205 – Lightning Ability is Generally Strong #1
The nuclear power plant is a facility far more massive than people think.
In this “Ghost Town,” the power plant’s essential facilities and components were neatly organized after issues arose, leaving its framework and foundation intact.
Thus, as I described earlier, this abandoned power plant boasted a scale that wouldn’t be out of place to call a relic of the 21st century.
To drive out the Awakened who had established themselves there first, Han Ju-ryeon’s “Elemental Team” would also have to endure some degree of loss.
Whoosh-!
“It’s a sniper! Sniper at 12 o’clock! Watch the high ground!”
Kang Jeong-yeol, a pyromancer, shouted loudly at the arrow flying from somewhere. It seemed that our team’s other sniper, Kim Yu-mi, had climbed to a high place and was shooting arrows, raising alert.
“A arrow’s coming! It must be Kim Yu-mi! Everyone, be careful!”
Whoosh, Bang-!
I knew well how difficult it was to penetrate the position of a sniper.
It was regrettable that Do Jun-hwan had quickly retired, but with Kim Yu-mi performing her role well, I decided to move my steps.
“Lee Jin-A! I don’t know how long Kim Yu-mi can buy us time, so we need to prepare as much as possible. The opponent won’t be easy…! We have to assume they will break through soon…!”
Creak, creak-.
I installed wires in the hallways of the internal facilities and attached flashbang grenades to the walls, also breaking nearby pieces of glass to create sound-blocking obstacles whenever someone stepped on them.
It was best to make use of the advantage of having established our position first.
The opposing team also had a professional in A-ranker Kim Yu-mi, and they likely didn’t have much time left before she sniped them.
Sneak-.
I leaned out the window to check the Elemental Team’s entry time into the power plant.
Then, the figures of people hiding behind an abandoned trailer truck briefly reflected in the window.
“Hey, Kang Jeong-yeol…! Let’s go with that…! Raging Wave…!”
Pop-.
The ability user Oh Deok-soo, known to manipulate moisture in the air, clapped his hands to the floor, and it seemed droplets of water quickly gathered in the air, forming a wall of water several meters high.
Splash, splash-.
Were they planning to charge forward using that wall of water as a barricade or shield?
Whoosh-!
Kim Yu-mi ignored the wall of water and began to load her bow to attempt a sniper shot from somewhere. Kim Yu-mi’s powerful bow couldn’t be defended against by mere physical force of that wall of water.
Of course, the Elemental Team seemed to have thoughts of their own too.
“How long do you think you can buy time with sniping? Breath of Fire…!”
Fwoooosh-.
I could feel Kang Jeong-yeol exhaling his rough, hot breath towards the wall of water.
In an instant, the air heated up, and even more astonishingly was how the flames’ breath met the wall of water, turning into steam and enveloping the surroundings in a hazy mist.
Swirling, swirling, swirling-.
The mist spread endlessly, completely upending the outside of the power plant and pushing in like a wave into the building.
“Haha, did you see that! This is the ‘Linkage – Mist Curtain’…! Did you think of us as just random folks…!? Even Kim Yu-mi’s remarkable eyesight would be useless in this mist…!!!”
That was true.
Kim Yu-mi was a traditional sniper with exceptional eyesight.
In a state where mist surrounded all sides like this, it would have been better for Do Jun-hwan. The problem was that the very Do Jun-hwan was collapsed after being struck by lightning.
“I said it would be easy.”
With A-rankers, synergy and coordination were solid, providing them with a great range of responses to the situation.
As I admired that the Awakened in Korea were not called powerful for no reason, I thought it was so annoying that I had to face them.
Sssss-.
The fog of steam began to thicken as it pushed into the building.
Kang Jeong-yeol, Oh Deok-soo, and Han Ju-ryeon’s figures were obscured by the mist.
“Hey! What do we do?”
Lee Jin-A asked me.
She seemed very excited about the situation where the enemy could push into the building and looked tense.
I said to Jin-A.
“Those guys have better synergy than I thought. Maybe they’ve been working together for a long time, their synergy is no joke. This is unfavorable for us.”
Our team was hastily assembled.
The combination of sniper Kim Yu-mi and Do Jun-hwan was awkward, and Lee Jin-A and I, Haildo, had never really collaborated for long either.
In that sense, team synergy was perfectly unfavorable for us.
“…If only we could drop those guys somehow.”
It seemed that in order for us to face them with some chance of winning, a focused attack would be our best bet.
There may have been better opinions, but the judgment I could make in this situation was the best I could think of.
At my mumbling, Jin-A clenched her fist tightly and stood up as if she had made some determination.
“So all we need to do is drop them, right? I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen!”
# # #
“You guys, watch your step.”
Han Ju-ryeon warned Kang Jeong-yeol and Oh Deok-soo.
Crash-.
Oh Deok-soo looked at the shards of glass scattered beneath his feet and took off his glasses, chuckling.
“First-years really like to play these kinds of tricks.”
Oh Deok-soo, a veteran Awakener from year four with six years of experience. He had quite a bit of experience clashing with first-year Awakened.
In Oh Deok-soo’s view, the fighting style of the first years was fairly orthodox yet simultaneously quite dull.
“A sound-blocking obstacle? That’s textbook. Now that we’re inside the building, it’s pretty much game over. Even if they know our position, they don’t have the firepower to take us down.”
Swoosh-.
As such, Oh Deok-soo slowly knelt down.
A slender wire-like strand was protruding before him.
“…….”
Upon closer inspection, it was apparent that the pin of a flashbang was set as a tripwire for a booby trap. Oh Deok-soo felt a slight stress.
There were quite a few such obstacles in the building’s corridors, and due to the ‘mist’ created by Team Elemental, Kang Jeong-yeol and Oh Deok-soo had to move cautiously while ensuring they had visibility.
“Ugh, it’s frustrating and annoying. I just want to go and catch them all!”
Kang Jeong-yeol, the pyromancer, vented emotionally.
Of course, Han Ju-ryeon gave a warning to Kang Jeong-yeol.
“Now that Kim Yu-mi is neutralized, the only ones we have to watch out for are Haildo’s animals. And even if Haildo’s animals are powerful, they can’t easily approach us as long as we’re clustered together.”
Han Ju-ryeon was a woman well aware of her team’s strengths.
No, that was true for most A-rankers.
Until now, A-rankers have mostly operated as teams.
And if Haildo was a capable person, he would surely understand those strengths well.
‘If I were Haildo, I would try to separate us as much as possible. Given that we’re aware of this, it won’t be easy.’
However, we had to be cautious.
While thinking that, I was slowly securing areas in the mist.
“Oh, what’s this?”
The sensitive Kang Jeong-yeol was the first to notice something amiss.
As Kang Jeong-yeol raised his head, he saw peculiar things floating in the air. They were roughly the size of a fist and round in shape.
Swoosh-.
Oh Deok-soo slowly reached out toward them and answered.
“Is that a balloon…?”
A balloon.
As Oh Deok-soo had said, it was indeed a balloon.
It had a sweet aroma, and with his good sense of smell and memory, Oh Deok-soo could identify it more clearly.
“This smells like bubble gum. What is this?”
Swoosh-.
Oh Deok-soo quickly retracted his hand that had reached for the balloon.
Whatever it was, the appearance of the gum balloons in this situation felt very suspicious.
“Hey, Kang Jeong-yeol! It’s very suspicious, so don’t touch it carelessly!”
Oh Deok-soo warned Kang Jeong-yeol.
Kang Jeong-yeol, the pyromancer, always had a tendency to act impulsively and recklessly.
Indeed, Kang Jeong-yeol was quite annoyed from all the various traps, and he was in a state where he wanted to blow away the balloons filling his view all at once.
Should I just blow them away with my breath of flames? – When he was thinking that, a gum balloon popped. Simultaneously, a sweet scent spread among Team “Elemental.”
“Hey! I told you not to touch it!”
Oh Deok-soo yelled at Kang Jeong-yeol.
Kang Jeong-yeol also retorted.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything!”
“It’s because you heated up the surrounding air that it popped!”
“Then what should I do? Should I not breathe?”
Kang Jeong-yeol and Oh Deok-soo began to get irritated with each other.
Watching this, Han Ju-ryeon also felt an intense annoyance to the point of static sparks flying from her body.
“You guys, shut up. By making so much noise, it’s practically advertising our position to the enemy, don’t you think? Is now the time for us to be arguing?”
However, the words of Han Ju-ryeon only added fuel to the fire fueling the quarrel between Kang Jeong-yeol and Oh Deok-soo.
“Kang Jeong-yeol, do you not hear what Han Ju-ryeon said to be quiet?”
“You’re saying that to me, but you were telling him to be quiet, right?”
Normally, Kim Si-hyun, the calm ice ability user, would have intervened to soothe them, but Kim Si-hyun had retired after clashing with the number one team last night.
In the end, their teamwork hit rock bottom in an instant.
“Ugh, damn it. This is so frustrating. Let’s just grab them already! If we push with firepower, what’s the big deal? Just wait!”
Pop-.
Unable to hold back, the emotionally charged pyromancer Kang Jeong-yeol eventually expressed an explosive action.
Seeing this, Oh Deok-soo grumbled, “That guy is up to it again! Let’s just forget about him now!”
Team leader Han Ju-ryeon thought something was a bit off.
Was it possible for team members who had been working well together until just now to suddenly split up like this?
“Okay, got it.”
While they were quarrelling, Lee Jin-A, who had been hiding and listening from a nearby hallway, stopped chewing her bubble gum. She was surprised that her strategy had worked even better than she had anticipated.
‘I can’t just increase the likability for myself. My breath can temporarily lower the likability among each other. In other words, it’s discord.’
If I were to name this technique, could it be “Jin-A Biggie, Discord”? Thinking that there might be a better name, Lee Jin-A quietly slipped away.
‘Having succeeded in separating them, the rest is up to you, Haildo!’
