Right away, Guroktaru felt every hair on its body stand up.
‘What is this?’
As time slowed down from the extreme tension it felt, the Orc Chieftain’s instincts of a warrior, trained to their very limit, sent out countless warning bells. It said that a truly ‘terrifying’ being was headed this way.
Badump!!
The sound of the Orc’s heartbeat rang around painfully in its eardrums, like a series of thunderclaps.
If it didn’t get out of here right now, it’d be killed.
The sharp instincts of a warrior, honed like a fine blade, would sometimes display powers close to that of the gift of foresight. Just like right now!
‘…….!!’
Guroktaru quickly discarded the human female and with the movements akin to a wild animal, fled to the door of the classroom.
BOOM!!
A mighty, ear-splitting explosion occurred next, the shards of glass flying out like shrapnel. Meanwhile, Orcs manning the doorways began hastily retreating away after the back of their Chieftain suddenly appeared in front of their eyes.
‘……’
Guroktaru wordlessly glared forward, its breathing now becoming extremely cautious.
It was picking up on an unusual and eerie vibe. It could see a human male it hadn’t seen before standing on the spot where the human female was just now.
Guroktaru shifted its gaze ever so slightly to the side.
Its opposite corner was where the windows were. Nothing remained of the entirety of that wall as if it had been struck by a powerful siege weapon.
‘Did the human enter by breaking through the windows?’
Even with its excellent dynamic visual acuity, the Orc Chieftain still failed to follow that man’s movements.
‘…….’
Guroktaru could only swallow its saliva at the sudden entrance of a powerful opponent. A strand of cold sweat trickled down its temple.
Kiiiaaahhk-!!
Guroktaru’s head snapped upwards after it heard that screech.
Past the ceiling, beyond the roof – yet another powerful enemy was circling around above the Orc’s head like a hawk waiting for prey to emerge.
‘This might become a difficult fight.’
Guroktaru’s eyes were now dyed in the colour of nervousness, something that didn’t exist only a few moments ago.
The new enemy completely ignored the presence of the Orc Chieftain and its underlings, and simply proceeded to confirm the human female’s condition.
Guroktaru spoke to its enemy.
“I am Guroktaru, from the proud tribe of Red Blade!”
That was the warrior’s introduction only granted to an opponent capable of reaping away the Orc’s life. Having completed its introduction, Guroktaru asked the human male.
“And who are you?”
Jin-Woo raised his head and quietly spoke.
“Shut your mouth and quietly wait for your turn over there.”
A human just used the language of the Orcs?
The Orc’s surprise lasted only for a moment.
Perhaps it was because of the power carried in that man’s voice, none of the Orcs, which included Guroktaru itself, could even dare to budge an inch from the spot.
***
“Cough, cough.”
Jin-Woo gently patted Jin-Ah’s back as she continued to cough and wheeze while he carefully checked to see if she had sustained any injuries. Thankfully, he couldn’t see any.
….With the sole exception of the handprint clearly visible on her neck, that was. Jin-Woo asked, his expression hard and unforgiving.
“Are you alright?”
“Oppa!!”
Jin-Ah finally stopped coughing and jumped into his embrace, tears streaming from her eyes.
Jin-Woo gently stroked her hair as if he was soothing a scared child.
‘…Oppa?’
‘Jin-Ah’s Oppa… that means….?’
‘Ah!’
The students finally realised who the man in front of their eyes was. He was Seong Jin-Woo, a Hunter ranked S!
‘We’re saved!!’
The students confirmed Jin-Woo’s face and began sobbing again. These tears weren’t of despair and fear like the ones from before, but were formed from the mixture of joy and relief they felt.
“Sob, sob…”
“It’s fine now. I’m here, so everything will be okay.”
Jin-Woo gently soothed his sobbing sister, while extending his sensory perception to the rest of the school. And, within this large school building, the only presence of humans he could pick up on was…. 17.
‘…….’
Jin-Woo’s hardened complexion was now dyed in the darkness of rage.
He very cautiously separated his sister from him as she tried hard not to leave his side. He then called out his Shadow Soldiers matching the exact number of the surviving students.
“Everyone, follow my summons out of the building.”
The students nodded their heads, and the soldiers proceeded to pick up them up in an embrace. As for Jin-Ah, he entrusted her especially to Igrit.
“Please wait for me downstairs, okay? I’m going to join you very soon after dealing with this.”
Normally, Jin-Ah would try to stop her oppa, telling him that they should go together regardless of whether he was a rank S Hunter or not. No, she’d still say that even if he was something greater.
But now…. She couldn’t do that.
Because, Jin-Woo’s current expression was far, far too scary for her to say those words. So, Jin-Ah could only nod her head.
Jin-Woo gave out his signal, and the soldiers carrying the students jumped outside of the destroyed wall one by one. Orcs in the corridor flinched slightly at the sight of the almost-caught prey making their escape. When that happened, Jin-Woo glared at them with his ice-cold eyes.
“I told you not to move.”
Like some kind of a lie, all Orcs stopped moving altogether. None of them could go against his glare.
One of the Orcs, its complexion utterly pale, sneaked its gaze around and cautiously whispered to Guroktaru.
“C-chief….”
“Shush.”
Guroktaru was in agreement with that Orc, though.
It was true that right now wasn’t the time to care about those weak prey escaping. No, they should be minding the ‘hunter’ right in front of their eyes. A fight between hunters would commence very soon, where who eats who would be determined.
‘Even then…. We can’t let them get away that easily.’
Guroktaru sent out a sneaky little signal, and two of its guards moved without making any sounds.
After confirming that all of the students had left the classroom safely, Jin-Woo turned around to face the Orcs. He didn’t let them leave because he was worried about them getting injured.
‘These measly Orcs….’
He was confident of killing them all in the blink of an eye.
He simply didn’t want to show his little sister or other kids what was about to happen in here, that was all.
And now, there were no more eyes watching. Meaning, there was nothing to restrict his actions now.
‘……’
Jin-Woo’s gaze briefly drifted towards the stairs outside the classroom. He sensed two Orcs going downstairs while hiding their presence to the best of their abilities. It seemed that they were going after the kids, but… it didn’t matter.
He had sent Igrit there, and Kaisel was circling around in the air, too.
‘So, the remaining task is to deal with these lot, then.’
Jin-Woo exhaled softly. The exiting air contained a heavy, dense amount of magic energy.
Guroktaru asked him again.
“Who are you? How can you speak our tongue?”
Jin-Woo ignored the Orc’s words and slowly made his way over to them. Realising that the human male had no intentions to answer back, Guroktaru bared its fangs and shouted out.
“Attack!”
The brave Orc warriors pounced on Jin-Woo all at once after hearing the Chieftain’s order.
“Kurururuk!”
“Kurarak!”
When they did… the time froze.
Within this freeze-frame of a moment, Jin-Woo leisurely walked in between the Orcs that were moving agonisingly slowly, and proceeded to destroy them one by one.
He didn’t even need to take his weapons out. He only needed to use his finger. Every time Jin-Woo’s finger brushed by an Orc, heads, shoulders, wrists, waists and midriffs of the monsters exploded into bits. And after utterly destroying over twenty Orcs in one blink of an eye….
Jin-Woo stood before Guroktaru.
The Orc Chieftain could only barely keep up with Jin-Woo’s afterimage with its eyes. Its trembling lips parted with much difficulty.
“W-what….?”
It didn’t even have a chance to swing its scimitar. Jin-Woo’s left hand grabbed Guroktaru’s mouth and jaw, and the Orc could only whimper pathetically.
“Keok!”
Jin-Woo walked forward just like that and slammed the Orc’s head against the corridor’s wall.
SLAM!!
The empty corridor reverberated with the thunderous boom.
Jin-Woo’s gaze shifted towards either end of the corridor. It was filled with the remains of the students. It was truly a hard-to-look gruesome sight to behold.
However, Jin-Woo didn’t avert his gaze and imprinted the sight of every single one of these kids in his mind, just so he could demand reparations from the guilty one responsible.
Jin-Woo shifted his eyes to Guroktaru.
“Why?”
His voice was incomparably icy.
“Why does your kind want to kill humans to this extreme level?”
Guroktaru had long lost its desire to resist and could only tremble in fear as it replied.
“In, in our heads, telling us…. to kill humans….”
Jin-Woo became momentarily confused.
‘Kill humans?’
He had heard of the exact same thing before. But, back then, he interpreted the word ‘humans’ as another term for ‘Hunters’.
But it seemed that the word ‘human’ really did mean all humans, now that he got to hear this monster’s reply.
“Then? What about me?”
Jin-Woo asked the Orc again.
“Do you not hear the voice telling you to kill me?”
He brought his face closer.
It was inevitable that Guroktaru would look into Jin-Woo’s eyes. The Orc began shaking its head and shivered hard as if it had discovered something in there.
“F, f-forgive…. Forgive, me….”
Something impossible happened. The brave and mighty great warrior of the Orc race began shedding tears like a little child. Jin-Woo felt the inside of his head suddenly cool off as he watched the terrified monster cowering before him.
‘So, that’s how it is….’
He was not being seen as a human even in this guy’s head, was that it?
‘….Well, it doesn’t really matter.’
Jin-Woo wasn’t all that interested in how monsters viewed him. No, he simply killed them because they were out to harm humans.
Guroktaru shivered and continued sob as the fear it couldn’t overcome completely enveloped it.
“Please…. forgive…..”
Jin-Woo replied.
“I’ll forgive you.”
And then, he summoned the ‘Demon King’s Shortsword’.
“However, do not think that the process will be a painless one for you.”
***
The Knight Order Guild’s assault team could only gasp out in astonishment while spectating on the battles of the monsters.
“Heok!”
“H-how could it be….”
How could anyone call this a raid now? Because, the ants very easily subdued the undead monsters and then, began greedily devouring them.
Crunch, crunch….
The eyes of the Hunters opened wider and wider from this horrifying spectacle.
“B-but, if they eat up everything like that, nothing will be left behind, you know?”
“Right. Even the Magic Crystals….”
The Hunters could only anxiously look on as the top-class Magic Crystals all ended up in the stomachs of these monsters, no, summoned creatures.
Unable to watch from the sidelines any longer, Jeong Ye-Rim hastily ran out.
“Don’t you know how expensive that is?!”
She tried to wrestle away the corpse of a Vampire, but that only managed to annoy the ant, and the creature swung its arm at her direction.
“Ahk!”
She cried out and tumbled backwards after the ant’s claw cut into her forearm.
Plop.
“O-ouch.”
Just as she tried to get up while rubbing her butt….
“Kururuk-!”
By the time she regained her wits, the ant monster that swung its arm was standing before her. The creature had its gigantic maw and its horrifying mandibles wide open as if to swallow her head whole.
Jeong Ye-Rim’s expression froze stiff at that moment.
“Ah…. Ah….”
It was then. Beru had come swooping in and turned that ant around. He opened his own maw wide just like how this ant did a moment ago, and then….
“Kiiiieeeeehhhk-!!!”
…And then, he screeched out incredibly loudly.
Being subjected to the rage of an existence on another level, the ant creature couldn’t even meet Beru’s gaze and simply shivered in fear.
“K-keeiick….”
Beru let go of the ant’s shoulder, causing the creature to hurriedly scurry away from there. Jeong Ye-Rim watched this scene play out in a total daze, but Beru approached her and extended his hand out.
‘Uh…..?’
Still stupefied over everything, she grabbed the offered hand and was able to finally stand back up.
“I, uh… T-tha….”
She was about to say something, only for her lips to stop. Because, she saw the gentle blue light circulating around Beru’s fingertips, that was why.
“….Healing magic?!”
Jeong Ye-Rim’s brows shot up real high in surprise.
The wound in her arm healed up immediately the moment that blue light touched her. After confirming that her wound was completely cured, Beru turned towards the ants and shouted out.
“Khe-ehck!”
That caused the ants to end their mealtime and began moving deeper into the dungeon’s interior.
Jeong Ye-Rim watched the back of Beru and murmured to herself.
“How can…. a summon cast better healing magic than me??”
***
The Hunters finally arrived in the school.
They followed the direction the needle of the magic compass was pointing to and climbed up the stairs. An incredible magic energy reaction was coming from the sixth floor’s corridor.
The man in charge of the Hunters looked behind at his group and spoke.
“Be careful.”
The Hunters nodded their heads.
And when they eventually arrived on the sixth floor, they got to discover two things.
“Heok!!”
One, an Orc sliced up into so many pieces that it was impossible to count; two, a lone man covered in blood standing still with a shortsword in his hand.
‘And that person is….?’
The leader of the assault team met Jin-Woo’s icy cold eyes and his breath nearly came to a sudden stop. But he recovered somehow and picked up the walkie talkie.
“Yes, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo is here.”
The leader took a look around and made another report.
“The situation has been resolved.”
