Chapter 20 — Overwhelming Force
Chapter 20 — Overwhelming Force
Translation: GodTL
Aurora-colored light burst from Min-jun's sword. It spilled along the edge like liquid fire, then climbed his arm and wrapped around his body in rippling bands of color. Min-jun stared at the weapon, stunned. He had never felt anything like this—not from mana, not from swordsmanship, not from any skill he knew.
Sword aura was the first explanation that came to mind, but he rejected it almost immediately. Sword aura was blue, disciplined, familiar. This was neither. This radiance felt older and wilder, something that had been sleeping inside the Dragon Bone Sword until now.
He had no idea how much power he had actually drawn out. A fraction? A trace? It didn't matter. Even that tiny amount made the world around him feel slower.
One thing became brutally clear: with this power surging through him, the situation had already turned around.
"Hyung, wh-what the hell—" Junhwi stammered, startled by the aurora light rising from Min-jun's body.
"Mr. Junhwi. Follow me for now."
"What? But—"
Before Junhwi could finish, Min-jun charged without hesitation toward the three Seos. It happened so suddenly that even Junhwi, who ran after him, was bewildered.
"I-is that bastard insane?"
The villains were no less stunned. This was nothing like the turn they had expected. As they saw it, Min-jun and Junhwi had only two choices: fight the Antmen or flee in the opposite direction. Yet here they were, charging straight at them. It was like watching a mouse grit its teeth and rush at a cat.
"What the hell are they thinking?"
"Trying one last desperate move before they die, I guess."
"Fine by us... Wait, what's that around his sword? Is that aura?"
"Aura? From a mere D-rank? Get real. Does that look like sword aura to you?"
Though briefly taken aback, the villains grinned as Min-jun ran toward them. With Antmen on his heels, they figured he and Junhwi must be out of options. To them, his sudden charge was nothing more than a reckless gamble with his life. They dismissed the aurora light surrounding him as an effect of some item or piece of equipment.
But Min-jun kept coming.
"Wh-what is that?"
He tore toward them like something launched from a siege weapon, each step cracking the rhythm of the battle apart. The wind screamed past him. The three villains' smug expressions finally faltered.
A D-rank Hunter wasn't supposed to move like that.
"What the hell happened all of a—"
"H-he's D-rank...?"
Now that Min-jun was displaying physical abilities beyond anything they thought possible, they couldn't help growing tense.
They could deal with Junhwi and the Antmen later. Min-jun was the one they needed to watch.
All three were ranged fighters. They spread out at once and unloaded everything they had. Arrows, spells, curses—enough firepower to bury an ordinary D-rank Hunter before he could take three more steps.
The barrage came down like a storm.
But...
"... What?"
Min-jun cut straight through it. His Dragon Bone Sword blurred in his hands, batting aside arrows and cleaving spells apart one after another. Each impact burst against the aurora light in flashes bright enough to sting the eyes. A deflected spell tore a crater into the ground beside him. He never slowed.
"Th-that's impossible!"
No D-rank Hunter could have survived that barrage head-on. Even an A-rank would have had to take it seriously. Yet Min-jun emerged without so much as a scratch.
Which meant—
'Who is he?'
Ever since that impossible light had awakened around his sword, predator and prey had quietly exchanged places.
Panic finally broke through the villains' confidence. They emptied themselves into one last barrage, hurling dense magic missiles and layers of debuffs at him in desperate succession.
It still wasn't enough. Min-jun cut, deflected, and drove through the storm without stopping. Magic burst around him. Debuffs caught at his body and slid away. He simply kept coming.
Not because the attacks were weak. Because, in that moment, his will refused to yield to them.
Following behind him, Junhwi stared, mouth agape.
'That man is a D-rank Hunter like me?'
No D-rank Hunter should have been capable of this. How could one deflect, block, and cut through that rain of spells with a sword? And how was he so fast? Junhwi was chasing him with all his might, yet the gap between them had visibly widened.
I'm going to live.
When the three had first shown their true colors, Junhwi had thought he was as good as dead. But after seeing what Min-jun could do, he was certain: at least he wasn't going to die today.
While Junhwi watched, spellbound, Min-jun steadily closed the distance to the three villains.
"Wh-what is this?"
They retreated. They used speed buffs. They split apart. Nothing created distance. Min-jun kept closing in, and when the three finally understood that they could not outrun him, every trace of color drained from their faces.
Min-jun was close enough to reach them with his sword.
"G-get away from me, you bastard!" Seo Yuhyeon, the closest to him, fought back with a flurry of spells.
Min-jun easily dodged several, knocked the next ones aside with his sword, then drove the blade into Yuhyeon's shoulder with all his strength.
"Aagh!"
Yuhyeon clutched his shoulder and writhed in pain. Without sparing him a glance, Min-jun raced toward Seo Yura and Seo Yuseon. Seeing Yuhyeon go down so easily, they gave up trying to fight and attempted to flee. The difference in their strength was too overwhelming for resistance to mean anything.
But before they could even make their escape, they were sent tumbling ignominiously across the dirt.
Once he had confirmed that all three were completely unable to fight, Min-jun searched them and found the artifact locking their Subspaces. He immediately deactivated it and opened his own.
'Among the artifacts Sia gave me...'
He remembered one that would be perfect for this situation. After a quick search through his Subspace, he pulled it out with a satisfied smile.
"Found it."
To make sure the villains couldn't escape, he quickly fastened an artifact to each of them, then surveyed the battle.
The last time he had looked, the Antmen were far away. But while he had fought the three villains and dealt with them, the monsters had closed to little more than ten meters. He had no idea where the others had come from, but there were now more than twice as many Antmen as when he had first seen them.
Amid the doubled swarm, he spotted Junhwi. He seemed to have kept himself alive by running with everything he had, but he was nearing his limit.
'As I am now...'
He could take care of all those monsters with ease. He couldn't say exactly what gave him that confidence, but he felt strangely sure of it.
Without a moment's hesitation, Min-jun charged at the monsters coming toward him. The Dragon Bone Sword in his hand began to shine more brilliantly than before.
"Move!"
At Min-jun's urgent shout, Junhwi summoned the strength to change direction. The instant he did, Min-jun surrendered himself to instinct.
'Was my swordsmanship always this beautiful?'
A strange sensation came over him. It felt not as if he were swinging the sword, but as if the sword were guiding him. Something in the aurora light imbued in the blade swept outward in a broad, beautiful arc.
The Antmen let out a ragged chorus of shrieks.
Though the Antmen pursuing Junhwi were not cut by the blade itself, every one of them was struck by the light and fell where it stood. It had all happened in mere seconds.
Antman corpses lay underfoot. The three bound villains screamed and raged at the tops of their lungs. Junhwi was so dizzy that he wondered if he was seeing things. None of it felt real.
'What am I looking at?'
How had this miracle happened? He had so many questions he wanted to ask Min-jun.
But...
"..."
"Hyung?"
One look at Min-jun told him the man was in no condition to hold even the briefest conversation. Had he poured out too much power all at once? The aurora light that had blazed so brightly only moments ago had faded. Min-jun was using his sword as a cane to stay upright, but he looked ready to collapse at any moment.
"Hyung, are you all right? Hyung! Stay with me!"
Junhwi was on the verge of exhaustion himself, but he hurried over, supported Min-jun, and laid him down on level ground.
'Nothing's seriously wrong, is it?'
He anxiously checked Min-jun's condition. Thankfully, his life did not seem to be in danger. His pulse was beating, and his fingers moved ever so slightly, so he hadn't lost consciousness either. Junhwi couldn't be sure, but it seemed he had collapsed from overusing his power. He hurriedly took out a potion and gave it to Min-jun.
Some time passed.
"Phew."
Min-jun opened his eyes and met Junhwi's gaze. He was far from fully recovered, but he could at least move.
"Are you all right?"
"Feels like I nearly died. Thank you."
"Don't mention it. I'd have died long ago if it weren't for you, hyung."
Junhwi thanked him again and again for saving his life.
"But hyung, what are you going to do now?"
An exit had appeared, signaling that the Gate had been cleared, and all the villains had been subdued. Only one problem remained: what to do with them.
All three had suffered serious stab wounds, but when Min-jun bound them, he had also taken measures to keep them alive. They simply couldn't move because of the restraining artifacts.
"Fuck it, kill me! Just kill me already!"
Rather than cry or beg, Seo Yuseon seemed tireless in her screaming and swearing.
"Hey. Shut up. If you want to die, die alone," Seo Yura snarled at her.
"Please spare me. Please, just let me live, all right? We have lots of expensive artifacts. Name anything you want, and I'll give it to you..."
Seo Yuhyeon tried to bargain for his life with the artifacts he had stolen from Hunters he'd killed.
"Where's your pride, you pathetic bastard? Hey, Yun Min-jun. Don't listen to those assholes. Just kill us. I'd rather die here than rot in prison."
As if she'd watched too many crime films, Yuseon kept demanding that he kill them.
Min-jun ignored them all and took an artifact he had seized from them out of his clothes.
"Mr. Junhwi. Do you know why I went out of my way to keep this trash alive?"
"... Because killing people doesn't sit right with you, even if they're villains?"
"Of course not."
It was an absurdly powerful artifact: it could lock other Hunters' Subspaces, but it could also force them open. Min-jun had intended to empty theirs with it from the start. That was why he hadn't killed them. A Hunter's Subspace disappeared the instant its owner died.
"You said you'd give me anything?"
"Y-yes! Anything!"
Unaware of what Min-jun was thinking, Yuhyeon nodded eagerly.
"Why would I need you to, when I have this?"
The moment Yuhyeon saw the artifact in Min-jun's hand, he realized his mistake. He had been so excited by the prospect of his plan succeeding that he'd blabbed about what it could do. Now he had lost even the slightest chance of bargaining for his life.
"That f-fucking moron!"
"All that posturing earlier, and this is what you do? Fucking brilliant, huh?"
Yuhyeon's face went rigid as Yura and Yuseon hurled abuse at their idiot accomplice, who apparently knew how to do nothing but act tough. The three kept arguing and swearing at one another, but Min-jun paid them no mind. He used the artifact to force open their Subspaces.
Each time another opened, Min-jun and Junhwi exclaimed in astonishment.
"You've stolen a hell of a lot. How many people did you kill to get all this?"
"Seriously. These pieces of shit," Junhwi added as he watched.
Artifacts of every kind kept coming out, no matter how many they removed. The villains had amassed wealth through robbery and murder, as well as crimes ranging from drug trafficking to smuggling. Their Subspaces were packed not only with artifacts but with pure gold and jewels. There was so much that Min-jun's own Subspace was nearly filled.
A little while later, Min-jun spoke. "Right. We've got all the artifacts. Time to finish this."
It was time to send the villains to hell. Some might ask whether killing them was right, villains or not, but under international Hunter law, it counted as self-defense. There would be no problem.
"Any last words?" Min-jun raised his sword and glared at the three, his expression cold.
Yuseon pretended to be defiant to the end, saying it was just as well. Yura spat curses too vile to repeat.
Then, as if deciding he was finished anyway, Yuhyeon spoke.
"Gold-digging bastard."
His face twisted into an expression more spiteful than ever.
"Bet you used that pretty face to hook some clueless rich lady and milk her for equipment. Hah. I should've gotten my face done and found some clueless bitch to keep me in comfort, like you."
Did he think he had nothing left to lose? Even at the end, Yuhyeon couldn't keep his mouth shut. He insulted Min-jun and Sia alike.
"I'm curious, so let me ask you one thing. Hey, how much does your sugar mama pay you a month?"
"How old is this rich lady? She's not married, is she?"
Once Yuhyeon started, Yuseon and Yura joined in, snickering as they poured out insults too offensive to bear.
Min-jun had heard enough. His face set, he took off their heads.
Ever since Min-jun had learned to wield sword energy, the energy he gave off had shone with brilliant aurora light. In that moment, it glowed a deep bloodred.