## Chapter 145 – The Reason for the S-Class Hero Title
***
Lumi’s attack caught Iron Maiden off guard as she was focused on grinding down the ice wall.
“Alright… let’s get serious. ‘Hero Hunter’!”
Iron Maiden retrieved the metal wall that had blocked the ice shards flying at her, reshaping it into several sharp blades that she then positioned around herself.
The way she controlled the blades from a distance, orbiting her, resembled the sword techniques seen in martial arts novels.
“Haaaah!”
– Shuaaaaaat—
Iron Maiden’s body, moving like lightning, spun rapidly in the air as she charged towards Lumi. The orbiting blades drew a large arc, slicing through the space.
“Kuh…!”
Lumi’s ice pillars accurately predicted the trajectory of the blades, rising to meet them, but the blades’ incredible speed and cutting power cleanly severed the ice.
As a result, the mask covering Lumi’s mouth was sliced off, fully revealing her face. She also sustained a shallow cut on her knee, where blood began to seep through.
– Kwadedeuk—
Undaunted, Lumi sharply carved the fragments of the ice pillar that had been cut by the blades, aiming for Iron Maiden’s ankles as she rotated in the air, not missing the opportunity as she tried to land.
– Kwasasasak—!!
“Hoo… that was close.”
Lumi’s ice bullets flew so fast that even an A-Class hero wouldn’t be able to react, but Iron Maiden moved with ease, as if to prove she earned the S-Class title for a reason.
Iron Maiden retrieved the blades that had been attacking Lumi, accurately blocking the point of impact and deflecting the attack, before lightly setting her foot on the ground.
“Hero Hunter, huh?… You’re not as impressive as I thought. If you keep letting me come at you, you’ll have a hard time beating me.”
Lumi barely managed to block Iron Maiden’s continuous preemptive strikes, and all she could do was try to take advantage of the gaps and hope Iron Maiden wouldn’t be able to block her ranged attacks.
No matter how hard and sharp the ice was made, it was easily cut by the metal blades with saw-like edges.
Because the opponent in front of her was an ability user who could freely control such metal blades, Lumi was struggling more than in any battle she had fought so far.
Condensing moisture in the air and quickly freezing it was Lumi’s preferred method, and it would have been perfect for both offense and defense if not for the current compatibility issue.
But now, that compatibility issue was starting to hold Lumi back, and Iron Maiden’s reflexes and flexibility were beyond imagination.
‘It’s not ice… I might have to think of another way…’
To be precise, Lumi’s ability wasn’t to summon ice, but rather to lower the temperature of objects and ‘freeze’ them.
She needed a special strategy to defeat an S-Class hero, one of the strongest of the strong, not the A-Class heroes she had been easily defeating until now.
“Ah! Lumi Unni! Can you hear me? It seems to be taking longer than usual… are you okay?”
As Lumi caught her breath and watched Iron Maiden’s movements, Jiwoo’s voice came through the earpiece in her ear.
“Yeah… the opponent is a tough one.”
It was Jiwoo’s call to check if she needed support, as it was taking much longer than her usual hero hunts.
“This isn’t an opponent that can be judged in just one day. But… I need to figure out what weaknesses she has here.”
“Are you really… okay?”
“I’m fine. Chaeryeong Unni’s clone is waiting nearby. If things get really bad, I’ll contact you.”
“Okay! Please be careful!”
“Yeah.”
Lumi replied to Jiwoo’s encouragement to be careful, nodding her head with a smile as if she had thought of a good idea.
“Hoo…”
– Kwadeudeuk… Kwadeudeudeuk…
The area around Lumi’s feet, as she closed her eyes and focused, gradually froze, turning into an ice rink. The air around Lumi also slowly began to cool.
“What…? Was she not just an ice manipulator?”
Iron Maiden, who had been wearing a relaxed expression as she watched Lumi catch her breath, straightened her posture again as the atmosphere suddenly changed.
– Shuaaaaaat—!!!
In the meantime, as Iron Maiden repositioned her blades, Lumi slid across the frozen floor and quickly charged towards her.
“Eup?!”
She froze the bottom of her boots, turning them into skates, and attacked by freezing the floor she passed over, sliding as she moved—a new method.
– Kwadeudeudeuk…
“Tch…!”
Iron Maiden plunged her blades into the frozen floor and stepped on them, but even the blades began to freeze instantly.
– Shwaaaaaat—
She changed the blades that hadn’t frozen yet into thin, saw-like edges on her boots, like wearing crampons, and safely ran across the frozen floor.
“No time to rest…!”
Lumi continued to slide quickly across the ice floor, chasing Iron Maiden, and the area she passed was freezing so quickly that frost was forming.
– Kwadeudeudeuk—
Once again, she charged towards Iron Maiden, quickly freezing the orbiting blades, and chased after Iron Maiden as she tried to escape the frozen floor with her crampons.
‘Either way… that’s the limit to the amount of metal she can control.’
Iron Maiden’s ability was clearly to freely manipulate metal.
That meant she could use debris from the surrounding buildings or streetlights to her advantage in the fight.
But for some reason, Iron Maiden wasn’t manipulating any metal objects other than the blades orbiting her.
Lumi had learned this fact after exchanging several attacks, and she judged that if she froze the limited amount of metal she had, she would become helpless.
“Huk… huk…!”
Iron Maiden, seemingly flustered by Lumi’s surprise attack, moved away and caught her breath.
She was flustered not only by the fact that Lumi, who had seemed exhausted, had suddenly started to push, but also by the fact that her patterns had completely changed, as if she were a different person.
‘If those all freeze… it’s going to be hard to get away with just that. She’s much stronger than I thought.’
Iron Maiden was forced to focus on blocking the blades, as if she knew what her weakness was, and could only desperately try to retrieve them without counterattacking.
‘I really… don’t want to use this. But if I don’t use it here… I might get hunted myself.’
Iron Maiden turned the dial on the mechanical bracelet on her wrist back and forth.
“Haa… I need to control my power this time.”
Then, the air around Iron Maiden vibrated, and an enormous energy radiated out, and her blue eyes began to glow.
– Kugugugugugu…
The debris from the surrounding buildings slowly floated into the air, rising around Iron Maiden and shaking unstably.
“Hero Hunter! I admit you’re quite strong. You figured out my weakness pretty well… I almost got a hole blown through me if I had let my guard down.”
Unlike before, when she thought Lumi’s combat power was below her own, she now acknowledged that Lumi possessed a comparable level of strength and skill.
“So… I’ve decided to show you what I can really do.”
The remains of buildings containing iron and metal components vibrated wildly and floated in the air.
Unlike a few minutes ago, when she was manipulating metal blades with precise movements, she now seemed unable to control the numerous metal fragments, which were swirling around her erratically.
The reason she had been fighting with only a limited amount of metal was because she was only operating within the range where she could stably control her ability.
She used a special device on her bracelet to suppress her ability to some extent, and only released that limit when she encountered a formidable opponent like now.
– Shuaaaaaat—
– Kudangtangtang—!!!!! Kugwaga gwagwang—!!
“Eup…!”
Dozens of building debris the size of people flew towards Lumi in an instant, smashing the frozen ice floor and pillars.
“Kueueuk…!”
Then, unable to avoid one of the flying building debris, she quickly erected an ice wall to barely block the attack.
‘That’s… that’s her true form…!’
Iron Maiden’s combat power had begun to far exceed what it was just a moment ago. Lumi judged that it was no longer possible to continue the fight.
‘I’ve figured out how strong she is…, there’s no reason to fight any harder.’
Lumi quickly froze the distance between the building debris scattered on the floor, slid across it, and quickly fled towards where Chaeryeong’s clone was.
“Ah… Chaeryeong Unni? Where is the clone right now?”
Lumi called Chaeryeong to quickly secure the location of the clone.
“Nyaa! If it’s near Lumi’s location… it’s right in the basement of that building to the right!”
Lumi quickly slid down to the basement of the building Chaeryeong had told her about, and grabbed hands with Chaeryeong’s clone, who was blankly waiting inside.
“Okay…!”
– Poong—!
“This brat…?! What!”
Iron Maiden quickly chased after Lumi, but she had already disappeared into the hideout with Chaeryeong’s clone.
“Tch… I missed her.”
Iron Maiden, failing to catch Lumi, clicked her tongue in disappointment and turned the dial on her bracelet back to regain control of her ability.
– Kugugugugugugung—!!!!
Dozens of fragments freed from Iron Maiden’s ability fell to the ground, and a tremendous vibration echoed through the street as if an earthquake had occurred.
“Haa… I’m so tired every time I use this damn ability. And it’s a problem that a few places collapse like this every time.”
Iron Maiden suddenly staggered, grabbing the wall as if she were dizzy. It seemed she was experiencing the backlash from using her ability without limits.
“Eueueu….”
After tilting her head for a moment and waiting for the dizziness to subside, she sat on the building stairs and operated her hero device to request post-processing support.
“Next time… I’ll definitely catch you.”
Then, she slowly climbed the stairs again and came out of the building, grinding her teeth in frustration as she slowly walked out of the street.
– Ttokak… Ttokak…
And someone came down from the building stairs where Iron Maiden had been sitting, smiling with interest and sitting in that spot.
“Interesting… a battle between powerhouses that can turn a street into a wasteland. I did well to send the zombie combatants as a test.”
A mysterious woman twirling her pink hair with her fingers smiled.
“From now on… it might be okay to show myself more actively. It’s going to get more and more interesting.”
