Chapter 86: Kubotan

Barrier Espers, whose arms were shattered by the giant monster that burst through the barrier, were moved with the support of a Teleport Esper.

Creatures with gaunt shoulder blades were pouring out from a gate that appeared in mid-air.

Three team leader-level barrier Espers, blocking them, gathered together and surrounded the gate with a reinforced wall.

The monstrous screams of the creatures, struggling to tear through the transparent membrane, spread across the sky.

“The civilians are.”

“They were evacuated first. Only some of the guides who came to support remain, but we haven’t been able to move them yet due to suppressing the creature horde.”

Seung Ho, who had just arrived at the scene, stopped walking as he listened to the situation.

His sharp gaze fixed on the barrier team blocking the gate.

Team Leader Kim’s familiar back came into view.

“Move the guides first.”

“But right now-.”

“Whoa, f*ck, what the hell is this?”

Behind Seung Ho, a bald Esper from Attack Team 1, wearing a black eye patch, appeared, boasting his booming voice.

Shaking off the Teleport Esper’s hand, he alternately looked at the gate squarely placed in the civilian area and the colossal monster, tall enough to touch the clouds.

His bulging right eyeball was full of excitement.

“It finally burst, huh. I knew this would happen.”

The bald Esper, ostentatiously flexing his muscles with cracking sounds, estimated the monster’s size.

Even when he was part of Attack Team 2 and active in Sector 4, monsters of that size were rare.

“Looks like we’ll need someone like Lee Tae Hwan.”

No sooner had the bald Esper finished speaking than the flow of air changed.

The horde of creatures covering the street began to react to the heavy air current, fluttering their wings.

With the appearance of Tae Hwan, who began preparing for battle in front of the unit under Attack Team 1, the attention of all Espers, including the creatures, focused on him.

“Oh. He really came.”

The bald Esper, who had grabbed a creature’s face with his bare hands and lightly burst it, wore an excited smile.

Seung Ho, wearing an in-ear, was not surprised by Tae Hwan’s arrival, which he had been informed of in advance by the control room.

His attention was focused elsewhere.

Squeeeeeal-.

The monster, whose cry was as grand as its long neck, pierced the Espers’ eardrums.

As expected, Tae Hwan, who had received instructions through his in-ear, flew up into the sky, picking at his ringing ears.

“f*cking noisy.”

Tae Hwan, who had risen to a height where he could touch the clouds with psychokinesis, expressed annoyance.

He was in a very bad mood.

Thinking of Bodam, who must be guiding Kang Yi Jun, his insides still burned.

‘Could he still be doing it?’

‘It’s been over two hours.’

Squeeeeeal-!

The monster, detecting Tae Hwan’s wave, roared even more loudly.

Its tentacles, wrapped around its entire body, were wildly flailing, reacting to the S-class wave that couldn’t even be compared to other ordinary Espers.

If it were food, Tae Hwan was a premium main dish.

Sqee-ee-ee, guuurk!

Tae Hwan, letting out a long sigh and habitually checking his phone, strangled the monster with psychokinesis.

Not a single read receipt disappeared from the messages he had carefully sent with intervals.

‘Shit…’

[Still doing it?]

He sent his tenth message to Bodam, vowing it would truly be the last.

If he sent any more, there was a risk of being blocked again.

Thinking of Bodam, who had chased him away from Kang Yi Jun’s hospital room with such a determined face, his chest ached.

Even though he felt he was throwing a tantrum, his emotions, detached from reason, evoked strange reactions to every one of Yoon Bodam’s expressions and words.

“Esper Lee Tae Hwan! Is there a problem?!”

An Esper with a belly as big as Namsan Mountain shouted loudly, burning the poison spewed by the tentacles with flames.

He nervously watched Tae Hwan, who was distracted by his phone in front of a monster exceeding Red Code.

As if its screaming maw had been gagged, the monster twisted its neck and trembled, feeling threatened and beginning to spew poison everywhere.

“Why is that person like that?”

“He’s going crazy, seriously.”

Attack-type Espers who had come to catch creatures ran around avoiding the poison, observing Tae Hwan floating far away in the sky.

His face, hidden by the clouds, was invisible.

It almost seemed as if he had his phone to his ear.

He couldn’t possibly be on the phone in this situation.

CRUNCH-!

Everyone’s gaze turned to the sky where Tae Hwan and the monster’s neck stretched.

With the sound of trees being uprooted, the monster’s face, which had been in the hazy clouds, became visible.

The face, which had fallen in a circle like an amusement park ride, dangled from its broken neck.

“Eek.”

“Huh, huh, f*ck, that scared me….”

Admiration for the S-class Esper’s ability, who broke the monster’s neck with just a gesture in the blink of an eye, was momentary; people immediately clutched their hearts at the hundreds of bright red eyeballs covering its face.

The monster’s face, with its bird-beak shaped maw wide open, was covered in red eyeballs.

Its appearance, as if it had stopped breathing with its eyes open, was deeply unsettling.

Blink.

“Oh….”

An Esper who had been catching and splitting minor creatures suddenly shouted loudly while observing the monster’s face.

He yelled, “It’s alive!” and called out to Tae Hwan, who was seriously engrossed in his phone call.

Eyelids covered and then disappeared from over the hundreds of red eyeballs, blinking.

The eyeballs, looking as if they were covered in human blood, all fixed on Tae Hwan simultaneously.

“I’ll be right there.”

Before Tae Hwan, who had ended his call, could even put his phone in his pocket, the monster’s face charged at him.

Tae Hwan, receiving hundreds of gazes on him, waited without avoiding the monster that approached, its maw wide open, trying to swallow him.

He had to deal with the monster much faster.

***

“Come quickly.”

Bodam, clutching the disconnected phone, mumbled.

He had entered an empty building where the giant monster’s feet couldn’t reach, and was hiding there with the Esper.

They positioned themselves near the completely shattered entrance so they could escape immediately in case of a creature threat.

He picked up scattered boxes, laid some on the floor, and covered his body with the rest.

Bodam sat huddled tightly, and allowed the injured Esper to rest his face on his thigh.

“Just bear with it a little longer. He’ll be here soon.”

He placed his hand on the Esper’s forehead, which had turned from pale to ashen, and poured out guiding.

Putrid flesh fell off the Esper’s leg, where the monster’s poison had already spread up to his knee.

The Esper’s eyes, barely holding onto consciousness thanks to the life-giving guiding, turned red.

“Thanks to, you, I’m alive.”

Bodam shook his head at the Esper’s thanks and focused on guiding.

The two, who were about to be helplessly torn apart by the charging creature, saved their lives thanks to Bodam.

“I have quite a bit of field experience.”

Bodam, trying to make his voice as dependable as possible to reassure the Esper, even attempted a smile but failed.

His body, still trembling slightly, was slowly losing body heat.

In a moment of crisis, Bodam, displaying quick wit, calmly drew a weapon and defeated the creature that had charged right in front of him.

Even now, he clutched the weapon that had saved his life tightly in one hand.

It was the light pink kubotan he had thought was too much.

The kubotan, received as a gift from a guide he had just met who told him to cheer up, had an amazing effect.

As she had said, when he pressed the pointed back of the kubotan, liquid spray was discharged, slowing the creature’s movements.

In the meantime, Bodam straightened his grip on the kubotan and stabbed the creature’s neck.

Due to his lack of strength, he couldn’t kill it instantly, but the Esper, despite limping, joined in and they were able to defeat it.

Really. He hadn’t expected it to be this effective.

He diligently praised himself for carrying it as a self-defense tool even after quitting his job.

“Ugh.”

The Esper, whose pain had begun to fester up to his knee, groaned, squeezing his eyes shut.

Bodam, feeling cold yet sweating profusely, pressed his back more deeply against the wall and comforted the Esper.

“It’s okay. Just a little, just a little more, and you’ll be fine.”

No matter how many times he pressed the call button, there was no response, and Team Leader Kim wasn’t answering his phone either.

He had barely managed to hide inside the building with the Esper’s support, but his breathing was becoming labored.

The fear of the gate and monster, which he hadn’t fully processed, instantly surged.

His fingertips pressing the call button slipped, and the hand holding his phone was losing strength.

At that moment, a message came from Lee Tae Hwan.

“He said he’d be here soon.”

The moment he saw his name appear on the phone screen, he almost cried for no reason.

Without hesitation, he called him, and Lee Tae Hwan answered immediately.

He felt a sense of relief at the loud voice answering the phone, “Hello!”

For the first time, he wanted to see Lee Tae Hwan, who noticed his unstable breathing from just his short breaths and asked what was wrong.

He wanted him to appear right in front of him and save him.

Tae Hwan, who had been quietly listening to Bodam’s trembling voice explaining the situation, replied with a calmness that bordered on obviousness.

‘It’s okay. I’m nearby.’

His confident attitude, as if it were no big deal and everything would be resolved because he was there, even calmed Bodam’s ragged breathing.

‘I’ll be right there.’

He replayed Tae Hwan’s last words countless times, steadying his heart.

Even just the cessation of the monster’s ear-piercing screams was a comfort.

‘Is Lee Tae Hwan fighting?’

‘Will he kill the monster and come right away?’

‘Come quickly. Quickly. Lee Tae Hwan.’

He clutched the kubotan so tightly that his knuckles turned white, searching for him. (TN: Kubotan is a type of self defense weapon)

He believed that he would keep his word about coming soon.

He just had faith.

An unfounded belief that he would definitely protect him.

CRUNCH.

Bodam’s eyelids, which had been closed, focusing on guiding, opened.

He raised his head towards the sound of someone stepping on shattered glass door fragments and coming in.

The hand clutching the light pink kubotan trembled.