In a while, the team was gathered near the entrance of the luxurious mansion, yet its shining feature was no longer the important matter at hand. Despite the glorious morning light causing the large doors to glimmer and sparkle with an aura of protection, the house was nothing but a safe haven for only the anxious civilians. It was fair to say that everyone understood the gravity of their situation, even Mr. Choi, who didn’t seem to mind the people clustered together under the roof of his house.

The team split at the entrance of the mansion. The tattooed members, along with Taehyun and Yeonjun, began heading towards the distant machine that crawled across from the relative left-hand side to the other. At the same time, the others – led by Wooyoung and Changbin – ensured that the civilians were not too distressed, even searching the other houses to gather supplies and food.

There was no time to be concerned about how the barrier hadn’t expanded any further, which meant that they had to cherish the only house at the very edge – the mansion itself.

“Okay, is everyone ready?” Taehyun halted his steps to look at the squad. He couldn’t help but feel responsible for their safety, knowing that he was only alive so far because of their powers. He quickly tried to read the expressions of the ones in front of him.

He saw the resolve masking their faces, and although a few concealed their sorrow, he saw right through them. However, he realised that their attempt at trying to hide away their true emotions only meant that they were ready to fight. Cautiously, he nodded and resumed walking.

They patrolled forward with their eyes and ears awake and alert, the freshness of the morning air keeping them sane, only to remind them that they were surrounded by remains of buildings and homes enclosed in an impenetrable barrier, always mere moments away from falling into immense danger.

They were truly grateful for the fact that no strange rain fell upon their shoulders anymore; no individual was writhing and whimpering with a pest crawling under their skin.

Their sole focus was the pipe at the back of the machine, the cylindrical structure trailing all the way into the river. There was no doubt that they could bring about a change by cutting through the tube, and they hoped that their desperate attempt wouldn’t bring about a more vicious chaos – they weren’t ready for that.

“Alright, so we just…” Jisu paused to wipe away a blanket of sweat on her forehead. She wondered why she was sweating so heavily despite her icy powers. Deciding not to ponder upon it for too long, she pointed at the seemingly translucent pipe in front of her. “We just attack it?”

They were all assembled on the road just between the university campus and the park, the machine continuing its route on its numerous wheels. They all stared at the rear of the metallic structure for a few moments, the tube curving and wiggling as the machine moved. If they squinted and watched closely, they could faintly see the bubbles of the flowing water within the pipe, but all that mattered was their next move.

“Take your time, Jisu.” Yeonjun nodded firmly towards the other, but a part of his mind wanted her to hurry up, itching to bask in the bath of freedom. His eyes unconsciously drifted to the river further away. He had to be ready to act in case the creatures crawl out again from the now calm body of water.

Jisu immediately relaxed her shoulders and shut her eyes, forcing herself to focus on the ball of icicles within the mirage of her mind. She visualised a sword of appropriate size, lightweight and practicable with edges as sharp as a knife, its icy material strong enough to avoid shattering, and its temperature far too low to melt under the subtle heat of the sun.

As she felt a sudden chill within her hands, she opened her eyes and grinned with joy; she was ready to wield her sword and cut through the tube, even if it meant she would have to keep trying and trying. She needed to get this done, for the others looked at her with utter anticipation and trust.

Examining the exterior of the tube, she steadied her feet firmly on the ground and tightened her fingers around the grip of the frost-covered sword, before raising the blade several inches high, only to push it down on the tube with aggressive force, her teeth gritted and her brows wrinkling to the centre of her forehead. Upon seeing a small scratch on the surface, she continued pressing down the blade, all the while moving along so as to stay aligned with the machine.

“That’s it! Just don’t let go!”

Jisu nodded, “I’m trying!” She groaned as she pushed down on the pipe with even greater force, almost lifting her body as the sword was now tightly stuck. She raised her head to look at the others with pleading eyes. She didn’t want to let them down, but she didn’t want to pretend to be strong either. “I can’t do this! The sword won’t b-budge!”

Taehyun was the first to react, his rigid eyes softening at her words. He looked all around him, and he could faintly hear the soft whirling of water at the distance. With only a single thought running through his mind, he spoke up: “Jungeun-noona, use your thorns. Soobin-hyung, try and lift the pipe.”

“I can help too!”, Kai eagerly stepped forward, little flames already sizzling at his fingertips, burning away his skin.

“No.” Taehyun shook his head and raised a hand to drag the younger back. “You use fire. You’re going to melt the sword, you idiot.”

Soobin dropped to his knees and put out his hands in front of his chest, trying not to hiss at the feeling of his injured leg being pulled. He relaxed his fingers and rotated his wrists, his palms now facing the blue sky. He looked to his side to see Jungeun creating sharp thorns and wooden cones that pierced halfway through the tube. For a quick second, he saw the utter determination in the duo’s eyes, and he knew that he needed to help.

It also distracted him from some of his own troublesome thoughts, unable to shake away the overwhelming feelings from last night, unable to forget his best friend’s words, unable to forgive himself for feeling like a sore loser.

He carefully raised his hands, a sigh of relief leaving his lips as he saw the pipe just slightly float up by only an inch or so, but it was still progress. He made sure he had control over the pipe, lifting it to press it against the sharp edge of the sword and the cluster of thorns. He saw the mere scratch gradually expand into a visible tear, and he felt his heart beat with hope.

But hope was always a fleeting feeling, one that could drown away in the blink of an eye.

He heard that goading sound of water, the waves rolling forward and dousing his hope all at once. Hesitantly, he looked over his shoulder to see those monstrous creatures slithering forward with those awful claws hitting against each other, ringing echoes filling the area. There was an odd sense of fear gnawing at his feet, violent images of the library flooding his sight, competing with the obnoxious rate at which the waves flowed along.

“Damn it, now what?!?”, he called out.

Yeosang shook his head and pointed at the pipe as he stepped further away from the side of the machine. “You three work on that! We’ll take care of this!” He then nodded towards Taehyun.

The latter gestured the rest of the team to follow him and Yeosang towards the towering creatures. He slowed down to hide behind the others, knowing that he was the only one completely unarmed and the most prone to danger.

For once, he wasn’t feeling powerless and drawn to the ground with shaking feet; he saw the way Kai launched flaming spheres from a great distance, the way Beomgyu swatted his hands through a screen of steam as he managed to stop the frothy waves with his own boiling water, the way Yuqi controlled a strong wind that pushed back the gooey bodies, the way Yeosang shattered the hazardous claws seconds before they could reach the squad, the way Yeonjun debilitated the ten-feet-tall creatures by firing away his bullets at the visible glands.

He was confident that he could let them handle the monsters, so he turned around to look back at the machine they left behind. He saw the cold blade nearly at the lower curve of the tube that was gently lifted off the ground, while the prickly thorns punctured visible holes.

Standing between the two groups, – the two sources of destruction – he wondered what to do. He wondered what his next move should be, what the team’s next move should be. He held his tongue between his teeth and dribbled his fingers on his pants, trying to predict the worst scenarios possible, along with corresponding solutions that they could implement.

Whether he managed to beat himself up over his dizzying thoughts or not, he flinched as he heard a familiar cry, one that he wished he would never have to hear ever again. It was a voice that always kept him stable, and at the same time, on the edge of a cliff that bordered an endless sea. It was the voice of Beomgyu.

Beomgyu, upon seeing a sharp claw fly over his head, had temporarily surrendered control over his intricately designed spears made entirely out of water. Turning around, he saw Yuqi all astonished with the limb approaching her at an incredible speed, too busy with controlling the wind. With not a second to waste, Beomgyu quickly formed an orb of water and threw it against her startled figure.

He breathed out heavily as he saw the hooks of the claws crash onto the softened ground instead of harming Yuqi. He then reclaimed his command of a hovering spear, launching it at the area where the limb was joined to its claw. Just as the claw was separated from its owner, he dropped down and screamed out.

It all happened so quickly, that only after he caught his breath did he realise that he had sprained his ankle in the heat of the moment. He quickly kicked off his shoe and gently touched the side of his feet, feeling an agonising pain.

Regardless of whether it was Yuqi’s fault for not being alert, or the fact that Beomgyu was being reckless, or perhaps Yeosang forgetting to shatter one of the claws, it didn’t matter to any of them.

“!” Beomgyu screamed as tears rolled down his cheeks, instinctively leaning on his elbows and lifting his leg up to prevent it from touching the ground. He wished for