Chapter 50 – Squeak Squeak!

“We shouldn’t have come here… It’s all over.”

The woman mumbled in a voice filled with despair.

Her legs were completely broken, and she was slumped against a gray wall, on the verge of tears.

“Don’t say that. Someone will come for us soon.”

A man approached and said.

He kept fiddling with his Defensive Coat, but the deactivated garment showed no signs of turning back on.

“How are they supposed to get through this hellscape!”

The woman shrieked.

Overwhelmed by the desperate situation, she flinched at the sound of her own voice.

Fearing she might have alerted the monsters, she peeked through a tiny crack in the heavily barricaded window.

Outside, writhing plant stems were devouring buildings and everything else in sight.

Seeing no sign that she’d been noticed, she let out a sigh of relief, then ground her teeth as she watched the creatures continue to multiply.

This wasn’t a problem that a few high-ranking Awakened could simply solve.

The monstrous plants that had emerged from the Gate were multiplying at an uncontrollable rate.

There were only a few at first, but they had quickly infested the city, their numbers growing at an incredible speed.

Kill one, and three more would sprout. Take out two, and ten would appear.

“We were completely tricked. They told us to just buy some time. How are we supposed to buy time against these things?”

Swinging a sword at them was useless.

They had managed to hide inside a building, barricading the doors and windows, but there was no telling when the plants would break through.

The situation was bleak. Silence filled the room.

But it was short-lived, as the clamor of a fierce battle erupted outside.

It was likely the sound of their other comrades dying in a desperate struggle.

Squeak!

A small mouse climbed onto the woman’s limp hand as she sat with her head bowed.

It looked like a pet—its body was clean, and it didn’t have an unpleasant smell.

It seemed to have escaped the monsters by crawling through the ventilation system.

“It’s dangerous here, too. You should get out of here while you can.”

As she spoke, she let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity of talking to an animal.

The mouse stared intently at her face and then, as if understanding her, shook its head.

As the two Awakened watched in wonder, something burst through one of the walls.

*CRASH!*

As veteran C-rank Awakened, they reacted instantly, grabbing their swords.

But their opponent was much faster.

The monstrous creature that had burst in snatched them up in an instant.

But they weren’t torn to shreds or thrown to the ground.

“What is happening…?”

The bewildered man and woman looked around.

A giant bird was carrying them through the sky.

And they weren’t the only ones; dozens of birds were flying across the city skyline, carrying people.

After confirming the two Awakened had been extracted from the scene, Il-hyeon raised a hand to his communicator.

“We’ve extracted all the survivors for now.”

-That’s a relief, but the plants have already devoured half the city! We might be too late if this continues.

“Not much longer now.”

Il-hyeon said, checking the GPS on his watch.

There were monsters that had to be dealt with within a certain time frame.

Since they hadn’t been able to respond immediately, trying to eliminate every single multiplying monster was an impossible task, even for five team leaders.

Four location coordinates appeared.

As Il-hyeon watched, one of them disappeared.

Things were so hectic that only two people had been dispatched to the site, and Il-hyeon was about to head to the next location.

*RUMBLE!*

Suddenly, the ground shook violently.

Being near the epicenter where the Gate had appeared, the very ground he stood on was nothing but a mass of enormous stems.

And from all around, countless monstrous plants of different shapes rose up.

*SCREEECH!*

A sharp cry echoed as a barrage of thorny stems shot toward him.

But Il-hyeon effortlessly deflected them all with his sword.

Green fluid sprayed from the clean cuts on the monstrous plants.

However, he had no intention of continuing the fight and immediately summoned a falcon, soaring into the sky.

There was no point in engaging enemies that would multiply several times over in the time it took to cut one down.

Once he reached a certain altitude, the city, now blanketed in green, came into full view.

Even in that brief moment, the plants at the edges were multiplying, expanding their territory.

Il-hyeon quickly descended toward the next location, landing on the ground and dismissing his summon.

He scanned his surroundings.

This area was also covered in stems, but it was unusually quiet compared to the others, with nothing attacking him.

But Il-hyeon could see the flow of Ether beneath him. He raised his sword and plunged it downward.

*KABOOOM!*

The ground beneath him convulsed as if the entire landscape were alive.

It took shape, crushing several buildings that had been covered by the stems.

The massive tangle of vines that revealed itself pulsed like a living heart.

Thrown back by the violent movement, Il-hyeon found himself surrounded by other monsters that had appeared.

They had likely swarmed from all directions to protect it.

But no matter how many there were, a single attack was all Il-hyeon needed.

A small fox peeked its head out from inside his coat.

***

*BOOM!* In the distance, a brilliant flash accompanied an explosion.

“Just one left.”

Said Lee Tae-hee, watching one of the targets disappear from the hologram on her watch.

With her hair tied back tightly, her fresh-faced, nineteen-year-old appearance seemed out of place in these blood-soaked ruins.

Of course, appearances were deceiving. She was not only hailed as the world’s top prospect and a member of C-Team, but she was also on temporary assignment to support the short-staffed A-Team.

Though she hadn’t expected ‘temporary’ to mean three weeks and counting.

As proof of her prodigious talent, the area around her was littered with the corpses of monsters, so thoroughly mangled they were barely recognizable.

From within a pile of severed bodies, a monstrous stem shot out, aiming for her back.

It was a dying creature hidden among the corpses, determined to taste human blood with its final breath.

But a blazing mass of fire intercepted it, incinerating the outstretched stem and what little remained of its body.

“Thanks.”

Lee Tae-hee said with a grin, looking up.

Above her was a brightly burning phoenix.

With the area overrun by plants, fire-based attacks were highly effective, and Il-hyeon had assigned it to help her.

As Tae-hee ran, the phoenix followed close behind.

The final target was just a short distance away.

Along the way, the ground writhed, and monsters rose to block her path, but she maintained her speed, leaping over them and cutting them down with nimble movements.

“Found it! But…”

Tae-hee stopped in her tracks, staring blankly ahead.

Before her, a mass of writhing monster stems had formed a massive dome.

This was more than just ‘a lot’.

An incredible number of monsters had gathered to protect the last target.

As she stared at the daunting sight, the ground beneath her trembled, and more monsters charged.

That alone wouldn’t have been a problem, but at the same time, countless stems shot out from the massive, dome-shaped cluster.

*Hah.*

Tae-hee drew her sword in close, focusing her mind.

*Vmmmm—!*

A small ripple emanated from her, and in an instant, the world was drained of color, turning to shades of gray.

Everything around her slowed down.

The incoming vines, a falling flowerpot, a cracking wall.

In a world where everything moved in slow motion, only Tae-hee remained at normal speed. She thrust her sword forward with force.

Time Acceleration, one of her two special powers.

An ability considered top-tier even among A-rank powers.

*SHHIIING!*

All the stems were mercilessly severed, and the monsters that had risen around her collapsed, covering the ground in pieces.

But her sword stopped there.

The massive cluster filling her vision was a different problem.

“What should I do…?”

She needed to deal with it as quickly as possible, but it was obvious that conventional methods would take far too long.

Without even knowing where the target was inside, trying to eliminate the clustered monsters one by one would be an endless task.

“Tae-hee!”

“Huh?”

Hearing her name, Tae-hee looked up.

A familiar-looking transport aircraft was approaching.

And inside, Il-hyeon was leaning out of the open door.

“What about this? Why are you in there?”

A bewildered Tae-hee asked, pointing at the mass of monstrous plants.

She had been about to feel relieved that he’d shown up when she needed help, but he was already on the transport as if he were trying to clock out early.

“Just get on, quickly!”

As the transport descended toward her, Il-hyeon reached out his hand.

Confused about why they were leaving the scene they were supposed to be clearing, Tae-hee took his hand and climbed aboard.

Flying low in an area with these kinds of monsters was normally a suicide mission, but the phoenix incinerated any vines that reached for them, providing cover.

With the phoenix circling around them, the transport ascended.

“What about the site?”

“Just a second… There. Target eliminated. You can begin.”

-Yes, confirmed.

Il-hyeon contacted the backup team on standby, and the response was immediate.

“But there’s still one left, right? The bombs won’t work because of its defensive barrier…”

Tae-hee asked, surprised by his words.

But then, looking down through the open door, she saw something strange happening below.

The tightly clustered plants began to thrash wildly, falling away from the central mass.

Once they had all fallen off, the target within—the core vine cluster—was revealed, already dead and lifeless.

And then, as if on cue, a dozen bombers appeared in the sky.

All survivors had been evacuated, and the transport was at a safe altitude.

The bombs fell.

*BOOM! BOOM!*

Special cluster munitions powered by Ether released countless submunitions before hitting the ground, and explosions and flames consumed everything below.

The remaining D-rank base monsters couldn’t survive the intense blasts.

The spectacular flames swallowing the small city filled their vision.

It was a sight you couldn’t pay to see, not even for billions.

And just then.

From amidst the explosions, a mouse flew toward them, riding on the back of a sparrow.

Seeing its triumphant figure, Tae-hee instantly realized the identity of the hero who had taken down the target.

“Ahaha, that’s amazing!”

“Good job.”

Squeak