Chapter 73: Chapter 73- Brutal And Bloody (Part 3)
Hyun-Jae's mind completely shut off along with her senses. For a second, everything around her turned blank and she couldn't even see anymore. If it wasn't for her body instincts fighting for her, she would've fallen too.
"No, no, no, no!" Her expression shifted completely as she kicked a monster away before stabbing it. Then, without wasting time, she rushed toward where Talon fell as fast as she could, killing monsters on her way.
'Talon, Talon…' Her thoughts were simply filled with his name. The fear she felt at that moment far exceeded anything she felt in recent memory.
"Get out of my fucking way!!" Clenching her teeth, she sliced through the monsters as she yelled loudly.
However, the more she tried to approach him, the more monsters attacked her. No matter how many she tried to kill, more would take their place and stop her in her tracks or push her back.
Her solid defenses were starting to crumble with the overwhelming attacks she was sustaining.
"Goddamit!!" Channeling every ounce of Aetheris left in her body, she blasted the monsters away and tried to tear her path open again. But, her attempt failed horribly.
A monster took the opportunity of Hyun-Jae looking away and slashed down with its claws at her back.
"AGH!!" The girl groaned as she turned around with a deadly cold look and sliced its head off. Then, she tried to turn around again only to realize something…
A ridiculously painful shock rushed through her body. Looking back, she noticed four deep wounds on her back that were gushing out blood endlessly.
The wounds were so deep that they dug through her back muscles and almost reached her ribs. On top of that, the smell of blood coming from her body made the monsters even more crazed, and tried to pounce on her all at the same time.
"BACK OFF, PRESIDENT!!" Chin-Hwa noticed the disaster that was happening and rushed toward Hyun-Jae, trying to help her before she ended up killed.
"But Talon!!" She replied as she pushed a monster away with her sword and stabbed another in quick succession.
"He fell far!! We can't get to him! Please back off or you will get killed!"
Hyun-Jae knew that Chin-Hwa had a point. After getting carried by the flying bat-looking monster, Talon fell way deeper into the horde and was completely surrounded by the enemies. There was no way for Hyun-Jae to actually reach him without getting heavily injured or even killed for it.
Her choices at that moment were few: Either keep fighting and dying from deep wounds… Or back off and give up on Talon.
'Give up… on him?'
Just realizing the second option sent a chill down her spine and made her heart go cold for a second. She had to give up on him… She had to leave Talon there to die.
"PRESIDENT! PLEASE DON'T DO IT!!"
*GROWL* *BANG*
Finding herself in front of a wall of monsters, Hyun-Jae clenched her teeth till they almost broke and retreated back as fast as she could. Her expression was horribly sour as she felt the overwhelming powerlessness of not being able to do what she wanted.
***
Meanwhile, at the back lines, the students started noticing something weird. The number of monsters that started reaching grew in number exponentially. Each second, a few monsters would appear in their vision before they get blasted by the long-range shooters on the rooftop.
Those few turned into a few tens, and then a few dozens of monsters till it reached a point where the long-rangers couldn't kill them all and the monsters were able to break through to the final line of defense.
"Brandish your weapons!!" Go Young-Soon held his sign to the students. His face looked noticeably more tense than before as he realized what was happening and so did the students.
However, they still prepared themselves for the upcoming threat. When the monsters reached their area, Go Young-Soon signaled again. "Attack!"
Immediately, the first line of defense rushed forward and met them. In a matter of seconds, the students hailed attacks on the monsters, slicing and beating them up ruthlessly. Their overwhelming numbers took care of the task quickly.
The reason for that was very simple, before the fight, Talon had deliberately put the strongest students at the front line so that they could have access to the fight faster and deal the most damage.
"More are coming! Get ready!"
The students didn't even have a second to breathe before the second wave approached them. All the monsters that reached them were rather weak, with the strongest being a Level 7 Leopard that they were able to kill due to teamwork.
Go Young-Soon watched the situation with a nervous expression. Even if they were able to successfully eliminate each wave of monsters, that didn't mean that the plan was going perfectly. Hell, the fact that monsters were growing in numbers meant that Talon and Hyun-Jae were facing a problem up ahead.
'Please be fine, Sir Talon, Miss Hyun-Jae…' He prayed in his heart.
***
"Oh no! President, your back is heavily injured. We need to stop the bleeding quickly." Chin-Hwa tried to grab Hyun-Jae's arm, only for her to dodge him.
"I'm fine. Get back to the students and defend the gymnasium." Hyun-Jae exhaled a long breath as she fought the grueling pain. It was true that her back injury was nasty but she didn't have time to treat it nor did she want to treat it.
Talon was still within enemy lines, surrounded by a huge number of creatures. Hyun-Jae couldn't see clearly from her position whether he was still alive or not and that made her feel even more frustrated.
"We can't save him, President! Please, we need you!" Chin-Hwa tried to talk to her, not realizing that every word he said only fueled her anger more and more. At some point, it reached the boiling point.
"It's all your fault!!" She turned around and gave Chin-Hwa a strong glare. "If you didn't act like a complete fool, none of this would've happened." She said.
The latter's face darkened deeply when he heard those words. It was true that what he did was a grave mistake and the guilt he felt for it at that moment was crushing. Hyun-Jae's eyes glared at him with deep anger and a small glint of something that made him realize how disastrous what he did was.
Within her beautifully mesmerizing eyes, he could see a spark of hatred flashing through her pupils for a fleeting second.
His mind stopped for a second as his eyes widened. "I'm… sorry…" He murmured in disbelief.
However, Hyun-Jae didn't say anything else and turned around as she ran toward the frontline to hold the monsters as much as she could. Her eyes were deadly cold, far colder than ever before. If it wasn't for the fact that she had to still fight in order to keep everything afloat, she would've snapped.
Her mind was in complete shambles, but her goal kept her standing on her feet.
'I will kill them all… Every single one of them…' She thought to herself as she quickened her steps.
Meanwhile, Chin-Hwa watched her back with a face filled with despair. That feeling was the worst thing he ever experienced by a far margin. Seeing the person he looked up to the most turn her back to him was akin to a stab to his heart.
He felt like he was suffocating even though he was breathing. His heart squeezed on him as if it wanted to stop beating.
But, he couldn't just stand there and wallow in pain. The growls of monsters shook him up and made him turn around. Without waiting, he rushed back to the students as Hyun-Jae ordered him to do.
The situation slowly grew worse and worse as more and more monsters flooded the gymnasium's vicinity. All the students faced the flux of monsters with the help of Chin-Hwa while at the frontlines, Hyun-Jae kept fighting on her own.
Her arms felt numb from exhaustion and her hands were bleeding after fighting non-stop for a long time. However, she didn't back down at all even under that immense pressure. She had to do everything within her ability to change the outcome.
'I can't fall now… I can't… I won't…' She told herself again and again that she wasn't going to fall, not in such a place. How many hardships did she go through in her life? Too many to count. Dying in such a place was simply not where Hyun-Jae expected the end to be.
She had too many things she wanted to do, things that she could never achieve with the chains of her past life binding her. Now that they were broken, she wasn't ready to die.
'And neither is he… I know he won't fall here! Not here!' Her eyes sharpened as she growled loudly and stabbed with her sword.
Right at that moment, out of nowhere…
*BOOOOOOOOOOOM*
The entire place shook violently as if it were hit by a second earthquake.
"Wha…!" Hyun-Jae's eyes looked up as she noticed monsters getting blasted away… A huge number of them were launched away, creating a giant empty hole in the middle of the hordes of monsters. Many fell to their deaths brutally while the remaining ones that survived the hit were dismembered ruthlessly.
"Cough! Cough! Ptuh, you bastards really had your fun, didn't you?" A cold, sinister voice came from within the horde.
(A//N: Thanks to everyone who supports the book with power stones and golden tickets, you guys are the best:) )