Black Badger

Thirty minutes before the spatial gate opened at Black Badger Headquarters.

Hildebert stabbed and killed a Creature that had broken into the library.

Even after Black Badger declared a strike, the library stayed open. Some libraries had chosen to shut down, but the one in this district had decided to keep its doors open.

They had even prepared a small exhibition.

The garlands they had hung up and the cookies they had baked themselves were scattered messily across the floor.

Standing amid the wreckage, Hildebert calmly propped the fallen library bookshelves back upright.

Fortunately, no one had died.

Though they had clearly suffered psychological shock.

“Thank you so much!”

The library staff wiped away tears as they thanked him again and again.

“We really thought this was the end!”

“I can’t believe I actually saw it right in front of me!”

“It’s different seeing it in person. We trained so hard, too.”

“I wish even one snack had survived.”

They kept expressing their gratitude while hurriedly picking up books as Hilde set the shelves back in place.

“It’s nothing special, but it’s all we have to offer.”

“Would you like some coffee? It’s unopened.”

“I’m fine.”

The library patrons were the same.

Everyone who had been inside the building gathered to help pick up the fallen books.

Many of them had come to study for exams, and they were frantic that they couldn’t give Hildebert the snacks and drinks they had brought in their backpacks.

Of course, Hildebert smiled and declined everything they offered.

Then he waved his hand and walked out of the library.

That whole process took exactly thirty minutes.

Until his sixth sense screamed a warning.

His recovered senses went wild.

“...Is something wrong?”

A library employee cautiously asked when she saw the man stop dead in his tracks.

“Are you hurt?”

Her concern quickly turned to fear.

Because the man who had stopped was widening golden eyes and twisting his composed face.

Because someone who looked like he only ever smiled kindly was now openly baring vivid anger.

Those standing beside Hildebert flinched without realizing it and took a step back.

But the man seemed not to notice them at all.

A man frozen in place, one hand resting on his sword.

The one with white hair hanging ominously over his face murmured slowly.

“You’re here.”

It was a quiet murmur.

And it was the last thing Hildebert said before leaving.

Without even saying goodbye, Hildebert kicked off the ground and vanished.

***

Good.

That was Yehyeon’s first thought the moment he heard Ska’s report.

Just hold on a little longer.

Tatadadadadang!

Gunfire poured into the oncoming Creatures.

The front line that had forced its way through the wall collapsed under the barrage.

The horde trampled over the fallen as it advanced.

The turrets Yun had repositioned flashed like they had gone mad.

Tatadadadadada!

“Keep firing! Overwhelm them with firepower!”

Richard Green roared.

Right.

As ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) long as there were no deaths.

Just hold on a little longer, and the recovered one would arrive.

Yehyeon clenched his teeth and gripped his sword.

He had handed his gun to Yun right after the spatial gate opened. The gun Yun had been using had run dry long ago. The only weapon Yun had now was a dagger.

The Commander, poised to slice down incoming aerial units, asked,

“Where is he?”

The moment he asked, a subordinate let out a short scream and was hurled into the air.

A violent crash as the body hit the ground.

“Ska?”

[We’ll rescue the remaining general staff trapped on the fourth floor and then move.]

For the first time, urgency crept into Ska’s voice.

[Someone is a step away from being eaten alive by a Creature.]

There are still civilians inside?

His chest sank.

But just as he was about to let out a bitter curse at the bad news, the Creatures stopped advancing.

Dead stop.

“Huh?”

Yehyeon blinked.

The other Badgers stared blankly ahead.

“What the hell?”

The Creatures halted and began looking around.

An instant of silence fell over the battlefield that had been deafening moments before.

Those facing the enemy were just as confused, frozen in place.

Dante spoke up, puzzled.

“Why aren’t they moving?”

The Creatures turned around.

Then they started fighting the ones rushing in behind them. A brutal clash erupted right in front of them. The Badgers gaped at a sight they had never imagined, not even in their dreams.

“This is insane....”

A scene that left even veteran Badgers stunned.

It wasn’t that they had never seen Creatures fight each other.

But seeing the attacking horde collectively lose its mind like this was a first.

Jack Black.

A name popped into Yehyeon’s head.

The red-haired handler was here too.

“Hey, looks like those bastards caught some kind of plague!”

Ro shouted.

“The timing’s perfect!”

No one bothered pointing out to Ro that things never worked out this conveniently.

Normally Ami would have corrected him, tirelessly, every single time.

But she wasn’t here.

Yehyeon muttered, “Guess so,” and assessed the situation.

It was good that the immediate pressure had been stopped, but it wouldn’t last long.

Jack Black couldn’t possibly control every Creature here.

He lifted his head and looked to the sky.

Rose, riding a massive crow-like Creature, circled the Great Witch, looking for an opening.

Thanks to her drawing attention, the drone Ska had launched was flying toward them without trouble.

A drone carrying a trench mini-Core device.

If they could secure that, they could build a far sturdier trench.

“Rear guard, cover the drone!”

Yehyeon ordered, looking over the assembled subordinates.

“The front line reorganize, and the moment the horde surges again, push back with firepower!”

Tatadadadadang!

KABOOOM!

The subordinates answered with gunfire.

[All remaining staff successfully rescued.]

Ska reported.

[We’re moving now. Please hold a little longer.]

Tatadadadang!

The blazing gunfire continued.

The defensive line formed by the Creatures Jack Black had been controlling began to collapse one by one.

They were running low on ammo.

Yehyeon watched his subordinates pour out firepower, then sharply turned his head.

Some were using piles of corpses as makeshift cover.

As the second wave of Creatures began to surge forward, the drone carrying the trench Core device reached the trench perimeter.

The whirring of the drone’s propellers battered their ears.

Yun stepped toward the shield positioned at the center.

“I’ll open the ceiling.”

As he operated the device, the shield covering the space above them vanished.

Yehyeon caught the machine the drone dropped.

“How long to install it?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

Yun answered and immediately activated the shield again.

A combat Core far smaller than the one currently covering Black Badger Headquarters.

“Activating.”

Something burst out from the center of the device.

Like a net gun firing and the net snapping open, something shot upward into the air from the activated machine.

What flew up spread wide like the ribs of an umbrella.

The ends of those ribs slammed down beyond the shield and into the center of the Creature horde.

Pababababak!

A few Badgers nearly had their legs skewered by fragments of the trench Core device slamming into the ground.

Some Creatures were actually pierced straight through and died.

“Holy shit!”

“Jesus, that scared me!”

“Core generation starting.”

Yun reported flatly.

Yehyeon shouted to the subordinates holding formation.

“Fall back behind the frame!”

[Small Core device generating]

[Small Core device generation 5% complete]

“Commander!”

Just as Yehyeon relaxed at the Core device beginning its generation, a Badger shouted.

“The ones pushing in now—bullets aren’t working well!”

Yehyeon widened his eyes.

The front row of Creatures had changed. Everything that had been there before was dead. Cyclopes, Reversed Gods, and pigs had piled small mountains of corpses.

And behind them, things disturbingly close to human shape were pushing forward.

There was no sign of intelligence in the ones climbing over the corpses. Oozing dark gray sludge like something dragged out of a mud pit, they looked like zombies from an old movie.

And the bullets truly weren’t working.

The rounds lodged into their bodies and were swallowed up.

Unless they were crushed outright with something like a bazooka, stopping them seemed nearly impossible.

Yehyeon clicked his tongue and hurled his dagger.

Thuk!

The dagger buried itself in a neck.

The struck Creature kept walking.

[You have to cut off their legs!]

Yoow’s voice came through the earpiece.

[Those things don’t die in the first place!]

“Looks that way,”

Yehyeon replied.

“The problem is, we don’t have the leeway. Where is Hilde?”

[Creatures are swarming the HQ detonation button! Find the internal mole!]

The tactician shouted, his voice stripped of composure.

[If a building this big collapses, everything in this area gets wiped out!]

Yehyeon was about to respond.

But before he could say anything, the voice on the other end changed.

An unfamiliar voice came through.

A captivating voice Yehyeon had never heard before.

[Your phone’s still alive, right? I’m calling—switch to speakerphone and turn the volume all the way up!]

A woman shouted urgently.

[If you squeeze them with divine power, they can’t move!]

Yehyeon didn’t argue.

He simply did as she said. He answered the call and immediately switched to speakerphone.

The moment he cranked the volume to maximum, singing filled the air.

A bewitching voice rang out.

Even those at the very front of the formation snapped their heads around, their attention seized by the song. Yehyeon himself forgot to issue orders for a moment.

The resonance drowned out the roar of flames and the oncoming horde.

The mud-covered Creatures collapsed one after another.

The Badgers burst into cheers.

“What the hell?!”

“Fall back and reform the line!”

Yehyeon snapped back to himself and shouted.

“Anyone who can’t fight, fall back!”

BRRRR–BOOOOM!

Thanks to the song dropping the mud Creatures in heaps, a fleeting moment of breathing room opened up on the ground.

At that moment, an explosion went off overhead. People looked up as drones detonated midair.

And there was a woman flying in a straight line toward the Great Witch.

The Creature that had destroyed the additional incoming drone squadron twisted its body. The Great Witch’s head turned toward Rose, who was throwing away her rifle.

Now there were only the two of them in the sky again.

No other flying Creatures. No drones.

The woman who had cleared the skies pulled out a dagger.

“What?”

Orbs of light began forming around the Great Witch’s body.

“Why is the charge time so fast?”

“Dodge down!”

“Too late! Stab it!”

The veteran Badgers knew the Great Witch’s energy cannon charge time.

Absurdly short. And once charging started, dodging was nearly impossible.

“Head!”

Jason Trevain, who had been providing aerial cover, roared.

The best defense was offense.

“Stab the head!”

The Great Witch fired the energy cannon.

The blast struck the crow Creature directly. But amid the agonized scream echoing through the sky, Rose’s voice was nowhere to be heard.

Because Rose had leapt upward.

Like a frog jumping, she sprang off the crow’s back and evaded the blast.

Then she drove herself down toward the enemy.

She swung the dagger in midair.

Thuk!

The blade buried itself in the hooded face.

A cheer erupted.

“It worked!”

“It’s falling.”

Some rejoiced. Others read what would come next.

They saw the monster clutch the one who had stabbed it as it fell.

“It’s dropping!”

Rose plummeted together with the Great Witch.

“The crow! The crow!”

“It already fell!”

“Another flying unit!”

There was none.

With the skies already cleared, Rose fell through empty air.

From three stories up. Toward a ground filled with crushed buildings, jagged rebar, and Creature corpses.

There was nowhere she could land safely.

No matter where she fell, it would mean severe injury. Additional drones and unmanned units had not yet arrived.

Ami, with her boots, wasn’t here.

The woman fell helplessly.

“No.”

Leeho muttered.

With a bloodless face, he stared at the spot where Rose would hit.

“There’s rebar down there....”

KABOOOOM!

Then came a sword strike that swept everything aside.

Blinding white. Overwhelming.

A slash that filled their vision—and when it passed, a person remained.

Someone who had caught the falling Rose.

“That was close,”

Hildebert said.

“You scared people.”

Rose answered not with words, but by spraying a nosebleed.