Take a Beating First
Take a beating first.
I slowly looked around.
At a glance, about twenty of them.
Not a small number—but everyone here already understood.
That kind of numbers game meant nothing anymore.
“…….”
So they only watched each other, and no one came at me.
If they had been watching me, that would have been better. At least it would have meant they still had the will to fight.
But they were too busy reading their own side.
Wondering if someone else would go fight in their place. Or sacrifice themselves instead of them.
Or which one of them they needed to throw away so that they, at least, could crawl out of this hell.
The enemy was right here—and still they only faced each other, shoving one another forward from behind.
All of it was meaningless.
Did they really not know?
That no matter what they did, they were never getting out of here.
Thud. I kicked off the ground and vaulted the collapsed floor in a single bound.
In an instant I landed right in front of the hunter closest to the door.
“Wh-what……?”
He recoiled at the sudden appearance of me in his face.
But I didn’t attack him.
Step. Step…….
Click.
I walked straight past him and locked the door.
When I turned around, they were all still standing there, blank.
“Why are you all staring like that? Weren’t you here to catch me?”
“…….”
“Then you should be happy. The criminal you were chasing just locked himself in for you.”
I rapped my knuckles against the locked door and swept my gaze over the hunters.
They were looking at me too—but the feelings in their eyes were nothing like mine.
Every one of them wanted to live, and every one of them already knew, deep down, that they weren’t walking out of here alive.
“Well? Anything else you want to stall for? You’re all going to get beaten down eventually anyway.”
I flicked the blade of my sword.
Choi Jinchul’s blood sprayed out.
The hunters’ faces went ashen at the sight—but that changed nothing.
“Let’s get started.”
With those words I moved in a way their eyes could not follow.
Tap.
And I rested my sword lightly on the shoulder of the nearest hunter.
“…Huh?”
Even then he couldn’t react. He only made a dazed sound and stared at the blade on his shoulder.
The moment the edge touched his neck, he finally looked at me.
“Snap out of it. This is going to hurt.”
“Ah—aah……!”
Slash—!
I cut his throat clean through.
Instead of a scream, he clutched at his neck.
Blood still fountained out. His body crumpled, shuddering.
“Ah—ghhhk—kheeehhk!”
Even as he thrashed in agony, his unfocused eyes rolled up toward me.
As if begging me to save him. Wrong address.
I turned my back on him and looked at the rest.
My back had been completely open just now—and not one of them had attacked.
They only stood there trembling, staring at me.
I pointed at the weapons in their hands.
“What, are those just for show?”
“H-hiiik…….”
One hunter dropped his weapon.
He couldn’t even pick it up again. He just froze.
Step. Step.
I walked over, picked the weapon up for him, and pressed it back into his hand myself while I looked them over one by one.
“Where did all that confidence go? The way you kicked the door in earlier. That was good.”
“L-Lee Seoyun, you…….”
Thrust.
I drove my sword into the gut of the hunter who had opened his mouth.
Slowly. Almost leisurely.
So I could watch his face twist through every stage of the pain.
“Yeah. I’m listening.”
“Ah. Aaaah. Ghhheee…….”
“What exactly did I do wrong?”
His hand clutched my shoulder. The pitiful trembling felt like a plea not to push the blade any deeper.
I shook my head at him.
“Can’t do that. Taking that kind of posture in front of a criminal? A hunter is supposed to stay composed even in the face of death.”
“S-Seoyun… please. Please stop stabb—”
—Slash!
I yanked the sword free.
He coughed blood and dropped to his knees.
“Ghhheeehk!?”
“What? You wanted it out, didn’t you?”
“Cough—khhk. Gyaaaaaah……!”
“I do you a favor and you still bitch about it.”
I wiped the blood off my blade on his clothes.
Then I looked at the remaining hunters.
“We’re short on time. I’ll only use two seconds.”
“What?”
I set my stance right there.
Fifty-two… fifty-three seconds.
Even then, not a single hunter moved.
They just stood rooted in place, staring at me in terror.
Made aiming easy.
“Full Bloom.”
Rrrrrumble—!
The surge of energy I unleashed tore straight toward them.
“Ah—aaaah—”
Someone tried to run too late.
There was no time to dodge, no time even to scream.
The hunters caught in it couldn’t raise a single defense before they were swallowed whole.
When the energy passed, only bodies remained on the floor.
“U-uaaah. Aaaaaah…….”
“Ah. One left, huh.”
I looked at the only hunter who hadn’t been hit.
She had lost the will to fight a long time ago.
When our eyes met she let out a pathetic shriek.
“H-hiiik!?”
She threw her weapon away and ran for her life, desperate to get away from me.
Rattle. Rattle. Rattle. Rattle!
She frantically twisted the locked doorknob.
“Ah—aaaaah! O-open! Open, you fucking door!!”
Her screams filled the air while the innocent doorknob spun uselessly under her hands.
I watched that pitiful back and walked toward her at an unhurried pace.
Click.
Then I unlocked it for her.
“Even if you’re panicking, you still have to undo this first if you want it to open.”
“…….”
“Well? Aren’t you going to leave?”
She gave no answer.
She just froze in the exact posture she had been in while trying to open the door.
I pulled it open for her.
Creeeak.
The door she had wanted so badly swung wide—and still she couldn’t bring herself to step through it.
“S-s-save…….”
Instead she only turned her head and looked up at me.
Like someone who had already seen her own future.
“Please, spare m—”
—Thrust.
Slowly, the eyes that had been fixed on me dropped.
She stared at the blade buried in her side and began to shake violently.
“Huh? Huhh? Cough! Kheeehhk!!”
“…….”
The hunter slumped against the wall and slid down.
I stepped past her and looked out through the wide-open doorway.
Dozens of Orion Guild hunters were gathered outside.
“What are you all doing just standing there?”
“…….”
No one answered.
They only gripped their weapons and stared at me.
Looking at me, not a single one of them could even think of coming in.
“If you’re not coming in, then don’t.”
I slowly closed the door. Just in case someone changed their mind and tried to follow.
Creeeak—thud.
But no one entered before it shut completely, and I locked it again.
Click.
Then I turned to look at Choi Jinchul, still lying where I had left him.
“Kept you waiting long? You’re not dead already, are you?”
“Y-you crazy bastard. You’re a fucking lunatic…….”
“I know. I look that way even to myself.”
I spoke while looking at my reflection in the glass.
A figure drenched in the blood of hunters who, until not long ago, had been my comrades.
That madness was staring back at me.
“…Not bad.”
I turned my head again.
There was my friend of twenty years, looking at me.
I walked toward him on blood-soaked feet.
“Jinchul. Why did you do it?”
I slowly crouched down until our eyes met.
He was trembling too, but he didn’t look away.
“Why—why did I do it!? You’re asking because you don’t know!?”
“…….”
“You think I didn’t know how much you looked down on me!? Acting like you were taking care of me while you ignored me with that fucking superiority and pity—I knew all of it! You hypocrite bastard. From the start, all of it was your fault!! Your existence itself is the problem…….”
“No. Not that.”
I cut off his ranting.
I had never cared about his side of the story in the first place.
“I was going to come kill you. So why did you do it?”
I grabbed his face and asked again.
“Huh? Jinchul. I’m asking you. I’m still alive. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Y-you fucking bastard…….”
“Hm?”
I slowly stood up.
Crunch!
And I stomped down hard on the hand that still had my sword through it.
“Ghhheuuuugh!?”
“Jinchul. What did you say?”
“Y-you crazy son of a bitch!! You think you’re going to get away with this!? Do you even know who the hell I—”
—Crack.
I seized the throat of the man still spitting words.
And in that grip I lifted him off the ground.
“Ghk. Khehk. Kehek!?”
“Just answer the question. Is that so hard?”
Suspended in the air, he kicked wildly at nothing.
He thrashed to get free, but I only tightened my hold.
“Ghhhk! Y-you fucking khehk! Bastard……!”
“…Fine. Don’t answer if you don’t want to.”
I hadn’t been that curious anyway.
So……
“Take a beating first.”
Slash—!
I severed one of his arms in a single stroke.
The sound of flesh parting, and then a lump of meat hit the floor with a wet thud.
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”
His scream rang through the entire guild master’s office.