Chapter 43

DING!

[You have learned ‘Skill: Wind of the Grasslands.’]

WHOOSH!

Suho darted between the hunters as though he had suddenly sprouted wings. Fierce winds swept along his path, spurring his movements onward.

[Movement speed temporarily increases by 30%.]

[Attack speed temporarily increases by 30%.]

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

“Aaaargh!”

Blood sprayed into the swirling wind, and screams erupted all around.

[The King of Beasts, the Monarch of Fangs, bares his teeth and cackles.]

A fifty-to-one battle? Outnumbered? Why should any of that shit matter? The darkness was on their side.

“Beru!”

[Yes, sir!]

Beru immediately launched himself at Suho’s call. With his short but sturdy claws, he mercilessly slashed apart the fireballs floating like balloons in the air.

POP! POP! BOOM!

The fireballs burst, plunging everything into darkness again.

“Damn it! Get the lights back on!”

Gritting their teeth, the hunters conjured more fireballs, but each time, Beru’s claws extinguished them.

FWOOSH! POP!

Their vision flickered incessantly between light and darkness. Each time, screams erupted from every direction.

“Aagh! My leg...!”

“H-he’s over here!”

“Gaaagh...!”

With every flicker of light, Suho was somewhere else, and fresh casualties invariably followed in his wake. Whenever a healer rushed over to save them...

[Krrraaak!]

SWISH!

“...?!”

Black webbing dropped from overhead and whisked the healer away.

“W-watch out for the spider...!”

Then Arachne’s enormous pincer plunged mercilessly toward the hunter left behind.

CRASH!

“Gaargh...!”

Blood spewed from his mouth. A horrific death cry rang out. It was truly like a scene from a horror film.

[Twelve.]

Hovering in the air, Beru counted the defeated enemies, his antennae twitching nonstop.

Outnumbered? Why should that matter? All humans died eventually.

“Aaaaargh!”

[Thirteen.]

No matter how strong they were, a stab through the heart would kill them.

“Gah!”

[Fourteen.]

So would having their heads cut off. If their defensive skills were too tough, he could simply kill someone else first. If they counterattacked with an offensive skill, he could stab them in the back.

“R-run!”

“We have to get out of here...!”

[Fifteen.]

This place was already Suho’s hunting ground. A bottomless terror that threatened to drive them mad was eating away at the Reaper Guild members’ minds.

[The King of Beasts, the Monarch of Fangs, takes pride in his shaman’s might.]

[The King of Beasts, the Monarch of Fangs, advises you to manage your mana carefully, as ‘Spirit Possession’ continuously consumes mana.]

“...”

Watching the carnage blankly from inside the cell, all the Association hunters could do was...

“Close your eyes.”

...cover the eyes and ears of the kindergarten-aged boy in their arms.

‘What on earth...’

To the Association hunters, the sight of Suho slaughtering his enemies without hesitation felt utterly alien. These men might deserve to die, but there was not a shred of mercy in his attacks.

Every hunter was accustomed to blood. In other words, taking lives was nothing new to them. They might call themselves hunters, but wasn’t their profession essentially that of a butcher?

But even so... these were human beings.

“He doesn’t hesitate for even a second to kill people.”

“Just who is that man...?”

“No. It must be his Beast Transformation skill.”

Team Leader Han Jaehyuk, who had been listening to his subordinates mutter, spoke with conviction.

“What? It’s because of Beast Transformation?”

“Yes. Beast Transformation is an incredible skill that vastly enhances physical abilities, but it also amplifies your animal instincts so much that you can’t stay as rational as usual. That makes it extremely difficult to control. That’s why incidents involving Beast Transformation hunters happen from time to time, isn’t it?”

“Oh.”

Only then did the Association hunters nod in understanding.

[Wrong, you fools.]

Overhearing their conversation from far away, Beru cackled.

[Our Young Monarch has always been accustomed to death. Ever since he was a newborn.]

Death was a primal fear shared by all living things. But to Suho, who had been able to travel freely to and from the world of death since infancy, it was merely a natural phenomenon that had always been at his side. Even the nannies who had carried him on their backs and raised him as a baby had been soldiers of death.

Above all, Suho had experienced his own death countless times. His father, Sung Jinwoo, had repeatedly put him through a test so he could properly control the Shadow Monarch’s power and wield it as the situation demanded.

Through dying over and over in his dreams, Suho had ceased to fear death. No, he had gone beyond overcoming his fear, reaching a point where he could treat death as experience—as a means to an end.

[Just like my liege.]

Beru murmured with a satisfied smile.

* * *

‘What the hell is this?!’

Kwak Dooyoung, a B-rank hunter who had arrived at the laboratory late, gaped at the carnage inside the building.

‘How does this make any sense?’

There was only one intruder. Judging by his mana, he was merely C-rank, or B-rank at best. Nor were his skills particularly impressive.

An acceleration skill that made him move faster? All they had to do was have the tanks soak up his attacks while the damage dealers concentrated their fire on him.

The giant spider he had summoned? It was somewhat unusual, but it was only a C-rank magic beast. Two Reaper Guild raid parties could handle it safely.

So why? Why in the world?

“How are this many people getting their asses handed to them by one guy?!”

Kwak Dooyoung finally joined the battle.

“Giant’s Armor!”

ROOOAR!

He leaped high into the air as armor of mana wrapped around his body.

THUD!

In an instant, Kwak Dooyoung had doubled in size and weight. When his massive, aura-armored body landed, the impact shook the entire container building.

“K-Kwak Dooyoung?!”

The hunters fighting Suho turned toward him in delight.

Kwak Dooyoung was one of the Reaper Guild’s first-string tanks. Though he was only B-rank, this enlargement skill had earned him a first-string spot in one of Korea’s leading guilds.

A hulking body over three meters tall, clad in aura armor. The combat power born of that overwhelming bulk. The moment his other skill was added to the mix, no one could question his place as a first-string Reaper Guild tank.

“Out of my way, you vermin! Charge!”

The skill Charge activated—a vanguard’s technique that shrouded his entire body in aura and blasted through the path ahead like a cannonball.

RUMBLE!

“Huh?!”

“Kwak Dooyoung! Wait...!”

CRASH! BOOM!

“Aaaargh!”

“Move...!”

Kwak Dooyoung’s massive body charged straight ahead like a rhinoceros. Subordinates who got in his way were flung in every direction, but he ignored them all. A few sacrifices were none of his concern.

‘My target is...!’

Suho easily dodged his mindless charge. But Suho had never been his target.

It was the cell right behind him!

CRUNCH!

“Hehe. Got you!”

“...!”

His enormous hands finally closed around the cell’s iron bars. Wearing a knowing smile, Kwak Dooyoung roared for Suho to hear.

“You! Stop right where you are! Unless you want me to crush these hostages along with their cell!”

CRRRUNCH!

As he spoke, his tremendous strength began to crumple the iron bars like soft taffy.

“Gasp! Everyone, gather around me!”

Horrified, Team Leader Han Jaehyuk, who was inside with the hostages, pushed his Iron Wall Fighting Aura to its limit.

Kwak Dooyoung’s mouth stretched into a derisive grin at the sight.

“Ha! You think you can withstand my strength? A mere C-rank tank?!”

CRRRRUNCH!

“Grrrgh!”

Strength clashed against strength. Han Jaehyuk’s eyes grew bloodshot as he resisted the pressure. The gap between a C-rank tank and a B-rank tank was clear. He was holding on somehow, but his knees trembled as though they might buckle at any moment.

Suho, however, looked incredulous.

“What are you two doing without me?”

Tanks were always like this. The higher their defense, the more they trusted it. And with his height and bulk doubled, Kwak Dooyoung’s arrogance knew no bounds.

WHOOOSH!

Suddenly, the wind of the grasslands swept toward Kwak Dooyoung.

GRAB!

“... Gasp!”

When had he gotten there?! Kwak Dooyoung recoiled in shock.

Someone had suddenly seized his hair and yanked his head back. There was Suho, perched on his shoulder, grinning.

“You think you’re the only one who can get bigger? I can manage a fist, as it happens.”

RUMMMBLE!

Keeping his left hand clenched in Kwak Dooyoung’s hair, Suho raised his right. Strands of dark energy coiled around his fist.

[You have activated ‘Skill: Smite.’]

“Try taking this.”

With that sneer, Suho hammered his enormous fist straight down onto Kwak Dooyoung’s head.

BOOOM!

“Gaaagh...!”

With a tremendous crash, the giant pitched forward, spewing blood from his mouth.

But this was no time to let his guard down. Suho had no intention of mistakenly assuming one blow would penetrate a B-rank tank’s defenses.

SHING!

Two swords instantly appeared in his hands. He swung them ruthlessly at Kwak Dooyoung’s exposed back as the man lay flat on the floor.

[You have activated ‘Skill: Storm Slash.’]

KABOOOM!

“...!”

That was the finishing blow. The light faded from Kwak Dooyoung’s eyes, and his swollen body gradually began to shrink.

Then...

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

At last, weapons fell from the hands of every villain remaining in the building. Apparently robbed of even the will to resist, the Reaper Guild members raised both hands, their faces deathly pale.

“W-we surren...”

[Heh. Now?]

Beru knew better than anyone the danger of showing mercy to scum like this.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

His claws swept past, severing their Achilles tendons.

“Aaargh!”

“Aagh!”

“We surrendered! Why...?!”

[Death is the only true surrender.]

Beru cackled, mocking the wretches as they rolled on the floor clutching their ankles.

[Or you must be so thoroughly broken that you can never be deployed in battle again.]

With a wicked smile, Beru approached them again and personally cast ‘Heal’ on them. It was a feeble heal, using as little mana as he could possibly spare.

FLASH!

Very kindly(?), Beru reattached their severed Achilles tendons all wrong. With painstaking care.

[Now your legs will never fully heal, even if you seek out another healer. Well, I suppose you could cut off your ankles entirely and regenerate them.]

“...”

The Reaper Guild members trembled as they watched the fist-sized little devil cackle and mock them to the very end.

Just then...

DING! DING! DING!

A flood of messages appeared before Suho.

[You have completed ‘Quest: Rescue Lives.’]

[Number rescued: 10]

[You have leveled up!]

[‘Skill: Dual Swordsmanship’ has leveled up!]

[‘Skill: Storm Slash’ has leveled up!]

[Your quest completion reward has arrived.]

[Would you like to check your reward?] (Y/N)