The Returner Chapter 222

(TL: Unedited)

"Argh, that’s hot!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk saw dozens of snake-like shapes flying towards him and jumped up in the air.
‘For now, lightly eva….’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
BOOM!!
A huge crater suddenly formed in the ground and his body shot up into the air with a scarcely-believable velocity.
I said lightly!!! LIGHTLY!!
I know this is supposed to be my body, but how can you not know what ‘lightly’ means?! (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
He was thinking of ‘lightly’, but the end result could definitely not be called ‘lightly’ at all as he was now performing a really high jump. His much-enhanced body was not under his full, exacting control just yet, it seemed.
And Delkaran certainly didn’t miss this opening.
Guooooh-!!
The snakes brushing past him quickly changed their directions and shot towards Yi Ji-Hyuk up in the air.
"Hul…." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
During a fight, it was completely forbidden to jump in the air where it was impossible to control one’s body. Countless knights jumped up, just like Yi Ji-Hyuk had done now, only to get toyed around to death.
….By Yi Ji-Hyuk’s own hands, no less.
Back then, he ridiculed them for being so dumb, yet here he was, doing the exact same thing.
‘Wowsers. So, when your body becomes like this, you naturally want to do this, eh?’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
He always wondered why those knights did something so stupid, but as it turned out, when one’s strength level rose up, it became easier to dodge upwards rather than to the sides. And that was why he also ended up jumping straight up, too.
Yi Ji-Hyuk inwardly apologised to all those knights he ridiculed for being dumba*ses.
Yup, this hyung didn’t know until now.
Why didn’t you all say something, though? I’d never have made fun of you all then. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
He was casually thinking of some things that might make those involved hurl a torrent of abuse in his direction were they to hear him.
Now isn’t the time to think about other c**p, though.
I gotta evade these things, so. Mmm….
What did those knights do to dodge when in similar situations like this one? (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
Yi Ji-Hyuk forced his brain to recall the memories from his past, but the only stuff being brought back up were the sights of various knights getting pummelled by his magic and getting killed in the air.
O-oii….
That’s gonna be troublesome, ain’t it?
Hang on, does that mean I gotta get pummelled by these things, too?
But, my bones and flesh will get crushed, though??? (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
He immediately recognised that things were going downhill real fast and shouted out at the top of his lungs.
"Afffffffeeeeel!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Affeldrichae, observing the unfolding situation from the ground, spat out a lengthy groan and began making hand signs.
"Just when will he become dependable, I wonder…..?" (Affeldrichae)
Her emotions would always be a mixed bag whenever she was looking at him. She definitely respected him for what he had accomplished so far. And because of that, she also believed that he’d be able to accomplish anything, too.
However! Why oh why, looking at his everyday actions made him look so un-dependable? In that case, she’d prefer to see the end result to be sub-par, too!
The thing was, he continued to produce results after results even though he acted so untrustworthy. Just how was she to go about assessing this situation, then?
"Whew…." (Affeldrichae)
Affeldrichae groaned out, which was uncharacteristic for a Dragon, and extended her hand out.
Wuuuong!
An impact wave created with a simple hand sign flew towards Yi Ji-Hyuk.
"What the hell?!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
He saw what was flying at him and hurriedly cast Shield around his body.
Bang!!
Like a baseball being stuck by a bat, he was hit by the impact force and flew out of the range of the snakes pouncing up from underneath, before landing back on the solid ground.
"Couldn’t have thought up of a safer way?! You dang roughneck lizard woman!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"….And he still complains." (Affeldrichae)
Affeldrichae shook her head helplessly.
In any case, fighting alongside him always seemed to ‘pervert’ the situation somehow.
Whether they were on the opposite side or as a comrade, it was rather hard to work up one’s tension during a fight when Yi Ji-Hyuk was around.
‘We are still in the middle of fighting a demon king, aren’t we?’ (Affeldrichae)
Before Yi Ji-Hyuk’s appearance, an advent of a demon king was enough to bring about a gloomy atmosphere akin to the apocalypse to entire Berafe.
Under the intense, choking pressure, everyone gritted their teeth and for the sake of their survival, aided one another and did everything in their power.
But now, here was a demon king making its descent just like in the past, yet…
"Hey, you stinking snake b*stard! You’re supposed to admire the cool scene of a dude flying up high in the air, you know!! Don’t you know what living a cultured life is supposed to be?!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Affeldrichae’s expression hardened visibly to a naked eye.
Right now, it’s the same situation, yet…
Why does the atmosphere feel so different?
Does he know what being serious even means?? (Affeldrichae’s inner monologue)
‘….I’ve also become lax, too.’ (Affeldrichae)
The fact that she was thinking of stuff like this could only mean she herself wasn’t feeling all that tense even under the current situation. Affeldrichae reflected on her lackadaisical attitude and shook her head.
‘In any case, he’s completely beyond help.’ (Affeldrichae)
Her eyes now latched onto the sight of Yi Ji-Hyuk, a slimy smile on his face, walking towards where Delkaran was.
"Kekeke." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk’s head swayed this way and that, and with a wonderfully exemplary walking posture for any thugs out there to take note, he approached Delkaran in cheery steps.
"….That’s amazing." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Choi Jung-Hoon’s body shuddered when seeing Yi Ji-Hyuk behave like that.
What could this be?
This, this strange, weird feeling?
It was like - like, seeing a man who used to wear clothes that didn’t quite fit properly throw off those ungainly apparels and put on the right-sized ones instead for the first time.
"So, how come…." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Seo Ah-Young provided the timely support from the side.
"That suits him amazingly well, doesn’t it?" (Seo Ah-Young)
"Oh. You’re right." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Indeed, that had to be it.
Choi Jung-Hoon began nodding his head without noticing it himself.
Truth be told, there always had been this sense of discord regarding Yi Ji-Hyuk. He acted exactly like a local low-rent thug most of the time, yet come battle time, he’d stay away and go pew-pew with his magic spells, so how could anyone not feel weirded out by that?
Plus, witnessing that rather memorable scene of Yi Ji-Hyuk’s first fight probably played a big part in Choi Jung-Hoon’s mind, too.
The scenes of him climbing up on top of a Goblin to pound it to death, as well as using hand-to-hand combat to beat up a Builder Monkey still remained vivid in Choi Jung-Hoon’s brain, so seeing Yi Ji-Hyuk shoot magic from the distance brought about a subtle but persistent case of disharmony in him.
Whether one was looking at his personality or his everyday behaviour, didn’t Yi Ji-Hyuk seem like the type to pursue the tactics of running straight into the frontline and perform hit-and-run just to drive the enemies up the wall with anger?
The image in Choi Jung-Hoon’s mind was finally matching up with the current Yi Ji-Hyuk.
Just take a gander at that thug-like gait! Look! (Choi Jung-Hoon’s inner monologue)
"Hehehehet." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Even Yi Ji-Hyuk seemed to be enjoying himself.
"Oh, you awake now?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Delkaran staggered back to upright position, its pair of brightly-burning, wavering eyes glaring straight back at him.
"Aigoo~, so scary!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
His mouth also didn’t seem to take a break, either. Delkaran spoke with a tone of voice that sounded like teeth gnashing in anguish.
"You b*stard!!" (Delkaran)
"Aigoo~." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk cackled on.
"Would you hear yourself? You really are itching to devour me whole, aren’t you? What happened to all your leisurely demeanour now?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"Euh, euh!!!" (Delkaran)
Delkaran was in the middle of a great fluster.
The damage suffered from Yi Ji-Hyuk’s attack hadn’t fully recovered yet. It was a simple, plain-looking right straight, yet during the moment of impact, Delkaran thought its head might fly away.
‘What sort of destructive power is this?!’ (Delkaran)
It was still a demon king worthy of that title.
Before it climbed up to this position, it had experienced countless battles, and even after becoming a demon king, it still had to fight countless more battles. Amongst its enemies, there had been many demons that pushed their physical bodies to the extreme as well. The destructive power those enjoyed did prove to be threatening even to Delkaran.
But, even then, their attacks didn’t manage to shake Delkaran to its core like this. It was shocked not by the fact that Yi Ji-Hyuk used his body to attack, no, but from that unexpectedly high destructive power.
*SFX for an wound aching. Yes, there’s a word for that in Korean.*
Its still-recovering cheek ached painfully. Its head felt dizzy, too.
"How dare you!!" (Delkaran)
Delkaran glared at Yi Ji-Hyuk with pure rage. He simply formed a sly grin and replied.
"It’s way too surprising, right?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"……."
"I’m sure it is. Even I’m surprised, you know." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
He wasn’t lying, of course.
Even he was feeling somewhat taken aback right now. It was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing, and he sure as heck didn’t expect to see his experimentation to bear such a fruit.
Indeed, he was thinking of being happy if he got barely enough power to contend against this one demon king, that was all.
‘But, to think, I’d end up like this.’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
It felt quite surreal to him.
It also felt like there was this pit of lava continuously boiling inside his body. It was a different type of sensation compared to the pleasure he felt when endless amount of Mana flowed into him.
An emotion quite different from the sense of pure satisfaction was causing Yi Ji-Hyuk to feel all excited and giddy.
"This is a great feeling." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk’s tongue slid out and licked his lips.
Tendency-wise, I think this suits me better.
In that case….
Should we find out how much it suits me better? (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
He even had a perfect test subject right in front of him, too. He was talking about a wonderful test subject called ‘demon king’, something that couldn’t be found even if one went searching for it.
"You better be careful now." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Cuz, I can’t control my powers yet. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
BOOM!!
Yi Ji-Hyuk lightly tapped the ground with his foot. However, no one would say that the resulting shockwave was light at all. Yet another massive crater caved into the ground and the whole world shook around as if an earthquake broke out.
"Keuh!!" (Delkaran)
Too bad, Delkaran didn’t even have enough leeway to deal with all this shaking. Before the ‘earthquake’ could get to it, Yi Ji-Hyuk had already arrived before the demon king’s nose.
And his tightly-clenched fist was drawing a straight line towards Delkaran’s face. The demon king clearly saw all these unfold.
However, there must’ve been a sizeable gap between the rate of perceiving it and its body reacting to the threat, because even though the eyes could see, Delkaran couldn’t avoid this punch.
‘F*ck m….’ (Delkaran)
Yi Ji-Hyuk’s straight punch connected splendidly with Delkaran’s face once more.
There was no sound. Not initially.
Only after Delkaran’s body shot back like a cannon shell did the ear-bursting explosion of noise resound throughout the land.
BAAAANG!!!
And then, a loud sonic boom exploded right behind Yi Ji-Hyuk, too. He dashed forward at a speed far surpassing the sound itself, so the resulting sonic boom only arrived well after he came to stop.
BOOOOM-!!
Delkaran body flying away seemed to have broken past the speed of sound as well, loud echo of sonic booms continuously exploding out as it got further and further away.
"Keuh~! This isn’t even an orchestra, yet…!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Although a bit monotonous, couldn’t this be at least on the level of a choir now?
Boom! Bang! Crash! Thud!
Like a thrown stone skipping on the lake’s surface, Delkaran’s body bounced around the ground as it flew away. Yi Ji-Hyuk grinned ominously as he watched that before kicking the ground.
Ka-boom!!
He caught up in less than a blink and proceeded to punch Delkaran into the ground.
BOOOOM-!!
The demon king slammed into earth, and the whole world rocked viciously.
"Uwaaah!! That crazy idiot…!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Be careful!!" (Seo Ah-Young)
Debris, both big and small shot out like meteors in all directions.
Seo Ah-Young pulled Choi Jung-Hoon in and hurriedly jumped down to lay flat on the ground. The impact force was so enormous that the resulting debris flew right past just above their heads like bullets.
Whooooosh-!!
The debris shooting past created vacuum in its path and sucked in the air, causing their clothes to flap around.
"What the heck was all that?!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"That crazy b*stard!!" (Seo Ah-Young)
These two people just couldn’t get a grip on their panicking hearts.
It was already a matter worthy of great fluster that Yi Ji-Hyuk transformed into a brawler all of a sudden; yet, what on earth was up with this destructive power, too?
Every time he punched, an impact force that easily exceeded bombs and straight into the realms of ballistic missiles exploded out.
"Euh, euh…." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Choi Jung-Hoon somehow managed to push himself up from the ground. Yi Ji-Hyuk was pounding down with both of his fists where Delkaran’s body should be.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!!
As his continuous barrage of punches landed, the ground caved in as if it was made up of regular soil and his figure began sinking lower and lower.
"Am I dreaming this right now?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Didn’t this world have something called laws of physics?!
Stop digging the ground with your fists!! (Choi Jung-Hoon’s inner monologue)
"Euh-hahahahahat!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Whether he knew what Choi Jung-Hoon was thinking about or not, Yi Ji-Hyuk simply continued to pound the ground away.
"He’s really excited, isn’t he?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"….His true nature has finally revealed itself, I think." (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young shook her head in helplessness.
That guy, he might have been stingy, rude, and a genius when it came to tormenting other people, but he didn’t really show any violent tendencies so that did count as his saving grace, but now….
But now, what he was doing there, that was definitely the sight belonging to the God of Violence!
"He’s literally beating up a demon king like a dog." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Choi Jung-Hoon stared at Yi Ji-Hyuk with disbelieving eyes.
Wasn’t that thing supposed to be a demon king?
They had to give their utmost everything last time when fighting against Beltreche and still, almost died back then. However, the situation had changed far, far too much now.
Where did this change even come from?
Wuuuong-!!
It was then, a powerful burst of light exploded from beneath Yi Ji-Hyuk’s feet.
Fin.