Chapter 175: Hunter Drey’s Strength!
Chapter 174
Taking a step back, Hunter Drey allowed the blood from the demon’s stomp to splatter on the ground instead of his face. He maintained his composure, letting his long coat flutter calmly in the wind, his expression unreadable.
The alleyway grew dead silent. Everyone still conscious stared at the severed, bleeding stump on the ground. A few feet away lay the hand that had been holding the sickle, twitching faintly before going completely still.
Lana, on the other hand, could be seen slightly twitching but she was still unconscious, her breathing faint yet steady.
’Huh?! Was I right? Is he really an S rank? But how did he move so fast that I didn’t even realize it on time? Did he even move?’ the demon thought, confusion clouding its mind as it failed to comprehend what was happening.
"You’ve been flexing your power on kids this whole time and thought you were strong? Tch! Even your lower echelons would struggle against humans at this point. And you think you can come here and flex?" Drey said coldly as the wind howled louder, his presence pressing heavily against the air.
His sword was still in its sheath.
"No! This is unacceptable! The humans can’t become strong—ever! Whatever you are, whoever you are, I don’t give a fuck! Just go to hell!" the demon roared.
Its severed hand began regenerating rapidly, muscles twisting and bones snapping back into place. Yet, it didn’t wait for it to fully regrow before it darted toward the hunter.
Mid-dash, it grabbed its second sickle from the ground, appearing in front of the hunter in a blur, both sickles slicing through the air from opposite sides with a sharp whistle.
"Oh, my opponent, you are doomed." Drey chuckled loudly. In one smooth motion, he lifted his sword sheath, blocking one sickle before leaning backward to avoid the second. Then, in a blur, he swung his foot upward from below.
The demon reacted instantly, leaping a meter back to avoid the kick. But the moment its feet touched the ground, Drey vanished from sight. In less than a second, he reappeared in front of the creature, his sheath swung like a bat, slamming into the demon’s neck with such force that it was lifted off its feet.
It didn’t go flying though. The demon hurled one of its sickles into the ground, the blade slicing deep into the concrete as a chain shot out from the guard and wrapped around its arm. The tension stopped its body from flying back. Using the momentum, it spun violently and sent a kick hurling toward Drey.
The hunter raised his sheath to block the attack, his arm absorbing the impact. He only slid back an inch, boots grinding against the cracked pavement.
But the demon wasn’t about to give him a breather. As it landed, it hurled its second sickle toward Drey, forcing him to swat it away with his sheath.
Unfortunately, that was just a distraction. In a blink, the demon appeared before him again. Its sickle sliced through the air cleanly with a loud shing, the blade now inches away from Drey’s eye.
Drey didn’t panic. He tried to leap back, but the moment his feet hit the ground, something strange happened. His expression stiffened as he raised a finger to touch his cheek.
Bringing it back to his face, he saw a thin crimson smear of blood. Confusion flickered across his eyes as he looked up to see the demon licking the blood off its sickle, its tongue sliding across the blade with eerie satisfaction.
"Mhm... the blood of an S rank really tastes nice. I wonder how much better the flesh would taste." The demon cackled in pure glee, its grin twisted as it reached down to grab its second sickle from the ground.
"You managed to land just a thin scratch on me, and you rejoice? Shame, shame." Drey shook his head slowly, lifting his foot as he stared at the creature with calm disdain. "I severed your hand a moment ago, remember?"
"And I regenerated, fool," the demon spat back, its glare filled with hatred as its aura flared once again, dark mist spreading through the alley like a curse.
"Okay." Drey said as he dropped the raised foot back down, a small smile splitting his face. The next second, like a blur—no, almost like the speed of light, Drey moved faster than even the eyes of Max could track.
’Fuck! So there really is somebody this overwhelmingly fast that I can’t track in this life?! Shit!’ Max thought in pure shock, his eyes widening as he saw the hunter vanish and then reappear right in front of the demon in the blink of an eye.
Drey instantly swung his sheath upward from below in an uppercut-like motion aimed straight at the demon’s jaw. But the being was fast too. After all, it was a Proto, and it wasted no time crossing both of its sickles to block the strike.
WAM!
A thunderous gust of wind blasted outward, slamming into everyone in the alleyway. The pressure was so fierce it even jolted Lana and Jasmine awake. The ground beneath them and several meters beyond cracked violently, the pavement splintering like glass from the sheer impact.
Drey’s grin widened. The demon was being forced backward, its feet dragging across the broken ground.
"Wh... who is that?" Lana asked weakly as she slowly pushed herself off the ground, one hand clutching her aching head, her body trembling slightly from fatigue.
"An alleged S rank," Daki replied grimly without tearing her gaze away from the clash. Her tone carried both awe and disbelief. She could barely keep her eyes on Drey’s movements; he was simply too fast.
"Wh... what happened?" Jasmine muttered, her voice faint as she lay half-conscious. She was too weak to lift a finger, only able to watch the overwhelming collision of power unfolding before her.
’Huh? Who is this person fighting the demon?’ she thought as confusion filled her face, her brow furrowing deeply.
Drey stood straight and called out, his voice echoing over the howling wind. "You see, you’ve been so full of yourself that you didn’t even realize that for the past few minutes we’ve been fighting... I haven’t even drawn my sword from its sheath."
Jake’s eyes widened in realization. ’Wait a moment... that’s true,’ he thought, recalling every exchange in his mind. Not once had the sword left its sheath. Every strike Drey delivered was with the scabbard itself.
"That’s to prove one thing," Drey continued, twirling his sheath effortlessly in one hand, his grin sharp and confident. "I don’t need my weapon to defeat a rat like you."
"Then let’s see if I won’t make you draw your weapon!" the demon thundered furiously. The ground beneath its feet cracked as raw demonic energy surged out, waves of corrupted power distorting the air. With a deafening boom, it exploded forward, the space between them closing in an instant.
"Trust me," Drey said coldly, his eyes narrowing as he gripped his sheath tightly, "you don’t want to see me draw my blade."
The moment the words left his lips, the demon appeared in front of him again, its twin sickles crossing in a deadly arc that could have sliced through steel.
And yet—Drey didn’t flinch.