Seizing The Initiative (2)

In that moment, the ability Kang-hoo used was Eumhwa, a constellation ability he had obtained by plundering Vincent’s constellation, “Incubus.”

Eumhwa had various modifiers attached to it.

It became a dark-energy condensate, it became gaseous, it turned into black qi, and so on….

Because its visible form was unique, it received many different modifiers, but its official name was Eumhwa.

Kang-hoo’s body, which temporarily turned into something like black smoke rather than a physical form, easily escaped the self-destruction site.

‘It consumed far more Dark Energy than I thought. I don’t think I maintained it for more than a few seconds, but it used 1,000.’

This was the first time he had ever used it properly, firsthand. The Dark Energy consumption far exceeded his estimated projection.

It was only because he had inherited Vincent’s Dark Energy stat and increased it massively—otherwise, Eumhwa might have broken mid-way and it would’ve been a disaster.

Still, he could clearly confirm Eumhwa’s outstanding performance.

Unless they overlaid Dark Energy Ignition onto Kang-hoo’s dark-energy-transformed body the way he had done when he dealt with Vincent, it seemed hopeless for the hybrids to deal with a Kang-hoo using Eumhwa. It was no different from cutting water with a blade.

Bloody Gourmand activated immediately.

His baseline Dark Energy recovery was massively strengthened, and he could feel Dark Energy filling up with speed.

It was not comparable to the amplified mana recovery from congenital Mana Hyper-Sensitivity, but even so, this was excellent.

Among hunters, it was common for people to want to use Dark Energy skills freely but only end up sucking their thumbs because recovery was too slow.

The Dark Energy stat itself was rare, but recovery ability was even rarer, so it was not easy to utilize in most cases.

From here on, it was Kang-hoo’s turn.

He held a one-sided card that let him evade the most threatening thing—hybrid self-destruction—so there was nothing left to hesitate over.

Toward the hybrids in view, he threw a mana dagger, ideal for piercing their limp glabella.

He linked the signature-like Blood Flower, bursting the wound and blowing the head off.

And then—

He used Hostile Trade faithfully.

The strength of this skill was that if the target died within 20 seconds, there was no risk at all.

In the meantime, the expected damage value was guaranteed to become 3x.

It even surpassed what could be expected from Park Dong-jae, a high-grade buffer.

Of course, if the enemy did not die within 20 seconds, there were aftereffects and thus risk.

But against targets like these hybrids—targets he was confident he could kill—he could use it without sparing it.

Since it was a one-target, one-activation form, it just couldn’t stack redundantly; it was still possible to apply it to each hybrid he could see.

It was just that he had to target one by one and apply Hostile Trade, so the process was slightly hectic.

Puh-pung! Puh-puh-pung!

Here and there, hybrids with their glabella pierced by mana daggers died in their own fireworks show.

Bang!

And every time a heavy gunshot rang out, three or four hybrids exploded at once.

Before Ayane’s sniping, which fired highly penetrating mana rounds, hybrids were not even at the level of paper.

So whenever several hybrids overlapped in a straight line, they collapsed in a chain as if they were being mass-executed.

Kang-hoo looked back and gave a thumbs-up.

Even without giving Ayane and Park Dong-jae separate orders, he was confident they would support well on their own.

“Mumyeong. Attack hybrids that have split off from the pack first. You only need to deal with them one by one.”

“Yes.”

Before Kang-hoo fully entered the battle, he pulled Mumyeong out of exposure risk.

The current Mumyeong had to be raised carefully, like handling a small child.

Since there was no need to teach him the experience of defeat, he had him approach the situation defensively.

And since what Kang-hoo expected from Mumyeong in the future was solid tanking rather than active damage like his own,

He trained Mumyeong steadily as planned, without losing the direction he had set from the start.

At that moment—

Gooooo.

A heavy Dark Energy pressure characteristic of Dark Energy burst outward explosively from the front, and Kang-hoo flinched.

It was Dark Energy too high in level and too pure for a mere hybrid to emit.

An upper-tier specimen had appeared.

‘Yellow-Eyed Mage.’

The leader appeared.

It was also the culprit that had turned the Western Australia hybrid zone into a notorious land of death.

There were two major traits of the Yellow-Eyed Mage.

First, it managed its subordinate hybrids intelligently and attacked enemies strategically.

In the process, it also exchanged coordination with other Yellow-Eyed Mages, fighting even as a larger “legion” concept.

A representative case was today’s situation. They divided roles and brought out a feint-and-strike tactic.

Kang-hoo had noticed early and come here, but he had not fundamentally nullified the ploy itself.

If Kang-hoo’s group got swept away here, this gate would be breached in an instant.

Then the hunters at Gate One would be put in a form of heavy encirclement by the hybrids.

The second trait was that once it designated a target, it pursued only that target to the end.

Moreover, they sometimes “called” to each other and focused fire as a group—multiple units designating and hunting a single one.

Even though they were many, they could move in coordination like a single body, so from the opponent’s perspective, it was inevitably troublesome.

Sure enough.

Toward Kang-hoo—who had just burned dozens of hybrids in an instant and even cleanly evaded their self-destruction—

Krooooo!

The Yellow-Eyed Mages roared in unison, ordering each other into a united revenge.

Then the mages who had just begun crossing the wall stopped in place and stretched both arms toward Kang-hoo.

Woooong! Woooong! Woooong!

The sound of surrounding mana and Dark Energy gathering explosively!

In an instant, a pressure intense enough to make body hair bristle could be felt.

‘Then.’

Kang-hoo did not lose his existing movement and maintained speed as he drove straight in head-on.

It was aggressive enough to make you wonder if that was even possible with dozens of mages aiming at him.

Aggressive—if flipped into a negative meaning—also meant reckless.

Kang-hoo’s response was exactly that.

At the same time.

There was someone watching the situation from the perspective of recklessness. It was Ayane.

Of course, even then she did not forget to keep loading mana rounds and killing the closest hybrids first.

Park Dong-jae kept refreshing focused buffs, and Mumyeong held hybrids, so it was comfortable.

By the nature of hybrids, they targeted the nearest enemy first, so Mumyeong was the first target.

Thanks to that, Ayane could snipe stably until Mumyeong died.

The problem was Kang-hoo.

When the Yellow-Eyed Mages entered group Precise Aim, Kang-hoo’s warning had been: retreat “no matter what.”

Their group attack was strong, but it did not chase to the end like a guided missile.

He had said you only needed to be wary of overconfidence, but what he was showing now was overconfidence itself.

‘He must have something to rely on to do that. What is it?’

Even while anxious, there was also a part that made her look forward in spite of herself.

It was that “Eumhwa” that Ayane and Park Dong-jae had clearly seen with their own eyes earlier.

Ayane had involuntarily exclaimed when she saw Kang-hoo exposed to hybrid self-destruction,

But that worry had proven to be baseless, demonstrated by Kang-hoo’s ability.

The sight of Kang-hoo turning gaseous in an instant and slipping out of the explosion was beyond shocking.

She had never imagined Kang-hoo would have an evasion mechanism that could neutralize an explosion that way.

That kind of ability was not common in the first place.

If she applied it to herself—no matter how much she tried to snipe Kang-hoo with mana rounds….

If he turned gaseous like before, that was it. The mana rounds would just cut through empty air.

She had been surprised, but she had let it pass, thinking, as expected, Kang-hoo had a plan.

But even now, while knowing there had to be something, she could not stop her heart from tightening.

Kwaaaaah!

With a tearing air-splitting sound, dozens of magic spheres launched from the Yellow-Eyed Mages converged on Kang-hoo.

Because Kang-hoo moved in to close distance rather than pulling away, there was not even an angle to evade.

If he intended to evade, he should have already backed off long ago. Now it was a situation where he could only be forced to take it head-on.

‘What is it? What the hell is it!’

Ayane, without realizing it, was waiting for something strange—born from worry and anticipation, and from the thrill of having common sense broken.

It was also why Ayane could not cut her relationship with Kang-hoo. Kang-hoo always surprised her.

Even as fellow hunters, he made it impossible to think their eye level was the same. It made her look up to him.

A feeling of awe did not hurt her pride when it came to Kang-hoo. Instead, she came to admire him.

In the next moment—

Kwaguaguang!

The mages’ attack, focused as a fan-shaped convergence into a single point, struck Kang-hoo.

A pillar of fire and smoke rose, but Kang-hoo’s silhouette was still inside it.

It was clearly visible.

Kang-hoo did not leave the scene. But he was not down either.

He stood firmly upright.

Because Kang-hoo had intended from the start to use “Aesthetics of Stillness,” he had simply received the natural result.

But from Ayane’s perspective—who had no way to know that—it was pure shock.

Isn’t that obvious?

He did not dodge, he took all that magic head-on, and yet not even a hair was out of place?

It was impossible unless he possessed a skill that could evade all attacks even while standing still….

‘He has it.’

So Ayane could infer in reverse that Kang-hoo had such a skill.

Perhaps because of that—

“At this point, I feel like job classifications don’t even mean anything for Hyung, right? He does everything alone. Kang-hoo Hyung.”

Beside her, Park Dong-jae let out a hollow laugh and pointed at the magic spheres gathering again toward Kang-hoo.

Angered by Kang-hoo’s perfect “evasion,” the Yellow-Eyed Mages were already pouring in a second wave of attacks.

But Kang-hoo held his position, unmoving, without even the slightest twitch.

And then—

Kuagwa!

This time, everyone could clearly see it.

Even though they had clearly aimed at Kang-hoo, the magic expired meaninglessly without even scorching a single hair!

From that point on.

Kang-hoo’s great counterattack began.

Kang-hoo never missed the gap of the mages, who had spent more power than necessary across two focused volleys.

Baaang!

Now certain of Kang-hoo’s safety, Ayane’s mana-shot rifle spewed fire again.

Her face was filled with the same happiness of savoring exhilaration as before.

Coordinating with a top-class expert whose ploy could not be predicted at all—even by a teammate!

To Ayane, who had always admired strength and such beings, Kang-hoo was a perfect ideal as a hunter—and everything.

It was the time for a counterstrike.

The time for slaughter had arrived.

While the Yellow-Eyed Mages panicked at the sight of their target still intact, Kang-hoo was already at their side.

The reaper was not far away.