Behind Cheon Sarang and Suho.
That side was already a battlefield out of hell.
Wuuung—! Kwajik!
The further the Gate breach progressed, the wider the dimensional fissure tore open.
And through that yawning gap, black hordes of monsters came spilling down like a landslide.
"Krrrrr!"
"Kieeek!"
Every direction was open field.
Nowhere to hide, nowhere to hold — across a vast open field, hundreds of wolves, bulls, and winged beasts came surging in packs.
"Damn it! There's no end to them!"
Seo Jihyeok ground his teeth and opened the grimoire.
"Fusion — [Superconductor Storm]!!!"
The blue storm sweeping the front line froze and shattered dozens of wolves in an instant — but even standing on the ice-shards those left behind, another herd of bulls came pressing in, horns lowered.
No matter how many they killed, the numbers didn't thin.
"Ajusshi! Sky!"
Along with Hayun's urgent shout, the twins' telekinesis kicked in.
Kwang!
The huge boulders scattered across the plain wrenched themselves up and dropped, crushing the diving flock of winged beasts flat.
"Huff... huff..."
But the kids' faces had already gone pale.
A-rank or not, they were still only five years old.
Under the endless flood of predators, both their stamina and their willpower were reaching their limits.
"Just a little longer, kids!"
Sea-ah was at her limit too.
Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
Over her barrier, wolves' claws and bulls' horns came down like rain.
The ring the Director had given her burned hot on her finger, boosting her ability usage — but the surface of the barrier had started webbing with hairline fractures.
"Nng...!"
A groan escaped Sea-ah's lips.
They were losing ground.
Seo Jihyeok with his overwhelming firepower, the genius twins, iron-wall Sea-ah — all of them wringing every drop of what they had. Still not enough to hold back the disaster the Gate was vomiting out.
"Nng... this is it!"
Sea-ah's barrier cracked, and the killing intent of thousands of monsters closed in on them — a moment of pure despair.
Dudududuk—!
Cutting through the noise of the battlefield, a strange roar came from the sky.
"Huh?"
The instant the kids looked up.
From the helicopter, one small figure jumped out without hesitation.
Kuuung—!
The instant that figure — no parachute, straight fall — hit the ground, the earth in a radius of tens of meters flipped over like an earthquake had hit it.
The monsters closing in were caught in the shockwave and blown away like scraps of paper.
Inside the thick dust cloud, an old woman with a cane slowly straightened her back.
"Teacher!!!!"
"T — Teacher?!"
Seo Jihyeok shouted, unable to believe his eyes.
Instead of answering, Kim Sunja gave a light tap of her cane against the head of a wolf-type monster charging at her, right up in her face.
Puk!
Not a simple hit.
The monster's head burst open like a watermelon, and it dropped dead on the spot.
"Move it, you filthy beasts."
Kwaaang—!
Pure mana blasted from the tip of the cane and swept away the hundreds of monsters filling the field in one stroke.
The volume A-rank mage Seo Jihyeok had been sweating through — cleared in one swing of a cane.
Of course, part of it was that Kim Sunja was a monster on a different tier even among S-ranks.
But even accounting for that, this was the plain difference between S-rank and A-rank.
On paper, only one grade apart. In reality, a chasm as wide as sky and earth — absolute.
"Whoaa..."
The twins couldn't shut their mouths.
"Teacher! How did you get here—!"
As Seo Jihyeok ran up, Kim Sunja clicked her tongue.
"How, indeed. That damn Director boy called me in."
"What? The Director?"
Kim Sunja thought back, disbelieving, to the note that had been left beside her bed.
[I've got a helicopter on standby in the institute garden. The place the kids are going today is a bit dangerous... if you don't come... well, the kids might get pretty badly hurt. The choice is yours, of course.]
"...That fox-tongued little punk."
The kids might get hurt.
That one line had caught the old woman by the ankle.
She had never once dreamed that this was a Bawi Guild operation — she had boarded the helicopter with nothing but the thought of protecting the kids.
"Get here and this is what I find. If I'd known I was cleaning up after Bawi Guild's mess, I wouldn't have come."
Kim Sunja grumbled at Seo Jihyeok.
"But..."
Her eyes settled on the kids — worn down to the edge of collapse.
Then they moved to Choi Juran, lying there coughing up blood.
"Getting suckered is on me. Who else is there to blame."
She set the long-stemmed pipe between her teeth and shifted her grip on the cane.
"That little brat... when he gets back, I'm going to wring the marrow out of him."
She kept grumbling, but the aura she turned on the monster ranks was that of an old tiger.
"Kids, back. From here on, this is grown-ups' work."
"Nng..."
I opened my eyes to a splitting headache.
How long had I been out?
As my hazy sight sharpened, what unfolded in front of me was, in a word, hellish.
"Kraaaaaaa—!!!"
A roar that shredded eardrums.
That thing... could you even still call it a lion?
Force-fed Han Jewoon's S-rank mana, the thing no longer had the shape of a living creature.
The golden fur had burned off without a trace, and in its place, blazing red muscle had swollen up like it was about to burst, warped into something grotesque.
On top of that, the serpent tail on its back had grown as large as the main body itself, spraying a poison-laden mist in every direction.
A walking mana bomb. A precarious mass of disaster that felt like it would go off the moment you touched it.
And the four people facing that monster were in ruins.
Kang—!
Han Jewoon caught the beast's forepaw on his sword.
But it wasn't like usual.
The flashy legion of mana blades was nowhere to be seen. He was barely holding on, with nothing but the single iron sword in his hand.
"Kh-uk...!"
A ragged death rattle broke from an S-rank Hunter's mouth.
Fair enough.
To induce the Gate breach, he'd scraped his mana pool to the bottom and crammed every drop into the beast's belly.
Right now, he was practically an empty shell, facing off against a monster on the strength of swordsmanship alone.
"Boss! Watch out!"
Kang San kicked up a sonic boom and cut in from the beast's flank. Breaking the sound barrier.
Speed so fast it didn't leave an afterimage.
But.
Kwaaang—!
The instant the beast kicked off the ground, an enormous golden shape appeared running right alongside Kang San, matching stride.
"...?!"
Kang San's eyes went wide, torn open with shock.
Kang San at sonic speed — and a monster that size had kept pace on pure physicality alone.
"You're kidding me — is that even possible?!"
Puk!
Instead of answering, the beast's enormous forepaw came down in a swat, like a fly swatter.
"Krhurk!"
The kinetic energy of his own sonic speed slammed back into him, and Kang San was launched away like a cannon shell, crashing into a boulder.
Kwang—!
"Move!"
Cha Yul took the opening and dove in, wrapped in red mana.
To turn the beast's own strength back on it, Cha Yul boldly stretched both hands out toward the incoming forepaw.
If he could just touch it, he could absorb it. He had a shot.
But.
Suk.
The beast twisted its own charging trajectory, grotesque, and slid, easy, past Cha Yul's outstretched hands.
Then it slammed its massive shoulder straight into Cha Yul's now unguarded torso.
Kwang—! Chaang-grang—!
Along with the dull thud of the impact, a clear, hopeless shattering sound rang across the battlefield.
Inside his coat, light was scattering as it powdered.
The last [Warding Jade Talisman] he had.
"Krhurk!"
Cha Yul's body was thrown into the air like a cannon shell.
"Hyung!"
Sihyeok stretched a hand out, desperate.
A shadow on the ground shot up like a rope, going for the ankle of the airborne Cha Yul, just before—
The beast was cunning.
It had figured out that this black force interfering with it was a shadow — and that shadows can't exist in the presence of intense light.
Flash—!
The beast overloaded the mana circuits running through its whole body.
An instant later, from its body, a savage flash detonated outward — as if the sun itself had opened up right in front of them.
"Kraaang!"
"Argh! My eyes—!"
A world where every source of light was pouring down.
A perfectly white space where a shadow could not exist.
The shadow-rope Sihyeok had thrown out was scoured away by the light, evaporated, before it could ever reach Cha Yul.
"No—!"
Cha Yul slammed into the ground and rolled, and Sihyeok, blinded by the light, staggered.
The disadvantage was crushing.
An S-rank with an empty mana pool, A-ranks fighting for their lives — and, thanks to the mana fed into it, a boss that had almost climbed to S-rank itself.
Anyone could see it. Total annihilation was moments away. Pure despair.
Damn it...!
I fumbled at the inside of my coat, frantic.
Maybe from the shock the artifacts had absorbed when I'd been caught in the storm earlier. Of the five [Warding Jade Talismans] I'd packed, only three were left, glowing precarious.
"Krrrr!"
The beast raised its forepaw over the fallen Cha Yul.
I threw a [Candy of Calm] from my pocket into my mouth and ran, out of my mind, at Cha Yul.
"Get lost!"
Pang—!
I planted myself in front of Cha Yul and fired the [Mana Pistol] at the beast's brow. The blue mana round hit its forehead and detonated.
But.
Tik.
To an S-rank monster, a B-rank mana round was a toy cap gun.
The beast didn't so much as blink. Above the golden fur — not so much as a scratch on it — the mana particles just scattered, useless.
Then it swept a forepaw at me the way you'd swat at an annoying fly.
Kwaaang—!
Chaang-grang—!
A clear, horrific shattering sound cracked in my ears. One talisman broke into pieces, and scattered into white powder.
"Kh-uk!"
The ward canceled out the shock, but the pressure — like being hit by a dump truck — went right through anyway. I clutched Cha Yul to me hard and used the recoil to roll, desperate, across the dirt.
Kudang-tang!
My body rolled dozens of times across the dirt before slamming back-first into a huge boulder — only then did I stop.
Chaang-grang—!
In that instant, another clear, hopeless shattering sound rang out from inside my coat. The talisman had read even the impact of hitting the boulder as a fatal blow, and shattered.
"Ah..."
I fumbled at my chest with a trembling hand.
Only one smooth surface met my fingertips.
One left, now.
My last life. If this one broke too, next up was me.
"Grrrrr..."
The boss monster locked its eyes on me and started closing the distance, slow.
...!
I stared, frozen, into those eyes.
Candy... candy!
On instinct, I felt around inside my mouth.
But only the metallic tang of blood met my tongue.
Somewhere in the rolling, I'd either swallowed it or spat it out. The sweet calm was gone.
Nothing.
The instant I realized my mouth was empty, the primal fear I'd been holding down came flooding through like a broken dam.
"Uh, uh..."
My jaw was chattering, and my heart was slamming like it was going to break through my ribs and jump out.
Withstanding the killing intent of an S-rank monster with nothing but a bare mind — impossible.
I wanted to scream and run, right now.
But.
I can't.
I had Cha Yul in my arms.
The kid seemed to have blown through what strength he had left — his body had gone limp — but his red eyes were still wide open, blazing, watching this unfold.
"Get... off..."
Cha Yul tried, in a voice wrung out of him, to shove me away.
"Get off...! You'll... die...! A non-Awakened, of all things!"
The small hands of a ten-year-old caught at my coat and pushed at me, resisting.
Even drained, the grip strength of an A-rank Hunter was more than enough to shove me back.
But my arms weren't coming loose. Not for anything.
As much as the kid wanted me to live, my own desperate need to keep him alive was cutting just as deep.
"Stay still!!!"
"Let go! Let go of me, you idiot!"
Cha Yul was wailing and thrashing, but I crushed him against my chest, hard enough to grind him in.
Tight enough that the sound of my heart — pounding like it was about to burst — carried through to him.
And with a shaking hand, I pulled out the last [Warding Jade Talisman] from my coat and pushed it deep, deep, into Cha Yul's shirt.
Please... you, at least. Live.
The monster's ugly teeth were closing in. I curled my body into a tight ball so its bite would land on my back — not the kid.
"Krang!"
Kwajik—!
"Ngghhh......!"
I couldn't even scream.
Afraid the kid would hear it and be terrified, I swallowed the shriek trying to tear out of me and bit down on my lip hard enough to mangle it.
Kwang—!
In that instant, along with a cannon-crack, Kang San came flying in at sonic speed and drove into the lion's ribs.
"You lion son of a bitch! Off!"
Kudang-tang!
The huge lion, hit by Kang San's shockwave, was flung off and away.
"Director! You okay?!"
Kang San came running up, face gone gray.
But I couldn't answer.
"Huff... huff..."
Pain was flashing my vision white in bursts.
A strange emptiness, as if the sensation had been shut off entirely.
I looked down, eyes shaking, at my right shoulder — where it had bitten me.
Nothing.
Below the shredded fabric, where an arm should have been, there was only empty air.
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