Free Web NovelOnly then did Joo Hoyoung, startled, tear his eyes away from Seo Yakrin and look at Yohan. A crease formed on his brow as he sharply scanned their surroundings.
“But during scouting today everything was fine.”
Hoyoung’s scouting range was vast, fitting for his incredible speed. So wide, in fact, that even considering the highest speed of the Bumram, it would still take days to completely overtake the distance he covered. Yet instead of firmly declaring that the Bumram was nowhere near, he hesitated and rose to his feet.
“Come on, get on.”
“Huh?”
Yohan, unable to understand the sudden words, looked up in confusion. Hoyoung gave a small nod.
“If you’re uneasy, then we have to check. That fight over there doesn’t need the two of us anyway. And you should never ignore an instinct like that.”
“Uh, then it’ll be hard, so just leave me here and hurry back...”
As if Yohan had said something absurd, Hoyoung instantly yanked him up. With a swift motion or two, Yohan suddenly found himself slung onto Hoyoung’s back. Before he could protest, Hoyoung was already sprinting forward.
“...!”
Yohan clung on for dear life, unable even to shout. He had once been carried while Hyunmook ran, but this speed was beyond comparison. The rushing wind was so fierce he could barely open his eyes. Through squinting slits he glimpsed reed-like shapes whipping past on all sides. Within minutes, Hoyoung had checked a radius of dozens of kilometers and returned. By then, Seo Yakrin’s “bulk” had... lessened.
“Thankfully, no Bumram in sight!”
While Yohan was still stunned by the grotesque sight, Hoyoung cheerfully spoke and ruffled Yohan’s floating hair before laying him down again. Quickly, he raised another wall of ice—the cornered Seo Yakrin had begun flinging telekinetic power everywhere in a frenzy.
Aaaahhh—Aaghhh! I’ll kiiiill them aaallll!
Each time his ragged, shredded wings flapped under heavy assault, blood droplets scattered like rain. Unable to fly anymore, Seo Yakrin left Hyunmook and Yoon Seungryong more breathing room in their attacks. The battle was surprisingly manageable.
But Yohan couldn’t stay still—he fidgeted restlessly, unease swelling in his chest. Glancing at him, Hoyoung pulled his bowstring taut.
“But... I’m not feeling good about this either...”
He muttered, eyes darting like Yohan’s. A moment later he bit down hard on his lips. Blood seeped from the torn skin as words spilled out in a rush.
“Why? Why? Why? There was nothing, nothing there, nothing—! I checked earlier, I checked, I did.”
“Hoyoung?”
Worried, Yohan called to him and purified him. Often when they used their powers, madness would flare up, and Yohan thought that might be the case again.
And then—
A bird suddenly dropped from the sky.
Everyone’s eyes—Seo Yakrin’s, Yoon Seungryong’s, even Hyunmook’s—instinctively turned toward the fallen bird. It convulsed on the ground, swelling grotesquely, then twisted and vomited foul sludge.
It was the Bumram.
“Fuck!”
Before Seungryong’s curse was finished, Hyunmook snapped his head upward. Far away, flocks of birds, grotesquely swollen, were flying fast toward them. Those circling around Seo Yakrin, attacking Hyunmook and Seungryong, scattered in terror, sensing instinctive doom even toward their own kind. Yohan’s face drained white. fгeewebnovёl.com
“The Bumram... from the sky...”
Before he could finish, the birds—no, the things that had once been birds—rained down from the heavens. Thud. Thump. Thud-thud-thud. Black droplets and lumps of horrific chaos splattered across the ground. The three combatants froze. Seo Yakrin, with his massive body, was the first to be drenched.
Ghhhuuuuughk...!
The voice that had moments ago formed human words warped into something grotesque, like a strangled heron’s cry. He thrashed his head as if to vomit something, then collapsed forward. Rain of Bumram splattered across his outstretched wings. His mutation worsened, joints cracking and twisting with °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° ominous sounds.
Black rain sprayed over Hyunmook and Seungryong too. Dead birds crashed down around them. The most horrific rain in the world was falling.
Yohan screamed, trying to dash forward, but Hoyoung seized him with a brutal grip. Then he turned and bolted, carrying Yohan away from the falling rain of Bumram. Through the towering reeds, Yohan caught one last lingering image of Hyunmook’s upright back. By the time he came to his senses, he was pounding at Hoyoung’s back, pleading desperately.
“Stop! Hoyoung, please! We have to go back, now!” ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
“No!”
Hoyoung halted, set Yohan down, and shouted. His eyes gleamed wild, already half-mad.
“You—you know how terrifying the Bumram is? Once it gets you, you never go back! Never! And I can’t take on those guys! Not a single one of them—I can’t match them!”
He tore at his own hair, despair and defeat warring on his face. A nervous laugh broke out, then his eyes went dead and hollow—the look of a man who had clutched hope only to drop it again.
“You change forever! They’re not the people I knew anymore... no, they’re not people at all! Monsters—ugh. We should never have come here. But how do you avoid Bumram falling from the sky? Falling—flying Bumram...? It’s bad, we need to run, as far as we can...”
Hoyoung rambled frantically, trembling so hard it seemed his body itself crackled. Shocked and terrified, Yohan panted, then suddenly struck out with both hands. Smack! A sharp crack rang out.
“They’re human!”
Hoyoung, slapped hard across both cheeks by Yohan’s glowing palms, blinked blankly. Yohan gripped his face tight, shaking him, shouting:
“They’re human! Human...! Why do you keep saying they’re not?!”
“Haahhh, Yohan...”
So lost in frenzy, Hoyoung even forgot to call him “hyung” as he usually did. He giggled with a pitiful, broken laugh.
“But when you see them... you won’t be able to call them human either...”
Yohan’s gaze drifted despite himself, toward the unseen place where the black rain fell. Chaos raged—flocks of birds rising only to crash, rising only to crash again, or twisting into warped shapes and soaring higher. The reed sea shuddered as if under a storm. Ominous things were surging upward.
“Human or not—that’s not what matters now. Let’s go... farther away. You always run from the Bumram.”
Thanks to Yohan’s purification, Hoyoung at last regained some clarity and held the hands cupping his cheeks. Yohan whispered his name in a trembling voice.
“Hoyoung.”
“That’s why the team leader stuck me with you. If it came to it, I was supposed to grab you and run...”
It was undeniable. Before fighting Seo Yakrin, Hyunmook had given Yohan only one order: defend as best you can, and if the worst comes, flee without hesitation. Yohan’s role was only to be carried out after the battle ended.
“And if we run? If we just run away now, then what happens after that?”
Yohan asked, voice breaking as ominous rain pattered in the distance. Swaaaah... the reed sea shivered in eerie silence. Far off, something’s dark outline writhed above the swaying expanse. They had fled so desperately from the Bumram all this time, but now it seemed impossible. That fact filled Yohan with raw terror. Hoyoung stammered:
“If they’re alive, someday... we can go back and purify them.”
“Here? In this vast place, how would we ever find them? Even if we did, what could the two of us do? And what if one of them dies like this?!”
Hoyoung faltered. Hyunmook, Seungryong, and even Seo Yakrin—all were lethal damage-dealers, dangerous enough that losing a life was not unthinkable. And the reed sea was the hardest place of all to search for someone.
“We have to go back! If we don’t, we’ll... be in danger too.”
“What are you saying? Right now the safest thing is to get far away from there—”
Yohan cut him off, face pale, sweat dripping cold.
“The Bumram... it feels like it’s deliberately not attacking us, like it’s letting us go...!”
Even this far, the dread hadn’t eased. His instincts screamed that something vile and immense circled overhead, targeting them. Wiping his tears on his sleeve, Yohan told Hoyoung:
“So we can’t go any farther. And... I have an idea.”
