FINALLY AN UPDATE!!!!!!!! I decided to rewrite everything after chapter 27 (I will reuse some content but not all so please read everything) since there were a lot of flaws with the storyline that I could not patch up. It took me so long to update because I could not figure out which direction I wanted the story to go, but here we have it! It's sad that I actually have to delete chapters I wrote that I was going to upload later (I actually wrote past chapter 35, but never was able to upload them) but it's okay! Let's goooooo!!!!!!!!!

Quick recap: Heechul just trained them how to slay monsters and he was captured. Now SHINee + Joon are back and ready to take on the challenge on their own before the dark clans overwhelm them.

~Chapter 28~

Monster Slaying Team

Minho's POV~

            “What's going on?!” Jonghyun hyung yell as he enters Jong Kook hyungnim’s room. “Why are you pointing your weapon at Jong Kook hyungnim, White Masked Hero?” His face is now covered and he is far from the carefree person I saw an hour ago.

            “My wolf is telling me that they are plotting to kill Minho and Onew hyung.”

            “Explain yourself.” Key hyung takes out his metal fan. Jong Kook hyungnim laughs obnoxiously and rips off what was his face and reveals a Peacekeeper. The Peacekeeper must have entered the clan when the attackers invaded and killed off some of the members.

            We all draw our weapons and attack. The Peacekeeper flies out of the room through the window but is quickly chased down by us. We all exchange attacks and the Peacekeeper swirls around, swiftly avoiding all slices and jabs. “For the best fighters of Heroes’ Rebellion, you guys can’t even manage to kill me. Let’s see you try to take down the dark clans!” The Peacekeeper chuckles as he continues to avoid our attacks. He’s right. With one Peacekeeper we are already struggling, not to mention an entire group of them or even the dark clans as a whole. I know we are all weaker due to the past battles and injuries, but if we were to fight a real war, we won’t be able to heal and the enemy will continue to attack. He easily came into the clan and pretended to be Jong Kook hyungnim which means there are chances that Peacekeepers have done so before and that they will continue to do so in the future.

            “This is pissing me off,” the White Masked Hero says as he signals for us to back off. “You and me, Peacekeeper, one on one. You seem to be good at fighting in a large group by running around in circles. Can you handle me without any distractions and cheap tricks?” The Peacekeeper chuckles as he points at me.

            “I want to fight him, not you White Masked Freak,” he says. “Prince— wait no, I mean ex-prince Choi Minho, I want to challenge you.” Joon hyung stands closer to me and whispers in my ear.

            “You don’t have to do this. I know you are still injured and they were the ones that put you in this state in the first place. I can take him on if you allow me to do so,” Joon hyung looks at me sincerely. “I can take him.”

            “No, this is my battle,” I say and point at him with my sword. “I accept.” The Peacekeeper waves for me to follow him and I nod at my team who are staying behind to give me space to fight. The White Masked Hero tells his wolf to follow me and we head into the woods.

            I charge the Peacekeeper who finally pulls out his weapon— a black whip made from monsters’ scales. He whips at me numerous times and my only choices is to go on offense. I find an opening and plunge my sword forward into his vital spot, but he quickly changes his attack and tangles my arm in his whip. Before I realize it, I was tied up. The White Masked Hero’s Wolf leaps into the air and nearly bites his face off, but falls onto the floor with a loud thud as the Peacekeeper locks his acupoints. “Well that was fast…I guess it’s because I was the one that used to watch you practice sword fighting. I know basically all of your moves and even your choices,” the Peacekeeper admits. “Now, onto the real reason why I am here…I came here to talk to you, ex-prince.”

            “Just kill me now that you caught me; stop joking around.”

            “Oh but I am not~ You see ex-prince, I came here to give you a deal you can’t say no to.”

            “I don’t want to hear—”

            “But you do…and you have no choice in this state,” he says as he walks around me and plays with my hair. “Lee Taemin,” my eyes widen. “I didn’t even get to finish my sentence and you already lost your composure,” he chuckles. “You miss him, don’t you?”

            “What do you want?”

            “The real question is what do you want. Do you want him to come back to you?” I stay silent. “Your face betrayed you, ex-prince. Don’t pretend that you aren’t at least a bit interested in what I have to say.” He continues to play with my hair and taps my nose. “You’re so cute when you are submissive—”

            “Just tell me the deal.”

            “If you end up betraying the king, I will give you Taemin’s soul. We were able to collect it when he died in your arms. If we use a little bit of our magic, your precious Taemin will come back to you alive.”

            “I will never betray His Majesty.”

            “Oh but you should. You see, your clan is strong, but not skilled enough to defeat all the dark clans. Monsters are already difficult to deal with, not to mention the dark clans. If you betray the king when the right time comes, we promise to protect your friends and give you Taemin. Kill Jong Kook too while you're at it. That man has been an eyesore since the beginning. If it wasn't for him, the king wouldn't have has this much support from the martial realm. Look, that king wanted to kill you back then and you would have been dead if you weren’t so lucky. You owe that man nothing but hatred. If you betray him, Taemin will live and so will your friends. You never needed a king like him in the first place. If you decide to listen to us, your life will be exactly the way you want it to be.” The Peacekeeper unties me and flies away after their last message, “Just think about it and when time comes, you can decide.”

Onew’s POV~

            I wince as Joon hyung applies some medicine on my wounds from the interaction with the Peacekeeper. He frowns as he gently slides his warm fingers across my bruised neck from being choked. “I’m sorry…” I utter as I look down. He must be angry with me…

            He quickly pulls me into a gentle hug and rubs the back of my neck with his thumb. “He could’ve killed you,” he says slowly. “You…you would have left me.” I return his hug and pat his back. I can feel his body slightly shaking and I pull away. I gasp as I place my hand on his face and wipe a loose tear off his left cheek.

            “I’m okay, please don’t cry,” I look at his slightly pink eyes and continue leaving my hand on his cheek. “Even if death were to come, I would still never leave you.”

            “I just…I can’t bear the thought of you leaving me. I am a general for the royal army. I do not shed tears easily yet you…you made me so weak.” He leans his face close to my hand and places his on top of the one that is caressing his face.

            “You idiot!” Our loving moment is ruined thanks to Key and Jonghyun yelling at each other outside. We both sigh and laugh as we walk outside hand in hand to see what is wrong.

            “It’s not like I died okay?!” Jonghyun yells as he waves his slightly charred shirt.

            “Oh and what if you did die!? It would be useless for me to yell at you then!” Key curses between his teeth as he harshly applies ointment to Jonghyun’s burnt arm and shoulder.

            “Can you be a bit gentler?!” Jonghyun squirms and tries getting up but Key quickly pushes him back down.

            “Okay kids, what happened?” Joon finally decides to speak up.

            “This one,” Key once again continues to apply ointment harshly, “decide it was a good idea to run into a monster’s den!”

            “You did what?!” I widen my eyes, looking at Jonghyun’s slightly ashamed face.

            “Okay okay I get that it was kinda dumb, but hear me out. Heechul hyung barely helped us learn how to slay monsters and the Peacekeeper was right about monsters being a huge threat. I thought it would be good to try and kill as many as I can so I can narrow down the potential vital spots.” Jonghyun nods to reassure himself that it was a good idea.

            “Did you forget to mention the part that the monsters you attacked were phoenixes and they nearly roasted you?!” Key one again harshly applies the ointment.

            “Oww oww oww!” Jonghyun screams. “Oh come on! Fine, fine I’m sorry! Can you treat the injured a little more gently!?”

            “And this,” I gesture to Jonghyun’s raw skin, “is why Heechul hyung made us fight in a team. See? He wasn’t entirely useless,” I say. “You were careless thinking that you can run into a den without being outnumbered.”

            “On the bright side, your idea isn’t entire flawed,” Joon pats Jonghyun on the uninjured shoulder and continues. “I think we all should kill as many malicious monsters as possible and record the monster and its weakness down. Eventually, we can copy the pages and send them to fighters to help slay monsters.”

            “I agree,” Key says as he bandages Jonghyun. “Since we are the first team of monster slayers and it is our duty to serve the king and his people, we should take one for the greater good and find out monsters’ weak spots so killing them can be easier in person.”

            “See? I’m not an idiot!” Jonghyun cheers.

            “Idiot!” Key pulls on the bandage a little and Jonghyun quickly yelps. “You are still an idiot when you thought you could do this on your own.” I smile to myself as I find their interactions very cute. Key and Jonghyun share a very special bond, but they are not nearly as gentle as Joon and I. They show their affection by occasionally having serious interactions, but their main way to express their love is by nagging and picking on each other.

            “Oh, didn’t the White Masked Hero fight some monsters back then with Heechul hyung? If possible, we should record those monsters down first,” Joon says. “We also need to figure out ideal formations and tactics in monster slaying to relay back to the villagers.”

            “Agreed, let’s go check on the White Masked Hero and his wolf, and Minho. They were left alone ever since Minho came back defeated with the wolf injured.” I say. We all get up and head toward the White Masked Hero’s room where his wolf is resting.

Gun Tae’s POV~

            I told Taemin hyung everything from the conversation between Minho hyung and the Peacekeeper. I cannot tell whether he is upset that someone was negotiating with Minho hyung about a non-existent soul fragment of his or that he is worried about Minho hyung taking the bait. Taemin hyung slowly wipes his mask as he looks at his reflection in the mirror. His eyes show sorrow but his face is neutral. What exactly is he thinking?

            “White Masked Hero!” Jonghyun hyung greets as he and Joon hyung, Key hyung, and Onew hyung walk through the threshold. Taemin hyung quickly puts his mask back on and faces them.

            “What happened to you, hyung?” Taemin hyung asks Jonghyun hyung who is well bandaged.

            “Please don’t ask,” Jonghyun hyung nervously says and clears his throat. “We are here to propose our idea.”

            “I’m all ears.”

            “We are thinking of making a book to record all the monsters we encounter and their vital spots to release to the public. Do you think you can start us off by recording down the ones you and Heechul hyung have encountered?” Joon hyung asks.

            “I am not a great artist, but I can try.” Taemin hyung nods.

            “Great, we are also planning in writing the tactics and formation for future monster slaying teams. This means we cannot slay monsters on our own, we can only slay monsters that pose a threat— since there are peaceful monsters that exist too— and we have to work well as a team,” Jonghyun hyung adds. “We need Minho part of this too, but he may be tired because of the duel with the Peacekeeper.”

            “What about Nam Kyu and the others?” Taemin hyung asks.

            “You mean Mir and Thunder?” Joon hyung asks and Taemin hyung nods. “They were assigned some areas to patrol. After we get a draft of the book, we will have them try it.”

            “Sounds like a good plan.” Taemin hyung nods.

            “After a day’s time, we will be well rested and ready to slay some monsters!” Jonghyun hyung cheers.

Taemin’s POV~

            Minho hyung always seems to be in deep thought ever since the Peacekeeper offered him my soul. Part of me want to tell him that I am Taemin and their offer is fake, but part of me want to use this chance to cut my ties with the old Lee Taemin. I am now the White Masked Hero— an elite warrior of Heroes’ Rebellion whose goal is to work with his friends to protect the people of our country. I’ve hidden my identity as Taemin for so long that I honestly do not want to nor do I know how to break the news to them.

            As the days pass, we continue to try different monster slaying formations and tactics as we recorded all the interactions. Before we knew it, we already had a thick book with the process of monster slaying in great detail. Mir, Thunder, Nam Kyu, Jong Kook hyungnim, and other clan members were able to use our book to slay numerous monsters. Eventually, our clan which was well known for chivalrous heroes that protected the king and his people became known as a monster slaying clan, where all members protected the people through monster slaying. My hyungs and I are the most popular amongst the people as we are the most active and successful in monster slaying.

            In the morning, we train civilians how to spot evil monsters and how to slay them. Heechul hyung’s master blessed the limited weapons that we made and gave out to elite civilians with his magic and energy, making it easier to kill monsters with. This means that only certain weapons are made to slay monsters and anything else would be a challenge. Turns out, my hyungs and I had weapons that killed enough monsters that they became blessed on their own as they slaughtered monsters. The key to this are our charms. They are meant to store our sins when we were angels which means they are able to handle the monsters’ souls. Evidently, the charms bless the souls of the monsters we slay and that transfers to energy that powers us, our weapons, and the pool in the mountain with the special liquid that can help us see into the future. Although we are not perfect, the monsters that we once did not know how to slay are no longer a dominant threat. Now it is our chance to finally focus on protecting the throne.

I hope this chapter set up the story better and made it more clear!

Comments are loved~