The ashes caused her eyes to water, but she still held on. She was frightened by the sound of thunder—the heavy stomps that chased after her.

Then she saw the end of the road, her exit was right there, she could reach it!

She outstretched her hands, Min-Hwa felt the wind grabbing her, gently pulling her away.

But it stopped…

“W-what?”

Instead it pushed her backwards. Or that’s what it seemed like…

—Rumble, crack, crackle…

“U-unnie…”

Dark grey clouds swirled the sky, twisting around as it swallowed the flames and the wooden buildings.

Min-Hwa panicked as she tried to dig her heels into the ground, but she couldn’t resist as the tornado devoured her.

She winced in pain, the strong winds bounded her limbs, painfully pulling her bones apart. 

“Min-Hwa… Min-Hwa, Min-Hwa, Min-Hwa…” A twisted figure hummed her name, it moved like a zombie as it continued to chant her name.

“Ugh!” She was pushed through the strong walls of wind, spitting her out on the coarse ground.

“Oh, Min-Hwa…” A hand cupped her cheek.

Min-Hwa opened her fatigued and dizzy eyes, all she could see was a speedy blur, but she could roughly guess who this could be.

“Jae-Hee-unnie?”

—Slap!

“I can’t believe I’ve been riled up this much by you.” Jae-Hee rubbed her hands clean,”But I couldn’t just let you get away.”

—Rumble, crack.

The tornado did not seem to calm down. Min-Hwa struggled against Jae-Hee, but she only tired herself out.

“You can’t use it, right? Your ability? You’re all disorganized because of the wind.”

“I… I said I didn’t want to fight.”

Jae-Hee looked at her with indifferent and cold eyes,”You can’t bail out of something you started by yourself.”

She let Min-Hwa bring herself up, her legs looked like it’d tumble at the slightest touch.

“You’re not as innocent as you want to believe.”

Jae-Hee moved her hands, then the tornado caved in. With nothing holding the debris up, it suddenly collapsed around them.

“So stop deluding yourself.” 

The winds swirled into each other… And aimed right for Min-Hwa’s heart.

Just then, her life flashed before her eyes.

***

Hyun-Woo groaned as he lifted his head, blood oozed from it as it stringed across the floor. He looked around blinking.

There was something ablaze in the middle, although it seemed like the moon, it was a small intricate lightbulb that was afloat.

Then it suddenly glitched.

The world around him seemed to close in, Hyun-Woo could feel his skin prickle. 

The same sensation from back then, the glare that could swallow him up, the eyes-

Then it switched back and he was left staring at the blinding light.

“Am-am I hallucinating?..”

However, it kept switching back and forth, feeling breathless each time he tried to comprehend his situation. Why is it doing this?

His vision was heavily blinded whenever the light switched off, so he had a few seconds to look around.

But then the light flickered off for the final time… 

—Clack, clack, clack!

Something was approaching at an incredible speed, Hyun-Woo could feel his chest tightening as he tried to regain his sanity.

He could hear muffled screaming from the thing, it did not take any form, but Hyun-Woo could still visualize its monstrous outline.

It looked like it swallowed the endless darkness to form its own shape. Hyun-Woo’s body soaked itself in sweat, his mouth open baring his clenched teeth.

—Clack, clack, clack!

Even if his eyes wouldn’t pry away; even if his lungs tightened; even if his muscles tensed; he forced himself to move.

“As if I’m going to die like this!” 

With a wretched face, he stationed himself firmly. His mana started to thickly coat his fists, shielding them from direct impact.

He raised his fists quickly while charging towards the thing, crying out his heart like a warrior.

  “A-Aaahhh!” 

The light reached his eyes once again, and in place of the thing, was a regular person.

He was crouching slightly as he had his head guarded by his arms, it was he who had screamed. 

“Huh?” Hyun-Woo questioned reality.

“U-Uh, boss-“

—Punch!

The thing appeared again like a jump scare.

And again, the light flickered. The person was sprawled across the floor.

“What the…”

Hyun-Woo crouched down and looked at them,’That can’t be his ability…’

“W-wait, sir-“

—Doooooom.

Hyun-Woo was looking at the thing again, he didn’t realize this before, but the light made a deep bellowing sound every time it flickered.

He turned the thing’s head away from him swiftly.

—Crack.

“Ow! Sir, that hurts!”

“Don’t look at me.”

“Wh-what-“

—Doooom.

—Punch!

“Ahh!”

“I said don’t look at me.”

Hyun-Woo confirmed that it wasn’t this person’s ability, even more that he wasn’t aware of it, so it was just the effects of this place.

“Is it just you and me?”

“I-I think so. Before we got thrown around, I only saw you.”

Hyun-Woo nodded,”…I’m going to go back. You guys can continue.”

He got up and left. Making sure the winds were safe, he rode it back to where he first started. 

Again, he found the angelic figure he always saw. Except, there was something unusual.

The white haired man was splattered with blood, his pale face was scratched all over and    contorted. His chest sharply rose every time he breathed, twitching as he was exhausted. 

“Yun Chan-Woo?” Hyun-Woo raised his brow, he could smell smoke right off of him.

“Oh, you’re here?”

“What happened to you?”

“Oh? Um, I got caught up in the wind.”

“You too? Do you know where it came from?” 

Yun Chan-Woo touched his forehead, smearing the dirt and blood away and showing part of his skin,

”There was a storm somewhere. But that was it, I slammed into things because of it. That’s why I’m like this.”

Hyun-Woo nodded,’The last time there was something like this, it was because of Jae-Hee…’ He sighed with a tired face.

He turned away, but he heard Yun Chan-Woo mumble something.

“What?”

“Huh?”

“…” Hyun-Woo dismissed it for him being too tired that he started hearing things, but he also did just hit his head.

Yun Chan-Woo silently stared while he went away…

***

Seong’s stomach churned, he was pressed against a wooden wall that got caught up in the storm. 

The turbulence was extremely fierce, and miraculously, he was still hanging onto the grip-less wall.

‘Ahhhhh, why was I here at such a bad time?’

Then suddenly, a large booming crack rung his ears. When he opened his eyes, he realized that everything around him started to tumble.

“Huh? Huh?” His eyes bulged as soon as he realized that the wall behind him, was no where to be seen. 

As result, he was falling through the air with nothing to break his fall. Adding to that, all his bones will shatter and he will die.

  “Woahhh!” Seong flailed while trying to maintain his balance, looking for the closest thing to cling onto.

His heartbeat quickened as the pressure from falling got heavier and heavier, he knew that the ground wouldn’t be too far. 

Then he felt a single strand of wind lifting his body, Seong’s face lit up for a moment until he looked at the ground. 

‘It’s still too damn fast!’ 

Even with a single strand of help, he would still be majorly injured upon impact. He quickly mobilized himself steadily in the air, forcing his mana around his body to create a layer of defense.

“Even if it breaks, at least I’d still be able to move around!”

Then he felt a strong blast beside his head, slowly pulling him into it like a whirlpool. The grey gale blew to one direction, two black specks became larger as his speed increased rapidly.

“…So stop deluding yourself.”

“Ah?” He realized too late as he crashed into it painfully.

—CRRRK..!

The shield broke. Seong’s ears rung as his body threw up useless blood, his numbness soon subsided as he could feel a throb on the side of his head.

He turned over onto his stomach and all the blood rushed down, he squinted as the sensation stung his purple eyes. 

—Boom, thud, doom…

Things were still falling from the sky, causing the ground to quake. Seong stared blankly across him, waiting for his vision to come back together.

Once it did, he was staring at a girl with a weird and bewildered look on her face. 

Perhaps the reason was because Seong gave her a weird squinted look for a few seconds, or because he appeared out of nowhere.

“Hey…”

“What’s with your face-?”

“-You shouldn’t say that to someone who fell out of the sky.”

Seong hid his face in embarrassment,’Ugh, it’s not my fault.’

Seong continued to talk to her as he lifted himself off the floor,”Ahem, what was going on?”

“First, who are you?”

‘Damn, I’ve been stonewalled.’ Seong’s finger twitched,”Ah, Yun Chan-Woo.”

“Yun Chan-Woo?..” She stared blankly at him, lost in thought.

‘You don’t have to think too hard about it, since I’m planning to kill you soon.’

“Ah. You’re that newly appointed Hunter, right?”

“Y-yes?” Her sudden voice of relief caught Seong off guard.

Her appearance and attitude changed a whole 180, she looked guarded and attentive before, but now she was more careless and aloof.

She smiled warmly, like she was trying to charm him,’Ah, she thinks I’m easy prey now.’

She chatted more openly unlike before,” Ah, this. And that, oh, and-“  She even helped him up.

Seong drained the chatterbox out,’Well, she’s not wrong. Right now, I’m just a dog amongst hungry wolves, I have to wait it out until  they’ve devoured each other.’

“Chan-Woo?” She pressed herself against Seong’s arm.

Seong narrowed his lidded eyes at her,’Now you’re trying to win me over?’ He wanted to laugh but he smiled instead,’At least you don’t know my real thoughts.’

“U-Ugh…”

“O-oh no! Chan-Woo, we need to run! She’s the reason this happened!”

Min-Hwa yanked his arm and ran away with him, even though she was limping, she ran even better than Seong did. 

They hid within the debris, hugging the wall and holding their breaths. 

“Chan-Woo, I want to say, thank you.”

“For?”

She paused to smile, but Seong could see that it wasn’t sincere,“You saved me from dying.”

•••

As Min-Hwa’s life flashed before her eyes, the storm swirled into one point, like a spear. It loomed above her, the pressure from it was suffocating.

The blast almost blew her away until-

—DUNK!

“Huh?”

She saw it slowly happen, the moment of the impact, and what happened after. 

As the man came out of nowhere and knocked into Jae-Hee with a hard landing, the gales of wind ceased to exist. 

•••

Seong nodded as he was confused, rather, he was happy he saved himself from dying. 

“You, you’re using someone else as your shield now..?!”

Their raspy and exhausted voice was packed with fury, their rage was evident in their heavy stomps and their rough-housing.

Jae-Hee flung the debris with her muscles, ramming into things and shoving them out of the way. She screamed as she couldn’t find them behind everything she moved.

Seong leaded Min-Hwa away, grabbing her by the waist when a part of the broken building was torn apart.

He looked for anything to use as a distraction, there was rubble on the ground, he picked them up and threw it in another direction.

—Dink!

Jae-Hee rammed near the sound without any thought.

“C-Chan-Woo, I’m sorry I’m putting you into trouble…”

‘Yeah, you’re pretty useless.’ Seong held those words back,”Let’s go somewhere safe.”

They ran through the broken buildings and debris, climbing through one of the windows of a well structured shed.

Seong breathed heavily while coughing up blood, the impact from falling was taking a toll on him. 

“H-Hey, do you have anything that could help us?”

“I don’t think I have anything useful…”

’Stop playing dumb!’ Seong gritted his teeth,”Then, your ability? What is it?”

“Um…” She pouted stupidly,”Fire, but it takes a long time to prepare.”

“That’s good enough, can you start now?” Seong could tell she was trying to waste time.

“…Ok.” It seems she decided it was better to help than sit around and wait for his death.

She closed her eyes and breathed in slowly, the air around them turned cold. Seong heard the distant booming in the distance, they had to start moving.

He leaned in closer in Min-Hwa’s ear,”She’s getting closer, can I carry you while we move?”

She canceled her ability,”Will you be fine?”

“I can handle it.” 

Min-Hwa climbed onto his back, hugging him securely. Seong huffed, the weight would’ve been different if he hadn’t been injured, but he needed to push through it. 

He avoided Jae-Hee by going in the opposite direction, resting for a bit and then moving again. 

His neck kept feeling hot,’She should be ready soon.’ 

Embers escaped her mouth and lightly singed Seong’s neck, he then moved inside a wooden house with a broken roof, it was sparsely covered in black particles.

Seong crouched down low, he could hear her panting. The glowing embers from her mouth settled down on the dirty ground.

It created little sparks and then traveled to other areas of the floor, but it soon burnt out. Seong looked at Min-Hwa’s face, it was tinted red as it was hot, and her glowing orange eyes waited for his response.

Seong thought about what to do,’If we just set everything on fire, Jae-Hee might escape this time.’ 

Min-Hwa tugged at his jacket, signaling him that it was done.

‘Jae-Hee is weak right now, if we lure her and then attack her all at once, it might do it.’ Seong gathered the remaining soot into his hands,

“Hold it in, hang in there.”

Seong deliberately moved out in the open, searching for Jae-Hee. Min-Hwa hit him on the shoulder, asking him what he was doing in grunts. 

“Shh… Actually, make a lot of noise that doesn’t involve hitting me.”

“Mmph?” She furrowed her brows, which fueled her fiery mouth even more.

He kicked at some of the wooden buildings while patrolling around, eventually peaking Jae-Hee’s attention. Both Seong and her locked eyes, he could feel something strangling his neck.

Min-Hwa shook his neck to start moving, Seong listened, he started to run. Even though he had a head start, Jae-Hee was catching up to them quickly.

He soon hit a dead end, stopping him in his tracks. Jae-Hee barged through the wall, her strong figure was shaking but she stood firm, her face was horribly contorted with pent up anger.

“Found you, finally…” Veins bulged out of her forehead, her exasperated laugh chilled the room.

Min-Hwa worryingly gripped onto Seong’s arm tightly, her fiery breath almost burnt his hair. 

“I’ll tell you when to do it, ok?”

“Hmph?”

“What’re you guys whispering about? Are you still trying to play “White Knight” here?”

Seong scoffed,”No, no, no~ I’m just-”

Seong rushed mana into his feet, pushing himself towards Jae-Hee until they were close to each other’s faces.

“-Trying to narrow it down.” His purple eyes turned into crescents.

Jae-Hee swung her bloody fists while Seong moved out of the way, he threw the soot in her face.

“Out!”

Min-Hwa roared as a blazing fire was hit directly in the cloud of soot, causing it to puff up into flames.

Sparks popped and flew onto the floor, making its way around the soot in the wood. The sparks grew bigger and bigger, causing the place to catch on fire.

Seong flung himself out of there with Min-Hwa, he could hear the terrifying screams. He glanced behind him, Jae-Hee’s face was unrecognizable, as if her skin melted off of her bones.

Seong ran as fast as he could, but it was hard as he was still injured and he had extra weight. 

—Boom! Boom! Boom!

The building started to catch on fire quickly, the smoke invaded his lungs and burned his eyes, parts of the buildings started to fall.

—Boom! Boom! Boom!

‘What is that?!’ Seong looked behind, a huge flaming fireball with a ghoulish face was speeding towards him.

He looked away quickly,‘I thought she would’ve died by now!’ 

Then he heard a crackle above him, he looked up as a large flaming building was falling. Seong boosted himself away, slipping on his next step and flinging himself across the ground.

“Ugh!” Seong held Min-Hwa close to him.

He looked around frantically, the flaming building that fell created a wall between him and Jae-Hee, so he had some time.

But the problem was, he was trapped all around, the only way was…

“Up…”

Seong yanked Min-Hwa by the arm, prompting her to pick up her pace and climb. The debris in front of them have yet to be touched, they had little time until everything would be burnt.

“C-Chan-Woo, Chan-Woo! She’s breaking through!”

“Then stop lagging around!”

—BAM!

The flaming fireball was still screaming, her eyes looked red from her bloodlust. But because of her, the fire spread quickly again.

Seong began to just drag Min-Hwa across the wood as he was speeding up. Splinters crammed into his fingers, but he didn’t care, his life was on the line.

—Crackle, crackle…

Seong climbed and climbed, occasionally slipping from choosing a loose wooden scrap, there was a small window where he could escape. 

—Crackle…

As Seong grabbed onto another hanging piece, it unhinged itself and Seong started to fall backwards.

‘N-No!’

He dragged Min-Hwa along unknowingly, he reached for nothing as he found his window to escape becoming more distant.

The screams of hell below him drew closer as he crashed onto the debris, causing him to be out of breath coughing blood. 

“No…No, no, no!” He was already too exhausted to try again, but even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to since there was nothing to latch onto.

They fell on top of an unbalanced platform, Jae-Hee wasn’t too far now. She brought an army of raging fire behind her, Seong could only stare as despair settled in.

—Boom! Boom! Boom!

The flames swallowed everything in its path, cackling as it claimed every inch. Seong laughed dishearteningly.

“Chan-Woo, Chan-Woo!”

“What?”

“Let’s go!”

“How? We won’t be able to go anywhere since there are gaps-”

“You use mana as a boost, right? But it takes too much energy, right? I’m a buffer, so I can help you with it! So move!”

Min-Hwa shoved him to the ground, perhaps because she was in a hurry but, her ability was working really quickly. 

A rush of mana flooded his veins instantly, Seong picked himself up and looked at Min-Hwa confused.

“We don’t have time for a thanks, now let’s go!” She pulled at Seong’s arm.

‘I wasn’t going to anyways.’

He held her and jumped, it was much easier now due to the buff. But every time he used his boost of mana, something clasped his heart.

“Oh, I forgot to mention.” Seong looked back at her horrifyingly,” This kind of buff is very dangerous, it allows you to infinitely use mana, but it takes a toll on your body~”

Seong gritted his teeth,‘This fucking-’ He looked in front of him, because he was getting chased by the relentless fire.

‘I guess it’s fine because I wouldn’t have taken it then, but if it takes a toll on my body-’ Seong threw up blood and he started to see red,’ She’s just trying to kill me!’

—Tak, tak, tak!

Seong pushed through, clenching his teeth to distract himself from the pain, his heartbeat quickened due to the loss of blood.

—Tak, Tak, Tak!

Then finally, he was back to where he was. He pushed himself one final time.

—Tak!

“Cough!” Seong didn’t bother himself with the blood and reached for the window, but he couldn’t get up just yet.

Seong threw her to the side.

She bashed against the peices of wood and clinged onto it,”Ugh!”

Seong pulled himself up quickly, he felt dizzy as he smelt fresh air. His body rejected his blood, causing him to puke.

“Y-you! Get back here and get me!”

He looked back and hesitated, then he went to save her, grabbing her hand and pulling her slowly. 

But he stopped.

Her eyes shook,”H-hey, Chan-Woo, what’re you doing? C’mon!”

“…”

“Chan-Woo, hurry up!” Her face twisted itself horrifyingly.  

Seong smiled,”Why should I?”

“Y-You! Did I not just help you?!”

“You were trying to kill me, Min-Hwa~”

“W-what? My name, how do you-“

A monstrous growl came right behind her,”Ha, haha!” 

“Min-Hwa~ I only came back to tell you something.”

“No-”

“Since we have time now, I’ll say it,” Seong let go of her hand,” Thank you, I’m very grateful~”

“NOOOOOOO!!!!”

She clawed at the air, tiring her voice out and staring lasers at him with a crazed look. 

“You’re coming to hell with me!” Jae-Hee laughed maniacally as she jumped and grabbed Min-Hwa from behind. 

Falling into the vat of fire together.

—CRASHHH!!!

***

“Cough, cough.” Seong covered his mouth with his sleeve.

He sighed, looking up at the sky. He was already back in his safe zone, but he was unsatisfied.

Seong clenched his trembling hands,’That damn aftereffect.’

The sky already confirmed their death, counting [12.] But what has him unsatisfied was, he didn’t get his fill.

Usually when he killed someone, he would feel the rush of vigor flowing in his veins. 

‘Did I not kill them then? No, that can’t be it. Then, is it because I didn’t kill her?’

He paused to think for a moment, then he almost punched the floor,’ Do I have to do it directly?!’

Seong silently screamed at himself, not getting a wink of sleep.

*Author’s note- 

•I’m so lazy lol, here’s a picture my friend drew for Christmas. 

pic: 

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1037388341261377570/1056950638103232641/IMG_2069.jpg

Merry Christmas, everyone!