The Pursuit Of Power - Volume 1 Chapter 31 Shadow Soldiers
Snapping his head towards a certain direction, Yuuki disappeared from his original spot and dashed for the presences. One which felt oddly like Sung Jin-Woo’s and the other which seemed to be a multitude of Beasts combined with two A-Rank auras.
Appearing by the side of where the aurae were detected, in his sight he saw a pack of bears with some icy markings on their chests beneath their heads. Behind the pack of bears, were snow leopards with exaggerated jaws and explosive power that launched them forwards at blistering speeds.
Behind the two packs, was one gigantic Icy Bear and one lengthy and quite tall snow leopard which he assumed were the leaders. Seeing the two creatures, Yuuki felt his fingers start to shake as the desire to tame them immediately became the only thing on his mind. As he learned that he could only have 20 Tamed Beasts at once, bosses would be the only Beasts he tamed. In this case, he would tame only the Snow Leopard leader and the Ice Bear leaders which would increase his tame count to 4 from 2.
Seeing Sung Jin-Woo, Yuuki saw his eyes glow with Mana as he felt something similar to Darkness Mana within Jin-Woo as his shadow widened and largened before soldiers crawled out. Their abyssal-black bodies and glowing blue eyes inspired fear within the pack before their leaders made loud noises which almost deafened him and encouraged the beasts to launch themselves at the soldiers.
Yuuki looked at Jin-Woo again as that power did not seem like the power belonging to a Human. Speaking with him allowed Yuuki to understand that Jin-Woo had no bad intentions and this allowed him to calm down.
Following the description of [ Beast Taming ], Yuuki had to show his power to them or they would not submit. So long as he fulfilled the conditions, his taming attempts would never fail.
Thus decreasing his skill and adorning gloves of darkness, Yuuki released the aura of a brawler obtained from fighting in the Coliseum and his fists did not destroy the Beasts. To develop an impression of his Power, Yuuki decided to pretend that the Beasts were like toys. Somehow, they understood his attitude towards them which angered them yet they did not rush forward like before.
Slaying all of the Bear Beasts, Yuuki was going to voice his complaints against killing their leader before its head was sliced into two by a fearsome Shadow Soldier. Seeing an aura belonging to a high A-Ranker emanating from the Knight, Yuuki praised the sword skills belonging to it.
Sighing, Yuuki turned to the Snow Leopard leader and kicked it, knocking it to the ground before he pressured it with his aura.
Locking his gaze onto the Beast’s eyes, Yuuki’s pupils turned into slits momentarily before returning to normal.
Shortly after, the Snow Leopard began to shrink until it turned into an icy-white cat and ran to Yuuki who stroked its head gently.
“I name you…
Snowflake!
No, that’s not good enough…
Snuffles?”
In his head, Yuuki spoke his thoughts and kept changing his mind on what he wanted to name the Snow Leopard.
“AHA! LEO! You are now Leo from this moment on!”
[ Leo (A) ]
Looking at Yuuki strangely, Leo shook his head and purred lightly before turning into a flash and entering the Beast Dimension.
Turning around, Yuuki saw Jin-Woo looking at him with hints of amazement within his eyes.
“It’s just a unique skill.”
Behind him, Hee-Jin and the others also saw Yuuki’s actions, and their jaws dropped for the fifth time since meeting him with his head buried into Hee-Jin’s cleavage. These thoughts were also in Yuuki’s mind and he instinctively looked at her chest before looking back towards the dead Ice Bear Leader.
“Arise.” Darkness Mana suddenly fluctuated around and the body of the bear remained where it was whilst the Beast became a Shadow and so did some of the other dead bears. Rising, Yuuki understood that from what he felt, Sung Jin-Woo was a necromancer of sorts.
Blue lights glowed in Jin-Woo’s eyes as he turned to look at Yuuki not showing any signs of amazement but rather curiosity followed by understanding as Yuuki mouthed ‘Necromancer?’ making a ‘nice’ gesture with his hand, Yuuki nodded in respect towards Jin-Woo’s unique skill before another presence appeared.
[ Perception ] showed an aura matching that of an almost-S-Rank and he saw through the snow to see Ice Hyakki/Elves appear with a leader on a horse approach them.
—
Outside of the Red Gate, Baek Yoon-Ho grew claws on his hand, his white hair fluttering in the air without any wind blowing as his aura was enough to create a pressure that could suffocate others. Opposite him, Hwang Dong-Su smirked wildly as his red eyes glowed and he emitted an aura.
“You wanna go?!”
“Yeah!”
With the exchange of four words, they decisively launched forwards and struck out. The shockwave of their attack stunned the others nearby and as the dust settled, Baek Yoon-Ho and Hwang Dong-Su did not strike each other.
“Not too shabby, to be able to block us.” Hwang Dong-Su spoke to the man with orange slicked-back hair.
“If both of you hadn’t reduced your strength in time, my arms would be broken.” Woo Jin-Chul spoke with a matter-of-fact tone as his hands and arms shook fervently. The sleeves of his suit had been destroyed along with the sleeves of his white shirt which he wore underneath. Clutching his arm to stop it from shaking, he addressed Hwang Dong-Su.
“I originally also suspected Hunter Sung Jin-Woo of being reawakened but after personally going and testing him, he was the same E-Ranker he always was. Unfortunately, your brother died but I am sure that Sung Jin-Woo cannot wipe out an attack force. I’m sure you know this too, thus there is no reason to obsess over him.”
“I know. If they prepared a trap the culprit must’ve been from Yoo Jin Architectures.”
“Yeah, exactly. Just leave Sung Jin-Woo alone.”
“It’s just an excuse.” Throwing his shades away, Hwang Dong-Su lowered his face so that the light could not reach it which made his bright red eyes glow in contrast.
“To kill another Human Being.”
—
Inside of the Gate, a hysterical Kim-Chul wandered through the forest and came across the corpses of the bears.
‘W-who did this? I know that those bastards can’t have done this as they are too weak. It was the Ice Hyakki wasn’t it? Yeah, it was! If I had a full stomach I could’ve killed them. The cold doesn’t matter. Only food…’ Engaging with himself in an internal monologue, Kim-Chul staggered into the camp where Hee-Jin, Han Song-I, and the other two Hunters sat around the fire.
“Who gave you this food?!” ‘THEY SHOULD BE DEAD! WHO WAS IT?! IT WAS SOMEONE HERE!’
“I will count down from 3, and you better tell me before I finish!” ‘THEY KEPT FOOD HERE AND LET US STARVE ON PURPOSE, WHO WAS IT?’
“3.” ‘WHO?’
“2.” ‘I THINK I KNOW WHO IT WAS!’
“1.” ‘IT WAS THE BITCH THAT SWAPPED WASN’T IT!’
“Damn coward!” Grabbing the sword by his side, Kim-Chul launched himself towards Hee-Jin but never managed to stab her as he was kicked away by Yuuki who wore a disinterested face.
*Thud*
“Sorry about that, I only just noticed him.” Putting his hand on Hee-Jin’s shoulder, Yuuki calmed her down before following where Kim-Chul had gotten kicked which was also where Sung Jin-Woo was stood.
—
“You two aren’t Human…”
“What do you mean?” Yuuki had been told this by Hina before but now it was a Beast that could speak who was telling him.
“Well, when I see Humans I hear a voice in my head telling me to kill them. That doesn’t happen around you two. Hand over the other Humans and we will let you live.”
Turning to look Sung Jin-Woo who also identified the Leader of the Ice Hyakki as the boss, they sprung forth with speed and Jin-Woo felt two shields form barely above the surface of his skin. Yuuki was able to disable the Ice Hyakki boss whilst Sung Jin-Woo’s Shadow Soldiers dealt with his underlings.
Apart from his speed and dagger skill, Yuuki’s power did not exceed the Leader and wanted to use this battle as an opportunity to sharpen his skills thus he did not instantly end the battle with a blitz of stabs and insta-kill the boss.
Forming daggers of ice, Yuuki sliced towards its hand which held a dagger and when its arms were in a perfect position, Yuuki snapped his fingers and cuffs of darkness held the Hyakki Leader’s arms together.
“You kinky bitch!” Swearing foul words, the Ice Hyakki made Sung Jin-Woo show an amused smirk on his face as he did not expect a guy that used a dagger to use such a kinky magic spell!
After assaulting the Hyakki on both sides and easily overwhelming it as it had its hands blocked, it broke the cuffs in a rage and moved the dagger in its hand with fluid movements as it attempted to decapitate Sung Jin-Woo who dodged it easily as Yuuki cast [ Shadow Strike ] and sliced towards the Hyakki from the side.
No matter how the Hyakki moved, so long as it had a shadow, Yuuki’s spell would strike without a doubt. It was an unblockable spell unless the opposition used a Magic Shield, but he was sure that the Darkness Mana would absorb the shield and strike through it anyway. Along with Yuuki’s two attacks, Jin-Woo threw his dagger and it suddenly accelerated towards the Hyakki Leader.
A fight which originally was meant to be difficult for Sung Jin-Woo and his shadows to defeat ended up becoming a kinky defeat for the Ice Hyakki Leader.
“What was that spell?”
“I-I was meant to use Dark Shackles, not Dark Cuffs! I am not into that kinda thing!” Hurriedly explaining himself, Yuuki made himself look guiltier in Jin-Woo’s eyes before he and Yuuki leveled up simultaneously.
—
After checking Kim-Chul’s body, it seemed he died from Hypothermia which led to Sung Jin-Woo carrying his body out.
“No way… only you 6 came out? Ehm, who’s this guy?”