No... That's Impossible
An Abyss stood before them, gripping a crescent moon blade that looked uncannily like the weapons hunters carried.
Confusion clouded the guild masters' faces at the sight, yet Adjutant Lee Jinhyun answered them with a voice that held a quiet thread of certainty.
"We proceed exactly as planned."
"Mm... okay."
"Understood."
They could not pin it down precisely, but his tone carried the same edge as a seasoned gambler who already saw the win laid out on the table. The guild masters still did not grasp the full picture, yet they chose, as they always had, to follow his command.
Then—
"Incoming attack again. Yuna, take the front and defend!"
"Huh? Y-yeah!"
The order felt strangely familiar, almost as if he were reading the enemy's next move before it happened. Yuna sprang forward at once and locked into a defensive stance.
And then—
Clang!
In the next instant the Abyss's crescent blade crashed down onto her axe exactly as Jinhyun had predicted. The attack pattern had shifted completely from everything before, yet somehow he had called it with perfect accuracy.
Analysis explained the earlier moves, sure... but how did he know about this one? It's like he already had full intel on this thing...
From her perspective the situation made no sense, yet there was no time to dwell on it. The moment its strike was blocked, the Abyss swung the crescent blade again and pressed the assault without pause.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Brutal speed and raw power hammered down in a relentless barrage. Yuna parried on the edge of failure and began slipping backward; the instant she created space, Juwol—who had been waiting for the opening—swept her greatsword in a wide arc and struck the exact spot on the Abyss's flank that the order had marked.
But—
Clang!
"Kh!"
Without so much as glancing her way, the Abyss simply shifted the crescent blade and turned the blow aside. In the same motion the white dragon head sprouting from its waist lunged for Juwol.
Yet—
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sharp gunfire cracked through the air. The ranged hunters, following Jinhyun's signal, poured fire into the massive dragon head. They could not risk shots at the humanoid torso while allies were in melee, but the protruding, bulky head made a clear and viable target.
Even under that storm of bullets the dragon head regenerated at a terrifying rate, shrugging off nearly every wound. Juwol's face twisted automatically—
But Yuna did not miss the opening the hunters had forced.
"Haaaah!"
She exploded upward and brought her axe down in a vicious arc. The target was the same waist section Juwol had failed to reach.
Boom!
A deafening crash followed. The sheer force of her strength and the weapon's destructive power kicked up an instant cloud of dust across the ground.
"...Did... did we get it...?"
"Hey! Don't say jinx shit like that!"
Ara's words had the unmistakable ring of a death flag; Kara snapped back, irritation sharp in her voice. A moment later the dust settled, and the scene that met their eyes made Ara swallow hard and speak with a guilty edge.
"...Sorry... I shouldn't have said anything..."
"Haa... as long as you get it..."
What they saw was the Abyss twisted into a posture that should have been nearly impossible, waist bent almost to the breaking point as it dodged the strike—and Yuna and Juwol, one arm and one leg respectively shredded to ribbons, forced back by the counterattack.
"Damn it..."
Yuna forced down the pain flaring through her left arm and raised her axe again. Then that voice reached her ear—Jinhyun's voice.
"Well done. The attack failed, but we've confirmed what we needed. Lure it to the designated point."
"Got it."
The strike itself had come to nothing, yet the exchange had burned one fact into every hunter present—Jinhyun, Yuna, and the rest alike.
Even with that absurd regeneration, it still chose to block or contort itself to dodge.
Everything else heals almost instantly and barely leaves a mark. But the way it protects that spot...
There's definitely something there. The dragon head growing out of its waist.
If an enemy went out of its way to move and avoid a hit, that meant the risk was real. The moment they confirmed it, the guild masters laid down covering fire and began a measured retreat, opening distance as they went.
The humanoid Abyss, crescent blade still in hand, gave chase. In pure speed it held the advantage, yet the hunters deliberately targeted its legs with harassing shots, forcing it to stagger and match their pace almost exactly.
Good. This distance is perfect.
Keep following us.
They succeeded in drawing it roughly a kilometer into the forest. The instant the Abyss plunged into the deeper woods—
"!..."
It froze mid-stride, as though it had suddenly sensed something. Hesitation flickered through its posture; it began scanning the surroundings.
Then—
"Too late!"
"!"
Two hunters dropped from the trees and charged. Fresh forces the Abyss had never registered. Its reaction came a full step too slow.
Even so it whipped the crescent blade and dragon head into defensive positions at blinding speed.
In that same breath—
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Sudden, sharp gunfire. The dragon head's motion locked mid-swing, and at that exact moment Are's great scythe came down toward its waist.
But—
"!"
Instead of the disabled dragon head, the Abyss twisted its torso with raw force and smashed the blow straight into Are. She desperately raised the scythe like a shield.
And—
Thud!
"Khuh!..."
Impact far beyond anything she had braced for hurled her backward. In the same motion the Abyss swept the crescent blade upward and caught the second attacker dropping from above—Gwon-sun's strike.
Screeeech!
Weapons ground against each other in a high, grinding shriek. Both of Gwon-sun's blades were monomolecular cutters, yet even they failed to shear through the white, unknown material of the crescent blade.
Or rather—they appeared to fail. The dual blades were in fact carving into it, but the visible surface showed almost no change. The weapon regenerated with the ferocious vitality of living tissue, healing faster than it could be cut.
Gwon-sun paid that near-miraculous phenomenon no attention at all. Every scrap of her focus locked onto the monster's face.
"You... what the hell are you? Why... why are you..."
"..."
The thing staring back into her eyes wore the exact face of a friend who had already died. Looking into those bleached-white eyes, Gwon-sun's voice rose, raw and shaking.
"Is it really... is it really you? Answer me... hurry up and speak, Choi Sonbin!"
Her cry tore through the air like something ripping.
Then—
"...You... no way...?"
"!"
A faint voice reached her ear—human language tangled with something that was not, a sound Gwon-sun could not parse. The moment it came, the Abyss's grip surged with sudden new strength. Confusion flashed across Gwon-sun's face—
"! Gah!"
Agony exploded through her. The white dragon head erupting from the Abyss's waist had struck. Gwon-sun's body tumbled across the ground; the dragon head immediately lunged after her in a frenzy of savage blows.
"...No... no... what the hell..."
A small, bewildered whimper leaked from the humanoid half. At the same time the dragon-shaped portion kept driving its brutal assault, a ferocity completely unlike the pure defense it had shown until now.
Despair flickered across Gwon-sun's face—
Thud!
"Kyaaaaagh!!"
Juwol's greatsword smashed into the creature's skull from the side. The head deformed under the blow and immediately began regenerating, but the interruption bought Gwon-sun the barest margin to escape.
"Th-thank you..."
"Thanks later! It's coming again!"
"!"
Even with its rhythm broken by Juwol's strike, the Abyss still lunged for Gwon-sun. Juwol and the other hunters hammered the endlessly regenerating body, doing everything they could to pin its movements, while Gwon-sun scrambled clear of each killing blow by the narrowest of margins.
Yet the attacks aimed solely at her never stopped. The guild masters threw everything they had into shielding Gwon-sun and landing any meaningful damage at the same time.
Then—
"!"
"Ah!..."
In the middle of her evasive scramble, Gwon-sun's eyes locked onto the humanoid half. Crescent blade raised, it poured pure killing intent into a downward cut aimed straight at her skull—an angle that left no room to dodge.
The word death rose unbidden in her mind.
"...Sonbin...ah..."
And then—
Thud!