Chapter 166 – Coalition Battle (1)

Thump, thump, crackle!

The once quiet industrial district was now filled with the clamor of a battlefield.

The explosions of Claymores, the roar of artillery shaking the very ground, scattering shrapnel in all directions.

It was, quite literally, a warzone.

“Damn it!”

The few small foxes they’d seen at first were now multiplying rapidly.

The soldiers drafted into this chaos relentlessly fired upon the swift-moving foxes.

“Move it! The next wave is coming!”

Monsters were literally pouring out of the colossal gate.

What had begun as a flood of hundreds now seemed to be in the thousands.

He’d fired his gun so much that his entire body felt numb, as if paralyzed.

He could barely even hear the shouts of his commanding officer.

Hunters were fighting desperately to clear the colossal gate, but they were struggling against the boss-level monster that had appeared on the field.

“Shit, what are they doing? Why can’t they take it down faster!”

It was no way to speak of the heroes fighting on the front lines.

But the formation they’d established was slowly crumbling, and monsters were beginning to break through the perimeter.

The soldiers voicing their complaints were, in a manner of speaking, the last line of defense.

If they broke through here, the monsters would enter the town.

An evacuation order had already been issued, so the town was empty, but beyond it lay the city.

Which meant not everyone had evacuated.

“It hurts! Ugh. It hurts like hell! A heal, I need a heal!”

“J-Just hang in there. Heals only restore HP, they d-don’t actually…”

A female student, looking no older than a high schooler, was crying out.

Seeing his friend, a male student stammered in panic.

The girl’s shoulder was torn open, the bone starkly visible.

Heals weren’t the omnipotent cure-alls from games and fantasy stories.

They only restored HP.

Due to the colossal gate, even students from Raon Academy had been urgently called in for support.

Naturally, the pro hunters were on the front lines, while the students were relegated to rear support.

Even for awakened hunters, minors couldn’t be thrust onto the battlefield.

But as the perimeter began to collapse, even the supposedly safe rear came under attack.

The students trembled in fear.

They sometimes had practical training in the lowest-level dungeons, but that was more like observation than actual combat.

For them, this battle was their first taste of real combat—and it was the worst possible scenario.

The kids wanted to run.

The orphaned students of the academy hated gates.

The gates had taken everything precious from them.

But right now, fear was eclipsing their hatred.

Likely because the dead and wounded were strewn everywhere.

At first, they’d been excited to be called for emergency disaster relief.

They were filled with anticipation, hoping to meet famous S-rank hunters, get autographs, or take pictures.

But what they witnessed was hell.

Numerous guilds had gathered, and hundreds of hunters were fighting in formation.

Despite support from a tank division with overwhelming firepower, the enemy’s numbers didn’t seem to diminish at all.

Most importantly, the dokkaebi were growing stronger.

These creatures shrugged off bullets with ease, making them incredibly difficult to hunt.

Amidst this chaos, Hanul’s Team 3 was also engaged in a fierce battle.

“I’m ready!”

“Back!”

At Kim In-ho’s shout, they closed ranks around Seo-yeon.

Seo-yeon murmured softly, and a magic circle materialized on the ground beneath her, light pulsing upward.

The blessing skill was cast once more.

The fatigue from the prolonged battle vanished in an instant, clearing their minds.

‘She’s definitely amazing.’

Kim In-ho glanced at Seo-yeon.

Seo-yeon was only eighteen, still a minor.

When they’d first brought her onto the team for training, he’d felt it was an odd fit.

But Hyunbin’s choice had been a stroke of genius.

Seo-yeon used offensive and defensive buffs, and the difference they made was staggering.

Most buffers provided small, flat increases like +5 Attack or +5 Defense, but Seo-yeon’s buffs worked in percentages, in increments of ten percent.

This meant the stronger someone was, the more they benefited from Katrinne’s buffs.

Not only that, her skills also healed actual injuries.

In short, Seo-yeon’s presence was proving tremendously effective in a real battle.

‘Most of all, she’s calm.’

What amazed Kim In-ho most was her composure. People were fighting and dying all around them, yet she calmly performed her duties while even other adults were losing their nerve.

She looked like a seasoned veteran who had seen it all.

Kim Tae-yang’s entire body was covered in blood.

He had already decapitated countless dokkaebi. His kill count alone was on par with an S-rank hunter.

Indeed, Kim Tae-yang was the most skilled one-on-one fighter on the team.

As if to prove that his countless sparring sessions with Lee Hyunbin hadn’t been for nothing.

Seo Hyun-ji and David Henri, befitting their S-rank status, were also fighting well without any assistance. In fact, all of Team 3 was exceptional. The other teams, however, were not faring as well.

The mounting fatigue was leading to more injuries and deaths.

“Th-this is crazy!”

There were even hunters from weaker guilds who screamed and fled without a second glance.

‘We have to take that thing down.’

Kim In-ho looked at the Seonbi.

Its crimson lips, as if painted with blood, were curved into a gleeful smile.

‘But there’s no way to get to it.’

In the heat of battle, there was no way to reach the Seonbi.

Far from advancing, the front line was steadily being pushed back.

Tanks provided support, but even they were being smashed like tofu by the dokkaebi’s clubs.

Not all the dokkaebi were strong, but the ones with date-red skin were especially powerful and savage.

Just then, Kim In-ho heard the sound of propellers from far away.

AH-64E Guardian.

An Apache attack helicopter, loaded with mana-stone munitions modified for anti-monster warfare, was approaching from the distance.

-My God. I wish what I’m seeing right now was a dream.

Viewed from the air, the battle was a disaster.

Pushed back by an endless tide of monsters, the hunters were being flanked from the front and rear, on the verge of collapse.

-Supporting the hunters.

The Longbow radar singled out the most threatening targets.

To break the stalemate, the Apache immediately unleashed its full payload of Hydra rockets, which had been converted into mana-infused munitions.

Screee, boom! BOOM!

Dozens of rockets, carefully avoiding friendly forces, sent chunks of dokkaebi flesh flying everywhere.

-Delivering the main dish.

The Cheongeom, a domestically produced Hellfire missile, flew toward the gate’s boss, the Seonbi, aiming to obliterate it.

An earth-shattering explosion and a storm of fire erupted.

A spectacular light show commenced.

For a moment, the hunters could breathe. The dokkaebi charging them had been stunned by the sudden barrage.

-Good luck.

Having expended its entire payload in an instant, the attack helicopter banked and headed back to base to rearm.

Through the white smoke and over the scattered remains of the dokkaebi, the Seonbi’s figure emerged.

For the first time, its expression was grim.

This was their chance.

Charging through the white smoke were Henri and Kim Tae-yang.

The attack helicopter had done its job perfectly.

It had opened a path to the boss.

“Tae-yang, I’ll take this side.”

Henri’s speech was halting, but Kim Tae-yang understood his meaning perfectly.

Henri sprang forward and delivered a front kick to the Seonbi.

The Seonbi blocked the kick with its folding fan.

Its face was twisted in a scowl, a stark contrast to the smug smile it had worn until now.

Henri infused mana and activated the Striker skill.

It was an ability that allowed his strikes to ignore defense. It consumed a massive amount of mana, but the effect was exceptional.

Crack!

The Seonbi blocked the attack with its fan, but its head still snapped to the side.

Henri threw a punch at the Seonbi’s jaw, but the creature sidestepped. A ripple of mana, a shockwave from Henri’s punch, spread through the space where it had just stood.

Meanwhile, Kim Tae-yang, having poured a massive amount of mana into his kukri, pressed the attack.

The Seonbi raised a hand and caught Kim Tae-yang’s kukri.

Crack!

The Seonbi couldn’t retaliate; Henri’s powerful high kick was already upon it.

It dodged the attack, but the edge of its gat was torn.

The two men began to unleash a flurry of attacks from either side.

If one was about to be hit, the other would attack to create an opening.

But the Seonbi didn’t yield easily. Just then, a nearby dokkaebi rushed in to protect its master.

BOOM!

The dokkaebi that had been targeting Henri and Kim Tae-yang exploded and collapsed.

“Getting upstaged like this.”

Yeomje, the number one ranked hunter, emerged from the smoke, his face a mask of irritation.

“See? I told you Hanul would make the first move. Come on, let’s get in there before they steal the show, my grumpy friend.”

Kaldoma, an S-rank hunter from the same guild as Yeomje, let out a cheerful laugh that was completely out of place.

You don’t just become an S-rank hunter. To clear a colossal gate, one must enter it and destroy its core.

But with the Seonbi, presumably the boss, blocking the way, the allied guilds were being pushed back rather than making any progress.

“Come on, let’s rush in before Hanul takes it, partner!”

“Who’s your partner, you damn cripple.”

“Hey, I had surgery and got my arm reattached. Is that any way to talk to me?”

Seeing Yeomje and Kaldoma bickering, Kim Tae-yang threw out a taunt.

“Haha! First kill’s mine!”

The kukri in Kim Tae-yang’s hand moved as if it were dancing.

-Activating Focusing.

For five seconds, his concentration would be heightened to its absolute peak.

A fleeting moment where even the twitch of a muscle seemed to slow down.

-Activating Striker.

Kim Tae-yang also possessed a single-point destruction skill that ignored defense.

Shunk!

Kim Tae-yang’s kukri sliced cleanly across the Seonbi’s throat.

A torrent of blood gushed from the Seonbi’s mouth.

Thwack!

From behind, Henri landed a kick.

For the first time, the Seonbi collapsed to the ground.

“Finish it!”

Not wasting the opportunity, Kim Tae-yang plunged his kukri into the Seonbi’s heart.

A clean strike. He felt it connect perfectly.

HP shield or not, this was the end.

The Seonbi coughed up blood, which trickled from its nose and down its cheeks.

Kim Tae-yang soon confirmed the influx of experience points. Two level-ups.

He wondered what Hyunbin would say when he learned that not only had Hanul secured the kill in this allied raid, but that he himself had been the one to take down the boss.

As Kim Tae-yang grinned, he found it strange that the surrounding dokkaebi weren’t disappearing.

He had assumed that since they were monsters created by the Seonbi, they would vanish once it was dead.

Just then, someone walked out of the gate.

At that moment, even Kaldoma, who had been lamenting the stolen kill, frowned.

A figure emerged from the gate, identical in face and attire to the Seonbi.

And this new Seonbi wasn’t alone.

“Huhuhu.”

“Hahaha!”

All the Seonbis began to laugh in unison.

The sight was so bizarre and terrifying that everyone was struck speechless.

“I should just wipe them all out.”

Yeomje gathered blue flames in his hand and hurled them forward.

Startled by the sudden burst of flame, Kim Tae-yang dodged out of the way.

WHOOSH!

Seeing the blue flames engulfing the Seonbis, Kim Tae-yang cursed.

“Can’t you throw straight!”

“…”

Yeomje ignored the comment from Kim Tae-yang, who wasn’t even in his league.

He was, however, extremely wary of Henri.

Not only was Henri a famous hunter from France, but Yeomje knew he was an exceptionally skilled fighter.

He knew that a single misstep could put his number one ranking at risk.

“Uh…?”

Kaldoma, standing beside Yeomje, let out a dumbfounded sound.

The Seonbis pulled yellow paper talismans from their robes and tossed them into the air.

The talismans slowly burned, turning to ash as they vanished.

The situation felt like a strange case of déjà vu.

Before the four of them stood twenty giant gumiho.

They immediately charged toward the defensive line.

“Damn it!”

Kim Tae-yang cursed as he moved to block one of the giant gumiho.

It was the same pattern as before.

Kill one of these giant gumiho, and a swarm of smaller ones would burst out from within. An incredible number had emerged from just one earlier; if that happened with twenty…

It was a thought he didn’t even want to entertain.