Joint Training (3)
Joint Training (3)
Is anyone there―?!
Help me―!!
The screaming from up ahead made the students grimace.
Im Gyeong-su, the shield-bearer desperately carving a path at the front, twisted his face into the fiercest grimace of them all.
"Goddammit!! When I catch that bastard, I'm gonna fold him in half!!"
"Save your mana and shut your mouth while you run."
"Aaaaagh!!"
Shhhhk—!!
Tsssk! Tssssssk!!
Purple bodily fluid sprayed at them without pause, splattering everywhere as it ricocheted off the shield enveloped in mana.
Walls and floor alike crumbled with a gruesome hiss and smoke wherever it touched.
Baek Ha-na, who had been running at a slight distance from the group, narrowed her eyes.
'This isn't going to work.'
Five minutes since the first scream.
Her plan had been to stop running and reorganize the formation as soon as they could find a more advantageous position.
But the further they ran, the more the moss turtles multiplied.
On top of that, unlike when the screaming first started, the endless noise had driven the moss turtles into a hypersensitive frenzy, and they had begun spitting venom as if they had been waiting for this moment.
-Wooing squirt!!
"Aack!! M-My uniform!!"
"Shit!! We're actually gonna die at this rate!!"
"Help!! Heeeelp!!"
Classmates who had initially been protecting their bodies from the venom by cloaking themselves in mana began to shout frantically.
Baek Ha-na spoke to the group, her voice carrying mana.
"We're almost at the guy who's screaming. We'll stop there."
"Okay!!"
At the news that they were about to meet the source of that infernal screaming, Im Gyeong-su's eyes bulged and he started sprinting even harder.
"Hey, you son of a bitch!! Match our pace!!"
"Ah......!! S-Sorry!!"
A sharp rebuke from a female student behind him had him quickly slowing down and returning to his original position.
"O-Over there!!"
Im Gyeong-su, peeking over his shield as he ran, spotted a wide path to the left and shouted.
"But I don't think we can stop?!"
"What's the plan?!"
Spotting the moss turtles swarming the newly discovered passage, Im Gyeong-su and the female student quickly called for instructions.
But no answer came.
Instead.
Craassshhh—!!
With the sound of shattering rock, Baek Ha-na launched herself along the wall and shot past the group in an instant.
"Woah...."
"You perverted freak. Focus!!"
"C-Cough!!"
Under the female student's scolding, Im Gyeong-su quickly looked away from Baek Ha-na.
"You idiot, watch where you're going!!"
"Huh? Uh-oh—gack!!"
-Guang?!
Thwaam—!!
With a heavy thud, Im Gyeong-su plowed straight into a moss turtle that had been directly ahead, forcing the entire group to stop in their tracks.
"And they put this loser on the front line. Fucking hell."
"When we get back, first thing we do is confiscate his shield."
"Agreed. He's dead meat at evaluations."
The students cursed Im Gyeong-su, who had flopped onto his back, and quickly tightened their formation.
Just then, Baek Ha-na, who had pushed ahead, spoke to them.
"Up ahead looks safe. Two of you keep an eye on him while we break through here."
"Confirmed."
"More importantly, why'd that screaming bastard suddenly go quiet?"
"Dunno. Probably croaked."
-I-I'm alive, you know?!
"Look, the corpse can talk."
"I've been wanting to slice up an undead anyway."
"Let's run some impact tests first."
Watching her classmates spit out such bloodthirsty remarks, Baek Ha-na turned back around.
'Three... five... nine of them.'
She needed to take out as many as possible while their attention was on the side passage.
From observation while running, she noted they spat venom without regard for hitting their own kind, focused solely on their targets.
The reason was simple. The corrosive venom had no effect on them whatsoever.
'It was manageable while we were running, but now that we've stopped, it's dangerous.'
Despite being low-level monsters, the potency of their venom was more lethal than creatures found in rifts several stages higher—a reputation that was proving true.
Because of this, the group's mana was nearly depleted.
People said that when attacking a non-aggressive monster, you had to kill it in a single blow. Clearly, that wasn't just empty talk.
-Hey, c-can you maybe help a little faster?!
The noisy shouting from the side passage made Baek Ha-na frown.
'That voice sounds familiar....'
It didn't sound like something she'd only heard once in passing. It felt familiar, as if she'd heard it many times before.
Or rather, it resembled a familiar voice, but something was subtly off—like a voice altered by some means.
-Excuse me?!
Baek Ha-na, who had been racking her memory, snapped back to attention at the increasingly urgent cry and took a deep breath.
Fwooosh.
Fluffy wolf ears rose above her pure white hair, and a tail slipped down beneath her short skirt.
Simultaneously, she leaped toward the nearest moss turtle.
-Guang?
The moss turtle lifted its head toward the sudden shadow, a somewhat stupid look on its face.
Crack—!!
Right then, Baek Ha-na's foot came down on it, bursting its head.
As its head burst, fluids began to eat at the soles of her shoes, but for optimal mana distribution, Baek Ha-na moved while cloaking only her gloves and body in mana.
Crunch—!!
She kicked off with her heel from the ground, now corroded by flesh and fluid, sending debris flying straight through the skull of another moss turtle.
-Guaaaagh...!!
Two had died in a blink. Sensing the death of its comrades and Baek Ha-na's presence, another moss turtle tried to withdraw its head into its rocky shell.
Squeeze!!
But Baek Ha-na was on it instantly, grabbing its head and yanking it out.
Splat—!!
Head and neck, still trailing bone, tore away from the body and came out in her hand.
There was no hesitation in her movements. She tossed aside the chunk of flesh in her hand and leaped toward the next target.
The creatures, with their limited field of vision due to their massive shells, didn't notice the carnage happening behind them, and their heads were ripped to shreds by her claws all the same.
Pop—!!
The seventh head burst.
-.......
-.......
Baek Ha-na shook the gore off her gloves and looked at the two remaining turtles hiding their heads inside their shells.
She could smash the shells. Or stir up the insides with mana.
But she did neither, instead turning to look at the group.
"Huff, huff... shit... we look like total wrecks."
"Are these things seriously low-level monsters?"
"Idiot. Don't you know that even a gentle dog is scarier when it's cornered?"
"...Okay, fair point."
Though less than a minute had passed, the classmates who had fended off the moss turtles swarming from behind were completely battered.
Their uniforms were full of holes, and every single one of them was drenched as if they'd taken a swim.
The only ones relatively intact were the two alchemy students, who had been protected in the center, and Nam Seo-hee.
Peeking behind the group at the moss turtles lying low with their bellies to the ground, Baek Ha-na breathed a silent sigh of relief.
She had acted with considerable brutality on a hunch, and luckily, as creatures with some intelligence, they seemed to have been properly terrorized.
"Ah!!"
Im Gyeong-su, whose uniform was in tatters but whose shield had somehow survived unscathed, straightened his back with a glint in his eye.
The other students nearby frowned at this.
"Let's catch our breath, damn it."
"Why the hell is his shield still pristine?"
"No idea. This psycho was guarding it with his own body when he was told to block with it."
Pointedly ignoring the harsh voices of his peers, Im Gyeong-su quickly spoke up.
"The screaming bastard!!"
"Oh, right."
"The talking corpse."
The arrows of anger aimed at Im Gyeong-su instantly shifted to the nameless student.
Without letting his feelings show, Im Gyeong-su hurried over to the side passage.
The other classmates followed him, and Nam Seo-hee, having sheathed her sword, approached Baek Ha-na.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Gonna need some tailoring, though."
Nam Seo-hee and Baek Ha-na looked at each other's uniforms and chuckled.
"Shall we go?"
"Mm."
Baek Ha-na moved first. Nam Seo-hee stuck close to her side, placing her hands behind her back and following along as she subtly brushed the back of her hand against the swaying tail.
At the soft sensation of the tail brushing her hand, the corners of Nam Seo-hee's lips were just beginning to curl upward.
That's when Baek Ha-na and Nam Seo-hee both stopped in their tracks.
The slight difference was that, while Nam Seo-hee's face had hardened, Baek Ha-na wore a slightly puzzled expression.
"So you got separated from your group?"
"Y-Yeah. No idea where they scattered to...."
A new voice drifted out from among the classmates crowded against the passage wall.
"Wait here."
"......?"
Baek Ha-na blinked, watching Nam Seo-hee's back as she suddenly drew her sheathed sword and crept carefully toward the group.
Nam Seo-hee killed her presence, inching forward until she was right behind the classmates. Then, holding her sword in a reverse grip, she shoved through them and slashed upward at an angle.
It happened so fast that none of the classmates even noticed her approach.
"Vicious."
"......."
Nam Seo-hee frowned at the voice coming from a short distance away.
She retrieved her sword, which had only cut through empty wall, and turned around.
A handsome man in an equally ragged uniform was playfully clapping his hands, looking right at her.
"Wh-What the?"
"...Shut your mouth."
Im Gyeong-su clamped his mouth shut under the female student's reprimand.
So did the others.
It was a sudden situation, but they weren't stupid.
A man who had dodged Nam Seo-hee's attack—an attack they hadn't even perceived—at an even greater speed.
This was not the movement of someone who'd been screaming for his life, cornered by moss turtles.
Quickly assessing the threat, the students hid the alchemy students behind their backs and raised their weapons.
Amidst the grave tension, Baek Ha-na alone was blinking, simply watching the scene unfold.
"That's a rough greeting."
"...What did you do to the other students."
As she questioned him, Nam Seo-hee began to slowly stoke the mana remaining inside her body.
"I told you, they all ran away?"
"......."
"Guess you don't believe me."
The man scratched his head, noticing Nam Seo-hee's coldly sinking gaze.
To which she replied.
"...At least try to wipe off the blood smell before you talk."
"Ah~"
The man's eyes widened before he nodded.
"Man, kids these days keep getting scarily sharper."
The students standing behind Nam Seo-hee swallowed hard, their grips tightening on their weapons.
"But I'm in a good mood! You all look exhausted, so I'll cede the first move. Looks like you're prepping something, so take your time—I'll wait as long as you need."
"......."
The man spoke with a smile. Nam Seo-hee took her sword in a reverse grip once more.
Crackle.
A brief flash of lightning bloomed along the blade.
Nam Seo-hee raised her sword hand.
She drew her arm back and stepped forward onto the opposite foot.
Crackle-pop.
Lightning flared from Nam Seo-hee's hand once more as her preparations concluded.
Every student saw it clearly.
"Ah......!!"
The instant Nam Seo-hee hurled the sword, one of the alchemy students, his face pale blue, spun around as if to flee.
Crackle.
Blue lightning bloomed from the sword leaving her hand.
Fwoooosh—!!
A violent electrical explosion completely engulfed the surrounding area.
A blue current swallowed up the space with a deafening roar, as if a bomb had gone off.
When the brief, intense light faded, the man, who had remained standing in the exact same spot, scratched his head with eyes showing a hint of bewilderment.
"Guuuh, g-gack...."
"Eugh-ik, urk."
Students were flopped on the ground like stunned frogs.
And there was Nam Seo-hee, collapsed on the floor, clutching her eyes.
The man glanced at Baek Ha-na, the only one still standing—though not perfectly fine, with her hair and fur all standing on end—and gently pressed his left ear.
"What should I do...?"
"Ah, yes. Understood. Yes. I'll bring her."
The man lowered his hand from his ear and pulled a thick, black pen from his chest, popping the cap off.
Then he approached the collapsed Nam Seo-hee and spoke.
"Water vapor is an insulator, so it doesn't conduct electricity. Simply having high humidity doesn't cause electric shocks, either. If it did, would you shower by candlelight? But, you see."
"Urgh?!"
Squeak, squeak.
The man peeled Nam Seo-hee's hands away from her eyes and scribbled on her face with the thick pen as he talked.
"This is inside a rift. It's not just 'high humidity'... Pfft!!"
Nam Seo-hee had become a complete panda.
The man stood up, satisfied with his work. Then he walked over to another unconscious student and began doodling on their face.
"Ahem."
"......."
After finishing his quick scribbling spree, the man approached Baek Ha-na and held up his pen slightly.
At the gesture implying no exceptions, Baek Ha-na fixed the man with a cold glare.
"I am going to tell my sister everything."
"......Cough."
The man, a Holy Knight of the God of Amusement, quietly tucked the pen back into his chest and turned away.