“Kkeu…”

Groans rained down from every direction. The healers chanted their recovery spells in frantic haste, but plenty of people died before the magic could take hold.

Byeonggap pressed down on his split shoulder to stanch the bleeding, pulled a pellet from his belt pouch, and ate it.

«My Lord, are you all right!»

Dorma slipped out of the shadows, his voice thick with concern. Byeonggap answered in a calm tone.

«I’m fine. Get back in.»

«Summon Bamond. Those human healers don’t seem particularly gifted.»

«No need. Between the pellet and cycling my qi, this is enough. More importantly, get back inside. The enemy can’t know you exist.»

«…As you command.»

Dorma gave a single nod and melted back into his Lord’s shadow.

That was Dorma: the hidden dagger Byeonggap kept sheathed. Even in this battle, hadn’t that edge shone bright? Though how many more times he could keep using it was anyone’s guess.

‘So many dead from just a short skirmish.’

He took in the carnage beside him with his own eyes. Ragged corpses, blood, filth. That was all.

Janet’s casually swung blade had killed about two hundred hunters before they could lift a finger. Among the dead were even S-rank hunters.

Two of the thirteen S-rank hunters dead. Every last one of the remaining eleven was badly wounded. Losing a limb or two was the norm. Some had their bellies split open, their insides spilling out in ropes.

Without the healers, the pellets, and the potions, Team A would have been retired by Janet alone. It drove home the sheer might behind the title SS-rank.

The surviving seven-hundred-odd men rummaged through the corpses for supplies. Pellets and potions and the like.

They’d poured every crystal mined from preparing for war into crafting pellets, and still the supply was woefully short. Not a single one could be wasted.

“Let’s move.”

The people answered in silence and started moving. Paying respects to the dead was something they’d do later.

The further they went, the more the stench poured in from all sides. The dead Grugles were rotting. One consolation: around the Grugle carcasses, Illumission corpses were piled in layers too.

Trading one enemy for ten Grugles was still a winning deal. If he could just wipe out Illumission, he’d gladly throw away as many Grugles as it took.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

An explosion boomed from ahead — the military’s pyrotechnics still screaming their presence into the dawn.

Some of the hunters flinched, eyes darting upward as if expecting bombs to rain down on their own heads. No need. The guns were aimed at the lord’s central district, well away from where they stood.

A wide intersection yawned before them, but the bridge had collapsed, forcing a detour down to the river. The hunters scrambled, searching for footholds to descend.

That was when something shot out from the shadows across the way — fast.

Go Byeonggap and a few S-rank hunters caught it. The duller ones didn’t have a clue. One second later —

“Kkeok!”

“Uwaaah!”

“Wha—what!?”

Projectiles.

Thousands? No, tens of thousands of karma bullets streaked toward them.

They were tiny, but not weak. The hunters threw up Karma Barriers — useless. Bodies were pierced, torn apart, people dying where they stood.

“Tch!”

Sim Seungseop stepped forward. A monstrous current erupted from both hands, weaving into a barrier — so charged a single touch meant being flash-fried.

The incoming karma rounds dissolved on contact.

“Enemy!”

“Everyone up!”

Hunters shouted in panic, but those already riddled couldn’t climb back — they tumbled onto the riverbed.

Then the world brightened. The sun peeked from behind the towering mountain range. Sunrise.

As visibility sharpened, things hidden before emerged — and they realized: what flowed beneath the great bridge wasn’t river water, but the rotting, sewage-thick sludge of corpses.

Go Byeonggap scanned for the enemy. Across the way, only a few houses and two old apartment buildings stood.

«My Lord, there! On the rooftop of the tall building!»

Dorma’s voice came from the shadows. Byeonggap’s head snapped toward the old apartment’s roof. There — a vague silhouette, human-shaped.

Far and high. But Byeonggap was certain: their eyes met.

The next instant, tens of thousands of karma bullets rose around that figure. Rose — and fired.

Every hunter who could deploy a barrier threw one up at once.

Go Byeonggap drove his sword into the ground. A wall of energy spread from the blade, enclosing a radius of ten meters.

But one man couldn’t plug the sky with his fist. Those outside the barrier died without mercy.

Even those who made it behind a barrier weren’t safe. Weak shields collapsed in moments, shattered like glass.

Gagging, choking death-cries tore through the air—unceasing. A slaughter. A literal slaughter.

“We’re all going to die at this rate!”

“Fall back! Get back!”

People fled in a panic, scrambling beyond the bullets’ range.

“The rooftop! The apartment rooftop!”

Go Byeonggap roared. Those who could attack from a distance caught on at once and unleashed everything they had.

Moments later, two apartment buildings collapsed, sending up a thunderous roar and a cloud of dust. The rain of relentless assault faltered, if only for a moment.

“Now!”

Go Byeonggap wrenched his sword from the ground and sprinted forward. The A-rank and S-rank hunters followed right on his heels, accelerating hard before vaulting the collapsed bridge in a single bound.

Thick dust choked the air, blanketing his vision. Byeonggap tried to sense the enemy’s presence, but it was no use. The bastard was good at hiding himself.

A few of his allies detonated their karma in a burst, clearing the dust in an instant. And there, walking toward them step by unhurried step, was a man.

Blond hair, blue eyes—a textbook Western face. A young man. He didn’t even pretend to flee. Expressionless, he just kept coming.

“Hup!”

“Haaah!”

The allied hunters struck first—lightning, flames, blades of wind, a whole motley volley of projectiles arcing toward him.

The man flicked his hand. Behind him, a swarm of karma bullets surged into the air, intercepting their attacks and neutralizing every last one.

Then he pressed his palms together. Dense karma pulsed from him, rippling across the ground before surging upward and taking shape.

Warriors. Swordsmen formed from stark-blue karma. By rough count, at least fifty.

The karma warriors charged in unison. The hunters met them head-on, but the fight was even. Each of those constructs packed combat power on par with a first-rate hunter.

Byeonggap pushed past the small fry and went straight for the man himself. If he let that bastard sit idle, another rain of world-smothering karma bullets would come flying.

Even when Byeonggap closed to within ten paces, the young man stood still, arms crossed.

Arrogant to the point of absurdity. But Byeonggap didn’t rush. He raised his sword high, loaded every ounce of strength into it, and brought it crashing down.

Clang!

His strike was cleanly blocked—two karma swords had materialized out of thin air to meet it. The man still hadn’t uncrossed his arms.

“Did you kill Janet?”

His voice carried weight far beyond his boyish face. Byeonggap glanced back at the unfolding battle before answering.

“So that woman’s name was Janet, huh.”

“How’d you kill her? Was it you?”

“We did it together.”

“That doesn’t add up. A woman like her shouldn’t die to a bunch of nobodies like you.”

“Let me ask you one too.”

The man squinted, cocking his head.

“What?”

“Is Go Geonryong out there too?”

“What difference does his presence make to you?”

“Looks like you’ve got no intention of answering. I’ll check for myself.”

Go Byeonggap tightened his grip on the sword hilt. The two blades blocking his path shattered with a sharp crack.

The blond youth’s eyes went wide. Byeonggap lunged forward and thrust his sword. The youth retreated, conjuring four more blades to parry.

“Impressive karma shaping. …You must be Klochria.”

“So you know of me.”

“Enough.”

“I see.”

The four blades spread apart in unison. Byeonggap was sent flying back, scrambling to regain his footing.

“If you knew about me, you should’ve run with your tail between your legs.”

Klochria exuded his energy. Not just Byeonggap—every hunter locked in combat went pale.

It was an incredibly dense and vast torrent of karma.

‘Was he holding back this whole time?’

The karma took form—warriors, archers, spearmen, giants, beasts. Their numbers swelled past a hundred, then five hundred. By the end, there were so many the pressure was skull-splitting.

It was a legion. A legion made of karma soldiers.

Klochria spoke, his voice powerful but not wasteful.

“The One-Man Legion. That is what they call me.”

“…I hear Go Geonryong can take on a whole nation by himself. Looks like you don’t measure up to that.”

“Well, I won’t deny it. But even so, you won’t catch me with this rabble.”

The karma soldiers stepped forward.

Byeonggap ground his teeth and checked on the hunters behind him. They’d just crossed the severed bridge.

‘Damn it, the matchup sucks.’

Only about six hundred hunters remained. Fewer than two hundred of them were B-rank or above.

It was obvious the lower-ranked awakeners couldn’t even trade one-for-one with a karma soldier.

‘I wanted to save this for later.’

Byeonggap let out a small sigh.

“To take you down, I’ll need an elite legion.”

“That would require one to exist—”

«Come forth.»

Byeonggap opened the gate to Asvillam.

Beyond the wide portal, the goblin legion, waiting in formation, marched out. Their armor and weapons were all top quality.

A handpicked, elite force of one thousand.

At the head of the twelve companies stood the heroes commanding each platoon. Dorma naturally stepped forward and took his place at the front of his company.

“Th-this… what is…”

Klochria showed clear shock at the sudden appearance of the goblin army.

Byeonggap raised his sword and stepped to the very front.

«Hey, Gobungi.»

«Yes, My Lord!»

Gobungi, leading a single company, answered with vigor. A polearm that looked like a long pickaxe rested on his shoulder.

«Sorry to make you fight too.»

«Don’t say that! I am happy to fight for My Lord!»

«Thanks, I appreciate it.»

He patted Gobungi’s shoulder a couple of times and stepped forward.

“Just what… the hell are you? Some kind of goblin breeder?”

“Now then, think I can take you?”

“…You’ve got a talent for startling people. But a pack of dogs can’t bring down a pride of lions.”

“Yeah, a pack of dogs can’t bring down a pride of lions.”

Go Byeonggap raised his sword, pointing it forward.

“Let me show you who’s the dog and who’s the lion.”

Then he spoke.

«Kill every last one of them. Leave none alive.»

«Charge! Follow me!»

«Kerreuk!»

The Divine Mandala Knight Order surged forward. War cries that made the street itself tremble spread through the city.

Swords and spears thrust out. Without exception, they shattered karma soldiers’ heads and split their chests open.

Soldiers imbued with the Emperor’s spirit moved twice as fast and strong as their normal ability.

Go Byeonggap channeled his internal energy and leaped high. Arriving above Klochria’s head in an instant, he drove his sword down.

Klochria’s soldiers rushed to block the path, but they were ground to dust by Go Byeonggap’s sword strike.

It was just as Landriol had said. A king could only fully manifest his power when joined with his subjects.

Klochria retreated a step, taken aback.

Go Byeonggap spoke in a chilling tone.

“A soldier catches a soldier, a general catches a general. And it takes a king to catch a king.”