“I will not be participating in the wrestling unit. I’m quitting. They’ll slaughter me!”

Jongin raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure you have a choice.”

“Will they give me a choice if they realize I’ll die in that unit?”

He let out a slight laugh. “You’re tiny, but you’re not as weak as you think.”

“I’m weaker than I think.”

Chapter 20

Jaeyeon looked horrified.

I felt horrified too, but mostly nauseous.

Sure, I was an Athanatoi (apparently), but I was in no way a hero that went around and saved people. The dark, mysterious hero that slaughtered monsters easily and ensured the safety of humans -- nope, that title belonged rightfully to Kai. And I didn’t plan on taking it anytime soon. In fact, the first thought that came to mind when I saw the room full of Yunseos was to run as fast as I could and let Kai and the others deal with it.

“I think we should phone Kai,” I muttered, taking my phone from my pocket. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but they have the same feeling as Yunseo. Which means they’re going to see me as a laughingstock instead of being all scared of me, and there’s more than a dozen of them. They don’t seem to be harming your brother yet, anyways.”

Jaeyeon cast another look at Jaemin. He was curled up in a fetal position, and though we weren’t close enough to actually see him properly, I could only guess he had a couple injuries on him. Athanatoi healed fast, but then again, it’d been almost too much to bear when Yunseo had stabbed my leg.

“Call Kai,” she agreed, “there’s nothing we can do against them.”

“What are you doing out here? We’re holding the boy as ransom--”

There was a pregnant silence when Jaeyeon and I both turned around to be face to face with a girl, someone who held a striking resemblance to Yunseo. Her eyes were wide as she stared at us, and for a moment, the air seemed to stand still and no one spoke.

“Ah,” Jaeyeon said, “.”

“I… second that.”

The girl looked more scared than aggressive, which was considerably shocking. She stood frozen there, staring at the two of us. Jaeyeon didn’t make any sudden moves either, though her hands were slowly inches towards the inside of her jacket, where the daggers lay hidden.

She wasn’t slow to notice the movement, but let out a hiss at Jaeyeon in anger. My gut churned when I recalled Yunseo once again.

“Intruders!” the shout was almost painfully loud, extremely sudden and shrill from the silence. “Help!”

In a blink of an eye, the fire elemental had a dagger to and another against her back. As the dozen other elementals from inside of the warehouse flared around the two of us, I found myself holding the shortsword in front of me like how Kai had taught me. Just looking at the elementals up close made my left leg ache, even if there was no trace of the wound on me anymore. None of the others had weapons except Jaeyeon and I, but getting stabbed with their claws sounded even more painful.

“Song Jaeyeon and Jeon Mira,” one of the males hissed. None of them made any moves at us, all eying their companion which Jaeyeon held hostage. I was too horrified and scared to think properly, but it was odd how they managed to recognize our faces just like that. “Where is Kim Jongin?”

“Ring him right now,” Jaeyeon muttered, “get one of the Spellcasters to do whatever and create a portal here. We need to get them here right now.”

One hand still holding the shortsword, I pulled my phone out shakily, once again. The leader of the group let out a hiss, but every single one of them stood their ground, seemingly scared that Jaeyeon would slit their companion’s throat.

Thirteen, I thought woozily, there’s only thirteen of them here. There were fourteen before.

“Mira?” she asked worriedly, “Hurry.”

“... there’s no reception here.”

I could almost hear Jaeyeon’s frustration, if my own wasn’t enough. No service, it read at the top of the phone, and I wasn’t sure if life was playing a huge joke on me or whatever. Sitting down and crying seemed to be the best and only option at the moment. We’d played into the hands of Yunseo’s family. Into the area of no reception.

“You…” she began through gritted teeth, but her voice faltered. “Jaemin?”

“Your twin is awake,” the leader sniffed, “I take it that you’re here for him.”

The connection. Jaeyeon must’ve felt it come back and the chord between them snap together, because her eyes were wide with relief. I watched her, unsure of what to do or say, the fire elemental completely still with the dagger still against . She seemed to stare ahead listlessly, before the expression on her face turned to sheer panic.

“You’re hurting him!” she shouted, and I almost jumped and fell against the nearest fire elemental. “What do you want?”

I hadn’t been quite sure what Jaeyeon was talking about, but a moment later, Jaemin was dragged out of the warehouse by the fourteenth person, the one that’d I’d woozily noted as missing.

He looked horrible, signs of being hit visible just by looking at his face. There was an open gash across his cheeks, one of his eyes were swelled shut and a terrible purple colour, and his jeans seemed to be ripped at the knees. Both his knees were bloody, staining the light blue color. Jaemin’s winter coat still seemed to be in one piece, hanging open, but inside, his shirt was torn to shreds.

The elemental holding him up had completely changed form, eyes burning red and claws out against Jaemin’s throat, a mirror of what Jaeyeon was currently doing.

“What did you do?” Jaeyeon sounded furious. “Why’d you drag him here?”

“Joo Yunseo. You and Kim Jongin -- you killed her.”

All the remaining hopes that these people weren’t related to Yunseo dashed to the ground and shattered to pieces. Someone bent on vengeance, Luhan had once said, can be the most dangerous.

Fourteen people here to avenge Yunseo’s death. Jaeyeon cold very much be fighting for her brother, but she wasn’t going to be enough. I had come along believing that we didn’t have to take down anything horribly hard, and even then, I’d been prepared to call Kai for backup as soon as I saw whatever we’d have to fight. Now we were surrounded by fourteen people, which was approximately five tim