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“Hey! The monsters’ eyes are turning that way—!”
“The provoke effect should be ending soon! Hurry—!”
KRAAA……!
“Damn it, what kind of roar skill power is that……!”
Far ahead, at the point where the dungeon had exploded, combat-type Awakened were moving frantically.
‘So the goal isn’t killing them yet—just keeping them contained?’
Hyeonseong read the situation immediately.
The Awakened at the front were spamming skills that were good at binding monsters in place. It seemed like manpower was too thin to pick them off one by one.
‘Makes sense. Better to hold them than to half-heartedly try to hunt and let some slip out. If they keep them pinned, it’s easier to sweep them later by concentrating firepower.’
Next, Hyeonseong examined the Sinwol Guild members who had come with Geum Seoa.
‘Judging by the weapons, there are two mages at least.’
Two guild members were holding magic staves. But they didn’t look like the kind of mages who could wipe out the mass of monsters currently tied down in one shot.
‘Their gear is the kind C- or B-rank mages usually use. And the team composition is clearly centered around Geum Seoa.’
Besides the two mages, there were three warriors using shields and heavy weapons, two swordsmen carrying longswords, and one supporter who looked like a healer-buffer hybrid.
‘No one here uses a bow or gun. That means ranged DPS has to be handled by the lancer and the mages, but…….’
Hyeonseong recalled Geum Seoa taking down the high-flying raptor chimera earlier.
From that alone, it was obvious Geum Seoa was the primary damage dealer in this squad. The others were likely there to clear stragglers or buy Geum Seoa time to ramp up damage.
‘……Which means those two mages probably can’t delete that swarm—average B to A—by themselves.’
This was a solid comp for one strong target or a small number of tough enemies, but in a situation like this it had clear limitations.
‘Then we should help them keep the monsters pinned rather than focusing on killing.’
Soon, Hyeonseong and Geum Seoa’s group stepped into the battle zone. Geum Seoa scanned the scene for a moment, then ran up to someone.
“Ha Seongchan!”
“Senior Geum Seoa?”
The rifleman called Ha Seongchan turned his head.
“Cleanup finished?”
“Yes.”
“Fast, as always.”
As he answered, Ha Seongchan turned his gaze forward again. He chambered a round in his rifle and fired into the sky.
KAEAEK……!
A bird-type chimera that had tried to flee beyond the encirclement screamed and pulled back.
“You know what’s going on, right?”
Ha Seongchan asked without taking his eyes off the monsters.
“Roughly. Should we split, or move together?”
“Sinwol should move as one.”
To Geum Seoa’s question, Ha Seongchan answered that Sinwol Guild members should stay clustered.
‘Right. There’s no unified commander on-site.’
Hyeonseong looked over the battlefield again.
Teams holding the monsters in place were moving autonomously, grouped by guild or team. There was no single command tower coordinating everyone.
‘If this were a random pickup raid, they’d usually pick a leader based on rank and reputation…… but everyone I recognized at a glance was A-rank.’
If there had been only one A-rank here, that person would have naturally taken command. But there were at least four A-ranks on-site, including Geum Seoa.
And their public profiles were similar in weight—meaning no one could easily pull rank and seize authority.
‘Even if someone tried, they’d just get, “Who are you to step up?” thrown at them.’
Even with a dungeon exploding, getting unity was still hard. Hyeonseong found it almost ridiculous.
“Then give the order to adjust formation.”
“Got it. But…….”
Ha Seongchan turned again—this time looking at Hyeonseong.
“If I’m not mistaken, that’s Ye Hyeonseong…….”
He frowned, clearly wondering why a non-guild member was with them.
“She agreed to move with us. Explanations later—issue orders first.”
“If you’re going to slot Ye Hyeonseong in as a combatant, I need her position. Don’t tell me she’s going frontline—”
Ha Seongchan’s gaze dropped to Hyeonseong’s pickaxe. The reluctant look made his thoughts obvious.
“Count me as rear-line special support. This is just a self-defense weapon.”
Hyeonseong replied flatly. She raised the pickaxe as if daring him to say more, which only made his expression more doubtful.
“……Special support doing what, exactly?”
Before “Have you never seen a pickaxe before?” could leave Hyeonseong’s mouth, Ha Seongchan asked.
“Like this.”
Hyeonseong opened Infinite Corridor above the heads of the front-line fighters.
GUWOONG—
KUDANGTANG!
At that exact timing, a chimera that had leapt over the fighters’ heads bounced off Infinite Corridor and dropped back into place.
“Understood. Then we’ll carve out space for you at the far rear.”
After witnessing it, Ha Seongchan finally answered with an expression of acceptance.
‘Convincing people every time is a job in itself.’
Watching Ha Seongchan and Geum Seoa issue directions to the Sinwol Guild members, Hyeonseong clicked her tongue.
Outside the Mankkeomju Guild, she still got treated like a pack mule more often than not, so people frequently reacted like Ha Seongchan whenever she said she’d fight.
‘If it were Song Jiwoo instead……’
The Hyeonghok Guildmaster—who’d chased an S-rank chimera—would’ve probably assigned her as a combatant without a word.
‘…No. Actually. That guy is still a bit much.’
“Alright—same as before, keep it going!”
Once the formation was adjusted, Ha Seongchan shouted. The battle continued—focused on keeping the chimeras pinned in one place.
“Left! Three of them are turning their heads outward!”
“It’s my turn to use the skill—!”
“Don’t obsess over kills! Right now it’s not that—!”
Ha Seongchan kept issuing instructions to Sinwol’s members. Geum Seoa occasionally tossed in one or two short advisories. It looked like Ha Seongchan—who’d already been holding the line—was taking primary command.
“Ah—!”
“Watch your head!”
Two chimeras broke through the taunt and binding cycle again and tried to bolt.
“The four-legged ones are mine!”
Geum Seoa, positioned mid-formation, set up a throwing stance. That meant the bird-type chimera was Hyeonseong’s responsibility.
PEOEONG!
THUD—
With a slicing rush of air, the quadrupedal chimera took a fatal blow and collapsed.
The bird-type chimera was blocked by Infinite Corridor in midair and was forced back into the encirclement.
“Focus!”
“Then the one Team Leader Geum threw just now—”
“I told you not to obsess over kills.”
Geum Seoa scolded a Sinwol guild member who was showing a little too much hunger for a kill.
“Still, that’s kind of a waste—”
“The most important thing is keeping the formation. We can’t break the formation and our rotation pattern just to secure one kill.”
Ha Seongchan answered, sounding like he was advising them, while squeezing the trigger at another chimera trying to slip out.
“Are the mages still not ready?”
Hyeonseong asked Ha Seongchan.
“Looks like they still haven’t agreed on the method.”
Ha Seongchan frowned, pressing his fingertip against the comms device in his ear.
‘He’s doing this again.’
Hyeonseong frowned at the Constellation that was always hunting for a chance to stir people up.
“So what exactly are they arguing about?”
Hyeonseong asked Ha Seongchan again.
“What’s being argued is obvious…… but why are you curious about it, Ye Hyeonseong?”
Ha Seongchan had been about to answer automatically, then he changed direction and glared at her.
“Can’t I ask?”
“Well, that’s—”
He trailed off.
“……Ahem. Anyway, it’s not your place to butt in. Do you think this is the Ten Thousand Swords Guild?”
Ha Seongchan continued. It was the classic response of someone with nothing solid to say.
“Sure. If you say so.”
Hyeonseong replied in a flat voice. It wasn’t surprising.
‘They probably already agreed to split the spoils among the local guilds, so they don’t want outsiders interfering.’
At that point, Hyeonseong lost interest in pressing him. But her questions about the overall situation didn’t go away.
‘Even if the broad flow is predictable, the details always vary by situation.’
Hyeonseong’s eyes swept the surroundings fast. Drones deployed for situational awareness were visible all over this field too.
‘Is there a quiet way to “borrow” one?’
Strictly speaking, there was a way—but it wasn’t realistic to execute right now.
‘In the middle of all this, I can’t exactly start a summoning ritual for a spirit.’
And right after having that conversation with Ha Seongchan, summoning the Spirit of the Cybermind would look suspicious even to Hyeonseong herself.
‘It’d scream, “I’m about to hack your drone.”’
For now, she decided to suppress her desire to track the opposite side’s battle.
‘Even if something goes wrong, they can clean it up themselves. They’re moving in synced teams that already have chemistry.’
Hyeonseong unfolded Infinite Corridor in front of a chimera trying to vault over the raid team again.
“Uh……!”
It was right as Hyeonseong ignored the Constellations’ bickering and focused on the fight.
From the position of a different guild raid team—not Sinwol—an alarmed voice burst out.
“Block it!”
“T-That idiot—!”
“This isn’t the time to curse—!”
One panicked shout after another followed. At the same time, the monsters all turned their heads toward the right diagonal.
Hyeonseong understood immediately.
‘Someone got greedy and punched a hole in the line.’
“What is it?”
“Isn’t that where the people from Woojae are?”
Even Sinwol’s members started to sound alarmed.
“What are you doing! Re-capture them!”
Geum Seoa shouted, raising her spear. Some of the monsters turned their heads back toward Sinwol.
‘She used a taunt-type skill.’
“Focus! We have to hold them here so they can stabilize over there!”
Ha Seongchan shouted too, then fired a shot into a chimera to pull its attention back.
“What about the mages?”
“Can’t they just wipe them now?”
Sinwol’s members asked in anxious voices.
“I’ll check.”
Ha Seongchan tapped his comm device. He listened for a moment—then his frown deepened sharply.
“……Shove them to center as much as you can, then switch to defense.”
That was the next order from Ha Seongchan.
“Switch to defense, meaning—”
“Meaning: prep every wide-area barrier skill and every defense buff you can use. Now!”
Ha Seongchan barked, urgency in his voice.
“Y-Yes!”
Sinwol’s members responded, preparing skills aligned with the order.
“Ye Hyeonseong, you—”
Right as Ha Seongchan tried to say something, Hyeonseong asked first.
“So they decided on indiscriminate bombardment, right? All mages.”
‘With that reaction, it’s obvious.’
She could easily guess what the mages from the various guilds had planned. Some would be assigned to protect the raid team, while the rest would drop wide-area, high-output spells over this entire zone.
‘That’s the standard strategy for mass-clearing a large number of strong monsters. The problem is mages usually hate being assigned to defense.’
Of course they did. Everyone wanted an easy way to earn merit and look good—not a role that barely shows and takes all the blame if something goes wrong.
In this kind of bombardment plan, the barrier/buff mages were the ones getting the short end of the stick.
‘They probably argued about that, then dumped defense into “self-responsibility.”’
“……Correct.”
Ha Seongchan answered in an unwilling tone.
“What elements and spell forms are they using?”
Hyeonseong asked while checking her item list in the compartment where she kept consumables.
“Not just one—”
“Don’t be so vague.”
“……Fire, rock, metal, lightning, and non-elemental. As for the exact forms, even I don’t know for sure—”
Somewhere between his words, it sounded like teeth grinding. Hyeonseong decided to pretend she hadn’t heard it.
“If they’re bombing a scene like this, the shapes are pretty predictable.”
Hyeonseong pulled out buff potions that boosted base defense and fire resistance.
“And if that’s what they’re using, then my skill will be ‘a little’ helpful too.”
She put deliberate emphasis on the word “little.”
“So you’re saying you’re staying here?”
Ha Seongchan frowned.
“Having even one more person who can provide defense is better, right?”
Hyeonseong finished speaking and downed the potions in one gulp.
The buffs applied immediately.
‘How much money did I just evaporate with those…….’
The prices she’d paid Hyeonju for buff potions flashed through her mind. Hyeonseong forced herself to ignore it.
“So—are they still not ready to fire? It should be falling any second now.”
Watching barrier skills unfurl overhead, Hyeonseong asked.
By now, even fairly strong wide-area bombardment spells should’ve finished casting. The monsters had been pushed inward as far as they could be—so it was time for the strike.
“We just got the message. Alright—use every defensive skill you’ve got!”
Ha Seongchan ordered Sinwol’s members. Immediately, additional barriers and defense buffs activated. The area buffs affected Hyeonseong as well.
‘Then I should open mine too.’
Hyeonseong spread Infinite Corridor widely above the heads of the Sinwol front line.
“It’s coming!”
The moment all skills were up, Ha Seongchan shouted.
And right after that—beyond the barrier—scarlet and yellow light flashed across the sky.
KWAAAAAANG——!
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