Chapter 13: Save the People (2)

My right shoulder, hit by the humanoid monster, was painful.

Instead of being slower in running speed compared to the four-legged ones, the humanoid types were much stronger in attack power.

I furrowed my brows in pain.

But I am a C-class Hunter.

I won’t be easily defeated by this.

It was painful, but the damage wasn’t so severe that I couldn’t use my right fist.

At first glance, it might seem like they coordinated their attacks.

But lower-level monsters have no such coordination.

Each individual simply does the attack they want to do.

Just now, those attacks happened to align well, making it seem like a combination attack.

Boom!

Feeling the pain, I first gathered magic power in my right hand.

Then I brought it down with all my strength on the head of the monster biting my right foot.

“Kiiiiek!!”

Perhaps the shock was great, the one hit by my fist collapsed onto the ground just like that.

He probably won’t die from just that.

Persistent bichs.

Having dealt with the one biting my leg, my right leg was free.

The humanoid monster threw another punch at me, filled with black magic power.

I felt magic power even stronger than before.

I stepped with my now-free right leg.

Then I dodged the punch the monster threw.

After that, I immediately struck the monster’s jaw with a strong uppercut.

Boom!!

I hit him hard on the jaw with all my strength.

The monster, hit by my fist, flew into the air with all the strength drained from its body.

That’s revenge for getting hit earlier.

You bich.

The monsters that had been hit by me once and fallen, quickly regained consciousness and stood up.

Dog-like bastards, their recovery ability is ridiculously good.

Almost simultaneously, the three monsters rushed towards me at a terrifying speed.

And then the free-for-all battle between the three monsters and me began.

Biting, hitting, and striking each other, a melee unfolded at incredible speed.

These guys had almost no intelligence.

Because of that, they didn’t adopt stances like humans, or make intelligent attacks, or anything like that.

They truly just charged in like a dogfight.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

The humanoid monster kept throwing punches at me, and the four-legged monsters jumped at me, infusing magic power, delivering body blows.

It was incredibly painful as they hit me frantically from all sides.

Thud!

Thud!

But I endured, concentrating all my mind so that my posture wouldn’t break momentarily because of the pain.

So, enduring and blocking their attacks, I calmly hit them back one by one.

Being hit in three places simultaneously, my entire body started to ache.

Still, I was relieved that they were lower-level monsters.

Because they were lower-level monsters, they wouldn’t think of bypassing me to attack the citizens, at least.

They were unconditionally charging and attacking only me.

I intended to win without using big techniques, like the one I used to beat Kim Joon Hyuk.

Compared to simply gathering magic power in my fist and hitting, big techniques are naturally much stronger in power.

But they have the disadvantage of consuming a lot of magic power.

If it was just a matter of defeating these three, I would have used one and finished it long ago.

However, I had to escort these citizens to a safe path.

Because the map showed that the surrounding area was covered with monsters, I might have to fight again as I went.

In such a situation, I couldn’t use magic power recklessly.

It was okay.

I could handle about these three monsters.

Even if it was a bit painful, if I concentrated calmly and fought well, I could win without using a big technique.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

I took their attacks with my whole body, countering as efficiently as possible.

I could feel their protective barriers gradually breaking down.

I was almost winning.

Just a little more hitting and…

“Kuwaaak!!”

Just then.

I saw monsters swarming from behind.

I shook off the three monsters attacking me and looked that way.

Five monsters were approaching.

Ha…

Three monsters were already overwhelming.

In an instant, a 3 vs 1 fight turned into an 8 vs 1 fight.

Even though I tried my best to defeat them quickly and leave, the monsters swarmed too fast.

“Hu… Hunter…!”

As more monsters swarmed, the citizens called out to me in fear.

“Don’t worry. There’s no problem.”

I reassured the citizens once again.

Even ordinary people usually know what rank of monster is what, and how many monsters of what rank a Hunter of what rank can defeat.

The government and Hunter Guild continuously distributed information to the public, and information was also shared on communities and social media.

But even if people knew it mentally, in a real situation where their lives were in danger, it wasn’t easy to calculate accurately and they couldn’t help but be afraid.

I knew well that they were calling out to me not because they didn’t trust me, but purely because they were afraid.

And I fully understood.

It’s okay.

I just need to win.

I can win.

However, now that the number of monsters had become too large, I couldn’t win using just ordinary strikes.

Inevitably, I had to use at least a mid-level technique to win.

“Kuaaaak!!!”

The three monsters that had been severely beaten by me and were weakened.

And the five monsters that had just arrived and were in full force.

A total of eight monsters swarmed over me.

As the number was too large, it was a situation where some monsters could pass me by and attack the citizens.

I had to finish it decisively and cleanly.

『Patcheon Heavy Fist. 7th Form』

I gathered magic power with maximum concentration.

Unlike the Patcheon-kwon I unleashed on Kim Joon Hyuk, which contained all my complete strength, I prepared to cast the Patcheon Heavy Fist, which had lower power but also lower magic power consumption.

Blue magic power swirled and gathered around my body.

Then the magic power began to condense into my right fist.

A blue light much more brilliant than before wrapped around my fist and gathered.

『Gwangpokgyeok!』

With a fist containing immense magic power, I targeted the one in the center of the monsters rushing towards me.

I slammed the Gwangpokgyeok with all my strength into that monster’s face.

Boom.

A loud roar occurred as the strong magic power contained in the monster’s face and my fist collided.

Because of that magic power shockwave, the surrounding space shimmered.

And, from the face of the monster hit by me, magic power began to explode outwards.

The sound of the magic power exploding became continuously louder and louder.

Eventually, the magic power caused a large explosion in a spherical shape.

The size of the spherical magic power explosion, which erupted from the monster hit by me, grew larger and larger.

Gwangpokgyeok was the only area-of-effect skill I had, as I lacked multi-target skills.

More accurately, it wasn’t an area-of-effect skill itself, but a technique that caused magic power to explode over a large area from the point of impact with my magic-infused fist.

With this, by striking the ground, I could instantly destroy a wide area of the ground and knock enemies down, and by striking an enemy directly like this, I could deal damage to surrounding enemies as well.

When gathering magic power perfectly with Patcheon-kwon and casting it, the skill name becomes ‘Patcheongwangpokgyeok’.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom!

As the Gwangpokgyeok exploded outwards from the center monster, the surrounding monsters were also engulfed by the magic power explosion.

The eight monsters, having taken significant damage from the magic power explosion, were scattered and bounced away in various directions.

Then they all momentarily lost consciousness and fell weakly to the ground with thuds.

“Kieeeek!”

Some had died instantly from the Gwangpokgyeok, while others were in and out of consciousness, suffering in pain.

‘Where did these guys get the nerve to mess with me just because there were a lot of them?’

Thud.

Thud.

I went through the monsters that had fallen powerlessly to the ground one by one, beating them and sending them to the afterlife.

Black light, emitted when monsters die, spread out here and there, and the monsters’ bodies disappeared.

Good riddance.

Ha.

I wanted to conserve magic power as much as possible.

With eight monsters, there was no way I could endure without using it.

Still, it was a good thing I conserved magic power even when dealing with three.

Thanks to that, I was able to gather eight monsters and deal with them in one hit, conserving magic power.

“We still have a bit further to go to a safe path.

Don’t panic everyone, stick together and follow me.

You absolutely must not leave the group because you’re scared!”

I gave them strict instructions.

It’s easier to protect them if they stay still, but if they poke out because they’re scared, it’s harder to block.

After that, I fought my lonely battle without any reinforcements, pushing my way through the path.

As much as I struggled, I will definitely save them.

In the end, I succeeded in safely escorting them to a safe place.

Mentally a bit exhausted, I flopped down onto the ground and tried to rest for a moment.

“Khuk huk. Thank you so much.”

Three out of the four citizens were sobbing and crying.

The remaining one also choked up, lowered their posture, tightly held my hand with both hands, and offered their thanks.

“You’re welcome. Now, look at the map and just keep going this way.”

Hunters were still not visible on the map.

Such a big attack occurred, why aren’t reinforcements coming?

Did attacks occur in other places too?

Anyway, although no other Hunters were visible on the map, at this point, the citizens could sufficiently escape on their own towards the area where there were no monsters.

“Please go quickly. It might become dangerous again.”

Due to their gratitude towards me, they found it difficult to leave easily.

It was an emergency situation, so I had to send them away quickly.

Otherwise, if they were unlucky, monsters might swarm again, and the people I had just saved could be in danger again.

So, to make them run away quickly, I spoke with a resolute expression.

-Beep.

One of them brought their Hunter Watch close to me.

“Hunter Kwon Geon.”

Then my information was shared on his Hunter Watch.

He called out my name that appeared on the hologram screen.

“I will not forget this grace.”

He said, choking up.

“It’s enough that you are safe. You can forget it. Please, go quickly.”

Grace or not, the most important thing was for them to escape quickly.

I didn’t save them to receive something like that either.

When I urged them, they turned back to say goodbye several times before running away.

After sending them off, I looked at the map again.

And seeing something, I was surprised.

It was the marker of an S-class Hunter.

Why is an S-class Hunter alone?