Behind the Blood-Soaked Battlefield, Suddenly Auntie Min-jung [Battle with the Outlaws][4]
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!
Geum Tae-yang's Mana Bullet tore through the pouring rain, its effect dazzlingly spectacular.
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Seo Dong-myung had hurriedly drawn his mana crossbow and struck a pose to aim at Tae-yang—only to register that spectacular effect a beat too late.
"Son of a bitch!!!!!!"
Whoooooosh!!!
Using the superior agility physicals of his class, he twisted his body hard, trying to dodge the Mana Bullet as it sprayed mana light in every direction.
BAAAAAAAANG!!!
But Tae-yang's Mana Bullet still found its mark.
"Grrraaaaaaah!!!!"
It struck near the left hand holding his Awakened bow.
Vwooooooom!!!
The mana crossbow went flying into the air, and—
"Guhhhhhh!!!!"
Crash-clang-clang!!!
—Seo Dong-myung and his bike went sprawling across the rain-slicked road.
"!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"What the fuck was that!!!"
"Why the hell did Dong-myung go down!!!!"
Tae-yang's physical specs were already superhuman, and while Seo Dong-myung's overall level was only D-rank, his class made his agility superhuman as well. The exchange between them had happened in the blink of an eye. For Seo Dong-myung's subordinates, the moment they even registered what was happening came only after his scream and the thunderous crash of his fall.
"What is it? Just that I'm a way stronger Awakened than your boss calculated for."
Thud-thud-thud-thud!!!!
Chaos surged through the bike unit all over again—and Tae-yang did not miss that timing. Before anyone could reorganize the formation, he had already driven straight into the middle of them.
CRAAAAAASH!!!!
"In plain terms? You're all fucked!!"
Without mercy, he swung his projected steel pipe and smashed the Jjamp-tiger member he'd locked onto as his target.
"Gyaaaaaaaaah!!!!"
The scream was even more wretched than when he'd severed an elbow earlier—because this time Tae-yang had aimed for the neck, the one place the helmet couldn't protect.
"Fucking kill him!!! When the hell did this bastard get this far in! Attack! Attack him already!!!"
Scattered! Scattered! Scattered!
Screams and jets of blood. In the full-blown pandemonium now unfolding, the ones who still had any fight left in them started shouting at the top of their lungs, trying to stop the contagion of terror.
"You fucking bastard!!!!!"
Vrooooom!! Vroaaaaaar!!! Vrooooom!!
"Die, you son of a bitch!!!"
Fwoooosh!!! Fwoaaaaash!! Fwoooosh!!
Battle cries thick with curses erupted. They thundered down the rain-soaked street, but every one of them was soaked through with the desperate thrashing of men fighting just to stay alive. They swung steel pipes and nail-studded baseball bats with wild abandon, and crossbows fired without anything resembling proper aim.
"Gyaaaaah!!! You fucking idiot, where the hell are you shooting that crossbow!!!"
"Ughrrraaaagh!!! My arm's broken!!!"
BAAANG!!! CRACK!!! THWACK!!!
And so the aftermath of a formation that had never been reorganized hit them full force. Tae-yang had only dodged a few times. The real wailing came from the Jjamp-tiger bike unit itself—bones shattered by their own side's steel pipes, flesh punched through by their own crossbow bolts.
"Looks like things have thinned out a bit. My turn again, then?"
Thuuud!!!
That had been Tae-yang's plan from the start when he drove into the heart of the enemy line. There was no telling what other variables might still appear, and he intended to conserve his stamina as much as possible. Once he figured he'd cleared a decent chunk without lifting a finger, he settled back into his projected steel pipe striking stance.
CRAAAASH!!! CRASH!!! CRAAAACK!!! BAAAANG!!
"Get off those bikes, you bastards!! Look at you—blood hasn't even dried on your foreheads and you're already playing biker gang!!"
"—Uwaaaaaargh!!" "—Gyaaaaaaah!!" "—Fuck, somebody save meeeee!!!!" "You bastard, you and me don't even look that far apart in age... huuurrrgh!!"
Tae-yang's continuous projected steel pipe assault cut through the wind—no, through the falling rain itself. At the same time, he delivered a stern dressing-down to the cocky biker thugs of the apocalypse.
"I'm a grown man, you punk!! I've got a household to run!! Back in the old days I'd already have my topknot done up!!!"
A flash!!
To the Jjamp-tiger member who'd taken a projected steel pipe to the shoulder and gone tumbling, only to still try and get a dig in, Tae-yang raised his right hand with the most thoroughly middle-aged, lecturing expression imaginable.
That was right. Age wasn't a number—it was a sense of responsibility, and mental maturity. A man currently building a newlywed life with two women under his roof, Geum Tae-yang could claim to be more of an adult than anyone.
CRAAAAAAAASH!!!
"Feel it—the authority of a householder's branch!!"
"—Gyaaaaaargh!!!!"
The Jjamp-tiger member's helmet had come off as he tumbled, and Tae-yang brought the projected steel pipe down hard on the exposed crown of his head.
Shaaaaaaaaa!!! Shaaaaaaaaa!!!
"—Gyaaaaaaah!!" "—Guhhhhhh!!" "—Gyaaaaaargh!!"
After that, the street—where the downpour only grew heavier—was filled with the screams of the Jjamp-tiger bike unit. Slaughter. Tae-yang's projected steel pipe was stained not with zombie blood, but with human blood.
"!!!"
In the middle of creating that mindless killing field, Tae-yang's eyes went slightly wide.
FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
A long streak of mana light was flying straight at him. Seo Dong-myung's mana crossbow bolt.
Shashashashashashasha!!!!
FWOOOOOOOSH!!!
It was an attack of tremendous speed—but Tae-yang's Transcendent Step was a movement skill that needed no preparatory motion. The instant he registered the mana crossbow bolt, he moved, and the bolt went wide.
Fwoooosh!! Fwoaaaaash!! Fwoooosh!!
"Tch! Damn it!"
Seo Dong-myung had taken a heavy hit tumbling off his bike, but the Mana Bullet had struck the hand wearing a protective glove, so his weapon use was unimpaired. He kept loosing mana crossbow bolts in rapid succession.
"It even does rapid fire. Impressive weapon. Not just something that looks the part."
Papapapapap!! Shashashasha!! Swooooosh!!
Klaaaang!! Clang! Klaaaang!!
Even with Tae-yang's raw physicals at superhuman level, dodging everything on that alone was difficult. He mixed in Transcendent Step and, between dodges, occasionally batted the mana crossbow bolts aside with his projected steel pipe.
"......."
At the same time, Tae-yang's eyes carefully tracked Seo Dong-myung's condition.
Feels like his pace is dropping little by little? So the mana crossbow bolts fluctuate depending on the caster's state the same way my projected steel pipe and Auntie's Supporter staff do.
From Tae-yang's position, he could have forced a finish without dragging this out. But Geum Tae-yang was a man who took the analysis of Awakened abilities seriously, and he wanted a more concrete understanding of the mana crossbow's specs. He was chewing that intellectual hunger down to the bone and savoring every bite.
"Okay! That's enough!!"
Papapapapapapap!!! Papapapapap!!! Papapapapapap!!
Judging that he'd drawn out enough of the D-level mana crossbow's attack power, Tae-yang closed on Seo Dong-myung in a zigzag of Transcendent Steps.
"You fucking show-off tricks!!!"
Fwoooosh!! Fwoaaaaash!!! Fwoooosh!!
Seo Dong-myung kept firing mana crossbow bolts at him, but the panic was plain on his face. Unlike the Enhanced Human class, the Sharpshooter class had no step skill of its own. When an opponent displayed an absurd range of movement the way Tae-yang was doing now, tracking the firing point was no easy task. And right now the ground was flooded with rainwater.
"Uwaaaaaargh!!!"
Crash-clang!!!
Which meant the floor was inevitably slick. Trying to force his physicals to keep up with Tae-yang's movement on that slippery ground, Seo Dong-myung finally went down hard.
"Okay—Seo Dong-myung, cut!!!!"
Tatatatatat!!!
Seeing it, Tae-yang didn't miss the opening. He closed the decisive distance in a single burst.
"Cut! Cut! Cut!"
CRAAAAAAAASH!!!
"—Gyaaaaaaah!!!"
A projected steel pipe strike loaded thick with mana smashed Seo Dong-myung's right arm—the one near the mana crossbow that had fallen to the ground—to pieces.
Crrrrraaack!!!
Psssssssssh!!!
"Gyaaaaaaah!! My arm!! My aaarm!!!!"
Unlike when he'd severed the first Jjamp-tiger biker's arm, this projected steel pipe blow landed like a blunt weapon coming straight down. The sound of Seo Dong-myung's bones shattering filled the street, and though it wasn't a clean cut, the sheer power had torn the flesh open as it pulverized everything, dark crimson blood spraying free.
"Alright... Dong-myung. Time for the truth... Curious how this hyung already knows your name? Means I'm that much of a monster Awakened. So don't even think about lying."
Crrrunch!!!
"—Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
Tae-yang promptly stepped down on Seo Dong-myung's thoroughly shattered right hand. The reason he hadn't just caved the skull in first and had wrecked the arm instead: to extract whatever Jjamp-tiger information was still likely out there. That was why he'd put a bone-crushing hit in—to deliver even greater pain.
"Those barricades weren't ordinary, you know? Tell me. Who made them. There's another Awakened in Jjamp-tiger besides you, right?"
Even in the short time he'd had, Tae-yang had taken note of the sheer capability it took to plant those massive barricades across a highway thoroughfare. They were clearly an Awakened's work, and there was no way a Sharpshooter-class like Seo Dong-myung had done it—so he pressed the interrogation.
"Guhhhhhh!!! If I talk, will you let me live?? Promise you'll spare me and I'll tell you anything, I swear!!"
Having done this kind of work more than once already, Tae-yang's eyes were unflinching. Seo Dong-myung felt that genuine madness head-on. Before he knew it, every scrap of aggression had drained out of him and he was begging for his life.
"You think I enjoy killing people just because? Talk. If it's high-value info, your worth goes up—and the odds I don't kill you get better."
An easygoing expression, airtight logic. Tae-yang gaslit Seo Dong-myung—a man who'd survived months in the apocalypse and hardened his bones doing it—as naturally as breathing.
"One of them's just an Enhanced Human class, and the other one's our boss—he can move metal and stone and stuff with psychic power. Can reshape them a little too. That guy's the one who made the barricades."
In his rattled state, Seo Dong-myung melted under the gaslighting and spilled everything at once.
"Oh, metal? So if he puts some power into it, even your mana crossbow just gets yanked over?"
Eyes going round at the excellent intel, Tae-yang pressed for more direct information on Jo Pan-ho's ability.
"Doesn't work on anything that already has mana in it, I guess. Honestly, that's all I know. But that's enough, right? You're gonna spare me, right???"
Seo Dong-myung poured out exactly the information Tae-yang had wanted.
"Great info, really appreciate it. Now die for me!!"
"No—son of a bitch!!!"
CRAAAAAAAASH!!!
Without the slightest hesitation, Tae-yang caved in Seo Dong-myung's skull and took his life.
"This fucking bastard was testing me. Honestly, if he'd spilled a little more, I was planning to cripple one more leg and then let him live."
In Seo Dong-myung's rush to wrap up his talking, Tae-yang had read the psychology of a man already calculating his return to Jjamp-tiger and spinning his next moves.
A quiet sweep...
After finishing Seo Dong-myung, Tae-yang turned to confirm-kill the remaining wounded of the Jjamp-tiger bike unit—and immediately looked back behind him.
"Huh?????"
His eyes went wide as saucers.