Demon Hunter #5
Just as Doyun was calculating the odds while watching the hunters who had attempted to ambush him,
a fierce battle between hunters was unfolding elsewhere.
"W-wait...!"
A giant axe slammed into the ground right in front of the hunter who had desperately proposed a truce.
"Damn it!"
The hunter, known by the name Ridley, recoiled in horror, barely dodging the massive, sweeping blade.
"It was a mistake! Just a mistake!"
"My strike was a mistake, too."
'This crazy bitch...!'
Ridley scrambled to put some distance between them, but the hunter pursuing him at terrifying speed didn't let up.
"Rakia Belz!"
"Don't you dare speak my name with that mouth."
Shadows stretched under the moonlight.
The barbarian warrior, her golden eyes glowing in the dark, made her disgust perfectly clear.
The incident had started like this:
She had been hunting Lycans for experience points when this mysterious hunter had ambushed her.
The timing of the sneak attack had been perfect, but his opponent was a hunter known as the strongest among those of her rank.
It was simply his bad luck.
Like his lackeys, Ridley, who had been using dirty tricks, was now in a desperate crisis.
'I can't win.'
Now that he had missed his only window of opportunity, if he were to clash head-on—
He would be the one to die.
He had to find a way to defuse this situation.
"I told you, that trap was set to catch monsters in the first place!"
"Do you take me for a fool? The specs were clearly designed to catch a hunter of my physical caliber."
"It's a misunderstanding!!"
-Whoosh!
Rakia Belz accelerated.
If only to shut that annoying bastard's mouth, she wanted to sever his head as quickly as possible.
Killing within the Tower wasn't exactly a rare occurrence.
People fought because their ideologies didn't match, because their specs didn't match, or—
They just fought because they didn't like the look of someone.
It wasn't that the attacker was in the wrong.
It was simply that the weak were in the wrong.
In that sense, Rakia Belz had the right.
The right, as a strong individual, to judge the weak and the guilty on this floor.
-Kuaaa!!
A massive, sweeping upward strike from the giant axe came from his blind spot.
The attack, coming from an angle he hadn't anticipated at all, left Ridley momentarily stunned.
'Ah, I'm too late—'
Just before Ridley could take that one fatal hit,
"Kuaaaa!!"
The movements of both hunters faltered at the sound of a Lycan howling in agony from somewhere far away.
"That sound...?"
Unlike Ridley, who was staring toward the source of the sound with a puzzled expression,
'Doyun.'
Rakia Belz’s eyes sparkled as she recognized the owner of the mana flaring up so intensely.
As if they had planned it, both hunters turned and began to run in that direction.
#
"Aargh! Aaaargh!"
A hunter who had taken a Lycan’s claw to the chest collapsed, bleeding.
He had long since lost the will to continue the fight, but the Lycan on the other side had no intention of stopping.
"Kueeee!!"
The blood-starved beast hungered for the life sleeping beneath the hunter's skin.
"Get away, aaargh!!"
The end for a hunter who became prey was obvious.
The hunter, now a delicious meal for the Lycan, breathed his last.
Doyun, who had been watching the scene calmly, turned his gaze to his next target.
There had been seven hunters in total planning the ambush.
It was fortunate that their individual combat prowess wasn't exceptional, but if he had been surrounded, things might have been different.
If it weren't for them, he would have been the one becoming the sacrificial lamb.
"It's not your fault, Oppa."
"Hmm?"
Eira, sensing the fragments of such emotions, was the first to react.
"Bad guys, you have to find them and kill them first."
"I suppose so."
He didn't have the luxury of carrying around old-fashioned sentiments like pity.
For the sake of the association he belonged to, or the place he lived—
He couldn't afford to die a dog's death in a place like this.
Therefore—
"Wanna play?"
He shook his head at Eira, who was hoping to manifest in her true form.
"No. I'll handle it."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Then okay!"
Doyun took a step forward, silently thanking Eira for so readily trusting her partner.
"Shit!"
"E-everyone, just get out of here! Just save your own lives first!"
"That's not exactly easy...!"
Retribution must be certain.
ㄴ Don't you say that while secretly hoping for a satisfying revenge?
ㄴ Short-earedElf*) (Image of a cute elf character giving a thumbs up)
ㄴ This guy isn't even trying to hide it anymore lol
He was reminded of the users on the Gallery who had once shown interest in his ethical and moral choices.
Back then, they had worried that Doyun would hesitate when faced with an enemy.
'If I had known it would be like this, I should have hit them hard once.'
He remembered the posts from the Boss Mobs who had smugly gauged his limits.
If the answer had been this easy to come by, he would have lost his mind and fought back on the Gallery back then.
"You, you...!"
In the midst of that, the hunter who seemed to have the most composure left spotted Doyun and glared at him.
"What."
"What kind of crazy thing have you done!! Do you want us all to die together?!"
"If I catch you all, that's the end of it, isn't it?"
One person came to Doyun's mind.
"Are you not catching them, or can you not catch them?"
He asked in a tone that suggested he genuinely couldn't understand, letting as much smugness leak through as possible.
"...!"
Upon hearing those words, the hunter's reason snapped.
His mind, which had already been half-shattered by mana interference, had crossed a point of no return thanks to Doyun's "help."
-Whoosh!!
A murderous weapon was swung at Doyun.
"Uh-oh, this is threatening my life, isn't it?"
"Die!"
"This is self-defense, right?"
He had been attacked.
Therefore, he needed to defend himself to preserve his own life.
Doyun had just been granted an indulgence.
-Flash!
He lightly twisted his body to dodge the weapon that had been aimed precisely at his heart.
"What!"
As Doyun slipped past so smoothly, a look of bewilderment spread across the hunter's face.
-Grab!
Doyun grabbed the hunter's wrist with force, using it as a pivot.
-Crack!
"Ugh!"
The captured arm screamed under strength beyond imagination.
But the pain didn't end there.
Since the arm that had been swinging the weapon was captured, only one thing remained.
-Shing!
The Goblin Warlord’s scimitar, which had been hovering in the air, flew toward the hunter like a giant blade hanging from a scaffold.
"....!"
The hunter's wide-open eyes flew into the air.
The hunter's head, severed entirely, rolled on the ground before settling right into the Lycan's mouth.
-Crunch!
"Ugh."
'I didn't exactly wish for that part.'
It had turned into a rather grotesque scene by accident.
"...Hic!"
At the sight of his colleague's gruesome death, the hunter, who had instinctively regained his senses, stared at Doyun with terrified eyes.
"H-how..."
"I'm not that kind of person."
"L-liar. How, so easily..."
"That bastard isn't a hunter. He's not even on our level to begin with!"
"Then is he a body currently suffering from a penalty?"
The unknown territory tormented the hunters.
To call him a hunter of the same floor, his individual combat power was in a completely different league.
And yet, to call him a hunter from a different floor, his actions were far too natural.
'Ah.'
The hunter, whose legs had given out without him realizing it, took in the hellscape laid out before him.
There was no answer.
Faster than his reason, his instinct had accepted the situation.
Even if they subdued the Lycan, it was a problem.
The positions of himself and the other hunters had already been revealed.
They had simply become targets for the living, breathing Doyun.
"Kuaaaaaaa!!"
"Let's communicate."
The Lycan running wild.
And Doyun, who had already gone mad.
Between the two of them, the hunters, who were nothing more than fake madness, had lost all will to fight.
"Next."
Doyun, holding the scimitar vertically, was just about to drive it into the hunter's neck.
"Doyun!"
His head naturally turned toward the voice calling out from afar with a welcoming tone.
"Rakia?"
"Call me Belz!"
The owner of the call, Rakia Belz, had just arrived on the scene, looking delighted.
"Kuee!!"
She greeted the Lycan that was charging in without reading the room by slamming it down with her giant axe.
"Kurek!"
The Lycan, its head split in half, staggered before rolling onto the ground with a thud.
"Didn't you go to the next floor already?"
"Uh, ah."
Doyun had entered the 11th floor much later than she had.
And yet, she hadn't cleared the floor yet?
"I, I got lost on the way..."
To Doyun's question, Rakia Belz, feeling unnecessarily stung, made an excuse while avoiding his gaze.
She had gotten lost.
It could happen.
The information she had bought and sold on the 9th floor might have been wrong, or variables might have occurred on the 11th floor itself.
'It's a shame.'
But that wandering wouldn't last much longer.
Because the boss room was right in front of them.
"B-but, what exactly is the situation right now..."
"Doyun!!"
Before Rakia Belz could even ask about the situation, someone reflexively shouted his name.
A familiar appearance.
A hunter who looked quite despicable just by his physiognomy had just arrived on the scene and was confronted with the tragedy.
Corpses half-eaten by Lycans.
Or corpses cleanly severed by Doyun's scimitar.
They were all, without exception, the ends of the hunters who had been Ridley's party members.
"What the hell are you doing!"
"What am I doing?"
When Doyun asked that, covered in blood, Ridley expressed his fury at this absurd situation.
"Y-you, do you have any idea what you've just done...!"
"I'm not that kind of person. I'm really not."
"You're joking in this situation!"
"I told you, these bastards tried to take me out first."
They had brazenly ambushed other hunters, and then tried to attack him next.
If he hadn't responded, he would have been the one to die.
"T-those guys targeted you...?"
Did they really come up with such a moronic plan?
Ridley couldn't help but hesitate.
"Why. Did you order them to?"
"...!"
"You must have ordered them to. That's right. Come here for a second."
Doyun suddenly realized.
If that bastard Ridley was the leader of these party members, naturally, he would have been the one to give the orders.
"Doyun."
Rakia Belz, who had belatedly grasped the situation, looked at Ridley standing next to her.
"Are you going to kill him?"
Like clockwork.
Rakia Belz, who had been working in sync with Doyun for quite some time now, caught his intent.
"If what I'm thinking is correct."
If they really tried to kill him, and even went so far as to kill other hunters to pull off their bullshit—
Then shouldn't he deliver proper justice without needing to make excuses?
Thinking that, Doyun stared at Ridley, who had been rendered speechless.