Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Why Can't You Do This? (3)
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Iron Blood is a madwoman.
It wasn't just because she was an unmarried woman in her thirties. She was something entirely different from your average hunter.
Some suspected she'd undergone some kind of ideological indoctrination, while others wondered if she only saw antisocial behavior or troublemakers wherever she looked.
-What Iron Blood wields isn't a fist. It's violence backed by power.
There was once a B-rank ability user who'd fled to Europe for asylum.
He was a younger man than Iron Blood, a former celebrity who'd awakened and gained massive public recognition.
He'd defected to Europe.
It wasn't publicly known, but some speculated he'd run from the country to escape Iron Blood's attempt to force him into marriage.
Why did the country protect Iron Blood so fiercely?
If you asked that, the answer was simple: there was no dog more loyal to the state than her.
A guard dog only bites its owner if provoked, and the owner doesn't care otherwise.
Even if it bites the neighbor's dog or people, the owner might brazenly claim, "My dog didn't do anything wrong; they must've approached first," turning the blame around shamelessly.
That's how things were here.
Iron Blood had aligned herself with the government, living a life of luxury as their loyal hound.
Until now, everyone had stayed quiet.
Even S-rank hunters had to tackle the Tower, so they avoided direct confrontations, and Iron Blood rarely picked official fights with other S-ranks.
But now, things had changed.
As they waited for the helicopter and packed only the essentials from the hotel to move out, a massive incident erupted at the Korean hunters' training center.
"Did you think I held back from going live all this time because I was scared of you?!" The fierce battle at the training center echoed through Dry's hack.
It started with Blue Lightning's electrified punch—not to the gut or solar plexus, but straight to the face.
Korea strictly avoided armed clashes between S-ranks.
They even joked that if strong hunters had beef, they should settle it inside the Tower.
Why Iron Blood?
If you asked that...
"You avoid shit because you're scared of it getting on you? No, because it's filthy!" As Blue Lightning had shouted, Iron Blood was rotten to the core.
She knew the state would protect her no matter how much violence she unleashed—had to protect her. That's why no one had stepped up aggressively until now.
The S-ranks avoided her because she was filthy.
And those below? Filthy, but also somewhat frightening.
-You can dodge filth, but what if that filth grows legs, charges at you, and tries to stick? All you can do is stay off its radar.
Iron Blood had been exactly that.
No longer.
"Bro, and everyone else—they held back because they worried if you died, there'd be fewer people to tackle the S-rank Tower!" Blue Lightning's follow-up barrage.
Lightning cloaked his body as he charged in one breath. Iron Blood, sprawled on the ground, took the punches head-on.
Shocked at getting hit?
Stunned that the usually mild-mannered young man had snapped?
No.
"So, what're you gonna do about it?" To harden her skin like steel and shed the lightning.
To cloak herself in mana, block Blue Lightning's electricity, mount him, and thrust an uppercut from below.
"Ow, fuck."
"Whoa. Groin punch."
Iron Blood's fist slammed into Blue Lightning's crotch.
He flew out of the training center, tumbling across the ground.
"Doesn't that look... burst, nya...?"
"Nah, no way. She didn't hit it that hard."
"She took a face full of death punch from a psycho bitch?"
"........."
Kiharu cautiously voiced her opinion, and watching Blue Lightning via the training center CCTV, I felt phantom pain in my own groin.
"Master. Shall I go handle it?"
The blow looked so agonizing that Elaine gripped her sheath, thumbing the hilt as if ready to discipline Iron Blood herself.
"...Dry. Iron Blood—any dirt on her? Backstory or something?"
"Unfortunately, no. There are personal photos, but they're just photoshoot-level. If those leaked, she'd probably love it. Body's decent, after all."
"Tch...."
She doesn't even have scandalous dirt?
No.
She had plenty of controversies, but they were all tied to assaults or attitude—stuff that would just amplify her existing image.
"Commander. Helicopter's approaching the rooftop now."
"Tch...."
"Blue Lightning—you want to help?"
"Not exactly help, but seeing him still writhing in agony..."
Basic human decency, I guess.
"If it'd just been a gut shot sending him flying, fine, but oof."
Any guy, unless it was their parents' killer, would hesitate and pause when their nuts get smashed, no matter how fierce the fight.
"...It's not actually ruptured, right?"
Whump-whump-whump.
The helicopter's roar filled my ears.
Blue Lightning clenched his fist, trying to rise. Iron Blood tapped the ground with her foot, aiming a kick at him.
Swish.
Iron Blood vanished.
And my body was suddenly yanked along.
"Elaine?"
"Iron Blood's heading this way."
"...No way, that psycho bitch?"
"Commander, to the helicopter—now!"
"......Wait."
I followed Elaine into the hallway toward the chopper and opened the app on my smartphone.
"Alice. Get ready."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "A-Are you okay?!"
An A-rank healer rushed to Blue Lightning, channeling mana.
"........."
Blue Lightning stared at the ground, face pale, speechless.
But his outstretched fist toward the floor showed he was trying to stand.
Whirr.
The healer directed healing energy to his groin.
"Oh my god...!"
The healer sensed it.
Healing was a restorative power; the user always knew the extent of the recovery.
"S-Squirrel! No way...!"
"W-We have to chase...!"
Blue Lightning trembled, forcing his legs to move, pointing where Iron Blood had vanished.
"She's going after [Master] to stop him...!"
"What pretext...!"
"No pretext or justification! She just wants to block him—grab his ankle, or knock him down till government suits drag him off!"
"That's insane..."
Insane.
Not just the healer—every hunter who'd rushed out thought so, but the incoming news chilled their spines.
"Hey! Chopper's at the hotel! The one [Master]'s taking—US military!"
"!!"
"N-No way... She's not gonna shoot it down... right?"
"C'mon, even a lunatic wouldn't..."
The hunters muttered "no way," but their eyes flicked to Blue Lightning's lower half.
"Squirrel."
One hunter channeled mana, sprouting wings from his back.
Obsidian-like wings, simple as pixel art, yet unmistakably draconic.
"If things go south later, you'll help, right? I'll help you now."
His ability granted flight—he was the fastest here.
"...Yeah!"
"Then—!"
Obsidian Wing scooped Blue Lightning by the waist and rocketed skyward.
Flap!
Wings beat wide for speed, S-rank mana at full throttle—but...
Boom, boom, boooom!
Roads, houses, be damned—Iron Blood blazed straight ahead, too fast to catch.
Weee-ooo!
Sirens wailed.
Emergency alert.
[Blue Lightning and Obsidian Wing: Halt immediately!] "That deputy minister prick...! Broadcasting officially!"
Obsidian Wing gnashed his teeth at the siren's voice but flapped harder.
"Damn it, Squirrel! If you see me abroad later, don't pretend not to know me!"
Obsidian Wing beat his wings faster.
Iron Blood had reached the hotel vicinity, leaping over journalists and civilians clogging the roads.
Whump-whump-whump.
The hotel rooftop.
A pitch-black helicopter lifted off.
No one in the cockpit, but inside the drone chopper, a masked figure peered out the window below.
"Master...!"
The entity identified via intel—Master aboard.
Maid or gun-toting guards? No time to worry.
Thud-thud-thud!
Iron Blood scaled the hotel wall, hitting the roof in seconds.
Seaside hotel—the chopper was already over the ocean.
"Stop!"
As Iron Blood wound up for the chopper, Obsidian Wing dove at full speed.
Crackle!
Blue Lightning dropped onto the roof like cargo. Momentum carried Obsidian Wing past, plummeting toward the sea.
"You're fucking insane!!"
"Shut it."
Iron Blood smirked, mana-charged fist aimed at the chopper.
"You'll start a war with America!!"
"That's why punks without state secrets shouldn't butt in."
"What?"
"You really think all Americans welcome that traitor?"
"What're you—"
As Blue Lightning started to retort, Iron Blood swung wide at the chopper.
"This is."
BOOM!
"A request from 'over there' too."
Explosion.
Sonic boom slammed Blue Lightning.
"Guhh!!"
He braced with his body, holding ground.
BOOM!
"Ah!"
Another blast.
The sonic wave must've hit—the rotor exploded. The chopper spun wildly, plummeting seaward.
"You crazy bitch, for real!"
"Too much power sometimes disrupts human order."
"You moron!"
Blue Lightning's raw curses at Iron Blood.
"That means situations where you need that power can arise!!"
Her face stiffened briefly at the rebuke.
"Too late. Master already—"
The chopper nosediving into the sea.
"!!"
"?!"
A massive "mana" surged from somewhere.
Not one or two people—more like a colossal object.
"B-Boss?"
Tower boss-level mana from Jeju's coastal waters.
KABOOOOOM!!
Mighty blast—something erupted from below.
From empty waves, a shadow dozens of meters long appeared abruptly.
"......Huh?"
Something whale-like breached the surface.
It snagged the falling chopper with a cable from its bridge—unmistakably...
"...Battleship?"
KABOOM!
Splashing wildly, a hulking steel warship surfaced.