External Mission (2)
Cheongram Jujul Academy's staff room.
A bearded teacher asked Pi Yu-jun in a tone that suggested the answer was already obvious. "The mission's the logistics warehouse, right?"
"Pardon? No, it's an office building."
"No way. Team 1's assignment... Hold on, let me double-check the assignment sheet."
Pi Yu-jun's eyes flickered subtly. He quickly pulled up the approval line system.
"......"
The mission assignment on the screen looked normal at first glance. But the moment he scrutinized it with suspicion, traces appeared of someone forcibly twisting the system code to insert a fake mission that didn't exist.
'This isn't a yokai—it's a trap dug by some bastard human.'
Someone had deliberately swapped the mission details.
Crunch! Pi Yu-jun bit down and shattered the candy in his mouth.
To think he'd made such a mistake himself.
"Thanks. That was close." With those words, Pi Yu-jun bolted from his seat.
*
BOOM! With a deafening roar, Seo Tae-yun's body sliced through the air. He flew past Do-gyeol and Yun Ga-eun, slamming into the back wall.
"Tae-yun!" Yun Ga-eun screamed, but her feet, frozen in terror, refused to move from the floor.
"Not a bad reaction speed."
When the man had swung his arm, Seo Tae-yun had reflexively unleashed dozens of tropical fish. The timing had been perfect. The problem? They all exploded, unable to withstand the blast.
"One of you has good instincts." The man glanced at Do-gyeol. "I was actually a bit surprised back at the entrance with all that energy talk. You tried to hide it, but..."
Yun Ga-eun said to Do-gyeol in a trembling voice, "That guy's a sorcerer..."
"Then that blast just now was a spell?"
"No. He just explosively released his spiritual power. With that much yeong-ryeok, he's definitely hiding a spell..."
Without any spell, just a raw burst of spiritual power, he'd pierced Seo Tae-yun's defense and sent him flying? Do-gyeol's lips went dry.
"You kids have time to chat so casually? Cheongram lives up to its name."
Yun Ga-eun flinched at his words. It meant he'd known from the start they were from Cheongram.
"What's your goal? If you know we're Cheongram, you know you shouldn't mess with us. You confident you can handle the fallout?"
Yun Ga-eun pressed him, forcing down her shakes. But the man yawned and scratched his ear.
"Why're you worrying about that?"
Then his lips twisted into a sleazy grin. "Think the other way around. If someone's messing with you despite knowing they shouldn't, they've gotta have something to back it up, right?"
The man sauntered into the break room with leisurely steps and shut the door.
"So, aren't you curious? Why someone would risk the backlash."
"You're not gonna answer anyway. You're just trying to mess with our heads and disrupt any spells." Yun Ga-eun shot back sharply.
"Hmm... Smart cookie."
The man clapped. "But y'know, I find instinctive types more annoying than smart ones."
With that, he reached toward Do-gyeol. The same brutal spiritual explosion that had floored Seo Tae-yun hurtled straight at Do-gyeol's face.
"Do-gyeol!"
In that split-second instant, Yun Ga-eun couldn't even yell for him to dodge.
Shhhrrk—!
A bizarre black smoke coiled up from Do-gyeol's right arm like a serpent. It swiftly wrapped his entire forearm, forming a grotesque head with a gaping maw near his palm.
It was the manifestation of his familiar spirit, enveloping his arm like the symbiote Venom.
Chomp!
The widely opened jaws snapped up the incoming explosive spiritual power in one bite.
Gulp.
As the familiar swallowed, the spiritual power vanished without a trace.
'......Huh?'
The man's eyes widened round. And Do-gyeol was just as stunned.
'It worked?'
Controlling the familiar as a separate entity had felt awkward and taxing. But now?
Treating it as an extension of his arm made it ridiculously easy to handle.
Plus, as it devoured that strike, the spiritual power he'd expended was fully replenished.
'This feeling... definitely...'
Sigyeong. No need to alter the wavelength for this one.
His arm just tingled sharply. If the aftershock had been any stronger, he wouldn't have absorbed it—instead, his arm and the familiar would've been blasted off entirely.
"Even if it was farther than the first guy's, to take it head-on like that."
Clap clap clap.
The man applauded. "Alright, now it's your turn to come at me, right? I showed hostility first."
Do-gyeol's head turned toward Yun Ga-eun. "What the hell is this guy?"
"I don't know how the situation's unfolding either..."
"Not the time to worry about that."
A cool voice came from behind. Seo Tae-yun rose, brushing off debris. His eyes were far colder than usual.
"Didn't you hear what he said?"
"Yeah. Let's take him on first."
"Wait! It feels like he's luring us in, so don't rush. We don't even know his spell for sure."
The man smirked at their exchange. "My spell? Through cursed yokai that cast nightmares, I convert the victims' emotions into my own spiritual power. Cool, huh?"
But the kids ignored him.
"So first, we figure out his real spell."
At Seo Tae-yun's words, the man's eyes filled with disbelief. "Kids? Didn't you hear me? My spell is—"
"Can't just focus on uncovering the spell."
"Yeah, he might be showing a fake one."
"Exactly."
The kids showed zero interest in the spell he'd boasted about. Veins bulged at the corners of the man's eyes.
"You little shits!"
He lashed out in fury, extending his arm. Spiritual power of even higher density enveloped all three.
'This one's...'
Dangerous. But blocking it was less risky than not.
Do-gyeol extended his right arm's familiar again, devouring the wave.
Crunch!
The numbness in his right arm intensified, but he'd successfully blocked it.
"Tasty, but..."
Misinterpreting Do-gyeol's words, a twisted grin spread across the man's face. "From now on, you'll all need to go all-out to block me."
He began condensing spiritual power in both hands. Meanwhile, Seo Tae-yun spoke up.
"The one we saved for Baek Seo-rin. Let's use that."
Do-gyeol and Yun Ga-eun nodded in immediate understanding.
"Gyarados! You're it!"
Do-gyeol hurled three talismans. At the same time, a blue ink painting spread around Seo Tae-yun as dozens of tropical fish shot out with ferocious momentum.
"That all you got?"
As the man sneered and raised his hand—
The talismans' explosive firepower collided with the fish.
KABOOM—!
The blast produced massive steam and fog, blanketing the entire break room in thick smoke. Visibility dropped to zero in an instant.
"Fog? Playing tricks."
The man irritably swung his hand to dispel it. But there was a difference between deliberate fog and incidental mist from an attack. The former let him assess immediately; the latter caused a delay.
In that split-second delay—
"Got him!"
Yun Ga-eun's binding spell pierced the fog, wrapping the man's limbs tightly. Learning from her failure against Kang Hak, this one was far sturdier.
'He won't break this easily!'
The fish swarm and Do-gyeol's familiar arm surged in fiercely.
But—
BOOM!
Another massive explosion cleared the fog. Yun Ga-eun's bindings lay in tatters. The fish and familiar had dissipated without landing hits.
"That one actually surprised me."
The man dusted off his clothes. "You kids have been at it since morning, but plenty of people are still sleeping on a holiday, huh? My spiritual power keeps refilling like a pump."
He cracked his neck, scanning them. "By the way, I did say go all-out. Your attacks have zero intent to kill me."
In that moment, Seo Tae-yun's aura grew icier. The surrounding energy rippled—denser than that first time in the tunnel.
"......If that's what you want."
Behind him, an ink painting far larger and thicker than before began to form.
Shrrrip!
Bursting from the painting's lines wasn't a swarm of small fish. Needle-sharp beak like a spear. Muscled, massive body. A blue spiritual power-clad behemoth meters long.
The sharpest, bluest brush racing across an ocean canvas.
A marlin.
"Oh, finally getting serious..."
As the man started to smirk in interest—
KABOOM!
The marlin cleaved the air, a tearing sonic boom slamming their eardrums. The sheer speed ripped the surrounding air, shattering tables and chairs like a typhoon.
Even untouched windows on the opposite side exploded from the shockwave alone.
"You crazy...!"
The man's leisurely expression twisted in shock.
And then—
Squelch!
A raw tearing sound echoed in their eardrums.