I knew. I had simply been waiting.
Waiting for the moment they sank their fangs into me.
“More than that… I’m certain.”
“Certain?”
“Yes.”
The corners of my mouth rose before I could stop them. I finally let out the words I had swallowed time and time again.
“I’m certain these fucking bastards are more interested in the back of my head than the Arch Lich. That’s what I’m certain of.”
“…!”
“…!”
The brief masquerade came to an end.
Step.
Lee Jungryong stopped walking.
Fwish!
The sound of displaced air came from behind me. Three streaks of wind tore toward vital points across my body.
I didn’t need to turn around to know where Wu Heixing’s daggers were headed.
Or what I needed to do.
Fwish-fwish-fwish!
The three daggers aimed at my nape, spine, and right arm missed their targets and pierced empty air.
No. That’s not it.
Maybe it was because I had pushed my senses to their absolute limit.
Everything moved slowly, each detail crystal clear.
I reached out and caught the hilt of the dagger skimming past my right arm. At the same time, I twisted at the waist and whipped my arm forward like lightning.
Shraaaaaaaaaash!
“Hup!”
Wu Heixing, who had been charging toward me, hurriedly swung his sword.
Boom!
Along with a muffled, thunderous roar, his body was knocked backward. A low voice stopped Wu Heixing as he prepared to charge again, his face twisted in anger.
“Enough.”
“Mr. Lee. Why…?”
“He’s not someone you can handle. Wait a moment.”
After restraining Wu Heixing, Lee Jungryong gazed at me calmly.
“You’re remarkably perceptive.”
I let out a quiet laugh at his sudden change in tone.
“An old man who knows everything is saying something obvious. If I didn’t have even this much sense, I’d have died a long time ago.”
“When did you know?”
I answered without hesitation.
“The moment we first met.”
The day I stormed into Myeongdong Guild alone, Lee Jungryong and I had already become irreconcilable enemies.
It had been decided the moment that bastard Park Jihoon sent a Black Hunter to cut off Uncle Kkeokjeong’s arms.
“If you’re about to tell me that was merely your subordinates being overzealous, roll up that white-coated tongue of yours and shove it back in your mouth.”
“Of course not. I merely find it regrettable.”
“What do you regret? Your future spent smelling funeral incense from behind a folding screen?”
Lee Jungryong shook his head.
“No. I had taken quite a liking to you.”
“Then you shouldn’t have cut off my man’s arms.”
“It was a light warning. I wanted to teach that boy Choi Minwoo a lesson. At the time, a brat named Jin Taekyung wasn’t someone I needed to take seriously.”
“And now?”
Lee Jungryong answered with a gentle smile.
“I came here myself. Is that answer enough?”
“More than enough.”
I leaned my back against a pile of collapsed concrete, holding White Flame at an angle.
Wu Heixing stood to my left and Lee Jungryong to my right. Each was a little over ten meters1 away, but any of us could erase that distance in the blink of an eye.
“But this is unexpected. I thought you’d at least wait until after we killed the Arch Lich before making your move.”
“Pfft! You stupid bangzi!2”
Wu Heixing abruptly cut in with a snicker.
Only a few days ago, he hadn’t even been able to meet my eyes. Now he declared triumphantly,
“Fighting the Arch Lich is your job, Jin Taekyung.”
“What kind of bullshit… Ah.”
A thought flashed through my mind, and a hollow laugh escaped me.
I had wondered if it could really be true, but they had actually gone that far.
Their brains were wired completely differently from mine.
“Hah. These fuckers really thought of everything. This is beyond anything I imagined.”
“Do you understand now? Do you understand what kind of situation you’re in?”
“So… you never intended to fight the Arch Lich in the first place?”
Wu Heixing curled his lips and spoke.
“Why should I—why should I take that kind of risk?”
“…!”
“Today’s battle will go down as a defeat. And your name will be written at the very top of the list of the war dead. I’ve already decided on your epitaph.”
Wu Heixing spread his arms like a stage actor.
“Bangzi from Korea, killed by the Arch Lich. What do you think? Isn’t that a fine epitaph?”
Even after Wu Heixing finished speaking, I could not find anything to say for a while. I stood there blankly, like a madman, and the goose bumps covering my body refused to fade.
Was it because of his scheme?
No.
One question Wu Heixing had thrown back at me continued to circle through my empty mind.
Why should I take that kind of risk?
I felt completely blindsided.
At the same time, countless deaths I had witnessed over the past month flashed before my eyes, along with horribly mutilated bodies.
Young parents who had met their end while holding their precious child tightly, hoping against hope that their little one might survive.
An elderly person too infirm to flee, torn apart and eaten.
A pregnant woman who had died clutching her full-term belly.
And…
The day I became a Hunter, I swore that I would fight monsters until the moment my life ended. That oath still stands.
Lei Fei, who had fulfilled his mission until the very last moment.
The five hundred Public Security Armed Forces Department Hunters who defied death and launched their heroic charge.
Team Leader Choi and Xiao Shen, who had prepared to die and bound their hands to their sword hilts with strips of cloth so they could kill one more monster.
You’re right. Why did all of them take such risks? Like fucking idiots.
Their faces flashed before my eyes, one after another.
My insides burned as though I had swallowed a fireball, and a hot breath escaped me.
I drew a deep breath, then looked at one man.
“Tell me.”
“What should I tell you?”
“Whether you think the same way as that bastard.”
“I don’t. Not at all. That fellow is afraid of the Arch Lich, but…”
Lee Jungryong continued gently.
“I seized an opportunity. The longer this war lasts, the more I stand to gain.”
After a brief silence, I gave a small nod.
“I see.”
I pushed away from the concrete. Scorching Yang Qi boiled like lava, surging through every limb and bone and hundreds of acupoints. Blue flames danced along White Flame’s spearhead.
“Let me ask you one thing too.”
“Anything.”
“‘The only good chink is a dead chink. Fucking Lee Jungryong.’ Those are the epitaphs I just came up with for you two. Do you like them?”
“…!”
“…Heh.”
Wu Heixing’s face crumpled, while Lee Jungryong’s eyes curved like crescent moons.
Then—
Fwoooooosh!
Blinding flashes burst from both sides.
Lee Jungryong had already made up his mind.
I must not let my guard down. I’ll kill him by any means necessary.
A lion gives its all even when hunting a rabbit.
All the more so when its prey was a wolf named Jin Taekyung. To hunt him, the lion would have to use every ounce of its strength.
No matter how much of a lion Lee Jungryong was, he couldn’t afford to ignore the wolf’s fangs.
Fwish!
One step.
In a split second, Lee Jungryong closed the distance of more than ten meters1, and his hand blurred.
A longsword flashed from its scabbard and shot forward in a dazzling streak of light.
Straight at one man—Jin Taekyung.
Fwoooooosh!
It was a full-power strike, the likes of which Lee Jungryong had not unleashed anywhere else in this war.
Wu Heixing had joined the attack as well.
Compared to Jin Taekyung, he was a fledgling far behind in ability, but he was still an S-rank Hunter capable of wielding an Aura Blade.
“Dieeeee!”
As Wu Heixing screamed, his eyes bloodshot, Lee Jungryong saw it clearly.
Jin Taekyung’s smooth, gliding movement.
The spearhead wreathed in blue flames.
Boom!
Two swords and one spear collided.
An immense wave of qi erupted with a thunderous roar, collapsing buildings and pulverizing concrete.
Rumble! Rumble-rumble-rumble!
It looked as though the city had been bombarded.
The ground caved in, and a tremendous tremor swept across a radius of several hundred meters3.
But this was only the beginning.
Fwish-fwish-fwish-fwish!
Dozens, then hundreds of lines slashed through the air.
Lee Jungryong’s sword moved too quickly for the eye to follow, carving Jin Taekyung to pieces.
Or so he had believed.
Until Jin Taekyung slammed a flame-wreathed palm into Wu Heixing’s chest and sent him flying, then brought down his spear.
Fwoosh—whoooooosh!
Blistering heat blazed up, burning the air itself.
The spearhead devoured both the thick fog blanketing the city and the humidity in the air as it came down diagonally at Lee Jungryong with ferocious momentum.
It was like the claw of a dragon striking down from the heavens.
What is this…?
Lee Jungryong frowned.
Jin Taekyung’s spearhead was rushing toward him, erasing the Aura he had scattered.
The tremendous heat stole his breath and made his body seize up.
The young man before him, not yet thirty, was no longer the Jin Taekyung he had known.
How did he improve this much in such a short time…?
But although Jin Taekyung’s strength far exceeded his expectations, Lee Jungryong was also a superhuman who stood above other S-rank Hunters.
In that split second, he laid his blade across the spearhead’s path.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
Jin Taekyung’s spear was faster and stronger than Lee Jungryong had expected.
But the same was true of Lee Jungryong.
Swing—fwish-fwish-fwish-fwish!
Within a moment sliced into ever smaller fractions, spear and sword tangled and collided.
Lightning-like flashes and thunderous roars erupted without pause.
Clack-clack-clack!
Jin Taekyung pressed Lee Jungryong’s sword down with his spearhead, then thrust out his hand.
Just before a palm strike carrying the heat of the Flame Divine Palm could slam into Lee Jungryong’s chest, Lee Jungryong’s fist shot forward like lightning and met Jin Taekyung’s palm.
Boom!
With the sound of compressed air bursting apart, the two men stepped backward as though they had planned it.
The result left Lee Jungryong stunned.
He had retreated two steps.
Jin Taekyung had retreated only one.
He pushed me back?
Lee Jungryong had accumulated an enormous amount of qi over many years.
Yet a brat barely in his late twenties had forced him backward.
It was impossible to believe that such a change had occurred in the short span of just over a month.
And that isn’t all.
His incredible power and speed seemed to have no bottom. His movements, too—everything about him was astonishing. Beyond anything that could be put into words.
Just as he was now.
Whoooooosh! Fwish!
Lee Jungryong twisted his head aside.
The spearhead missed him by half a handspan4, then changed direction in midair.
Slash!
A searing sensation, followed by droplets of blood scattering through the air.
For the first time in a very long while, Lee Jungryong felt pain.
He swung his sword.
Boom!
Their weapons crashed together.
Through the transparent spearhead, Lee Jungryong saw the young man’s blazing eyes.
The lips that had remained tightly sealed throughout the battle finally parted, and a cold, level voice emerged.
“You’re fucked.”
The moment Lee Jungryong heard those chilling words, he realized he needed to revise his earlier assessment.
A lion.
He had been wrong.
Jin Taekyung was not a wolf.
He was a lion—a powerful young male who might drive out the old lion that had ruled the pride for so long and become its new king.
Craaaaaack! Boom!
The old lion was hurled away by an irresistible force.
Lee Jungryong flipped in midair and landed on the ground.
The first thing he saw was the young male lion gripping Wu Heixing by the throat after Wu had attempted a surprise attack.
“Guhk! M-my father belongs to the Crown Prince Party…!”
“I don’t care.”
“If you let me live, I’ll repay you! Guh! So please…”
“Me? Let you live after you tried to kill me?”
A reddish gaze turned toward Wu Heixing.
Then a sentence Lee Jungryong had heard somewhere before slipped from Jin Taekyung’s lips.
“Why should I—why should I take that kind of risk?”
“…!”
Crunch!
Comments
Comments need a network connection.