Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 56

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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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56
The mother of the two children held my gaze for a moment, her resolve crystallizing before she grasped my outstretched hand.
The children’s mother was in poor health herself, so I lifted the older of the two into my arms. They weighed almost nothing—so fragile that I feared applying even the slightest pressure might shatter them. The adults supported one another, while those with remaining strength carried or piggy-backed the children.
“Let’s head for the exit.”
I led everyone toward the building’s exit, positioning them to wait just before the door.
“Are you ready?”
I signaled to Bae Na-young and Oh Brothers, who stood waiting.
“Yes, oppa.”
“Yes, Hunter, just give the word whenever you’re ready.”
“Begin.”
Within seconds, Bae Na-young’s Blind enveloped every building except ours, spreading in a perfect donut formation. Her mastery of the skill grew more refined with each passing day.
Then came the sound of two large vehicles approaching rapidly—Oh Brothers and Yang Sang-heon.
The silent night, filled only with insect sounds moments before, erupted into chaos in an instant.
“What…. What is this?! Who turned off the lights?! Is anyone there?!”
The Blind didn’t eliminate sound itself; it interfered with the senses and consciousness. Consequently, screams and collisions echoed from all directions.
Those already asleep barely registered the Blind’s effects, so they wouldn’t wake unless directly disturbed. The village remained calm for now. We had to escape quickly while we had this window.
I heard the bus accelerating beyond the Barrier Wall, approaching at a speed that would bring it here in about a minute. But that minute felt impossibly long given our circumstances.
I expanded my sensory range to confirm no one was approaching, then ushered the children outside. I kicked the Barrier Wall, creating a hole, then crushed the debris with my hands to widen the opening.
I enlarged myself, using my head and shoulders to support the damaged Barrier Wall, ensuring it wouldn’t collapse.
Hee-chul and the others gasped in shock watching me grow to massive size.
“Hurry! Get out, quickly!”
My shout snapped them from their stupor, and they scrambled beneath me toward the opening.
“Being around you never leaves a dull moment, does it?”
Yang Sang-heon descended from the Hwagok Recovery Service bus, and Oh Brothers exited his vehicle to load the children. Familiar faces from Hwagok Recovery Company arrived to assist.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-bang!
Someone in a panic had pulled the trigger.
“You bastard!”
A deafening roar erupted across North Korea. The Axe Wielder had broken through. Bae Na-young’s Blind, though spread wide, apparently had no effect on someone of the Axe Wielder’s caliber.
“Go, now.”
I loaded the last child into the vehicle and sent them off.
The Axe Wielder leaped onto the building’s roof, surveying the area. Upon spotting the bus, he hurled his axe without hesitation before dropping back down.
The moment his axe left his hand, I launched myself skyward. A single axe, yes—but at that velocity, it would obliterate the bus on impact.
I struck the axe’s flat side with my fist, intending to destroy it. Instead, it rebounded like a boomerang, returning to its owner. It must have been an item with an auto-retrieval option.
The Axe Wielder leaped high, snatching his returning weapon from the air before landing directly in front of me beyond the Barrier Wall.
“So it was you…. What did you steal?”
In his haste, he’d left his upper body bare, wearing only pants.
“I’m taking the sick people with me. You clearly can’t handle them anyway.”
“What? Those cripples? You came for them? Hmm….”
Killing intent surged through me in that instant.
“Those people… don’t matter much, but I can’t just let someone who came into my home and made a mess of it walk away free.”
A crimson aura blazed across the Axe Wielder’s blade—the same aura that had cleaved the Drake asunder. Last time, he’d retreated without engaging, perhaps to assess the situation. Today, for some reason, he was far more aggressive. Had he been investigating me in the meantime? I’d intended to slip away quietly with just the children, but that opportunity had already passed.
He charged forward, sweeping his right axe in a diagonal arc. My agility had increased considerably through repeated level-ups and my battle with Helen, and my heightened senses allowed me to read his movements well enough to evade—yet he was still one tier faster than me. My raw stats were undoubtedly superior, but his class bonus was unmistakable.
I leaned back to dodge while launching a counter, but he lowered his stance with his left axe and brought it down toward me.
I withdrew my extended fist and wrapped aura around both arms to block his axe.
Crash!
Fast and devastating. When his aura collided with mine, the shockwave tore the skin on my arms and drove my body backward, but his axe didn’t stop—it pressed forward and cut into my arm. I threw myself nearly horizontal to evade, but I couldn’t avoid it completely.
Using the momentum of being pushed back, I let myself fall to the ground entirely, then planted both arms—already recovered—against the earth and swept a kick at his legs.
He leaped to avoid my kick and hurled both axes at me.
The crimson aura-laden axes flew toward me with perfect clarity. Now that I’d felt their impact once, the sheer force behind them was undeniable.
I wrapped aura around my fists and struck them before they could collide with me, batting them away. The clash of aura against aura sounded like an explosion, yet those damned axes returned to their master unscathed.
Overall, I was at a disadvantage. I could barely manage to block his attacks, but he was faster and his aura far more refined than mine. Each time I blocked, my aura scattered, forcing me to pour fresh vitality into new barriers. If I continued squandering vitality like this, my efficiency would plummet and I couldn’t sustain a prolonged fight.
I needed to evade rather than block, but his axe strikes were accelerating with each passing moment—whether he’d used the same skill he’d employed against the Drake, I couldn’t say.
I’d been restraining myself to avoid injuring him, mindful of the government’s position and my own reckless actions, but I was reaching my limit. Desperate, when he drew close, I exhaled a cloud of venom from my mouth.
He sensed it coming and leaped back, sweeping his axe in a wide arc. Instead of the usual sharp aura, a broad field of aura unfurled, and as he swung repeatedly, a hemispherical barrier materialized before him. The venom that touched it ignited and vanished entirely.
“Damn bastard… I’ll turn you into a pile of meat.”
His face twisted with rage, demonic in its fury, and his entire body flushed crimson.
I’d seen this before on the battlefields of my past life—something our allies would use. A Berserker skill. It temporarily boosted strength, stamina, and agility by dozens of percent, but it stripped away reason entirely. I remembered the soldiers around me scattering to avoid being caught in the rampage. Moreover, when the skill’s duration ended, the backlash would cause vitality and stamina to plummet for a time—a skill our commander had cursed us for ever using again.
In group combat, it was a skill fraught with disadvantages, but in a one-on-one duel like this, it was a force to be reckoned with.
His nose and mouth bled—the venom hadn’t been completely burned away—but unlike a mage like Helen, a close-combat warrior like this had robust vitality, so unless the venom struck him head-on, the damage would be minimal.
He charged, alternating his axes in relentless sweeps. His speed had doubled from before, and I could barely manage to wrap aura around both arms to block.
[Agility increased by 1.]
[Agility increased by 1.]
My agility rose in the crisis, but the aura around my arms shattered under his axe’s impact. Because I’d been squandering my vitality, I had no time to wrap fresh aura before his axe came at me horizontally.
What could I do? Could my arms withstand an axe without aura? If they were severed, would I flee, spraying blood from the stumps? Could I even flee? There was no time to dodge.
Yet I couldn’t simply take the blow. I didn’t have enough vitality to form a complete barrier, but I hardened my arms as much as possible from within and without, scraping together every last drop of remaining vitality to wrap around them. My mind held only one thought: I had to block it, no matter what.
Clang!
My right arm, which I’d thought would be severed, remained intact.
His axe was stopped by black armor that had sprouted across both my arms.
From my shoulders down to my fingertips, black armor had materialized. The armor’s scales were slightly larger than those of a snake or lizard, clung snugly to my body, and allowed my joints complete freedom of movement.
Bae Na-young used to sketch designs for weapons and armor that Rigen would produce, and this resembled one of them. I must have unconsciously remembered that impressive design and manifested it.
The design Bae Na-young had created was called Dragon Scale Armor, and just as the name suggested, armor that appeared to be forged from a dragon’s scales now enveloped both my arms.
It didn’t yield to his sharp aura. More than that—it bore no scratches at all.
In his Berserker state, the Axe Wielder’s perception was dulled, and he failed to notice my transformation, continuing to rain down axe strikes.
My armor-clad arms blocked his successive attacks. Though I was still outpaced in speed, his Berserker-fueled strikes were monotonously repetitive, making them easier to defend against than before.
A Berserker state doesn’t last long. If I could endure a little longer, the backlash combined with the venom’s damage would bring him down.
Then, from the blind, hunters from North Korea began creeping out. Some crossed beyond the barrier wall, and others climbed onto the watchtowers.
“There!”
Before long, one of the hunters spotted Bae Na-young. That hunter drew his bowstring toward her, and the other hunters surged toward her.
“Bae Na-young, deactivate the blind and run!”
I tried to move toward Bae Na-young, but the Axe Wielder wouldn’t let me go. Trapped by his relentless axe strikes, I couldn’t move to intercept the other hunters closing in on her.
I blocked the incoming axe while firing aura from my right hand’s fingers at those targeting Bae Na-young.
Days of training bore fruit—the precisely-launched bullets of life force pierced through the legs of the Hunters who had locked onto Bae Na-young.
But the price of dividing my attention while facing the Axe Wielder was steep. His axe tore through the exposed flesh of my ribs and lodged itself between my bones.
At least his aura wasn’t strong enough to sever my reinforced bones in a single stroke.
Before he could wrench the axe free, I pinned it to my body with my right hand.
Then I struck his arm with my left hand as he tried to pull the axe loose.
“Gahhh!”
His arm bent at an unnatural angle, yet he brought his other axe down at my throat.
I hastily reversed my swing to block, but I was a fraction too slow. The axe embedded itself a third of the way into my neck.
The axe came free and my blood sprayed in all directions. Knowing of my poison, he abandoned the axe and leaped backward.
I yanked out the axe lodged in my ribs and the one hanging from my neck, then hurled them to the ground.
“A monster….”
He spoke as he watched my ribs and neck heal. The Berserker’s power had faded, and reason had returned to him.
But my life force consumption had been far greater. I’d used aura repeatedly before my armor manifested and lost considerable blood. At the end, I’d burned nearly all my remaining life force to regenerate my severely damaged body, leaving my head spinning.
[Stamina increased by 1.]
[Stamina increased by 1.]
My stamina rose by 2, but it was woefully insufficient.
The Axe Wielder, seeing I wasn’t myself, wrapped aura around his fist and approached.
Without strength, I couldn’t even lift my arms.
“Die!”
His fist wasn’t as fast as before, but it would be more than enough to shatter my skull. I struggled to raise my arm, but it was slightly too slow to block his descending fist.

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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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