# Chapter 192
“Cough, grrrk, keuuugh!”
His shoulder instantly became soaked. A blood-curdling groan burst from behind him, and then the strength drained from the arm that had been choking his neck.
“Kuk, cough, hwiik…!”
Lee Hwan hastily gulped in air as tears dropped from his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to collapse and breathe in all the air he could, but he couldn’t miss this golden opportunity.
Even as he felt the dull pain in his barely freed throat, Lee Hwan crossed his trembling hands to grab the Director’s arms. Then, as he constrained him in an embrace-like hold, he felt the sensation of being bitten several more times from behind.
“Keuuk, aaagh!”
As if finally coming to his senses, a stone-like head slammed into the back of Lee Hwan’s skull.
WHACK!
Everything went pitch black before Lee Hwan’s eyes. The blow was so powerful he nearly lost consciousness.
With a jolt, he felt the pain of his arm dislocating, and then the Director pushed him away with his knee, dropping him to the floor with a thud.
“Kaaagh, keuh, haak…!”
Red bloodstains trailed behind the Director as he rolled on the ground and slowly crawled away. The enemies who had been trying to capture Jade suddenly changed targets and attacked the monster and Taesung.
To buy time until he could recover and get up.
Yes, kill it quickly. The monster was still trying to pounce on Lee Hwan, so it was actually helpful in a way.
The Director, who had regained his senses by now, leaned against the wall to stand up and glared at Lee Hwan with eyes full of murderous intent.
“Huuk, huu… How about that? My pheromone seems to be more fucked up.”
Grimacing from the pain of his dislocated arm, Lee Hwan gritted his teeth and let out a laugh. He grabbed his dangling arm, firmly pressed it, and felt a chilling sensation as the bone snapped back into place with a crack.
“You… cough… I’ll definitely kill you.”
With his blood-covered face, his declaration made him look more like an evil spirit than a human. From the looks of it, the Director seemed to have suffered bone damage from the monster’s bites, as his stance was tilted from the start.
If he attacked now, could he win? He could twist space to trip him repeatedly, and if that failed, when the Director rushed toward him, he could suddenly reduce spatial resistance to make him crash into the wall.
Since the Director seemed to have concentrated injuries to his spine and legs, he would collapse, unable to handle the speed.
Wondering if there was any help available, Lee Hwan rolled his eyes, only to see an unfavorable situation enter his view. Jade, who had been downed at some point and was now face-down on the floor, and Taesung, who was fighting all the Awakened alone…
It seemed difficult to stall for more time. Worse yet, the Director was pulling some trick in that brief moment. He took out an injection from his blood-soaked clothes and, before Lee Hwan could designate a space to block it, jabbed it into his own leg.
“Keuk, haa…”
Belatedly pressing down on the space with gravity, the Director fell flat with a crash. However, instead of contorting in pain, his face gradually relaxed into serenity.
He slowly rose against the gravity. Though dangerous cracking sounds came from various parts of his body as they fought against the weight, amazingly, his previously twisted posture now stood perfectly straight.
“To think I’d have to… huu… use this, cough, because of an A-class, huh?”
The Director’s eyes were clearly dilated as he muttered. Despite his calm voice, his body still seemed to be screaming in pain.
Lee Hwan could roughly guess what the Director had used. Since there was no medicine that could instantly mend broken bones, it was probably something that numbed the pain.
Moreover, he showed no signs of fatigue despite severe injuries. If Lee Hwan’s guess was correct, it was a drug that temporarily allowed normal use of strength by burning up all remaining energy… a substance prohibited by international law, but one that Hunters trapped on the battlefield after the Monster Wave secretly carried around.
‘Damn it.’
He thought it hadn’t been developed yet at this point, but he didn’t know it was already circulating under the radar like this.
THUD!
As the Director charged again, planting his feet on the floor, there wasn’t a trace of pain on his face. When Lee Hwan hurriedly applied gravity, the Director twisted his body with a few steps near the designated space and drew his gun.
BANG! BANG!
The barrel spewed fire, and the bullet that Lee Hwan barely deflected with his ability grazed his cheek.
“Huh… huk…”
He had nearly gotten a hole blown through the middle of his head. Before he could feel relief, the Director charged at him again.
Glancing back, he saw that Taesung was still in combat. He continued to deflect attacks coming at him relentlessly, still trapped among the group of Awakened.
It seemed the enemies were deliberately conducting the battle around the fallen Jade. This was to prevent Taesung from sweeping them all away with his flames at once.
That’s probably why they kept Jade alive when they could have killed him. To anchor Taesung’s movements.
So Lee Hwan couldn’t expect help from anyone. He had to fight alone.
Lee Hwan blocked and deflected the Director’s consecutive punches while backing away. Indeed, it was difficult to face an A-class Awakened, especially one with physical abilities, barehanded.
He tried designating spaces at strategic points to trip him, block his breathing, and even risked taking a shot in close combat, hitting the edge of his shoulder, but the pain-immune Awakened just kept charging like a zombie.
Finally, when he took one more step back, his back hit the wall with a thud.
There was nowhere else to retreat. He would have to take a few hits to escape. But could he survive those punches?
His head, which had already taken a headbutt earlier, was soaked with blood. This time, he might suffer facial bone or organ damage, Lee Hwan thought as he prepared himself. Just then—
PHIIING-!
Suddenly, there was a sound of something cutting through the air, and deep wounds appeared all over the Director’s body. Though he still didn’t seem to feel pain and continued to swing his fist carelessly, perhaps because a tendon in his arm had been cut, the blow to Lee Hwan’s face wasn’t as painful as expected.
For the first time, the Director looked flustered. Lee Hwan kicked him hard while he hesitated and turned to look at Taesung, panting heavily.
Taesung was glaring at the Director with a deathly pale face. One of his eyes was almost closed, contorted as if he had a severe headache.
Only then did Lee Hwan remember that Taesung had arbitrarily consumed a few skill stones through countless regressions.
And the fact that because they didn’t quite match him, he suffered severe headaches as a penalty.
“Get him!”
At the Director’s command, the Awakened formed a tight circle, not missing the opportunity. Taesung belatedly resumed a fighting stance, but the enemies had already surrounded him.
Yet even after taking such attacks, his movements had hardly slowed down.
‘Ah.’
That’s why. He thought Taesung was getting pushed back too much, even considering the unfavorable conditions. The Awakened he was facing also seemed to have taken the same drug as the Director, as they continued to charge at him with burning, broken bodies.
1 against 7, four of whom had guns. With handicaps in all aspects that could affect combat—terrain, numbers, ability types—could he really survive?
He would certainly be seriously injured. Or… he might die.
Lee Hwan bit his lip until it bled. He couldn’t lose Taesung like this. Just as the enemies’ gun barrels were about to spew fire—
‘No…!’
Lee Hwan abandoned his defense and designated a space around Taesung. Like a barrier, he made it so that anything moving faster than 30 kilometers per hour couldn’t pass through the space.
For the time being, neither the flying bullets nor the enemies charging recklessly would be able to attack him.
RAT-TAT-TAT! BANG! BANG!
The bullets, unable to penetrate the space, rippled and fell. Lee Hwan coughed up blood that suddenly rose in his throat and his knees buckled deeply.
CLICK! WOONG-
Turning toward the irritating sound, he saw the Director watching the scene with gleaming eyes. With his still-intact arm holding a mana stone blade, he curled up the corner of his blood-soaked lips.
“Throw the buckshot!”
As the Director issued instructions in a thoroughly cracked voice, a bomb the size of a fist flew toward Taesung.
Lee Hwan suddenly had an ominous feeling that what was inside wasn’t ordinary metal.
‘If those are attribute minerals or materials for binding spheres…’
If those fragments were embedded in various parts of the body, not only would abilities be blocked, but the probability of survival would also drastically decrease.
Then it had to be stopped at all costs. When the shot exploded, neither Taesung nor the fallen Jade beside him would be safe.
However, as he was about to strengthen the constraints of the designated space with that thought, Lee Hwan realized that the Director was approaching, swinging his blade.
If he didn’t release the space now and step back, the Director would exploit that gap to harm him.
‘I don’t want to die either.’
What he told Taesung wasn’t a lie. Who in the world would want to die after a life of hardship? So Lee Hwan had clearly stated: Let’s try to survive. Let’s try to get hurt as little as possible.
But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t recklessly jump into dangerous situations; it didn’t mean he would abandon Taesung to save himself when both their lives were on the line.
Damn it. The situation wasn’t helping. It never did. His life seemed to dislike him no matter what.
If only they hadn’t been isolated and attacked like this, he would have already blown everything up and escaped with Taesung and Jade in tow.
With such thoughts, his eyes rolled and met Taesung’s. As if he understood the situation in an instant, despair began to fill his eyes. Taesung’s face contorted slowly, like in slow motion.
Please don’t. Use your ability to dodge.
That’s what he would have wanted to shout. But before he could even open his mouth, the shot fell on him, and the Director was rushing toward Lee Hwan.
‘…Ha.’
Choices were always this cruel. If only there were crossroads like “Do you prefer cake or tart?” where any choice would lead to happiness.
But since his life had never been smooth, such choices weren’t that unfamiliar to Lee Hwan. Except for the brief and happy period when he had worked as a Hunter with Taesung, he had always lived walking a tightrope between the worst and the lesser evil.
“Huu…”
Lee Hwan’s face became serene as he made up his mind. Adding all his strength, he reinforced the constraints of the space and created a distorted space beside the fallen Jade.
Blood gushed from his nose and mouth. In the short span of a few seconds, all sorts of thoughts passed through his mind.
Would they survive? This was supposed to be the last regression. If things went wrong, would Kang Taesung blame himself?
Unlike in the past, Jade would remain, so perhaps he wouldn’t entertain dangerous thoughts.
Perhaps because he had prepared for death, the events of his life flashed before his eyes like a fast-moving panorama. Thanks to that, Lee Hwan gently recovered a memory he hadn’t been able to recall for a long time.
A mountain densely packed with trees, and a clearing that remained like a trap in the middle of it. A battle. A bomb. His first death.
Ah. That’s where he had seen this Director before.
