Second Life of a Dragon Raising Hunter

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Chapter 28: The Fabric is Torn

The fabric tore apart. Blood splattered. The floor of the training hall was already drenched in blood, leaving no trace of white. Choi Yeon-woo stood there, adorned with countless cuts all over their body.

‘Remarkable.’

It was a pitiful talent with barely any redeeming qualities. I didn’t know when they had been trained by Professor Yuri, but at least for a week. There were many who would say they would give away their whole fortune for just a week’s worth of lessons from that monster.

That man was worth it. Across three dimensions, there were countless masters of the sword whose names were well-known, but only a select few were truly recognized. Therefore, the weight carried by the name ‘Ten Thousand Swords’ is beyond description.

Yuri resolved to impart the value of that name to the failing student before her.

‘Choi Yeon-woo.’

This year, out of the 200 students who enrolled in Harmony Academy, each one possessed a fierce background without exception. Consequently, the competition to gather information about one another was intense.

The Black Raven clan specialized in assassination, thereby placing them in a favorable position in such intelligence battles. Yet, they could not glean any substantial information about Choi Yeon-woo.

An orphan. Hailing from a small village in southern Gyeonggi-do. Raised in an orphanage operated by an elf named Claire, they dreamed of becoming a hunter since childhood. They seemed untalented in swordsmanship. It did not seem as though they had awakened their mana.

Darius recalled the worthless, over a month old information, floating in his mind.

There was no sign of having awakened mana less than a month ago; it was a natural use of mana.

While mana could not be visually perceived, its existence was still felt. Those lacking proficiency would display unnatural movements the moment they surrounded themselves with mana.

In contrast, this one displayed no such movements. The sword was swung with a natural fluidity. When I tried to absorb it, I was taken aback by an unimaginable force.

In terms of pure physical capabilities, they were quite exceptional. Among hunters, there were many who awakened special powers or mana while neglecting their physical training, but Choi Yeon-woo was not one of them. They avoided Darius’ attacks and calmly stabilized their breathing.

At this point, curiosity surpassed jealousy stemming from their friendship with Baek In-hwa. They were undeniably the top of the first-year class, lacking talent, relying solely on luck. However, at least they showed promise compared to the lazy fools satisfied with merely enrolling in the academy.

Thinking thus, Darius launched a dagger placed behind Choi Yeon-woo, and subtly adjusted the threads beneath him, making them as soft as rubber yet unbreakable. His body, lifted more than 2 meters off the ground, descended swiftly to meet the floor, using the rebound to leap back up.

Darting daggers from behind, and two descending daggers.

Interest piqued. However, that did not mean he was willing to lend a hand.

‘How will you respond?’

‘Alright, I get it.’

[Dad, are you out of your mind?]

Shar’s soft sigh tickled his ears, but he ignored it and kept his eyes on Darius.

Yeon-woo’s strategy was simple. To quietly observe Darius. He approached the duel as defensively as possible. As a result, they had inadvertently created a field that could easily be described as a spiderweb for Darius. Yet, that too was part of the observation.

To the eyes linked to a heart and mana, the world appeared incredibly diverse.

Even if red threads filled his line of sight. The pathways of mana that appeared impressively more distinct than usual, the direction of the wind, and the molecules composing the air were visible as if he were gazing through a stained glass filter.

During the ten years of rolling on the ground as a hunter, someone once complimented Yeon-woo. Stating that his observation skills and decisiveness were remarkable. Embarrassingly, he personally believed that statement to be accurate.

Yeon-woo, who could not use mana, lacked the durability of his physical body compared to other hunters. Attacks that any other hunter could take head-on, Yeon-woo could never withstand. Each strike from a monster was akin to a fatal pattern.

If his life were a game, one could assert without hesitation that the character of Choi Yeon-woo would have never been played.

However, life is not a game, and humans die eventually. And amidst the inevitable death, Yeon-woo lived life like walking a tightrope.

To survive, he had no choice but to observe. He had to discover how to evade death. This was why he could frequently participate in gate explorations led by guilds, despite his lack of mana. He was more sensitive to omens than anyone else.

With a ping, the taut thread snapped back to its original state, propelling Darius’ body forward.

Simultaneously, he caught a glimpse of a minuscule twitch of Darius’ pinky finger, emitting a trace of mana so slight it could easily be dismissed as a muscle twitch. Yet, he recognized it already.

‘Right hand pinky finger. Behind, on the upper right thread.’

Without turning, he swung his sword backward.

Ting, the dagger that was shot along the thread was deflected, and the shock from the blade was redirected as he aimed forward again. Despite maintaining an indifferent expression, signs of shock were evident in Darius’ eyes.

A downward swinging double dagger. Replacing the sword with his left hand, raised the blood-soaked right arm that had blocked numerous blades. A barrier of mana formed at the tip of the nest. Darius’ double daggers left nothing but superficial scars, feeble compared to their original might.

Of course, Yeon-woo was not skilled enough to form an aura shield, known as a defensive technique. He merely extended barrier magic to resemble it as closely as possible.

He had awaited this moment to reverse the tide. Now, it was his turn.

Lifting the sword-holding left hand, he swung it. However, that trajectory was aimed not at Darius’ body but at the open air to his left.

What is he doing, why is he swinging over there?

Voices of confusion from the sidelines flooded his ears but were ignored. He had swung at the exact spot.

No matter how outrageous an assassination technique was employed, one could not move their body in midair. Such feats were possible only for those with exceptional aerial skills, winged races, or the rare Zigalse. Learning a little wasn’t bad.

However, Darius Black Raven escaped such crises time and time again. Like an accelerating character in a 2D fighting game. The principle was simple. Having known the properties of his mana, the answer had long been deduced.

Connecting threads to other spiderwebs and reducing their size to move through the air. He employed a technique challenging to use in such an open training hall by crafting his own field.

Darius’ gaze, chasing the tip of the swinging sword, filled with horror as something thin touched the blade of the wooden sword. There was no hesitation. It would simply break with a slight exertion of mana.

Yeon-woo watched as Darius, momentarily losing balance, slipped leftward.

“What the…!!”

“I’ve gathered enough understanding, so let’s wrap this up.”

No matter how one looked at it, it was a crazy lineage. In his life, Yeon-woo had never seen someone trigger a mechanism hidden in muscle fibers.

The maddening notion of linking threaded mana with muscle fibers as a trigger stemmed from who knows whose brain. What kind of insanity conceived such an idea?

As far as Yeon-woo knew, the Black Raven clan was not one to fixate their attribute mana like the Ice Palace. It had to be Darius’ unique method, but he wouldn’t have come up with it on his own.

But that wasn’t important.

The threads sprawled throughout the training hall, around 70 strands. He remembered precisely which muscles moved and which threads would activate.

*

The overall consensus among the faculty was that it had been a dull match. Hunter Park Giant, cheering energetically for Choi Yeon-woo, was an anomaly, as this was the average sentiment among the professors seated in the highest positions.

And rightly so. One side simply defended, while the other only attacked. It resembled duels seen early in training classes, boring some to the point of yawning.

Of course, it was impressive that Yeon-woo could defend against Darius’ renowned swordsmanship, which even regular hunters struggled with, but that was all it was. There was no counterattack whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Kim Hyun-soo observed, finding great amusement in the spectacle. Among the duels held that day, none were as bloodstained as this one, with the exception of Namgung Seong and Kim Yoo-min.

Moreover, while blood was equally shed on both sides in the latter, in the duel between Darius and Yeon-woo, it was Yeon-woo alone who bled profusely.

Usually, duels do not escalate to this level. Every person has a limit to the pain they can bear. Stubbornly persisting until the brink of death does not mean they lack a limit but rather that they have grown accustomed to pain, raising that limit excessively.

And in Kim Hyun-soo’s view, the pain that Yeon-woo was undergoing was far from ordinary.

It was not that Yeon-woo was incompetent or blindly increasing his injuries, but rather that Darius’ dagger technique was specialized in increasing and widening wounds.

“Giant Sir.”

Kim Hyun-soo poked at Park Giant, who was tightly crossed-armed while staring intensely at the training hall. Park Giant turned his gaze this way.

“What do you think?”

“Unstudent-like… so cool-headed.”

Park Giant remarked, nodding subtly. Though it sounded like an opinion regarding Darius, it was clearly an evaluation of Yeon-woo.

Kim Hyun-soo agreed with that sentiment. Cool-headed. The golden glint in those eyes was the only conclusion he could draw. He hadn’t given up at all, looking distinctly ahead.

“Is that how you see it?”

“Yeah. I feel that kid is observing something different. I’m curious to see how they resolve this situation.”

That something different hit home. When the fifteen-year-old boy who had buried his head in despair lifted it again, he exuded an expression of disbelief or perhaps indifference.

It didn’t take long for the atmosphere above the training hall to flip completely.

*

While it was indeed advantageous to have broken the posture, Darius quickly regained his stance despite the confusion. Yeon-woo had no intention of letting that opportunity slip, fiercely pressing Darius while thinking.

‘First, eliminate the advantages.’

Once resolved, he could be completely thorough in achieving it.

When facing monsters, one must adjust strategies to suit the monster’s characteristics. But what about when facing humans?

It was the same as with monsters. Kill the opponent’s advantages and highlight their weaknesses. If one could theoretically create such conditions, they could even defeat a dragon. He had always fought against irrationality as though it were an unwavering faith.

Of course, dragons were no easy foes to yield unfavorable conditions to.

[Naturally!]

Yes, good Shar.

Darius’ advantages lay in his physical abilities and acrobatic martial arts utilizing versatile property mana. His swordsmanship was merely designed to flourish within such acrobatics.

As the length of mana extended, the expenditure of mana surged. His spider web originated from a single thread connecting the high ceiling to the far end of the training hall, where Darius began.

Like a massive tree, all branches extended from that thread, connecting elsewhere.

He, too, understood that fact. Darius confirmed this by initiating a defense, not merely evading, as if he were unwilling to relinquish the central area.

Loss of mobility. That was Yeon-woo’s intent. Now he could no longer evade freely as before. He wouldn’t want to give up the field he had painstakingly crafted. A simple ‘pruning’ of his attacks would suffice.

Swish!!

A dagger shot forth from the right, which Yeon-woo dodged without even looking.

Claiming to fully understand was no mere boast. Now Yeon-woo could evade traps simply by observing Darius.

The dozen daggers entangled in threads held no practical use anymore.

‘Second, psychologically corner them.’

This, too, was already accomplished. The moment Yeon-woo began to dodge daggers without aiming, and severed the thread meant for movement that only he originally knew, Darius had already become flustered.

By now, his mind would be racing. How did he know? What had he discerned? The moment the assassin gets caught up in psychological warfare, the outcome is all but decided.

‘Third, draw him into the same conditions.’

Watching with a smile as Yeon-woo nodded, Darius scowled.

Coordinated attacks linked with placed daggers would no longer work. Darius concluded that. Whatever method was used, the other seemed to perfectly grasp his ‘web’ and ‘crow trap.’

Though he had undoubtedly driven Yeon-woo back toward the end of the training hall, somehow the battle had moved toward the center. At this point, if he pushed back any further, the spiderweb would completely collapse. Now there was no choice but to respond strictly with swordsmanship.

Blocking with a single sword in a situation where evasion was now challenging would prove far more burdensome than anticipated. Knowing which of his hands bore more strength was unnecessary.

But he wouldn’t simply yield. He was a Black Raven.

Neither side had a place left to retreat. Darius did not wish to be cornered. Yeon-woo, for his part, focused on driving Darius back. A back-and-forth exchange that felt like the skin being thinly sliced. The moment one made a mistake, the duel would end. Such tension filled the third training hall.

A duel. Merely a duel. If it were a selected match for a representative of the academy, it would be understandable, but neither side held any advantage in this duel.

Yet the fervor between the two remained undiminished. It’s easy for anyone to say ‘train as if it’s real,’ but not everyone can actually do it.

Darius’ left hand lunges forward. Yeon-woo swiftly blocks the back of Darius’ hand with his elbow.

Yeon-woo swings his sword with his left hand. In a split second, he changes grips on the dagger, swiping it away.

Meanwhile, Yeon-woo pulls his right foot back a step. The sword’s trajectory twists toward Darius’ torso.

Darius similarly steps back. Yeon-woo presses forward, aiming to strike upward with his sword.

In this ultra-close-quarter fighting, movements to secure a favorable gap were entirely disregarded. Naturally, it favored Yeon-woo, who wielded a longer sword. Even so, Yeon-woo barged into this unfavorable battlefield.

Something sticky snagged Darius’ retreating steps. Darius glanced down to check.

What the… is this? A black… shadow?

Kang!! The wooden sword clashed with the dagger, causing Darius to lose grip of the dagger in his right hand. His center of balance thrown off, he hurriedly righted himself, twisting to stab with the dagger in his left hand. The sensation was delicious.

Did he rush? It mattered not. He pulled a throwing dagger from the holster on his thigh, inserting a finger through the hole in the handle and poised to swing.

The target was clear. The neck. There was no need to kill with the throwing dagger’s blade.

Ultimately, it was merely a training exercise. He had no intent of inflicting deep wounds or killing, knowing Darius was skilled enough not to mishandle it, hence the professor and Yoo Ha-yeon had turned a blind eye.

He wouldn’t die. The death-prevention barrier set in the training hall would activate immediately to save Choi Yeon-woo’s life. However, the hostility behind it was genuine.

By now, Yeon-woo had raised the wooden sword above his head, taking a breath. Darius frowned.

What is that?

A downward-cutting stance too classic to be from any swordsmanship manual.

It looked so impeccably smooth it raised questions, yet it was too slow. Naturally, he would thrust his own blade into Yeon-woo’s neck first.

……That’s what he thought.

Neither too slow nor too fast, the pitch-black wooden sword traced a trajectory.

Was he deliberately swinging slowly? Is he out of his mind? Before Darius could voice those thoughts, he realized something was amiss.

His brain raced.

No, the world slowed.

The descending black wooden sword. The twirling throwing dagger. Both trajectories entered his vision to the point of moving at a yawningly slow pace. And if his supposition were correct, both would pierce through their bodies simultaneously.

And should that happen, he would die. And so would Darius. That would be the end.

Mutual demise. No problems. There wouldn’t be a problem…

His entire body chilled, staring at the eerily sharp trajectory. His legs began to tremble.

……This is death. Just as the grim reaper swings a scythe to harvest his life, it was apparent that downward slash was about to take his life.

That’s impossible. He would know that the dagger would pierce his neck too. There’s no way this attack could touch him.

In the ultimate game of chicken, Darius had always emerged victorious. It was clear the other would retreat first. With that thought in mind, Darius stared into Yeon-woo’s eyes.

The golden hue in those eyes blazed with a fiery intensity.

It felt like he had seen those eyes before. Memories flashed like lightning in his mind. Once distant, he recalled an encounter with the third-ranked hunter of China. The ‘Suicidal Aspirant’ had worn such an expression.

He instinctively realized that the other would not halt. He would die here. The other would die here. This would bring closure.

Buried in the rush of past memories, Darius trembled his lips.

……I’m going to die? Here? Without leaving anything behind? That’s impossible──!

Woosh.

Yeon-woo’s sword came to a halt just a few centimeters above Darius’ head.

Darius was left in a heap, unconscious.

Only the dagger he wielded had lost its direction and embedded itself in Yeon-woo’s side.

“…”

He shouldn’t have missed. He should’ve just gone all out at least once. Why did I end up feeling like I’ve wholly lost out? Observant folks like Kim Hyun-soo likely figured it out during this duel.

Yeon-woo took a breath, sensing immense pain from the dagger lodged in his side, before simply pulling it out and tossing it aside.

“Darius Black Raven, unable to continue. Choi Yeon-woo wins.”

As she observed the spectacle, Yoo Ha-yeon pronounced the outcome.

*

‘W-What the hell was that…?’

A silence enveloped the third training hall. Kim Yoo-min, who had returned to the scene, thought about what she had witnessed.

‘Doing something like that could get someone killed.’

This was not a one-sided narrative. Both had evidently aimed to kill the other.

She had frequently heard of Darius Black Raven’s reputation. An assassination clan, known for their ruthlessness. Given that, it felt as though the act before her was entirely second nature to him, like breathing.

…But.

But still,

‘Why is Yeon-woo wielding such a sword…?’

That strike, if she were to honestly articulate, was stunningly beautiful. In an instant, Yeon-woo appeared as if he had merged with the world, a downward slash that seemed impossible to forget.

However, it dawned on her that underneath it lay a clear intent to kill when the aftertaste faded.

Had Darius not fainted, Yeon-woo would not have halted. She could easily surmise that he had intended to kill with that swing.

Had the barrier not been present, the shattered skull would have sprayed brain matter and bone fragments everywhere. Yet even with the lethal injury prevention barrier in place, it was not normal to act with murderous intent against each other.

Pondering what it might have been like had she been one of those two, Kim Yoo-min shuddered.

“Huah?”

A fear she had never envisioned swept over her. Her knees buckled. Kim Yoo-min sank down, lost in thought.

What if… what if, hunters had to face not just monsters but also fellow humans…?

Could I, without hesitation, kill someone with this fist…?

As she sat there with a vacant stare, Kim Hyun-soo looked on with a worried gaze.

*

“Ooh.”

A woman sprawled across the spot where the Student Council President’s nameplate rested uttered a low exclamation. The bespectacled man standing before her anxiously slapped down the documents.

“What are you finding so amusing, President?”

The Student Council President, Ain, supported her chin in her palm, eyes closed. She smiled as if content.

“It’s the first appearance of my precious juniors, after all. Someone has to watch, don’t you think?”

“Your juniors are bound to be pleased. Meanwhile, I’m becoming unfortunate because of it. And to ‘watch’ sounds so unbecoming of you, President.”

“Oh my, are you sulking because I didn’t pay attention?”

“No, there’s just too much work left.”

“Huhuh, feeling shy? Alright, once all the work is done, I’ll praise you, Vice President.”

Vice President Martin Benedict thought he could not possibly be listening and became aware he had taken a seat close to the President. Efficiently dividing the documents in half, he pushed one towards the President and one towards himself.

There was nothing unusual about them. The only exception was that the documents handed to the President were in braille. The President lightly skimmed her fingers along the dots and stamped down before pushing it aside.

As she handled her tasks smoothly, Martin sighed.

‘She’s just pretending to be busy, keeping an eye on the freshmen.’

Was she trying to be stealthy? But after two years of working, did he think he’d not notice? Martin thought that was fine. Despite the pretense, he knew she checked everything important.

Ain remained seated, gazing at the third training hall. Although she wasn’t blind, her vision wasn’t entirely sufficient to lead a normal life.

The reason she lived as if blind was because of her excessively sharp eyesight.

Having cast numerous seals with her mana while keeping her eyes closed, even from several kilometers away, she watched the ongoing duel as if she were right next to it.

She thought the duel unfolding currently was quite entertaining.

‘There’s an interesting child.’

With a soft chuckle, Ain smiled.

“Stop daydreaming and do your job right, President!!”

Martin, who had been trying to ignore it, could not help but flare up at her laughter. Ain, who had shrunk a bit at his reprimand, straightened herself and began to contemplate.

‘Strange. No one else seems to notice, but how did the Vice President know?’

(To be continued in the next episode)