The Cracked Gourd
KWA-AAAAK!!!
A tidal wave of flesh surged forward, swallowing everything in its path. Crude teeth studding its surface gnawed at the road and chewed through trees, devouring them whole. Everything it consumed became nourishment, swelling its soft, bloated mass even larger.
“Gruuuk… gueeek… ah, faaaa…”
Yet even that thrashing had grown weaker than at the start. The body that had once been vast enough to blot out the sky was carbonizing under the flames, shrinking. Flesh spreading sideways froze solid and shattered.
The mysterious part was that all of it was being accomplished by fire alone.
The earlier worry that something so enormous might spill damage into the heart of the city had proven groundless; its every movement was being perfectly contained.
Ban Taewung caught his breath and watched the woman who was achieving this feat single-handedly. Cloaked in red and blue flames, she burned away the onrushing flesh like a hero standing against a natural disaster.
That’s the head of the Discipline Committee.
Shirogane Rui of Class S, third year.
Older sister of his classmate Shirogane Tohru, and the one who had taken the exam alongside Sinwoo. Whether that experience had pushed her further or she had simply been holding back, her strength was clearly a full tier above what it had been.
As an academy student it was impossible not to know of her. She patrolled the campus constantly, but more than that, the dazzling, overwhelming battle she had shown that day had captivated everyone.
Every first-year fire-user had tried desperately to imitate her techniques; her popularity needed no further explanation.
The power he had witnessed then had been overwhelming, yet it still paled beside what he was seeing now.
Was she hiding her strength?
Perhaps. But that also meant she could score that high even while holding back.
Third year versus first year. Could two years really create this much of a gap? Between ragged breaths Taewung let out a quiet sigh.
His mana was still intact. The damage stocked in Reverse Counter was decent enough.
But he had moved far more than that, and his stamina was flagging.
The moment he touched that massive body, mouths would erupt and try to chew him up, making it hard to accumulate damage for Reverse Counter.
Its bulk was so great that dodging a single attack meant sprinting dozens of steps.
Having to take just enough hits while calculating all of that left both mind and body exhausted beyond joke.
Most of the stocked damage hadn’t even come from direct hits; it was the residual force from near-misses while he was dodging.
Discovering yet another chronic weakness of a body that only grew stronger by being hit made Taewung’s expression harden.
Hwaaak—
The bright, gentle light unique to divine power wrapped around him. Minor wounds closed; his ragged breathing gradually steadied.
“Are you all right…?”
“…Yeah. Thanks, Na-rae.”
The appearance of the blue-haired girl, Shin Na-rae, eased the gloom a little. Right—no one had died yet. That alone was something to be grateful for.
If not for the warning left by the summon Sinwoo had stationed beforehand, the evacuation would never have happened and the damage would have been catastrophic.
The surroundings were pure ruin. If people had still been here…
Endless screams and explosions, blood seeping between collapsed buildings, sobs, the monster’s roars, and the discordant terror of those who feared it. Just imagining it made Taewung’s face harden again.
…He never wanted to live through a nightmare like that day again.
“Haa… it’s regenerating again.”
At Lucia’s irritated sigh, Taewung looked back at the monster that had turned this place into a wasteland.
Crunch, crunch!!
It swept up the rubble of fallen buildings and the ground itself as if licking them clean, swelling its shrunken body once more. Eat, regenerate. Grow large, rampage again.
At first it had seemed hopeless, but as time passed they grew used to its simple attack patterns and the regeneration intervals shortened.
Room to breathe appeared, and with it a thread of a strategy.
Keep it pinned in this already-desolate zone so it could no longer recover, then hammer it without pause.
The moment its regeneration could no longer keep up would be the moment it died.
Clinging to that hope, they settled in for a war of attrition.
“We’re making progress, though.”
Its regenerative power had visibly weakened. Forcing recovery had left its flesh softer than before.
Once their attacks started landing properly, regeneration slowed and its bulk steadily shrank. The monster’s growing agitation was plain to see.
Just keep going like this. He would do his part.
True tanking against something that size was impossible, so Taewung’s choice was to hammer its weak points and pull its attention away from Senior Shirogane.
“Jang-mi. Weak point this time?”
“One moment.”
For that they relied on Cheon Jang-mi’s power.
Her job, Assassin of the Boundary, could draw a clear line between a target’s vulnerable and invulnerable parts.
Even vaguely weak spots could be turned into true critical points; as a side effect she possessed “eyes” that could read those weaknesses.
She also had the job-unique skill Proxy Assassination, which temporarily transferred her job’s power by lending mana, allowing others to wield it as well.
But a power that broken was never all-powerful.
To use the unique skill she first had to keep the target whose weakness she marked in her field of vision while making physical contact with the person receiving the power.
Once used, she lost the ability to draw boundary lines for a long while—effectively stripping her of every power related to Assassin of the Boundary.
Her base physical stats didn’t drop, so she could still fight, but nowhere near her usual level.
The duration scaled with the marked target’s strength: the stronger the foe, the longer the lockout; the weaker, the shorter.
When she had used it to kill the black mage who attacked the academy before, she had been unable to use her abilities for quite some time and had suffered for it.
“…Right now the mouth two segments behind the left front leg is the weakest. And if we stack damage on the right hind leg we should be able to turn that into a weak point too.”
Because this was a prolonged fight they couldn’t afford to use Proxy Assassination. That meant the extra hassle of having her call out the weak points directly so they could focus fire.
“Okay. I’ll take Riri and head left to draw its attention first. Lucia, Jang-mi, Erika—circle right and stack the damage.”
“Got it.”
“Understood.”
Na-rae and Sena stayed back. Their only healer getting hurt would tank the whole team’s sustain.
With the summons Sinwoo had left and the Shirogane family’s people as backup, any gap that opened could be plugged immediately.
Just keep going like this—he was thinking that when it happened.
Flash!
An ominous glint of light from the far side sent a chill down Taewung’s spine.
Instinct took over. He charged the monster, then hurled himself in front of Senior Shirogane’s mother—who had been flung into the air—and swung his sword in a single clean arc.
BEEEEEEEP-----!!!
At the same instant a violent torrent of mana was cleaved. His arms shook violently; muscles tore and pain flared. The veins that had stood out from the strain burst, staining his skin red.
“Khhhk…!!!”
Creak, krrrk-krrrk!!
The blade that had carried him this far groaned and let out an ominous scream. Even with mana layered over it, the accumulated fatigue was plain to see.
At this rate he would only be pushed back. Forcing a full cut was impossible too. The sword’s fatigue was already critical. Push any harder and it would snap. A swordsman’s instinct told him so.
He had planned to buy a new sword today and get this one repaired, so he hadn’t brought a spare.
If it broke, his offensive options would shrink drastically.
I have to deflect it…!
He gathered mana. But floating in mid-air left him without solid footing. The opposing force was stronger. If he could just fix his stance…
Krrrk!!
As if answering his prayer, something solid touched his feet. Riri had instantly raised earth into a foothold.
Thud!
He planted himself and stomped down hard.
The mother had already grasped the situation and put distance between them. The attack had clearly been aimed at her; separating from him should weaken it.
The gambit worked. The mana current that had seemed ready to crush Taewung outright wavered and lost strength for an instant.
He didn’t miss the opening. Powering his lower body, he twisted the sword’s path.
Instead of a blade-shaped edge he spread the mana wide and solid, more like a shield. Then he twisted his whole body.
Swaaaaaang!!!
Sparks of clashing mana flew like mad. But he successfully deflected the attack.
All that remained was where to send the force.
A brief calculation, then skyward. Sending it into the ground would kick up dust and blind everyone.
Linking it half-heartedly to the enemy risked confusing allies or even friendly fire. That left the sky as the natural choice.
“KRAAAAAH!!!”
He tilted and bled off the heavy mana strike. At the same time he slipped aside; the now-aimless mana detonated in empty air, scattering its power in every direction.
“Huu!”
Taewung exhaled sharply and glared at the culprit. A man in a flashy formal suit that looked like it belonged in a high-end club. The very one who had unleashed this monster: Yashiro Hisame.
“Keh, keh-heh… Too bad. Didn’t kill you.”
What stood out was the blood staining his clothes and the deathly pallor of his face. The hair that had once been neatly styled was now a wild mess.
Had he come straight from another fight?
That confident smile and the pitch-black emotion behind it made Taewung’s brow furrow on its own.
“Yashiro Hisame…!!”
“Analysis complete. Confirmed as Yashiro Hisame himself.”
Shirogane Hanabi’s rage—honorifics already discarded—and Comet’s flat statement drew every gaze to one point. None of those gazes were friendly.
Of course not. This was the man who had caused the entire disaster. Yet Yashiro Hisame basked in the hostility, lifted whatever he held in his arms high into the air, and let out a mad laugh.
“Kkihihihik…! You idiots!! Did you really think I’d just run away?! The whole reason I bought time was to find this!!”
What he revealed was an old gourd. Even at a glance it was ancient; a grotesque vessel wrapped tightly in yellowed bandages and red sealing thread.
“…Mom, what is that?”
“I don’t know either. I think I glimpsed it once while cleaning the warehouse… It’s probably been in the Shirogane storehouse for a long time.”
“That man knows what it is and intends to use it. Is that it?”
At Taewung’s words Shirogane Hanabi’s expression turned ambiguous, then she nodded.
“Yes. The fact that he’s showing himself so boldly means it’s almost certainly connected to a Yashiro secret art.”
“Secret art?”
“Yes. Scrolls sealed with cursed techniques that throw humanity to the dogs. Forbidden arts that no one but the family head is even allowed to touch, let alone read.”
“So he came prepared to go all the way.”
Shirogane Rui’s face grew even more murderous at her mother’s words.
“Aaah… If the others heard about this they’d start interfering and it’d get annoying, so I wanted to keep it quiet… but now that it’s in my hands there’s no point.”
Yashiro Hisame slowly raised a hand and drew out a talisman. Until that moment nothing felt wrong.
Just as they wondered whether something he had gone to such lengths for could really be that impressive, the two objects overlapped.
“I… will become complete!!!”
Thump!
The sound of a heartbeat rang strangely loud.
Crack, snap!
In that instant cracks spider-webbed across the gourd. Clear, sparkling light seeped through the fissures—but the larger the cracks grew, the darker the light became, turning black.
Two things that had been nothing on their own combined and change began. Everyone tensed, ready to strike at any moment.
“Ugh?!”
“…Danger!!”
The magic-users sensed the anomaly first. Riri in particular manipulated the ground with magic and shoved everyone back; Ookuchi seized the opening and charged.
“GUOOOOOO!!!!”
“Kwahahaha!!! Kwahahahahaha!!!!!”
The monster lunged as planned, yet Yashiro Hisame only stared at the cracking gourd and laughed like a madman, as if the creature didn’t even exist.
Overwhelming mana began pouring from him—strong enough that even the others could feel it now.
His body regained color in real time, glowing with prismatic light. It was the very image of something on the verge of transformation.
“That idiot…!”
But the monster reached him first. Shirogane Rui moved to intervene, only for Shirogane Hanabi to stop her.
“It’s already too late.”
Crrraaack!!
“…Ah?”
Ookuchi’s massive jaws opened right in front of him; Yashiro Hisame’s blank, stunned voice crossed with the sound.
Snap!!!
The mouth closed.