INHO 30

The Isolated Island (10)

“Can’t you hit harder?”

“This is the maximum output!”

The vortex of air spreading from Iyul’s fingertips swirled even faster.

Kik-gg.

But, unlike before, the monster didn’t crumble into dust. The attacks bounced off — they couldn’t penetrate past a certain point.

The piece of skin that had been cut away began to reassemble on the ground like a sticky liquid and seep inward toward the core of the skill.

I pushed myself fully up and stomped the small lump on the floor with my foot until it was crushed.

This is going nowhere.

If that thing could be considered a living creature, there had to be some way to kill it.

“Hajun, did you notice anything weird while you were fighting?”

If anyone had fought the creature earlier, Min Hajun might know some useful hint.

“I was fighting without being able to see….”

But Hajun didn’t look like he remembered anything specific. He frowned as if thinking, then spoke.

“I think there was a moment when it froze. When I stabbed it with the spear…. It flew over here right after that, though.”

If it flinched when stabbed even though its body had been torn apart like that, that meant the attack had landed.

I watched Iyul and the monster struggling in front of me and thought hard. But nothing obvious stood out.

“Let us provide supporting fire. Can you attack under the same conditions?”

“To avoid interfering with Wind’s skill, I think only ranged attacks are possible.”

That made me useless.

Close combat wasn’t my specialty.

“Yuha, conserve your stamina.”

Hajun stepped forward and said that. He probably thought the same as me.

Should I have carried a gun or something?

It was frustrating to keep being forced to take a step back. But it would be foolish to rush in and have my body slashed by Iyul’s skill.

“Wind, be careful not to get swept up.”

When Hajun raised his hand, sharp ice spears appeared in the air. They were smaller than the ones he’d made before, probably because of the narrow space.

It definitely took longer than when he formed spears, so they’d probably only score a killing blow against a fixed target.

The created spears struck the monster that Iyul was confronting. But, like the previous attacks, they seemed to sink into the creature’s sticky flesh without dealing damage.

What’s different from when we stabbed it with a spear?

Length? Angle?

Is there a particular weak spot?

I considered the possibilities while watching, but found nothing. The creature didn’t seem to react to pain.

“Hey, this isn’t working. Let’s get out of here.”

Iyul, who had been holding on so far, spoke up. Things that had penetrated inward were creeping up his lower body, and Hajun looked busy watching both sides.

Seeing that, I judged it impossible to hold our ground.

“Okay. Maybe Suhyeok knows something.”

“Suhyeok?”

Hajun looked puzzled at the unfamiliar name, but there was no time to explain.

Suhyeok might know what this monster is or what its weakness is.

Iyul immediately signaled to retreat.

“On three we’ll reel in our skills, then run.”

I nodded and grabbed Hajun’s wrist and ran. Unaware of the exact circumstances, he stopped attacking and widened his eyes when I came close.

“One.”

We kicked off the sticky things clinging to us.

“Two.”

I looked toward the direction we were running.

“Three!”

At Iyul’s signal we started running forward, pulling Hajun along. The buzzing sound stopped at once, and I caught a glimpse of the monster lunging forward. It couldn’t handle the sudden loss of the skill it had been drawing power from and momentarily crashed to the ground.

We took the chance and put distance between us. The route ahead was a straight path with no corners to hide in or places to catch our breath.

Soon a small glint of light appeared far ahead.

“Oh, faster than I thought….”

Suhyeok must have noticed the approaching light too; his voice echoed down the corridor, but there was no time for me to explain. I ran at full speed and grabbed the back of his neck with my remaining hand.

The monster was right behind us.

He was dragged forward with no idea what was happening. Then he took a sharp breath as he noticed the monster closing in.

I let go of Hajun’s wrist that had been holding onto me as Hajun chased after us with his own feet.

“Have you ever seen that thing before?”

I was out of breath.

But the answer I hoped for didn’t come.

“No. I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“Unbelievable.”

It looked clumsy but moved ridiculously fast. Even though the three of us sprinted at full speed, it stayed right on our heels.

“Ah!”

A short exclamation came from behind.

I glanced back for a moment at the sound.

“Do you remember anything?”

“No, but—I dropped the luminescent crystal….”

Dropping that in the middle of life-or-death didn’t seem like a big deal. Iyul had one too.

But in an instant, I noticed something.

The glowing crystal that Suhyeok had dropped fell into the monster’s open body and—

Thanks to the light shining into the creature’s murky, opaque interior, its insides were briefly visible.

Is that it?

A crude black silhouette sat inside the round body.

Though it was only a moment, I instinctively knew that was the weak point Hajun had been attacking.

I tossed Suhyeok’s neck — which I’d been holding — to Iyul. He seemed momentarily surprised at the sudden hurled adult, but he caught him without slowing down.

“Hajun, could you make one of your usual spears?”

Then I asked Hajun for a weapon.

My dagger wouldn’t reach that deep. No matter how much I reinforced and threw it, it would likely slow the moment it plunged into the sticky flesh.

It has to be long enough to reach in one go.

Hajun hesitated for a moment, then handed me a spear. Cold ice touched my hand. It was slipperier than I expected — I’d have to control it carefully.

I tested the spear’s weight and length a few times while running, then gripped it firmly and suddenly pivoted on my ankle to brake.

The two men turned sharply as I abruptly stopped running. But the monster had already spread itself and was about to swallow me again.

This time it’ll be different.

In that hair-raising moment, just before its flesh touched my skin and the upper half of my body was about to be engulfed, I plunged the spear in hard.

Thud.

A heavy sensation ran through the spear in my hand. Then, a faint sound, audible only to me—

Sleek, jang.

The cracking, shattering sound.

The monster froze in the swallowing pose. It began to melt from the outside inward. I flicked a drop from my head, threw away the spear, and stepped back.

Whew.

I wiped the sweat from my brow. My limbs trembled slightly from the tension, but it wasn’t serious.

I drew a deep breath, composed myself, and nodded to Hajun to thank him.

“Good shot.”

I hadn’t expected it to melt the instant it died. It must’ve been a disposable weapon—though I doubt I could give it back.

The quickly liquefied monster was absorbed completely into the floor, leaving only a fist-sized rock-like lump.

Watching that, Iyul finally turned his head to look at me.

“Stop being reckless.”

“If it’s gone, that’s fine. If we’d stayed put, we’d have been caught quickly.”

We both knew that if it came down to a war of attrition, those with only one horn—like us—would lose.

But Iyul looked displeased even with my logical response.

“You were certain about that, right?”

“Um… about eighty-five percent? No, ninety percent.”

“Cancel the part about ‘I’ll never dream about it when I die.’ Make sure you scold me in your dream.”

Iyul sighed loudly and spoke through his teeth. Man, he was really giving me a hard time.

Hajun glanced at me as if to add something, but luckily he didn’t blame me. He looked a bit stiff, though.

Will this be okay?

Hunting life-and-death battles every day made this seem trivial, but I still felt a little shaken. Hajun stepped closer when our eyes met.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, right?”

“No. I’m fine.”

He offered a small, shy smile at my answer—just enough to make him seem like the person I knew.

“Um, what should we do with this…?”

Suhyeok, who’d been examining the monster’s remains, carefully asked while holding something. It was the weak part I had broken.

“Just dispose of it.”

“It’s fascinating. I’ve lived here a long time but I’ve never seen anything like this.”

He squatted and continued to observe it without fear. Yeah—if you were going to know this place inside out, you needed that kind of determination.

“Ah, I’m worried we might meet one again. It’d be good to think of a countermeasure now….”

“Just hide or run fast if you meet it.”

“Yeah. I don’t think I could kill it.”

I rolled my aching shoulder once. Finally it felt like we could sit and talk.

We took a short break and sat down.

We’d been moving and fighting nonstop, so it felt awful. A moan escaped as I sat; it hurt to relax.

Each of us had some jerky that Suhyeok had brought in our hands.

“So… you’re saying people who went missing here twenty years ago are still alive?”

“Yes. They’re trying to find an exit together.”

Hajun fell silent, unable to easily believe it. But with Suhyeok as an eyewitness, he had no choice but to accept it.

“That’s why the missing people weren’t found before. The gate was measured as low-grade because it could only be detected by the surface monsters.”

“That’s one possibility.”

Nothing about this was certain. Every surreal thing we experienced had been unprecedented.

“And we need to find the gate core as well.”

It wasn’t enough to just find the exit.

If the core was inside, we had to deal with it before leaving. We couldn’t leave it connected to our world.

“Then should we return to the village and split the search team in two?”

Hajun asked, and I hesitated for a moment.