We’re cornered! There are too many Frostbitten out here, sunbae!
Jinyoung and Hana moved quickly with Youngho trailing behind. Without any monsters to fight, all they could do was pump their legs and keep communicating with Willow. It was its own state of hell being unable to do anything.
How many are up there? Jinyoung asked.
There was a pause that made Hana hold her breath.
At least seventy, we take them down but there’s more. Too many for us to deal with!
image [https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/119064398/4740dae6dc7d478baefbb186b329f00e/eyJ3Ijo4MjB9/1.jpg?token-time=1737504000&token-hash=rJW7TjkSit30Y3mzgQe2bOZBrzJfHezcU-4nmbyLFQY%3D]
***
“[Arcane bolt]!”
Willow’s aim was off and the spell struck the man in the shoulder with enough force to knock him down. But it was only a second before the man was back up and charging forward with ghastly white eyes.
Seunghyo’s aim, on the other hand, was perfect.
Each thwip was followed by a sizzling pop as the arrows found them marks before exploding and killing their targets. But there weren’t enough arrows in the world to help them defeat the army of frozen undead that was rushing them.
“I’m out!” Seunghyo called out.
The short sword came out and he immediately put it to use cutting down a Frostbitten before immediately jumping back and moving into a run. Willow scrambled up a small mountain of rubble with Seunghyo right behind her. The Frostbitten were fast, but they weren’t coordinated. For every one that made it up the rubble, another two slid down behind them.
Willow reached the peach first and turned around to immediately let off a volley of spells. Bursts of flame, ice and electricity flew over Seunghyo’s head. He could only guess at how close the monsters were behind him. One or two errant bursts of energy sparked against his skin, but he preferred that to a cold dead hand grabbing him by the ankle.
He made it to the peak and checked that the other side was clear before shouting, “Move!”
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The two slid down the other end before landing in a cloud of dust and continuing their run.
It hadn’t escaped Seunghyo’s mind that there had to be a cause to their troubles. There was only one person who was capable of this level of chaos and destruction. Only one person who would sacrifice their entire party as well as the population of a small town in order to complete his own goals.
Henry! Where the goddamned hell are you?!
There was no response, but he hadn’t expected one. The Frenchman had been only too happy to sit back and let Seunghyo and his team take on the sin wraith over a week ago and even now, all Henry had done was herd them to this point.
Willow looked at him with clear panic written on her face. “Where are we going?”
The city was in ruins and there weren’t any suitable structures to defend themselves from. The only structure left standing was the shopping mall that he’d led Hana and her party two days earlier.
“There,” he pointed. “If we’re lucky, the survivors who were gathered there have put together some sort of a defense.”
“And if we’re not?”
Seunghyo didn’t want to respond. Neither of them were effective at close range and Seunghyo’s skills with a sword had their limits. If they were overwhelmed now, then…
“We’ll have to worry about that later,” he said. “Start running.”
***
Hana and Jinyoung were sprinting beyond their means. The cold air in their lungs was painful, but it was nothing compared to how they would feel if they didn’t make it up in time to help Willow and Seunghyo.
The corridor was long and endless and they’d been running for miles. The only branching exits had been exhaust vents which were too small for a person to fit through or passages which were fully collapsed. The only part of the structure that had been reinforced was the long corridor they were running through.
Sunbae, we’re heading to the shopping mall that Seunghyo took us to earlier.
“If the clan chat is working, we can’t be too far from them,” Jinyoung huffed between breaths.
And he was right. The clan chat only had a range of a few hundred meters. And that would be much less with the presence of a sin monster nearby. The fact that they could still communicate with Willow was the only good news they’d had so far.
“Dad, keep up!”
Youngho had a harder time keeping up with the others. At the ripe age of 56, he hadn’t kept up with his cardio. Of course, as a close range fighter, he hadn’t needed to. Most of the monsters he fought came to him.
He thought to grumble back, but he was breathless enough that he didn’t have the strength for it. He just waved weakly and did his best to continue running.
“They’re headed back to mall, which means we need to get out and get back to the silo where-”
Hana stopped speaking and skidded to a stop. Her words caught in her throat. The corridor had been getting slightly brighter which had given her hope. Maybe they were close to an exit or a window. Just something that they could use to get back outside.
But the light had come from the gap in the shield doors above their heads, shining a light on the twisted and bent steel of the catwalks. From this view, she could see that it was indeed a massive launch pad for satellites or missiles. Something from the old world.
But it also meant they had circled around to end up back where they started.