#123
“Ugh… Why…?”
“You crazy bastard!”
As Yoon Pa-ran rushed in, Won Dong-hyun released the dagger handle without hesitation and stepped back.
Lee Ha-min, clutching his stomach, slowly collapsed to the ground.
“Get a hold of yourself!”
“P-please save…”
Yoon Pa-ran hurriedly checked Lee Ha-min’s condition.
Although the stab was deep, considering it was a dagger, the bleeding was unusually severe. Lee Ha-min’s complexion rapidly turned pale.
“Now you react?”
“What…?”
Won Dong-hyun, who had stepped back a few paces, spoke mockingly. Only then did Yoon Pa-ran properly take in his words and looked up with a bewildered expression.
The man’s strangely glistening eyes were fixed directly on him.
After the day he nearly died at Won Dong-hyun’s hands, Yoon Pa-ran had naturally reported him to the Gate Management Office. However, due to insufficient evidence, no appropriate action was taken against him.
Some hunters testified that Won Dong-hyun and Yoon Pa-ran had an argument, but this only made things worse for Yoon Pa-ran. The unfair result was that both sides received disciplinary action.
Since then, Yoon Pa-ran knew how shameless and despicable Won Dong-hyun’s personality was.
Knowing this, Yoon Pa-ran couldn’t help but be surprised by this situation. Even so, he hadn’t thought he would go so far as to stab a hunter he’d just met.
His heart beat ominously. It was a bad sign that the man was acting so recklessly, beyond just picking a fight with him.
Especially troubling was the fact that Won Dong-hyun’s actions were clearly not impulsive. Even for Won Dong-hyun, prioritizing attacking another hunter in a gate where an anomaly was occurring…
What on earth is happening in this gate?
“Just bring him back barely alive.”
He ordered the hunters beside him. It was Won Dong-hyun’s habit to always keep lackeys around him.
However, even in his tone, Yoon Pa-ran sensed a subtle difference from the past. While before he would at least pretend to be friendly by tossing them items, now he was giving real orders as if they were truly his subordinates.
Only then did Yoon Pa-ran notice something unsettling about the four people approaching him.
…Why do they all have such blank expressions?
“……”
Yoon Pa-ran tensed up and quickly stood. His face hardened with an ominous premonition.
Coincidentally, the place where he encountered them was a round clearing. It was unfortunate to be standing in such an open space in the dense forest. It was good for being surrounded, making it difficult to face multiple opponents.
After some consideration, Yoon Pa-ran gradually moved away from Lee Ha-min. Lee Ha-min had gone quiet with his eyes closed, perhaps having fainted.
…Surely he hasn’t died already. I left the dagger in to prevent more bleeding.
“Grab him!”
“Uwaah!”
A large-bodied hunter lunged at Yoon Pa-ran with a roar.
Yoon Pa-ran, who had been carefully watching the direction of his approach, suddenly twisted his body and kicked the man’s waist.
“Ugh…!”
As the large man made a choked sound, Yoon Pa-ran drew his sword like lightning. The sword, drawn smoothly, slashed across the man’s thigh as soon as it left its sheath.
“Argh!”
“You bastard!”
“Rush him all at once!”
As if they had never had blank expressions, Won Dong-hyun’s subordinates began to seriously surround Yoon Pa-ran. To avoid being encircled by them, Yoon Pa-ran quickly retreated.
One of them seemed to have a provocation-type skill. Sensing an invisible energy coiling around his ankle, Yoon Pa-ran quickly rolled to escape the skill’s range.
“Got you!”
As he was getting up, a fireball flew towards his face. Yoon Pa-ran, who had already perceived the temperature change, accurately shot a stream of water towards the flame.
He fired another stream of water in such quick succession that there seemed to be no time difference. The water stream accurately hit the chin of the hunter who had shot the flames.
“Urgh!”
Are they all around B-rank level?
In an instant, two of them were sprawled on the ground. And the remaining two came swinging their swords. Even while blocking two swords simultaneously, Yoon Pa-ran hid all of his newly acquired abilities just in case.
“You stupid bastards!”
When the four of them failed to subdue Yoon Pa-ran despite rushing in together, Won Dong-hyun stepped forward. His face, now quite angry, soon scanned various parts of Yoon Pa-ran’s body with a strange gaze.
“That sword, I haven’t seen it before. Seems quite high-performance, huh?”
His tone suggested that Yoon Pa-ran couldn’t possibly fight this well without the sword’s abilities.
Indeed, at the time when he nearly died at Won Dong-hyun’s hands, Yoon Pa-ran’s skills weren’t that great. It was before he obtained the [Sacred Energy] skill, and after that incident, he had practiced relentlessly, gritting his teeth.
Yoon Pa-ran deliberately didn’t correct his misunderstanding. If he wanted to underestimate him, there was no need to get upset about it.
At this, Won Dong-hyun’s expression became even more sneering.
“Oh, right, I heard some interesting news recently.”
His gaze continued to scan Yoon Pa-ran’s sword and shoes. Each time, the mockery and greed on his face became clearer, making Yoon Pa-ran curious.
What kind of interesting news did he hear about his equipment to give him a breather like this, interrupting the flow of the fight?
“I heard you’re an orphan? And you’re even taking care of other orphans.”
At his mention of the orphanage, Yoon Pa-ran’s face subtly hardened.
“How did an orphan like you get those items? Did you really sell your body for charity?”
Yoon Pa-ran tried to manage his expression for now. He didn’t know how much detail the man knew about the orphanage.
He didn’t pay attention to the nonsense about selling his body. It had been Won Dong-hyun’s occasional insult ever since Yoon Pa-ran ignored his invitation to a bar the first time.
However, what Won Dong-hyun said next could no longer be ignored.
“Right, I think the name was Yoonseul Orphanage… Even the name is exactly…”
Yoon Pa-ran’s eyes flashed as he immediately activated his skill. From the moment Yoonseul’s name left the man’s mouth, he had no intention of backing down anymore.
“Ack!”
“Argh!”
Two streams of water flew out in an arc, instantly hitting the thighs of the two subordinates standing behind Won Dong-hyun.
Thanks to their carelessness, Won Dong-hyun was suddenly left alone.
“You, you bastard…!”
Yoon Pa-ran stared at him with ice-cold eyes.
How can I shut that mouth? I need to make sure he never mentions the orphanage again.
“How dare you! How dare you! Those items…!”
But Won Dong-hyun’s condition was quite strange. From the moment they met, Yoon Pa-ran had thought his eyes were unpleasantly gleaming, but now they had even become bloodshot.
Soon, his body began to tremble. Then, something seemed to swell and bulge from under his skin, as if about to burst out.
“No…”
“How dare you!”
Even at the moment when his body seemed about to explode, he revealed his greed while staring at Yoon Pa-ran’s sword. This sudden situation was all incredibly bizarre.
Moreover, this cursed anomaly didn’t stop there.
“Ugh, uh, uh…!”
Won Dong-hyun’s subordinates, who had been knocked down by Yoon Pa-ran, suddenly began to convulse, twisting their bodies. Eventually, something like black haze rose from their bodies.
“Kuh, keurk, kkeok.”
Making sounds like broken wind-up dolls, they rose from their spots in grotesque forms. Even with their leg muscles clearly severed from Yoon Pa-ran’s attacks.
“S-save, save…”
Even Lee Ha-min, who had been stabbed in the stomach, rose from his spot, his whole body trembling.
“Crazy…”
Without time to be surprised by these eerie events, they all rushed at Yoon Pa-ran at once. Dodging the swords and skills flying at him incessantly, Yoon Pa-ran swallowed dry saliva from the tension.
“Yoon, Pa-ran… the likes of you, ga…!”
Especially, the vicious threats from Won Dong-hyun, who started charging from the front, sent chills down his spine.
What the hell is wrong with this bastard?
The men shrouded in black energy exerted several times more power than before. Each time he blocked their swords, his legs, holding firm, sank deep into the ground.
Suddenly, Yoon Pa-ran recalled what Dan Joo-hyuk had said about the inside of the Russian gate. He said that hunters who touched that strange stone went berserk like this too. Disregarding their injuries.
I wondered why they were so boldly attacking other hunters, but it was related to that stone.
As soon as he made this judgment, Yoon Pa-ran infused his sword with the [Sacred Energy] skill.
“Keurgh?”
The hunters who had been rushing in with momentum couldn’t withstand the sword strikes infused with [Sacred Energy]. The same was true for the flame skill that had turned dark red.
Riding the momentum, Yoon Pa-ran cut down the small branches and rushed straight at Won Dong-hyun. It seemed that he might have important hints.
“Damn it…!”
However, Yoon Pa-ran, who had been swinging his sword infused with the skill, had to quickly retreat without achieving his goal.
“S-sa, save, keurk, save me…”
This was because Won Dong-hyun had suddenly pulled Lee Ha-min in front of him like a shield.
If I strike Lee Ha-min now, will he be able to survive?
“Ha, still stupid as ever.”
A moment’s hesitation created an opening. With a sneering voice, Won Dong-hyun kicked Yoon Pa-ran hard.
“Bastards who survive on item buffs are all the same.”
“Urgh…!”
Yoon Pa-ran’s body, pushed by the tremendous force, floated in the air.
Even as he grimaced from the pain surging in his stomach, Yoon Pa-ran desperately reached out. He finally grabbed the back of Lee Ha-min’s neck, distancing both of them from Won Dong-hyun.
Lee Ha-min thrust his sword at Yoon Pa-ran, who was trying to save him, with creaking movements. Before that sharp sword could reach him, Yoon Pa-ran quickly activated his skill.
It was fortunate that Won Dong-hyun had underestimated him to the end, seeing him as someone who only relied on items.
For now, I need to purify Lee Ha-min’s condition first.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
