I Became an Apocalyptic "Physical" Therapist (46)
The crew was entering the abandoned school.
At this range, a sweep was more than something Won-goo's crew could manage on their own.
Naturally, the conversation drifted to mages, and Won-goo walked them through the basics.
"Mages are dangerous. A mage traveling alone gets underrated, but give one a support crew to cover him and he becomes a real pain in the ass. Especially when the side with the numbers has a mage—that's when things get genuinely hairy."
"So that's why. And elemental mages are even worse on top of that?"
"Mages fall into three broad categories. First, the kind who can use all sorts of magic across the board. If their fundamentals are solid, they can perform in any situation—that's the good kind. Then there's the type who digs deep into just one or two spells. Most elementals belong here. They're worse at handling surprises, but they tend to throw around far more powerful magic."
"And the third?"
"The kind who's technically a mage but can't actually cast. We've got one of those in our crew, as it happens."
"Skipping ahead is one thing, but this seems to be the relevant part."
Mu Beob-sa had found a trail. A bloodstain.
"Recent, no question. So it's this way, then? Chul-soo. Check the far end of that classroom. Anyone in there?"
"Nobody, sir."
"Nobody? You sure he's not hiding?"
"It's completely empty. Nowhere to hide, even if he wanted to......"
"Really? This is the right place, though? Class 4, fifth grade. If not here, there's nowhere left for him to go."
Won-goo raised a finger and spun it in a slow circle. The signal to sweep the perimeter again.
The crew scattered and searched once more.
"Nothing? That's weird."
"Could the trail be bait, do you think?"
"He didn't look skilled enough to pull that off...... and that bloodstain was exactly where Chul-soo went in just now, so......"
Still, Won-goo stepped back into Class 4 of the fifth grade himself. Just as Chul-soo had said—totally empty.
But something felt off to him.
Something strange, clinging to the ceiling above the entrance.
It was the same color as the wall, which made it easy to miss. Yet no amount of camouflage could slip past the instincts of a man who had survived every manner of hell this world had to offer.
Psst.
Won-goo looked up at the ceiling and grinned.
"That's your Gift? Or an item? You're trying so hard, aren't you. Who do you think you are, Spider-Man? Kid. Get down here. We're not Respect."
"P-please spare me."
"Yeah, yeah. Just get down."
"I'll......"
"Ugh! You're such an infuriating little brat. Hey. You think we can't get you down just because you're up there? I'm giving you exactly one more chance. Are you coming down on your own, or are you coming down after we beat you half to death?"
Thump!
The man clinging to the wall dropped down at once.
"You little—! When we tell you to come down, you come down! You wasted my damn time for nothing!"
Thwack! Thwack!
"I-I did come down, though......"
"I know, you brat."
"Then why are you hitting me......"
"Because you didn't trust a fellow human being! You don't know me?"
"Who......"
"You're with the Nero Family, aren't you."
"That's right."
"And you don't recognize me? Are you an idiot?"
"Could it be...... Gong Won-goo......?"
"Gong Won-goo? Am I your buddy?"
"N-no, sir."
"Whatever. You're the warehouse keeper for the Nero Family warehouse, Danshin, right?"
"Yes."
"How tall are you?"
"170 centimeters."
"That's not tall, is it? Then why are you called Danshin—Tall Guy!"
"It's just my name......"
"Then be Dan-shin. Shorty. From now on, your name is Dan-shin."
"My parents......"
"I'm saving your life, aren't I? That makes me your parent now, more or less. So start calling yourself Dan-shin. Dan-shin."
"Yes......"
"Right, then let's head out. Su-won."
"Y-yes, sir."
"You know the way?"
A nod.
"Lead on."
Someone once said that when things keep going your way, it means disaster is just around the corner.
As if to prove the point, Won-goo's crew was absorbing a deluge of attacks pouring in from every direction.
"No wonder everything was going suspiciously smooth."
"Wasn't it you who said Respect without A-bal isn't all that scary?"
Mu Beob-sa's remark.
"I didn't expect there'd be this many of them?"
"Looks like he's pulled in every gang in the area."
Jo Mu-sa chimed in, and Geum Chul-soo added his own two cents.
"No wonder things were going so easily. What do we do now?"
The crew was tucked behind the trailer, holding the enemies at bay.
Won-goo's rifle and Jeon Hye-ji's crossbow. The suppression was working—the enemy wasn't charging in blindly, after all. They used cover, dodged fire where they could, and edged closer step by step.
Like hunters stalking prey.
Worse still, the other side had ranged weapons of their own.
Nothing like Won-goo's prized firearm, granted.
Nearly every gun on the planet had become obsolete the moment the apocalypse began.
Most of them carried medieval weaponry like Hye-ji did.
Even so, their firepower was nothing to sneeze at.
Some of them wielded bows with enchanted options attached.
Which meant a bow could easily outmatch a firearm in raw killing power.
"What do we do?"
Hye-ji's question.
The crew's eyes had all turned to Won-goo. Danshin crouched beside him, head ducked, trembling like a leaf.
"What do you mean, what? We punch through. There's a shitload of them—one stray arrow turning into a horror movie is all we need. Damn it."
Numbers conferred advantages in battle far beyond what most people imagined.
With a hard tank like Ralph on their side, they might have smashed through this situation. While he soaked up aggro at the cost of his own body, someone like Sde or Bat could slip around and slit the throat of the mage taking aim from the rear—that would open an escape route.
But among Won-goo's current crew, there was no tank that hard.
Truth be told, Won-goo had never intended to raise his people that way in the first place.
It demanded far too much sacrifice. And Lee Hyun-sung wasn't the kind of Gift-holder suited for it anyway.
"Hyeong-nim. Let me step out and draw their attention."
"Save it. Step out now and you're a pincushion in ten seconds. We've got the trailer—we're fine. Those bastards are going to peel off and hit us from behind. That's when we strike."
The one sliver of hope in this worst-case scenario was that the spot where Won-goo's crew had run into the gang was right next to where the trailer sat.
Thanks to Won-goo's steady investment, the trailer's defenses were nothing to dismiss.
Right now it was serving as a rock-solid fortress wall. But that solidity evaporated the instant they flanked it and attacked from the rear.
"I-if we give him what he wants now, maybe......"
"Su-won. Does that sound reasonable to you? Respect is greedy as hell. He's probably cackling right now about using this chance to shove out his competitors and swallow this whole area."
"Director Gong is right about that one. Negotiation is pointless here."
"Roughly how many do they look like?"
"At minimum, over two hundred. No—call it three hundred."
"If Respect's gang was fifty to seventy...... how many gangs can there possibly be packed into an area this small?"
"It only takes five guys to form one, sir."
"Still, that's way too many. And a mage on top of it."
"Yeah. The mage is the problem."
Won-goo was a top-tier fighter capable of handling a hundred men single-handedly.
Given the right conditions, he could take on even more than that.
It meant he could replicate the performance they'd all witnessed against Poke's gang.
But conditions now were very different from back then. Against Poke's gang, Won-goo had fought inside a building.
Fighting indoors worked in a small force's favor, and Poke's gang had known nothing about the weapons Won-goo carried.
Above all, there had been no specialized casters—a mage—on the enemy side.
That was why Won-goo had been able to run wild.
Now it was different. He was facing a horde in open ground, and the horde was enormous.
And their armament was excellent.
He could see shields among them—actual shield-bearers.
In close combat, a shield was practically a cheat item.
That was how much advantage one granted. A sword and a spear meet, and the spear wins every time—but put a decent shield on the swordsman and the outcome could flip entirely.
That was how much a shield changed the equation.
Yet survivors rarely carried one, because it shackled your mobility.
On top of that, for survivors who often had to move in silence, the noise a shield made could be outright fatal.
Which was why most survivors stashed their shields somewhere like a Subspace Backpack instead.
"Hyun-sung."
"Yes, Hyeong-nim!"
"No, wait—not you. Hye-ji. You're the one going in."
"Me?"
"Yep. Crawl under the trailer. Now."
"......?"
"When I say go in, you go in."
"I'll do it. I can fit just fine."
Geum Chul-soo raised his hand. Chul-soo promptly crawled into the trailer's interior.
"Then Chul-soo goes in. The middle, right? Yeah. Look between the seats there and you'll see a bag. The blue one, not the red. There you go, quick hands. Bring it here."
Chul-soo fetched the bag at once.
Won-goo began pulling something out of it: a shield.
A round shield, large enough to cover everything from the waist up.
The sight of it wiped the composure right off the crew's faces.
"Director Gong, when exactly did you prepare this?"
"I'm something of a veteran in this line of work. You think I haven't simulated a situation or two?"
"Good grief......"
"Jo Mu-sa, Su-won, Lee Hyun-sung."
"Yes!"
"Your job is to bait them. And keep that aggro tight. Chul-soo."
"Yes, sir!"
"You do nothing else. The moment we draw their attention, that ice-mage bastard will start casting. That's when you pinpoint her position for us. You following me?"
"Following you loud and clear, Director!"
"Good. Once you've got the position, send Dullahan straight in. Straight ahead, no veering. Even if you can't kill her, doesn't matter. Just slam into her like a diving tackle. Or take the spell in Dullahan's place—either works. Do whatever it takes to buy us a window to close the distance. Once we're in there and the brawl goes muddy, our odds come up. So that's the plan. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Do it well. And—old man. I mean, Mage, sir."
"What difficult favor demands such flattery?"
"The situation's difficult, all right."
"And what would you have me do?"
"This rear. If we get herded from back here, we're done. I need you to hold the woods behind us. You can manage that if you move inside them, no?"
Mu Beob-sa stared at him long and hard. Won-goo pulled out the most pitiful expression he could muster.
"Come on, help me out here! Please! This is a genuinely dangerous situation."
"Very well."
"Then, Hye-ji. You hold the trailer down and keep the support fire coming. Don't get obsessed with landing kills. Your job is to keep them from closing in easily."
"Understood."
"And when they close in, use what I told you. Remember? The incoming arcs. Keep your eyes calm, watch only those lines, and knock them down—you'll be fine."
Hye-ji nodded immediately.
"And Danshin—sorry, Dan-shin. You take this shield."
"Me?"
"Take it and guard Hye-ji with your life. Do that well and I'll give your Chameleon Ring back. How about it—decent offer or what?"
"You'll actually give it back?"
"I happen to have a reputation in this business for good credit. Or did you forget that too?"
"More like you're a two-bit thug......"
"What was that, you little—never mind, we're busy. Just do your job. Shove that shield out in front and they won't kill you. You're strong, too—strong enough to cling to walls, right? With that ability, you'll do just fine."
"......"
"I'll even hold a proper funeral for Nero."
"Yes, sir......"
"Alright! Let's move!"
Won-goo bellowed and was the first to show himself outside.
Thuddududuk!
Arrows came screaming in at once, and Won-goo ducked straight back inside the trailer.
"Damn it. They've got their angles zeroed in perfectly. Ha...... knew I could smell it coming......"
"Hyeong-nim. I think we need to go out simultaneously."
"Agreed. On three, we move."
Heads nodded all around. Won-goo raised his fingers and unfolded them one by one, slowly.
One.
Two.
Three.
Shields up, they burst outside together.
Arrows rained down, and the crew covered their heads and torsos as they hurled themselves out.
Even so, a few gaps got through.
Won-goo in particular took a vicious arrow straight through his thigh.
And still, he moved.
He knew he wouldn't die from something like that.
Jo Mu-sa and Su-won, mercifully, came through unscathed, and only Lee Hyun-sung caught a few hits on his forearm—nothing more.
Then someone pointed at Won-goo.
The easiest target in sight, leg already wounded.
An ice ball the size of a watermelon came hurtling toward him.
Won-goo caught it on his shield. And then something bizarre happened.
As the ice ball shattered against it, the cold ran along the shield's surface and froze his wrist solid with it.
"Damn it...... there she is!"
Even in this emergency, Won-goo marked the mage's position.
Geum Chul-soo's turn.
Dullahan shot out toward the mage.
But the gang responded as if they'd been waiting for exactly this.
They guarded the mage with absolute discipline. Concentrated firepower neutralized Dullahan on the spot.
Arrows turned him into a pincushion, and the shield-bearers shoved in and shut down any approach entirely.
"Ah...... that's it, we're screwed."
Won-goo muttered under his breath. Even so, his brain was still turning.
Do I really have to burn through every coin I've been stockpiling?
He still had a trump card.
The trailer was his everything—of course he'd prepared for emergencies.
It was simply that the losses were so steep he'd been hesitating to crack it open.
Kraaaak!
While Won-goo was deep in thought, a sound like a drum tearing apart rang out from far away.
Commotion at the gang's rear.
And the ice mage's head, rolling across the ground.
Thoom!
A long, lean woman had jumped a good ten meters in a single bound and crashed the party.
A-bal.
"Damn it...... that timing is insane."
"Didn't I say we'd be seeing each other again soon?"
A-bal, clad head to toe in a leather suit, smiled. The battle had flipped on its head.