The Social Mixer (3)

That was almost a disaster.

I only managed to find Baek A-young after dismantling nearly every barrier in the place. I had reverse-engineered most of the barriers inside the party hall myself, which meant I'd run into a lot of people along the way. One of the hunters I'd crossed paths with mentioned seeing A-young off in a corner, and that tip was what finally led me to her.

Everyone else would still be fighting the remaining Demons in the center of the hall, reverse-engineering whatever barriers were left. I'd come running to A-young's corner alone, so backup was going to take a while.

I looked at the Demons and drew up my mana. There were plenty of them, but their individual abilities were pathetic. I'd burned through a lot of mana reverse-engineering the Rune Barriers, but thankfully all the work I'd put into expanding my mana reserves was paying off here. I could still handle this just fine.

Fwoosh—!

I scorched the Demons and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠drove them away from A-young, then checked her condition. Fat tears clung to her eyes, and her face was flushed a deep, burning red.

"Stay still. This'll be over soon."

The wound was bad. Her clothes had been torn open across her back, bone showing through. But with A-young's skill, that much was nothing. She'd heal it in no time.

— Grrk… kiiik….

Crunch—

I crushed the Demons in an instant with my flames. After a glance at the burning heap of corpses, I turned my attention to A-young.

"A-young. You okay? Just keep healing yourself and wait here for now."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I'd more or less eliminated the threats. All that was left was to get A-young and head back to where the others were. But something felt off. Like I'd forgotten something.

"Mm. Ho-yeon, thank y—"

Whoosh—!

Thump.

Something came flying out of my blind spot.

Clang—!

I reacted fast enough to block it with Cotton Guard, but the attack hadn't been aimed at me.

It had been aimed at Baek A-young.

Step. Step.

A thug in a grotesque skull mask stepped out of the dark corner, a sinister blade in his hand.

"…You've got to be kidding ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me."

Why does this crap always happen to me?

Just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the pressure rolling off him, he was on a completely different level from those pathetic Demons earlier. My body flinched under the tension. At the same time, my heart started hammering.

Combat Sense had kicked in.

Can I even win this?

My Combat Sense, burning hot for the first time in a while, was blaring a danger alarm straight at me. The searing mana and killing intent pressing against my skin were the strongest of any enemy I'd faced so far. And on top of that, I had to fight while protecting A-young.

That skull mask's target had clearly been her. For whatever reason, he was after Baek A-young.

"H-Ho-yeon. Run. You have to run."

"Calm down. It's fine."

A-young had clearly felt that ominous pressure too; she was wound tight with nerves.

"He's at least S-class hunter level. I'm the target, so if we just call the others—"

"Just stay still."

"Th-this isn't the kind of situation where—"

A-young was not in a normal state. She'd probably tensed up way too hard after running into an enemy this strong. She was terrified I might die, too.

Right now, I needed to give her certainty.

Still facing off against the skull mask, I flicked my eyes back over my shoulder.

"I'll keep you alive no matter what. Just watch. Baek A-young."

"Y-you…"

I tucked the wide-eyed, blinking A-young behind my back and studied the skull mask. He was holding a sword, so this was going to be close-quarters.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

My heart pounded like an eight-ton truck that refused to stop. My senses sharpened, and a rush of exhilaration climbed through me as the world around us seemed to slow.

About a third of my mana left. If this dragged on, I had no shot at winning.

Feels like someone set the whole board up for me.

And the skill I'd picked up recently just happened to be a burst-amplification type. When the world lays a stage like this for the protagonist, you're supposed to deliver. That's what a protagonist does.

I burned through the last of my mana and set my body blazing hot. The moment I drew my power up, the skull mask raised his sword and settled into a stance.

Ordinary Demons usually gurgled and thrashed, unable to control their own strength. The fact that this one was so quiet told me he was the real deal.

Insight.

My pupils lit up gold and began tracking every single movement of the skull mask. Map the path of every joint, every flow of mana, and you can predict where the next strike is coming from. And if he loaded mana into an attack, I could read that trajectory too.

Shrrrak—!

In a blink, the skull mask's body blurred. I threw Cotton Guard over my entire body at the same time. He closed the distance in a single breath and went for my limbs, but every slash only slammed into my barrier.

He didn't even care that the attacks had been blocked. He just chained into the next cut.

Acceleration.

Tap—

Clang!

Killing intent washed over me so sharp it made my whole body prickle. Five wind-like blades. Every one of them aimed dead at my vitals.

"Hh—!"

Even with Insight up and Acceleration stacked on top, I couldn't dodge them all. A slash grazed my forearm, and for the first time in a while, I bled. A bone-chilling sensation crawled up my arm. But I wasn't just sitting there taking hits either.

I caught a gap in the skull mask's rhythm and spun up a spell.

Krrrk—!

Ice began climbing from the skull mask's feet. Weaving magic while blocking and dodging wasn't easy, but I forced it through somehow. He immediately flared his own mana and stopped the freeze before it could climb past his ankles.

I hadn't expected that to finish him anyway. What mattered was that I'd bought myself a second.

That clash had told me everything. For the skull mask, it had been a light spar. For me, it had taken everything I had. The gap in power was that brutal.

If this keeps up, I lose for sure.

Throb.

I started forcing the mana circulating through my body to expand. My mana circuits stretched wider, and my output climbed.

Blood Beat.

A skill that expands mana to widen the circuits. Base numbers were a thirty percent boost for one minute. Not enough right now.

I'm still not used to this, but I don't have a choice.

I pushed the output even higher. My mana circuits stretched past their limits, and pain tore through my entire body. It hurt like hell, but I could take it. Clear Mind apparently sharpened my tolerance for pain too. I felt like I was genuinely about to die, and I could still move.

Ten seconds. That's it.

This level of amplification would only last about ten seconds. For those ten seconds, I could edge out ahead of the skull mask.

That short exchange had taught me something else, too. The suit the skull mask was wearing had resistance to fire and ice. My magic had hit weaker than usual—that was the proof. Preparing clothes with fire and ice resistance meant he had intel on my magic.

And that fact could actually work in my favor. I still had plenty of cards I hadn't shown.

Thump.

Gritting through the pain, I unleashed a wave of freezing mana. I'd poured everything into the spell without holding back, and the cold locked the skull mask in place for a heartbeat. I couldn't freeze a body stronger than mine, so I'd frozen the suit itself instead.

From the way he twitched, he'd shake it off soon enough. He had ice resistance, after all. Either way, I only had eight seconds left.

I dumped every last drop of remaining mana into my right hand. If this one shot didn't land, I was done anyway. No point saving anything.

Hummm—

Wind mana spun into a spiral and compressed into a sphere above my palm. I'd poured out every scrap of power I had left, and exhaustion crashed through my whole body as the world started to spin. The early warning signs of mana depletion.

But I clenched my teeth, forced it down, and walked toward the skull mask.

Three seconds left. My arms and legs were shaking, but if I let this chance slip, there was no winning.

KRAAAAAASH————!

The Spiral I'd poured every ounce of my mana into punched straight through the skull mask's heart. At the same instant, the ice magic clinging to his suit shattered, and his sword came crashing down at me.

But the blade never reached me. It stopped near my shoulder—and the skull mask's body locked up rigid.

— Grrrk….

A thin groan slipped from the skull mask who'd kept silent until now. Then, slowly, his body crumpled.

Thud!

The skull mask died with a hole blown clean through his chest. And at the same moment, my knees hit the ground.

"Ho-yeon!"

My head was spinning. Blood Beat's ten-second window was already over, and all that remained was a pain that the word "agony" didn't even begin to cover. I wasn't going to be fighting again for a while. The aftereffects felt like they'd stick around.

Collapse—

My body slipped out of my control and toppled straight to the floor. A-young rushed over, buried her face in my chest, and started sniffling.

"Why did you do that. Why…"

A warm light wrapped around my body, and the pain began to ease. Even so, the drained hollowness of mana exhaustion layered on top of Blood Beat's backlash wasn't something that recovered easily. My tattered mana circuits were hard for even A-young's healing to fully cover.

"I'm fine… This much'll heal soon enough."

"Hhk…. Hh…."

Watching A-young heal me through a steady stream of tears, what I felt wasn't gratitude so much as suspicion.

The quest didn't complete.

No quest completion window. I'd saved Baek A-young and it still hadn't popped—which meant a threat was still out there.

Slash—!

— Grrrk….

From the pile of Demon corpses I'd burned before facing the skull mask, one of them rose and flung a dagger. It collapsed the second the blade left its hand—like it had been gathering every scrap of strength it had left for one final throw.

"You son of a—"

Looks like I hadn't finished one of them off properly. I had zero mana left to throw up Cotton Guard. A light dagger like that wouldn't kill A-young even if it hit her, but my body moved on pure reflex. I yanked her in.

"Huh?"

And using her weight, I swapped our positions.

Thuk—

The dagger punched into my back. Thankfully, it didn't sink deep.

"Ah…"

But it hurt like a bitch. There was probably poison or some kind of drug on the blade. My body prickled the same way it had when I'd deliberately tanked that ogre hit before.

You absolute bastard. The quest completion window popping the second the dagger hit me felt like it was mocking me.

"Why—why did you take that dagger for me."

A-young's voice shook. She poured even stronger light into the wound as she stared at the dagger stuck in my back, but I already knew.

Yeah. I'm about to pass out.

Nobody knows my body better than I do. I couldn't hold on any longer.

"It wouldn't have been dangerous even if it'd hit me. So why would you—!"

"…A-young."

I forced my mouth open with every last scrap of strength I had left. Every time my tongue and lips moved, it felt like they were being torn apart.

"You still don't know why I do this?"

"Why—why would you…"

A-young was practically sobbing as she healed me. The timing was perfect. Too perfect a moment to finally say it.

But I couldn't get the rest of the words out.

Because the world in front of me was going dark.

Please don't let me wake up in Hell.

Please let me open my eyes in a hospital room. And please don't let A-young's affection drop. I'd spent my last strength planting the flag—surely it wouldn't fall now.

— Ho-yeon… Ho-yeon!

I felt A-young crying and clinging to me—and then I blacked out cold.