An endless rain of blades and arrowheads poured in from every direction.
I didn’t need to think about how to move. A picture formed naturally in my mind, and my hands moved at the same time as my thoughts.
Fwoosh!
Blue flames wrapped around the spearhead and traced a semicircle.
KRAAASH!
The arrows and weapons caught in its path split apart like tofu.
Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron was hard and sharp enough to destroy Body-Protecting Qi on its own. Once Spear Energy was added to the mix, the result was obvious.
Though perhaps not to them.
“Gasp!”
The Black Hunter closest to me let out a hollow gasp as he stared at his sword, which had melted under the Fire Gate Divine Technique’s flames.
He was my first target.
Crack!
My grip could crush stone and rebar. When I tightened my fingers around his forearm, his flesh was mangled and his bone burst through.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
I had memorized the descriptions of the men who had attacked Im Kkeokjeong. I stared intently at the Black Hunter’s face as he screamed in agony.
“You’re not one of them.”
“Die!”
A dagger shot up beneath my chin with a venomous cry. Even in the middle of his pain, he didn’t hesitate in the slightest.
This wasn’t the movement of someone in a raid.
It was the movement of a skilled killer.
I tried to reason with people like these.
I reflected on it once again.
I really was a fucking idiot.
I let out a hollow laugh and dodged the dagger. At the same time, I seized his other arm and pulled with all my strength.
No, I tore it off.
Crack-crack-crack!
“Urrrrgh…!”
His mouth stretched wide, but the pain was so great that he couldn’t even scream.
I kicked the man in the back as his limbs trembled violently. Along with his breath, which came in gasps that sounded ready to break, blood gushed from the torn stumps.
I tossed the two arms separated from their owner’s body onto the lawn.
“One down.”
“……!”
“……!”
A heavy silence descended over the area.
The Black Hunters hesitated after watching one of their companions, someone around their level, get taken down in an instant. Im Yeongjun, who had been watching everything from behind them, twitched his eyebrows.
“So you had something to rely on.”
“Yeah. That’s why I came. But it doesn’t look like you have anything.”
“You fucking bastard, Jin Taekyung…”
“You should’ve listened while I was asking nicely. Because of you and the other two, this guy can’t even jerk off by himself anymore.”
I swept my gaze around in a dry voice. Every time my eyes passed over someone, a wave of emotions rippled through them—anger mixed with confusion.
Im Yeongjun read the atmosphere and shouted furiously.
“What are you waiting for, you bastards?! I’ll save every one of you, even if I have to shower you in potions! Don’t be scared—beat him to death!”
I blinked. For a moment, I wondered if I had heard him correctly.
Ah, right. Potions.
“If someone loses both arms, you’d need high-grade potions at the very least. You must have a lot of money.”
“If you think of it as the cost of removing a major obstacle, it isn’t wasteful. We should have eliminated you from the beginning, but… I didn’t like the order from the moment I received it.”
“Isn’t it a bad idea to blab so openly about having someone powerful behind you? Won’t they kill you to silence you?”
“Kill me to silence me?”
A sneer formed at the corners of Im Yeongjun’s mouth.
“We’re the ones who kill people to silence them. And either way, you’re going to die here.”
“Sure, let’s put that aside for now. There’s something I’ve been wondering about.”
I asked sincerely,
“That potion you use—can it bring dead people back to life, too? Or do you carry three or four extra lives around with you?”
“What?”
Slice!
The spear answered in his place. The Black Hunter groaning at my feet lost his head.
I casually kicked the head separated from his body and sent it rolling toward the others.
“Try saving him.”
“……!”
“Right. If someone’s heart bursts or their head comes off, even a potion can’t bring them back.”
Shhk!
Without hesitation, I flicked my hand.
The two daggers shot out at a terrifying speed and became flashes of light.
Thwack!
Two Black Hunters staggered, then collapsed.
Unable to withstand the internal energy carried by the daggers, half of each corpse’s head had been blown away.
“Ah. I was trying to plant them neatly between their eyebrows, but I couldn’t control my strength.”
“……!”
The air around us seemed to vibrate.
The sneer had vanished completely from Im Yeongjun’s lips. A tempest now raged in the eyes of the Black Hunters, whose number had been reduced to twenty-five.
“H-How?”
“Goddamn it…”
Suppressed groans rose from here and there. It was something they had never experienced before.
Hunters hunted monsters.
Black Hunters had been created to hunt those Hunters.
Murder, kidnapping, blackmail, and every other filthy task—they had served as the enforcers of a major Guild.
But they had clearly never imagined being hunted themselves.
They certainly hadn’t imagined being hunted so one-sidedly.
I spat phlegm onto the headless corpse.
“You bastards are like dark-path knife fighters.”
No. In terms of their mindset, dark-path knife fighters were actually better.
At least those men were prepared for the possibility that they might someday be stabbed to death in a back alley.
“What… exactly are you?”
His voice was dry, as though all the moisture had been sucked out of it.
I grinned at Im Yeongjun as he stared at me.
“You already know, so why ask?”
His gaze sank coldly.
“You deceived everyone perfectly. You’ve never killed just once or twice in your life.”
“Killing beasts doesn’t count as murder. People usually call it slaughter.”
Step. Step.
Every time I advanced slowly, the Black Hunters surrounding me in a semicircle took a step backward.
Even the dullest among them must have realized by now that I wasn’t simply an A-rank Hunter.
They could feel the qualitatively different killing intent and the thick scent of blood clinging to me.
“Jin Taekyung.”
Im Yeongjun spoke with a stiff face.
“Taking out that D-rank Hunter was a warning. It was an order from above.”
“I didn’t like the way you delivered that warning. Not one bit.”
“I understand what you mean. Stop here.”
“And if I don’t?”
“The next one could be worse.”
“Worse?”
“Are you not worried about your mother and younger sibling?”
“……!”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak.
My steady approach finally stopped, and Im Yeongjun’s voice gained strength.
“I can negotiate with the people above us. I’ll serve as the stepping stone.”
“A stepping stone…”
“You only have to give up one thing. Don’t live as A-rank Hunter Jin Taekyung. Live as a civilian named Jin Taekyung. Of course, you’ll be compensated generously for it.”
I gazed silently into Im Yeongjun’s eyes.
There was wariness of me in them. At the same time, they were the eyes of a wolf constantly watching for an opening.
After a brief silence, a dry voice escaped my lips.
“A stepping stone. That sounds good.”
The corners of Im Yeongjun’s mouth began to rise slightly. I continued smoothly.
“Since you’re a stepping stone, I can just step lightly on you and pass over. I’ll find out who’s on the other side of the stream when I get there.”
“……!”
There would be no compromise.
They had crossed the line and had already become my enemies.
I placed the modern way and the way of Murim on opposite sides of a scale and agonized over the choice until the very end.
But today, I would choose the latter.
“And you, asshole. When you make an offer like that, you should at least say it with eyes that look trustworthy.”
“Jin Taekyung!”
I heard his shout as I kicked off the ground.
The Black Hunters charged toward me with gritted teeth, and I brought my spear down at them.
Slice!
Boom!
A single punch infused with three-tenths of my internal energy.
The enhancement magic shattered, and the Tower Shield broke apart.
The tank hiding behind it stared at me in shock.
Thrust!
White Flame’s spearhead pierced through his chest and burst out the other side.
The mage behind the sturdy shield hurriedly stepped backward.
Thwack!
I flicked my hand, and a dagger buried itself in the back of his head.
But it wasn’t over yet.
“Die!”
Shhhhhk!
Neck, chest, shoulder.
Three blades rushed toward me with a fierce sound of splitting air. The faint Sword Energy gathering around them made it clear that they were A-rank Hunters.
Slice!
I pulled the spear from the dead tank’s chest and swung it.
At that lightning-fast speed, all three swords shattered, and one of the men collapsed while clutching his throat.
As blood sprayed around me like a fountain, I released the spear.
I thrust both palms toward the two men trying to cut me down with their broken swords.
Crack—BOOM!
Compressed air exploded outward.
The men struck in the chest by the Flame Divine Palm knelt as blood poured from their seven openings.
Their melted magical armor clung to their upper bodies and burned their flesh, but they were already dead before they had time to feel the pain.
“Goodbye.”
I had just wiped the blood from my face with my sleeve when—
Shhk! Shhhhhk!
I tilted my head slightly.
An iron arrow thick and heavy enough to be called a small spear flew past me and embedded itself in the stone wall behind me.
Boom!
A cloud of dirt shot into the air as the arrow drove deep into the solid rock.
It had tremendous power.
They’ve been irritating me for a while.
These men also had the same basic positions as ordinary Hunters.
They had tanks and mages, as well as melee damage dealers. Naturally, they couldn’t leave out ranged damage dealers.
Three archers had never left the mansion. They had been constantly drawing their bows from the second-floor windows.
Shhk-shhk-shhk!
I clicked my tongue and was about to knock the arrow away with the shaft when the air wavered.
A black silhouette suddenly sprang out of it and tried to split my crown in two.
Shrrrkk!
Fast and precise.
He was clearly a melee damage dealer with an excellent stealth-type Skill.
How many people had he killed with this tactic?
I didn’t know, but one thing was certain.
Today, he picked the wrong person.
Bang-bang-bang!
I deftly twisted the spearhead.
The iron arrows, which should have been swept aside like fallen leaves, changed course and pierced the Black Hunter who had been trying to bury a dagger in my crown.
Thwack-thwack-thwack!
“Urgh!”
Struck by arrows out of nowhere in midair, the Black Hunter fell with a heavy thud.
I pulled the iron arrows from his upper body. His body shuddered, then went still. At the same time, I flung the arrows hard in the direction they had come from.
Shhhhhk! Thwack!
The iron arrows infused with internal energy did their job perfectly.
They flew back toward their original owners twice as fast and twice as powerfully as when they had first been fired.
The three archers, who had been nocking their next arrows, met death almost simultaneously.
“This is fucking insane…”
The men who had been about to charge stopped when they saw the scene. I could see their hands trembling around their weapons.
They had just watched more than ten of their comrades die before they could even blink.
But I had no intention of stopping.
Shrrrkk! Slice!
I charged straight at them, cutting, stabbing, and smashing.
A mist of blood formed, and someone’s arms, legs, or head flew in every direction.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
“Argh!”
Screams erupted from all around.
Amid the terrified enemies, a knuckle wrapped in Fist Energy shot out and smashed into my spear shaft.
Boom!
“Retreat into the mansion!”
I let out a short laugh at Im Yeongjun’s shout. He had bought them a brief moment.
“Did you set up some magic circles as traps?”
“Shut up!”
Whoosh!
He was their leader for a reason. As expected, he was the best of them.
No, at this level, he could even be called a Peak master in Murim.
He knows how to use qi.
One reason I considered Hunters so far inferior to martial artists was their method of handling qi.
But Im Yeongjun and the other Black Hunters moved far more efficiently than ordinary Hunters.
Even so, they’re only this good.
No matter how high someone flew or how low they crawled, there were walls they could never cross.
I punched toward the knuckle.
Im Yeongjun gritted his teeth and met my fist head-on.
Boom!
One Strike.
The knuckle broke.
Boom!
Two Strike.
Im Yeongjun’s fist was crushed.
KRA-BOOM!
Three Strike.
A move from the Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist slammed into his shoulder.
His flesh melted and his bones were pulverized.
It was as though a fire dragon had devoured his entire shoulder.
Im Yeongjun spat blood and was sent flying into the distance.
“Team Leader!”
But he still had subordinates left.
The Black Hunters who had waited until the last moment quickly hoisted Im Yeongjun onto their backs and rushed into the mansion.
Thud.
The door had barely closed when layer upon layer of transparent barriers wrapped around the mansion.
A defensive spell?
It had to be an extremely powerful one. It even felt sturdier than the defensive magic Butler Kim had shown me before.
But I didn’t stop walking.
I reached the door in a single step and punched the dozens of defensive barriers.
Four Strike.
The Heaven-Destroying Divine Fist, unleashed with all my strength, hammered into the barriers.
Just as it had shattered some nameless cliff on Mount Song, the Heaven-Destroying Divine Fist broke and crushed everything blocking its path.
KRAAAAAASH!
With a roar that sounded as though the sky itself were splitting apart, the defensive barriers were torn to shreds.
The roof flew away, and the walls crumbled into ash.
Through the melted front door, I saw the frozen enemies.
Im Yeongjun stood at the center of them.
His jaw trembled. A single word, sounding almost like a groan, escaped between his lips soaked in blood.
“What… what the hell are you?”
I gladly answered him.
“A monster. Same as you.”
Team Leader Choi had said it before.
This world was teeming with monsters.
So I had decided that, every once in a while, I would become a monster myself.
Just like today.
“Have you ever heard of Tendon-Splitting and Bone-Twisting?”
It didn’t take long for Im Yeongjun to open his mouth.
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