Immortals vs. Grim Reapers - chapter 24
Chapter 24. Noisy Neighbors (5)
The Death Sword blazed with blue flames as its form slowly began to change.
What was originally a hand axe transformed into an arm-length falchion, closer to its original shape. This was a form he had already seen during previous tests.
Gangrim didn’t understand why, but he interpreted this as the ‘optimal form’ chosen by the shape-shifting Death Sword.
Thud.
Han-taek’s body grotesquely twisted, becoming a massive arm, then a leg, then a pulsating heart.
Yet he remained immobilized, pinned in place. Han-taek’s original form was now completely unrecognizable.
“Finally, a proper debut battle.”
Whether Han Min-sung was worth the 2,000 nyang of soul money would be determined from here on. Apart from testing and escaping the truck, this was the first real hunt.
Gangrim leaped towards Han-taek.
“Aaaah, hahahahaha!”
A strange sound, unclear whether it was a scream or laughter, grated on his nerves. Gangrim slashed through the countless hands flying at him like whips with the Death Sword.
It was a Death Sword enhanced to cut even steel.
There was no way it couldn’t slice through mere whips of bone and flesh.
“How annoying!”
But Gangrim couldn’t actually approach Han-taek, the core.
While his official attire, like the robe, offered some protection from attacks, it was still only at the level of tough leather clothing. This wasn’t an opponent he could assassinate stealthily from the darkness like before.
‘If I could just get close and cut him, I might be able to block contact with the other ghosts…’
Though Han-taek’s miserable end was inevitable, Gangrim couldn’t afford a prolonged battle either.
Gangrim thought as he watched the Death Sword burning like a candle.
‘Ten more minutes.’
Gangrim had chosen a 10-minute enhancement time for the weapon. Naturally, the power of the weapon enhanced by Blood Taker is proportional to the lifespan offered.
During this time, the Death Sword becomes sharp enough to slice through steel like tofu, but its durability is continuously consumed.
‘The Death Sword won’t break, but…’
After use, its sharpness was drastically reduced.
Though it would regain its edge over time, right after using Blood Taker, it was almost no better than a club.
Of course, offering more lifespan would extend the time, but Gangrim had no intention of wasting lifespan unnecessarily on such an opponent.
Even 18,000 years is a limited resource.
Better to use it efficiently than to beg Yeomna later.
“Kekekekekekeke!”
Han-taek’s flesh swung its arms, emitting a grotesque female voice. Razor-sharp female fingernails sliced through the air.
As Han-taek attacked beyond his expected range, Gangrim initially blocked with the Death Sword and cut off the arm.
But the severed hand scattered into bits of flesh, dispersed in all directions, then rushed towards Gangrim.
Each piece of flesh was infused with a ghost. Han-taek had already lost his sanity, but the ghosts were bound by a single will.
Hatred towards Gangrim.
Their resentment was strongly binding them against Gangrim Gangrim.
“Ah, hate you, despise you!”
The horde of ghosts shouted, spewing only one-dimensional hatred and anger. Gangrim slashed away the lesser spirits inhabiting the flesh pieces irritably, gritting his teeth.
“You hate me?”
A chilling aura seeped into Gangrim ‘s face.
“You ghosts, facing a Grim Reaper, and you hate rather than fear? You damn dogs.”
***
Gangrim realized how he should fight.
He shouldn’t seek a safe and efficient battle, but instill absolute terror.
A Grim Reaper should be an object of fear, not something to be hated or despised.
He was a hunter, not their equal opponent.
Thud.
Gangrim stomped his foot and leaped into the swirling mass of Han-taek’s flesh.
“Aaaaaah!”
Han-taek frantically swung his arms, pummeling and wrapping around Gangrim ‘s body.
Gangrim, hit in the face as soon as he entered, felt his teeth being knocked out. But his eyes were filled with intense madness.
Gangrim ‘s blade flashed.
Crack, crunch. Thud, crackle, bang.
A fierce exchange erupted between Gangrim and Han-taek’s ghost-possessed flesh.
With each swing of Gangrim ‘s sword, Han-taek’s limbs were severed in chunks, spraying blood everywhere.
The ghosts, though possessing flesh, were not immune to pain and writhed, screaming.
However, Gangrim wasn’t unscathed either.
Whether his skin was exposed or not, his entire body was quickly covered in bruises, and blood flowed freely from scratches left by fingernails.
But what soaked his entire body was Han-taek’s blood.
‘In a melee, getting hit is inevitable.’
Gangrim swung his sword coldly, not even blinking at the limbs flying towards his face, advancing step by step.
He cut without panic when something grabbed and pulled his legs, and he slashed even when pummeled so hard his teeth were knocked out.
It was a true brawl, without any semblance of swordsmanship or technique.
‘As long as I don’t receive a fatal wound.’
Gangrim ignored attacks that merely hit or pummeled him. He only blocked or dodged the sharp attacks aimed at vital points that came between those blows.
Such attacks didn’t come often, as Han-taek struggled to maintain precise control amidst the countless souls.
However, even with Gangrim ‘s superior blade cutting away, there was a limit to this head-on confrontation. It was clear he would eventually fall.
Han-taek, having lost his reason and left only with instinct, had no doubt about this fact.
But as time passed, cracks began to form in that belief.
Flutter, flutter.
As time went on, far from falling, Gangrim was slowly changing his appearance.
From just wearing a robe, he now wore a hat, shoes, and an overcoat.
Gangrim was completing his official attire in real-time.
Simultaneously, his defense power was gradually increasing. This sight sowed confusion in the ghosts’ minds.
Gangrim was still cutting away the incoming limbs, trudging forward indifferently.
He approached, neither retreating nor avoiding the floor that had become a pool of blood.
He didn’t fall.
He’s not falling.
He won’t fall.
Amidst the sea of flames all around, a blood-soaked monster that wouldn’t fall no matter how much they hit, beat, or cut was approaching them.
As Gangrim, covered in bright red blood, opened his mouth, red teeth were revealed.
An opponent they couldn’t face.
An inescapable death.
The Grim Reaper was approaching.
The simple emotion Han-taek had harbored, ‘hatred’, changed to another simple emotion, ‘fear’. His attacks began to become passive.
And Gangrim keenly sensed the fear of the weak.
It was a strategy decided not just as a Grim Reaper, but as Gangrim himself.
‘A group that believes it has the upper hand just because it’s formed a mass will disintegrate the moment it feels fear.’
“…Monster! It’s a monster!”
At last, a scream erupted from Han-taek’s mouth. One of the ghosts had been overwhelmed by fear.
Hatred is a one-dimensional emotion. And fear is the same. But Gangrim shouted in a voice of a higher dimension.
“You!”
It wasn’t a particularly loud shout, nor was it the Death Summon.
Gangrim ‘s shout didn’t come from hatred or anger.
It was simply pure ‘bullying’ that burst out the moment he realized his overwhelming superiority.
Some of the ghosts who were ‘bullied’ scattered in panic.
They had realized the difference in status.
Part of Han-taek’s body staggered and slumped to the floor.
Han-taek prepared for a final strike with desperate strength. Seeing this, Gangrim smiled and stopped.
“Alright, shall we have one last head-on confrontation?”
“Ooooooh!”
Han-taek mustered all his desperate strength to form a massive fist. It was a giant fist that looked like it could crush Gangrim ‘s body.
Gangrim also raised his Death Sword.
And just as it seemed they would clash, Gangrim shouted.
“Han-taek!”
Rip.
The moment the Death Summon activated, Han-taek felt as if his head had been struck. At the same time, he felt the souls he had forcibly gathered scattering and escaping all at once.
The giant fist Han-taek had created for his final strike also crumbled, grotesquely distorted.
As the ghosts escaped, Han-taek gathered his faint reason to understand the situation.
This damned bastard had no intention of a head-on confrontation this time either.
He had merely pretended to engage in a direct confrontation to gather the remaining ghosts in one place.
“Like cockroaches in a lit kitchen at night.”
Gangrim walked calmly, watching the ghosts scatter in all directions.
Han-taek had been deceived by the trick once again, but this time he couldn’t even grit his teeth. Instead, what few teeth he had left merely chattered.
On Gangrim ‘s blood-stained face, only his teeth and eyes gleamed white.
“Han-taek.”
As the final Death Summon was completed, Han-taek’s soul was extracted.
***
“…I’m dying.”
Gangrim looked across the riverbank where smoke was rising.
It was where the warehouse district had been.
The local fire department and broadcasting stations were at the fire scene. Fortunately, a light drizzle had started, so the fire didn’t seem likely to spread further.
Gangrim quickly escaped to avoid getting caught in unnecessary situations and hid under the riverbank.
‘It would be troublesome to fight more here.’
The Death Sword, its enhancement time over, had now returned to being a hand axe. Gangrim made the Death Sword disappear again, no longer needing it.
Gangrim was in a state where he could barely move due to the aftermath of the battle.
When the pain from the wounds and fractures all over his body belatedly hit him, he nearly fainted. But he barely squeezed out the last of his energy to open the memo’s shop window.
‘Let’s see, what I had saved for times like this…’
There it was.
‘Flesh-healing Pills’ and ‘Bone-healing Pills’ sold for 100 nyang of soul money each.
The price was enormous, but the effect was certain. As soon as Gangrim took the pills, he felt his bruised and wounded skin and broken bones and teeth reattaching.
‘It’s good I asked Grim Reaper Wol-ryeong about treatment.’
These were the same pills used to treat Wol-ryeong when Lopez had pierced her head.
Gangrim was concerned about the phrase ‘Contains 0.2% flesh-healing flower’ written on the Flesh-healing Pill package, but he ignored it, thinking that as long as the effect was certain, it was fine.
‘At 0.2%, isn’t that just the level of dipping something in this flesh-healing flower or whatever?’
Anyway, that wasn’t the important part. Gangrim looked proudly at his physical body that had endured this much.
There were two reasons he could leap in without hesitation when he made up his mind.
One was that the opponent used pure physical force, without weapons that could damage the soul.
The second was the example Wol-ryeong had shown.
‘So this is what she meant by becoming the master of the flesh.’
Gangrim could understand what she meant by this fight.
While fighting Han-taek, Gangrim had become the master of the flesh.
Ignoring pain, suffering, and stamina depletion, he pushed his body to its limits, exerting superhuman strength.
The successful manifestation of his official attire at the appropriate time also helped him endure, but if he had been an ordinary human, his mind would have shattered from fear and pain long before.
To be honest, Gangrim even felt like a game player pushing a dying character to fight to the end against an enemy.
‘It might not be that different in reality.’
At least Gangrim had managed to avoid fatal wounds or death and succeeded in killing Han-taek.
‘I don’t think I can do it like Grim Reaper Wol-ryeong though.’
He didn’t particularly want to either. Just then, the memo vibrated and chimed.
「The Death Sword takes note of your growth.」
「The Death Sword grants you permission for enhancement.」
“…Huh.”
The Death Sword had once again acknowledged his growth as a Grim Reaper.
If one was for showing respect to the dead, he thought this might be recognition for becoming an object of fear to the dead.
Gangrim humbly accepted and clicked on the memo’s enhancement window.
The deliberation didn’t take long. He already had something in mind.
‘First, I need to increase my speed.’
It was a choice to maximize his stealth ability.
Gangrim had learned to hide well using terrain and attack, but in facing Han-taek this time, he keenly felt the lack of speed.
「The Reaper’s speed ability is enhanced.」
「’Swift Pursuer’ trait acquired」
「Overall speed increase.」
「Jumping ability increase.」
「Fall impact reduction.」
Gangrim was satisfied with the enhancement messages. He particularly liked the jumping increase and fall impact reduction.
This meant three-dimensional maneuverability would become easier.
Satisfied, Gangrim was about to close the memo. But he soon stopped, doubting his eyes.
The enhancement window was still lit up.
“…You’re saying to choose one more time?”