The North Sea Martial Warrior - Chapter 06

========== 6. PREY WORTH TEN THOUSAND NYANG ==========

The next morning.

A tavern on the outskirts of the Northern Sea, Binghoru.

“What!”

A wine cup fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.

A bearded man was glaring at the wanted poster stuck to the wall.

[Wanted]

Name: Airak (aka The One Wearing Wolf Skin)

Features: Scar on the left chest. Accompanied by four subordinates.

Dead or alive.

Reward: 10,000 gold nyang.

“10,000 nyang?! Are you crazy?!”

“Shut up, you idiot.”

The one-eyed man sitting next to him covered the bearded man’s mouth.

“If you shout, you’re just increasing the competition.”

“B-but… it’s 10,000 nyang, 10,000!”

“I know, I know. I have eyes too.”

The one-eyed man tore the wanted poster off and put it in his pocket.

“Let’s go. To find our prey.”

“Wait, but isn’t he a Martial Warrior? Isn’t that a legend?”

“Legend or not, I don’t care. 10,000 nyang means I can live off it for the rest of my life.”

“Still… isn’t it dangerous?”

“If you’re scared, back out. I’ll take your share.”

“Hey, hey! Who said I’m backing out!”

The two men ran out of the tavern.

They weren’t the only ones.

Three wanderers drinking in the corner of the tavern quietly stood up. A hunter eating noodles by the window grabbed his bow. Even the server who was washing dishes in the kitchen threw off his apron.

“Hey, server! Where are you going!”

The owner shouted.

“I quit!”

“What? Why all of a sudden?”

“With 10,000 nyang, I don’t have to work for the rest of my life!”

The tavern door opened and closed repeatedly.

In an instant, the tavern was empty. The owner was left alone, dazed.

At the same time, the same scene was unfolding all over the Northern Sea.

Hunters wandering the snowy mountains lit up with greed. Dark masters hiding deep in caves stretched their bodies. Assassins in the back alleys sharpened their blades.

The rumor spread faster than a blizzard.

Greed. That red, sticky desire began to cover the snowfield.

Airak and the wolf pack were crossing the snowfield toward the Central Plains, unaware of anything.

Garkan stopped walking and looked back.

“…Chief.”

“Why?”

“It’s strange. Something from behind……”

Airak also stopped. His eyes scanned the horizon.

The wind blew.

A cold wind. But what was mixed in it wasn’t just the cold.

Killing intent. Faint, but clear murderous intent was seeping in from all sides.

The corners of Airak’s mouth went up.

“…Interesting.”

“Chief?”

“The feeling of being prey isn’t bad.”

Garkan’s eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me… are they pursuers?”

“Not pursuers.”

Airak started walking toward the south again.

“They’re hunters.”

Behind his back, countless killing intents were rushing in like an avalanche.

“They’re coming!”

The hunter’s voice trembled.

Baekgol Valley, the path leading to the outskirts of the Central Plains.

Blind with greed for 10,000 gold nyang, the Northern Sea’s wanderers, dark masters, and assassins were densely ambushed on the cliffs, in the gaps of rocks, and even under the snow-covered ground.

“Is that them?”

“There are five. Just like the wanted poster.”

“Who is Airak?”

“The one in the middle. The guy wearing the wolf skin.”

Five shadows appeared at the entrance of the valley.

Airak was in the lead, followed by Garkan. Taikan and Harku were on the left and right, and Arko was in the shadows.

“What are they? Walking right into the middle without fear.”

“No. That’s… confidence. Fuck, it gives me goosebumps.”

Agitation spread among those in ambush. But greed always wins over fear.

“Waaaaah!”

Hundreds of people rushed in.

Harku bared his teeth and shouted.

“Tor Arkan!”

(Blood hunt!)

Taikan drew his bowstring and responded.

“Atar!”

(Burn them!)

It was the Airak tribe’s declaration of battle.

The moment the wolf bared its fangs.

At the same time, the sky darkened. Thousands of arrows poured down like rain.

Harku looked up at the sky and whistled.

“Wow, what a proper welcome.”

“It won’t be a welcome, it’ll be a send-off. For them.”

Taikan pulled an empty string.

Ting…!

A clear, rupturing sound rang through the valley.

Then, the north wind blowing through the valley twisted strangely.

“Huh? What?”

The hunters on the cliffs rubbed their eyes.

The arrows they had fired had stopped dead in mid-air.

Whoosh!

The wind reversed.

The thousands of arrows that had stopped changed direction. The targets were their owners who had fired them.

“A-argh!”

“Dodge! It’s a headwind!”

The screams were short.

Their own poison arrows pierced their throats, and spears thrown by their colleagues pierced their stomachs. Corpses fell from the cliffs like rain.

Taikan pulled the string again. This time, an arrow made of ice.

“He controls the wind! It’s sorcery!”

The panicked dark masters hid behind rocks.

Taikan chuckled.

“Sorcery? You ignorant fools. Hiding is useless.”

Ping…!

The arrow wiggled like a snake and stirred the air.

The guy hiding behind a rock, the guy holding a shield, the guy running away. The arrow dodged the obstacles one by one and pierced exactly between their eyebrows.

“How… I was behind a rock…”

“The arrow bends! The arrow bent!”

Taikan lowered his bow.

“Hyung-nim. Are you going to eat it all by yourself?”

Harku’s eyes were bloodshot, and he licked his lips.

“You take care of the smelly ones.”

Harku sniffed.

His pupils flipped in an instant. The whites of his eyes became bloodshot, and saliva pooled at the corners of his mouth.

“Kehehehe! Meat! Meat!”

Harku rushed into the enemy lines.

“Kill that bald crazy bastard first!”

“Surround him! Mince him!”

Axes and maces flew in.

Harku didn’t dodge. Instead, he shoved his head between the weapons.

Clang, clang, clang!

The twin blades danced.

The two daggers, curved backward like a beast’s fangs, tore off the wanderers’ wrists, elbows, and necks.

“Kyaaaak!”

“More! Come more! I’m still hungry!”

Harku got faster the more he was covered in blood.

He didn’t care even if the opponent’s sword grazed his shoulder. As if even pain was pleasure, he laughed like a madman and tore through the enemy lines.

“M-monster!”

“That’s not human! Run!”

The wanderers backed away. But their retreat wasn’t safe.

Swish.

A hunchback man rose smoothly from the shadow of a rock.

“Where are you going? The party has just started.”

Arko’s gloomy voice licked their ears.

A poison needle popped out of Arko’s sleeve.

The wanderer collapsed with his face turning black without even being able to scream.

The battlefield became a scene of carnage.

Taikan’s arrows sniped from a distance, Harku slaughtered in close quarters, and Arko assassinated those fleeing.

Hundreds of enemies were being ravaged by the four wolves.

And in the middle of it all.

Thud. Thud.

Airak walked peacefully.

In the hellscape where arrows flew, blood splattered, and screams rang out. He moved his steps as calmly as if he were taking a walk in a garden. His gaze was not on the enemies’ faces, but fixed solely on the southern sky.

Throb.

His left chest ached.

The pain rising from where his heart should be.

The price for accepting the Northern Sea Ice Essence Divine Art thirty years ago.

‘Cold?’

He heard an auditory hallucination. Karani’s voice.

Thirty years ago, on a snowy night. The words she asked while wrapping her hands around his.

Airak looked down at his hands.

There is nothing now.

Thirty years ago, she held these hands and said.

‘It’s cold. Your hands are always cold.’

And she blew on them.

It was a useless act. Because his hands never got warm.

But she didn’t give up. Every time they met.

‘Someday they’ll be warm. I’ll melt them.’

But now, there is no hand to hold.

“Die! Airak!”

A blind dark master broke through the encirclement and aimed for Airak’s flank. A blue broadsword flew toward his neck.

Airak didn’t turn his head. He didn’t even seem to have any intention of dodging.

Bang…!

A heavy roar erupted.

The chain swung by Garkan blew away the dark master’s sword and his upper body entirely.

“Small fries are being noisy! Daring to target the Chief!”

Airak didn’t answer.

He just wiped the bloodstains on the tip of his shoe on the snowy field.

That indifference. The attitude of regarding the hundreds of enemies rushing to kill him as less than the stones on the roadside.

“He doesn’t attack. He doesn’t even look at us! Are we… just treated like bugs?”

The fighting spirit of the survivors was broken.

More terrifying than overwhelming force was overwhelming indifference.

“Run!”

The encirclement collapsed in an instant.

Garkan looked at the back of Airak walking ahead.

He knew why Airak wasn’t drawing his sword. Airak was enduring it right now. The destruction instinct inside his chest.

“Hurry.”

Airak’s voice came on the wind.

“It’s the full moon. I’ll abandon those who are late.”

“Yes!”

The four wolves answered at the same time.

The valley became a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses. The red snow rose up to their ankles.

Five shadows began to race over the red snowfield.

The night deepened.

A flock of crows landed on the pile of corpses in the valley.

There was someone watching that scene from a distant hill.

Binghyeoldan Leader, Han-a.

He was tracking the backs of Airak’s group through a telescope. The third-eye tattoo engraved on his forehead glistened in the moonlight.

“Hmm. Definitely worth the 10,000 nyang price.”

The vice-leader standing next to him asked.

“Leader-nim. Hundreds of small fries were slaughtered in an instant. Wouldn’t a direct confrontation be dangerous?”

“Who’s fighting head-on?”

Han-a chuckled. His sharp fangs were revealed.

“We are Binghyeoldan. People who threw away honor to the dogs.”

He pointed to the map. A narrow valley that Airak’s group would pass through.

“Here. Lay the Ice Mirror. Very densely. So they lose their heads while looking at their own faces.”

“Should we plant Ice Explosion Mines too?”

“Of course. Lots on the ground.”

“But… the whole valley might collapse.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Han-a’s eyes shone cruelly.

“Just need to kill them. We can escape beforehand.”

He took a black bead out of his pocket. It was a bomb made by concentrating Ice Explosion Stones collected from the deep sea of the Northern Sea.

“Martial Warrior…”

He recalled the look in Airak’s eyes he had seen during the day.

That arrogant gaze that ignored everything. That attitude of treating them like bugs.

“I’ll dig out those eyes first. That’ll be a sight to see.”

The vice-leader asked cautiously.

“Still… with that level of skill, wouldn’t they escape even if they get caught in the trap?”

“So what if they escape?”

Han-a giggled.

“If they escape, just catch them again. Until they’re tired and hurt. We’re twenty-three. Doesn’t matter if one or two die.”

“…You are cruel.”

“Not cruel. Smart.”

Han-a raised his hand.

The twenty-three assassins hiding in the darkness moved without a sound.

They were faster than the wind and more secretive than shadows. But they didn’t know. That the opponent they were trying to hunt was a ‘monster’ in the true sense of the word.

The real hunt was just beginning.