The hunter, exuding the red aura, locked his eyes against the young man, barely 26 years old compared to him, who was close to hitting 40. Yet, the malicious intent emitted through his eyes was piercing cold.

"You want to get beaten up too, you bastard?! Get me to the Black Hawk!!" shouted the hunter.

"You’re looking at him." spoke the young man with his eyes revealing a cold gaze.

"You? Are you shitting me, boy? They let a lamb run this big casino?

Are you ready to face the consequences of lying to me?" iterated the burly bald hunter as he flexed his arms.

"Leave before I make you leave. I couldn’t give two shits about whatever reason you came to cause trouble here.

You’re disrupting our business and discomforting our customers. This will be the final warning you’ll receive," spoke the boy with short black hair as he warned the hunter with a domineering but decisive tone.

"You will make me leave? Is that a joke?

Looks like I need to remind you who’s the shark in this pond," spoke the hunter, and instantly, he lunged at Morpheus.

His fist glowed, and a visible aura surrounded his entire right arm as he launched a solid punch towards Morpheus.

Bang!

A shockwave pushed the people and the furniture on the floor back.

But instead of Morpheus falling on the ground... he blocked and absorbed the full force of the punch with his palm.

"What?! Did I see that correctly?" asked an elderly customer as his eyes widened in shock.

"Did that boy just block a hunter’s attack?" spoke another customer.

It was then...

"The gloves on your hand... what are they?" spoke the hunter.

"They are called ’none of your goddamn business’." replied Morpheus nonchalantly.

This response infuriated the hunter as he attacked Morpheus, targeting his stomach with his left fist.

BANG!!

Another shockwave sent people backward as this attack, too, was completely absorbed.

Soon, the hunter started fighting seriously and launched a plethora of attacks on Morpheus relentlessly.

"This... what the hell is happening?" asked a middle-aged man among the customers.

It was right this moment, the hunter figured it out.

"This mundane-looking glove, that jacket, and even the coat... these are all hunter artifacts, aren’t they?" he queried with an incredulous countenance.

"Took you long enough to figure it out," spoke Morpheus coldly.

From the very beginning, Morpheus was defending himself using hunter equipment for defense, even though he couldn’t use skills or magic.

As for avoiding all the major hits and remaining unhurt even against a hunter... It was the result of his pure training and dedication over the past 2 decades. He was 26 years old now, but his body and reflexes were those of a seasoned veteran.

Hunters in the main cities often worked for private organizations, especially those who could not make it big as hunters or weren’t recruited by guilds due to their past crimes or track records of monster invasion clears.

Not everyone used power to protect, such was the evident fact of the world.

And to this day... Morpheus hated hunters. So he was prepared to face them in emergencies like these. And all the gear he wore was the culmination of his investment over the years.

******************

The fight continued, and Morpheus was basically able to bring the clash to a standstill.

"Oye, do you have any idea how much I had to save up over the years just to buy these rare rank equipments?

Even though I can’t use them at their full capacity like a proper hunter... it still works enough to withstand a trash like you.

Let’s be honest, you ain’t even a B-rank hunter." said Morpheus with a sly smirk.

In the end, he was just a C-ranked hunter but failed to beat Morpheus.

"Hey, baldy... You never really learned to fight, have you?" asked Morpheus with a sly grin.

"That’s why even someone like me can stand up to you when, by logic, you should have the strength and speed of 5 men combined.

Even your punches and hooks are just overpowered swings with no form or tact.

To think a retarded punk like you is acting all high and mighty in my casino just because he’s a hunter... it is incredibly vexing." said Morpheus with an irritated expression.

"Just tell me... who sent you?

Very few people know about my alias as the Black Hawk in our triad. A random stranger, a hunter at that, has no reason to know it." he asked with a grim voice.

"Does it matter? The important thing is that you and your little club are removed from this territory.

Rats like you should stay in the sewers, your kind has no business in messing with the rich people’s money." replied the hunter.

"Ah, it’s been barely a month, and I already got on somebody’s radar... feels like there’s a mole in our gang.

Nevertheless, I will simply have to beat it out of you." spoke Morpheus, and for the first time since the beginning of this skirmish, he took a battle stance.

"You? Beat it out of me?! Don’t get over your head, you scumbag.

I have been holding back until now because I didn’t feel like wasting my skills on you.

But now... I won’t care even if it kills you." said the hunter.

BOOM!!

He activated a skill.

"Mountain Rampage!" he bellowed in rage as his aura took the form of a rhino as he charged at Morpheus.

Rumble!

Morpheus quickly dodged as the hunter hit the wall behind him and almost creating a massive hole in it.

Had Morpheus been hit with this skill... his bones would’ve been crushed instantly.

"Fury Dash!" shouted the hunter and attacked Morpheus.

This time, Morpheus was partially hit by the skill, but the defensive longcoat he wore absorbed the impact and only shoved him a few feet away.

But the attack destroyed the railing behind him, and the customers below saw the long iron railing with spikes falling on their heads.

"Run! We won’t survive against a hunter!" spoke one of the customers.

The railing with spikes fell to the ground, breaking the tables below as all the customers started running away in frenzy.

Nobody wanted to get into trouble just because they were present at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Soon, all the staff and the customers left the building while Morpheus faced the hunter, landing a few hits of his own but not doing any considerable damage.

[He only has those charge attacks; there is no control in his movements when he charges at the target. I can use that.] thought Morpheus.

The bald hunter used another charging skill and just as soon as he came close to Morpheus, at the edge of the first floor that could be seen from the main hall of the ground floor...

Morpheus ducked and hit the hunter’s legs using his boots, which were also another artifact.

However... instead of falling on the ground, the momentum made him launch his body much higher, and the hunter basically couldn’t stop his own skill.

Morpheus saw the man falling from the first floor below with his own eyes and before he could react...

Stab!

The hunter fell on a table below from the first floor, and his neck landed on a spike etched out of the railing.

"UGGHHHHH!!!" he moaned in disbelief as he grabbed his neck, trying to stop the bleeding.

"Fuck!" exclaimed Morpheus as he saw the man struggling for his life.

Fighting was one thing, but mortally injuring a person, especially a hunter... was enough to get himself in trouble for the rest of his life.

Morpheus quickly marched down the stairs and came to rescue the bleeding hunter.

The white floor was now a canvas of blood as Morpheus tried to stop the bleeding with his handkerchief.

"Don’t fucking die on me, you fucker!" he exclaimed and tightened the grip over the neck.

But in mere seconds... the hunter lost the light in his eyes.

A shock jolted Morpheus as he realized in that instant... that the hunter was dead.

A man was killed, and even though there were no longer any witnesses... the story would eventually spread that it was him because the last person to fight this man was none other than Morpheus himself.

Even though the shock wasn’t even absorbed by him...

Ding!

Morpheus suddenly saw a blue translucent status window appearing in front of him.

[Talent Awakened!]

His ears rang with a sudden alarm as his eyes widened in disbelief with another new alert...

[Class: Hunter Killer]