Chapter 583

Team Leader Choi. Pyeongchang. Monster Wave.

The three words hit me all at once, leaving my thoughts in a jumble.

But the footage filling the electronic billboard gave me no time to think.

—Kwooooom!

“Aaaahhh!”

“An avalanche!”

People fled, screaming.

They hadn’t even thought to take off their ski equipment. They waddled forward, stumbled, and fell as a vast mass of snow and shattered rock came pouring down behind them.

—BOOOM!

The snow swept over dozens of people like a wave. Blood sprayed amid the thunderous roar.

A building crushed by the falling rock went up in flames. Beyond the surging fire lay the source of it all.

—Ruuuumble!

The sun had not yet set, but the sky above that place was dark.

Black clouds hung over a mountain peak I didn’t recognize. Each flash of dazzling light between them brought a tremendous tremor and a deafening boom.

A Monster Wave.

I knew it instinctively. Where light and darkness met, a battle was deciding the fate of thousands.

And Team Leader Choi, Butler Kim, and the Peace Guild Hunters were risking their lives against a named monster.

An announcer’s voice came through the static.

“The government has declared the Pyeongchang area of Gyeonggi Province a disaster zone and dispatched emergency support forces. Meanwhile, the Monster Wave in Busan…”

I had no reason to listen any longer. No time, either.

I spun toward the Hunters staring blankly at the billboard high on the building and shouted.

“Mages!”

“Y-Yes?”

“Mages, step forward! We have to get to Pyeongchang with Teleport! Right now!”

My shout, charged with internal energy, jolted them as though they’d woken from a nightmare. A few raised their hands hesitantly.

One A-grade mage and six B-grade mages. But their faces were grim.

“I-I’m sorry, but it would be difficult for us to cast Teleport on our own.”

“What?”

“We’ve all just fought monsters. Our mana fatigue is severe, and we’d have to draw a Teleport magic circle. Under these circumstances…”

Their voices trailed off as they looked around.

Victims’ bodies and monster carcasses lay everywhere. The roads had been torn apart.

Teleport was notoriously difficult even for high-ranking mages. These were about the worst conditions imaginable for casting it.

Skeleton King had been watching. Now he spoke, his face twisted.

“You stupid hu—bastards. Do you think this is the time to worry about conditions? Do it. Please? Fuck. Being polite is hard.”

He was barely holding back his anger, but the menacing aura leaking from him made the mages swallow hard.

“B-But we can’t help it. It’s too dangerous.”

“We can’t do it. Even if we somehow succeeded, it’s over 250 kilometers¹ from Busan to Pyeongchang. We can’t cover that distance in a single jump.”

“Try! Just find some way to try!”

Skeleton King had said exactly what I wanted to say.

But I knew the mages weren’t making excuses. They weren’t Magic Johnson.

The dark-skinned Grand Mage who had sent me into a chaotic battlefield in Sichuan, China, without even a magic circle was probably on another continent by now.

Damn it.

Sticky blood dripped from my clenched fist. I couldn’t tell if it was mine or a monster’s. Maybe both.

“Is there another way?”

A middle-aged Hunter who seemed to be the highest-ranking one there answered anxiously.

“We contacted headquarters a little while ago. They’re looking for a high-ranking mage in Busan who can cast Teleport, but…”

His voice trailed off. His face was grim.

That told me enough. I urged him again to hurry, then clenched my teeth.

Damn it.

Their opponent was a named monster. One as powerful as the Kraken, or worse.

How much longer could they hold out against a monster whose might was conveyed even through the footage? How many of them would survive?

Just a little longer. Please, hold out a little longer.

I made the plea silently, knowing it would never reach them, and sat down cross-legged.

Until they found a mage, I needed to recover whatever strength I could.

“Whew.”

I closed my eyes and tried to calm the anxiety and rage boiling inside me. Darkness filled my vision.

Through it flashed the faces of those fighting in a darkness deeper still.

Please… survive.

Until I get there.

Whoooosh.

Powerful internal energy, carrying my desperate wish, spread through every limb and bone.

The trunk swept through the air, long and enormous.

Like an elephant’s, it knocked aside the incoming spells and arrows, then came hurtling toward the ground.

Whoooosh!

A deep shadow fell across the people below. Choi Minwoo gritted his teeth, sprang forward, and shouted.

“Scatter!”

Fwap-fwap-fwap!

Figures leaped like the wind and scattered in every direction. They moved like the high-ranking Hunters they were, at the top of the Hunter hierarchy.

But if they were A-grade Hunters, the enemy before them was a named monster out of ancient myth.

—GRAAAAAAAH!

Behemoth.

The monster that had risen from the depths of the abyss into the mortal world roared. Its powerful Fear seized souls and stilled movement, shaking the Hunters as they fled.

“Gasp!”

“Hk…!”

Two Peace Guild Hunters had strayed beyond the light of Hero’s Soul. They caught their breath sharply.

Without their extensive combat experience and strong wills, they might have fainted or gone mad on the spot.

But even the momentary chaos brought on by Fear was enough for the cunning monster to achieve the result it wanted.

“No!”

Behemoth moved half a beat before Choi Minwoo’s warning. That was enough to seal their fate.

Whoom—CRUNCH!

A gust of wind erupted from empty air and slammed into the earth.

Their armor bore high-level defensive magic. Their muscles had been trained to their limits, and their vitality was tenacious.

None of it could withstand the blow. It broke and crushed everything.

“Ghk. Cough!”

Dark red blood burst out with their dying cries. Bones, flesh, even their organs had ruptured. Not even a top-grade potion could save them.

For an instant, Choi Minwoo met both pairs of fading eyes. He gritted his teeth.

Again…!

They had died. Died, and died again.

Trampled beneath enormous forefeet. Impaled on tusks. Crushed by that swinging trunk.

Of the twenty-two Hunters, including himself and Kim Hwajong, more than half had died horribly. Without the potions they’d brought, he would have watched even more of them die.

And now the potions were nearly gone.

Damn it.

Choi Minwoo clenched his teeth. The ache from a broken molar had faded without his noticing. He could no longer feel the blood running from his split lip.

Only anger and determination remained.

They kept him from collapsing in despair. They drove him past his fear and toward Behemoth.

“Young Master!”

Whoosh!

Kim Hwajong’s anguished cry fell behind him as he kicked off the ground, mana surging through his steps.

He shot forward like a ray of light. Something split the air above his head, and Choi Minwoo twisted aside with all his strength.

Whoom—BOOOM!

The ground shook. Snow scattered, and shards of rock scraped his forehead. Red blood ran across his vision. The sword gripped in both hands blazed with pure white light.

Fwoooosh—slash!

The thick darkness split.

A streak of light cut through the air and slashed Behemoth’s two pillar-like forelegs. Green blood gushed from the deep wounds.

Fwoooosh!

Drenched from head to toe, Choi Minwoo let out the breath he’d been holding.

He wanted to dodge the blood, but he couldn’t. His body shook from the strength he had spent in that brief attack, much like Behemoth’s staggering legs.

“Two of its four legs…”

He murmured through a vision stained entirely green.

Fifteen Hunters. Far too high a price compared with his own life.

Still, Behemoth’s scream of pain was not unpleasant to hear.

—GRAAAAAAAH! “Hu. Man!”

“…I hear you. No idea what you’re saying, though.”

Choi Minwoo’s answer came out weak.

The pain and exhaustion he’d pushed aside rushed back at once. The light of Hero’s Soul in his hands was fading, ready to go out.

Hold on a little longer. Just a little longer.

But that was asking too much.

His fatigue had been building since his bloody fight with Song Cheonwoo. With the healer dead and the potions gone, there was nothing to stop the bleeding or tend his injuries. They were finally bringing him down.

Ssssh.

The world tilted.

No. The world wasn’t tilting.

Choi Minwoo was.

As his view slowly turned over, he saw something enormous flying toward him.

Whoooosh!

He felt the wind of a blow that would crush his entire body, and closed his eyes.

BOOOM!

With a thunderous crash, the only light vanished.

A cloud of snow and dirt rose through the dense black fog.

Ruuumble!

Behemoth’s strongest blow yet shook the entire mountain.

The surviving Peace Guild Hunters stared in despair. What little hope they had held onto had vanished with the light.

With the young man who had led them.

It’s over. All of it.

They all knew.

The world itself might not end, but the world they knew would end here today.

Strangely, they felt calm as they faced it.

They had done their duty, at least. Their duty as people and as Hunters. They had given everything to a sense of purpose that wealth and fame had made them forget for a while.

They had no regrets.

“Fuck. I signed the contract on my house two days ago.”

A snort of laughter escaped the Hunters at someone’s mutter.

“Crazy bastard.”

“If you’re scared, go. Nobody’s stopping you.”

But no one moved. Not even the Hunter who had spoken first.

He looked down at his trembling legs and said bluntly, “How are we supposed to leave? I’d rather die fighting.”

They all felt the same. Thousands of people were still evacuating behind them.

The comrades who had fallen, and Choi Minwoo, who had charged Behemoth to the end, had died protecting those people.

“We’ve got money, and we’ve got pride.”

“Still, what a shitty day to die. Can’t even see the sky through this fucking fog.”

“Why’d that elephant bastard suddenly stop moving?”

The few who remained steeled themselves to charge Behemoth. Just as they were about to rush forward, a quiet voice spoke.

“You needn’t die.”

At the quiet voice, the thick fog parted. It was fire, not light, that drove back the abyssal darkness.

Fwoooosh!

A man appeared through the fog amid fierce flames and continued,

“At least, you don’t.”

The Hunters’ trembling eyes took in a middle-aged man with half-gray hair.

Kim Hwajong had disappeared into the fog after Choi Minwoo. He looked very different now.

“…Guild Master. Your arm.”

“I’m fine.”

His left arm had been torn off. Even so, Kim Hwajong smiled faintly through his exhaustion.

He had lost an arm, but he had saved something far more precious.

He passed the person cradled in his right arm to the Hunters.

“Leave this place at once. Take the Young Master with you.”

“B-But…”

“That’s an order from your Guild Master.”

Grrrrr.

The monster gave a low laugh. It had spotted the prey that had escaped it by a hair.

Kim Hwajong’s smile disappeared.

“Go!”

“…!”

The force of his shout left the Hunters no room to argue. They clenched their teeth, took Choi Minwoo’s limp body, and gave a brief bow before launching themselves down the steep slope.

Shhhh-shhhh-shhk!

Kim Hwajong watched them slide away. A faint smile returned to his lips.

You must make it out safely. You must.

When he turned away after murmuring the small plea that would never reach them, hellfire flickered in his one remaining hand.

“Come on, you fucking bastard.”

—GRAAAAAAAH!

Behemoth’s enormous eyes and Kim Hwajong’s flame-filled gaze collided in midair.

The old butler had sent everyone away and stood alone at the edge of the cliff. He began to recite what might be his final spell.

“Hellfire of the underworld, descend upon this place.”

Hell Fire.

Ruuuuumble!