-Author note-
Hardest chapter I've written, maybe. My average word count is usually around 2000, but it still felt like it wasn't enough to tell the narrative for this one. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it.
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Two S-rank and an unofficial S-rank mage hunter in the same place at the wrong time. Woo Jin-chul, who escorted Hwang Dongsoo here, did not expect it to escalate like this.
'I should notify Chairman Go quickly.'
Woo Jin-chul could feel the tension rising between them, and he would not let anything bad happen.
"Well, well, well, look what we have."
"Shut the fuck up, Hwang Dongsoo. What is your business here in White Tiger territory?"
Magical energy began to surge from Baek Yoonho, his hair turning white in the process.
"Keke! I'm here to simply talk with an E-rank. That being said, did Sung Jin-woo just enter the gate? Moments ago I heard this was a red gate, but it turned out to be a normal one. Did someone lie here, or did someone do something about it?"
Hwang Dongsoo's gaze fell on a man in simple attire with a golden mask that hiding his face.
He then smirked. "I knew my boss was correct about you. How about it, Guardian? Scavenger Guild would welcome you with the highest care."
So he is here for him too? Baek Yoonho started to worry, but an offer from Scavenger was something anyone aiming for greatness would never refuse.
"I decline the offer."
This guy for real?
"Did I speak Korean correctly? You don't know about the Scavenger Guild or Thomas Andre?"
Hwang Dongsoo felt annoyed by the blunt rejection.
"I don't care and I'm not interested, but thanks for the offer."
"Tch. Idiot." Hwang Dongsoo kissed his bonus goodbye. "Never mind. Since I came all the way from LA, now, who allowed Sung Jin-woo to join the raid?"
"What is this about Sung Jin-woo? What business do you want with him?" Baek Yoonho asked.
"It's personal."
Hwang Dongsoo scanned the men in suits at the sidelines.
Ahn Sangmin gulped nervously, but he had to speak. "It was me. I was asked if he could take part in the raid."
Fwoosh!
It happened too fast to follow. Hwang Dongsoo was already in front of him and grabbed him by the neck.
"I see. A mere E-rank asked you if he could join a higher-ranking dungeon! I smell something fishy here."
Hwang Dongsoo's vision went blurry. He was not sure why, but it happened so suddenly and quickly. When he came back to his senses, he felt dizzy.
"FUCK!"
He then looked around. He was roughly twenty meters away from the gate where he had been choking Ahn Sangmin. Hwang Dongsoo grit his teeth, veins showing on his face. He had not been hit. There was no physical contact that could have sent him flying. It was a magic spell.
"Fuck Thomas Andre. I'm going to kill this motherfucker!"
---
[Ding!]
[New quest has arrived]
[Quest: Defeat Hwang Dongsoo]
[Reward: SR tier pull + 1500 AP]
Ignoring the messages, Ken cursed his mistakes.
To dispel a magic spell he had to analyze how the magic worked. Hence, he had been too focused on studying the barrier that caused the red gate, and he completely forgot about Hwang Dongsoo.
Now that was the problem he needed to handle.
At this moment, he was not sure if Jin-woo could defeat Hwang Dongsoo. Either way, Ken himself was not confident he could defeat him.
'Song-yi might get dragged into this.'
Ken frowned as he imagined the worst.
"Was that teleportation?"
"It was not that simple."
Beside him stood Baek Yoonho.
"That being said," Baek said as claws began to grow from his nails, "we should help each other and at least knock him out."
"No. Please stay out of this. I will handle him alone."
Baek Yoonho looked confused.
"You can't defeat him alone. A mage fighting a warrior-type hunter is suicide."
"Yeah, and your whole guild will be in trouble if a National Level Hunter comes to visit."
Baek Yoonho gulped, as if taking back everything he just said. Ken was right. He already knew Thomas Andre's reputation. Thomas would surely come to South Korea just to deal with this.
Then Woo Jin-chul arrived beside them. "I have called Chairman Go. Please step back while I try to negotiate with Hunter Hwang."
Ken simply pointed ahead of them.
"Are you sure about that?"
Something fast was coming. Hwang Dongsoo, filled with rage, was tearing through roads and abandoned buildings as he charged forward. Woo Jin-chul began to look nervous. There was no room for negotiation.
[Acceleration]
As Ken ran, he activated the spell, doubling his speed. Watching him, Baek Yoonho shook his head.
'No matter what happens, a mage will never beat a combat-type hunter.'
Meanwhile, Hwang Dongsoo thought the same thing.
'A damn mage wants to fight me head on? Did he lose his shit?'
Hwang Dongsoo clenched his fist, took a jab stance. When they were close enough, he poured mana into his fist.
"Take this!"
A fist dense with mana lunged at Ken's face. Right before it could crush his mask, his fist struck only empty air. It was as if Ken had never been there.
"Huh?"
Blink!
Ken reappeared behind the stunned Hwang Dongsoo after casting Jilwer.
A mage could not hide the mana fluctuation when using magic. Even a small mana wave was enough to alert Hwang Dongsoo. In that short moment, Ken gripped his wand like a sword. Mana surged from it and formed a long blade as cold as freezing winter.
[Adula's Moonblade]
Ken swung Adula's Moonblade. Hwang Dongsoo scoffed and stepped back with a speed no ordinary person could follow. The swing from a mage was slow enough to evade, but the slash released a wave of mana imbued with ice to his chest.
"Fuck."
Hwang Dongsoo managed to create distance, but his chest felt sharp pain and a freezing chill. He looked down. The slash had grazed his chest, and the area had turned pale blue like frozen meat.
"Basta–"
He could not finish his word. Blue lights burst from the air around him. Four beams made of dense mana came at him at once.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ken did not give Hwang Dongsoo any time to recover. He kept firing Zoltraak at him. He could not defeat Hwang Dongsoo with raw strength, but with magic he had a chance.
'Damn it, Clark! What the hell are you doing right now?'
Ken screamed inwardly. But who was going to tell him?
[Fatigue: 43]
Dispelling the barrier that caused the red gate, using Acceleration, Jilwer, and firing consecutive Zoltraak spells had worn him out quite a bit.
'This is happening again. For now, I will heal my fa—'
Hwang Dongsoo appeared on his left with his upper clothes torn apart. His fist came at Ken again, faster and stronger than before. It was too late to cast Jilwer. Ken canceled the healing spell and used the Phalanx as fast as he could.
A dome-shaped barrier formed instantly, protecting him. When Hwang Dongsoo's fist collided with it. Dense mana burst outward as the shield and fist clashed, cracking the road below like a spiderweb and shattering building windows around them.
Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush!
Hwang Dongsoo kept hammering the Phalanx barrier, while it kept restoring itself no matter how hard he hit it.
However, maintaining Phalanx drained Ken's stamina heavily. It was a more complex spell than Zoltraak.
The reason he could not erase his fatigue with healing magic was simple. He could not cast ordinary spells and holy magic at the same time. He might have Aqua's template, but considering her nature as healer, she was never fit to be a mage to begin with.
"How long are you going to hide in this annoying shield? How long will you hold out?!"
Hwang Dongsoo kept the same momentum. After taking a few hits and fighting longer, he had started to adapt.
He finally discovered a weakness. The shield's recovery was slowing down, which meant it was taking a lot of his mental strength. All he need is speed and more brute strength.
'Putting all my power into one strike.'
Hwang Dongsoo stopped throwing random punches. He gathered all his mana into his right hand and struck the weak spot on the shield that was still trying to restore itself.
Boom! Crash!
The raw strength and the burst of air pressure after breaking Phalanx sent Ken flying upward.
[Phalanx: Sphere]
As he flew into the air, a sphere-shaped shield wrapped around him. He crashed into a building. When he finally stopped at the rooftop of an abandoned supermarket, a perfect round hole was left behind by the shield.
Hwang Dongsoo smirked again. He crouched and launched himself toward the rooftop.
He sensed a wave of mana. While still midair, Ken formed two magic circles gathering dense mana. Hwang Dongsoo recognized the spell that had damaged him earlier. He shot backward, ready to dodge.
[Zoltraak]
Two light beams of mana blasted toward him. Grabbing the store's name sign, he landed on the rooftop and sidestepped, confident the spells would travel in a straight line.
'The spell will just go straight at me—hmm?!'
The beam curved. Hwang Dongsoo cursed loudly as he moved in unpredictable ways to throw it off. But then, something hit him out of nowhere. A rectangle-shaped barrier slammed into him and pushed him toward a huge water cooling tower.
[Phalanx: Projectile]
His focus was entirely on the Zoltraak, so he failed to notice the incoming barrier.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Ken breathed heavily. For the first time, he had used so much mental stamina without the Slime's buff. His Vitality, which was the main source of his physical stamina, could not keep up with casting so many high-level spells. His Mind stat allowed him to handle the calculations, and his mana was more than enough to maintain Phalanx, but his stamina drained too fast while keeping the dome active. Once again, he could finally grasp his attribute stats.
'Does the imbalance between Faith and the other stats stop me from using Holy magic when I use magic? Is that because of Aqua influence?'
Meanwhile, Jilwer caused less mental strain, but it demanded far more physical endurance.
[Fatigue: 69]
His fatigue had almost reached seventy. But with an S-rank opponent like this, Ken had no time to worry about his condition.
FWOOOSH!
Something burst out of the debris. A pair of enraged eyes glowing in the dark locked onto him.
'Again.'
It was not enough to kill Hwang Dongsoo after all.
Blink!
When Hwang Dongsoo threw his fist again, Ken used Jilwer and appeared behind him. But Hwang Dongsoo twisted his body instantly and sent a roundhouse kick toward his face.
Blink!
Blink!
Blink!
Ken used Jilwer repeatedly to flee from the relentless pursuit. He could not fight with his mage's body, so magic was the only option.
'Think! Jilwer's biggest flaw is the g-force hitting me because the spell doesn't cancel inertia.'
Jilwer had room to grow. That was why Ken spared his time researching its core weakness while working on other spells. It was difficult to use other spells while using Jilwer because the insane g-force always left his body numb and strained, making his head too exhausted to even calculate other spells.
At this moment.
After every teleport, the sudden g-force drained his stamina heavily. Since he could not use Heal right now, and he could not focus enough to calculate anything besides Jilwer.
'Fixing the spell now was my only option.'
He needed to stop being a perfectionist who wanted this spell to be perfect, because right now he needed that spell to save his own ass. There was no alternative. Jilwer was the fastest spell he could cast without the Slime's buffs.
On the other hand, during Hwang Dongsoo's endless pursuit,
'I finally get it.'
Hwang Dongsoo was adapting. They had run in circles long enough for him to realize he could not teleport more than four meters. It had to be because of his mage body. But that was fine. He smirked as Hwang Dongsoo finally recognized his pattern.
Blink!
"RIGHT HERE!"
Hwang Dongsoo grabbed Ken by the collar of his uniform under the hoodie. But Ken used Jilwer again to escape. This time, since his rhythm broke, fatigue hit him hard.
Ken gritted his teeth. He felt the heavy exhaustion but refused to give up.
Blink!
Ken vanished from his grip.
Only the torn white collar remained in Hwang Dongsoo's hand.
Hwang Dongsoo grinned. He predicted the next move correctly. After this Ken would appear three meters to the left side. He followed the trail of mana leaking from the spell and rushed forward. His guess was accurate.
"HAHAHA! I got you! I will get you for sure! Blame your ignorance, mage! A spell caster will never defeat me in melee combat!"
However, luck seemed to be on Ken's side.
He had just finished improving Jilwer.