Solo Leveling Chapter 143:
Right away, Guroktaru felt every hair on its body stand up .
'What is this?'
As time slowed down from the extreme tension it felt, the Orc Chieftain's instincts of a warrior, trained to their very limit, sent out countless warning bells . It said that a truly 'terrifying' being was headed this way .
Badump!!
The sound of the Orc's heartbeat rang around painfully in its eardrums, like a series of thunderclaps .
If it didn't get out of here right now, it'd be killed .
The sharp instincts of a warrior, honed like a fine blade, would sometimes display powers close to that of the gift of foresight . Just like right now!
'… . . . . !!'
Guroktaru quickly discarded the human female and with the movements akin to a wild animal, fled to the door of the classroom .
BOOM!!
A mighty, ear-splitting explosion occurred next, the shards of glass flying out like shrapnel . Meanwhile, Orcs manning the doorways began hastily retreating away after the back of their Chieftain suddenly appeared in front of their eyes .
'… . . . '
Guroktaru wordlessly glared forward, its breathing now becoming extremely cautious .
It was picking up on an unusual and eerie vibe . It could see a human male it hadn't seen before standing on the spot where the human female was just now .
Guroktaru shifted its gaze ever so slightly to the side .
Its opposite corner was where the windows were . Nothing remained of the entirety of that wall as if it had been struck by a powerful siege weapon .
'Did the human enter by breaking through the windows?'
Even with its excellent dynamic visual acuity, the Orc Chieftain still failed to follow that man's movements .
'… . . . . '
Guroktaru could only swallow its saliva at the sudden entrance of a powerful opponent . A strand of cold sweat trickled down its temple .
Kiiiaaahhk-!!
Guroktaru's head snapped upwards after it heard that screech .
Past the ceiling, beyond the roof – yet another powerful enemy was circling around above the Orc's head like a hawk waiting for prey to emerge .
'This might become a difficult fight . '
Guroktaru's eyes were now dyed in the colour of nervousness, something that didn't exist only a few moments ago .
The new enemy completely ignored the presence of the Orc Chieftain and its underlings, and simply proceeded to confirm the human female's condition .
Guroktaru spoke to its enemy .
"I am Guroktaru, from the proud tribe of Red Blade!"
That was the warrior's introduction only granted to an opponent capable of reaping away the Orc's life . Having completed its introduction, Guroktaru asked the human male .
"And who are you?"
Jin-Woo raised his head and quietly spoke .
"Shut your mouth and quietly wait for your turn over there . "
A human just used the language of the Orcs?
The Orc's surprise lasted only for a moment .
Perhaps it was because of the power carried in that man's voice, none of the Orcs, which included Guroktaru itself, could even dare to budge an inch from the spot .
***
"Cough, cough . "
Jin-Woo gently patted Jin-Ah's back as she continued to cough and wheeze while he carefully checked to see if she had sustained any injuries . Thankfully, he couldn't see any .
… . With the sole exception of the handprint clearly visible on her neck, that was . Jin-Woo asked, his expression hard and unforgiving .
"Are you alright?"
"Oppa!!"
Jin-Ah finally stopped coughing and jumped into his embrace, tears streaming from her eyes .
Jin-Woo gently stroked her hair as if he was soothing a scared child .
' . . . Oppa?'
'Jin-Ah's Oppa . . . that means . . . . ?'
'Ah!'
The students finally realised who the man in front of their eyes was . He was Seong Jin-Woo, a Hunter ranked S!
'We're saved!!'
The students confirmed Jin-Woo's face and began sobbing again . These tears weren't of despair and fear like the ones from before, but were formed from the mixture of joy and relief they felt .
"Sob, sob . . . "
"It's fine now . I'm here, so everything will be okay . "
Jin-Woo gently soothed his sobbing sister, while extending his sensory perception to the rest of the school . And, within this large school building, the only presence of humans he could pick up on was . . . . 17 .
'… . . . . '
Jin-Woo's hardened complexion was now dyed in the darkness of rage .
He very cautiously separated his sister from him as she tried hard not to leave his side . He then called out his Shadow Soldiers matching the exact number of the surviving students .
"Everyone, follow my summons out of the building . "
The students nodded their heads, and the soldiers proceeded to pick up them up in an embrace . As for Jin-Ah, he entrusted her especially to Igrit .
"Please wait for me downstairs, okay? I'm going to join you very soon after dealing with this . "
Normally, Jin-Ah would try to stop her oppa, telling him that they should go together regardless of whether he was a rank S Hunter or not . No, she'd still say that even if he was something greater .
But now . . . . She couldn't do that .
Because, Jin-Woo's current expression was far, far too scary for her to say those words . So, Jin-Ah could only nod her head .
Jin-Woo gave out his signal, and the soldiers carrying the students jumped outside of the destroyed wall one by one . Orcs in the corridor flinched slightly at the sight of the almost-caught prey making their escape . When that happened, Jin-Woo glared at them with his ice-cold eyes .
"I told you not to move . "
Like some kind of a lie, all Orcs stopped moving altogether . None of them could go against his glare .
One of the Orcs, its complexion utterly pale, sneaked its gaze around and cautiously whispered to Guroktaru .
"C-chief . . . . "
"Shush . "
Guroktaru was in agreement with that Orc, though .
It was true that right now wasn't the time to care about those weak prey escaping . No, they should be minding the 'hunter' right in front of their eyes . A fight between hunters would commence very soon, where who eats who would be determined .
'Even then . . . . We can't let them get away that easily . '
Guroktaru sent out a sneaky little signal, and two of its guards moved without making any sounds .
After confirming that all of the students had left the classroom safely, Jin-Woo turned around to face the Orcs . He didn't let them leave because he was worried about them getting injured .
'These measly Orcs . . . . '
He was confident of killing them all in the blink of an eye .
He simply didn't want to show his little sister or other kids what was about to happen in here, that was all .
And now, there were no more eyes watching . Meaning, there was nothing to restrict his actions now .
'… . . . '
Jin-Woo's gaze briefly drifted towards the stairs outside the classroom . He sensed two Orcs going downstairs while hiding their presence to the best of their abilities . It seemed that they were going after the kids, but . . . it didn't matter .
He had sent Igrit there, and Kaisel was circling around in the air, too .
'So, the remaining task is to deal with these lot, then . '
Jin-Woo exhaled softly . The exiting air contained a heavy, dense amount of magic energy .
Guroktaru asked him again .
"Who are you? How can you speak our tongue?"
Jin-Woo ignored the Orc's words and slowly made his way over to them . Realising that the human male had no intentions to answer back, Guroktaru bared its fangs and shouted out .
"Attack!"
The brave Orc warriors pounced on Jin-Woo all at once after hearing the Chieftain's order .
"Kurururuk!"
"Kurarak!"
When they did . . . the time froze .
Within this freeze-frame of a moment, Jin-Woo leisurely walked in between the Orcs that were moving agonisingly slowly, and proceeded to destroy them one by one .
He didn't even need to take his weapons out . He only needed to use his finger . Every time Jin-Woo's finger brushed by an Orc, heads, shoulders, wrists, waists and midriffs of the monsters exploded into bits . And after utterly destroying over twenty Orcs in one blink of an eye . . . .
Jin-Woo stood before Guroktaru .
The Orc Chieftain could only barely keep up with Jin-Woo's afterimage with its eyes . Its trembling lips parted with much difficulty .
"W-what . . . . ?"
It didn't even have a chance to swing its scimitar . Jin-Woo's left hand grabbed Guroktaru's mouth and jaw, and the Orc could only whimper pathetically .
"Keok!"
Jin-Woo walked forward just like that and slammed the Orc's head against the corridor's wall .
SLAM!!
The empty corridor reverberated with the thunderous boom .
Jin-Woo's gaze shifted towards either end of the corridor . It was filled with the remains of the students . It was truly a hard-to-look gruesome sight to behold .
However, Jin-Woo didn't avert his gaze and imprinted the sight of every single one of these kids in his mind, just so he could demand reparations from the guilty one responsible .
Jin-Woo shifted his eyes to Guroktaru .
"Why?"
His voice was incomparably icy .
"Why does your kind want to kill humans to this extreme level?"
Guroktaru had long lost its desire to resist and could only tremble in fear as it replied .
"In, in our heads, telling us . . . . to kill humans . . . . "
Jin-Woo became momentarily confused .
'Kill humans?'
He had heard of the exact same thing before . But, back then, he interpreted the word 'humans' as another term for 'Hunters' .
But it seemed that the word 'human' really did mean all humans, now that he got to hear this monster's reply .
"Then? What about me?"
Jin-Woo asked the Orc again .
"Do you not hear the voice telling you to kill me?"
He brought his face closer .
It was inevitable that Guroktaru would look into Jin-Woo's eyes . The Orc began shaking its head and shivered hard as if it had discovered something in there .
"F, f-forgive . . . . Forgive, me . . . . "
Something impossible happened . The brave and mighty great warrior of the Orc race began shedding tears like a little child . Jin-Woo felt the inside of his head suddenly cool off as he watched the terrified monster cowering before him .
'So, that's how it is . . . . '
He was not being seen as a human even in this guy's head, was that it?
'… . Well, it doesn't really matter . '
Jin-Woo wasn't all that interested in how monsters viewed him . No, he simply killed them because they were out to harm humans .
Guroktaru shivered and continued sob as the fear it couldn't overcome completely enveloped it .
"Please . . . . forgive . . . . . "
Jin-Woo replied .
"I'll forgive you . "
And then, he summoned the 'Demon King's Shortsword' .
"However, do not think that the process will be a painless one for you . "
***
The Knight Order Guild's assault team could only gasp out in astonishment while spectating on the battles of the monsters .
"Heok!"
"H-how could it be . . . . "
How could anyone call this a raid now? Because, the ants very easily subdued the undead monsters and then, began greedily devouring them .
Crunch, crunch . . . .
The eyes of the Hunters opened wider and wider from this horrifying spectacle .
"B-but, if they eat up everything like that, nothing will be left behind, you know?"
"Right . Even the Magic Crystals . . . . "
The Hunters could only anxiously look on as the top-class Magic Crystals all ended up in the stomachs of these monsters, no, summoned creatures .
Unable to watch from the sidelines any longer, Jeong Ye-Rim hastily ran out .
"Don't you know how expensive that is?!"
She tried to wrestle away the corpse of a Vampire, but that only managed to annoy the ant, and the creature swung its arm at her direction .
"Ahk!"
She cried out and tumbled backwards after the ant's claw cut into her forearm .
Plop .
"O-ouch . "
Just as she tried to get up while rubbing her **** . . . .
"Kururuk-!"
By the time she regained her wits, the ant monster that swung its arm was standing before her . The creature had its gigantic maw and its horrifying mandibles wide open as if to swallow her head whole .
Jeong Ye-Rim's expression froze stiff at that moment .
"Ah . . . . Ah . . . . "
It was then . Beru had come swooping in and turned that ant around . He opened his own maw wide just like how this ant did a moment ago, and then . . . .
"Kiiiieeeeehhhk-!!!"
. . . And then, he screeched out incredibly loudly .
Being subjected to the rage of an existence on another level, the ant creature couldn't even meet Beru's gaze and simply shivered in fear .
"K-keeiick . . . . "
Beru let go of the ant's shoulder, causing the creature to hurriedly scurry away from there . Jeong Ye-Rim watched this scene play out in a total daze, but Beru approached her and extended his hand out .
'Uh . . . . . ?'
Still stupefied over everything, she grabbed the offered hand and was able to finally stand back up .
"I, uh . . . T-tha . . . . "
She was about to say something, only for her lips to stop . Because, she saw the gentle blue light circulating around Beru's fingertips, that was why .
" . . . . Healing magic?!"
Jeong Ye-Rim's brows shot up real high in surprise .
The wound in her arm healed up immediately the moment that blue light touched her . After confirming that her wound was completely cured, Beru turned towards the ants and shouted out .
"Khe-ehck!"
That caused the ants to end their mealtime and began moving deeper into the dungeon's interior .
Jeong Ye-Rim watched the back of Beru and murmured to herself .
"How can . . . . a summon cast better healing magic than me??"
***
The Hunters finally arrived in the school .
They followed the direction the needle of the magic compass was pointing to and climbed up the stairs . An incredible magic energy reaction was coming from the sixth floor's corridor .
The man in charge of the Hunters looked behind at his group and spoke .
"Be careful . "
The Hunters nodded their heads .
And when they eventually arrived on the sixth floor, they got to discover two things .
"Heok!!"
One, an Orc sliced up into so many pieces that it was impossible to count; two, a lone man covered in blood standing still with a shortsword in his hand .
'And that person is . . . . ?'
The leader of the assault team met Jin-Woo's icy cold eyes and his breath nearly came to a sudden stop . But he recovered somehow and picked up the walkie talkie .
"Yes, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo is here . "
The leader took a look around and made another report .
"The situation has been resolved . "
< Chapter 143 > Fin .