Team-Building Retreat (2)
"A vacation... yes. A vacation is a truly magnificent thing..."
Ah Seo-ah gazed out at the endless expanse of the open sea with an expression of pure bliss.
The crash of waves, the salty tang of the ocean air. Just looking at it brought a wave of peace to the heart.
"But then... but why...!"
The pointed tip of her wizard's hat trembled violently.
"Why does it have to be Gangwon-do?!"
"What's wrong with it? It's perfect."
"Somewhere bigger, you know? A place with real scale! Like France, or England!"
As it happened, both of those nations were dominated by magic-type hunters. Plenty to study, plenty to sightsee.
For magic-type hunters, that is.
I pulled off the sunglasses I'd brought along and said, "Our own country has good things too. Haven't you heard of shinto-buri? Our body, our land?"
"Ugyagyagyagyak!"
She seemed to be misunderstanding something. This wasn't a retreat funded by Cheonseong—it was a Sinseong Guild retreat. Naturally, not a single won of the money being spent here had come with Cheonseong's support.
Not that Father didn't try to stick his nose in.
When he started planning a round-the-world cruise project with a whole cruise liner, I fled here as if running for my life.
Gangwon-do. Gangneung.
Come to think of it, I could barely remember ever taking a trip within Korea.
Back in my delinquent days, I was constantly jetting off to random foreign countries, propping up a pride I didn't even have. It was only after the apocalypse that I properly explored this land.
"Why bother getting on a plane when scenery this beautiful is right here?"
"Whew... well, it is pretty."
"Hyung! Where do you want this box of soju?!"
Shin Min-woo came sprinting over with a box balanced on his head.
Come to think of it, Shin Min-woo is exactly college freshman age.
Normally, he'd be deep in a drinking frenzy with his buddies at university right about now. It was no wonder he was this worked up.
A private pension with a great view, tucked away from everything.
It would've been nearly impossible to book under normal circumstances, but somehow it all worked out.
"Whoa! The ocean!"
Shin Min-woo's eyes sparkled.
Watching him act his age warmed my heart for a moment—
"......"
—until I caught sight of Baek Seo-ha, pointedly turning her head away.
Ever since that day, she still couldn't bring herself to talk to me easily.
She's not planning to avoid me for the rest of her life, is she?
It stung a little. It wasn't even my fault.
Shoaaa!
A wave crashed against the rocks and broke apart in a beautiful spray.
Here, the Sinseong Guild's unity retreat would commence!
"Alright, everyone."
The very first item on the agenda.
"Gear up for combat and assemble in the yard."
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Yes?"
"...?"
A retreat was a retreat, but there was work to be done.
Loosening up my shoulders, I looked over the people standing before me, one by one.
"Uh... Hyung? Why combat prep all of a sudden...?"
Shin Min-woo scratched his cheek with a gauntleted hand.
"Look, resting is great. It really is. But tell me—what are we right now?"
"What kind of question is that? We're a guild."
"Ah-ah, not just any guild. We're the Sinseong Guild."
Ah Seo-ah shot me a look that plainly asked, isn't that the same thing?
"Since it's a guild retreat, shouldn't we do some 'guild' activities first?"
"What kind of dog-crap logic is..."
"The rules are simple."
I pushed forward without so much as acknowledging objections.
"For the next five minutes, all four of you attack me. I'll hold my ground."
"All four of us at once?"
"Isn't that a little dangerous?"
Shin Yeon-hee voiced her concern.
"It'd be a problem if our Guild Master got hurt..."
"Oh? Why do you talk as if it's me who'll be getting hurt?"
"Well, obviously."
Ah Seo-ah tilted her chin up with complete confidence, nose in the air.
"Did you forget who we are? Sinseong Guild's First Strike Squad. A guild that ranked 307th on its debut—now a monstrous rising power that's leaped all the way to 270th!"
I know.
Because that guild's master is me.
"...Still, I don't think all four of us together is a good idea."
Baek Seo-ha finally spoke, reluctantly.
"We've built up good coordination in the gates lately. And everyone's grown fast."
"That's right, Hyung. We're genuinely strong."
Odd glances flickered between the four of them.
They actually thought they could beat me. To put it kindly, it was a badge of trust. To put it less kindly—
"That's called hubris."
The very symbol of arrogance.
"Couldn't you at least save the gloating for after you win? If you can win so easily, then subduing me without hurting me should be easy too, no?"
This was a mid-term inspection.
Of them—and of me.
Just how strong have we become?
That was the question I stood here to answer.
"Don't come crying to me when it hurts."
"If you insist that much, Hyung... all right!"
"I'll shoot so it hurts as little as possible!"
"...Fine."
The four of them quickly formed ranks.
Baek Seo-ha at the vanguard, Shin Yeon-hee and Ah Seo-ah in the rear. Shin Min-woo, the all-rounder, took up a free position at the center so he could project force anywhere on the field.
The formation's actually decent.
At the very least, no one would call them third-rate hunters who didn't understand strategy.
Average people never quite grasp the importance of strategy. It's useful when fighting humans, they say, but why bother with strategy against monsters out of a gate?
And the ones who think that way never rise any higher.
Strategy is the pursuit of the most efficient way to fight. How to act in a given situation, how to respond in an emergency. Whether or not those things are decided in advance makes an enormous difference in survival rates.
I was in that formation once too.
Strategy is not the tool of the weak.
Quite the opposite—it's when the strong wield it that strategy truly shines.
"Guess I'd better get serious too."
I raised a hand and spun my spear lightly.
"Come at me."
"...Hah!"
As expected, it started with Baek Seo-ha closing the distance.
Dozens of arrows and spells surged in right behind her, all at once.
"D-Dodge it!"
"Dieee!"
Despite launching so many attacks simultaneously, none of them collided—each threaded cleanly along its own path.
So Shin Yeon-hee's arrows target my position first, while Ah Seo-ah's magic cuts off my escape routes?
They'd wracked their brains more than I expected.
But.
"Make a dodge if you want one dodged."
Tat!
I hurled myself toward Baek Seo-ha instead.
No one can unleash an attack in the direction their own teammates stand.
"Ah...!"
Shin Yeon-hee panicked and slackened the arrow she'd been nocking.
Kagagagan!
Deflecting Baek Seo-ha's sword, I read the movements behind me.
"Hyaap!"
Tuung!
I twisted aside to evade Shin Min-woo's flying fist and opened the distance.
But this is a feint.
In that instant, I sharpened my gaze and confirmed where I was about to land.
Sreureureuk!
'Threads of mana' were intricately interwoven there, forming a trap. The moment I stepped on it, the threads would bind me all at once.
"It'd be poor manners to fall for a trap I've already seen, no?"
Hwareuk!
I flung out the Karma Flame and burned every last thread to ash.
"Aaah! My trump card!"
Shin Min-woo cried out in a strangely theatrical tone.
...Wait a second.
"You're a terrible actor!"
Ah Seo-ah popped out from behind him and began chanting at blinding speed.
"Earth Trap!"
In an instant, the ground beneath my feet shuddered, soil surging up to swallow me whole.
A double trap!
That one earned some genuine respect. A dismantled trap naturally reads as 'safe ground.' And they'd attacked straight through that blind spot.
"Fine, I'll give you credit for this one."
There was just one flaw.
Trap magic, by and large, lacks punch on its own. If you wanted a trap to produce meaningful results by itself, you'd need to learn something like the secret arts of the Baekho Gate.
Which means...
To make this elaborate trap actually matter, she should have flooded me with attacks the moment it triggered.
Suuuu!
I channeled mana into my spear and cleaved the entire earthen mass in a single stroke.
Deliberately spreading the cut wide and kicking up a cloud of dust was a bonus.
"Wh-what?!"
Ah Seo-ah's eyes, mid-incantation, lost their target. Magic easily veers off course unless it's aimed at a precise location. Blinding a mage's line of sight like this is the simplest way to fight one.
"...There!"
And yet—arrows that found me perfectly even through the chaos.
Truly the Divine Archer.
There was no slipping free of that vision easily, and the archery skill backing it up was a given.
But.
The raw destructive power of her attacks fell a little short.
Huung!
With one broad sweep of my spear, every arrow rattled away. As if she'd heard it, a single set of footsteps approached.
"Found you...!"
Three sword strokes came slicing in, quick and relentless. Baek Seo-ha's blade chased me down.
"Hooooop! Here I come, Hyung-nim!"
At almost the same moment, Shin Min-woo was preparing two skills at once from the flank—'Wood Hammer' of the mage line and 'Power Smash' of the warrior line.
Conjure a weapon with magic, then layer a warrior-class skill over it to maximize the effect.
He's likely the only person in this world who can pull off that combination solo. A truly irregular attack that squeezes every last drop out of an All-Master's strengths.
Tadadadak!
Arrows came flying.
"Ready!"
Ah Seo-ah had finished prepping her specialty, wide-area magic.
"Haha! How's that?! This is us!"
"It's about time you lost, Tae-hyun."
"Here I come, Hyung-nim!"
"Forgive me, Guild Master!"
Attacks from four directions. A rat in a poison bottle, plain and simple.
"Better than I expected."
This much earned a passing grade. Honestly, I'd braced for a chaotic mess, but they were covering for each other and moving with more strategy than I'd given them credit for.
If they mesh this well, why do they even need a team-building retreat?
A passing grade was a passing grade.
It just didn't mean I'd take the hits.
Tsuaaaaaa!
The figure of a Yacha bloomed above my body—and with it, a crimson tiger.
"Nameless Spear Art."
No matter how sharp a surprise attack may be, it means nothing if it shatters before it lands.
"Tiger Gale, Roaring Storm."
Hwoooooooo!
A wind that severed everything from existence swept through with tremendous force.
"The technique shattered...?!"
The Blue Dragon's spine snapped.
"Aaaagh! That was my masterpiece, and I poured so much mana into it!"
A spell split apart at its very root.
"Kehhok!"
The wooden hammer vanished before it even finished its swing.
"Ngh...!"
As for the arrows—there was nothing left to say.
A single spear strike had dismantled the attacks of all four.
"Whew."
"A monstrous freak...!"
Ah Seo-ah recoiled, her face drained bone-white.
"He comes back stronger from god knows where every single time..."
"That's our Hyung! But seriously, what was that last move?! I couldn't even feel the attacks disappear!"
"Using the Guild Master as target practice is clearly still a long way off."
The fight hadn't been bad.
A strategy laced with everyone's instincts, each personality shining through in full. And at the same time, nobody had slacked off or died cheaply—every role had been performed.
"All of you can be proud. You pass."
If it had been a shambles, I'd have scheduled a follow-up: 'Retreat, Part 2: Combined-Attack Drills Until We're of One Mind.'
As it stood, I could allow them a little rest.
"The bar will be higher next time. But if you keep performing like today, you'll keep passing."
"We're doing this regularly...?"
Ah Seo-ah collapsed onto the ground and hugged her knees.
"What kind of vacation is this, you absolute lunatic..."
Her exhaustion condensed into dew and settled over her.