In Ho and Changmin dropped to a crouch just as the whistle of a fast-moving swing cut over where their heads used to be, followed by a bone-chilling roar.

Light flooded the room, torches placed around the walls bursting to life all at once to illuminate a cavern painted muddy green with ogre blood. A pile of bones taller than Sua’s head was settled at the foot of a dirt dais with a makeshift throne of stone, bone, and wood sitting empty on top of it.

Scrambling to her feet, Sua whirled around, her eyes widening as she looked up, and up, and up the length of an ogre easily six meters tall blocking their path to the exit.

There was something distinctly wrong with it: the whites of its eyes bleeding bright red with a crazed expression, strips of ogre hide dangling from its tusks, and its spiked club still slick with what could only be the blood of the ‘mob’ ogres.

“Behind us!” Sua shouted, hauling Seoyeon back to her feet as she backed away from the ogre carefully.

Seoyeon’s hands were trembling as she pointed her wand in front of her, “What the hell is that thing? It’s not a chief!”

“Plan doesn’t change!” Changmin snapped, getting in front of Seoyeon, “In Ho, now!”

In Ho rushed forward with a shout, the sound weighted in a way that could only be explained by magic, carrying some sort of attraction effect that had Sua's fingers twitching and the ogre’s attention snapping in his direction, its club swinging down at In Ho's head.

Sua couldn’t help but wince at the sheer force in the strike as In Ho lifted his greatsword to block. It was difficult to fathom how the attack did not send the tank crumbling to the ground, his legs buckling slightly before he stabilized with a grunt of exertion.

“Keep Seoyeon safe!” The words were shouted at Sua as Changmin raced forward, his own sword flashing in a vicious slash aimed at the ankle tendon of the ogre’s closest leg.

Behind her, Seoyeon muttered a word in a language Sua couldn’t understand, a ball of flames the size of a small car shooting over Sua’s shoulder to crash into the ogre’s head.

The three-pronged attack was impressive—against a weaker opponent, Sua could see it doing a lot of damage—but as soon as the ogre appeared, she instinctively knew that this group’s shot of success was a long one.

Changmin’s sword bounced off of the ogre’s hide. Seoyeon’s attack made direct contact but didn’t do much more than knock the ogre’s head backward a few centimeters. 

The creature roared with a voice that shook the walls of the cavern, its gaze zeroed in on the mage.

Shoving In Ho away, the ogre charged at the two women, a blood-curdling scream leaving Seoyeon as she grabbed at the back of Sua’s cloak, “We’re gonna die!”

Grabbing Seoyeon by the wrist, Sua dropped into the shadows, tugging the other girl tight to her body so she didn’t get sucked into the nothingness.

Hovering in the shallows between the physical world and the Abyss, Sua watched as the ogre staggered to a stop—confusion clear on its face—before her gaze slide over to where Changmin had thrown himself backward to avoid being stepped on, and then to where In Ho had crashed into the wall of the cavern leaving a deep impact in the dirt.

“How strong is it?” Sua asked softly, ignoring Seoyeon’s hysterical sobs.

The shadows curled around them, sliding over Sua’s shoulders and brushing against the edges of her cloak, <Stronger than the three of your companions combined.>

She just barely resisted rolling her eyes, “I noticed. What about in relation to me?”

<While protecting the humans? They will drag you to your death.>

“And if I didn’t?”

<Your victory is guaranteed.>

The ogre lumbered around the cavern, sniffing the air as it tried to find them. Keeping an eye on the creature’s activity, Sua gave Seoyeon a sharp shake, “Stop crying, we need to get out of here.”

“We’re already dead!” Seoyeon whimpered, "We can't beat that thing, it's at least a C-rank."

Sua gave her cheek a sharp pinch, disregarding the pained squeak that she earned. “We're not dead, we’re inside… my ability. I’m going to get Gim-ssi and Sang-ssi. Once you’re all together, make a run for the exit.”

Sniffing slightly, Seoyeon asked, “What about you?”

“Just focus on what I told you to do.” Reaching out to the shadows in the room, Sua turned her focus to Changmin, the shallows shifting them to hover underneath his location. “Hold onto me tight, Ra-ssi.”

The mage wrapped her arms around Sua’s waist, squeezing her as if she was going to vanish. Carefully, Sua reached up into the physical world, her hand phasing from the shallows and growing up from the ground to grab the back of Changmin’s coat and yank him into the shadows.

He screamed the entire way down.

People… were so noisy.

“Be quiet.”

Changmin froze, turning his head to squint at her, “Sua-ssi? How did you..?”

“I said be quiet.” She snapped, voice tense as she focused.

It took more effort to phase between shadows while carrying two humans with her. Sweat started to glisten on Sua’s forehead as she concentrated, floating them through the darkness to where the ogre was advancing on In Ho as he struggled to get to his feet, blood trickling from his forehead.

Once more, she slipped her hand up from the shadow on the ground, wrapping it around his ankle and dragging In Ho into the shallow. The second he began to sink, Sua could feel herself pushing at the limits of how many people she could protect so close to the Abyss, the unending hunger of the darkness reaching toward the three who didn’t belong, trying to pull them deeper as Sua waded towards the door.  

Phasing from torch shadow to torch shadow felt like trying to swim while chained to a cinder block, the careless ease of her usual travel replaced with something that drained Sua with each passing second.

When they were underneath the torch directly left of the doors, Sua shoved all three fighters out of the shadows, tumbling behind them with a gasped curse as she tried not to vomit. “Go!”

Changmin helped In Ho to his feet while Seoyeon threw her weight into tugging at the door handle as the ogre charged at them. The door creaked open just wide enough for the men to slip out before Seoyeon glanced back at Sua, “You can come too! I can hold it!”

Silently cursing the mage for finding her backbone at the most inconvenient time, Sua grabbed at the door, shoving Seoyeon through just seconds before the ogre’s club crashed into it, slamming the door shut.

Her movements still sluggish from the drain of transporting the others, Sua darted to the side just a second too slow to miss the monster’s following kick. It sent her flying through the air, Sua twisting her body as she hurtled toward the dais, landing back-first into the ground. The shadows spared her a hard fall, creating a cushion between her body and the pack dirt just thick enough to keep her from being winded.

Swallowing a groan of pain, Sua climbed to her feet immediately, slapping both of her cheeks as she tried to focus through the fog.

Her heart was pounding in her throat: fear mixing with adrenaline and more than a bit of curiosity about how far she could go, even exhausted like she was.

She eased half of her focus back into the shadows, letting the location of each one fill her subconscious, making a map of the entire room in her mind's eye: a system of tunnels and corridors only accessible to her.

The corner of her mouth quirked up into a slightly crazed grin as she launched herself at the ogre, darting in close with a burst of speed. 

When its club crashed down at her, Sua dropped out of the physical world, melting with the shadows to slip out of the one cast from the club and onto the ogre’s shoulder.

The height would be dizzying if she had a second to stop and think about it; Sua immediately leapt off of the ogre's shoulder, grabbing at the closest tusk and swinging her body forward, flipping herself up high enough to dig two daggers into its right eye.

She didn’t stay still long enough to see the damage as the ogre howled in pain, dropping into her own shadow and slamming up from the throne’s.

Another blade jumped out of the ether into her hand, only staying there for a split-second before Sua was sending it flying up at the beast to bury hilt-deep underneath the ogre’s chin.

By that point, the exertion from getting the others out was catching up to her, Sua swearing again as she dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a random swing of the spiked club as the ogre started to rampage. 

Much like Changmin had said, it was nearly impossible to predict the ogre’s attacks now, but Sua took advantage of the newly-made blind spot, darting into it as she summoned two more daggers, trying to guess how best to take something this big down with such small blades.

Before she could make a decision, a hole appeared in its cheek: muscle, sinew, and bone all melting from some sort of laser beam.

A woman five or six years older than Sua dropped in between herself and the ogre, white pulses of energy circling her hands. Her voice was calm as she spoke into a small communicator, “Take it down.”

From the direction of the door, a group of six fighters launched into a coordinated attack: a barrage of icicles rained down from the ceiling, a massive hammer slammed into the ogre’s leg, knocking it off-balance just in time for a woman with a spear to leap up, jabbing the point into the ogre’s remaining eye to send it crashing to the ground.

Despite the ogre not being dead, Sua could tell it was only a matter of time as the newcomers advanced for the kill, and she could feel some of the tension slide out of her shoulders at the realization that the fight was over.

“You alright?” The woman who appeared first turned toward Sua, looking her over for any signs of an injury.

Amber brown eyes were sharp in assessment of Sua as she nodded, “You got here just in time, thanks.”

Sua studied the woman properly in return, eyes sliding over curly strawberry blonde hair that just brushed her shoulders. Her armor wasn't all that different from the people Sua entered the gate with, the only exception being a turquoise band around her upper arm featuring an emblem of a monkey.

“We’re the ones who should be thanking you. Your party said that you got them all out safely, and I heard that you helped prevent the initial warband from getting to the school.” The woman smiles, “If you give me your hunter’s license, the Association will have an appropriate reward for you.”

“I don’t have one,” Sua slipped her daggers up into the darkness of her cloak, letting them vanish back into the ether.

Her response was a visible surprise for the woman, but she moved on quickly, “Then if you have your civilian ID, we can get you registered and rewarded back at headquarters.”

The fact that she didn’t have any identification had completely slipped her mind. “... I don’t have one of those either. I’m actually not sure that my birth got registered.”

A small frown crossed the woman’s face before she dipped a polite bow. “I skipped a few steps. My name is Lee Haneul, captain of Rapid Response Team A with the Korean Hunter’s Association.” Her lips twitched slightly in amusement, "We're mostly known as the Monkey Troop."

Sua returned with a slightly deeper bow. “Sua. It’s nice to meet you, Lee-nim.”

“Ah, there’s no need to be that formal,” Haneul said, waving at Sua to straighten with another smile. “As I said earlier, you played a key role in keeping casualties to a minimum and it looked like you were handling the boss well on your own. As the team leader, I am in your debt.”

“Well, Guryong Village is my home. I couldn’t stand back and watch the ogres get away with destroying it.”

“There are a lot of people who would have focused on saving their own skin. If you don’t mind, I would like to bring you with me to the Association. We can get you a civilian ID and a hunter’s license, along with your reward.” Haneul paused before adding, “All active and reserve hunters receive a monthly stipend from the government.”

How handy. Sua wondered if sharing her actual background would help or hurt her in such a system, or how suspicious it would make her to this Association. “Alright, are we leaving now?”

Haneul nodded. “My team can handle the cleanup without me.” She half-turned, catching the eye of one of the other hunters, who replied with an informal salute.

Turning back to Sua, Haneul gestured for her to keep pace as she started walking in the direction of the exit, “You can tell me about what you saw regarding the gate on the way there.”