114 Trio United
Dual blades; one of a white handle, one of black. Spiky, blue hair and a face with a long-stretching scar with one blue eye, and one gold. An open, dark-blue coat with rolled up sleeves and a mesh shirt that hardly hid his bare torso.
It was none other than–
“Yeong-Un!”
“I heard yer’ girly screams and came runnin’!” Yeong-Un explained with a smile, “…Looks like I came in the nick of time! Just like a superhero! Ha-ha!”
Yeong-Un stomped on the nearest centipedes brutally, holding a smile as if he was waiting for a situation like this.
“…I’ll ignore that first comment of yours! Your timing is impeccable!” Sol called out happily.
“Really…It is,” he added.
“Ha-ha! The hell are these things anyway?” Yeong-Un stood back-to-back with them.
The three began to fend off the incoming swarm together now, managing to dwindle their numbers this time.
Yeong-Un was the perfect one for the job, as his dual blades and ferocious style allowed him to mercilessly thin the swarm–partly in thanks to his ruthless fighting style.
“Don’t know! They came out of nowhere!” He replied.
“Yeah…! They showed up while I was in the bathroom!” Sol added, jabbing his spear against a centipede in disgust.
“Ha-ha! Must’ve seen somethin’ it liked!” Yeong-Un teased while hacking away at the insectoid swarm as if mowing tall grass.
“–S-shut it!” Sol replied quickly.
Even with the three of them, it was clear it still didn’t seem to be enough to fully repel the assault of grimy centipedes.
Why doesn’t it end?…I don’t see anymore crawling through the walls, he thought.
While stabbing and cutting away, he looked down–finding out what was truly going on.
The puddle of black gunk that was left after killing each centipede caused them to reform moments later.
Wait…we’ve just been…? He realized.
“Guys! I figured it out–!”
“Huh?” Yeong-Un looked back at him.
“What is it?!” Sol asked desperately.
He answered after stabbing a centipede that leapt towards him, “It’s the black liquid! They’re reforming from it! Cutting or stabbing them is just going to let them reform–!”
“Then what…?” Sol asked quietly in terror.
However, Yeong-Un already seemed to get the memo as he reared both of his dual blades back with an excited, sharp-toothed smile as both of his flames became engulfed in crimson flames.
“So…we just gotta burn ’em away, don’t we?!” Yeong-Un called out.
“I’ll leave it to you! Just don’t burn the hotel down!” He called out, pulling Sol back to give free reign to the spiky-haired adolescent for this.
“Sweepin’ Dragon’s Breath!”
Yeong-Un called out as he spun around, swinging both of his flames as he conjured a spiral of crimson flames around himself, expanding outward as the scorching fire engulfed the horde of regenerating centipedes.
Their combined squeals sounded out as their exoskeletons were burned away, along with the entirety of their forms as the dark gunk was reduced to nothing in the harsh flames produced by the laughing, spiky-haired man.
“He scares me sometimes…” Sol mumbled.
“I’d be more scared for his enemies,” he added with a quiet smile.
After the flames settled, all of the mystical insectoids had been vaporized, leaving nothing left of the creepy-crawlers.
“You did it…!” Sol called out. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“Heh. Easy peasy,” Yeong-Un bashfully smiled, resting one of his blades on his shoulder.
“Err…” He let out quietly.
“Huh? Whazzit?” Yeong-Un looked at him.
In exchange for handling the centipedes in one fell swoop, the flames had left a scorch mark on the wooden floorboards of the room.
“…Let’s keep this one a secret from the leader, alright?” Sol laughed nervously.
“Y-yeah,” Yeong-Un nodded.
“…Luckily we’re the only ones on this side of the fifth floor,” he sighed out, “I’m sure that would’ve woken–oh, crap…”
“What is it?” Sol looked at him.
Something had just come back to his mind after pondering about the occupants of the fifth floor: there was indeed another person, albeit a new recruit who lived on the same floor.
“…We should check the other rooms, too…who knows if there’s more,” he said.
“True…I’ll check mine,” Sol gulped his fears down, clutching his spear.
“I didn’t see any in mine before I ran over, but another look to be sure won’t hurt! Ha-ha!” Yeong-Un left the room as well.
It was one of the most nerve wracking moments for him: walking to his room, unknowing if he’d find a swarm of centipedes waiting for him or not.
“…Please, please, please…” He yearned quietly.
Grabbing the doorknob to his room, he slowly twisted it, opening it before–
“Clear…” He sighed out in total relief.
Not a single sign of a grotesque, many-legged insect. Now, there was one more room for him to check: Xiaodan’s.
He walked over quietly, opening the door in such a way to make zero noise as he peeked inside.
“–“
There the silver-haired, feminine boy was sprawled out on his bed and sound asleep. Luckily, there wasn’t a single of the gunk-regenerating centipedes in there, either.
“Thank goodness…”
He sighed out again before closing the door, returning to the hall just in time as Sol and Yeong-Un returned from their check-in as well.
“Anything?” He asked.
Sol shook his head, “I didn’t see anything.”
“Nothin’ here, either,” Yeong-Un folded his arms over his chest, “Went to the other side and checked Korain and Binna’s rooms–nothin’.”
“Nice thinking,” he nodded.
As they stood in the barely-lit corridor for a moment, it seemed they all had the same question in mind, but Sol was the first to voice it.
“…What were those things, anyway?” Sol asked, gulping.
“I thought they were normal enemies, but…I didn’t get any prompt from the System,” he answered, “Did either of you?”
“Nah,” Yeong-Un shook his head.
“Nope…” Sol gave the same answer.
“That’s…weird,” he said, holding his hand to his chin, “Should we tell Dae-Seong about this? I know we haven’t seen more of them, but…”
Yeong-Un slapped him playfully on the shoulder with a sharp smile, “Nah, we’ve got this!”
Though the wild-haired young man seemed excited at the prospect of fighting, it was clear to tell what his intentions were as he marched down the hall.
He probably doesn’t want to stress out Dae-Seong with something that we can handle…I agree, I think, he thought.