“What’s taking so long?”

“This is why we must support the decision of Maorga Inc. to implement an S-rank mana into the AIs.”

“Otherwise, how can we wait for a stronger team whenever an Upsurge happens?”

“I agree. What's the point of having ten Slayers here? And they say this team would be enough to take one cyclops down. They dare to lie…”

“Everyone, for your own safety, please leave this area!”

“Officer, I live here!”

“And my house is right behind that monster! Why should we…”

“Look out!”

A huge debris, which was part of the main road, is thrown by the cyclops as it uses the rock as an attack move against a hastily-made team of ten Slayers. The civilians, who are obviously Nons, are standing behind a police-style barricade until they've to duck themselves right when the debris hurls at them. It flies over their heads, immediately landing and crushing on one of the police cars parked at the Upsurge Zone.

It's almost 6.30 a.m., and the cyclops is still rampant in the suburban street for the last thirty minutes. Several rows of houses have been destroyed by the cyclops. It's only a matter of time before the strongest E-rank Beast will cause human casualties if it walks out of this area and into a nearby town.

Despite the policeman's warning for them to leave immediately, many of the Nons stubbornly stay at the scene. It's not even helping that half of them are nosy teenagers recording the battle scene on their smartphones. It's unfortunate that five F-rank Slayers of the fighter class and three E-rank Slayers of the healer class are still not enough to take down a cyclops. Another member, who's obviously the leader judging by the way she talks with all of the team’s members, is an E-rank sorceress. It's another fact that she's the oldest member of the team; looking around the same age as Ms Han Bok-shil who is of the adventurer subclass.

“All of you, get a hold of yourselves! Archer guy! Who says you can stop shooting!?”

“But, ma’am…the cyclops has put a strong defensive barrier around itself…”

“And that's why we must keep attacking! Don't worry about your mana getting depleted too fast! The healers here will restore it back!”

“But…”

“Hey, y’all! Those two Slayers look familiar!!”

“They’re the most famous B-rank Slayers!!”

One of the team members is right in identifying Hong Ki-joon of the tanker subclass and his childhood friend, Lee Hong-ran of the mage subclass; her subgroup being of an illusionist. In their appropriate battle outfits, they finally make their way across the barricade to which one of the policemen moves one part of it for their sudden entrance. With her reddish-brown eyes seen widening through her large round glasses, the illusionist is glad that she and Hong Ki-joon have arrived just in time to give assistance to the team.

It's been a while since she encountered an Upsurge. She actually planned to take a one-year break from participating in the raids, especially since the missing nine S-rank Slayers are yet to be found. It's not a very high rank, but a B-rank Slayer is capable of artificially making a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

Of course that’s only possible if you are of the elementalist subgroup. But unlike Mrs Park Sang-mi who can only camouflage herself from anyone’s sight, Lee Hong-ran can put on the illusion of a stronger being. That's what she's about to do with the cyclops so that she can help the team catch it off guard, creating a good opening for the team’s offensive skills. Her red-and-black cloak enables her to activate a defensive barrier, since casting illusions take out the most of her mana output, that's been implemented in the outfit.

However, as she's almost halfway in reciting her incantation, she suddenly gets pushed off by one of the healers who almost looks similar to Hong Ki-joon’s physical appearance. Her glasses nearly drop from her face when she falls down to her right side. The B-rank tanker looks shocked at seeing his childhood friend getting treated like that out of nowhere.

“Hey! What do you think you're doing!?”

“Stay out of this, you leech! We don't need your help, you know! Just because you're more powerful than us, that doesn't mean you can take away our living expenses!”

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“What…How can you say that in this situation we’re in right now!?”

“I’m not wrong, am I?! The fact you two are still lapdogs to those self-serving S-rank leaders. I hope Professor Kim takes away your bosses’ powers for fairness sake!”

“How dare you! You don't know anything…”

“Hey, you two!,” the E-rank sorceress scolds them right after she casts a binding spell that has metal chains formed to hold the cyclops’ feet to the ground. “Now it's not the time for arguments! The cyclops is gonna overpower us!”

Indeed, the lower-ranked Slayers are being outmatched by the one-eyed beast as it gives an earthquake-like stomp that has almost everyone in the area falling backwards. The sorceress’ binding spell gets broken from its powerful stomp. It looks like the civilians are starting to feel the actual danger they're in. However, that’s not enough to scare the foolish teenagers who keep on disobeying the policeman's orders to stop their video recordings.

Hong Ki-joon takes a deep breath, calming down his justified anger. He loudly tells the rest of the team that he'll distract the cyclops with his Provoking Skill for at least five seconds. His leadership skills are visibly displayed given that he's actually chosen as the co-leader of Moohan Guild instead of Chun Sun-woo who obviously can channel more mana output than Hong Ki-joon. Even after witnessing how the F-ranks of the fighter class are unable to injure the cyclops, the same healer stops Hong Ki-joon who gets too distracted by him that the B-rank can't activate a tanker’s skill properly.

“Get lost! We don't need your help! We've got a high-ranked tanker who isn't as greedy as you lot! Hey, C-rank! Distract the beast!”

Despite telling the truth about high-ranked Slayers taking livelihoods from doing low-ranked raids that's meant for low-ranked Slayers, the E-rank healer sounds disrespectful to the C-rank tanker whose face is covered with a medieval-like helmet. At first, it looks like the tanker is staring into blank space as if he's losing hope in defeating this cyclops.

“Hey, C-rank! Don't just stand there!”

“Oh!...Sorry…”

The C-rank tanker, with his body position and his iron shield adjusted in a defensive stance, activates his own Provoking Skill. The cyclops pays its full attention to him. This act manages to have the team’s other Slayers get enough time to compose themselves and get their mana replenishment from the three healers. What they don't know is that the C-rank tanker was discharged from a hospital a few days ago. Not to mention, he’s one of the surviving members of the Painting Labyrinth’s ruthless massacre.

A few seconds staring at the cyclops, which proceeds to keep on punching his shield, has the C-rank tanker suddenly remember his memories of that scary Labyrinth. He’s experiencing PTSD now that his Provoking Skill has been manually deactivated. His skill’s aura vanishes which is noticeable to the other Slayers who are just starting to get into proper positions for their offensive skills respectively. Hong Ki-joon and Lee Hong-ran, who got herself standing up already, notice the tanker, despite wearing a covered helmet, is emotionally troubled. The tanker’s trembling body being an obvious sign of a Slayer experiencing PTSD.

“Please let us help! That tanker isn't in his best condition.”

“You really like to find excuses, B-rank leech!”

“Look here! Slayer Hong and I are here to help! We're not even gonna take away anyone's income from this raid!”

“I don't trust you high-ranked Slayers who keep on looking down on us!”

Teamwork is out of the question as both the B-rank and other lower-ranked Slayers keep on exchanging harsh words to each other. Only the E-rank sorceress is able to be level-headed, and lead a few Slayers to keep on attacking the cyclops. Before she can say anything to resolve the heated argument, she hears a little girl crying out to her mother. And the mother is herself. She quickly turns around to see her very young daughter running towards her with teary eyes. It's not surprising to see a small kid able to get through the physical barricade, seeing how she can crawl through the space between.

“Mama! Don't leave me!!”

“Sweetie, get back!”

The cyclops stomps one more time. The ground shakes more violently than the earlier one. Bigger and wider cracks form on the roads. The little girl trips over one of the bulging cracks which lead to her falling down, scraping both her knees badly and her face winces from the overwhelming pain she's feeling now. The cyclops proceed to prowl towards the little girl, ignoring the adult Slayers who lose their balance again from its stomping.

While Hong Ki-joon quickly helps the little girl to get up and hold on to him, the E-rank sorceress uses a spell that shoots out a flame ball onto the cyclops' left ear. It doesn't leave a burnt mark for the beast still activates its defensive barrier around itself.

It looks pissed off seeing how it proceeds to quickly swat the sorceress with its left arm. She gets injured badly with her whole body slamming to the ground. She coughs a large amount of blood while trying to get up with all her might.

Hong Ki-joon wants to go and save her, but he can't let go of the little girl, knowing the cyclops will grab her if left alone. He turns to see Lee Hong-ran who has a panicked look, not knowing how to save the sorceress on time.

Darn it! By the time I finish my incantation, it'll kill her with its foot! I should've gotten one of the Bottled Beasts when Slayer Seo was here yesterday! Now…I can't do any…

Her hearing is muffled, not hearing what Hong Ki-joon is saying to her though she can hear the little girl wailing ‘Mama’ as the cyclops is about to crush the sorceress with its foot. Suddenly, and miraculously, something crashes into the cyclops' only eye. The beast yowls as its eye bleeds an excessive amount of brownish-gray liquid. The sorceress notices that there's no aura of its defensive barrier. She commands any Slayer to use every offensive skill they've got on the disoriented cyclops.

They proceed to continuously and simultaneously attack with their respective weapons. Their mana output altogether may not be the same amount as the two B-rank Slayers, but it's enough to finally kill the cyclops after several seconds. The beast’s bloodied body falls down forward. Everyone in the area starts cheering over the raid team’s victory in killing the strongest E-rank Beast with success. Everyone except Lee Hong-ran who looks baffled by the sudden deactivation of the cyclops’ defensive barrier.

While hugging each other, the little girl and the sorceress receive healing magic from all three healers. As the crowd expresses gladness that the Upsurge is finally over, Lee Hong-ran looks around to see what finally injured the cyclops. Then, she sees a half-broken shield, which eventually splits itself into two quarters. She speculates it's thrown by another tanker-type Slayer who happens to be at the standing crowd. But then, she can sense what kind of aura the shield is emitting for she possesses the copying skill an illusionist of her rank has and implements into images of her illusions.

Finally, she knows what kind of Slayer who's able to throw that shield accurately. It's not a tanker who did it. The remnants of the shield’s mana output belong to a Slayer of the healer class. Now that doesn't make any sense since it's an unchangeable law that healers can't channel their mana output onto any weaponised object; shields included. She turns to the crowd still standing behind the barricade, looking for whoever looks disinterested in the current scene she's in.

“Did anyone see a healer-type Slayer among you?”

The front row of people, which has some teenagers amongst them, shake their heads or shrug their shoulders. Nobody knows what Lee Hong-ran is asking about. Alas, she stares into blank space, feeling speechless for the first time. She wonders doubtfully if from now on, healers are able to channel their mana output on any other besides a defensive barrier of their own.

Meanwhile, the C-rank tanker also notices what the B-rank illusionist has seen. The two-quartered broken shield looks familiar to him. Upon a closer look, he sees the initial “PJH” on one of the quarters’ sides. He lets out a surprising gasp. He immediately takes off his helmet, revealing himself as Park Jung-han, who's currently the strongest C-rank tanker. Then, he catches a glimpse of a young woman dressed in a black sleeveless shirt and pink shorts. The color of her pixie hairstyle is light brown, and when she vanishes around a nearby building’s corner, Park Jung-han utters a name which belongs to someone whom he has unrequited love with, and that someone being the one he abandoned at the Painting Labyrinth.

“Joo-yeon…”