Chapter 159: That’s One
Walfred wore an odd expression.
Then he spoke to the hunters, who were watching him with guarded faces.
"I have a question."
"Wh-what is it...?"
"Edward. Where is he right now?"
Eyes glinting savagely.
At his murderous aura, the hunters flinched and swallowed dryly. Then, one by one, they began to offer what they knew.
"Th-that bastard, he must have..."
"He’ll have gone to the chief’s room!"
"Where is it?"
"The room at the end of the hall. Directly below it."
The moment he heard the answer.
Walfred kicked off the ground.
Shortly after, arriving at the room at the end of the hall just as the hunters had described, he quietly opened his mouth.
"Ice Spear."
Of all the skills he had acquired, the one with the greatest piercing power and destructive force. [Ice Spear] swelled rapidly, condensing cold and mana.
And a moment later.
[Maximum charge limit reached]
[Attack preparation complete.]
The instant the full charge was complete.
Walfred gripped [Ice Spear] short.
And drove it straight down into the floor.
Krboom!
The floor split from the initial strike.
Then the condensed mana and cold detonated all at once, setting off a massive explosion.
Crunch! Kaboooooom!
With a thunderous roar, the floor gave way completely.
And that wasn’t all.
In the aftermath of the blast, even the ceiling connected to the surface collapsed with a deafening crash.
A hole had opened all the way up to ground level.
Glancing at it, Walfred leapt down through the opening into the floor below.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
"Shit! What, what the hell is...!"
Shouts and screams rang out on every side.
Ignoring them all, Walfred pressed his hand against a nearby wall. Then he unleashed [Rapid Freeze] at maximum output.
And in that instant,
Crack! Crackakakrack!
A murderous chill devoured the room.
Not just the walls but the floor and ceiling froze over in a flash, transforming the room into a walk-in freezer. Having secured his line of sight, Walfred narrowed his eyes.
"...So this is where you were all gathered."
The hunters stared at him, visibly rattled.
Among them, he spotted a familiar face.
A man in his early thirties, mixed in with the other hunters.
The bastard who had spewed those disgusting words at Jenna in the afterimage memory. Edward.
"Saves me the trouble of hunting you down one by one."
Walfred’s eyes went cold.
Meanwhile.
At the appearance of Walfred, who had smashed through the ceiling, the hardline hunters all wore dumbfounded expressions.
"What? Who’s that bastard..."
"Who is he? Anyone know him?"
"No, never seen his face before."
Gazes tinged with wariness and suspicion.
Facing off against Walfred, the hunters slowly began to form a ring around him. Then Edward, his face twisted in a scowl, stepped forward.
"You little shit, who the hell do you..."
He was probably trying to size up the situation.
But he never got to finish.
In the split second it took Edward to blink, Walfred, who had been thirty-odd feet away, was suddenly right in front of his nose.
"...!?"
As Edward’s eyes flew wide.
Walfred’s foot, torqued through his center axis for maximum rotational force, slammed square into his gut.
Thwaboom!
With a sound like a balloon bursting.
Edward was launched into the air, smashing through the wall without the slightest resistance and crashing into the next room.
Kaboooom!
The concrete wall crumbled down in pieces.
Edward, buried in the corner of the next room, went limp as if he had lost consciousness. At the sudden ambush, every hunter stood blank-faced.
But only for a moment.
"Son of a...!"
"That crazy bastard!"
"Kill him, now!"
The instant they realized Walfred was an enemy.
The hunters charged as one.
Just then, a massive shadow fell across the hole leading up to the surface.
And a moment later.
Whoom! Krakakakoom!
Something came plunging down from above.
What appeared with that thunderous roar was a frost dragon, its entire body covered in silver scales.
It was Elsa.
The hunters who had been radiating murderous intent at Walfred all went rigid the moment they saw her.
"That’s...!"
"A d-dragon?!"
"That’s what I’ve been telling you! I saw it with my own eyes, a dragon coming this way!"
Tyler, who had been the first to report the dragon’s appearance, shrieked in vindicated fury, but no one paid him any attention.
The hunters who had looked ready to pounce on Walfred at any second now faltered, stumbling backward one after another, overwhelmed by Elsa’s presence.
And then.
"Don’t be scared! Look at it, it’s clearly a hatchling!"
One man stepped forward.
The A-rank hunter of the frost attribute, Jared.
Having seen through the fact that Elsa was not yet fully grown, he raised his voice again.
"With our current forces, we can take it down with room to spare!"
"Y-yeah! Don’t chicken out, charge in!"
"Kill them both!"
Was it thanks to Jared’s shout?
As if their courage had returned, the hunters unleashed a barrage of attack skills at Walfred and Elsa.
Fire, ice, lightning, and more.
The instant those countless elemental skills took form.
[Stop.]
Elsa’s voice seized the room.
Dragon Tongue: the unique Authority of the Dragonkin, which imbues words with power to interfere with the world and manipulate phenomena.
And in that moment.
Every hunter except Walfred froze mid-motion. Not only the hardline hunters charging at him, but even Elma in the corner.
"Wh-what? Why, all of a sudden..."
"Damn it! My body, it won’t move!"
The hunters were visibly panicking.
And that wasn’t the only anomaly.
Even the skills they had unleashed scattered into thin air, every last one. As everyone’s eyes went wide.
[Don’t say mean things to my daddy!]
Along with Elsa’s furious voice.
A notification appeared, one even Walfred had never seen before.
[The Resonator (Elsa) is enraged.]
[Authority: Dragon Fear activated]
[The physical abilities, resistances, and tolerances of all targets of her wrath are drastically reduced.]
And in that moment.
A formless shockwave rippled out from Elsa, crushing down on every hunter in an instant.
"Guh! What now, what is this!?"
"M-my body, it’s so heavy!"
"Ngh! My heart...!"
The hunters caught in Dragon Fear dropped to their knees as one, vomiting blood.
But not all of them.
The A-rank hunters, Jared among them, somehow clung to their reason and endured, even under the crushing pressure and terror bearing down on their bodies.
And then.
Jared, the first to break free of Dragon Fear, thrust his hand toward Walfred and Elsa.
"Frozen, Blaster!"
A wide-area skill, barely forced out.
[Frozen Blaster] fired thousands of razor-sharp ice fragments in a fan-shaped spread, like the pellets of a shotgun blast.
Boom! Krakakakaka!
The entire area was leveled in an instant.
At the sight of thick icy vapor billowing up, a smile spread across Jared’s lips.
But the moment the vapor cleared.
"...!?"
Jared was horrified.
Walfred and Elsa, who had been swallowed by [Frozen Blaster], stood there completely unscathed.
The reason was simple.
[Defense: Frost Shield activated]
[Damage received: Frost attribute]
[90% of damage absorbed.]
The attack he had poured his life into happened to be frost attribute. On top of that, Elsa was outright immune to all frost-attribute attacks.
His attack never stood a chance.
Jared, who had no way of knowing any of this, twisted his face savagely. Spitting curses, he thrust his hand forward once more.
"Damn it! Ice Clus..."
"Accelerate."
In that instant.
Before Jared could complete his second attack skill, Walfred vanished. Then, slipping through that sliver of a moment, he shoved his face right up into Jared’s.
Staring into those wide, bulging eyes.
Walfred seized Jared’s face in a brutal grip and slammed it straight into the floor.
Kaboom! Kaboom! Crack!
Exactly twice.
Perhaps because he had driven the man’s head down hard enough to crater the ground, Jared’s skull was crushed into something too gruesome to look at.
Thud! Splatter!
Blood and brain matter soaked the floor.
Instant death.
A hollow end for an A-rank hunter. As everyone froze in place at the sight.
"That’s one."
A voice shattered the silence.
A single sentence, ice-cold, without a trace of emotion in it. Walfred casually flicked the blood from his hand and adjusted his grip on the ice axe.
As if announcing the start of a massacre.