Jeokryeohui (2)
“Squinty-eyed mister.”
At the boy’s voice, Choi Yeon turned around.
Worry clouded Lee Geon-woo’s face—worry for Kim In-beom.
“Aren’t you going to help?”
“Help?”
“That guy…”
Lee Geon-woo pointed at Spotty.
Spotty, swinging his kopis with savage force, showed not the slightest sign of fatigue.
“That’s Spotty’s true power.”
“True power?”
“Yeah.”
Choi Yeon murmured the boy’s words under his breath.
True power… true power…
He repeated it a few times, then reached out and ruffled Lee Geon-woo’s hair.
The boy flinched and trembled, just as he had at Byeokondang. And just as before, Choi Yeon did not stop.
“It’s fine. In-beom can handle it alone.”
“But…”
“Geon-woo.”
Choi Yeon crouched down until his eyes were level with the boy’s, then pointed toward Kim In-beom.
“You should watch In-beom carefully. Because that is true power.”
“……?”
Lee Geon-woo tilted his head, not quite understanding. Even so, he obeyed Choi Yeon’s words and looked not at Spotty, but at Kim In-beom.
Listening to the squinty-eyed mister who had come all this way to save him and his friends was only natural.
“…….”
The moment Lee Geon-woo’s gaze settled on Kim In-beom, Choi Yeon studied Spotty.
He had denied the boy’s words, yet he understood perfectly well why the child had called it true power.
Spotty was circulating mana at a blistering pace, skyrocketing his physical abilities.
Accelerated mana circulation was merely an application of basic techniques—but the speed was anything but normal.
The acceleration raging through Spotty’s body was far from natural. It would not have been strange if blood had already begun streaming from those bloodshot eyes. The purpose of Jeokryeohui’s experiments was almost certainly to master that very technique.
Images of other Jeokryeohui combatants rose in Choi Yeon’s mind, and he clicked his tongue in pure disdain.
They and Spotty were pitifully alike. Nothing would change.
“Die…!”
Spotty roared, both eyes blazing crimson.
Heh-heh!
Whether the sound was breathing or laughter, he kept making it as he chained attack after attack.
The whirling kopis looked lethally dangerous. A solid hit would leave life or death uncertain.
If it actually landed, that is.
“Hah…”
Kim In-beom let out a quiet sigh.
Powerful or not, the trajectories of the kopis swung by a half-mad Spotty were painfully simple.
He could see every follow-up attack coming. Dodging them was easier than failing to dodge.
All this… just for power this pathetic. Kidnapping children and running experiments for this…
Rage and revulsion filled Kim In-beom’s eyes. He decided not to swallow them down—he would unleash every last drop.
Thud!
He shot out his left hand, seized Spotty’s right wrist, and yanked.
The force was no stronger than pulling a doorknob, yet it was more than enough to throw the off-balance Spotty, who could no longer control his own strength.
Kim In-beom grabbed the back of Spotty’s collapsing head and said,
“Seriously. Grow up.”
CRACK!
He slammed the man face-first into the floor. Spotty’s skull sank halfway into the ground.
A moment later Spotty went limp. The ferocious presence that had filled the air vanished completely.
He looked dead enough that no one would have been surprised, but Kim In-beom paid it no mind.
Even if he was dead, so what? It would only be a service to nature.
“…….”
Dusting his hands off with a couple of sharp claps, Kim In-beom lifted his head and spoke at a leisurely pace to the Team Leader glaring at him.
“This guy’s no different from those failures you mentioned.”
“Then that bastard’s a failure too.”
“And the guy who only keeps failures around is the same.”
“I’ll prove it to you.”
“Ah, I’ll pass.”
For every step the Team Leader advanced, Kim In-beom retreated the same distance.
“I’d love to confirm it, but I can’t leave Senior Yeon bored.”
“…….”
At Kim In-beom’s words the Team Leader’s eyes narrowed. He looked like he had plenty to say, yet he did not try to stop the retreating man.
The opponent he truly wanted to fight was Choi Yeon, after all—and the order hardly mattered. He had no intention of letting anyone who set foot in the laboratory leave alive.
Whether he knew the Team Leader’s thoughts or not, Choi Yeon spoke casually to Kim In-beom as the latter returned with the mangoshu.
“In-beom, can I be honest?”
“No.”
“I’m not particularly bored.”
Even though Kim In-beom refused, Choi Yeon continued.
“So how about you go another round?”
“If that’s what you really want, Senior, I don’t mind… but it’ll take a while.”
No—it probably wouldn’t end with just “a while.”
He hated to admit it, but from what Kim In-beom could tell, the Team Leader was roughly his equal or a little stronger.
Alone, he would have fought. But with Choi Yeon—who was clearly stronger than him—right here, why gamble?
“It’s not good for you either, Senior. You said you didn’t even get to check the overtime pay on the way here.”
“…Exactly.”
Catching Kim In-beom’s true intent, Choi Yeon nodded.
He drew a dagger from his waist and walked forward. As he tied a wire to the pommel, the Team Leader’s voice cut through the air.
“You sure about this, Seonhwa-dong Fox?”
“……?”
“That short blade of yours can’t cut off my right arm. Especially not if you throw it.”
“…Is that so?”
“Keh-heh. Feel free to try if you want.”
With that the Team Leader thrust his right arm forward. Nearly twice the size of his left, it looked for all the world like a soldier presenting a shield.
The thick right arm was no doubt the result of drug enhancement.
Choi Yeon spun the wired dagger in lazy circles.
“I can try if I want?”
“I want to show you myself. That everything you do will be useless.”
“…….”
“No need to hold back, you know?”
“Who’s holding back?”
Whoosh!
He threw the dagger without hesitation.
Why refuse an invitation to attack?
CLANG!
The dagger that had sliced through the air failed to embed itself in the arm. It bounced away helplessly.
Clang? That was the sound of human skin?
“…Wire Shift.”
Choi Yeon flicked his wrist. The wire undulated. The dagger wandering through the air found its target again and shot forward once more.
Straight for the Team Leader’s throat.
The dagger streaked like a bolt of lightning—only to stop just short of the swollen veins.
It never bloomed into a red flower; the Team Leader’s left hand snatched it out of the air.
“…I never said you could go for the throat.”
“Didn’t you?”
“Keh-heh…! Fun—ugh!”
The Team Leader hurled the dagger aside and charged after it.
Choi Yeon sprinted forward as well, manipulating the wire. The force packed into it was so great that without his skill at control he would never have reeled it back cleanly.
Whoooom!
The Team Leader’s right arm came crashing down, intent on crushing Choi Yeon flat.
Choi Yeon slipped past to the left and swung the recovered dagger. The right arm was certainly threatening, but to him it was simply a target with a wide hitbox.
CLANG!
The sound of metal striking metal rang out.
It was not a sound that should come from striking a human arm. The cleanly snapped dagger, broken cleanly in two, only confirmed it.
Tap, tap.
Choi Yeon retreated a generous distance.
Judging by the vibration that had traveled up his hand, the right arm was more than mere drug enhancement.
“A hardening skill, I see.”
“That’s right. You saw through it. Dancheolshin—Forged Iron Body. B-class skill.”
B-class…
Choi Yeon muttered as he looked down at the broken dagger.
No wonder a D-class dagger ended up like this after a single clash.
“In other words, a mere C-class hunter like you can’t kill me.”
“Haha. You’re better at lying than you look.”
“Lying?”
Choi Yeon stretched out a hand and pointed at the right arm.
He could see it clearly.
Mana was gathering ever so slightly more densely in the right arm—almost as if the man were declaring that he had applied Dancheolshin only to that limb.
If he had coated his entire body with it from the start, why bother defending the throat a moment ago?
“You’re barely wrapping it around the right arm alone.”
“Heh-heh. Sharp eyes for a squinty-eyed bastard.”
What’s wrong with squinty eyes, you bastard.
As Choi Yeon muttered inwardly, the Team Leader swung his right arm.
Whoooom…!
The wind pressure washed over Choi Yeon.
“Knowing doesn’t change a thing. You’ll never pierce my right arm!”
The Team Leader leapt. His raised right arm looked like a steel sledgehammer.
BOOM!
Choi Yeon dodged the arm that cratered the floor and drew another dagger—identical in appearance, standard Dongdae issue.
Can’t pierce it? Fair enough. Then…
“I just won’t pierce it.”
He stepped into the Team Leader’s guard and thrust the dagger, aiming for the throat exactly as he had said.
“Hup!”
Clang—the right arm knocked the dagger aside, then carved through the air with the clear intent of caving in the enemy’s skull.
Choi Yeon bent his knees, slipped under it, and thrust for the throat again.
CLANG!
The Team Leader yanked his extended right arm back just in time to block the dagger.
That was the moment.
“Hup…?”
Hadn’t it been the same a second ago?
A question bloomed in the Team Leader’s mind.
He was the one attacking first—so why did every exchange end with him blocking the dagger? Why?
Whoom!
He swung his right arm savagely, trying to smash the doubt away. Once again Choi Yeon dodged and thrust.
“……!”
CLANG!
The Team Leader barely managed to bat the dagger aside just before it pierced his throat.
He realized, a beat too late, that it was the same as before—yet slightly different.
Just now Choi Yeon’s dagger had nearly stabbed him in the neck.
Bit by bit… it was getting closer.
He could guess how this endless repetition would end.
He had to grab him—only then could he stop it.
Thinking that, he thrust his right arm forward—only for the dagger’s path to change with liquid smoothness.
“……!”
The Team Leader’s eyes flew wide.
He finally understood: the previous motions had been feints designed to make him move.
Realizing it now was far too late.
—Or so the squinty-eyed hunter in front of him seemed to say. In his mind’s eye the dagger was already burying itself in his throat.
“Keh-heuk…!”
A sound that was neither laugh nor sob tore from between clenched teeth.
Then the Team Leader’s eyes turned blood-red.
Just like Spotty, his mana circulation accelerated. The mana that had been concentrated faintly in his right arm flooded through his entire body.
The B-class hardening skill Dancheolshin wrapped every inch of him.
“Tch…”
Choi Yeon halted his dagger and stepped back.
Attacking now would be pointless; a D-class dagger would never get through.
Huff, huff…!
Having barely shaken off death, the Team Leader gasped for breath and asked,
“You… can you see the future or something?”
“Excuse me?”
“How the hell are you reading every single move I make?”
“Hmm. Who knows.”
“…Fox. No—Choi Yeon.”
“……?”
The Team Leader extended his left arm toward the puzzled Choi Yeon.
“Join Jeokryeohui.”
“…You’re offering me a recruitment pitch? Right now?”
“Because it’d be a waste!”
Clench!
The Team Leader clenched his fist and shouted.
“With us, you can become even stronger. Far stronger than you are now!”
“…….”
“So come with us, Choi Yeon. I’ll show you a new horizon.”
“No thanks.”
“I’ll give you plenty of time to think it over.”
The Team Leader refused to accept the rejection.
Another offer followed.
“You can’t kill me while I’ve got Dancheolshin covering my whole body. Maybe if you had a B-class blade, but…”
“Unfortunately, Dongdae standard issue is usually D-class.”
“Exactly. So you need to rethink this.”
“Hmm…”
Choi Yeon looked away from the Team Leader’s fervent gaze and glanced behind him.
The boy and the members of Nubyeok—seven people in total—stood watching.
Think it over? No. The thinking was already done. Only action remained.
Still…
“This is a bit awkward…”
“Worried about the audience? Don’t be. I’ll kill every last one of th—”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Not? Then what—”
“Hoo.”
Choi Yeon drew a deep breath, cutting the Team Leader off.
As if every last bit of exhaled air transferred into the dagger, mana flooded the blade. The mana coating the edge slowly gave form to his will.
Killing intent.
“……!”
The Team Leader moved first. He kicked off the ground and charged Choi Yeon like a living tank, Dancheolshin cladding his entire body.
The right arm thrust forward like a shield radiated the single-minded desire to pulp his enemy.
But it was a mistake.
A mistake even an F-class rookie hunter would never make.
When you encounter an unknown monster, you fall back first.
Every hunter knew that basic rule. The Team Leader did not. Choi Yeon did not miss the choice born of that ignorance.
Padan — Shatter Sever
From high to low, a single trajectory was carved through the air.