Chapter 589
Countless beams of light converged and converged, transforming into a massive pillar of light.
Attack magic and debuffs rained down from above, and all their might was poured into spears and arrows that fell like a shower.
But…
It was already too late to back down. For them, and for me.
Step.
I walked straight toward the brilliant flashes of light.
As I moved, ultra-high heat erupted from the blade of the White Flame spear slashing down, scorching everything around me.
Swoooosh!
Space twisted. Blazing blue-white hellfire forcibly dispelled all magic, devouring the incoming mana-imbued weapons as they rushed toward me.
Fwoooosh!
“…!”
“…!”
A haze rose with the surging heat. Beyond it, I saw hundreds of stunned eyes.
The security chief, realizing all their attacks had been useless, drew his bow again and fired a ten-shot Multi Shot while shouting,
“Formation on!”
SWOOSH!
Instead of standing still, his form darted like the wind, retreating behind the tanks.
Fast judgment and precise attack—he lived up to being an A-rank hunter of Ares Guild, but…
‘He picked the wrong opponent this time.’
I muttered inwardly as I punched forward. My shoulder and arm rotated smoothly, and my fist shot through the air.
Whoosh! Bang!
A short but powerful punch.
At the same time, compressed air exploded outward, whipping up a mini-typhoon around me. The ten arrows streaking in like beams twisted away in the swirling wind.
Whish, whish! Crash!
As the deflected arrows struck all over the lobby, I had already closed the ten-meter gap and appeared right before the security chief.
“You should’ve gone easy. Then I wouldn’t have had to hit so hard.”
Now, it was far too close to draw the bow again.
Instead of answering, he swung his bow at me. A faint metallic sound—at the tip, a blade shot out, aimed at my chest.
Shhh!
He must have honed that move with thousands, tens of thousands of repetitions.
But speed is always relative. To my eyes, his attack looked laughably slow and feeble.
I could stop it with one hand.
Clack.
The blade, just half a hand away, trembled in midair.
In a moment too brief to even call an instant, I saw unhideable shock flash across the chief’s eyes as I squeezed down on his bow’s grip.
Crunch!
Power beyond human limits shattered the protective magic on the weapon and snapped the bow, crafted from monster bone.
Before the archer could even scream at losing his prized weapon, my palm struck his chest.
Boom.
A palm technique that damages from within.
With a small explosion, his body was sent flying like a cannonball.
The moment he slammed into the lobby wall and coughed up blood, screams and shouts erupted from all sides. A storm of attacks rained down on me.
Whish-whish, bam-bam!
Front, back, left, right. Thirty-six directions.
Watching the beams fly from every direction, I gave a faint laugh.
The blazing yang energy I drew from my dantian formed a fire dragon, fusing into my spear.
Flame Dragon God Spear, First Form: Flame Dragon’s Tail.
Fwoosh! KABOOM!
As I spun gracefully, the spear blazed, and swirling flames blocked and incinerated everything.
When my foot landed without hesitation, the marble floor crumbled to sand.
Shhhhh!
A fierce wind brushed my ear. Somewhere amid the chaos, someone shouted frantically.
“Stop him—!”
BOOM!
Their shout was drowned in the explosion. The dozens of tanks frozen before me were flung back, screaming as they were sent flying.
“Ugh!”
“Aaagh!”
Steel-hard bodies and hundreds of raid experiences meant nothing at this moment.
Overwhelming power was more than enough to break and destroy anything in its path.
But even as the hunters in the lobby, after much hesitation, turned hostile and rushed me, they did not stop coming.
Their weapons glinted in the broken light of a half-shattered chandelier as they attacked from all sides.
Papapap!
Cheeks, neck, armpits, waist, calves…
I saw and sensed everything.
It wasn’t just my body that exceeded human limits.
Even before my brain could process the information sent from my sharpened senses, my body was already moving.
Crunch!
I trapped someone’s sword arm in my armpit and broke it.
Thud!
An elbow smashed a solar plexus.
Tap, whish-whish!
I snatched an arrow aiming for my throat and flung it back the way it came.
As I spun and struck at the crowd of enemies closing in, brief screams pierced my ears.
“Aagh!”
“Ugh!”
And it wasn’t just happening where I was—screams erupted throughout the lobby.
Dodging flying weapons, throwing punches and kicks, swinging the spear—each time, someone’s body crashed to the floor or was flung away like a shell.
“Don’t hesitate! Fight!”
Crash! KABOOM!
“Hit him all at once!”
Whish-whish-whish!
Two hundred to one.
No—it was a raid deployed against a single human. But the ones retreating weren’t me—it was them.
Magic? Weapons?
Nothing could reach me. I dove deep into their ranks, wildly disrupting and smashing their formation—leaving them alive, but just barely.
I seared the memory of terror into them, so they would never dare rush me again.
Crunch!
“Aaagh!”
Boom.
Before one scream ended, three more collapsed. By the time three screamed, five had fallen. They were sheep; I was a great tiger.
The only difference was my restraint from slaughter.
‘I am not a monster. I am not a monster.’
I had to repeat it again and again, to cool the rage ready to explode within me.
Those who crossed the line never return. That’s what happened to Jokpil, the Black Heaven group, and Seok Gojun, who stepped onto the boundary for his own purposes.
But I was a hunter. I was a martial artist.
I suddenly recalled something a man who went from the world’s greatest assassin to the world’s best physician once said—
‘The weak kill, but the truly strong can save. No matter the situation, they can prevent innocent deaths.’
If I were weaker or more evil than I am now, everyone here would have died.
But I was not a monster—I had the power to save.
“Everyone… move aside.”
Boom!
With a wave of my palm, dozens were swept away.
Was it the aftereffect of the long, relentless fight and the One Slash? I was endlessly exhausted and tired.
Yet everything felt slow and clear. I could see every movement, every expression.
Among the shattered shards of tower shields and the broken staves of the magicians, the magic stones embedded in their heads vibrated and shone with radiant light.
But before any of their magic could take shape, I was already among the twenty-odd magicians.
“Ma-magic shie—!”
Too late.
Shh, thud!
The magician trying to raise a defensive spell stiffened and collapsed.
And not just him. The instant ten fingers, ten blasts of wind hit their pressure points, they all crumpled like a collapsing wall.
But this was the Ares Guild headquarters, where only the very best were chosen. High-rank hunters most wouldn’t even encounter were as common as grains of sand.
“Binding!”
Swish!
Marble fragments and the ruined wall, where an oil painting once hung, shot out vine-like tendrils that whipped around my ankles.
Crunch!
A magical rope appeared out of nowhere, binding my wrists with overwhelming force.
Probably the magician team leader. An A-rank magician I’d seen on TV glared with murderous intent and said,
“Kill him.”
In that instant—
Shhh!
Above my head, a shadow flickered and dropped like mist. I realized it was a short dagger cutting through the air and scoffed to myself.
‘Look at these bastards.’
Two things became clear.
First, Code Red meant the target was to be killed, no questions asked. Second, there was no need to spare those truly out to kill me.
‘If that’s the case…’
I welcomed it.
Boom!
A brief flash of fire, and with a roar, the would-be assassin’s limbs snapped and he was sent flying, unable to even scream.
I burned away all the ropes and tendrils in the stunned A-rank magician’s eyes, casually turning the assassin’s short sword in my hand.
“What are you doing? Use your magic.”
“I-ice blo—?”
Crash! Thud!
The short sword, moving like a flash, shattered the magic stone in the staff and plunged deep into the magician’s abdomen. The pain from the mana backlash would be unimaginable.
I struck his chest as he screamed.
Boom.
This palm technique is fatal to anyone, but especially devastating to those who directly handle mana, like magicians and healers.
In that sense, this guy—collapsed and white-eyed—would never work as a magician again, even if he survived.
I looked at the unconscious magician, bearing a wound beyond recovery, and spoke.
“Anyone else want to retire while you’re at it?”
No answer? “Then just take a nap.”
Whoosh! Thud!
With another burst of wind, the remaining magicians all collapsed meekly, and silence filled the lobby.
The wall clock showed only three minutes had passed since the battle started. But of the nearly two hundred hunters, fewer than one in ten were still on their feet.
WEEEEE-OOOO!
The sharp, endless alarms echoed in the aftermath.
The tanks were embedded in the walls, the dealers gasped in pain, and the magicians stared blankly at the ceiling, frozen in place.
And then… me. I looked down on them all.
A hoarse voice slipped from my lips.
“Don’t stand in my way again. There won’t be a second warning.”
(T/N: Go Taekyung! I can feel your intensity here.)