Ch.101Revenge Plays Are Dangerous (10)

“…So it wasn’t a lie.”

At a location slightly removed from the center of battle.

In a place covered with unidentifiable rocks, Lee Jichul muttered with a serious expression.

Right before him stood a crater created by an explosion of immense power, and in its center, a bandaged man covered in blood was catching his breath.

‘I know who he is.’

Juan Clark, commonly known as the Executioner Juan.

He was clearly one of the members of this raid party and also the person Vice Chairman Joshua had assigned to eliminate Baek Eunha and her companions.

Lee Jichul and Baek Seoha, who had been trying to join the main force in battle, were ambushed by Juan on their way and were now engaged in combat.

And now, the man who was rumored to have never lost in one-on-one combat was…

“Do I need to continue?”

“Kuhak, kuk.”

Being overwhelmingly pushed back by Baek Seoha, who had unleashed all her power.

‘…I didn’t expect her to be this strong. If I hadn’t obtained the power of dragon blood, I might have been pushed back as well.’

Of course, Baek Seoha wasn’t in perfect condition either. She had taken considerable damage from Juan’s surprise attack before unleashing her power, and damage had accumulated from his counterattacks during her offensive.

Nevertheless, it was remarkably impressive that she had performed this well against an S-rank hunter as renowned as Juan.

“Don’t get… cocky!”

Whoosh!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Crackle─!

As Juan activated his skill, duplicates of himself emerged from the surrounding sand, drawing up magical power and targeting Baek Seoha with the daggers in both hands.

Though they were duplicates, each attack carried enough power to demolish an entire building, and there were absolutely no openings.

However,

Ping!

Ping!

Ping!

Whish!

Slash─!

In the blink of an eye, large holes appeared in the bodies of the duplicates, completely destroying all of them.

The strikes were frighteningly fast and precise, and Baek Seoha showed no signs of catching her breath or losing her stance after executing them.

Her skill was undeniably first-class by anyone’s standards.

While Juan, who had activated the skill, hesitated in apparent surprise, Lee Jichul seized the opportunity to join the battle and subdue him.

Whish!

Boom─!

“Kuhurk! Y-you…!”

“I won’t apologize for being underhanded. We have more than one enemy to deal with.”

Lee Jichul drew upon the power of the dragon and unleashed a barrage of consecutive attacks on Juan.

Having not participated in the battle at all until now, Juan had let his guard down slightly and failed to react to the attack.

Crash!

Boom!

“Kuhak…!”

In the end, Juan couldn’t withstand the damage and fell unconscious in silence.

“Weren’t you going to stay out of it?”

“I was just curious about how strong the power you mentioned was.”

“…Somehow I feel like you and my brother would get along well.”

After concluding this sudden skirmish, Baek Seoha and Lee Jichul headed toward the center of battle where thunderous sounds continued to echo.

To bring this unnecessary fight to an end as quickly as possible.

#

I felt it during my previous battle with Lee Jichul, but S-rank hunters are indeed extremely strong. When there are several of them, they become overwhelming opponents even with thorough preparation.

‘Well, if I partially unleashed my power through necromancy, they’d be easy opponents, but…’

If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to use my power at all for a week due to the side effects. I couldn’t afford such trolling when we still had a dungeon to clear.

Besides, though they didn’t know it, this battle had already entered its final phase.

I amplified my voice with a spell so all hunters on the battlefield could hear me and spoke softly.

“Stop and pause for a moment.”

At those words, the remaining undead were the first to halt their actions.

Shortly after, the hunters who had continued their attacks also sensed something unusual, regrouped, and shifted their attention to me.

Sanada, who had been persistently chasing Penelope to target me from behind, shouted.

“…What are you thinking? If you’re planning to spout nonsense, I won’t listen.”

“Well. Whether it’s nonsense or not, you’ll know soon enough.”

I gestured with my chin toward one corner of the battlefield, and all the hunters turned their heads in that direction. Then, bright light began to leak from that spot as someone started to appear.

It was Chae Hwain, dragging three hunters whose limbs were either severed or twisted, bound by chains of magical power.

“H-how could someone do something so atrocious…”

One of the A-rank hunters gathered in the middle of the battlefield spoke with a trembling voice, and simultaneously, the killing intent of the raid party members began to intensify.

However, I paid no attention and gestured to Chae Hwain to bring the prisoners to me on Penelope’s back.

Those hostile reactions would completely reverse in just a moment anyway.

Whish.

Thud!

“Kuhurk…”

There was the unconscious Forden, Jacob who was trying desperately to escape from Chae Hwain’s grasp while not in his right mind, and Michael who was breathing heavily with teeth missing here and there.

I approached them and spoke quietly.

“This is annoying. Come to think of it, I went through all sorts of trouble because of you guys.”

Chae Hwain and I entered the dungeon together and fought day and night, creating an undead army while becoming nearly disabled ourselves.

There were quite a few difficult battles, and it was truly an exhausting task.

I clicked my tongue, placed my hands on their heads, and unhesitatingly drew up magical power and death energy.

“Kuk, what are you… doing…”

“Stay still. Unless you want your soul extracted too.”

Whoosh.

Rustle.

In an instant, Michael and his companions’ expressions went blank, and they stopped moving with their mouths hanging open like invalids.

After extracting the necessary memories, I used a memory visualization spell I had created during my time in Thebes to reveal the truth of the incident to all the hunters in the raid party.

Swish.

[Yes. What I’m saying is that you need to quietly die here.]

[…Do you think people will tolerate this kind of behavior?]

[There’s no question of tolerance. They won’t know the truth anyway.]

The hunters who had been emitting hostile energy all changed their expressions as they focused on the memories being played.

And when it was all over, Saint Yesiel, who was surrounded by hunters receiving treatment, asked.

“…Why should we readily believe this?”

“Well. Believe it or not, it’s up to you.”

Without further response, I cast the spell again to replay the memories.

This time from the perspectives of Forden and Jacob, not Michael.

After confirming all the memories, the atmosphere among the raid party had clearly changed from before.

“……”

The US government had probably just told the hunters that I, who had resurrected Chae Hwain, was up to something suspicious, without sharing my true purpose or detailed information.

On the other hand, I had presented the full context of the incident, even if its verification was uncertain. And it was a story that made perfect sense within reasonable bounds.

Which side they would be drawn to was essentially already determined, wasn’t it?

Even while pretending otherwise, the raid party hunters were already half convinced by my words.

Their wavering eyes without conviction proved it.

“It makes sense when you hear it. There was definitely something suspicious about America’s attitude.”

“…I hate to admit it, but it seems to be true.”

In fact, the raid party hunters had probably thought something was strange for a while.

Despite the prolonged battle, there had been no fatalities yet except for some injuries.

Even Ivan, who had been hit the hardest, wasn’t in life-threatening condition.

This would have been impossible if I hadn’t deliberately held back.

‘Thanks to that, it would have been dangerous if we’d been delayed a bit longer…’

But there was no helping it. I couldn’t massacre allies in a situation like this, could I?

Whether all that effort was worthwhile or not, the hunters’ suspicious gazes were now directed at Michael and his companions rather than at me and Chae Hwain.

“Explain yourself. What’s going on here?”

“If all this is true, America will face condemnation from the entire world.”

“This is unacceptable. My goodness, to discard allies who were risking their lives to help in such a way…”

Although there still seemed to be room for dialogue, Michael and his companions remained silent, unable to say anything.

They had realized that whatever they said now wouldn’t convince the others.

Seeing their reaction, the raid party hunters became even more convinced.

“Damn it, they called him a murderer and whatnot, but it was exactly the opposite.”

“At such a critical time, they completely played us for fools.”

“…Tsk. Parasites.”

The hunters lowered their weapons and voiced their irritated complaints.

It was a natural reaction, having expended energy on a fight that didn’t need to happen.

And now, the most important matter remained.

“…Kuuuk.”

The true culprits who had ambushed and killed Chae Hwain, deceiving and mocking the S-rank hunters who could be considered the real powers of each country.

By now, they were being targeted with killing intent so intense it was suffocating.