By Zephyria 
Kwaaaa!
The pillar of water, crashing down as it snapped trees across the plains and gnawed at the ground, possessed an explosive momentum, as if a dam had burst and overflowed. The torrent created on the plains was massive enough to easily sweep away dozens of people.
Kim Si-baek, charging headlong toward that violent stream, looked as precarious as a small boat tossing and turning in a storm.
Justina suppressed the urge to scream and ask if he was determined to die, and instead ordered an evacuation.
“Get back, quickly! Drag anyone who’s frozen in place!”
Though it had happened in an instant and the unprecedented event of a magical beast’s evolution had occurred, the hunters managed their confusion and acted swiftly, but time was insufficient. Exposed to the sudden surge of magical energy, they struggled to control their own magical power, and the disrupted flow robbed their bodies of the strength to stand.
“Damn it!”
If only they had one more minute…
Just as Justina cursed and rushed toward a guild member who was floundering on the ground, unable to get up.
Kwagagagak!
Kim Si-baek blocked the path of the rushing pillar of water. Justina squeezed her eyes shut, unable to bear the sight. The end of a man swallowed by water pressure capable of shattering a human body into pieces flashed before her eyes. After that, it would be their turn.
[Death and Beauty declares they hate this kind of bath and clings to you.]
In contrast to the hunters’ confusion, Kim Si-baek was calm. Though it possessed properties similar to water and was shaped as such, this was the manifestation of a magical beast. In other words, it was water born from magical energy.
“Lend me your strength.”
[Death and Beauty cheers you on, telling you to take it all.]
Water droplets scattering in all directions splashed onto Kim Si-baek a step ahead of the torrent. The sound of the rushing water roared like thunder, tearing through his ears, and the humid, drenched air choked his breath.
Facing this merciless violence, Kim Si-baek slowly held his sword upright. He was the apostle of a god who had never once retreated while facing magical beasts and magical energy.
The raised blade shone with a sharp brilliance, and the pillar of water, which had been crashing down like a torrent from a mountain valley, was split by his blade.
And then, as if waiting for this exact moment, barriers rose behind his back. Tae-un had completed the installation of the magical tools. The torrent, its power broken by the blade, struck repeatedly, but though the barriers shook, they did not split or collapse, enduring the magical beast’s attack.
The torrent did not last forever. The dragonfish, having stopped its attack, continued to circle from a distance. Having been severely beaten by the hunters to the point of near death, it showed no intention of approaching now that it had a long-range means of attack.
“Un-ah, are you okay?”
“I feel like I’m going to die from magical power depletion…”
Kim Si-baek supported the limp Tae-un and patted his back. Tae-un’s complexion was not good, having alone installed the magical tools that were designed to be operated by the injection of magical power from ten hunters.
[Death and Beauty points out that my apostle’s complexion always looked bad.]
He’s just naturally a bit frail.
“Oh, Si-baek! You’re safe!”
Justina, who had gathered the hunters and evacuated them further inside while the dragonfish paused its attack, waved her hand.
“That dragonfish bastard has no intention of coming close, does it? I tried to close the distance with Byeong-seok earlier, but it just fled further. Since it’s so far away, even if I throw my spear, it’ll easily dodge it at that speed.”
The S-class and A-class hunters had managed to recover their minds and bodies from the surge of magical energy, but those below them were still unable to fully regain their senses. Seo Gae-un wore a troubled expression.
“It seems long-range attacks won’t even reach it.”
“Sly little thing. We’re lucky there’s a cooldown.”
Frowning, Pi Min-hyeong asked Tae-un.
“Hey, Tae. Do you think I can get close to the dragonfish with my Blink?”
Tae-un, who had answered without hesitation when dealing with the anxiety fog at the amusement park, trailed off ambiguously.
“I don’t know…”
Then, he lightly tapped the 2.5-meter-high barrier with the back of his hand.
“More importantly, the dragonfish’s attack was stronger than expected, so a lot of durability was consumed. I don’t know if it can hold out one more time.”
“Sigh, the key is how long the cooldown is.”
As if answering Pi Min-hyeong’s lament, the dragonfish formed water once more and launched a water bomb. Before his annoyed exclamation—“The cooldown is damn short! Is that bastard scooping magical energy out of the ground?!”—could even finish, the water bomb struck the barrier.
The barrier creaked and twisted. People’s faces turned pale at the sight of the barrier bending circularly as if it were about to snap under the water pressure. The moment a thick tree trunk, snapped by the torrent, slammed into it, the barrier finally shattered with a loud cracking sound.
Kim Si-baek raised his sword to cut through the current once more, but this time, there was no need to consume divine power. A massive shadow rising from the ground billowed before him, swallowing the current. While the others looked relieved to be alive, Kim Si-baek did not.
‘No matter how strong Un-i is, the magical power consumption was too severe.’
Even setting aside the fact that they had been hunting magical beasts for several hours, he had used a burst of magical power to activate a tool designed for ten people, and he was now absorbing water with a mass easily exceeding hundreds of tons.
Once the second attack ended, Tae-un, who had leaned on his knees and caught his breath for a moment, smiled with a composed face.
“I think I can hold out one more time, so Hyung, don’t worry about this and go kill it.”
“…I’ll finish it quickly.”
Kim Si-baek forced himself to look away from Tae-un’s pale fingertips, which were trembling slightly.
“Na Jeong-woo!”
“Yes? Yes!”
At Tae-un’s shout, Na Jeong-woo, who had been tending to their comrades, rushed over. There was only one chance left, and roles for the final attack were quickly divided.
The dragonfish soon prepared its third attack.
The tankers, including Tae-un, stepped forward to block the water even slightly, Justina gripped her spear, and Na Jeong-woo grabbed Kim Si-baek’s waist.
Suddenly, the sky before them crumpled like paper. Startled by the strange omen, people panicked, thinking it was the appearance or evolution of a new magical beast. Even Kim Si-baek was bewildered, unable to keep up with the situation.
The atmosphere vibrated, and something that was neither magical energy nor divine power—the very flow that constitutes the world—twisted, forming a rift in the phenomenal world across the void and emptiness.
「Humans are truly delightful in their unpredictability!」
[Death and Beauty opens their eyes wide.]
Two gods reacted simultaneously, and Tae-un’s face contorted fiercely as he sensed the same thing.
A rift, which Gwak Yun-sang—had he witnessed it from nearby—would have thought was similar to the phenomenon when Kim Si-baek appeared from within the barrier, scattered rays of light. However, it was distinctly different from that time.
Unlike then, when it had been perfectly natural as an act of a god, this rift, forced open by human magic, shook the earth like an earthquake. Heaven and earth twisted and creaked, and the puddles created by the dragonfish’s attack evaporated in an instant. People could not breathe properly, feeling a pressure as if the air itself were crushing them, and the magical beasts became even more frantic than when they were attacked by humans, letting out shrieks.
Just as people were about to be consumed by an instinctive fear that such an omen would signal the end of the world, the strange phenomenon stopped abruptly.
And there stood a giant in a full-body metallic suit and helmet protecting his face, and a young man hiding behind him.
A massive amount of magical power instantly condensed in Tae-un’s hand, which had been trembling as if it were hard to endure. If they suddenly appeared and he claimed he killed them thinking they were magical beasts, it could be explained away cleanly.
Just before Tae-un released that power, the rampaging magical beasts all charged toward that spot at once. Even the beasts that had fled far away to avoid the fierce battle between the dragonfish and the raid team rushed in an instant, like a pack of sharks smelling blood spreading in the ocean.
“Uh, uh…”
Because of the sudden succession of events, the hunters, unable to keep up with the situation, didn’t even think to save them.
Whoosh! Crash! Thump!
The sound of a massive shield—where it had come from, no one knew—being swung, and the dull sound of flesh tearing as magical beasts were crushed and ripped by the shield, were heard simultaneously. Only a fraction of a second had passed, barely enough time to swallow a breath, yet the corpses of magical beasts, split in half and crushed, poured out in heaps.
Just as the tankers, including Seo Gae-un, were horrified by the sight of the shield being wielded as freely as a blunt weapon or a blade, Kim Si-baek’s shout rang in everyone’s ears.
“Block it! Gloiuken!”
The dragonfish’s third attack surged.
The giant in the full-body suit stepped forward to block the group’s path the moment Kim Si-baek’s words fell. The young man, peeking out from beside him to identify the attack, manifested three magic circles in both hands at once and struck the back of the shield with them.
Simultaneously with the enchantments of suction, evaporation, and gale, the overwhelming torrent struck the shield directly. A scene markedly different from when the previous two attacks were blocked unfolded.
The wide stream of water was instantly condensed as if flowing through a narrow canyon, striking the shield, and at the same time, it vaporized into a white mist. Then, even that mist obscuring the vision quickly dispersed.
Justina, who had been staring blankly at the sight for a moment, extended her right arm, gripping the spear.
“Si-baek! Here I gooo!”
Following her shout, the thrown lance tore through the air and shot forward fiercely. The lance leaving her hand possessed a momentum so powerful that even the dragonfish stopped its attack to dodge.
Tugagagak! Having lost its target, the lance hit a tree and continued forward, piercing through several thick trunks.
Of course, the direction the dragonfish would dodge had been calculated. While the dragonfish’s attention was momentarily diverted by the lance, Na Jeong-woo, using his rapid-acceleration trait, moved Kim Si-baek close to the dragonfish in a matter of seconds.
And the white-shining blade fell toward the dragonfish’s core, hidden in the center of its waist.