The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 62

Krakakaboom—!

The fire control system, modeled after the Administration’s computational architecture, launched thousands of rounds at their targets without wasting a single shot.

“Grrawrk?! Grrawwwwrrk-!”

A torrent of small explosive warheads and missiles, poured all at once.

The sudden barrage broke the monsters’ vanguard, and Changwoon, operating the tactical modules, did not let the opening go to waste.

[Ammunition depleted. Breach opened in enemy monster swarm]

[Input directive. Effective immediately, all units switch to close-combat armament. Commence melee engagement]

[Order confirmed]

Shhhhk-!

Three tactical modules drew their close-combat weapons and charged into the monsters.

“Kriik?! Kriiiik–!”

Dozens of monomolecular cutters that shot out from the tactical modules’ limbs cut through the monsters, and

“Kraaaaak?! Kyaaak!”

the heat-ray weapon fired from the head units melted the thick carapace of a giant monster whole.

“Those are the Administration’s tactical modules! Why are things that were stuck in Hanseong all the way out here…?!”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but the front is stabilizing because of those things! Their momentum is broken!”

“Now’s our chance!”

And the gap was filled by the wall garrison’s firepower, now rallied into line.

Countless bullets and shells pressed the general-class monsters back, and the ordinary monsters, having lost their center, became handfuls of burning meat and vanished in flame.

And so, little by little. Very little by little.

The monsters that had been clawing their way to the wall’s edge began to fall back.

“Yes! They’re being pushed back!”

“At this rate…!”

At the appearance of these unexpected reinforcements, hope flickered onto the faces of the soldiers, one by one.

They could survive.

If things continued like this, they could drive those monsters back!

The soldiers who had thought this were urging on their exhausted bodies, but only for a moment.

Thud-!

A footfall that shook the very ground rang out, and the soldiers’ faces, which had just lit up with excitement, turned pale and rigid again.

“……What is that now?”

Changwoon, who had been operating the tactical modules from the command post, was no different.

In his visual interface, a tactical module crushed under a massive carapace was emitting a signal like a death cry.

[Unit damage 70%. Combat continuation impossible. Self-destruct sequence initiated. Personnel engaged in combat in this sector…. advised to evacuate beyond safe…. distance……]

The tactical module, which had let out a warning tone like a final gasp, began emanating red light all across its body, but

Crunch-!

an enormous foot, incomparable to anything that had come before, crushed the tactical module’s frame into pieces.

The explosion that followed immediately engulfed the monster’s massive body, but only for a moment.

“Grrwwwwwrr—-!”

What emerged through the smoke was a monster of a size that bore no comparison to anything seen before.

A height on par with a high-rise building, and a preposterous scale that moved on four heavy legs.

That enormous monster, letting out a rough cry, was trampling its retreating kin underfoot and bearing down on the wall.

“Fortress-assault-type charging individual detected! Distance 2000!”

“What the hell, what the hell! Why is something that lives in the deepest part of the contamination zone all the way out here?!”

“All troops, concentrate every bit of firepower on the large individual ahead!”

“Left leg! Pour everything into the left leg! We have to stop it!”

“If that thing charges us, the wall will…!”

As if taking the soldiers’ screaming for background noise, the monster began its charge, pushing through the shells raining down like a downpour.

“Damn it!”

The two remaining tactical modules unloaded every weapon they had in response, but even that only stalled it for a moment.

While the tactical modules crumbled under the overwhelming weight, the giant monster’s body drew ever closer to the wall.

“……Is this the end?”

A situation no different from an entire high-rise building charging straight at them.

Whether they had succumbed to helplessness, or whether they had been overwhelmed by the surreal spectacle.

Some of the soldiers had lowered their rifles with strangely peaceful expressions.

And as the soldiers who had sensed death stood in blank despair watching the monster approach.

Crack.

Something that fell from the sky crushed the giant monster’s head whole.

“……!”

“…………!”

As though time itself had stopped, every soldier’s gaze was fixed on one point.

With a single cry, the giant monster slowly crumpled.

Lodged in the fallen monster’s head was a massive piece of metal more than two meters in length.

“That huge thing, in one hit?”

The moment Changwoon, who had been operating the tactical modules from the command post, widened his eyes.

Beep.

With a short signal tone, a brief message appeared on the interfaces of every soldier on the battlefield.

[Iron Tiger General Yoo Sanghyeon notifies all wall garrison personnel]

[A tactical bomber launched from the 1st Forward Base will airdrop Arin at the current location]

[All personnel defending outside the wall, evacuate to interior facilities. Brace for impact]

A message that had appeared on the tactical display.

Seeing it, Changwoon’s face filled with bewilderment.

[Will airdrop Arin]

In other words, it must mean that Yoo Sanghyeon’s daughter, Yoo Arin, had been deployed to this front.

But that message…. was a little strange.

Wait, had he read it right?

“……Airdrop?”

Who?

From where?

---

“Grrwwwrrrk-!”

A monster that had been charging toward a machine gun position was split lengthwise.

And it did not stop there, the monster crumbling into pieces.

Feeling the phase power flowing through his blade, Mooyoung plunged his hwando into the face of the next monster bearing down on him.

“I-I’m alive…!”

“A phase power wielder…! Are you a newly arrived officer? Thank you. You saved us!”

“No, I’m not quite……”

He received their thanks with a flustered face, but only for a moment.

“?!”

A strange sensation from the flank. Mooyoung instinctively slashed his sword toward empty air.

Kaang–!

Steel rang out and sparks flew, and the monster’s black carapace was knocked away.

The monster let out a low cry as it looked at its own carapace, shattered where phase power had touched it.

Unlike the monster, which appeared unfazed, Mooyoung broke into a cold sweat recalling what had just happened.

‘I didn’t react to it. If I hadn’t predicted it in time, I would have been the one to die. What on earth…!’

Mooyoung was stunned, but regrettably, his thoughts did not continue.

“Heheh.”

The monster with the black carapace, right up in his face.

As if mocking Mooyoung, it let out a grotesque laugh and extended its claws toward his throat.

“Oh no…!”

“Get out of the way, kid!”

Kwaboom-!

With a heavy crash of metal, the monster’s body was sent tumbling far away.

An officer soaked in blue blood, as if having just torn the monster apart with both arms.

Realizing it was he who had saved him, Mooyoung only now gulped down ragged breaths.

“Haah…. haah……”

“Are you all right?! It’s all well and good that you’re a phase power wielder, but you’re still a greenhorn.”

The word greenhorn made his face flush, but no words came to him to deny it.

The opponents Mooyoung had fought up until now were operatives from rival organizations, or criminals.

Enemies far weaker than himself, entities he could reason with or coerce with threats and persuasion.

But the monsters spread before his eyes were not.

Combat machines that did nothing but kill people, with no stake in any negotiation.

Beings that ordinary bullets could not even penetrate.

A situation where tens of thousands of them had seized every direction, this was not something even a phase power wielder could adapt to easily.

“Flee while I hold them! Hurry…!”

“No.”

The moment the officer with an activated artificial body moved to take the front, Mooyoung’s hwando, which had passed by the officer, shot into the sky.

Kaang–!

“Grrrk?!”

The exact same ambush as moments ago.

But unlike moments ago, Mooyoung raised his blade without hesitation and knocked the monster’s spear aside.

The terror of monster combat encountered for the first time, and the drained weakness of having narrowly escaped death.

Having shed all of it, Mooyoung threw himself back into the fight without a moment’s pause.

“Not yet…!”

As if this were not nearly enough, a fierce light appeared in Mooyoung’s eyes.

He should not have stumbled against monsters of this level.

He could not go on forever leaning on the young master’s strength, depending on the weapon he had been given.

Faster. Stronger.

So that one day, as the young master had said, he could erase everything that stood in the young master’s path!

Kakakakang-!

It began with Mooyoung gritting his teeth and charging at the monster, and dozens of sword strikes embroidered the air around them.

Combat against monsters that he had never experienced before.

The sword aura and techniques unleashed by something that was not human ceaselessly reached for his life.

Yet through every exchange, Mooyoung’s face had grown perfectly composed.

As though confronting true battle for the first time had awakened something, Mooyoung was growing stronger without pause.

His movements, ever more efficient.

His strikes, ever sharper.

And after one, two, repeated close-range engagements with the monster.

Shhk-!

With a sharp cutting sound, the monster’s body was split lengthwise and crumpled to the ground.

Shadows curling up from Mooyoung’s body, and a strange red light in his eyes.

As if unaware of that bizarre change, Mooyoung tightened his grip on his sword.

“Now…. I can see it.”

The taste of iron on his tongue, and a grim smile that crossed Mooyoung’s face.

Thud-!

A thunderous boom that shook the earth seized Mooyoung’s attention.

The giant monster, drained of strength, crumpling in place.

The massive individual that even three tactical modules had failed to stop lay toppled there with its head run through.

‘What is this? That enormous monster, how……’

And before that thought could go further.

“Ha, haha! Hahaha!”

“She’s here! The young lady is here! We’re saved-!”

Smiles had come to the faces of the Iron Tiger Army soldiers keeping the wall.

Smiles of relief, as if they had finally lived.

The moment Mooyoung, seeing that, was about to ask what had happened.

Beep.

A message appeared on every soldier’s interface.

A transmission from the Iron Tiger Army’s main force, not the wall garrison.

Those who saw it began shouting, to a person, while gazing up at the sky.

“Her Highness arrives-!”

“Her Highness comes, you monsters!”

“Kuhahaha! Her Highness arrives-!

One, and then another.

As if it were salvation itself, the same words burst from the soldiers’ lips.

‘Her Highness arrives.’

Watching that strange sight, Mooyoung followed the soldiers’ gaze and looked up at the sky.

Fwoooom-!

The dark storm clouds that had blanketed the sky were swept away in an instant, and the clear blue sky of midday showed itself.

‘A weather anomaly? No…. no.’

Mooyoung, a phase power wielder, could tell at once.

This was not a natural phenomenon.

A tremendous force released from the air had swept the dark clouds blanketing the sky away in a single moment.

And that force was one utterly familiar to him. Phase power.

“Impossible.”

But at the same time, Mooyoung could not bring himself to believe it.

This sensation pressing in from every inch of his body.

Even when he had watched Jo Seonghwan fight.

Even when he had seen the battle records of Kim Hyunwoo, heard of only by word of mouth, he had never felt anything like this.

“This right now…. a single person is releasing all of this phase power?”

A force that overwhelmed the entire space, its limits impossible to measure.

What was shining in the center of the wide-open sky was not the sun.

A bomber, hovering above.

Inside it, a single phase power wielder.

The light of a single person was dyeing all of heaven and earth in gold.