—A Long Night
Chasing monsters that had transformed into flying beasts with propulsion magic was, in truth, a bit of a stretch.
Propulsion magic could produce instantaneous speed, but maintaining flight consumed far too much mana.
At this rate, I might end up lacking mana when it was actually time to fight.
If I knew their destination, it would be better to move by portal, but that wasn’t the situation.
It seemed time to divide our roles. Having all the other mages follow with propulsion magic was inefficient.
For now, Ren was following close behind, so we wouldn’t lose track of them.
“This won’t do. Let’s go down to the ground. We’ll follow from below, keeping to their direction. The monsters won’t just keep flying forever, so let’s prepare for when they come down.”
I said, looking back at the mages.
Among those following in a line, some were already falling behind.
As expected, we had to conserve mana.
“That would be best. I’m starting to reach my limit.”
“They can’t hurt people while they’re up in the sky anyway, so let’s go down for now.”
The mages immediately adjusted their propulsion magic and descended to the ground.
It was an apartment complex around Jamsil. The night was deep, and almost no people could be seen on the streets.
After confirming that the mages had landed safely, I signaled the direction from the air.
Thor looked at me with a startled expression. His face seemed to ask if I intended to fly on alone.
I waved once at him, then increased the speed of my propulsion magic. I had enough mana, so I intended to keep flying.
But soon I sensed someone following behind, and when I turned, it was Gil.
“I’ll fly with you too.”
“You will? All right.”
Gil had always had an extraordinary amount of mana. On top of that, after meeting Bruno, his magical skill had advanced another level, so I wasn’t worried at all.
We flew side by side through the night sky.
“Where did those bastards go?”
In the brief delay, the monsters had already vanished from sight. They really were incredibly fast.
I was wondering whether I should keep flying in the direction they had gone and start extending detection magic, when Ren, in the form of a crow, flew toward us. It seemed he had come to guide us because he couldn’t see us.
After finding us, Ren immediately turned again and led us toward the monsters.
The monsters had passed Jamsil and were heading toward the Han River.
I wondered if they were going to cross the river, but before long, I saw them descending.
It seemed they had grown tired to some extent. Or perhaps they had gotten bored.
“Go and tell the mages their location.”
“Yes!”
After giving Gil the order, I looked back at the monsters and saw that the ones that had been flying beasts had already transformed into land creatures.
Each of them had become an abnormally enormous bear, lion, and elephant, and they were descending at terrifying speed, as if falling.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The monsters’ massive bodies crashed down onto the cars driving along Olympic-daero.
Cars were instantly crushed and stopped, causing a chain of collisions.
“Those crazy bastards!”
As expected, they had been looking for a place to make a mess.
Since there were no people visible in the apartment complexes or on the streets, it seemed they had decided to attack cars outright.
As their enormous bodies blocked Olympic-daero, horrific traffic accidents followed one after another.
The sounds of cars crashing in succession and brakes screeching rang out sharply.
The cars the monsters had crushed were completely flattened and showed no sign of moving, but the monsters quickly got back up, walked out, and began wreaking havoc.
The giant bear picked up cars at random and hurled them away, while the monster lion tore open car bodies, dragged people out, and struck them down. The elephant moved with strange speed, trampling cars beneath its feet.
In an instant, pandemonium unfolded.
‘Where on earth did bastards like that come from? I don’t see any black mage. Did Vanaheim create these monsters? Are they the result of experiments on Ren?’
I looked to see if there was a black mage controlling the monsters, but I couldn’t find one. They seemed to be moving on their own.
Just then, Ren looked back at me. Since he was in the form of a crow, I couldn’t read his expression.
For now, stopping those bastards was urgent.
I gestured for Ren to stay still and quickly flew toward the monsters.
So they wouldn’t run away again, I used concealment magic to hide myself as I approached.
There was no need to wait until the mages arrived.
No matter how big they were, they weren’t as large as the giant strange life-forms. Their destructive power was not insignificant, but even so, it wasn’t anything tremendous.
The problem, however, was that they had the ability to transform.
Not only were they good at escaping, the rare ability itself was ominous.
I had to hurry. I needed to use wide-area magic in an instant and suppress them all at once.
I immediately drew up my mana and activated freezing magic over the area.
I couldn’t separately consider the cars involved in the accident or the people who might be inside them. If I didn’t want to give them an opening to escape, I had no choice but to freeze everything whole.
‘Freeze at absolute zero!’
Since the Han River was right beside us, there was plenty of moisture. The suddenly chilly weather also helped at that moment. An exceedingly powerful freezing energy was unleashed.
Frost-like freezing energy stretched out in all directions at once.
It swallowed the giant elephant, swallowed the monster lion, and everything nearby instantly froze.
But the bear…?
Just when I thought the entire area had frozen, a sudden, violent wave rose from the direction of the Han River.
I quickly turned and saw a giant crocodile leaping into the water. I had let one get away.
‘It transformed again in that short time?’
Its reflexes were incredible.
It must have been possible because it had been the farthest from me. The fact that it took less than a second to transform was extremely impressive.
In any case, of all places, it had fled into the water. For me, immediately following it underwater would be difficult.
But Ren was there. Ren, the original source of the transformation ability.
While I was watching the crocodile plunge into the water, Ren transformed into a water snake and silently dropped into the Han River.
“Ren!”
For a moment, I was worried, but the next instant, I decided to set that worry aside.
Ren was no longer a fragile human I had to protect. He possessed an outstanding ability, even capable of transforming into a dragon.
Still, I hoped he wouldn’t rashly engage in battle.
He probably wouldn’t. He was likely only trying not to lose track of the fleeing monster.
Meanwhile, Gil and the other mages arrived at the scene.
“Is the situation already over?”
“Whoa, you froze the whole thing solid?”
“But where is Mage Oudin?”
The mages said as they looked around the scene.
I dispelled my concealment magic and approached them.
“I hurried as much as I could, but I missed one. It transformed into a crocodile and escaped into the water, so Ren went after it.”
“Into the water?”
“Ah, right. We have a master of transformation on our side too.”
Thor’s group looked toward the Han River in admiration.
Ren’s polymorph ability was no longer a secret to them.
It was something I had already revealed in the meeting.
At the very least, the mages of the main force who would be fighting together needed to know our side’s strength clearly.
“We’ll leave that side to him and clean this place up. There are people who are injured but still alive, so let’s rescue them quickly. Use fire magic to melt portions and carry out the rescue. Contact 119 as well. I’ll contact the Bureau and inform them of the situation.”
“Understood.”
“The cars here are already hopeless. Let’s start from the back.”
Everyone quickly found what they had to do and hurried off.
I called Yu Jaeseon. As soon as the call connected, his voice poured out.
[Where are you? I arrived in Cheonho-dong, but everything had already disappeared.]
Yu Jaeseon was very late to the situation.
“I’m on Olympic-daero right now. They flew this way, so we chased after them. They caused a major accident on Olympic-daero, but I just trapped them with freezing magic. Though one got away.”
[I see. How many monsters are there on your side?]
“We saw three. Are there more somewhere else?”
[Yes. Earlier, they said five or six, but it seems there are more than that. Reports keep coming in from Gangdong-gu and Songpa-gu, and it looks like there are still more. Is that side settled? Then could you come straight to Irwon-dong?]
He said there was currently a rampage happening around Irwon-dong.
The situation wasn’t over yet. It looked like tonight would be another long night.
“Understood. We’ll move right away.”
I hung up and turned my gaze back to the scene. It was more or less being sorted out.
Thor’s group and Gil must have moved extremely quickly, because nearly all the people trapped inside the cars had been rescued.
The giant elephant and lion stood there, frozen solid. I approached them and sealed them one more layer with magical chains. The freezing wouldn’t easily come undone, but I had to be thorough.
A loud siren blared. Ambulances were rushing toward us.
“Hurry and move them.”
“They’re all seriously injured. Let’s hurry.”
“Move them off the road!”
The mages quickly carried the rescued people out of the accident site.
I didn’t know how many among them would survive. There weren’t even many whose arms and legs were properly attached.
In any case, the rest was up to the police, paramedics, and doctors.
“Now we move. There are more monsters. It looks like they’re rampaging around Irwon-dong. Let’s hurry over there.”
I said to the mages.
“There are more monsters?”
“Well, one did get away too…”
“It seems there are still more scattered around.”
“Whew, then let’s go quickly.”
I drew up mana to open a portal again.
Using spatial magic repeatedly would drain mana quickly, but a portal to move a short distance wasn’t a problem.
Since we were currently dealing with monsters that could even transform, a swift response took priority above all else.
‘Where is Ren right now?’
I trusted Ren’s ability, but I was still worried. The fact that he was alone bothered me.
I also thought of Cheon Danbi, who had stayed behind alone to care for the injured. I felt uneasy and displeased that the team was scattered in different directions.
I called Gil over and said,
“Find Cheon Danbi and come to Irwon-dong with her. Will that be all right?”
“Yes. I’ll do that.”
Gil immediately used propulsion magic and left the scene.
Only then did I open a travel portal and say to the mages standing around it, waiting,
“Let’s go.”
Everyone immediately jumped into the portal.
The moment we emerged from the portal, we all lost our balance and staggered. The ground beneath our feet was undulating. No, it felt as if it were undulating.
It was the very sensation I had felt earlier. An unknown vibration and a distorted sense. But this time, it was far more direct. I felt dizzy, as if dead drunk.
I tensed sharply and extended detection magic in every direction.