The Hero Returns

Wiggle, wriggle—

The black fog coalesced and transformed into pitch-black skin. Then, gathering in one location, it gradually shrunk down.

Sliiiice—

Pu-haaaaak—!

At the same time, Su-hyeun swung his sword downward, causing the black lump to tear apart and blow up.

Fire and wind jumbled up as the lumps that were transforming into flesh splattered everywhere. However, the bits quickly regrouped back to their original appearance.

“I knew you are quite insolent but to think it’d be on this level,” said a shady voice from the reformed lump.

The lump sped up its transformation and soon took on a more defined silhouette. Before long, a pitch-black-skinned humanoid with a lengthy horn growing out in the space between its forehead and hairline, wearing equally-black clothing, materialized.

To Su-hyeun, the voice that he heard just now was familiar, and that was how he became sure of it. “So, it’s you,” he said.

“You were looking for me?”

“I was. Since from the first game, no less.” The corners of Su-hyeun’s lips curled upward.

This creature’s voice indeed came across as quite familiar. It uncannily resembled the “voice” Su-hyeun kept hearing after the “trial” in this place began.

The predator, it had finally revealed itself.

“So you were a hound of the gods, then?”

“A hound?” Su-hyeun thought. He was inwardly puzzled by that, but he had no other way to explain himself for now.

Besides, they were about to fight, anyway. It didn’t seem likely that the other party would answer him even if he asked what this “hound” was supposed to mean. Also, he got a hunch that maybe he should be asking that to someone else instead.

“Well, let’s say that you’re right for now…”

Clap—

Fwhooosh, rumble—

The moment Su-hyeun clapped his hands, a massive wall of flames suddenly materialized above the arena. The flames descended as a ring of fire to envelop the entirety of the arena itself.

[Flame – Territory Declaration]

Ruuuuumble—

The purple-colored flames quickly enveloped the surroundings. The ground melted down, and the air burned away. The only one not affected was the person activating this ability, Su-hyeun.

“Alright, then. I’m done with my preparations.”

“Could it be that you did this to prevent me from fleeing?”

The predator made a dumbfounded expression while looking around.

It wasn’t being affected all that much despite being trapped inside the territory made out of the divine Flame. It was a noticeably contrasting sight compared to Chun Ha-jin, who was withering away at a visible pace as if he would die at any second now.

The predator quipped, “Hey, that guy will die at this rate. Didn’t you say it earlier? That you’d let him live as long as I showed up.”

“That depends on what you do. I did say it, didn’t I? It’s not me sparing him but you coming to save him.”

Despite the things Su-hyeun said to Chun Ha-jin, the truth was, he was talking to this world’s predator who should’ve been watching him from somewhere.

Su-hyeun was aware of the predator paying close attention to him, but he had no way of tracking the creature down. That’s why he changed his approach. If it was too hard for him to track down his target, then he could make the other side come and find him instead.

And his new approach was none other than Chun Ha-jin.

“After all, this punk is your prey, isn’t it?”

“…!”

When Su-hyeun said that, Chun Ha-jin’s brows shot up high.

The “prey.”

To think that the existence before his eyes boasting such a terrifying aura was treating him as mere prey…

The predator stared at Chun Ha-jin who was looking back at it with disbelieving eyes for a little while before breaking out in a smirk.

Chun Ha-jin became certain from that expression that he was nothing more than a cow fattened up after being fed lots of fodder until now.

“Well, I was planning to take my time and savor him. However, I have never imagined that someone like you would suddenly show up. I thought I could fatten him up just a bit more, you know.”

Fatten him up some more…

Such a description shouldn’t be used to talk about a person, especially more so when the actual meaning wasn’t literally about fattening him up.

By “fattening up,” this creature was talking about Chun Ha-jin’s magical energy reserve, as well as the size of his life force getting larger.

“The position of the emperor was all for this?”

Su-hyeun looked down at Chun Ha-jin.

After arriving in this world, he must have started from a low status just like everyone else and managed to climb up this far. He acquired the position of “emperor” many years ago, and by abusing the authority afforded by that position, he stole away the life force and magical energy of countless people to reach this point.

People naturally desired higher stations in their lives, and to achieve their aim, they thirsted for more power.

“No, wait. This whole system was designed for this purpose,” Su-hyeun thought.

The higher your rank climbed up, the better your lifestyle would get, and the safer you would be.

And for that purpose, you simply had to get stronger.

In a way, this place was like a giant breeding farm.

The predator had been taking its time fattening up all these humans and other similar races trapped inside the breeding farm.

“This punk here, he’s valuable to you, isn’t he?”

Crunch—

Kkeuh-aaaaah—!

The effects of the Dark Psychic’s Curse was still active in Chun Ha-jin, so when Su-hyeun stepped on his ankle, he began screaming tragically once more.

As Su-hyeun wasn’t trying to kill the punk, he deliberately avoided attacking Chun Ha-jin’s vital body parts. Besides, the latter also boasted exceptional vitality, so, despite his whole body resembling a torn rag right now, Chun Ha-jin was still barely hanging on at the moment.

“Of course, he’s valuable. He is one of the very best preys I’ve created so far, after all.”

A long tongue coiled out from the predator’s mouth to lick its lips.

Drool dripped from that snake-like tongue. However, the predator’s avaricious gaze filled with hunger wasn’t locked on Chun Ha-jin but on Su-hyeun.

“The thing is, I’m more curious about how a hound would taste. Well, devouring both of you wouldn’t be a bad idea in itself.”

“I thought that’s why you showed up here.”

“Didn’t you allude to it earlier? The only reason why you didn’t kill him was to provoke me, wasn’t it? You were basically saying that if I appear now, then I might get to devour him and you at the same time. Am I wrong?”

Su-hyeun nodded at what the predator had said.

It was on the money.

Su-hyeun chose not to kill Chun Ha-jin right away in order to drag the predator out in the open.

He was hoping for the predator to feel antsy about Chun Ha-jin’s death and reveal itself from its hiding place somewhere.

However, the predator didn’t show up in the end. The creature was planning to simply devour Su-hyeun after he killed Chun Ha-jin and became the new emperor.

Nonetheless, to such a predator, Su-hyeun said something else. If the creature appeared now, then it wouldn’t have to give up on either one of them.

He said, come and try to rescue Chun Ha-jin if it can.

“And you’ve been quite an insolent punk.”

Such a provocation was directly insulting the predator’s pride.

This creature was a powerful existence that had created the system of this world and abducted many people to create a functioning society.

Meaning, it was no different than a god to these people, and the predator thought of itself in that manner as well.

“So you did all this while thinking that I’d try to flee from here, is that it? You’re going to regret that very soon.”

Pah-sususu—

“Because very soon you’ll come to realize that only by scrounging up even a tiny little bit of power from somewhere, you will have a chance at extending your life by a fraction of a second.”

Jiii-iiii—

Black fog leaked out from the predator to blanket its surroundings. This fog corroded the ground and gradually shoved Su-hyeun’s aura back.

The surroundings that had been eye-searing bright became dyed in darkness almost immediately.

Su-hyeun strode over to this wall of black fog that sent chills down one’s spine, before raising his sword up high. “I wonder about that. Why don’t we find out…”

Rumbleeee—

A massive flame rose up around Su-hyeun.

His arm gripping the sword transformed into a pure fire and brightly illuminated his surroundings.

“Who will realize what first?”

[Flame – Transformation]

* * *

[Indomitable Body]

[Spirit’s Grace]

[Armor of the Mage]

[Sky King’s Feather]

[Reflect]

[Doppelganger – Substitution]

[Ice Spear – Rain of Spears]

Su-hyeun utilized every means at his disposal.

He didn’t hold back on his magical energy consumption and activated all sorts of skills and even cast every combat-related magic spell.

And the result of all that was…

Tu-hwaaak—!

Pow, popopopopow—

Everything had been blocked off.

The spears of ice falling from above shattered into pieces even before reaching the predator’s body and lost their momentum. Meanwhile, Su-hyeun grabbed onto one of the ice spears and injected magical energy into it before throwing it, hard.

Pooow—!

The spear that was carrying considerable power flew accurately at the predator’s head, but when that happened, the black fog surrounding the predator rapidly shifted and wrapped around the incoming spear.

Swoooosh—

Pa-su-wuwu—

The fog stopped the spear and quickly corroded it before crushing it into powder. However, while that was happening, Su-hyeun had already appeared behind the predator while gripping onto another spear.

[Dragon Slaying Spear]

[Wave Spear – Explosion Style]

[Flame – Transformation]

Rumbleeee—

The flames traveled down Su-hyeun’s arm and quickly enveloped the spear. Out of all the abilities Su-hyeun possessed, the combination of the Dragon Slaying Spear, the Wave Spear skill, and the divine Flame was the best method to attack the widest possible area.

“For now, I’ll get rid of the fog surrounding it,” he thought.

PAAAANG—!

Su-hyeun threw his torso forward, and at the same time, the spear flew out from his grasp.

The spear boasting weighty power split into thousands of smaller pieces and transformed into fiery raindrops falling right on top of the predator.

The rain of spears and fire pounded on the black fog around the predator.

The spears turned into powder and disappeared, while holes were repeatedly punctured in the black fog countless times.

Paht, pa-paht—

Shu-aaaaahk—

And Su-hyeun’s figure, having finished with throwing spears, dug in among the open gap.

The agility of 100 points, the stat that had reached the three-digit mark, allowed him to move around so much faster than if he had activated some skills.

And when Su-hyeun got close…

Shu-ahk, shu-aaaahk—

The black smoke spreading out around the predator closed in on Su-hyeun to capture him.

When that happened…

[One Sword Cutting Through Everything – Cutting the Sky]

[Wave Sword – Explosion Style]

Su-hyeun didn’t bother to evade and simply got into position by raising his sword up high, and while dashing toward the predator, he powerfully swung the sword down.

Tu-kwaaaaaak—!

Craaack—

The black fog was sliced right open, and the remaining sword wind split the ground apart. Although his attack wasn’t enough to break through the black fog surrounding the predator, it proved to be sufficient enough to close the distance.

“I’m close,” he thought.

The distance had become close enough that he might touch the target if he took a swipe with his sword.

But just as Su-hyeun got ready to swing his sword…

Pu-hwaaaaahk—!

The black smoke wrapping around the predator coalesced in one point before shoving Su-hyeun’s body back.

Keuh…

Su-hyeun was pushed far back in an instant, and he could only bite his lip.

He managed to close the distance somehow only for everything to go back to square one.

“Spells belonging to the school of dark magic that the devils favor, huh? And judging from its outer appearance, it must be from the devil race,” Su-hyeun inwardly guessed.

During this exchange of attacks that lasted for around a dozen or so minutes, Su-hyeun analyzed the abilities and race of the predator.

The magical energy the creature used was turbid and contained a negative aura, just like what dark magicians would use. As for the black smoke, it was unknown whether that was magic or the unique ability of this creature, but judging from either its characteristics or the way it could be freely manipulated, it seemed to be quite similar to dark magic as well.

“It pretty much attacks and defends only with the fog surrounding its body. I can’t tell whether it knows other magic spells or not, but seeing how the predator is still maintaining this fog, it could only mean that the creature feels most confident of this ability, and it forms the basis of its combat style.”

Shu-aaaaah—

The fog extended toward Su-hyeun once more. It was as if he was staring at lengthy tentacles reaching out to him.

Su-hyeun flung himself to the side and dodged the fog before making another move.

“Although it isn’t fast, its speed and power increase the closer I get. It might be that this power can exhibit a stronger effect when in closer proximity to the one using it…It’s easy enough to get within a certain distance, but digging in even closer than that would be difficult.”

Su-hyeun circled around the predator.

He required quite a lot of magical energy in order to maintain his territory currently spread out in the surroundings. Therefore, a drawn-out battle would be disadvantageous for him.

Even though his previous battle against the different predator was built upon the foundation of the mind-numbing protracted warfare, the story this time was completely different.

“A blitzkrieg, then.’

Once he made up his mind on it, figuring out in his head how he should go about manipulating this battle proved to be quite simple.

After he was done computing what the abilities of his opponent were, how strong it was, and the potential variables that could show up, he immediately got his plan rolling.

“Alright.”

Pa-aht—

Su-hyeun’s figure continuously circling around and evading the fog suddenly began dashing toward the predator.

“I’m finished with planning.”