SMH 171

Chapter 53 – Otherworld Entity (4)

TL: Boko

“My lord! Your Dragon Fear may affect your
allies as well!” Rishubalt said and Sung Joon withdrew the mana he’d
infused into Roel.

There was a chance that his allies would get caught
up in his Dragon Fear, so Sung Joon decided to use a different technique.

“Gale Sword!”

A high-speed movement technique accompanied by sword
winds. The assassins, who’d gotten through the bombardment, were met by Sung
Joon.

“W-When did he…!?”

“He’s fast!”

It was difficult for second class assassins to see
Sung Joon’s movements. They were shocked, but at that very moment, they were
hit by Sung Joon’s Gale Sword.

“Ugh!”

“Ah!”

The second class assassins used their high-speed
movement techniques to barely avoid his attack, but the third class assassins
had no such luck.

They weren’t skilled enough to dodge an SS-rank
Hunter’s sword winds. A dozen third class assassins fell without resistance, as
if they were scarecrows.

They were about as strong as high tier B-rank
Hunters, so they hadn’t been harmed by the bombardment. However, Sung Joon was
the issue. They couldn’t get through him.

“Attack him together!”

The two first class assassins grouped with the
second class assassins and got into formation. However, Sung Joon immediately
saw through their tactic, as he already knew what formation they were using.

“Mr. Idun! There are Mage Hunters at their rear!”

Sung Joon, who had broken their formation and was
slaughtering the assassins, was being bombarded by a barrage of fire spears and
ice blades, so he asked Idun for his assistance.

If he wanted to get to the Magicians, then he’d have to get through the assassins first, but that would take a lot of time.

Rather than use an unfamiliar term like ‘Magician’,
Sung Joon used the more familiar phrase, ‘Mage Hunter’.

Idun acted immediately. He distracted the rear guard
with an offense spell while radioing the artillery corps to bombard them.

“We’ll get artillery support soon!” Idun
yelled.

Even while busily swinging his sword, Sung Joon
heard his message loud and clear. The artillery corps bombarded the rear guard,
but most of the Mages had cast defensive spells to protect themselves, so they
got out unscathed. However, that was enough.

Sung Joon advanced while they were focused on
defense, and was soon right in front of them, creating a river of body and
blood along the way.

“Stop the bombardment! One of ours is down
there!”

Idun ordered the troops to standby. He knew that
should the bombardment continue, Sung Joon wouldn’t be able to act freely.

“Use your defensive spells!” the Magician
Leader ordered hastily and cast a defensive spell.

His subordinates followed suit and cast their
spells, but Sung Joon kept smiling.

“…You really think that’ll be enough to stop
me?”

“W-What are you…?”

They couldn’t understand what he meant. His voice
had been muffled by the racket and the cold laughter, so they couldn’t hear
him.

“I said, do you really think you can stop me
with such poor magic?”

“Ugh!”

Once he swung his sword, the defensive spell broke
into pieces. It was the Spell-Breaking Sword.

“N-No way…!”

The Magician Leader was shocked. He was a high-rank
Magician. And a spell cast by a high-rank Magician shouldn’t have broken so
easily.

“Blink!”

The Magician Leader cast Blink and quickly retreated,
but the other Magicians didn’t act so quickly. Sung Joon pushed through,
swinging his sword.

“Ugh!”

“Ah!”

Whenever he swung his sword, a Magician would spurt
blood and fall. A few of them hurriedly cast an offensive spell, but the spells
futilely ‘vanished’ before his blade.

The Magician Leader watched this happen from afar
and bit his lip.

‘It’s definitely the Spell-Breaking Sword! A
technique reserved for the swordmasters of the Knight Brigade was leaked!’

He turned his gaze to the car holding the ‘Righteous
Shield’.

“He’s not important right now…” the
Magician Leader muttered. At that moment, he felt a presence and a icy gaze
from behind him.

“Then what is important?”

“Ah! Blink… Ugh!”

He wouldn’t escape a second time. Before he could
even utter the activation words, Sung Joon’s blade decapitated the Magician
Leader. Red blood spurted onto his face, and the Magician Leader’s body fell
weakly onto the floor.

Sung Joon wiped most of the blood off his face and looked
around with a sharp gaze.

Because he’d taken out the Magicians, the enemy’s
offensive had weakened noticeably. However, they hadn’t fallen yet. The
National Guard, the Central Hunter Bureau, and the U.S. government’s troops had
sustained heavy casualties.

They were getting a steady supply of reinforcements,
but that wouldn’t heal the wounded.

“You must kill the commander,” Rishubalt
said.

Sung Joon agreed with him and nodded his head. Killing
the commander was a good way of stopping all resistance.

“Stealth.”

Sung Joon disappeared. It would be difficult to
detect someone stealthed on such a chaotic battlefield.

That’s what he was aiming for. He pushed through
enemy territory while stealthed. The National Guard’s artillery corps continued
to bombard the enemy, and the formation of attack helicopters shot air-to-ground
missiles.

This was dangerous, as there was a possibility of
friendly fire, but Sung Joon dodged all of the artillery fire and the missiles
with ease, and managed to go deep into enemy lines.

“Someone is stealthed!”

“Deal with it!”

Those protecting command weren’t weak. Although the
battlefield was so chaotic, they were still able to detect his stealth.

But it seemed like they didn’t know his exact
position, as they were looking around sharply.

Sung Joon stared at them and gathered his mana,
breaking his stealth. His sword moved before they noticed him.

“Gale Sword!”

“Ugh!”

Two of the three first class assassins that acted as
guards fell to his sword, which was like a gale.

The sole remaining assassin managed to block the
sword winds, but his stance was crooked. At this rate, the first class assassin
would be defenseless against Sung Joon’s follow-up strike.

“Ha!”

In a battle with two skilled fighters, the one who showed
weakness would die. Sung Joon didn’t waste this opportunity. He let out a
battle cry and swung his sword, cutting the first class assassin’s thigh.

“Ugh!”

His posture was crooked before, but he completely
crumpled this time. He counterattacked, but it didn’t reach Sung Joon.

On the contrary, he missed Sung Joon’s counterattack
as his poor defense crumbled.

Once Sung Joon’s blade pierced his heart, the first class
assassin fell weakly. The guards had been annihilated. Now, all that remained
was the commander.

“You use the Knight Brigade’s swordsmanship, I
see.”

Sung Joon turned his head towards the direction of
the voice and saw the commander. He looked calm, despite all that had happened,
and wore an insignia on his armor that Sung Joon was familiar with.

“Are you part of the Noble Order?”

The Noble Order was, as the name implies, an
organization of high-ranking noble commanders. They held a high position within
the Empire, as only the best of the best could join the organization.

“You know our language as well… and you’re
familiar with the crest of the Noble Order. You also use the Knight Brigade’s
swordsmanship… You must be a traitor.”

“Think what you want. You’ll be dead soon
anyway.”

Sung Joon used his high-speed movement and swung his
sword, slicing off the Noble Commander’s right arm.

The Noble Commander had learnt the Noble Order’s
swordsmanship and assassination techniques as well, but he was still no match
for Sung Joon. Eventually, Sung Joon cut off the Noble Commander’s head.

Sung Joon broke the command flag beside him to notify
the troops that command had fallen.

“Command has fallen!”

He didn’t need to pick up the Noble Commander’s severed
head and yell that. Lifting up the broken flag and yelling would be just as
effective.

All the Empire’s soldiers that had crossed over via
the warp gate were elites, but their morale took a nosedive when they heard
that command had fallen.

As gunfire rained down on the battlefield, the
Central Hunter Bureau’s agents moved covertly in order to capture a prisoner. Then,
the high-ranking commanders simultaneously ingested poison and committed
suicide.

“Mr. Kang Sung Joon! We’ve won!”

Idun rushed over and reported their triumph.

* * *

Once the high-ranking commanders killed themselves,
their subordinates soon followed. The U.S. weren’t able to procure even a
single prisoner.

The CIA and the Central Hunter Bureau identified the
dead, but couldn’t find the nationality of the enemy, aside from the
mercenaries.

Once the battle was over, Sung Joon’s
synchronization rate rose to 63%. The enemy had attacked them for the
‘Righteous Shield’, so the event was cancelled. Sung Joon would receive the
item privately.

Contrary to its name, it wasn’t actually a shield
but a necklace. Sung Joon was already wearing two other necklaces: the ‘Dragon’s
Protection’ and the ‘Knight Brigade’s Necklace’. Wearing too many necklaces
would be a hindrance on the battlefield, so Sung Joon decided to take off the
‘Dragon’s Protection’ as it overlapped with the ‘Righteous Shield’.

“Mr. Kang Sung Joon.”

There was a short knock on his door. Jennifer opened
the door and peeked her head in.

“May I come in?”

Sung Joon, who was sitting down and fiddling around
with his smartphone, nodded his head. She then entered his room and sat in
front of Sung Joon.

Sung Joon had received the ‘Righteous Shield’, but there
was still the matter of his payment for the raid, so he was still staying in
the Blair House.

“Are you done processing my reward for the New
York raid?”

“Yes. The sum will be deposited into your
account within one hour.”

“Nice.”

Sung Joon smiled. Because of the U.S.’s generosity, Sung
Joon was able to stay in the Blair House without feeling discomfort, but he
didn’t feel as comfortable here as he did back home.

“How much will I get?” Sung Joon looked at
Jennifer and said.

He would know once it was deposited, but he wanted
to know right away. Jennifer looked into it with her tablet PC.

“$700 billion*.”

*T/N: May be referring to won. If so, it would
roughly equal $700 million in U.S. currency. However, there is a possibility
that this sum is in U.S. dollars already.

“It’s a lot more than I expected,” Sung
Joon said honestly.

He wasn’t the raid’s MVP and he hadn’t received
additional payment from the South Korean government.

Therefore, he could understand $500 billion, but the
reward was totally unexpected. Perhaps it was because it was a large SS-rank
raid.

“You were given a huge payment due to the size
of the raid,” Jennifer smiled and said.

Sung Joon nodded his head. It wasn’t like being paid
a lot was a bad thing.

They briefly stopped talking and Sung Joon took out
his smartphone during the five minutes of silence. He had heard his phone’s
alarm go off.

“It’s been deposited.”

Sung Joon smiled, as he could check the payment
details.

“Have you checked the amount?”

“Yes. There’re no problems.”

“That’s a relief.”

“More importantly, have you finished
investigating the attackers?” Sung Joon asked. The attackers were from the
Empire, so Sung Joon couldn’t say he was entirely unrelated to it. That’s why
he wanted to know, but Jennifer shook her head.

“Nothing has been finalized, so I can’t tell
you anything yet.”

“I see.”

Sung Joon smiled. She was telling him in a
roundabout way that she couldn’t reveal what was going on. He could understand
her position.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the U.S.
itself was attacked, so why would they give Sung Joon, an outsider, the
information?

“Mr. Kang Sung Joon.”

Jennifer organized her thoughts and called for him.

“Yes?”

“The president has invited you to a banquet. Would you like to go?”