Chapter 12 - Episode 2. Witch of Massacre (2)
Chapter 12: Episode 2. Witch of Massacre (2)
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Kanghun, an executive of the Red Fox Clan, was in quite a good mood today.
It had been a while since they had caught such worthwhile prey.
“Everyone, hold your positions and stick to what we practiced.”
“Yes, sir!”
At Kanghun’s command, the team moved in perfect coordination and surrounded the monster. They were facing a medium-sized beast with a single horn.
A One-Horned Beast.
These monsters were named One-Horned Beasts, Two-Horned Beasts, and so on according to their number of horns. They were difficult opponents unless one was an Adapter who had spent a fair amount of time in the Great Realm.
Usually, one first-stage Adapter could handle a single One-Horned Beast.
At present, Kanghun was the only first-stage Adapter on the team.
‘I don’t need to step in yet.’
Hunters of horned beasts usually formed parties of five so they could handle a One-Horned Beast without trouble.
This party was a little unique, though.
Four of its five members, including Kanghun, belonged to Red Fox Clan, a hunting clan.
None of them aside from Kanghun had even become first-stage Adapters yet, but they were already highly skilled at hunting One-Horned Beasts as a team. Before long, every one of them would become a first-stage Adapter.
[Leader, are you really going through with this?]
[Yes.]
[But that woman seems to have some sort of backing... Are you sure this is all right?]
[Don’t worry. I’ll take responsibility.]
Kanghun smacked his lips as he looked at the woman trembling beside him.
She was the only outsider in the party.
Her body was wrapped in a black robe, but it could not conceal her beauty. Scarlet hair occasionally showed through the folds of her robe, along with pale white skin. What caught Kanghun’s eye most were the accessories and items she carelessly revealed from time to time. Every single one was a luxury item.
Red Fox Clan, the hunting clan.
Any high-ranking Adapter who ruled this area knew that what they hunted was not actually monsters, but fellow Adapters.
And now, an innocent prey who knew nothing had walked straight into their grasp.
The woman’s affiliation and background were uncertain, but Kanghun did not take that too seriously. He had checked her with a spiritual power scanner before admitting her into the party.
‘She’s just a Non-Adapter, no matter what. So what if she has connections?’
Those items had probably been taken from travelers she had seduced with her looks. Kanghun’s gaze traveled over the woman’s voluptuous curves beneath her robe, filling with greed.
‘Maybe that worked on others until now, but things won’t go the way you want this time.’
Just then, the woman screamed as though she had made a mistake.
“Oh my, I’m sorry!”
“...It’s fine.”
Kanghun pulled the dagger embedded in his leather armor free and smiled.
‘This bitch.’
Perhaps it was her first time on a hunt, because everything she did was a mistake. Her positioning was a mess, and she often mistimed her attacks and struck allies like this. She was also the one who had lured the One-Horned Beast they were fighting over here.
‘She’s cute, so I’ll let it slide once.’
A moment later, though, the woman somehow brought over another One-Horned Beast.
“Eek! I’m sorry!”
“It’s fine. This works out even better. Let’s kill them both at once!”
They could handle two.
Kanghun was an Adapter nearing the end of the first stage, so he could fight about two One-Horned Beasts alone. He had been bored, so this was a welcome change.
He would catch the One-Horned Beasts, and catch the woman too.
Everything was fine until there were three One-Horned Beasts.
The woman who brought over the third one spoke again.
“Ahh, I’m sorry!”
“...Be careful next time.”
Kanghun’s expression hardened slightly.
Even for him, three One-Horned Beasts were too much.
‘What the hell is going on?’
Three One-Horned Beasts had appeared in such a short time. Where was she even finding all of them? It was enough to make one think ghosts were at work. At least they were One-Horned Beasts. If a Two-Horned Beast showed up...
“I’m sorrrry!”
The woman ran toward them, waving her hands wildly.
An enraged monster pursued her from behind. Its enormous body crushed broadleaf trees as it emerged. It stood at least ten feet tall.
And from its head protruded two thick horns.
‘...That fucking bitch?’
* * *
Jaehwan watched the scene from a distance.
They were all going to die at this rate.
They had fought the one-horned monsters well enough, but the moment a two-horned one appeared, they were all sent flying.
Jaehwan was a little disappointed.
He had thought everyone who had graduated from that Tower would be incredibly skilled... But watching them fight, he had begun to wonder how they had cleared the Tower at all.
And that woman, whose behavior was strange.
He could not tell whether she was trying to hunt or ruin the hunt.
She looked like the strongest one there. Were they on bad terms?
Jaehwan considered stepping in. He wanted to help, but he did not know exactly what was happening, so he could not make a hasty decision.
‘I'll watch a little longer.’
* * *
At last, the three One-Horned Beasts collapsed amid clouds of dust.
It had been a battle fought with every ounce of their strength.
‘Now only that bastard is left.’
If Kanghun had not been an Adapter nearing the end of the first stage, and if the Two-Horned Beast before them had not been a young specimen, they would have died several times over.
It also helped greatly that the clan master had obtained an intermediate skill from the upper clan, Fire King Hall.
Intermediate skill, 「Breath of the Fire King」.
「Breath of the Fire King」 doubled an Adapter’s combat power by igniting a faint flame on their sword. For first-stage Adapters who could not yet imbue their swords with spiritual power, it was a skill of truly overwhelming strength.
Kanghun had held out this long because he possessed that skill.
The excessive consumption of spiritual power made him dizzy, but he was certain they would win if they endured a little longer.
“Everyone, hold on a little longer! That thing is at its limit too!”
The exhausted Two-Horned Beast panted warily.
A Two-Horned Beast. What an unexpected prize.
Even if they did not take the woman’s items, if they could bring back the Two-Horned Beast’s horns...
“I’ll help too! Hup!”
“Gah?”
Kanghun trembled as he stared at the woman’s dagger lodged in his thigh.
The woman made an apologetic face.
“Haha, I’m sorry!”
“You fucking bitch!”
“Fucking bitch? That’s harsh. I was trying to help!”
The Two-Horned Beast charged.
Its horns flew toward him.
With a sharp clang, Kanghun’s sword snapped.
The Two-Horned Beast’s shadow covered his entire body.
“Daaammmn it!”
Then, in the next instant.
Something like a dazzling ray of light cut straight through the forest.
The Two-Horned Beast charging toward Kanghun lost its direction in an instant, then crashed down with a tremendous roar.
Splaaash!
Blue fluid burst from the Two-Horned Beast’s body and splattered Kanghun’s face. Kanghun could not understand what had happened.
Once the enormous body that had blocked out the sunlight was gone, a blade overflowing with black aura came into view.
It was a sword carrying such chilling sharpness that it made his skin crawl.
One glance was enough to tell that it was an extraordinary sword.
Then its owner appeared beneath the dazzling sun, and Kanghun could not help but gasp.
The man looked shabby, as though he had spent decades shut away in a tiny room. He looked nothing like the owner of such a magnificent sword.
Kanghun stared up at the disheveled figure in a daze before suddenly coming to his senses.
“W-who are you?”
To Jaehwan’s ears, the words sounded like this.
“■■Wh■o■■?!”
Nothing was ever easy, Jaehwan thought.
* * *
A little later, Jaehwan managed some simple communication with the group.
It was the result of using 「Doubt」 to its limit.
“Um, did you say your name was Jaehwan-nim?”
“Yeah.”
“You were just passing through?”
“Yeah.”
“And you can’t even speak the language here?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s strange. It’s extremely rare for a language barrier to arise here...”
“What?”
“...Still, are you really all right with our party taking the Two-Horned Beast’s corpse?”
“Yeah.”
“No take-backs?”
“Yeah.”
“Haha, you’re a cool one!”
Kanghun laughed heartily, in an excellent mood.
Of course he was happy. Today, he had hunted a Two-Horned Beast. What was more, he had been given its corpse in full.
“Ha ha ha! Hahahahaha!”
Jaehwan watched Kanghun for a moment before speaking.
“You look happy.”
“How could I not be? It’s a Two-Horned Beast! You don’t know what a Two-Horned Beast is?”
“Yeah.”
“...Hahaha! What a joke!”
They had taken down a Two-Horned Beast with a One-Horned Beast party. It could only have happened through the blessings of the gods.
A Non-Adapter would struggle even to wound one, while a first-stage Adapter had to give everything they had just to damage it. That was what a Two-Horned Beast was.
Even if they combined the entire party’s combat power, hunting one was impossible.
To be more precise, it was absolutely impossible.
It was not something determination alone could overcome.
Going by the information on their abilities that the System had quantified, they could die and come back to life a hundred times and still never hunt that Two-Horned Beast.
“How strong is a monster like that around here?”
“Well... It’s powerful to us, but our clan master could kill one easily.”
Kanghun’s face was full of pride as he said it.
Red Fox Clan was a medium-sized clan with the greatest momentum in this area.
“Is this clan master of yours strong?”
“...Surely you aren’t asking because you genuinely don’t know? You’ve never heard of Red Fox Clan?”
“Yeah.”
Kanghun’s eyebrow twitched.
“But you’ve been speaking informally this whole time. Are you really bad at talking?”
“Yeah.”
“Hah...”
Kanghun forced down the anger rising inside him and tried to smile. It certainly left a bad taste in his mouth, but enduring this much was nothing compared to what he had gained today.
After hunting a Two-Horned Beast, he would probably be promoted to a second-stage Adapter once this hunt was over.
At the back of the party, the clumsy woman watching all this felt sick to her stomach.
The woman who had brought three additional horned beasts over during the battle had pretended to be foolish, but as expected, she was no ordinary woman.
‘Ugh, what a waste.’
Mino, an assassin of Black Forest Hall, one of the Ten Halls of Chaos.
Among assassins, she was known as the Witch of Massacre.
The Witch of Massacre joining a One-Horned Beast party?
Anyone who knew her would have laughed themselves silly.
She was a formidable Adapter capable of facing even Three-Horned Beasts alone. There was only one reason she had joined a One-Horned Beast party.
‘Of all things, I had to accept a request like this.’
Some time ago, Mino had received a request from an Adapter to deal with Red Fox Clan’s One-Horned Beast party. The problem was that this was not an official request made through Black Forest Hall.
Assassins belonging to Black Forest Hall were forbidden from accepting private requests as a rule.
That was why she had not acted directly, and had gone through the trouble of luring monsters over. It would be troublesome if her identity was exposed.
‘Seriously... I thought the Two-Horned Beast would finish them all.’
Her unique skill, 「Lure」, was the ability that had earned her the nickname Witch of Massacre. Thanks to this skill, she could easily draw nearby monsters toward herself. She had dealt with human hunters this way many times before.
Everything had been going according to plan.
It had gone smoothly.
Until that man claiming to be a passing traveler appeared and killed the Two-Horned Beast.
‘Passing traveler, my ass...’
Mino glanced at the corpse of the Two-Horned Beast that Kanghun and the others had slung over their shoulders.
The image of the blade piercing through the Two-Horned Beast remained vivid in her mind. The others seemed not to have seen it properly, but Mino had witnessed that strike from very close by.
The fact that the man had hunted a Two-Horned Beast was not all that impressive on its own. One could find quite a few people in Chaos who could kill one.
The problem was how he had killed it.
The man had killed the Two-Horned Beast by simply stabbing it.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion