Episode 145. Return (2)
“There can’t be anything wrong with it. Aren’t you mistaken? Or maybe you’re exaggerating your pain.”
“It’s not like that. This side keeps hurting. Didn’t you say you weren’t abusing me? You said you were just going to teach me proper manners. Do you think it’s okay to do this?”
“…Well, I guess not. Okay, I’ll take a look at it.”
The man stood up and approached me.
The structure of the restraint binding my hands was simple. It was similar to modern handcuffs. Its function was to bind one’s wrists and block some of the power used by Transcendents.
So, with these on, you couldn’t use your power and both of your hands.
‘How sloppy.’
It seemed very clumsy to me. Transcendents had been through all sorts of hardships. But to restrict them with such a simple restraint? These guys weren’t experienced. It was as if they were mountain gods from a martial arts novel. It seemed like they had stayed in a remote place, hadn’t gone through any difficulties, and transcended by training themselves spiritually.
“Okay… Let’s take a look─aargh!”
The man who neared me let out a groan mid-sentence. It was because the moment he reached the exact distance, I lifted my knee and hit him in the chest. The blow landed squarely, and he halted for a moment.
After transcending, I experimented a lot with my body. The body of a Transcendent was not much different. I wasn’t able to experiment with death, but I figured out most other things.
For example, effectively targeting their physical vulnerabilities could cause them to lose consciousness and become immobile.
“Ugh… Ughhh!”
The man I hit in the chest breathed heavily. It looked like he didn’t understand the situation. I moved at once, not giving him time to think.
I grabbed the back of his neck with my hand I freed by twisting my wrist. And I moved my knee to hit him in the chest again. Along with the sound of bone breaking, I could hear a small groan.
There was still a restraint on my other wrist, so I couldn’t use my powers. But I didn’t need my two powers anyway. At this distance, anyone who could engage in physical combat had the absolute advantage.
“Sloppy. Too sloppy.”
Clunk, clunk.
I twisted my other wrist as well, pulled off the restraint, and fitted it on the man’s hand. Now his powers were blocked. At the same time, I kicked his ankle.
His body was ridiculously soft. It seemed like only a few Transcendents were obsessed with combat to construct their bodies with Orichalcum or monster muscles. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be this clumsy and stupid. And their bodies wouldn’t be so sluggish.
“Ugh… Aargh.”
The man fell to the floor with both of his hands in restraints. I strangled him until he fainted. Sticky saliva dripped from his mouth—he was completely unconscious.
After checking on him, I opened the piece of cloth covering the vehicle that was transporting me. It was similar to a wagon, but there wasn’t anything like a horse pulling it. A self-moving vehicle. It was very groundbreaking.
“Quit making noise in there. Wait, how did you get out of the restraints…?”
The man waiting outside the tent spoke carelessly and flinched when he saw me. But I didn’t give him a chance to react. My hand flew up and stabbed him in the neck.
The blow landed exactly on the vital spot, and his eyes flipped backward. Judging by the subtle glow on his hands, it looked like he had attempted to use his powers.
‘Slow.’
His reaction was so slow that I could yawn. Were these really the great and mighty Transcendents? Even Hunter Academy cadets weren’t this stupid.
It was like they had never fought properly in their lives. They were idiots flaunting their powers—a bunch of kids with guns.
“Wh-what─!”
Shouted the guy waiting next to the man who fainted as soon as he ran into me. He was better than the others, at least, because he managed to use his powers. But unfortunately, I was free from the restraints, so I could use my powers, as well. And my casting was much faster.
Swoosh!
A burst of flames swept over him. As soon as he saw the flames, he panicked and fell off, rolling on the ground boorishly.
Three guys. In that short period, I incapacitated the three of them without suffering a single scratch. It was disappointing. I didn’t want to waste any more time in a place like this. Even at this very moment, I had no clue whether my teammates were dead or alive.
“What are you doing─!”
A thunderous roar broke out. It was the guy sitting at the very front of the wagon-like vehicle. It was the one that looked like a fiery flame.
Once he noticed that his minions had been swiftly incapacitated, he was burning with anger.
“How dare you!”
Boooom!
Flames shot forward like cannonballs. I spotted each one and dodged them. It was similar to boxing. His body flickered, and flames flew toward me. But it was easy to predict their trajectory. All I had to do was observe his movements in detail.
‘I just need to look out for that thing.’
The power that suddenly snatched me up in the air and kept me from moving. If it wasn’t for that, I thought I could probably deal with him.
An enemy made of fire? Too bad. I had met tons of worse enemies over my few years as a hunter and dozens of years as an Analyst. And as long as I stayed alert, there was no reason I couldn’t kill something like that.
“You… you rude bastard!”
I jumped out of the wagon to avoid the fire he was shooting at me. It was going unbelievably fast. It was just like jumping barefoot from a car driving at 100 kilometers per hour.
But I trusted my body. It was the strongest body I imagined, made of Orichalcum and monster muscles. There was no way it couldn’t endure an impact like this.
Tap, thud.
My hand touched the ground first. Then, my fingers dug into the ground like a rake and slowed me down. Unable to overcome the speed, my body rotated once, and my shoulder and elbow received the blow instead. But I couldn’t feel any pain.
I was now certain that my body was so strong that I could no longer say that it belonged to a human being.
“Not a single wound… How the hell did you make that body?”
The flame that had been standing on the wagon was now in the air, looking down on me.
“Well, how did you make that fire body? That looks more interesting than mine.”
“Watch the way you address me. How rude.…!”
“You’re mad at everything. Is it because your head is full of flames?”
“You… you!”
He was easily agitated. It seemed like his power to tie me in the air had limitations, or maybe he was going to punish me in some other way, but I didn’t suddenly end up in the air.
Well, either way, it was good for me. Unless he had some unknown power, I was confident that I could break down and destroy anything that was within the information I had.
‘The first thing to check is whether that is actual fire.’
Some monsters were like that. They had abilities that ignored the laws of physics. Some were made of water but didn’t conduct electricity. Some were made of fire but burned stronger when hit with water. They really sucked.
Could he be something like that?
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