Chapter 160: Not an Easy Death
Jared, dead in the blink of an eye.
While everyone stared blankly at the A-rank hunter’s anticlimactic end, a few managed to come to their senses first.
The other three A-rank hunters.
Were they enraged by Walfred’s merciless hand? They charged in, spitting furious curses.
"You crazy son of a bitch!"
"Die! Thunder St...!"
A lightning-attribute area skill.
Just as [Thunder Storm] was about to activate.
[I told you not to.]
Elsa unleashed her Dragon Tongue once again.
And in that instant, along with an invisible shockwave, every hunter’s skill except Walfred’s was nullified once more.
"The skills, the skills got canceled again...?"
"Fuck! What the hell is he?!"
The A-rank hunters panicked.
And at the same time.
"...!? Hrgh!"
"When did he...!"
Their faces went white in an instant. They had only blinked, yet Walfred, who had been far off, had closed the distance to right under their noses.
Danger. We’re going to die!
At their instincts’ screaming warning, the hunters scrambled to put space between themselves and Walfred.
But.
Thwack! Thunk!
Walfred was far faster.
The ice axe swept in, tracing a blue arc, and cleanly took off both hunters’ heads. Severed in a single stroke, the heads rolled across the floor.
"Two. Three."
The A-rank hunters, their lives snuffed out just like that.
Only after witnessing that sight did the other hunters finally understand. The man in front of them was a monster far beyond anything their common sense could grasp.
And though they didn’t know exactly why, he intended to kill every single person here.
"Eeee, eeeek!"
"I surrender! I’ll surrender, so please spare..."
Their will to fight shattered by the merciless slaughter, the hunters dropped their weapons one by one and threw themselves flat on the ground.
But there was no mercy.
Walfred simply swung his ice axe with mechanical precision, separating hunters’ heads from their bodies. As the massacre went on, the stench of blood hanging thick in the air.
"...Guhk!"
The man Walfred had attacked first.
Edward, who had been punched through the wall into the next room and knocked out cold, barely managed to come around.
"Cough, cough! Urgh...!"
He heaved up a gush of dark red blood, then lifted his head, and came face to face with the carnage before him.
Jared, killed on the spot with his head crushed in.
The other A-rank hunters, all dead with their heads blown clean off. The sight was so hard to believe it could have been a dream, and Edward shuddered violently.
"You, you goddamn bastard!"
His eyes went bloodshot.
Edward shouted, his voice dripping venom.
"You come out of nowhere and pull this shit!? What the hell did we ever do to you...!"
Edward screamed as if coughing up blood.
He couldn’t understand it.
No matter how hard he thought, no matter how deep he dug, Walfred was a man who simply did not exist in his memory.
Meanwhile, around that time.
Thwack! Crunch!
Walfred blew off the last remaining hunter’s head, then turned to look at Edward. Regarding him with indifferent eyes, he spoke.
"You touched someone you never should have touched."
"What? Who are you talking..."
"You don’t need to know."
He had no intention of telling him.
He was going to kill them all anyway.
Glaring at Edward, Walfred used [Instant Burst] once more to close the gap.
Then, just as he reached out to seize the man by the collar.
A cold sneer curled on Edward’s lips.
"Inferno Buster!"
KABOOOOOM!
He activated the skill as if he’d been waiting for this very moment.
A high-tier fire-attribute skill that crammed overwhelming damage into a single target.
An attack that could instantly kill even a B-rank Elite Monster, so long as the attribute matchup was right. The mana cost was steep, but its power was guaranteed.
"...Son of a bitch. Did you really think I’d fall for it twice?"
Breathing hard, Edward sneered at Walfred as the smell of burning flesh filled his nose. A point-blank explosion unleashed without even a split second to dodge.
By now, the man was probably charbroiled.
"Serves you right, you goddamn... Khak!"
But in that moment.
A hand shot out of the smoke and roughly seized Edward by the collar. A monstrous grip hoisted his body into the air in one motion.
His windpipe clamping shut, Edward thrashed and cried out.
"Gkk, gkkk! H-how...!?"
How on earth did he dodge that explosion?
There hadn’t been any opening to dodge at all!
Edward wanted to demand an answer.
Then the smoke cleared, and the moment Walfred came into view, every question was answered at once.
"...!"
His entire body scorched black.
Skin horrifically melted, covered in burns.
Walfred hadn’t dodged the explosion. He had taken the full force of the blast and impact head-on, with nothing but his body.
He had tanked an attack that could one-shot even a B-rank Elite with his bare flesh.
"You, you insane bastard...!"
No sane person would ever conceive of such a thing.
Edward trembled uncontrollably.
But there was one thing he didn’t know.
Walfred possessed an ability that could heal any wound, so long as the conditions were met.
[Frost Domain: (Rune of Healing) conditions met]
[Healing effect activating.]
Just like right now.
Feeling his melted skin rapidly regenerate, Walfred took hold of his ice axe.
And then.
Thwack! Crunch!
Without a moment’s hesitation, he swung the axe and severed Edward’s left wrist. The severed hand sailed through the air and dropped to the floor with a plop.
"...!? AAAAARGH!"
A horrific scream rang out.
But before the pain could even fade, Walfred mercilessly hacked off the other wrist as well.
"AAGH! AAAAAGH!"
Edward howled, his eyes rolling back.
Blood spurted from both severed stumps, but the bleeding didn’t last long. Walfred had used [Rapid Freeze] to freeze the cut surfaces of his wrists solid.
Gasping in agony, Edward stammered out a question, bewildered by the sudden first aid.
"Wh-what? Why..."
"It’d be a problem if you died already."
"...What?"
"Because I have no intention of giving you an easy death."
Then, the moment his eyes met Walfred’s.
Edward felt as if his breath had stopped cold.
A chill!
A terror that made every hair on his body stand on end.
It couldn’t be helped.
He had realized that what Walfred just said wasn’t some shallow threat or empty bluster. It was real.
"W-wait...!"
Edward waved his hands frantically.
Trying to open a dialogue.
But Walfred didn’t respond. Tossing his ice axe aside, he began to beat Edward with pure physical strength alone.
Thwack! Whack whack whack! Thwaaack!