Evolution Theory of the Hunter

“Didn’t you just decide to use both canes because you felt it was a waste to only use one?”

“Hey!”

“Next time if we get another cane, you can hold the third one in your mouth.”

“Isn’t that a scene from a really old cartoon?”

Manager Kim and Sooah stepped back while I ran behind the stumbling monster.

No matter how fast I was, it was difficult to get behind it unawaresbut it was possible now.

The monster’s movements became further slower.

From behind the monster, I slid right under him to get at his underbelly.

“Kkeung!”

From under him, I began to put all my strength into pushing his body over.

As a bug type, it was light compared to its size, and I was able to lift him off with my current strength.

It began to claw at the ground in desperately futilely trying to keep from rolling over.

“Nuh uh uh.”

I pierced its vulnerable belly with my sword.

Stab!

Shiver!

I could feel the huge body of the monster start to shake.

It began to claw at the ground even harder to now try and shake me off.

“Heub!”

Stab!

I pushed my Honcheon sword all the way in this time so that only the hilt of the sword was visible and refused to be shaken off.

I dug my feet into the ground while holding onto the hilt.

I was in the perfect position to use my strength.

Both hands on grasping the hilt, I pushed with my shoulder as I tried to lift my upper body off the ground.

One of the Splendense’s leg lifted up off the ground.

“Oh oh!”

“He lifted it!”

“Is he trying to flip it over?”

Even before I learned the effort skill, I was able to squat 250 and dead press 300.

That was something even a pro bodybuilder would have had a hard time doing.

You might question if a lowly porter could achieve something like thisbut unlike athletes, porters could take all the supplements or drugs they want. And most porters do take drugs out of necessity. And I did the same.

Being already that strong, combining my initial strength with the 300 percent buffI could probably lift 1 ton at this point.

Kikik!

The Splendense’s body was almost at a right angle to the ground now.

“Oh oh?”

“It’s working!”

“Are you serious? How the hell is he doing that?”

I could hear the surprise mixed with excitement in everyone’s screaming voices.

But people who have flipped bugs for fun know.

That something like this isn’t easy.

Plllllllll!

The monster’s shell began to open up to reveal a wing.

Scrape scrape scrape scrape!

And its legs kept on scraping furiously on the ground.

My feet lost their balance and grip for a moment.

I couldn’t keep this up.

Pluck!

As soon as I plucked the sword from its underbelly, a yellowish liquid began to ooze out.

I guess I’ll try stabbing you with the bloodysword instead.

Slam!

I slipped out from beneath after jamming my bloodysword, and his body slammed forcefully to the ground.

Kiiii!

The monster was definitely a lot slower than before. I don’t know if it’s because of his wound or the bloodysword at workbut it was noticable.

Shwing shwing!

The arrows kept flying in the air, aiming for the monster’s eyes, while Cho Youngoo and Jong Sawon did all they could to draw its attention.

Attacked from all sides and unable to do anything, the monster swung its legs this way and that while spinning around.

It looked like nothing, but those legs were dangerous.

Cho Youngoo and Jong Sawon backed up.

Tap.

Seeing an opening, I jumped up onto the monsters’ back.

Its shell was a hard exoskeleton of chitin.

Perfect target for my Honcheon sword.

Slam!

Slam!

One after another, I struck at the shell with the sword while I hopped here and there causing a small explosion with each hit. One of its legs lifted up to try and swipe at me.

Kakak!

I just hopped away from each attackwhich landed on the monster itself. If it was human, I’m sure it would have pulled out its hair in frustration since I was evading every single one of its attacks. Poor thing.

Slam!

I slammed down my sword one more time. But the monster’s hard shell did not look like it would crack any time soon. Stupid bastards and their hard shells.

But I’m sure that even though it wasn’t doing any damage on the outside, the explosions were causing internal damage inside.

And it would have a difficult time recovering because of the bloody sword still stuck in its underbelly. Good.

And just when I thought all I needed to do was drag the fight out while I let the bloody sword do its work..

Crack.

“Uh uh?”

The monster’s hard shell cracked open and revealed its wings.

Nahsurely it wasn’t going to fly into the air?

I’ve never seen something like this happen with my own eyes…!

I quickly got off its back.

Whoosh!

And almost at the exact time, the bastard flew into the air.

I let out a sigh as I watched the giant beast hovering about 10 meters in the air.

Isn’t it too much for a monster of that size to be able to fly in the air like that?

Oh well.

Thanks to that, it became much easier to fight it.

Shwing! Shwing!

Arrows flew out and hit its wings. Unfortunately, even though they looked thinthey were actually thin for its sizebut thick enough where the arrows didn’t pierce right through.

But they did make it harder for the monster to fly.

And the attacks didn’t stop there.

Being in the air meant that its weakest part was fully exposed its underbelly.

Thank you, sir, for volunteering your stomach up for attacks.

Shwing!

Kiekkk!

This time, an arrow flew at its stomach from the side and lodged itself right in. It was Park Hanbum, shooting at the it while riding around on his bike.

Not bad, Park Hanbum. His shots were powerful enough that they were making the Splendense flinch with each hit.

Shwing!

Shwing!

And now two arrows shot out at the same time from the same place. But the more powerful shots were being fired from our new archer’s side since he had the Level 3 bow.

I put up my thumb at him and hurriedly went to where Han Joonseok and Bae Yeonkyoung stood.

I decided to trust in Park Hanbum’s bike skills and help those two instead.

Shwing!

And just then, an arrow perfectly hit the monster square in one of its buggy eyes.

It was Han Joonseok’s stalker.

“Nice!”

Cho Youngoo made a fist pump in the air with a big old smile on his face.

Kya!

The hovering monster turned to Han Joonseok and moved to attack.

The damage was big but that meant the monster had new motivation to get back at the one who got its eye.

I mean, if it were me, I would probably try to kill the one who poked out my eye first too.

Han Joonseok and Bae Yeonkyoung were in danger.

They couldn’t protect themselves against a level 4 monster.

Even our best defense, Cho Youngoo with his level 3 shield, wouldn’t last very long against a diving attack from a Splendense.

A back up plan?

I didn’t have anything of the sort.

But I did have super strengthand the Honcheon sword to deliver my strength properly.

I decided that right when it got as close as possible without hitting us, I would hit it explosively with the Honcheon sword to change its course.

AhI know I came up with itbut it sounds like a stupid plan. No matter.

Kyaaa!

“Cho Youngoo! Jong Sawon! Stand by and attack when it gets close to the ground!”

“You don’t need us to help with defense?”

Cho Youngoo shouted out.

“I’ll block it! Sooah!”

“OK!”

She gave her hand a quick whisk and I felt my body get lighter as the 1 person buff activated. WIth this, my strength went up to 450 percent. I could probably lift 2 tons right about now.

Maybe even flip over a truck.

“It’s coming!”

I yelled out loud as I held the Honcheon sword with both hands. In order to stay flying in the air, the Splendense had to have a relatively light body but it was still probably about a ton.

Would I be able to withstand the impact, no, hit back with enough power to change the course of monster pile driving into me from 10 feet in the air?

I jumped toward the Splendense that was diving towards me. I could see its long horn. And we were face to face in mere moments.

“Go to hell!”

I put all my strength into striking its horn.

Slam!

You’ve heard this.

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Due to this, being the lighter of the two, I was pushed back almost 10 meters while it was only pushed back 1 meter.

I was the one who made the strike, but it felt more as if it had struck me.

The good news was that I had messed up its trajectory enough to have it crash to the ground and it was 3 meters away from my party members. I looked at it. Its horn was hanging at a weird angle and one of its wings was folded up awkwardly.

Cho Youngoo and Jong Sawon hurriedly ran towards the fallen monster.

The Splendense looked as if it didn’t know what hit it.

At first glance, it almost looked so still that it seemed dead or unconscious. But if you looked carefully, you could see that it was slowly fidgeting as if trying to get a hold of itself.

But those two knew they couldn’t pass up such an opportunity as this.

Cho Youngoo advanced from the side.

Covering most of his body with his shield, he stabbed out at the other eye with his sword.

Kyaaak!

The monster let out a shriek as it shook its head and tried to get up on its front legs. But Jong Sawon came out from behind Cho Youngoo swinging widely with his Rubicon sword.

Shwing!

The clashing sound of iron against iron rang out as the Splendense’s front leg came away with scratches from the strike. It wasn’t something very noticeable, but the important part was that the sword had cut him however little.

That meant it was susceptible to damage even on its hard exoskeleton.

Jong Sawon’s blade shined in the light, but the Splendense ignored it and stomped down on the ground with its legs.

I don’t know if it was having a hard time moving properly because of the sleep spell, the attack, or both, but none of its attacks were landing anywhere close to the two men.

“Heyyou think they’ll kill it?”

“Shouldn’t we try to go in and do something now?”

“Well….”

“But it was our monster from the start. It’s a waste to just let them kill it.”

“Hey, we still have our pride.”

“You know that item drop probability is super high around here though right? What if a skillbook or something else really crazy drops? If it’s a level 4 item, the starting price is 1 million.”

Most of them were level 2s with some who had level 3 equipment here and there. But just because they had level 3 weapons like I did didn’t mean they could do what I was doing.

It seemed like they gathered a bunch of level 2 and level 3 hunters to bring down a level 4 monsterbut they bit off more than they could chew.

To try and bring down a monster who was one level higher than you were was, quite frankly, suicideno matter how many of you there were.

The moment they discovered this big guy, they should have run away without looking back.

But, unable to hold back their greed, they had tried to fight which had ended with half of their party collapsed on the floor like rag dolls. And there were a good number of them who died as well.

Hearing that they were trying to get in at the end so that they could take possession of the drop items when they didn’t do any of the workit seems they didn’t learn their lesson.

As I saw them starting to sidle in little by little, I dashed for the Splendense and raised my Honcheon sword in the air.

Having suffered through Jong Sawon’s attacks this whole time, I could see that its leg was now half severed.

Jong Sawon had set the table for me. I just had to eat my meal.

I gripped the hilt of my sword with both hands and cut through the air as if I were pouring every ounce of power into that strike.

SLAM!

My blade hit the monster’s front leg and exploded.

Though its thick leg would usually be able to withstand my sword’s attacks, in its half attached state, the black appendage flew off with the explosion.

The Rubicon Sword had severed it, and the Honcheon Sword broke it off.

I like that.

And from Jong Sawon’s look, I could see he approved as well.

Kiiiing!

Slam!

Kyaaa!

We used the same method to take care of the other front leg.

Now the Splendense was without its main weapon. All it could do was try and bite us with its relatively small mouth or sit on us to try and smoosh us to death.

And you can’t forget that my bloodysword was still at work, sucking away at its life source. Because it was so huge, we haven’t seen the effects of this yetbut it was only a matter of time.

This was the end.

All that was left was to kill it.

“Attack!”

As if they were waiting for just this moment, the standing members of Team Ezekiel yelled out and ran towards the fallen monster.

It looked like they were going to aim for the weaker looking hind legs.

But I wasn’t about to let them make a useless attack so that they could claim contribution.

Slam!

“Eut?”

“What!”

I slammed my sword into the ground in front of the running hunters. As it made a small explosion on impact, the men cursed out a few words as they stepped back.

I looked at them with a smiling face and said.

“It is dangerous so please stand back.”

“That’s….we, we will help you.”

A short but sturdy looking man responded.

I’m sure they were thinking I was higher than a level 4 hunter at this point.

“I do not want there to be any more casualties than there already are. There is a chance the monster will attack ever the more violently out of desperation, so it is advised to stay where you are.”

Then I added.

“And if there is someone who insists of attacking this monster still, I will assume that your aim is to disrupt my fight.”

Gulp.

I heard someone swallowing loudly in the small group.

I basically said in a roundabout way that that would signify an attack against me.

[+400]

It was only after 10 minutes or so that I was finally able to kill it.

Since it was so big, it didn’t die even after cutting off the head, scooping out its eyes, or splitting open its belly. It was a lot of work to finally get it to give up.

It was only after I had pretty much butchered it up that I finally got my reward points.

After recovering my bloodysword, my party members and I stood posted around the monster as we waiting for it to evaporate.

All the members of Team Ezekiel moved off to one side and started to tend to the wounded. Luckily, it seemed they had a healer, as no more of them died.

“Everyone keep on alert and stand by. We do not know how they will decide to act at any point. They might decide to do a surprise attack.”

“Do you think they’ll go that far…?”

Bae Yeonkyoung asked.

“I’m hoping they won’t. But there’s nothing wrong with being careful…”

And one person from the Ezekiel team started walking toward us. He looked like he may be the leader.

“I am Team Ezekiel’s Kim Jaemin. Thank you for helping us with the hunt.”

I could already hear his intention from those few words.

Helping with the hunt, you say? I can’t just let that slide.

“We were late on the scene because we were scoping out the situation. If we had been a bit quicker on the scene, we might have been able to save more people. I feel that that is all too unfortunate.”

I said this as I looked pointedly at the 5 dead bodies.