Future Knight

Chapter 42

Kang Chan wanted to scream at the sight of him.

He thought that somewhere in the corner, Jaina might be dead in such a state.

“Jaina! Jaina! Jaina, answer me!”

Kang Chan, like a madman, ran through the fire, searching every corner of the house for Jaina.

But he couldn’t find the bodies of Jaina or her mother anywhere.

He sighed in relief.

A small hope that she might still be alive arose within him.

Kang Chan hurriedly stepped outside the house.

However, outside the house, dozens of green elves, armed with blood-soaked weapons, were waiting for Kang Chan.

Their long, beautiful elf ears were grotesquely severed and threaded on wires around their necks and waists.

Seeing this, Kang Chan’s eyes flared with anger.

“You bastards! I’ll kill every single one of you!”

“Kill the remnants!”

At the shout of a green elf who seemed to be their leader, the soldiers rushed toward Kang Chan.

Kang Chan mercilessly pulled the trigger of his railgun towards them.

A small metal ball, only 3 millimeters in diameter, accelerated by the electromagnetic barrel, was fired at them at an incredible speed of Mach 6.5.

Their bodies didn’t just get holes; they shattered and exploded upon impact.

In an instant, 30 green elves hit by the railgun were reduced to pieces, with only their lower bodies left, along with their armor.

The few remaining green elves screamed and began to flee in all directions.

“Ah, it’s a demon! A demon has appeared!”

The terrified green elves, seeing Kang Chan in his black suit, screamed and called him a demon.

But Kang Chan had no interest in such small fry.

He had to move quickly to find her.

Kang Chan began searching the area on his airbike, looking for traces of Jaina.

But as if they knew all too well how desperate Kang Chan felt, the green elves swarmed in like a pack of dogs and began shooting arrows at him.

Furious, Kang Chan aimed his railgun at them and shouted.

“If Jaina even has a scratch, I’ll wipe out your entire race!”

The railgun spewed fire at the swarming green elves, and they began to shatter like watermelons.

When he fired the grenade launcher attached under the barrel at the densest spot, a massive explosion followed, scattering the arms and legs of the green elves everywhere.

“Ah! My leg!”

“He’s a mage!”

“It’s a demon!”

The grenades were only the size of a human finger, but they were high-performance bombs with a killing radius of 20 meters.

With a single grenade, almost 50 green elves were either killed on the spot or lost their limbs.

Even the green elves far away were severely injured by the flying stones and branches from the explosion, groaning in pain.

Despite the horrific scene, Kang Chan’s eyes remained cold as he looked at them.

It was as if he had returned to his days as Kang Chan of the Red Mars special forces.

He continuously poured bullets and grenades at the floundering elves.

Even though it was an impossible battle, one against thousands, the elves on the ground had no chance of catching Kang Chan flying around on his airbike.

Moreover, the overwhelming power of his magical attacks raining down from the sky.

Only their bodies piled up higher and higher.

As time passed, realizing they had no chance of winning, the green elves began to retreat, abandoning Kang Chan.

Kang Chan let them go.

His 200-round magazine was almost empty, and he had only one grenade left.

As they fled like the ebb tide, countless bodies of green elves were strewn across the ground.

Kang Chan increased his altitude and began scanning the surroundings using the high-magnification lenses of his suit.

From a distance, he saw the scene of dozens of elves slaughtered on a hill.

It seemed they had been attacked by green elves while fleeing into the mountains.

With a sense of dread, Kang Chan moved to that location.

‘Please, don’t be here… Please.’

He checked the faces of the dead elves one by one, hoping Jaina wasn’t among them.

Among them, he found a woman writhing in pain.

Landing, Kang Chan dismantled his helmet and spoke to her.

“Hey! Hey! Stay with me!”

“Ouch!”

With just a slight touch, the elf woman screamed in pain.

When Kang Chan glanced at her side, he saw a broken arrow deeply embedded there.

If left as she was, it seemed unlikely she would survive.

Kang Chan decided to help her, thinking she might provide a clue to Jaina’s whereabouts.

“I’ll help you. Hang in there!”

At his words, the elf woman looked up at him with great difficulty.

She widened her eyes and spoke.

“No… it’s you?”

“……”

Kang Chan knew who she was.

She was Jaina’s neighbor, who had always disliked both him and Jaina.

‘This is awkward…’

Kang Chan felt awkward, but she was different.

Dying alone in the forest, even though she had disliked him, seeing a familiar face made tears fall from her eyes like raindrops.

“I’ll treat you first. But before that…”

Kang Chan broke a sturdy branch nearby and put it in her mouth.

“If you want to live, bite down hard and endure it.”

She understood exactly what his words and actions meant.

Her face turned pale with fear and terror.

But she knew that staying still would only lead to certain death.

So, following Kang Chan’s words, she bit down hard on the branch and nodded with great effort.

As she bit the branch as instructed, Kang Chan nodded back and began to carefully examine her wound.

A blue light flowed from his palm and scanned the wound.

Bzzz.

“Good.”

The high-sensitivity ultrasound confirmed that the arrowhead was simple in shape and not entangled with any internal organs, making it possible to remove it without much trouble.

If the arrowhead had been barbed, he wouldn’t have dared to touch it.

Such arrows would require surgical equipment to push the arrowhead through the other side and then remove it, ensuring no further damage to the internal organs.

Pulling out a barbed arrowhead with force would have risked severe internal damage or even dragging organs out of the body.

Kang Chan began to wrap his hand around the arrow shaft and applied force, causing the elf woman to convulse in immense pain.

The agony she felt seemed beyond imagination.

Her forehead was drenched in cold sweat.

“Just a bit more, hang in there.”

“Uuuuugh!”

The branch in her mouth was on the verge of being crushed.

Encouraging her, Kang Chan continued to pull the arrow, and finally, the arrowhead started to show.

Fortunately, just before she lost consciousness, he successfully removed the arrow.

However, removing the arrow, which had been embedded nearly half a hand’s length, caused massive bleeding.

Kang Chan pressed down on the wound with his hand and began to inject micro machines into her body.

The medical micro machines were made of protein and minerals, resembling microorganisms rather than metal.

However, they were indeed robots designed with mechanisms.

These medical micro machines, after completing their tasks, would dissolve into the bloodstream and be absorbed by the patient’s body.

“Ahhh…”

Even in her dazed state, the elf woman watched Kang Chan pressing her wound and felt uncertain, wondering, ‘Is pressing it all he’s going to do?’

But as she felt a tingling sensation from something flowing into her side through his hand, she flinched.

Kang Chan sternly shouted.

“No! Stay still. My friends will heal your wound.”

Hearing that these strange things entering her body would heal her wound, she had no choice but to endure and remain still.

As the medical micro machines began to tend to her wound from inside, the feeling was both painful and ticklish, leaving her with a complex and subtle expression.

After about five minutes, Kang Chan slowly removed his blood-soaked hand from her side.

Her wound now showed only a slight scar.

Her eyes widened as she looked at her healed wound.

“How… without using magic…?”

“Don’t be too surprised. In our world, this is less amazing than magic.”

Tears streamed down her face again.

“Th-thank you for saving me. Even though I haven’t done anything for you…”

“Nothing for me? It was the elves who saved my life.”

“Kang Chan… sniff.”

Suddenly, she embraced Kang Chan and began to cry.

Having been on the brink of death and surviving, her emotions overwhelmed her.

But Kang Chan had no time to accommodate her tears of relief.

He had spent too much time with her.

Kang Chan wanted only one thing from her.

He needed to know Jaina’s whereabouts.

“Excuse me, but have you seen Jaina, who lived next door?”

Swallowing her tears, she replied to Kang Chan’s question.

“If you mean Jaina, she and I were fleeing to the village shrine together, but after that, I don’t know. I got hit by an arrow while climbing this hill…”

Recalling the moment she was struck by the arrow, her expression darkened rapidly.

“The shrine? Where is that?”

She hesitated for a moment, then raised her hand and pointed in a direction.

“If you go past this forest to the far end, there’s a cave beneath a cliff. Inside, there’s a shrine dedicated to the spirits of our ancestors who protected the forest. When danger approaches the forest, we go there to seek their protection.”

Hearing her words, Kang Chan felt a surge of joy as if his heart would burst.

He had finally found a clue to her whereabouts.

Hope blossomed on Kang Chan’s face.

“Can you walk?”

“Just a moment. Ah, ouch!”

She tried to get up but, as her wound hadn’t fully healed, her face twisted in pain and she collapsed back down.