Just like Jieun said, the group rested for a good three days. With Yuna's payment on the first day, Yoonji didn't seem to mind providing them the hospitality and food. Sunwoo was gone for most part of the day, heading to a few nearby villages to gather supplies before heading to the city for trade. This left the three to recover from their wounds, which happened sooner than Jieun had anticipated. As for Jieun's injuries, she was feeling better, but her legs were still scarred and burned. She ended up using a stick she found as a sort of cane. The three suspected that the stick was another Kreo creature in its weapon disguise, but she insisted that that it was literally just a large stick she found to walk around with.

"Like I told Jungkook a few days ago," Jieun said, guiding her students outside. She made sure that they were far enough from the merchant's home, but not too deep into the forest, "I'm going to provide you some of my training."

She led the three to an area where the trees surrounded an empty circle. It was big enough for the three to fight and run around, but small enough for Jieun to keep control of the situation. She sat down in front of the largest tree and leaned her back against the bark. Jungkook, Yuna and Seokmin stood in front of her, dumbfounded of the situation.

"You're going to train us by sitting down?" Yuna asked.

Jieun laughed. "No, silly. I'm not fit to train you guys physically. So…" 

She snapped her fingers. From behind the trio, Hanna and Junki were summoned. The two humanoid creatures bowed respectfully.

"Kang Hanna, the Gumiho—"

"Lee Junki, the Chollima—"

"At your service," the two said in unison. 

Seokmin's eyes sparkled. "You're letting us fight to Kreo creatures?"

"Sort of." Jieun said. She stabbed her self-made cane in the ground. "Your goal is to try to take this cane from me. Since I'm injured, Hanna and Junki will help me out." She looked at the two. "Your orders are to act as defense. Do not go on offense." She glanced at Hanna in particular. "Do you understand?"

"Yes," the two said.

"You'll have until sunset to take this stick from me," Jieun told them. "Any questions?" Jungkook and Yuna shook their heads. Seokmin pondered on the situation a bit before raising his hand. "Yes?"

"Will you be moving the stick while we try to get it?" Seokmin inquired.

Jieun blinked, then giggled. "Hanna and Junki will not be moving the stick."

Seokmin nodded. When nobody seemed to have any other question, Jieun inhaled through her nose. Jieun closed her eyes and cleared . As she got comfortable at her spot, she crossed her arms and smiled. "We begin…now."

The three stood still. They were right in front of her. They weren't sure why she was making them do something so obvious. They looked back at Hanna and Junki, who did not move.

Annoyed with such a frivolous training method, Yuna reached out to grab the staff. Before she had the chance to grab it, Junki came out of nowhere and appeared in front of her. A gust of wind caught the three off guard as Junki blocked her from grabbing the staff, slapping her hand away. Yuna widened her eyes and tried to grab the staff with her other hand, but Junki smacked his arm against her hand, preventing her from grabbing it again.

"This is starting to piss me off," Yuna muttered, attempting to reach for it on her third try.

"I'm only following orders," was all Junki said before he kicked her in the stomach. Yuna grunted and flew in the air for a brief second before colliding against a tree. The tree bent inwards from the unexpected impact, threatening to fall.

Jungkook and Seokmin widened their eyes and looked at Junki.

"You're not supposed to hurt her!" Seokmin cried out. He angrily pulled out his twin swords.

"I was told to act as defense. Being on defense doesn't mean not hurting anyone," Junki pointed out.

Jungkook glanced at Jieun, who was still smiling. He clicked his tongue and pulled out his sword, ready to attack. He darted towards Junki, ready to strike him in the chest until Junki rushed behind him. Junki whirled his foot against Jungkook's back, forcing him to fall down on the ground. Seokmin tried to slash the darkly dressed man until Hanna came in and interfered, jumping behind him and trying to take away his swords.

Seokmin dodged, and rolled away from them, regrouping with Jungkook and Yuna. The three were now farther away from the stick. Jieun still had her eyes closed with a smile that irritated the three.

"So they can hurt us as long as they're defending the stick," Seokmin said. "Meaning that if we get too close, they'll try to hurt us."

"Or if we throw anything too close to it," Jungkook muttered, "they'll just deflect it."

"This isn't a fair fight. We're fighting against mystical creatures who are way stronger than us," Yuna said.

"We still have sunset," Seokmin said. "If we plan now, we can regroup and—"

"We don't have that kind of time," Jungkook interrupted. "If this were a real battlefield, we can't just go back to the base, plan something, and then return to fight. Every second counts."

Seokmin opened his mouth to protest, but he quickly clamped it shut. Jungkook was right. If he wanted to be better prepared for the future, he had to take this seriously. He scowled and looked at the two, observing the creatures who stood near the stick.

"What do we know about them?" Jungkook asked Seokmin.

"We know that Junki is very fast. It's hard to strike him or face him when he's anticipating on our moves and can react to us at an incredible speed." Seokmin darted his eyes at Hanna. "We also know that Hanna is very violent, but since she's playing as defense, we don't have to worry about her shredding us apart."

"So basically, Hanna is holding herself back because she has to while Junki doesn't need to hold himself back, right?" Yuna asked.

"Right."

"Then in this case, it's best if one of us faces Hanna and two face Junki," Jungkook suggested. 

"And who gets the stick?" Yuna asked.

"Any one of us who can," Jungkook said. "It's better to separate those two from each other, too. I'll distract Hanna. You two take care of Junki."

Yuna wanted to work with Jungkook, but Seokmin nodded and Jungkook turned away. Sighing, Yuna looked at Junki, who was still standing next to the stick. Seokmin gripped his swords tighter and dashed towards him. Yuna immediately flung a few throwing knives towards Junki. Junki jumped in the air, lifting his feet. As the knives pierced the tree behind him, Seokmin came up from below. He lunged his sword, which Junki deflected with his own sword, clashing weapons with him.

While the two were busy trying to distract Junki, Jungkook was charging straight towards Hanna. He tried to slash her, but she would dodge with grace. Her hands were behind her back, as if she was taunting him. Her eyes stared deep into his, challenging him to do better.

"You definitely have the skills," Hanna said in the midst of her evasion, "but you're inferior to Jieun."

"Jieun's only strong because she has the Mythos of Kreo," Jungkook stated. Hanna glared at him as he tried to puncture her ribs. "If she was a normal person, she wouldn't be as strong as she is now. She's nothing without you."

Hanna's eyes softened. "And after all these years, that's what she still believes."

Jungkook stopped trying to slash her. He stopped for a brief moment to catch his breath. Hanna stood still and looked around, noticing that while she was dodging, Jungkook had pushed her out of the center. The two were now deeper in the forest, far away from the rest. They could hear Seokmin's and Yuna's frustrated battle cries, but it was faint.

"Hey, why don't you tell me more about my Instructor," Jungkook requested.

Hanna growled. "Why should I? I can hardly trust you."

"She's my Instructor. I need to know her better if I want to defeat her in this training."

"You think that I will bow down to you?" Hanna scoffed. "That's ridiculous."

"Regardless of whether she ate the Mythos of Kreo or not, she's a strong opponent. I know she's hiding a lot of things."

"Why don't you just ask her? She'll be happy to answer anything for you."

"She doesn't tell me everything."

"And what makes you think that I will tell you everything about her?"

Jungkook grimaced. "I guess you don't want us to be close to our Instructor."

"Before she was your Instructor, she was my creator. I will not say anything that will hinder her pride," Hanna declared.

Jungkook stopped. Then, he pulled out a little pill from his belt. Hanna stared at him, confused until she saw him smirk. He crushed the pill in his hand and dropped it on the ground. A cloud of smoke rapidly rose from the broken bits of the pills. Hanna lunged towards him, trying to get a final attack to prevent him from escaping. She tried to hit him with her claws, but she suddenly froze up. Before the smokes covered his vision, Jungkook could see Hanna struggling and falling down, crying out in deep agony as if something was pinning her down, preventing her from attacking him.

While she was down, he quickly made his escape back to the center. Jungkook snuck around a little, hiding behind the bushes while watching Seokmin and Yuna struggle to fight. Seokmin would try to attack Junki, but he would swiftly dodge and kick him to a nearby tree. Yuna would come from above, and when she was coming down to knock him out, Junki would briskly turn his foot and kick upwards, hitting either her face or her stomach, throwing her up in the air before she collided with the ground. Still, despite how both were trying to fight off Junki, they continued to make attempts to stealing the stick.

"Yuna, Seokmin!" Jungkook called. The two grunted and looked up. He signaled them to regroup near him. After spitting out some blood, they nodded and crawled their way back.

Junki stood in front of the stick with the tip of his sword in the soil. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. A gentle breeze flew by, calming down the situation. Jieun was still sitting down with her eyes closed as if she was sleeping and dreaming a beautiful dream.

"I think I found a weakness," Jungkook whispered to them. "When I was fighting Hanna, she felt provoked and tried to attack me. Since she tried to attack me, I guess the Kreo must've reacted and prevented her from doing that. Now she's paralyzed."

"I thought Kreo creatures had a will of their own?" Seokmin said.

"So where is she now?" Yuna asked, ignoring Seokmin's question.

"She's still back where I left her. I don't know how much time we have before she comes back," Jungkook said.

"Well, hopefully not soon. It's almost sunset," Seokmin remarked. 

"We can finish this soon," Jungkook said. "We just have to provoke Junki. You know, get him to attack us. He just needs to strike first."

"That's going to be tough. I could see why Hanna tried to attack first. Her personality is more impulsive to attack. Junki?" The three looked at him. Seokmin shook his head. "Junki has been standing like a log this entire time. He only moves when we try to strike him first."

"We need to do this fast. We don't know how long Hanna is going to be like how you said she was," Seokmin reminded him.

Jungkook nodded. He looked at Junki, who didn't look like he was doing much. Junki stood and stared at everyone with cold eyes. Jungkook almost shuddered, but he took a deep breath and calmed him heart.

"So what's the plan?" Yuna asked.

"We keep charging and inch closer to the staff," Jungkook suggested.

"That doesn't sound like a good strategy," Seokmin murmured.

"But it's the best one we have right now, right?" he asked. Seokmin nodded reluctantly. "So, let's go."

Jungkook charged first. He pulled out his sword and clashed with Junki. Junki quickly defended himself with his sword and pushed Jungkook away. By the time he kicked Jungkook to the side, Seokmin and Yuna were rushing ahead. Junki let out a small sigh and jumped in the air, raising his sword above Seokmin. Seokmin whirled around and turned to face him before crossing his swords, bracing himself from the impact. Junki slammed his sword down and Seokmin felt the weight being pressed on him from his swords. Seokmin managed to push Junki back and uncrossed his swords. A breeze rushed by and Junki appeared behind him. Before Seokmin could turn, Junki slammed him on the ground, causing the boy to fall and cough.

Yuna was nearing the staff and Jungkook had gotten up. As Jungkook ran to catch up with Yuna, Junki swiftly ran to Yuna's side. He tried to inch closer, but Yuna threw some of her knives at him, catching him slightly off guard until Junki decided to do the same. He threw his own sword at her, causing Yuna to gasp and use her fan weapon to deflect the sword from hitting her face. Once she uncovered her face, Junki appeared right in front of her and did a roundhouse kick, knocking her to the floor. Yuna growled angrily and watched Jungkook rush to the front with Seokmin catching up. Before Junki had the chance to catch up with the boys, Yuna threw her knives that she had hidden in her sleeves. Still, Junki easily dodged and sped towards the boys while Yuna recovered.

Junki stopped right in front of Jungkook. "This is a bad plan."

"It's the only one we got," Jungkook said, panting heavily. He tried to throw his fist at Junki, but Junki grabbed it with his hand. Jungkook gulped and braced for another kick. Just as he expected, Junki kicked Jungkook away. While he flew in the air backwards, Jungkook could swear that his bones were bruised and possibly broken. Even though his teammates were taking in so much damage, they were actually getting closer to the staff.

Jungkook carefully looked at Jieun, whose eyes were still close. He looked up, surprised with how quickly time had gone by. He spat out some blood and continued running. As he ran, he could hear Seokmin groaning and Yuna yelping before Junki appeared in front of him again. Junki carefully eyed at Jungkook.

"By the way," Junki said, "what happened to Hanna? Did you two make a deal of some sort?"

Looks like Kreo creatures don't know what happened to each other, so there's no such thing as telepathy or something like that, Jungkook noted. 

"What if we did?" Jungkook asked. He ducked and avoided Junki’s kick and continued running. He skid a little when Junki appeared in front of him again.

"No… Hanna's not like that," Junki murmured. "She's not the type who would make deals with you."

"We talked a little and she got mad," Jungkook said. He tried to punch him, but Junki would deflect his punches his forearm.

"Ah, that sounds more like her. She's been gone a while so I was wondering if something had happened," Junki said. He glanced at Jieun. "But Jieun didn't say anything, so I guess she just did something idiotic."

"You don't seem to like Hanna very much," Jungkook remarked.

"She's violent and irrational. I'm very much the opposite." He let out another sigh. "We also serve the same purpose, which is quite annoying."

"Same purpose?" Jungkook repeated.

"Well, I won't say anymore. If I say more, Hanna will get mad and accuse me of betraying Jieun," Junki said. He finally kicked Jungkook and went to attack Yuna and Seokmin again.

Jungkook laid on the ground for a few minutes, panting and heaving. He coughed out some more blood and looked up at the clouds before closing his eyes. Then, he opened his eyes that burned in determination.

"Okay," he whispered to himself, "this is getting pretty annoying."

He got up, rotated his neck, and twisted his arms around a little. After warming up, he glared at Junki. He felt like something in him was burning, something that made him want to attack Junki, that made him want to get the stick. Regulating his breath, he darted towards Junki, who was about to kick Seokmin. He ed the flat side of his sword against Junki's fist, throwing him to the side like a baseball bat hitting a home run. Junki raised an eyebrow and flew high in the air. As he neared a three, he stabbed the tree with his sword and roughly caught himself from falling. He looked down at Jungkook, who looked up at him with a bit of surprise.

Seokmin and Yuna stared in awe. There was a minute of silence and observation until Seokmin let out an excited laugh.

"Nice!" Seokmin cried out. "I didn't know you could throw Kreo creatures like that!"

Jungkook looked down at his sword. Then, he looked at the cane.

"You two, distract Junki! I'll get the cane!" Jungkook ordered. 

"Got it!" Yuna exclaimed, posing to defend Jungkook. Seokmin clumsily did the same, ready to prevent Junki from reaching Jungkook. 

Junki narrowed his eyes. He glanced at Jieun, who was still smiling and sitting. Grimacing, Junki dragged his sword down the tree, creating a long line that almost split the tree into two. Once he landed on the ground, Yuna didn't waste any time and threw her throwing knives. Junki found the sleeves of his black robes caught by the knives. He tried to move, but realized that the knives were strong enough to pin him down. With only one arm to fight, he tossed his sword to his free arm, ready to fight. Yuna and Seokmin both charged towards him, ready to make their final strike and finally end the game.

However, a unique howl echoed in the forest. Hanna appeared from between the split from the tree, growling furiously while looking terribly weak. She barred her fangs and growled, glaring down at Yuna and Seokmin with her wild blue eyes.

"I'm finally back," Hanna whispered hauntingly.

"Took you long enough," Junki said. Hanna howled again and jumped from the tree. She first pinned Yuna down, stealing her knives and piercing her clothes down to the ground. Yuna struggled to get up and tried to kick Hanna, but Hanna moved away and charged to Seokmin. Seokmin collided against another tree and Hanna used the same knives to pin his clothes to the tree.

Then, Hanna furiously howled when she saw Jungkook nearing the stick. She lowered her body and started running towards him on all fours. 

"Jungkook, get the stick!" Yuna yelled.

Jungkook could hear Hanna inching closer, but he was even closer to the staff.

Seokmin looked at him anxious. Come on, Jungkook!

The stick! Get the stick! Yuna cried out in her head.

Jungkook could see the cane centimeters away from his grasp. Almost…!

Swoosh! Clack!

Jungkook stiffened his body. Before he knew it, he saw the sharp point of the stick facing him, nearly stabbing his eyes. He felt his heart pound against his chest, realizing that he would've lost his vision if he had leaned a second longer. His brown orbs slowly rolled over to Jieun, who was now standing. She had a smirk on her face as she pointed the stick in front of his face. Then, she pulled the stick away and lightly tapped it against the top of his head.

"Good work," Jieun said. She pointed to the sky, "but it's sunset."

He glanced up, regulating his breath. The orange light burned through the small openings of the trees. A faint glow casted a peachy hue across the barks of the wood. Before he knew it, it had become dark and cold. He glanced down at Jieun, who seemed quite content with herself. He looked behind him, noticing that Hanna and Junki were now gone. Jungkook clenched his jaws and collapsed on his bottom. Yuna and Seokmin stared blankly, feeling exhausted.

"No way," Yuna whispered. 

Seokmin gritted his teeth in frustration before he threw his two swords to the side. "God damn it! We were so close!"

"You guys were definitely close," Jieun agreed. A shadow casted over her face, almost making her a silhouette. Jungkook could see the corner of her lips raise. "I'm actually very pleased with what I saw. You three will make a wonderful team."