Chapter 48

[La, la la, la la♪♩♩♪]

As soon as the door opened, a beautiful song echoed from somewhere. Haon felt as if he was being swept away by the perfect melody.

Before losing his senses, Haon quickly took out earplugs from his hip pouch and plugged one ear as the other ear was already plugged with an earphone. Earplugs were provided alongside earphones for combat situations, as external noise sensitivity was crucial during battles.

Haon immediately recognized who was singing this hauntingly beautiful song. It was the monster ‘siren’. Sirens lured people with their songs and appearance, then dragged them into the water to devour them.

Unable to fight with his hearing blocked, Haon had to defeat the siren first. However, the distance between the rock where the siren was sitting and the helicopter was quite far, making it impossible to attack. It was only because it was a siren’s song that the song could be heard from this distance; if it were another monster, it would have been impossible.

At that moment, Cha Yugeon exerted his telekinesis first and leaped through the air. As Cha Yugeon left, Haon blushed momentarily, forgetting the urgent situation. Then, he regained his composure and pondered how to fight the underwater monsters from the sea.

Shaaa!

Suddenly, the waves calmed down strangely around the helicopter. Startled, Haon instinctively looked at Baek Chan-kyung, who smiled brightly.

“It’s okay to step out now.”

With the voice faintly heard beyond the earplugs, Haon cautiously stepped his foot out of the helicopter. He could feel the swaying sensation of the water, but he could stand on it as if it was a ground, thanks to Baek Chan-kyung’s ability to manipulate water.

Haon was followed by Kim Jeongwon and Park Inhyung. Haon momentarily resented Kim Jeongwon. If only Hyeon Siyun and Kim Jeongwon hadn’t forced him to drink, last night’s incident wouldn’t have happened.

But blaming them now was futile. There were things one should and shouldn’t do, even if one drank alcohol. If one couldn’t discern that, they were no different from beasts.

And Haon was a beast who followed his instincts.

As memories of the previous night resurfaced again, Haon shuddered and ran towards the sea.

He needed to defeat the siren.

 Looking around, Haon saw Cha Yugeon battling with a water dragon underwater. Since he didn’t have the strength to face higher level monsters like Cha Yugeon, he decided to be satisfied with defeating the siren.

[La, la la la, la la la♪♩♪♩♪]

As Haon approached the siren, the song became even clearer. Thankfully, he had plugged his ears; otherwise, he might have already been ensnared by the siren’s song and drowned.

Haon drew his revolver and aimed at the siren. Although he preferred knives over guns, throwing a knife in the sea would make it irretrievable, turning it into a disposable item. In that case, using a gun would be better.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

[Kyaakk!]

Several gunshots rang out consecutively. Two were from Haon, and one was from Kim Jeongwon. In fact, guides didn’t necessarily need to engage in combat since there were espers. However, since it was impractical for an Esper to protect the guide throughout the mission, they needed to have some ability to defend themselves.

Especially for higher-level guides, they often had to engage in missions, so they became more proficient in combat. Kim Jeongwon seemed to be one of those cases. He handled the gun skillfully, allowing them to defeat two of the sirens in the group.

The remaining sirens, startled by the gunshots, jumped into the sea and disappeared. Since there was no way to attack monsters underwater, they had to wait for them to resurface. Haon remained on high alert, scanning the surroundings.

While the two battled the siren, Cha Yugeon was busy fighting the water dragon. The dragon was massive, almost the length of the helicopter they just rode in, and its body was thick. It moved aggressively, repeatedly diving into and out of the water to attack.

“Damn it.”

Cha Yugeon seemed annoyed and clenched his teeth. He closed his eyes for a moment, seemingly regulating his breathing, then opened them. His pupils glowed red, and he raised his hand towards the empty air. Soon, the water dragon was forcibly lifted by telekinesis and emerged from the water.

[Screech! Screeeech!]

The water dragon let out a piercing scream. Without missing the opportunity, Cha Yugeon wrapped the dragon in a massive flame. In response, the water dragon cried out even louder. It was so loud that if they hadn’t protected their ears, their eardrums might have burst.

Before long, the water dragon turned into a charred lump. When Cha Yugeon released his telekinesis, the charred dragon fell onto the sea. The massive creature hitting the water created a large wave.

Thanks to this, Haon, who was nearby, ended up soaked in water.

His uniform was made of waterproof material, but his head and face, exposed outside of his clothes, were not. Haon, who had become like a drowned rat, inadvertently shouted in irritation.

“Hey, Cha Yugeon!”

At that moment, Cha Yugeon looked at Haon. In that instant of eye contact, Haon felt like he had made a mistake. He could feel his face burning red as memories flooded back.

Haon quickly turned his head. It seemed like he blatantly avoided Cha Yugeon’s gaze, but he couldn’t help it. Since he had already avoided the gaze, there was no way to take it back, and even if he could, he would repeat the same actions in this situation.

Meanwhile, a few sirens were sneaking out of the water. Without missing a beat, Haon shot at the sirens again.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

After several gunshots, the sea turned crimson. They couldn’t tell how many, but it seemed like the sirens had been hit by the bullets.

“We’re done!”

From the other side, Kim Jeongwon’s voice rang out, indicating their success. They might not know if there were more sirens left, but they had defeated at least four of them, so they could relax a bit.

Even if there were more sirens left, they wouldn’t immediately resurface to sing after seeing their kin shot to dead. Haon removed the earplugs from his ears and put them back in his pocket.

“Park Haon.”

“Whoa!”

Haon lowered his head to take off the earplugs, but in that moment, Cha Yugeon was already right in front of him.

Haon shouted in surprise. Then he realized that the person in front of him was Cha Yugeon and felt embarrassed.

“Park Haon, you… remember right?”

“Ugh, it’s the water dragon!”

Instead of answering Cha Yugeon’s question, Haon pointed his finger behind Cha Yugeon. But Cha Yugeon wasn’t going to be fooled by that. He snorted and spoke again.

“Why is your face so red?”

“Cha Yugeon, it’s really the water dragon! The dragon! It’s much bigger than the one before!”

“Do you think I’d fall for that?”

“No, I’m serious! It’s true! You crazy bastard!”

[Screech!]

The water dragon, revealed itself behind Cha Yugeon, let out a loud roar. The one Cha Yugeon had defeated seemed to be a young one, but the one that appeared now boasted an even larger size.

With its mouth wide open, it charged towards the spot where Cha Yugeon and Haon had just been.

Fortunately, thanks to Cha Yugeon’s extraordinary reflexes, he grabbed Haon and flew into the air, avoiding the attack.

“Look, I told you! I was right!”

“You sounded so much like you were lying!”

“Did I sound like I was lying? What nonsense are you talking about, not believing me!”

The two bickered with each other in the air. Meanwhile, the dragon, standing tall again, prepared to attack them once more.

 Cha Yugeon also noticed this.

“Geez. Anyway, we’ll talk about this later.”

“…”

Haon had no words to respond and closed his mouth. Being in Cha Yugeon’s arms made him feel more embarrassed as memories of last night came flooding back.

Cha Yugeon once again tried to lift the dragon with telekinesis. However, due to the dragon’s large size, it didn’t seem easy. Sweat beaded on his forehead. Watching him, Haon felt worried. It seemed like Cha Yugeon was pushing himself too hard. Seeing many espers go berserk at critical moments made him even more concerned.

After a brief hesitation, Haon started guiding Cha Yugeon while holding onto him tightly. He hoped his guide power would flow into Cha Yugeon. However, even without exerting extra effort to concentrate as usual, he felt his guide power flowing smoothly.

Haon blinked in surprise at the unexpected change, but it seemed that it wasn’t just him who felt different. Cha Yugeon also looked at Haon with a surprised expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“What, what do you mean… I was just guiding.”

“…You were guiding?”

“Yeah, why…?”

Something seemed wrong.

Haon cautiously observed Cha Yugeon’s reaction to his words. Then, Cha Yugeon muttered softly.