Ch.73Hunter, or Prey (4)

Ranger.

Najin didn’t know much about them.

Just basic knowledge that Rangers performed dirtier and darker tasks than knights. All he knew was that they excelled at covert operations, assassinations, traps, and ambushes.

“Rangers are tricky.”

And to add a bit more.

“That’s right. Tricky. It’s hard to explain, but Rangers are tricky. You know that famous saying?”

“Not all fights are distinguished by levels of mastery.”

“That’s mostly bullshit in most situations, but when dealing with Rangers, it’s not bullshit at all.”

Information he’d heard from Ivan and Offen.

“Those bastards are hunters.”

Rangers are hunters.

“Does a hunter face a beast head-on? Anyone who stares a wild boar in the eyes and swings a sword from the front isn’t a hunter—just a crazy bastard.”

“A hunter thoroughly ‘hunts.'”

“They know their target’s habits, characteristics, movements, routes, quirks, even the tiniest weaknesses…”

Ivan aimed his finger at Najin’s temple.

“Bang.”

Mimicking firing a crossbow, Ivan grinned.

“That’s when they finally pull the trigger.”

2.

Click.

Najin turned his head at the loading sound from behind. There was Kaufman, mounting an arrow on his crossbow. Though the crossbow wasn’t aimed at him, Najin felt an inexplicable chill.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Just that your crossbow is unusual.”

Najin awkwardly changed the subject.

“I’ve never seen such a large crossbow before.”

“I bet. It’s normally mounted on fortress walls.”

What Kaufman held was a massive crossbow.

It was similar in size to a ballista fixed on castle walls for interception, but Kaufman carried it on his shoulder as if it weren’t heavy at all.

‘That doesn’t seem possible with normal strength.’

Najin couldn’t imagine holding such a large crossbow without a support stand and firing it with just two hands. The recoil would likely push one back or knock them down.

‘Impossible for an ordinary human.’

Performing such feats nonchalantly was what made someone superhuman, and Sword Seekers were close to superhuman. For warriors considered their equals, such things would be no challenge.

Najin and Kaufman walked silently through the waterway. They needed to descend deeper into the underground waterway first.

Swoosh…

The sound of flowing water could be heard, but not their footsteps. Both were skilled at erasing their presence. Walking in front, Najin didn’t notice Kaufman gaze carefully studying his gait from behind.

“Were you in the Shadow Corps?”

Kaufman, who had been observing Najin intently, asked abruptly. Najin stopped at the sudden question.

“Keep walking. We can talk while moving.”

“……”

“I asked if you were in the Shadow Corps. Your walking style is similar to the Order’s Shadow Corps. Similar… no. Better than those guys?”

Kaufman muttered indifferently.

“You seem to have quite a history.”

“Why ask that suddenly…?”

“Unknown identity. No records. Age, name, even your level of mastery unclear. You’re lucky that nobleman who heads the Cambria Foundation vouched for you…”

Kaufman chuckled.

“Otherwise, you would’ve had a rough time. Speaking from experience. I also came in hiding my identity and suffered for it.”

And now everything’s been exposed.

You know who I am too, don’t you? Saying this, Kaufman exhaled a long, very long breath.

“I’m not expecting an answer, so don’t rack your brain for one. Just think of it as an old man rambling.”

“I see.”

“That’s right. Wait until you’re my age. You’ll talk more. Even when there’s no need for conversation, you’ll find yourself chatting idly.”

The underground waterway stretched endlessly downward.

“Maybe it’s the loneliness, or perhaps I’ve become overly sentimental… Sometimes I even find myself talking with my targets?”

With still quite a distance to the depths of the waterway, Kaufman continued his story. It was less a conversation seeking response and more like talking to himself.

“I get curious. Ah, how did this guy live? How did this person end up in this situation? So I listen to their story.”

Click.

Kaufman pointed his crossbow at Najin.

“Like this, with a crossbow aimed at them.”

“That’s a twisted hobby.”

“It is twisted. But shouldn’t someone hear their last words? No matter how miserably they lived, as a human, they deserve to leave behind final words.”

Kaufman looked at Najin’s hand.

Despite the playful aiming of the crossbow, Najin’s hand resting on his waist had already half-drawn his sword. What if he pulled the trigger now? Najin would respond immediately.

‘Quick reflexes.’

Kaufman lowered his crossbow with a smile.

“Of course, black mages are the exception, so don’t worry.”

“Why are black mages the exception?”

“You ask the obvious. I told you, didn’t I? As a human, they deserve to leave behind final words.”

Najin blinked, and Kaufman answered.

“Black mages aren’t human. They’re beasts. Ungrateful fucking beasts.”

Kaufman spat out the words.

His voice dripped with venom, his muttering filled with deep resentment. He must have suffered something terrible at the hands of black mages. That’s what Najin thought.

“I can see it now.”

“That iron gate seems to be the entrance.”

“Lead the way. I’ll cover the rear.”

As they talked and walked, they finally reached the deepest part of the underground waterway. Passing through the twisted open iron gate, Najin thought to himself.

‘Damn, it’s huge.’

Perhaps because it was an underground waterway spanning the entire city, its size was terrifyingly vast. And that wasn’t all. This underground waterway was built when the city was occupied by the seventh-circle black mage “Cephalon.”

From the beginning, this underground waterway was designed to hide black magic research facilities and foundations, and to provide Cephalon and his disciples a place to hide and hold out.

Therefore, the structure of the underground waterway resembled a maze like a spider’s web or an ant colony. How could one ever find a black mage in such a labyrinth? The flowing water and humid air erased all traces, making even his usual tracking skills useless in this space.

‘Where should I start…’

Najin pondered this, but his concern didn’t last long. There was no need to search for traces.

Screech… screech…

Beyond the sound of flowing water came the sound of dragging feet. Najin looked toward the source. There stood a guard. Though dressed as a city guard, his skin was bluish and his complexion deathly pale.

Not a living soldier.

A corpse that moves despite having no breath.

Magic that animates corpses. In the Empire, it’s considered taboo, and those who break this taboo are, naturally, only one kind: black mages. Sure enough, beyond the corpse, two black mages in robes were visible.

Clang, Najin drew his sword.

The black mages waved their staffs.

The water flowing through the underground waterway bubbled, and corpses began emerging from the water. The meaning of this movement was simple.

They had no intention of hiding or running.

They chose to intercept the intruders as if they were the rightful owners of this underground waterway. Whatever their intentions might be… looking at the horde of corpses, the same thought crossed both Najin and Kaufman’s minds.

This makes things easier.

At least they wouldn’t have to search.

3.

The only magic Najin had experienced was the blood-mediated magic used by the alchemist Hakan from the underground city. Even that was technically alchemy rather than true magic.

So strictly speaking.

This was his first time seeing proper magic. Najin looked beyond the moving corpses. The corpses reanimated by necromancy were merely the vanguard. Behind them were black mages preparing their spells.

Black mana rippled.

The rippling mana condensed in mid-air.

What appeared from the condensing mana were two rings. What mages call circles or rings. The moment the strange characters engraved on the rings flashed, Najin’s body moved reflexively.

Swooosh!

What cut through the air was a stake made of bone. A stake resembling a human spine embedded itself with a thud where Najin had been standing just moments ago.

-Typical necromancy school.

A voice echoed in Najin’s ear.

-Controlling corpses and using their bodies as offerings for magic—very typical necromancers.

Ignoring the voice, Najin took his stance. He wasn’t sure exactly how the magic was fired, but he could see the flow of mana rippling through the air.

-Their basic attack is bone stakes. See how they’re pulling out bones? What’s blocking your path is both the vanguard and the medium for their black magic.

Magical energy gathered on Najin’s sword.

-The next spell will be, ah.

Bending his knees and lowering his stance, Najin narrowed his eyes, pulling his sword back behind him.

-Bone swamp. Jump.

The moment Najin kicked off the ground, bone stakes shot up from the floor. A spell to block a swordsman’s approach. A very orthodox strategy: transform the terrain into a trap to immobilize the feet, then attack from a distance.

But if you know what’s coming, it’s not hard to counter.

As he kicked off the ground, Najin began running along the waterway wall. His physical abilities, approaching those of a Sword Seeker, and his innate sense of balance allowed him to run on walls almost as fast as on the ground.

Babababababam!

Belatedly, bone stakes erupted from the waterway walls too, but again, too late. By the time the stakes shot up, Najin had already leaped into the midst of the corpses. A black mage hurriedly waved his staff.

As the corpses began to swell, boom.

The corpses exploded, scattering bone fragments in all directions. Necromancers become more formidable the more corpses they have as mediums. With this many corpses, taking down a single warrior would be child’s play.

The black mage thought this as he detonated the corpses.

That is, until he saw Najin hanging upside down from the ceiling with his sword embedded in it.

‘When did he…?’

The black mage’s peripheral vision couldn’t track Najin’s movements, and by the time he cast his spell, Najin was already gone. As if he knew what was going to happen.

-It’s over.

The voice echoing in Najin’s ear now was Merlin’s. What he saw through those eyes was the flow of mana.

He knew when magic would be fired.

And Merlin whispered the form that magic would take.

In other words, it was like knowing “which direction,” “what trajectory,” and “at what moment” the opponent’s sword would strike. If you know all that, there’s no reason you can’t counter.

‘So this is what it means to never lose to a black mage.’

Hanging upside down from the ceiling, Najin bent his knees.

‘Is this what you meant?’

-I told you you wouldn’t lose to a low-level mage because of ‘not knowing.’ Well… you probably would’ve been fine without my help.

Then, boom.

Najin kicked off the ceiling. Shooting diagonally toward the black mage, Najin was like an arrow. The black mage waved his staff to fire bone stakes and summoned corpses, but…

Najin twisted his body in mid-air as he swung his sword.

The bone stakes turned to dust upon contact with the sword imbued with magical energy. The corpses blocking his path were all split apart as the rotating sword brushed past them. No corpse could stand in the way of a blade that could cut through stone walls and even steel.

Slash!

In an instant, the view cleared.

The moment Najin landed right in front of the black mage, the mage’s eyes widened. From the moment a mage allows a swordsman to approach, the battlefield becomes unfavorable for the mage. And the black mage had no means to overturn this disadvantage.

Najin’s sword sliced through the black mage’s wrist. After cutting off the wrist holding the staff, Najin reached out. Merlin had said that what a mage needs to cast magic is fingers, a staff, or a mouth.

-Unless they’re an archmage, they’re bound by syllables and circuits. Block all those, and they can’t cast magic.

Hands and staff were gone.

What remained was the mouth. Najin struck the black mage’s jaw with his palm. After silencing that mouth, Najin grabbed the black mage’s face.

The subdued black mage’s pupils trembled.

Regardless, Najin glanced to the side. There had been two black mages welcoming them. One was subdued by Najin, but what happened to the other? The answer to that question was a little distance away.

“Kuh, kuhuk…”

A black mage pinned to the wall.

A massive arrow was lodged in his abdomen. The arrow, which had penetrated his abdomen and deeply embedded in the wall, made the black mage look like a pinned insect.

Following the trajectory of the arrow, there were corpses with their upper and lower bodies separated. They looked as if they had exploded. But upon closer inspection, one could see they had been pierced by the arrow.

A chilling scene created by just one arrow.

At the end of the arrow’s trajectory stood the expressionless Kaufman. Just as he loaded another arrow and took a step…

Tap.

The sound of a heel echoed through the underground waterway.

Najin’s head whipped around. The sound came from a path that bent to the right. Because of the bend, the figure wasn’t visible, but its shadow was cast on the wall.

The presence of a shadow meant there was light.

The shadow was flickering as if holding a lamp. Just as Najin was about to throw aside the subdued black mage and step toward the shadow…

Whoosh.

An arm extended from around the bend.

While keeping the body hidden, the owner of the shadow stretched out only an arm. In that hand was a lamp. A lamp burning with blue flame.

The blue flame flickered.

The flickering flame reflected in Najin’s retina.

A burning flame. A flickering lamp. And a massive shadow cast. The shadow cast on the waterway wall took the form of a flame. The shadow of fire covered the waterway.

Then, whoosh.

The fire shadow engulfed Najin.