Everyone Has a Plausible Excuse (1)

The land that once was a grassy field had cracked severely, and the trees were either all uprooted or burning fiercely.

The forest, which had felt gloomy as night fell, was now bright in a different sense.

I glanced around at the forest, now a complete mess.

"The trees are burning, people are gathering, are you all enjoying a campfire or something?"

When I looked at the hunters with a joking expression, they tensed up with caution.

It was only natural to be on guard after someone suddenly appeared, riding in on lightning and disrupting everything.

Besides, if they realized that I was nothing more than a middle school student, I must seem even more extraordinary.

However, among that group, only one guy looked at me with delight.

"Ma Seongjin... Hahahahahaha!! You finally showed yourself!"

Michael burst into a deranged laugh as he looked at me, who had just descended.

He was blatantly showing that he had been waiting for my arrival.

"Originally, I was going to use those guys as hostages to draw you out... I didn't expect you'd show up on your own."

I recalled the image of Choi Sumin, whom I had met before arriving here.

He was running with his friend on his back, his whole body covered in injuries.

With broken bones in multiple places, even running must have been painful, but Choi Sumin never let go of the friend on his back.

At first, I thought he was just an arrogant brat who took everything for himself, but now that opinion had changed.

"Why did you do that to Sung Chohyang and Choi Sumin?"

"Well... we've never gotten along anyway, but the biggest reason is that they didn't cooperate in luring you out."

When the sun was still up, my phone suddenly rang. As soon as I saw Sung Chohyang's number and picked up, I heard a strange scream.

That sound made me feel an ominous chill.

I'd heard it countless times in Mewzealand... the scream of a person's limbs being torn apart.

At first, I thought it was just a prank call, but the moment I arrived at the temple, that ominous feeling became certainty.

"If those bastards had called you here sooner, it wouldn't have ended up like that. All I have to do is tear you apart and I'm set."

Sung Chohyang's wings are an obvious part of her body. Tearing them is the same as twisting a person's arm off.

The fact that Michael had committed such a horrific act at barely the age of a middle schooler showed just how much he had crossed the line. More than anything...

"You... did you do something else too?"

"Huh?"

"Don't tell me you've killed someone?"

The second I looked into his eyes, I knew.

It was the typical expression of someone who felt ecstasy after committing something heinous.

Especially since he was bad at hiding his true nature, it was all exposed in his eyes.

"Hehehehe... Hahahaha!! You're much sharper than I thought, aren't you?"

"...."

"That's right! I killed him! Do you know how exhilarating it was to kill that staff bastard? I felt so great, it was like flying!"

With that, he gestured to a nearby hunter.

"And now it's your turn, Ma Seongjin!!"

A hunter with a sturdy build and a large sword stood in front of me.

He looked down at me with an indifferent expression, then casually drew his blade.

Chwaaak—!

With a single sweep of his sword, the ground split open and dozens of trees on the other side were cut down repeatedly.

The slash, cutting through at such speed, was clearly the power of an A-rank hunter.

"...!?"

But my figure was not where the slash swept through. Even more, the hunter felt no sensation of hitting anything.

Having cut both monsters and people countless times, he could tell. The hunter, feeling something strange, hesitated.

"Yeah... Now I'm sure of it."

At that moment, a voice rang out from afar, startling the hunters. I had not only easily dodged the slash, but also carried Kwon Sang-ah far away.

"I should have known when you were pickpocketing at such a young age."

I had laid Kwon Sang-ah, still conscious, against a tree a good distance away from them.

Even as she glared at me with hostile eyes, I simply looked on.

"Grrrr...."

"Stay still here."

"Grrk...?"

But as I spoke coldly, she shut her mouth.

Even in a state of lost reason, she dared not attack just anyone. The hunters who saw this all doubted their eyes.

'How did he... just now?'

Michael was just as surprised.

A mere first-year middle schooler, an aspiring hunter, had just lightly dodged an A-rank hunter's attack.

And when our eyes met, he suddenly shuddered. A foreboding omen, instinctively felt.

But no matter how good I was, it would not be easy to handle this much force.

The Sura Guild's hunters outnumbered the Hwasan Guild's by more than double.

"It doesn't matter. You have to die by my hand anyway!"

With the hunters Emily had provided, Michael believed he could win. He firmly believed this and shouted for them to attack.

The hunters obeyed because it was a job they were paid to do; they had no reason to refuse Michael's orders.

So, the hunters charged, filled with fighting spirit.

Kurrururung—

At that moment, a rumble came from the sky. As I lowered my finger, black lightning struck down from above.

"Kyaaaagh!"

"Aaaaagh!!"

"Gahh!"

The numerous hunters were all struck directly by the black lightning, screaming in agony.

The lightning poured down: first one bolt, then two, then like a shower, then like a waterfall onto the ground.

It looked as if black pillars of light had descended. The hunters, unable to retaliate even once, were all scorched black and collapsed.

It was 'Hell Blitz'—a move I hadn't used in a while.

"What the..."

There was nothing to say about Michael's reaction as he watched the scene unfold from start to finish.

No matter how weak those hunters were, it made no sense for them to go down so easily.

Bang—!

At that moment, a sniper shot from afar struck my face. As expected, there was a hunter providing covering fire from a distance.

Seeing the bullet hit my face, Michael grinned. But when I caught the bullet in my teeth, he was once again horrified.

"Ptui!"

I spat out the bullet I had bitten and activated my 'Clairvoyance' skill.

Everything became clear—where the hidden snipers were. I grabbed at the air in their direction and pulled. Instantly, the hidden snipers were drawn right to me.

"Huh...?"

"...?"

"What the—!!"

The hunters holding guns were startled at being suddenly pulled in front of me.

"Welcome, everyone~"

I kicked each of them between the legs as they were drawn in by my 'Gravitational Pull' skill.

Then, as they groaned in pain, I finished them off with black lightning. With that, all the lackeys were dealt with. Now, all that remained...

Whoosh—!

A sword strike approached in an instant, but I tilted my head to dodge. It was the A-rank swordsman from earlier; he had miraculously survived the 'Hell Blitz' unscathed.

"So, you really are an A-rank, huh?"

"..."

He glared at me with an intense look. From that lightning strike, he realized instinctively that I was not someone to be taken lightly.

"Hurry up and finish him! You can do it!"

"..."

"Hurry!! Aren't you wasting the money Emily paid you!!"

Behind him, Michael shouted until he was hoarse. Clearly, even he was nervous after seeing me wipe out all his lackeys.

But his nagging did nothing—not even as encouragement. Ignoring Michael, the hunter approached me.

"Hup!"

Just as the hunter was about to unleash a swift sword technique, a black pillar of fire erupted from the ground.

Sensing it, he stopped his movement and leaped back. He barely dodged the flames, but it didn't end there.

More fire pillars burst out from various directions, aiming to envelop him.

"Wind... Slash!"

But he parried them all with a flurry of sword techniques.

The shattered flames scattered like embers. Watching the swordsmanship, I couldn't help but smile.

I picked up a suitable fallen tree branch nearby.

"Come on."

"...!!"

What, he thought, was I going to fight him with just a stick? As a mere middle schooler?

When I gestured for the hunter to come, his eyes became bloodshot.

He charged at me at a tremendous speed, even faster than the bullet I had caught with my teeth earlier, creating a fierce gale.

KWAANG—!

Then something incredible happened.

The branch clashed with the sword, but the branch remained completely intact—as if two pieces of metal had collided, a heavy boom resounded.

"This is...!"

The hunter's face was contorted in shock.

I had blocked his sword with nothing but a tree branch.

An ordinary branch is nothing, but when imbued with magic power, it becomes harder than steel. I had further enhanced it.

[Vacuum Slash]

The magic power imbued within surged even more violently.

The ordinary branch emanated a chilling aura, and the hunter was horrified—it dwarfed even his own sword aura.

Chwaaak—!

With a single swing, the hunter's blade was cleaved in two. In this utterly absurd situation, the hunter was left stunned—but for some reason, he smiled.

"You're an annoying little brat."

"Huh?"

He finally spoke. At the same time, he sprayed a purple powder from his mouth.

"Hrk...!"

Inhaling the powder, I furrowed my brow. It was obvious that this was poison.

"A little brat like you, at this level?"

"...."

"You're clearly a dangerous element!"

He spoke as I coughed. In his eyes, I saw jealousy toward someone who had utterly outclassed him. Honestly, I could understand.

To be dominated by a 14-year-old child after a lifetime's training as an A-rank swordsman—no one could accept that.

What would it feel like to have your years of effort crushed by a child?

"What, hurt your pride?"

"...!"

Yeah, it must tear him up inside. Yet to fill that emptiness, he even resorted to cowardly tricks and tried to kill a mere kid.

"Die!"

Seizing on my paralyzed body from the poison, he drew a new sword. It looked even sturdier than before.

He infused it with magic power, and the energy radiating from it extended even farther and sharper than the blade itself.

"Radiant... Slash!"

With a loud shout, he released a strike that seemed as though it could cut the sun in half.

The shockwave neatly bisected the ruined building behind me, and even the ground beyond the forest was split.

His ultimate attack, full of all his strength. No one could survive that at point-blank range.

Michael saw it, and for a moment, he looked as if his dream had come true.

But...

"Wow... That one actually hurt a bit."

Michael and the hunter's expressions immediately turned to despair.

I had blocked that fearsome slash—by catching his blade with my teeth.

"No way... But the poison..."

"Sorry, but I'm used to poison."

I hadn't just been fooling around after the Yong-in City Gate incident.

When I was dragged off by humans in Mewzealand, they had constantly injected me with poisons.

So many poisons had built up in my body that I'd developed a resistance. That resistance had only grown stronger since I became Demon King.

'Originally, my tolerance had all been reset with reincarnation...'

Currently, I had recovered about 8% of my body from my Demon King days.

Thanks to karma earned from missions and achievements, I was able to rebuild my body.

Embarrassing as it was that I'd only restored 8%, this kind of poison was no different from air to me.

Considering I'd survived even the 'underworld', I could handle this even with only 1%.

"More than that... you blocked my slash...!"

The real reason the hunter went mad wasn't what I'd said.

It was that his greatest attack, his limit, had been stopped by my teeth. He was on the verge of losing his mind.

Bzzzzt—! Crakk—!

To top it off, I crushed the sword in my mouth with my bite strength.

Disarmed and devastated, the hunter's eyes went blank.

"Ptui! Let me give you a taste."

As soon as I spat out the blade fragments, I jabbed him in the stomach.

"Guuhk!!"

He instantly spit up blood, his face twisted in pain. Clutching his stomach in agony, he dropped to his knees.

But I didn't stop there. This time, I punched him in the face.

Pow!! Pow!! Pow—!!

Gunshot-like sounds echoed through the forest. At some point, my fists were stained with his blood, and his face was as mangled as crumpled paper.

I finished things by kicking him like a soccer ball. He crashed into the ruins, completely demolishing what was left of the building.

Rumble—

Of course, it wasn't over yet.

"Come here."

"Eek...!"

I said, looking at Michael, who was now backing away in sheer terror.

"It's your turn now."

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Please, please, please, make it satisfying.【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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