93. Our Big Bro Went To America (2)

Drive about fifty kilometers east of downtown LA and you reach Anaheim, the city famous for Disneyland. The Death Cry of the Wraith had appeared in its northern reaches.

“A strike force is already deployed, I see.”
“Even if they can’t bring down the boss monster, they still have to sweep the creatures out on a regular basis.”

Alice Kim answered with a displeased look.

A Hunter’s main income is the byproducts of the monsters killed inside a gate, mana stones chief among them. But undead monsters are born when mana stones seep into a corpse, so killing them leaves you empty-handed. Try to scavenge anything usable from the bodies and all you get is rotted bone or hide. Hunting them purely to keep the mana density from climbing any higher was no small loss.

“Vice-Guildmaster.”
“The strike force?”
“They’ve only just returned.”
“Good. As it happens, there’s someone I want to introduce them to, so the timing’s perfect.”
“I’ll have them assembled right away.”

The Hunters gathered before Alice Kim with their gear still smeared in slime and dust. Their eyes were heavy with fatigue.

“Good work, everyone.”
“Not at all, Vice-Guildmaster.”
“I’ve recruited one extra hand to help you out.”

Alice Kim pointed at Yujin.

“Mister Cheon, from Korea. His class is Priest.”
“Saint, actually.”

Yujin cut in smoothly while Alice Kim was still speaking.

Saint.
Saint, in English.

It wasn’t a long word, but to these people the weight packed into that one English term felt especially heavy. Alice Kim, too, shot Yujin a startled sidelong glance.

‘About time I let it out, I suppose.’

Yujin meant to build his power base in earnest back home. He’d hidden the fact that his class was Saint only because he’d worried the name’s prestige would jerk him around. By now he’d started to make a name in his own right, and with the Saint’s series set to go on sale, it was as good a time as any to reveal his job.

“Vice-Guildmaster. You’re letting an outsider take part in the gate capture?”
“It’s because you lot couldn’t do it that I brought him in.”
“…”

Jake, the man in charge of the Death Cry of the Wraith capture, swallowed his indignation.

‘Well, that’s the normal reaction.’

The Little Angels ranked fairly high in the California region. It was only natural that their pride bristled.

“Hey, big-nose. If you don’t trust me, why don’t you put me to the test.”
“A test?”
“There’s a saying in Korea. Seeing once beats hearing a hundred times.”
“Talk so I can actually understand what you mean.”
“Seeing it yourself is better than hearing about it a hundred times. That sort of thing.”

Bone stretched out long. He’d packed mana densely into its inner surface to reinforce the durability.

‘Hm. Now that I’ve picked up spearmanship too, getting myself a proper weapon instead of bone wouldn’t be a bad idea. Upgrading bone with Reinforcement Circuit and Bone Control only gets it to about Magic Item level, after all.’

“Come at me. I’ll take you on.”

Yujin crooked a finger at Jake, the armored Martial-line Hunter.

The crowd ringed all the way around the gate’s entrance. The people from the Little Angels kept stealing glances at Alice Kim’s expression.

‘Is this going to end in an accident?’
‘He’s a Hunter the Vice-Guildmaster recruited, though.’
‘Why’s a Priest holding a staff and challenging a Martial-line guy to a bout, of all things.’
‘Are we even allowed to just stand here and watch?’

Unlike the guild personnel reading the room, Alice Kim kept her arms folded and a serene look on her face. That impudent demand to be handed command authority still seemed to echo in her ears.

‘He stepped up because he’s confident he can pull it off.’

The Little Angels’ prestige wouldn’t crumble just because a few rookies got broken. Alice Kim chose instead to treat it as a chance to instill some discipline in her new Hunters.

‘Show me what you’ve got, Mister Cheon.’

Jake, the strike force’s team leader, read her silence differently.

‘An order to put the outsider in his place so he doesn’t go throwing his weight around.’

Saint or no Saint. If their timing didn’t mesh in a team fight, it was all the more dangerous. Alice Kim’s hands-off stance was surely a silence meant to test his own leadership and to ensure the capture succeeded.

“Mister…?”
“Cheon Yujin. The surname is Cheon.”
“Ah. Mister Cheon. I don’t know anything about holding back.”
“Sure. Come at me with everything. And don’t go whining afterward that you held back, or whatever.”

— Crrrk.

Strength flooded into Jake’s hand.

‘Oho. Going to take a swing at me, are we?’

‘Kuhuhuhu. Power to spare.’

When Yujin wore a self-assured smile, Jake’s eyebrows bent into an inverted V.

“If you’re counting on the effect of those paltry buffs of yours…”
“If all you’re going to do is run your mouth, I’ll go first.”

Loading the strength of his whole body into the spear tip, Yujin charged. Reflected in Yujin’s eyes, Jake’s face was soaked with dismay.

‘F-FXXX!’

Fast.
Even a Martial-line Hunter of the same Stellar Rank would have been hard-pressed to land a thrust like it. By the time Jake’s eyes had chased the attack, the spearhead had already closed to within a hair’s breadth.

— CLANG!

A blunt impact rang in his ears. He hadn’t blocked it consciously. It was the instinct, forged through countless drills and monster-fights, that had moved his left arm. The shield strapped to that arm barely managed to fend off Yujin’s spear, but Jake’s ordeal was only beginning.

‘D-damn it.’

Blocking the attack didn’t mean it was over. Far from deflecting the force loaded into the spear, he’d taken it square into his body, and his breathing and stance collapsed. In the face of the sharp thrusts pouring in after, he couldn’t even attempt a counter.

“Team leader. Do it properly.”
“Aren’t you going way too easy because the opponent isn’t a Martial-line type?”

His teammates jeered, oblivious to what Jake was going through. A curse hovered near his throat, but he couldn’t spit it out.

“What’s the matter? You’re staggering, aren’t you.”

Yujin had enough composure to crack his mouth open even while swinging the spear.

A body strengthened by a triple buff. Because of Giant’s Strength his stamina drained twice as fast every time he drove the spear out, but he’d diligently topped it back up with Life Drain, so he could hold out.

‘Compared to getting beaten on by Fafnir, this is downright cute.’

Jake’s item set was a textbook balance type, sword and shield.

‘What does good offense-defense balance even mean. Flip it around, and it means there’s no standout point. It means that once you get caught up in the enemy’s pace, it’s hard to break free.’

An intense blue light stained the shield. The wrist gripping the spear ached, and, unable to press forward against the strong recoil, Jake slowed his attack tempo. He’d readied the skill while barely fending off Yujin’s onslaught.

“You think I’ll just lose like this!”

Face gone bright red, Jake let out something close to a scream and swung his sword.

A striking technique that triggers impacts in succession. The instant the mana loaded into the sword was about to surge into Yujin, a barrier of milky holy power overlaid itself on the spear shaft and caught the strike.

— Crrrack.

A holy ward, shattered in a single blow. Jake couldn’t smile. A staggering recoil transmitted up through the hand gripping the sword. The physical force of Bowling Bash, which should have delivered impact after impact, had been turned back on its user.

A holy spell that, on fending off a melee attack, returns part of the damage to the enemy. Yujin had unfolded the holy power at the very instant of impact, and the accumulated combo damage of Bowling Bash, stored in the sword, fell upon Jake in full. Unable to so much as scream, Jake endured his own force.

— Whish.

Even as the spearhead leveled at his throat, he could only stand there, eyes wide, dispersing the impact. He couldn’t even respond.

— Clap, clap!

“Excellent. That was splendid, Mister Cheon.”
“My body’s not even warmed up yet. What a shame.”

Despite Alice Kim’s praise, Yujin wasn’t all that satisfied. If Jake had held out a bit longer, he could have made the gap in skill plainly clear. Winning too easily made it feel like dumb luck.

‘I even considered using Aura the makeshift way. Turns out that was a pointless worry.’

— You expected far too much from such a small human.

‘Sheesh. They’d need to be at least Jang Miseon’s level.’

‘You said this was a top guild in California. You really ought to manage your water quality a little.¹’

From the looks of it, nobody but Alice Kim had even read the flow of the bout.

“Vice-Guildmaster. I can’t accept the result just now.”
“He clearly used some kind of trick.”

‘See, there it is. When they can’t understand it, they always come out with that. I suppose it’s a relief he didn’t go on about black magic.’

Alice Kim wore the look of someone deliberating over what sort of penalty to hand the protesting teammates.

“Then how about nine-on-one, on the condition I bring out my summon too?”
“Hmm. Honestly. That’s quite the bold offer.”
“To convince my teammates, it seems I’ll have to go that far.”

At Yujin’s barbed words, Alice Kim clicked her tongue inwardly. She sensed at once that the commission fee had just gone up because a bunch of greenhorns had stood on their pride.

“All right. Then let’s make it two.”
“You won’t regret it.”

Yujin smiled slyly.

‘Could it be that he laid the board this far from the start, anticipating the guild rookies would push back?’

That thought flitted across Alice Kim’s mind.

“Hey. It’s time to work.”

A Skeleton Knight leapt out of the Ring of Black Darkness. Faced with the savage bloodlust Song Myeongseok gave off, the Little Angels rookies took a step back despite themselves.

— My liege. Shall I kill them all?

“It’s a spar. Pull a killing move and you die too.”

— I could die of boredom.

“I won’t put a cap on your stats, so rampage all you like.”

— Truly?

“Have you ever seen me lie?”

— To this servant’s eyes, you strew lies as freely as the heavens strew stars, my liege.

“Shut it.”

‘I didn’t lie. A lie, you see. You can’t call it a lie when you only tell part of the truth.’

Yujin and Song Myeongseok traded words at their leisure. The Little Angels rookies had already dropped clean out of their sight.

‘D-did we just get screwed?’
‘Goddamn! What is this?!’

By the numbers alone it was nine-on-two. A fight they couldn’t lose, yet Yujin’s utterly unruffled bearing sent a chill down their spines. A fight they’d already lost in the mind games before it began. The Little Angels rookies braced themselves, forcing down their unease.

Two Martial, three Magic, four Priest. A roster skewed toward the Priest class, on account of capturing a gate where undead were the main force. Since Yujin’s summon was a Skeleton Knight, they figured more Priests would put them at an advantage.

Right. That is, right up until the bout began.

“Let’s Rock!”

The instant the words left Alice Kim’s mouth, the Little Angels rookies felt it to the bone: that judgment had been gravely, gravely mistaken.

Song Myeongseok shook off Jake and another Martial-line Hunter with ease and bored into the middle of the team, and with a sweep of the twin swords held in a reverse grip, two Magic-line Hunters were neutralized.

…

A beat too late, the holy spells unfurled and rushed in. A wave of holy power enveloped the Skeleton Knight’s whole body.

“Did we get him?”
“He must’ve taken damage.”
“Don’t miss the moment his feet are bound—”

— Shhhhk!

A black current stained the white radiance pitch-dark, then snuffed it out without a trace. Dark Fighting-Aura surged up from the armor.

— Heh. More fun than I expected. I take back what I said about boredom.

The dead are weak to holy spells. Not even Song Myeongseok was free of that grand premise.

— Which is exactly what let me hit upon the idea of projecting Dark Fighting-Aura onto the armor.

Heavenly Bone. True to a constitution bestowed by the heavens, his knack for applying Dark Fighting-Aura was extraordinary too. He had a genius for seizing an inspiration the very instant it struck, without a hair’s breadth of error.

‘It’s like watching Fafnir.’

“A-Aura, of all things.”
“That’s cheating. This isn’t fair.”

— Try saying that to the enemy aiming for your neck, too.

Song Myeongseok had crossed the wall. Even at nine-to-two odds, it was a game they’d had no chance in from the very start.

“Are you all convinced now?”

At Yujin’s reply, the Little Angels strike force bowed their heads with humiliated expressions. Watching that, Alice Kim wore a complicated look. She’d hoped he would tamp down their spirit just enough, but Yujin’s wildly unreasonable force had handed the rookies a far greater setback than she’d expected.

“It won’t take long.”

Whether he understood her feelings or not, the strike force stepped inside the blue rift along with that nonchalant remark, and the troublesome gate that had given the Little Angels a month-long headache vanished without a trace in under half a day.