The Attack (2)

Doha was buried in the fluff of Daengdaengi's fur, fast asleep.

"What's going on?"

When Darami tried to wake her, Daengdaengi blocked the way with her tail.

"Skill, Detection, attack!"

At Darami's report, Daengdaengi recalled the wraiths that had been drifting around Doha's house a while back. They had been dealt with thoroughly — which meant, apparently, the caster herself had finally begun to move.

Daengdaengi carefully rose to her feet.

"Mmmgh..."

Robbed of her plush bed, Doha's hand flailed at empty air. Daengdaengi dragged the blanket over and tucked her back in.

Darami cocked her head at the sight. "Not waking Master?"

"We handle it ourselves. Master is safest at home."

Daengdaengi used the power of the treasure jewel to seal off the space where Doha slept, isolating it from the outside world. Preparations complete, she hoisted Darami onto her back.

Leaping across space, the two of them ascended into the sky above and looked down over the neighborhood.

"Skill — any additional alerts?"

"No further information. ??, attack of ???, end."

"An attack by wraiths?"

At Daengdaengi's words, Darami activated her skill.

The moment the scan finished, small red dots threading through the alleys caught Daengdaengi's eyes.

"Hey, we're going the right way, aren't we?"

"According to this wraith, ten more blocks to go."

Woooo—

The black mage had caught one of the wraiths wandering the neighborhood and was using it to track Doha down.

"F***ing hell... this one had better be the real deal..."

"You're telling me..."

The wraith guiding them now was the fifth they'd caught.

"How the hell does every single lead turn into a wild goose chase?"

"At this point... I'd almost suspect she's someone who hasn't left her house in years."

"You mean ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠since she awakened?"

"Can a person actually live without ever leaving the house?"

"Weren't you black mages the ones living buried in underground dens?"

"We get at least one dose of sunlight a day, thank you very much..."

"Is that so? Even a black mage goes outside once a day... Kim Doha... she must be one tenacious woman..."

"I was thinking the same... what ability could she possibly be hiding?"

Just as their speculation was spiraling toward the conclusion that Kim Doha had to be a vampire—

Wooo?

The wraith ahead changed course and began doubling back the way it had come.

"Hey, what's wrong with it?"

"Uh...? I'm not sure... why is it suddenly heading backwards...?"

"Did Kim Doha move or something?"

"Most likely... there's no other explanation apart from the target's location shifting..."

"Slipping out under cover of night to hunt mana stones?"

Not long after the giant and the black mage had followed the wraith's new direction—

Wooo?

The wraith turned around yet again.

"What is this..."

"Something's gone wrong..."

The giant's instincts, honed by long years in the underworld, screamed a warning of danger.

"I'll go take a look."

He vaulted up onto the fence and swept his gaze over the surroundings. When he climbed back down, his face had gone pale as ash.

"...F***."

"What did you see...? Don't tell me it's the Association's pursuit team?"

"I'd almost prefer that... We're trapped in a maze..."

"I'm sorry, what? This isn't even a dungeon..."

"I can barely believe it myself, and I'm the one saying it. Go up and see for yourself."

At the giant's words, the black mage leapt onto the top of the fence.

"What in the world..."

Walls upon walls, knotted together in bewildering complexity, filled the entire field of view all the way to the horizon. The giant's claim was dead on — they were trapped in a maze.

Daengdaengi and Darami looked down at the two men wandering the maze.

"Why keep them trapped? Just purge them."

Standing by and watching things that targeted her Master. Darami did not like the wolf's attitude one bit.

"Nuisance enemies. Combat noise unavoidable. Would disturb Master."

Daengdaengi had no intention of ruining Doha's deep sleep — so her plan was to torment the two attackers half to death instead.

"Understood. So we leave them in the maze?"

"Attackers, if left too long, risk escape. Strike when they let their guard down."

Daengdaengi chose the wolf's way. She would wait until the two men had exhausted every means at their disposal and their strength gave out.

It was then that Daengdaengi felt a mighty presence beyond the edge of the maze. A colossal presence unlike anything she had sensed even before meeting Doha. The humans who had stood against Mother had never seemed this strong.

"Something is approaching!"

Darami, feeling it too, warned Daengdaengi, and the two slipped out to assess the situation.

"Those Cheongryong Sect bastards never imagined we'd layer tracking spells two deep, did they?"

A woman was striding through the alleys, brimming with swagger. She carried a colossal bow that looked every bit a weapon, searching for something as she moved.

"First question mark — powerful attacker!"

Piecing together the woman's own words and the skill's alert, Darami deduced her identity and relayed it to Daengdaengi. Daengdaengi, in the same short span, had already finished her own judgment.

"The attackers are hostile to each other."

Darami, who had been studying the woman's speech and behavior closely, nodded as if in agreement.

"Yi-i-jei!"

Daengdaengi exerted the jewel's power ever so subtly, luring the bow-wielding woman so that she walked into the maze of her own two feet.

"Hey, any progress?"

The giant threw the question at the black mage, who was scattering wraiths in every direction.

"This maze... I think it's bigger than an entire district..."

At those words, the giant sank to the ground, overcome by a wave of despair.

"F***... did a gate open? A gate that sucks people in without them even noticing it... never heard of such a thing..."

"Calm down, boss... if it's a gate, there's bound to be a way to clear it..."

The black mage did his utmost, combing the maze with his wraiths.

Fwoom!

"Huh...?"

A wraith drifting in the sky was suddenly torn to shreds by something.

"D-don't tell me—!"

The attack pattern was all too familiar. Terror seized the black mage, and he scrambled down beneath the fence to shake the giant awake.

"Boss! It's Go Jurang!"

"What? Why the hell is that woman here?"

"How would I know! The Association clearly pulled some kind of trick with this maze!"

"F***... we're dead. This is it."

The black mage dispersed the wraiths he'd sown around the area, scrambling to scramble his position before it could be pinpointed.

"Let's get away from here first!"

"Y-yeah..."

They were moving along the maze, keeping out of sight, when—

"Long time no see...?"

"AAAAAAGH!!"

"You crazy b****! Have some basic human decency!!"

Go Jurang came crawling up over the fence across from them. Clinging flat against the wall and racing along on all fours, she looked less like a human being than a beast.

"Nice little hiding spot you've got here? You really surprised me... a gate secretly stashed away in the middle of Seoul..."

The giant roared back in protest.

"What nonsense! The Association is the ones who trapped us in this maze!"

"I'm trapped in here too, you know...?"

"So are we, but...?"

The two men and Go Jurang traded deeply awkward glances for a long moment. Perching on the fence and chewing the problem over, Jurang suddenly clapped her hands as if she'd made up her mind.

"Hmm, well, I don't know what this is, but let's start by bagging you two."

"So it WAS an Association trap after all! Deploying such underhanded schemes just to catch one A-rank and one B-rank!"

"How many times do I have to say I don't know anything about it!"

Swiiish—

The giant and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the black mage wove between the intricately tangled walls, dodging the hail of arrows.

BOOM! KWA-BOOM!

Watching the walls burst open around them like eggshells under the arrows, the black mage pushed his legs even harder.

"B-boss, even for an S-rank, that's not human! That's not legal!"

"That's WHY she's S-rank, idiot! They're the ones who raze entire dungeons to the ground!"

"Our master could never do anything like that!"

"That's because your master is weak! Lee Seoa outclasses even that, you moron!"

Unlike the wide-open expanse of Gwanaksan, the maze was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with obstacles — and that was precisely what let the giant and the black mage make their escape with relative ease.

"F***, is that a skill she's using or what!?"

"B-boss! We have to dodge!"

Jurang stopped running and stood atop the fence, drawing her bowstring back, aiming at the sky itself.

Twang—

She let go, and a single arrow arced over the two men's heads.

An alert flashed across Jurang's vision, and the lone arrow split into a hundred, raining down over the ground.

KWA-BOOOOOM—!

The heart of the maze erupted as if struck by a cluster bomb, and began to collapse.

Fenrir felt a colossal mass of mana converging on the bow-woman's weapon. Instinct told her that if the space she had woven with the jewel took that attack head-on, it would not hold. Lifting Darami onto her back once more, she readied herself to flee.

"Prepare to return."

"You're just going to let the attackers go?"

"The bow woman — an enemy we cannot win against."

"A powerful enemy — must be kept in the maze as long as possible."

Daengdaengi jabbed her snout back and forth between the two flustered men and Jurang.

"Let them deepen each other's misunderstanding. Blow them far away, and they won't be back for a good while."

"Understood. Recommend Master enter the Tower immediately."

Darami made up her mind to persuade her master that they should enter the Tower the moment dawn broke.

KWA-BOOOOOM—!

As the massive mana-laden arrow plunged into the maze and the space began to break apart, Daengdaengi twisted the maze's coordinates. She couldn't fling them beyond the barrier like last time, but she stitched the space to somewhere far more bothersome to escape from.

The next day, Doha woke up and, out of habit, opened the Gallery first thing. An avalanche of unread posts greeted her.

"...There's never a quiet day on the Gallery these days."

About half of the recent incidents being discussed there were, in fact, Doha's own doing. This one, however, was different.

"Wh... what is this...?"

While Doha had been sleeping, the Han River had blown sky-high.