Guest Ch 6

Invitation to the New Seoul (6)

“Grrrrr, grrrrr, grrrrr, grrrrr!”

“Ruff, Ruff, Ruff!”

The dogs, gathering below, jumped, trying desperately to bite me. But it didn’t seem easy for them to jump over the 2-meter wall. Fortunately, there was no time to catch my breath. I sprinted along the narrow wall, heading in a direction where the dogs couldn’t herd me.

“Grrrrr, grrrrr!”

“Ruff, Ruff, Ruff, Ruff, Ruff!”

I even ran into another house over the wall on purpose. But with their strong sense of smell, it was impossible to completely shake them off. The dogs’ persistence was so strong that I felt like I would collapse from exhaustion first. Usually, breaking someone else’s window would require a lot of thought, but this time, I had no choice but to act quickly.

Thoughts of pity and guilt about hurting the dogs or fear about why they were acting this way were unnecessary. If I let those thoughts distract me, I’d be the first to become prey to their sharp teeth. I was just focused on taking refuge at my grandmother’s house, which had tall walls.

“!”

The wall was broken. I looked back to check on the dogs. I could see them running around the alley on the other side. They weren’t that close. The distance between the dogs and me was about 20m. There was no time to hesitate. I jumped to the ground.

Thud!

“Grrrrr, grrrrr!”

“Ruff, Ruff, Ruff!”

I ran, dodging the dogs that chased after me as if they’d been waiting. My breath was so labored that my vision blurred, but I would rather die from exhaustion than get torn apart by the dogs.

“Ha, ha!”

I could see it, my grandmother’s house. The rusty [Under Camera Surveillance] sign.

As I grabbed the closed iron gate and tried to go inside, these four-legged beasts noticed me. These beasts, who were quite clever, started to desperately try to block my way out.

“Ruff, Ruff!”

A large yellow wild dog lunged at me, grabbing onto the backpack slung over my shoulder, causing me to fall backward.

“Ugh!”

Before I could steady myself, the dog pounced on top of me, its mouth wide open, ready to tear into me. Reflexively, I grabbed its neck.

“Fxck, sht!”

Its sharp teeth snapped just inches above my head.

Clack clack!

The dog struggled like a demon, far from any ordinary animal. Every time its saliva, dripping from its fangs, splashed on my face, I felt like my blood was draining from my body.

“Grrrrr!”

“Ruff!”

“Grrrrr, , Ruff, Ruff!”

Dogs swarmed in from all sides. I couldn’t delay any longer and kicked the dog off.

“Kkegaeng!”

I tried to get up and dash into my grandmother’s house, but another dog nimbly bit onto my backpack. I stumbled backward again, with no time to stand. The dog grabbed the backpack and began shaking it violently from side to side.

“Sht!”

The dog dragged me by the backpack. Its jaw strength was overwhelming, and I had no way to resist as I lay sprawled on the ground. More dogs began rushing toward me—four at once. This was impossible to stop.

I can’t believe I came all this way just to become food for wild dogs. I never thought I’d die being eaten by animals.

“Stop…!”

I was on the verge of panicking, imagining my hands, feet, and head all being bitten off.

Whoosh!

Out of nowhere, I heard a sound slicing through the air. At the same time, the dog about to bite me let out a short scream.

“Kwak!”

The strong, menacing dog fell limp to the ground. I gasped for breath, staring at the dead dog. Something was lodged in its neck. It was sharp and had completely pierced through its long neck…

…An arrow?

The dogs froze. Standing firmly on the roof of the car under the wall, I saw the wolf I had seen at Seoul Station. The wolf, which appeared to be the leader of the pack, turned its head somewhere.

At the end of the alley, where the shadows grew longer as night fell, something whistled through the air—two arrows.

Whoosh, wham!

The tip of one arrow buried itself into the eye of the dog closest to me.

Thud!

The other arrow pierced the head of the dog beside it. Both dogs, their lives ended instantly, rolled to the ground at my feet. Just as I was about to collapse in shock, the remaining dogs, equally startled, began retreating, avoiding the corpses. The wolf, still standing on the car’s roof, let out a long, resonating howl.

“Awooooo!”

Several more figures moved in the dim light under the wall.

“Grrrrr.”

This time, they were real wolves, their yellow eyes glowing in the shadows. Not wild dogs—real predators, ones that tear into live flesh. As I was paralyzed by fear, realizing the wolves were gradually surrounding me, I heard footsteps approaching.

“You shouldn’t touch without my permission.”

It was a human voice. But I couldn’t fully rejoice at hearing a person for the first time in this strange world. The voice, quiet and calm, sounded completely unbothered by the danger of the situation. It was the voice of someone who stood at the top of the food chain, meaning that someone like me, who couldn’t even handle wild dogs, could be dealt with effortlessly.

The owner of the voice emerged from the shadows. He was a man in a long coat. The wind blew his black hair across his forehead, but the intense eyes beneath it remained steady.

His sharp gaze focused on me. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking—whether he intended to help me or harm me.

He pulled something out from his waist—a knife, about two handspans long. No, it was a kitchen knife.

Swish!

The knife he threw with all his might split the skull of the dog beside me right down the middle.

Thud!

Blood sprayed from the dog’s shattered skull like a fountain, drenching my clothes. The hot, metallic-smelling blood soaked my white sweatshirt, and my mind, which had held on until now, began to waver. Drenched in the dog’s warm blood, I was on the verge of fainting.

The man, unaware of my weakened state, began ruthlessly slaughtering the wild dogs.

Swish.

The knife in his hand spun and flew like a living creature. Before the dogs could escape, the blade either sank into their backs or sliced through their throats, sending them crashing to the ground. The air filled with the sound of dogs screaming, their cries so brutal it was almost unbearable.

Swish, thud!

Another arrow flew at the wolves that had surrounded me. This time, another person stood in the dark. The tip of the arrow, pulled taut, gleamed white.

“Get up.”

The man looked down at me, pale as a ghost, and gave the order. His voice was cold, sharp. But the look in his eyes was so intense, so unlike his voice, it was as if they were about to swallow me whole.

“Hurry.”

I wiped the blood that had splattered around my eyes with my sleeve and leaned against the wall. My legs trembled, weak. When I struggled to stand, the man, who was twirling his sword, sighed and grabbed my wrist.

“Ah!”

I flinched in surprise and tried to pull away. But my resistance was futile. The man held me with one hand, refusing to let go. He simply stared intently at my terrified face. I couldn’t bring myself to look directly at the man holding the blood-dripping knife. He was more terrifying than the dogs that had tried to tear me apart.

His gaze slid over me. With one hand gripping me tightly, he adjusted his hold on the kitchen knife with the other.

“I’ll explain later.. For now, just pull yourself together.”

I couldn’t fully register his urging voice.

Fear had turned my mind blank.

“Hey.”

Fear consumed me in an instant.

“….”

He opened his mouth as if to call me again but stopped. With a deep sigh, he positioned me behind him, as if shielding me. His broad back filled my vision, casting everything in a dark blue. It was then I realized his coat was a deep black, tinged with blue.

“Go to the car.”

A woman holding a bow stood where the man pointed with his chin. Behind the short-haired woman, I could see a car.

“Go. You’re getting in the way.”

Once again, he plunged his knife into the head of a charging dog.

BAM!

Hot blood splattered onto my white sneakers. The smell of blood, staining my clothes and shoes red, made me dizzy.

I barely managed to move my trembling legs. The man swung his sword more freely, maintaining a distance that seemed to protect me. He slashed at the dogs’ legs, cleaving their heads as blood soaked the ground, staining the panels [on camera] red with real blood, not rust.

As the scent of their kin’s blood grew stronger, the dogs became frenzied and charged at the man all at once.

“Grrrrr!”

“Grrrrr, Ruff!”

Their frantic howls mixed together, chaotic. The four-legged beasts, like rabid dogs, went wild. Just as they leapt at the man in the dark blue coat, a new figure sprang from the car. Although small and lean for a man, his movements were as swift and precise as an animal’s.

Swish!

A man with pitch-black skin, showing only the whites of his eyes. Reminiscent of a jaguar or a black panther, he quickly scaled a low wall before turning to kick one of the dogs away.

“Kkegaeng!”

The man in the dark blue coat shouted.

“Clear out the wild dogs. I’ll handle the wolves.”

At his command, the agile man, like a jaguar, darted forward. One by one, he began to deal with the dogs rushing in to support the wolf, who appeared to be the pack leader.

He would grab a dog’s head with both arms, twisting its neck to kill it, or he would wrap his legs around another dog’s neck, twisting its body to break its spine. While he used his fists and elbows swiftly, it was only to create distance from the dogs rushing at him.

His true attacks came with his knees, shins, and feet. When a dog got close enough, he struck its snout with a punch. He shattered jaws with his knee and cracked skulls with his elbow.

When a dog lunged at him, baring its teeth, he smacked it away with his palm, producing a loud thud. If several attacked at once, he’d kick out, breaking the spines of two or three dogs simultaneously.

It was Muay Thai. Not the kind used for sports, but a destructive, specialized fighting technique honed for real combat. His small size became an advantage, making him faster and more agile than the beasts he fought.

One man chased a wolf with a kitchen knife.

Another man killed wild dogs with his bare fists.

A woman pulled back her bow to support them both.

The trio was perfectly synchronized. They had clearly fought like this before. They knew how to surround and pressure their opponents from close, medium, and long range. The man in the navy coat stared at me, who was just watching the three of them like an idiot.

His gaze was obsessive. Even while swinging his sword, he kept his eyes on me. He watched me closely, as if fearing I might run, reacting to even the slightest movement.

He didn’t even pay attention to the wild dog’s blood that splattered on his clothes. He only looked at me. Just me, as if nothing else mattered.

“Grrrr, grrr!”