8 // Messenger

 

 

Bang Yongguk stood amidst the pack of low-grades looking like the everyday weaponsmith he was, but the red glow of the fire character on his forehead was a dead giveaway of his true identity.

 

Yumi, AeMi, the demons, and himself alike were all taken aback by the sudden awakening of his abilities. Blazes of red, orange and yellow trailed the grounds where many of the low-grades previously stood before they were incinerated to the ground. The energy of the burning fire lit up the dark of the night, as did the bright red glow of the now blood-coloured moon that hung up high in the dark blue sky.

 

AeMi stared at the sight before her in high spirits. Her brother was right after all. The Guardians have indeed returned, and are showing up one by one.

 

This meant that the demons could finally be vanquished once and for all, and then the land could once again return to its former glory.

 

Yongguk stared at his own hands in marvel, wondering how it was even possible for him to do what he had just did. Out of anger, he had created fire out of thin air and used it to destroy an entire group of demons. Even now he could still feel the foreign power coursing within his body.

 

*Does that mean that I really am the... Guardian of Fire?*

 

"Yongguk!" Yumi called, breaking him out of his thoughts. "To your left!"

 

He manoeuvred his body to the right and just narrowly dodged a pouncing demon. But nothing could help him foresee the stream of water that came at him from behind.

 

The weaponsmith groaned in pain as the water slashed his back, leaving a long red line while the force of it pushed him to drop forwards onto a knee. Fortunately for him the wound wasn't very deep, but it still stung like heck.

 

"Damn it," he hissed as he held his body up by stabbing his sword into the snowy ground. Yongguk turned to glare at the perpetrator.

 

The level-3 demon wasted no time and swung a lean arm towards him, sending another stream of water that was sharp at the edges and was capable of piercing his skin. The weaponsmith stood frozen in his spot as his mind suddenly turned blank.

 

He was broken out of his daze as a sufficiently sized wall of ice formed just in time to block off the attack. The barrier immediately collapsed and returned to its state of snow to reveal a huffing Yumi with her arms up. She heaved a sigh of relief.

 

"That was a close call."

 

"Ahh!"

 

The short scream brought their attention to AeMi, who had been thrown into the snow by a physical attack from the other level-3. She grunted in pain as she held her body up with an arm. Fighting level-3s have been getting more and more challenging lately to the point that even AeMi's daggers have become incapable of killing them. Such examples were the two demons before her now, whose natural armour around their skulls prevented her from piercing through it and landing the fatal blow.

 

*Two level-3s at one time is too much for me to handle…* she thought to herself in distress. *I'll just have to hold out and hope brother and Daehyun reaches us in time!*

 

With a determined yell, she charged towards the closer of the two demons just as two streams of water pierced into the snow where she had just stood a few seconds before, and closed the distance between them. AeMi swiftly rolled off to the side as the demon prepared to stomp on her, and went behind the demon to climb up its tail and onto its back for her trademark attack. She pulled out five acupuncture needles and with uncanny precision, threw them towards the five pressure points behind the neck and the joints of the four limbs to temporarily paralyse it. She jumped off of its back and landed onto the snow with a backwards somersault as she watched her needles transform into razor sharp daggers before puncturing the target points.

 

The demon collapsed to the ground with restrained movements as it screeched in agony, unable to even thrash around in the snow.

 

"That should hold it back for long enough."

 

Alarm bells went off in her head as she sensed a quick presence nearing her and swung around to see a low-grade practically on top of her before its head was perforated by an arrow of ice.

 

"Yumi, you're a life-saver," AeMi breathed. Yumi returned a soft smile before returning her attention back to the weaponsmith.

 

The second of the level-3s was now targeting him alongside an ever-growing pack of disfigured hounds. While AeMi took on the on-coming pack of low-grades, Yumi fought her way over to him and stood with him with their backs toward each other.

 

Low-grades pounced at them from Yumi's side, while a huge stream of water sailed through the air on Yongguk's side. He held out his arms in an attempt to conjure his fire, but ended up having to block himself with his sword as it sliced the water to part around him. Yongguk stared at his hands again.

 

"Use your sword!" Yumi called out. "It'll be easier to use your abilities with your weaponry!"

 

The weaponsmith swung his sword at the first hound that came at him, and saw it do nothing but slice it apart with the sharp edge of the blade.

 

"How?!" he asked in exasperation. Yongguk was a man of great stamina, but he was human after all. No human could keep up with the ongoing influx of demons unless they had a way of destroying them all at once. Like he could with his fire.

 

Only, he didn't know how to use it.

 

"Concentrate, Yongguk!" Yumi replied as she struggled against the demons. The most exercise she had ever done on a daily basis was archery, which didn't require a lot of stamina or moving around. This endless battle with the low-grades was using up every scrap of energy she had in her body, and it was inevitable that she was going to burn out sooner or later. Preferably later.

 

"You have to focus on the power lying within yourself and concentrate on summoning it from within your body!"

 

Yongguk thought deeply about her words as he cut down a few more low-grades. His arms were starting to feel a little heavy from the exhaustion of this continuous fight, but there was no doubt that he could still feel a trace of that foreign power from earlier still coursing through his veins.

 

*Concentrate, concentrate... How am I supposed to concentrate with all of these things coming at me?!* he thought in frustration.

 

Those feelings were quickly replaced with surprise and confusion as time suddenly seemed to slow down right before his eyes. He stared at the demons in bewilderment as they moved towards him at a pace even slower than a snail's.

 

It is time, Guardian.

 

Yongguk was hearing the voice in his mind. It was the voice of a male.

 

It is time for you to awaken your true potential!

 

The voice slowly faded away before a small buzz in his ear signified that time had resumed its normal pace. Feeling startled, he blinked a few times before he noticed that a small wave of water was heading towards him.

 

Yongguk eyed it as it steadily approached him, completely oblivious to the red glint in his eyes as he felt a familiar potent energy fill his body once again. The feeling was similar to lava erupting from the centre of the earth, spreading its power throughout his body to his arms, hands and fingertips. He didn't know what it was, but he was definitely using it.

 

Gripping onto his double-edged sword with his two hands, he held it up high into the air before using his new-found strength to swing it down with a low grunt. Noticing that something was different, Yumi turned around just in time to see a great mass of fire propelling from Yongguk's sword that clashed head-to-head with the demon's oncoming wave of water.

 

The clash between the two elements was deafening and projected a blinding measure of light that caused both Yumi and AeMi to shield their eyes with their arms. When the light subsided soon after that, the two removed their arms to witness the red and orange flames overcoming the water, pushing it back until the blue liquid finally disappeared into nothing, leaving the demon both defenceless and directly in the line of fire. The two girls watched with wide eyes as the level-3 was swallowed up into the fire after letting out a final shrill call, before the flames were reduced to mere small trails of fire that melted the surrounding snow to reveal the earth underneath.

 

What was even more amazing was Yongguk's new appearance that made him look nothing less than the powerful Guardian of Fire. No longer in his everyday weaponsmith attire, he was clad from head to toe in shades of dark red, black, and gold, with the characteristic red character of 'fire' on his forehead. Unlike Yumi's wide-sleeved robes, Yongguk wore a more well-fitting material that allowed sharp movements in combat  and accentuated his strong features. The main torso was a shade of dark red with linings of dark gold, which stretched into sleeves of the same distinct colour that ended with black armour armlets covering the wrists to halfway up the forearm. The visible black material under the main red outer layer matched the identical dark colour of his trousers, and a pair of dark red and black boots on his feet completed the look along with a small red jewel in the form of an earring stud on his left ear.

 

Yumi instantly recognised it as the one from her vision.

 

Wielding his sword in one hand, he swung it once in a horizontal direction to create a mass of fire that easily took out the rest of the low-grades surrounding him and Yumi, leaving those near AeMi to retreat in cower. The young girl hurriedly scanned the area around her and creased her brow.

 

"What happened to that level-3 I paralysed?! Where did it go?!"

 

Yumi's eyes widened as she caught sight of the said demon pouncing out from behind a hut, carrying with it a stream of water. She quickly held up her bow and yelled. "AeMi, get down!"

 

AeMi whipped her head around to see that the terrifying sight of the level-3 was but a metre away from her. But before she could duck or even scream out of reflex, a line of orange suddenly slit down the figure of the demon before it split apart and disintegrated at the fissure. She sank down into the snow on her knees as she watched her brother and Daehyun rush over to her.

 

"AeMi-ah, are you okay?!" Youngjae worriedly asked. "Thank god we made it back in time."

 

She recovered from her shock and chuckled softly before punching him in the arm. "About time."

 

Daehyun, glad that nobody was hurt, finally noticed the state Yongguk was in. "Y-Yongguk!"

 

The two girls laughed at Youngjae's reaction as he gawked, very much unlike the intelligent young man he usually was.

 

"I think we know for sure now who the Guardian of Fire is."

 

 

~~~

 

 

After Yumi had healed the wound on Yongguk's back to the best of her current ability, the group sat around the table in his hut as they figured out their next move.

 

"We now have the Guardians of Water and Fire with us, so that just leaves the Guardians of Earth and Wind," Youngjae was saying. "But with no leads so far, finding them will be difficult."

 

Daehyun nodded in agreement. "What makes it even more so is the fact that the Guardians may not even be from this land, like both Yumi and Yongguk. They may even be in KangRang or YuNan. But we still have to look for them despite anything."

 

Yongguk remained silent as he glanced at his hands, which didn't go unnoticed by AeMi.

 

"Is something wrong, Yongguk?"

 

He looked up at them before letting out a sigh. "Being a Guardian comes to me as much as an honour as it is a surprise, and I definitely want to carry out my responsibilities as one worthy of the title. However…" He glanced over at Zelo resting peacefully in his barrier. "…I can't come along with you on your search for the other two Guardians."

 

Yumi sent him a sad smile. "You can't leave Zelo and your father behind unprotected, can you?"

 

"That is something I can never do." He looked up at Youngjae and Daehyun apologetically. "That's why, I'm sorry. But I can't leave."

 

"It's okay, I understand," Youngjae reassured. "But we'll be sure to come back for you when we've found the remaining two Guardians."

 

Yongguk bowed humbly. "Thank you. Whereabouts are you heading off to now?"

 

"We'll return to our village after we've removed the demon from Zelo's body. Staying here for too long may only put you in danger, since Yumi's identity as a Guardian has been disclosed."

 

"Our enemies are not only the demons, but humans as well," Daehyun added. He said this with the KangRang soldiers in thought. "So it's best that you keep your identity as a Guardian a secret for the time being, Yongguk."

 

The weaponsmith nodded. "I had the same thought."

 

Little did they know, a figure lurking around outside in the hut had overheard their conversation, stealthily attaching a note to a messenger bird before letting it into the sky, watching as it flew further into the night towards his own nation.

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

It's been awhile since I've updated, but hopefully chapter 8 turned out okay :) I've worked out how I want the story to unfold, but I was honestly a little stuck for this chapter. 

Of course, welcome new subscribers and please continue leaving comments ^^

 

#ForeverWithBAP

 

--- Mistlea