Chapter 164 – Great Plains of Barrastan (15)
At Sungjin’s sharp words, the Hunters took a moment to give each other glances. It was for just a few seconds, but they could already know instinctively.
‘This man could kill all of us if he wanted. The reason why he hasn’t already is because of his own reasons.’
And because of it, they felt less and less inclined to protect Edward. Reading the Hunters’ body language, Sungjin repeated himself assertively.
“One more time, I have no interest in anyone other than that Magician. I don’t wish to create collateral damage. Get out of my way, and nothing will happen to the rest of you.”
Now Sungjin’s words caused a divide among the Hunters. The will to fight plummeted and the hands that held the weapons were loosened. Sungjin smiled inwardly. But then he heard Ed’s voice from the back.
“Who are you? Why are you attacking me?”
Sungjin didn’t give much of an answer.
‘Sins of your previous life.’
It wasn’t like he could give that reasoning.
“Please let’s talk it out. I don’t want to cause trouble to other hunters. Please put down your weapon.”
Sungjin found himself relaxing hearing those words. Edward wouldn’t have remembered what he had done in the last life, but there was a thing or two he had wanted to hear before killing him.
“Rawr!”
There was a sudden roaring of a beast. Sensing something was going on, Sungjin quickly made his way towards the hunters. Seeing Sungjin suddenly dash forward, the hunters couldn’t react and just stood in place. Sungjin gritted his teeth.
‘So annoying.’
He put away the Moon Specter and pulled it back out as he said,
“Ghastly Wail”
“Kyaaa!”
Moon Specter began to screech once freed from the scabbard. Like Moses splitting the Red Sea, Moon Specter scattered the hunters and revealed Edward in the back. He was mounted on top of a great Siberian Tiger.
His request for talking it out must have not been out of his desire for peaceful resolution, but to buy time to summon the tiger. Sungjin quickly ran towards him.
But just one hunter, Juggernaut, stood in his way. He stood stoically in spite of the screeching Moon Specter. He must have some sort of defense against fear as a tank.
He completely gave up on attack and had only the shield in his hands as he stood in Sungjin’s way. Sungjin was going to ignore him and go around, but then the Juggernaut took out a strange stone statue.
It was a strange helix shaped twist coming out of a flat plate-like surface. And on it was a smear of blood. Sungjin had thought the statue had a curious appearance, but he had no time to be wasting on it at the moment.
“Damn it, move!”
But then the Juggernaught used the timing when Sungjin moved past him to say,
“Guidance of the Old Gods”
The active skill was activated, and then the stone statue began to sprout octopus-like tentacles which came flying towards Sungjin. Sungjin cut the tentacles apart with a single strike, but he accidentally let one pass his guard, and it wrapped around his heels. Sungjin shouted,
“What is this?”
He cut the tentacle in irritation, but the severed tentacle continued to hang on as if it was still alive. Sungjin was filled with wrath, and he completely cut it down to pieces. But the stone statue continued to spill forth more tentacles. Enraged, Sungjin cut away all the tentacles trying to grab at him and effortlessly broke the statue.
‘Kheehe…’
The statue gave off a strange cry. Once the statue was broken, the Tentacles holding onto Sungjin lost their vitality and withered on the spot. Sungjin glared at the Juggernaut as if he were going to kill him.
Juggernaut who even withstood the shrieking of Moon Specter found himself instinctively backtracking when he saw Sungjin’s expression. Sungjin turned to look at Edward. While Juggernaut was buying time, Edward had managed to put a large distance between them with the help of the tiger.
Sungjin paused to look down at his belt, but there were no more items available for himself to use. He had already consumed them all during the fight with Dragon Arcaiard. Sungjin began to run towards Edward on his feet as he called Serin.
“Serin”
He only said her name, but Serin knew why Sungjin was calling her. He had wanted her to shoot down the Tiger Ed was riding. But Serin did not raise her bow. She just pretended to play dumb.
“W…what is it oppa?”
She asked. Sungjin looked at her and said,
“Shoot that…”
But when he saw the conflict on her face,
“…Fine.”
He stopped. Sungjin turned and watched Ed run away on the Tiger, dazed. The Tiger was very fast. It wasn’t possible to catch up to the tiger without Cain Rajenta or Shadowrun available. And this Barrastan Plain was a very large area. Even with the map limitation, it was likely that he would not be able to locate Ed before the time got over.
“Damn it!”
Sungjin kicked the ground in anger. The Hunters began to edge away from Sungjin when they saw this. Even Juggernaut who had put up resistance until the end slowly moved away in fear of being attacked in retaliation. Only Serin remained behind and walked up to him.
“Oppa, maybe there was some sort of misunderstanding…”
Sungjin cut her off.
“The one misunderstanding is you. That guy, he’s the one responsible for completely screwing up the previous raid.”
“But there could have been…”
“No matter his reasons, It’s safer to cut the problem at the roots before, is it not?”
“But…”
“But what? What are you going to do if he fires a spell at you from the back during the middle of the fight?”
Serin couldn’t say anything more to Sungjin’s words. Sungjin was about to say more to Serin when the Operator spoke from the Cube.
[The Chosen One Requested your teleportation.]
And soon, Baltren’s image appeared from the cube. He urgently called out.
“Kei, please come and help. Right now…”
But he couldn’t continue to speak because he was too busy blocking someone’s spear.
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Sungjin saw Serin who was silently looking down at the ground and said,
“Let’s have a conversation when we get back to Ninety Nine Nights.”
And then he said, “Accept.”
Sungjin moved to the other dimension. Baltren’s Dimension was in a mess. It appeared as though someone must have screwed up the initial Guerrilla warfare phase because the main Demon Army was present at the scout camps. The Hunters were putting up resistance with Baltren as the anchor, but the odds were overwhelming to begin with.
Few hunters were already lost, laying on the ground. Quickly grasping the situation, Sungjin hastily ran in to help the others.
“Uaahp!”
He cut down all the Demons that approached him.
“Kaa!”
Even as he watched the Demon cry out in pain, Sungjin was recalling Edward’s face from earlier.
‘It was…such a good opportunity…’
And each time he had that thought, anger would fill his mind. One by one, the Hunters who were surrounded by the enemies were saved by Sungjin’s efforts, and the tables were turned. But in the middle of it all,
[The Chosen One Requested your teleportation.]
Nada had called him this time.
“Hey Sungjin, we are planning on fighting the main force soon… we lost a hunter during the Guerrilla phase. Would you please come and help us out?”
The situation on that side was much better. Sungjin said to her,
“Here, let me finish with the boss on this side first. Wait for me.”
“Alright okay.”
Sungjin moved dimensions where Nada was waiting after he had finished helping Baltren defeat the leader Zeratar. When Nada saw Sungjin who was bathed in blood, she asked,
“…Will you be okay, Kei?”
She knew it was likely that none of that blood was his, but she thought that perhaps he might be physically exhausted. But Sungjin nodded and said,
“I am okay. I’m okay so, let’s get going.”
Nada thought that he was acting slightly strange, but she still turned to the other hunters to tell them,
“Then let us begin.”
One of the Hunter faced the main army and chanted,
“Fireball!”
And let loose a spell.
‘Boom!’
Flames erupted with a loud bang. The enemies came charging in; it was a staggering number of foes. The other hunters had looked upon the army with fear, but Sungjin actually welcomed their sight.
Ever since he lost track of Edward, he felt like if he didn’t swing his sword, he would become angry. So once Sungjin ended his third raid, he spent the remaining time to search for trolls.
The raid this time did not yield all that much. He had spent a long time assisting the ‘Chosen Ones’ and searching for trolls in other dimensions proved to be difficult (for the same reason as Edward).
Either way, Sungjin used up all his time, and he was summoned by the Operator to the Hunter’s Hall.
*
‘Woong’
Sungjin arrived at the room with endless rows of columns along with the sound. The Hunter’s Hall which had been filled as far as the eye could see was now looking empty with only a few hunters standing interspersed.
Sungjin turned his head to look around, hoping to get a glimpse of Edward. Of course, it wasn’t like harming someone else was possible in this room. There was no way the Operator would allow that.
[Congratulations. The Hunters in this room have successfully cleared fourteen chapters.]
[Of the 7,310,067,613 Hunters who had participated in the first Raid]
[There are currently 6710 Hunters still remaining.]
Sungjin thought about it carefully.
‘…6710?’
There were more left alive than he had thought.
‘How many was it last time? I think there was a lot less alive by this point.’
He was right. From this point onwards, he began to run into Hunters he met before more and more often due to the decreasing number of Hunters still alive. But 6710 was far more than last time.
He didn’t remember the exact figure, but it didn’t seem likely that Sungjin would run into his old teammates anytime soon with such a large crowd of people.
[Everyone is among the top 10,000 people]
[And have proven your own strengths.]
[Please survive until the end and prove the strength of Humanity.]
[And become the savior of the specie.]
After the Operator’s words, Sungjin was teleported back to the Black Market. Sungjin sat down at the teashop as if collapsing onto it.
“What should I get for you, Sir Hunter?”
Sungjin replied to the owner,
“Anything cold.”
“Understood.”
Sungjin mulled over the events of the raid. Lots of things had happened, but Edward was the first thing on his mind. Sungjin gripped his fist and slammed on the innocent table. He had hunted the Hidden boss solo and earned many items. The Raid itself was a success, but not being able to kill Edward was most disappointing.
“I have brought your order.”
She soon brought a cup of Iced Tea half filled with Ice. Sungjin didn’t worry about the Cold and drank it all in one go.