There was a year.

It was just before Jinyoung entered the Academy when his home life had finally normalized. Their adoptive father was starting to spend more time at home and Hana could finally sleep through an entire night.

Jinyoung used to watch his adoptive sister toss about restlessly at night, waiting for the inevitable moment when she awoke in terror. He made sure to be there to comfort her. But ever since their adoptive father started making an effort to be home most nights, she was having an easier time sleeping.

Jinyoung was not.

A curfew had been enacted not long after the break to keep children out of harm’s way at night. Safe zones had been erected and players worked overtime to clear dungeons around these regions. But, as always, sometimes there were worse things than monsters in the dark.

Jinyoung was small for his age. Other thirteen year olds in the neighborhood stood a full-head taller than him. Something that got him teased. Enough so that he had taken to doing push-ups at night on the rooftop of the dilapidated apartment building they all called home.

“What are you doing out?”

Jinyoung whirled around to see Youngho. The older man was still wearing his leather armor from battle. He had taken efforts to return from assignments each night to have dinner with the children. Of course, some nights, like this one, he was late.

“Training,” the boy replied.

Youngho nodded. “Of course.”

A quiet breeze drifted between them while Jinyoung held his breath.

“Well, then,” Youngho said finally. “I’ll let you get back to it-”

“I want to join the Academy… sir.” Jinyoung hesitated. He’d practiced this in his mind for days, but not like this. He needed his guardian’s permission to join the Academy and there could be no exceptions for minors.

Youngho regarded the boy thoughtfully for a moment.

The Academy had its roots as a military training facility. But, since the Break, it had turned into a training center where people could learn about these new abilities they’d unlocked.

“Jinyoung… show me your hands.”

Jinyoung did as he was told, revealing bruised and bloodied knuckles. Some of the teasing had escalated recently.

Youngho nodded his head. It only made sense that the violence of the world would filter down and affect children, too.

“If that’s what you want, but you’re going to need some real training if you’re going to make it in the Academy,” he said. “Put up your hands.”

The boy did as he was told and Youngho raised his hands in response. He was three times as big as the boy and hulked over him.

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“Now hit me.”

If Jinyoung was nervous, he didn’t show it. Instead, he took to the task, coming in swinging. The grizzled fighter moved out of the way deftly, easily predicting each punch and moving quickly out of the way before any of Jinyoung’s punches could make an impact.

“It’s not working, try something different.”

Jinyoung took a moment to think before raising his hands. This time, he changed his footwork, bobbing and weaving to disguise his movement and shift his patterns.

By the time they were done, Jinyoung could barely lift his arms anymore and he was breathing in shallow, ragged breaths.

“What’d you learn today?”

“I learned that you don’t mind toying with someone half your age and a third your size, old man.”

Younho chuckled. “What else?”

Jinyoung closed his eyes and thought back over the past ten minutes. “You’re bigger than me, but you’re also faster than me. You dodged every punch I threw, but I was getting closer at the end.”

The fighter nodded. “That’s right. You were changing your patterns so I had a harder time predicting your punches.”

“But you still dodged them,” Jinyoung retorted.

“I did.”

Youngho watched Jinyoung carefully. The boy was trying to work through the problem and figure out what he was doing wrong. But he was also trying to figure out what he was doing right. He turned again to leave when Jinyoung spoke up again.

“Can… Can we try that again?”

***

[Scan+]

Monster: SIN WRA)TH

Recommended Level: 37

Health: 100%

Attributes: SIN (active), UNDEAD, FROSTBITE (immune)

Weaknesses: ARCANE, FIRE

A very cold chill ran down Jinyoung’s spine.

The [arcane shot] shot past Jinyoung and buried itself in the body of the wraith, center mass. A perfect shot.

Willow took a deep, cold breath. “Move!”

The wraith was only stunned for a few seconds. Precious seconds that Seunghyo used to rush in and pull Hana upright while Jinyoung backed away and took up a position closer to his comrades.

“What’s the plan now, Hana?” Seunghyo asked.

But Hana’s mouth had run dry. Their only advantage was gone and they were back to square one.

No, it was worse than that. Seunghyo was out of arrows, Willow’s mana was depleted, and Hana was exhausted. Kiting wasn’t a possibility anymore and even if it was, they needed to buy time for something. There was no way they would last the 10 bours until it was day again.

“I don’t know…”

“Catch!” Jinyoung shouted.

Hana looked upto see a Fire Stone spinning through the air towards her.

Jinyoung [dashed] in to engage the wraith. Seunghyo didn’t have any skills for close-quarters combat and Willow wouldn’t last 10 seconds under these conditions. That only left him.

Close up, Jinyoung could see that the wraith was standing straighter and it’s body looked more imposing. Whatever ‘sin’ was, it had made the thing stronger and more dangerous.

[Charge+].

The first swing came in from above. Jinyoung dodged easily and the monster’s claws pounded into the ground, throwing up chunks of rubble. He had barely come out of the [dash] when he saw the following up attack: a wide swing from left to right that Jinyoung had to [dash] backwards to avoid.

It’s moving faster, he thought. The swings weren’t as wild and it didn’t look like the thing was leaving itself open at all anymore. Not to mention, each attack was more powerful than the last. There was no way Hana would’ve been able to block these attacks, especially considering how exhausted they all were. They needed to change their strategy.

Without the Fire Stone buried under his layers, the cold was creeping in. He could only hope that Hana knew what to do with it.