Chapter 255
Chapter 255
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 255
Chapter Title: ACT.50 Eagle Hunt (3)
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Kzzzzzt!
Light clashed with light.
Anyone who witnessed the scene would have described it as such.
Cha Eun-ha clenched and unclenched her hand, which crackled with blue electricity, as she stared in one direction.
A man was glaring back at her, his face a mask of bewilderment.
‘So it's him.’
Cha Eun-ha recalled what Kim Se-hyeon had told her.
An S-rank player who sniped using light.
Since Cha Eun-ha's lightning and the man's light shared the same fundamental principles, she could counter him with relative ease.
She could sense where the light would come from beforehand.
“As long as light is a phenomenon caused by the movement of electrons, your attacks will never reach me.”
Bzzzt!
A current sparked from Cha Eun-ha's hand.
A bolt of lightning struck from the clear sky, and Jaeger, barely dodging it, rolled across the ground.
“Damn it…! This matchup is terrible! Just like last time!”
While Hwang Chan-jin had used ice to reflect the light, Cha Eun-ha could predict the attacks outright. As long as she reacted in time, she could evade them almost without fail.
Jaeger cursed inwardly.
He had acquired this power on the strong recommendation of Roberto and Grace, who had praised its strength.
And they had been right.
With this power, he had risen beyond Pentagon Eagle, earning a reputation as one of America's foremost powerhouses.
But for the past few weeks, he'd felt nothing but its drawbacks, as if his fortunes had plummeted into an abyss.
“That's to be expected. We came here knowing your abilities.”
“Fight me fair and square, you brat!”
“You should have thought of that. If you wanted to snipe, you should have chosen a position where you could always make a clean getaway, shouldn't you?”
Cha Eun-ha drew her sword.
Her words were calm, but she had no intention of letting Jaeger escape with his life.
‘Subdue him if you can. Only kill him if it's impossible.’
She recalled Kim Se-hyeon's words.
Kim Se-hyeon always had his reasons.
She knew that, but this time, she had no intention of obeying him.
After all, it was L-Team who had brought Marker—her father Jeon Do-jin's enemy, and her own—to Korea.
“If I let a bad matchup defeat me so easily, I'd be shaming the S-rank title…!”
Jaeger suddenly lowered his sniper rifle.
Then, he took out a pair of gloves, each with what looked like a camera lens embedded in the palm, and put them on.
Cha Eun-ha's eyes narrowed.
She couldn't understand why he would discard his weapon for something that didn't look like one at all.
“You seem quite sensitive to the movement of electrons. Let's see if you can dodge this.”
Flash!
Jaeger thrust out his left hand.
The light, which until a moment ago had shot out in a straight line, now spread out in a cone, filling the entire space three-dimensionally.
‘Scattering…!?’
An attack that was neither a line nor a plane, but filled the three-dimensional space.
Even for Cha Eun-ha, who could predict the light's path, this was difficult to dodge.
“Tch!”
KABOOM!
A torrent of sky-blue electricity erupted, clashing with the light.
Cha Eun-ha frowned slightly.
‘Its power is much lower than when he was just shooting beams of light. Did he sacrifice destructive force for a wider range?’
But that didn't mean its power had diminished to a negligible level.
Before it clashed with her electricity, everything the light touched had been burned black.
“Not bad at dodging!”
This time, it was his right hand.
VWOOOSH!
If his left hand had spread the light in all directions, his right hand did the opposite.
A beam of light, no thicker than a pencil, shot out, but Cha Eun-ha instantly realized how much energy was compressed within it.
‘This time, it's compression…!?’
KRA-KA-BOOM!!
An explosion roared in the distance.
It was as if he had thrown a sun compressed into a single point; the path of the beam wasn't just melted, it had been completely annihilated.
Cha Eun-ha took a short breath.
Even knowing how to counter him, an S-rank was still an S-rank.
She realized he wasn't an opponent she, who had only just reached that level, could easily handle.
‘The lenses embedded in his gloves are what spread or focus the light.’
They were weapons.
Weapons that only Jaeger could wield.
“Looks like you've more or less figured it out.”
Jaeger grinned.
“Not that knowing will do you any good!”
In an instant, Jaeger pulled something out and scattered it into the air.
Small mirrors, about the size of 50-won coins.
Feeling a sudden chill, Cha Eun-ha quickly moved.
Fzzt-Fzzt-Fzzt!
Dozens of light beams shot out.
As they reflected off the floating mirrors, refracting in every direction and scattering again, Cha Eun-ha realized something was different from what she expected.
‘They aren't just mirrors, they're lenses…!’
The angles of incidence and reflection weren't uniform; the light refracted differently depending on the curvature of each lens.
Even with the most minute differences in curvature.
Since she couldn't see those details with the naked eye, she couldn't predict the beams' paths.
Her only option was to continue doing what she had been: detecting the movement of electrons to evade.
But with so many beams, it was inevitable she would miss a few.
“Ugh…!”
A few of the beams grazed her.
The searing pain made her grimace involuntarily.
Fortunately, her body's natural resistance prevented any serious damage.
Bzzzt!
A bolt of electricity missed Jaeger by a hair's breadth.
Ultimately, since Jaeger also manipulated light, he, too, had mastered the ability to sense the movement of electrons and dodge preemptively, just like her.
Jaeger sneered.
“Hahaha. What now? Your attacks can't hit me either.”
“…That can't be.”
Cha Eun-ha said, wiping a smudge of soot from her cheek with her sleeve.
“Where you're standing... that's where I struck with lightning earlier.”
BZZZZZZT!!
Electricity erupted simultaneously from the tip of Cha Eun-ha's outstretched sword and the rebar behind Jaeger, forming a deadly connection.
Jaeger, caught precisely in the middle, stood no chance.
“Guaaaaaaaah!?”
A current of several thousand volts surged through Jaeger's body.
His hair stood on end, and smoke curled from his mouth.
After trembling violently for a long moment, Jaeger collapsed, the whites of his eyes showing.
“Hoo…”
Cha Eun-ha looked down at her sword, which was so overheated it looked ready to melt.
It was the sword her father, Jeon Do-jin, had given her—one that could withstand a certain amount of her lightning.
But it couldn't handle the explosive surge in her power.
She had wanted to use the sword her father had wielded, but it, too, had melted beyond recognition during his final attack, so she had been forced to keep using this one.
A bitter smile touched Cha Eun-ha's lips.
‘I'm sorry, Dad. And thank you.’
***
“Jaeger's been dealt with…”
The situation was similar elsewhere.
The Jo Min-ah and Jo Min-woo pair were fighting valiantly.
As were Simila and the other anti-Salvatio members.
In their midst, Jun Bo-ra was using her signature teleportation to sow chaos among the enemy ranks.
I swung my sword, sending several enemies flying, and surveyed my surroundings.
‘But something else is strange.’
There's no sign of Graham, nor any other Salvatio members.
Graham had been on a rampage until a moment ago, but then he vanished.
I knew what he was up to, but Salvatio's absence was genuinely puzzling.
They're the ones who'll be in trouble if Pentagon Eagle falls.
Worse, it wasn't just collapsing—a guild of people hostile to Salvatio was poised to take its place. That was a major problem for them.
Could there be anything more irksome to Salvatio?
‘They're definitely up to something.’
“Die, you damn monster!!”
I grabbed the man who charged at me, calling me a monster on sight, by the throat and hurled him away.
Calling a stranger a monster. How rude.
“Mr. Kim. Don't you find this strange?”
“I do. You're talking about the absence of Salvatio, right?”
“Yes. Besides L-Team, there are several other Salvatio members within Pentagon Eagle. If they don't intervene now, the guild will suffer irreparable damage. What could they be thinking?”
“Dieeee!”
“Oh, my. You startled me.”
Simila jabbed the tip of her parasol into the throat of a man who'd been playing dead to launch a surprise attack.
His eyes rolled back in his head, his tongue lolled out, and he collapsed.
“You say you're startled, yet you kill a man with a smile on your face.”
“I'd appreciate it if you'd say I was too shocked to have time to change my expression.”
“I always thought it was odd that you carry a parasol everywhere. I never imagined it was a weapon.”
“It's a fun little thing, isn't it? Look. It has all sorts of tricks.”
She twisted the handle slightly, and a blade shot out from the tip of the parasol.
The tips of the metal ribs that gave the parasol its shape also sprouted tooth-like protrusions.
If I looked closely, they seemed to be moving... wait, I feel like I've seen something like that before.
“…Don't tell me you modified a Mimic to use as a weapon?”
“Hee hee.”
Simila gave an enigmatic chuckle.
It wasn't impossible. There was an eccentric blacksmith in America who specialized in such things.
No wonder the bloodstains on the parasol's fabric kept disappearing as if being absorbed.
“If Salvatio stays away, all the better. Pentagon Eagle is crumbling more easily than I expected.”
“No. They still have one ace up their sleeve. You know what I'm talking about.”
“I was wondering why Graham disappeared. It must be for that.”
“It's the only thing it could be.”
Simila pursed her lips, a look of concern on her face.
“Do you think Salvatio plans to show up right after?”
“It's not impossible. Over there…”
I sensed a multitude of presences rushing in from one direction, and my face hardened.
“They didn't waste any time.”
“They certainly didn't.”
Demonic beasts.
Everywhere I looked, there were only demonic beasts.
From common types to those that only appeared in specific regions.
There were even chimeras, amalgamations of various beasts.
They were the results of the ‘secret experiments’ Pentagon Eagle had been conducting.
“Khahahaha! Did you think this Graham would give up his seat so easily! If it's come to this, then let's all die together! Hahahahaha!”
Graham's thunderous laughter echoed from the top of a nearby building.
I quickly checked his hands, but he wasn't holding the one thing he should have been.
What's with him? Where is ‘it’? Why is he empty-handed?
Did he really unleash all of them just for the sake of mutual destruction?
“Why is he empty-handed…?”
Simila muttered, seemingly sharing my confusion.
“Did he release this many demonic beasts without the Ring of Domination?”
The Ring of Domination.
An item Pentagon Eagle had discovered by chance, capable of ‘placing demonic beasts under one's control.’
By pouring a vast amount of mana into it, one could dominate all demonic beasts within a certain radius—an item that, in the wrong hands, could turn its wielder into a walking disaster.
Graham's goal had been to use it to create an army of demonic beasts. Once his research was complete, he planned to annihilate all the other American guilds and establish a dictatorship.
But for him to appear without it…
“…I'm going. I'll leave this to you.”
“Excellent. I'm counting on you.”
Simila flashed a smile and swung her parasol.
The teeth on the parasol writhed to life, tearing into the ravenous demonic beasts that charged at her.
It wasn't a pleasant sight.
‘The deep basement of the building Graham emerged from.’
I cut through the swarming demonic beasts, forging a path forward.
Individually, they were nothing, but their sheer numbers slowed my advance.
Just how many beasts had they been keeping in that lab?
I clicked my tongue and summoned my Army of Darkness.
“Alpha. Clear a path.”
[As you command, Lord.]
Alpha's eyes flashed as he swung his greatsword in a wide arc.
KWOOOOSH!
Like a parting river, a path opened through the horde of demonic beasts.
I didn't miss the opening and plunged through.
The beasts noticed my presence and tried to charge, but Alpha and my other dark soldiers stopped them in their tracks, their heads rolling to the ground.
What is this?
This unsettling feeling, like something is tightening around my neck.
This foul sensation, as if something sticky is clinging to my entire body and won't let go.
‘There's something here.’