#22 The Stirring of Evil (3)
#22 The Stirring of Evil (3)
"......"
If only he hadn't abandoned his sword back there. No—even if he had, if only he'd stayed just a little more vigilant. Magic isn't over the moment the incantation ends. Not until it lands. He knew that perfectly well. So why had he decided, all on his own, that it was over? Why had he let himself believe the fight was finished so easily?
'......'
He was disgusted. Genuinely disgusted. And more than that, his attention kept fixing on Hong Yuri's increasingly shallow breathing.
'Far enough for now.'
He'd managed to put some distance between them and the monster. Team Leader Gu quickly fished a potion from his coat's inner pocket. He secured Hong Yuri's airway and poured the liquid down her throat. While he did, he tore a long strip from his own clothing.
'Better than nothing.'
Most of the blood and filth was on the outside of his coat, so it should be safe enough. He used the torn fabric as a makeshift bandage, wrapping it tightly around her flank to stanch the bleeding.
'...It's only a stopgap.'
This was the best he could do right now. Nothing more than a temporary fix. Even with the potion, a wound this severe wasn't going to heal.
'Once we're out of the dungeon.'
He remembered someone on Team 2 had a healing skill. All he had to do was get her outside, and she would live.
'It was this way.'
He retraced his steps, channeling every last drop of his remaining mana into his legs. Yet the gap between him and the monster was slowly closing. The reason was his own injury—the back of his ankle, his Achilles tendon.
"Ngh..."
The torn wound throbbed with every step.
Had he been complacent? Arrogant? Maybe if he'd been just a little more careful. If he'd paid just a bit more attention... He knew it wouldn't have changed anything, and yet he couldn't stop blaming himself.
Carrying Hong Yuri on his back, Gu ran through the forest path in grim silence.
***
'This seems about right.'
Maintaining my stealth, I gauged the distance to the thing. Roughly three kilometers. Safe for the moment, but considering the Quickening Evil's sheer bulk, that gap would disappear in no time.
'Although, I don't think it's chasing me.'
They say it's a fundamentally incomprehensible monster, but I doubt it can see through stealth that's been raised to C-rank. At first, I thought it was after me, but that was just my own narcissism talking.
'...Ahem.'
A little embarrassing. More to the point, the thing kept stomping stubbornly ahead even when I veered out of its path—proof it was chasing someone else.
'Probably Hong Yuri.'
It had to be. In all likelihood, she was the monster's target.
'So what should I do?'
[Unfinished Product of Incidental Results]—that thing is a chimera with no intellect. Or, well, it's no longer much of a chimera, but it still doesn't seem to have a mind. Trying to draw aggro with a skill like Intimidation would be pointless. More than anything, for a mindless existence to be this fixated, there has to be a reason.
'...Nothing for it.'
[Lv.10 Achievement Condition: Lure the Quickening Evil]
What they tell you to do, you just do it. Like I had a choice.
***
His skin was completely torn away, his bones warped. He'd landed countless palm strikes to slow the monster as it gradually began to move, but it still wasn't enough to halt its advance. Even that first strike had been an overexertion.
—I have to buy time.
That single thought consumed Woo-taek's mind. He had to stop the flesh-heap monster's sluggish feet, somehow. He had to buy enough time for the team leader and vice-leader to escape.
'Might as well.'
Woo-taek looked at his blood-soaked hands. They were ruined to the point where he couldn't even form a proper fist. That was how hard and powerful the monster was. If that was the case, then maybe...
The paladin was puzzled when he saw Woo-taek turn and run.
'Running?'
No. That wasn't it. This wasn't a man who fled. If he were, he would have run long ago. The paladin wasn't sure if he could help, but he kept swinging his hammer, adjusting his distance to avoid being crushed, when a cloud of dust erupted from the ground.
'......?'
Why was there suddenly dirt? Then the paladin saw it—a large hole.
A big hole... no, a sinkhole?
'In a dungeon?'
It was a hole, but it wasn't a natural occurrence. Far off, the fist fighter was pounding the earth with his ruined hands. In response, his brothers from the Temple were aiding him, digging the hole even wider.
'Ah. I see.'
He finally understood. The monster was endlessly regenerating... an unreasonable creature. If attacking it couldn't pin it down...
'He decided digging was the better option.'
Blocking its path was more effective than attacking it. That had to be his reasoning. And the strategy worked beautifully. As if hypnotized, the monster chased after whatever it was pursuing, never dodging, regardless of who was hindering it or whether a pit lay beneath it.
The thing was too massive to fall in entirely, but the pit was enough to obstruct its route.
'It's not even looking around.'
CRASH! A full swing of the hammer slammed into the flesh-heap monster. Even while taking direct hits, the monster's retaliation was strangely half-hearted compared to before. There were none of the horrifying, despair-inducing attacks it had used on the mage. It occasionally lashed out with tentacles, but compared to the ones they'd endured earlier, they were almost laughable.
'...Has it not fully recovered yet?'
The Dawn mage's spell had succeeded, but it hadn't struck true. Even so, it had possessed enough power to turn the flesh-heap monster to ash. But for a monster that regenerated every wound like an immortal, why would a simple injury fail to heal?
'Was that magic... was something different about it?'
Questions piled up.
Why was the monster chasing the mage without so much as a glance at its surroundings? Was its passive aggression really because it hadn't recovered yet? If so, why had only her magic inflicted such a severe shock? ...He didn't know. As a paladin, he couldn't grasp the distinction.
CRASH!
All he could do was swing his hammer with everything he had.
***
In a daze, the monk stared blankly out the window. The sun still hung high in the clear sky. That meant not much time had actually passed.
"Brother. Are you feeling better now?"
"B-Brother. Are we truly, truly outside?"
"Yes. We brought Brother Park Yo-han here. You're safe now."
Only after hearing his temple colleague's words could he finally sigh in relief and clutch his chest.
"...Th-thank you."
He wiped his ruined face with a towel someone had given him. He hadn't lost consciousness, but his memories of what had happened were hazy. He felt groggy, as if waking from a dream. How had he left the dungeon? No—when had he left it? His gaze drifted, and he stared blankly at his wrist.
"You were in terrible shape. Fortunately, someone from Dawn with a healing skill treated you, but..."
He hadn't been fully healed. The grade of the man's healing skill wasn't that high. Still, upon hearing that a few days of rest would put him right, Park Yo-han felt reassured. ...Belatedly, it truly sank in that he had escaped the dungeon.
"Now, then. Shall I hear the story?"
A gentle voice lingered by the monk's ear. Still listening in a daze, the monk flinched in surprise.
"Y-Your Excellency?"
"Oh, my. This old woman has been rude. I apologize for startling you."
"No, not at all. But a story, you say...?"
A gentle and kind smile. And by pausing briefly before she spoke, the bishop set Park Yo-han's mind at ease. Counseling. A simple conversational technique. She was someone's family, a neighbor. And as a believer herself, she knew well how to treat people, how to reassure them.
"I'm merely curious about what happened inside the dungeon. I must apologize for pressing you so suddenly. If you need to calm down first, we can talk then."
The bishop's words offered him time. But Park Yo-han shook his head.
'Pull yourself together.'
He couldn't stay in a daze forever. The situation inside the dungeon was surely changing rapidly even now. He was worried about his other brothers who hadn't yet escaped.
"You're very tense. Would you like to take a deep breath?"
"No, I'm fine. I'll tell you everything."
Park Yo-han glanced briefly at his wrist, where the wolf's teeth marks still hadn't faded, and began his story.
"So... this is what happened."
***
"Damn it."
The team leader couldn't help lamenting the fact that he had no cigarettes. Well, he wouldn't have had time to smoke one even if he did.
"Hoo. After all that searching without a trace..."
Of all the rotten timing. No—considering the thing's intelligence, it was more likely it had been lying in wait all along. It must have been watching the situation, biding its time.
"Alpha."
He spoke the wolf's name.
Alpha.
A wolf monster whose bad karma had stretched all the way here from Jirisan Mountain. He'd been chasing it, but he'd never imagined running into it at the worst possible moment.
'It's a Skull Wolf, after all.'
Even though he'd pursued it for nearly a month, this was his first time facing it directly.
No one from Dawn except Eun-ha had ever laid eyes on it. He wasn't sure if it was truly the Alpha from Jirisan, but as he'd heard from the Gyeongsan hunter, it was definitely smaller than a normal Skull Wolf.
'A special variant, then.'
Like the Warg on Jirisan. Every circumstance pointed to this thing being the Alpha.
"GRRRRR!"
The pack-leading wolf made no effort to hide its fangs and claws, threatening him directly.
'Of course.'
The chilling bloodlust and genuine killing intent made the team leader's chest run cold. A Skull Wolf had a measly official rating of C-. Yet the murderous aura he felt from this one was enough to make him shrink back, just for an instant. Its roar back on Jirisan hadn't been his imagination. The beast genuinely possessed that level of power.
'This is the worst.'
If he could avoid a fight right now, he would. Not that the other side seemed inclined to grant him that. Violent gusts of wind shredded the flowers and grass around them. The only thing he could read in those eyes was insanity.
A fight was unavoidable.
Gu took stock of the situation once more.
'A monster is closing in from behind.'
The gap to the flesh-heap monster was shrinking. This time, there was absolutely no escaping it. If the others hadn't stayed behind to stall it, he would have been caught ages ago. And on top of all that, he'd lost his weapon. He smiled bitterly, looking at the beloved sword now reduced to nothing but a hilt.
'Fighting with this would be suicidal.'
He slid the hilt into his coat pocket.
'Fighting bare-handed isn't my specialty.'
Even so, a normal Skull Wolf wouldn't have been a problem, but...
'Its full capabilities are an unknown variable.'
From what he'd heard, it was at least as strong as Aranea. No—it had likely grown even further since then.
And more than anything.
'It only came out because it was confident.'
On top of that, there was the wound on his Achilles tendon.
Moving properly was nearly impossible. Having just fought the flesh-heap monster, his mana was scraping the bottom of the barrel. Yes. If a fight was going to happen, there was no better time for his enemy than right now. Gu leaned Hong Yuri against a tree and readied his stance.
'Time limit. Leg is injured. No weapon. The enemy is an unknown quantity. Mental exhaustion is imminent... and I have to protect Hong Yuri.'
The worst possible scenario. Having sorted through the brutal calculus, Gu bit down on the inside of his cheek.
"...Come on, then. Alpha."
He tried his utmost not to show it, but he couldn't help the edge of urgency creeping into his own voice.