The Black Dragon's Blessing

The fire arrow streaked from Jin-ri's staff — and missed. It slammed into the dirt a few paces short of its target, bursting apart in a spray of heat and scattered embers.

The fighting was still fierce. But the two of them were losing ground, bit by bit, to the raider pack pressing in from every side. The enemies looked to be a higher level than Ah-ra or Jin-ri, and they slipped past every incoming attack with darting, practiced ease, tightening the noose with every step.

"Damn it! Has Jin-hwan reached the Black Dragon yet?" Jin-ri shouted, already winding up her next cast.

Stalling was all they could do on their own. They were clinging to the hope that Jin-hwan would return the egg, and that they could get out of this place before it was too late — but that was looking less and less likely by the second.

"He should've gotten there by now, right?"

Ah-ra summoned a second spirit and sent both of them surging toward the enemies in front of her. Silphon took the shape of a small bird, a lower wind spirit no bigger than a sparrow. Under ordinary circumstances she could only maintain a single summon — but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Lizardman Soup Min-seong had given them had raised her Wisdom, and for a little while, two spirits were within her reach.

"Roa! Silphon!"

The two spirits began to attack in tandem. Roa unleashed a roaring water cannon, and Silphon layered Wind Pressure over the blast, driving the jet of water even harder. It was actually doing real damage. The problem was the clock. The moment the food buff ran out, they were going to be in serious trouble — that much was obvious.

"Jin-ri. How much Lizardman Soup do we have left?"

"The one I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just ate was the last of it."

They had burned through most of their stock back in Ulsan, and there was none left. A few other dishes remained, but none of them raised Wisdom the way the soup did, and that gap was going to get them killed. The instant the duration ended, the raiders would overrun them. Getting Jin-hwan to return the Black Dragon's egg and getting out of this dungeon looked like their only way through.

A dagger flashed.

"Aagh!"

The blade the raiders had thrown grazed Jin-ri's arm as it whipped past. Bright blood welled up and began to soak into her sleeve.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's not that deep."

The wound itself wasn't fatal. What mattered more was the fact that they were starting to buckle. They hadn't so much as scratched the enemy's fighting strength, and in a fight like this, even a shallow cut was a problem they couldn't afford.

"Nngh."

Jin-ri had no time to nurse the pain. She started casting again — but maybe it was the sting in her arm, because the spell wouldn't aim true, and the fumble opened her up to a counter she never saw coming.

Daggers hissed through the air in a tight, rapid volley. Too late to dodge. Ah-ra was locked on a different raider and couldn't spare a glance for the blades screaming toward her friend. Jin-ri gritted her teeth, braced to take the hits, and started winding up a counter of her own.

And then—

A torrent of darkness erupted from somewhere out of sight, smashed every incoming dagger out of the air, and rolled straight over the raiders in a roaring black wave.

"What the hell?!"

"Where did that come from?"

Ah-ra and Jin-ri snapped their heads around, scanning the treeline, half-convinced another enemy had just entered the fight. The raiders were doing the same. Two of them hadn't been fast enough — the Breath caught them full-on, and they went down and did not get up.

"What was that?!"

"Don't tell me the Black Dragon's here!"

But the blast had been too weak to belong to the Black Dragon himself. Which meant it wasn't him.

That was when two figures stepped out from the shadows at the edge of the clearing.

Jin-hwan and Ji-ah.

"Ah-ra! Jin-ri!"

"Jin-hwan!"

Something about him was different. His Bible, and every stitch of clothing on his body, had turned a deep, lightless black.

"What happened to you?"

"What's with that look?"

"I'll explain later. First we need to deal with these guys, don't we?" Jin-hwan's eyes were already on the raiders, who had not lost their appetite for killing. The Black Dragon's egg was no longer in anyone's hands, but that didn't seem to matter to them. Their only remaining purpose was to put Jin-hwan's party in the ground, and they were closing in to do it.

"The Lizardman Soup buff just wore off, so…"

One of Ah-ra's spirits had already been forcibly dismissed — she no longer had the Wisdom to sustain it. Jin-ri was wounded on top of that. Two enemies down was something, but the fight still looked ugly.

Jin-hwan didn't seem to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠care.

"Don't worry. I'll handle the fighting."

"You will?"

"Yeah. That Breath just now? That was me."

"Really?"

Ah-ra and Jin-ri stared at him, unconvinced. Jin-hwan had never had an offensive skill to his name. The idea that he had been the one to fire that Breath made no sense at all. He left Ji-ah with the two of them anyway, then walked straight toward the raiders without a trace of hesitation.

"Well, well. Your teammates might be weak, but now the Healer's getting cocky?"

"If you still think I'm the same guy from a minute ago, you're in for a rude awakening. Didn't get enough of that Breath?"

"That was you just now?"

"That's right. And now I can do this, too."

The ground split. Hands of pure darkness erupted from the earth in a sudden, writhing forest.

"Aaaagh!"

"What is this?!"

"I can't move!"

The hands clamped around the raiders' legs and locked on. The man in the red hood was fast enough to twist free and scramble up into the branches of a nearby tree. The others were not.

"They don't just hold you, either."

There was a reason the skill was called Hand of Death. Grabbing people was only the beginning.

Bone cracked. Then it crunched.

"AAAAAGH!"

"M-my legs—!"

"Ghhhk—!"

The hands crushed whatever they held with a grip that could pulp stone. Legs first, then whatever else they could reach, grinding raiders apart where they stood.

"You bastard! How dare you do that to my men!" The Red Hood's voice tore out of him, raw with fury. Most of his subordinates were too wrecked to so much as twitch. Some of them were already dead.

"We're even, aren't we? You were trying to kill us anyway."

They were already fighting with their lives on the line. Killing didn't sit strangely in his chest. And besides — calling these things people was a stretch.

They're basically NPCs. No question about it.

Just as Min-seong had said, they moved and acted as if they were following a script. The thought that he was killing human beings never even formed. It felt like playing a game, nothing more.

Maybe he wanted revenge for the ones who had died. The Red Hood dropped from the tree and came at Jin-hwan in a dead sprint.

"Jin-hwan, move!"

Ah-ra snapped a command at Silphon, and a blade of wind screamed toward the Red Hood, invisible and razor-thin. He was stronger than he looked. The dagger in his hand flicked up and knocked the wind blade aside as if it were nothing.

The Red Hood's outline thinned, then dissolved. He was gone — completely invisible — but there was no question he was still coming.

"Where did he go?"

"Don't worry."

Jin-hwan settled Ah-ra and Jin-ri with a glance, then opened his Bible.

The ground around them shuddered. Solid earth turned to mire in a single breath, and the tree that had been rooted in it began to sink, swallowed inch by inch into the black.

"Guh—! What the hell is this?!"

It wasn't just the tree going under.

"Damn it!"

The Red Hood flickered back into view, already waist-deep and thrashing. He had been closing in when the swamp took him, and now he was fighting to haul himself out — but there was a reason it was called a swamp. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more he struggled, the faster it pulled him down.

"H-help me. Please."

His legs were gone. Only his torso still showed above the surface, and he had clearly decided he wasn't getting out on his own. Jin-hwan didn't so much as glance at him. Getting out of this dungeon meant finishing this, and that was all there was to it.

The Red Hood sank deeper. Then only his face was left. And then even that was gone, sucked down into the dark, and there was a very good chance he was no longer among the living.

As if that had been the last piece the dungeon was waiting for, a message bloomed across their vision.

"It's finally over!"

The window had appeared the instant they finished off the Red Hood and his pack. At last — they could get out of this wretched dungeon. A Reward Room had opened in front of them, and if Min-seong was right, walking through that door would take them out.

"Wait. Then where did Min-seong-ssaem go?"

"Yeah. Doesn't seem like he came in with us."

The clear message had already fired, and they still hadn't seen him once. Maybe he had entered a different dungeon entirely, or maybe this place had another path they had never found. Either way, they started walking toward the Reward Room. They had been told that if they waited too long the door would vanish, and they would be trapped in here for good.

Jin-hwan stepped through, then glanced back over his shoulder.

"You're okay out there, right, Ssaem?"