‘…Ugh, my head.’

Would I ever get used to dimensional travel? I opened my eyes against a familiar wave of dizziness. A lush green forest greeted me. A mix of towering, otherworldly trees and native Earth foliage—now a common sight all over the world.

The chirping of birds, the rustle of grass swaying in the wind… A moment of immersion in nature was as effective as meditation. My mind was clearer, and I pushed myself to my feet.

-Confirmed. Safe arrival in Vladivostok, Russian Far East. The Immortal zone is 700 meters from this location.

‘Alright. Let’s go.’

Appearing directly in the operation zone would be asking to get shot. So, partly to conceal my mana signature, I had materialized a short distance away.

‘But what do I say to the Russian hunters?’

The thought struck me as I walked. The Russians likely believed my request for support had been denied by the Korean Hunter Association. In other words, I had no official arrangement with them. I had to find a way to persuade them to let me through the gate.

As I was trying to come up with an excuse…

I silenced my thoughts and stopped in my tracks.

“You can come out now.”

A silent projectile streaked toward me, only to halt inches from my face. ‘Screeeech!’ The bullet spun against my shield, carving a shallow groove before losing momentum and tumbling into the grass.

‘A sniper.’

I crossed my feet, shifting my center of gravity back. As my body tilted, a large, drill-shaped device erupted from the ground, tearing through the air where I had just been standing. I regained my balance and retreated, sensing an unnatural flow of mana in the air around me. It was definitely a long-range Unique Ability.

‘Tch!’

I stomped on my Leap Boots—faster to cast than Devastar—and launched myself skyward. The strange mana signature swelled with power.

‘KABOOOOM!’

An explosion ripped through the empty air. I landed softly on the ground, untouched by the blast.

‘These aren’t Russians.’

From all around the forest, hunters clad in black emerged.

-It’s the Association’s Enforcement Bureau, Tower Master.

‘Just as I thought.’

This wasn’t Im Namjin’s old unit, of course. They had all been demoted. The current Enforcement Bureau was composed of elites from Unix, handpicked by Frost, along with members of the clandestine ‘clean-up crew’ that handled his dirty work.

I brushed the dirt from my suit. “Mind telling me why we’re fighting? Why is the Enforcement Bureau launching an unprovoked attack on one of its own country’s hunters?”

From the surrounding hunters, one man approached with a peculiar, swaggering gait.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve for a man under a travel ban.”

His hunter suit resembled a tracksuit. He stood with a defiant slouch, hands stuffed in his pockets. With his sharp, narrow eyes and thin jawline, I knew exactly who he was: the former certified rank-3 hunter from Unix, Blackjack.

“Don’t make this difficult. Surrender.”

“That’s going to be a problem.”

I scratched the side of my head, affecting a relaxed air as my eyes darted around, scanning. I hadn’t identified all of their abilities yet. I needed to stall.

“Seriously, what’s your deal?”

“Hmm?”

“Even if I get into the dungeon, the chance of bringing Hong Yul back alive is less than one percent. Wouldn’t it be easier for you to just let me die? So why issue a travel ban and then lie in wait for me in Russia?”

For any sane person, accounting for a variable of less than one percent was obsessive. Yet Frost had dispatched his trusted Enforcement Bureau to stop me. He also knew I would appear in Russia without a plane. Even if he knew Samia was with me, the Association would also know she was a teleporter who couldn’t bring anyone with her.

It didn’t add up. What was going on? How much did Frost know?

“That’s a stupid question. What kind of idiot questions orders?” Blackjack said with a grin. “I was told to kill you. Simple as that.”

So much for having a conversation. I had stalled long enough and managed to scan their status windows for basic information. To capture me, Frost had deployed a considerable force: multiple certified rank-4 and rank-5 hunters, and at least two rank-3s, the same as me.

‘Could even a certified rank-2 escape this?’

I rolled my shoulders, stoking my fighting spirit. This was no time to doubt. I had to get out of here, by any means necessary.

‘BANG!’

A gunshot cracked the silence. Mana-infused bullets rained down from the trees and the undergrowth. I didn’t need to worry about them; Ea’s shield would handle it. My focus was on the two close-combat hunters charging me head-on, one with a greatsword, the other with a spear.

‘Fwoosh!’

I dodged the hunter’s greatsword and blocked the spear thrust from the other side with my shield. ‘Scrape!’ The spearhead glanced off. ‘Pshhh!’ But as the greatsword swung past, smoke hissed from a device on its hilt, and its trajectory impossibly reversed.

“Ack!”

The impossible attack forced me to conjure a shield in mid-air and tumble away. It was an unstable dodge, and the spearman didn’t miss his opening, lunging forward with all his might.

‘Stay calm.’

I watched the spear tip until the last second and snapped my head back. A thin red line appeared on my cheek as the point flashed past my eye. ‘Woosh!’ The man retrieved his spear and spun. It looked like a simple swing, but I saw the side of his coat bulge. I instinctively threw up a shield. ‘Thwack!’ A bullet, fired through his coat, slammed into it.

‘These bastards…!’

They were on another level. My previous experience in hunter-versus-hunter combat had been against those who specialized in killing monsters—all simple slashes and stabs. The Enforcement Bureau was trained to kill ‘people’. Deception and efficiency were their cornerstones. Feints and trick plays were second nature.

-Tower Master!

‘Sorry, Ea! Just hold on a little longer!’

While we were locked in close combat, the snipers kept firing. Even Ea was struggling to counter the trick shots and curving bullets. My suit’s energy was draining rapidly.

I tried to fall back, but hunters wielding a staff and an axe cut off my retreat. The four of them surrounded me, moving in a deadly dance. ‘Fwoosh! Whack!’ Weapons swung from all four directions. They expertly maintained their distance, using only the reach of their weapons to strike and withdraw.

There were no honest attacks. Everything was a feint. And worse…

‘They don’t even care if they hit their own men?’

Despite their allies being so close, the long-range fire never ceased. The close-combat hunters’ attack paths sometimes overlapped, yet they never made a single mistake. This was a carefully orchestrated pincer movement designed solely to deplete my suit’s energy.

It was already critically low. At this rate, I was done for. I had to drag them into a chaotic melee—my specialty.

<Fire Cannon> x30

I conjured a swarm of fireballs in the air. This would strike all of them at once and create a smokescreen…

A sharp clap echoed. The magic circles in the sky rippled like water before dissolving back into ambient mana.

“We’ve already figured you out, Hunter Kim Yusin.”

In the distance, I saw the man who had clapped. The certified rank-3 hunter, Wave Master.

“You need a magic circle to cast your spells. No matter what magic you use, I’m faster.”

A hard counter. Dammit.

The close-combat hunters closed in again.

‘Fine. I’ll buy time with an instant-cast spell.’

I equipped a gauntlet and slammed my fist into the ground. The earth erupted like buckshot, kicking up a dense cloud of dust.

<Water Veil>

I immediately followed with a feint, my body splitting into three identical copies that darted out of the smokescreen in different directions. I’d hoped to confuse them, but a green dot instantly appeared on the forehead of my true body. The momentarily bewildered hunters immediately zeroed in on the dot and gave chase.

‘Wow, they even have a counter for Water Veil?’

I glanced back. In the distance, a hunter with a detection-type ability was pointing a laser device at me. It had to be him.

Just then, the surrounding mana destabilized. The close-combat hunters broke formation and scattered.

-Tower Master! It’s that explosion from before!

Gritting my teeth, I deployed a spherical shield that enveloped the entire area. A moment later, a violent explosion tore through the space, shrouding me in black smoke.

‘This is actually for the best.’

I crouched, activated Devastar on my right foot, and pinpointed the enemies’ locations outside the smoke.

‘Ea, let’s make a break for the Russian camp. They won’t be so reckless in front of them.’

-That appears to be the optimal course of action.

<Devastar>

A skull insignia flared on the ground as my body shot forward like an arrow. I burst through the smoke and their encirclement in an instant, but—

‘Thwump!’

I slammed into something soft. There was no impact—or rather, it was absorbed. I was thrown back, crashing to the ground.

Before me was a cloud—an artificial one created by a Unique Ability. They had calculated my speed with Devastar and reacted in time.

‘Don’t tell me they countered Devastar, too…!’

“Haha! I told you we have you all figured out!”

Someone came running through the undergrowth. Dammit, it was Blackjack. A close-quarters fight with him was suicide. I summoned a series of Ice Javelins, but again, a sharp ‘clap!’ erased the magic circles.

“Let’s dance, Archmage!”

I had no choice. I activated the gauntlets on both fists and faced him. As he closed in, he threw a straight right.

‘Twist my head, dodge, and counter.’

‘Crack!’

The impact came from my left, staggering me. His straight punch had been a feint; his left hand had moved so fast it left an afterimage.

‘What the hell was that?!’

His fists rained down on me. I couldn’t react. He’d feint with a left and strike with a right jab, feint a low kick and follow with a Brazilian kick to my head. The more I tried to predict his moves, the more my own became hopelessly tangled.

“You’re just mediocre.”

He casually parried my full-power punch and grinned. “You use mana like a pistol, so you’ve got power, but you’re a hack. You’ve never had proper close combat training, have you?”

‘Crack!’

A kick, so fast it left an afterimage, connected with my jaw.

“That’s the limit of a cheap trick.”

The world rattled as I hit the ground. He approached at a leisurely pace.

“Your specialty, magic, is sealed. Your so-called martial arts are useless against the real deal. Mind games and pacing? What good are those when you’re being ganged up on?”

‘Smack!’

His boot connected with my face. I rolled across the dirt, spitting blood. God, it hurt. The suit’s force field offered some protection to my uncovered face, but it couldn’t negate the impact.

“I heard you were a candidate for the Association President’s rank-1 spot. This is what happens when you back the wrong horse.”

“…Cough! Kegh!”

“It’s not too late. I’ll give you one last chance.” He crouched in front of me, smiling. “Swear your loyalty to the Association President now.”

I grinned back and raised my middle finger. “Fuck off. I don’t swear loyalty to anyone.”

‘Pow!’

My vision fractured into five overlapping images before snapping back into one. I spun through the air and crashed to the ground again.

‘I’m powerless.’

This was real combat against assassins, not monsters. And I was utterly, hopelessly outmatched. The common wisdom was that a mage needed support to be effective. But I’d thought I was different. I’d believed that no matter the situation, no matter the opponent, I could dictate the terms of the fight.

Reality was a harsh lesson. What good was my mastery of fourth-order magic? What good was a fifth-order spell that could annihilate thousands of monsters? I couldn’t use them. They took too long. In a frantic, many-on-one battle, the best I could rely on was mass-produced second-order magic, and even that was rendered useless by a hard counter like the Wave Master.

‘I need faster magic.’

My fists clenched.

‘I need sixth-order.’

* * *

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep