In that instant, Groctar felt every hair on his body stand on end.
'What is it?'
In the slow-motion world of extreme tension, the senses of a warrior honed to their limit warned him. Something terrifying was coming. Thump. His heartbeat hammered his eardrums like thunder. If he didn't get out of here, he would die. A warrior's senses, honed razor-sharp, sometimes display a power close to prescience. Like right now!
'...!'
Groctar abandoned the woman and, with animalistic movement, retreated to the door in an instant. CRASH—! With an ear-splitting boom, shards of glass scattered in every direction. The orcs guarding the door stumbled back a step at the sight of their chieftain's back suddenly appearing before them.
'...'
Groctar stared ahead in silence, cautious even of his own breathing. An extraordinary aura. Where the woman had been, a man stood there—one he had never seen before. Groctar's gaze shifted slightly to the side. The far corner, by the window. That entire section of the wall had vanished, as if struck by a siege weapon.
'He crashed through the window?'
Even with his dynamic vision, he couldn't track that movement.
'...'
At the unexpected arrival of a powerful foe, Groctar gulped. A single bead of cold sweat trickled down near his temple. Kiiaaak—! Hearing the shriek, Groctar raised his head. Above this ceiling. In an unseen place, another powerful enemy circled overhead like a hawk eyeing its prey.
'This might be a tough fight.'
A tension rarely seen before bled from Groctar's eyes. The enemy had completely ignored him and his subordinates while checking on the woman's condition. Groctar spoke to the enemy.
"I am Groctar of the Red Blade Tribe!"
It was the warrior's greeting reserved only for those who could take his life. Having finished his introduction, Groctar asked.
"Who are you?"
Jin-Woo raised his head and spoke quietly.
"Shut up and wait there."
A human speaking the language of orcs? The surprise lasted only a moment. Whether it was the weight of power carried in those words, Groctar and the other orcs didn't dare even think about moving.
* * *
"Cough, cough."
Jin-Woo patted Jin-Ah's back as she coughed repeatedly, carefully checking for any injuries. Fortunately, there was nothing visible. Except for the clear handprints on her neck. Jin-Woo asked with a hardened expression.
"Are you okay?"
"Oppa!"
Jin-Ah stopped coughing and threw her arms around him with tears in her eyes. Jin-Woo gently stroked Jin-Ah's head, soothing the frightened child.
'Oppa?' 'Jin-Ah's brother would be...' 'Oh!'
The students finally realized who was standing before them. S-rank Hunter Sung Jin-Woo. They were saved! The students burst into tears upon confirming Jin-Woo's face. Not tears of despair and fear shed until then, but tears mingled with joy and relief.
"Sob."
"It's okay. You're safe now."
Jin-Woo comforted his sobbing sister while extending his ki sense. Out of this entire school, the only human presences he could sense were the 17 people here.
'...'
A dark shadow fell over Jin-Woo's hardened face. Jin-Woo carefully detached Jin-Ah, who clung to him unwillingly, and summoned shadow soldiers equal in number to the students.
"Everyone, follow my summoned creatures."
When the students nodded, the soldiers lifted them up. Jin-Ah was entrusted specifically to Igrit.
"Go down first. I'll clean up here and join you."
Normally, even if her brother was an S-rank Hunter—or something beyond that—Jin-Ah would have insisted on staying with him. But this time, she couldn't. Jin-Woo's expression, dead serious, was far too terrifying for that. Jin-Ah nodded. At Jin-Woo's signal, the soldiers carrying students leaped one by one through the shattered window and dropped below. The orcs flinched at the sight of their captured prey escaping. Jin-Woo turned to look at them with a chilling gaze.
"I told you not to move."
As if by magic, every orc froze in place. It was a gaze they didn't dare disobey. One orc, its face drained of color, cautiously spoke to Groctar while glancing around.
"Chieftain..."
"Shh."
Groctar agreed. Now was not the time to concern himself with those weak little prey. The hunter before him. From now on, it was time for a battle between hunters to see who would eat and who would be eaten.
'But... I can't just let them go.'
When Groctar subtly signaled, two bodyguards moved silently. Jin-Woo turned around after confirming that all students had safely left the classroom. Jin-Woo hadn't sent the students out because he was worried about them getting hurt.
'These orcs are nothing...'
He was confident he could deal with them in the blink of an eye. He simply didn't want his sister or the other children to witness what was about to happen. And now every pair of eyes was gone. He was no longer restrained in his actions.
'...'
Jin-Woo's head suddenly turned toward the stairs outside the classroom. Two orcs, suppressing their presence as much as possible, were heading downstairs. They seemed to be going after the children, but... it was fine. He had sent Igrit with them, and Kaissel was hovering above.
'All that's left is to deal with these guys.'
Jin-Woo exhaled lightly. Dense, heavy mana clung to the air he exhaled. Groctar asked again.
"Who are you? How do you know our language?"
Jin-Woo ignored Groctar's words and walked slowly toward him. The moment Groctar realized Jin-Woo had no intention of answering, he bared his long fangs.
"Go!"
At the chieftain's command, the brave orc warriors charged at Jin-Woo all at once.
"Grrrrk!" "Crack!"
And then time stopped. Jin-Woo strolled leisurely among the orcs, who moved as if frozen in slow motion, breaking them one by one. He didn't even need to draw a weapon. All he used were his fingers. Every time Jin-Woo's fingertips grazed past, an orc's head, shoulder, wrist, side, or abdomen burst apart. In the blink of an eye, after destroying over twenty orcs, Jin-Woo stood before Groctar. Groctar, who could only follow Jin-Woo's afterimages with his eyes, moved his trembling lips.
"Wh-What...?"
Before he could even swing his curved blade, Groctar's mouth and jaw were seized in Jin-Woo's left hand. He let out a short groan.
"Ghk!"
Jin-Woo walked forward and slammed his head into the corridor wall. CRASH! The thunderous noise echoed through the empty corridor. Jin-Woo's gaze swept both ends of the corridor. The corridor was also filled with the corpses of students. A scene too horrifying to look at. But Jin-Woo didn't turn his head away; he engraved every last detail into his eyes. Because from now on, he was going to hold the guilty party accountable. Jin-Woo's gaze returned to Groctar.
"Why?"
His voice was infinitely cold.
"Why can't you people just stop killing humans?"
Groctar, his will to resist already broken, answered while trembling.
"Inside my head, it keeps... telling me to kill humans..."
Jin-Woo looked puzzled.
'Telling him to kill humans?'
He had heard the same thing before. But back then, he had interpreted the word "humans" as "Hunter." Yet, listening to this one now, that word "humans" truly seemed to refer to all humans, literally.
"And me?"
Jin-Woo asked again.
"Does the voice tell you to kill me, too?"
His face drew closer. Forced to look into Jin-Woo's eyes, Groctar shook his head violently and shuddered, as if he had seen something.
"P-Plea... se... for... give me..."
Impossible. The great orc tribe's grand warrior began to cry like a child. Watching the sight of the terrified beast, Jin-Woo suddenly felt his mind growing cold.
'So that's how it is...'
In this one's head, too, I'm apparently not human.
'Well, it doesn't matter.'
Jin-Woo couldn't care less about what these beasts thought of him. They hurt humans, so he hurt them. That was all. Groctar continued to sob and shake under a fear he couldn't bear.
"Please... forgive..."
Jin-Woo replied.
"I'll forgive you."
Then he summoned the "Demon King's Short Sword" in his right hand.
"But don't think the process will be pleasant."
* * *
The Knights Order strike team, watching the monsters' fight, gasped.
"What the—" "How..."
Could you even call this a raid? The ants had easily subdued the undead monsters and were now greedily devouring them. Crunch, crunch. The hunters stared wide-eyed at the horrifying sight.
"But if they eat everything like that, what's left?"
"Right, even the mana crystals..."
The hunters stomped their feet in agitation as they watched the top-grade mana crystals disappearing into the stomachs of the monsters—no, the summoned creatures. Unable to stand it any longer, Jung Ye-Rim rushed out.
"Do you know how much those are worth?!"
When she tried to take the vampire's corpse, an angry ant swung its arm at her.
"Ah!"
Her forearm was slashed by the ant's claw, and she screamed as she fell backward. Thud.
"Ow."
Just as she was rubbing her hip and trying to stand up.
"Grrr—!"
When she came to her senses, the ant that had struck her was right in front of her. It spread its massive jaws and hideous mandibles wide, as if about to bite her head off. Jung Ye-Rim's face went rigid.
"A... Ah..."
Just then. Beru, who had approached without a sound, turned the ant around. Beru opened his mouth wide in front of the ant, just as the ant had done. And then.
"KIEAAAAAK—!"
He unleashed a roar. The ant, having provoked the fury of an entirely different caliber of being, couldn't even meet his gaze and trembled uncontrollably.
"Kiek..."
When Beru released its shoulder, it hurriedly scrambled away. Beru approached Jung Ye-Rim, who was staring blankly at the scene, and extended his hand.
'Huh...?'
Jung Ye-Rim clasped his hand in a daze and, with Beru's help, barely managed to get back on her feet.
"Th... Thank..."
Her lips stopped mid-word. A faint blue light was emanating from Beru's fingertips.
"Healing magic?"
Jung Ye-Rim's eyes widened. The wound on her arm healed the instant it touched the blue light. Beru turned around after confirming the wound was fully healed and shouted at the ants.
"Kek!"
The ants stopped eating and began moving back into the depths of the dungeon. Jung Ye-Rim, silently watching Beru's retreating figure, muttered to herself.
"How... can a summoned creature heal better than me?"
* * *
The hunters arrived at the school. The hunters ascended the stairs, following the direction pointed by their mana compass. An enormous mana response was emanating from the sixth-floor corridor. The one leading the hunters turned back and spoke.
"Carefully."
The hunters nodded. And when they finally reached the top of the sixth-floor stairs, the hunters could see it.
"What the—!"
An orc cut into so many pieces it was impossible to count, and a man standing before it holding a blood-stained short sword.
'That man is...?'
The strike team leader locked eyes with Jin-Woo and nearly stopped breathing at that cold gaze. But he barely gathered his wits and raised his radio.
"Yes. Hunter Sung Jin-Woo has arrived."
After taking a look around, he reported again.
"The situation has been resolved."