* * *
“Quick! We don’t have time!”
“Uh, I—”
Startled by Raon’s sudden command, Hamin’s eyes widened in confusion.
But somehow, his body moved on its own.
The Raon he knew wasn’t someone to make meaningless demands.
“Ugh!”
With a loud thud, Hamin threw himself to the ground.
Glancing up, he saw Raon watching with a satisfied expression, giving him a thumbs-up.
“Screeeech!”
“…!”
The second monster immediately reacted.
Raon had told Hamin to fall down to draw its attention.
Before his regression, the second monster had appeared while the first was still mid-fight.
It attacked the rear lines while the focus was on the front, as if it instinctively knew where the weak spots were.
Raon had predicted the monster would notice Hamin the moment he fell—and it had.
The creature flew straight at him.
‘If Hamin were just a regular guide, I wouldn’t have told him to do that. Lucky us.’
He’d recently reawakened as an esper and had already exhausted much of his energy relocating team members from the cliff. It made him the perfect bait.
“Siwoo! Esper Yeojoon!”
“Yes, sir!”
Siwoo and Yeojoon intercepted the second monster.
Their joint attacks had already proven powerful in the last battle.
The only question now was whether that power would work against the monster protecting the core.
Crackle!
“Skreeech!”
Hit by their combined assault, the monster screamed and took to the sky again.
The attack seemed effective, but it was still too annoying how agile it was in the air.
“There’s no telekinetic esper in the guide team…”
Raon muttered, eyes scanning the field—until they landed on Hamin, who had quietly gotten back on his feet after playing dead.
His newly awakened ability was wind.
“Hamin, Guide! Can you still use your power?”
“Yes, but… If I attack, I might just get in the way.”
Hamin replied with a troubled voice.
Though he’d lived as a guide for a long time, he understood how important compatibility was among espers.
Adding wind to Siwoo’s water-enhanced electric attacks could cause problems.
“Not to attack—just try to restrict its movements. Keep it from flying.”
“Ah!”
Realization struck Hamin, his eyes widening.
That was something wind could absolutely do.
Nodding, he focused.
He recalled the sensation of lowering dozens of teammates down the cliff earlier.
Compared to people, this monster was massive and heavy, but all he had to do was interfere with its motion, not control it entirely.
“Skreeech!”
A gust of wind slammed into the monster, and it faltered—unable to keep flying.
Flames burst from its partially folded wings as it tumbled through the air.
Boom!
The beast crashed to the ground, eyes blazing red as it glared at Siwoo and Yeojoon.
“Yoon Siwoo! Let’s finish this fast and grab something to eat!”
“Worry about yourself.”
Even facing a towering monster, Yeojoon stayed as cheerful as ever.
Siwoo shot back gruffly.
Behind them, Raon activated radiating guidance.
He cast a quick glance at the combat team, still locked in their own battle against the first monster.
“Dasom, Guide!”
“Y-Yes?”
“I’ll hold things here—take the other guides and support the combat team!”
“R-right!”
Dasom nodded and rushed off with Taehyuk and Juwon.
Watching their retreating figures, Raon let out a breath of relief.
‘With Dasom there, they won’t be wiped out.’
With A-rank espers like Juwon and Taehyuk guiding, and Dasom providing heals, they had a real shot at turning things around.
Raon swallowed hard, eyes locked on the monster in front of him.
“Ugh…”
Blood trickled from Dojin’s lowered head.
A sharp ringing pierced his ears.
It was a symptom he’d never experienced before, even after pushing his powers to the limit.
Espers suffered various side effects when their contamination levels dropped.
When they overused their abilities beyond the threshold, it wasn’t uncommon to develop headaches and tinnitus.
But Dojin had never thought he’d be one of them.
“Captain! Are you okay?!”
“Team leader!”
“Grr…”
His team members stared at him, alarmed.
The monster hovering above hadn’t moved yet, but once it regained strength, it would attack again.
“How many of us are still able to fight?”
“Well, uh…”
One of the members nearby hesitated, looking troubled.
Dojin himself could see the dire state they were in.
They’d been caught completely off guard, and the espers had taken serious damage.
He wasn’t exempt either.
“Damn it.”
Blood kept pouring from his wounds.
Normally, an S-rank would heal quickly from this level of injury—but clearly, the monster’s attack wasn’t just physical.
‘Poison?’
His vision blurred.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they were all wiped out.
“Screeeeech!”
“Captain, over there—!”
“…!”
A chilling, ominous sound erupted from the rear, making the hairs on the back of everyone’s neck stand on end.
The members who turned to look toward the guide team panicked.
Dojin clenched his teeth at the sight of a second monster appearing.
“Damn it, another monster at a time like this.”
It had been a mistake to assume there would only be one guardian monster protecting the core.
It wasn’t common, but there were occasional high-difficulty gates where multiple monsters guarded the core.
Usually, when that happened, they appeared from the beginning, giving teams a chance to prepare accordingly.
This, however, was the first time even for Dojin that another monster emerged after the fact.
Still, that was no excuse.
A team leader should be prepared to handle all possible variables. In the end, this was all his responsibility.
“Looks like it’s going to attack the guide team—shouldn’t we help them?!”
Yoonchae asked, unable to hide his anxiety.
Guides were to be protected at all costs.
That’s why they were deliberately stationed at the rear, far from battle.
But the second monster had appeared on the opposite side—right where the guide team was.
“If the guide team gets wiped out, we’re as good as dead too!”
Inho echoed Yoonchae’s alarm.
After years of stability, the appearance of an irregular gate had prompted guides to enter it for the first time in ages.
Losing them now, without even a chance to defend themselves, would spark outrage both inside and outside the organization.
Even if they managed to suppress the gate, the shame of having failed to protect the guides would haunt the team forever.
Dojin knew that perfectly well—but still hesitated.
He bit his lip.
“If we split the team now, it could be even more dangerous.”
“What? You’re seriously—”
Inho scowled at Dojin’s reply.
It was practically a death sentence for the guide team.
“You son of a bitch, and you call yourself a team leader?”
“Better that than making a stupid choice that gets us all killed.”
“What did you just say?!”
Inho shouted, livid at Dojin’s cold tone.
He reached out to grab Dojin by the collar—but then—
“Kieeek!”
“The guide team—!”
The second monster dove downward, clearly targeting something.
It was heading straight for the guide team.
The soldier who shouted it out looked stricken with despair.
“Keeek!”
“What the hell…?”
But the monster was suddenly struck by a powerful attack and recoiled.
It flailed upward in shock, wings flapping wildly.
The team members blinked, stunned.
“Come to think of it, wasn’t Yoon Siwoo with the guide team?”
“Wasn’t Lee Yeojoon also assigned to them?”
“When did those two get that strong…?”
Even Dojin—and the other two team leaders—had struggled against that monster.
Yet Siwoo and Yeojoon had just pushed it back.
The team murmured in awe.
Dojin’s expression hardened.
“Yoon Siwoo again.”
He frowned at the praise being thrown around.
Yoon Siwoo was nothing—just a low-tier esper back when his numbers were down.
The only reason he seemed strong now was because Dojin’s current readings were temporarily low.
Earlier, during the first encounter with the monster, he’d simply lost focus for a split second when his telekinesis didn’t respond properly.
That was all.
No need to panic.
Yet despite that rationalization, something inside Dojin was boiling.
His eyes locked onto Raon, who was guiding Siwoo.
“I just need to get my guide back.”
Dojin’s gaze followed Raon obsessively.
If he could just get guided again, he could return to full power—just like before.
Then, the glory would return to him, and everything would go back to how it should be.
“Screeeech!”
“It’s coming back!”
But now wasn’t the time.
The immediate threat still had to be dealt with.
Dojin turned and glared at the monster charging toward them.
“I’ll take the lead—cover me!”
“No, I’ll attack.”
“What? Are you out of your mind?”
Yoonchae, second only to Dojin in firepower, stepped forward.
But Dojin shook his head.
Yoonchae stared at him like he couldn’t believe the stubbornness.
“Fall back, now!”
“……Tch.”
But Dojin was the team leader.
Yoonchae had no choice but to obey.
He retreated behind Dojin, face full of frustration, but quickly focused his power to prepare for the monster’s attack.
“Kreeeek!”
And then the monster’s mouth spewed an inferno of flames.
* * *
