Chapter 31

SMH 31

Swordmaster Healer – Episode 31

Chapter 10 – Dangerous fellow (3)

As soon as Sung Joon raised his sword, a gleaming blue aura enveloped it.

“Shit! You were an aura-user? There wasn’t any information on that!” Sang Kyu cursed.

He hadn’t expected that Sung Joon would be an aura-user, so he fell back. Aura was as rare as his own stealth technique and made it difficult for him to confront Sung Joon.

After all, aura could cut right through steel.

If he even had one moment of carelessness, he’d die.

“So that’s the reason the Guild Leader was so greedy… Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. I’ll just stab you to the point you’d want to die.”Sang Kyu shot out of the darkness like a bullet. His two sharp daggers aimed for Sung Joon’s neck and his left thigh.

‘He’s fast!’

Sang Kyu had a lot of PvP experience. He didn’t hesitate to aim for his opponent’s vital points in order to end their life.

‘I’ll give up my leg!’ decided Sung Joon boldly.

It was impossible for him to simultaneously protect his neck and his leg.

“Ergh!”

He had blocked the strike to his neck but Sang Kyu’s dagger pierced his left thigh. The moment that the dagger pierced his thigh, Sung Joon tried to catch Sang Kyu’s wrist, but Sang Kyu instead discarded both of his daggers and widened the distance between them.

“I have a lot of daggers,” he said.

He drew two more daggers. Sung Joon pulled out the dagger lodged in his left thigh. He was familiar with pain.

‘He didn’t use any poison,’ Sung Joon realized.

Sang Kyu had said he would ‘kill’ him but in reality, it looked like Sang Kyu had no intention of killing him, since there was no poison on the blade. If he had used poison, it would’ve become difficult.

Sung Joon began, “Let me ask you something.”

“Oh? Now you want to negotiate, huh?” sneered Sang Kyu.

“You’re an A-rank Hunter, right?” Sung Joon asked.

“Yeah. You might be pretty good with a sword but you realize that a B-rank Healer has no chance of beating me, right?”

“Hahaha!” Sung Joon suddenly broke out into laughter.

“What’s so funny? Have you gone crazy?” Sang Kyu asked.

He narrowed his eyes at Sang Kyu and replied, “Well, I didn’t expect an A- Hunter to be this weak.”

“What?”

Sang Kyu’s eyes chilled. It was quite a light provocation but Sung Joon had succeeded at damaging his pride.

However, his PvP experience must’ve not been for show since he didn’t immediately rush in to attack Sung Joon.

“I was going to take you to the guild alive, but now, I’m just going to kill you,” he said.

“Do all A-rank Hunters talk as much as you? Shut up and fight,” taunted Sung Joon.

“You fucking little shit!” Sang Kyu inevitably cursed.

He had decided to kill Sung Joon, regardless of the guild’s order. It was regrettable that he hadn’t brought any poison with him since he hadn’t originally come with the intention of killing Sung Joon.

‘It’ll be fine if I just report that he died while we were fighting,’ thought Sang Kyu.

He threw two of his daggers at Sung Joon in order to divide his attention. Instead of blocking the daggers with his sword, Sung Joon evaded the daggers. At the same time, he put his left hand to his left thigh wound and uttered…

“Heal!”

His wound started to heal and when Sang Kyu saw that, he gritted his teeth.

‘He’s healing his wounds? I won’t give you time to heal!’

Sang Kyu overflowed with confidence. He had killed dozens of Hunters and he had vast PvP experience. Sung Joon was just a minor annoyance and he thought he would fall against his daggers. He closed the distance between them once more.

He was so fast that Sung Joon had trouble tracking him. Although aura had a high cutting power, Sang Kyu already knew that Sung Joon couldn’t sustain it for very long.

“Ugh!”

Sung Joon’s wounds continued to increase. Sang Kyu didn’t give him the opportunity to use his ‘Heal’. He would repeatedly strike and pull back, thoroughly harassing Sung Joon.

So there was a reason for his confidence. He was a master of PvP.

“Damn it… ” Sung Joon lightly cursed.

In his past life, he had traversed battlefields for dozens of years and had realized the strongest combat swordsmanship, but since his current synchronization rate was so low, he couldn’t utilize all the techniques of his combat swordsmanship.

‘I have no choice but to transcend my limits…’ he realized.

However, he shook his head at the idea. He didn’t know for sure if the Great Demon guild had only sent one person. If he transcended his limits now, he wouldn’t be able to deal with a potential second assassin while his movements were restrained*. (*He’s talking about the paralyzing pain that results from transcending his limits. He wouldn’t be able to move, so a potential second assassin would easily be able to take care of him)

‘I have to win as I am.’ Sung Joon’s eyes shone. ‘For now, I’ll turn off my aura.’

If he kept maintaining his aura, he’d just be wasting the usable time. Since his opponent wasn’t an aura-user like him, there was no reason to keep his aura up.

“Are you giving up?” Sang Kyu taunted.

“Is that what it looks like?” Sung Joon countered.

During their brief conversation, the two Hunters continuously crossed blades. As time went on, the wounds on Sang Kyu’s body also increased.

However, he didn’t retreat and impractically attacked Sung Joon. He thought that if he fell back, Sung Joon would obviously use his ‘Heal’.

‘If this keeps up, I’ll be the one at a disadvantage.’

Sang Kyu felt pressed for time. At a glance, Sung Joon had more wounds than Sang Kyu, but they were mostly superficial wounds. On the other hand, Sang Kyu had much fewer injuries but he had a couple wounds that were close to fatal.

He had perfected his combat swordsmanship after many PvP encounters, but the depth of Sung Joon’s swordsmanship was different from Roukel’s swordsmanship. If Sung Joon’s synchronization rate was even 2% higher, he would’ve been able to cut off Sang Kyu’s head before they had even crossed blades ten times.

‘I need a plan…’

“What are you thinking about in the middle of our fight?” Sang Kyu sneered.

As Sung Joon had gotten concerned in the midst of their fight, he had forgotten to guard his side properly.

Sung Joon pulled out his dagger from his waist and threw it at the top of Sang Kyu’s foot.

“Ack!”

Sung Joon’s dagger pierced the top of Sang Kyu’s left foot. Sang Kyu’s posture crumbled due to the excruciating pain. However, he didn’t neglect to raise his daggers and protect his vital points.

Unfortunately, Sung Joon had no intention of aiming for a vital point. Sung Joon activated his aura again.

It took one second. One second was all he needed to clad his sword in aura. Though it was an impractical attack, Sang Kyu couldn’t immediately respond to it due to the pain.

“AH!”

The aura-clad sword severed Sang Kyu’s right leg. He lost his balance and collapsed but kept holding his daggers until the end.

His resistance continued even as he collapsed; Sang Kyu threw one of his daggers.

Sung Joon stepped to the side and evaded the dagger, then deeply pierced Sang Kyu’s right arm.

“Ugh!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you just yet,” Sung Joon reassured.

Sung Joon pulled out his sword and blood spurted from the wound, forming a small puddle underneath Sang Kyu.

“Heal.”

Sung Joon stemmed the bleeding all across Sang Kyu’s body. However, Sung Joon didn’t treat his injuries more than that. Just stopping the bleeding would be enough to keep him alive.

Sang Kyu was an A-rank Hunter and if Sung Joon had made one misstep, he would’ve fallen prey to Sang Kyu’s PvP skills. If Sung Joon had completely healed Sang Kyu’s injuries, he would have been able to counterattack.

“Heal.”

Sung Joon finished healing all of his wounds, turned off his aura, and raised his sword in order to begin the interrogation in earnest.

“Will you torture him? It is a wise choice.”

Rishubalt turned his gaze to Sang Kyu.

“How dare you raise your sword at my lord! Receive the iron mace of justice!”

Risubalt started speaking a lot more than Sung Joon. He also pointlessly acted like he was punishing Sang Kyu, drawing, raising, and stabbing Sang Kyu intangibly. If he could use his strength, he would’ve happily tortured Sang Kyu.

“In the Great Demon guild, there are others that do this kind of work besides you, right? How many are there?” questioned Sung Joon.

“Do you think I’ll easily… AH!” cried Sang Kyu.

He didn’t need to hear the rest. Since he hadn’t heard what he wanted, Sung Joon pierced Sang Kyu’s arm without any hesitation.

Sang Kyu screamed. When Sung Joon pulled out his sword, blood spurted out and…

“Heal.”

He used Heal to stem the bleeding. Sung Joon smiled coldly and cold sweat dripped from Sang Kyu’s body.

It didn’t seem as if he’d be able to escape this hell easily.

Sung Joon said, “If you answer my questions honestly, I might kill you quickly.”

Since he had started with the stick, now he had to give him a carrot. Although Sang Kyu had plentiful PvP experience, he had always won his battles, so he had never thought that he would go through torture like this.

“If you let me live…” Sang Kyu tried to plead.

“Don’t misunderstand. You don’t have that choice.”

In order to intimidate him, Sung Joon grasped his sword. Sang Kyu urgently raised his still-whole left arm.

“I’ll, I’ll tell you. At least put your sword away!” Sang Kyu pleaded.

Sung Joon put his sword away to the side and Sang Kyu spoke with a cold expression.

“Do you want to know about the Executive Branch?” asked Sang Kyu.

“Is that where the rest of you are gathered?”

“…Yeah.” Sang Kyu nodded.

Sung Joon questioned, “How many members are in the Executive Branch?”

“Twenty-four.”

“How many of those are A-rank Hunters?”

“If you include me, four.”

“Four, you say…”

Sung Joon cleared his head. A-rank Hunters and higher were a different breed compared to other Hunters. There were those like Sang Kyu, who could use stealth or others who could use aura.

If a Hunter is truly considered to be awakened at B-rank, starting from A-rank, they were considered transcendent.

‘Still, it’s a relief,’ thought Sung Joon.

If he killed Sang Kyu there, the Great Demon Executive Branch would only have three A-rank Hunters left.

“What are the ranks of the rest?” he asked.

Sang Kyu replied, “If we exclude the A-rankers, they’re all B-rank. There’s none below that.”

Sung Joon asked him various topics regarding the Great Demon guild, but aside from his own section*, there was little that Sang Kyu knew. (*Executive Branch)

Since he couldn’t learn anything more from Sang Kyu, Sung Joon killed him and absorbed his mana.

“It appears that the Great Demon guild needs a warning,” said Rishubalt grimly.

“I think the same.”

Sung Joon looked down at Sang Kyu’s corpse and smiled coldly.

* * *

The morning after Sang Kyu died, an unmarked parcel arrived at the Great Demon guild.

“It’s a parcel?” Kim Kyu Seok asked.

The A-rank Hunter, Kim Kyu Seok, who was part of the Executive Branch, had arrived at the guild house, looking curiously at the box the clerk was holding.

“Yes, but there’s no name indicating the sender or a name indicating who it’s supposed to be sent to,” the clerk said.

“I’ll open it since it could be a bomb,” Kyu Seok joked.

Kyu Seok extended his hand and took the box from the clerk. He cut the tape with a knife and opened the box.

“This is…”

Inside lay an item that had more of an effect than an explosive.

‘Isn’t this Mr. Yoo Sang Kyu’s dagger?’

He remembered that the Executive Branch ordered Sang Kyu on a ‘business trip’ just a little while ago. The dagger inside of the box was similar to the dagger that Sang Kyu usually used.

There was blood on it too.

Kyu Seok quickly lifted his head and checked his surroundings. No one had seen the contents.

He looked at the clerk and said, “I’ll take this to the Executive Branch.”

He took it to the Executive Branch Leader, Han Yoo Jin, and reported it.

“Thank you.”

Yoo Jin sent Kyu Seok away and walked quickly to the Guild Leader’s office.

“What’s the matter?”

“Yoo Sang Kyu is dead,” she said heavily.

“He’s dead?”

“This morning, this came in the mail.”

Yoo Jin put the dagger that Sang Kyu had used onto the desk.

“It looks like he really is dead,” she said.

“It seems that way,” replied Seok Ho.

“The Executive Branch is ready. If you just give us the order, we can immediately go and kill Kang Sung Joon,” Yoo Jin said.

Seok Ho, who was looking down at the bloodied dagger, stiffened.

“Executive Branch Leader?”

Seok Ho raised his head and said, “From this point on, I will not allow the Executive Branch to act upon Kang Sung Joon.”

“Wait, why…”

“I saw wrong. This isn’t an opponent we can deal with ourselves.”

Fear was in Seok Ho’s eyes, the fear that if they made a misstep with Kang Sung Joon, he would lose everything that he had worked so hard to build. Yoo Jin saw his expression and for the first time, felt disappointed in Seok Ho.

“Yes, sir…”

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However, she had no choice but to nod. She left the office and went back to her own office, but on the way there, Kyu Seok was following close behind her.

“What are you going to do?” Kyu Seok asked.

Yoo Jin smirked.

“Shouldn’t we get revenge?”