Chapter 16
ㅡRattle-rattle..
Far up in the sky, Suri, who had been flying in the distance, shot down like an arrow the instant the Gate opened and sliced off the goat-headed monster's neck with its wing.
When the huge horned head hit the ground with a thud, people's attention began to focus on it.
“H-hurry to the car!”
“I'm on my way..!”
As expected, the leg power of a frontline Hunter is on another level. Even while running at incredible speed, the arm holding me was so strong I didn't slip off. Leaping over a few crowded stretches, the parking lot soon came into view.
“There's a monster over there..!?”
“I'm faster than you, so don't worry!”
The giant monsters like the goat-headed one are being held back by the Hunters on site, but the smaller monsters are slipping through one by one and threatening the people.
Han Dohee lifted me with her left arm, stuffed her right hand into her pocket, found the car key, and opened the door.
Even amid the chaos of the crowd, Han Dohee zeroed in on the beep-beep sound coming from far away. The scene she saw as she vaulted over dozens of people in one go and rose into the air was...
“The car door is open?!”
“What did you say?!”
Han Dohee's car door was half-open. Unless someone had broken in during the chaos, it had to be...
“M-Minium?!”
Minium was sprinting through the crowd at incredible speed with the boosters on its back fired up. Standing among people, it was only a little over a meter tall, but Minium, clad head to toe in titanium armor, was terrifyingly strong in combat.
ㅡFWOOSH!!
The wind blasting out from its forearm instantly empowered Minium's sword strikes. It raced through the crowd at breakneck speed, cutting down the small monsters as it went.
As the situation gradually improved, the nearby Hunters gathered and began forming a circular line of defense around the Gate to drive the monsters back.
And I had gotten down from Han Dohee's shoulder and was basking in my emotional reunion with Minium.
“Good job, Minium! You fought so well!!”
ㅡClack!!
Minium nodded, raising its sharp titanium sword. There were too many eyes on us, but it looked like a pretty powerful Gate had opened. If I didn't go in myself and just sent Minium over, maybe I could still bring back a few magic stones?
“Ugh... no! It's too dangerous! Minium, let's go to the car with me! Daengdaeng, you're staying safely in the car, right?!”
Minium nodded. Then it didn't look like Daengdaeng would go charging toward the Gate like last time.
“Is Suri okay?!”
“Ah, yeah..!”
“Got it! Take this and go back to the car! Make sure you lock the door tight, okay?!”
After taking a weapon out of the trunk, Han Dohee handed me the car keys and told me to stay in the car. There were a lot of people, so it was chaotic, but with Hunters who could fight there, the situation would be sorted out quickly.
Even if it wasn't, Nova or Union might be here soon.
“Suri... if you see Suri, tell it to come back!”
“Will it even understand me..? I'll try anyway!”
“Yeah!”
After the conversation ended, Han Dohee stomped hard on the ground and shot upward with tremendous force. She leapt nearly five meters high, clearing dozens of people in a single bound.
“Wow... that's what an active Hunter is like..!”
As expected, once you got to around C-rank and above, you surpassed human limits. Roughly thirty Hunters had gathered, surrounding the Gate and maintaining the exchange of attacks when
ㅡKWAAAANG!!!!!
“Eek?!”
The scream was sharp enough to make my ears tingle, and even the people fleeing began to turn back in surprise. Since evacuation was more or less finished, many people were raising their phones to film the situation at the Gate when...
“Wh-what is that..?”
A huge bull head was slowly crawling out from beyond the Gate. Along with a massively muscular upper body, there was also a giant greatsword jutting out in front of it.
Han Dohee had told me to go into the car, but I couldn't because I was worried about the situation. If Han Dohee or Suri got hurt...
ㅡBeep!!
“Daengdaeng!”
Daengdaeng squeezed through the people's legs and came over, then climbed up my back with its short legs and hopped onto my shoulder.
“What?! What's going on?!”
Daengdaeng kept rubbing its face against my cheek. I'm sure there was something I was supposed to say at a time like this..
[Measurement result: Risk level: B-rank]
“W-what?!”
The Gate's danger level is calculated based on the total amount of mana released, the speed of release, the range of release, and so on. In general, a B-rank Gate is regarded as the level that requires a single assault team of twelve A-rank Hunters.
That would mean that the bull-headed muscle brute over there wasn't the boss, but a mid-boss. Or maybe even just a regular monster.
“B-but is that even accurate?!”
[Reference paper : authors Evelyn Hartfield, Marcus D. Crowe, Lillian Vexler, Theodore H. Niles, Adrian Frost, Cassandra Wren, Oliver Kaine, Fiona Blackridge, Nathaniel Cross, Dr. Elise Marlowe….]
“O-okay...! Then what are we supposed to do?!”
Monsters with human bodies usually have high intelligence, and their combat strength is also high compared to their mana. Unlike the other monsters that just charge in mindlessly, they make plans, think, and move.
It wouldn't be long before the S-ranks arrived, and if a few more of those bull-headed monsters came out in the meantime...
ㅡCrash!!
“Huk..!!”
Watching from a distance wasn't much better either. The little ones that had poured out at the start were, in effect, about as troublesome as cockroaches in a house.
In fact, there are cases where, right after a Gate appears, weak monsters that inhabit the interior environment come out first instead of the Gate's owner.
“What do we do!? What should we do, Daengdaeng?!”
Daengdaeng's AI brain began spinning rapidly. The spinner on the screen suddenly stopped, and Daengdaeng climbed down from my body and headed off somewhere.
“W-where are you going now..!”
The place we reached after running hard together with Minium was....
“Th-this..?”
* * * * *
The situation is bad.
Because the Gate's rank was higher than I'd expected, once I sliced through the low-rank monsters pouring out one after another, the proper monsters started appearing.
ㅡSshhk..!
“Damn it..! I shouldn't have come to Hangang Park..!!”
Goat-headed figures wielding various weapons and a massive bull-headed monster that looked like a mid-boss were guarding the Gate.
As if they knew spawn-killing was the surest and fastest method, they were catching the ones dropping out of the Gate and setting them on the ground so the goatmen emerging from the Gate would be forced to come to their senses.
Just the goat-headed brute standing in front of me was over two meters tall, with vicious muscles. He was swinging a huge hammer and screeching kiieeek-, and just looking at that lolling tongue was enough to make my head spin.
'It's coming..!'
The creature's shoulders twitched, and the huge hammer was raised toward the sky. Rather than retreat, Han Dohee kicked off the ground, closed the distance, rolled, then grabbed the hilt of the single-edged sword she had sheathed at her waist and slashed forward.
ㅡSlash!
The sword swept past the monster's thigh. Even though it was a deep wound that would have dropped a human immediately, the goat-headed monster seemed unfazed and was already swinging its next attack.
By now several Hunters had gathered, but they were only just managing to hold the line. They were overwhelmed trying to take down all the monsters pouring over.
The hammer barreled forward, smashing the grass-covered ground as it advanced with a rumbling sound.
“Hngh..!”
ㅡTHUD-CRASH!!!
Han Dohee, who had been hit by the hammer's glancing blow and rolled all the way out to the edge of the line, lifted her head after catching her breath. Far off in the sky, Suri was flying around and picking off the goats one by one, but still.
“Damn it..! When are the real Hunters going to get here..!”
Civilian Awakeners have limits on the grade of weapon they can carry. The law says that only after receiving proper certification from the Hunters Association can you carry a weapon with any real firepower.
But those guys wouldn't be leisurely hanging around at Hangang Park. They said overseas S-rank Hunters were coming here, but they'd already done everything at Incheon Airport or elsewhere and were just stopping by briefly.
They were only showing off for civilians in an easy-to-access place, which meant there were no high-rank Hunters present.
ㅡDrip..
“Ah, a nosebleed....”
Apparently I hadn't properly deflected the hammer, because my arm was throbbing and blood was streaming from my nose. In front of me, the goat-headed monster that had just beaten me senseless was closing in. The very moment Han Dohee squeezed her eyes shut...
ㅡThud-thud-thud-thud-thud..!!!!
'Something's coming..!?'
From far behind, the sound of hoofbeats began to reach us. It was probably a monster, and it was closing in at an insane speed.
ㅡClack!
The scream of the goat-headed monster came with a strangely familiar mechanical-joint sound.
“Huh..?”
It was Minium, riding a pure white horse that had stomped on the goat monster's head and leapt into the air. It definitely hadn't been that big when I saw it earlier today.
No, even the Minium I'd seen just a moment ago wasn't that size. To think Minium, who was now almost human-sized, was riding a mechanical horse almost as large as a real one.
ㅡSWISHHH!!!
After that, Minium raced toward the front line at incredible speed, slicing the goat-headed humanoids apart in an instant with its sword and charging straight at the Minotaur.
“Kwooooooo ㅡ !!!!!”
Even with the ear-shattering roar, Minium didn't care one bit and leapt gracefully over the Minotaur's low-sweeping sword.
ㅡSwoosh..!!
After stepping on the horse's back once more in midair, it leapt again and drove its sword into the creature's face.
“H-how..?”
I definitely told Minium and Eve to stay in the car.
Minium and Eve are in the car...
The car....
“M-my car ㅡ !?!?!”
Han Dohee's car had been replaced by a mechanical horse.