How to Live as a Fencing Genius Hunter - Chapter 14

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How a Fencing Prodigy Lives as a Hunter
14
Dragon Slayer (2)
Hong Si-yu and Su Seong-min ran like madness itself.
The field operatives scrambled to keep pace, stumbling after them.
“A massive explosion at the center! It looks like the Jill O’Lantern detonated!”
“We were told during orientation not to enter the red zone! Who went in there!?”
“It seems Awakener Jang Young-jun acted strangely, and Awakener Jung Jae-ha was forced to pursue him, and—”
“Damn it!”
As they neared the center of the Gate, the mana concentration grew denser.
The smartphone screen cut out with increasing frequency.
They abandoned monitoring altogether and simply bolted forward, phones clutched in their hands.
[Hold my shoulder tightly!]
[Grrrrrr!]
Then a roar erupted from the speaker—unmistakably not from any orc.
“Huh?”
“What?”
It was a sound that couldn’t be ignored.
Even as they ran, Hong Si-yu and Su Seong-min pulled up their phones to assess the situation.
“Insane.”
The Jill O’Lantern’s explosion had scraped the ground clean, and an Amber Dragon—bloodied and dragging itself forward—crawled across the scarred earth.
Standing before it, Estoc in hand, was Jung Jae-ha.
‘Has he lost his mind? C+ Rank?’
‘No matter how talented Jung is, the Amber Dragon is impossible.’
Hong Si-yu and Su Seong-min felt their chests tighten.
Magical Beasts were formidable.
Even F-rank goblins boasted the grip strength to tear humans apart.
‘Regardless of how the Jill O’Lantern’s explosion caught him, this isn’t a Magical Beast an Awakener who awakened a month ago should be able to handle!’
From C-rank onward, Magical Beasts could withstand modern high-caliber weapons.
“I’m going first!”
Fire erupted beneath Hong Si-yu’s feet as she launched herself forward.
“Who said you were going first?”
Su Seong-min unfurled wings of ice and shot skyward.
‘I can’t let this slip away. I have to go and save him.’
Su Seong-min clenched her teeth hard.
Two emotions warred across her face.
The sense of responsibility not to let an Awakener possessing both virtue and skill meet a meaningless death to the Amber Dragon.
And a fierce ambition to bring him into the Starlight Guild no matter what.
‘Why did I even say such a thing! It can’t be helped. Unless I owe him my life, I have to keep him away from the police or conglomerates… wait?’
Just then, a terrible shriek tore through the distance.
[“Screeeeeeeak!?”]
‘The Amber Dragon.’
Su Seong-min expanded her ice wings further.
But something about the sound was strange.
‘Why does it sound like it’s in pain?’
Dragon-kin were the sovereigns of Magical Beasts, ancient and terrible.
Yet the sound that reached her ears was less a roar than a wail.
‘Surely not.’
* * *
“Sorry? Sorry for what?”
To my question, Lee Hae-il glanced toward the fallen Jang Young-jun in the distance and answered.
“It’s all because of me. Kim Gang-o kept picking fights with you, and Jang Young-jun called the Magical Beasts to try to kill you—all of it was so they could take me.”
His eyes were red-rimmed with guilt.
“Popular, aren’t you? Fine. I’ll take that apology.”
I brushed it aside with a faint smile.
From the moment I looked at that boy’s blade, I’d planned to pull him out of that gang of thugs—so retaliation was inevitable.
I was simply confident I could suppress it, and in the end, I did exactly that.
Kim Gang-o would be dying in the Black Guild right now, and Jang Young-jun had essentially been roasted alive, hadn’t he?
The backlash I’d anticipated was no cause for emotional turbulence.
“Just what did you do to make those bastards follow you around like that? Did you bury some gold bars somewhere?”
I threw out a joke to try and lighten Lee Hae-il’s mood.
“Huh? How did you know?”
But the guy’s eyes went wide and he nodded.
“What?”
I hadn’t seen this coming.
“I used to run an internet broadcast. Things got messy—somehow my channel became a money-laundering front for gambling-addicted gangsters, and they threatened to arrest me too if I didn’t keep going.”
So he’d actually buried real gold bars?
“They need me to find that money, so Kim Gang-o kept following me around. Because of me, you got dragged into this whole mess too. I’m truly sorry.”
Lee Hae-il spilled out his confession like a man unburdening his soul.
“I wanted to tell you before I died. I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“No.”
“Someone who gives their all the way you do… someone so completely absorbed, pouring everything into life itself… I never thought such a person existed. I really do respect you.”
His eyes glistening red, he looked at me, drew his Mounted Sword, and turned to face the dragon.
“Go, please. I’ll try to draw its attention.”

And then he planted himself between Amber Dragon and me.
“Ha.”
A faint laugh escaped me.
People really did need to live doing what they wanted.
Even if it cost them everything.
Because then someone who wanted the same thing I did would stand beside me.
His words had tumbled out too fast for me to catch half of them, but one thing was clear.
“Why die?”
“Sir?”
“Move aside.”
He’d been a good support player in this fight.
While the dragon’s gaze was fixed on me, he could have run. But he didn’t—a good teammate to the end.
With things falling apart like this, the Hunters monitoring us would move soon.
We could buy time and survive.
Though I had no intention whatsoever of fighting with that kind of half-hearted mindset.
“Wait, brother!”
“Just watch.”
I turned my back to Lee Hae-il and advanced on the Amber Dragon.
“I’ll teach you how to do it later.”
“Sir!?”
The Amber Dragon shrieked at the sight of me.
[“Kaaaaaaack!”]
Its throat blazed crimson, and then a vicious heat ray erupted forth.
Boom!
The instant I saw its throat ignite, I hurled myself to the left in a powerful leap.
[Balestra]
I dodged, the blast missing my shoulder by a hair’s breadth.
“Hah!”
From hunting Orcs and Goblins, my overall physical abilities had grown sharper than when I’d entered here.
Thanks to Lee Hae-il, my right leg was functioning properly now too.
The enemy was still formidable, but I’d recovered enough that I didn’t resent it.
Tap-tap-tap!
I advanced with rapid footsteps, pressing my attack on the Amber Dragon.
Seeing that massive body and that hideous maw, I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
A dragon.
A creature that made no sense at all.
I wondered when I’d last found myself such an underdog.

Whoosh!
The Amber Dragon swept its enormous tail at me, trying to mow me down.
That muscular frame carried enough force to tear an arm clean off, even if you blocked.
The power was astounding, and so was I, standing against it.
I’d made the right choice becoming a Hunter.
[Prise de Fer]
Like trapping an opponent’s blade with my own, I brought my sword to meet its tail and dug my heels into the earth.
“Ugh!”
I was knocked back as expected, but I controlled the direction of my flight.
My body spun once through the air before surging forward again.
I used the Amber Dragon’s own force to drive myself straight back toward it.
[Attaque Composée]
Then I unleashed a flurry of consecutive strikes at its head.
Thud!
First, I drove my blade hard into its gleaming eye.
The nictitating membrane—tough as reinforced plastic—held at first, but my body, strengthened by killing a dozen orcs, was incomparably more powerful than when I’d entered the Gate.
Crack!
The membrane shattered, and my sword sank to the hilt in its eye before withdrawing.
White brain matter clung to the blade’s tip.
Thud!
Second, before the creature could even shriek, I pierced and tore out its other eye.
[“Kraaaaaaaa!”]
Thud!
Third, even as my body stiffened against the bursting subsonic wail, I drove my blade into the jaw joint, its chitin cracked from the Jill O’Lantern’s detonation.
Thud!
Fourth, I struck the left eye I’d pierced first and carved it out again.
My right leg blazed with burning pain.
My fingers gripping the hilt trembled as if they might slip at any moment.
This was the limit of what my current body could endure.
But I wore the Status Window Ring.
This ring allowed me to use any technique regardless of my state—like pressing keys to command a character in a game.
[Remise]
Fifth, I gripped the hilt firmly with the blade still buried in that eye socket and launched myself upward again.
My sword remained embedded in the creature’s brain, connected to that shattered eye.
Leaping again with the blade still driven in, I poured all the impact into it, thoroughly scrambling what remained of its brain.

[“Kraaaaaaack……!”]
The Amber Dragon threw its head back, shrieking.
I dangled from the blade, dragged several meters into the air.
Then I fell to the ground.
Not because I’d lost my grip, but because the creature’s neck had gone limp.
Boom!
The earth trembled as its head crashed prone to the floor.
“H-hey, hyung!”
I heard Lee Hae-il running toward me.
I couldn’t even turn to look, only breathing hard as I stared down at the Amber Dragon before me.
A dragon towering well over ten meters lay fallen beneath my blade.
Coach.
‘Perhaps I really have become the greatest swordsman after all.’
I hadn’t the strength to move a single finger, yet my spirit felt utterly exhilarated.
“Watch out!”
“Huh?”
My reaction came too late.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The sound of a submachine gun rang out.
“What—”
Burst!
My side flared with sharp pain.
A spreading bloodstain bloomed across my tactical combat suit.
“You—Jung Jae-ha!”
Jang Young-jun stood far off on a smoldering hillside.
His entire body was covered in burns.
“This monster, this goddamn bastard!”
His combat suit was completely shredded, one arm hung limp as if dislocated, and he limped on one leg as if the other wouldn’t bear his weight.
Yet his eyes blazed with madness and murderous intent.
“This is your fault! Why, why did you protect that bastard and run away with him!”
He’d said the gun would automatically engage a lock when aimed at a person—I couldn’t fathom how he was firing at all.
I can only guess that each gun had a sensor attached to recognize people.
I’d dumped my submachine gun after emptying its magazine and left it behind.
Damn it.
Memories from four years ago came flooding back.
‘Jung’s legs cannot be restored by modern medicine.’
A single revolver shot had taken everything from me.

Bang-bang-bang!
Jang Young-jun pulled the trigger again.
* * *
A brief silence fell over the command center.
“We really caught the Amber Dragon? Seriously? Some green recruit who just had their first real combat?”
The scouts stared blankly at the screen.
“They went through training or whatever, but they’ve only been Awakened for a month, right? What were we hunting when we were one month in?”
“Hunting? Weren’t we just crawling around the food section of a B-Mart avoiding zombies?”
“Should we even count that as a Dragon Slayer?”
“Come on! The dragon was already blown to pieces and on death’s door—finishing it off doesn’t make them a slayer.”
“Why not? We’ve used our heads to catch things before, that still counts. Remember when we took down the Lava Troll by luring it into collapsing debris?”
“Could it have been intentional? Did they absorb the Amber Dragon’s magic power on purpose?”
The Police Special Abilities Unit captain shook his head.
“Does that even make sense? Really, does that make sense? Is that the kind of call someone could make at that moment?”
The personnel chief of the major GL Hunters guild clicked his tongue.
“The magic power will keep growing as they hunt more. But if that instinct stays sharp like this… I’m interested. It’d be a waste to just have them guard a warehouse.”
A scout from the top-ten guild Blood Iron frowned.
“Right. Really a waste, so back off. They’re perfect for us. They break through, and our people provide fire support.”
A scout from the top-ten guild Murim sighed dramatically.
“Oh, how the mighty fall. Those idiots who got wiped out after marching into the Amber Forest with guns are now trying to poach the one person who conquered it.”
“You’re still bringing that up from years ago? You didn’t know anything back then either!”
“Will the crow turn white in a thousand years?”
Crack!
The Blood Iron scout extended a mechanical arm and grabbed the Murim scout by the collar.
“You’re going to lecture us? You’re the ones who rushed the Demon of the Earth with swords and all drowned together in the swamp!”
“Shut—shut up!”
The Murim scout kicked upward in a traditional fighting stance, striking the Blood Iron scout’s cheek.

Bang-bang-bang!
Gunfire crackled from the speaker.
‘Someone’s still shooting? Even after all that?’
‘Jung’s impact was so strong we weren’t sure, but maybe this cohort really is inferior?’
‘Or maybe they’re intentionally drawing the dragon to one side with gunfire?’
The scouts didn’t think much of it.
[This bastard!]
Not until Jung Jae-ha appeared on screen again.
“What the hell! What is that guy?”
“What happened to the Sensor Lock?”
“Jung isn’t holding a gun—it won’t recognize him!”
“Can he survive that? It’s only 9mm!”
“9mm pierces brick walls! And Jung hasn’t even been Awakened for a month!”
The scouts all bolted from their chairs.
Bang! Rat-a-tat! Bang-bang!
The gunfire rang out as if mocking them.
Most shots went wide due to the distance, but plenty of bullets struck Jung Jae-ha’s body.
Jung Jae-ha’s form swayed side to side.
“No!”
“He was supposed to become a great Hunter… what?”
But those movements gradually slowed.
“Is he… holding up?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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