I Got Ambushed by Hunters
The world went white for a second.
Whoosh—!
Something came flying at me with terrifying speed. My instincts screamed that dodging was impossible. So I swung Beopbong with everything I had.
A brutal impact rang out. But the feedback in my hands told me I’d blocked it just in time. The thing had been charging at me on all fours like a wild animal. That’s when I finally realized what I was dealing with.
These bastards were Hunters.
Their legs were bent backward like a beast’s, and their spines were unnaturally flexible. A mutated variant that could switch from bipedal to quadrupedal in an instant to chase down survivors.
“Fuck!”
The fact that these things were here meant they’d finished all their preparations to hunt me. They’d probably tried to throw me off with a surprise attack, then drive me toward the entrance. If I’d run that way without knowing anything, I would’ve been ambushed. And if the Hunters waiting above dropped down on me, I’d be as good as dead.
On top of that, the tips of their fingers were hard and jagged, functioning like blades all on their own. If you charged in without thinking, the bipedal ones would rip your skin to shreds.
Still, there was one piece of good news. Because these things relied on their sense of smell to track survivors, their eyesight was relatively weak. So I figured I could turn off my flashlight, slip between the display shelves, and observe the situation.
Anyway, I had the General’s Secretion Pouch with me, so they’d find me soon enough. But there was a big difference between seeing something and smelling it. Rough location versus precise position. At the very least, I should be able to land a fatal blow on one of them.
With that in mind, I waited for the right moment. The second a Hunter charged in, I raised Beopbong horizontally to block the attack once, then leaped back.
“Brings back some bad memories.”
The day I’d been chased by the Spider King flashed through my mind. But thanks to that experience, I was pretty confident in this game of tag among the shelves.
I dropped the bags I’d set aside in a spot I’d scouted earlier and quickly rounded the corner. At some point the Hunters must have realized I was holing up in here, because all but the two guarding the entrance came rushing over.
I slowly turned off my flashlight and kept weaving between the display shelves. The opportunity came sooner than I expected—one of the Hunters had leaped right to where I’d been standing.
“Krrraa…!”
“Eat this, you son of a bitch!”
The moment the Hunter hurriedly raised its arm, I swung Beopbong. It managed to block on pure instinct without even looking—not bad—but it was still soft. Since I never expected to kill it in one hit anyway, I focused entirely on knocking it away.
Just as I predicted, the Hunter slammed into a nearby shelf and collapsed. No matter how mutated it was, getting back up would clearly take time. So I immediately brought Beopbong down from above.
“Ah?!”
“KRRRRAAAAAAGH!”
The Hunter rolled away at the last second to dodge, then let out a furious roar. I hadn’t expected that, so I quickly followed up with another attack. The space between the shelves was extremely narrow anyway. They couldn’t use their usual hit-and-run tactics that relied on high mobility.
I swung Beopbong again, determined to take down at least one more while I had the chance. The Hunter, unable to brace itself properly, took the hits like a dog on a hot summer day. Before long, its body was covered in fractures and its head was half-smashed in.
“Huff!”
My survival instinct was screaming at me to watch the ceiling, so the moment I confirmed the Hunter was dead, I threw myself forward. A split second later, the Hunters that had been on top of the shelves landed on the floor behind me. If I’d been even one second slower, I would’ve been crushed beneath them and sliced up everywhere.
I’d bleed out, lose strength, and eventually get eaten.
Come to think of it, there was one piece of good news. I wasn’t sure if it even counted as good news, but my regeneration was much stronger than other ability users’. As long as I had time to catch my breath after a fight, I didn’t have to worry about bleeding out. That was definitely one advantage I had over the author.
So I had no choice but to press on using that strength.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a burning pain exploded across my back. Before it could even fade, a sudden, violent agony tore through my stomach. I was desperately trying to swing Beopbong when the next strike hit my right leg.
“You fucking bastards!”
“KRRRRAAAAAAGH!”
“Krrraaa…”
I’d thought the narrow shelves would work in my favor, but I was wrong. The damn things adapted to the cramped space and kept attacking anyway. But I couldn’t exactly run out into open ground either. In the end, all I could do was trust my regeneration and try to steady my breathing.
When I thought about it, it was actually kind of hilarious. Even after all this time, my fighting style hadn’t changed at all. I still threw my body into the fray and traded blows, taking hits so I could land solid ones.
“Krrraa!”
“Stay right there, you fuck!”
Luckily, in the tight space between shelves, the Hunters couldn’t escape that quickly. If they switched to bipedal form and lightly slashed my back or stomach before running, that’d be one thing. But the ones trying to target my legs while on all fours? I could crush them for sure.
I kicked the one that had clawed my left leg with my right foot, slamming it into a shelf, then stomped on its neck. The Hunter thrashed wildly, sensing death, but I didn’t let go. My back was burning. My shoulder hurt. My stomach throbbed and my side had been sliced open. Still, I didn’t hesitate. I used Beopbong to finish the Hunter off.
Next was the bastard that had been prancing around in front, pretending to help its comrade. It quickly tried to block with its arm. Pretty smart, actually. In this narrow aisle, swinging horizontally was difficult, so blocking vertical swings was all it needed to do.
But the idiot had forgotten that stabbing was also an option.
From behind, the Hunters’ roars echoed as my body was torn and bitten in multiple places. I charged forward anyway and drove the end of Beopbong straight into the Hunter’s mouth. After it fell backward from the unexpected strike, I finished it off, then lowered my stance.
I was trying to avoid a tackle, but the damn thing had predicted that and naturally clung to my back. Then it started choking me.
Unexpected. But it also told me one thing.
I currently had the General’s Secretion Pouch tucked between my breasts. That alone was valuable enough to keep me alive, and yet I was still managing to take down Hunters without much trouble. I had no idea which bastard had ordered me to be “eaten,” but for now, things were working out in my favor.
“Bite down hard!”
“Krrgh?!”
I slammed my back into a shelf with all my strength. The Hunter’s grip weakened. Seeing that, I got even more excited and started ramming my body into shelves like a mad bull. Eventually the Hunter couldn’t hold on and fell to the floor. After I smashed its head in too, the rest of them started running away.
They probably realized they couldn’t win and were going to call for reinforcements. But it would take them a while to get here. By then the author would be awake, so I had nothing to worry about. And the ones that got away were only about three. I could handle that many.
After all, I’d already killed three right here. Still, I wasn’t completely fine. I’d used up a lot of stamina, so I needed a short break. My wounds had healed, but I was exhausted.
I should hurry back to the PC Bang, take care of the author, and rest too.
With a little giggle, I slung Beopbong over one shoulder, picked up the bags with my other hand, and headed outside.
Then suddenly, someone drop-kicked me in the back.
Okay, that was fine.
But right in front of me was a metal railing. And to make matters worse, both my hands were full. So my stomach slammed straight into the railing. The pain was so intense I even dropped Beopbong, which I normally never let go of. It didn’t feel like any organs or bones were broken, but it hurt so much I couldn’t even make a sound.
I staggered upright, coughing and retching. Hunters. The three I thought had run away had ambushed me.
………Thankfully, they didn’t look too happy either. It was obvious. They must have thought that last blow would finish me off, but here I was standing up again. They were probably confused.
Of course, I barely had the strength to stay on my feet. Still, I raised my guard to look tough and glared at the three of them while breathing heavily, pretending nothing was wrong.
A few minutes passed like that. Two of them ran off, leaving only one behind. I could tell they’d gone to call for reinforcements to finish me off properly. Since I didn’t have a weapon, they probably thought one was enough.
But that actually worked in my favor.
The moment I regained enough strength to move, I charged straight at the Hunter and tackled it. After getting beaten up so many times, I’d learned a thing or two about how to take people down. Grab the waist with one arm, hook the inside of the knee with the other, and run at them with everything you’ve got—they fall.
“KRRAA!!”
“Nice! That was the sound of a spine snapping!”
“KRRRRAAAAAAGH!”
Luckily, the Hunter’s back slammed into the stairs, and I heard a satisfying crunch. Of course, being a zombie, it tried to move anyway as if it didn’t care. But buddy, the person sitting on top of you is a veteran who’s experienced this kind of thing dozens of times with their own body.
I immediately grabbed its neck with my left hand and smashed its head with my right. The Hunter frantically tried to claw at me the whole time. That was only natural. They needed to bring me back relatively intact, so they couldn’t actually try to kill me.
For now, I decided to be grateful for this woman’s body and the General as I kept pounding the Hunter’s head. Before long, I felt my fist break through something. After slamming its head into the wall one last time to make sure it was dead, I staggered over and gathered my things.
I checked my surroundings just in case, then headed back to the PC Bang. The author was still asleep. Yeah, I figured. That wound had been pretty bad.
So I laid out food and water in case she woke up, sorted the medicine, and stayed up all night watching over her.
Luckily my nursing seemed to work. The author woke up completely fine. She shot up shouting physics formulas, then took one look at my body and immediately started bombarding me with questions.
“W-what the hell! Those wounds! W-where did you go all night? And why is your stomach covered in bruises?!”
She seemed genuinely panicked because it would be inconvenient if I died. But these injuries weren’t enough to kill me anyway, and I had something I really wanted to say.
So I crossed my arms proudly, tightened my abs, and declared:
“Nothing… happened!”
Of course, right after I said that, I collapsed. My body wasn’t in bad shape, but after fighting without rest, taking care of the author, and staying up all night, I was incredibly sleepy.