Chapter 88

The demons’ sudden appearance turned the battle into a three-way fight.

Suho and Esil exchanged a fleeting glance. Their eyes flashed, and they shot off in opposite directions at the same instant, beginning their hunt for demons.

While Suho cleaved demons clean through with Vulcan’s Horn, Esil skewered them with her spear. There was one stark difference between the two.

The demons Suho killed came apart gruesomely in sprays of black blood, and Vulcan’s Horn greedily devoured the demon souls within them. Those killed by Esil’s spear, however, had every drop of blood drained from their bodies, dying as shriveled as mummies.

“Ahh. Nothing beats demon blood.”

Esil, eldest daughter of the Radir Clan that had stood at the pinnacle of all demons, was the only demon noble left in existence. She continued absorbing their blood, an utterly ecstatic smile on her face.

When she first set foot on Earth, her strength had amounted to no more than that of a C-rank magic beast. That was because she had spent long years being hunted by other demons and drained of her blood. The strength she had lost could only be restored through blood, just as she was doing now.

[You have defeated a lesser demon!]

[You have defeated a lesser demon!]

[You have defeated a lesser demon!]

[Item: Vulcan’s Horn is devouring a demon soul.]

...

“Will I finally get some levels this time?”

Suho fervently wished, again and again, that there would be more demons hiding here—even one more.

“Kyaaaah!”

[Such pitifully weak, lowly scum. To think I tried to do business with creatures like these in life. How shameful.]

Quay slaughtered the demons mercilessly, regarding them as filth. It felt as though he were erasing his own sordid past, one piece at a time.

And amid the chaos, Im Dogyun...

[...]

“...”

...was trembling behind the palm-sized Beru.

“Sung Suho! I asked if you summoned all these things!”

“What nonsense has that human been spouting all this time?”

Esil could only click her tongue at Section Chief Lee Youngho, who kept bellowing at Suho between killing demons. But even without anyone bothering to correct his misunderstanding, he finally caught on as the demons’ numbers continued to grow.

“No, wait! Are these things demons?!”

He had been a little slow to realize it. But seeing the Crow Masks on every one of their faces brought a piece of information to mind. The Stardust factories that the Hunters Association was desperately searching for—they said demons were behind them.

“Hahaha! So this is where you were! There’s a bounty on these things too, isn’t there?”

“Oh! Looks like we’ll be making some spending money!”

Once they confirmed that the magic beasts were demons, the Hyunmoo Guild members’ eyes gleamed with greed. Their overbearing section chief had bullied them into coming all this way, and it would have been a shame to kill one brat and leave empty-handed. This was perfect.

“Listen up! Leave Sung Suho alone for now and deal with the demons first!”

“We’re already doing that!”

“That greenhorn will die on his own even if we don’t touch him anywa—huh?”

They finally noticed Suho hunting the demons, and their eyes widened.

“... Why is he so vicious?”

“Ch-Chief. Didn’t you say he was a C-rank summoner?”

“He’s chopping them up with two swords!”

A butcher. No other word came to mind. Drenched head to toe in black blood, Suho was slaughtering demons like a fiend.

Then it happened.

KRA-BOOM!

Lightning flashed across the clear sky above their heads.

“Gasp...!”

Everyone looked up at the sudden disturbance. To their astonishment, a gigantic demon loomed above the dense jungle, looking down at them.

“W-wait!”

“What’s something like that doing in a lousy D-rank dungeon?!”

Horrified, Section Chief Lee Youngho drew up the mana throughout his body.

“Stay sharp, everyone! It’s at least B-rank! No, it’s an A-rank magic beast!”

His assessment was accurate.

[Transcended Intermediate Demon]

“This is insane.”

Its overwhelming presence sent chills through Suho’s entire body, his Perception stat screaming warnings.

‘It’s at least on Quay’s level—no, Lee Minsung’s!’

Quay had become weaker than Lee Minsung had been in life when he became a shadow soldier. But the presence emanating from that enormous demon was comparable to Lee Minsung back then.

‘But what does “transcended” mean?’

“How could this happen...?”

GRIND.

Beside him, Esil was gnashing her teeth at the creature more fiercely than ever.

“That demon has consumed a demon noble’s blood.”

“Your blood?”

Suho turned toward her, his eyes widening.

“If not mine, then someone else’s from my clan.”

An immense wave of murderous intent surged from Esil’s entire body, and without another word, she hurtled straight at the intermediate demon.

WHOOSH!

Her spearpoint flew toward its heart, but the intermediate demon uprooted an entire tree beside it and swung it at her.

KRAAASH!

“...!”

Unable to dodge in time, Esil was sent flying sideways.

The Hyunmoo Guild was caught in the attack as well. Nearby trees toppled onto them in a chain reaction.

“Whoa?!”

“Dodge!”

The Hyunmoo Guild members scattered in alarm. But even then, lesser demons were lunging at them from all sides, intent on taking their lives.

“Aaargh!”

Several Hyunmoo Guild members lost their heads at the demons’ hands.

Rage flared in Section Chief Lee Youngho’s eyes at the sight.

“How dare you!”

His sword tore through the demons with unstoppable force. The sudden turn of events had rattled him, but these demons were still only C-rank. As a B-rank, he was confident he could handle any number of them.

Besides, even if he had brought the second string, it was humiliating for Hyunmoo Guild members to fall to creatures like these.

“This is why I keep telling you to train harder! Anyone who dies to garbage like this is a fucking moron!”

Even with his subordinates dead, he blamed their weakness instead. The problem, however, was that giant.

‘There’s no way I can take that down alone.’

But it was entirely possible if his subordinates bought him time up front. Several hunters working together against a powerful monster—that was the very foundation of a raid. As the strongest among them, it was his job to deliver the all-important finishing blow. To do that, though, he needed tanks up front to withstand the attacks for him.

“You bastards! All of you, charge at once!”

“What?! At that thing?”

“Who else, me?! Just hold out for one minute!”

The instant he gave the order, Section Chief Lee Youngho began concentrating all his mana into a single point. It would take some time, but he was confident his skill could easily sever one of its legs.

‘Going for the legs first is basic raid strategy against something that big!’

“Aaaaaah!”

As mana began gathering in earnest within Section Chief Lee Youngho’s body, the Hyunmoo Guild members charged at the Transcended Intermediate Demon with everything they had.

At that instant—

KRA-BOOM!

Lightning flashed through the clear sky once more.

And this was no mere weather anomaly. As though possessed of a will of its own, the lightning plunged straight toward Section Chief Lee Youngho.

“Grrrrgh...!”

A tremendous electric shock lashed his entire body from head to toe.

Had it been a real bolt of lightning, he probably would have died on the spot.

‘It’s a skill...!’

Instinctively realizing this, he abandoned his offensive skill and activated a defensive one. Then, just as instinctively, he sprang away in search of a healer.

Just then...

BOOM!

“...!”

The intermediate demon began smashing the tree in its hands indiscriminately against the ground.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Aaaaargh!”

The Hyunmoo Guild members who had charged forward were exposed to the full force of the attack. They flew in all directions like bowling pins. Some who weren’t tanks broke their necks when they hit the ground and died.

‘I-I have to run!’

At the sight, Section Chief Lee Youngho immediately reversed direction.

His body was still trembling from the electric shock, and the number of subordinates who could tank for him had been cut in half.

‘There’s no way we can win this! I have to get out and ask the first string for backup...!’

But the instant he turned his back—

SLICE!

Lesser demons lying flat against the ground, concealed in the jungle, severed his foot.

“... Huh?”

He lurched, instantly losing his balance.

SLICE!

This time, his other foot was cut off.

... Huh?

THUD.

His body pitched straight to the ground.

And the crazed smiles of the demons descending on him were the last thing Section Chief Lee Youngho ever saw.

KYAAHAH! KYAH!

Why was it that, of all times, he remembered what he had told Suho outside the dungeon now?

[“Let your guard down for even a moment, and you’ll end up food for magic beasts, without even a corpse left behind.”]

That was true no matter how high a hunter’s rank was. Everyone had only one life.

“...!”

He died without even managing to scream.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Suho fought frantically against the demons, he suddenly realized that the Hyunmoo Guild members were nowhere to be seen.

“Are they all dead? Dogyun!”

“Yeah! I’m fine!”

“...”

Amazingly, Im Dogyun was still running around without a single scratch. Unlike the Hyunmoo Guild members, who had grappled with the demons, he had focused entirely on running away.

‘Looks like I picked a good guild member.’

Someone could be that reassuring as long as they did even one thing really well.

Suho chuckled and called to Esil.

“Esil! If you’re mostly done over there, come this way!”

“Got it!”

SHWICK!

Esil, who had been knocked into a corner by the intermediate demon earlier, had already gotten up and was hunting the lesser demons nearby. She pulled her spear out of a lesser demon’s body and ran over to Suho. Together, they craned their heads up and glared at the Transcended Intermediate Demon, which was on an outright rampage.

“We’ve pretty much dealt with the small fry. Now let’s hunt the boss.”

Had it understood him? The intermediate demon, which had been indiscriminately destroying everything in sight, suddenly froze. Then it slowly turned its head and looked down at Suho with utter arrogance.

[Heh... You intend to hunt me?]

For the first time, intelligible words emerged from its mouth. As though it found Suho ridiculous, it summoned every lesser demon under its command. In an instant, demons filled their entire field of vision.

But then its eyes widened as it noticed Esil standing beside Suho.

[Wait. Could you be... a demon of the Radir Clan?]

Only after gathering all the demons scattered around the area into one place did it finally notice that Esil’s aura was distinctly different from theirs.

[Hahahahaha! To think I’d stumble on such a windfall here!]

The intermediate demon burst into laughter, its eyes consumed by greed, and ordered its subordinates to charge.

[Seize her! If I drink Radir blood, I can grow even stronger!]

KYAAH! KYAAAAH!

The demons rushed them, drool streaming from their mouths. But Suho smiled faintly at the oncoming horde. When it came to overwhelming numbers, he was confident too.

He issued a charge command of his own.

“Arise.”

At that instant, black shadows began rippling from the corpses of the Hyunmoo Guild members.