Chapter 133: A Change of Pace

“The numbers are a bit high, but they still look like a scouting party, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Let’s hide together instead.”

“It’s only a matter of time until we’re discovered anyway. In that case, it’s better to engage them from a distance.”

The area where the sand dust was rising was still quite far from the village.

Even if Sa-yoon appeared, it wasn’t a place where the village’s location would be easily detected. It was better to confront the enemies while they were still far away, creating confusion.

He intended to completely alter the terrain to obscure the exact location of the village.

Due to the Alliance’s relentless pursuit of Air Rain, scouring every remote corner of the world, only a few safe zones remained.

According to the recent message from Kim Chae-jun, the Alliance had quite accurately predicted the location of Sa-yoon’s village, making discovery practically inevitable.

Despite the grim reality, Air Rain did not lose hope. They had never expected to remain hidden until the very end.

Sa-yoon and Air Rain’s objective was simply to conceal the village’s location until enough forces could be gathered to confront the Alliance. And that goal was now within reach.

“I’ll lure the patrol team to the opposite side. You move quickly.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kang Ah-jun hastened away in the direction of the village. Having absorbed nearby settlements, Sa-yoon’s village now housed ten times its usual population.

These were people who had joined, trusting Sa-yoon, even knowing this was their last stand.

“Well then, shall we go?”

Sa-yoon murmured softly, as if steeling himself. Each step he took widened the distance between his footprints, his pace quickening.

With every stride, he covered dozens of meters, closing in on the area where the sand dust billowed.

As he glimpsed human figures in the distance, Sa-yoon read the surrounding coordinates. Confirming the direction, he positioned himself on the opposite side of the village.

Planting his feet firmly on the ground, he concentrated intensely. He grasped a long line stretching hundreds of meters.

He lifted the thickest line, which served as one axis of the coordinates, dozens of meters into the air. The ground undulated like waves, rising like a tsunami and crashing down towards the people.

Screams erupted as the ground unexpectedly engulfed them. With a deafening roar that tore at his eardrums, Sa-yoon gritted his teeth and shook the ground once more.

The earth tore open. The ground flipped, bringing the underground to the surface, and a chasm appeared beneath their feet. A verdant energy, signifying life, scattered.

Sa-yoon, who instinctively tried to close his eyes, kept them firmly open. This was no time to worry about his opponents. He had a far more crucial mission.

Dust and soil shot tens of meters into the air, and the atmosphere grew thick enough to choke. The freely swirling dust began to form currents, slowly rotating.

Sa-yoon stared intently at the scene. This was not a phenomenon he had created.

The atmosphere vibrated with an alien energy. The small, coalescing currents of wind gradually grew larger, and the space between them expanded.

“…!”

From within the expanding space, a sharp beam of light shot towards Sa-yoon. He twisted his body in an instant, but the impact he couldn’t entirely evade grazed his forearm.

Sa-yoon quickly scanned both the point where the attack vanished and the direction from which it was fired.

“This is…”

What had assailed Sa-yoon was an intensely condensed flame. The fire, launched like a laser, was so fast and sharp that Sa-yoon could barely perceive it.

Fire was inherently difficult to control. Moreover, few individuals possessed the destructive power to pierce through such a turbulent atmosphere. This was, at the very least, an S-rank ability user.

But it wasn’t Han Do-hoon. He was the type to manipulate heat and temperature rather than direct flames, and this opponent wielded fire in a different manner.

‘It seems they’ve put quite a bit of effort into this.’

To send an S-rank with a mere patrol team meant the Alliance was growing impatient. Sa-yoon crouched, focusing.

He needed to pinpoint the opponent’s location before the next attack. With so many people gathered, a detailed scan of life forms would be meaningless.

From this point on, he would have to rely on his five senses to confront the opponent. The same would be true for his adversary. Sa-yoon’s ground-flipping had rendered all their information useless.

Thus, the one who found the enemy first would be victorious. And Sa-yoon had never lost when it came to locating someone.

Sa-yoon read the expanding coordinates and atmosphere around the moment the temperature rose again. He located the point where the attack originated before the flames could reach him.

He then charged into a tiny gap within the overturned earth.

“Got you.”

A sensation registered at his fingertips. The moment he felt a large, heavy life form caught in his grasp, he clenched his fingers and hurled the opponent away.

A figure in a jet-black uniform flew through the air and slammed into the cliff on the opposite side.

“How dare you shoot fire at someone so recklessly. Impudent.”

Sa-yoon pushed the floundering people on the overturned ground even further away, then headed towards the cliff. An ominous aura seeped from the collapsed rocks.

The opponent, who seemed to possess a rather nasty disposition, remained silent. Their killing intent confirmed they were conscious, yet they hid their presence like a predator biding its time, waiting for Sa-yoon to draw closer.

Sa-yoon stopped a good distance away and pondered. If he fled to the opposite side of the village now, he would successfully distract the enemy as intended.

But something felt wrong. Sa-yoon’s instincts screamed a warning. ‘That person is dangerous. This is not someone he should turn his back on.’

“I know you’re fine, so come out.”

“…”

The pile of rocks stirred. The opponent, having slowly risen at Sa-yoon’s words, walked out from between the house-sized boulders, pushing them aside without a hint of difficulty.

Just as Sa-yoon thought their unhurried movements were irritatingly smug, his eyes met the opponent’s.

Dark, reddish eyes fixed on Sa-yoon, scrutinizing him. It was the gaze of a predator, ready to pounce and tear at his throat, seeing another beast before him.

Sa-yoon straightened his body, which he had been crouching, as he looked at the hostile opponent. The tension in his shoulders, which had been poised for battle, eased, and his mouth fell open.

“Irregular Jin Sa-yoon, affiliated with Air Rain. I will execute you immediately for charges of national destabilization and terrorism.”

What had he just heard? Sa-yoon blinked, staring at his enemy—no, at Han Do-hoon, who stood before him.

Flames erupted around Han Do-hoon. While Sa-yoon remained vigilant due to the unusual combat style, he couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

“Ha, haha. What is this?”

Sa-yoon, more flustered than he had been since meeting Han Do-hoon—or perhaps since birth—let out a hollow laugh, utterly dumbfounded. Just when he thought he had finally recovered his memories, now his opponent didn’t recognize him?

‘Han Do-hoon is acting strange!’

Kim Chae-jun’s voice, shouting over the phone, echoed in his mind. He was indeed strange. No, more than that, this was practically a different person in the same shell.

Despite the grave situation, a hollow laugh escaped him. Before he could even adapt to this chaotic turn of events, Han Do-hoon moved. With every step he took, the sand and earth scorched black.

Sa-yoon also repositioned himself. Being surprised was one thing; fighting was another. Once again, multiple streaks of flame shot from Han Do-hoon, scattering and rushing towards Sa-yoon.

‘Three to the right. Only one to the left?’

Instinctively, he put force into his left ankle, which was about to move, and instead twisted to the opposite side. Sure enough, a stronger beam of light, like a cannon, shot through the spot where the flames had passed.

If Sa-yoon had dodged to the left, he would have been utterly impaled.

*CRASH!*

The flames, flying in a straight line, blew apart the opposite hill. Even at a distance where only a silhouette would be visible to an ordinary person, the cliff crumbled with a thunderous roar.

The power was enough to send anyone grazing it directly to their ancestors.

“Wow.”

Sa-yoon turned his body, genuinely marveling at the formidable destructive power.

He wasn’t fleeing out of fear. He needed to change his position to prevent the village from being damaged if he continued fighting here. Sa-yoon, who had been rapidly pushing off the ground, suddenly halted in his tracks.

Pillars of fire erupted in his path. East and south. The pillars of fire blocked the directions Sa-yoon needed to escape.

“It feels strange to have this done to me by someone else.”

Using the ground as a wall to trap an opponent was one of Sa-yoon’s favorite tactics. Being trapped himself felt peculiar. As Sa-yoon turned his back to the fire pillars, Han Do-hoon slowly approached him from the front.

His eyes held undeniable killing intent. The clear resolve to kill his opponent without hesitation made Sa-yoon smile bitterly.

All this time, despite being hurt by Han Do-hoon’s betrayal and tormented by his deception, he had never truly been threatened by him. Not like this.

“If I surrender now, will you spare me?”

“National destabilization is punishable by death. There are no exceptions.”

“Well, at least my situation has improved. Dying is definitely better than being dragged to a lab, after all.”

As Sa-yoon scoffed, Han Do-hoon’s brow furrowed. Yet, Sa-yoon felt no fear. In fact, the Han Do-hoon who had hidden his identity as an Irregular Hunter and smiled in front of Sa-yoon was far more terrifying.

The current Han Do-hoon, acting so transparently without his memories, was actually easier to deal with.

He spread his hands and extended them forward. Slowly, he raised both hands upward. Han Do-hoon stared at Sa-yoon, who had adopted an easily attackable posture, with a strange look.

“Honestly, this kind of location is a bit disadvantageous for me. All I can move is the ground. There are no power lines, no concrete…”

A thunderous sound echoed. A massive current, cutting through the mountain range, changed direction, amplifying its roar towards the two. Just as everyone realized the deafening noise was the sound of water, Sa-yoon slammed his hands down hard on the ground.

Simultaneously, the cliff behind Han Do-hoon collapsed.

*WHOOSH!* The colossal stream of water that had brought down the cliff poured directly onto Han Do-hoon. Sa-yoon had pierced a hole in the bottom of a large nearby lake, connecting it straight to this spot.

Taking advantage of the moment Han Do-hoon was disoriented, battered by the sudden, waterfall-like torrent, Sa-yoon charged.

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