I heard the sound of the cracked outer walls of the building crumble down. The residues of the fire here and there were swallowing things whole. I could also smell the odor of blood and burning flesh.
It was like being in the middle of a battleground. Dungeon Break was like a battlefield, and we had been under semi-wartime footing when Dungeon Shock was ongoing.
This time, however, I had to watch out for hunters instead of monsters.
Taewon Song stated that "Yoojin Han is a person."
"Of course, he is a person. Have you just realized it just now? It's disappointing that you had not treated him like a person up to now."
You had been the one talking about items. Hyunjae Sung slowly walked towards me. I felt the air becoming colder on my skin as he approached me. I did not need air conditioning.
I was not scared to death, but my spine chilled, and my fingertips became numb.
The heels of his shoes stepped on a pool of blood. Hyunjae Sung met Taewon Song's eyes when he stood about three meters away from him. He held out a gloved hand and gestured lightly.
"Give it to me."
"I have no reason to."
"You have no reason to hold on to it."
"Since Yoojin Han is a civilian with F stats and has no attack skills, I need to protect him when a Dungeon Break occurs."
Hyunjae Sung laughed softly. Intense pressure crushed me the moment I thought his smile was fierce. He had been holding back, and now I felt breathless as if I was drowning. I turned my head by instinct and closed my eyes. I could see Hyunjae Sung through Taewon Song's gaze because I was still using my teacher's skills.
"What are you doing?"
Hyunjae Sung shifted his gaze to me in surprise. I did not know if he was not aware of Taewon Song's skill specifics or that I had a fear resistance skill.
"It's a natural response when facing an S class hunter. Please turn your aura down."
"Yoojin Han."
I turned my gaze to him by his call and my entire body tingled when I met his gaze. I liked his sour face. I was sorry for having called him, but now was the time for him to be a villain.
"I'm sorry, Guild leader Sung."
My voice shook enough to fool everyone. I was scared enough that my shaky voice was not a pretense.
"I ask you to go back…"
Hyunjae Sung opened his mouth a little and smiled without saying anything. His quick wits annoyed me, but I liked him for it. He really deserved a battle foresight skill.
I knew Taewon Song would not see my face, so I smiled a little bit. Please join me since you came all the way here. He seemed to be reciprocating as a golden chain tried to slice my neck. Taewon Song's hand grabbed its end.
"What are you doing?"
"Can't you see it for yourself? I'm collecting what I had lost."
"Hadn't you heard me say to go back?"
"I felt no need to listen."
The hand that held the chain tightened its grip when he heard that my opinion did not matter. The tautly stretched chain sparked. Ordinary people would die from electrocution, but Taewon Song's shadow swallowed the current.
My body shook from the tension that burst up. I wanted to go home because I knew I did not belong here.
"Can you walk?"
Taewon Song asked me, and I wanted to say that it was difficult for me to walk, but I could crawl.
"You can just leave it here."
I was not going to die if you left me here. Taewon Song's brow frowned, but he let me go. I staggered for a bit and dropped down. His eyes looked at me with real worry as I took deep breaths. It felt like an upgrade version of giving me a disease and then medicine.
"Will you not return at this point?"
"I will once I take what's mine."
"Yoojin Han has already refused. I will have to act if you continue to meddle."
"That's not bad. It has been a long time for us."
Hyunjae Sung looked like he was having fun, and I began to feel sorry for Taewon Song. It seemed that the fear resistance skill was also affecting my conscience. I felt it smarting and thought that it was enough.
"Leader Song, I will go with the Guild leader. I had called him in the first place."
"No, it's all right."
"You don't have to fight-"
"Please remain where you are."
The voice that told me to stay still was heavily weighed. I knew the moment I heard it that this guy also had no intention of hearing what I had to say. No matter how earnestly I could say that I was actually friendly with Hyunjae Sung he would repeat that it was not right like a machine.
Taewon Song took out and wore something that looked like a wrist guard. It looked like an electric resistance item, and I wondered if he found a new cold resistance item too.
"I'm sorry to have you sit on the ground. Next time I will come with a chair."
There will not be a next time. Then the chains exploded.
Each link in the chain snapped and shot at Taewon Song like projectiles. They each had strong current running in them.
Taewon Song avoided those that already came near him using the arm draped with shadows. He then threw the mole corpse and threw it up.
There was a loud noise, and lightning flashed to disintegrate the corpse into ashes. The links came together to form chains again with a metallic sound. Hyunjae Sung slid amongst the fluttering ashes. Their feet almost met, and Hyunjae Sung's gloved hand threw out sparking currents.
Taewon Song tried to snap Hyunjae Sung's wrist without a blink in spite of the spreading light. However, Hyunjae Sung was faster to pull back. The chains attacked his already injured shoulder from the back. As soon as Taewon Song twisted his body to avoid the chains, Hyunjae Sung kicked his chest from above.
"I have a question."
Hyunjae Sung spoke in a relaxed voice holding the chains that flew back to him.
"How did Yoohyun Han manage to stay here? He is the only one in the country who can leave that kind of burns on leader Song."
Hyunjae Sung did not stop Taewon Song from using a potion and only inclined his head.
"He would not leave his big brother if he did not enter the dungeon. Did he learn a cute new skill behind my back?"
Since he turned to look at me, I told him to get lost by mouthing the words. He had too much interest in another person's little brother.
Taewon Song moved again, and his steps cracked the floor. He rushed at Hyunjae Sung, who had jumped to avoid them. Since his stats are S class and mass are added onto them, Taewon Song was at lightning speed. On top of that, his attacks were difficult to avoid without flying skills.
However, the chains that had already spread out blocked Taewon Song's attack. The opposite end of the chain that was wrapped around Taewon Song's wrist tied and pulled a mass of concrete as large as a truck. Once he saw that his movements were blocked, Taewon Song kicked the ground and flipped his body. His heel chopped down on Hyunjae Sung's head.
The blade-sharp kick brushed Hyunjae Sung's collar and crushed the floor. Then the concrete mass that swung on the chain swooped down on Hyunjae Sung, and his golden eyes smiled at the sight.
Concrete shards scattered like sand out of the bursting light. A black trajectory swung at the man breaking the chains, and a fist and palm met. Since Hyunjae Sung had less physical strength, he did not resist the power and pulled back. At the same time, Hyunjae Sung threw a knife from somewhere. The back of Taewon Song's hand slid the edge of the blade and smoothly turned it back, and he returned it to its owner by striking the end of the handle.
The knife grazed Hyunjae Song's shoulder with brute force and snapped the streetlight into two.
This all happened in a moment. Lightening began to fall consecutively, and Taewon Song jumped back to avoid the burning light.
"Taewon Song is superior in speed and power during close combat."
However, Taewon Song's attacks did not hit probably because of the battle foresight skill. Of course, if there is a large gap between the two, the attacks would be challenging to avoid despite knowing them in advance. Even if you were told that you would be shot before someone pulled the trigger, for civilians, there was no way out. However, the difference between them seemed to be small enough for Hyunjae Sung to avoid by a thread.
"He goes beyond human boundaries."
I was feeling indirect irritation because Taewon Song would have gotten a shot or two in if Hyunjae Sung did not have the skill. I wanted to tell Taewon Song at least how the skill felt, so I cast my teacher's skill on Hyunjae Sung. My entire body shook as I directly felt his presence, but I could endure this…
"Uh…"
My vision turned black, and I saw dirt and rocks when I opened my eyes again. I had lost consciousness when Hyunjae Sung refused my skill. He was brutal.
"Mr. Han!"
"Since Yoojin Han is going to this extent, I think I had enough fun."
Hyunjae Sung clucked his tongue, and Taewon Song glared at him.
"What did you do to him?"
"I didn't do anything."
Light rays burst out of the ground like thousands of snakes. The ground flipped, and the currents came crazily, rushing out.
"This is my cute little item."
The lightning danced like a torrent to chase Taewon Song like a rabbit. I thought he had told me that his power would weaken when spread out, and now he was pulling this manic feat off. However, the energy seemed to have reduced that a few threads wrapping around him had little effect.
Taewon Song crushed the wall as he moved towards the building. The debris of the wreck overwhelmed the current snake herd. The light threads wrapped the rebars sticking out of the concrete and then went still.
"Let's end this."
The light flashed again. However, the lightening dropped behind Taewon Song's back. He and I were both wondering when-
Blood splattered. Rebars and other shards that were made of steel like arrows to Taewon Song.
It was not one or two. There were numerous building wreckages, and the building next to us had many stories. There were enough steel to make a platoon. If it were not Taewon Song who had struck most of them off, anyone else would have become a hedgehog.
"How did you do this?"
Taewon Song asked him with rebars stuck on his shoulders, side, and one leg. A golden chain slid right behind him.
"It's a simple magnetic force. The chains pulled the steel objects."
That was why he was spreading out currents everywhere? Had the lightning been striking the chains he had sent there beforehand? I did not think he could do things like that.
Taewon Song took the rebars out of his body with clenched teeth. Hyunjae Sung looked at him impassively and turned around. He did not seem to care whether he would be attacked behind his back.
"Then Yoojin," Hyunjae Sung approached me and looked at the wound on my chest. He picked up my limp body.
"We need to talk, and I need to know whether you can."
"I don't need that much strength to move my tongue."
Even though the pressure was heavy on me, I could endure it without difficulty now. Taewon Song was staring at us without moving. What was he thinking about? I swallowed a sigh and cast my teacher's skill on him.
We saw a car parked on the road after we walked a little. It would have been a lovely sports car, but now it was half-wrecked by the debris. He would have to send it to the junkyard.
"I seem to have parked on the wrong spot."
Hyunjae Sung muttered a bit dejectedly, and I was cheered a bit.