“Let me help you out.”

The relief that came over Suho was palpable. It was like his veins were able to relax and run normally now. Although their situation wasn't much better—Kitae could only do so much with a gun, and he was probably quite far away—something about not being alone in the fight was enough for him to tighten his grip on his spear and run towards Yuna.

“I’ll cover you,” Kitae said, his voice loud and clear in Suho’s ears, “so get Yuna out of there.”

Suho was already on it. He leaped across the uneven ground and went straight for her, even as the salamander turned to hiss at him.

He counted down in his head while the distance between them closed, then took a deep breath and held it. As expected, the monster spewed out a huge cloud of noxious gas. Suho ran through it, and—

BANG!

On cue, as the salamander was about to leap at him, a bullet smashed into its eye. It shrieked and cringed back in pain, long enough for Suho to leap over it and reach Yuna.

He scooped her up like a sack of rice and made a break for the trees. The salamander went after him, but it kept getting peppered with bullets. By the way it wasn't changing targets to go after Kitae, Suho’s theory that they were only after the three of them might really hold some water.

“I’m going to lose you if you go into the trees,” Kitae said. “Stay in the clearing if you can.”

Suho’s brow furrowed. That would be difficult. He’d end up going in circles around the frog, the one thing he didn't want to be near.

He glanced over his shoulder. Another bullet pinged against the salamander’s torso from the side. It did damage, but not enough to kill it. Maybe, if he could give Kitae a clear shot…

Suho was in no state to take on a B-rank monster, let alone with Yuna slumped over his shoulder. Kitae couldn't hear him, but he knew he’d be able to understand his intentions. He was always the smart one.

He noted the direction the bullets had been coming from and ran that way, crossing the central clearing. The salamander went after him. And as it neared, gearing up to lunge—

Suho dropped Yuna and turned around just in time to see its jaws snap in his face. He latched his hands onto its lips, one on top and one on the bottom—prying its mouth as wide open as he could with his dwindling strength.

Naturally, it belched out a cloud of poison gas. Suho had held his breath in anticipation for this, but he couldn't stay in this position for long. The seconds passed by agonizingly slowly. He started to question whether or not Kitae understood what he was doing—

BANG.

Blood spurted from the salamander’s mouth and splattered all over his hands as a bullet lodged itself at the back of its throat. The monster screamed and wriggled, but Suho wrapped his legs around its neck and held onto its jaws tight.

“Don’t move.” Kitae’s voice echoed loud and clear.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

More bullets pierced through the salamander’s soft mouth. Blood splashed everywhere, getting in Suho’s face and obscuring his vision. He was on the edge of needing to breathe despite the gas that still surrounded him, the exertion of holding the monster in place taking a toll on his lungs.

“Run after the next one,” Kitae commanded. He wasn't about to argue with that.

He waited for the sound of a gun. The single second that it took was excruciatingly slow.

BANG.

This one rang much louder than the last. And it was obvious why. A huge bullet, more like a grenade, lodged itself into the salamander’s throat. Suho got one glimpse of it and ran. He scooped Yuna up and made for the trees.

The salamander choked and shook its head, trying to dislodge the foreign object. And then—

BOOM.

Its entire head exploded from the inside. Suho slowed down as he saw its body writhe, twitch, and then go still. It turned grey like the one following him had.

He could finally take a breath, heaving to get clean air back into his body. A light rustling came from behind him, and he turned to see Kitae emerging from the woods, rifle under his arm. He must've been up in a tree, as there were pine needles in his hair.

“Hey,” Kitae greeted.

Suho was too tired to reply with words. He nodded back to him. Kitae inspected Yuna, who was limp under his arm, checking for breath. Suho turned his eyes to the frog that still sat in the center of the clearing. The skin under its mouth kept deflating, as if slowly emptying of air. Then he saw movement on the other side of it.

A salamander was still chasing Sunghyun, and he was leading it on a wild goose chase. Unlike Suho, who had gotten hit with the poison gas while off guard, he was still in good physical condition. He seemed to be keeping just enough distance—waiting for something.

“Looks like Yuna’s okay aside from being unconscious,” Kitae remarked. “We should go—”

No sooner had he said that than the frog began to open its mouth. As it inhaled, readying to suck everything in the vicinity in again…

Sunghyun appeared overhead, the salamander still chasing him, and slammed his sword into its neck. It flew downwards like a bullet, straight into the frog’s mouth, clawing for a foothold but unable to find one. It disappeared into the gaping maw. Before he could be sucked in too, miniature magic barriers appeared under his feet, glittering in the dark.

“Air Steps,” he said.

Sunghyun wove down to the ground, using them as footholds. But the last one didn't fully form, and he ended up rolling across the dirt. He wasn't as injured as Suho, but he was running out of energy too.

He looked up sheepishly at Suho and Kitae, but they didn't have time to dwell on the tiny mistake. The wind picked up, blowing towards the frog. Its mouth gaped, starting to suck in everything nearby. They ran deeper into the forest as the trees around them started groaning, roots getting ripped from the ground.

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“Is that salamander going to come back?” Kitae asked.

“No,” Sunghyun replied. “Nothing in its mouth can come back.”

“What do you mean?”

Sunghyun could tell through his Judgement skill. All the cadets that had gotten sucked in weren't actually in its mouth anymore. Their auras had disappeared instantly—they’d been transported somewhere else.

“It has some kind of portal or subspace magic,” he said. “I have a skill, so I can see that nothing’s really in there.”

That made Suho slow down.

“…So none of the kids who were swallowed can be brought back?” he asked.

Kitae raised an eyebrow.

“I guess so,” he replied. “The frog probably has a way, but there's nothing we can do about it.”

“Do the teachers know?”

At first, Sunghyun and Kitae didn't understand what the problem was. But as they thought about it—

Their eyes widened.

“Do the teachers know?!” Suho asked, more panicked this time.

Sunghyun immediately clicked through is watch, trying to call anybody who was on their way. If the teachers coming to deal with the frog didn't realize the kids weren't physically in its stomach—

They might kill the monster and destroy the only way to get their lost students back.

Click. A male instructor picked up his emergency call.

“Sunghyun? What’s going on—”

“You can't kill the frog!” he shouted. “It has hostages—!”

Too late. Something flew over their heads like a comet, raising the hairs on Suho’s arms. Moon Hyuna had arrived, and she was pissed off.

“Burn.”

She flicked her wand, and instantly the frog was engulfed in fire. It roared out in annoyance, but as the flames died away…

Hyuna clicked her tongue. Fire had little to no effect on it. It was classified as a fire-type monster, after all. No matter. She had other ways.

“Magic Missile.”

A crystalline spike of magic formed ahead of her wand. It was a basic, non-elemental magic skill, but she was A-rank. It flew at the frog and exploded in its eye.

The monster screamed out in pain as blood spurted all over its face. As she charged up a second missile—

“Headmaster!”

Her focus was broken by the sound of an urgent voice. She expected to see another instructor who had finally caught up to her, but instead, it was Lee Sunghyun.

“Get out of here right now!” she shouted, anger breaking through her normally cool persona.

“You can’t kill it!” he shouted. “The students aren't inside! They've been teleported elsewhere!”

Her heart dropped. Teleported elsewhere? Someone dared to take her students away from her? Someone dared to intrude on her territory, during her exam, and touch her students?

She felt like her head was burning with rage.

“Magic Missile.”

Several spikes of pure magic power appeared around her and flew towards the frog. It screamed out in pain under the barrage.

“Headmaster, you can't—”

“I know,” she said. “I’ve heard you. Get out of here, now.”

She couldn't kill the frog until she got her students back. But that didn't mean she could let it live peacefully.

“Magic Missile.”

One by one, she pinned down its webbed feet and stumpy legs. Some, it shook off. The monster was so large that it could take a hit. But Hyuna wouldn't let up, even as she felt her magic power reserves straining. She’d gotten here much faster than the other instructors. With the central warp portal commandeered by this monster, they had to come from the next nearest, on a different part of the island. She’d already been using magic to speed her way over.

The frog opened its mouth to try and inhale her. She pointed her wand ahead, and a magic barrier grew from it, blocking the space between them. A vortex formed, sucking in everything it could. She saw dirt, rocks, and even whole trees rocket into its mouth. Luckily, it seemed like Sunghyun and the other kids had taken her word and gotten far enough away to not be affected.

The barrier that was blocking her from joining all that debris started to flex and strain. She gritted her teeth and held her ground, putting more magic power into it.

Finally, the vortex calmed. Its mouth slowly began to shut. Hyuna removed her barrier and started charging up Magic Missile again.

“What the—!”

Something shot out and wrapped around her torso. She looked down in disgust to see the frog’s tongue, dripping with a mucus that burned like acid. It didn't hurt her much, but she could still feel it sting.

It immediately started to pull her in.

“Freeze.”

Ice coated its tongue, shattering its now brittle flesh. She dropped, but was quickly caught again.

“What?”

She looked into the frog’s mouth. It had three tongues. The second crushed her arms against her body, making it hard to struggle.

“Freeze!”

The tongue froze and cracked, loosening around her. But she was half a second too late. She was already over its mouth. Hyuna started falling towards it. She had no time to raise her wand and cast a high-level barrier between her and the frog’s third tongue, which was coming at her.

That’s when she heard shouting.

“Suho!”

“You can't—”

Bang.

A heavy weight crashed into her from the side, sending her off course. Hyuna barely had an instant to register Lim Suho pushing her out of the way. She had never seen a student that beat up. Gashes littered his body, his arms so shredded by the salamanders that they seemed like more blood than person.

“Sorry,” he said.

He had a weird look on his face. Despite how strongly he had acted, all she could see in his eyes was uncertainty—like he wasn't sure he even wanted to do this. And she thought for a moment that it didn't feel like he was apologizing to her. Maybe he was saying something to himself.

Suho was jerked away from her as the third tongue wrapped around waist and pulled him into the frog’s mouth. He disappeared between its teeth. Hyuna reached out and tried to cast magic as she fell to the ground, but he was long gone.

“Fuck!” Sunghyun shouted, arms full with an unconscious Yuna, being dragged back towards the forest by Kitae. “Why the fuck would he do that?!”

“Sunghyun, we have to go!”

The two of them had clearly tried to stop Suho, to no avail. Hyuna’s mind was racing. She knew that Suho was a kid who often helped others, but this was different. This was stupidly reckless. Why had he…

She had no time to think about it. The frog opened its mouth, ready to inhale again. Hyuna rose to her feet, feeling the wind rising as a vortex began to form. A cold, sarcastic smile graced her face. She’d been angry since the moment she heard about this intrusion on her exam. But she had reached a level of rage now that she didn't know she could achieve.

“Send out an alert to the teachers,” she commanded, her watch automatically activating. “If they don’t get here right now, I’m going to string them up right next to this frog bastard when I’m done with them.”

She was by far the strongest of the faculty present at the exam, which is why she had gotten here first. In reality, probably less than half a minute of battle had elapsed. The others weren't that far off, and they were trying their best to catch up. But all that logic escaped her in this moment.

“I’m going to tear this bitch to pieces and put its fucking tongue on my mantle.”

The grin that spread across her face could scare anyone.

“Hurry up if you don't want your head there too.”

Hyuna raised her wand and gathered her magic power. She was going to get her students back, and she was going to see this monster die today—no matter what.

“Magic Missile.”

image [https://i.imgur.com/ca9mF65.jpeg]