Charles, who was already as big as a bull, blinked wide-eyed.
It was because he unexpectedly ran into Heis here.
Though he tried to act fine, Charles was actually on the verge of collapsing.
Meeting Heis in such a crisis only doubled his relief.
“Charles, are you okay? Who the hell is that? Why is he attacking you?”
Heis grabbed Charles’s shoulder and quickly examined his wounds.
Though the fight had been brief, it had been fierce—his body was covered with sword cuts everywhere.
His entire body was soaked in blood, making it hard to find any skin color left.
Heis’s brow furrowed like a crumpled piece of cooking foil in his grip.
“And who the hell are you?”
Ot Taejin, hit by Heis’s strike, spat blood as he flew backward, breaking three trees before finally stopping.
His snarling voice was feral and savage, as if he were a beast.
“Long time no taste my blood.”
A terrifying killing intent radiated from Ot Taejin.
Even the insects fell silent, overwhelmed by the sheer hostility aimed at him, but Heis didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow.
“Where are you hurt? There’s no way you’d lose to a bastard like that.”
Heis couldn’t understand how Charles had gotten so badly injured.
The Charles he knew was the toughest of their comrades.
People unfamiliar with him often mistook his large build for clumsiness, but his speed and agility rivaled Heis’s own.
“You’re fully healed too.”
“Of course. When did you fall here? Has it been long?”
“I…”
Ignoring Ot Taejin as if he weren’t there, the two friends exchanged questions before quickly putting some distance between them.
Crack—
The base of a tree directly in line with where Heis had been standing moments ago was severed.
A single dagger had sliced through a tree that must have been hundreds of years old as if it were a straw.
“Are these bastards playing around in front of people now?”
Since awakening as a hunter, Heis had never been so disrespected by anyone.
Ot Taejin’s face twisted into a grimace as he charged at Heis.
Charles had already lost too much blood.
Besides, when he fought Ot Taejin before, he never felt overwhelmed.
But the man with bright brown hair who had just appeared was different.
His right arm, which had blocked the man’s sword, still throbbed painfully.
“Do you think this looks like a joke? We’re having a serious conversation.”
Heis irritatedly swept his hair back, annoyed at the interruption.
Even when he met Roy, they hadn’t gotten to talk properly before a troublemaker appeared.
Though the situation was different now, in Heis’s eyes, Ot Taejin was like Han Jihoo—another nuisance who showed up at the wrong time.
He had just reunited with a comrade he hadn’t heard from in nearly a year.
Seeing that comrade covered in blood only made his mood worse.
“Charles, you rest. I’ll take care of this bastard.”
Heis gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, putting strength into his hand.
Blue veins stood out clearly on the back of his hand, and the blade glowed with an unnatural reddish hue.
‘The gift Earth gave you.’
It was the longsword Roy had given him.
The blade was over a meter long.
Though it didn’t fit his hand quite as snugly as the sword he used on the Continent of As, it was still a very good weapon.
“Seriously, where the hell did these bastards come from?”
Ot Taejin was just as furious, ready to explode.
The original mission he received was to get the director of an orphanage deep in the mountains to sign a contract selling the building and surrounding land.
It wasn’t a powerful hunter running the orphanage, just an ordinary civilian running a charity.
The only assets were the orphanage and the land—ordinary civilian property.
They didn’t even have hunters as bodyguards.
So the client initially sent a mercenary group made up of low-level hunters to the orphanage.
‘She’s no ordinary woman.’
Ot Taejin ended up getting the job because the director was a civilian with an unshakable will.
No matter what methods were tried, she refused to sign.
Eventually, the client hired an elite hunter like Ot Taejin.
“You talk too much, and you look like you think too much. None of it’s any use in a fight.”
As Ot Taejin recalled why he was stuck in this mess, Heis swung his sword, curling a smile at the corner of his mouth.
His tall frame effortlessly soared into the air.
As if stepping on an invisible platform, he began drawing elegant curves in the air with his blade.
“No way!”
Though Ot Taejin also used a dagger, he was a swordsman.
Since awakening as a hunter, he always carried a sword.
He had met many swordsmen, but none displayed the unique swordsmanship that Heis did.
“Petals made from sword energy…”
Reddish petals bloomed along the path traced by the sword’s tip.
The scene was beautiful to the eye, as petals painted the air, but for Ot Taejin, who was directly affected by the sword energy, it was a living hell.
The petals fluttered as if scattered without order, then swirled and poured down on Ot Taejin.
Though they seemed to fall endlessly slowly, in the blink of an eye, the petals had pierced right to his side.
One petal descended right in front of Ot Taejin’s face.
He raised his dagger to strike it away.
Screech—
“Aaah!”
But the petal not only cut through the dagger like a knife through butter, it severed Ot Taejin’s hand from his arm.
The excruciating pain of the severed limb made Ot Taejin scream uncontrollably.
Blood sprayed like a fountain, but Heis didn’t even flinch.
“This is the end for you.”
He charged at Ot Taejin again, ready to finish the fight.
Having lived on battlefields since childhood, Heis believed that a fight only truly ended when the opponent’s life was completely cut off.
“Heis, stop!”
“Piit!” (I’ll hold him off!)
Just as the petals fluttered, about to engulf Ot Taejin, a third voice erupted.
A powerful gust swept through the blood-stained space.
Though the wind was small enough to be covered by a person’s palm, Ris’s movement effortlessly blocked the petals that had cut off Ot Taejin’s wrist in an instant.
“Captain, why are you stopping this? Haven’t you seen Charles’s condition? He’s covered in blood! You want us to just stand here and do nothing after seeing that?”
Charles was four years older than Heis.
But on the Continent of As, age differences didn’t affect how people treated or addressed each other.
Seeing Heis treat the much larger Charles like a fragile trapped animal without hesitation, Roy held back a sigh that was about to escape.
‘I thought Charles would be the reckless one.’
The problem was Heis.
Roy had explained to Heis many times that in this world, you couldn’t just take off your clothes casually, and acts like assault or murder were met with extremely sensitive responses.
He knew well that Heis was the type to swing his sword first if things went wrong.
“Charles, long time no see.”
“…Captain…”
Roy, soaring high in the air using Ris’s wind, lightly landed in front of Charles.
Charles’s eyes swirled with complicated emotions—similar to but different from what he felt when he met Heis.
Though it had been a long time since he met Heis, Charles had never seen him die.
Even though Charles himself had been imprisoned in a state barely alive, he firmly believed Heis and the others had survived stubbornly as well.
So when Heis suddenly appeared, Charles was surprised but didn’t feel the emotion of someone who had returned from the dead.
Roy was different.
Charles had witnessed Roy dying at Kairus’s hands.
Seeing Roy alive and well after believing him dead stirred an indescribable emotion.
“You’re alive.”
Charles’s brow furrowed deeply, lips curling inward into a tight line.
If he couldn’t control his rising emotions, his face would soon be soaked in tears.
“Thank you for surviving too… You’ve been through a lot.”
Roy forced a smile, moved by Charles’s feelings.
His trembling hand rested on Charles’s shoulder.
Roy could understand why Heis had gone berserk when he saw the deep wounds on Charles’s shoulder.
“Apply this to your wounds. If the internal injuries are severe, drink some of it too.”
Roy took out a Recovery Potion from his inventory and handed it to Charles.
The small glass bottle shimmered with a brilliant blue liquid inside.
He had gotten it from Han Jihoo, since Roy didn’t yet have enough money to buy potions here.
“What’s this?”
“A Recovery Potion from this place. It’s much more effective than the ones made by the Magic Tower’s wizards.”
Recovery Potions existed on the Continent of As, but they were extremely expensive and less effective than those made on Earth.
“Thanks, Captain.”
The potion, small in Roy’s average-sized hand, looked like a toy when it was placed in Charles’s large hands.
Roy turned his head as Charles opened the bottle to treat his wounds.
“Captain! Are you really going to let this happen?”
“Piit!” (Calm down, Heis!)
The battle was now between Heis and Ris.
Heis relentlessly tried to kill Ot Taejin, while Ris blocked his attacks.
Small wings on the turtle’s shell fluttered tirelessly.
‘Maybe I should’ve brought the other Spirit Kings too.’
By now, Solum had returned to his original size and was tucked under the blanket.
Ber and Aqua lay on either side, ready to chase off anyone who tried to enter.
It was a measure designed to make anyone opening Roy’s door think he was still asleep under the bulging blanket mound.
“Hero, I think we need to return within the hour. We need to reach the lodge before dawn.”
Earth had found traces of the Continent of As, and Ris informed Roy it was likely Charles’s trail.
Roy had secretly left the lodge with Heis and only brought Ris along to avoid being noticed by the others.
It took a long time to get here since Charles was in Gangwon Province.
‘How should I introduce Charles?’
Heis had already told everyone he was his cousin.
But if Charles were introduced as Heis’s cousin this time, Han Jihoo would only grow more suspicious.
The others were far from oblivious.
“Captain!”
When Roy didn’t answer, Heis shouted in frustration.
“Piik!” (Contractor, I’m reaching my limit!)
Even Ris struggled to block Heis’s attacks.
The wind barrier Ris created wavered dangerously.
“Ugh…”
Ot Taejin was pouring a Recovery Potion over his severed wrist.
The desperation in his movements as he tried to reattach his hand showed clearly.
He was a combat hunter, a dagger user.
Losing a hand was equivalent to a massive loss in ability.
Since he mostly dealt in illegal activities, he had many enemies around him.
“Please, hold… Please…”