In the Fog (3)
"N-No... y-you need to be careful. This fog causes hallucinations and auditory hallucinations..."
The man avoided my eyes. The spirited shouts he'd been yelling just moments ago were gone, replaced by a voice that sounded like he was looking for a hole to crawl into.
I got it.
"Uh... are you okay now?"
"...Fortunately, it seems to wear off quickly if you're not in the fog."
The man cleared his throat repeatedly as he glared at the fog. I gave him a brief introduction about who I was.
"I saw your rescue request and came over... Are you an awakener from the safe zone?"
"Rescue request..."
He nodded at my question.
"Yeah, that's right. I was just peeking out at the fog-covered outside when I kept hearing screams of people in pain beyond the safe zone. I couldn't stand it and rushed out to save them. Two other fellow awakeners came out with me, but we got separated in the fog, so I have no idea where they are now. I never thought it was all hallucinations..."
It was a miracle he hadn't been seriously hurt in the fog.
The man straightened his clothes and looked worriedly in one direction.
"...Um, can we head to the safe zone first?"
"The safe zone?"
"Yeah. I'm worried about the people... They can't fight..."
I was worried too.
"Alright. Lead the way."
"Just follow right behind me."
I nodded while double-checking the armaments on the combat drone and sniper drone hovering at my back. The man took the lead toward the safe zone. He said even though we had to detour around the fog now and then, it wasn't far, so we'd arrive soon.
But his face, as he guided the way, was strangely grim.
"Still embarrassed about earlier...?"
When I tossed out the half-joking question, he shook his head with an awkward smile.
"It's not that. Take a look at this."
He stopped walking and pointed to the ragged hem of his t-shirt, along with the bruises and scratch marks on his arms. They looked like traces of a fight with another person.
"Even if I was hallucinating like crazy... it doesn't make sense for my clothes to tear like this and for me to get these injuries from a mannequin..."
"Uh... maybe you rolled around on the clothing store floor while swinging the mannequin around, bumping into broken glass shards or furniture corners?"
"No, that's not it."
He rolled up his sleeve at my reasonable guess, looking indignant, and showed me a sharp glass shard that had been deeply embedded in his arm when he broke through the store window earlier.
"Huh?"
"See?"
My eyes widened slightly. I'd assumed it had dug into his flesh, but on closer inspection, it hadn't pierced his skin at all—just barely stuck to the surface.
"My skill is Body Hardening. My body doesn't even get a scratch from normal impacts. My clothes might tear from glass or furniture scrapes, but not my skin."
He tossed the glass shard to the ground and spat out the words.
"I was thrashing around in a hallucination, sure... but I think there's a real monster hiding in this fog, attacking separately."
"...Ah."
That made sense. Back with the poison fog, there'd been a monster spewing the poison mist and plant monsters guarding it. Maybe two types were working together here too.
"We need to be even more careful with the fog."
We swallowed dryly and started watching the thick fog around us more warily. The combat and sniper drones at my sides rotated their bodies in different directions, bracing for invisible threats.
Eventually, we reached our destination unscathed.
"There it is! That school's the safe zone!"
"Ah... so that's it."
The old middle school building the man pointed to was faintly outlined, thickly surrounded by makeshift barricades. Fog was creeping across the playground outside like waves. But luckily, the path inside the school gate and the building interior seemed untouched by the poison, with relatively clear visibility.
"The inside of the building hasn't been breached yet. Hurry!"
"Run!"
Without hesitation, we hunched low and sprinted full speed, dodging the spreading fog on the playground. We slipped through a gap in the barricade and leaped straight into the school building.
Bam!
We decided to quickly move away from the entrance, since closing the door might not stop the fog.
"No fog in sight for now."
The first floor interior was mercifully clear and clean, without a trace of fog.
"Where are the survivors gathered?"
"They usually use the auditorium on the second floor as their base. Let's go there!"
We held our breath and crept quietly through the silent school hallways, climbing the stairs to the second floor.
"...It's too quiet... Ah, th-there!"
But as soon as we reached the second-floor hallway, an ominous sight hit us.
One of those will-o'-the-wisp-like things from outside seemed to have entered the auditorium. White smoke was seeping out from the door labeled "Auditorium."
"...Fuck, looks like one already infiltrated the building."
The man's face paled as he cursed.
Survivors trapped inside might be lost in hallucinations. The bigger problem was we couldn't rush in to help right away. If we got fogged too, it'd be worse.
"No choice, I'll hold my breath and—"
"I have an idea."
I stopped the man and nodded to the two sturdy drones hovering at my sides. Hallucinations and auditory tricks wouldn't affect drones, no matter what.
"Go in, find the monster spewing the fog, and blast it."
Before, when we didn't know the fog's source, the drones couldn't do much inside it. But now that we knew it was a monster destructible by physical attacks, they could handle it.
Whirr—!
The two drones dove into the auditorium at my command. A few seconds of silence.
Then gunfire erupted from inside.
Bang—!
It was the combat drone's shot. With that single blast, the fog leaking from the door lost momentum, and the thick haze inside rapidly cleared.
"Cough, hack! Guh...!"
Painful coughing came from beyond the door. At least the people seemed okay.
"Good thing we weren't too late. Let's go in!"
As the man sighed in relief and flung open the auditorium door to rush inside—
"D-Don't come closer! It's still... there's still a monster in the corner!"
One survivor on the floor, hacking up fog, screamed while pointing at something.
But since it was from someone who'd just escaped a bad hallucination, the man brushed it off.
"Calm down! Donghoon, I get it. What you're seeing is just the remnants of the hallucination..."
His confident stride into the auditorium cut off like a snapped tape.
The man's gaze fixed on the dark corner of the auditorium. There, not a hallucination but a real, breathing monster crouched with glaring eyes.
"Crazy..."
I gripped my spear tightly at the sight too.
It stood on two legs like a human, with a slender build. But its body was covered in creepy green scales, topped with a snake head flicking a forked tongue.
Different from the lizardmen I'd seen before. And there were two of the disgusting things, clutching sharp daggers in both hands as they eyed the people from the corner.
"Th-those bastards...!"
The man's jaw trembled at the snake heads. Panicking upon facing the monster he'd let his guard down for, his shaking hand fumbled in his pocket.
Clang—
He dropped his one-handed axe—his weapon—and that sparked it.
"Shaaaak—!!"
The two snake monsters let out a screech and charged at the startled man. Their speed matched the will-o'-the-wisps I'd seen on infrared—fast and nimble.
He gave up grabbing the axe and assumed a defensive stance too late; their daggers aimed for his neck a beat faster.
"Hup!"
But my speed was no slouch either. I used Leap as quickly as possible, stomping the floor hard.
Boom—!
The auditorium floor cratered, cracking like a spiderweb. My flying body reached the man's side before the snakes could.
"Move!"
I kicked his shoulder to shove him aside, gathering strength and thrusting my spear forward.
Stab—!
"Kieeeek!"
The spear tip pierced the chest of the dagger-wielding snake monster in one go. Its tough-looking scales offered no resistance.
The other hesitated at the sight, but it was already in my range. A flail might not have reached, but I had the spear.
"Hup!"
Swish—!
I pulled back and swung diagonally like a slash; its body cleaved in half. Without even much force.
Item power was clutch, as expected.
"Hah, hah... Th-thank you."
The man, who'd rolled across the floor from my kick, came to his senses and thanked me.
"...That guy warned us, so I could react fast."
Hearing me, he bowed his head to the man named Donghoon who'd alerted us about the monster.
"Donghoon, thank you. Thanks to you—"
"Ugh! Stay back, you monster! Ugly freak! I said stay back!"
"..."
"...Looks like he hasn't fully coughed out the fog yet."
Donghoon still hadn't cleared the fog completely and was mistaking the man for a monster. The man looked hurt.