The sound of metal colliding.
Kaaang—
The sound of lightning tearing through the air.
Crack—
The forest shook.
Bark was stripped away, and the earth was gouged open.
Beneath the moonlight,
Adel’s red armor was already torn in places.
Through the ripped gaps, Idrin’s heat still seemed to linger.
The three standing against him were not unscathed either.
A long scratch ran down Muryeong’s arm,
and Aslo’s shoulder was soaked with blood.
A thin red line remained at the corner of Rangnan’s mouth.
Everyone caught their breath.
But no one retreated.
Catching their breath was not rest.
Their breaths scraped in their throats.
It was not the smell of blood,
but the scent of wet iron mingled with burning energy.
Muryeong, without lowering his axe,
opened his fingers once.
Like someone who knew that if his grip loosened,
the next bolt of lightning would come too late.
Aslo rolled his shoulder once.
The blood-soaked cloth clung to his flesh.
That discomfort felt instead like proof that he was still standing.
Rangnan did not wipe the red line from his mouth.
Because even a single motion to wipe it away
could become an opening.
Adel was catching his breath as well.
But that breath was not recovery.
It was preparation,
just once, for what came next.
And again—
metal rang out.
Then—
the wind changed direction.
A storm swept across the battlefield.
Dirt and fallen leaves were caught up all at once.
Muryeong briefly planted his foot,
and Aslo’s cloak snapped violently.
Adel’s red cloak also billowed wide.
Cutting through that opening, Miryeong descended.
The moment her feet touched the ground,
the wind scattered.
“Adel.”
She called his name shortly.
Adel’s gaze slowly shifted to her.
His eyes shone through his roughened expression.
“White weasel.”
His voice was dry.
It held neither mockery nor anger.
Only confirmation.
Miryeong’s eyes narrowed.
“Now you’re the only one left.”
Adel lightly raised his sword once.
“And what of it?”
There was no tremor in his voice.
Beneath the moonlight,
the red armor straightened once more.
“Muryeong!”
A short shout.
Muryeong was already moving.
There was no hesitation.
He raised his axe.
Over the red-hot blade, lightning gathered.
Crackle—
The sound of air splitting rang out.
The storm whirling around Miryeong contracted sharply.
And the scattered winds compressed into a single point.
Beneath the moonlight,
a massive vortex took shape, aimed at Adel.
Into its center,
the lightning gathered on Muryeong’s axe coiled.
Storm and lightning tangled together.
A thunderstorm.
It crashed down on Adel as it was.
A roar shook the forest.
The red armor staggered.
Adel’s feet dug into the ground.
The earth split apart.
Perhaps the pain had reached him,
for his breathing slipped out of rhythm by one beat.
However—
he did not fall.
He had merely been pushed back.
He still stood there, in that very spot.
The red armor rose back into stance, smoke curling from it.
Adel swung his greatsword without hesitation.
Once again, the air split.
A massive arc swept across the battlefield.
However—
Aslo had already stepped inside it.
Just before the blade grazed him,
he twisted his body and warped its trajectory.
The greatsword cut through empty air.
In that instant,
Rangnan’s fingertips flashed.
The thunderbird split apart.
Lightning fell in a straight line,
tearing through Adel’s red armor once more.
The metal cracked open as if bursting.
And from within, heat rose.
Adel’s breath wavered for a moment.
Muryeong did not give him an opening and stepped in once more.
Pressure came from four directions at once.
Adel’s foot retreated one step.
The earth was shoved back.
The state of the battle was clear.
He was at a disadvantage.
Adel did not deny that fact.
He merely lifted his head ever so slightly.
Moonlight spread over the red armor.
And then—
slowly,
he drew something up from within.
A light as red as his armor began seeping into his eyes.
The air grew subtly heavy.
At last, his pupils were dyed red.
The air was pressed down.
A suffocating pressure covered the battlefield.
For a moment—
truly, for only a moment,
it seemed as though his strength had been raised.
But the next instant,
Adel’s breathing faltered.
“Krgh—”
He let out a short groan.
The light in his red eyes wavered and rapidly sank away.
As if someone had forcibly severed it from within.
Adel froze in place, his muscles spasming.
And the tip of his greatsword drove into the ground.
He tried to use it as support to endure,
but one knee dropped first.
Thud.
Beneath the moonlight,
the red armor lowered for the first time.
The color had already vanished from his eyes.
Rangnan said quietly,
“It’s impossible.”
A cold, decisive statement.
Adel could not rise immediately.
The wounds visible on the outside were clearly not severe.
But something inside him was twisting violently.
More brutally than the enemy attacks he had endured until now,
the backlash from trying to forcibly defy the rules shook him from within.
Adel’s breath escaped raggedly.
The greatsword in his hand trembled faintly.
He tried to force himself to stand again,
but his muscles would no longer obey.
Beneath the moonlight,
the red armor had sunk low.
Adel gritted his teeth.
“Don’t think this is the end.”
His voice was low,
but it had not broken.
No one answered him.
The silence was the clearer answer.
Rangnan withdrew his gaze and said,
“Let’s go.”
His words were brief.
As Miryeong stepped forward,
the wind parted a path.
And the rest of the group followed behind her.
No one looked back.
As they entered the forest, Aslo’s breathing remained steady.
Muryeong was silent,
and Rangnan did not look back either.
Adel remained there.
Unable to rise,
he watched their receding backs and gritted his teeth.
Moonlight settled coldly over the red armor.
—
A little way off in the forest.
At a place where the wind was comparatively calm, the group stopped.
“Here.”
Miryeong spoke briefly.
It was a place where the wind had died.
Because the leaves around them did not stir, their ears instead became sharper.
Miryeong swept her gaze over the surroundings once.
How many footprints remained,
how far the moonlight reached here.
It was not the gaze of someone looking for a place to hide, but one choosing a place that was less exposed.
Erdin was carefully kneeling.
Bido was held in his arms.
Her head hung limply to one side,
and her breathing was slow, but still continued.
Yet she was not completely at peace.
On her arms and around her eyes,
red scales still protruded.
And beneath the moonlight,
they bore a lifeless sheen.
Bido’s head shifted ever so slightly.
Her breathing continued,
but it was impossible to tell whether that breath belonged to Bido, or whether the sword had forcibly left it behind.
Miryeong’s gaze paused for a moment on the places where the scales had risen.
That pause came before the words, “We have to hurry.”
“Rangnan.”
Miryeong called softly.
“They’re hurt.”
Rangnan nodded.
Then he approached Mendel first.
Mendel was leaning naturally against a tree, catching her breath.
The wound across her back was still bleeding.
Rangnan brought his fingers over the wound.
And without the slightest hesitation.
Sssst—
There came a burning sound.
White smoke rose thinly from her back.
Mendel’s body flinched.
“Kgh—!”
A pain-filled breath burst from her.
But Rangnan’s hand did not waver.
Beneath the moonlight,
the cauterized wound slowly closed.
Aslo knelt in front of Erdin.
The tip of the spear embedded deep in his thigh gleamed faintly under the moonlight.
“Endure it.”
It was a short statement.
There was no hesitation in those words.
Aslo gripped the spear firmly.
And then,
pulled it out in one motion.
Blood surged up as if bursting.
“Urgh—!”
Erdin gritted his teeth.
His body tilted forward,
but he did not collapse.
Muryeong immediately placed his hand over the wound.
It was a firm hand, different from the one that wielded an axe.
After taking a brief breath,
he pressed power into it.
Sssst—
Smoke rose thinly.
The smell of burning flesh spread through the air.
The veins stood out on the back of Erdin’s hand.
But he endured it.
The bleeding stopped.
The wound had not closed completely,
but it no longer flowed.
The measures ended there.
The forest grew quiet again.
Rangnan looked at Bido, lying collapsed.
Beneath the moonlight,
red scales still remained on her arms and around her eyes.
A brief silence passed.
Then Rangnan said,
“There’s a village nearby that I know.”
It was brief.
“We go there first.”
No one objected.
The group slowly rose to their feet.
Miryeong sat down in front of Bido.
Bido was breathing,
but the intervals between breaths were unusually long.
With the tip of his foot, Muryeong swept dirt over the place where the smell of burning and blood remained.
The wind blowing over the forest softened a little.
Before they knew it,
the moonlight had grown dimmer than before.
As the moonlight weakened,
the shadows of the forest returned very slowly.
But just because the darkness returned
did not mean it would cover what had just happened.
The smell of burning still clung to the damp air,
and the scent of blood had not weakened.
Instead of words, the people confirmed one another only by breath.
Who was still standing,
and who was still holding on.
As the light diminished, the red scales protruding from Bido’s arm looked even more colorless.
Not because they did not shine,
but as if, without light, they could no longer be hidden.
It was a night when they had believed everything would end once the full moon passed.
But tonight’s full moon was cruel even in the way it ended.
Quietly,
as if nothing had happened, it was setting.
The moon that had swelled round was slowly waning.
The full moon was setting.