Chapter 25

A shout thundered like a bolt of lightning.

Reacting to the chilling aura, Siyoon hurled his body to the side.

Hwak!

It was a sword.

A sharply gleaming blade pierced the exact spot where Siyoon had stood.

A moment later, and he would have been the one skewered.

“Where the hell do you think you’re running off to, you arrogant bastard?”

“……”

The man wielding the sword stared precisely toward Siyoon’s location.

‘The bodyguard caught up already.’

‘I took various precautions, though.’

‘He’s more capable than I expected.’

‘This is troublesome.’

‘To think I’d be held up here.’

Siyoon spoke.

“How did you know about my Concealment?”

“What?”

The man let out a scoffing laugh at Siyoon’s question.

“Hah… Unbelievable. You actually thought you wouldn’t get caught using such a crude Concealment?”

“……”

“I’ll answer you since you’re going to die here anyway. I read the flow within the flames.”

So he had inversely utilized the flames created by his own explosions.

Tat!

Simultaneously with his answer, the man moved.

He was fast enough that Siyoon lost track of his movement for a split second.

“Ugh…!”

Siyoon drew a dagger and blocked the attack.

A downward slash from above.

It was fast, but also incredibly heavy.

It meant his fundamentals were rock solid.

One exchange was enough to tell.

The man standing before him was a highly skilled hunter.

[ Enhancing ‘Arm’. ]

[ Strength increases. ]

Kang!

Siyoon used physical Enhancement.

With his newly enhanced strength, he deflected the oppressive blade.

Simultaneously, Siyoon slipped into the thick smoke.

Naturally, the man followed right after him.

“Where do you think you’re going!!”

Cheolkeok.

In Siyoon’s hand was no longer a dagger, but a sniper rifle.

The man thrust his sword toward the barrel and spoke.

“So you’re a Gunner!”

Pakang!

The fired bullet was deflected by the sword strike.

To react to a bullet at such close range was astounding.

“Your employer, Min Seolah, is dead. Is it really necessary to go this far?”

“You idiot. Do you think I’m doing this out of loyalty?”

“If not that, then what?”

“When you make a living as a bodyguard, you have to see things through to the end even if your client dies, or you won’t get any more work. You bastard!”

“I didn’t know that.”

“And being pissed off that you ruined my career is just a bonus!!”

Swaeeeek!

The sword cleaved through the air.

It was a high-speed strike, difficult to track with the naked eye.

Siyoon quickly enhanced his eyes and dodged the blade.

‘So it comes down to practical reasons after all.’

‘To think he wasn’t even enraged by Min Seolah’s death.’

‘It was bizarre for a bodyguard to value his career over his client.’

‘Then again, it wasn’t all that strange.’

‘This world was already rotten to the core, after all.’

‘At least there’s no one else approaching from this direction.’

Siyoon scanned his surroundings.

With his senses heightened to the extreme through Enhancement, he detected no other presence.

From the start, the fact that this man had seen through his Concealment was impressive in itself.

Regardless, he just needed to deal with him quickly.

Currently, this man was the only bodyguard.

But whoever it was, more could always show up.

The longer he stayed, the higher the risk became.

And Siyoon had no intention of taking unnecessary risks.

He would finish this as fast as possible.

With that resolution, he aimed his sniper rifle at the man.

* * *

Jjeong!

The barrel and the sword clashed, ringing out with a strange resonance.

Siyoon tracked every twist and turn of Kang Intae’s blade from multiple angles.

“You’re holding up better than I thought!”

His sharp voice rang out.

At that moment, a sword thrust came straight from the front again.

Siyoon twisted its trajectory with the barrel, sweat dripping down his face.

He was tricky.

As he blocked the bodyguard Kang Intae’s attacks, Siyoon realized this.

‘It feels like his movement skills support his offense. The attacks are incredibly fast and sharp.’

Furthermore, he seemed accustomed to closing the distance against ranged fighters.

But that wasn’t all.

Kagagagak! Kang!

Intae continuously pressured him, preventing Siyoon from using his sniper rifle.

Physical Enhancement and Close Combat Technique.

If he hadn’t learned at least one of them, he would have been dead long ago.

Kakang―!

Siyoon blocked a diagonal slash that whipped through the air.

The sword caught on the barrel was instantly retracted.

Then, it immediately darted in from another angle.

Sticking close, the relentless barrage of sword strikes.

Each attack poured down like torrential rain.

‘I can’t just keep blocking forever.’

He needed to counterattack.

To do that, he had to divide the man’s attention.

Kwang!

Siyoon swung his sniper rifle along the path of the blade.

It wasn’t a weapon meant to be swung, but this was no time to care about that.

Kkigigigigi!

He pressed the barrel flush against the blade and dragged it inward as if sliding it.

What he was aiming for was the slight gap between the barrel and the scope.

If the sword got caught in there, it would be difficult to pull out.

“You clever little…!”

Perhaps catching onto Siyoon’s intent, Kang Intae pulled his body back.

But Siyoon instead closed the distance, following Intae.

The man’s focus was likely on the sniper rifle at that moment.

Exploiting that opening, Siyoon swung his dagger.

Hwik.

But Kang Intae dodged it far too easily.

“Did you think I wouldn’t anticipate that?”

“No.”

That was the moment.

Siyoon dropped both the dagger and the sniper rifle at the same time.

The man, whose attention was fixed on them, stiffened slightly.

“I did it because it doesn’t matter if you notice.”

This was what Siyoon had been aiming for.

Kung.

He planted his foot firmly.

Simultaneously, he drove his fist into the man’s exposed torso.

Udeuk―

“Keugh!”

Siyoon’s fist precisely shattered Kang Intae’s collarbone.

The impact was unmistakable.

However, Siyoon furrowed his brow.

It wasn’t the spot he intended to strike.

He should have hit the solar plexus.

‘He twisted his body in that brief instant?’

He thought he had caught an opening.

But Kang Intae had reacted to Siyoon’s attack.

He saw the fist aiming for his solar plexus and moved his body to avoid it, redirecting the blow to his collarbone, where the damage would be minimal.

Eudeuk.

Kang Intae ground his teeth.

Was he finally getting serious?

At that moment, an ominous aura erupted from his sword.

‘This is dangerous.’

A strange red light flickered across the previously ordinary surface of the blade.

Whatever skill it was, it was highly threatening.

Swaeeeek!

Siyoon tried to block the immediately thrust sword with his sniper rifle.

But that alone wouldn’t be enough.

He couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling.

‘I can block it with this stance, but… the momentum behind his swing is completely different.’

Until now, Kang Intae’s sword had been like a rapid flurry of short, heavy strikes.

He used his characteristic high speed to create a chaotic barrage.

But this attack was different.

It wasn’t light.

He needed to respond properly.

[ Enhancing ‘Legs’. ]

In a fleeting moment.

Siyoon made his decision.

Instead of blocking with the barrel, he chose to evade.

He instantly enhanced his legs and darted out of the way.

And that judgment saved his life.

Kkadeudeudeudeuk!!

Following the crescent-shaped sword trace, the concrete floor was deeply gouged.

The terrifying cutting power and destructive force sent a chill down his spine.

If he had blocked that, it wouldn’t have just destroyed his sniper rifle.

At the very least, he would have lost an arm along with it.

“Darting away as nimbly as a rat.”

Kang Intae muttered.

A sharp killing intent flashed in his eyes as he glared at Siyoon.

In that instant, Intae’s body shot forward like a spring.

“I’ll cut off those legs first so you can’t run away again!”

Charging in with a lowered stance, Kang Intae swung his sword.

It was a much faster movement than before.

If he stayed put, he would be done for.

Siyoon squeezed out every ounce of strength and threw his body backward.

Kang Intae was rapidly closing the distance behind him.