Clang, clash—!
New York was a scene of utter chaos.
Amidst the battlefield, a cacophony of cheers and screams, Kim Min-ju relentlessly swung her sword.
[Unique Skill: Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara – Awakening]
[Six Avalokiteśvaras – 5-Hit Combo]
[1st Strike – Holy Avalokiteśvara]
[6th Strike – Cintamani Chakra Avalokiteśvara]
[4th Strike – Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara]
[5th Strike – Amoghapasha Avalokiteśvara]
[2nd Strike – Unfailing Lasso Avalokiteśvara]
Swish—.
Swish, swish, swish, swish—!
“Ugh!”
“Guh!”
Her movements were flawless, without a single tremor.
Her perfectly executed actions sliced through enemies without leaving the slightest opening.
Swordmasters, the most numerous class among ability users.
The pinnacle of all swordmaster classes, and WDSO’s greatest asset.
Sword Emperor, Kim Min-ju.
Ranked 1st in Korea.
Ranked 19th in the world.
Ranked 1st among swordmaster classes worldwide.
It had only been three years since she rose from an ordinary B-rank hunter to the top.
That alone was already beyond comprehension, but…
“Ga, gather! Don’t scatter!”
“Just try to hold her down!”
“Shit! Does that look possible?! She’s a complete monster!!”
“I, insane…”
“Wasn’t Kim Jun-woo the only one at WDSO… ?”
Her swordsmanship was something beyond human comprehension.
It wasn’t just the International Association who were shocked by her.
“Director… when did she change so much?”
“How would I know…”
“And they say she got the director position because of Kim Team Leader’s connections?”
“I’d make her the director no matter what.”
The same went for the headquarters alliance under Kim Min-ju’s command.
Including the elite Team 1, all hunters belonging to the headquarters felt the same.
‘Hoo…’
Of course, Kim Min-ju had no time to be aware of the gazes around her.
She simply let out a short sigh.
[Unique Skill: Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara – Awakening]
She resumed her attacks.
[Unique Skill: Phantom Quarter]
Swish, swish—.
Suddenly, a thick fog rolled in, obscuring the view.
[Unique Skill: Tomb Rain]
“…!”
Pitter-patter-patter—!
Hundreds of tombstones began to rain down from the sky.
[Acquired Skill: Shukuchi (縮地) – Ground Shrink] [A movement technique that allows the user to move short distances almost instantaneously.]
Flash—!
Kim Min-ju immediately moved to avoid the tombstones.
‘My vision…!’
The fog blanketing the battlefield made it difficult to properly track the falling tombstones.
Nevertheless, she mobilized all her senses but failed to notice one tombstone falling directly above her.
“…!”
It was too late to dodge or block.
The tombstone was right before her eyes when.
[Unique Skill: High Panic Berserker]
Bang—!!!
Han Yu-bin suddenly appeared and blasted away all the tombstones in front with a punch.
“What is it? Were you spacing out?”
Kim Min-ju shook her head in response.
“I’m not as violent as you, Yu-bin.”
“…Is that a compliment?”
“To some extent.”
Kim Min-ju grinned.
She immediately turned her gaze towards the International Association and frowned as if noticing something strange.
“Why… does it feel like there are more of them?”
She asked Han Yu-bin, who also nodded.
“It seems another faction has joined them. They must have realized it’s disadvantageous for them to fight divided.”
“…Then we have no choice.”
“If they all rush at us at once, all the better for us.”
They exchanged jokes leisurely for a moment.
The two headquarters directors immediately focused on the enemies before them, as if nothing had happened.
The International Association’s hunters lined up before them.
“…”
“…”
Their faces, staring at Kim Min-ju and Han Yu-bin without a word, were filled with a tension unlike any other.
It was as if they were only now vaguely realizing who they were about to face.
They stared at each other in silence for a while.
“Attack!!”
Someone’s command rang out.
[Unique Skill: Rune Field]
[Unique Skill: Sword Goblin]
[Unique Skill: MechaGTX-10]
They simultaneously began to unleash skills on the WDSO forces.
At the same time.
[Unique Skill: Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara – Awakening]
[Six Avalokiteśvaras]
[Unique Skill: High Panic Berserker – Awakening]
[Suicidal Behavior]
The two warriors also began to move.
Bang—!!
Clang, clang, clang—!
Boom, kaboom—!
Swish, swish—!!
The sounds of swords and magic, all sorts of attacks intersecting, began to fill the battlefield.
[Six Avalokiteśvaras – 5-Hit Combo]
[3rd Strike – Hayagriva]
[4th Strike – Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara]
[3rd Strike – Hayagriva]
[6th Strike – Cintamani Chakra Avalokiteśvara]
[1st Strike – Holy Avalokiteśvara]
Swish, swish, swish—!
Flawless movements that the eye could not even follow, and precise, perfect attacks.
A truly beautiful display.
And.
[Three Faces, Six Arms (三面六譬)] [A Buddhist concept representing a deity with multiple faces and arms, symbolizing power and versatility.]
[Yaksa (夜叉)] [A type of fierce, often malevolent, nature spirit in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.]
Crack—!!
Thud, bam—!
Crunch, crunch—!!
Unpredictable, violent movements and reckless, extreme attacks.
A form somewhere between a monster and a beast.
Their styles were completely opposite, but the two shared one thing in common.
“Sh, shit…!”
“What are you doing! They’re advancing this way!!”
“Don’t let them break through!”
“We can’t land a hit!”
“Damn it, what the hell are they?!”
Superhuman combat senses that defied comparison.
Experience where the body reacted before the mind.
“Hoo…”
“Hap!!”
Swish—!!
Crack—!!
The two were in perfect sync, even without a word.
“Kuaaaagh!!”
“Ugh, guhk…!”
“Keuh…!!”
The screams of the International Association’s forces echoed endlessly across the battlefield.
The tide of the battle had already turned.
No matter how skilled the gathered hunters were, Kim Min-ju and Han Yu-bin could handle them all.
From the start, a frontal assault had no chance of success against them.
Humans can combine their strength to defeat monsters, but.
Defeating a monster with complete experience, senses, skill, and reason was impossible from the start.
The International Association, which had swallowed up associations around the world.
And the WDSO, left alone, jumping into a war where they could gain nothing.
It was thought to be an impossible fight, but hope began to flicker in the hearts of the WDSO forces.
Of course.
[Unique Skill: Genesis]
[Creating an 11-Dimensional Unique Space.]
Weeeeee—!
“…!”
“Ah, crap…”
Secretary-General Wesley.
Until he stepped in.
The black space suddenly swallowed the battlefield where Kim Min-ju and Han Yu-bin were rampaging.
The two barely managed to escape, but the forces that couldn’t were helplessly devoured by the space.
And among those who disappeared were Secretary-General Wesley’s forces, the International Association’s personnel as well.
“Did he… just attack his own allies…?”
“Have you ever seen such a crazy bastard…”
An attack that didn’t distinguish between friend and foe.
Kim Min-ju and Han Yu-bin stared silently at Secretary-General Wesley, seemingly shocked by his behavior that defied common sense.
“You are certainly strong.”
Secretary-General Wesley spoke to the two of them first.
“Isn’t it a waste to be in WDSO? If you come to the International Association, I can give you much more than you have now.”
“…”
“…”
At Secretary-General Wesley’s words, the two narrowed their eyes.
“What do you think? It’s a hopeless organization anyway, why don’t you join hands with me?”
He asked again, and the two hesitated to answer for a moment.
“Well, I’m not really interested.”
“There are only losers there, why would I go?”
As if they had made a promise, they openly burst into laughter.
It was a deliberate provocation, but Secretary-General Wesley nodded with a smile that didn’t care at all.
“That’s a shame.”
Then he muttered to himself once.
“Well, then… I guess there’s no helping it.”
[Unique Skill: Genesis]
[Space Release]
[A total of 337 spaces have been released.]
Soon, Secretary-General Wesley spread his arms.
[Space Creation]
[x32]
Weeeeee—.
Weeeeee—.
Holes began to appear in the battlefield.
“Mo, move!!”
“You’ll get eaten if you stand still!!”
Kim Min-ju and Han Yu-bin shouted at their allies and immediately moved.
Space creation skill.
A skill that didn’t look like magic and couldn’t be blocked like a sword.
The moment you hesitated, you would be trapped in an unknown space and meet your end.
So you had to move constantly before the surroundings distorted and sucked you in.
Fortunately, that itself wasn’t difficult.
If you concentrated, you could avoid it enough.
However.
[Unique Skill: Rainbow Effect]
[Unique Skill: Parabellum]
[Unique Skill: One Shot, One Kill]
Kwa-kwakwa-kwang—!!
Boom-boom-boom—!!
“Keuh…!”
“Ugh!!”
There was no way to deal with the attacks that all the International Association’s forces were pouring out in that gap.
There was no time to even think about counterattacking.
They just had to keep moving to survive.
But…
“Hah, hah…”
“Damn it…”
The two began to pant, as if their stamina was slowly reaching its limit.
Clearly, the two’s strength transcended humanity.
But that didn’t mean they were immortal or had infinite stamina.
They had simply grown in skill, and they were still humans with bodies.
But.
[Unique Skill: Genesis]
[Space Creation]
[x123]
Weeeeee—.
He was different.
He wouldn’t waste stamina, and even if you somehow managed to approach and attack, you couldn’t even make a scratch.
In other words.
“This is bad…”
“I think I’m really going to die…”
Either just keep dodging and get eaten by Wesley’s space, or get riddled with holes by the attacks of hundreds of thousands of troops.
The end of this battle was one of those two.
“No, what the hell is that guy doing right now? If the situation is like this, he should come running to help right away!”
In the end, Han Yu-bin couldn’t stand it anymore and shouted, grinding her teeth.
“He told us to wait!”
“…What does that mean? What are we waiting for?!”
“I don’t know either! He just said he needed time to figure things out…”
Han Yu-bin’s eyes narrowed at Kim Min-ju’s words.
But Kim Min-ju closed her mouth as if she had no more time to explain.
She just focused on dodging the attacks in front of her, barely holding on.
“Ugh…!”
She finally felt her stamina reaching its limit.
Momentarily, one of her legs lost strength and she collapsed on the spot, and the International Association’s forces didn’t miss the opportunity.
“Haa…”
The moment thousands of skills fell towards her.
「Thank you for your hard work.」
The voice she had been waiting for so desperately came from the radio.
[Unique Skill: Emperor]
Suddenly, her body began to glow gold.
No, not just her, but all WDSO forces emitted the same light.
And finally.
「I’ll take it from here.」
Kim Jun-woo appeared on the battlefield.
***
In the middle of New York, where a fierce battle was unfolding.
A battlefield where everyone was fighting for their lives. I was just watching the situation from the rear.
Of course, I had to jump into the battle right away, but unfortunately, I couldn’t.
Unique skill, Emperor.
To utilize this skill, I inevitably needed time.
‘Annoying…’
Even while muttering that, I couldn’t take my eyes off the battlefield.
A skill that could exert its maximum effect when there were allies around.
I couldn’t fully utilize the skill during training because I was alone, but this place was different.
A battlefield where two factions were facing each other head-on.
A place where I could maximize my skill.
However, that required several conditions. So even while everyone was fighting to the death, I couldn’t do anything.
Of course.
[Unique Skill: Emperor]
[Checking activation conditions]
[Currently identified allies – 84,284]
[Activation conditions have been confirmed.]
[All stats increase by 10 for each confirmed ally.]
[You can use all allies’ unique skills.]
“Thank you for your hard work.”
But that was it.
I sent a radio message to all troops and moved to the battlefield.
And soon.
[Mind Link Protocol]
[Connects the caster’s brainwaves to all allies.]
[…….]
[Protocol connection complete]
That effect, which I couldn’t use during training, was manifested.
“Wh, what is it…?”
“Suddenly my body…”
The bodies of all WDSO forces began to glow with a bright golden light.
The greatest ability of my unique skill, and the ultimate way to reverse this war.
At the same time, a skill that tested my abilities to the limit.
Two conditions had to be met to manifest this skill.
The first was that the allies I could command had to fully trust me.
And the second was… to grasp the position, role, skills, and style of each and every one of them.
In other words.
[From this moment on, you can directly command all allies.]
[Currently linked allies: 84,284]
“I’ll take it from here.”
From this moment on, these 84,000 troops would share the same combat experience and senses as me.
Not just a mere monster like before.
[The Emperor’s Legion]
A group of tens of thousands of Kim Jun-woo was born.
“…What the hell is this?”
As I stepped into the middle of the battlefield, everyone stopped attacking for a moment and looked at me.
Secretary-General Wesley was the same.
He frowned and asked me.
“It certainly didn’t feel like this a week ago.”
“Well…”
I shrugged once.
“People change, don’t they?”
“…”
“Either way, you should be nervous.”
I glared at him and continued.
“It’s very different from Germany.”