Chapter 20
[20] Overwhelming Power
Brilliant aurora-like light spilled from Minjun’s sword.
Soon, that radiant light flowed along the blade and began enveloping his entire body.
Overwhelmed by a sensation he had never experienced before, Minjun stared back and forth between his hand and his sword.
At first, he wondered if it was sword aura. But everyone knew sword aura shone blue, not with colors like an aurora.
Besides, his understanding of swordsmanship wasn’t deep enough to manifest sword aura.
That meant this light had to be connected to the dragon’s power sleeping within the sword.
He couldn’t be certain whether he had fully drawn out that power.
This was his first time experiencing anything like it. He couldn’t say anything for sure.
But there was one thing he knew.
If he used this tremendous power surging through the sword and into his body...
He could overwhelm his opponents, no matter who they were or what situation he faced.
“Bro, wh-what is—”
Flustered by the aurora-like light rising from Minjun’s entire body, Junhwi stammered.
“Junhwi. Just follow me.”
“What? But—”
Without waiting to hear the rest, Minjun charged straight toward the Seo siblings.
Everything happened so quickly that Junhwi could barely process it as he started after him.
“Is that bastard insane?”
The villains were no exception.
They, too, were caught completely off guard by this unexpected turn.
As far as they were concerned, Minjun and Junhwi had only two choices: fight the Antmen or flee in the opposite direction.
Yet here they were, charging toward them instead.
Wasn’t this like a cornered rat baring its teeth and lunging at a cat?
“What the hell are they thinking?”
“Guess they want to put up one last fight before they die.”
“Fine by us... Wait. What’s that around his sword? Is that aura?”
“Aura? From some D-rank? Get real. Does that look like sword aura to you?”
Though briefly startled, the villains soon grinned at the sight of Minjun charging toward them.
The Antmen were still chasing the pair, after all. They assumed the two had simply run out of options.
They took Minjun’s sudden charge as nothing more than a desperate gamble with his life.
And they dismissed the aurora-like light enveloping him as the effect of an item or some piece of equipment.
But...
“Wh-what the hell is that?!”
Once again, Minjun defied their expectations.
They had thought this was merely one final, desperate struggle before his strength gave out.
Yet Minjun tore through the air, hurtling toward them like a runaway locomotive.
How could a D-rank hunter possibly move that fast?
“What the hell just—”
“That’s supposed to be a D-rank...?”
Now that Minjun was displaying physical abilities beyond anything they had imagined, even they had to take him seriously.
Junhwi and the Antmen could wait.
Minjun was the one they needed to watch.
All three specialized in ranged attacks. To make the most of that advantage, they spread out to maintain their distance and concentrated their fire on him.
An ordinary D-rank hunter would never be able to block their entire barrage.
Minjun was faster than expected, making him difficult to aim at, but that was fine.
They could overwhelm him with sheer volume.
Arrows and spells poured down like a torrential storm.
No matter how fast he was, he couldn’t possibly dodge or block them all.
But—
“...What?”
They had actually worried that this much firepower was unnecessary, that they were merely wasting their strength.
Yet Minjun once again shattered their expectations, deflecting every attack with a single sword as he charged relentlessly toward them.
A spell knocked aside by his blade gouged a crater into the ground.
“Th-that’s impossible!”
To block this entire onslaught alone without suffering any damage, he would have to be at least an A-rank hunter.
Yet Minjun looked completely unharmed.
Which meant—
‘Who the hell is he?’
But whatever his identity, this wasn’t the time to puzzle over it.
The moment that unknown aura appeared on Minjun’s sword, the battle had turned completely around.
One moment, they had been happily imagining how to devour their prey. The next, they were struggling to avoid being devoured themselves.
They squeezed out every ounce of strength and unleashed another all-out assault.
Magic Missiles dense with mana cut through the air, accompanied by a steady stream of debuffs meant to halt Minjun’s furious charge.
Even that proved useless.
Minjun simply sliced through or deflected the incoming Magic Missiles, continuing his charge without injury.
Most of the debuffs were nullified. A few took effect, but he ran on without the slightest hesitation.
Through sheer will alone.
Following behind him, Junhwi stared with his mouth hanging open.
‘He’s a D-rank hunter, just like me?’
This was nothing a D-rank hunter should have been capable of.
How could a D-rank deflect, block, and slice through all those spells raining down on him?
And then there was his speed.
Junhwi was chasing him with everything he had, yet the distance between them had already grown noticeably wider.
‘I’m going to live.’
When the villains first revealed their true colors, Junhwi had thought he was a dead man.
But watching Minjun’s terrifying display, he became certain.
At the very least, he wasn’t going to die today.
While Junhwi watched in awe, Minjun steadily closed the gap.
“Wh-what is this?”
The villains struggled desperately to put distance between themselves and Minjun, but they couldn’t pull away.
Movement speed buffs didn’t help. Neither did scattering in different directions.
As that realization sank in, all three went deathly pale.
Minjun was already close enough to reach them with his sword.
“Stay the hell away, you bastard!”
Yuhyeon, who was closest to Minjun, resisted by frantically firing spells.
But Minjun casually dodged some and knocked the rest aside with his sword.
Then he drove his blade into Yuhyeon’s shoulder with all his strength.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
Yuhyeon clutched his shoulder and writhed in agony, but Minjun didn’t spare him another glance. He immediately sprinted toward Yura and Yuseon.
Seeing Yuhyeon go down so easily, the two women abandoned any thought of resistance and tried to flee.
The difference in strength was so overwhelming that fighting back was pointless.
But before they could even make a proper attempt to escape, they were sent sprawling across the ground.
Once he confirmed that all three were completely unable to fight, Minjun searched them and found the artifact locking his subspace.
He immediately deactivated it and opened his own subspace.
‘Among the artifacts Sia gave me...’
He remembered one that was perfect for this situation.
Quickly searching his subspace, Minjun pulled it out with a satisfied smile.
“Found it.”
To ensure the villains couldn’t escape, he quickly fitted all three Seo siblings with the restraints, then assessed the situation.
The last time he checked, he had put considerable distance between himself and the Antmen. But while he fought and secured the siblings, the monsters had closed to barely more than ten meters away.
What was more, although he had no idea where they had come from, there were now more than twice as many Antmen as before.
Amid that growing swarm, he spotted Junhwi.
Junhwi had apparently managed to keep running for his life until now, but he was finally nearing his limit.
‘The way I am now...’
He could easily deal with all those monsters.
He couldn’t explain exactly why, but Minjun felt strangely certain.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he charged straight at the approaching monsters.
The Dragon Bone Sword in his hand began shining even more brilliantly than before.
“Get out of the way!”
At Minjun’s urgent shout, Junhwi mustered the last of his strength and changed direction. The moment he saw Junhwi turn, Minjun surrendered himself to instinct.
‘Has my swordsmanship always been this beautiful?’
Minjun felt something strange.
It was as though he wasn’t wielding the sword—the sword was guiding him.
The aurora-like radiance dwelling within the blade swept outward in beautiful arcs, spreading across a wide area.
Kieeeeeek!
The blade hadn’t even touched them. Yet every Antman pursuing Junhwi was sent flying the instant the light struck.
It all happened in mere seconds.
Antman corpses littered the ground, while the three restrained villains screamed and cursed at the top of their lungs.
Everything felt so unreal that Junhwi wondered whether he was hallucinating.
‘What am I even looking at?’
How had this miracle happened?
There were so many things he wanted to ask Minjun.
But—
“...”
“Bro?”
One glance told him that Minjun was in no condition to exchange even a few words.
Had he expended too much power all at once?
The aurora-like light that had shone so brilliantly just moments earlier had faded.
Minjun was supporting himself with his sword like a walking stick, but he looked ready to collapse at any moment.
“Bro, are you okay? Bro! Stay with me!”
Junhwi was on the verge of exhaustion himself, but he immediately caught Minjun and lowered him onto a flat patch of ground.
‘Please don’t let anything be seriously wrong.’
He hurriedly checked Minjun’s condition.
Fortunately, his life didn’t seem to be in immediate danger.
He had a pulse, and the faint movement of his fingers suggested he hadn’t lost consciousness.
Junhwi couldn’t be certain, but it seemed that overexerting his power had left him exhausted.
He quickly took out a potion and helped Minjun drink it.
How much time passed after that?
“Whew.”
Minjun opened his eyes and met Junhwi’s gaze.
He hadn’t fully recovered, but he could at least move again.
“Are you okay?”
“I feel like I just came back from the dead. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I would’ve died ages ago if it weren’t for you.”
Junhwi thanked him over and over for saving his life.
“But what are you going to do now, bro?”
An exit had appeared, signaling that the gate had been cleared, and all the villains had been subdued. But one problem remained.
What to do with them.
All three had suffered serious sword wounds, but Minjun had taken measures while restraining them to keep them alive.
They were merely immobilized by the restraining artifacts.
“Fuck, kill me! Just fucking kill me!”
Rather than crying or begging, Yuseon continued screaming curses, seemingly tireless.
“Hey. Shut up. If you want to die, do it alone.”
Yura snarled at her to be quiet.
“Please spare us. Please, just let us live. Okay? We have lots of expensive artifacts. Tell me what you want, and I’ll give you anything...”
Yuhyeon was trying to buy his life with the artifacts he had stolen from murdered hunters.
“Are you even a man? Have some fucking pride. Hey, Yoon Minjun. Don’t listen to those idiots. Just kill us. I’d rather die here than rot in prison.”
Apparently having taken the wrong lessons from a noir film, Yuseon kept demanding that he kill them.
But Minjun ignored them all and took out an artifact he had confiscated.
“Junhwi. Do you know why I went out of my way to keep this trash alive?”
“...Because killing people leaves a bad taste in your mouth, even if they’re villains?”
“Not a chance.”
It was that absurd artifact that could not only lock another hunter’s subspace but force it open as well.
Minjun had intended to use it to empty their subspaces from the beginning. That was why he had kept them alive.
A hunter’s subspace vanished the instant its owner died.
“You’ll give me anything?”
“Y-yes! Anything!”
Unaware of what Minjun was thinking, Yuhyeon nodded eagerly.
“Why would I need your permission when I have this?”
The instant Yuhyeon saw the artifact in Minjun’s hand, he finally understood.
He had been so confident their plan would succeed that he had excitedly blabbed about what the artifact could do.
And in doing so, he had destroyed his last chance to bargain for his life.
“You fucking moron!”
“You just had to show off earlier. Great fucking job, huh?”
Yuhyeon’s face went rigid as Yura and Yuseon hurled insults at their idiot accomplice, who apparently knew nothing except how to act impressive.
The three continued arguing and swearing at each other, but Minjun ignored them and used the artifact to force open their subspaces.
Each time he opened another one, he and Junhwi exclaimed in astonishment.
“You’ve really been helping yourselves. How many people did you kill to get all this?”
“No kidding. These fucking scumbags.”
Junhwi added his own comment as he watched.
No matter how many artifacts they pulled out, there were always more.
And robbery and murder weren’t their only crimes. They had amassed wealth through drug trafficking, smuggling, and other illicit activities, leaving their subspaces packed with not only artifacts but also pure gold and jewels.
There was so much that Minjun’s own subspace filled up.
A little while later...
“All right. We’ve collected all the artifacts. Time to finish this.”
It was time to send the villains to hell.
Some might question whether killing them was justified, even if they were villains. But under international hunter law, it qualified as self-defense, so there was no issue.
“Any last words?”
Minjun raised his sword and stared at the three with a cold expression.
Yuseon pretended to remain defiant to the end, claiming this was what she wanted, while Yura spat out a string of vicious curses.
Then, perhaps deciding that he was finished anyway, Yuhyeon spoke.
“You fucking gold digger.”
His expression was more spiteful than ever.
“You used that pretty face to seduce some clueless rich woman and milk her for equipment, didn’t you? Ha. I should’ve gotten my face fixed, hooked some dumb bitch, and lived the easy life. Just like you.”
Did he think he had nothing left to lose?
Even at the very end, Yuhyeon couldn’t control his mouth, insulting both Minjun and Sia.
“I’m curious, so let me ask you one thing. How much does your sugar mommy pay you every month?”
“How old is she? Don’t tell me she’s married.”
Once Yuhyeon started, Yuseon and Yura joined in, snickering as they poured out insults too vile to repeat.
There was nothing more worth hearing.
With a stony expression, Minjun cut off their heads.
Ever since he had gained the ability to wield sword aura, it had shone with brilliant aurora-like colors.
But at that moment, his sword aura glowed a deep, blood-red hue.