NOVEL NEXT Chapter 51
Chapter 51: Reunion (3)
“Ugh, Hwaaaack!!”
“Gyaaaack!!”
“Crazy! Crazy!!”
With a loud cry as the signal, everyone, regardless of age or gender, started screaming and fleeing in a panic.
Yoo Ji-han called them fools in his shock, but no one dared to dispute him.
The only emotion governing their pale faces was one.
Fear.
Crack!
Eventually, a man who had just severed a woman’s neck turned to look at Yoo Ji-han.
Assuming he was an intruder from another world, his mouth was smeared with blood and pieces of flesh.
“What have you done?”
“……”
Surrounded by chaos, the man glanced at Yoo Ji-han, who stood frozen despite calling for others to flee, his eyes filled with curiosity and suspicion.
He licked the blood off his lips with a long tongue and spoke.
“Are you trying to interfere with me?”
“And if I am?”
“Then you must die.”
He leaned forward and charged at Yoo Ji-han.
Unlike when he was munching on cucumbers, his face was elongated, and his jaw jutted out like a beast’s.
Clang—!
Yoo Ji-han raised his sword at face level, blocking the man’s sharp teeth.
At the same time, he tried to push the sword forward, but the man held onto the blade with his teeth.
Chomp! Chomp!
His long, sharp teeth ground against Yoo Ji-han’s sword.
With every scrape of his white teeth, an unpleasant scraping sound resonated, as if scratching a hard rock with a sharp object.
He was trying to crush the sword with his bite.
“……Ugh?”
However, the man’s expression contorted as he exerted force on his jaw, realizing the sword wasn’t breaking easily.
While the blade sustained some scratches, that was as far as it went.
With a firm grip, Yoo Ji-han put more strength into his arms and pushed forward with all his might.
The halted blade slowly began to penetrate into the intruder’s mouth.
“Ugggh?!”
Ultimately, the man gave up trying to break the sword and retreated.
He spat to the side, the remnants of his attempt to gnaw at the blade ejecting from his mouth.
“Ugh, that’s pretty tough.”
Yoo Ji-han inspected his sword.
There were bite marks where his teeth had scraped it, but overall, it remained in excellent condition.
‘The sword is tougher than expected.’
The horns of the Angry Yak were one of those useful materials that increased durability when mixed with ordinary metals.
And that man didn’t possess the strength to destroy it.
‘Though it bothers me that I’m not equipped.’
Yoo Ji-han was in casual clothes except for his sword.
If he allowed even a single attack from the enemy, it could lead to a fatal injury.
<—Probability of winning against the man before me>
<76%>
Yet, he assessed that fighting this opponent was feasible.
His instincts hinted at a high possibility.
The only downside was that if he aimed for victory without any injuries or added conditions, that probability would gradually decrease.
After all, minor injuries were like friends always accompanying a hero.
‘As long as I can endure, I’ll win.’
Every citizen of South Korea, without exception, learns how to deal with monsters and intruders.
So surely among those fleeing moments ago, there must have been someone who reported it.
“Hey, hey! What are you doing? You’re looking at me, right?”
Noticing Yoo Ji-han lost in thought, the man waved his hand to catch his attention.
He was quite the observant beastkin.
‘Looks like a dog breed among the beastmen…’
Beastmen are those who can alter parts of their body to resemble animals.
The popular werewolf race is treated separately due to its unique strength, but it still belongs to the subcategory of beastmen.
That man was likely from the dog or wolf class.
After finishing his thoughts, Yoo Ji-han asked him, “What’s your purpose?”
“Purpose?”
“You just killed someone.”
“Isn’t it necessary to have a purpose?”
“What?”
“Why would killing something require a purpose?”
“……”
This was wrong.
This was completely off.
He couldn’t hold a conversation with this guy.
If someone asked whether he harbored strong malice against humans, the answer would be no.
For him, killing a person was no different from squashing a pesky mosquito or a pesky ant, or killing a pig for food.
‘Trying to have a conversation was foolish on my part.’
Strangely enough, it’s said that beastmen speak the language of the country they first appeared in more fluently than natives…
If they hadn’t received such language skills, that beast would have taken ten years to learn any human tongue.
Yoo Ji-han pointed his sword at him and said, “If you’re just going to spout nonsense, come at me.”
“Kyahaha! That’s the spirit!”
Clang!!
The white teeth clashed with the sword again.
Once more, the man bit down on Yoo Ji-han’s sword.
But this time, the blade was positioned vertically instead of horizontally.
Creak!
Yoo Ji-han put more force as if bringing the sword down.
At that moment, the sharp sword began to slip down through the narrow gaps in the vertically aligned teeth.
He was forcibly creating a space for the blade to fit between the gleaming white teeth.
“Ugh!”
Thud!
Sensing danger, the man ducked and pushed the sword away with his hand.
In the process, while he nicked his lip and palm slightly, it was a much better choice than having his jaw split in two.
“Damn this guy…!”
The man glared at Yoo Ji-han, blood spilling from the shallow cuts on his lip and palm.
He looked very displeased.
Yoo Ji-han snickered at him. “You kill a person and then complain about getting hurt yourself?”
“Shut your mouth! Growl—!!”
The man let out a fierce growl, sounding like an angry dog.
Furious, he crouched low and pressed his hands on the ground.
He resembled a sprinter about to race or an animal walking on all fours.
“……!”
Then he sprang forward like a spring.
This time, he charged with much greater speed!
Yoo Ji-han raised his sword in the direction the man was heading.
Clang—!
The third collision.
This time, he aimed for Yoo Ji-han’s shoulder.
Yoo Ji-han who had been focused on his opponent was able to block the attack.
‘If I hadn’t blocked that last attack, it would have been dangerous.’
He felt a significant impact as the teeth met the blade.
Without a doubt, allowing even one such attack could lead to a critical injury.
“Ugh!”
In an instant, the man who had moved back spat something out.
It was a piece of cloth torn from Yoo Ji-han’s own attire.
With a smile as if he had the upper hand, he said, “I won’t miss next time.”
“You already missed, so cut the intimidation.”
“……I don’t like the way you talk.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
“That’s not a compliment!”
Given the context, he was overly cautious about others approaching.
But it didn’t matter if his clothes got torn.
‘Every attack is visible.’
The enemy before him was indeed very quick and agile.
Perhaps in an earlier time, this fight would have been more challenging.
But the growth he achieved after contracting with the Sylph was now shining in this moment.
‘I can gauge his level roughly.’
Yoo Ji-han had managed to gauge the opponent’s level through their exchanges.
If he drew upon the talents he had, overwhelming the opponent wouldn’t be out of reach.
Yet, not long ago, he had been operating in a Rank 2 Monster Area, and now even in a Rank 5 Monster Area, he acted with extreme caution.
He couldn’t afford to drop his guard, worried that a much stronger colleague intruder might leap out or that unforeseen events could unfold behind him.
Thud thud—
Meanwhile, the Sylph summoned in his arms trembled lightly.
It was warning him to be cautious.
‘Is this the moment to finish it?’
The man on all fours readied to spring forward again.
Fights against speed-focused opponents often ended unexpectedly quickly.
This could be the last clash.
Right when Yoo Ji-han thought that.
“Eh?”
Yoo Ji-han’s eyes widened as he spotted something ahead.
The man, who was positioning himself, frowned as if something was bothering him.
“What is it?”
“What are you doing here?”
“……?”
Yoo Ji-han’s gaze and words weren’t directed at the man he was locked in with but rather behind him.
“What the…?”
The man felt no presence behind him.
However, Yoo Ji-han’s reaction was too concerning to ignore.
As he considered it might be a trap, he turned his head slightly back.
“Uwaaaak!”
Then he saw a woman with long black hair standing right behind him.
‘There was nothing here just a moment ago!’
After a shock that raised the hairs on his head, he immediately tried to flee.
“Ugh!”
But the suddenly appearing woman snatched the man’s left ankle with her hand.
Though he jumped forward on all fours with all his might, only his upper body lifted, and he couldn’t move forward even 1 cm before crashing back down.
“Daring to interfere with me…!”
With his ankle captured, the man felt an overwhelming sense of humiliation.
His face turned bright red as he pressed his palm against the ground and lunged at the woman.
Bang!
However, the expressionless woman lifted his captured ankle and slammed him into the ground.
With his head hitting the floor, he had no idea what had just transpired.
And her actions didn’t stop at just one.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang—!!
She used his ankle as a handle, slamming him into the ground.
First left, then right, changing angles to do it again.
Like playing a game of slapjack, she repeatedly slammed him down.
“Cough! Coooorgh!”
As the series of attacks ripped the man’s flesh and violently shook his skull, a massive tremor erupted around them, and cracks began forming in the asphalt beneath them.
It was truly brute force.
By this point, the captured man could only sense the imminent danger.
‘I’m going to die!’
She treated him like a mere toy, her face showing no sign of emotion whatsoever.
He found himself crushed by a fear he had never felt before in his life.
“Forgive me! Forgive me! Please stop…!”
She hesitated.
The word surrender made her pause.
The weakened man’s body slumped to the ground.
Once the situation stabilized somewhat, Yoo Ji-han, who had been watching quietly, spoke up.
“Lee Mi-a.”
“Yeah.”
The woman who suddenly appeared was Lee Mi-a.
She was a hero affiliated with Kim Hyun-tae’s Party and Yoo Ji-han’s former colleague.
Yoo Ji-han, clearly curious, asked, “What are you doing here?”
“……”
Instead of answering the question, she quietly stared at Yoo Ji-han.
“That.”
“Huh?”
“What’s that on your arm?”
She was looking at Yoo Ji-han’s sleeve.
It was a part that had torn from the clash with the man moments ago.
“Did he do that?”
“Well, yes…”
Lee Mi-a squinted her eyes and turned her gaze to the man lying on the ground.
The man glanced up at her in surprise.
“What… what do you mean?”
“That torn clothing, did you do that?”
“……and?”
“With what?”
“With my teeth…”
She knelt in front of the man.
“Which teeth?”
“W-why do you want to know?”
“If you don’t want to die, speak.”
“Aah, come on! This tooth, this one!”
The man pointed to one of his long, protruding teeth with his hand.
Lee Mi-a nodded and said, “Open your mouth.”
“No…!”
“Open it.”
With the intent to rip his mouth if he didn’t comply, Lee Mi-a’s demeanor was fierce.
Despite foreseeing the future in seconds, he reluctantly opened his mouth.
“If you bite me, I’ll kill you right on the spot.”
Lee Mi-a grasped the tooth he had pointed out and pulled.
Crack!
“Kaah—!”
The man’s scream mixed with saliva echoed as a white tooth was yanked out by the roots.
There was not even a trace of hesitation in her actions, which diverged significantly from the norm.
‘Her personality…’
Lee Mi-a’s expression barely changed even as she behaved like some sort of torturer.
Knowing her nature well, Yoo Ji-han could only manage a wry smile.