“Über, what?”
He had definitely called my name before muttering something, but when I glanced back, Joel Schumacher was already collapsed against a pile of concrete with his head resting on it.
He really gave it everything he had.
I could see why. From what I’d seen, he’d been fighting in a Trance.
That dreamlike moment when enlightenment carried you into a greater realm.
Unfortunately, Schumacher had been ambushed before he could see it through. But when he opened his eyes again, he would probably be stronger.
“Should I wake him?”
“He couldn’t get up even if you did. Leave him be, and make sure he doesn’t die.”
“You heard him, right? Handsome hu—no, Team Leader Choi?”
“…Understood.”
That bastard had gotten so good at dumping work on other people, he was practically human now.
Still, the Skeleton King would be far more useful in the fight. Instead of giving him a hard time, I quietly sent him a Sound Transmission.
You know what to do, right?
You treat this body like a child.
Say it back to me.
His reply came back curt.
There are human eyes watching, so suppress your magical power as much as possible. And when using your power is unavoidable, make absolutely certain that no one notices.
Good.
Satisfied now?
This is enough to make you about middle-school age, not a child.
…How dare you. You’re not even thirty. This body is an elder who has lived for over a hundred years.
Technically, haven’t you been dead for over a hundred years?
“What!”
The Skeleton King’s indignant shout came out loud enough for everyone to hear. I laughed quietly and let my spearhead hang at an angle.
“I’ve said what I needed to. Go on.”
My voice sounded strange to me, as if it belonged to someone else. Dry as sand.
The hint of a smile that had touched my lips was already gone.
I crooked a finger at the enormous monster watching me warily.
“You. Come here.”
—Grrr…
The Minotaur Lord.
A low growl and a foul stench spilled from its maw. Its blood-red eyes were already full of caution.
—Who. Are. You.
“Me?”
At the center of a battlefield that had fallen into a lull when I appeared, I took a slow step forward.
“The Majang-dong Spearman.”
—…Strong. Hu. Man.
Most Minotaurs were cow-headed idiots who couldn’t even count, but a monster’s intelligence grew with its grade, whatever its species. S-rank monsters in particular had been granted exceptional power.
That was why the Minotaur Lord had stood rooted to the spot from the moment I appeared.
Instinct had already told it the truth.
It couldn’t beat me on its own.
“You caught on fast. You haven’t tried charging me.”
—…!
Step. Boom.
Our footsteps sounded together. The Minotaur Lord retreated exactly as far as I advanced, then suddenly roared like a wild beast.
—Kaaaaaa!
Fwoosh!
Magical power swelled around its massive body and spread to every corner of the battlefield.
At the same time, the thousands of Minotaurs that had sensed something wrong and begun to stop their attacks charged, their eyes gleaming with bloodlust.
Not at the Hunters they’d been fighting.
At us.
—Kwooooo!
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Their cries shook the earth. Watching the countless bulls surge toward us from every direction, the Skeleton King muttered, “But we haven’t left yet…”
“That’s why you should’ve gone sooner.”
“Can I use a little of my power, then? I think we need an army.”
“If you want to announce that you’re a monster, why not start an internet broadcast? You could rake in virtual gifts with a ‘Skeleton Army Creation’ stream.”
“Damn it. Too late to ask them to let us through, I suppose?”
Team Leader Choi answered the Skeleton King’s nonsense.
“Spend less time worrying about that and more time drawing your weapon.”
Shing.
A silver blade slid free as he spoke. The Hero’s Sword pointed toward the monsters, its aura dazzling.
Then Team Leader Choi’s calm voice reached every ear.
“Formation. Now.”
Clack-clack-clack!
The three of us weren’t the only ones who had come to save Munich.
Around two hundred Hunters from the Ares Guild and Peace Guild had come with us. They hadn’t had much chance to contribute against Leviathan, but they were the elite of the elite. Without a hint of hesitation, they readied themselves to meet the enemy.
“Please give us our orders.”
Team Leader Choi. The Skeleton King. Even the Hunters who had barely survived the crisis in the middle of their grueling fight.
Everyone was looking at my mouth.
Waiting for my command alone.
And right now, there was only one thing I could tell them.
“Kill every last one.”
Whoooooosh.
The fire dragon coiled in my lower dantian woke and spread through every part of my body.
Taking the crowd’s thunderous roar as my signal, I kicked off the ground with all my strength.
Boom!
Wind whipped past me. Dozens of meters1 vanished in an instant, bringing the charging Minotaur army right up to my face.
No. They hadn’t come to me.
I’d come to them.
Whoosh.
I exhaled, held my breath, and raised the spear I’d been holding at an angle. Powerful Scorching Yang Qi turned to flame along its transparent blade.
And then… I let it loose.
Now.
Fire Dragon Divine Spear, first form.
Fire Dragon’s Single Tail.
Whoom—fwoooosh!
A line of flame swept through the air with a blast of superheated wind.
Curving smoothly like a dragon’s tail, the qi scythed across everything ahead of me. It melted horns that could pierce alloy with ease and burned through the monsters’ bones and hides.
Kaaaaaaboom!
One strike.
The wave of flame swallowed dozens of Minotaurs. Not one screamed.
They burned black without so much as a final cry. Even the ones charging behind them stopped and faltered at the sight.
—Kwooooo!
Their leader roared at their backs, urging them on. But instinctive terror drowned out its command, and they paid dearly for that brief hesitation.
Slash!
Heads and limbs rose into the air.
I plunged into their midst and went wild.
One Minotaur finally came to its senses and swung a mace. I cleaved through it and the monster holding it, then struck another across its thickly hide-covered chest with the back of my hand.
Crack!
Bone shattered. Its massive body flew backward and smashed through the formation.
The Minotaurs shoved their dead comrade aside and scrambled to their feet. Countless spells and arrows came flying over their heads.
Whish, thud-thud-thud!
Boom! Bzzzzzt!
Those struck through the head or eye by aura-coated arrows had the easier deaths. Fire made from mana burned through hides, while lightning split into dozens of streams and lit up the battlefield.
—Krrk, krrrk!
Boom! Thud.
Monsters convulsed and fell one after another. A familiar face was the first to burst through the acrid smoke left by fire and lightning.
“Aaaah! You goddamn monsters!”
Whoooosh—crack!
Leaving aside how naturally he’d taken to slaughtering his fellow monsters, where the hell had he found that?
The Skeleton King gripped an enormous halberd. With one swing, he split three or four Minotaurs in half.
He was about to swing at the next ones charging him when blue aura shot through the smoke.
Slash!
A clean movement. Not a bit of force wasted.
Team Leader Choi cut neatly through a neck and spoke.
“Charge.”
His voice was low but firm. Mana carried that one word across the battlefield, turning it into a rallying cry.
“Waaaaaah!”
“You fucking bastards!”
“Kill them all! Defend our home!”
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Countless Hunters surged forward with a roar, their ranks rolling in like a wave.
They weren’t as tall or vast as the waves Leviathan had raised. But something stronger burned in their eyes.
The will not to surrender this land.
Grief for the comrades who had died here today, and vengeance reserved for the monsters before them.
And I was at their head.
Whoom—boom!
Compressed air burst from the end of a punch I drove forward like a beam of light.
A monster dropped like a rotten log, its head gone without a trace. I rained spear strikes on the enemies revealed behind it.
Whish-whish-whish!
Cut. Stab. Twist and crush.
Nothing could stop Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron wreathed in Force.
My spearhead sliced through sturdy weapons like tofu and split the monsters behind them. Even under the effects of a special debuff, my body had long since surpassed its limits—and those of the monsters.
As it did now.
—Kwooooo!
Whoooom!
A heavy rush of air bore down on my side along with the monster’s cry. With three Minotaurs skewered on my spear, I reached out with my free hand the instant I sensed it.
Thud.
A fist the size of a manhole cover stopped against my much smaller palm.
Ridiculously easily.
—Kwo?
The Minotaur blinked with the innocent look of the yellow ox at Scholar Kim’s house2.
I gave a quiet laugh at the sight and gently guided the force of its trembling fist upward.
Whoom!
The fist struck empty air a handspan above me.
The monster had lost its target. My foot hadn’t. It shot forward like lightning and struck its chest with precisely the force and timing I wanted.
Crack!
Something broke with a sickening sound, and its body hurtled away. Far away, sweeping up every comrade in its path.
Straight toward the leader that had watched it all from behind.
And then…
Slash! Fwoooosh!
The lifeless body split in two. Through the fountain of blood, the Minotaur Lord glared at me.
Blood-red eyes. A double-bladed axe stained with its subordinate’s blood.
But I knew what lay deep in those eyes.
Wariness had turned to fear, and that fear kept driving it backward.
“Want to run?”
—…!
“Sure. I can see why you would. But…”
Whoooom! Crack!
Dozens of Minotaurs that had rushed in from every direction to protect their leader were flung away. At last, after the monsters had been reduced to gruesome heaps of blood and flesh, the path ahead lay wide open.
I shook the blood from my spearhead and slowly continued.
“You came here however the fuck you pleased. You don’t get to leave that way.”
—You…!
Boom!
The belated cry was swallowed by the thunderous sound exploding from my toes.
I shot toward it like a beam of light, the distance vanishing between us. The Minotaur Lord gritted its teeth and hurled its double-bladed axe.
Whoooooosh!
Darkness rushed at me with a roar of displaced air.
No. Magical power.
Still flying low from that single push off the ground, I twisted my body.
Whoom.
A fierce wind thick with the smell of blood brushed the tip of my nose. I thrust my spear.
“Die.”
Crack!
This time, too, there was no final cry.
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