Jin leapt—moving between the rooftops of the ruined buildings like a flowing shadow, his body launching with a lightness greater than ever before.
The wind lashed at his coat, and his steady eyes gleamed with the sharpness of a seasoned killer.
Below him…
a city drowned in chaos.
Screams, roars, dozens—no, hundreds of monsters flooding the streets like a black tide.
"…No time to hesitate."
He stepped on the edge of the final rooftop and launched into the air.
In the moment of his descent, he fired—
—a mana projectile.
He released it before his feet even touched the ground.
BOOOOM!
A small but focused explosion tore through the front ranks of the monsters. Bodies were flung aside, and the ground collapsed into a burning crater.
Sooho landed amid the smoke, his sword lowered at a perfect angle.
Then…
the real collision began.
The first monster charged him—and the response was instant.
One horizontal slash.
SHRAAAAK!
An entire row of monsters was split apart, bodies severed at the waist, blood bursting like a fountain—yet Sooho didn't slow down for even a fraction of a second.
"…Smooth."
A sidestep.
A twist of the wrist. A short thrust to the neck. Sword withdrawn.
A full rotation.
His movements were clean, free of waste.
The aura surrounding his body was no longer raw momentum—it was controlled, coiling around the blade and following it as an extension of his will.
"My level… really has increased."
A monster leapt from the right, another from behind, a third snapping at his leg.
Sooho pressed his foot into the ground.
—Shadow Step.
He vanished for an instant, reappeared behind them, his sword drawing a lethal arc.
"Damn it… no openings!"
Their numbers were endless.
For every ten that fell, twenty advanced.
Continuous clashes—steel against flesh, claws screeching against the blade, blood splattering across his face and the light armor on his body.
His expression was hard, jaw clenched, eyes unwavering despite the fatigue beginning to creep in.
"No room to slow down."
A mana potion.
Drank it without stopping—then surged forward again.
The minutes passed heavily.
His arm began to feel heavy, his breathing deepened—
but his strikes never lost their precision.
At one moment, he leapt high, then descended with a vertical slash like a falling judgment from the heavens, cleaving a giant monster clean in two.
But then—
A sudden cold swept across the battlefield.
The blood on the ground froze.
Sooho stopped.
From between the rubble emerged a Frost Demon, glowing blue eyes raised as it lifted its hand.
—Ice Spear.
The spears launched at terrifying speed. Sooho couldn't evade them all.
One pierced his shoulder.
A muffled groan escaped him as his body staggered back two steps, blood mixing with ice.
"Damn it… magic."
The demon raised its hand again.
Sooho stood upright. Pain tore through his body—but he smiled.
He raised his hand and slowly bent his middle finger over his index finger in front of his face.
He murmured softly, as if the words themselves were ashamed to emerge, then said in a calm, killing voice:
—Silence.
In the next instant…
Everything around him went dark.
Magic shattered.
The air stopped.
Sound suffocated.
The Frost Demon's eyes widened in shock. It tried to chant a spell—but nothing came out.
In a single second, Sooho reached it.
One thrust to the heart.
The demon collapsed without even a scream.
"…So this is it."
Black magic.
The slaughter continued.
Until…
No one remained.
Sooho sat atop a mound of monster corpses, blood covering him, his chest rising and falling violently.
A recovery potion.
Then another.
Silence returned…
But it didn't last.
A crushing, overwhelming aura flooded the area.
From one of the ruined buildings emerged a massive entity.
Black iron armor.
A colossal body.
A battle axe the size of a man.
—A Cursed Knight.
"…This is different."
The monster charged.
BOOOM!
The first collision.
Sooho blocked the blow with his sword—
—but his knees sank into the ground.
The street cracked beneath them.
"It's like my bones… shattered."
The blows kept coming.
The axe fell like execution.
Sooho's sword screamed under the pressure.
The strength… was overwhelming.
He retreated, barely dodging.
A quick thrust—no effect.
"Damn it… its hide is like steel."
He relied on openings.
On timing.
On his final breath.
Minutes…
Ten minutes of suffocating combat.
His wounds multiplied.
His lungs burned.
Then…
An idea.
A mana projectile.
He fired it at the ground beneath the knight.
Explosion!
The ground collapsed.
The monster lost its balance.
And in that moment—
Sooho surged forward.
All his mana.
All his experience.
All his will.
It wasn't a normal thrust.
It wasn't a charge.
He compressed the energy at the tip of the sword—until it focused into a single point.
"One strike… only."
He released the thrust.
No sound.
No shockwave.
Just—
a silent explosion.
The knight's head shattered.
Half its upper body vaporized.
The air behind it melted.
The body fell.
And everything ended.
Sooho collapsed onto his back, gasping, his chest burning, his body weighed down by wounds.
He looked up at the sky.
Smiled weakly.
And said in a hoarse voice:
"I'll name it…
Death Thrust."
End of the chapter.