~Chapter 26~

Training

Joon’s POV~

            “Did you sense anything at the meeting? The White Masked Hero and Kai were so close and yet I didn’t even feel the bead. It was only a faint surge that I felt and that might even be my imagination.” Thunder sighs.

            “Surprisingly, I didn’t sense anything either.” Mir agrees.

            “Neither did I, but what makes me suspicious is the lack of its presence,” I say.

            “Are they trying to hide Taemin?” Thunder folds his arm and leans against the wall. “What makes me more curious is why?” 

            “Heechul hyung knows that Mir and I are both monsters and yet he isn’t letting us join the special team and yet he lets Naeun join. This makes no sense.”

            “I talked to him earlier and he claims that he does so so that Jong Kook hyungnim at least doesn’t have to manage a bunch of morons and that he at least saved him some helpful people.” Mir says.

            “Oh how nice of him.” Thunder says dully.

            Cough cough. The White Masked Hero hits his chest, trying to clear his throat. Ever since he woke up, his coughing fits have worsened. I think every time he uses energy, his body deteriorates. I’m surprised he isn’t complaining how Heechul hyung is making us train although he only woke up a day ago and half the team is still suffering from injuries from the previous battle. He’s the obedient type, isn’t he?

            “Eh hem, so you children–” Is he seriously calling us children? “–are blessed to have been chosen by me to be in this elite monster slaying team.” He has got to be kidding me. “Keep in mind that although this is group of eight, you have to do as much damage equivalent to a whole army of slayers.”

            “It would be nine including you.” Jonghyun points out.

            “No no no no no no no,” Heechul hyung waves his finger. “I am not included in this. I am merely the trainer and at most I am the mastermind of this team.”

            “Meaning you are part of it.” Naeun says.

            “And that’s where you are wrong,” he says. “You see, I am not here to do the dirty work for you guys. I am merely here to guide and give orders.”

            “That’s unfair!” Kai childishly says.

            “Fair isn’t equal.” I sigh.

            “Indeed,” Heechul hyung smiles. “Besides, you are eight people, making it an even number. If I were to join, it would be an odd number and we don’t want that.”

            “Why not?” Key asks.

            “Because I like even numbers~” Heechul hyung twirls. We all exchange displeased looks.

            Lazy! The White Masked Hero’s wolf howls and Heechul hyung scoffs, ignoring the comment nonetheless.

            “Now, I will start your training.”

            “Are you sure we should start today?” Kai asks. “Hyung just woke up yesterday and I’m sure everyone is worn out from the battle.”

            “Last time I checked, I lead around here.” Heechul hyung sasses. “Hush child.”

            “Someone took their bossy pills,” The White Masked Hero clicks his tongue.

            “If one more person–”

            Eh hem! The wolf howls.

            “–or creature interrupts me, things will get nasty.” Heechul hyung scowls. “As I was saying, our training begins today. The main concern our group has is that we must do hardcore training in a short amount of time and slaughter as many monsters as possible. Because of this, my first training course involves teamwork. As a small group, you need to know each other like you know yourselves. Every action a person takes can be easily back up by another person and your formation has to be flawless. No matter how awesome I make you guys–” I can’t deal with this guy. “–nothing can work with terrible teamwork. Since everyone is at least slightly injured from the battle, it is the perfect time to train you on protecting and trusting each other.” Heechul hyung walks in front of us one by one and takes away our weapons. “Now, I want you youngsters to protect each other after I release a monster to attack you.”

            “What!?” We all scream as he runs off. I really don’t like this guy.

            “What is it that we are fighting anyway?” Naeun asks.

            “What I’m concerned with is how we fight it.” Key says.

            “I feel so without my Black Crescent.” Onew says. I rub his shoulders to console him.

            “How do you think I feel? After the battle, my axes were still on top of the damn watchtower and I had to get my up to the top to get my babies back and now Heechul hyung just took my axes away from me,” Jonghyun pouts. “He’s so cruel.”

            “Not to mention that I just escaped death.” Key says.

            “Same.” The While Masked Hero sighs.

            “Well I’m sure Heechul hyung wouldn’t put us in any danger. This is training after all…” Kai says.

            “Where in the world is he anyway,” I ask out of disbelief. “I can’t believe he thinks we can just battle monsters without any weapons. We aren’t in the shape for it. We are trainees!”

            Crack! We all turn to the direction of the noise and see a large toad-like being walk toward us, crushing plants and branches in its path. The monster is about human size– maybe about six feet tall– and is slightly large. There are warts on its flesh that seems to be oozing out greenish goo. “I remember fighting one of those a while back. There were a team of those that used to roam the village at the end of the mountain that loved drinking blood from cows.” The White Masked Hero says.

            “So how do we defeat it?” Naeun asks.

            “The monster’s weakness is its eyes. Because it has a strong exterior, we can’t attack it on its skin. The eyes are the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, I don’t have my spear right now so I can’t kill it too easily.”

            “Great, if only we can actually attack! He took all of our weapons!” Jonghyun stomps his foot loudly and breaks a branch.

            “Good idea Jonghyun hyung! We can use the broken braches’ pointy end to impale it.” Key exclaims.

            “Hehe, yes that was definitely my intention when I broke the branches…” We all stomp on large branches to give them a sharp and rigid edge. In no time, while other members occupy it, Kai leaps forth and stabs it through its eyes and straight through its head, killing it easily.

            “Great job! Your reward is one weapon returned!” Heechul hyung’s voice echoes in the forest as The White Masked Hero’s spear spins in and lands in front of me. I pull the spear out of the ground and surprisingly, it was super light. I pass it to its owner, who takes it happily, until he drops it that is. I bend down and pick it up again, looking at the hero strangely.

            “Are you okay?” I ask.

            “My hand slipped.” He says quietly and grabs his weapon. I look over at Kai and give them both a look. I can’t sense his bead still…I don’t understand how could the bead be sensed before and now there is no presence of the second half. Is it possible that Taemin returned and is spying on us from a distance? 

            Suddenly, before us appears a large octopus-like monster that is crawling forward at an amazing speed. Its hairless and red tentacle-like legs are wrapping over and around the surrounding trees, giving it an extra boost to get to us faster. We all step back as The White Masked Hero steps forward since he is the only one with a weapon. Something tells me that a simple branch will not put it down. Its milky eyes have one black pea sized pupal that whips back and forth between each one of our faces. It hisses, revealing a row of sharp, pointy, yellow teeth. Its arms are human-like except for the sharp claws and its nearly transparent flesh.

            The White Masked Hero leaps forward and attacks the creature without a second thought. He leans back and dodges its claws as he tries to cut down its tentacle legs. He misses and spins backward, stabbing back at it when it doesn’t expect it. His spear nearly misses its head, but surprisingly grazes it right cheek, making it gush out black blood. It tries cutting him with its claws and he uses this chance to lock its arms with the spear, spins, and plunges the spear into its gut. The creature screams a sharp cry that causes us all to block our ears. It whips its tentacle legs up and The White Masked Hero is thrown back, hitting a tree in the process. We rush over to help him up and he holds the ends of his spear with both hands and blocks another tentacle. It wraps its tentacle around the spear and pulls him forward.

            Us seven hold him with all of our might and the tentacle was nearly ripped off from the body. The creature shrieks again and I can visibly see the tear we caused on the monster. The White Masked Hero charges the monster and spins his spear, slashing it multiple times with both ends of his weapon. Finally, the monster has fallen and he ends its life. “Is this a bad time to say that I’m dizzy?” The White Masked Hero asks. “Because I am…”

            “You got to be kidding me,” Onew’s jaw drops. “Look.” He points forward and we all look toward his direction. Immediately The White Masked Hero’s legs buckle over and Minho catches him by the arm.

            “Okay, maybe ‘I’m dizzy’ is an understatement.” The hero says.

            “Hang on,” Minho says and swings him on top of his back.

            “C-can someone tell me what that thing is? If I die, I want to at least know what killed me.” Jonghyun stutters.

Taemin’s POV~

            I am not trying to make a scene or anything, but I seriously can barely hold onto Minho hyung’s back right now. Heechul hyung knew that Mir, Thunder, and Joon hyung were suspicious of me and Kai so now I am temporarily separated from Kai’s bead. That means I only have half a bead so I don’t have enough energy. I barely have enough energy to stay on my feet, let alone battle. I’m so glad Minho hyung is helping me right now. Battling that monster drained most of my energy and the aftereffects of draining the poison is showing itself.

            “I know you were sent from the mountain Heechul hyung is from. I’m sure you know something about that thing.” Joon hyung says.

            “I hate to be dramatic, but I really have blurry vision right now and I’m terribly dizzy. Describe it to me.” I give my spear to Joon hyung since it’s useless if I hold onto it.

            “It’s a boar-like creature that is two times the height of the last creature and is very round. Its exterior looks like fur– if you consider numerous long, sharp horns comparable to fur that is.” Jonghyun explains. I look at him and see him holding two large objects. Probably Heechul hyung returned his axes to him.

            “There are actually many like that. I need more details.” I say.

            “It looks squishy and it’s very displeasing to look at.” Nam Kyu says. I rack my brain and can imagine at least ten monsters that are covered in horns, sluggish, and large. The terrible part is that they all have different weaknesses.

            “Oh, did we mention is has no eyes?” Onew hyung says. Bingo.

            “Go for its armpit.” I say.

            “Our goal is to protect each other. I’ll use the hero’s weapon for now and try to fight off the monster. You guys stay put and back me up when needed. Jonghyun, give me a hand.” Joon hyung says and attacks the monster. After an exchange of multiple blows, Joon and Jonghyun hyung gets the monster unbalanced and attacks its side by whacking it numerous times. The monster retaliates and whacks Joon hyung across his chest, making him fall over roughly. He holds up the spear and blocks its hit and struggles holding the monster back from crushing him. Using this chance, the members stab its weak spot with our branches while Jonghyun hyung chops at its back. Joon hyung uses this chance to stab the spear right through its armpits, skewering it.

            The rest of the day remained like this. Our weapons were slowly returned and we took turns fighting the main creatures. I was on Minho hyung’s back the whole time until I insisted on being put down. I leaned on the tree to keep balance and held my weapon. I even skewered a few monsters myself. Nonetheless, I did not have enough energy and focus to really pay attention on what monsters we fought. I had to help find their weaknesses based off of the members’ descriptions and at times, I was wrong, accidently misleading the members. It was a tough morning, but it’s almost sunset and we haven’t died. Let’s just say it has been a productive morning.

Key’s POV~

            “Good job you kids!” Heechul hyung says. “I wanted you guys to see how terrible you are so that you can appreciate my training more.”

            “So you are saying all of that was so we can appreciate you?! We nearly died!” Jonghyun hyung shouts.

            “But you didn’t”

            “Why did The White Masked Hero get his weapon first? You knew he was the weakest one on our team today.” Naeun asks.

            “Because he is my hoobae and I like him.”

            Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha~ A high shrill echoes in the woods. My ears nearly pop as a dash of wind knocks me over at the side of my face. I look up and see a ghostly being hovering around us, pulling and tugging on us for pleasure.

            “Now use your weapons and defeat this cutie. Good luck!” Heechul hyung runs off and disappears before we could stop him.

            “Hey, are you okay?” Minho asks The White Masked Hero, who is still nauseous and dizzy.

            “I can manage.”

            “Just sit out for this, we’ll protect you.” Minho says wholeheartedly.

            “No, I can’t sit out on this one. Why do you think Heechul hyung chose to have this monster as the finale? This monster has the ability to manipulate its enemies when you look into its eyes. No matter how much you avoid it, it can simply lure you into hurting your friends.”

            “Then do you recommend something?” I ask.

            “I just heard Heechul hyung tell me a lot of his battle stories and I remember him describing a monster just like this one. I never encountered this creature so I am not too sure on how to defeat it.”

            “Great,” Jonghyun hyung sighs. “How do we even injure it? It looks ghostly. I never heard of anyone stabbing a ghost before.”       

            “There’s only one way to find out.” Onew hyung aims his arrow at the monster and the arrow stops midair and plops onto the ground. If weapons didn’t hurt it, the creature wouldn’t have stopped the arrow with its magic. We all exchange eye contact and silently planned our attack. With a nod from Minho, we all charge toward the monster. Suddenly, I stop and fall over, almost getting my head chopped of by Jonghyun hyung’s axes. I glare at him but suddenly drop it, as he looks like he is struggling to get control of himself.

            “What’s wrong with him?!” Naeun asks. She claws the monster and simultaneously, a claw mark appears on Jonghyun hyung’s thigh, making him yell.

            “The monster looked into his eyes and now it’s latched onto him. Unless he breaks free, if we kill it, he will die too.” The White Masked Hero explains.

            “Dammit Jonghyun!” Onew yells as he dodges an attack.

            “I’m sorry! I can’t stop it!” Jonghyun hyung says desperately as he waves his axes around uncontrollably.

            “What should we do? We can’t kill it or he will die too! I don’t know what to do.” Naeun says. The monster is attacking us while controlling Jonghyun hyung, meaning all we can do it dodge the attacks or else we would hurt him if we attack. The problem is, the monster is purposefully making Jonghyun hyung move around and getting into weapons’ ways so if we don’t pay attention, we would impale him.

            “Ahh,” The White Masked Hero groans as he holds onto his spear, blocking the two axes. He is getting weaker and is on his knees, early giving into the axes’ sharp edges. I run over and put my fan under the axe handles and push him off The White Masked Hero who is struggling to stand up.

            “Snap out of it Jonghyun, you’re hurting your friends!” I yell and block his attacks with my metal fan. I try locking his acupoints and yet his body still moves without control. I hiss as the axe cuts me in the upper arm. The cut gushes out blood and I nearly get chopped in the face due to my focus being slightly off.

            “I am so sorry!” Jonghyun hyung yells as he turns around again to attack me. The other members are distracted with the monster who has somehow manages to duplicate itself. I jump ahead of him and get another cut on my shoulder as I block his axe from killing Joon hyung.

            “Snap out of it!” I yell once again as another cut is made. I can’t hurt him, making it difficult for me to fight. I am so use to attacking weak areas and eliminating my enemies, not dodging them and trying to keep them alive!

            “I don’t want to hurt you. I’m so sorry Key,” Jonghyun hyung says with a pained tone as his eyes get teary. He attacks Minho who luckily dodges him in time, but then gets slashed by the monster. “I don’t know how to stop myself.” At this point, Jonghyun hyung is sobbing. Between hitched breathes, he keeps apologizing but keeps on hurting us. The wolf howls as The White Masked Hero gets knocked over. It charges the monster and knocks it over. A deep cut appears on Jonghyun’s side and gushes out blood. “Ahh.” Jonghyun hisses but manages to knock the wolf over, slamming it against a tree. He nearly kills it, but Minho luckily deflects the attack in time. The axes get knocked out of his hands and his body falls limp onto the ground as the monster takes control over Kai.

            We all are occupied by the monsters and Kai and have no time to think. How can we possibly unlink our team members from the monster? How can we attack it and not hurt them? How can this end without any deaths? What can we do? I can’t possibly help and that idea irks me. Now with Jonghyun down, there is more to fight since Kai is now taken over and the monster he was fighting earlier is unoccupied. I charge toward it and stop it from clawing at The White Masked Hero’s wolf, who is unconscious.

            I turn around and see Minho barely managing to hold off the monster. His blocks are sloppy and he managed to get himself injured in a few areas. I am holding off a monster so I cannot possibly go to him. He is too far away and the monsters are now stronger so no one can come and save him without getting themselves killed. Although Joon hyung is the closest to the hero, Kai is aggressively attacking him so there is no room for him to reach out and save him. I watch desperately as the monster slashes his claw at him and his weapon effortlessly out of his hand. Without hesitation, the monster digs its claws deep into Minho’s chest. His breath is taken away as the monster pulls him in closer, slowly away his blood.

            Suddenly, the monsters cry in pain as they all shatter into dust. We all look and see Kai standing where the monster was with his axe covered in blood. He has managed to break the bond and killed the monster before it was able to possess anyone else. We all rush over to Minho who is lying on the ground, struggling to breathe. “Heechul hyung, come and help us!” Joon hyung yells helplessly, but Heechul hyung is nowhere to be found. “Where the hell is he!? How can he let this go on for so long?”

            “Heechul hyung where are you!?” The White Masked Hero yells loudly, hoping he would appear. Minho throws up blood as his chest gushes out more blood. “Oh my gosh, Minho hyung, please, no!” He uselessly wipes the blood off of Minho’s face. “You have to live! This is just training! Heechul hyung come here and save him! Where in the world are you!?”

            “Joon hyung, I only have half my bead so I can’t lend it. Can you do it? Kai asks.

            “Good idea,” Joon nods and a ball of light slips out between his lips and hovers above Minho’s. The light slowly goes into his mouth and as the light slowly dims, Joon hyung inhales it back. “I can only give him that much.”

            “He’s still injured and unconscious. Can he make it?” Onew asks worriedly.

            “Let me lend mine too,” Naeun says and leans in.

            “No!” Kai yells and she looks at him with a shocked face. “You can’t do that. The beads will fight for dominance and that would damage him even more.”

            “Then what can we do!?” She cries. “He’s my brother and I can’t let him die like this!”

            “Can we transfer energy to him?” The White Masked Hero sniffs and tries to calm down.

            “It would be too risky since the energies might fight as well. He has a bead to keep him alive but it doesn’t give him enough energy to heal his body.” Kai says. “The best we can do is carry him back to the clan and figure it out from there. It’s getting late and other monsters might come.”

            “How can Heechul hyung do this? He just disappeared!” I say in disbelief.

            “This doesn’t seem like him. If he knew we were in danger, he would protect us especially since we are only training and still beat up from yesterday.” The White Masked Hero defends.

            “Well where is he now?” Joon hyung growls.

            “Why is Jonghyun still unconscious? Kai is perfectly fine after being possessed.” I point out.

            “He got an injury through a bond so it is more damaging and he is depleted of energy.” Kai says.

            “Let’s stop discussing for now and carry Minho, Jonghyun, and the wolf back to the clan. We can’t risk staying here anymore. And as for Heechul hyung, when I find him, I will beat the crap out of him.”

Heechul’s POV~

            I spit out the blood in my mouth and move my head to adjust my bangs. I smirk as another Peacekeeper whips me. “You aren’t going to get anything from me.” I say and try to hide the pain under my smirk. I am not going to please them by looking hurt. “The future is not meant for you dogs to know. Let me go and go talk to my master if you dare. I will never let you get what you want.” I try my best to hold down a scream, but it still slips as they pour boiling water down my back.

            “We’ll get it from you no matter what. Talk now and save yourself from more pain.” The Peacekeeper says.

            “You will kill me after I tell you anyway. You think I don’t know your little trick? I’m not going to fall for it. At least I can die protecting my friends than abandon them and die pathetically.” The Peacekeeper chuckles and throws a dust on my face. My vision is blurred and my body feels as light as a feather.

            “Have fun protecting them now~” He laughs as I slip into darkness.