Master Hunter K - Chapter 161

Chapter 161 – Great Plains of Barrastan (12)
“Whew…”
Serin breathed in deeply, then pulled back the bowstring. The target was a large demon in the middle of a team of demons. It appeared to be the leader.
Though he seemed to be two heads taller than the other demons, it would not be easy to hit him because the distance between them was too far. By her estimation, they were about 200 meters apart.
It was a distance that was three times that of the farthest distance used in women’s archery, which was 70 meters. Even if it was her, she did not know if she could hit the target with one shot.
Serin briefly looked around. Nine hunters and their eighteen eyes were all fixed upon her. She had completed numerous raids until now, but intense moments like these were rather rare.
They had successfully completed the guerilla warfare, and it was now time for the fight against the main encampment. However, the size of the main encampment was larger than they had imagined. They had racked their brains for a way to start the fight, before all agreeing to have the incredibly skilled archer Hassan, who Serin had transformed into, start things off by wounding the enemy commander.
That is why things had turned out this way. Serin aimed towards the enemy commander and pulled her bowstring taut. The arrow quivered as if it were going to be fired immediately. However, after a brief moment, Serin lowered her bow and shook her head. She did not have any confidence.
“Haah…”
She unconsciously let out a sigh. At that moment, Edward, who was standing next to her, patted her shoulder as he said,
“Don’t be so nervous. You’ll be fine with your level of skill.”
Serin stared at him. Edward often spoke encouraging words to others.
‘He sure seems like a rather decent person… However, Sungjin-oppa would not say something like that without reason…’
By the time they kill the regular boss and try to find the Hidden Piece, Sungjin would have finished the entire raid and would definitely be looking to see if the other hunters were doing well. Also, he would certainly be able to recognize Edward who was standing next to her. Regardless of whether Serin called him or not, the chance of Sungjin coming here was high.
‘Well… It should be fine if I find out the details when they meet.’
Serin kept this in mind as she once more pulled back on her bowstring. The target was definitely far away even when she looked at it again. However, she had to erase all thoughts of it being ‘far away’ in order to land a shot on it. After a few seconds of concentrating without any distracting thoughts, Serin let go of the bowstring.
‘Pew~’
The arrow that flew from her bow drew out a long curve. Her arrow was rather fast, but because of the distance, it still flew for a relatively long time for about 2~3 seconds.
‘Gulp’
The sound of someone swallowing their spit could be heard. After a brief moment,
‘Thud’
With a sound, one of the demon’s head was knocked backwards. It was a head shot. Soon, a voice rang out simultaneously from the hunters’ cubes.
[Warning!]
[Boss monster ‘Zeratar’ has appeared!]
Now it was a head-on fight. The hunters fell into their formation. Amongst the hunters, Serin was still the busiest.
“Over there!”
She shot an arrow into the mouth of a demon who was pointing at them and shouting.
‘Pew~~ Thud’
The other long-range attacker, Edward, began to chant a spell.
“I beckon thee god of destruction from far reaches of space. Come! Meteor Strike!”
When he finished the spell, another sun appeared in the vast skies. It steadily came closer, until it finally revealed itself to be a meteorite flying at incredible speeds.
“Spell! It’s a Spell!”
Soon, a few ‘Anti-Magic Shells’ were cast above the enemy position. The gigantic meteorite fell on top of them.
‘Booooooooooom!!!!!’
An massive amount of dust flew into the air along with the enormous explosion.
‘Cough, cough’
Each of the hunters in the front held out their hands in order to block the dust. Serin also briefly let go of her bow string and lowered the goggles that were located on the top of her head.
The name of the goggles was ‘Rakrua’. It was an item that had a passive skill that allowed one to identify the movement of living beings through their body heat.
Countless crimsons figures could be seen scrambling about inside the chaos. They had to reduce the numbers of the enemy as much as they could before they clashed head-on. Serin aimed at them as she continuously released arrows.
‘Pew!’
‘Pew!’
‘Pew!’
However, the enemies steadily came closer to the hunters. Serin took off her goggles after firing arrows for a while. The dust that covered the plains began to clear out, and the approaching demon army could be clearly seen.
There were hundreds of soldiers. Even after being hit by the meteorite that Edward summoned, there was an incredible number of demons remaining. Serin wondered,
‘Can we win?’
It had been a while since she had thought like this – the last time was way back when she had met the Hidden Boss of the Dragon’s Lair, a scary lady with crimson eyes. Unconsciously, Serin found herself looking at the other skilled person, Edward. After casting Meteor Strike, Edward had sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
“Meditation.”
Serin turned her gaze back towards the enemies. When she was about to draw back her bowstring, she recalled Sungjin’s words.
‘Don’t aim for the Hidden Boss. That’s too dangerous. You should utilize everything you have in the Boss fight.’
She took out ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ from under her clothes. When she opened the book, a new passage was written. Serin began to read it aloud without hesitation.
“The Roc was a bird large enough to be able to cast a shadow on an entire valley. It fed mainly on elephants…”
At that time, the sound of someone reading next to her could be heard.
“Thor, the God of Thunder, was a peerless warrior. He wielded Mjolnir, the Hammer of Thunder, and Megingjord, the Belt of Strength…”
Two members owned legendary omnibuses in a single party. As Serin read the final sentence, she felt a little relieved.
*
“Woof! Woof Woof!”
As he flew while following Cain’s voice, Sungjin was able to see a team of demons that were gathered together. They were already fighting with Cain’s wolves who had run in front.
“Woof! Woof!”
“What’s with these damned mutts! Where did they come from?”
Upon seeing this, Sungjin simply said,
“Soldamyr.”
Soldamyr snapped his fingers, and Sungjin, who had been flying at low-altitude, began to free-fall. He landed on the ground and rolled once.
“What… What’s that?”
“It’s that guy from before!”
Upon seeing Sungjin, the demons were split between those who stood their ground
“Revenge for the Commander!”
And those who wanted to flee.
“Ru… Run away!”
There was already a rule that had been set for this. Sungjin fought the demons that wanted to fight him, while Cain and Soldamyr fought against the demons that wanted to flee.
“Woof Woof!”
“Hand of Dead.”
There was a total of four demons that charged toward Sungjin. However, Sungjin had already fought against an enemy force of over a hundred demons, as well as an old Dragon just a short time ago.
To him, these four demons were like eating a cake after having eaten the main dish. Sungjin easily dominated the demons and moved forwards. He sliced the throats of the first two demons that approached with one strike. The third demon that came just had a single chance to attack, but Sungjin leaned backwards and used Moon Specter to block it.
‘Clang’
Afterwards, he fluidly turned once and used Blood Vengeance with his right hand to pierce through the demon’s heart.
“Kuh…”
The fourth demon, who saw all of this, lost his will to fight. Though he was one of the four demons that had enthusiastically charged, he revealed his back and began to flee. However, Cain appeared out of nowhere and swooped down on the demon.
“Woof!”
“Aaaahh!”
Cain pinned down the demon’s arms with his front paws, before gruesomely tearing out the demon’s throat with his teeth. With that, the nearby demons were annihilated. In order to maintain the current speed, Sungjin immediately said to Soldamyr,
“Soldamyr, let’s go.”
However, Cain called out to Sungjin.
“Woof Woof.”
“Hrm?”
When Sungjin tilted his head, an alarm rang out from the Operator’s Cube.
[Congratulations. Raid 100% complete]
[Beginning reward distribution.]
[Monsters slain. Demon…]
“Aah, we’re finished. Cain, Soldamyr. Great job.”
At Sungjin’s words, Cain approached Sungjin and rubbed its head against him, while Soldamyr bowed his head.
“It’s my pleasure.”
[Ahtrin – The Prince’s Flag]
[Luyo – The Blind Man’s Lost Shoe]
Sungjin took a brief glimpse at the items that appeared before placing them inside the Cube.
[Congratulations! Legendary Item…]
Each of the items that he received was of the Legendary-tier, but Sungjin did not find anything that seemed to be worth using. Rather using them himself, he thought about his allies as he picked them up.
‘This… Mahadas should be able to put it to good use.’
[Last but not the least, you will be awarded titles you’ve earned on this raid.]
[Executioner – Deal 3x damage to enemies that have less than 10% HP remaining.]
It was not likely that decent titles would appear now. It might be because even though he had a similar level of performance, he had already received all the better titles. After having finished distribution, the Operator’s voice could be heard.
[Returning to the Hunter’s Hall in 1 mi…]
Sungjin spoke up before it finished speaking.
“Ahh, Operator. I’ll return at the original time.”
The Operator then changed the time.
[Returning to the Hunter’s Hall in 1 hour and 52 minutes.]
If it was 1 hour and 52 minutes, then he should be able to help the other hunters safely finish their raids. And if he had some time left after that, then he could also go troll hunting. Having finished everything in his own dimension, Sungjin took out the Sceptre of the Warlord from the Cube. He was curious about how his allies were doing.
“Inspection”
Soon, the figures of five hunters began to appear in front of Sungjin’s eyes. The hunters were still engaged in guerilla warfare. They were doing well. The guerilla warfare, in the beginning, could decide victory or defeat in the boss fight. He had also told them,
‘Proceed as carefully as you can.’
However, when he looked closely, one party, Serin’s, seemed a bit strange. Instead of being on the lookout for demons, they were searching along the riverside where he had previously met the Dragon. This appearance suggested that they were searching for the Hidden Piece after killing the normal Boss.
‘No way? Did they already kill the boss?’
Serin’s party was usually the fastest to clear the raids. Not only was she incredibly skilled, but she also held one of the three ‘Unique Legendary’ books, ‘Arabian Nights’. If you included a good party, it was not an impossible thing.
‘I guess… Things turned out well.’
It seemed that he did not have to worry about Serin from here on. Though she still had the Hidden Boss remaining, with his current condition he was unable to help her. Also, it was likely that nothing would happen since he had told them,
‘If you meet the Hidden Boss, don’t challenge him and just run.’
Since one member had safely finished the raid, he could concentrate on the other four members. Sungjin was about to leave her alone and turn his attention to the other hunters, when at that moment, he sensed that something was out of place.
‘What was that?’
He looked once more at Serin’s monitor. And at that time, he finally discovered it. The person standing next to Serin, Edward.