Comprimised? What was that supposed to mean? Hongbin wanted to ask, but did not do so out of respect. 

"North Korean soldiers managed to track down our vessel." He said with a stifled angry sigh before continuing. "They sent out warning banners giving us one last chance to turn back. We were supposed to approach this mission stealthly but unfortunately that's not an option anymore. God this ." Zico growled, the last bit was a little out of character, or rather in character with respect to how Zico acted. 

Hongbin checked his holo-phone to realize it was still 4:45 in the morning, way before arrival time, he couldn't understand how they were tracked so easily, unless there was some sort of leak in informaiton. 

"I'm sure there was a mole among us back at the Academy, there was no way that they could've known about our operation... or maybe they were expecting us. Who knows, that's not what's important. What's important is that we need to get you guys on that island by any means possib-"

Before Zico could finish his sentence, the entire submarine rocked for a moment, causing everyone to momentatily lose balance. Hongbin himself almost fell over but his shoulder was grabbed by Ravi who pulled him up before he could fall. "Thanks." Hongbin uttered as Ravi smirked in response. 

"." Zico spouted as he turned around and clicked on a virtual interface as a holographic monitor digitized and there was a face of a North Korean Soldier of some high rank; Hongbin could tell by his emblems that looks similar to Zico and Marshall Park's but with a different color scheme. 

"This is your last chance to turn back before we will take lethal force and will take down your sub and everyone on it." The man spat angrily with vitriol as Zico slammed his fist into the virtual keyboard, canceling out of the monitor. 

"They got Remora's on us. Damn." Remora's were fighter jets of sorts, except they were underwater. They were equipped with pure ether cannons that could shoot fast even in the depths of water, completely unaffected by the physics and can cause quite the damage. Fortunately, the shells of the subs at Oceanside were very resistent to Ether rounds, but they can't take much if overwhelemed by an entire fleet of them firing at once. 

Zico rose his hand and waved a gesture as the monitors displayed the rear and side view of their submarine and there were a couple Remora's closing in, one of which were charging up another laser. "Taking evasive action, everyone ground yourselves, I'm going to have to go into hyperdrive if we want to get to the island fast enough. Too bad we lost the luxury of stealth." He heard Zico slightly chuckle as the man hopped onto the driver's seat that was elevated some and took the submarine off of auto-pilot, and immediately, he went into hyperdrive. 

Most vehicles, if equipped and junctioned with the correct frame and equipment can handle pure ether deposited engines, allowing many the ability to reach vehicular hyperdrive where one can travel at extreme speeds, though, constant use of hyperdrive tends to wear the vehicle down very quickly and is extremely dangerous due to the lack of control in direction. Everybody immediatley grabbed onto the sides or cornered themselves between walls as the entire sub shot forwards at such force that it almsot threw everyone back a knotch. The Remora's shown in the monitors disappeared into the dust, or in this case, the bubbles. The submarine was travelling at fifty times the speed it was initially travelling, causing everything to shake vigorously as Hongbin could feel his heart race from the speed they were going at. He'd never been on a vessel that tapped into Ether hyperdrive. 

In a matter of minutes, they traveled in lengths that would at average take several hours and immediately, Zico placed a command code for the submarine to start to surface. "If we're lucky they won't see us coming this way." The submarine surfaced and the monitors showed Wolnae-do from above the water, the sun was barely rising at this point but the light still shimmered off of the water. Wolnae-do itself was a small islet, beautiful nonetheless and unfortunately a battle zone for all intents and purposes. The submarine then traveled around the islet and dodged lightbeams that shot from a couple activated light towers that would instantly ring out in alert if it had caught any suspicious movement.

"I've already called for back up from Oceanside, Marshall Park notified that we must get the mission done at all costs and they will send forces once we have detonated the base." Zico explained further as they continued to siddle past unexpectedly. 

Eventually they arrived at what appeared to be a grotto of sorts that was too small for the submarine to fit into. "Alright men, we're jumping ship, unfortunately I've had to change our route so we can lose some of the heat off on us but this way we'll come in at least somewhat unexpected." He briefed as he started to shut down the submarine and opened an emergency escape hatch to the side. Ocean air quickly pooled in that brought quirky freshness to Hongbin's sinuses. "We'll have to swim the rest of the way in, activate the anti-aquatic virtuarmor I sent to your holo-phones and just follow my lead." Virtuarmor was an application of sorts activated by Holo-Phone technology, it creates a sort of virtual layer that protects an entire body depending on it's usage, it's most common use is the anti-aquatic kind which blocks out all water from touching your body, creates a field of oxygen that can last for approximately three hours and also protects you from being penalized by the weight you're carrying. 

Zico activated his aquatic virtuarmor by a click of a button on his holo-phone and a layer of armor was digitized all over him before becoming transparent. Everyone else followed suit as Zico immediately jumped into the water. 

"Here goes everything." Hongbin uttered as he did the same. He felt his body shaking, whether it was because he was scared by the sudden turn of events or he was simply excited. 

When Hongbin hit the water, he could feel that the virtuarmor was already in effect. He couldn't feel the coldness of the water and he could only feel the subtle force of the crashing waves. They all swam through the grotto, it was deep, dank, dark and a little drab. When the water became shallow, everyone got to their feet; and once they arrived at actual ground they all deactivated their virtuarmor. Hongbin took a moment to feel himself up, his uniform completely untouched by the water. Amazing how technology worked these days. 

"Lieutenant, where will this grotto lead us?" Hongbin heard N's voice ask in a hushed whisper that still carried and reverberated barely in the deep grotto. 

"We're actually closer to the objective than we would've been had we dropped you off where we were supposed to, however, the guards will be more alert and probably bulked in size, so we gotta prepare for anything." Zico responded. Everyone nodded as they followed Zico through the winding passage and into a slim crack of light that buried through a small and thin entrance. Everyone had to sidestep through to get out and immediately they were greeted by what appeared to be a jungle similar to the simulaiton that Hongbin, Ken and Hyuk took part in a couple weeks prior. 

"Alright everyone." Zico rallied everybody to come closer as he pulled out his holo-phone and pulled up a holographic 3-dimensional interface of the region showing where they were at and where the base was located. "There are three entrances, I'm going to split you guys into groups of three, I'll be accompanying one of you." He said with a smirk, "If my calculations are correct then all of the soldiers that are sent patrolling around the island will be rallied up against each entrance trying to block you guys out. There is one entrance however that I figure without a doubt will be the least guarded, and I want Leo and Hongbin to take on that route. You guys both are silent and deadly according to your fight styles so I trust you two will work together. Just remember to listen to Leo cadet, he's your superior."

"Sir yes sir." Hongbin said quietly as Leo simply stared observantly. 

"I want Hyuk and Ravi to accompany me into the front entrance and go nuts, we'll be the distraction to draw all of the heat and get their attention, thinking that we're helpless. Ken and N, you guys both fight with ranged weapons, so I want you to take the remaining entrance which will also won't be as heavily guarded, but your main objective is to take out and snipe enemies from a distance. And lastly, I want Leo and Hongbin to backdoor the place, and to activate the detonator then quickly meet us up in front so we can pincer the guards front and center in the main courtyard and get rid of them there. Since we don't have stealth on our side, it's good to just round them all up and knock them down like pins. We'll try to make sure that there won't be too many people inside so then you guys will have smooth sailing." Zico strategized. Hongbin was simply in awe. There was a reason the young man was an instructor for the course that was literally labeled 'Combat Strategy'.

"And remember, you are all to use lethal force, this is real war now, and no time for games." Zico reminded.

"Good plan Lieutenant, but what if we won't be able to meet you in time." N proposed, sort of challengingly to which Zico nodded in response. 

"My plans never fail Corporal." Zico smirked as N nodded. Zico quickly pulled out the flash-drive that contained the self-destruct program, he tossed it over to Leo who caught it without a flinch as Leo nodded in response as though he understood. "Alright, I've sent the coordinates to your mini-maps on your phones, mission starts now." And with that, everyone shot in several directions. 

Hongbin quickly followed Leo, they had more ground to cover since they needed to circle around the base and enter through a backdoor. The sun was starting to come up even faster and soon the shade of dawn uplifted and more opportunities for stealth lost. Still, in the corner of his eye he could see some patrolling soldiers that were walking around the edges of the walls being taken out by a single arrow, silent and deadly. Ken was a marksman to behold for sure. 

After trudging through the jungle like terrain they reached to what their map pointed to appear as the backdoor that was aforementioned by Zico. "This is it" Hongbin noted to Leo who unsurprisingly responded with his usual response. Silence. However they quickly cautioned their movements as there was two guards patrolling the entrance. Leo then finally said something for once. "Hongbin, follow my lead." 

Leo quickly dove out of the bushes and slammed his bo-staff into one of the men, knocking him to the ground before he slammed the end of the staff into the back of the guard's head, effectively killing him instantly. Hongbin followed his lead and before the other could react and open fire on Leo with his etherdrives, Hongbin quickly slid up from behind the guard and sunk one dagger into the back of his head and the other into where the spinal cord met with the vertabrae so if he did survive, he'd be paralyzed permanently, if even possible.

Leo smiled suddenly at how Hongbin killed the other guard artfully, it wasn't the first time Hongbin killed a person, but it was the first time he did it in the act of war. Strangely, it didn't affect him until Leo's reaction. He didn't know if he should be worried that he felt no remorse or not. He shouldn't considering the tyranny of the North Korean government but he felt too effortless in delivering that killing blow.

They made their way in and it skipped through any sort of courtyard like the front entrance did and brought them right into the interior of the base. Red alert was wailing as they saw panicked soldiers scouting about. There weren't that many to begin with, usually bases like these would be armed with a legion of North Korean soldiers, but there were about several dozen, no more than a hundred that was for sure with how small the base was. 

The duo slowly made their way through the various high tech catwalks as they observed soldiers making their way to what appeared to be the front. Hyuk, Zico and Ravi were probably causing a ruckus, Hongbin hoped they were okay but they would soon meet up with N and Ken so they weren't so at a loss, especially considering the skillpower they had. 

Hongbin remembered their objective, they were basically the key part of the objective, they needed to install the program and then immediately evacuate the base and into the courtyard. The explosion should be contained to the building itself, at least that's what the Marshall said. Hongbin was literally pulled from his thoughts however as Leo quickly pulled him off into a corner as a guard was running for their direction, he covered Hongbin's mouth immediately so that he wouldn't elicit any noise. 

"Hey, what happened here..." The guard said as Leo let go of Hongbin and snuck up from behind the guard, holding his staff over the man's head and holding it against his neck, this time without mercy he crushed the man's neck, breaking it as he discarded him off to the side. 

"Let's go." Leo said lightly as Hongbin nodded. They made there way up to the control panel as they paused, overhearing some guards travelling beneath them. 

"How are a bunch of kids getting rid of our guys so easily?"

"Because they have natural magic, our fake etherdrives are nothing compared to them." 

"Luckilly we have bigger pets. I'd love for them to handle the savage the Marshall's gonna throw out soon enough." 

A savage? Hongbin forgot that North Korean miiltary was known for their use of taming feral savages and experimenting on them and morphing them into living weapons that had only one purpose, to kill, they needed to hurry and activate the bomb and reconvene with the others to help support them. 

Leo seemed to have read Hongbin's mind as his movements hastened up the steps of the stairs and soon they reached an elaborate room that had multiple consoles, buttons, monitors that clearly spelled out a control center. Hongbin watched as Leo started to mess with the console and plugged in the jumpdrive via a port and began to install the program. 

2%

Immediately as the program started however they heard clapping from behind them. 

"Very impressive. I expected nothing less from the students of Oceanside." A deep voice pierced through as Leo and Hongbin quickly turned around and faced the towering figure that was the military personnel that appeared on the monitor earlier. He seemed to be the head honcho of the base. "I expected you all to stick together, however it was too predictable that they'd send a smaller force to handle what you were truly after." He sighed, almost unamused as he pulled out what appeared to be a thin rapier. "So young, unfortunate that you have to be from the South, you would've been of much more use alive."

Hongbin shook almost. Were they really going to be fighting someone of this stature? It was literally his first mission, his first real mission. Leo of course was absolutely unfazed. He armed his bo-staff stalwartly as Hongbin did the same, arming himself with his daggers. The man dove in swiftly with his rapier as Leo dove in first, colliding with the man's rapier with his bo-staff. Somehow however, almost effortlessly, the man added on strength to Leo's staff and knocked him off balance.

Hongbin quickly saw the man going in to impale Leo with his blade as he dove right in and kicked the man across his face before slashing at him with his daggers. The man hopped backwards however so Hongbin only barely managed to slice the front of his torso.

Hongbin quickly dove out of the way, reading the man's attack pattern and barely dodged his ing maneuver, his rapier grazing Hongbin's side and cutting through his uniform. Leo took this moment of vulnerability and casted a raw spell up close and personal. 

"Ventus Duo." The general's eyes widened as gusts of wind blew in energy blades, slicing at the man and blowing him backwards, Hongbin then quickly followed up by casting his own spell. 

"Ignis Duo!" He shouted as he shot two fireballs from the palm of his hand, however before they could connect the general's hand seemed to glow as well. 

"Ether Drive!" He shouted as his arm glew white and a wall of ice appeared, cushioning the flames as it blocked the blast from connecting with the general. So that was what an ether drive looked like. Unlike a spell that had to be casted upon, an Ether drive was an implant that called upon magic in situational cases. Since the man needed protection, a wall of ice appeared. It was a little unreliable but the power to mimic actual magic was uncanny. However, he was no match for purbred casters, especially the likes of Leo. 

"Don't hold back Hongbin." Leo uttered as the words echoed in Hongbin's head, calling back to the fight they had in the Crucible. Somehow, as though their minds were linked momentarily, he knew exactly what to do. 

"Ventus Tribum." Leo whispered as he slammed his staff into the ground and a mini tornado started to envelop around the general, cutting him with blades of wind as he shouted in pain. Hongbin quickly stood next to Leo who was channelling the spell and nodded holding out his own hand. 

"Ignis Tribum!" He shouted, calling upon his inner ether as he felt the same deep voice shouting in his head. He growled, focused as a stream of hot red flowed from his palm like a flamethrower and was feeding into the tornado that Leo had created, merging in causing a pyroclysm as a fiery vortex of inferno enveloped the general, his shouts of pain were screeching almost as suddenly, the beeping sound from the console notified that the program was successfully installed and that the self destruct would initiate in two minutes. 

The two of them stopped channeling their spells as the general fell forwards, his skin black and burnt as flesh was exposed and his uniform was in patches and charcoaled. "Good." Said Leo reticently

"We have to get out of here." Hongbin uttered as Leo nodded in response as the injured man chuckled hoarsely through groans of pain and somehow slouched up and limped over to the side.

"No... escape...." He moaned out as he summoned the last of his strength to click onto some sort of button as he collapsed, succumbing to the searing burns of their combination spell.

As the button was pressed, they could hear a roaring sound coming from beneath the depths of the base and along with that the computer sang out a voice that hummed the notification of the detonation process being activated. Without saying a word, Leo and Hongbin quickly rushed out as the entire factory seemed to have been deserted. He could still hear the sounds of combat as the animallistic sounds coming from below grew louder and louder. 

Hongbin and Leo navigated their way through the base and found themselves overlooking the courtyard, there were still some soldiers fighting about, unaware of what went on inside. 

From a quick glance Hongbin could see Ravi punching out three guards at once with ease with some rocking street fighting technique that had no clear form but was still aggressive and effective. Hyuk on the other hand was carving his way through two other guards all on his own and freezing them with the ice enchantment on his blade. Ken and N on the other hand were taking a vantage point up on the walls and attacking from afar, Ken launching his ether arrows while N was tossing his two bladed chakrams, that seemed to have been remote controlled by the gloves N wore, moving around in accordance with N's hand movements and diving down on targets when N slammed his fists downwards as though the chakrams were his puppets. 

Hongbin quickly looked off to see that Zico was handling what appeared to be a lieutenant as he had high ranking armor on and was armed with a giant great-sword, colliding with Zico's bladed whip sword thing. Zico backed up and smirked as he had tired the man out. "Such a big weapon, all brawns, no brains, so boring. Glacies Quinque." He uttered as he snapped his fingers, and in the blink of an eye, he became an ice-sculpture, falling backwards and shattering into little bits. Quinque, Level 5, Hongbin could never realize such spellpower, and Zico said it so effortlessly. Zico looked up to see Hongbin and Leo and gave the both of them a thumbs up and a smile as Hongbin returned the gestures. 

However, the expression quickly washed from Zico's face as the giant entrance behind Hongbin and Leo ripped open and out came this abomination, a true savage. It was four legged and appeared to be a lion however protruding from it's neck was a what appeared to be a horned goat and on the other side was an eagle. The back two legs were colored with the goat's deep black as the front legs were colored by the Lion's pale orange, talons armed as it had a slithering snake tail that hissed and slither it's tongue out as each mouth hissed out a demonic monstruous noise that together sounded like a terrifying and dissonant cry that was painful to the ears and struck fear into Hongbin. 

"GET BACK!" Zico shouted as the creature seemed to prepare to pounce at them as Leo grabbed Hongbin, quickly picking him up and throwing the man over his shoulder as Hongbin was taken off guard. 

"Too slow." Leo uttered as Hongbin started to flail. They reconvened with the others as Zico got in front of them and the Chimera Savage was ramming towards them. 

"Glacies Murum!" Zico casted as a big wall of ice, much more impressive than the wall that the general had 'casted' earlier, appeared and separated them from the creature in a border of sorts. It was thick and heavy but Zico had to keep his hands up and keep channeling ether into the wall to keep it up. 

"Alright, all out relentless assauly, but stay back from the base, it can detonate in no time by no-" Before Zico could finish the chimera tore through the wall as it seemed to have been casting magic, breaking through the wall Zico casted and shattering the rest of it, causing a mental shock towards Zico. Had they implanted the savages with ether as well? Now that was savage indeed. 

The lion like creature started to stand on two legs as it grabbed Zico with it's giant arm and started to crush him. "Ack!" He shouted in pain as everyone quickly sprung into action. The savage was huge, now towering since it was standing on two feet. 

Ken and N were attacking it from afar but not making a dent. 

"I got this! Terra Tribum!" N shouted as his magic created an earthshattering blow, rocks shattering through the middle but somehow bouncing off of the chimera. "What?" N shouted as Leo quickly responded. 

"Ventus Tribum!" He casted, but before the tornado could even form it was dispersed. It wasn't reacting to Hyuk's ice blade at all either. Could it be. 

"It's immune to magic!" Hongbin shouted as everyone's eyes widened, the creature continued to crush Zico and he could swear he could hear some snapping going on, he had to stop it. Similar to the T-Rex, Hongbin jumped up from behind the chimera and stabbed it with his daggers, digging the blades in as deep as he could as he stabbed his way up, climbing as the creature thrashed vigorously, this time it threw Zico away and off to the side, slamming him against the wall. 

"I'll go heal him!" Ken shouted as he ran over to Zico's aide, trying to mitigate his wounds with his magic as Hongbin was once again on that same rollercoaster ride.

He could see from the corner of his eye Ravi grabbing the snake by the tail... or body, or whatever and repeatedly punching it in the face, causing some damage. "Just die already!" He heard Ravi shout energetically.

Hyuk began to stab and slash at it's hind legs, doing some moderate damage while Leo, shifting his staff into it's three-section mode started to slam it into the other hind leg with feeling as the creature shook even more.

N continued to harrass the chimera with his chakrams, cutting into it from time to time and slicing it when he could. However, the chimera had a trick up it's sleeve and began to return to it's previous form of crawling on all fours, Hongbin thrashing around as he still found himslef stuck onto the chimera's back. 

The snake tail now became a whip almost as it slammed into Ravi who in suit slammed off to the same wall next to Ken and Zico. 

"Ravi!" N cried as he tried to be more aggressive with his chakrams, but it was hard to be without their enchantments or the use of magic in generally. Eventually the serpent tail slithered around and grabbed onto N and began to constrict around him, wrapping him up as it started to slam N to the ground repeatedly, hearing grunts of pain as N braced himself. Suddenly, Leo became extremely aggressive and tried to slam into the serpent to free N but it slithered down and bit down onto Leo's clavicle, sinking it's fangs into him as Leo let out a pained scream. 

"God dammit!" Hyuk cried out as he came face to face with the chimera, rushing in to slash at it as it rose one of it's palms and slammed it across Hyuk, knocking him to the ground as it stomped it's paw on Hyuk. Hongbin's heart broke as he heard the shouts of pain being knocked out of the young boy. 

"!" Hongbin cursed as he started to stab into the back of the beast viciously only causing it to become even more angry as it knocked Hongbin off with a shake of it's body, Hongbin coming crashing to the ground and rolling off to the side. The beast didn't stop there however as it seemed to call upon the power of lightning; a single bolt came flying down and electrocuted Hongbin causing him to cry out in pain. He pressed his elbows against the ground to try and pick himself up but the energy in his body was completely sapped. His brown eyes glazed over the scene. 

Ken was still frantically healing Zico who suffered extreme injuries as Ravi was knocked unconscious by the impact from the wall. Hyuk, Leo and N were all also immobilized, leaving Hongbin as the one lying on the ground. His eye started to close and his consciousness started to fade, but suddenly the loud searing sound of an explosion pierced through Hongbin's ears as he looked up and the base crumbled in the contained explosion, not so much as leaving a trace. His eyes glanced back over to his friends and soon resolve sunk in.

"I... I have to save everyone..." He moaned out in pain as he constantly tried to pick himself up before he slowly staggered his way to his feet before dropping to his knees once more, reaching for his daggers weakly as he tried to pick himself up again. Taking a deep breath as he armed himself in an attack pose, limping over to the chimera constantly hurting his friends as all of it's eyes looked up curiously to Hongbin. 

"Back off you son of a ! I will protect everyone!" Hongbin shouted angrily as he coughed in pain. He felt a voice in his head that echoed throughout. It was that same deep voice. 

"You want to what?" 

It asked enigmatically as Hongbin shouted out once more. "I will protect everyone!"

And with that shout, Hongbin found himself in that black room again. All of his pain washed away and soon he found himself drawing close tot hat same pillar of fire, however, this time the fire was much more transparent and he could see a mirror beyond the flames. "You're ready" The deep voice bellowed suddenly as Hongbin was confused, taking him back to present time. 

The chimera had released his friends, Hyuk, N and Leo were now on the ground, groaning from pain and squirming around helplessly. The chimera started to near closer as Hongbin felt no fear. Two words rang into his head and Hongbin utttered them without hesitation. 

"Ignis Elementarium!" He roared out as flames enveloped Hongbin's body, surrounding him with a warm heat that washed away his pain. A magical circle then appeared next to Hongbin on the ground. The ground shattered open into flames as hands crawled out of the hole created, claws rather as a creature  pulled itself up from the earth, resembling a savage in terms of a giant monster black in color with huge muscular limbs. It had a wolfish face and a flaming orange lion like mane that made it look like flames were dancing along. However it stood on it's hind legs and had horns protruding from it's scalp in an intricate manner and let's not forget about the giant talons for claws. 

The creature roared impressively as the chimera stared in disbelief. Everyone else who could see what was happening was completely and uttterly awestruck.  The creature then tapped into Hongbin's subconscious and spoke with him via telepathy. 

"I am your guardian. Your elemental, you call me Ignis like the element, but I serve you and only you alone. Do with me what you will." It said in a deep booming voice as Hongbin was too caught up in the heat of the moment that he couldn't care what exactly was happenign at this moment. 

"Ignis, unleash hellfire." Hongbin uttered as the beast nodded obediently. It jumped into the air and shot two giant fireballs of pure energy, blasting the Chimera's eagle head clean right off causing it to screech in pain. Ignis' claws became enveloped with flame and he rushed the chimera, grabbing onto the goat head by it's horns and ripping it off effortlessly as the beast screeched in more pain, impaling it's own horns into the goat's head, killing that off as well before finally impaling the chimera and tearing through it's midsection with it's claws as everyone watched in awe.

Then suddenly, everything seemed to move in slow motion, Ignis dissipated into flame and disappeared completely as Hongbin's eyes rolled back, watching the world fly around him as he fell backwards. All sound drowned out from his ears. 

All vision, becoming relinquished to absolute darkness. 

A/N: Hey everybody! Sorry to end the chapter like that, I'm getting really tired since it's super late at the moment and this chapter is already super mega long and like, jesus, it's too long. Sorry this chapter was such a mess, but I tried my best! *hey that rhymed* Tune in next time for a more chill and developmental chapter ;D Hope you guys are enjoying it so far!