Chapter 34

SMH 34

Swordmaster Healer – Episode 34

TL: Boko

Editor: Ren

Chapter 11 – Predator (3)

It was past midnight. Kyu Seok, accompanied by two Executive Branch Hunters, exited the darkness and revealed themselves.

“I just got a message. The surveillance cameras have been taken care of,” said Kyu Seok.

“What should we do about the hospital’s security guards?”

“It’d be best to go in quietly but if we’re caught, we have to kill them.”

They didn’t have stealth capabilities. Their guild had hacked the surveillance cameras and dealt with them, but they couldn’t interfere with the patrolling security guards.

However, the guild’s Executive Branch specialized in the dirty jobs, so the two Hunters were experts in infiltration. Even if they didn’t have stealth abilities, they were able to escape the attention of the hospital’s security guards and infiltrated the cancer center ward.

“Something’s strange,” one of the Hunters commented.

It was too quiet. There weren’t any doctors around.

“Get down! Transform!”

Kyu Seok, who had felt a few presences, warned. He raised his hand and cried out the activation words. The ring on his left hand glowed brightly and transformed into a circular shield.

Boom!

The sound of gunfire rang out, but no one screamed. Because of Kyu Seok’s warning, they had avoided the gunfire by ducking quickly.

The Executive Branch Hunters retaliated by throwing their daggers.

“Ugh!”

It wasn’t on the level of aura but the dagger, suffused with mana, flew to the end of the hallway and pierced a man aiming his handgun at them. The dagger easily penetrated his body armor, and pierced his inner organs.

Thud.

The man collapsed weakly.

There was a signal flare. The doors in the ward continuously opened, one after another, and a dozen troops came out.

“Team Leader, they have rifles!”

“It’s a private military company! It looks like they’ve hired some soldiers!”

“Don’t panic! Get close and fight! If you get close, they won’t be able to shoot you easily.”

The three Hunters took out and raised their respective weapons. The dizzying flying daggers killed the soldiers before they could aim their guns.

The Executive Branch Hunters swiftly penetrated the enemy’s lines and fought in close combat. The twelve soldiers weren’t able to properly shoot their guns, so they were annihilated.

It wasn’t easy for Hunters, who had superior physical abilities, to fight trained soldiers. However, the trap didn’t end there.

“They’re coming again!” cried one Hunter.

They heard several footsteps.

“It looks like they’ve taken the stairway,” commented the other.

“Then we’ll get out through the windows…”

As Kyu Seok said that, a stray bullet pierced through a window. Kyu Seok urgently raised his shield and the other two Hunters dove to the side. However, one of them was caught in an explosion and his arm flew off.

“AH!”

The Hunter who had lost an arm bled profusely, emitting cries of severe pain.

“How many did those crazy bastards hire?” the still healthy Hunter cursed. Kyu Seok had an ominous feeling and checked the corpses lying on the ground.

‘Did they call a Tactical Arms Forces Team*?’ The soldiers had the private military company’s mark on their body armor but there were also corpses that had on the Hunter Bureau’s Tactical Arms Forces Team uniform. (*The author made this up; no exact translation.)

“They’re coming again!”

Kyu Seok felt presences again and warned his team. A closed hospital room opened up and four men came out. They were different from the ordinary members, as they carried melee weapons.

“They’re Hunters!”

Kyu Seok warned and threw his dagger.

“Ergh!”

The closest Hunter collapsed. However, the others didn’t just sit still. They threw daggers at the one-armed Executive Branch Hunter.

One of the daggers pierced through his throat and the Hunter died without even uttering a scream.

“Shit!”

Kyu Seok cursed as he fought in the melee. He had killed two of them, but he had lost his last subordinate.

“AH!”

“Argh!”

Kyu Seok let out a battle cry that was more like a scream, and struck the final Hunter with his shield.

“Pant…” he breathed harshly.

Where did it all start to go wrong?

He couldn’t find an answer.

“Shit…”

He hadn’t thought that Sung Joon would be so thorough in his planning.

“It’s pretty much like he called the army,” he said to himself.

He heard footsteps again. At the end of the hall, five Tactical Armed Forces troops appeared and aimed their guns at him. He didn’t even have the spare time to think.

Kyu Seok hid his body behind his shield and then threw himself out of a window. The glass shards pierced his body as the window gave way. He plunged to the ground and hurriedly lifted his head and examined his surroundings.

He didn’t see any armed soldiers. However, his relief was short-lived. A chilling killing intent threatened to freeze his entire body.

“There are things that you should never mess with.”

“S-Shit!”

Kyu Seok cursed and turned around. Sung Joon sent him a gaze filled with killing intent. He urgently protected his body with his shield while Sung Joon drew his sword.

“Au-Aura!?”

Sung Joon had planned to split right through Kyu Seok’s shield and into his body. In the darkness, Sung Joon’s aura shone brilliantly; when Kyu Seok saw that, his face paled.

Sung Joon’s sword struck Kyu Seok’s shield but his shield didn’t split in half. With a closer examination, Sung Joon could see a faint aura enveloping Kyu Seok’s shield as well.

‘An aura shield?’

Aura shield was similarly a rare ability, like aura. Sung Joon furrowed his eyebrows. Since A-rank Hunters had strengthened their bodies considerably, there were many cases where they gained a new ability after their secondary awakening*. (*As Sung Joon has shown, Hunters can awaken more than once, though his awakening was different than Kyu Seok’s. Sung Joon has the abilities of a Healer and a Combat Hunter. Kyu Seok’s second awakening probably just gave him more combat abilities as he is a Combat Hunter.)

This ability wasn’t listed on the physical ability records that Hyun Sung had given him. Kyu Seok had probably gained that ability from his secondary awakening.

“Hahaha, you didn’t expect this, did you?”

Kyu Seok thought that the situation had become reversed. He pointed his sword at Sung Joon’s throat.

“Nothing has changed,” Sung Joon said.

Despite the fact that Kyu Seok could use an aura shield, Sung Joon didn’t panic and simply raised his sword once more.

“That’s the point…”

Kyu Seok smiled coldly and when he tried to stab Sung Joon…

Bang!

Sung Joon struck the aura-coated shield with his sword. His tremendous blow was as quick as a flash of lightning and struck upon Kyu Seok’s shield like a crack of thunder.

“Ugh, ergh?”

The strike was accompanied by a huge boom, and Kyu Seok was pushed down. The shock impact formed a tiny crater. He felt a stinging pain in his left shield arm.

‘My arm, my arm’s broken? You fucking monster!’ he thought, astonished.

However, Sung Joon’s right arm wasn’t left unscathed. It had turned in a strange direction and was certainly broken.

Kyu Seok saw that and smirked.

‘That bastard lost his right arm. I lost my left… I won!’ Kyu Seok thought and stabbed at Sung Joon.

Sung Joon retreated a step back and evaded his attack.

“How long do you think you can run away from me?” Kyu Seok yelled.

“I don’t plan on running away,” replied Sung Joon.

Sung Joon raised his left hand and said, “Heal.”

As the ‘Heal’, that was pretty advanced among similarly ranked Healer Hunters, was performed, the bone quickly went back into place.

Kyu Seok, who saw that spectacle, went past despair, and felt dejection. Sung Joon’s combat abilities were so high that he had forgotten that Sung Joon was actually a Healer.

“No, wait… this is…”

Sung Joon had finished healing his right arm in no time and Kyu Seok, upon seeing that, couldn’t finish his words.

Kyu Seok examined his own condition.

His bone had been broken but could still utilize his shield. Except, his left arm couldn’t move properly.

Bang!

“Argh!”

He blocked Sung Joon’s blow, which had aimed for his flank. A terrible pain accompanied the complete shattering of his bone.

‘I would’ve been blown away…’

If Kyu Seok hadn’t been completely focused, he would’ve been blown away to the side. He belatedly felt incoming presences. There was a spear-wielding Hunter accompanied by four Tactical Armed Forces Troops running towards him. The moment they tried to intervene, Sung Joon raised his hand.

“It’s alright. I just need to deliver the finishing blow.”

They had behaved just as he’d expected. However, he needed to be the one to finish off Kyu Seok in order to absorb his mana.

“What? You bastard!”

Kyu Seok was angered when he saw Sung Joon so easily declare that he could finish him off. However, on the other hand, he felt afraid.

If he had to fight Sung Joon, he felt a foreboding feeling that Sung Joon would easily be able to kill him.

“This is the end,” Sung Joon announced.

A bleak killing intent spread and fear clogged Kyu Seok’s senses. He had killed several people before, but he now felt regret for the first time.

‘Am I being hunted this time?’ he wondered.

The situation had reversed. In front of him was Sung Joon, the predator, and he was the prey. The predator approached the prey and bared his vicious fangs.

Sung Joon disappeared. When Kyu Seok became aware that he had disappeared, he felt a presence behind him. Kyu Seok urgently turned his body around and attempted to mount a defense, but Sung Joon was a little bit faster.

“AH!”

Sung Joon’s blade cut through his throat. Kyu Seok vomited blood and fell to his knees. Sung Joon yanked his hair and cut off his head.

“Absorb.”

“Is this the spoils of war?”

Rishubalt had been watching silently until then but when the battle finished, he threw out a question. Sung Joon shook his head.

“I’m going to send it to the Great Demon guild.”

“Is it your final warning?”

“No, I already warned them enough. This is a declaration of war.”

Sung Joon passed the severed head to the hired soldiers.

‘I’ve been a mercenary for several years but this is the first time I’ve ever received a severed head.’

The mercenary felt ridiculous but didn’t show it. In any case, Sung Joon was their employer and when the dungeons had appeared and the world went crazy, a lot of strange people had shown up.

While the corpses of the sacrificed soldiers were collected, Sung Joon sat on a bench and rested.

“What’s my synchronization rate?” he asked Rishubalt.

“It has gone up.”

“As I thought, A-rank Hunters are a great source of mana.”

Sung Joon smiled when he heard Rishubalt’s report. He didn’t feel guilty at all, since the Great Demon guild had started this; they had been the ones who tried to kill him first.

“Mr. Kang Sung Joon!”

Hyun Sung, who had been at a safe location, guarded by the Tactical Armed Forces, ran towards Sung Joon.

“My father is ok, right?” Sung Joon asked.

“Yes, Mr. Kang Soo Hyuk is at a safe location.” replied Hyun Sung.

“That’s all that matters. Have you collected enough evidence?”

“Yes, we have collected enough evidence. However, I cannot guarantee that headquarters will give us the ok.”

Although the Great Demon had a notoriously bad reputation, they were a large top 30 ranked guild. If they collapsed, there would be setbacks in several areas.

A few regular dungeon assault teams would disband, and if that happened, the selling of magic stones would reduce. Also, the other guilds would bear a greater burden in the occasional Raids.

The Hunter Bureau and the Dungeon Bureau wouldn’t welcome that kind of situation.

Sung Joon asked, “You’re saying that it’d be difficult for the Hunter Bureau to make the first move, right?”

“By the looks of it, it seems like that will be the case. I’m sorry.”

Hyun Sung bowed and apologized. He felt sorry since he couldn’t be of any help.

“If that’s the case, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Sung Joon rose from his seat. It felt like his path was blocked but it wasn’t as if there weren’t any other paths for him.

“Please give me all of the files that contain the evidence,” he requested.

“You aren’t thinking of uploading them to the internet, are you?” asked Hyun Sung.

“Yes.”

Sung Joon smirked. All this time, the Great Demon guild had thoroughly erased all the evidence. Even if there was any evidence, people would be afraid of the retaliation so most of the time, the Great Demon guild didn’t have to face public opinion.

“It’ll be fun if this spreads, right?” he asked.

Since the beginning, he had planned to act if the Bureau didn’t.

“They’ll be socially condemned, but it won’t be a huge blow to them. Since the Hunters in the Great Demon guild are aware of their guild’s notoriety, most of them probably won’t leave the guild.”

Hyun Sung cautiously expressed his concern. Sung Joon shook his head and smiled coldly.

“I need to spread the files on the internet in advance in order to give me justification. If the Great Demon guild is surely considered ‘evil’, then…”

Sung Joon briefly stopped. Hyun Sung, who had seen Sung Joon’s recent behavior, could to a certain extent, predict what Sung Joon was going to say next.

“I can openly ‘hunt’ them,” he said.

Hyun Sung was spot on.

He looked at Sung Joon and said, “If you’re talking about a hunt…”

“I’m talking about annihilating the Executive Branch. Also, I’ll send them the bodies everyday and put them into a state of terror. They may request for assistance, but they’ll already be considered ‘evil’ so there won’t be many that will choose to help them. Rather, the people will support me,” Sung Joon explained.

Hyun Sung nodded his head. His words made sense.

“I’m only going to hunt the Executive Branch, but the Great Demon guild members will spread the rumors that their members are being hunted. That’ll be enough,” continued Sung Joon.

Hyun Sung said, “It looks like there will be people who leave the guild.”

“If we exclude the loyal group, the other normal members have no real reason to stake their lives for the guild.”

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“When are you going to act?”

“I’ll spread the files on the internet for now. I’ll start when the time is right.”

Sung Joon smiled coldly. Hyun Sung, seeing that, felt intensely anxious.

‘The Great Demon guid awakened a true demon.’ Hyun Sung couldn’t help but shake in fear.