Black Badger

A wire wrapped around Ruta Ayer’s right arm.

“Ugh!”

He was flung diagonally to the right. Thanks to the wire yanking his body hard, the man slipped out of the trajectory of the sword strike.

BOOM!

The sword slash vanished, carving a diamond-shaped groove into the slope.

A hole large enough to swallow two adult men was gouged into the earthen incline.

Ruta Ayer lifted his head from the ground with a dazed expression.

Yun flicked his arm repeatedly, reeling back the wire coiled around Ayer’s arm.

“That backfired.”

“Looks like the youngest is angry~.”

“If that guy had died here, would it count as murder?”

Ricardo and Igor each tossed out a comment in turn.

Yun neatly ignored everything the nearby men said.

Dust rose thickly once more. Beyond the hazy cloud, the silhouette did not move.

As the dust settled and the figure sharpened into view, Yun narrowed his eyes at the deputy.

Time was up.

The mercy Hildebert had offered them.

“Aren’t you going to do it?”

“Too late.”

Yun answered Yoow’s grumbling.

“Five minutes passed.”

Tension stretched tight.

The drawn air made skin ache. The pitch-black ground beneath the barefoot man writhed ominously.

The joke was over.

Yun’s instincts screamed at him to run, right now.

「Stop shouting.」

Hildebert muttered.

There was no smile left on the man’s face now.

「Time’s up.」

He kicked off the ground.

Hildebert charged straight at Ruta Ayer, who was just pushing himself upright. Ayer couldn’t dodge. Considered second only to William Walker in build and strength, he tended to block rather than evade even Creature attacks—and that made him slow.

Damn it!

Muttering a curse that never became sound, Ayer raised his long gun.

Block with the barrel, then draw the pistol with the other hand—.

“Ruta!”

SLASH!

His throat was cut.

Blood poured out. Ayer saw a fan of blood spread before his eyes.

Right in front of him, gleaming golden eyes.

Beast-like eyes, Ayer thought.

Eyes that would never let prey escape....

BOOM!

Ruta Ayer was slammed into an earthen wall together with Carl Dow.

Blood flowed from the cut, then stopped. The only reason Ayer’s neck was still attached was because Carl had rushed in and yanked him back by the nape.

A grenade exploded behind Hilde.

The shockwave slammed into the Badgers’ bodies and swept past.

Most of the shrapnel must have hit Hildebert directly.

But when the two men opened their eyes, Hildebert was standing before them, completely intact.

「I was planning to at least show the courtesy of absorbing you after killing you.」

The junior spoke in a voice that sounded submerged in blood, then spat—

Spat.

Blood and a small capsule tumbled from his mouth.

The capsule sank uselessly into the dirt.

Hildebert tilted his head.

He stepped on Ruta Ayer’s ribs.

“Aaagh!”

「You first.」

CRACK—

With his bare foot, Hilde snapped Ayer’s ribs and bent down, reaching a hand toward Carl Dow.

He grabbed Carl’s wrist as Carl tried to draw a knife.

CRACK!

The sound of a wrist bone breaking rang out.

「Just a moment....」

THUD!

A sharp blade punched straight through Hilde’s abdomen.

Blood sprayed from the wound, splattering onto Carl and Ayer’s ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) cheeks.

Yet Hildebert, his abdomen pierced through, did not even blink.

He lowered his head and indifferently looked at the blade impaling his body.

After standing there expressionless, he released the senior’s wrist and grasped the sword lodged in himself.

「Nice work.」

Hildebert began pushing the blade sideways, toward his flank.

「No wasted motion.」

Drip—thud—

Flesh and blood fell.

Even as he tore his own body apart, Hildebert’s blank expression did not crack.

Instead, Igor’s face twisted in pain.

「Hildebert.」

「A knight who received a title?」

「Commander!」

Veins bulged on Igor’s hand gripping the sword.

「Knight Commander! Wake up already!」

The blade embedded in Hildebert’s body futilely resisted the man’s strength.

「You were the one who told me to accept a knighthood!」

CLANG!

Blade met blade.

The instant Hildebert tore his body free and pulled the sword out, he twisted his upper body and swung the scalpel in his right hand.

If Igor had been even a fraction slower, his neck would have been severed.

His head would have rolled across the ground—but Igor managed to pull both his body and his sword back before that disaster happened.

When the scalpel and the massive sword collided, a clear ringing sound rang out.

The strategist shouted.

「Break the scalpel!」

Hildebert’s abdomen was already healing.

「It’s just a scalpel!」

CLANG!

And that was true.

After just two exchanges, what Hildebert was holding snapped cleanly.

Igor flashed a triumphant grin.

Hildebert stared at the broken scalpel.

The gaze did not linger. He flicked it aside onto the ground and strode forward, closing the distance to Igor.

Hildebert extended his right hand.

“What is he doing?”

“Move!”

In the instant Igor faltered at the unexpected movement, the man who had been lying dazed on the ground snapped back to his senses.

Jin screamed until his voice tore.

“If you get grabbed, you get absorbed!”

BOOM!

A shockwave slammed into Hildebert’s side.

The man who had been charging straight for Igor was blasted back. A bomb Yun had detonated directly against Hilde’s left foot went off.

BOOM!

Hildebert was driven into the earthen wall.

Dark sand-smoke billowed into the air. Of course, it wasn’t a clean hit.

The silhouette moved.

As if none of these attacks posed a threat, Hildebert slowly stood up.

Never taking his eyes off the commander straightening bit by bit, Igor backed away toward Jin.

“Absorbed?”

When the swordsman asked the Badger he’d just met, Jin nodded from the ground.

“I saw it with my own eyes. Him sucking in living mages.... Once absorption starts, it’s over. They shrivel up and vanish completely!”

“He absorbed living people? Hilde did?”

“I’m telling you, if he touches you, it’s over!”

Jin Silver screamed until blood welled.

“Don’t touch his body!”

He pressed his back into the dirt, trying to push himself upright.

“Anywhere—just get away!”

BANG!

Ricardo shot Hildebert’s left eye.

The left cheek of Hildebert, stepping out of the smoke, was soaked in blood.

Yet the eyeball that had been pierced quickly restored itself to a perfect sphere.

Ricardo let out a hollow laugh.

“What the hell....”

Hildebert didn’t even blink.

“What do you have to do to make you stop....”

Hildebert came to a halt.

Then he slowly swept his gaze around—rolling his still-burning left eye and his, for now, pristine right.

He stood silently for a moment, as if thinking.

Then he kicked off the ground like a leopard.

BOOM!

“Kgh!”

“Listen.”

Asil Fiscer’s throat was seized by Hilde.

Those who had learned that bullets were meaningless rushed forward to pry Hilde away. As people charged at the junior like arrows, Yun spoke into the communicator.

“At this point, neither escape nor offense is possible.”

CRASH!

Ayer hurled a thick broken tree, smashing Hilde away like a bowling pin.

Sophia dragged the choking Asil back, widening the distance.

Yun watched Hilde casually brush aside the tree and issued orders.

“So keep spacing between each other. And when Hilde goes for one person, attack from behind. Once you peel him off like just now, pull back again.”

“No support request?”

“Already did. But no matter how many we bring, we won’t land an effective hit or subdue him. You saw the footage.”

The veteran of the First War said dryly and pushed himself up.

“I called Yehyeon.”

The Badgers flinched.

“Until then, let’s not provoke him too much and just endure.”

BOOOOM!

A shockwave erupted.

Hildebert had created it—swinging the tree trunk Ayer had thrown like a sword. A blade-like arc traced a circle.

A wave that struck without time to dodge.

People were hit by the unexpected impact and slammed into the slope.

THUD!

Movement vanished.

Hildebert tossed the heavily cracked tree to the ground.

Then he slowly walked toward Igor. Igor had dropped his sword and was struggling to rise, groaning.

He’d taken the hit while covering nearby Badgers.

The hand pushing against the ground trembled weakly....

Grab—

Someone seized Hildebert’s ankle.

Hildebert tilted his head and looked down at the owner of the hand.

Yoow, teeth clenched, drove a needle into Hilde’s ankle.

THUD.

「A paralysis needle our death squad prides itself on.」

The strategist, lips split, looked up into Hildebert’s cold eyes.

「It won’t be completely useless, right?」

Hilde shook his ankle lightly.

After brushing Yoow’s hand away, he lifted and dropped his foot with the needle still embedded.

BANG!

His foot crushed Yoow’s hand.

The strategist screamed sharply.

“Aagh!”

「You should only absorb people.」

Hildebert muttered and pulled the needle from his ankle.

Holding the long needle in his right hand, he raised it over his shoulder.

「Only the ones in the village....」

Light gathered at the needle’s tip.

Yoow’s reflection filled Hilde’s chilling golden eyes.

Those eyes, holding the blood-soaked strategist, were unfocused.

「In one go....」

BZZZZZT!

A stun-gun-like crackle tore through the air.

For the first time, Hildebert’s knee buckled.

“Ugh!”

He dropped to one knee in the dirt.

Earth sprayed up.

The ground writhed madly.

The earth trembled.

But this was different from before. The ground Hilde touched writhed far faster and more violently, darkening even more clearly.

Kneeling there, Hildebert looked in confusion at the man pressing a device against his side.

“Doesn’t seem to hurt like before?”

Yun muttered, holding up the forced absorber he’d received from Colton.

“What’s different this time....”

THUD!

Yun’s body went flying.

Hilde had struck him, loaded with energy absorbed from the ground.

Yoow didn’t even see Hildebert swing his fist—it happened in an instant.

He could have grabbed Yun by the neck and absorbed him.

Whatever Yun had pressed against him must have hurt fiercely.

The man’s body flew toward the slope.

Ricardo kicked off the ground.

BOOM!

“...ugh.”

“...ah.”

Ricardo grunted as he caught Yun, taking the impact, and Yun let out something like a sigh.

“Fuck....”

Hildebert staggered to his feet.

Without hesitation, he walked toward Yun and Ricardo—barefoot, needle in his right hand.

The distance closed in an instant.

He looked down at Yun, pinned beneath, and Ricardo trapped under him.

Golden eyes holding both men.

Hildebert swung the needle.

CLANG!

The needle collided with a silver thorn.

Hildebert’s golden eyes narrowed, then widened in puzzlement.

Ricardo, having formed a sword from a morphing weapon, laughed as he strained to push Hildebert’s arm away.

“Get a grip already.... you bastard....”

The needle’s tip gleamed sharply, inches from Ricardo’s throat.

“This isn’t that village....”

Screeeech—

“Go any further and you’ll regret it....”

Griiiind—

“You’ll cry after you kill me, won’t you...?”

The golden eyes flickered.

For an instant, confusion crossed Hildebert’s face.

He didn’t relax his arm. Ricardo’s blade was gradually being pushed back. The sharp needle crept closer to the Adam’s apple.

A distance where you could slip in a single mechanical pencil lead.

Sweat gathered on Ricardo’s lashes and dripped into his eye.

At the same time, Yun’s gun barrel aimed at Hilde’s heart.

BANG!

“So it’s finally mutiny?”

Blood burst from Hilde’s heart, splashing across Yun’s face.

“Let’s see how far you resist.”