Whoosh.
As a former S-rank Knight, Kang Hyeon's movements were too fast for the eyes to follow.
However.
It was not the fastest I had ever witnessed. Yoo Ji-won, after turning into a monster, had been faster than the current Kang Hyeon. A speed that went beyond mere quickness, one that could truly be called Godspeed.
Perhaps because I had experienced it once before, I was just barely able to defend against his outstretched fist.
Bam! Bam!
A sound hard to believe came from the clash of human hands struck my ears. In the past, just blocking would have shattered both my arms, but thanks to the Body Protection Aura, I suffered no particular internal injuries. Except for the fact that my hands were throbbing immensely.
Every single one of Kang Hyeon’s attacks was aimed at a vital point. His speed, power, and precision were all astounding. It was perhaps only natural that he had no weapon.
After all, every part of his body, armed with Ether, emanated an aura more menacing than any weapon.
Whoosh!
Kang Hyeon twisted his upper body and swung his right leg in a wide arc. Even with the Body Protection Aura, blocking that head-on would hurt like hell. I lightly stepped back and dodged his kick.
Paang.
Why did a kick sound like it was tearing through the air? A bitter laugh escaped me out of sheer disbelief, and it seemed Kang Hyeon felt the same. As the distance between us widened, Kang Hyeon asked me, “You, are you really a healer?”
I shrugged, and his gaze turned to Yoo In-won.
“As I thought, there was a problem with the information you gave me. How is that a healer?”
“……!!”
Yoo In-won gritted his teeth with an aggrieved expression. In truth, he had every right to feel wronged. I had never shown him any side of me other than that of a healer.
“Unless your physical level is S-rank, you couldn't have blocked that last attack. The speed, the power, all of it.”
One of Kang Hyeon’s eyes meticulously scanned my entire body. But even so, he wouldn't be able to find out anything. Now, while he had little information about me, was my chance.
I raised my right hand and aimed at Kang Hyeon. He tensed up, his face showing a hint of 'no way'.
Fwoosh.
A black flame. The Poison Flame, created from Black Ether, shot towards Kang Hyeon's body. In Na Ji-hwan's case, he had sacrificed his device to block it once, but Kang Hyeon didn't use any particular weapons in battle.
If he tried to block it with his bare body, the Black Ether within the Poison Flame would damage his flesh. If he were to be reckless, I might win in this single exchange.
“……!!”
In the brief moment the Poison Flame flew, Kang Hyeon was surprised twice. The first was that an ability befitting an Esper had come from my hand, a healer. The second was when the Poison Flame was just inches away.
“Hup!!”
Kang Hyeon, who had been taking a defensive stance with a surprised look, was startled and rolled to the side. Truly the strongest Hunter of his time. Despite having no information about the Poison Flame, he seemed to have instinctively recognized the substance it contained.
A shame.
I could have gotten an easy win. I shot the Poison Flame at Kang Hyeon a couple more times, but he swiftly dodged. If he could dodge the Poison Flame, which was quite a fast attack, then the slower Crimson Venom Snake would also have a low chance of hitting.
There was no choice but to get close and inflict a direct wound on his body.
“I thought you wouldn't be an ordinary foe... but I didn't think you'd be this much.”
Kang Hyeon's eyes, once full of caution, were gradually tinged with admiration.
“It's like I'm seeing someone I fought a long time ago....”
Someone who remained in Kang Hyeon's memory. For some reason, I felt like I knew that person's name.
“Are you perhaps related to Kiril?”
At the name Kang Hyeon mentioned, Yoo In-won’s head snapped around. The traitor who had turned her back on the Hunter Association, no, on the very survival of humanity. There wasn't much information about Kiril, but the fact that she was a traitor was considered common knowledge.
Even when I received my ability from Kiril, I was doubtful, but after seeing the Association's actions, I was certain. The notion that Kiril is a traitor is a kind of frame-up. People are being deceived by false information.
“……”
Normally, I would have denied it, saying, 'Who's that?' But not this time.
“... What if I am?”
At my answer, Yoo In-won was more shocked than Kang Hyeon. It seemed he never dreamed that Kiril and I were connected.
“Kiril… You've met that bitch?”
I looked at Yoo In-won with indifferent eyes. Then, soon after, I twisted my lips into a smile.
“I am Kiril's comrade.”
“!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
The reason I revealed my connection to Kiril was simple. Because after this moment, everyone who knew that fact would die.
“That damn bitch, where is she now?!”
After raising my middle finger at the screaming Yoo In-won, I infused Ether into the Pracel on my wrist.
Ch-ling.
A black blade, unbefitting the clear, bright sound, emerged. As if he knew well what it meant, Kang Hyeon gave a slight nod.
“If you're Kiril's comrade, then I have all the more reason not to let you live.”
Kang Hyeon removed his eyepatch with his left arm. The second round, a full-fledged battle in earnest, was about to begin.
Shhhk.
The reason Kang Hyeon wore an eyepatch on his left eye was not because he couldn't see. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Just as I controlled Black Ether with Pracel, he had sealed the 'special ability' dwelling in his left eye.
When he removed the eyepatch, his left pupil became clearly visible. A pupil of a strange, greenish hue. The moment his pupil dilated, an indescribable, opaque sensation washed over my entire body.
Vrrr...
That opaque sensation extended beyond the space between him and me, spreading out in a 15-meter radius dome. The technique he had used to bind Gu Geon-yi and beat him like a dog had been cast. #Absolute Domain. It was a skill Kang Hyeon always used when hunting 7-star or higher Monsters.
For now, I stood still without taking any particular action. There were two effects that activated within the 'Absolute Domain'. One was a physical confinement effect that seized control of the opponent's body.
The second was a mirage effect that made his true body difficult to see. Naturally, these two effects could not be used by an ordinary Knight.
Multi Ability.
The reason Kang Hyeon was able to become the greatest Hunter of his time. He was a man who possessed not only an S-rank physical level, but also A-rank psychic power. That was also why he had been able to beat up a fellow S-ranker like Gu Geon-yi.
Their combat levels were similar, but due to the nature of Knights, without support, they were nothing more than a meal for an Illusion Technique user. Gu Geon-yi, who was never able to identify Kang Hyeon's true body, was beaten senseless by him until he passed out on his feet.
He was recognized for his tenacity in not kneeling, but the fact that he was beaten one-sidedly did not change.
‘Let's see....’
I tried to move my slightly stiffened body. But my whole body was frozen, unable to move. Gu Geon-yi, so this is what it felt like when you were getting beaten.
Seeing me motionless, a cheer erupted from Yoo In-won's mouth.
“Yes!! That's it!! Go on, bring me that bastard's head!!”
“Thirty billion.”
“?”
Without moving a muscle, Kang Hyeon started a new negotiation.
“I was almost done in. I even lost two of my partners. It's all because of your faulty information.”
“……!!”
“Add thirty billion to the nine hundred billion you first offered, and I'll kill him for you.”
Oh ho.
So he planned to negotiate after the fish was already caught. I had no intention of dying quietly, but the subsequent conversation seemed like it would be quite amusing. It was just a shame that my body was so stiff I couldn't even raise the corners of my mouth.
‘Let's see....’
On the other hand, I rolled my eyes to check the location I had set up.
Yes.
It's over there. The key to this fight depended on whether I could lure Kang Hyeon to that spot.
“To meet your demand, I sold all the buildings I owned. Even the house I live in. There's no more money to be had.”
“Then let your son's enemy go.”
Grrrind. Ooh.
I could hear Yoo In-won grinding his teeth from here. He's a dead man walking, so he won't have to worry about dentures.
“If you don't have money, make up for it with something else.”
“What…?”
“The dimensional stones the Hunter Association has. Hand them over to me.”
Dimensional stones?
They had those?
“... Are you saying you're going to escape somewhere else?”
“What I do is none of your business. Are you giving them to me or not?”
Kang Hyeon was expanding and contracting the dome-shaped 'spatial control' as if toying with Yoo In-won.
‘He'll accept.’
In this deal, Yoo In-won was completely at a disadvantage anyway. The very act of him, the Vice Chairman of the Association, hiring a group of assassins was a choice with no way back. Besides, with his enemy caught right before his eyes, letting me go now would be unacceptable.
“…Fine.”
Yoo In-won forced the word out. It was the moment another sin was added to his already sinful life.
“If you don't follow through, I will not only kill you but also publicize the fact that I hired you.”
“Isn't that my line?”
At my sudden response, Kang Hyeon and Yoo In-won made the same expression simultaneously. The expression of a monkey that had just bumped its head on a glass door. It was a scene I wanted to capture and cherish with my phone camera.
“How…?”
He must have thought I was a fish already in the net. Indeed, at first, my body was stiff and wouldn't move. But when I focused the Ether in my body into the source of my psychic power, the 'brain', the restraint was quickly broken.
In the first place, my body wasn't something a 'mere' A-rank could suppress. Because my psychic power was on a higher level, S-rank. One of the monkeys, who had been staring blankly, scowled and rushed at me.
Since I had already broken free from the restraint, dealing with him wasn't difficult. Just as his elbow was about to reach my temple, I felt a chilling aura from the opposite side.
‘This is....’
A familiar feeling. There was a time when I, too, was beaten one-sidedly like Gu Geon-yi. The subordinate of the Yaksha I saw in the black market.
When I was hit by the Yaksha's 'Phantom Strike'. Shweek- Ignoring the incoming elbow, I instead turned my head towards the direction of the attack. If the visible attack had been real, my head might have been smashed.
But the moment the elbow made contact, his form vanished like a mirage. Soon, another Kang Hyeon appeared on the opposite side, his hand shaped into a blade. This time, it seemed he didn't even have the presence of mind to ask 'How...?'
The bloodshot eyes staring at me were filled with confusion and astonishment.
“I'm different from that idiot Gu Geon-yi.”
Saying so, I took a slight step back. The Phantom Strike taught by Master Oh Ji-ho from the black market and his Illusion Technique were fundamentally the same in nature. The only difference would be that the Cheon Hae-seon of back then and the Cheon Hae-seon of now were completely different people.
And that I, too, could counterattack in the same way.
“Let's see how long you can dodge…!!”
They say that when people run out of tricks, all they have left is their mouth. It seems to be the same whether you're E-rank or S-rank. Kang Hyeon approached me with a considerably agitated face, and then suddenly winced.
“Keuk…!!”
The 'Phantom Strike' I used would not be easy for him to dodge. Because, fundamentally, my psychic power level was higher. Furthermore, a substance like Superman's Kryptonite was spread on the floor here.
Shwhiik!
His emotionally charged right hand cut through the empty air. This one is a fake. Soon, his real body, startled, dodges the blade of the Pracel.
However, the image he saw of me was also a fake.
Puk.
Using Phantom Strike to get behind him, I unhesitatingly stabbed him in the neck.
“Keok…!!!”
Without even understanding how he was hit, Kang Hyeon began to convulse. The dark-red Black Ether had already mercilessly invaded the inside of his body. Even if a grandpa healer came, there would be no way to save Kang Hyeon.
“So much for being number one in the rankings.”
Kang Hyeon desperately moved his mouth, struggling. Was he frustrated that he couldn't use all of his abilities? Did he want to ask about the substance spread on the floor?
Or did he want to hurl all sorts of curses at me? Unfortunately, I would not be able to hear his answer. Kang Hyeon's mouth, which had gaped a few more times like a goldfish, was soon covered in the color of death.
Kang Hyeon.
The man once called the greatest Hunter in the Republic of Korea. I had taken down the Hunter whose martial prowess was said to be unmatched.