CH 167. Very Tragic

If you haven't noticed yet then let me inform you the Harem chapter is out and I already uploaded the pics so go there and give some likes.

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Today's anime meme is here. [ ]

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Sohn Ki-Hoon's heart sank into the pit of his stomach.

'Ah…'

Still, someone had to do this. He couldn't stop now.

His gaze shifted back to the front. Perhaps his attack wasn't expected; the Shaman was still smiling, and its guards weren't showing any urgent reactions, either. This could be his one and only chance. It didn't matter if it was pure luck. He'd accept a fluke, too. As long as his sword could reach… 

Sohn Ki-Hoon fiercely rushed forward and cocked his sword behind him.

"Euhwaaaaaah-!!"

But, even before he could swing the sword with all his might, he collided with something invisible and was flung away.

Boom!!

At first, it was shield magic.

"Keok!"

Flung away from the rebound, Sohn Ki-Hoon landed on the ground and rolled backward. But, that lasted only for a short while.

"Looks like we have our first volunteer."

Along with the Shaman's mocking words, Sohn Ki-Hoon's body was lifted up into the air.

Wuuuoooo…

And now, it was gravity magic.

"…."

The lips of the Shaman were moving up and down non-stop. When Sohn Ki-Hoon was lifted up as high as a two-story building, the Shaman began chanting a different spell.

"….."

Next to come was gravity acceleration.

Kaboom!!!!

Sohn Ki-Hoon was slammed into the ground.

"Keo-heok!"

He didn't even have the time to writhe in pain as he was lifted up in the air again.

"Anti-gravity."

Kekeke….

Not only the Shaman, but the rest of the High Orcs were cackling in derision as well, their fangs fully bared now.

Kaboom!!

"Keo-heok!!"

Wuuooong….

Boom!!

"Keok!"

The Shaman continued to toy with Sohn Ki-Hoon by lifting him up and slamming him down. When he landed on the ground for the fourth time, Sohn Ki-Hoon vomited out a mouthful of blood. Seeing that scene, the complexions of the Hunters got paler and paler. However, none of them dared to step forward to stop this.

"Ki-Ki-Hoon hyung…."

They simply stood there trembling while witnessing Sohn Ki-Hoon being broken into pieces.

Plop.

The female Healer collapsed on the floor as if she no longer had any strength left in her legs.

Eventually….

The Shaman raised Sohn Ki-Hoon in the air for the fifth time.

"You sure are a tenacious b*stard, aren't you?"

"Euh, euh….."

A pained moan leaked out of Sohn Ki-Hoon's mouth. However, he still didn't let go of the sword as if he hadn't given up yet.

Wuuoong!

Slam!

Wuuuonnng!

Slam!!

Wuuuonng!

As he was thrown up and down between the air and ground several times more, Sohn Ki-Hoon finally lost his grip on the sword.

Clang….

It happened then. Just as Sohn Ki-Hoon was thrown down to the ground once more, he vanished from view of everyone, including the Orcs.

"Ng??"

The Shaman's eyes opened wider.

Where did the human disappear to when all of his bones should be broken by now? The Shaman searched for the whereabouts of Sohn Ki-Hoon.

'There….?'

In a corner not too far, it discovered Sohn Ki-Hoon, unmoving on the ground. And at the same time, found a certain man crouching nearby.

Of course, it was Jin.

Jin carefully laid Sohn Ki-Hoon down and glared at the Shaman.

"Hey, leader. I want to tell you something."

"…..?"

Until now, Sohn Ki-Hoon hadn't figured out what happened to him.

"If I don't interfere now, you're all going to die starting with you."

"You… What are you….?"

The Shaman frowned and gestured with its chin, and one of the guards swung its scimitar and ran to where Jin was.

As Jin-Woo glared at the monster rushing towards him, a light of fury lit up in his eyes. He reached out with his hands.

'Monarch Hand.'

When he did, it was as if a giant, invisible hand grabbed the Orc guard, and the monster was cleanly picked up from the ground.

"Ku, kurua?!"

The monster kicked and struggled in the air.

'What….?!'

The eyes of the Shaman opened wider.

Jin pointed down towards the ground.

Slam!!

The guard crashed down to the ground. The impact force was so great that deep cracks spread out on the ground. However, Jin didn't stop there; just like how the Shaman manipulated Sohn Ki-Hoon's body, he lifted the guard up in the air again.

Slam!!

Boom!!

Kaboom!!

Like a basketball bouncing between the ground and one's hand, the Orc guard continuously slammed into the ceiling and the ground non-stop, a helpless cry coming out from its mouth. Eventually, its head pierced into the ceiling.

Kaboom!!

Scatter….

With that, debris from the ceiling fell down.

While staring at the dangling Orc guard with its head buried deep into the ceiling, both groups of the High Orcs and the Hunters couldn't hide their astonishment.

Sohn Ki-Hoon trembled and questioned.

"You… Just what is your….?"

"I'll say it again."

This here was a hunting ground the Hunters Guild paid for. And there was only one person present that could speak for the Guild at the moment.

Jin spoke for the last time.

"Monsters in this place…. Can I have them all? As I will have them eventually after your deaths."

What was this?

Sohn Ki-Hoon realized now that the identity of the porter or whatever didn't matter anymore. No, he was just p*ssed off. He was angry at himself for being toyed around with by the monsters like that. Tears rolled down Sohn Ki-Hoon's face.

"Please…. I beg of you, SAVE US…."

With that, it was done.

When Jin stood back up, High Orcs approached him. The Shaman was behind them. The boss began smirking in derision.

"For a measly human, you know some interesting skills, don't you?"

The boss gestured, and the High Orcs quickly surrounded Jin.

"However, just how far do you think your tricks will get you?"

Even though so much had happened, Jin's facial expression still remained the same poker face, as he didn't seem to care.

"I'll take care of you last."

If the boss knew the meaning of enjoyment, surely it'd know what fear tastes like.

Jin slowly murmured out.

"Earth Lance," Jin's voice resonated with an eerie calmness.

Whoooosh-!!

A ripple incomparably greater than that of the magic energy wave from the High Orc Shaman spread out everywhere. That wasn't the only change to take place, however.

In the blink of an eye, the world itself seemed to bend to his will. The earth quivered beneath him, responding to his command. With a deafening rumble, the ground split open as if possessed by malevolent spirits. Thousands upon thousands of huge thin spikes, hewn from solid rock, erupted from the earth like grotesque stalagmites of death.

Chaos ensued as the room turned into a nightmarish battleground. The organic creatures, the High Orcs, had no time to react. Their forms were twisted and impaled and skewered by the merciless Earth Lances, their anguished cries echoing through the chamber.

Amidst the crimson spray and the gruesome spectacle, only one figure remained untouched—the Shaman Orc. His face changed in a millisecond; his eyes widened in sheer terror, and he gulped audibly, mirroring the horrified expressions of the hunters who had, until that moment, been brimming with confidence.

Multiple Earth Lances pierced the writhing mass of High Orcs, their forms torn asunder, leaving behind a scene of blood and gore that would haunt the survivors for years to come. Light-hearted hunters who had entered the room full of bravado now found themselves emptying the contents of their stomachs, unable to stomach the grotesque tableau before them.

Jin, however, stood amidst the carnage with a smirk that spoke volumes. His usual stoicism had given way to wicked amusement as he gazed upon the Shaman Orc, whose face was a portrait of abject terror.

With a voice dripping with sardonic mockery, Jin taunted, "What's up with those looks? It's almost as if you've seen a ghost."

The room bore witness to a symphony of fear, blood, and triumph, and it was clear that the balance of power had irrevocably shifted in the blink of an eye.

While the Shaman Orc wasn't just in shock, the word shock can't even come close to describing the current condition of his mind as he was shaken to his very core.

As with Jin's simple word, he had lost his strong army of more than 200 High Orcs in less than a second. Something his own magic couldn't even hope to replicate. It will be shocking to see anyone who won't be shocked after witnessing what took place. As the blood and muscle tissue were still falling on the ground like water falling drop by drop from a tap, painting the ground crimson red.

In front was something that people would call a horror or work of the devil. Some would be disgusted, some would vomit, some would fear beyond belief, and some would even die just looking at the horrors in front of them.

There were Orcs on spikes, not one, two, or three, or even a hundred, but more than two hundred Orgs on spikes.

It spewed out shreds of torn bodies, crumpled bones, and the lifeless bodies of the paper High Orcs. There were a great many of them at first, but fewer and fewer as time went on. For a while, near the end, instead of blood scraps, the spears began to release what looked like scraps of flesh and muscle tissue.

The scene that unfolded before the young hunters was nothing short of a waking nightmare. The once-mighty Orcs, fearsome creatures of the dark, now lay in grotesque disarray. Their once-proud forms were now distorted and broken, their twisted limbs and lifeless eyes a testament to the horror that had befallen them.

As the young hunters surveyed the grim tableau before them, a chilling sense of unease settled in their hearts. Questions swirled in their minds, questions that cut to the very core of their beliefs and convictions.

'Who was the true villain here?' The Orcs had undoubtedly been a menace, terrorizing human settlements and leaving death and destruction in their wake. But the brutality of this retribution gave them pause.

'Were we the Orcs who have done the same with humans as they were cut down?' another hunter wondered aloud, his gaze fixed on the mutilated Orc corpses. It was a disturbing thought, the idea that these monsters might have had their own reasons for their actions, twisted as they might be.

'Was this truly the way to deal with the problem?' her eyes welled with tears. She had joined the ranks of hunters to protect her people, but the sheer brutality of this act left her questioning the path she had chosen.

'Couldn't he have done this more humanely?' He couldn't reconcile the hero he had once admired with the merciless slaughter he had just witnessed.

'Was he truly right?' Heavy in the air, unspoken but echoing in every heart present. Doubt gnawed at them, and they couldn't help but wonder if there might have been another way.

'Would the same have happened to us if he wasn't here?' The final, haunting inquiry emerged. The hunters had put their faith in their leader, believing that he could protect them. But now, as they stared at the aftermath of someone's wrath, they couldn't escape the chilling thought that they might be next.

In the midst of this macabre scene, the young hunters found themselves wrestling not only with the horror of the Orcs' demise but also with the moral complexities of their world. They were left to grapple with questions that had no easy answers, and their convictions were tested by the gruesome reality that lay before them.

Like these many questions were in their minds. They didn't know if he wanted, he could have made this far bloodier than what they are seeing, like the time he did in Demon Castle with all the demons of the 70th floor, only using his strength and Monarch's Hand, and ripping apart demons.

On the other hand, the star of the show was thinking something entirely different from others.

'I should have brought a piano here; it would have looked awesome at the moment.' Jin shook his head and looked in front. 'Is it the consequence of living with Esdeath, or is it just me who has gained a slight sadistic side?'

I thought as I was looking in front. I could have done this with less blood, but why did I do it this way? Why am I even thinking like a certain edgelord? And why do I think it's art and it's beautiful? Is it the effects of Esdeath on me, or am I just beginning to display a sadistic streak that I got after killing demons so brutally? Or is it just my own Chūnibyō edgelord self?

Or it could be something else, but it's most likely a mixture of three.

Jin shook his head again. 'Jin, focus on the battle and think of this later.'

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"Screech."

 A black sedan stopped by the side of the road. The man climbing out of the driver's seat, kitted out in a pair of sunglasses and a black business suit, was none other than Woo Jin-Cheol, the section chief of the Monitoring Division, the Hunters Association.

Soon after his exit, three more men climbed out of the car from the passenger and rear seats. All of them were from the Monitoring Division as well.

"Chief, weren't we on our way back to the Association?"