7. From Now On, I'm Taking Command (2)
"Understood…"
"W-Wait just a second! Since when does someone who isn't even Association staff get to start handing out orders? The regulations—"
That was when the female staffer who'd been fidgeting anxiously at the side cut in.
"Regulations. Regulations are very important, aren't they. And if this raid ends with casualties, then by those very regulations, every Association employee who supported the raid gets punished. You do know that, right?"
"!"
"Wh-What kind of nonsense is that? Yunha! Don't listen to this bastard! Escape—right now!"
The next saboteur was Cha Yunha's manager, Park Taeshik.
But this time, I didn't have to lift a finger.
"You shut it!"
One of the managers whose hunters belonged to the raid team practically dragged him back and peeled him off of me.
"Baek Dohyeon-ssi. Can you really save our hunters?"
If Cha Yunha truly abandoned the team and chose solo survival, the survival rate of the remaining hunters—surrounded by the snakes—would converge on zero.
So to the managers facing the loss of their hunters, my claim that everyone could be saved must have looked like a single ray of salvation in the dark.
"Yes—provided that Cha Yunha and every last member of the team faithfully carry out my instructions."
"Baek Dohyeon, shut your mouth!"
"You shut up first, you bastard!"
Ignoring the sound of Park Taeshik and the other managers scuffling, I spoke into the mic.
"Then, from this moment on, I am taking command. Do you consent?"
"Yes."
"Good."
I swept my gaze across the monitors. What the drone cams hovering overhead were showing was bleak.
The raid team, surrounded in the middle of the desert by a Gigant Cobra—a Level 4 monster—and eleven snakes. Worse still, one of their own, Yoon Sol, had been poisoned by the Gigant Cobra's deadly venom.
But no matter the situation, a breakthrough always exists.
And all it took to reach one was to solve the problems in front of me, one at a time, and keep pushing forward.
"First, we deal with Yoon Sol. The rest of you, keep watching your surroundings for now. Yunha-ssi, move to Yoon Sol's side immediately."
"Understood. …I'm in position."
One of the feeds—the camera mounted on Cha Yunha's chest—was focused on Yoon Sol's bitten shoulder.
The discoloration had spread noticeably farther since the moment of the bite, deepening into a vivid purple. But thanks to Cure, the venom hadn't yet crept past the point of no return.
"Yunha-ssi, can you cast your ice ability tuned to an exact temperature of my choosing?"
"I can. I can control it in increments of roughly ten degrees."
"Excellent. Then immediately freeze every part of Yoon Sol's shoulder that the venom has reached. Between minus 190 and minus 200 degrees Celsius."
"I'm sorry—what?"
"We don't have time. I'll explain the reasoning as we go, so do it now."
"Ah—understood."
Cha Yunha reached her hand out over Yoon Sol's shoulder and concentrated, and ice crystals began to bloom across the wound.
Before long, the entire purple-stained area had frozen solid.
"The venom's stopped spreading, yes?"
"…Yes. Even with the Cure spell halted, it isn't progressing any further. But… how?"
"A Gigant Cobra's venom doesn't race through the bloodstream the way ordinary poison does. It clings to the site like adhesive, necrotizing the tissue and spreading slowly outward from there. Which is also exactly why most antidotes are useless against it."
"Ah, ah, I see. But if you freeze an area that large, won't there be damage to her body later…"
"That's precisely why I specified 190 to 200 below zero. Flash-freezing living tissue at that temperature preserves it as intact as possible. Get her out of here, thaw her properly, and treat her afterward—she'll be fine."
"…I see. Understood."
Cha Yunha instructed one of the other tanks to support the still-unconscious Yoon Sol, then rose to her feet.
"Awaiting your next order."
The urgent fire was out for now, but the crisis itself hadn't changed. The pack of snakes still had the hunters surrounded.
"When a Gigant Cobra finds prey, it first probes them with an initial strike. If it judges the prey can't be taken down quickly, it circles and keeps hunting for an opening. The Poison Snakes mimicking its behavior means they've most likely adopted the cobra as their leader."
"Which means…"
"As long as nobody moves, they probably won't attack the team for a while yet. Of course, a standoff can't last forever."
"That's a small mercy. But we're out of time."
I checked the monitor on the table.
"If we don't move right this second, we won't make it in time."
"I know. Would you hand the mic to the mage-class hunter beside you?"
"The mage class. Yes… understood."
Cha Yunha called over the young robed woman standing next to her.
"Y-yes. H-here, I've got it."
"Hunter Kim So-yeon, correct? A mage on the support tree. You should have the skills Flash and Noise Shock."
"Huh? Oh—yes, that's me. But how did you know that…?"
"That isn't what matters right now. From this point on, the two of you will act according to my instructions."
I laid out the outline of the operation as concisely as I could.
"Uh, um… will that… actually work?"
"It will. And Yunha-ssi, you'll need to carry out your part the instant So-yeon-ssi acts. Can you manage that?"
"Yes."
"Good. Then relay the instructions to the other hunters."
Cha Yunha went among the hunters, speaking to each of them. At first, her orders left everyone visibly thrown. But it didn't take long for them to come around—it was obvious to anyone that standing still meant dying where they stood.
"Then begin on my signal. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
Once more, the hunters stood in formation. Only Yoon Sol was instead being propped up by a priest.
"One, two—now!"
On my signal, every one of them broke into a dead sprint toward the exit at the same instant.
Fwoosh!
"Here they come!"
Seconds later, all of the massive snakes that had been gliding beneath the earth burst up out of it in unison.
"Now!"
The mage thrust her staff skyward, and a searing flash erupted from its tip.
The screen went completely white.
Moments later the feed recovered, and vision returned.
"…It actually worked!"
At the sudden shout from behind me, I turned my head.
I'd been too focused to notice, but every manager and Association staffer was standing behind me, unable to tear their eyes off the screens.
Even Park Taeshik—wearing a thoroughly sour expression—was glued to the monitor, unwilling to miss what came next.
I turned my eyes back to the screen.
Hsss! Hsssss!
The snakes, their eyes seared by the direct blast of light, rolled across the ground in agony before frantically burrowing back under.
"Neutralization confirmed!"
"Yunha-ssi."
"Yes!"
An aura of cold gathered in both of Cha Yunha's hands.
And as she stretched them toward the sky, the frigid air surged upward, then settled back down over the hunters' heads.
"Eek! It's cold!"
Kim So-yeon's adorable shriek came drifting in through Yunha's mic.
Before long, patches of white frost began stippling the sand around them.
"…Done. I've lowered the hunters' surface temperature to 31 degrees Celsius—about the same as the surrounding air."
"Good. You remember your next instructions, yes?"
"Yes. So-yeon-ssi?"
"Understood!"
This time, So-yeon pressed her staff against the ground and began her incantation,
Thum. Thum.
and a steady, rhythmic vibration came through the communicator.
"Now. Everyone, move. As fast as you can—just don't run."
"Copy that. Everyone, move!"
The hunters resumed their advance at once.
The party pressed on toward the gate.
And then…
"The snakes really have lost the raid team!"
one of the Association staffers watching from behind cried out.
Unlike before, when they'd moved with flawless coordination beneath the sand and encircled the team, the hidden snakes were now floundering in every direction, hopelessly disoriented.
Seizing that opening, the party slipped free of the encirclement and kept advancing across the desert.
"What in the world is happening?"
"Shh. Quiet! This is the crucial part."
I ignored the chatter of the managers behind me and stayed locked on the screens. The mage kept feeding vibrations into the ground while Cha Yunha rained cold over the hunters' heads, and the raid team pushed forward.
Fifty meters. One hundred. Two hundred…
"We've put enough distance between us and them. Run, now!"
"Everyone, full speed!"
The hunters broke into a run all at once.
Cha Yunha took Yoon Sol off the priest's hands, slung her over her shoulder, and ran.
So her physical abilities really are S-rank, too.
I checked the time remaining.
"We'll make it with room to spare."
The reason the journey had taken so long wasn't the distance—it was that they'd advanced while staying on guard against the monsters. To superhuman hunters, a few hundred meters was a gap they could close in the blink of an eye.
"The operation really worked! How on earth did you do it?"
Yunha's voice as she ran alongside her hunters had lost every trace of its usual composure, flushed with excitement.
"Snakes detect their targets in four ways: sight, smell, hearing, and heat."
"Heat?"
"Yes. A snake has an organ called the pit organ, which works much like an infrared sensor. It's how they so easily pick out living creatures whose temperature differs from their surroundings."
"Then the reason you instructed me to lower everyone's surface temperature was…"
"To neutralize that heat-sensing organ. Exactly."
"And the vibrations I sent into the ground with Noise Shock?"
"A snake's hearing is keen. Beyond the ordinary sounds we'd hear, snakes read vibrations traveling through the earth to pinpoint their prey's location. That was to neutralize it."
"And smell… since I lowered the temperature across the whole area, the scent particles we give off don't disperse as actively, so they'd have a hard time tracking us by smell as well."
"Precisely. Sharp as ever, Yunha-ssi."
Murmurs rippled through the tent. I could feel the onlookers behind me growing agitated.
"So you're telling me you accounted for sight, hearing, smell, and even body heat—and devised a plan to neutralize every single one of them, in that little time?"
That's exactly right, you first-timers.
Every bit of it was know-how I'd carried back from a future ten years away—forged through life-or-death battles against otherworldly freaks and the monsters under their control. Expertise so absurdly broken they had no choice but to marvel at it.
"…Incredible, Dohyeon-ssi. Hearing the explanation, I can't help but admire the very idea."
"Save the compliments until you've returned safe and sound. Seventy meters to the gate."
One after another, the hunters reached the gate.
"Everyone else, go in first!"
Cha Yunha, the first to arrive, began sending the others through ahead of her.
"Get the Gate Forced Closure Device ready to activate!"
I shouted to the Association staffers standing behind me.
"Ah—y-yes! It'll take about two minutes!"
Once the core sustaining a gate had been destroyed, closing it from this side became possible as well. The only reason it wasn't normally shut ahead of its scheduled collapse was to give the hunters who'd destroyed the core time to make it back.
"…!"
And so, after the last person had escaped—just as Cha Yunha was about to cross over—
in the far distance, a massive dune of sand came charging toward the gate.
"Gigant Cobra closing in! Get out of there, now!"
"What about the closure device?"
"It activates in one minute!"
"Then I'll hold it off here until then. I can't let it follow you through."
White frost gathered in both of Cha Yunha's hands.
Rumble-rumble—Fwoosh!
The Gigant Cobra erupted out of the ground directly in front of her.
Crackle.
Cha Yunha thrust out both hands, and the cobra's head froze over with perfect precision—
KRRASH!
—but the cobra shook its head and flung the mass of ice away in moments.
It reared up at once, and Cha Yunha leapt to meet it, swinging a blade of ice at the cobra's head.
Tink.
"Ghh…!"
The ice couldn't bite through the hide.
From there, Cha Yunha weaved side to side to evade the venom-slicked fangs, hurling ice and swinging weapons of ice in a steady counterattack.
"…"
Hearts in our throats, we watched the two of them clash—
"Closure device activated!"
"Get out of there, Yunha-ssi!"
"Ha!"
Cha Yunha detonated a massive chunk of ice right in the creature's face and sprinted for the gate.
She dove inside, and the cobra—having shaken off the blast moments later—raced after her heels—
"Gate closed!"
The instant Cha Yunha leapt through, the feed from the drone cams cut to black.
"…"
For a moment, everyone stared blankly at the dead screens. Then, all at once, they bolted out of the tent.
I followed in their wake, toward the gate.
The enormous green gate was already gone.
Standing in its place were the sixteen hunters, returned safe and sound.
"So-yeon!"
It began with one manager sprinting for his mage; then the whole crowd of managers and Association staffers came flooding after the hunters.
"W-We made it. We really made it. We got back alive, away from those giant snakes…!"
"Thank god… Thank god! You did well. Are you hurt anywhere?"
"We're transporting Hunter Yoon Sol! Please make way!"
People were sharing the joy of survival, fussing over injuries, scrambling to tend to Yoon Sol and the other wounded—a beautiful kind of chaos.
Standing a step apart from it all, I watched the scene with a contented smile.
Not one thing about the day had gone the way I'd expected…
and yet, in the end, I had saved them all with my own two hands.
Savoring that satisfaction, I turned my steps back toward the command tent, planning to wait there until everything settled down.
"Yipe!"
I nearly smacked straight into Cha Yunha, who was standing right behind me, and let out a strangled yelp before I could stop myself.
"Y-you startled me… Yunha-ssi, what exactly were you doing right behind my back?"
"Ah… I'm sorry. With my class, muffling my presence has become second nature…"
"…"
"…"
"…You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"Ah, no. Thanks to you."
"…"
"…"
There was something she wanted to say, but it wouldn't come out easily.
I waited for her in silence.
"…Um, thank y—"
"Yunha!"
But the moment she finally opened her mouth, her manager came rushing up and gripped her by both shoulders.
"You okay? You're not hurt, are you?"
"Yes. I'm not hurt—"
"Then let's get you to the guild hospital right away! You need a full checkup!"
"No, wait just a—"
Giving her no room to breathe, the manager seized her arm and dragged her off.
"…"
And even mid-drag, he didn't forget to shoot me a glare over his shoulder. How thoughtful of him.
And just like that, the two of them left, and I was left standing there alone.
"Tch. And that was a perfect chance to talk."
Well, no matter. It hardly mattered.
After today, Cha Yunha would look at me differently. Which meant opportunities to talk would come around again soon enough.
I'd approach her the moment her manager was out of the picture.
Ding.
"…Hm?"
At the chime of a message notification, I pulled my smartphone out of my pocket.
The sender was…
"Nice."
It seemed my next meeting with her wouldn't be far off after all.