Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Chapter 43

Ding!

[Skill: “Meadow Wind” has been learned.]

In an instant, Suho dashed through the hunters as if he had wings. The wind, howling fiercely along his path, intensified his movements.

[Movement speed is temporarily increased by 30%.]

[Attack speed is temporarily increased by 30%.]

Slash! Slash!

Blood sprayed in the rushing wind, and screams erupted from various places.

[Rakan revels in this and chuckles.]

A battle of fifty against one? An overwhelming numerical disadvantage? None of it was important with darkness on his side.

“Beru!”

“Yes!” Beru, responding immediately, soared through the air. With his short but robust claws, he ruthlessly slashed through the fireballs floating in the air, plunging the area into darkness once again.

“Damn it! Light them up again!”

Gritting their teeth, the hunters created the fireballs again. But Beru’s claws extinguished the flames each time a new one was made. The flashes of light flickered without a moment’s rest, and screams erupted from various places.

“Ah! My leg...!”

“He’s here!”

“Ugh...!”

Suho’s position rapidly changed with every flash, inevitably leaving behind one injured hunter after another. The healers rushed in to save them, but the black spider silk hanging above snatched their bodies in an instant and yanked them away.

“Th-there are spiders, be careful...!”

Arachne’s massive pincer came crashing down mercilessly toward the hunter who stood there, and blood spewed from the hunter’s mouth. The grisly ending resembled a scene from a horror movie.

“Twelve.” Beru’s antennae were constantly flicking in the air, keeping count of the foes the Young Monarch had vanquished. An overwhelming numerical disadvantage? That’s no matter. All humans are bound to die.

“Aaah!”

“Thirteen.” No matter how strong they are, a stab to the heart will end them all the same.

“Ugh!”

“Fourteen.” Cutting throats will do the trick, too. You can work around a human with a strong defense by killing the others off. If they attack, just rupture their spine.

“Run away!”

“We have to get out of here...!”

“Fifteen.”

The place was essentially Suho’s hunting ground. A profound, paralyzing fear seemed to be consuming the minds of the Fiend Guild members, leaving them on the verge of losing their sanity.

[Rakan takes pride in the Shaman’s presence.]

[Rakan advises to manage mana carefully in the “Divine Possession” state, as mana is continuously consumed.]

Meanwhile, the hunters from the association blankly observed the carnage unfold outside their prison cell.

“Close your eyes,” a hunter said as he firmly covered the eyes and ears of the kindergartener he was holding.

The hunters were astounded by what they were seeing. The masked figure’s ruthless slaughter appeared alien and devoid of any semblance of mercy. Even though his enemies deserved death, there was no hint of compassion as he delivered it.

Being hunters, they were well-acquainted with bloodshed—it was their job to take lives if necessary. They seemed to be more butchers than hunters at times. But even they had more sympathy for the common man than the mass-killing figure before them was showing.

“He doesn’t seem to hesitate at all when it comes to taking a life.”

“What is with this guy?”

“His ruthlessness might be due to beast transformation,” Jaehyuk stated with conviction as he listened to his team’s murmurs.

“What? Can it do that?”

“Beast transformation skills significantly enhance physical abilities, but at the same time, it maximizes animalistic instincts, making it very difficult to control the skill with the same rationality as normal. It’s no wonder freak accidents occur with hunters using the skill.”

“I see,” a team member said, nodding in understanding.

“No, you fools.” Beru, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation from a distance, chuckled. “Our Young Monarch has always been accustomed to death. Even as a newborn.”

Death was a primal fear inherent in all living beings, but Suho had been able to freely traverse the world of the dead since infancy. Death was nothing more than a natural occurrence ever-present by his side. His caregivers, who had raised him as a baby, were also soldiers of the dead. But above all, Suho had experienced his own death countless times.

His father tested him repeatedly intending to help him fully control and use the power of the Monarch of Shadows as required. Suho experienced death through his dreams until he was no longer afraid of it. He went beyond overcoming fear to the point where he came to handle death as an experience and a means to an end.

“As our lord commanded it,” Beru mumbled with a satisfied smile on his lips.

***

What is going on?! B-ranked hunter Kwak Duyeong, who was late to arrive at the research facility, couldn’t believe the carnage unfolding inside the building. This doesn’t make any sense...

The intruder was just one person. The mana Duyeong sensed from the intruder was at most B-rank—it was nothing impressive—and his skills weren’t remarkable either. It’s just an acceleration skill. The damage dealers should be sniping him down as the tankers cover them. But what’s up with the giant spider he summoned?

The intruder’s skills were somewhat unusual. Nonetheless, the beast was only a C-rank, and two assault units of the Fiend Guild should have been able to handle it quite comfortably.

“How can so many people be overwhelmed by just one guy?!” Duyeong decided to join the battle. “Giant’s Armor!”

An armor of mana enveloped his body like an aura as he leaped high into the air. In the blink of an eye, Duyeong’s size and weight doubled. His heavily-armored body, wrapped in an aura of mana, shook the ground upon landing, causing the entire container building to tremble.

“Kwak Duyeong?!”

The hunters fighting against Suho recoiled and turned back to look at him.

Duyeong was one of the main tankers of the Fiend Guild. The reason he managed to secure a position in the guild’s main force despite being only a B-rank hunter was his powerful transformation skill.

Armored by his aura, he stood over three meters tall. His overwhelming physical presence and combat prowess were accompanied by an array of skills made him, without question, one of the main tankers of the Fiend Guild.

“Move aside, you insects! Charge!” His mana-charged body shot forward like a cannonball, clearing a path.

“What?!”

“Kwak Duyeong! Wait a moment...!”

“Ahhh!”

“Watch out!”

Duyeong’s massive body charged forward like a rhinoceros, trampling over anyone in his path. He paid no heed to his subordinates bouncing off of him, scattering in all directions. He cared little about their lives. My target is...!

Suho effortlessly evaded his straightforward charge. However, Duyeong’s real target wasn’t him but the prison behind him.

“Hehe. Gotcha!” Duyeong exclaimed as his massive hands grasped the prison bars. He smiled and shouted with a sense of triumph, threatening Suho, “You! Stop right there, before I crush these hostages along with the cage!”

Creak!

The prison bars looked as brittle as candy under his tremendous strength.

“Everyone, gather around me!” Jaehyuk shouted. He raised his Iron Wall Defense to maximum power to cover himself and the panicking hostages.

Duyeong found his reaction amusing and let out a mocking laugh. “Hah, you think you can withstand my power? You’re just a C-rank tanker!”

Crash!

“Grrrgh!” Jaehyuk, his eyes bloodshot, struggled to withstand Duyeong’s strength.

The gap between the C-rank tanker and his B-rank counterpart was evident. Despite doing his best to hold out, Jaehyuk’s knees buckled, looking like they could give away at any second.

“What are you two doing without me?” Suho interjected. His expression was one of disbelief. Typical tankers.

The higher their defense, the more confident tankers became in their abilities. Duyeong’s body had doubled in size, and his arrogance knew no bounds.

Suho unleashed his Meadow Wind upon the arrogant hunter with great gusto.

The attack had caught Duyeong off guard. What was that? Suddenly, he felt someone grabbing his hair, and his head cocked backward.

A grinning Suho was now perched on his shoulder. “You’re not the only big guy here. My fists are no joke either.” His left hand gripped his hair, while his right fist was clenched as dark energy swirled around it.

[Skill: “Smash” has activated.]

“It’s time for you to get hit.” Suho, grinning, brought down his massive fist on Duyeong’s head without hesitation.

“Ugh...!” The impact of the blow left Duyeong spitting blood from his mouth as he fell forward.

But Suho was acutely aware of the dangers of complacency. There wasn’t a chance that this single blow on its own would pierce through the defense of a B-rank tanker.

Suho immediately manifested two dual blades in his hands and mercilessly swung them at Duyeong’s vulnerable back, as he was sprawled flat on the ground.

[Skill : “Storm Slash” has activated.]

That was the finishing blow. The light faded from the tanker’s eyes, and his hulky frame began to shrink.

The Fiend Guild hunters simultaneously dropped their weapons. Their will to resist had seemingly vanished, and they raised their hands with pale, defeated faces.

“W-we surrender...”

“Now you decide to surrender?” Beru knew better than anyone the risks of showing mercy to villains like them. His claws passed through them, slicing through their Achilles tendons.

“Ack!”

“Aaah!”

“But we surrendered!”

“True surrender only comes with death.” Beru chuckled as he mocked them squirming on the ground and holding their ankles.

“Or one should at least ensure that the enemy is incapacitated and unable to be deployed again.”

Beru approached them with a sinister smile, and to their surprise, he healed them. He performed a weakened healing spell to conserve mana. It could have been mistaken for kindness, but he had haphazardly botched mending their injuries intentionally.

“Now your legs won’t be completely healed, even if you find another healer. But I suppose you could always cut off the whole ankle and regenerate it.”

Shivering, the members of the Fiend Guild looked at the demon, no bigger than a fist, as he taunted them to the end.

At that moment, numerous messages appeared before Suho.

[Quest: “Saving Lives” has been completed.]

[Rescued: 10]

[Level up!]

[Skill: The level of “Dual Sword Mastery” has increased!]

[Skill: The level of “Storm Slash” has increased!]

[You’ve received rewards for completing the quest.]

[Would you like to accept the rewards?] (Y/N)

As Suho finished reading the messages, something caught his gaze as it shifted downward. A coin-sized light sparkled from Duyeong’s corpse. Could it be...? It resembled light that emanated from mana stones held by magic beasts. But instead of a beast, a similar light was coming from the deceased tanker’s body.