Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: I Still Saved Them
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But I saved them, didn’t I?
Rumble...
Suri, who had been flying high in the sky, shot down like an arrow the moment the gate opened and sliced off the goat-headed monster's neck with its wing.
As the head, adorned with massive horns, fell with a thud, people's attention began to focus on it.
“Q-Quickly, to the car!”
“I'm on my way...!”
The leg strength of an active Hunter is truly on another level. Even while running at an incredible speed, the force in the arm holding me was so immense that I didn't fall off. After leaping over several crowded areas, the parking lot soon came into view.
“There's a monster over there...!?”
“Don't worry, I'm faster!”
The massive monsters, like the goat-headed one, were being held back by the Hunters on site, but smaller monsters were slipping through one by one, threatening the people.
With me slung over her left arm, Han Do-hee shoved her right hand into her pocket, found her car key, and unlocked the door.
Even amidst the chaotic crowd, Han Do-hee precisely located the distant beep-beep sound and headed for it. Leaping over dozens of people at once, she soared into the air, and what she saw was...
“The, the car door is open?!”
“What?!”
Han Do-hee's car door was half-open. Unless a car thief had taken advantage of the chaos, it had to be….
“Mi-Minium?!”
Minium, with boosters flaring on its back, was weaving through the crowd at incredible speed. Standing among people, it was a small golem, just over a meter tall, but clad in full-body titanium armor, its combat power was immense.
Pshhhheeeew!!
A blast of air from its forearm instantly enhanced its sword strikes. Moving freely through the crowd at tremendous speed, Minium cut down the smaller monsters.
As the situation gradually improved, nearby Hunters gathered and began to form a circular front line towards the gate, pushing the monsters back.
And I, having been set down from Han Do-hee's shoulder, was savoring a moving reunion with Minium.
“You did great, Minium! You fought so well!!”
Clank!!
Minium raised its sharp titanium sword and nodded. There were too many eyes around, but it seemed a pretty powerful gate had opened. Even if I didn't go myself, if I sent Minium, couldn't I snag a few magic stones?
“Ugh... No! It's too dangerous! Minium, let's go back to the car together! Mecha-Doggo is okay in the car, right?!”
Minium nodded. Then it seemed there wouldn't be a repeat of last time, when Mecha-Doggo recklessly charged toward the gate.
“Is she okay?!”
“Ah, yes...!”
“Alright! Take this and go back to the car! Make sure you lock the doors, okay!?”
Han Do-hee took a weapon from her trunk, gave me the car key, and told me to get in the car. It was chaotic with so many people, but there were just as many Hunters who could fight, so the situation would likely be resolved quickly.
Even if it wasn't, Nova or Union would probably arrive soon.
“Suri... If you see Suri, tell it to come back!”
“Will it understand me...? I'll try anyway!”
“Okay!”
After our conversation, Han Do-hee stomped hard on the ground and soared incredibly high. The power to jump nearly five meters, clearing dozens of people at once.
“Whoa... So that's an active Hunter...!”
As expected, once you reach C-rank or higher, you transcend human limits. Just as about thirty Hunters had gathered and were maintaining a defensive battle around the gate...
KWAAAAAAAH!!!!!
“Gah?!”
A scream so loud it made my eardrums tingle. Even the fleeing people were startled and began to look back. Since the evacuation was mostly complete, many people were holding up their phones, recording the current situation at the gate.
“Wh-What is that...?”
A massive bull's head was slowly, sluggishly emerging from beyond the gate. Along with its brawny, muscular upper body, a huge greatsword suddenly jutted out.
Han Do-hee had told me to get in the car, but I was too worried about the situation to do so. What if Han Do-hee or Suri got hurt….
Beep-beep!!
“Mecha-Doggo!”
Mecha-Doggo, having squeezed through the forest of people's legs, hopped up my back with its short legs and settled on my shoulder.
“What is it?! What's going on?!”
Mecha-Doggo kept rubbing its face against my cheek. I was pretty sure it did this when it had something to tell me...
“Wh-What did you say?!”
A gate's danger level is calculated based on the total amount, speed, and range of its magic power emission. Typically, an A-Rank gate is considered difficult enough to require the deployment of a twelve-person raid party composed of A-Rank Hunters.
In other words, that beefy bull-headed guy over there wasn't the main boss, but a mid-boss. Or possibly, even just a regular monster.
“B-But is that accurate?!”
“O-Ugh... Okay, I get it! So what do we do!?”
Monsters with humanoid bodies are usually highly intelligent, and their combat power is often higher than their magic power suggests. Unlike other monsters that just charge mindlessly, they strategize and think as they move.
S-Ranks should be arriving soon, but if a few more of those bull-headed monsters came out before then...
CRASH!!!
“Gasp...!!”
The situation, even from a distance, didn't look good. The small fry that had poured out at the beginning were apparently just the equivalent of cockroaches in a house.
They say there are cases where, right after a gate opens, it's not the master of the gate that appears, but weaker monsters that inhabit the internal environment.
“What do we do!? What should we do, Mecha-Doggo?!”
At my question, Mecha-Doggo's AI brain began to whir rapidly. The spinning icon on its screen suddenly stopped, and Mecha-Doggo climbed down my body and started heading somewhere.
“Wh-Where are you going now...!”
The place it arrived at after running hard with Minium was….
“Th-This...?”
The situation was not good.
Perhaps because the gate's rank was higher than expected, once the low-grade monsters that had been pouring out like mushrooms after rain were cut down, the real monsters began to emerge.
Slice...!
“Dammit...! I shouldn't have come to the Han River...!!”
Goat-headed creatures wielding various weapons and a massive, bull-headed monster that looked like a mid-boss were guarding the gate.
As if they knew that spawn-killing was the most certain and swift method, they were catching the goat-men emerging from the gate as they fell, helping them find their footing.
The goat creature standing right in front of her was over two meters tall with ferocious muscles. It was swinging a large hammer and screaming, Kieeeek-. Seeing its flicking tongue made her feel dizzy.
‘It's coming...!’
The creature's shoulder twitched, and its giant hammer was lifted high into the air. Han Do-hee, however, kicked off the ground, closing the distance with a roll, then grabbed the hilt of the single-edged sword sheathed at her waist and swung it forward.
Swish!
The sword sliced through the creature's thigh. It was a deep wound that would have made a human collapse instantly, but the goat-head seemed unfazed as it prepared its next attack.
A few Hunters had gathered by now, but they were barely holding the front line. They were outnumbered and couldn't handle all the monsters continuously pouring through.
The hammer smashed forward, pulverizing the grassy ground with a rumbling sound.
“Hmph...!”
CRASH!!!
Taking a glancing blow from the hammer, Han Do-hee was sent tumbling to the edge of the front line. She caught her breath and lifted her head. High in the sky, Suri was flying around, picking off the goat creatures one by one, but...
“Ah, dammit...! When are the real Hunters going to show up...!”
There was a limit to the grade of weapons that civilian Awakened could possess. The law stated that you had to be properly licensed by the Hunter Association to own a weapon with a certain level of power.
But it was unlikely that such people would be leisurely hanging out at Han River Park. S-Rank Hunters from overseas were said to be coming, but this was just a brief stop for them after they'd already done their business at Incheon Airport or elsewhere.
It was just a place with good accessibility for them to put on a show for civilians, so there were no high-ranking Hunters present.
Drip...
“Ah, a nosebleed….”
She must not have deflected the hammer properly; her arm throbbed, and blood trickled from her nose. The goat-head that had just pummeled her was now approaching. Just as Han Do-hee squeezed her eyes shut...
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud...!!!!
‘Something's coming...!?’
From far behind her, she heard a sound like hoofbeats. Probably a monster, and it was approaching at an incredible speed.
Clank!
Along with a vaguely familiar sound of mechanical joints, she heard the scream of the goat-headed monster.
“Huh...?”
It was Minium, riding a pure white horse that had just crushed the goat monster's head and leaped into the air. It definitely hadn't been that big when she saw it earlier today.
No, even the Minium she'd seen just moments ago wasn't that big. A Minium that was now almost as tall as a person was riding a mechanical horse the size of a real, large steed.
SHWIIIIING!!!
Minium then charged toward the front line at incredible speed, instantly slicing through the goat-men with its sword as it rushed toward the minotaur.
“KUUUWOOOOOOOH—!!!!!”
Unfazed by the eardrum-tingling roar, Minium elegantly leaped into the air, dodging the minotaur's low-swinging sword.
Shunk...!!
From mid-air, it kicked off the horse's back to jump even higher, then plunged its sword into the creature's face.
“H-How...?!”
She had definitely told Minium and Eve to go to the car.
Minium and Eve were in the car...
The car….
“M-My car—!?!?!”
Han Do-hee's Maxcruz had been replaced by a mechanical horse.