The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 612: Time Left (1)

Rrrrumble–! The stones spread across the ground bulged upward. Between them, something like dark–green snakes flickered, then all shot up at once, flying in like dozens of spearheads. Isabella stomped hard with a boom and swung her axe wide. With a crisp slicing sound, the vines were chopped to pieces and scattered across the ground.

However, the respite after blocking the attack lasted only a moment; thin branches sprouted from the severed vines and lunged again. At the same time, Isabella’s axe caught the light as she brought it down on the vines.

Ssssshh–

A frigid mist rolled in. Isabella hurriedly fell back and glanced at Park Yerim. Ignoring the look, Park Yerim froze all the vines solid. Then she swept her spear and drew the moisture out of the air around them.

Crackle crackle– In midair, frozen lances of ice rained down toward Cho Hwawoon and the Hunters around him. Cho Hwawoon drew his sword and swung it in a long arc, and the ice shards scattered in all directions with a loud crash. The first wave was blocked, but new ice spears were already forming around Park Yerim. As the transparent spears shot out again and Isabella moved to charge the enemy, she once more faltered and pulled back her foot. She looked over at Park Yerim, eyes tinged with annoyance.

“What are you doing.”

“I’m fighting, obviously.”

“You’re getting in my way. And it’s barely doing anything.”

“Barely doing anything! I’m pinning them down just fine!”

“You can’t see it’s all being blocked and going to waste? You’re flinging things all over so I can’t even get in there.”

“Why can’t you? Just time your attacks and go in.”

“Shouldn’t you be the one timing things to back me up? You’re the ranged one!”

“Every melee–type I know manages just fine on their own. Except you!”

Park Yerim and Isabella stared at each other like they genuinely couldn’t understand the other. Watching them, Noah and Samir both looked pained.

Up to now, Park Yerim had never really needed to adjust herself to other people. Normally, Han Yujin used his Teacher skills on her, and in Chatterbox’s party she was teamed with Song Taewon, who had more combat experience than just about any other Hunter. There were few situations where she could cause problems no matter how wildly she rampaged.

Isabella was much the same. Even when raiding dungeons, she had rarely gone in as part of a team with other Hunters, and once she was acknowledged as an S–rank Hunter she mostly moved with Samir, who simply kept up with her speed on his own. On top of that, as the unofficial number one in the Middle Eastern rankings, she almost never ended up in situations where she actually had to combine her strength with others.

While the two of them were clashing, Cho Hwawoon twisted his body, smoothly dodging the ice spears, and charged straight at them. As the sword blade sliced sharply through the air, Park Yerim raised an ice wall. At the same time, Isabella swung her axe toward the sword.

The axe blade shattered the ice wall into pieces, and after losing power and speed cutting through the obstacle, it met the sword and wobbled. With a faint crumbling sound, part of the axe head corroded and fell away.

“Ugh, stop getting in my way!”

“If you’d just stayed still, I would’ve blocked it!”

“You’re both a mess.”

Kids.

At Cho Hwawoon’s mocking words, Park Yerim and Isabella’s eyes turned feral. But it was obvious the two of them just couldn’t sync up. Amid the chaos of ice and water, Peace, who had pulled back in a liquefied state, grew into his adolescent form. At the moment Noah was about to partially transform into water and join in—

“Support types really are a nuisance.”

A Hunter slipped out from behind Noah. At the same time, Peace lunged without so much as a growl, as if he had been waiting for that. Flames flared up over the Flame Horned Lion’s entire body, and his bared claws slashed through the air. Vines surged up in front of the Hunter who narrowly dodged. Peace stepped on the vines, spread his wings, and sprang lightly into the air.

– Grrr.

With a low rumble in his throat, the huge beast came crashing straight down at the Hunter. Thud! The shield of tightly intertwined branches that appeared was instantly set ablaze, crumbled into ash, and shattered. While Peace kept the Hunter busy, Noah quickly cast a forced support skill on Cho Hwawoon. The instant Cho Hwawoon’s movements faltered, Park Yerim and Isabella both moved to attack without missing the opening – and hesitated at the exact same time. Cho Hwawoon quickly righted his stance, slipped between the two of them, and went straight for Noah.

“Why didn’t you attack!”

“I thought you were going to!”

Isabella hastily hurled her axe at Cho Hwawoon. The spinning axe head whirled in a wide circle and slammed into the ground, and Park Yerim sent an ice spear straight at Cho Hwawoon as he dodged the axe.

“Nice, that one hit!”

But that was the only time; after that the two of them kept getting in each other’s way. They both had excellent abilities, so they could just barely hold Cho Hwawoon off, but that was it. Because of that, it was hard for Noah to support them as well. Peace, who was handling a Hunter alone, was actually doing better.

‘Should I use the Nest.’

If he used the Nest Where Light Falls, they could win easily. But the cooldown was long, making him hesitate. They still hadn’t even found Han Yujin – what if things got even more dangerous later? As Noah wavered, keeping only his Conductor of Mana skill active—

“All done!”

A man among the distant Hunters shouted. At the same time, the ground beneath them shook.

“Urk!”

“What the hell is this?!”

– Grr?

A faint gray halo of light surged up. At the same moment, the skills of Park Yerim, Isabella, Noah, and Peace all cut off. Park Yerim dropped back to the ground, and Isabella’s stats dropped. Noah’s water form dissolved, and Peace also lost his wings and flames. As the light vanished, the Hunters who had been waiting on the sidelines rushed at the bewildered group. Isabella grit her teeth and knocked aside Cho Hwawoon’s sword. Her axe blade dented deeply again.

“We need to fall back for now.”

“We can’t fly! Hunter Park Yerim, me, Peace – none of us!”

“W– what is this! My skills…”

Flustered, Park Yerim ran over to Samir and asked him something. After hearing his answer, she pressed both hands to the ground and shouted.

“Just five minutes! No, three!”

Isabella adjusted her grip on her axe. Noah drew his weapon as well, and Samir gripped his spear. Peace had lost his flames, but not his presence as an S–rank monster; he let out a mighty roar.

“Hunter Noah, what about your healing skills?”

“I wasn’t using them at the time, so I can.”

“Then I’m counting on you.”

Isabella charged straight into the group of Hunters. Her axe swept in a wide arc, and weapons and skills rained down across her whole body. In an instant her body was covered in wounds, thick mana surged through her, and a blood–tinged gust exploded out. The Hunters struck by the heavy gale were blown back in a line. The large axe vanished, and in Isabella’s hands appeared a pair of thin, crescent–moon–shaped blades. The twin shotels sliced in every direction as if they were dancing.

It was a combat support skill that temporarily boosted her stats and the strength of her weapons in exchange for injuries. While Isabella single–handedly held off a crowd of Hunters, Noah and Peace protected Park Yerim as she focused on her mana.

“Coming at me again in that state, Your Highness?”

Cho Hwawoon looked coolly at Samir, who was blocking his path. Samir let out a short sigh and swept his mussed hair back.

“I may not look it, but I’m used to getting beat up and rolling around.”

Cho Hwawoon thrust his sword sharply, as if to end things in one go. Samir’s body suddenly dropped low, then slid smoothly across the ground, circling around behind Cho Hwawoon. Even injured, his movements were still quick.

“I’m also used to dodging.”

He flicked a dagger at Cho Hwawoon’s neck, as if to say he couldn’t win but could at least stall for time.

Clang– The dagger flew up into the air. For a moment, the clash of weapons, savage growls, and screams mixed with the reek of blood.

“All done!”

At Park Yerim’s shout, the ground began to rumble and shake—

KWA–BOOM–BOOM!

An enormous mass of water erupted upward. It was water drawn from a lake not far away. Following the underground water vein toward the direction of the lake Samir had pointed out, Park Yerim pushed her mana to the limit and smiled, sweat soaking her face. Their view was swallowed entirely by water, and some of the surging streams wrapped around Peace, Noah, Isabella, and Samir. The deluge spilled onward as it was, and when the water drained away, only the intruders were left on the drenched ground.

Swoooosh– The raging current swept across the wasteland in an instant. Having put a good distance between them, Park Yerim stepped out of the water and pulled out the people who had been carried along with it.

“Everyone’s alive, right?”

A normal person would never have survived, but since they were all S–rank, they had only swallowed a bit of water. Peace shook out his whole body and let out a disgruntled whine. With his skills sealed, he couldn’t even dry himself off.

“A full transformation is impossible. I can’t even just bring my wings out…”

Noah said, casting a healing skill on Isabella’s injuries.

“We can’t use any of the skills we had active back then.”

“Same here. You couldn’t use ice but you still used water. What’s going on?”

“…Because it’s not a skill?”

Park Yerim answered Isabella’s question.

“The skills I used were freezing things, flight, and teleportation. Controlling water isn’t technically a skill.”

“It’s not a skill?”

“Uh… I’m not really sure how to explain it, but yeah.”

You could call it an ability she inherited and learned from the Mermaid Queen. Wringing out her wet clothes, Park Yerim furrowed her brow in thought.

“Then… could it be something tied to the System?”

“The System?”

“It’s, uh, just me talking to myself!”

She didn’t know enough to explain it, and she couldn’t judge whether it was something she should even talk about. Park Yerim looked at Samir and Isabella’s wounds. The power that worsened injuries and damaged weapons felt like just another skill, but the part that blocked skills might be a force connected to the System. Like how Chatterbox had manipulated the System.

“…If Mister were here, this wouldn’t be a problem!”

He would have noticed something, figured it out, and explained it to them. At Park Yerim’s words, Isabella tilted her head.

“Hunter Han Yujin is F–rank. He’s not normal, and he looked more reliable than your average high–rank Hunter, but he wouldn’t help much in a fight.”

“Mister being weak, that part’s true. But if he were here, you and I wouldn’t be clashing like this, and also, anyway, he would’ve solved everything!”

For sure.

Noah nodded in agreement, and Isabella and Samir both looked surprised. They remembered a good portion of the broadcast, but even so, it was hard for them to understand that level of faith the two had in Han Yujin.

“Anyway, where do we go now? We need to meet up with Han Yuhyun and contact Chief Song, too. Hyunah should arrive sometime tomorrow. Noah, what about Liette?”

“She’s probably still in France. It looks like the information on the Sesung Guild Leader’s marriage came out of Europe, so she’s helping Hunter Kang Soyeong track it down.”

“First, let’s borrow a car.”

Isabella said, twisting her long hair to wring it out.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s around here.”

“This is a route unlicensed mid– and low–rank Hunters and private soldiers use pretty often. We can just borrow one.”

“Unlicensed? Then we can really just take it! I like that. They’ll have phones too, right? Mine got swept away in the water.”

If she could fly, it would be easy to search. Park Yerim stepped forward with a regretful sigh. Mud splashed up from the wet ground with a squelch.

My forehead felt cool. No, my whole body was cold. I was sure I’d fallen asleep near the fireplace, but I felt strangely chilled. Through a dizzy headache, I barely managed to open my eyes and saw Gyeol’s worried face.

“Stay lying down, Dad.”

“…Gyeol?”

“You’ve got a high fever.”

So that cold feeling had been a fever. Must be the flu. Gyeol placed a hand on my forehead.

“The King of Harmless told you to take good care of yourself. You really were sick.”

“It’s just the fatigue catching up with me. I’m fine. I used to get the flu like this once in a while, even before.”

I tried to sit up, but the moment I lifted my head a little, my vision spun. Gyeol pushed down firmly on my shoulder, wearing a stern expression.

“No. You need to rest.”

“But… Number 71, how much time has passed?”

“By your world’s standard, 17 hours, 21 minutes, and 33 seconds have passed, Master.”

Almost a whole day already! Yuhyun and the others would have reached the airport long ago!

“Gyeol, hang on. I’ll just go out for a bit and at least leave a marker.”

Moving around didn’t seem very doable, though. After hesitating, Gyeol nodded.

“You have to come right back in. Or should I go look for Uncle instead?”

“No, you can’t! It’s dangerous alone. Instead, let’s write a letter.”

“I’ll write it for you.”

So that even if someone else found it, they wouldn’t recognize it. Chief Song definitely said he’d be coming along too. I dictated the letter to Gyeol.

“Chief Song Taewon, Dad is currently down with the flu and being looked after by Number 71. I’ll be back within a few days, so please don’t worry.”

Not many people knew about Number 71. Chief Song would figure out who wrote the letter easily enough. And if Yuhyun or Yerim found it instead, they could just ask Chief Song and find out at once.

“We can take some Christmas decorations out with us, right?”

“Yes. It will consume a small amount of mana, but not enough to have any impact.”

It was a bit of a waste, but if we left just the letter by itself it would be hard to notice. We wrote three copies of the letter and hung one on the antlers of a big Rudolph plush, one on a snowman’s nose, and one on a present box’s ribbon. Just in case, I turned into a cat before going outside.

“Dad, you stay put!”

The surroundings were still a wreck, and it was quiet since it was night. Gyeol scattered the decorated Christmas ornaments here and there and then came back. Then he picked me up, spread his wings, and lifted off lightly. Thanks to Gyeol, we were able to return to the reception room inside the drawer without falling into the water.

“Now get some real rest. I brought instant food too.”

They were the foods I’d stocked up beforehand. I was worried something might be happening outside, but I decided to trust them. Everyone would be fine. I just had to recover quickly and get out there before Christmas.