Memorize Chapter 249

“Stop.”

As Kim Su-Hyeon, leading the march, halted and raised his hand, An-Hyun, walking beside him, stopped as well. Kim Su-Hyeon glanced around briefly before speaking in a calm voice.

“A pack of Poison Jackals is approaching. Their numbers… are quite high. Thirty-eight. As the name suggests, their teeth carry poison, so be careful not to get bitten.”

His tone was casual, but An-Hyun felt a lump in his throat as he swallowed hard. Poison Jackals were monsters he’d faced once or twice in Monica. True to their jackal nature, they were cunning and agile, with bodies twice the size of regular jackals.

In a previous battle, An-Hyun had been careless, getting surrounded and bitten multiple times, which left him unconscious for nearly half a day. The memory of that ordeal resurfaced, and he heightened his internal tension to its peak.

About five minutes passed. The dense underbrush ahead began to rustle slightly. An-Hyun crouched, channeling mana through his body’s circuits.

“They’re here.”

Kim Su-Hyeon spat out a single word and promptly stepped back. At that moment, a robust jackal burst through the underbrush.

That was just the beginning. Following the first, more jackals poured out like a flood. One, two, three, four, five… By the time nine had appeared, An-Hyun gave up counting. Only about ten were visible in front, but he sensed similar numbers emerging from all directions. It was a perfect encirclement.

At first, the jackals didn’t charge recklessly, merely sizing up their prey. But the glint of murderous intent in their dark eyes made it clear they were waiting for an opening.

“───. ───. ───. Petals imbued with coldness become shattered flashes beneath the dawn storm.”

After a brief pause, Kim Han-Byeol’s serene voice resonated through the air, her spell prepared since Kim Su-Hyeon’s call to stop. A gem emitting clear light slowly rose from her palm, and a faint whirlwind began to swirl around the clan members.

“Spread!”

Having completed her preparations, she swept her icy gaze over the Poison Jackals and shouted sharply. Her cry shattered the tense standoff, serving as the signal to commence battle.

“Yelp! Yelp!”

“Yelp! Yelp!”

The navy-blue gem disintegrated into particles, blending into the swirling whirlwind. Triggered by her command, the whirlwind flattened into a disc and began expanding outward in a wide circle.

An-Hyun closely observed the spell targeting the jackals. Enhancing his vision with mana, he saw countless flickering, blade-like mana clusters shimmering along the whirlwind’s edge, resembling a buzzsaw.

Just as he was about to cheer inwardly, he cursed at the jackals’ subsequent movements. Sensing the terrifying energy within the whirlwind, they scattered with agile leaps. By the time the whirlwind reached them, a few jackals that couldn’t dodge in time soared upward to evade it.

Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!

“Yelp! Yelp!”

“Yelp! Yelp!”

The bladed whirlwind sliced through innocent underbrush and trees, punctuated by the occasional screams of jackals that mistimed their dodge. Kim Han-Byeol’s wide-area spell had aimed to hit all the jackals, but their swift reactions diminished its effectiveness.

Still, the situation had improved somewhat. The initial pack of nearly forty had been reduced by about a third. However, over twenty remained.

“Yaaaarrr!”

Whether enraged by the attack or the loss of their kin, the Poison Jackals let out ear-splitting howls and charged without hesitation. An-Hyun looked up at three jackals leaping over two meters high toward him. Aiming his spear, he activated his prepared latent ability.

“Spear Barrage!”

Clang! Clang-clang!

In an instant, the spear split into three prongs, each piercing the abdomen of a jackal mid-air. Watching them fall limply to the ground, their bellies caved in, An-Hyun refocused forward. Three more jackals were charging, yellow saliva dripping from their bared teeth.

An-Hyun stayed calm. Activating his special ability, Spear Master, he channeled mana into the spear, making it hum with energy. The rigid spear shaft softened like taffy, bending like a taut bowstring as he pulled one end. As the jackals lunged with gaping maws, An-Hyun released the spear with a snap.

Thwack!

“Yelp! Yelp!”

The recoiling spear struck all three charging jackals at once, sending them flying in all directions, spraying blood.

Having dispatched six jackals in just two exchanges, An-Hyun stayed vigilant, steeling himself further. In the past, he’d gotten cocky after early successes, only to be surrounded and bitten all over. Though his gear had prevented deep wounds, if they’d targeted joints or exposed areas, the outcome could’ve been grim.

With a brief lull in front, An-Hyun glanced back. To the left, Yun-Jung was battling five or six jackals alone. A translucent barrier surrounded her, cast by Sol to compensate for her lighter armor compared to An-Hyun’s.

Yun-Jung wielded her daggers relentlessly, steadily reducing their numbers, but the jackals kept coming. Go Yeon-Joo was flawlessly blocking the right flank, and Kim Su-Hyeon was focused on guarding the center and rear. With the front, right, and rear secured, the jackals naturally targeted the weakest left flank. Sol supported with shackle spells whenever her cooldown allowed, but the initial barrier was already tattered.

As Sol paused her shackle spell to chant a new barrier, the jackals, previously sluggish, began moving actively again.

Realizing this couldn’t continue, An-Hyun prepared to assist with Spear Barrage. Just then, he locked eyes with Han-Byeol, who was preparing a support spell for Yun-Jung. She looked startled seeing him, then shouted urgently.

“Oppa! Behind you!”

“Huh?”

“Chain Lightning!”

“What, what?!”

Crackle! Zzzt!

Kim Han-Byeol redirected the spell she had been preparing and unleashed it toward An-Hyun. But before An-Hyun could finish speaking, a dark shadow lunged from behind, aiming for his exposed neck. Just as it tried to bite down, a streak of yellow lightning shot directly into its maw.

“Grrrrrr!”

The Poison Jackal flipped over, convulsing violently, and An-Hyun belatedly swung his spear. But by then, wisps of black smoke were already curling out of the fallen beast’s mouth.

As An-Hyun let out a sigh, looking like he’d aged ten years, the right flank and rear were stabilizing significantly. Kim Su-Hyeon and Go Yeon-Joo were nearly done clearing their respective zones. That’s when it happened.

“Kyaaa!”

A piercing scream erupted from the left, where the largest number of jackals were swarming.

Yun-Jung had been slowly retreating, overwhelmed by the growing horde, but stopped when she sensed Sol and Baek Hangeol behind her. Realizing that retreating further would endanger the center, she forced herself to hold her ground, trying to regain distance—an overextension that cost her. As the protective barrier she’d been barely maintaining shattered, ten jackals, waiting for their chance, charged at her in unison. Sol, having just completed a spell, hastily cast another barrier, but one jackal slipped through the gap and sank its teeth into Yun-Jung’s thigh.

The moment Yun-Jung collapsed, the left flank descended into chaos. The howls of the jackals seizing their opportunity mixed with the screams of several players, threatening to spiral into total pandemonium.

At that moment, Kim Su-Hyeon, who had been focused on the center and rear, spun around the instant he heard Yun-Jung’s scream and charged toward the left. He swiftly sliced off the jackal biting Yun-Jung’s thigh and immediately turned the tip of his Sun-Moon Divine Sword toward the surrounding enemies.

Each swing of the gleaming Sun-Moon Divine Sword sent a Poison Jackal soaring into the air without fail. Facing jackals charging from all directions, he calmly watched them before striking each one with lightning-fast precision.

The jackals had leaped first, but before their attacks could reach Kim Su-Hyeon, they dropped to the ground one by one like falling leaves.

An-Hyun, having just fended off another jackal, stared at Kim Su-Hyeon with a dazed expression.

Kim Su-Hyeon’s movements were serene, but the scene around him was anything but. The jackals were swept away like leaves in a storm.

Finally, as he drove his sword into the last jackal groaning beneath his feet, the battle with the Poison Jackals came to an end.

*

“Hey, aren’t you gonna turn around?”

“Ugh, I came to check on you, and now you’re yelling at me. I’m not looking, I’m not! What’s so great about seeing your thigh?”

An-Hyun had sneakily glanced toward where Yun-Jung was with her pants off, only to get scolded by her and turn away. Watching him grumble while clearing away a jackal corpse, I let out a short sigh.

“How was it?”

“Hm?”

“The battle. Not to your liking?”

“Well, there were a lot of them, so… it was fine.”

I shook my head at Go Yeon-Joo’s question. My mind wasn’t on evaluating the recent battle but was filled with other thoughts. Sorting through them, I turned my gaze back to Go Yeon-Joo. She had been staring at me steadily since she first spoke.

“Finally looking at me. Spill it. Don’t just stew on it alone.”

“Did you notice anything odd about that battle?”

“Hm. Honestly, Yun-Jung getting injured was unexpected. Those things usually bolt the moment they take significant damage, but they were strangely relentless this time.”

“I felt the same. It’s understandable that they targeted Yun-Jung due to their instincts, but not fleeing until the end is unusual.”

I fell silent, sinking into thought. The expedition had now entered its eighth day. Over those eight days, we had left the Wailing Plains, passed through the Blade-Wind Ravine, and were currently in the dense forest leading to the Plateau of Delusion.

'The battles… that was the eleventh one, right?'

Encountering monsters in a dense forest wasn’t particularly strange. But the fact that most of those eleven battles had occurred in relatively stabilized areas like the Wailing Plains and Blade-Wind Ravine raised definite questions.

Of course, Hall Plain is full of variables, and monster migrations can happen. But the abnormal behavior of the monsters, starting with the Rhynoceruses, was lending weight to one of the many possibilities I’d been considering.

Looking around, the post-battle scene was quiet. Sol was busy healing Yun-Jung, while Baek Hangeol, with a frozen expression, diligently cleaned up the battlefield. Turning to An-Hyun, I saw him idly scraping the ground before spotting Kim Han-Byeol and tossing out a comment.

“Hey, Han-Byeol, thanks for earlier. You saved my life.”

“No problem. I’m just glad I noticed.”

“But, uh, that spell—Chain Lightning, right? Wasn’t it originally meant for Yun-Jung?”

“…Yeah.”

“Fuck. So I screwed up too, huh? Still got a long way to go…”

Excluding Go Yeon-Joo, the clan members’ attention was scattered. Listening to An-Hyun’s self-deprecation, I spoke in a hushed tone.

“Player Go Yeon-Joo.”

“Yes?”

“I’ve been thinking… it seems like…”

Though I hadn’t yet voiced my suspicion, I noticed Go Yeon-Joo’s face stiffen slightly. Perhaps she, too, had picked up on something. Her hesitation to speak first, as the Shadow Queen, likely stemmed from not having solid evidence. And I was in the same boat.

After a brief pause, I continued.

“I think we’re being herded. Or rather, we’re in the middle of being herded.”