#047
“Hey, you!”
Moon Bora’s face contorted as she saw the state of Eunseok’s calves.
“It’s okay, noona. I can just ask Taeuk hyung to heal me.”
“But your bones and muscles are visible… Doesn’t it hurt?”
Moon Bora crouched down to examine Eunseok’s calves, speaking in a shocked voice. There was severe bleeding, with blood pooling at his feet. Fortunately, judging by the bleeding pattern, no arteries were damaged.
Focusing too much on a wound only intensifies the pain. Eunseok avoided looking at his legs and instead pulled out the green mana stone he had put in his pocket.
“I think I’ve found it.”
Moon Bora’s attention, which had been entirely on Eunseok’s wounds, suddenly fixated on the mana stone.
“…This is…”
Moon Bora muttered in surprise, taking the stone and examining it from all angles.
“This is a mana stone you’d only get from defeating at least an A-rank boss. Was this really here?”
Moon Bora asked with an incredulous expression.
“Yes. It was in the stream over there.”
Moon Bora wore an expression of disbelief.
“Let’s regroup with the team for now.”
As Eunseok spoke, Moon Bora pocketed the mana stone. Then she immediately looked troubled.
“We should probably do some first aid on you first. Don’t you have any bandages?”
“Just a moment.”
Eunseok pulled off his relatively intact shirt. He tore it in half and handed one piece to Moon Bora. He leaned down to tightly wrap his right calf, while Moon Bora wrapped and tied his left calf securely. The makeshift bandages quickly turned red with blood.
“This won’t do. Get on my back.”
Moon Bora turned her back to him and spoke.
“I can still move.”
Eunseok flatly refused and started walking ahead.
***
The sun sets faster than expected in the mountains. As the red sunset gradually disappeared, darkness soon enveloped the mountain. Fortunately, they weren’t inside a gate. The army had tightly surrounded the area with bright lights, so moving around wasn’t too difficult.
Occasional gunshots rang out from deep in the mountains, but the situation seemed to have mostly calmed down.
They moved towards the closest visible lights. With each step, tremendous pain shot through both calves where flesh had been torn away. As they moved with gritted teeth, cold sweat poured down Eunseok’s forehead and back.
They finally reached a small clearing brightly lit by floodlights.
“We’re the White Tiger Guild’s 1st Combat Team!”
At Moon Bora’s shout, the gun barrels that had been aimed at them were lowered.
A soldier who appeared to be the commander came forward, looked them over, and then frowned upon seeing Eunseok’s legs.
“Medic!”
At the commander’s loud call, a soldier quickly ran over from behind.
“Please take a look at this hunter’s injuries.”
The commander said, pointing at Eunseok.
“Can you move, sir?”
The medic approached and asked. Eunseok silently nodded. The medic tried to support him, but Eunseok refused and walked on his own.
Entering a makeshift tent, there was a single field bed set up.
“Please sit there.”
The medic said, pointing to the field bed. Eunseok slowly sat down on the bed, enduring the pain.
The medic’s expression twisted upon seeing the terrible state of Eunseok’s calves after cutting away the hastily tied shirt strips. He was about to say something but closed his mouth and began treatment.
“……”
The process of cleaning the wound with saline solution and disinfecting it was extremely painful. Eunseok endured it all without letting out a single groan, clenching his teeth. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead and dripped down his chin.
The simple treatment ended with applying pressure bandages to stop the bleeding.
“Oh. If you’re done, come this way.”
Moon Bora entered the tent while talking on her phone. Seeing Eunseok’s calves wrapped in bandages, she continued speaking.
“Yeah. We found it, but… Eunseok is badly hurt.”
Moon Bora finished her call and crouched in front of Eunseok. The bandages were already soaking through with red blood.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Taeuk hyung will heal me anyway, so it’s no big deal.”
Eunseok spoke as if it were nothing, but Moon Bora’s expression didn’t ease.
“The Guild Master is going to be furious.”
Moon Bora said, as if it was giving her a headache.
“…Taeuk hyung will heal me, and it’ll be clean. Does the Guild Master really need to know?”
Feeling a bit uneasy inside, Eunseok spoke as if making a secret proposal. Moon Bora’s expression turned contemplative.
“Well… If he doesn’t ask, there’s no need to tell him…”
Moon Bora seemed tempted, glancing at Eunseok’s legs. She appeared to be conflicted.
“It’s not like we have a system where we report every single injury, right?”
Eunseok persuaded Moon Bora. He was worried that if Choi Hanseo knew about his injury, it might restrict his future actions. After pondering for a moment, Moon Bora nodded.
“That’s true.”
At Moon Bora’s agreement, Eunseok managed a slight smile despite the pain.
About twenty minutes later, the team members regrouped. They all looked disheveled, having run around non-stop dealing with mutants. Ji Taeuk, in particular, looked visibly exhausted.
“Quickly, take a look at Eunseok.”
At Moon Bora’s words, Ji Taeuk approached, wiping sweat from his face with his sleeve. He crouched in front of Eunseok, who was sitting on the field bed, and carefully unwrapped the bandages.
“Ugh.”
Ji Taeuk grimaced at the sight beneath the bandages. The calves, with flesh torn away as if attacked by a school of piranhas, were in a truly ragged state.
Ji Taeuk placed both hands close to the wounded area. With an indescribable strange sensation, the wounds on the calves slowly began to heal.
Eunseok watched in awe as the torn muscles and flesh regenerated, forgetting about the pain. He was freshly impressed by the fact that Ji Taeuk was a rare A-rank healer. After about ten minutes, Eunseok’s calves were completely healed without a single scar.
“Thank you, hyung.”
Eunseok thanked him sincerely and tapped both feet on the ground to confirm that there were no functional issues. The pain had completely disappeared as well.
Lifting his head with a light heart, he saw the team members gathered outside the brightly lit tent. Han Cheolyong was talking on the phone, and beside him, Moon Bora was intently examining the green mana stone.
Han Cheolyong finished his call and entered the tent.
“Guide Lee, how are your injuries?”
“As you can see, they’re completely healed.”
Eunseok said, showing his calves visible beneath the tattered pants. Han Cheolyong nodded in relief after checking the state of his calves.
“Judging by the lack of further response, it seems we’ve dealt with all the mutants. They say we can head back now.”
At Han Cheolyong’s words, Eunseok stood up. He had taken off his shirt to use as bandages, and his pants were torn from the calves down, leaving him looking almost like Tarzan. Unlike during gate raids, they hadn’t brought spare clothes, so he’d have to return in this state.
“They say a helicopter is coming, so let’s go back to where we were earlier.”
Eunseok felt somewhat relieved at Han Cheolyong’s words. If he had to return by car and walk through the guild building’s main entrance in this state, rumors would spread through the guild instantly.
Eunseok approached the commander and suggested that it would be good to search the area around the stream once more when daylight broke. Then he headed to the helicopter landing site with his team members.
Ji Taeuk, who had less stamina compared to the other team members and was exhausted from running around, gradually fell behind. Eunseok matched his pace and walked beside him.
“Are you really okay?”
Ji Taeuk asked, glancing at Eunseok’s calves.
“You healed me completely, hyung. What’s there to worry about?”
Though he answered lightly, in truth, a phantom pain was faintly lingering in his calves.
“You did well. If you hadn’t found the mana stone, we probably would have been running around all night and into tomorrow.”
“You worked hard too, hyung.”
As they walked, chatting casually, the loud sound of a helicopter began to be heard. Following the sound a bit further, they saw a helicopter that had just landed on the landing pad.
“Oh my. I can’t wait to get back, shower, and lie down.”
Moon Bora said as she walked towards the helicopter. Eunseok silently agreed as he climbed into the helicopter.
“…!”
The moment he boarded the helicopter, Eunseok flinched. He made direct eye contact with Choi Hanseo, who was sitting in the back seat with his legs crossed.
Choi Hanseo’s eyes started at Eunseok’s bare upper body and slowly traveled downward. They lingered for a moment on the blood-soaked pant legs that clearly showed signs of being torn apart, then returned to Eunseok’s face.
“Why aren’t you getting in…”
Ji Taeuk, who was climbing in behind Eunseok, suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
“Uh… Guild Master, what brings you here?”
Ji Taeuk said awkwardly, then quietly slipped into a seat as far away from Choi Hanseo as possible. The other team members’ reactions weren’t much different.
