novelraw Chapter 102 : Chapter 102
Chapter 102 : Chapter 102
Chapter 102 Burial (5)
A few minutes ago.
“Hmm, what to do about this.”
Jensen Morrow was standing in front of a cliff.
In front of that cliff Riman had crossed using the black whip.
Jensen muttered.
“...It doesn’t seem like there’s a detour to cross over.”
And climbing down to the bottom of the cliff and back up was obviously a crazy thing to do.
Jensen looked around and muttered.
“Ah, this should work.”
A large metal pillar stood near the cliff.
Pillars erected here and there in the cave.
These were equipment set up as makeshift measures to prevent the collapse of this tunnel.
Just like when he entered this tunnel, Jensen placed his palm on that pillar once again.
Only this time, closer to the base.
A moment later.
SIZZLE-
The base of the metal pillar melted and began to sink.
A solid lump of iron began to fuse just because he touched it once.
RUMBLE...
The top of the pillar separated slightly from the ceiling and began to teeter.
Jensen pushed the pillar with all his might.
Towards the cliff.
WHOOSH-
BOOM!!
The falling pillar stopped as it reached the edge of the opposite cliff.
Like that, a bridge crossing the cliff was created.
It was a perfect single-log bridge, except for the fact that it was made of metal.
“Good.”
Jensen crossed the cliff using the fallen pillar as a bridge.
After crossing the cliff like that, it was easy.
He just had to move again while following the carcasses of Earth-Burrowing Worms scattered all over the floor.
How long did he walk like that?
Jensen soon arrived at the entrance of a huge cavity.
He intuitively realized that this cavity was the dwelling of the boss, the Queen Earth-Burrowing Worm.
“...That guy Leman, did he come to catch the boss.”
Jensen poked only his head out slightly and looked inside the cavity.
Deep inside this cavity.
There was a large rock hill there, and a man was sitting on top of it.
‘That’s the guy.’
He recognized Riman at once, even from a distance.
Finally, a situation where he faced his target.
But as he watched for a moment, something was strange.
The boss was nowhere to be seen.
Precisely, he hadn't found the boss even though he was looking right at it with his own two eyes.
Because he never imagined that the rock hill itself was the Queen Earth-Burrowing Worm.
‘Well, anyway, seeing him sitting and resting, it seems the job is done.’
In fact, Riman was taking a breather for a moment because he was exhausted.
Looking at Riman like that, Jensen concentrated mana in one hand.
‘I’ll end it in one blow.’
Killing an opponent whose alertness has dropped due to fatigue with a surprise attack.
One of the assassination methods with the highest probability.
Jensen measured the distance between Riman and himself.
And checked the movement path in between.
The presence or absence of obstacles, the presence or absence of cover.
Like that, Jensen calculated the optimized approach route in an instant.
Reconnaissance was over.
Calculation was also over.
Now only one thing remained.
Execution.
WHOOSH!
Jensen moves.
He sprints with speed and footwork difficult to capture with ordinary vision.
Even if obstacles rise in the middle, he does not avoid them.
He quickly corrodes and destroys them with both hands, then breaks through.
The reason for daring to break through frontally without detouring around obstacles.
It was to catch the opponent's vision off guard.
Because usually, one does not assume a surprise attack that penetrates through a route blocked by boulders or stone pillars.
Like that, he digs into Riman's blind spot.
Approaches.
And finally.
THUD.
His hand struck Riman's side.
* * *
Short confusion burst out from Riman's mouth.
“Huh?”
SPLASH!
Blood splattered from Riman's side.
It was because Jensen's hand corroded Riman's clothes and simultaneously scratched the skin of his side.
“Ugh...!”
“Tch...!”
However, Riman was not the only one confused.
Jensen was also confused.
Because clearly, he aimed and stabbed exactly at the center of the abdomen, but somehow it ended with just scratching the side.
‘This bastard, he parried that...?’
The moment Jensen launched the surprise attack.
Riman's automatic defense system activated properly.
Layers of defensive barriers blocked Jensen's hand.
However, it was useless.
Because those barriers melted and crumbled the moment they touched Jensen's fist.
Just before the guy's fist touched Riman's abdomen like that.
Riman parried Jensen's fist with his own hand.
A movement almost close to instinct.
It was the moment where the boxing he had practiced in his spare time shone.
SKID!
Riman exploded the shock of his boots and quickly widened the distance from Jensen.
‘...What is this bastard, did he come to kill me right here and bury me?’
This was a situation Riman hadn't expected either.
‘Jensen Morrow...!’
The superpower the guy possessed was ‘Acid Fist.’
An ability to secrete energy with the properties of corrosion and fusion from both hands.
That power was strong enough to lightly melt lumps of iron or rock.
Even mana constructs like mana barriers could not avoid that fusion.
And Riman struck away such a fist with his own hand.
It was like parrying a flying heated iron club with bare hands.
Riman looked down at his hand.
Normally, this hand should have already melted away, and Riman should have been looking into a prosthetic hand.
Since he clashed head-on with Jensen's hand.
However, Riman's hand was fine.
It was thanks to the
Gloves that possessed considerable corrosion resistance along with absurd durability.
Therefore, even after clashing directly with the Acid Fist, the hand did not fuse.
Of course, only the hand was fine; the side was not.
Because blood was still leaking out.
Fortunately, it did not reach a fatal wound.
But the pain was immense as the skin was practically ground off.
As Riman gritted his teeth, Jensen, seeing that, spoke as if mocking him.
“Why did you have to parry it? I could have sent you off in one shot without pain.”
“...Jensen Morrow.”
“Uh, what? You know me?”
“There’s no way I wouldn't.”
Jensen Morrow, the guy's charge was simple.
Serial murder.
He was a vicious murderer who went around killing people as if hunting, simply for the reason of being ‘bored.’
What was unique was that the guy had been killing people even before he realized his superpower.
Nonchalantly, as if breathing.
The reason for the first murder was also absurd.
During his high school days, just because the school lunch tasted bad, he killed a person on his way home from school.
He dragged a passing salaryman into an alley and crushed his head with a hammer.
That was the beginning.
Because the weather was clear, because the change amount was wrong, because several tissues were pulled out at once, because the lotion ran out just then, because the drink he wanted wasn't in the convenience store.
Attaching all sorts of reasons, he killed people.
Furthermore, he became nineteen and realized his ability, ‘Acid Fist.’
Ironically, according to records, his murders stopped exactly from that point.
It wasn't that he didn't commit murder.
He had perfectly erased the evidence of murder.
He melted the bodies themselves with his ability and flushed them down the sewer.
Because of that, the investigation itself didn't even start.
So, it was impossible to estimate exactly how many people Jensen had killed.
Since the strongest evidence, the body, had disappeared forever.
However, he gets caught due to a single mistake.
Of all people, he messed with the son of a local tycoon.
Then, the police, who didn't budge even when dozens of people went missing in that area, began to move.
The result of total administrative power being mobilized like that.
Jensen was caught ridiculously easily.
It was because the confidence that he could perfectly eliminate the corpse became poison, leaving absurd traces here and there.
Five years after being imprisoned in Mugan like that.
The guy broke out of prison, and after joining forces with Mayor Cha Hak-jun, he has been leading his life.
The one standing in front of Riman was such a guy.
Jensen said.
“Hmm, right, knowing me means you’ve memorized the wanted list, and remembering it specifically implies the possibility of being a Headhunter... Ah, so that’s why you killed Francis.”
Jensen, deducing quite far with a single word.
And it was quite accurate.
“That means you also have a reason to kill me, right?”
“You know well.”
At the same time as he spat out the words, Riman instantly built up an image in his head.
[Ice Bullet], 16 consecutive shots.
THUD THUD THUD THUD!!
Sixteen ice bullets are fired from Riman's fingertips.
Furthermore, this place was currently in a state where the temperature had dropped sharply thanks to Saya.
Therefore, the power of the freezing-type magic had significantly increased.
Ice bullets, each harboring explosive power greater than a grenade.
Jensen muttered while looking at the crystals of chill flying toward him.
“...Sixteen shots.”
He had instantly read the trajectories of the sixteen projectiles flying like arrows.
SKID!
Jensen did not dodge the flying Ice Bullets but rather dug in.
At the same time, he swung both hands with all his might.
His hands drew sharp bending straight lines and shot down all the Ice Bullets fired by Riman.
CRACKLE!
This was Jensen's true terror.
Ruthless dynamic visual acuity, and martial arts ability capable of fully utilizing it.
The fusion ability was merely something supplementary that supported that ability.
Like that, the distance between Riman and Jensen narrowed rapidly.
Riman placed his palm on the floor, precisely on the Queen Earth-Burrowing Worm's back.
And flowed mana into it.
‘Mason, peak, reverse order of convection.’
A new freezing magic that he had never used before revealed itself.
[Ice Spike]
Magic that makes giant ice spikes soar up at a specific point on the ground.
Pitch-black and sharp things rose from under Jensen's feet.
CRUNCH!
A dozen ice spikes soaring from beneath the feet.
A size almost comparable to a pillar, a rising speed faster than an arrow.
An attack at the level where a penetrating wound is guaranteed if hit.
But Jensen was faster than that.
SHATTER!
After accurately identifying the origin point of the ice spikes, he melted the soaring spikes with his fusion ability.
The ice became steam and scattered, and the spikes that succeeded in rising only ended up leaving mere scratches.
Jensen was fine.
CRUMBLE!
Jensen melted away all the other spikes blocking his front.
“This bastard...!”
And he sprinted toward Riman again immediately.
However, Riman flowed mana again without moving an inch from his spot.
[Ice Spike], Chain Strike.
CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!!
A dozen spikes just a moment ago.
But this time, spikes several times that number covered the ground.
A scene like a forest of ice being created in an instant.
Of course, even if tens or hundreds of ice spikes rose, Jensen could survive.
Because he just had to eliminate the spikes rising toward him.
Riman knew that too.
Therefore, the purpose of this attack was not offense.
It was a smokescreen.
Riman immediately entered the next magic.
[Ice White Double Palm]
WHOOOOSH...
The higher compatible version of [Ice White Palm].
Magic that creates two giant hands of ice in the air.
Riman brought both hands together with all his might and clapped.
CLAP!
Responding to this, a pair of giant black ice hands also approached quickly as if clapping.
And at that point where the collision would take place, Jensen was there.
“What...!”
Jensen felt the flow of cold air rushing toward him.
But because of the ice spikes covering all directions of his vision, he couldn't pinpoint the direction.
It was the end.
If he got caught between the [Ice White Double Palm] like this, he would become an ice statue alive.
Yes.
It couldn't be helped.
‘Damn it...!’
SIZZLE...!
Jensen quickly concentrated mana in both hands.
And just like Riman did, he also brought both hands together and clashed them with all his might.
CLAP!!
Applause.
Riding that shockwave, a wavelength burst out.
A wavelength of fusion and corrosion.
WHOOOOSH...!
The ice spikes around Jensen turned into powder in an instant.
Dozens of spikes that formed a group like a forest disappeared as if erased by an eraser.
That was not the end.
The two giant hands of ice rushing toward him.
Even those shattered into pieces and scattered into the air.
Acid Break.
The highest-level technique possessed by Jensen.
An annihilation technique that bursts the energy of fusion at once to melt and destroy everything around.
After shattering all of Riman's magic at once like that.
Jensen shouted as if filled with malice.
“Techniques that are just big in size... After all, in front of me...!”
STAB.
At that moment.
Something long, pitch-black, and squirming pierced through Jensen's abdomen.