Desperate Return to Carnage
At his urgent words, Kim Hana immediately deployed the portal. But for some reason, it formed only to dissipate, and several more attempts all ended in failure.
“The portal won’t open. This has never happened before……”
“What about somewhere else? Try another spot.”
“Got it.”
She set coordinates for a nearby slum close to headquarters and tried again. This time, it worked perfectly.
“We’re good. We’ll get there in no time.”
No sooner had she spoken than Park Taemin’s figure vanished into the portal. Emerging outside, he glanced around before turning to her.
“It might be dangerous, so hide somewhere nearby. I’ll contact you once the situation’s under control.”
She wanted to go with him but knew she’d just be in the way, so she nodded reluctantly.
“Yes. Be careful, Section Chief.”
With those words, she cast Haste on him. The moment it took effect, he activated Arrainba and dashed up the steep incline.
It was a sharply sloped hill, but with his movement speed exceeding 400, it was less than a minor obstacle. He reached the summit in one breath, then immediately veered toward headquarters.
Entering the entrance, his face hardened at the sight of two corpses sprawled on the ground. Growing frantic, he crossed the open yard and rushed into the building.
Stepping onto the first floor, he found bodies littered everywhere—along the hallways, stairwells, all over. The metallic stench of blood made bile rise in his throat, but he shook his head and quickly scanned their faces.
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—none were hunters he knew well.
Taemin pushed past the first-floor hallway and headed straight to the second floor. It was the same there: a sea of blood, dozens of hunters lying cold as corpses.
Moving to the third floor, where the dorms were, he spotted a few familiar faces—people he’d nodded to in the HR department, folks he’d hunted with on high plateaus.
With a pang of regret, he passed them one by one. Most weren’t armed, and many were in underwear, suggesting they’d been resting in their rooms when the surprise attack hit.
He bypassed the hallway and entered his own room, door ajar. Furniture lay smashed and scattered across the floor, but no sign of anyone.
No one here.
Confirming that, he headed down the central corridor to the women’s dorms. The situation there was no different—women in pajamas strewn about, eyes still wide in death.
He stepped into Yoon Ji-young’s room, its door shattered. Inside, he found a blood-soaked corpse.
“No… please, no……”
His body trembled like a leaf. An indescribable dread welled up, his eyes brimming with tears.
Praying it wasn’t her, he approached to check. Relief washed over him—it wasn’t Yoon Ji-young.
But before he could exhale fully, he gently closed the corpse’s eyes, frozen in a look of injustice.
Clenching his fist, he muttered, “You fucking bastards……”
Seeing these hunters slaughtered so cruelly without reason ignited a fury in Taemin. What kind of monsters would do something this insane?
Leaving the body behind, he headed to the fourth floor. It was much the same, but signs of resistance appeared—shattered corridors, fully armed dead hunters.
Another oddity: traces of barricade walls that had dropped at intervals.
Passing through a large hole blasted in one, he climbed to the fifth floor, where he recognized even more faces—hunters he’d crossed paths with at least once, now corpses.
His rage boiling over, he flung himself toward the faint explosions echoing from above.
The sixth floor held no signs of life either.
“How many of them are there?”
Taemin traced the sounds upward. Past the seventh, he reached the top—the eighth floor—and finally spotted living people.
Fully armed hunters, split into two groups facing off. From afar, he couldn’t tell friend from foe, so he cast Invisible and approached stealthily.
Up close, the larger group was allies. He recognized the HR chief, his old acquaintance Sin Dong-hyun, recently promoted A-rank Yoo Hyuk, Ha Jung-woo who’d led plateau hunts, Seo Ji-hoon looking terrified beside him, and soon Yoon Ji-young in his sight.
Management department folks dotted the group too. Confirming they were alive, Taemin sighed silently in relief.
While the enemies spread out leisurely across the wide space, his allies huddled tensely in one spot.
Up front stood Yoo Hyuk and the remaining A-ranks; behind them, the rest clustered with end-of-the-world expressions, watching the scene.
One enemy hunter smirked at them. “Is this really all of you? How disappointing. Cornered by just fifty or so? Wolfsrein was all hype after all.”
Fuming at the taunt, Yoo Hyuk shot back, “Shut your mouth! You think you’ll get away with this? Even if we all die here, when the Captain returns, you’re next.”
“Hahaha… ever seen such a fool? You really think your Captain’s coming back?”
“Whatever. Nice lip service before dying. Before hitting this place, we already sank the founding members who fled to Jeju. Blasted their passenger ship to oblivion—no trace left. No way they survived.”
“Bullshit. They’re not the type to go down easy.”
“Bullshit? I don’t lie. No, I can’t. We deployed three battalions of high-level mage squads just for them. On land, maybe different, but on a ship in open sea under bombardment? Come on, friend. That’s false hope.”
His words darkened the allies’ faces. Three battalions of high-level mages could level a city. Focused on one ship at sea? Even the Captain couldn’t guarantee survival.
Even enduring the blasts, no ship meant drowning. If hit far offshore—not near land—odds were near zero.
Still, Yoo Hyuk clung to hope. “Like we’d buy that from scum like you? Even if true, nothing changes. Once Hunter Agency knows, you’re all finished.”
The man sneered coldly. “That Hunter Agency you trust? It’s probably in flames by now. This isn’t just a guild raid. Outside, shit’s hitting the fan beyond your wildest dreams. Anyway, playtime’s over—let’s wrap this up.”
Uncrossing his arms, he shifted into stance. The allies flinched.
Objectively, they were outmatched. Surviving A-ranks numbered around thirty including the HR chief; the rest low-ranks, many broken-spirited.
Enemies: all A-rank high-levels. Plus, likely an S-rank sorcerer casting Disturbance for magic disruption, and someone directing him—probably another S-rank.
Is this the end? Yoo Hyuk sensed they’d die here. No portals, no escape. Fight meant total defeat.
He turned to the HR chief and others. “If we’re going down, let’s give it everything till the last.”
His grim resolve fired up the hunters, gripping weapons anew. Die fighting or not—might as well drag some down for peace in the afterlife.
As the final clash loomed, Yoon Ji-young beside Seo Ji-hoon glanced at her ring, steeling herself.
Are you alive? Just one last look at your face……
Kissing the ring, she prepared her magic for the fight ahead.
The room grew heavy with their resolve—like a bomb on the verge of detonation.
Then—
“Urgh!”
“Gah!”
“What the—argh!”
Screams erupted as enemy hunters began collapsing one by one. Hearts and throats pierced, they tumbled; their baffled comrades soon followed.
The formation dissolved into chaos before battle even started, turning the floor into a bloodbath.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
The leader bellowed, but hunters stammered cluelessly.
“No idea. Suddenly everyone……”
“Someone’s attacking—argh!”
One mid-sentence spewed blood and fell. Survivors scanned desperately, finding nothing suspicious.
The leader tried calming them. “Get it together! Gah—”
A sharp pain in his chest dropped his gaze. Blood poured from a puncture in his left breast.
Staring in disbelief at the hole, he toppled—never to rise.
Leader down, the rest panicked wilder. Some even fled downstairs.
But death’s touch spared none.
Nearly half the enemies dropped mysteriously in moments. Even Wolfsrein’s side was stunned.
Minutes from victory, the enemies’ antics were a baffling one-man show.
Amid it, management deputy Kim Yoon-jin, face dawning realization, couldn’t help shouting at thin air.
“It’s the Section Chief! The Section Chief’s here!”