Chapter 1147

In that brief moment, split into smaller and smaller moments, the Skeleton King thought:

Have I been feeling a little weak lately?

Yes. He must have heard wrong.

They said that humans—strictly speaking, he wasn’t human, and certainly not an animal—sometimes heard things that weren’t there when their bodies and minds were weak.

Besides, they were about to fight enemies who outnumbered them by more than ten to one. With the odds so bad he’d borrow a cat’s paw if he could, hearing things was hardly strange.

That guy—

No, Jin Taekyung was the most reliable person in the world to him.

But…

There’s no way he’s woken up.

It was all wishful thinking.

They’d faced countless dangers on the way to this old, musty underground bomb shelter, but every time, Jin Taekyung’s eyelids had stayed firmly shut without so much as a twitch.

The Skeleton King had even begun to worry that he might never wake up at all.

That damn human.

Just as he thought it bitterly to himself—

Whoosh!

With a sharp whistle, the flow of time that had briefly stopped came rushing back like a flood.

KABOOM!

A powerful impact shook the space around them.

The Skeleton King’s expression darkened as he canceled out a dozen or so streaks of light flying through the air.

This is…

There was no mistaking it.

Speed and strength on a level entirely different from ordinary monsters.

The Bone Sword trembling in his grasp told him that those guys were among the thousands of monsters. It told him, too, that this battle—now past the point of no return—would be even harder than expected.

“Shit, it’s them!”

“Everyone, switch to a defensive formation!”

They were quick to judge, and quick to act.

Every Hunter here was a skilled veteran with plenty of combat experience. At the almost simultaneous shouts from the Skeleton King and Choi Minwoo, the Hunters charging behind their commander moved at once, without the slightest hesitation or sign of panic.

Or they did until a low voice stopped them in their tracks.

“Maintain the attack formation.”

“…?”

“…?”

Midway through switching to a defensive formation, the Hunters looked at one another in confusion.

First, because the order had suddenly changed.

Second, because Choi Minwoo—the only one there with the authority to give orders—looked just as strange as they did. Stranger, even.

And third—

I’ve heard that voice somewhere before.

They were sure of it. The voice sounded unfamiliar, yet somehow caught the ear at once. Though low and hoarse, there was something about it they couldn’t mistake.

Perhaps that was why the veteran Hunters, all of them battle-hardened, couldn’t hide their dismay.

And why they left a fatal opening for the enemies right in front of them.

—Grrrrrrrr!

Thousands of monsters surged toward them like a wave, roaring. Ghouls, Orcs, Lizardmen, and Manticores swung claws and weapons that could tear through steel like paper.

And then—

Whoosh.

A dazzling streak of light shot toward the fearsome monsters.

BOOM!

Flesh and bone exploded into hundreds, then thousands of pieces. Countless dying screams rose with sprays of blue-green blood.

In the thick mist of blood that enveloped them in an instant, those who witnessed the unbelievable scene suddenly understood.

Who had given the order they’d just heard.

Why that low, hoarse voice had felt so familiar.

“Hey.”

Over the shoulder of the Skeleton King, who stood rigid as a statue, a young man poked his head out of the backpack he’d been carrying.

“You were pretending not to hear me on purpose, weren’t you?”

“…!”

“…!”

Honestly, at first I thought I was dreaming.

Dreaming of a time before I was even born, when I was busy squirming around in Mom’s belly.

I mean, who would think to fold up a sleeping person and stuff them whole into a huge backpack?

And judging by the turtle-shell bondage they’d done with those famously tough ogre tendons—like something out of a certain kind of Japanese video—whoever did this wasn’t just crazy.

Of course, I knew exactly who that lunatic was.

“This bastard’s tastes are seriously… No, let’s talk about that later.”

“You, you…!”

Leaving the Skeleton King stammering behind me with a look like he’d seen a ghost, I put strength back into my stiff body.

Crack, crack.

I snapped the ogre tendons binding me from head to toe like strands of thread, tore through the backpack made of equally tough hide, and stood on my own two feet. Only then did I feel like I could breathe.

How long was I like that?

I had questions lined up on the tip of my tongue. But I knew this wasn’t the time to ask.

From the moment I regained consciousness until now, the stench boiling all around me and the thick magical power had been enough to make me nauseous.

“Team Leader.”

I gave a slight nod in greeting. Team Leader Choi, watching me with a jumble of emotions on his face, finally let out the breath he’d been holding.

“Everyone, form up for an attack.”

At once, the air around us began to boil.

The Skeleton King and Team Leader Choi, whom I hadn’t seen in ages, stood alongside some two hundred Hunters of various races. Eyes alight, they raised their weapons and took their places.

Like a single arrow.

And the direction it would fly was already decided.

CRUNCH, clack!

White Flame returned to my hand after piercing dozens of monsters, just as it had on its way out. It trembled in my grasp as though it sensed what was about to come.

“Let’s go.”

That was all I said.

Nothing more, nothing less.

The thought became a sound, the sound slipped past my lips—and in that instant, I was already charging at the enemies.

Whoosh.

One step.

I closed the twenty-meter¹ gap in an instant and brought White Flame down without hesitation.

Fwoosh!

Space warped before the deep-blue flames now burning along the spearhead. Terrible heat swallowed the monsters, and pillars of fire erupted from cracks in the ground, now as hot as a field of lava.

KABOOM!

Explosions and thunderous noise. Screams burst out all around.

But I paid no attention to the massive shock wave or the chaos.

No—more accurately, none of my allies did.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

We left the flying sparks and mangled scraps of flesh behind. The two hundred or so Hunters charged like the wind and tore the monsters apart with strength even I hadn’t expected.

Whoooooosh!

In a split second, countless streaks of light dazzled my eyes. Ogre hide—said to be impenetrable even to an anti-materiel sniper rifle—and Manticore tails split like tofu, scattering in every direction.

Slash, splatter!

The monsters’ encirclement crumbled amid fountains of dark blood.

At its center, the Hunters’ weapons shone fiercely with a power I knew well.

Aura?

My eyes widened despite myself.

There was no mistaking it. Aura, also known as Sword Energy.

A hallmark of A-rank Hunters in the modern world and the exclusive domain of Peak masters in Murim, it flowed along their weapons.

Not just ten or twenty of them. Every one of the two hundred or so Hunters.

Why are there this many A-rank Hunters gathered here? The last place I remember being was more than a thousand kilometers² from even the nearest ally.

What on earth had happened while I was gone?

I tried to recall what I knew of the modern world, but it was hard to make sense of the situation.

No.

Before I could even begin to understand the reality in front of me, another unexpected factor got in the way.

Ssssh.

A chillingly low whistle reached my ears. My body moved before my brain could react, bringing down White Flame’s spearhead, which had paused for only an instant.

Slash, KABOOM!

It all happened in a flash.

I cut through a crescent-shaped mass of magical power flying toward me. The concentrated, sticky-cold energy swallowed the monsters to either side.

And then—

Splash.

A group came into view, stepping through a puddle of blue-green blood.

“…What are they?”

Team Leader Choi and the Skeleton King, who had moved up on either side of me, answered the question that had slipped out on instinct.

“It’s them.”

“Be careful, human. They’re nothing like the monsters you know.”

I looked at the uninvited guests instead of answering.

There were seven of them.

They looked… human. More so than even Lizardmen, who were called humanoid monsters because they walked on two legs.

But they weren’t human.

It wasn’t just their height, well over two meters,³ or their bulging muscles. It wasn’t even that every one of them had exactly the same height and build, as though they’d come off a production line.

What is that energy?

Magical power too dense to be human, yet far too pure to be a monster’s.

The Skeleton King was right. Each of them was strong enough to rival a Named Monster, with magical power purer than any monster’s I’d ever encountered.

Like living things born with genes entirely free of flaws.

But…

“Yeah. They’re definitely different.”

The Skeleton King hadn’t been entirely right.

Step.

They weren’t the only ones on a different level.

And he had the wrong idea about who needed to be careful.

Slash.

I moved in an instant no one there could see or sense, feeling the sensation travel up the spearhead as I thought to myself:

Six left.