Black Badger

Ah, they’re coming.

Good. I was grateful even for the direction they were giving me. I had been running without thinking, simply toward whatever direction gave me even one more minute of survival.

My intuition only let me sense Creatures; it didn’t show me a map.

And just moments ago, the broadcasting company drone had almost been lost to an aerial Creature’s attack.

Thankfully, the Black Badgers’ attack drones arrived at the perfect moment. One unmanned drone whooshed overhead, and then five medium-to-large attack drones descended around us.

I nodded and ran in the direction the attack drones flew.

As they flew, the drones even fired rounds at the Creatures in front of us.

Tatatatatatatang!

Flesh and hide exploded in all directions.

Not very high lethality, but I’d take anything.

The convulsing flesh of a Reversed God spread across the ground with a slap. I slashed diagonally through the staggering Creature and passed by.

[If you pass the bobsled ride, a sharp, enormous castle will come into view.]

I could already see it.

[Cross the bridge in front of the castle and head toward the carousel tent. You need to escape the amusement park—the roots of the carnivorous plants surrounding the park are weakest in that direction.]

“Understood.”

[San. Do you want to talk to your parents?]

San, who had been clinging to me, jerked her head up.

[I can’t let it go long.]

“Yes!”

San shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Please, let me talk!”

A moment later, her parents’ voices flowed from the drone.

I didn’t listen to their conversation. I thought of it as their privacy, and I had other things to focus on.

Reversed God. Rock-type Creature. Sightless rat. Large beetle with too many eyes.

I stepped on the beetle’s back, vaulted up, and swung my sword. The surrounding Creatures were sliced apart in a clean circle.

As the wave rising from my swing knocked them back, I leapt onto the tallest Creature.

A spider. Like the ones in the colosseum.

I stabbed my sword straight down into the spider’s back, ripped it free, and used it as a foothold to launch myself.

I landed on the only spot where tile was still visible and swung my sword the instant my knee touched down.

Kwaaang!

Good. Now I could see the bridge.

Kaaang!

Something metallic clattered toward me and met my blade.

I slammed a heavy punch into the animated armor’s abdomen.

Thud!

The armor bent forward at the waist.

I immediately stepped on its back and jumped. As my view rose, I saw the bridge leading to the castle at my two o’clock.

The bridge was swarming with Creatures.

Once I identified what kind of Creatures were occupying the bridge, a smile tugged at my lips.

Good, good.

I cleared out spiders, living armors, rats, railings—anything inconvenient—and headed for the bridge.

After several close calls, I finally reached it safely. With relief, I stretched my leg out and stepped on the cap of a nearby Creature.

Bwooonk.

“This is a mushroom?”

I jumped along the caps of massive mushrooms, each one the height of an adult man.

“Yeah. Redcap Mushroom.”

After stepping off the mushroom cap at the end of the bridge, I spun my body around.

Creatures twisted their bodies, following my change of position.

I smirked and swung my sword without hesitation.

***

[KWAGWAGWAGWAGWANG!]

“Look!”

Leeho shot up from the lobby sofa.

“I told you he knows how to cut through bridges!”

“Holy— what is that?”

Karsten didn’t even realize his phone had slipped from his hand.

“Is that even possible?”

“Why do you never believe me? I told you I saw him do it before!”

“Wow... Hildebert really is good with a sword....”

“Lucia, why do you always sound like you’ve got no soul, no matter what you say.”

“That damn mushroom.”

Meanwhile, next to the people shouting in shock, Giacomo Ro crunched loudly on almonds.

“Looks like Mario.”

When Hildebert, carrying San, leapt across the mushroom caps, the chat screen had filled with similar comments.

Now the chat was reacting to the Badger sprinting under the collapsed bridge and charging toward the castle. His speed was so fast the Badgers in the situation room couldn’t even read the comments.

Behind the castle, the white-haired man spun his body.

He set San down.

“Uh.”

Everyone gathered in front of the screen stiffened.

“No way, again?”

“But isn’t there too much distance this time?”

“He’s swinging!”

Cheon Lin half rose from his seat and shouted.

“A big one’s coming!”

Voom—

When the Badger swung his sword, the air vibrated.

Air was pushed aside.

The flying sword strike slammed into the rusted castle.

[KWAGWAGWAGWAGWANG!]

Uwaaaaaaah!

Cheers burst out through the walls and windows.

Leeho let out a deflated exhale.

“Now he’s toppling a castle.”

[Let’s go.]

With the collapsing castle behind him, Hilde scooped San back up.

And he started running again. Completely unaware that hundreds of thousands of people were watching him.

***

A flute sounded.

As we passed the spinning cups attraction, a flute sounded from somewhere. I had no idea where it was coming from.

San lifted her head.

Until now she’d kept her head down and her body curled up, just like I told her.

It would be hard to ignore that sound and keep running.

“Let’s play word chain.”

“Huh?”

“If we play word chain, you won’t pay attention to that sound.”

I could sing instead, but then I’d have to sing in Imperial.

I only knew Imperial hymns and military songs.

Ah. And that weirdly addictive song Ami sang last time?

“Should I start?”

“Ah, yes! Okay!”

“Dictionary.”

Electronics. Magnet. Grill grate. Beef. Train. Ledger. Lawyer. Shooter. Cart.

“Re? Re?”

Even while playing word chain, I kept running.

Surrounded by drones, I swung my right hand tirelessly. With my blade, I protected San and cleared anything blocking our way. Creatures poured out from every direction, but it was still manageable.

But she must have been too overwhelmed to think of words.

San kept tilting her head.

“What starts with ‘Re’?”

[Redium.]

Yehyeon’s voice suddenly came from the drone.

I let out a breathless laugh and complained.

“You can’t use element names!”

Puhk—. I stabbed my sword into the abdomen of a red chimera charging with a battle cry, then pulled it back out.

“Let’s restart the round.”

“Singer!”

San shouted suddenly.

Flooded forest. Seaweed. Herbivore. Object. Construction. Design. Plan. Acquisition. Enlightenment. Map.

“Map dusk....”

I never finished the word.

Wooooong—

With a heavy sound, something descended from the sky.

A heavy presence. I cursed sharply and sprinted toward the nearest building.

An old storage shed. I knew Creatures were packed inside the cramped place, but I had no choice. Avoiding whatever was descending from above came first.

“San! Cover your ears!”

I shoved the storage door open with my shoulder as I shouted.

“Duck your body!” 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

I covered San’s ears with my hands and wrapped my body around hers.

Rolling over the spread-out octopus Creature on the floor, I braced myself for the impact.

Angel.

Aaah— aaaaah— aaaaah— aaaaah—!

My eardrums burst.

Blood streamed down from my ears. A heavy shock slammed into my body.

I kept holding San for a long moment. Crunch, crack. The wall of the shed split apart with an awful sound.

The shed collapsed, struck my back, and blew away behind me.

Kwaaaaang!

Then, with the roar of a raging engine and a following explosion, the song finally stopped.

Only then did I straighten my bent body. Thankfully, blood wasn’t coming from San’s ears. Maybe using my body to shield hers had worked.

I couldn’t hear anything—just ringing.

San didn’t recover immediately either.

Only when the octopus Creature beneath me wrapped its tentacles around my leg did I stand up.

“Thank you for the support.”

If the fighter jet hadn’t provided air support, the child would have been badly hurt.

After cutting down the octopus with my sword, I hoisted the trembling student over my shoulder and took a step.

“Do you hear me?”

Damn.

The drone had been swept away.

Fortunately, the broadcasting company drone was still intact.

It had slipped into a narrow gap between debris, hidden in a miraculous little crevice, and then rose again.

It wriggled toward me, as if pointing out a direction.

Looked like the Black Badger drone operator was temporarily controlling the broadcasting drone.

That must be how it managed to avoid being destroyed by the angel’s song.

“I’ll run in the direction you tell me.”

Holding the child, who was so shocked she had forgotten how to cry, I ran again.

Because I was worried about San, my running grew more frantic.

Thank goodness the Creatures had been swept away by the angel’s song and the cannon fire. Using the gap in the roads, I managed to reach the end of the amusement park.

A place where dead trees were planted at regular intervals.

The border between the amusement park ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) and the outside.

Beyond the shriveled trees were flowers large enough to swallow a truck whole.

The plants were barely detectable and not easily controlled. A troublesome opponent.

But Yehyeon had found the right spot.

My eyes caught a small gap between the thick stems.

“San.”

I called her softly.

“Are you okay? How do you feel?”

“...I’m okay.”

Without lifting her face from my chest, she mumbled in a blocked, muffled voice.

“Maybe....”

Her voice had no strength.

A jolt of fear went through me.

I wasn’t a healer or a doctor. I could perform urgent first aid, but how many injuries cannot be solved with first aid alone?

And this child was a completely ordinary human.

I bit my lip and ran.

Once we reached the thick barrier of carnivorous plants, I set her down. Even if there was a gap, it wasn’t wide enough—she would have to squeeze her body tight and crawl for quite a while.

“You’ll have to crawl a bit, but once you reach the other side, you can breathe for a moment.”

While comforting the child hesitating at the entrance, I prepared to make my own path. Crawling would be hindered by the longsword, so I sheathed it and reached for my dagger.

But the ground began shaking violently.

“Oh, shit.”

I muttered low and twisted my body.

San, who had been about to crawl into the plant’s burrow, looked up at me.

“Hilde?”

“Go.”

“Huh?”

“Go quickly!”

Her hesitation could be felt.

“What about you?!”

“Don’t dawdle!”

For my kin, this was the best possible chance.

A perfect chance to slice my neck or restrain me outside the Core. But if I got out of that narrow hole, the chance would decrease drastically.

So they had gathered something. A controller. And the controller had gathered Creatures.

A wave of Creatures crashed toward me.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

I slashed down the heavy stingers diving at me and frowned deeply.

Thankfully, San was crawling into the hole, sobbing hard.

“Yeah. I’ll follow. Once you get out safely.”

There were so many.

Creatures filled my entire view, flooding toward me like water. They were crushing each other in their rush to reach me. They meant to smother me to death with a wave of bodies.

I had to hold out until the child got past the plant fortress.

KWAaaaaaANG!

I unleashed a sword strike.

Once. Twice. Three times...

With each wave surging toward me, I pushed them back with blade force. The Creatures that died piled up on the ground, but the next ones climbed over the mound and pressed forward.

Waves climbing over mounds of corpses, then creating new mounds.

As I repeated this, the intervals grew shorter.

This was getting dangerous.

But not enough time had passed for me to be sure the child had made it out. I wished more drones had survived.

Since I wasn’t sure, I pushed myself further.

Three more times.

Two more....

Just one more for now.

KWAaaaANG!

The moment the corpse mound piled up at my feet—

The moment the mass of approaching things stopped looking like individual Creatures and instead like a solid, impurity-filled wall—

The moment that wall climbed over the mound—

Someone fired a bazooka, blowing away part of the wave along with the carnivorous plants.

I snapped my head back to look.

“Aki, sir.”

A senior with short hair stood on a moving tank, aiming a second round.

Black hair whipped wildly around.

“Seniors?”

No sooner had I spoken than the Creature wave crashed into me.

“Urgh.”

The suffocating pressure crushed down on me.

I couldn’t breathe.

As I was swept away, I thought vaguely of how it felt like being caught in a current of water. My body was dragged helplessly. There was no resisting it.

But the sweeping lasted only for a brief moment.

Why so heavy—

Movement stopped, and I opened my eyes.

It wasn’t hard to understand the situation. My torso was pinned under a mountain of Creatures and carnivorous plant corpses.

What a sight.

I clicked my tongue at myself, and seniors were already shouting as they charged toward me.

“Uaaaargh!”

Why did so many come?

“Push!”

Richard Green roared.

“Push the wall and pull him out!”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The ones who had sprinted here slammed into the wall of creature remains and plant matter.

The lifting of the wall happened in an instant. Just like rescuing someone trapped under a subway train, the seniors forced open a gap and dragged me out from beneath.

Dozens of hands grabbed my arms.

I recognized several familiar faces among them.

Yun. Ricardo. Jason Trevain. William Walker.

And many other seniors whose names I didn’t know.

After dragging me free, they stood me up and placed my sword in my hand.

Then they held my shoulders firmly.

They stayed like that until I, embarrassed by the silence, parted my lips.

But the words I was about to speak were drowned out by the helicopter landing right in front of us.

“Let’s go!”

Richard Green shouted.

“The portal will be ready!”

Ami was inside the helicopter.

She raised her thumb silently at me, glowing with pride.

And that was how we were safely rescued.

***

Hildebert stepped out of the portal.

One step behind San.

Into a frenzy of ecstatic cheers.

“Waaaaaaah!”

“It’s the return of a hero!”

“He came back!”

Flashes bursting. Noise loud enough to shake buildings. Thunderous applause.

San’s scream filled with tears, and the scientists’ tear-soaked cheers.

The heavy pats of seniors acknowledging him.

Hildebert Taleb accepted them all as he walked slowly.

Smiling broadly at the sight of San running toward him, crying.