“It’s nice seeing you two getting along. I hope things stay that way.”
Yu-won threw out the comment with a smile, as if Jin-ha’s words hadn’t even reached his ears—just saying what he wanted. It carried a subtle edge of disregard, and Min-hyeon glanced over at Jin-ha nervously.
Huh… was that supposed to mean something?
But didn’t he tell me to speak informally? Even called me “hyung.”
Yu-won had corrected Min-hyeon when he slipped into formal speech, asking him to talk casually and even called him “hyung” himself. But with Jin-ha, he didn’t even make the slightest effort to change the way he addressed him.
Does he not like Jin-ha hyung? But I’ve never seen them talk… Is there something going on that I don’t know about?
Min-hyeon was caught in a whirlwind of thoughts, while Jin-ha—who was the one on the receiving end of the snub—didn’t seem fazed at all.
In fact, he looked amused. Like he found the whole thing oddly entertaining.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m on Yu-won’s side, you know.”
Jin-ha shrugged as he spoke.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“People without a clue might take things at face value, but… I’m not one of those people.”
Min-hyeon glanced between the two, confused, trying to understand what they were getting at.
“I really don’t know what you’re saying. And I don’t think this is the time or place for that kind of talk, either.”
Yu-won spoke with a sharp scowl, one eyebrow visibly furrowed. He made no effort to hide his displeasure, and Min-hyeon, surprised by the open hostility, looked stunned.
But Jin-ha just kept smiling, unfazed.
“Ah, right. I just meant… I’m rooting for you.”
BOOM!
Suddenly, a loud noise rang out from the direction Rion had gone. The team, who’d been spread out chatting, all whipped their heads toward the sound.
“What was that?”
“The flare didn’t go off.”
“Still, we should check it out. It could’ve been too urgent for him to even use the flare.”
Hyeon-seo shot to her feet. The sound hadn’t come from far.
“Sunbae.”
“I think I can carry one person on my back and still run at full speed.”
“I’ll go.”
Hyeon-seo immediately climbed onto Tae-hwan’s back. He tensed his legs, focusing all his strength into them, just as another loud bang rocked the forest.
BOOM!
“Wait, that’s… Rion sunbae!”
Startled by the sound, they paused—but then spotted a figure rising into the sky. It was Rion.
Tae-hwan and Hyeon-seo, who had been about to dash off, stopped in their tracks and looked up.
“Is he okay?”
“Wait… his arm…”
As Rion drew closer, the expressions on the team’s faces shifted to shock. In just that short time, he’d taken a serious hit—his arm was visibly wounded.
“…Hyung.”
The first to rush out, without hesitation, was Yu-won. He darted forward and caught Rion as he came down, staggering slightly.
“What happened out there?”
“I’m fine.”
“What do you mean fine—”
“Hold on. Let me see the wound.”
Min-hyeon stepped in, gently pushing Yu-won aside to check Rion’s condition. Fortunately, the wound wasn’t as bad as it had looked.
“It’s nothing. I let my guard down for a second…”
Rion knew better than anyone that a moment’s lapse could be dangerous. Still, the accident had happened in the blink of an eye.
He’d thought he was used to encountering unknown monsters by now—but the creature he faced had such a bizarre, incomprehensible form that he’d hesitated for just a second.
And that was all it took.
“I’m really not badly hurt.”
“Yeah, compared to the sound we heard, the wound is shallow. It’s a laceration, so it’s bleeding a lot, but not deep.”
Min-hyeon’s assessment brought a collective sigh of relief from the team.
“The noise came from something else. Sorry for scaring everyone.”
“So then…?”
Rion had taken off for a recon mission, only to stumble across a monster unlike anything he’d seen before. At first, he thought it was the boss—but then he saw others that looked similar, and realized it probably wasn’t.
“Ugh.”
The injury had come from that brief moment of hesitation. The creature’s claws tore into his arm, and it wasn’t until that happened that Rion snapped back into focus, slashing through the monster’s limb.
“SKREEEECH!”
But the priority wasn’t killing the thing—it was escaping. Rion pulled back and ascended higher, far enough that the monsters clawing out of the ground couldn’t follow.
Then, something caught his eye—and he froze.
“…That’s…”
Grrrrrrr…
Even from a significant distance, the boss was staring directly at him.
Jet-black skin so dark it looked like a hole in the middle of the forest. And within it, glowing red eyes, like fire burning in the dark.
The moment their eyes met, the boss opened its mouth wide.
It’s coming.
BOOM!
Rion instinctively threw up a barrier—and just in time. The attack slammed into it, the impact making his entire arm go numb.
Had he been even a second slower, he wouldn’t have been able to block it. The force was incredible, and the earlier wound throbbed painfully from the pressure.
Even from that distance, the sheer power was overwhelming. The only silver lining was that the attack took time to reach him—giving him precious seconds.
If it comes to close combat, I might not even make it out with my bones intact.
Rion rubbed his aching arm, his thoughts racing. But the boss had no intention of giving him a breather. If anything, it seemed ready to go for the kill.
Grrrrrrr…
As the boss prepared another attack, Rion ascended even higher. But no matter how high he went, it never felt like he was out of its range.
BOOM!
The sky itself seemed to shake with the next strike. Rion used the opening, when the boss’s vision was obscured, to escape its attack radius and return to his team.
“…I see. That size… with that kind of power…”
“Can you show us how far away you were when it hit?”
Rion raised a discarded item and floated it to the spot where he’d taken the boss’s attack.
“That far, Rion?”
Hee-soo looked at the floating object in surprise. Rion shook his head grimly. As it rose higher, the object quickly became a tiny speck.
“That’s enough, Rion.”
At Tae-hwan’s cue, Rion dropped the object into a safe area. Tae-hwan and Hee-soo exchanged a few quiet words, then turned to address the younger teammates.
“We’re gonna need a solid strategy if we want to survive this. If we don’t plan properly, we won’t even get a shot at attacking before we’re hit. Rion, those monsters you saw before the boss—what were they like?”
“They came out of the ground. I’ve never seen anything like them, so I don’t know much else… but they weren’t too hard to deal with. There were a lot of them, but they went down with a single strike.”
“Out of the ground? Tell us more.”
The atmosphere turned somber as everyone processed what they’d just heard. They had known it wouldn’t be easy, but the form and power of the boss Rion described were beyond what any of them had expected.
“I think it’s best if the Guides don’t come any closer. The boss isn’t that far off from here anyway, so they should stay somewhere safe while we move in.”
“Right. We can’t risk anyone unnecessarily in a situation like this.”
Hyeon-seo nodded in agreement.
Tension and determination showed on every face—Esper or Guide alike.
“We’ll move out right after the guiding session. Get ready. We don’t know when we’ll be able to return, so pack everything you might need now.”
“Got it.”
At Rion’s instruction, the Espers scrambled to gather their gear.
No one could say for sure whether they could eliminate all the monsters in the time they had left—but to have any chance, every second had to count.
“If you need guiding, come back right away. I know I don’t need to say it, but… don’t try to act tough and hang on unnecessarily. Especially you, Kang Rion.”
“I won’t this time. I get it now—this body is an asset.”
Ye-ju shot a pointed reminder at Rion, clearly still uneasy despite saying her piece.
Rion had gotten into serious trouble last time because he’d delayed getting guiding. She wasn’t about to let that happen again.
“Sure, your body’s an asset and all—but more importantly, the goal is for everyone to get out of here in one piece. You nearly lost control inside the Gate last time, right? Because you waited too long for guiding.”
“That was… different. Things are different now. I’ve got Jin-ha, and… Yu-won too. Things aren’t like that anymore…”
Rion trailed off, waving his hands in embarrassment, his face a little flushed as he recalled that incident. He didn’t want to end up in that situation again either.
“Anyway, it won’t happen this time.”
He glanced over at Yu-won. Yu-won looked like he had something he wanted to say, eyes lingering on Rion—but in the end, he said nothing and kept his mouth shut.
“We don’t have time to chat. Let’s move out.”
Hyeon-seo, now fully geared up, looked around at the team. The others followed suit quickly, standing ready and waiting for her command.
“Yes.”
“Be careful. Don’t get hurt.”
“Hey, old man. Don’t go acting all tough in front of the kids. But don’t come back with broken bones either, got it?”
“Thanks.”
After brief farewells, the Espers turned and began their march toward the boss’s forest domain.
And with that, the final leg of the S-rank Gate mission began.
