Eunha tied her shoelaces tightly in preparation of combat and extra movement, double knotting and even triple knotting them, she made sure that everything she needed was in order and ready for their fight. Looking over at the girls, she clenched her fist as she saw them getting themselves mentally ready. The sun had risen a few hours ago, Soeun had appeared on their doorstep moments ago and her mark was throbbing gently, but not glowing.

“Say, Soeun, how did you identify me when we first met?”

“I was told to search this land for a girl named Eunbi, I asked you the first time we met didn’t I?”

“But how did you find us in the first place?”

“I didn’t, I got lucky and stumbled across your camp when I was making a clean sweep of the country.”

“What if you didn’t find us?”

“Then Sowon unnie would have to wait until you found her.”

“That’s not a plan at all.”

“Well, do you expect me to come up with a plan mama? I can’t even count to twenty yet because mom got caught trying to teach me things.”

Yerin clapped a hand over Eunha’s mouth, a warning glare shot. They shouldn’t aggravate their guide, nor should they get angry before a fight. The winner of the fight is decided by who makes the right and calm decisions after all, provided they had the skill to execute the decisions.

“Wow! I’ve never seen a little girl like you be able to count to ten! Why don’t you demonstrate for me as they finish getting their hearts ready?”

Yerin tugged Soeun away from Eunha, who was slightly burning up the air around her. Yuju walked over, opening her water bottle to return some moisture into the air.

“Eunha yah.”

“What.”

“Calm down, she’s just a child.”

“I know. I know, but I can’t help the frustration.”

“Shhh, it’s okay. We’ll get back Sowon unnie today. I promise you.”

Eunha nodded, her fists releasing. She looked up at Yuju with a much more calm expression, which Yuju couldn’t tell if it was a façade or not.

“But not at the cost of your life okay? Don’t stress out and if any of us get injured, we’ll retreat.”

Yuju looked at Eunha with surprise, to think that Eunha would be willing to retreat from Sowon to save them.

“Of course, of course we will. Then we’ll make a better plan and try again and again. Until the day Sowon unnie returns to us.”

Eunha nodded, although she was pretty certain that she wasn’t going to exist the second time, she had had a weird dream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sowon felt a change in the wind, narrowing her dark eyes, she looked at the mountains. The unnamed girl beside her, supposedly she was her observer, sent by Brian. But Sowon believed that if something were to happen, that this girl would help her, just a little.

Cracking her knuckles, Sowon stretched her limbs carefully, so far she had managed to discover that she had a good handle on all the elements, but weak in nature. Healing wasn’t a skill she had, nor was flying. She briefly wondered whether all this came from before her memory wipe, or after she had been experimented and resurrected.

“Are you ready?”

“As ready as I can be.”

“Well, at first they won’t recognize you.”

“Why?”

“You used to have dark hair.”

Sowon looked at her quizzically.

“Why tell me now?”

“You also, had brown eyes.”

This was getting weird, and Sowon wasn’t sure whether or not this girl was actually to be trusted, when she was spouting such sensitive ideas into her brain before an important fight.

“Seriously, why are you telling me now? Are you trying to sabotage me?”

Dark veins appeared on the side of Sowon’s neck as her brain tried to turn the idea of what she used to look like out in her brain, the suppression in her bloodstream generating a headache.

“You were the top student at the academy, and your skill was premonition. Like your little sister.”

The girl walked away as Sowon panted, kneeling on the floor, fighting the suppression, she felt like she was being told the truth, but she didn’t know why and for what reason did weakening her would do to their fight.

An explosion sounded in the distance.

“It sounds like they’ve reached the first wall.”

A crack of light spread across the sky like a web before shattering, Sowon was surprised that there was such a huge magical barrier on their base, as if she knew that this technology wasn’t supposed to be used by the people around her.

Getting up to her feet, Sowon still held her neck trying to force the darkness back inside, the dark veins still slowly creeping up her skin.

Another web started and Sowon stood straight.

Another shatter and Sowon’s eyes started to glow red.

This time a physical explosion was seen before the web of cracks began on their multi-layered shield broke down.

“They’re here.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yerin grinned as she shoved monsters back with explosions aimed at their feet, her magic was great for splash damage and continuous damage, the burns leaving the monsters injured on the feet.

“They have a magical barrier that keeps regular humans out.”

Soeun phased through the barrier and disappeared from sight before her hand reached back out to tell them where it was. Eunha concentrated all her power into a airburst which caused the initial explosion before exploding that pocket with flames that finished the first barrier.

“Hey, if its explosions you want, I got you covered.”

SinB cracked her knuckles imitating Yerin as Umji sighed and tossed another monster away with a vine. Drawing back her fist, SinB compressed all the air around her using the concept of an airsoft gun, but in higher compression and lethalness. Launching her fist forwards, she shot her hyper compressed air forwards, smashing through a boulder and piercing the next shield.

“SinB! Don’t use too much of your energy in the beginning!”

“I got it I got it, don’t worry.”

Yuju just sighed as Umji was then forced to hold SinB back from trying again on the next shield that seemed to be unbreakable.

==================

next time a big and horribly written battle