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Book 2: Chapter 78

The Strongest, Kran, The Human Dragon, Lee Jong-hak, and The Archmage, Joanna.

And

Paht!

A large number of people poured out of a building on the side of the street. There were dozens of them.

All of them looked like they had barely managed to walk off of a battlefield alive, and the large man at the front of the group was someone whom Joanna was familiar with.

“Elijah Kipatosh…?”

“Mm.”

Elijah looked around with a solemn expression. His eyes then settled on the corpses of Camilla and Joffrey.

“We lost some of our precious people.”

“…at least you are safe.”

“Right. We might not look so good, but at least we’re alive.”

Elijah let out a deep sigh as he said those words. Originally, his troops numbered more than two hundred, but now, only a few dozen, including Elijah himself, were still alive.

Looking at the survivors who stood around him, he spoke in a bitter tone.

“He knew the locations of most of our hideouts. The Vampire Duke’s alter egos appeared at around the same time and launched a series of attacks. The damage we suffered was devastating.”

“Ah…”

Joanna sighed for a moment before nodding slightly.

“Nevertheless… since you managed to come here, you must have been able to defeat the alter ego.”

“We received help just in the nick of time.”

“Help? From whom?”

Taht.

It was at that moment when Lukas landed on the ground.

While keeping his eyes on Gullard, he spoke in his normal, calm tone.

“I’ll be taking charge of this battle.”

Joanna couldn’t help but make a face when she heard this unexpected declaration.

“What the hell are you talking about? Now isn’t the time to be messing…”

“We should listen to him.”

“Elijah?”

Joanna turned around in surprise, but Elijah’s expression was as serious as usual. From the firm look on his face, she could tell that he wasn’t joking. He was genuinely willing to devote his full power to Lukas.

Elijah looked at the silent Lukas for a moment before speaking.

“Joanna Goldberg, you’re on a mission with this man, but you don’t know anything about him?”

“What do you mean?”

“He is the one who helped us.”

“Huh?”

Seeing Joanna’s blank stare, Elijah shook his head slightly before speaking.

“He is the one who saved us from Gullard’s attack. Without his help, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“…!!”

Joanna stared at Lukas in shock, but his gaze was focused on someone else. Someone who was staring at him with a heated gaze as well.

Kran.

“Hmph.”

Kran snorted with a displeased expression, but he didn’t draw his sword and attack like he had during their first meeting.

At that moment, Gullard was Kran’s greatest enemy.

“…”

Gullard couldn’t help but stare at Lukas.

He’d just received the ‘memory’ of this man after merging with his alter ego.

He’d suddenly felt a strange aura in Zinga, so he’d sent an alter ego over to investigate it. There, he’d seen two people standing in a dirty alleyway.

Among them was a woman…

As he recalled the ‘fight’, Gullard couldn’t help but shudder inwardly.

What if he hadn’t sent an alter ego there and had gone there himself?

Would he have been able to defeat her?

‘No.’

That much was easy to see. He would have lost even if he’d gone there in person.

It might have been much more of a fight, but the outcome wouldn’t have been very different.

And this man was someone who could talk to that unknown woman as an equal.

‘Lukas.’

That was the name that woman had called this man by.

‘Lukas… Lukas [Trowman].’

No. It couldn’t be.

Gullard shook his head.

This man was not a Demon. So he couldn’t have set foot in the Demon World. That much was clear.

‘Then why?’

Why did it feel like he had mana from a foreign world, like Azazel.

‘…he probably wouldn’t tell me the answer.’

That much was obvious.

Gullard couldn’t help but think that this man had something he wanted to know as well.

‘How fun.’

Gullard smiled widely, revealing his sharp fangs.

This was simple. The winning side would hear what they wanted.

And Gullard didn’t think that he’d lose. Even if ‘he himself’ was weaker than Lukas, Africa was his territory, and this city was his home.

Woosh-

Gullard spread his wings before flying up into the sky. His large black wings seemed to cover the night sky.

“I’ll make you regret ever setting foot in this place.’

Lukas looked up at the sky before slowly opening his mouth.

“He intends to one-sidedly attack from the air. He’s chosen a pretty annoying tactic.”

He would be out of reach of most long range attacks.

Elijah frowned slightly at Lukas’ words.

“Then what should we do?”

“First-”

Suddenly.

Taaht!

Kran stomped on the ground before taking a big leap into the sky. He kicked the ground so hard that the earth shook for a moment.

Kran’s body, which shot into the air like a bullet, quickly hit Gullard.

Everyone in the area couldn’t help but stare at this scene with their mouths agape. It was a display of physical ability that far surpassed human limits.

“H-, he jumped all the way there?”

“Is he really human…?”

Lukas clicked his tongue inwardly. As expected, Kran wasn’t willing to work with him.

“I’ll have to assist Kran. While I do that, you guys will have to take care of them.”

“Them?”

It was at that moment when they noticed strange shadows appearing on the street.

Elijah frowned.

“Demons.”

Right.

Gullard wasn’t the only Demon in this city.

* * *

Bang!

He twisted his shoulder to avoid the bullet. It wasn’t a normal bullet that he would usually ignore.

Gullard couldn’t help but glare at them while a thought ran through his head.

The Top Three were undoubtedly the most threatening and annoying beings to deal with among the humans.

Apart from that, he couldn’t help but rethink the thought that those high-ranking Demon Nobles who died at their hands were fools. After all, he’d always thought that no matter how strong they were, they would never exceed human limits.

‘This guy is different.’

He was a man who seemed to be created for the purpose of ‘hunting demons’.

He used almost ten different weapons, and the number of hidden weapons that he used was innumerable.

‘He’s not someone who learned martial arts systematically.’

It didn’t seem like he’d learned to use mana or divine power either.

And yet, Kran was probably the most difficult opponent Gullard had ever had to face. He always found ways to attack in the most unexpected and annoying places while they were locked in a tense brawl, creating a situation in which Gullard always suffered whenever he tried to launch an attack.

At the same time, his occasional surprise attacks caused Gullard’s back to become covered in cold sweat.

His primitive fighting style seemed to be based on instincts and his firsthand experience.

Nevertheless, it was a fighting style that seemed to work perfectly in battles against Demons, battles that required fast reflexes and fast judgements.

‘However.’

Kwaak!

Gullard managed to catch his fist for the first time. Then, he increased the strength of his grip, threatening to crush the hand he was holding.

Kran didn’t seem to be shocked by the pain of his fist being crushed and instead tried to pierce Gullard’s throat with a dagger he held in his left hand. This attack was stopped by Gullard’s bright red tongue.

Taht!

Nevertheless, Kran didn’t stop attacking. He leaped into the air, twisted his waist to the limit and kicked.

It was like a scene from an action movie. Because he’d managed to jump despite floating in the air.

The secret to this feat was his shoes. His shoes were a type of magic item which helped him move relatively freely in the air.

Nevertheless, Kran’s actions would have been impossible without tremendous flexibility and abdominal strength.

Crack!

However, it still wasn’t enough.

Gullard’s wing hit Kran in the side, and his body was sent flying to the ground like a meteor.

“Hahaha.”

Gullard let out a deep laugh before slowly descending. Kran got up from the crater his body had created, using his sword as a cane.

“If you were an ordinary human, that attack would have shattered all the bones in your body.”

Then what about Kran?

He had only been slightly injured by the attack.

Gullard’s smile grew larger.

“I see why you were able to defeat a Duke. I know what you are now.”

“…”

“But I have to ask. Why are you attacking me? Rather than me-”

Boom!

A lightning bolt from the sky penetrated Gullard’s body. It was literally an attack that came without warning.

Even Kran, the strongest hunter in the world, couldn’t help but be shocked by this attack.

Then, Lukas appeared behind him.

“This is your chance.”

“…”

Kran glared at him with clear displeasure, but he still lifted his sword and charged towards Gullard.

“Such… lightning…!”

Gullard exclaimed, white smoke escaping from his mouth.

Fwoosh!

His body once again became thousands of bats that covered the entire street.

This was a smart idea. After all, in their brief skirmish just before, he’d noticed that Kran lacked a way to launch wide-range attacks.

The vampire bats tried to bite Kran with their sharp fangs. But Kran used his weapons to defeat them. He even took out grenades from his pockets and threw them into the group.

But in the end, it still wasn’t enough. Modern weapons couldn’t do much damage to Gullard. In the end, he would have to shoot him with special anti-demon bullets or cut each one of them with his sword. But there were too many of them.

It was at that moment when Lukas entered the battle once again.

“Eye of the Typhoon.”

Woosh!

A powerful gust of wind swept through the area.

Kran tensed his muscles, but the devastating winds did not affect him at all.

Kieeek-

As if they were pulled by an invisible force, the bats began gathering in one place. The intense gale forced the bats to one location as though they had a mind of their own.

Kran couldn’t help but turn to Lukas in surprise.

‘This guy…’

What kind of sophisticated control was he displaying?

Such a Wizard was definitely more powerful than the head of the WIzard Association who had come to meet him last time.

‘Who the hell is this guy?’

While forcibly suppressing his doubts about Lukas, Kran ran towards Gullard.

It was at that moment when Lukas’ expression changed for the first time.

“Wait-”

Kieek!

The bats, who had all been pushed together, let out a loud screech before exploding.

Boom!

The sound of the explosion was so powerful that it deafened everyone who heard it for a moment, and the force that followed was even more fearsome. An explosion dozens of times stronger than the grenades Kran had thrown before engulfed one of Zinga’s main streets. (Note:…wasn’t it an abandoned area?)

Blood from the bats’ bodies was sent flying in every direction, carried even further by the wave of explosive force.

Even Lukas, who had been standing a distance away, could not withstand the force and was sent flying into a building.

Kurk-

It seemed his head had been injured in the collision as blood trickled down his forehead.

‘I should avoid taking damage with this body.’

Lukas wiped the blood away with an expressionless face.

If Lukas, who had been far away from the explosion, had ended up in such a state…

Fwoosh!

The dust cleared, revealing Kran.

“…dammit.”

It was a strained voice.

Calling Kran’s current condition horrendous was an understatement. The left side of his face had been completely destroyed, to the extent that his skull was visible. His right arm had been completely ripped off by the explosion, and both of his legs were twisted in bizarre ways.

There wasn’t a single part of his body that was uninjured.

Kran stared at Lukas with his remaining eyeball.

“Don’t… look over here.”

Lukas ignored him, his eyes turning to the slowly dissipating dust cloud.

Gullard walked out of the dust without hesitation.

As expected of one of the Five Dukes. He was only slightly injured at that moment.

“Why are you fighting the Demons?”

“…why the hell… are you asking something like that.”

“Because I’m curious. And because you…”

Crunch…

Crunch…

At that moment, Kran’s face began to slowly return to its original ‘form’.

Flesh surged out of the bloodied stump of his torn arm and began twisting and melting together to form a new ‘arm’.

As if they had minds of their own, his twisted legs began to unravel and straighten themselves. His muscles and bones knitted back together.

In less than a minute, Kran was completely healed.

Lukas continued to look at this shocking sight.

“Are not human.”