DPGR 152

Boom! Bang!

Groooaaaar

Explosions rang out one after another, accompanied by the monster’s eardrum-shattering howls.

Between them, the growls of other monsters and the desperate cries of the espers fighting to hold them back all mixed together in a chaotic mess.

‘What is going on…?’

Jiho watched the situation unfold with bated breath alongside the other guides.

Thankfully, just when the safe zone had been half-destroyed and monsters began pouring in, Yulchan had appeared and created a new space.

A safe zone within the safe zone.

Thanks to that, the damage inside was less than it appeared from outside.

Still, it wasn’t as though there had been no damage at all.

When the outer barrier broke, many of the defense-type espers lost consciousness and were immediately overwhelmed by monsters.

Among the support-type espers who rushed out to rescue them, many were also injured.

Unable to sit still, Jiho watched Dojin fighting the monster in the distance with growing concern.

‘Hyung…’

Dojin was launching attack after attack on the monster.

The others wore hopeful expressions, convinced he was winning.

But Jiho, who knew Dojin well, was turning pale.

He had watched all of Dojin’s training sessions.

He could tell that his esper was burning through many times more energy than usual to increase his output.

As he watched with mounting dread.

‘Hyung…?’

Just as he feared, Dojin froze in midair for the briefest moment.

The monster seized that instant to swing its arm.

Like swatting away an annoying fly.

That was all it took for Dojin to be flung aside, crashing into the distance.

“Gasp…!”

Jiho covered his mouth with both hands before he could scream.

The other guides watching Dojin reacted the same way.

“H-Hyung…”

Dojin, who had fallen beyond the horizon, didn’t rise again.

Jiho’s legs gave out and he staggered, only to feel Heendungi wrap his tail around Jiho’s waist to support him.

“Guide Jiho!”

Geonwoo rushed to help him.

“Are you alright?”

Yip!

“H-How… What do we… Hyung’s, he’s…”

“He’ll be fine. Just breathe, Guide Jiho.”

“Huff… huff…”

But Dojin wasn’t coming back up.

If he were alright, he should’ve reappeared by now.

A wave of fear engulfed Jiho. His breathing grew erratic.

It became hard to breathe. Without realizing it, Jiho raised his nails to his throat and scratched.

Geonwoo grabbed both his arms, trying to calm him down, but then Sena’s scolding voice cut through.

“Hey! Snap out of it! What if you pass out too? Who’s going to save Baek Dojin then?!”

That snapped Jiho back to his senses.

Right. Guiding.

‘He’s an esper… He won’t die. As long as he’s breathing, I can…’

He could still be saved.

His blurred vision began to clear.

Taking a deep breath, Jiho brushed off Geonwoo’s hands, pulled out the pistol at his waist, and started moving.

“Hey, hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”

“I have to get to Hyung. He needs me!”

“Wait! Just a second!”

“If I’m not there, he’ll die! You said so yourself, Guide Sena!”

“I only said that to snap you out of it…!”

Sena and Geonwoo tried desperately to restrain Jiho from leaving the group.

Heendungi let out distressed whimpers and stomped his feet, unsure what to do.

At that moment, a figure appeared in midair near the safe zone, Team Leader Yoon from Beta Team.

“Here! Guide Seo Jiho! Where is Guide Seo Jiho?!”

He wasn’t alone.

He was supporting the unconscious Baek Dojin.

When Team Leader Yoon shouted frantically, Jiho turned toward him.

The moment he saw Dojin, Jiho’s face went completely pale.

“Hyung!”

“Damn it… He’s heavy…”

“H-Hyung!”

Though cursing under his breath, Yoon groaned as he dragged Dojin inside the zone.

As he carefully laid Baek Dojin down, Jiho rushed over and knelt beside him.

“Gasp…”

Dojin’s condition was horrific.

What skin was visible beneath his torn clothes was caked in blood.

His arms in particular were shredded to the point it seemed miraculous they were still attached.

Thankfully, aside from the head wound, there didn’t seem to be any immediately fatal injuries.

“G-Guiding…”

As soon as Jiho confirmed Dojin was still breathing, though faintly, he checked his watch.

Guiding level: 37%.

That was critically low, far below the threshold needed for proper regeneration.

Symptoms of guiding deficiency must’ve started showing long ago.

“Guiding! Now!”

“Yes, yes!”

At Team Leader Yoon’s shout, Jiho knelt down beside Dojin, leaned over, and kissed him.

The guiding energy he’d gathered surged through their touching lips.

Even as Jiho used his tongue to stimulate the mucous membranes inside Dojin’s mouth, his hands moved to increase contact, brushing along Dojin’s cheek and neck.

‘Hyung, please… don’t die…’

The taste of blood was sharp and bitter.

Dojin’s body felt cold, colder than it should’ve been. Even though he was alive, he felt frighteningly distant.

‘No… no, please…’

Tears streamed down Jiho’s tightly shut eyes. His knees, pressed to the cold ground, stung from the chill, but he didn’t even feel it. He was completely absorbed in guiding.

Thankfully, it seemed to be working. Dojin’s cooling body began to regain warmth, and the bleeding started to slow.

Relieved, Jiho loosened his anxiety just a little and wrapped his tongue around Dojin’s, drawing it in gently.

“His wounds are starting to close!”

Team Leader Yoon’s voice rang out nearby, but Jiho couldn’t bring himself to stop. He kept pouring guiding energy into Dojin.

How much time passed like that?

“……!”

Jiho felt the tongue he had been sucking on twitch slightly. A moment later, a faint groan escaped, and Dojin’s eyelids fluttered.

“Hyung!”

Still panting, Jiho quickly checked on Dojin.

The eyes he thought would stay closed forever slowly, silently opened.

As his reflection appeared in those pitch-black pupils, Jiho burst into tears again.

“Hhhngh…”

“…Guide Jiho?”

“Yeahhh!”

Relief flooded him. Jiho collapsed onto Dojin’s chest, sobbing.

He had held it in. Tried to be strong. But the dam broke, and his emotions overflowed uncontrollably.

“How did this even… Guide Jiho, are you hurt? Are you alright?”

“You’re the one who’s hurt, hic! Not me!”

Lifting his head, Jiho sobbed loudly and lightly hit Dojin’s chest. Then he immediately rubbed the spot he’d hit and mumbled an apology.

“Okay, look, your reunion is really touching and all, but the situation is kind of urgent right now.”

Team Leader Yoon, who had stayed nearby the whole time, anxiously interrupted.

“Huh? Oh… Team Leader Yoon…?”

“Right. I’m Team Leader Yoon Jaehan from Beta Team. I found Captain Baek unconscious and carried you back here. You know I recently awakened a movement ability, right? I used that to bring you here, and Guide Jiho just now revived you with guiding. If we’re all caught up now, let’s move.”

Thanks to Yoon’s rapid-fire explanation, Dojin quickly snapped back to reality.

While he’d been unconscious, espers had been doing everything they could to hold the line.

“G-Guiding! I need to do more guiding!”

Afraid Dojin would return to that hellish battlefield too soon, Jiho clung to his hand and continued to push in guiding energy, trying to raise the level even a little.

But even during that time, the monster was still sweeping away espers and stomping on them mercilessly.

Its newly regrown jaw came into view.

“…Haa.”

A mix of sigh and groan escaped Dojin’s lips. Even as he received guiding from Jiho, he kept his eyes fixed on the battlefield, following the flow.

‘Wait a minute…’

Then something strange caught his attention.

The monster had seemed about to inhale deeply to attack again, but instead of launching an attack, it gave up and simply swung its arm.

‘Why…?’

For some reason, it had stopped using the black-red energy and had gone back to eating monsters.

The espers, having seen how the monster regenerated by consuming other creatures, knew they had to stop it from feeding at all costs.

Dojin called to Team Leader Yoon.

“Team Leader Yoon.”

“Yes?”

“Please, look over there.”

“At what…?”

“I mean the way it’s acting. Doesn’t it seem oddly obsessed with eating those monsters? Even though its jaw is fully regenerated now.”

What’s more, it still hadn’t used the devastating attack from before. Yoon’s expression changed as he took in Dojin’s words.

“You’re saying… even that thing has limits?”

“…Possibly.”

If it were simply attacking the safe zone while Dojin was down, that would be one thing. But instead, it was fixated on feeding.

Which meant, it wasn’t choosing not to attack. It couldn’t.

Dojin guessed that to use that devastating ability again, the monster needed to absorb a large amount of energy, magic stones from the monsters.

“We need to keep stopping it from feeding. While it can’t attack, we have to strike first.”

He checked his watch.

His guiding level had already climbed to 48%.

“Guide Jiho, that’s enough. You can stop now.”

“N-No! It’s still not enough…”

“It’s okay.”

Dojin gently slipped his hand out of Jiho’s grip and borrowed the communicator from Team Leader Yoon, his own had long since broken.

“This is Baek Dojin. Can everyone hear me?”

Beep

He spoke clearly into the radio.

“We need to stop it from feeding on monsters. That’s our main objective now. Move accordingly.”

The strategy finally came together in Dojin’s mind. The hunting method that had eluded him until now had started to take shape.

“Good luck out there.”

He turned off the radio. As he stood, brushing off the dust, his body felt strangely light.