By Zephyria 
“Ah…”
Ho-eun’s mouth hung slightly open. Seong-im was fast and agile. He knew this well, having run with her in Ramjae Town until his feet blistered. But now, Devouring Ghouls were strewn everywhere. No matter how capable she was, she might get hurt.
Without realizing it, Ho-eun took a step forward, intending to follow her.
Crunch.
He stepped on something. It felt as if he had stepped on thin ice. Despite Ho-eun’s light weight and small feet, the thing shattered, sinking inward and swallowing his foot. Startled by the strange sensation, Ho-eun quickly stepped forward. Just as he was about to look down at what he had stepped on—
“You cannot go there.”
Gil-sang blocked him firmly. Thus, Ho-eun was forced to stand there blankly, unable to check what he had stepped on or follow Seong-im.
It was then. In the distance, a flashlight that had been buried in the mud floated upward. Then, the light snapped off. Someone had turned it off. After that, nothing could be seen.
“Please…”
Ho-eun bit his lip anxiously. He didn’t care about the flashlight or anything else; he just wanted Seong-im to return safely and uninjured. But as time passed and continued to pass, Seong-im did not return.
“Young Master.”
Gil-sang called him in a heavy voice. Ho-eun couldn’t tell if he meant that enough time had passed and they should flee, or if he believed Seong-im would not be able to return.
“…….”
Ho-eun’s face, already drenched in rain, grew even more damp. He felt regret. He should have just run away. What had he been thinking, lingering here? Because of his foolish stubbornness, Seong-im, Seong-im…
How could he ever look Gil-sang in the eye again? How would Gil-sang look at him? How resentful he must be. Seong-im was his Bondmate, his friend, and his lover. He felt like kneeling before him and begging to be killed.
Just as Ho-eun, with droplets clinging to his eyelashes, slowly lowered the pistol he had been aiming,
Tap, tap, tap, tap—
The sound of steady, light footsteps echoed, and someone glided across the mud toward them. Gil-sang reflexively aimed his sword in that direction.
“…….”
Seong-im stood there, breathing heavily. Something—whether sweat or rain—streamed down her cheeks. One of her arms was covered in mud, as if she had fallen on her way.
“Im-ah…”
Gil-sang murmured her name in a pained voice. Seong-im met Gil-sang’s gaze for a moment before looking back at Ho-eun. Then, she held out what she had been gripping tightly. It was the mud-caked flashlight.
“…….”
Ho-eun could not bring himself to take it; he could only stare. He felt a sense of admiration for her for retrieving this, but he also felt… sad. Who was he? Why was she taking such risks for someone like him?
However, Ho-eun soon steadied his heart. With a determined expression, he took the flashlight.
“Thank you, Seong-im.”
Since Seong-im had gone this far for him, he had to succeed. He could not let their help be in vain.
Seong-im gave a thin smile, then took up her sword and returned to guard Ho-eun’s back.
Ho-eun rubbed the mud off the flashlight with the hem of his silk clothes. Then, he aimed the muzzle of the gun toward where the ghoul was and aligned the flashlight directly beneath it.
“Whew…”
Having finished his preparations, Ho-eun took a deep breath. Then, with a click, he turned on the flashlight. A blindingly bright light sliced the black darkness in half. And the moment that light touched the face of the Tentacle Plant Monster—
Bang!
He pulled the trigger. The bullet, fired at high speed, pierced the creature’s golden tentacle with a splat. One side of the soft tentacle was torn open, and its fan-like shape was distorted, almost folded in half.
Kack!
The ghoul’s entire body lurched violently, as if pushed by something. But it did not die. Its tentacles had only become slightly sluggish; they continued to shake with a shrr-shrr sound.
Kieeee…
A bright red eye slowly drifted toward Ho-eun. The creature stared intently at Ho-eun, the gun he held, and the flashlight beneath it.
Kieeeeek! Kack, kaak, kaaaak!
It screamed more fiercely than before. The distorted tentacles vibrated even faster, and dozens of ghouls bobbed their heads as if listening to its command. Then—
Kaaaaaak!
Kack, kakak, kikk, kaaaak!
Kieeee!
Just as expected, they began to charge at Ho-eun. The ground shook and vibrated from their rough sprinting, but Ho-eun did not budge. With eyes wide and breath held, he immediately pulled the trigger again.
Bang!
Thud. This time, the bullet embedded itself in the side of the ghoul’s head. The previous bullet glittered in silver, lodged just below it. The ghoul brushed the area where the bullet was embedded with its hand. Then, it stared at Ho-eun with even more glistening eyes.
“…….”
“…….”
Ho-eun met that gaze head-on and aimed the gun once more. If it were a normal ghoul, he would have killed it long ago, but the Tentacle Plant Monster constantly moved its head to shake its tentacles, and because there was no regularity to those movements, it was incredibly difficult to hit.
As Ho-eun took a deep breath—
By then, several ghouls had already reached him. An enormous number more were charging toward him. Those that had been in the trees dropped to the ground with a thump, thump and lunged. Even those that had been fighting the soldiers, and those that had been chewing on someone’s flesh, all swarmed toward Ho-eun.
Startled by this strange phenomenon, Dong-ja, who had been driving a spear into a ghoul’s neck, snapped her head up. She spotted Ho-eun holding the flashlight and the Tentacle Plant Monster that the light was targeting. Quickly grasping the situation, she screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Protect the Young Master! Protect the Young Master! Go to the Young Master! You must protect the Captain’s Bondmate!”
At her command, the soldiers one by one turned their heads toward Ho-eun. In the pitch-black surroundings, he stood out vividly as the only one holding a flashlight. The blood-covered soldiers charged toward Ho-eun with a roar.
Even amidst that chaos, Ho-eun remained focused only on the Tentacle Plant Monster. And finally, when the bright red eye entered the sight—
Bang!
He pulled the trigger.
The moment the bullet fired, Ho-eun knew. This time, he had burst that red eye. He had killed it.
However.
“No…”
The bullet did not hit the Tentacle Plant Monster’s eye. It didn’t even reach the creature. Another ghoul had stepped in front of the Tentacle Plant Monster, acting as a shield. The bullet pierced through the neck of some random underling. As that creature collapsed, another immediately took its place in front of the Tentacle Plant Monster.
“Ha…”
Ho-eun’s face was stained with despair. At this rate, he couldn’t kill the creature even if he fired a hundred times. Even if he killed the one in front, another would come, and another after that.
What to do. What to do. What to do.
Ho-eun readjusted his grip on the gun handle, his mind racing. He thought and thought until his temples throbbed.
Meanwhile, the Crimson Rain Brigade soldiers were fighting the ghouls rushing toward Ho-eun. It had become easier to fight now that the creatures had descended to the ground, but there were so many that they were not easy to dispose of. It was only natural that they were being pushed back, as three more lunged for every one they killed.
Then, a ghoul suddenly clamped down on the arm of someone near Ho-eun and tore it away with a crunch.
Hwaaaaak…
The soldier’s scream sounded distantly muffled. Other than that, the sound of rain, the shouts of the soldiers, the clashing and tangling of weapons, the cries of the ghouls, and the sounds of flesh bursting, tearing, and being sliced filled Ho-eun’s ears to the brim.
“…….”
Ho-eun’s hands began to tremble. He was worried he wouldn’t be able to kill the Tentacle Plant Monster. He was terrified that he would fail, that everything would be ruined because of him, and that all the soldiers would… die.
Just as the pale Ho-eun was on the verge of dropping his gun—
“Don’t let them get near the Young Master! Push them! Just push them back!”
Dong-ja’s voice pierced through his head. In an instant, Ho-eun’s eyes snapped open. He pointed the flashlight at the fir tree the ghoul was perched on and shouted.
“Dong-ja Noonim! Dong-ja Noonim!”
“Young Master!”
“That tree—please knock down that tree!”
“…….”
At that, Dong-ja whipped her head around. She glanced up to confirm the tree and the Tentacle Plant Monster atop it, then sprinted toward the tree at incredible speed. A few ghouls tried to block her path, but she simply shoved them aside with her shoulder or body. With her brutal strength, the ghouls were sent flying backward. For a moment, in her retreating figure, Ho-eun saw a glimpse of Tae-muk.
Reaching the tree in no time, Dong-ja gripped her spear with both hands and drove it powerfully into the trunk. The thick wood split with a crack. However, it did not fall. Because it had soaked up so much rain, it had become incredibly tough.
Dong-ja repeated the action of pulling the spear out and driving it back in several times, but when the tree showed no sign of falling—
“Aw, fuck!”
In the end, she threw the spear aside and simply struck the tree with a massive boom of her fist. The entire tree shuddered. Rainwater gathered on the branches and leaves fell in clumps like hail.
At the heavy vibration, the ghouls atop the tree began to screech and cackle at Dong-ja. Regardless, Dong-ja continued to batter the tree with her fists.
Then, several ghouls that had been clinging to Ho-eun’s side lunged at Dong-ja. Sharp teeth tore into her shoulder, arm, thigh, and flank, but she didn’t even blink. She simply kept striking the tree—boom! boom!
And when her fists were drenched crimson with her own blood, creeeak. The tree shattered along its grain and slowly began to tilt.