breathing."
"As you command."
Where exactly did they think they were running on an uninhabited island? A few motorboats sat along the shore, sure — but I had zero intention of standing around sucking my thumb while they started the engines and escaped.
Chwahak!
The sand turned red in patches everywhere you looked.
"We won, I guess."
The front line broken, fighting spirit crushed — the masked hunters were no longer any kind of threat.
【Heh-heh. Great Lord! Your humble servant has returned!】
"Good work."
Zaug's shoulders shot toward the heavens as if he might ascend on the spot. Fine. Credit where credit was due.
"This fight. We won it easily thanks to you."
【It is the result of the Great Lord deploying the undead at precisely the right moments!】
"Going straight for the priests, though."
A bold play. I'd known Zaug's stealth was excellent. I just hadn't expected him to slip into a rear line layered with defensive magic and detection spells without anyone noticing.
"We wiped out their magical firepower just as easily."
【O-ohhh. So my lord is acknowledging my exploits, then?】
"Acknowledge or not — serving your master is a familiar's destiny, isn't it?"
【Keck!】
"The mage spoke true. Fulfilling one's duty and then crowing about it is conduct unbecoming of a knight."
Sir Isra's sharp rebuke set Zaug whimpering.
【E-even so! We won easily thanks to me, did we not?】
"Hmmmm."
"You iron-headed oaf. There are still people breathing over there, you know?"
"I left them so deliberately. Exactly as my lord commanded."
【My lords?】
"Ah. Right. Their loyalty really is something else. Knights are built different after all."
【Please just acknowledge my exploits already!】
Poor Zaug. The two familiars clenched their teeth and refused to give him the words he wanted to hear. Funny how perfectly in sync they got only at times like this.
"We're not finished yet. Let's wrap this up cleanly."
"I hear and obey."
"Master's will shall be done."
【I shall not lose the trail of those who fled!】
【Orders. Execute.】
You suspicious masked bastards. Once you start something, you have to see it through to the end.