Damn Hunter Life Chapter 53
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Ox Successor: Except for Ja Hyeong-woo, minimize skill usage.
Ox Successor: Show the public that you’re successors even without skills.
Ox Successor: Focus on familiar-based attacks.
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What appeared before my eyes was a dense forest.
Jin Seol-woon, who took the lead, was the first to calmly point his sword.
Then beneath our feet, I could feel the Dragon familiar’s massive body writhing as it merged with the earth.
Woo Sae-geon looked around at the sharp-toothed monsters gradually closing in. Soon the order came.
“Myo Cho-hui, search for the boss.”
“Yes.”
Myo Cho-hui had her hair tied in twin braids and wore a fluttering modified hanbok skirt over short pants, dressed up to the nines for show.
However, her eyes and attitude toward battle were infinitely serious. As if this was absolutely no joke.
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<Eyes of Life That Recognize Other Life (Wood Attribute)>
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Roots extending underground search for the movement of life forms from the ground we’re standing on to distant places.
Though the roots may thin as they go farther, life is steady and tenacious. The roots that steadily burrow through the soil find the boss’s location.
Myo Cho-hui is currently the Twelve Zodiac’s only wood attribute user.
The Dragon familiar sensed her influence and naturally lowered its movement underground.
“……”
Myo Cho-hui closed her eyes and devoted all her senses to the skill. The raccoons, made fierce by the gate’s influence, gradually closed the distance toward Myo Cho-hui on the west side. Myo Cho-hui was defenseless.
Keeyak—! Finally, one charged at her. Myo Cho-hui, the smallest in build among the successors, looked like she’d be torn apart in no time.
At that moment, a dragon burst forth from the earth.
The Dragon familiar swept away two or three monsters with its tail and snatched up Myo Cho-hui to safety. Myo Cho-hui was still keeping her eyes closed, focused only on her role.
And the Twelve Zodiac’s war god surged toward the opposite side like a monster.
Swoosh! Scrape! The monsters were literally sliced by the twin swords. Behind Woo Sae-geon, who expressionlessly struck down raccoons, a real monster with earth properties roared.
Graaah!
The Ox familiar charged forward, putting a monster in its mouth and crunching it down.
Blood splattered everywhere. The ox followed Woo Sae-geon’s gaze as it circled around the formation, expanding the area of the round circle surrounded by raccoons.
……Woo Sae-geon’s Ox familiar is truly terrifying.
During its first manifestation, not all familiars listened well to their masters. They certainly weren’t human-friendly either.
Something went wrong with the Ox familiar’s diet, because when it was first summoned, it didn’t obey its master.
“Aaaaah!”
Far from obeying, as soon as it appeared, it tried to kill students like an evil spirit.
Ma Cheon-ah’s red Chollima doesn’t even compare in terms of intimidation. The large-headed Ox familiar was like some monster from hell.
Later, folklore experts predicted that the Ox familiar’s appearance was likely based on Jukwoo, the legendary beast said to even devour tigers, but anyway, the important thing was—
Instead of dismissing the untamed Ox familiar, Woo Sae-geon displayed his crazy determination.
“I’m breaking its spirit now. If you get overwhelmed from the start, there’s no answer.”
He climbed on top of that ferocious thing.
He forcibly grabbed its horns and was thrown off. He climbed back on. Next time he was flung away and crashed into a wall.
As he rolled around trying to avoid being trampled by hooves, he climbed back on again. His topknotted hair came undone and his scholar’s robe was torn to shreds.
Later, even Woo Sae-geon himself got pissed off and drew his sword.
It was a dominance struggle between familiar and master, so it wasn’t a problem for someone else to intervene.
Not caring that his whole body would be battered, he clung on, beat it up, and grappled with it.
A crazy ox and an even crazier Woo Sae-geon.
An ox that looked like it would commit cannibalism, and a human who was impossible to tell if he was a scholar, butcher, or executioner.
This continued for 3 hours in front of all the students watching. He finally beat the Ox familiar to a pulp and achieved human victory.
Woo Sae-geon, who had become a bloody mess like the ox, finally met eyes with the other hunters and successors who had been watching him the whole time with his blood-burst eyes—
Soon there were no students remaining on the spot. Only a very few successors barely managed to stomach it and hold their positions.
“……Ja Hyeong-woo! Hurry up and come heal him!”
The first to come to his senses and urge Ja Hyeong-woo, who had been in a daze, was Sa Ye-ho.
“That was rodeo. But then the rider keeps getting back on even after falling off, and it only ends when one of them dies.”
Not long ago, I was able to hear testimony about that time directly from Sa Ye-ho himself. The topic came up while gaming.
“Actually, we all sincerely submitted to Sae-geon hyung back then. His current regime seems to have come from there.”
Later, Woo Sae-geon gave what wasn’t quite an explanation, saying that at the time he had no leisure to look around while trying to control the Ox familiar, and he thought the students had already left and weren’t witnessing the gruesome sight.
……Believe it or not.
Just looking at Woo Sae-geon in stage videos, there are apparently still poor students who tremble in fear, unable to forget that day.
“……!”
Something swooped down from the sky like a small fighter jet and struck.
Woo Sae-geon stopped his twin swords mid-swing using only his arm muscles and chose to voluntarily roll on the ground. It was the right judgment. Otherwise, the Homunjjo’s beak would have pierced his shoulder.
Jin Seol-woon gulped and his Adam’s apple moved greatly. He blocked in front of me with his arm.
Since Homunjjo are flying monsters, it would be right for the Dragon familiar that can fly to step forward, but the Dragon familiar couldn’t easily step forward to backup team members.
“Ha.”
Woo Sae-geon, who had risen using his elbows while gripping twin swords in both hands, sneered coldly.
The ground was deeply gouged by Woo Sae-geon’s footsteps. He charged between the Homunjjo.
Even Woo Sae-geon can’t do everything alone. When surrounded by multiple monsters by himself, naturally small gaps appear.
Since he has no fear and just charges in recklessly, normally he should get his body pierced once.
What covers for that is Ja Hyeong-woo, the healer.
The raised staff emitted blue light. The same light bloomed on Woo Sae-geon’s right side.
Thunk—!
The Homunjjo’s attack hit Woo Sae-geon’s right side.
However, the next instant, Woo Sae-geon nonchalantly rotated his right sword and brought down the Homunjjo.
If you think Woo Sae-geon was acting nonchalant after getting injured, you’d be wrong. But it’s not that the attack failed either.
It would be correct to say the attack was ignored at that moment.
‘Wow……’
Ja Hyeong-woo’s healing skill, which I was actually seeing for the first time, left people completely dumbfounded.
The method that Ja Hyeong-woo once personally promoted and introduced, despite it being taxing on the healer.
It’s part of why Ja Hyeong-woo’s ability is sometimes praised as overpowered.
Healing an injured person’s wounds is too obvious.
If you throw a heal skill at someone just before they get hurt, you can pre-treat the injury they’ll receive within a few seconds in the future, making it as if they never got hurt at all.
However, you can’t protect the entire body, and only parts like the right side just now were possible.
That’s why Ja Hyeong-woo’s judgment is important. He must constantly watch all his comrades and insert heals at exactly the right time and place.
He has prevented deaths and fatal injuries that could have happened to successors so far. Living up to his nickname as guardian deity.
Hae Mi-jun could do the same thing if he tried, but that kid doesn’t have many injury recovery skills yet. He’s not as skilled as Ja Hyeong-woo either.
“Boss location confirmed.”
At that moment, finally Myo Cho-hui’s clear voice cut through the area.
Whoosh—! Her glaive fiercely slashed a raccoon. It was the second dealer joining the fray.
‘Really, even if I don’t do anything, they’ll handle it themselves.’
Even in the middle of the stage, I gained leisure thanks to others and took in my surroundings carefully.
Two dealers each spreading their wings on both flanks of the formation.
Ja Hyeong-woo actively pointing his healing staff toward both sides while monitoring tanker Jin Seol-woon’s health.
Jin Seol-woon securing space with the Dragon familiar so our five wouldn’t be overwhelmed by numerous monsters, and backing up me and the healer by facing monsters with his sword when necessary.
‘It seems like the Twelve Zodiac doesn’t need me either.’
Maybe I really am a nuisance. Though I didn’t come here by my own will, it might be natural for the entire nation to curse me for not fulfilling my role.
Even so.
‘I have to do what I can.’
So that those people aren’t the only ones bearing the weight of the successor title.
As I raised my hand flat, an S-grade weapon, a bow, was grasped with a familiar touch.
I nocked an arrow to the string.
* * *
“Whew……”
Woo Sae-geon exhaled deeply, shook off the blood on his sword, and reorganized his stance.
His stamina was still sufficient, and the Ox familiar wasn’t tired either.
The problem was, as expected, the Homunjjo’s flying ability.
The Homunjjo circled in the sky without coming down. Was it because Woo Sae-geon and Myo Cho-hui were being too wild? It seems those things also have survival instincts.
To catch monsters in the sky.
‘I had monster information beforehand, and I brought countermeasures.’
Woo Sae-geon had thought that in this battle, Jin Seol-woon would introduce using the Dragon familiar for attack rather than defense for the first time.
He expected that clever guy to figure it out himself……
‘He’s preoccupied with protecting Gyeon Gang-hyeon.’
Jin Seol-woon, who’s confused at the boundary between idol and hunter. He prioritizes protecting comrades more, and hasn’t yet learned the attitude of actively jumping into battle.
‘I could just give him an order.’
But actually, there was another method.
A method that even Woo Sae-geon himself considered unlikely, and even if it were realized before his eyes, he wouldn’t be entirely pleased……
Twang, his thoughts were cut off by the sound of a taut string snapping.
Woo Sae-geon looked up.
One Homunjjo dropped with a thud. Even at a glance, it was certain the Homunjjo had died instantly, with something embedded in its body.
An arrow emanating earthen energy.
Without time to check behind him, the remaining monsters began their attack. Woo Sae-geon’s blade immediately responded.
Another arrow flew to Woo Sae-geon’s left side.
Thunk!
A monster collapsed.
At that moment, Ja Hyeong-woo hesitated for the first time while trying to use a heal skill on Woo Sae-geon’s left shoulder.
Soon, unable to believe it, he stared wide-eyed at Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s back as he nocked the next arrow to the string.
Just now, his judgment and Gang-hyeon’s judgment had overlapped.
……And Gang-hyeon had been faster.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
