Chapter 189

Paak!!!

The kick of the person shielding Ayoung and Aila with both arms struck the bird's head. Ppagak. Instead of the hard head, its neck bent upwards and broke.

Ayoung looked up. As expected, it was the one with real strength among the two teammates. Tae-un, breathing heavily, was making an unprecedentedly fierce expression towards the disappearing mutant. The bird that had been approaching with murderous intent, threatening Ayoung and Aila, disappeared into black smoke.

The exhilarating attack didn't end there.

"You, bird-brained bastards!"

Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!!!!

"What are you doing to Ayoung!!!"

Soram, with his battered body, raised a huge blue mist and smashed it down on the collapsing building. The bird flock that had been writhing inside disappeared, crushed under dozens of layers of concrete.

"Wow..."

In fact, Ayoung had thought Soram seemed to have suddenly become stronger about half a year ago. But since he was always someone who brought great twists, that itself wasn't very surprising.

Kuuung―!!!

Tae-un, who had been watching this for a moment, turned his body while holding Ayoung and Aila.

"Are we leaving Soram oppa behind?"

"You're the priority right now."

He flew all the way to the rearmost area and put Ayoung down in a prepared temporary tent.

"Kkiiing..."

Only then did Aila seem to feel relieved and return to her original size. The dog fell asleep on Ayoung's stomach with her pink tongue out.

"She's badly injured here! Please look at her quickly!"

Hearing Tae-un's shout, medical staff rushed over and hurriedly sutured her tattered arms. Thanks to that, her mind, which had been about to faint hazily, snapped awake.

"Ah, it really hurts! Ah, uwah, ah!"

"Do you have painkillers?"

Tae-un, who had been keenly observing Ayoung's reactions even while being gruff, immediately requested what was needed.

Not long after, Soram also arrived at his team members. As soon as he saw Ayoung, he covered his face with one hand.

"Ah, really..."

His shoulders slumped down.

"Ayoung-ah,... ... please."

"Hehehehe. I did it this time."

Soram raised his head and glared at Ayoung. His eyes, full of strength, were slightly wet. It was a face that anyone could see wanted to pour out choked-up words but was suppressing them.

"...Yeah. If it weren't for you, many more people would have died. ...You did well."

Soram also crouched down beside her.

"So rest now."

"Okay. I won't be stubborn even in this situation."

"Even if something else happens, it's the same. Aila can't move anymore either..."

Gugugugu―...

The crack vibrated, not giving even a moment's respite to the hunters.

She had heard that while the flying hunters were dealing with the bird mutants, the ground hunters had attacked the crack. The length of the crack had decreased a bit more since Soram last saw it. Thus, the remaining crack was about 60%.

"..."

It had decreased enough that they didn't need to raise their heads much to see the end of the crack. But the gaze looking in that direction became rather complicated.

Deudeuk, deuk, deudeudeudeuk―...

As everyone tensed, not knowing what would spring out of the crack this time, Soram stood up. Tae-un followed and came forward.

As they came out of the alley, the crack had just spat out a new shadow.

Keureuk, keureureureung...

Muuuu―!!!

The cry of the beast that appeared from inside shook the city. What came out opening the crack were again quadrupeds.

―Mutants have appeared. They are in the same land animal form as at the beginning.

―It is estimated that land animals and birds will alternate from now on.

―Lion-shaped mutant has arrived at the first line.

The roads were filled with mutants that had stubbornly pushed out. Just like this place had been a few hours ago.

However, the situation was by no means the same as at the beginning. Many hunters had fallen into a state of incapacitation. The sudden appearance of birds had doubled the number of injured. Even the chief-level hunters who had taken the lead were now almost all in a precarious state just before overload. In other words, attacks like those at the beginning were impossible.

The remaining strength on this side probably wouldn't even be 20%, let alone 60%. Even 20% was a generous calculation including the strength of hunters from other branches coming to support.

"Han Tae-un."

Soram turned around slightly.

...Really, really. It was piercingly unfair, but.

"...It might not work."

The moment he uttered these words, the images of the director fighting while becoming covered in blood, and Ayoung achieving great things while trembling, flashed by. Because it was a judgment that betrayed all those desperate efforts... what came out of his throat felt like a lump of thorns rather than words.

Because he had never overcome the first stage of the 4th Great Rift, he didn't know birds would spring out in the next stage. No... even if he had known, could he have solved it? Maybe, no matter how hard they tried, they might be struggling with something impossible.

Soram, who had failed twenty times, evaluated coldly. It's not that it might not work... it's a failure. No matter what possibility he calculated, it was impossible to go through the same process two more times to eliminate the remaining 60% of the crack. Let alone approaching the crack, could they even block all the mutants...

Tae-un took a step closer to Soram.

"Don't worry, I'm saving my strength to not send you alone. Let's do our best without regrets."

"..."

This time too, he let Soram's body and mind, which were about to collapse, lean on him. Soram rubbed his face with his rough hands.

―Flying team hunters, please conserve your strength as much as possible in preparation for the next bird appearance.

"Haah..."

...It would be nice if they could recover, but including Park Jae-seon, Jin Soram, Lee Ayoung, and Han Tae-un. None of the four hunters capable of flight could regain their full strength with just a brief treatment. The injuries were not of that level.

"Han Tae-un, stay here for a moment. I'll go discuss with the director and come back."

"I'll go too..."

"Didn't you hear? Every bit of flying hunters' strength is precious right now."

"..."

"I'm just going to talk and come back. When Ayoung's treatment is done, you get something too."

In the end, Tae-un had no choice but to turn back and return to Ayoung's side. Ayoung, whose face color had improved a bit from earlier, saw Tae-un and made a "hmph" sound.

"What's this, after nagging so much earlier. Oppa, you're in no position to tell me not to overdo it."

"Woof."

"...I'm... different."

"How are you different? It's not like you oppas have two lives each."

"Woof woof."

"..."

Tae-un, who had no confidence in winning if the conversation continued, finally chose to quietly close his mouth.

That's when it happened.

Muuuu―!!!!

Kagak, gak, keureureureung, gigik, gikgik, geugeueoeoeoe―...

Kki― iiiiii―...

Maaaak!

"Ugh. What's that."

The crack made a sound loud enough to shake everything around once again. Even Ayoung, who had been unaffected by animal sounds, shuddered after having an eerie experience.

"Ah shit. It's not even a mimicry dungeon, what's with that. Is it crazy?"

"..."

Tae-un's eyes widened.

"...What did you just say?"

"Huh? That it's crazy...? Should I not swear?"

"That, before. No... nevermind."

Tae-un abruptly stood up. And he took a step forward.

"Where are you going?"

Ayoung called out loudly from behind, but Tae-un didn't look back. After walking a few steps, he eventually started running.

"Team member Han, rest now!"

"Tae-un oppa?!"

"..."

Tae-un, who had been running forward, stopped as he took in the crack with his eyes.

Large beasts were pouring out one after another from the crack that had made the loud noise. The abnormally transformed, giant animals were even taller than him, who was already much taller than most adults. Naturally, when seen from below, their sharp teeth and claws would appear even more emphasized.

Just like the view of a young child standing in a zoo while terrified.

"..."

Dalak, dalak.

Along with the sound of scattered puzzle pieces fitting together, all the contradictions he hadn't been able to solve rapidly fell into place. Tae-un kicked his feet that had hesitated again.

He saw the back of a person observing the battlefield situation ahead. Brown hair swayed in the dusty wind. Sensing someone approaching, he turned around. It was a face clearly frightened by the trauma-inducing sounds, though trying hard to appear calm.

The increasingly clear picture drew a blurry figure over it.

A young child who had been left alone in a zoo full of huge beasts in some past...

"Jin Soram."

Child.

***

The sky above had already turned red with the sunset. The battle with the Great Rift that had started in the morning had already gone on for several hours. The deepened shadows between buildings conveyed the howls of giant beasts even more eerily. The sounds seemed to echo even louder than during the day, carried on the cold wind.

Soram approached Tae-un, leaving the mutant horde and howls behind.

"Why did you come? I told you to rest there."

Tae-un couldn't answer. He couldn't think of anything else due to the impact of the thoughts lining up in his head now.

The wishes of countless people wanting to save you.

The reason for the regressions you've been repeating.

Your trauma.

And, the misunderstanding Jin Soram has had for a long time about this place.

"..."

"Han Tae-un!"

Soram grabbed Tae-un's arms, who was in a daze.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"...Yeah. Why on earth..."

"Han Tae-un...?"

For a moment, Tae-un calculated the possibility that his assumption was wrong. He even hoped it would be. But all the circumstances, all the processes he had gone through, were all tangled around this...

"Are you having a hard time? That's why I told you to rest next to Ayoung."

They were all intertwined around the small person in the center.