Chapter 18 : Rampage (5)

“This is unsettling.”

At Yuaan’s small murmur, Hyunwoo nodded. To prepare for any unforeseen circumstances, he focused all his attention on Jisung. An Esper’s body was sturdy, so it could simply shrug off most attacks. But Jisung was different. He was an ordinary person. Even a small injury could be dangerous.

Hyunwoo, on higher alert than usual, caught a grating sound in his ears. It was a sound so faint that even an Esper’s hearing would have missed it if not for intense focus. Hyunwoo’s brow furrowed. He stopped in his tracks, and Yuaan looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Hyunwoo?”

“Hyung, don’t you hear that sound?”

“Huh?”

At Hyunwoo’s words, Yuaan focused all his attention on his hearing, just like him. Then he heard a very small sound. It was repeating at a constant rhythm.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

“What’s going on?”

Minseong asked with a questioning face at the two men’s actions. But Hyunwoo, instead of answering his question, searched for the source of the sound.

Tick, tick, tick…

Hyunwoo, taking one step at a time, finally looked up. The faint sound became clearer as he approached the building.

“Hyunwoo, this sounds like a machine.”

It kept making a sound repeatedly without missing a beat. This was impossible unless it was a machine. Hyunwoo and Yuaan’s eyes met. A machine sound coming from the reported location. And it was so faint that even an S-Rank Esper could easily miss it…

The two of them, as if by agreement, ran towards the same place at once. Jisung, who was in the car, turned his head. His brown eyes met Hyunwoo’s. Hyunwoo stopped him as he was about to get out of the car.

“Don’t get out!”

“Huh?”

At that moment, the faint sound that had been ringing stopped. Hyunwoo’s eyes widened. He bit his lip hard and closed the distance to Jisung in one go. He wrapped Jisung in his arms and immediately levitated the entire car into the air. Soon after, a huge explosion erupted on the ground. The force was much greater than expected. The aftershock reached even the sky.

It was a very close call. If he had hesitated for even a moment, Jisung and Sunwoo might have been caught in that explosion and lost their lives.

“So it really was a trap?”

Yuaan looked down at the ground from the roof of the car. Black smoke engulfed the surrounding area. Frowning, he then checked inside the car.

“I’m okay.”

“Okay.”

Yuaan nodded in relief at Sunwoo’s words.

“What about the others…?”

Jisung, held in Hyunwoo’s arms, asked in a tense voice at the sight behind his back.

“We were able to rescue the Guides who were waiting in the other cars.”

Hyunwoo’s finger pointed to another car floating in the air. The Guides inside the car checked the situation with stunned expressions.

“We didn’t have the luxury to take care of anyone else.”

The explosion occurred just a few seconds after they realized the ticking sound was a bomb. It could be said that the timing was good, but it was as if someone had been watching the situation and pressed the switch for the bomb. But there was no sign of terrorists nearby.

“Should I turn it upside down?”

Hyunwoo’s eyes narrowed. If they were hiding their presence with their abilities and watching their movements, they couldn’t be too far away. Then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to turn the whole area upside down with his ability.

“To do that, I need to move them first.”

Hyunwoo looked down at the ground where the smoke was clearing. His brow furrowed at the more devastating sight than expected.

“Are they… dead?”

Hyunwoo felt a hand grip his collar tightly and turned his gaze. A delicate hand was trembling pitifully. He looked up at Jisung’s face. Jisung’s eyes were filled with terror. Hyunwoo hugged Jisung’s shoulder and replied.

“It’s okay, they’re Espers. They’re hurt, but they’ll be fine.”

It was a lie. No matter how much stronger an Esper was than an ordinary person, there was no way they could be unscathed after being exposed to an explosion of that magnitude. If they were lucky, they might still be breathing, but if not, probably…

“Ugh.”

Jisung clenched his fists. It was the third time. Seeing such a devastating sight. He couldn’t get used to it no matter how many times he saw it. His heart pounded anxiously, and his body trembled with fear. Hyunwoo squeezed the hand on his shoulder to somehow reassure him.

Jisung squeezed his eyes shut. He took a slow, deep breath to regulate his irregular breathing. Nevertheless, his body’s trembling did not stop. It was a physiological phenomenon, so there was nothing he could do.

‘Stay calm.’

If he just trembled in fear, he would be a burden to Hyunwoo, not a help. Jisung, who had slowly opened his eyes, squeezed Hyunwoo’s hand. At that, Hyunwoo’s eyes widened. Jisung asked him, who was looking at him with a surprised face.

“Are there enemies nearby?”

“I don’t feel any presence. But they must be hiding.”

Jisung nodded. It was a golden opportunity to take out more than half of the Center’s Espers without much effort. The enemies would not miss such a golden opportunity.

“Can you find them?”

“I’ll try. To do that, I need to move the injured to another place first. They could get caught up in it.”

“Does the Center have a teleporter or something?”

“No, unfortunately.”

Jisung gave a bitter smile at Hyunwoo’s answer.

“Moving them to the Center would be the safest…”

“There’s no choice. I’ll have to narrow the range of my ability and move them to a place a little further away.”

“Is there a way to find them?”

“I’ll wipe out this whole area.”

“Pardon?”

Hyunwoo smiled brightly. He was serious. Jisung was momentarily reminded of the Center Director’s words to minimize the damage.

‘I can already vividly imagine the Center Director wailing.’

Of course, Jisung had no intention of stopping Hyunwoo. In the current situation, Hyunwoo was the fastest and most accurate judge. He had experienced such things countless times since he was a child.

Hyunwoo moved the injured to a grassy area far from the scene. And he also placed the car carrying the Guides next to them.

“Give them first aid and increase their self-healing ability as much as possible with guiding.”

‘Then the chances of survival will increase.’

Hyunwoo swallowed the rest of his words. He looked at Jisung next to him.

“What should we do?”

“Hyung and Sunwoo, you wait here with Yuaan-hyung.”

“…Alright.”

Hyunwoo met Yuaan’s eyes. ‘I’m counting on you, Hyung.’ Yuaan replied with a nod. Hyunwoo floated back into the air. Then he approached the building where the explosion had occurred. It seemed there was no secondary explosion, as the ticking sound from before was gone.

Hyunwoo drew upon his power. At that, debris from the building floated around him.

“Is he going to shoot them like cannonballs like last time?”

“Probably, more than that…”

Yuaan trailed off at Jisung’s question.

The fragments that had risen into the air began to spin in a circle like a top. It gradually gained speed and soon created a fierce whirlwind. “Wow,” a short exclamation of admiration came from Jisung’s mouth.

“It’s a tornado…”

It was a sight rarely seen in their country. The tornado tore through the entire area around the building. Where the tornado created by telekinesis passed, only wasteland remained. ‘If you get hit by that once, you won’t even have your bones left.’

Crash! KABOOM!

A gruesome sound echoed. Even though there was quite a distance, the aftermath of the wind could be felt.

“But, what if there are no terrorists? He made quite a spectacular mess.”

“If there aren’t any, that’s even better. We won’t have to fight. But unfortunately, that’s unlikely. Because…”

Clang!

Jisung’s eyes widened. A broken piece of iron fell to the ground in front of him. A man who had suddenly appeared in front of Jisung checked the broken weapon, then shrugged and smiled.

“I didn’t expect it to succeed, but it’s annoying that it actually failed.”

Yuaan, who had blocked the man’s attack, shielded Jisung from behind and shouted Hyunwoo’s name. At that, as if waiting, attacks rained down from the sky like rain.

KABOOM! CRASH! KABOOM!

“Still as fearsome as ever.”

The man dodged Hyunwoo’s countless attacks with fluid movements. It was like a dancer’s movements. Jisung, who had been staring at the man as if mesmerized, then shook his head and got a grip on himself.

“So you were hiding and watching.”

Hyunwoo, who had come down in front of Jisung, glared at the terrorist in front of him. At that, the man smiled softly, his lips curving into a crescent.

“S-Rank Espers are all so perceptive. You can’t fool them.”

The man shook his head from side to side and then opened his mouth.

“That’s right, I was hiding and watching your movements. Because you guys were doing something very interesting.”

“Interesting?”

Hyunwoo’s brow furrowed at the man’s words. At that, the man chuckled softly and raised his hand. At that, something flew into his hand. Hyunwoo and Yuaan, preparing for any unforeseen circumstances, shielded their Guides. At that, the man chuckled and showed what was in his hand.

“A bomb?!”

‘Is he going to set it off again?’

In the man’s hand was a bomb that had not yet been activated. The red numbers indicated 5 seconds. The man waved his hand at the wary Jisung and his companions and said.

“You don’t have to be so guarded. Setting off a crappy bomb like this will only hurt your ears and be useless, right?”

“If you’re not going to set it off, why did you bring it? Are you collecting them for display?”

“We didn’t bring it.”

Hyunwoo’s eyebrow furrowed at the man’s words. The man, watching him with a smile, then continued.

“You guys brought this.”