Chapter 14 — When A Prey Turns
The street was stretched long and empty, dust moved across the ground like drifting ghosts. Aken's footsteps echoed between the silent buildings as he ran. His breathing was steady now, controlled and at the same time efficient. Jae-Min was still beside him, though his steps were getting heavier. "…You know," Jae-Min panted, "this morning started out with a phone call." Aken didn't answer.
"But now, I regret not staying home." Jae-Min finished with an exaggerated sigh.
Miokuo's voice was calm inside Aken's mind. "Master, the Hunter is accelerating rather quickly."
Aken already felt it, the air pressure behind them shifted. The creature wasn't walking anymore, it was moving again, much faster than before. Aken glanced over his shoulder. The Hunter had abandoned patience, its massive body cut through the street like a missile, concrete exploded beneath its steps, cars flipped aside and windows shattered. Its glowing eyes burned brighter, focused and locked. Jae-Min looked back too. "…Yeah." His voice cracked slightly. "…it's gone mad."
Aken turned another corner, a narrow road, two apartment buildings with balconies above. Miokuo spoke again. "Master, It will attack soon."
Aken's grip tightened around the katana, he already knew. The Hunter suddenly raised its arm, the air warped. Miokuo shouted. "MASTER DOWN!"
Aken dropped to the ground instantly, Jae-Min dove beside him. The street behind them detonated, a wave of force blasted forward. Shrapnel and broken concrete tore through the road like bullets. Then— a sickening sound.
THUD.
Jae-Min screamed, Aken's head snapped sideways. Jae-Min had been thrown against the wall of a building, he collapsed onto the pavement, blood spread like wildfire across his shoulder. The blast had torn straight through it, for a moment… everything stopped. Jae-Min tried to push himself up, but his arm refused to move. "…Ah." His voice was weak. "…Damn…it…hurts."
The Hunter landed between them, Aken stood frozen, his eyes slowly shifted toward his friend. Jae-Min's face was pale, blood rushing down his arm, his breathing was uneven. Aken walked toward him slowly. "…Stay down." Jae-Min laughed weakly. "…Yeah…I was planning on it."
The Hunter spoke again, its voice echoed through the street. "THE… CHOSEN ONE."
Aken didn't look at it, he knelt beside Jae-Min, blood had soaked his shirt, way too much. Jae-Min forced a grin. "…Well…this is unfortunate."
Aken's voice was quiet. "You're going to be fine."
"…Sure." Jae-Min coughed, blood splattering from his mouth. "…Just give me… a minute."
Aken looked down at his best friend, memories flashed through his mind, the ramen shop, the stupid jokes, the dungeon runs, the arguments, the laughter. The only person who had treated him like a normal human being, not a curse, not a mistake, not a disaster everywhere he went. Just…
Him. Miokuo spoke quitely, his voice was soft almost comforting to what Aken was feeling. "Master."
Aken slowly stood, then he turned. The Hunter stood twenty meters away, watching, waiting. The air between them was heavy. Jae-Min's voice came weakly from behind him. "…Aken stay down, you can't fight that thing alone."
Aken's shoulders rose slowly with a deep breath, then fell. When he spoke again, his voice was different. "…Watch me."
The system window flickered.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Extreme Emotional Surge Detected]
[Cursed Energy Resonance Activated]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Aken's cursed energy exploded, dark ripples surged across the street, loose debris lifted slightly from the ground. The air itself seemed to distort, the Hunter tilted its head in interest. Miokuo vibrated violently in Aken's hand. "Master, your cursed energy is rising rapidly."
Aken stepped forward, the ground cracked beneath his foot, the system numbers began climbing.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Cursed Energy: 73
74
75
76]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rage burned like sulphur within him, not blind rage, just cold, focused and controlled. The Hunter stepped forward. "YOU… WILL… DIE."
Aken raised Miokuo, the black blade gleamed under the gray sky. "…You dared to hurt my friend, that was your first mistake, your second mistake, was when you said I'll die". His voice dropped, cold, almost unhinged "...Now you'll pay the consequences."
The Hunter moved first, its claw shot forward like lightning. Aken moved too, much faster than before. His body blurred sideways, the claw struck the space he inhabited. Aken appeared beside the creature. Miokuo flashed, the katana sliced across the Hunter's arm, for the first time ever— the monster actually bled, black liquid splattered across the road. The Hunter recoiled slightly with an expression that looked almost surprised. Aken landed meters away, his chest rose and fell. Miokuo whispered with excitement. "Master, It can actually be killed."
The Hunter roared with unkindly fury. It charged forward, the ground shattering beneath its feet.
Aken stepped in as well, their collision shook the entire street. Miokuo flashed again, Aken's blade cut upward, the Hunter's claw crashed down like a meteor. Metal dancing with flesh, shockwaves blasted outward, nearby windows exploded. Aken slid backward across the asphalt, he was still standing. The Hunter staggered, a second wound opened across its chest, black blood dripping down its body. Jae-Min watched from the ground, his eyes wide with disbelief. "…damn…he's serious."
Aken lifted the blade again, with his cursed energy still rising.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[77]
[78]
[79]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Hunter attacked again, this time faster. Its arm swung in a brutal arc. Aken ducked under it. Miokuo flashed, another cut opened along the creature's side. Then Aken kicked off the ground, his body twisted in midair. The katana carved a glowing arc of cursed energy.
[Curse Slash]
The attack slammed into the Hunter's shoulder, the explosion sent the monster crashing backward through a parked car, smoke rising from the wreckage. For several seconds… everything drew quiet. Then the Hunter slowly stood, its wounds leaking dark blood, but it was still alive. Its glowing eyes locked onto Aken again. This time, there was no amusement—only killing intent. Aken rolled his shoulders, his cursed energy surged again.
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[80]
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He stepped forward, his eyes cold without mercy. Now the chase was over, the prey had stopped running. For the hunter, had undeniably become the hunted.
END OF CHAPTER 14