The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 737: Ambush (3)

Twaang— clang— a sharp metallic ringing split the air, like someone striking a blade against a gong, and the clouds tore apart.

What emerged between them stole my breath.

The moon was enormous.

A silver moon wrapped in pale gold. It should have been a deeply bitten crescent, but all I could see was endless silver. Its surface was smooth as a mirror, yet reflected nothing, and it filled the entire sky. My feet gave a reflexive step backward.

Moonlight flooded everything.

Silver washed the darkness away. The moon belonged to the night, and yet it was driving night out and taking its place.

“How gaudy.”

While everyone stood frozen, staring upward, a dry, almost bored voice cut through the silence. My head cleared all at once. Beside me, Seong Hyunjae sneezed.

“Not my taste. Though I suppose it is meant to impress.”

“Take some cold medicine. You’re coughing your lungs out—didn’t even stop by a pharmacy?”

I tossed him a bottle of cold medicine, then handed one to Chief Song too.

“Take it just in case. He could’ve passed it to you already.”

Twaaang— the sky rang again.

I could feel the scattered mana lurch all at once. Crescent Moon was forcing her way into the dream world.

“Peace, stay by Yerim.”

– Grruuung.

“I’m still stronger than an unawakened person, you know!”

“It’s because I worry too much. This is a riot shield, right? Chief Song, you know how to use one?”

One side of the rooftop was piled high with equipment I’d had Gyeol prepare. Chief Song nodded.

“Yes. I heard it was specially made for monsters.”

“It was built before dungeon byproducts became widely used, so now that Gyeol’s awake, it should still perform the way it was designed to. I used this kind of gear myself back when I was in the military.”

That took me back.

Even low-rank monsters were much faster than people. At close range, an average soldier would get bitten before he even got a gun up. At the same time, low-rank monsters tended to attack simply, which made them easier to block with a shield than you’d think.

“We need to tell Noah and Liette to stay hidden out there…”

“If I send Morse by gunfire, they’ll get it. There’s a standard evac code.”

Hwang Rim said it as he aimed his gun through one of the firing slits in the wall. Yerim pulled out her phone too.

“I’ll leave a message on unnie’s social media.”

“Here—stab vests and combat boots. I know Yuhyun and Yerim’s sizes, but the rest are guesses. So I had a few options made.”

I’d been especially worried about the shoes, but thankfully they fit well enough. Unexpectedly, Hwang Rim had the biggest feet. Seong Hyunjae and Chief Song were the same size. Considering their height difference, maybe Seong Hyunjae’s feet were on the smaller side.

“Mister, these shoes are tight. They’re too small.”

“Hyung, me too.”

“What? Did you grow again already?”

No, seriously, how long had it even been? I hadn’t noticed because items resized themselves automatically. Yuhyun found a spare pair that fit, but Yerim had no choice but to keep wearing her own shoes.

When we got home, I was replacing all the kids’ clothes and shoes first thing.

Booom— the air kept trembling, like a giant drum being struck over and over. Through the pale moonlight, darker streams of light thickened and took shape. They spread around the Breeding Facility, forming a barrier.

“Seong Hyunjae, since you’re still half-dead, support from the rear with Yerim. Chief Song. Hwang Rim. You two know this kind of thing better than anyone, so I’m counting on you.”

Yuhyun and I grabbed weapons and ran, placing them at the firing slits along the curved rooftop wall. Chief Song and Hwang Rim set up machine guns and other weapons so they could fire immediately.

“Put the spare ammunition in the center.”

Seong Hyunjae spoke up. The roof was wide enough that resupplying from a single point would take time. I left that to the three fastest ones—Peace and the others. They’d be able to rush wherever things started going bad.

– Kiiiiiik!

As we moved, monster cries started breaking through the moonlight. Dozens of flying lizards burst through the curtain of light. On the ground below, black beasts began creeping into view as well.

– Grrrrrrrr.

– Guooooh.

Claws scraping against stone. Teeth clicking together. Harsh snorts.

Even though the transcendents could interfere now, the world’s mana was still in disarray. That kept every monster here down to low-rank, but there were enough of them to be dangerous anyway.

– Kyaaaak!

Boom! The first flying lizard slammed into the curved glass roof. No one had to tell us twice. We opened fire.

– Kiik!

– Kiiii!

Between the gunshots, the glass walls boomed again and again. Screeech— claws scraped wildly over the glass before one monster got hit and dropped. Thud! It hit the ground, and a land beast leaped up over the corpse. Teeth and claws tore at the wall. Others were already climbing over each other, trying to scale it.

Thankfully, the walls only picked up scratches.

Bang, bang, bang! Chief Song dropped three monsters in a row, one clean shot each. Hwang Rim, meanwhile, raked the sky with automatic fire. Monsters rained down, but the gaps they left were filled almost instantly.

The glass roof was already black with them. Flying monsters clung to it in a thick mass, like summer bugs swarming a floodlight.

Screech, screech— claws scratched furiously at the glass. It wasn’t going to break easily, but the sound raised every hair on my body.

– Kyaaak!

“Northeast!”

Seong Hyunjae shouted as he fired at a monster jamming its beak through a slit. He still wasn’t in good enough shape to run around—too many potions, with mana still unstable—but he could watch the whole field and call out where things were about to break.

“Mister!”

Yerim threw me an ammo box strapped to Peace’s back. Seong Hyunjae had already told us which monsters were vulnerable to bullets. Half the flyers clung to the glass ceiling; the other half clawed at the firing slits. I kept shooting at the foreclaws trying to pry their way inside. Bodies pattered down one after another. At a glance, the base of the outer wall already had several yards of monster bodies piled against it. Dead ones, live ones—it didn’t matter. They climbed over each other in a living tide.

They still couldn’t quite reach the rooftop, but if we left them like that, the walls might not hold their weight.

“We need to clear out the lower levels too!”

I shouted it, then primed a bomb and threw it through the slit. It landed far enough from the wall not to damage it too badly.

Kaboom!

Flames swallowed the monster swarm. Yuhyun, Chief Song, and Hwang Rim each dropped bombs in other directions too. Explosions rolled one after another, and smoke rose in clouds.

“Hoo…”

Sweat slid down my cheek and ran along the back of my neck. The sky was still blindingly white. The moonlight kept pouring down, quiet and endless, and there were too many monsters to count. We shot, we bombed, but every gap lasted only seconds before more filled it.

There was no end to them.

The outcome was obvious.

We’d be the ones to tire first.

“…Hyung!”

Yuhyun, moving to another position, suddenly stopped and called out to me. He was near the elevator.

“Listen!”

“What?”

I rushed over, and then I heard it too.

Scratch, scrape, thud, screeeech.

Something was clawing and pounding from below, the sound carrying up through the elevator shaft.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

“Is there a breach in the wall?!”

“No! Little Jin, why?”

“Monsters got into the first floor!”

How the hell? At least we’d removed every stairwell and left only the elevator. As Chief Song swapped magazines, his expression sharpened.

“They dug.”

“Oh.”

The basement.

I hadn’t even considered that.

“Set fire around the base of the walls—keep them from digging any farther!”

If that many of them started burrowing at once, the whole building might not hold up. Thankfully, they didn’t seem smart enough to coordinate that well yet. Leaving the walls to Chief Song and Hwang Rim, Yuhyun and I turned to the elevator doors. Yuhyun tapped one lightly.

“Weak. Hit it hard enough and it’ll come right off.”

“That’s elevator doors for you.”

They practically tell you not to lean on them. The screeching from below kept coming. Sounds like they were trying to climb the inside of the shaft.

“Open it.”

The second I said it, Yuhyun kicked the door hard. Bang! The elevator doors tore free and tumbled into the car. I threw a small bomb onto the roof of the elevator and jumped back.

Boom!

The roof blew apart, and then—

Screeeech, boom!

The elevator car dropped.

Something smashed below, the sound echoing up the shaft. I looked down into the black opening. A cluster of gleaming eyes stared up at us. I fired without hesitation.

“The ceiling’s starting to look shaky too.”

Seong Hyunjae said it almost lazily.

Above us, monsters had gone past clinging to the curved glass roof—they were piling on top of each other now. I could hear the faint groan of stressed glass. I glanced from Hwang Rim, breathing hard, to Song Taewon, wiping sweat from his eyes. The mountain of spare ammunition in the center had been cut by more than half.

Creeeak. Crack.

The glass kept making ugly noises.

Time felt fast and slow at once. Maybe an hour had passed. Maybe longer. Maybe less.

“Hwang Rim! That helicopter sturdy?”

“Should be armored.”

“Then we fall back to the helicopters!”

The glass roof wasn’t going to last much longer. We grabbed our weapons and pulled back. Chief Song turned to me.

“Going airborne is too dangerous.”

“There are too many flyers, yeah. We hold the roof as long as we can. Yuhyun, the helicopter key?”

“Inside.”

“We’ll use the helicopter Yuhyun flew in on as cover for the rear wall.”

We started up the large helicopter and repositioned it. Once its doors were sealed shut, we moved to the military helicopter in front of it.

Then the glass ceiling, already groaning nonstop, finally gave way.

Crash!

It lost the fight against the monsters’ weight and attacks, and a hole tore open. We dove for cover inside the helicopter. Glass rained down in sheets, and the monsters came pouring through after it.

– Kiiiiiik!

– Kyaat! Kik!

Once the roof started collapsing, it didn’t stop. The entire ceiling shattered in a rolling avalanche. Flying monsters slammed into each other as they swarmed the helicopter. Wings thundered where the roof had once sealed us in.

And then—

– Kuuuuhrraaaang!

A deep, heavy roar ripped straight through the chaos.

Peace.

The roar of an apex predator, the Flame Horned Lion, crushed the fluttering clamor in an instant. The flying monsters froze all at once—then scrambled backward in panic. Even with his stats reduced by the lack of mana, Peace’s body was still the same size. Unlike humans, he hadn’t physically shrunk.

– Grrrrrrrr.

Peace let out a low growl. The flying monsters burst back up through the broken roof.

It wouldn’t last long.

“Good job, Peace.”

We used the break to reset our formation after diving clear of the falling glass. Shields went up in front. Spears and swords came ready behind them.

Kiit— the monsters that had retreated started creeping back onto the rooftop, one by one. The tension pulled tighter and tighter.

Then one of them spread its wings wide.

Bang!

A gunshot cracked out. The monster’s head burst through, and it dropped dead onto the roof. The rest lunged in at once.

Crunch! Peace caught the throat of the first one and crushed it in a single bite. More gunfire followed, and Yuhyun snatched up his sword.

“Yerim, Seong Hyunjae—fire at the holes in the ceiling from the back!”

I gripped my spear and braced. A monster slammed into my shield with a clang. I drove the spear forward. Thunk! Beside me, Yuhyun buried a dagger into a monster’s skull. Chief Song had wrapped the stab vest around his arm and jammed it into a monster’s beak; while it flailed in confusion, he cut its throat clean through.

“This won’t hold for long, will it?”

Hwang Rim sounded far too relaxed for someone kicking monsters off the roof. Their stats were down, but experience was experience. Up close, they were even more vicious than before.

Still, the drain on our stamina was real.

– Krrrheng!

A monster was ripped apart under Peace’s claws. The others avoided him whenever they could. They steered around the Flame Horned Lion and came at us instead, beaks and claws out.

Screeeech— another monster landed on the helicopter blades. The noises from the elevator shaft were getting closer too.

“They’re not actually trying to kill us… right?”

I shouted it as I shoved one scraping at my shield away with all my strength. They’d probably rather disable and capture us. Maybe some of the transcendents were even enjoying this.

But I still couldn’t read Crescent Moon’s intent.

‘What is she planning to do if she catches us like this?’

If Seong Hyunjae died here, wouldn’t that cause problems for her too?

Crunch. The edge of Yuhyun’s shield crushed the skull of a fallen monster. Another one came at him instantly. His blade flashed, and the severed head spun through the air. Bang, bang, bang—every burst of gunfire from behind us dropped another monster. Chief Song skewered two at once with a single thrust, but before he could even yank the spear back out, more poured in.

Panting, I looked up.

Bird-like monsters were perched along the jagged edges of the broken glass, watching us with smooth, unreadable eyes. Above them, moonlight rippled slowly.

Click.

A hollow trigger pull.

Yerim swore under her breath. She was out of ammo.

I swallowed hard.

If they caught us like this, then what—

Kiiiiing—

A scream like metal tearing through bone split the air.

Then—

Ratatatatatatat!

A deafening burst of gunfire tore overhead, and monsters started dropping out of the sky like dead leaves. I snapped my head up.

A fighter jet.

It roared past too fast for the flying monsters to even think about chasing it, shredding them with gunfire as it went.

“Boss! You still alive up there?!”

A familiar voice blasted through a loudspeaker.

Armed helicopters.

Not one or two—a whole damn group of them.

“We’re blowing a hole in the Breeding Facility wall!”

The second Moon Hyunah said it—

Kaboom!

Sections of the outer wall collapsed one after another, and gun barrels emerged through the smoke.

Armored vehicles.

Their mounted guns opened up all at once on the monsters gathered in front of the Breeding Facility.

The monsters were still pouring in, but now our side had real firepower too. Every time a fighter jet screamed past, monsters fell like rain. Armed helicopters closed in over the rooftop. Moon Hyunah jumped down, and another person leaned out from one of the choppers.

“Chief! Are you safe?!”

Looked like one of the Hunters from the Awakened Management Office. Then more voices erupted from the other helicopters.

“Guild Master!”

“Director Haaaan!”

“Director!”

“So you really did catch a cold?!”

I stared blankly at Moon Hyunah, who was grinning in the middle of gunfire and explosions.

I had asked Gyeol to get help from our world, sure.

But this many?

Gyeol had said he could keep maybe ten people at most lucid and fully active in this world. I’d figured that would be enough—bring in a couple of tanks or something, and we could break out.

“How did you get this many…?”

“The princess helped.”

The princess…

Helicopters landed on the rooftop one by one or dropped rope ladders. From one of them, a familiar face jumped down.

“Han Yujin-nim!”

It was Mari. She waved both arms wildly and shouted—

“It’s Park Hayul!”

“…What?”

“The person who became the center of this world instead of me— it’s Park Hayul!”

…What?

Why the hell was he suddenly part of this?