Nature's Propaganda
"What are you doing here…?"
"I should be asking you that, oppa. You said you were heading toward Incheon Grand Park."
"That's…"
Because that place was about as far to the opposite side as I could get.
Hard to track me down. And even if someone did, most of it would already be over by the time they arrived.
I'd chosen it because I believed—genuinely believed—that no harm would ever reach Hyewon or Nature there.
That was why I'd set Incheon Grand Park as the meeting point.
So why? How?
No—more than that—how did they even…?
"Harin came to me. No—everyone from Nature did. They said Sunwoo oppa was acting a little strange."
"Me? Was there anything… strange about me?"
Nothing I could think of. I'd treated them the same as always.
"You were spouting death-flag lines nonstop! How were we supposed to miss that?!"
"…?"
Still thoroughly lost, I heard Sujin speak up from behind Hyewon. I didn't fully get it, but clearly Sujin had picked up on something.
They really do catch everything, every single time.
I was flustered. Bewildered, even.
This was nothing like the NTR Party. Back then, if I said something, they just took it at face value and moved on. Why were these people so full of suspicion and distrust toward someone?
"We're not going to leave you to carry this alone, oppa."
"Haaaah."
What were they even thinking?
I had a rough idea. If Hecate and Nox and the other spirits hadn't stepped in today, Hyewon might well have gone through with exactly what she'd been planning.
"I won't leave you alone. Neither will Nature."
"…I'm not planning on dying, you know."
"Eek."
"So that was it."
But not anymore.
My life was no longer just mine. At the very least, I had no desire to watch Hecate and Nox break down crying that they would die with me.
"We hold the line for a while, then pull back. If we buy enough time, the government will have to say something."
I had come here for Nature and Hyewon—nothing else. If Nature and Hyewon got hurt in the process, that would be the definition of missing the point entirely.
I slung Spirit Breaker over my shoulder and started walking slowly forward, toward the battlefield.
"Oppa."
"Hm?"
Right at the edge of the fighting, Hyewon spoke to me as I prepared to leave.
"Don't push yourself too hard."
"We all go home together."
"That includes you, oppa."
"………"
One more reason to come back alive.
Hideous scales.
A shambling gait, like some half-evolved mockery of humankind.
For all how ridiculous they looked, the spears in their hands and the razor fins jutting from their bodies made every movement a threat—
—Skrrrk-kash!
Shieeeeeeeek!!!
"Die, you son of a—fish bastard!"
Born aquatic. That alone meant they hit an inevitable wall.
Out of water, they couldn't operate for long. Stamina, attack power, and defense all dropped.
And on top of that—
"Flame!"
Flame
Shiiiiiiit—FWOOM!
Elemental advantage as well.
The greatsword wreathed in fire split the mermen's scales, twisted them open, and seared the flesh underneath until it cooked through. Every single swing was a threat—and if the mermen had possessed enough intelligence to fall back under that kind of pressure, they never would have left the water in the first place.
Kieeeeeeek!
Kishishishit!
KishaAAAAAAH!!!
"Kh… these, these worthless things!"
She cut them down. Cut them down again.
She kept cutting, and still the mermen surged in to fill the gaps behind the fallen.
No—it wasn't just mermen anymore.
—Skrrk… kaang!
Krrrik?
"Ghk?!! What is this…?!"
Crazy Crabs. Big Turtles. More of them.
Monsters with relatively slow steps but distinctive carapaces began pouring in en masse. Fire or no fire, that only helped if you could pierce the scales and cut the meat underneath.
Harder than I expected…
One swing. Another. The pace of her cutting slowed, and the monsters piling up around her only grew. A swarm that one person thrashing alone could no longer handle.
"——Yeonhwa unnie!"
"Harin!"
And as if she had been waiting for exactly that moment, Harin drove through the monster pack and sprinted toward Yeonhwa.
Kishit…?!
Krrrrrrrk—!
Oo… oooooong?!!
"I'm here to help!"
"Nice timing. Hold them for a second!"
Every step Harin took, electricity crackled from the soles of her feet and shocked the monsters around her on contact. Yeonhwa—a C-Class awakener, and a Spirit Contractor at that—had more than enough mana resistance to shrug it off. Everything else got fried without mercy.
Of course, they were still monsters. The paralysis only lasted a few seconds at best.
But a few seconds was all they needed.
"In theory, this should work…!!"
Fwoosh-sh-sh-sh!
Daggers scattered from Harin's arms in a spray. They didn't cut a single monster—most of them simply buried themselves in the dirt—but that was exactly what Jeon Harin wanted.
She yanked her phone from her pocket and shouted.
"Electric Shock!"
Electric Shock
ZZZZZZZZZT!!!
In an instant—yellow voltage burst from the phone.
Lightning raced along the scattered daggers and began electrocuting the monsters all at once.
Kieeeeeeek?!!
Grrk… kh…
Oooong……
"…Haaaah?"
Yeonhwa, mid-swing with everything she had, stared in blank disbelief.
Not just shocked—deep-fried into electric tempura. And on top of that, the faint tingle still running under her own feet. Output strong enough to punch past even a C-Class Spirit Contractor's mana resistance. Yeonhwa was still reeling when Harin clenched both fists and shouted.
"Yes…..!"
Harin's chronic problem.
Her spirit wouldn't obey her words, which meant an inevitable hard cap on her power—and that cap arrived far too fast. So she offset it by drawing on external current.
If she had cleared that whole scene with pure Spirit Contractor force alone, the cost would have been a full 100. What she actually felt herself spending right now—just the mana used to open the pass link—was maybe a 10.
"Hey… is that phone okay?"
"Huh? Ah—wait, my phone?!"
It was a technique she'd only just come up with, so the side effects were just as clear. A sudden blast of high voltage had left the phone scorching hot. The data inside was almost certainly toast—but unfortunately, this was not the moment to grieve over it.
Oong… oooooooong!!!
"Tsk. Don't these things ever get tired?!"
"Th-this is for my phone!"
A fresh wave of monsters came on, trampling and crushing the corpses of their fallen. The pressure alone, felt through the body, was already considerable—and now it felt like the real main act was starting.
Pssshiiiiiii!
"…Tsk. Who taught you to spit at people?!"
"——Hup!"
Water cannons roared toward Yeonhwa and Harin. Yeonhwa angled her greatsword and blocked; Harin used her characteristic mobility to dodge—but the attacks didn't stop at one.
Pssshiiii!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Shrieeeeeeeek!
Aaaaaaah~♬
"Ah, for real, you absolute bastards!"
"Dodging is one thing, but at this rate…"
Mermen spears and blades.
Great Turtles' water cannons.
Siren song woven through the sound of rolling waves.
And every so often, tentacles lashing up from below.
"………….."
"…Huuuuu."
Just the carapace monsters body-checking them was already a lot—and the list of things they had to watch only kept growing. No room left for conversation. The two of them kept moving their legs, dodging and cutting, over and over.
Spat!
Skrrk!
"Kh… of all the ridiculous crap…!"
"My phone battery! If I'd known, I would have brought a power bank!"
But there was a limit to how long you could keep dodging. They weren't dropping enemies fast enough, so the monsters only stacked higher. The encirclement tightened. One step back. Another step back—
—Bang!
"!,…Sujin?"
Gunfire from behind.
At Sujin's entry, Harin's face lit up—but Yeonhwa only got angrier and raised her voice.
"Nam Sujin! Stop splashing water on the fish bastards! They get wet and they go even harder!"
"Ah…!"
Their opponents were aquatic monsters that had left the water. Naturally, the drier they got, the weaker they became. But if Sujin's attacks soaked them instead?
Everything they'd already weakened would be for nothing. They'd end up fighting stronger enemies—
"I know that!"
"What…?"
—and there was no way a hardcore hikikomori like Sujin wouldn't know that.
O… oooooooooong!!!!
"…Haaaah?!!"
Monsters hit by Sujin's rounds thrashed in agony. The pain clearly outweighed any vitality they'd gained from the water, which left Yeonhwa confused—until she saw the impact marks and understood.
"You mixed something in!"
The rounds weren't clear. They were a filthy, rotten dark color, as if packed full of something, and the smell was viciously sharp.
"Mustard, soy sauce, gochujang, black pepper, and miscellaneous other crap!"
Taste my special wasabi bomb!
The moment she realized the attacks were working, Sujin's eyes spun and she started hammering the trigger like a woman possessed.
KishaAAAAAAH!
Kyaaaaaak?!!
Ororororong! Ororororong….!!
"Kyahahahaha! You wanna hit me, don't you? But you caaan't reach! You can't do anything~~~!"
Ranged monsters hit by Sujin's custom blasphemous pollution rounds lost their minds and collapsed in chaos.
"That's right! This is why unnie believes in you, Sujin!"
"You were yelling at her a second ago… Anyway—great job, Sujin!"
The tide of battle loosened again.
A party where each covered the others' weaknesses. With these three, even a decent dungeon would be clearable without much trouble—or so one might think.
O… oooooooong!!!
Kishiiiiiiiit!!!
Kryaryaryarya!!
"…Haaaah."
"I'm getting a little tired."
This wasn't a dungeon.
If anything, it was closer to a dungeon break. An endless flood of numbers would grind down even a party with perfect chemistry, and the draining strength began to plant seeds of anxiety and despair in their hearts.
And then—
"Everyone! Heads down!"
"""———!!!"""
—what overturned a situation like that was an A-Class.
While Nature had been buying time, Sunwoo had been gathering wind at the tip of his staff. He swept it from left to right.
Whoooosh….
"…Huh?"
For a moment, a breeze skimmed over Yeonhwa's head.
A soft, gentle tailwind that didn't match the dark sky at all—like a warm spring day drifting past. And in complete opposition to that feeling—
—Shaaaaaaaak… thuk!
"…..Hweh?"
Right in front of her, a monster's body split clean in half.
No—not just the one in front of her.
Thud… thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!!
"Hic!… euk… hwaa?"
Everywhere the wind had touched, every monster in that space was cut cleanly in two and died.
The sea slowly turned red. The thick smell of death rose.
"…I knew A-Class awakeners were monsters, but."
Yeonhwa shook her head in something like disbelief, staring at Sunwoo as she muttered.
"You're absurdly strong, Instructor…"
Standing there with that usual empty-headed look—and somehow looking that reliable—was probably something only he could pull off.
…Anyway.
"Hyewon. When's the backup getting here? The kids are starting to wear out."
They'd been fighting for well over an hour. At this point someone should have said something—so why was there not a single soldier in sight, let alone a cop?
"About that…"
Hyewon answered Sunwoo's question in a daze.
"I reported it upstairs, so they told me to wait…"
"Until when?"
"………."
"…Ssssuuup."
That taste in my mouth.
Probably that uniquely Korean brand of deep, lingering spice.