104. The Victor's Rights (1)

“Run!”
“What about the money?”
“You’ve got to make it out alive before any money matters.”

Hunters were fleeing. The moment they sensed defeat, Rakshasa Guild Hunters and mercenaries alike turned their backs without exception.

‘Should I chase them down?’

‘I’ve decided to expand my influence now. There’s no real need to keep hiding.’

More than that.

I never went around hiding my power in the first place. The moment I stepped into the gate after regression, I used necromancy. During the spider hunt I held back some of the information, but I openly commanded undead even inside Ground Zero, so what was there left to hide?

“Krrgh.”

Ah. Another magic-line Hunter just died.

The magic-line ones, useful for running the Necropolis, are a different story. The martial-line Hunters I can let go however many I please, but.

‘The blessing means necromancy won’t take on them.’

The Priest class belongs to the constellation-cluster it worships, so they can’t be raised even as zombies.

I’d have to make them renounce their faith in the constellation-cluster before they died, and that’s hardly going to be easy.

‘Exactly.’

‘Well, Priest-class Hunters have poor physical stats anyway.’

Wait.

Making undead from the corpse of a Priest-class Hunter, hm. Come to think of it, isn’t my Constellation, the Giant of Defiance, the one who presides over the very concept of the undead? If I play it right… maybe that’s possible.

‘Ah. It’s nothing.’

Yujin shoved the idea that had just surfaced to the back of his mind. Right now was the time to focus on the fight in front of him.

‘They’re all doing fine.’

‘I’m watching through Ghost Eye. They’re doing well, just as I told them to.’

Fafnir and the Scraps’ team alike. They hadn’t seized the momentum outright, but they’d carried out the original plan flawlessly, holding the enemy pinned down. Kang Minho in particular had timed his commands to the Blood Golem well, faithfully snaring the ankle of the axe-wielder.

‘It’s a human who wields the tool. The result changes depending on whose hand it’s placed in.’

It’s the same as a sword. In the grip of a clumsy man, it wounds the wielder himself. But in the hand of a master, it can grant the strength to stand against a thousand.

‘I can lend a hand a little later. Let’s secure what’s there to secure first.’

‘Why not just say I trust my comrades?’

Even while trading idle talk with Kronos, Yujin didn’t let his command slacken. He’d moved in close to use Dark Calling.

What if even some of the massed-force Hunters shook off their confusion?

‘They’d go after me — exposed and defenseless.’

Just like a moment ago, a fellow like Oh Jeongsu might come hurling himself at him, desperate enough to die for it.

Yujin gave an order to one of the Brutals.

“Geriaaaak!!!”
“Wretched thing. Get back! Get away from me!”

The Brutal charged in a straight line toward Oh Jeongsu. Lightning magic lodged in its arms and legs, but it couldn’t slow the undead’s charging speed.

The instant Oh Jeongsu escaped the crisis by teleporting clear and moved to realign his mana again.

“You took the bait.”

— Kwaaang!

The corpse of the martial-line Hunter beneath his feet exploded. The armor he wore absorbed the user’s mana and threw up an improvised barrier, but it couldn’t soak up all the impact erupting at point-blank range.

“Kuhuhk!”

Holes torn clear through him, Oh Jeongsu vomited blood and collapsed, a critical wound that needed treatment at once.

“Wha— what the.”
“Figured a lightning-trait Hunter would know how to use Blink.”

There’s the listlessness that comes right after a Blink. Even a 5th-Rank Hunter at his peak isn’t free from skill penalties.

The taunts rattled his composure. Charging the Brutal in had been the bait to draw out Blink, the trump card Oh Jeongsu held in reserve.

“What’s wrong? You’re swaying, aren’t you.”
“You son of a, bitch.”

The spirit-power and dark mana imbued into the Magical Armament ‘Cursed Fang’ pierced through Oh Jeongsu’s lungs. His head slumped forward. It would never rise again by his own will.

Yujin used Corpse Explosion again and again, widening the cracks that had split open the enemy group. Even in the thick of it, he kept the composure to single out only the corpses of the martial-line Hunters to detonate. Others he raised with Dead Rise to snare the ankles of the Rakshasa Hunters.

“You son of a bitch! Have some decency — defiling the dead like that!”
“Defiling? This is the victor’s right.”

Yujin chuckled. Win, and you take everything; lose, and you forfeit it. A simple story.

The Rakshasa Hunters, now the losers, could claim ownership of nothing. Their dignity as human beings, of course, but their stilled bodies too, and their very souls.

“All of it is mine. Is there some problem?”

Oh Jeongsu, the highest-realm mage in the massed force, breathed his last in vain. Those who remained were either ravaged or fled blindly into the whitish current of mist, and only a tiny handful escaped the battlefield unharmed.

Yujin, at last, began to exercise the true right of the victor.

With a light gesture he stripped away all the skin and flesh of the magic-line Hunters.

“Answer my call.”

As the forceful voice rang out across the battlefield, the bone-bare corpses rattled and pulled themselves upright.

“Salvaged close to eighty percent.”

The ones too badly mangled he couldn’t raise at all. He’d been careful in his own way, but killing magic-line Hunters while keeping their bodies whole was no easy thing. A single kick from a Brutal left a body mashed past any recognition it had ever been human.

“Choi Hyeongtae. I’ll give you three Brutals — go hunt the ones who ran.”

— Under, stood.

“Lee Seungyeon. I’ll leave clearing the battlefield to you.”

— I shall obey your command.

Both had been raised as undead after Yujin cut them down, and now they were reduced to obeying his every order without fail. The Hunters who had belonged to the Rakshasa massed force would meet much the same fate.

What it meant to stand against a Necromancer, those who set foot on this land would learn only after they were dead.

‘I’d better join up with the Scraps’ team.’

Yujin moved off at a brisk pace.

In one go he ran all the way to the hill where the second Bone Tower of the Dead stood.

“What’s this. You finished already?”
“Ah. The fight’s over, all right, but it wasn’t by our will.”
“They didn’t stab their own throats out of nowhere, so explain it properly.”
“Those guys ran off, see?”

What did you just say? He nearly failed to absorb the sudden shift in the situation, nearly burst out with something violent.

“They raaan?”
“Yes.”
“Up until ten minutes ago you were all fighting bloody.”
“No blood was spilled, though.”
“It’s a figure of speech.”

When Yujin furrowed his brow, a stifled snort, pfft, slipped from the corner of Kang Minyeong’s mouth.

“Bro. You were flustered, weren’t you?”
“It’s nothing like that.”
“You were flustered. You were.”
“Tch.”

Yujin twisted his cheek.

The Hunters’ weapons and armor. The corpses. The souls, too. All of it should have been his.

Waltzing into the Necropolis without permission and then running off?

‘This is why I don’t care for the quick-witted ones.’

Kronos’s hearty laughter rattled around Yujin’s ears.

“Forget it. You lot aren’t hurt anywhere?”
“No, sir. Thanks to the Blood Golem, we came through fine.”
“Spare me the modesty. Your opponent was a 5th-Rank Hunter.”
“Come on, Boss. That joke’s gone too far.”

Yujin didn’t answer, only gave a light shrug.

“It’s a joke, right?”
“Let’s go. There’s still one left.”

At the wordless answer, a cold sweat spread across Kang Minho’s back. Had the Scraps’ team grasped their opponent’s true measure, they’d have seized up and failed to draw out even their own skill. Sometimes not knowing really is a blessing.

‘I weighed the Scraps’ team against the opponent’s skill and judged it.’

Had things truly gone bad, he’d meant to peel off a Brutal or two to back them up. But watching through Ghost Eye, he’d seen them handle it so well that he left them to it.

Now four strong, Yujin’s party moved off toward where Fafnir’s group was fighting.

“Hiek. The place is all smashed to bits, sir.”

Lee Seongmin wasn’t exaggerating. The earth lay deeply gouged. Trees were snapped or ripped out whole, as though a typhoon had torn through, and boulders split by some great impact lay scattered every which way. What had remade the terrain so completely was a woman wielding a dagger, set against Fafnir’s group.

“Damn. This is filthy fun.”

A flush rode the woman’s cheeks. From her expression alone, Kim Mijeong might have been on a date rather than in a fight.

“Is she some kind of pervert? That woman.”
“Don’t say that in front of the person herself. Minyeong.”
“Nobody who’s having fun in a situation like this can be in their right mind.”
“That kind of talk is rude, you know?”

— Still got the spare breath to run that mouth, I see.

The speed was hard to block even when you saw it coming. Clicking her tongue at Fafnir’s sharp blow, Kim Mijeong reversed her grip on both daggers.

— CLA-CLANG!

A sharp metallic ring rang out, sparks scattering wildly. The daggers moved with uncanny grace. The aura riding their edges flowed in time with the motion, deflecting Fafnir’s fist to the side and, in the same instant, scraping off a scale.

“Tough. I was going to nibble away at it bit by bit, but the company’s gone and shown up too.”

As Kim Mijeong groused, an undead burst out from behind Fafnir’s back.

Song Myeongseok slid in from the side and brought his sword down. Kim Mijeong pulled back as though she’d seen it coming, but.

— Shk.

Her front hair got caught in the sword’s arc and was clipped slightly.

— Hold still. I’ll trim it pretty for you.

“If you’re going to cut it anyway, do it in a star shape.”

— Damn it all!

Song Myeongseok. Getting worked up over every obvious taunt like that, what was he even doing?

For all her easy banter, Kim Mijeong was in fairly savage shape. Black scorch marks ran across her arms and legs, the traces of Jo Seungcheol’s harrying flames. Her light armor, built for nimble movement, was torn through in good part, and her breathing had gone a touch ragged too.

‘Fafnir and Song Myeongseok aren’t unscathed either, though.’

Fafnir, saddled with the tanking, had bone laid bare. Song Myeongseok’s plate armor was cracked here and there. A little longer and it would have turned dangerous.

“Hey. You Cheon Yujin?”
“Pick one — polite speech, or plain. One of the two.”
“Putting it that way makes me want to go polite.”
“Drop the tone that doesn’t even suit you.”

Yujin shook his head side to side.

A connection from before the regression. He’d never imagined he would meet her again, here of all places.

‘Kill her, of course.’

He’d reached the conclusion without a hair’s worth of hesitation. Kim Mijeong was dangerous. Had she put her mind to it, she could have slipped past even Fafnir to go for the black obelisk, or for Yujin himself. She’d botched the job only because of her own nature, moving on whim, for the fun of it.

‘It’d be a problem to let her slip away here.’

She had staggering breakthrough power and a tremendous burst of instantaneous firepower, and the mist woven through with spirit-power hadn’t been much of an obstacle to her either. If he failed to put Kim Mijeong down here, he wouldn’t know a moment’s ease for as long as he remained in the Necropolis.

“Mr. Cheon Yujin. Mind if I ask you one question?”
“Speak.”
“You’re going to kill me, right?”
“That goes without saying.”
“Hmm. This is too much fun — what do I do. But I don’t want to die over it, either.”

‘It’s probably her honest feeling.’

‘Right. She says she doesn’t want to die, yet she won’t pick the option of running, either.’

Had crossing blades with Fafnir lit some spark in her? A notion worthy of a mad dog.

Wait.

‘This situation. Couldn’t I use it?’

After sorting out the thought that came to mind, he parted his lips.

“I’ll give you a choice.”
“A choice?”
“Die here. Or surrender.”
“How very merciful.”

Kang Minyeong stuck out her lips.

“Trust him to say the word that suits Bro least of all.”
“He’s sure to have his reasons.”

Kids. Put it like that and it makes me sound like a thrill-killing murderer who’s mastered his craft.

‘That’s a harsh thing to say.’

‘I told you. Watch and you’ll know.’

Arms folded, Yujin waited for Kim Mijeong’s lips to part.

How much time passed.

“I surrender.”

The two daggers she let fall met the ground and gave off their distinctive metallic ring, clang.