Forsaken Hunter-Chapter 26: Judgment of the King

Kneel... or bleed.

The command wasn't shouted.

It didn't need to be.

It was law.

Every soul on the battlefield froze.

The weaker ones dropped instantly, eyes hollow, knees buckling. Not from fear—no, this was deeper. This was submission. Their very wills were unraveling.

Even Hammer Head... trembled.

From where he lay slumped against broken stone, Charles forced his head up. Blood soaked his mouth. His arms refused to move.

But when he saw the figure standing in the dust...

Tears welled in his broken eyes.

> "The King... he's awakened..."

His voice cracked. "May the King live forever..."

Not far away, Luna blinked through a haze of blood and pain. Her lips were chapped, her voice just a breath.

> "B-Beno...?"

Beno said nothing.

His eyes were locked on Hammer Head.

The brute gritted his teeth, lifting his hammer.

"You think some power-up changes anything?! You're still—!"

BOOM.

Beno moved.

Not a run.

Not a lunge.

He simply... stepped.

And the ground shattered beneath his foot—splintering like glass, sending a crater outward in a ring of raw power.

In an instant—he was gone.

Appeared again right in front of Hammer Head.

A ghost.

A god.

A storm clothed in skin.

His voice was calm. Cold.

> "I warned you not to touch her."

Dark wind spiraled around his palm—silent, but screaming in pressure.

> "You mocked my cries...

> Fed on our fear...

> Laughed while my friends bled..."

His fist clenched. The sky wept.

> "You brought death to my door..."

His voice dropped to a whisper.

> "Now... I'll show you mine."

Hammer Head, bloodied but unyielding, planted his feet in the rubble. Mana surged around him like a violent storm. His eyes blazed with madness.

"You're not the only one who's awakened!"

He roared, lifting his weapon above his head, and the ground cracked beneath him. Lightning coiled around the massive hammer, screaming with power.

"Destruction Slam!"

He slammed the weapon down with all his might.

BOOOOOOM!

The explosion shook the heavens. The blast swallowed Beno whole, launching him like a broken doll through the air. His body crashed through three buildings, the last one folding in on itself as stone and flame exploded skyward.

Luna screamed, but her voice was lost in the chaos. She couldn't move—her limbs wouldn't listen. Yet her eyes, filled with horror, never left Beno's broken form.

Smoke. Silence.

Hammer Head dropped to one knee, panting. He coughed—then blood spilled from his lips.

"What... the hell? That took seventy percent of my mana..."

He clutched his chest. Fear crept into his eyes.

Even after that... he's still alive?

The dust began to settle. And then—

A voice.

Low. Calm. Terrifying.

"Subarashi... Subarashi..."

Hammer Head's pupils shrank.

Beno walked through the smoke, bloodied but standing tall, his body bruised but his aura stronger than ever. He cracked his neck slowly, stretching one arm behind him.

"Now... it's my turn."

With a blink—he vanished.

CRASH!

He reappeared in front of Hammer Head, fist raised. The brute barely dodged—Beno's punch slammed into the ground, sending out a shockwave so powerful that every nearby building's glass shattered.

Wind howled outward, tearing signs from walls, rattling the bones of every man watching.

Hammer Head turned to run.

But Beno was already behind him.

In a blur, something glinted—then disappeared.

Hammer Head stumbled.

He looked down.

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His legs were gone.

Cleanly severed.

He hit the ground screaming. "W-Wait—PLEASE! Spare me! Don't kill me!"

Beno's footsteps were slow, steady, final.

"If you had touched me... maybe I could've forgiven you."

He stopped just before the crawling man.

"But you touched my friends. My family. My Queen."

Beno's aura darkened, and for Hammer Head, the world grew cold.

"Now... you'll pay."

To the others, Beno looked like a man.

To Hammer Head—he saw death itself. His sins, every cruelty, every crime—manifested in the form of the boy who now stood before him.

Suddenly—

DING!

[New Skill Unlocked: Imagination Prison]

Hammer Head gasped. "W-What is th—?"

Reality shifted.

He was no longer on the battlefield.

He was naked, surrounded by countless twisted shadows of men, holding him down. He screamed as their hands touched him, laughed at him. And then—his body warped.

He had become a woman.

The scene grew unspeakable, and he screamed louder. But no one could hear him. Not anymore.

It was all in his mind.

Outside, his body collapsed into a coma—trapped inside Beno's imagination trap, cursed to live in pleasure and humiliation until death freed him.

Beno turned, cold rage still in his eyes.

The remaining thugs screamed. Ran.

But none escaped.

Beno moved through them like a demon—ripping limbs, shattering bones, turning cowards into corpses. Blood drenched the street, and none dared fight back.

None survived.

When the final scream faded, Beno stood alone.

His chest rose and fell, eyes dimming, rage retreating.

He turned to his fallen friends.

"You gave me your trust..."

He raised his hand, glowing with Restoration Magic. Light spilled from his fingers, wrapping around the broken forms of Sam, Charles, and finally, Luna.

Sam stirred, blinking.

Charles groaned—alive again.

Luna... was still.

Beno knelt beside her. His hand shook as he placed it over her heart, whispering words in an old tongue.

A soft light glowed beneath his palm.

"Come back to me... please."

Luna gasped.

Her fingers twitched.

He smiled, gently laying her down on the ground.

Then, with his energy finally spent—

Beno collapsed beside her.

The storm faded.

But the field remained silent.

Veno City no longer looked like a place it was ruined but now it's almost like unable to reconstruction.

Buildings stood in fractured silence—walls torn down, streets cracked open like dried earth, smoke rising from burnt stone.

The ground was littered with rubble, blood, and the haunting stillness that only came after something terrible had passed.

To anyone watching from a distance, it was clear—

This wasn't a battle.

It was a massacre.

Three figures approached cautiously through the ruins, cloaks billowing in the wind.

Mona, deputy leader of the Noak Guild, narrowed her eyes as she scanned the battlefield. Her steps slowed. Around her, two swordsmen and a mage followed silently, eyes wide with disbelief.

> "This wasn't just some human fight..." Mona whispered. "This looks like an A-rank monster fought here..."

The wind shifted.

And that's when they saw them.

Bodies.

Not monsters. Humans.

Forsaken Hunter Group were—collapsed, scattered, bloodied.

Luna was half-buried beneath broken debris, Charles slumped against a wall, Sam curled up like a child. And at the center, like the eye of a storm—

Beno, lying motionless.

"Move!" Mora barked.

The guild members sprinted forward, digging out healing potions and salves from their pouches. Kneeling beside each fallen figure, they began pouring them carefully, trying to stabilize whoever still breathed.

> "She's alive!"

The healer pressed fingers against Luna's neck.

"Her mana's nearly burned out, but her body's intact."

Luna stirred.

Her eyes blinked open, unfocused, searching.

And then—she turned her head.

Beno.

He lay beside her, blood still wet on his lips, his breathing faint but steady. She gasped and pushed herself upright, ignoring the stabbing pain in her chest.

> "Beno...!"

Her hands shook as she touched his shoulder. For a terrifying moment, she felt no response—but then his chest rose, slow and shallow.

He was alive.

> "Thank the gods..."

But her relief didn't last.

Because her mind pulled her back—to the moment she saw him standing in the smoke, his voice calm, his face blank, and bodies falling like paper dolls. That **other side** of Beno—the one that killed without hesitation, without mercy.

The King who tore men apart with nothing but thought.

She stared at him now, and for the first time, she wasn't sure who she was looking at.

---

A few feet away, Charles groaned and forced himself up on trembling legs. His whole body screamed in protest—but somehow, it responded. He looked down at his arms, his chest—**healed**.

> "He... he fixed us?" he muttered, dazed. "Even after all that..."

He stumbled over to Sam, who lay curled in the shadow of a crumbled statue.

Sleeping peacefully. Wounds gone. Breathing steady.

> "He really is something else..."

---

Meanwhile, one of Noak's swordsmen found another body—half-buried in rubble, breathing raggedly.

Hammer Head.

Eyes rolled back. Foam at the mouth. His muscles twitched with every breath.

> "We found a survivor!" the swordsman shouted. "He's in a coma!"

Mora approached, her expression tightening.

> "That's... Hammer Head," she said, recognizing the scarred face. "Mercenary. Dangerous. Keep him restrained."

They poured a potion on him anyway—standard rescue protocol. His body stabilized, but he didn't wake. Whatever had trapped his mind... still held him.

> "Take him to the guild hospital. With the rest."

---

As the rescue squad moved, Luna sat beside Beno, watching his still form.

He looked peaceful. Too peaceful.

Like someone hiding a storm beneath still waters.

Her hands curled into fists on her lap.

> "What happened to you...?" she whispered. "What did I see out there?"

She didn't know if it was power. Or trauma. Or something... darker.

But whatever it was, it had awakened. And now it wouldn't go back to sleep.

Even with the healing, even with the victory—Beno had changed.

And deep inside her, something whispered that the beno she knew...