Hunters (2)

“Where is the rat hiding…?”

‘Cres,’ the hunters’ leader, was a level 170 class A mercenary, and the thirteen sun people were all his team members. They were all evil, which meant that they were dark mercenaries who worked in the shadows, outside the reach of law. Cres and his team members usually received requests to ‘clean,’ which actually meant hunting down and killing humans, assassination, kidnapping, massacres, and obliteration of entire settlements. They were an experienced team who had hunted various humans, and while his other team members were all about level 150, they were more than enough to catch a mere rat.

(EN: Players with high negative karma are “malefactors”, high negative karma NPCs are just evil.)

“He must have hidden using a stealth skill.”

“Do you think he noticed us chasing him?”

“Of course not. It’s a mere coincidence.”

They believed that Sang Hyuk had disappeared by pure coincidence, as they could not fathom that a mere dimension traveler would notice a teleport tracking.

“Let’s hurry and take care of him. We should end this trivial request as quickly as possible.”

Cres had initially refused the request because it was too low-class for his team, but his regular customer had almost begged him until he could not refuse. Because the circumstances had been like that, he would take care of this rat fast and correct.

“I’ll have him kneeling in front of the boss in five minutes.”

“Five! I’ll beat him to a pulp in three.”

Cres was not the only one who was confident, and his team members all thought that catching a mere dimension traveler was as easy as snapping your fingers. At the moment when all fourteen hunters were careless, Sang Hyuk’s unexpected counterattack began.

A black-red lightning shot out from a rip that appeared in the air, which then wrapped around two of the Sun People. This was the secret move of the Ritual of the Thunder God: Divine Thunderbolt, ‘Evil Must Fall.’ While the move was limited to those who had committed evil, it was an extremely powerful skill against them, one of the top three soul skills in Divine Thunderbolt. Since such a strong skill had been enhanced by all kinds of strengthening effects and the ‘First Attack’ effect, it became a formidable lightning blade that seemed to cut through the Sky and Earth.

With screams from each, the two Sun People fell to the ground with almost fatal damage after being seared to the bone by the lightning.  They were hors de combat, possibly forever. The Sun People who had thought Sang Hyuk as a mere rat were now shocked. However, while being ambushed, they did not think of this situation as a crisis since they still had overwhelming force.

“Catch him!”

Cres shouted as he charged Sang Hyuk, who appeared after the stealth skill had cancelled due to his attack. His team members were already rushing him even before his orders.

While two had been eliminated because of the rat’s ambush, Cres did not care much. He thought that the opponent had used everything he had for this ambush, which meant he could dominate him easily.

Cres was right, as Sang Hyuk could not get out of this crisis in a normal way. Blocking the opponent’s attacks was impossible, and he could not find a path to escape.

The twelve mercenaries positioned themselves in a formation before surrounding Sang Hyuk, which covered all escape routes.

‘Damn, I had thought to slip through a gap…but that’s no good.’

Sang Hyuk quickly gave up on Plan 1 and instead activated Plan 2. The Dragon Word ‘Invisibility.’

‘I’ll make a gap if there isn’t one!’

If Plan 1 had been to break through a gap, Plan 2 was to create a gap through attrition. In the long run, Plan 1 was much better since Plan 2 would be costly. However, he had no choice in this situation.

The Dragon Word worked against the Sun People, because even if they were over double master level, the Dragon Word itself was a Grandmaster (250[MAX]) level skill, and not even the Sun People could break it. (EN: Skill Level 150 is Double Master, 200+ Grandmaster)

The Sun People were shocked to see Sang Hyuk disappear. They had not been this surprised when their two comrades had fallen due to the sneak attack, because they could not believe that Sang Hyuk, a dimensional traveller, could possess a grandmaster level spell like Dragon Word. However, Invisibility lasted for only four seconds, and Sang Hyuk was revealed to the enemy after that time. He could not use the spell again, as the enemies had line of sight on Sang Hyuk. (EN: And two minute cooldown.)

The reason Sang Hyuk had used Invisibility was to earn the four seconds, as it was enough time to make a gap. Another rip appeared, and the ‘Evil Must Fall’ came out from an unexpected direction, and the black-red lightning wrapped around two Sun People on the right. The two did not meet the attack completely defenseless as the previous pair, but whether or not they prepared to defend themselves did not matter. The amplified ‘Evil Must Fall’ was already too much for them. The gap that Sang Hyuk wanted appeared as the formation was broken, and he proved that one could be made.

‘Let’s go!’

Sang Yuk used the Blink skill to go through the gap, and the Sun People were shocked once again. Their formation seemed simple but actually was a high-level tactical envelopment. They had to be shocked since a mere rat broke the formation they used on countless people and had never failed.

“After him!”

Cres knew that it would be a terrible problem if he lost the target, so he started chasing Sang Hyuk.

“Don’t let him hide again! Follow him as fast as you can!”

Cres recognized that Sang Hyuk was apt at hiding and not acting like a rat, and he was not going to let Sang Hyuk the room to use his stealth skills again.

‘I only have to prevent that.’

Cres didn’t think hard, as he felt that since Sang Hyuk had specialized stealth skills, he only needed to prevent him from entering stealth to dominate him. While Cres’s level was high, his AI was mediocre, which meant that his actual battle skills were lower than his level. There was a high possibility of Cres not thinking single-mindedly if his AI was smarter. Cres was still thinking Sang Hyuk as a rat even after four of his team were downed after being savagely attacked, and this carelessness could be said to be from the difference in AI.

Fortunately, Sang Hyuk was able to increase the possibility of winning, and he was at the Dark Jungle, where shadows replaced light. Since he was the ‘King of Shadows,’ Sang Hyuk, or Immortal, was at maximum power here.

‘I can win. I can win…I can win!’

Sang Hyuk shouted to himself and ran with all his speed through the massive trees of the Dark Jungle. Since being captured again meant the end, it was best for him to run as fast as possible.

‘Spread out some more…’

Sang Hyuk was aiming for the enemy’s formation to spread out as he ran. If he could do that, then he could beat them one by one. It could be done only by Sang Hyuk running for a long time, so the difference between the NPCs speed increased the interval between his pursuers as much as possible.

Therefore, it meant that Sang Hyuk had to run like crazy for the next three hours. He ran, and those who chased him also ran. Sang Hyuk used Blink and all of his other movement skills so they would not catch up with him, and also summoned the magic armor ‘Black Wings’ to distance himself if they came up too close.

Sang Hyuk ran with everything he had but did not leave the Dark Jungle. Cres was the one who was in trouble as Sang Hyuk fled. He had announced to his client that he would report after finishing the job in two hours. However, now he had spent almost four, and Cres was getting anxious. The quality of his AI played a large part, but honestly, Cres was just making bad choices.

“Catch him! You can’t let him get away!”

Things like formation disappeared from Cres’s head, and he was running faster than anyone else to catch Sang Hyuk. While they were all Sun People and mercenaries, their abilities were inevitably different. Cres, being the highest level and possessing the best stats, was in front, and other Sun People were trailing behind. They were becoming further apart, and Sang Hyuk looked behind as he was running at full speed. As he could see in the dark, he could confirm who was following him.

‘The formation has broken down.’

Sang Hyuk felt that he had achieved what he wanted after running for almost four hours until his knees wobbled.

‘I can use the Dark Wings for 40 minutes. I can use the Invisibility and the Breath of a Raging Dragon. I can also use that Weapon.’

Sang Hyuk calmly checked his strongest items and skills.

‘I’ll use the Breath of a Raging Dragon at the end…Let’s use the wings first.’

He summoned the armor that signaled a counterattack. Once Sang Hyuk spread his black wings, things would become completely different.

Edited by Userunfriendly