177. Tidal Wave 3

Her shoulders were never light at the start of a mission. Even with more allies, her sense of responsibility didn’t lessen. Yoon Tae-ha perched on the desk, idly touching the pistol Charlton had given her.

Meanwhile, Cheon Geon-young put on the watch she had given him and folded his fire-retardant gloves into his bag. Done with his preparations, he too perched on the desk.

She first spread her palm on Cheon Geon-young’s thigh, and he naturally interlocked their fingers. Thanks to the thinning rain, the silence in the car was even more pronounced. They listened silently, only to the sounds from outside.

Soon, Yoon Tae-ha heard a small explosion.

“It’s started. The leader will contact us.”

It wasn’t long before the assembly order came from Baek Sang-ho.

— Fire outbreak in the camp, material stolen. Assemble at the north entrance.

His voice sounded urgent. Kim Du-eon also texted. The message stated that there were no casualties and Raphael had detonated his own tent before disappearing.

They ran along a muddy path shrouded in thick fog and arrived at the north entrance of the camp.

Only Baek Sang-ho, fully armed, was waiting for them. Beside him, the transport vehicles for the Alpha Team were ready. Behind the motorcycles, flickering flames were visible. Soon, an esper who controlled water ran over in slippers and extinguished the fire. As muddy water was poured over Raphael’s tent, the flames gradually subsided.

“The sleeping arrangements were unsettling, and now this has happened. Raphael disappeared with the green substance. Seeing that he burned all his belongings, he has no intention of returning.”

“What does Gaia say?”

“An order has been given to kill any outsider who covets the Green Feather, no matter who it is. I don’t know why everyone is so desperate to get their hands on that substance.”

Cheon Geon-young gave Yoon Tae-ha a meaningful look. For now, their first prediction was correct. The Director-General seemed to prioritize bringing the substance back safely.

“The more time we give him, the further he’ll run. Yoon Tae-ha, you go first. Cheon Geon-young, you wait here with me until the rest of the agents bring their equipment.”

“Is that Gaia’s directive? For me to go first?”

“Yes. Is your condition not good, by any chance?”

“No. I’ll go ahead.”

Yoon Tae-ha mounted the motorcycle parked in the front row and disappeared into the forest.

________________________________________

She rode in a straight line until the camp lights faded into the distance. Finally, when all lights except the motorcycle’s headlight disappeared, she stopped the vehicle and turned on a small flashlight. With a click, a small, circular beam of light appeared.

With it, Yoon Tae-ha scanned the upper parts of the tree branches. Just then, a small animal rushed towards the light.

“Caw!”

It was Nox’s crow. The bird would guide her to Raphael. Yoon Tae-ha began to move again.

As she drove, she could feel the terrain had changed due to the heavy rain. Lush grass, revitalized by the rain, tangled in the wheels. The puddles scattered everywhere varied in depth. It was dangerous to ignore them and speed up. She stopped the motorcycle and transformed her ring into a spear.

“Pale Shadow.”

Two hours after leaving the camp, she had no choice but to abandon her vehicle.

Yoon Tae-ha put only the necessary items in her messenger bag and turned off the engine. Then she tied the motorcycle to a nearby tree. With all preparations complete, she began to move on foot, holding the spear in her right hand and the flashlight in her left.

“Are we close?”

The crow hopped on the trees, nodding its head. According to Baek Sang-ho’s communication, Cheon Geon-young’s team was expanding their search area to the west.

Choi Bo-mi and Shim Gyu-jong were also on that team. To worry excessively might also be disrespectful to them. Yoon Tae-ha pressed firmly on her chest whenever she felt anxious and moved forward.

She walked for about another hour, following the bird. By then, the rain had stopped. The damp forest exuded an atmosphere where it wouldn’t be strange for any monster to pop out.

Just then, Yoon Tae-ha, sensing something faintly, turned off her flashlight. She heard the crow flutter its wings and hide among the branches.

An enemy was in the forest beyond. At the same time she detected it, the ground she stood on trembled violently.

Having experienced Amducias, Yoon Tae-ha reached for the branches above her head and leaped up. As she hung from a thick branch with one arm, something like shimmering scales of water rushed at her diagonally.

When she dodged with teleportation, there was a splattering sound, like a water balloon bursting. She immediately summoned her entities and sent them flying in the direction the attack had come from.

“Tae-ha!”

A joyful voice came from the other side. Two unfamiliar lights illuminated her. Has it come at last? Yoon Tae-ha quickly pressed two buttons on her watch simultaneously. The sound of the Changcheon situation room began to be heard through the communicator in her ear.

She confirmed the connection was good and then put the communicator in her pocket. It wouldn’t be good for the enemy to know she was in contact with someone else. She only needed to send her own sounds to them. Soon, an unwelcome woman appeared with her companion.

“Are you alone?”

Yeo Soo-min smiled sweetly. Beside her stood the stoic-faced Oliver.

“Did you mistake your target, Agent Yeo Soo-min? We’re chasing a white-haired outsider.”

Yoon Tae-ha consciously spoke the enemy’s name correctly, aware of Changcheon. Yeo Soo-min replied nonchalantly,

“I saw correctly.”

Oliver quickly scanned her belongings. The watch Cheon Geon-young gave her looked like a common military watch. As the esper’s gaze naturally fell from her wrist, Yoon Tae-ha was secretly relieved. The man only stared at the pure white spear in her hand with wary eyes.

“How did you find my location?”

“Jet told me.”

“You’re boldly admitting to looking at someone else’s records. I understand that agents are not allowed to view each other’s files.”

She spoke stiffly, increasing the number of her entities. Yeo Soo-min gazed curiously at the blue blades, which multiplied from two to four, and then from four to eight.

“You know, Tae-ha, that headquarters is thorough in managing S-class espers.”

Yoon Tae-ha increased the number of her entities while thinking about the enemy’s abilities. Yeo Soo-min was an earth attribute, and Oliver Cornet was a water attribute. Both were nature-based, making them tricky.

Are their profiles’ abilities all there is? Probably not. Just as she had hidden her abilities when she entered school, it was highly likely that the Titans had understated their abilities in their profiles for smooth mission execution.

“Who gave the orders? Is this also part of headquarters’ management?”

“Are you stalling for someone to come help you?”

“Didn’t you use Gaia because you didn’t want someone to come help me? It seems you sent me ahead to separate me from the Alpha Team.”

Yeo Soo-min picked up a fallen branch from the wet ground and muttered regretfully.

“Such a waste, truly.”

Then, playing with the broken branch, she looked at Yoon Tae-ha askance. Behind her, mud began to writhe and clump together. Yeo Soo-min’s earring glimmered strangely in the moonlight.

‘That’s her weapon.’

Shatter the weapon and take them both down.

Setting her goal, Yoon Tae-ha gripped her spear and rushed towards Yeo Soo-min. The mud had not yet taken shape. She swung her spear to break it. But a thick water shield summoned by Oliver blocked her path. The spear plunged into it.

“If you come quietly, you won’t die.”

Yeo Soo-min tried to persuade her from behind the shield. The water pulled the spear with a strong tug. The force was so powerful it felt like the flesh of her palm would be scraped away.

Ignoring the persuasion, Yoon Tae-ha unleashed her entities above their heads. Oliver dismissed his shield to protect Yeo Soo-min and teleported. The entities fiercely impaled the spot where they had stood.

‘The man could even teleport. It wasn’t in his profile.’

She didn’t know the range, but if the opponent could teleport, she couldn’t be careless either. Just then, the mud doll created by Yeo Soo-min was completed and attacked without pause.

The doll was about the size of an Orthos that had been dealt with in the research facility. In its hand was a club similar to the branch Yeo Soo-min had been fiddling with moments ago.

The doll swung it. The impact, if it connected properly, was enough to shatter bones. Even when Yoon Tae-ha created thirty entities at once and plunged them into the doll’s limb joints, it remained unfazed.

‘This isn’t the strength an A-class esper can create.’

Yoon Tae-ha, having evaded the physical attack, looked for Yeo Soo-min. She was perched on a sturdy-looking branch, watching the fight between the esper and the doll she had created.

Yeo Soo-min flicked her fingers like someone controlling a puppet. Finally, the doll lifted its foot high, trying to stomp on Yoon Tae-ha.

“Abyss Floor 6.”

But the decisive attack was blocked by a cube-shaped shield and couldn’t reach Yoon Tae-ha. As she deactivated the shield and tried to move, a massive mass of water suddenly hovered above her.

Yoon Tae-ha quickly took a breath.

In an instant, a water prison enveloped her entire body. Her feet lifted off the ground. She tried to make a hole in the prison’s surface with her spear, but it was useless. Teleportation was also impossible. The water pressed down on her from all sides, as if to crush her.

Watching this, Yeo Soo-min lightly jumped down from the tree. Tapping Oliver’s shoulder, who had created the water prison, she stood in front of Yoon Tae-ha and spoke in a soft voice,

“I heard your health wasn’t good. Is it true?”

Yoon Tae-ha glanced at the sky. Though it was hard to see through the liquid prison, the blue dots were significantly more numerous than before.

Very high up.

Nearly 100 entities were currently generated at the highest point she could create them. They would be activated if the enemy let down their guard. Both of them were now within her attack range.

Using herself as bait, Yoon Tae-ha struggled and kicked, pretending to be suffocating as Yeo Soo-min approached. She had to keep the Titans distracted so they wouldn’t suddenly look up at the sky.

Yeo Soo-min, fooled by her exaggerated movements, furrowed her brows in concern. Conversely, a cruel satisfaction appeared on Oliver’s face, the master of the prison.

“I heard you have trauma related to fire. That’s why I deliberately didn’t come with a fire-type esper. I wanted to be considerate.”

An esper’s consideration like this was useless. Yoon Tae-ha decided to see how much more she could endure. There are people who get talkative in front of captured prey, and Yeo Soo-min seemed to be one of them.

“The one who uses fire went to attack the team your guide is with.”

But at the words that followed, her entire body tensed.