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[Translator - Helga ]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]
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Chapter 96: Incarnation Body (1)
The rampaging mana suddenly fell silent. The world quieted, as if it had all been a lie.
But Jose del Pablo couldn’t relax. Not with that black spire standing in front of him.
Gulp.
He swallowed hard without realizing it—a clear sign that the tension had reached its peak.
Then, the black spire began to dissolve like smoke. And from within it, Kwon Hanul emerged.
“…What the hell is that?”
Yet Jose del Pablo couldn't help but doubt whether that was truly Kwon Hanul.
Two horns had sprouted from his forehead.
His entire body was cloaked in black flames.
His legs had bent backward like a beast's.
Ten claws, more savage than any blade, extended from his fingers.
But the most striking feature was what swayed behind him...
“…A tail?”
A thin, sinuous tail waved gently in the air.
“…Is that really Kwon Hanul?”
His face definitely looked like Hanul’s.
But Jose del Pablo’s instincts and experience refused to acknowledge the creature before him as human.
The atmosphere, the ominous aura, the spine-chilling sensation—
He had completely transformed into something else.
— Fascinating.
Hanul finally spoke. But his voice was strange.
— So this is what it feels like… to become a dragon.
The voice didn't come through the ears. It echoed directly in Jose del Pablo’s mind.
He felt sweat soak his back.
Just hearing that voice made his entire body tense up. Every warning bell in his mind went off in a frenzy.
— I want to savor this feeling a little longer.
Hanul’s glowing eyes fixed on Jose del Pablo.
At that moment, an overwhelming terror gripped Jose del Pablo, like every nerve in his body had been ripped out.
He hurriedly thrust GG forward, right in front of Hanul’s face.
“Stop!”
It seemed to work. Hanul froze in place.
But Jose del Pablo still couldn’t let his guard down.
“Take another step, and I’ll kill this one.”
— Disappointing.
Hanul responded flatly.
— Is hostage-taking all the so-called strongest Hunter in South America can do?
Even with the provocation, Jose del Pablo didn’t flinch.
More precisely, he didn’t have the luxury to feel ashamed. He needed to stop Hanul’s approach—by any means necessary.
“Cut the crap. Just stay still.”
He lightly tapped the ground with his spiked sword.
The ground beneath him floated upward.
It soared to a dizzying height.
Standing atop it, Jose del Pablo looked down at Hanul—who now seemed as tiny as an ant.
“Yeah, stay just like that.”
He summoned his mana. A massive amount was drained in an instant as his skill activated:
Hands of the Eight Directions.
A skill that manipulated attractive and repulsive forces.
Debris scattered on the ground began to rise. But the amount was abnormal.
It wasn’t just a few pieces—every single object littering the ground floated up without exception.
Even buildings were uprooted and lifted into the air. Every structure in the port town rose skyward.
What had been a harbor just moments ago was now flat, empty land.
“Watch closely!”
With a snap of his fingers, a toy flew toward the sea.
A shockwave burst in midair. Instantly, the ocean exploded. Water shot into the sky before crashing back down.
“I’m going to focus all of this on you!”
If a plastic toy had that kind of power—
Imagine what concrete or scrap metal would do.
“If you care about this hostage’s life, don’t even think about dodging!”
It was a completely unreasonable, absurd demand.
Jose del Pablo raised his hand high and then slammed it down.
Hands of the Eight Directions generated repulsive force. Every single piece of floating debris was hurled toward Kwon Hanul.
Hundreds of thousands of fragments flew at him. The shockwave alone shook the sky.
The first projectile struck Hanul in the chest. The impact shattered the ground and sent his body flying backward.
Then the rest followed, pummeling his body all over.
Hanul’s body shook violently under the barrage.
“Yes! Don’t dodge! Just die already!”
Jose del Pablo was clearly in control of the fight.
And yet, he looked like the one cornered.
Then it happened.
Hanul’s lips parted slightly. Inside were beast-like fangs.
He inhaled. His chest expanded.
Like a balloon being inflated, his torso grew.
At the peak of that swelling—
Hanul exhaled all at once.
Black Dragon Ascension Art, Upper Form: Strike Style: Dragon’s Roar
Sound waves erupted from Hanul in every direction.
Anything the shockwave touched disintegrated into dust.
In an instant, the world was swept clean.
“….”
Jose del Pablo was speechless at the sheer absurdity of what he had just seen.
— Is it over?
Hanul’s voice echoed in his mind again. Jose del Pablo gritted his teeth.
Now was not the time to be in awe. If he didn’t kill Hanul, he would die.
He activated Hands of the Eight Directions once more—but this time, he didn’t use it on debris.
“No!”
He reversed the skill.
Gravitational force now pressed down from the sky, aimed directly at Hanul.
The force that had previously lifted an entire town’s worth of matter was now focused on crushing a single person.
The pressure was unimaginable. The ground under Hanul's feet cracked and sank.
Jose del Pablo intensified the skill. The pressure doubled, then tripled.
The ground was being destroyed.
And yet, Hanul remained perfectly fine.
He just stood there, unfazed, staring back at him.
— How dull.
Hanul bent his knees slightly, poised to dash. Alarmed, Jose del Pablo yelled:
“You're wasting your time!”
With Hands of the Eight Directions, Jose could lift a million tons of seawater.
That same force was now pressing down on Hanul.
No one could move under such weight.
Or so he thought.
Hanul launched himself off the ground. Black aura exploded around him as he sprinted straight ahead.
“Y-You madman!”
Panicking, Jose del Pablo shifted the skill from pressure to direct impact—slamming Hanul repeatedly.
But Hanul was too fast. The blows couldn't land.
Hanul pushed off the ground again—
This time, he soared high into the sky, above even Jose del Pablo’s position.
“You don’t care about this hostage's life—”
He shouted while holding GG forward.
That’s when GG saw it.
Hanul kicked off from thin air.
He descended diagonally, from the sky—
And in that moment, Jose del Pablo’s waist folded inward.
“Guh…!”
Hanul’s fist was buried in his gut. His body hurtled downward.
Moments later, the ground quaked violently.
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[Translator - Helga ]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]
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