Chapter 180
“Chase! Kill! Take their heads!”
Eyes filled with madness, the monsters puffed air like a bellows while chasing their prey.
No... on closer look, the monsters weren’t monsters at all—they were Do-Jin and a squad of players.
“Hand over your heart!” one player shouted.
“Give me your experience!” Do-Jin yelled.
“The master’s recovery depends on it!” another player hollered.
“We have to catch up with Kang Jae-Hyeok’s level!” Do-Jin yelled.
Unable to endure it, the players of Guardian turned their glares on Do-Jin. Every time this red-haired boy opened his mouth, he ruined their righteous atmosphere.
Oblivious, Do-Jin kept his crazed gaze fixed on the backs of the fleeing dark elves.
“Stop fleeing and fight me, you cowards!”
With a growl, Do-Jin slowly closed toward one of the elves, only for it to swerve into a shadowy patch of forest and vanish.
Damnit! I didn’t even blink. Where did he go!?
Leveraging their characteristics, the dark elves disappeared seamlessly into the forest one by one.
“Ugh. Fight with me!”
Do-Jin panted like a dog in summer, but his eyes moved rapidly, scanning the tree line.
The dark elves’ grey skin blended perfectly with the shadows of the forest. They quietly sank deeper into the forest while listening to the humans' shouts.
“Sacrifice our hearts? These crazy invaders are actually saying such terrible things!”
“How could such a disaster happen... ”
They had wanted to punish the humans for damaging the forest, but little had they known that a monster dwelt among them. They’d climbed over the humans’ walls, unaware that they were climbing into their graves...Only they and a few other kinsmen had escaped that monster’s onslaught.
“Your kind really are blessed under the night. I bet you're used to coming and going as you please, huh?”
“Who?”
The dark elves whirled. Then they blanched.
Before them stood the monster from earlier, so close that the elves wondered if the human had been walking with them from the start.
“Why... why doesn’t our stealth work on you?”
The stealth abilities of the dark elves were exceptional. For them, disappearing into the dark forest was as easy as a fish disappearing into clouded waters.
Nevertheless, they couldn’t escape from the grasp of this young human.
Jae-Hyeok smiled gently while drawing his sword.
Screams filled the forest.
......
When the team leaders caught up with Jae-Hyeok, the grass and bushes were tipped in a red dew, and limbs lay scattered across the forest floor.
“We’ll take it from here.”
At the team leaders’ signals, the members of Guardian advanced on the half-conscious dark elves. They plunged blades into their chest and began to carve, prizing out the elves’ warm hearts amid their ghastly shrieks.
It was a horrific scene.
Even Jae-Hyeok, who was determined to be more brutal than anyone else to achieve his goals, had to look away.
The team leaders also had shaky hands. They couldn’t bear to look into the eyes of the dark elves filled with fear and resentment.
When the screams died down, Jae-Hyeok forced himself to look back, engraving the hellish sight in his mind as he asked, “Did you get it?”
The team leaders shook their heads.
“Not this time, either.”
The hearts of the dark elves had properties like ice. The moment they came into contact with the air, they melted and disappeared without a trace.
“If it doesn’t drop and it can’t be harvested, is it best to transport the entire body or capture them alive?”
“Considering the usual condition of their hearts, I think it’s meaningless. In addition, avoiding the inspection of the Association wouldn’t be easy.”
“Then, we can only keep hunting until the heart drops?”
“Yes...”
The team leaders' replies came heavily. The day was long, and it promised more to come.
Without much thought, the players began setting fire to the bodies. They didn’t want the young lady and the rest of Jae-Hyeok’s friends to witness this carnage without need.
“Uh? Uhh?”
However, the flames spread faster than they had expected, catching on the surrounding bushes first and then spreading to the trees.
The fire grew rapidly until it lit the sky like a beacon. Dark elves from every corner of the forest saw it.
“Heaven’s wrath!”
“It’s the work of the invaders!”
“Humans... I won’t forgive you!”
Soon, the sound of rustling reached Jae-Hyeok’s and the others’ ears.
"T-this! Retreat! Retreat!”
The team leaders recognized the situation immediately; soon hundreds of dark elves would converge on their location. They needed to leave.
Considering how they’d treated the last few groups of dark elves, the dark elves wouldn’t kill them cleanly if they stayed.
Meanwhile, Jae-Hyeok just laughed. So this strategy works, too.Who would’ve thought that setting the forest on fire would have a mob-gathering effect? Jae-Hyeok’s black hair fluttered in the wind as he leaned forward.
“Bloom.”
Dark elves began pouring out of the thicket then, only for an arc of sword aura to immediately cross through the leading three elves’ necks.
Nevertheless, the enraged dark elves didn’t falter. They charged over the corpses of their slain kin and headed for the culprits who burned their forest.
Jae-Hyeok stood alone against the oncoming wave of dark elves and knew the challenge he was to face.
I’ll have to abandon the sword-drawing technique.
Kang-style sword-drawing was a pinnacle art for a one-hit kill. But the technique had its own limits. In particular, it was impractical when facing a large number of enemies. Sheathing the sword took time. Moreover, with each kill, blood and grime would accumulate on the blade and damage the scabbard on the next draw. He had already experienced this during the Leech King raid.
In addition...
Jae-Hyeok thought of one of the effects of Iyarugt.
* There is a rare chance of activating Hell Sword with consecutive attacks.
Hell Sword—it was a skill that only had a chance of activating with consecutive attacks. Jae-Hyeok had long wondered about its power. However, because the odds of activation were so slim and because he often used sword-drawing arts to kill in one strike, the Skill had never activated.
Now's my chance. Let’s see if I can trigger it.
Jae-Hyeok stepped back while parrying dozens of daggers. He slapped the elves’ blades into each other with the flat of his sword, causing them to lock together. Then, with a thrust, Jae-Hyeok drove Iyagurt between the intersection of daggers and wrenched it like a lever. The elves’ wrists snapped under the sudden force, and the daggers were pulled from their hands.
Spinning, he then reversed his grip on Iyagurt and met another cluster of blades.
“S-strong!”
The dark elves cried in disbelief as their attacks were blocked by the red sword as if drawn to it by a magnet.
It had only been eight seconds since they’d reached the human with their blades drawn. Yet the skill that the human had demonstrated was simply too shocking.
The rage-fueled dark elves came to their senses.
“He isn’t an easy opponent! If we want to break through here, we have to defeat him first!”
The dark elves regained their composure and reformed their formation.
Some fell back to the rear and armed themselves with bows instead of daggers, while others hid in the shadows of the forest to use their Skills at the right time.
However, that only made things easier for Jae-Hyeok. A ranged force was only as good as it could keep space from the enemy, and that was not easily done against an opponent like Jae-Hyeok, whose stats greatly surpassed the dark elves’.
Jae-Hyeok stepped forward and leaped dozens of meters over the heads of the vanguard. His target was the archers who had just placed arrows on their bowstrings.
“You... ”
“Aaack!”
“Cough!”
The dark elves had at least managed to resist when they were armed with daggers. Now, they fell like wheat.
And as a result—
[The 10th combo has been achieved!]
[The 15th combo has been achieved!]
[The 20th combo has been achieved!]
Jae-Hyeok was able to unleash an uninterrupted string of attacks into the press of dark elves.
Iyarugt trembled with joy, the blade drenched in blood from tip to neck. The blade’s reaction was similar to when it had absorbed Jeong Jae-Uk’s demonic energy.
[The 30th combo has been achieved!]
[Hell Sword is activated!]
“Ah...”
The team leaders had come to a stop at some point and were staring at Jae-Hyeok in a spellbound manner.
The same was true of the dark elf and player reinforcements who had just arrived at the scene.
Allies and foes, humans and dark elves—neither could take their eyes off the boy wielding a sword that scattered red lightning.
Nearby, the female elf felt a glimmer of hope for the first time when she saw the human enduring the onslaught of corrupted elves.
“...Iyarugt?”
The elf muttered in a trembling voice.
Suddenly, the sound of the Sky Bow being fired roared in the distance.
Over there. Jae-Hyeok measured the position of the Sky Bow with his enhanced senses and slashed down.
Hell Sword.
In an instant, the air seemed to thicken over the battlefield. Everything fell quiet.
Then...
The trees, the grass, the dark elves—everything in a large circumference around Jae-Hyeok was flattened until the ground, too, caved inward.
A moment later, the ground sank several more feet as a ripple escaped Iyarugt with a roar.
It swept out.
The grass dissolved.
The trees turned to splinters.
The dark elves fell into meat and mist.
The great arrow from the Sky Bow was shredded into fragments before reaching the ground.
Nothing, not even the blazing fires, had been able to survive Hell Sword.
“...S-class.”
The first person to break the silence was Hae-Rin.
Becoming an S-class player at the age of sixteen? It was unprecedented, so others couldn’t say it aloud. However, she had always admired Jae-Hyeok. This allowed her to voice her opinion without any bias.
“No, he isn’t S-class.”
Elder Gu Suk shook his head. “That... he is a National Treasure candidate.”
Those who had awakened special abilities, such as Bloodline Skills, or who possessed extraordinary talent that allowed them to perform above their level were known as irregulars. Among them, the rare few who were comparable to S-class were qualified to be National Treasure candidates.
It was a title that conveyed the conviction that they would one day shoulder the country's future.
As people gulped nervously...
“The heart! Three hearts dropped!”
Do-Jin jumped up and down.