EPISODE 134

Just then, the man dug his blade into Yoo-seong. It went through his abdominal muscles, touching his very core.

This was every hunter’s Achilles heel, their second heart.

“This…”

Liang Yong, the guy who held the blade, suddenly froze.

“Huh?” said Ho Il-cheon, his companion and the current holder of the fifth rank in the Ship Zone.

They were the hunters that Tenz had dispatched to Korea after hearing of Yoo-seong’s return.

“Is there a problem?” Ho Il-cheon asked.

He knew there shouldn’t be. They were running out of time to take the Sky Needle, an item commissioned by Jin Wei-baek. It was an object that Tenz had to obtain at all costs.

Right after Yoo-seong came back, they’d tried whatever it took to take the item away from him.

However, the task was not as easy as they had thought, even for Ship Zone hunters.

Neither Ho Il-cheon nor Liang Yong spoke about their disastrous first encounter with Yoo-seong. This was because of the humiliating realization they’d both had: Oh Yoo-seong was significantly stronger than both of them combined.

Nevertheless, they still had to complete their mission and take back the items that Tenz required. They had no choice. Shortly after Yoo-seong returned from Japan, they had begun monitoring and tracking his movements.

Before long, they found the gap they had long been waiting for.

Oh Yoo-seong had scheduled a CE injection. They knew it was a shameful way to attack, but they had prepared and made plans to take advantage of the opportunity regardless.

It made Ho Il-cheon and Liang Yong tremble silently in shame.

In some ways, it might have been several times more pathetic than when they had grovelled to Yoo-seong before.

They were people who perceived themselves to be more warriors than hunters. For them, even if this plan succeeded, they would forever bear the shame with a scar on their chests.

For that very reason, they could not fail.

However, this time, they were faced with another problem.

Liang Yong groaned. He couldn’t move.

Except for the groan he had just spit out, he could not seem to move any part of his body. And no, it was not because of a muscular dysfunction or a nerve problem.

It was his CE.

With Liang Yong’s hand in contact with Yoo-seong’s core, the Aura currently present in Yoo-seong’s body was flowing through Liang Yong.

“Liang Yong! Say something!”

Ho Il-cheon was starting to panic. Then…

Go-oh-oh-!

The Aura began to flow in a different direction.

Liang Yong could feel it. He could feel the movement of his CE from his core.

It flowed through his veins, through his shoulder, arm, and wrist. Then all of his Aura was concentrated on his hand blade.

However, it didn’t end there…

“Oh my God!” Ho Il-cheon cried out as he realized what was happening.

Not long after, Liang Yong’s body began convulsing.

Ho Il-cheon rushed in to push at Liang Yong’s body with all his might. He had to separate his partner from Yoo-seong as quickly as possible.

Bang-!

Liang Yong’s body slammed against the wall of the injection room. He crumpled to the floor as if his bones were liquid, but that wasn’t important right now.

Considering the situation Liang Yong had been in, what Ho Il-cheon did actually saved him.

“Oh my God… how can you…”

Ho Il-cheon’s voice was shaking.

Likewise, Liang Yong’s body fell and twitched. Dark-red-colored veins stood out on his skin in several places. Liang Yong was barely able to speak.

“The Absorption Method?!” said Ho Il-cheon as his voice trembled.

The Absorption Method came from mainland China, a country known to be the main cultivator of Aura.

The entire country was considered a library of various Tech for hunters all over the world. Yet, there were Tech that were considered to be myths or urban legends within the Chinese industry.One of them was the Absorption Method.

No one knew the exact principle of how it worked.

However, one thing was clear: it was a Tech that stole CE from another hunter’s core.

No one knew if anyone had been able to use it in China or even if this Tech really existed.

Except Ho Il-cheon had just seen it with his own eyes.

Liang Yong’s body convulsed before him as his CE was absorbed into Yoo-seong’s core.

If Ho Il-cheon hadn’t pushed his colleague away, Liang Yong would have been sucked dry.

“This… this is unreal…” Liang Yong managed to say between bouts of coughing.

His trembling hand moved towards his lower abdomen.

Ho Il-cheon did not even think of supporting Liang Yong.

Go-oh-oh-!

His Aura started to concentrate in both of his hands.

‘We have to end this,’ Ho Il-cheon thought. His instincts and fears whispered it to him.

Yoo-seong was still lying on the CE injector. Both of his eyes were closed.

‘Are you really unconscious? Or are you making a fool out of us?’

No matter how much he thought about it, he knew only one thing for certain.

If they didn’t kill Yoo-seong right now, he and Liang Yong would face a fate more miserable than death.

Yoo-seong was lying down. Ho Il-cheon did not see any Aura coming out of his body.

‘This is the only chance we’ll get…’

Ho Il-cheon had now forgotten about the Sky Needle. It didn’t matter anymore. He concentrated his Aura on both of his hands.

It was the Two-Handed Palm of the Phoenix. In both of his hands, this Tech used a whopping 210,000 Aura. It was a tremendous amount of energy that Ho Il-cheon had never used, even against the most vicious beast he’d encountered.

In Ho Il-cheon’s eyes, Yoo-seong was more fearsome than any monster he had ever encountered.

He rushed forward, with his palms facing Yoo-seong and his arms bent at the elbow and pulled back.

Suddenly, Ho Il-cheon paused.

Yoo-seong’s eyes opened. Like a person who had just woken up, Yoo-seong’s eyes went around the room as if trying to understand the situation.

Director Jang Jin-wook was on the floor, unconscious. Liang Yong was in the corner of the room, looking helpless and weak. And, before him, Ho Il-cheon seemed ready to destroy anything.

Ho Il-cheon was screaming inside his head.

‘Just one more inch! When I push my hands forward, everything in their path will turn to dust!’

And yet, he remained frozen.

He was hesitating.

The situation had already changed. The momentum of his attack had been greatly diminished.

Yoo-seong seemed as if he would be able to stop him right away. Despite the terrifying amount of Aura before him, Yoo-seong seemed unfazed.

“If you take even one step in this direction, you will turn to dust…” Ho Il-cheon warned.

Yoo-seong cracked the joints in his neck and began walking.

He walked toward Director Jang Jin-wook, who was still unconscious. With his back facing Ho Il-cheon, Yoo-seong curled down and touched the director’s pulse.

‘He’s still breathing,’ Yoo-seong determined.

Fortunately, as far as Yoo-seong could tell, there seemed to be no internal damage.

“This is not right,” said Yoo-seong to Ho Il-cheon, who was behind him.

“This is all your fault. If you had kept your promise to Tenz, we wouldn’t have gone this far.” Ho Il-cheon sounded as if he was whining.

Then Yoo-seong turned his head. A cold shiver went down Ho Il-cheon’s spine.

Something had changed.

‘But what is it?’

Ho Il-cheon knew that it had nothing to do with having an unpolished skill or a stronger hand. This was a matter of something more basic. It wasn’t readily visible, but it left a bitter taste inside his mouth.The young man in front of Ho Il-cheon’s was clearly different from the young man he’d encountered on the roof of a building some time ago. At that time, the young man had seen Ho Il-cheon as an uninvited guest.

He’d been an opponent who disturbed and tormented Yoo-seong, so he had to be pushed away.

However, now…

“By my standards, you are wrong.”

Yoo-seong looked at Ho Il-cheon as prey.

“You have crossed the line. This is not the first time you’ve done it. And I am sure that it will not be the last.”

Yoo-seong would no longer ‘push away’ his opponents. From now on, the one who stood before him was nothing but a monster to be hunted.

It was the same reason why Ho Il-cheon could not attack Yoo-seong. Under Yoo-seong’s gaze, he felt small and completely overwhelmed.

“So… I’ll hunt you.”

Everything happened simultaneously.

Ho Il-cheon cried out in fear as Yoo-seong’s hand moved through the air. Now that he was conscious, Yoo-seong had more than enough room to evade Ho Il-cheon’s single-shot attacks.

Ku-woong-!

With a tremendous noise almost equivalent to a missile launch, a flash of light blinded Ho Il-cheon. As if in recoil, Ho Il-cheon retreated a few steps back. He struggled against the glare, but he kept his eyes open.

“Where are you?!”

For a moment, the flash of light remained. Ho Il-cheon’s eyes swept across the room. He was waiting for Yoo-seong to appear. However, the man was nowhere to be found.

When the flash of light disappeared, it was already too late. Yoo-seong was right before him, covered in blood. It was a stark contrast to the clean injection room.

Then, using Auto-Hunt, Yoo-seong rushed towards Ho Il-cheon like a demon.

Forming a shield with his gathered Aura, Yoo-seong smashed through Ho Il-cheon.

What happened next was a gruesome sight. The shield contained all of Yoo-seong’s concentrated Aura, but it wasn’t enough to offset the massive amount of energy in Ho Il-cheon’s palms.

The shield shattered. Then, with both of his hands, Yoo-seong stopped Ho Il-cheon’s wrist.

“Ugh!?”

Even so, it was nothing but a firm grab on his wrist. Yoo-seong’s Aura had been exhausted by the previous shield.

It took at least one breath for him to recover. Still, one breath was too long considering the current situation.

All Yoo-seong had was the tiny bit of energy it was taking to keep himself upright. Using it…

Bam-!

Yoo-seong stomped his feet.

Fuwook-!

Although Ho Il-cheon’s Tech had not yet been activated, it was an aggregation of energy that was more dangerous than most weapons.

Given Yoo-seong’s current condition, Ho Il-cheon knew that if only he could land an attack, he could easily destroy Yoo-seong’s helpless body – except that he didn’t.

He couldn’t.

“Uh… that…”

Ho Il-cheon groaned as Yoo-seong pushed his wrists downward.

“No… No!”

Ho Il-cheon found his hands slipping into the knife wound Liang Yong previously made in Yoo-seong’s abdomen.

His fingers touched Yoo-seong’s core. Inside his head, he was screaming and screaming, again and again.

Ho Il-cheon could feel it clearly. Flowing from his veins, his life as a hunter was slipping away. It went on slowly, bit by bit, to the last drop.

Just like that, his decades of experience had moved into Yoo-seong’s core.

Not a single drop of CE was left within Ho Il-cheon, not even enough to give him the strength to stand.

“Arggghhh!”

Yoo-seong released the weakened Ho Il-cheon, who collapsed to his knees.

Despite his convulsing limbs, Ho Il-cheon’s physical condition seemed normal. Perhaps, after a few days of recovery, he could properly recover.

However, his core was empty. He was no longer a hunter.

Because he wasn’t being a ‘hunter’.

This time, he’d been prey, and Yoo-seong had hunted him.

And Yoo-seong’s hunt was far from over. There was still Liang Yong, whose convulsions had just stopped.

Liang Yong’s eyes stared in horror as Yoo-seong silently approached him, like a jaguar stalking its prey.

‘I am not done here,’ Yoo-seong thought as he moved toward the helpless man.