Command From the Rear
It had only been a short while since the silence had broken, but before long the training hall was swallowed by stillness once more.
Min Ji-won strode straight toward the man holding a spear — Hwang Min-su.
"Didn't you hear the briefing on the vanguard role? If we get breached, the entire formation collapses."
Her voice was never loud, but it dropped over him cold and heavy. Hwang Min-su couldn't meet her eyes; his mouth only flapped open and shut.
"Okay, I messed up. But do you really have to get that mad about it?"
Min Ji-won's brow twitched at that. Anyone watching could tell the remark had just poured oil on the fire.
"If you're going to fail anyway, what's the point of practicing? If that had been a real fight and a monster punched through to the rear line, the people behind you would be dead. You can't even maintain basic vigilance? At that rate you should've gone to elementary school, not high school."
"It's just practice! We handled it fine in the end — you're seriously overreacting! One mistake and you're on my ass about every little thing."
"Not every mistake is the same. If it had been a lack of skill, that would be one thing — but what just happened came straight out of your attitude. And with that, you call yourself D-Rank? Can you even remember the alphabet in order?"
"Hey! Just because you're the Association President's daughter and everyone coddles you, you think you're some—"
"That's enough."
Just as the tempers flared and the words turned truly vicious, Chae Chi-su stepped between them and cut it off.
For this exercise, bickering itself counted as part of the lesson — but letting it go any deeper wouldn't do either of them any good. The point of the drill wasn't simply to sync their breathing; it was to train for the unexpected. In other words, how well you could mesh with people you'd only just met. That was why the instructors stayed out of student affairs unless they judged the situation genuinely dangerous.
Of course, that threshold was left to each teacher's discretion, so the line of what was acceptable was never perfectly clear — but the default tendency was to stand back and watch. Out in the field, clashes with people in the same industry were an everyday reality. Better to get a taste of that kind of friction early.
Park Yeon-chan was a case in point. Flaunting raw force was a rather rough method, sure — but it was still better than letting the chain of command unravel. Pinning things down hard and clear was a valid approach in its own right.
As for Student Min Ji-won…
The direction was different, but her principles weren't wrong. She had an excellent ability to read a situation with cold composure, and her individual skill was outstanding. As leadership material, she left almost nothing to be desired.
It just doesn't fit a student's mindset.
Most of the current first-years had never set foot on a real battlefield. Telling them to approach practice with the same tension they'd need in the field would sound like nothing more than a lecture from some old fossil.
Once they've been out there once, that attitude will change.
Even if a teacher escorted them, feeling the real pressure of the field on their skin would shift how they thought. And it wasn't only Min Ji-won's group that was grinding its gears. From experience, there was nothing to do but leave this particular problem to time.
"Group Eight, step forward!"
At last — Group Eight. Park Yeon-chan's team.
At Chae Chi-su's call, four people including Park Yeon-chan walked out to the center of the training hall. They moved at an unhurried pace toward positions they'd clearly agreed on beforehand.
And then—
The rear?
Chae Chi-su couldn't help frowning when Park Yeon-chan — whom he'd fully expected to take the front — settled into the rearmost position. For this exercise the instructors only handed out baseline materials on formations and the like; they didn't interfere beyond that. So there was no grounds to dig into it — but Chae Chi-su still found it strange. As a rule, the strongest fighter stood at the very front, in the vanguard.
Still young, I suppose.
No matter how overwhelming his combat power, Park Yeon-chan was only seventeen. He couldn't have piled up that much experience yet. Gaps like this were only natural.
Thinking as much, Chae Chi-su checked over the group's readiness, then called out:
"Begin!"
Same as with every other group, he opened the bundle the moment the signal dropped and summoned the monster.
Woooooo!
The creature that emerged, wreathed in the light of mana, was a wolf-type monster of D-Rank.
A Double Wolf.
The highest grade of monster that could come out of those bundles. Three meters tall — bulk on the order of a shipping container, threatening just to look at. And with two heads grafted onto that frame, the sheer grotesqueness made it look twice as dangerous.
Grrrr.
The Double Wolf swung its heads around, then both of them locked abruptly onto a single point — as if it had acquired a target. It fixed a hard stare on Park Yeon-chan's group.
Awooooo!
With a wolf's howl it drove forward on heavy strides.
"Move exactly as we planned! Kang Min-hyeon — don't attack. Focus on receiving!"
"Got it!"
The first to collide with the Double Wolf was Kang Min-hyeon at the front line. He swept his greatsword around and knocked aside the head the beast was trying to drive into him.
Kaaaaang!
One of the Double Wolf's defining traits was its hardened skull. Even a full swing of the greatsword into that head only rang out like metal on metal; the monster took a single step back with no real damage to show for it.
A little distance opened between Kang Min-hyeon at the front and the rest. Park Yeon-chan's order cut into that gap without missing a beat.
"Now!"
On the shouted signal from the rear, three arrows streaked toward the Double Wolf in rapid succession.
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
They punched into the beast's left leg one after another. One shot went wide when the Double Wolf shifted, but the other two struck true — joint and pad.
Not that it was enough to break the monster's momentum.
Woooooo!
As if to prove it still had fight left, the Double Wolf loosed another massive howl and charged again, limping on the wounded leg.
"Knock it back again! Watch the tail — something might come from behind!"
Kang Min-hyeon battered aside the head the Double Wolf drove at him once more. Unlike the previous rush, when it had tried to plow through him ground and all—
Kruk!
"You little—!"
—the Double Wolf twisted its neck and caught Kang Min-hyeon's descending greatsword in its jaws.
"Support!"
The instant Park Yeon-chan's voice rang out, Yeon Min-ju's arrows flew for the Double Wolf's cheek and eye.
Thud-thud!
Woooo…
The arrows hit clean and did their job; the jaws clamped on Kang Min-hyeon's greatsword sprang open. But the other head was still very much in play.
Kuaaaak!
It yawned its maw wide and lunged to tear him apart—
"Drive it in!"
—only for Lee Ju-won, who had already slipped in close, to skewer it like a spit, punching straight through from jaw to snout.
Kigigiging.
Only after taking that much damage did the Double Wolf backpedal two, three steps, making a sound uncomfortably close to a dog's whimper. One leg crippled, one head critically wounded. The tide had turned in an instant — and maybe that was why Kang Min-hyeon let his guard down.
"Haaaah!"
Before Park Yeon-chan could even give the order, Kang Min-hyeon charged the Double Wolf with his greatsword raised.
Shraaak!
He split the beast's belly open in a clean stroke.
The problem was what came next.
Grrrrrng!
Even under that assault, one of the Double Wolf's heads still had strength left. It cracked its jaws wide and lunged from behind to take Kang Min-hyeon.
"Kang Min-hyeon!"
Yeon Min-ju saw it and shouted — but it was already too late. Before Kang Min-hyeon could even turn his head, he was about to be torn into—
Thud.
—and then, abruptly, the Double Wolf's balance shattered. It staggered, failed to close on Kang Min-hyeon, and crashed down.
The leg…!
In the blink of an eye, one of the Double Wolf's legs was simply gone — no trace left behind. The window had been vanishingly short, but Yeon Min-ju, standing right in front of Park Yeon-chan, felt it clearly. Her eyes hadn't been able to track it, but the one who had delivered that attack without any weapon at all was Park Yeon-chan.
She started to glance back — and Park Yeon-chan's voice stopped her cold.
"Finish it."
A low murmur. Nowhere near as loud as his earlier commands, and yet not a single person failed to hear it. Lee Ju-won and Kang Min-hyeon poured attacks without mercy onto the fallen Double Wolf.
Kiiing, whine, whine.
Making noises like a puppy being beaten, the Double Wolf finally fractured into shards of light and vanished.
Silence settled over the hall — the same kind that had followed Min Ji-won's group. But this silence was of an entirely different quality. Students and instructors alike were staring at the training ground with blank, stunned faces.
The students were shocked by the sheer level of a D-Rank monster they'd never seen before — and by the fact that Park Yeon-chan's group had almost completely crushed it with only three people fighting. The instructors, though, were reeling for a completely different reason.
What in the world was that attack just now…
It had happened in an instant. There was no question Park Yeon-chan had done it — and yet not a single instructor had managed to catch how. More than that: from before the start all the way to the end, he had never once left his position at the rear. He had only given orders.
As if—
As if he were standing there evaluating his teammates. Coaching them.
Chae Chi-su swallowed his astonishment and looked at Park Yeon-chan. At first he'd assumed the boy had simply rearranged the formation by taking the rear. In truth, he'd only wanted a full view so he could issue commands. Looking at it now, Group Eight's formation had been built around three people, not four.
And once that clicked, the truly startling part was the position Park Yeon-chan had chosen. It had seemed a little far back — but the distance wasn't only for giving orders.
Even from that far away, he can still do whatever he wants whenever he wants…
That intent was baked into it as well. Chae Chi-su swallowed hard without meaning to.
Focus. Right now he needed to finish what was in front of him. He forced the shock down.
"Well done. Group Eight, you may step back!"
A beat late, but he declared the end of Group Eight's exercise. "Remarkable" didn't begin to cover it.
Maybe — just maybe — we've found the one who can end this endless war against the Gates.
He was watching Park Yeon-chan with something like hope in his eyes when—
"Hey. Get over here."
Park Yeon-chan, who until a moment ago had been standing far at the back, walked slowly forward. Kang Min-hyeon flinched hard at the sight of him.
"You. I told you if you got cocky and screwed up, you were dead, didn't I?"
"Th-that…"
"Hurry up."
"Aaaagh!"
Watching Park Yeon-chan close in on him at that unhurried pace, Kang Min-hyeon let out a scream and bolted. But—
Smack!
—Park Yeon-chan appeared in front of him in an instant, cracked him across the skull, and then dragged the crumpled Kang Min-hyeon off somewhere out of sight.
"……"
It had happened so suddenly that not a single person in the training hall could find a word. And Chae Chi-su found himself questioning the thought he'd been holding only moments before.
Is he really hope…?