Hunt #011: Crimson Spray
Splash! As she yanked the dagger free, a jet of crimson blood erupted from the goblin's chest.
"Haaah—"
Yi Cho-rin let out a long breath and hauled herself wearily to her feet. Glancing back, she saw Gaon had already finished off his own goblins, shaking the blood from his spear.
It had been a full week since they'd been dragged into the Union of Integrated Dimensions. In that time, with Gaon's help, she'd adapted remarkably well—and now, killing goblins felt almost routine.
Of course, that was just the beginning. Over the week of slaying goblins, she'd proven Gaon's words true. Each kill boosted her physical abilities in a miraculous way, leaving her unfatigued even after hours of mountain trekking. He'd also shared knowledge about mana, claiming he'd analyzed the green glow she emitted through psychometry. To lay the groundwork for her future mana use, he'd even spun tales about how his spearmaster mentor described it as the natural qi of the world—pure nonsense, really.
Yi Cho-rin had looked skeptical, as if wondering if his head hurt, but that would sort itself out once she properly circulated the Wind Advance Flow. She'd have no choice but to believe it then. As long as she didn't harbor strange suspicions, anyway.
After rummaging through the dead goblin's pouches for anything useful and finding nothing, Yi Cho-rin wiped the blood from her dagger with a rag and headed toward Gaon.
"Gaon-ssi. Find anything good?"
"...No. Nothing much. Let's head back. Sun's setting."
"Yes!"
After a week of eating, sleeping, and fighting side by side, the distance between them had shrunk dramatically compared to the start. To be precise, Yi Cho-rin had grown comfortable enough with him to tease him now and then—like right now.
"Gaon-ssi, I'm tired!"
"...Want to rest?"
"No! Carry me on your back!"
Yi Cho-rin spread her arms wide, feigning innocence as she stared him down expectantly. Gaon gazed at her impassively, his expression screaming here we go again, and ignored it.
Without a word, he whirled—whoosh—and strode toward the cave.
Anyone would think he was pissed, but Yi Cho-rin welcomed the reaction. The stoic man, who barely seemed human at first, showing such changes brought her a strange sense of relief.
She giggled and hurried after him.
"Gaon-ssi, wait up! I was joking. Sorry!"
Meanwhile, Gaon walked on, lost in thought as Yi Cho-rin's voice trailed behind him.
It's about time...
A week of killing a handful of goblins daily had piled up to over forty now. Reactions from that side should be coming soon. They'd probably start hunting the hunter in force before long.
Gaon was waiting for it.
Yi Cho-rin's ability dealt with life force. So far, injuries had been rare—mere scratches at worst—and her current level sufficed for healing. But that wouldn't last. Gaon himself would suffer serious wounds later, forcing heavy reliance on her power.
So they couldn't stop here. She needed motivation to grow further—and for that, a crisis was essential.
Only through crisis would she realize how unsafe things truly were.
Beyond that, Gaon had his own theory to prove.
Life force: the power sustaining life. What was it, exactly? Most thought of blood. Without it, no one survived. Media across worlds reinforced that image. In his previous life, the Healing Church had squeezed blood from slaves to fuel Yi Cho-rin's power.
Gaon had seen it and thought: Fools.
Not mere scorn. He'd realized a perfect substitute—one so obvious, he wondered why they hadn't.
Something every post-pubescent man possessed. Not just evocative of life force, but brimming with its potential.
Semen. Technically the sperm within, but Gaon believed Yi Cho-rin could accept it as prime life force.
The problem: he couldn't just tell her.
Even if his mindset diverged from normals after years without real talk, he knew better than to broach sex casually between man and woman.
Gaon glanced sideways. Sensing it, Yi Cho-rin met his eyes and smiled brightly.
They'd grown close. Trust built, a bond of reliance formed.
Not certain enough yet—he'd leverage her innate kindness when the moment came.
Gaon awaited it.
The following afternoon.
Gaon and Chorin were aimlessly wandering the neutral zone. Strangely, from morning until afternoon, they hadn't spotted a single goblin.
"Mr. Gaon. Why aren't there any? It's so strange..." "I don't know either."
In truth, he knew. He had already passed by goblin tracks several times. Of course, they were so faint that Chorin hadn't noticed them.
If they knew how to hide their tracks, there was a high chance they were veterans among the goblins.
The moment Gaon had been hoping for had finally arrived.
Where are they? As Gaon scanned the surroundings, his senses picked up a presence. Over time, as mana had accumulated in his dantian, he had become able to spread it outward to detect things within a certain radius.
Gaon focused his mind to examine the presence closely and soon realized it was a goblin pursuit squad tailing them. Seeing the bow it held, it was an archer.
Next, two goblin soldiers flanked the archer like bodyguards, and the archer began to draw its bowstring. They were preparing an ambush.
It was hard to believe there were only three of them, so it was safe to assume there were more. As if to prove his thought, more presences began to reveal themselves one after another. They were forming a perimeter around Gaon and Chorin.
"Miss Lee Chorin. Don't stop walking and listen to me. We are surrounded."
Perhaps thanks to the warning, Chorin didn't stop in her tracks despite hearing Gaon's words. However, she was clearly startled; she flinched momentarily and almost turned her head before awkwardly pretending to brush her hair back instead.
"...S-Surrounded?" "Yes. They are closing in around us as we speak. It seems we've been tailed." "Then w-what do we do?"
Chorin's arms trembled slightly. Gripping the dagger in her hand tightly, she began to observe their surroundings with intense scrutiny.
But there was no way Chorin would be able to spot them just by doing that. They had blended into the environment so well that even Gaon would have had a hard time finding them with the naked eye.
'What should I do?'
Gaon's thoughts deepened. Although he said a crisis was necessary, he had no intention of letting Chorin get hurt just to prove his theory.
If he did that, how would this be any different from his past life? Back then, whenever his conscience had pricked him, he rationalized his actions by telling himself that as a regressor, he needed to become stronger to fight the Dimension Eaters that would eventually invade.
The result of those actions was the end of the world. He had zero intention of repeating a life fraught with so much regret. Even if they needed a crisis, Chorin didn't necessarily have to be the one injured. It was enough if he was the one getting hurt.
Having reached a rough conclusion, he whispered quietly.
"We're heading back to the cave. No matter who they are, they won't enter the orcs' territory. We just need to make it there." "I-I see. Then what should we do? Do we... run right now?"
The tension was evident on Chorin's face. Through his energy sensing, Gaon could vividly feel the enemies blocking their escape route. Just like the other groups, it was one archer and two guards. There were five such groups in total—fifteen goblins.
Gaon sensed them slowly tightening the net. They planned to attack before the two could get any closer to the orc territory. He couldn't just stand by and let that happen.
"Miss Lee Chorin. I will open a path. Run in three seconds." "Okay!"
Three. He raised his spear. The encirclement flinched.
Two. He pulled his shoulder back forcefully. The enemies hurriedly aimed their bows.
One. He took a powerful step forward and shouted.
"Now!"
Zero. The rotation starting from his ankle traveled through his calf and thigh, twisted sharply at his waist, and transferred flawlessly through his shoulder and wrist.
The spear, carrying all his weight and the momentum of the spin, fiercely tore through the air and vanished into the bushes.
—Kieeeek!
Less than a second after the spear was thrown, a scream rang out. A goblin archer stationed along the path leading to the orc territory collapsed, its abdomen pierced clean through.
With this, their escape route was open.
The moment the stiff-with-fear Chorin heard the goblin archer's scream and bolted forward, the rest of the enemies moved as well. Just as the guards dashed out to block their retreat, arrows flew at them even faster.
Fwip-fwip-fwip!
The sound of air being sliced echoed simultaneously from four directions, excluding the spot where the goblin had just been skewered. Two of the arrows were even aimed at Chorin. Seeing that the trajectories were focused low, their intention was clear: they didn't care as long as she was taken alive.
"Hah!"
He intercepted them mid-flight. His mysterious spearmanship deflected the two arrows aimed at Chorin with a single swing. With a sharp clack-clack, he blocked the attack on Chorin, but doing so left him vulnerable to the arrows aimed at himself.
Of course, Gaon's spearmanship wasn't sloppy enough to fall for something like that. He could have spun his spear to deflect them or simply shifted his body out of their trajectory.
However, Gaon deliberately chose not to dodge. Instead, he thrust his right arm between the two arrows aiming for his abdomen and heart.
Thwack!
"Urgh...!" "M-Mr. Gaon! I'll heal you right away!"
Belatedly realizing that arrows had been fired, Chorin saw Gaon's injury and rushed over to heal him. Watching her, Gaon shifted his spear from his right hand to his left and stopped her.
"It's fine. We don't have time for that now. Run!" "B-But..." "Hurry!" "Ugh... Okay!"
Startled by his loud urging, Chorin gave his arm a worried glance before reluctantly picking up her pace. It was because she, too, knew this wasn't the time to be treating wounds.
"Kyaaagh!" "Kryaaagh!"
Running a bit further, they spotted the two guards that had been stationed next to the goblin archer skewered through the abdomen. Their eyes were fixed on Chorin. They clearly believed that an already injured Gaon posed no threat.
Gaon didn't bother reacting to their absurd underestimation. He simply stepped in front of Chorin and thrust his spear at them.
Screeeech—
A blade lunged by one of the goblins slid off the spear shaft, stabbing into empty air. And Gaon's spear tore through the creature's throat. It collapsed to the ground, questioning its own death until its very last breath.
The other goblin wielded a sword and buckler, but it easily left an opening when Gaon smashed its toes with the butt of his spear. The spear slipped past the disordered shield, punctured a hole through its lung, and pulled out.
Stepping over the goblin's blood spreading across the ground, he leaped past, delivered a finishing blow to the skewered archer, and broke into a sprint.
"Huff! Huff!"
It had been a long time since he last suffered an injury, and he found it surprisingly welcome. With every beat of his heart, the burning sensation traveling through his blood vessels to the wound actually made Gaon feel truly alive.
In his past life, he had never suffered a wound after reaching the 11th Star. It had been a completely dry, monotonous existence. An everyday life so utterly devoid of anything it felt like hell, making him doubt if he was even alive.
Compared to that, this level of pain couldn't even faze Gaon.
Of course, that was strictly Gaon's perspective. Chorin was on the verge of tears as she looked at Gaon, who was breathing heavily and dripping with cold sweat.
"Mr. Gaon. Are you really okay? Please don't die!" "I'm not going to die." "We just need to go a little further! Just hold on until then!"
She's making such a fuss over just two arrows in my arm. Even as he thought that, Gaon smiled at Chorin's concern.
...It was only ten minutes after they had left the neutral zone and set foot into the orc territory that the two finally escaped their pursuers.