Chapter 30 – Fierce Battle

Kesia tried to bite him, closing its jaws that had opened left and right. Se-min hid within the radius of his claymore. His aura supported the claymore.

Kesia’s bite force instead drove the claymore even deeper. Blood overflowed, soaking his body wet.

In the end, Kesia opened its mouth and shook its head.

Se-min pulled out the claymore. He plunged downward. Kesia’s leg thrashed in an attempt to trample him. Se-min evaded the kicks by rolling on the ground, leaping, and sometimes falling.

Cars, telephone poles, and streetlights shattered, scattering debris.

Electricity discharged from the severed power lines. Kesia shook its body, throwing them off. Se-min ran along the outer wall of a building, raising his aura to protect his body.

Reaching Kesia’s eye level, he kicked off the building and soared.

At that moment, his aura receded into the claymore.

He extremely condensed the aura and coated it onto the blade. He realized the maximum cutting power he could muster.

Spinning to avoid the hook thrusting at him and dodging the ugly jaws heading his way, he swung his claymore toward Kesia’s neck.

The sword qi gouged out the tough hair and sliced through Kesia’s bare flesh. Unable to completely decapitate it due to the resistance, it stopped midway.

The moment the blade entered the interior, he could feel the heartbeat of the giant beast. With every pump, blood erupted from the cleft.

Kesia let out a painful shriek. Window panes shattered and scattered onto the ground.

Fire began to catch through the discharged power lines. Part of the street distorted. The flames soon transferred to the entire building, burning fiercely.

Se-min kicked Kesia, pulling out the sword, and spun around to land on the ground. Kesia’s blood continued to pour out. Spitting, Se-min dashed forward again.

Crash.

He flew through the air from the impact.

The other one had kicked him.

Leaving behind the individual that had slumped to the ground with its neck slashed, the other one attacked Se-min frantically. Its speed became a level faster. The momentum of the enraged Kesia was grand, as if it would smash the entire city.

Evading the bastard’s hooks, kicks, and the debris of the collapsing building, Se-min kept retreating.

Tinnitus rang in his ears due to the continuously wailing sirens. Se-min shut down his hearing. And he focused on his vision. Kesia’s attacks were calculated like a machine within his subconscious.

That single point.

Se-min charged toward that spot. With only a hair’s breadth of time, Kesia’s attacks failed to catch his body. Se-min leaped, gripping the claymore in one hand.

Landing on Kesia’s chest, Se-min grabbed its hair and plunged the claymore in. The hair was so tough that it did not easily permit his entry. Se-min amplified his increasingly depleted aura and hacked desperately.

Once, twice, three times.

As he kept thrusting at the same spot, the hair soon parted, and the tip of the sword reached the inner flesh.

Kesia cried out loudly and shook its body.

The Kesia whose neck had been slashed by Se-min recovered its movement, approached, and opened its jaws toward his back.

A split second.

The claymore was in a state where about a third of it had entered Kesia’s interior. Considering the bastard’s massive size, it was a minor wound. Se-min clenched his teeth and shoved it inward. The aura discharged, tearing up the inside.

Kesia went wild, overcome by pain. Consequently, the other Kesia’s teeth bit the body of the same Kesia instead of Se-min. The two slumped down, tangled together.

Se-min escaped from Kesia in the meantime. The two Kesias growled, sending hateful gazes toward Se-min.

Se-min grinned.

On a battlefield, there was no fuel as excellent as the enemy’s hatred. Reviving the spark of the dying Tai Chi Wisdom, he returned the same killing intent.

In the ruins littered with corpses and building debris, a man and two magic beasts stood facing each other again.

Suddenly, the fire spread, and the corpse of a woman lying sprawled on the ground began to burn.

The smell of burning flesh spread.

Through the flames, Se-min blankly saw the woman’s open pupils.

Well, he did not know her name, what she did, or why she was here. With the weather starting to turn cool, might she have been waiting for someone in that pretty dress? Might she have put on those nice earrings with a fluttering heart?

A ringtone began to sound from inside her handbag. Ironically, it was a song by some band singing of spring and cherry blossoms.

Amidst the continuously wailing sirens and the chaos of the burning city, the cheerful lyrics instead sounded mournful.

Whose call was it? Or was it perhaps an urgent call from the person she had been waiting for?

Even that music was soon consumed and incinerated by the flames.

Se-min cackled. Grief made a person weak. Therefore, he did not mourn her. Rather than sharing sorrow, it was better to vent anger by spitting on the enemy’s head.

Se-min began to run.

A menacing aura rose from his body. His dantian was already empty, cracking like a drought. The unburned aura only gave off squeaking puffs of smoke.

Just before the decisive battle, Noh Hak-jae had said this.

‘Only when the inside is empty is the body light.’

Although the situation and the target were a bit different, Se-min agreed with it and smiled.

His body felt light. If he drenched the parched land with the blood of two Kesias, the following year would be bountiful.

The three magic beasts began to tear at one another.

***

An emergency was declared at the Raider Bureau.

Einkel Raid.

However, the report said that what appeared were two Kesias. Support Team 3 quickly retreated and requested backup. They even summoned emergency standby personnel who were rarely called.

Nevertheless, a one-hour delay occurred before a Platinum-mark Raider could arrive safely.

It was a bizarre situation, as if someone had orchestrated it. They summoned Raiders of Gold-mark or lower first, but they did not want to take the risk. The chasm separating Gold-mark and Platinum-mark was deep.

In the end, they put forward a condition that they would only go if at least thirty Gold-marks gathered. In this urgent situation, there was no way they could coordinate all of them.

“Crazy bastards.”

“Two Kesias were unleashed on the defenseless city.”

Estimated casualties.

A four-digit number.

That, too, would increase exponentially over time.

“What about the ones who went there?”

“All six members of the Limitless Association have retreated.”

“Damn it, those damn bastards.”

He understood.

However, he could not help his anger. Moreover, it was the Limitless Association. The bastards who bragged about being one of the Big Three and swept up all the high-value raids immediately turned tail as soon as the situation became dangerous.

It was a situation where they had to stall them for even a single minute or second.

“We just received word! One Platinum-mark Raider has departed. He says he will go as fast as possible.”

“Who is it?”

It was good news.

“It is Ahn Seong-jun.”

“Really?”

Ahn Seong-jun was a highly popular Raider whose stock was currently rising.

Even among Platinum-marks, there were highs and lows in combat power. And Ahn Seong-jun belonged to the strongest side even among Platinums. He was a man who was even evaluated as resembling Han Su-in’s youth.

“Still, there are two of them.”

“If Ahn Seong-jun has appeared, there is no need to worry. His agency will deploy additional personnel before he gets in danger.”

Ahn Seong-jun belonged to Peacemaker, which was called the star corps. It was a place composed only of Platinum-mark or higher. Their top Raider power was not inferior to the Big Three.

“What is the situation on the ground?”

“Drones are being deployed. Still…”

“Are you doing your job or what! If a problem arises, shouldn’t you launch them immediately!”

“We are sorry.”

“Understand the situation quickly!”

Oh Jin-geon, the director of the Combat Support Department who oversaw the entire support team of the Raider Bureau, slammed the desk.

When a problem broke out, the Combat Support Department ended up taking the blame. The primary responsibility lay with the Forecasting Room that failed the prediction, but all of their mistakes were exempted on the grounds that gate forecasting technology was not perfect.

“Director.”

“What is it?”

“The broadcasting station launched a drone camera first.”

“Ha.”

“Request them to stop filming, citing security issues.”

“They won’t listen.”

“Trash reporters. The bastards would sell out their own country for a scoop.”

“Would you like to watch?”

“Turn it on.”

Oh Jin-geon closed his eyes, not wanting to see the horrific scene, but after swallowing once, he opened his eyelids.

Due to the acrid smoke and dust, the situation on the ground could not even be seen properly. In the aerially filmed footage, a crowd of people fleeing in groups was caught, like a scene from a disaster movie.

“What is that?”

And the collapse was occurring in a place far from the people.

The piles of corpses of people who should have been trampled and killed like ants were not even visible.

“What happened? Is someone there?”

“I do not know. Since everyone from the Limitless Association retreated…”

Another employee shouted.

“There was one more person!”

“What?”

“As for the raid personnel, besides the six from the Limitless Association, there was one more Raider, Lee Se-min from SH Company!”

“Who is that?”

The announcer began to chatter noisily. The drone approached inside the black smoke and dust. Soon, the appearance of the scene was revealed.

As Kesia’s giant body was captured, the announcer gasped.

And it did not move anymore.

“[It’s Kesia. And it, it appears to be dead.]”

It was as they said.

Kesia sat slumped with its neck half-severed and dangling. The bastard did not move anymore. The ground formed a river of blood.

The camera panned around to check the surroundings. A rupturing sound echoed. And something brushed past the screen.

The drone chased after the afterimage.

It was a man.

His condition was a total mess. He wriggled while sprawled on the ground. The shape of a dragon engraved on his coat was zoomed in, covered in blood.

Soon, another Kesia appeared.

Kesia was also not in a fine state. The hair in various parts of its body was already gouged out, revealing bare flesh, and its jaws that split left and right had one side torn, rendering it unable to close its mouth properly.

It crawled toward the man with arduous movements. A sorrowful cry was transmitted through the speaker.

“[He is an unidentified man. He has a sword. He seems to be a Raider. Ah, he cannot move anymore. Kesia is right in front of him, but he cannot get up. Who is that man? It seems that man stopped Kesia. We are identifying him.]”

He tried to stand up by leaning on his sword, but perhaps because his strength was exhausted, he eventually bowed his head and collapsed. His hand fumbled along the ground.

A massive shadow loomed over him.

It was Kesia.

The bastard raised its hook.

“[Ah…!]”

Even the announcer could not continue speaking and lamented.

The Raider’s end was right before them.

Just then, the sound of a helicopter began to be heard.