72. Once You Know It's A Trap, It's No Longer A Trap (2)

The day of the capture.

The Phoenix Guild sent a van around for the group.

“Hop in.”

Jang Miseon held the car door open as the Scraps clambered aboard one by one, faces alight with excitement.

“Ain’t vans just for celebrities?”
“Look over here, Big Bro. They’ve even got cocktails set up!”
“You can’t be drinking with a big job ahead.”

Yujin let out a short haa— of a sigh and muttered.

“That’s non-alcoholic.”
“Is there anything you don’t know, Boss?”
“What just happened, I’d rather not have known.”

Next time I’ll have to tell the Phoenix Guild to keep it within reason.

Must the embarrassment always be mine to bear?

Up in front, Jang Miseon stifled a pfft of a laugh.

“No info on the gate at all?”
“A scouting team gathered some rough intel.”

Jang Miseon quickly shared the briefing she’d prepared in advance.

Daegu: the Famished Den and the Old Mansion

“The monsters that turn up are werewolves and vampires, apparently.”
“Sworn enemies, and yet they’ve shacked up together nice and cozy.”
“The gate has two cores. Go in and the path splits in two, with one core waiting at the end of each passage, they say.”
“Any other peculiarities?”
“That there are a lot of variants, and that you have to clear both bosses at the same time, roughly.”

Yujin fiddled with his chin.

“The fact that they figured all that out. Looks like the scouting team cleared the boss?”
“Arahan called us in because it was beyond their strength. So the odds are high, yeah.”

Jang Miseon brushed Yujin’s point aside lightly, and she was right.

So this is how they’ve stacked the board.

‘If I’d left House Romanov out of it, I wouldn’t even have known it was a trap.’

A double gate. Two bosses to bring down at the same time. To satisfy both conditions, the capture team had to split its forces, and the entry limit was a mere ten people. The pretext for roping in the Phoenix Guild, that Arahan’s elite Hunters couldn’t handle it alone, was airtight too.

“Werewolves and vampires. Aren’t both of them powerful races?”
“The real ones are called Vampires and Lycanthropes. These are the lower species.”
“Ugh. It’s not even toadyism, but a Korean name means weak and an English one means strong?”

Kang Minyeong clicked her tongue. If the gate fancied its squiggly foreign script that much, she could take it up with the gate.

“Well, we’ve got enough info, so let’s give it our all! Fighting!!”

At Jang Miseon’s lead-off cheer, the Scraps answered with a “Fighting—” of their own. Before they knew it, the van had pulled in near Myeongdeok Station, in the heart of Daegu.

“The destination’s close. Please get ready.”

The area around the station, ringed by high schools and cram academies, normally saw a fair bit of foot traffic. Now, thanks to the mutant double gate that had formed, it was deserted.

“There isn’t a single car.”
“Ah. They say the roads were shut down with the city’s cooperation.”

The empty roads swarmed with personnel dispatched for the capture: medical teams, armament-inspection crews, and the rest.

“Haha. We meet again.”
“That we do. Arahan’s Supernova.”
“It’s Song Myeongseok.”
“Of course I know your name.”

At the mockery-laden tone, Song Myeongseok shot back sharply, and Yujin let it slide with a snicker.

“Your luster’s dimmed quite a bit since I saw you last, hasn’t it?”
“All thanks to you.”
“Heard you got taught a real lesson by the next Sword Saint, too.”
“…”

Song Myeongseok clamped his mouth shut, a gloomy light rippling across his deeply sunken eyes. So he was baring his killing intent openly now.

“That summon of yours isn’t here?”
“Fafnir’s got business, so I couldn’t call him.”
“A pity. He was a help during the joint capture. A real shame, this.”

Twice the pity, and there’d be a murder.

There was no calling off the capture now, not with the Phoenix Guild’s reputation on the line, so he didn’t bother hiding what he was thinking.

“I won’t need him to seal a gate. That’s child’s play.”
“Hahaha. Seeing such confidence, I’m reassured indeed.”
“You buck up too.”

Leaving the loaded remark behind, Yujin spun on his heel. Song Myeongseok’s gaze stayed lodged in his fully exposed back for a long while, unwilling to let go.

“Arahan Guild, entry preparations complete.”

The Arahan Guild capture team lined up before the blue rift, every one of them a face Yujin knew.

“Weren’t your lot all 2nd Rank?”
“We’ve all climbed to 3rd Rank. We won’t be a burden, so don’t you worry.”

Song Myeongseok stared fixedly at Yujin’s group.

“Good for you. I’m 3rd Rank too.”
“How, in that short a time…?”

As an opening salvo to seize the initiative, isn’t that a little cheap.

When Yujin snorted, reactions he hadn’t expected came pouring out.

“You’ve already hit 3rd Rank?”
“Bro. We bled and sweat our guts out and we still can’t keep up with that pace.”
“This ain’t right, it ain’t. Leaving us behind and going on alone.”

What’s with those faces, like they’ve been betrayed.

The three of them stared at Yujin’s back with resentful eyes.

“H-haha. What a relief.”
“Supernova. I’m 3rd Rank too, so I won’t be a burden either.”

When Jang Miseon chimed in, Song Myeongseok’s expression twisted nicely.

‘That’s exactly why I’m needling him more.’

‘If he comes at me emotionally, even a sliver of an opening will show.’

Uh.

I didn’t calculate it all out quite that far.

He’s openly trying to grate on me, and sitting still for it just isn’t in my nature.

“Arahan will enter first.”

— Tromp, tromp.

With Song Myeongseok at the head, the five-strong Arahan strike force passed into the blue wormhole.

“We’ll go too.”

Jang Miseon spoke brightly and took the lead, Yujin’s group falling in behind. The moment both guilds’ strike forces had entered the double gate.

— Crrrkkkkzzzt—!!!

Sparks burst from the gate and scattered in every direction, tearing up the asphalt road and the buildings.

“R-run!”
“It was perfectly fine until just a moment ago.”
“What on earth is happening!?”

The gate, wreathed in lightning, stained blood-red as though doused in gore. A red gate, the color that signified a sealed type.

“A-a second mutation…”

A spiritless voice slipped from a Phoenix Guild official’s mouth. On the heels of the double gate, a mutation that should never have happened had struck in succession. The two capture teams had only one way back to reality: destroy both gate cores at the same time and carry the capture through to a success.

“Get the guildmaster on the line! Now!”

The two guilds’ staff descended into chaos. And yet, unlike the Phoenix Guild members steeped in urgency, a good number of the Arahan personnel watched the gate calmly, without a trace of panic.

A vast earthen cavern. From floor to ceiling it stood some fifty meters, and the width looked to be over a hundred.

“Feels more like an underground dungeon than a cave.”

Yujin offered his leisurely take, glancing around.

“It’s different from the briefing. The path is just one, and…”
“There’s a mansion inside the cavern.”
“True enough. And where did the Arahan strike force vanish off to.”

Her voice tinged with worry, Jang Miseon swept the area with a sharp gaze, her eyes moving without rest as she hunted for the Arahan strike force that had gone in ahead of them.

“Don’t waste the effort. You won’t find them.”
“It’s strange. The gate transformed and the Arahan strike force just disappeared.”
“If that was the intent, there’s nothing strange about it at all.”

At Yujin’s unruffled words, the Scraps let out a loud huk— of a shriek.

“B-Bro. Don’t tell me we’ve walked into a trap… have we?”
“Casual or polite, pick one.”
“No, no. Bro, why are you so calm?”
“Boss is right. If panicking would untangle it, things wouldn’t have come to this.”

Kang Minho settled his rattled twin sister.

To claim outright that he’d known all along it was a trap would have had no grounding, so Yujin offered a fitting excuse instead.

“Before we came in here, Song Myeongseok’s attitude was off.”
“The Super— no, that ba—?”

Minyeong.

You even got an autograph off him.

The instant he turned into a trap suspect, fan-love and all went flying out the window.

“Master Yujin. Isn’t that a bit of a stretch? There’s no basis for it.”
“Jang Miseon. How likely do you reckon it is for a double gate to mutate again and turn into a sealed type?”
“Not very. Still, on a hunch alone it’s a bit much.”
“I’m not telling you to believe me. Even so, it beats getting blindsided for letting your guard down.”

He didn’t expect Jang Miseon to take him at his word straight off. As long as she didn’t relax just because of the Arahan Guild, Song Myeongseok especially, that was enough. Lay the groundwork ahead of time and the blow landed softer.

‘They say a bullet hurts less if you fire it gently, too.’

‘Have you any idea how scientific a weapon that is, slapping the word “primitive” on it.’

While he was rebuking Kronos, an eerie red mist swallowed the mansion. Monsters came tearing out, splitting the crimson smoke.

“Grrrr. Woof!”
“Hand over fresh blood.”

A werewolf closed the distance fast, hurling itself forward on all four paws. Above, vampires, pale-faced men, hovered some five meters up and eyed the group.

“We’re in a tough spot, right?”
“Probably.”
“Hmm. You take command, Master Yujin.”
“You sure you’re all right with that?”
“You’re Master’s owner. And the Scraps make four, so it’s only fitting.”
“Good. I’ll see you out of here alive, without fail.”

Forty monsters in all. Well, then.

Rather than coming at us full force from the start, you mean to feel us out a little?

‘I’ll have to bring out the Blood Golem and Jo Seungcheol later.’

He’d already shown the Blood Golem to the Arahan strike force during the Iron Tomb capture, but this time Yujin had decided not to reveal his full strength. He’d grown a notch stronger after absorbing the Rerics’ blood, and in a blatant probing match there was no need to lay every card on the table.

“First, let’s get buffs going.”

Raising the Oak Staff Harboring Lightning high, he swapped his stats over with White Night, then unfurled his holy spells one after another.

“You sure you’re 3rd Rank? How is your incantation speed this fast?”
“You saw me walk into the gate without a hitch, didn’t you.”

Yujin chided her lightly.

A probing match, huh.

If anything, all the better.

This was his first time fighting in sync with Jang Miseon. He’d been thrashed by her one-sidedly, or rather, sparred against her until he was sick of it, but fighting on the same team was another matter entirely.

If they’d come at us all-out, there’d be no room for that.

“Jang Miseon and Kang Minho are vanguard, the remaining two are rearguard. Let’s keep the labels consistent.”
“Yessir!”
“Vanguard, advance ten paces. Rearguard, keep the vampires in check. Just keep them from closing in.”

The two stepped forward. Kang Minyeong raised three crossbows with Sync and Telekinesis, and Lee Seongmin shifted his mana into place as well.

“Woof! Woof!”
“Kang Minho, advance five paces, then use Movable Fortress. One second later, Jang Miseon, charge in with Comet Dash.”

Orders given by the second.

Kang Minho walked forward as instructed, then concentrated mana into his shield.

The werewolves charging head-on accelerated past double their speed and, in the blink of an eye, slammed up against Kang Minho.

The attack matched the release of mana and force to perfect timing, and a blue flash surged up from the broad shield to engulf the werewolves.

“Yelp!”

The six werewolves that had charged at the front tumbled across the ground. It wasn’t much damage. Against a foe of the same Stellar Rank, the shock would have been enough to break an arm or a leg, but these werewolves were 3rd Rank, a full rank above Kang Minho.

— Flash—.

A blade wreathed in a gust of wind carved a long trail through the air. Red lines opened across the necks of the werewolves the shockwave had felled, and then.

— Splurch—!

Their heads parted, spraying fountains of blood.

“Grrrr! Woof!”

The werewolves coming up behind accelerated too. Just as they bared their honed fangs at Jang Miseon, still defenseless after her swing.

A gray barrier sprang up before a werewolf whose jaws had gaped wide open, and before it could so much as pull its teeth back, it bit down on the barrier with all its might.

— Crunch—.

— Claaang—!

The barrier threw part of the close-range impact back at them, and the werewolves staggered, their skulls rattled by the shock.

“Human. Not bad.”
“What flavor will that blood be?”

The vampires, who’d been handling the rearguard’s harassment half-heartedly until now, moved in earnest, their flight growing faster and faster. The vanguard, pinned down by the werewolves, had no way to hold them off.

“Lee Seongmin, deploy shields. Kang Minyeong, use Sync and Telekinesis.”
“Y-yessir!”

— Clunk, clunk, clunk.

Several silver-coated shields clattered to the ground, and Kang Minyeong steered the freshly drawn shields with Telekinesis, stacking them into layers.

Spirit-power wreathed the Cursed Fang. A magic spear, strengthened by the Shard of the Void, punched clean through one vampire.

“Guk, geurgh!”
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you wobbling?”

The vampires were 3rd-Rank monsters too. But Yujin’s mana, his holy power, ran far higher than that of an ordinary Magic-line or Priest-line Hunter. And there was more. With his spells boosted further still by the Oak Staff Harboring Lightning, and an excellent medium besides in the Cursed Fang, a nameless vampire was something he could slay in a single blow.

“Kaak! Kill him!”
“I’ll suck every last drop of your blood!”

What met the enraged vampires were shields steered by Sync and Telekinesis, and, timing it just right, Yujin deployed the Negation Shock Shield as well.

— Pow— pa-pa-pow—.

Knocked back by shields held aloft on mere telekinesis, not even by a tanker, the vampires went flying.

— Shhk—!

The Cursed Fangs snuffed out their breath one by one. And the werewolves, too, hemmed in by the two vanguards, by Yujin’s orders, and by the holy spells unfurled in just the right places at just the right moments, could advance no further.

‘This man. Why is he this good at command?!’

Inwardly, Jang Miseon was astounded.