The Awakened
Three of the awakened beasts continued moving closer to them, they averaged the size of a small car, their six-legs and mandibles that could shear through steel.
Han-sol's face went pale. "Fall back! We can't... "
"No," Jae-sung said. "We are holding our ground here, If we decide to retreat, they will pursue us relentlessly, civilians would be put in danger."
"We'll all die!"
"Probably, but running would only buy us more time in the end we'll all die."
He set his stance. The other hunters who were still standing before, followed his lead.
The Awakened beasts charged.
Yoo's Sixth Sense screamed, these beasts were powerful, Iron-rank equivalent at minimum. His father was Gold high rank b on adrenaline.
Yoo cursed, 'although dad' 's rank is Gold high, but all this fighting and injuries already left him working on pure adrenaline, I cant trust him. He'll die.'
"Probability: 73%," Akasha confirmed. "Host father's survival odds: poor. Recommendation: emergency extraction via Extras World."
'No, If we run, everyone here dies'
"Alternative: none detected."
'Then we make one.'
Yoo focused everything into Energy Sense, pushed the skill beyond its normal range, he started feeling the shape of the battlefield, the energy flows, the...
'There'
The Awakened beasts had synchronized movements, from a shared energy frequency, that let them coordinate
'So this is their advantage, If I can disrupt that...'
Yoo reached out with his consciousness, and tried manipulating the energy frequency,
'Is this instinct or just desperation again?'
Bind
The skill manifested without warning.
His barely developed Gi lashed out, forming threads of energy that wrapped around the lead Awakened beast's frequency, and disoriented it.
The beasts stumbled, causing their mutual understand turned into confusion.
"New skill manifestation detected," Akasha reported with surprise. "Designation: Bind. Function: energy thread creation for restraint and manipulation. Power level: minimal. Effectiveness against Awakened-tier: 3%. However... "
Three percent was enough.
The lead beast's hesitation gave Jae-sung his opening, He lunged, drove his hammer into the creature's eye socket.
It screeched, thrashed, but the coordination was already broken, the other two Awakened beasts, confused by the disruption, attacked without proper formation.
Han-sol and three other Gold-ranks converged on one. Four-on-one, they brought it down with sustained assault.
The third beast killed two more hunters before Jae-sung could reach it, but when he did, injured, exhausted, running on pure spite, he channeled every ounce of his strength into one final strike.
The hammer crashed down. The beast's carapace cracked, and shattered. Then the creature's entire body collapsed inward, crushed by force beyond its ability to withstand.
Silence
The monsters were dead.
The defenders, those still standing,, collapsed, Jae-sung dropped to his knees, gasping, Yoo's consciousness flickered, he already expended too much energy, his body couldn't sustain that kind of output.
Thump-thump-thump.
His vision darkened.
The last thing he heard was his father's voice: "Stay with me, kid, we did it. Stay awake..."
Then nothing.
Recovery
Yoo woke three hours later.
Medical tent, the equipment and surrounding didnt look professional, his father sat beside him, head in his hands.
"You're awake." Relief flooded Jae-sung's face. "Don't ever do that again, Whatever you did, don't use too much of your power during combat, you almost died."
"Did we win?"
Yoo tried to speak, his throat was too dry.
"We won," Jae-sung confirmed. "Twenty-three monsters dead, we lost nine hunters, I'm sure it would've been up to twenty without you."
'Not enough, we should've saved more.*
"Incorrect assessment," Akasha said. "Host performed optimally given capabilities. Additional interventions would have resulted in host death. Nine losses is acceptable outcome."
'Nine people died, that's not acceptable.'
"Then become stronger. Mourn later. Grow first."
Yoo hated the fact that Akasha was right.
But it was.
"The others want to see you," Jae-sung said quietly. "The baby who coordinated the defense, you're already popular as the miracle child"
'I'm not a miracle, I'm just a reincarnated programmer in an infant's body, every thing about this is just absurd.'
He nodded
'If people believe I am a miracle, maybe they would protect me until I actually become strong, ha, finally, good things have started coming back to me'
The Visitors
They came in waves.
Han-sol first, She bowed to Yoo "Thank you. My life, my people's lives, we owe you."
'Do you really have to do that, I hope I don't mistakenly look like I'm embarrassed or something'
Ji-hye came crying. She awakened as Bronze-rank during the Surge but did not fought, she was busy protecting the non-combatant children. "You saved my son. Min-jun was on the defensive line, he's alive because you warned them."
Other hunters, strangers, thanking him in different ways, Yoo endured it and made baby sounds so he doesn't blow his cover, Akasha had warned him that talking too much would expose him completely.
Finally, they left.
Jae-sung closed the tent flap. "We need a serious talk."
Yoo nodded.
"What are you? I've accepted that you're my son, that I'll protect you, and I don't have any problems with that, but I need to know what I'm protecting."
'Fair question'
He focused, forced his vocal cords to cooperate, which hurt him a little, but he managed:
"Was... man. Died. Long... ago. Born... again."
Jae-sung went very still. "You're saying you're reincarnated?"
"Yes."
"How long ago did you die?"
"Eight... hun... dred... years."
"Eight hundred... " Jae-sung stood, paced, sat down again. "That's before the apocalypse, before the rifts, so basically some sort of ancestor?"
"Yes."
"And you chose to be reborn into this hell?"
"No... choice. Cos... mic... game. Pulled... me."
Jae-sung absorbed this. "You're saying, Aethon and Chaos did this to you?"
"Acci... dent. Their... game... gathered... soul."
"So you're a mistake, a cosmic mistake that gave you a second life."
Yoo nodded.
A bitter laugh escaped from Jae-sungs mouth. "Of course, my son is a reincarnated soul from before the apocalypse with wild abilities, why would he be normal?"
He reached over, touched Yoo's forehead gently.
"Doesn't matter. You're still my son and I'll still protect you, but we need to be smarter. Hide what you can do, because if the wrong people find out... It's game over"
"I... know."
"Good. Then we have a basic understanding."
That Night
Dr. Choi reviewed the combat footage. Security cameras, primitive, salvaged from pre-apocalypse buildings, had captured fragments of the battle.
He watched an infant coordinate veteran hunters, he saw Yoo Seung-Yoo distrupt the awakened beast coordination
"This... Eight hundred forty-seven percent absorption rate during Core Surge," he murmured, reviewing his data. "Physical aging acceleration. Advanced consciousness. Multiple manifested abilities."
Normally he would report this, either tell the government, guilds or research divisions.
Instead, he deleted the footage.
"Some children become legends," he reminded himself. "Others become weapons."
He refused to let this one become the latter.
"Whatever this child is might be what this world would need in the future"
Three Days Later
The slums stabilized. Dead were buried, wounded people recovered which accelerated under the slight influence of the recent Core Surge enhanced healing.
Jae-sung spent those days training, Gold-high rank wasn't a joke and raw power was useless without technique.
Yoo spent time in Extras World.
Four-hour sessions, practicing energy control, developing Bind skill, and expanding his pocket dimension which is now twenty cubic meters.
His physical body aged more during those three days, not as dramatically as the Surge night, but visibly, by the third day, he looked somewhere about 8 months old.
People noticed and whispered many theories, before settling and attributing it to "Surge anomaly effects."
On the fourth day, a group arrived from the central district. Government representatives, Guild scouts, and something else.
A woman in white robes, her face was covered, Energy around her was powerful.
"Warning: Platinum-rank entity detected. Threat level: extreme. Recommend: hide."
But there was nowhere to hide.
The woman walked directly to Jae-sung's quarters. Looked at Yoo with dead eyes.
"The anomaly child," she said. "I've been looking for you."