The Five-Tailed Monster: Jomagu's Legend (2)
Lee Ha-neul was confident. She had been momentarily intimidated by the house-sized body of the yokai called Jomagu, but that was all. After all, it was only a Rank 7 yokai. Yokai energy was the measure of strength. She was a nationally certified Force Arts practitioner, a specialist in yokai extermination. Although its size was abnormally huge for a Rank 7, from Lee Ha-neul's perspective—someone who could take down even Rank 3 yokai without much trouble—there was no need to get scared ahead of time. Besides, she didn't sense the same kind of presence from the yokai named Jomagu that she felt from Miho.
Lee Ha-neul didn't hesitate. She poured Power into her feet and sprang forward with everything she had, then slammed her elbow—infused with Power—down onto Jomagu's neck.
Kwaaaang!
The sound of an explosion rang out across the mountain. The Power used by Force Arts practitioners was a condensed mass of overwhelming physical force. It didn't carry the yokai-energy-annihilating property that Force possessed, but it was still an overwhelming strength capable of destroying a Rank 7 yokai in a single strike.
It was strange. Jomagu, who had taken Lee Ha-neul's Power-infused blow directly, should have at minimum suffered a broken neck bone or shown some sign of pain. Yet instead of screaming, its body had only shrunk slightly. On the contrary, Jomagu charged at her with ferocious speed.
Chwaaaaak.
When Jomagu spread its beak, the maw opened wide enough to easily swallow an entire tree. Lee Ha-neul broke into a cold sweat and hastily retreated.
Crrrrrunch!
Where she had been standing, roughly five trees had vanished without a trace, leaving only their stumps behind as if a lumberjack had cleared them. All those massive trees had gone straight into Jomagu's stomach.
Fortunately, eating the trees didn't make its body any bigger.
'This... where the hell do you see a Rank 7 yokai in this...!'
Maybe Kim Myung-ho had measured the yokai energy wrong. Even as she silently cursed the innocent fox fanatic Kim Myung-ho, Lee Ha-neul focused her mind and began gathering Force in her hands.
This wasn't an opponent to test lightly. She needed to use Force—the power that burned yokai energy.
Soon Lee Ha-neul shot toward Jomagu like a bullet, then swung her hand brimming with Force.
Gulp.
"...Huh?"
The Force she had held in her hand had vanished. Before she could even panic, Lee Ha-neul curled her body to brace for the next attack.
Bwoooooong!
With the sound of air being torn apart, Jomagu swung its enormous tail feathers at her. It was an unavoidable strike. After swallowing Lee Ha-neul's Force, Jomagu's body had grown even larger, throwing off her distance calculations completely.
Lee Ha-neul, struck squarely by the tail, spun through the air several times before smashing into a tree.
"Uuuuuuuugh..."
Because she had protected her body with Power, she hadn't suffered any serious injuries, but...
Glancing behind her, Lee Ha-neul saw the six-tailed fox yokai Miho watching the fight between her and Jomagu with worried eyes. The look on her face seemed to ask, Should I help?
I said I'd do it, so Miho, you just stay put and watch.
Lee Ha-neul recalled the words she had said to Miho only minutes ago.
So embarrassing...!
Even if she died here, she couldn't ask Miho for help. Brushing the dirt off herself, Lee Ha-neul stood up and gathered Force in her hands once more. Force was the power that burned yokai energy. The yokai swallowing her Force must have been a fluke. A yokai that could swallow Force? She had never seen or heard of such a thing, so her judgment seemed perfectly reasonable.
I watched the battle between Lee Ha-neul and Jomagu with close attention.
It was clear. That yokai called Jomagu had grown larger after swallowing Lee Ha-neul's "Force."
The methods yokai used to obtain yokai energy differed by individual. In my case, it was by pulling out and eating the livers of human men or absorbing their vitality. Depo absorbed lightning on stormy days, and Mangtae Grandfather gained it by stuffing bad children into his sack.
In Jomagu's case, it seemed that "eating something" let it gain yokai energy while simultaneously increasing its size.
Well, when I release more tails, I get taller, my chest gets bigger... basically everything gets bigger, so it was probably the same principle.
"..."
No. Wait a second. The more I observed, the more I realized that wasn't quite right either.
Jomagu's yokai energy hadn't changed one bit from our first encounter until now, when its body had grown one-and-a-half times larger.
Could it be that no matter how much it ate, only its body grew while its yokai energy stayed exactly the same...?
What kind of yokai in the world worked like that?
Crash!
Lee Ha-neul, struck by Jomagu's tail feathers, knocked over several trees and rolled across the dirt. This was her third use of Force, and all three times Jomagu had devoured it.
"Uuuuuugh..."
Fortunately her body still seemed tough; she didn't look injured. But if the fight continued this way, she would lose. She knew it. I knew it. And that yokai called Jomagu knew it too.
"..."
I watched silently as she picked herself up off the ground. For some reason she started making excuses to me.
"Ah, you don't have to help! I can solve this myse— ugh."
It seemed her whole body ached from slamming into the tree, because she scrunched her face up tight.
Continuing to watch her like this wasn't something a decent person would do. Of course, I wasn't a person—I was a yokai. Still, as a creature with proper morals, I couldn't just stand by and watch Lee Ha-neul get pummeled by Jomagu any longer.
First, I created a small fox flame as a test and sent it drifting toward Jomagu.
It floated gently. Swish. Gulp.
Jomagu swallowed the fox flame I had thrown whole, and its body grew slightly larger than before.
...It could definitely eat yokai energy too.
"What the hell is that thing? You're seriously telling me that's a Rank 7 yokai...?"
I had something I wanted to test. I asked the dumbfounded Lee Ha-neul, who was staring at Jomagu in disbelief.
"Are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine! Nothing's broken, and I can still move just fine..."
"Good. Then please hit that Jomagu thing one more time."
"..."
"This time, don't use that Force power. Use pure physical Power only. I have something I want to test."
"..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"...Miho, be honest. You're not a fox yokai—you're Satan's kid."
"What are you talking about? You said you were fine earlier."
I urged the still-relaxed Lee Ha-neul, who remained sprawled on the ground.
"Hurry. We don't have time."
"Ughhh... After everything I've done for you, Miho, you can't treat me like this...!"
She was the one who said she was fine, so why was she getting mad at me? Grumbling complaints, Lee Ha-neul rose on shaky legs and charged at Jomagu once more.
As I had instructed, this time she didn't use the power called Force. Instead she struck Jomagu using Power, the condensed mass of pure physical force.
My prediction had been correct. Jomagu's body clearly shrank.
In other words, what was needed to defeat Jomagu wasn't the mystical power of Force or yokai energy, but physical force—guns, bombs, that sort of thing.
It seemed Jomagu's ability was to swallow every kind of power except physical force and use it to enlarge its body.
It was a terrible matchup for me. If human combatants other than me and Lee Ha-neul had been the ones to engage it from the start and poured bullets into it, its body probably wouldn't have grown this enormous.
In that sense, since I possessed powerful yokai energy but zero physical force, there was nothing I could contribute to this fight. I stayed far back and began cheering for Lee Ha-neul.
"Keep attacking! Don't use Force! You've got this!"
"Argh... Helping me a little wouldn't kill you! Help me, please!"
What? I thought she would never ask me for help, but she finally did.
Sorry to say, though, even if I wanted to help, there was no method available to me.
"I'm just a lowly yokai with nothing but yokai energy, so even if I helped it wouldn't do much."
"You damn fox yokai!"
Spitting out a curse full of resentment toward me, Lee Ha-neul began to vent her stress by beating Jomagu like a dog on a hot summer day.
As expected, she was a Force Arts practitioner capable of easily subduing even Rank 3 yokai. The moment she realized through experience that she must not use Force, Jomagu's giant body was no longer a threat. On the contrary, its larger surface area made it easier to land hits.
The more Lee Ha-neul struck it, the smaller Jomagu's body became.
Jomagu gradually began to cry out its hunger, and eventually...
Jomagu's eyes flashed with a sudden gleam.
A chill ran down my spine—an animal instinct, pure primal warning. I hurriedly used fox flame to grab Lee Ha-neul and yank her far away from Jomagu.
"F-Fire? It's hot!"
"It's not hot."
"...Yeah, it's not hot. Wait, that's not the point... Why did you stop me? I almost had it!"
"I didn't stop you. I saved your life."
"What the hell are you—"
"Look over there."
I silently pointed at Jomagu. In that direction, the yokai was ruthlessly ripping apart and devouring the surrounding trees to enlarge its body.