Immortals vs. Grim Reapers - chapter 31
Chapter 31. Burning the Thatched Cottage (3)
‘Did it work?’
Magpie wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, muttering internally.
When countless subordinates were dying in the tear gas and the guy started slicing through ghouls whole, she wondered how it would turn out.
But fortunately, the dog bit him at the perfect timing, allowing her to land an arrow.
However, she couldn’t follow up with another attack.
Gangrim’s figure vanished into the tear gas in an instant.
“Aagh, uwaagh!”
Yet, terrible screams erupted from within the ghoul horde.
The ghouls in heavy armor couldn’t bite their opponent, but their limb strength far exceeded that of an adult man.
If he was still alive, his body would be twisting and tearing apart.
‘Really… did it work?’
The real trap she had prepared hadn’t even been triggered yet. Magpie didn’t think the opponent who had been ravaging the Necromancy Faction would fall so anticlimactically.
As she thought this, the screams began to sound different.
‘Oh no!’
Magpie prepared to move positions while ‘connecting’ with her dog.
Becoming one with the beast, sharing senses and controlling thoughts. That was Magpie’s awakened ability.
With this ability, Magpie had overcome countless crises as a zombie hunter.
The dog, which had let go of Gangrim and fled the moment the arrow hit, quickly returned to its original position.
Though the pain from the tear gas was severe, it could endure thanks to Magpie’s sensory control.
However, what appeared in the place where Gangrim should have been dying was not him, but an unexpected gang member.
‘When did he…?’
Even after being hit by the arrow, Gangrim had dodged while smearing his blood on a fallen gang member and throwing him.
The low-intelligence ghouls couldn’t properly distinguish their target in the tear gas.
‘Still, if he was hit by the arrow, the poison should be taking effect soon.’
It was a poison that paralyzes the entire body instantly. Though there was a risk of death, she couldn’t be careless if the enemy was as dangerous as the rumors suggested.
The dog followed Magpie’s instructions and chased after the blood scent. Fortunately, he hadn’t gone far. However, seeing the direction he was heading, Magpie immediately cut the connection.
The moment she returned to her body, what Magpie saw was the second-floor window shattering.
Gangrim had leaped from the first floor and crashed through the second-floor window.
Amidst the shower of shattered glass fragments, Magpie’s eyes met Gangrim’s , coldly burning.
Whoosh, slash.
A blade narrowly grazed above Magpie’s head. Magpie rolled and frantically fled out of the staff room.
‘I put enough anesthetic to worry about instant death, but he’s enduring it?’
It didn’t make sense. Was his blood not circulating? But looking at Gangrim ‘s condition as he pursued, Magpie realized what was happening.
He was compressing the arm hit by the arrow so strongly that blood couldn’t flow.
Though his balance seemed off, as if he had compressed it to the point of immobilizing his arm, Gangrim relentlessly charged at her like a ghost.
“Hik…!”
Magpie ran with all her might, but he caught up enough to grab her hair in an instant.
“Woof!”
But at that moment, Magpie ducked, and the dog charged from the front. Gangrim flinched at the suddenly appearing dog, missing the timing to strike.
The dog latched onto Gangrim‘s arm.
Magpie rolled and aimed her crossbow at Gangrim. Knowing the arrows were poisoned, she had to block.
Meanwhile, the dog released his arm and retreated, taking position behind Gangrim.
He was surrounded from front and back.
But Gangrim showed no signs of intimidation. He glared fiercely at Magpie before hesitating as if realizing something.
“…Shrike?”
Gangrim muttered incomprehensibly. But Magpie didn’t miss his momentary lapse in attention.
Without a separate signal, the dog charged at Gangrim with perfect timing.
Gangrim barely blocked the renewed attack.
“Wait!”
He shouted urgently, but Magpie didn’t stop her assault.
In a situation where Magpie’s crossbow aimed for his heart at the slightest carelessness, Gangrim, unable to use one arm, couldn’t afford to show any openings.
‘Just a bit more…!’
Magpie was certain she could take him down if she drained his stamina just a bit more.
Thanks to his cautious responses, he hadn’t sustained fatal wounds, but he was clearly showing signs of fatigue.
Magpie constantly shifted between her mind and the dog’s, driving Gangrim into a corner with perfect coordination.
“This damn dog…”
Seeing Gangrim mutter curses, Magpie was confident in her victory. If she could keep inflicting small wounds like this, the poison would take effect whether he liked it or not.
That’s when it happened. Magpie noticed a strange movement at the opposite end of the corridor.
A woman in a navy long coat was watching them with an expressionless, ghost-like face.
‘A civilian?’
Magpie intentionally missed with a crossbow bolt as a warning. But even as the arrow ruffled her hair, the woman continued to watch without reaction.
Then the woman opened her mouth.
“How long do you intend to go easy on him?”
***
Gangrim smiled wryly at Wol-ryeong’s words.
“Ah, come on. Going easy? Someone might actually believe you!”
However, as if those words were a signal, Gangrim’s movements accelerated.
Magpie and the dog, who had been matching the tempo of the seemingly tiring Gangrim, lost track of his suddenly quickened movements.
Magpie realized she needed to take Gangrim down now, even if it meant pushing herself.
She hurriedly drew the hand axe at her waist and charged at Gangrim.
Crack.
The sound when the hand axe collided with Gangrim’s Death Sword wasn’t the clash of metal, but the crumbling of a wafer.
Magpie stared in disbelief at the hand axe scattering like cookie crumbs. Her arm was also deflected upwards.
Meaning her abdomen was wide open.
Gangrim didn’t miss the opening and, reversing his grip on the sword, thrust it into Magpie’s stomach.
The dog frantically bit and clung to Gangrim’s left arm. It wasn’t Magpie controlling it. The dog had reflexively moved to save her.
However, Magpie, sharing senses with the dog, soon felt a tingling in her mouth.
‘Oh no, the anesthetic!’
The dog, having taken in blood full of anesthetic, couldn’t hold on long and fell from the arm. Magpie managed to distance herself from Gangrim thanks to the dog’s sacrifice, but her complexion turned pale.
Gangrim finished off the fallen dog by stabbing its neck. Now it was time to finish Magpie.
“Wait!”
Magpie shouted urgently.
“I’ve lost. You want the Shine Sand? I’ll back off, so take it or burn it as you like.”
“How can I trust you?”
“You don’t believe me? Look, I’ll throw away my weapons.”
Saying so, Magpie really put down her crossbow on the floor. Not just that, but she also laid out all the knives and crossbow bolts she had been carrying, without exception.
Completely disarmed, Magpie raised both hands and backed away.
He had experienced a similar situation with Han-taek before.
But Gangrim internally breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Damn, I should have remembered when I heard the name Magpie.’
A woman who skillfully controls beasts and uses a crossbow as a weapon.
She would go on to become an S-rank mercenary known as ‘Shrike’ years later.
However, she had worked for an armed group with a different affiliation from Gangrim. Even Gerald had made several attempts to recruit her into his officer corps.
‘Her appearance is completely different from then, I almost didn’t recognize her.’
If Gangrim hadn’t personally attempted to recruit her back then, he might not have recognized her even now.
When she was active under the name ‘Shrike’, she had a more cold and ruthless mercenary-like impression.
While it’s common for zombie hunters to completely change their impression from the past, this seemed like quite a dramatic case.
‘No, but Shrike was an immortal?’
Gangrim found it puzzling.
Shrike eventually fell along with the group she belonged to. After refusing Gerald’s offer, they had become virtually enemies.
Anyway, if she was really an executive of the Necromancy General, there was a high chance she was an immortal, and if she was an immortal, she was just a target for elimination.
‘With Shrike’s ability… beast domination?’
Gangrim glanced at the dog impaled on his sword.
Shrike always led a pack of beasts, but he had never seen a dog like this. However, it seemed no less than a fierce beast.
Wol-ryeong had somehow drawn close to Gangrim‘s side.
“Are you going to let her go again?”
“I didn’t let her go, she was really a tough opponent. If you hadn’t appeared and shaken her, I would have had a much harder time.”
It was true that she had been the most troublesome among the executives he had faced so far.
Even without awakening her S-rank ability yet, if she was this capable, she certainly seemed to be Shrike. If the Death Sword hadn’t been enhanced, it could have been quite close.
Gangrim aimed his Death Sword at Magpie.
“Alright. Tell me where the Shine Sand is.”
“…It’s inside the wedding hall. Enough to addict 30,000 people.”
“You’re being quite honest. Are all the Necromancy Faction executives this incompetent?”
Gangrim grinned and asked one more thing.
“What’s your name?”
“What?”
“Your name. Your real name, not Magpie.”
Gangrim only knew her as Magpie or Shrike. Learning her real name would be valuable in itself.
“Why do you… No, it’s Seong-hee Shin. Shin from Pyeongsan, ancestral home is Geochang, Seong for character and Hee for bright!”
“No need to go into that much detail… Anyway, Seong-hee Shin.”
That name Gangrim called oddly reverberated in her ears. For a moment, Magpie felt slightly nauseous as she looked at Gangrim.
Gangrim stood still for a while after calling her name. Magpie looked at him suspiciously before speaking.
“What?”
“…What? Did you give a fake name?”
Gangrim asked suspiciously. Magpie frowned.
“I told you my ancestral home and how to write the Chinese characters, what more do you want?”
Magpie put her hand in her pocket. As Gangrim prepared to charge, Magpie, terrified, slowly pulled out her wallet.
“My ID card and driver’s license are in there. Check them.”
Wol-ryeong picked up the wallet instead of Gangrim and checked. Confirming there was no room for doubt, she nodded.
“So it’s your real name? But why is your reaction like that?”
“…What kind of reaction should I have when you call my name? Are you interested in me?”
“That’s not it, um…”
For a moment, Gangrim thought of one possibility and was flustered.
“You’re not an immortal?”
“Immortal?”
Magpie seemed slightly surprised that Gangrim knew about that, but she didn’t seem intent on denying it. She frowned slightly and asked back.
“I was granted control over ghouls. But I’m not something like an immortal.”
“Do you know what immortals are?”
“You mean like Lopez, Han-taek, or Ice Bear, right?”
‘Who’s Ice Bear?’
Surely not referring to an actual bear.
She had control over ghouls and knew what immortals were, but wasn’t an immortal herself? It was incomprehensible.
He even considered the possibility that they kept her close but didn’t grant the benefits of immortality due to doubts about her loyalty.
“I almost made a big mistake by intervening.”
Wol-ryeong muttered.
She was strictly prohibited from fighting non-immortal beings.
“What should we do now?”
“Is there anything different? It’s just that someone hard to kill has become someone easy to kill. With a healthy body and sufficient lifespan, the Death Summon won’t work.”
Gangrim fell into contemplation.
If Magpie wasn’t an immortal, there wasn’t necessarily a need to kill her. However, the fact that Magpie was a subordinate of the Necromancy General remained unchanged.
Choose Shrike, who could become a powerful force, or eliminate a pawn of the immortals.
It wasn’t a question that needed long deliberation.
Shrike is strong. But if she can’t definitively become an ally, it’s right to eliminate her.
“Then I’ll have to extract her soul the traditional way.”
Gangrim approached Magpie, holding the Death Sword that had now changed back into a hand axe as its enhancement ended.
Magpie panicked and held out her hand.
“Wait, what are you trying to do to someone who surrendered?”
“I’m about to go ‘Soul come out, abracadabra’ with my goblin club.”
Gangrim said, waving his hand axe.
Realizing he was serious, Magpie spoke urgently.
“Immortal! I’ll tell you who the immortal is!”
“Three.”
“Three?”
“Two, one.”