Goblin vs Oni(4)

The figure of Shin-yeon, who suddenly disappeared after putting on an unknown hat.

At that, Ryoka was looking around while floating her body made of black mist in the air.

‘She wouldn’t have… run away.’

There was no way she would have run away.

After all, it was Shin-yeon who had been so angry and harbored murderous intent towards her.

It’s nonsense to think she would have run away. If there’s a possibility, it’s probably that she’s hiding her appearance and waiting for an opportunity somewhere.

However, since not even a hem of Shin-yeon’s clothes, let alone her body temperature, smell, or presence could be felt due to that hat being whatever it was, all Ryoka could do was wait for Shin-yeon to attack first.

Because no attack would work on the current Ryoka.

Except for one person, the leader of the oni from the first village, there was no one who could harm Ryoka, so Ryoka just had to brush off Shin-yeon’s attacks and counterattack.

“Come on, bring it on!!”

So she shouts loudly towards Shin-yeon who must be listening from somewhere around here.

At the same time, she sprayed black mist in all directions again, but the mist only cut through empty air, with no feeling of hitting anything.

Therefore, time continued to pass meaninglessly.

Time was passing without much gain, but fortunately, or should we say…

“My body is getting itchy…”

Flutter—

Before Ryoka’s patience ran out, suddenly a hat fell in front of Ryoka and disappeared like melting snow.

If Ryoka hadn’t seen wrong, it was undoubtedly the strange hat that Shin-yeon had worn and disappeared with.

And when Ryoka looked up after seeing that, there was Shin-yeon standing on the wind as if it were natural.

“Finally you’ve appeared!”

“……”

When Shin-yeon, who had been completely hidden, revealed herself, a welcoming voice burst out without Ryoka realizing.

But what came back was not insults or mockery for some reason, but only quiet silence like earlier when she had been extremely angry.

No, rather, Ryoka tilted her head at Shin-yeon’s appearance that seemed even more intense than before.

“I don’t know what happened in that short time, but you seem to have changed in many ways? Then can I expect something good?”

And looking again, it wasn’t just the outward aura that had changed.

On Shin-yeon’s face was a strange stone mask that hadn’t been there before, and the iron bat she had been holding had changed into a golden club with black horns.

At a glance, it was a completely different appearance from before.

Of course, Ryoka didn’t think she would be in danger because of this, but she couldn’t help but be interested.

Even what she had shown earlier was extremely interesting, but how much more would it be this time?

“Kuhehe… Alright, I’m starting to get excited!”

“…Phew.”

Therefore, Ryoka finished preparing to face Shin-yeon by spraying plenty of black mist around, and what came back from Shin-yeon in the sky to Ryoka’s shout was a small sigh.

A sigh that felt heavy in many ways, as if exhaling something that had built up inside, is let out from Shin-yeon’s mouth.

And as soon as that short sigh ended.

“…Fire, wind, lightning.”

Rumble—–!!!!!

Along with Shin-yeon’s quick muttering, the battle that had paused for a moment resumed.

“Kuhahat!!!”

It was just three words of muttering from Shin-yeon’s voice, but the result it produced was truly magnificent.

A curtain of flames falling while dyeing the sky red, fierce winds fueling those flames further, and lightning flashing and falling between those flames.

But despite such an enormous scale of attacks, Ryoka wasn’t fooled.

“Someone like you wouldn’t make such a stupid attack!!”

Shin-yeon had already attacked her several times and had them all neutralized.

It was impossible for her to make such an attack when she knew directly that attacks didn’t work.

Moreover, the power of the flames and lightning was far inferior to the previous attack, so Ryoka could quickly grasp what the intention of this attack with only a wide range was.

“A distraction…!”

The bright red flames and flashing lightning were all distractions to block Ryoka’s vision.

She didn’t know what attack would come after this distraction, but what Ryoka had to do was simply break through all of Shin-yeon’s petty tricks head-on.

“Please make it fun!”

So she raises black mist with all her might.

Whoosh—–!!!

And with Ryoka’s black mist devouring everything that covered the sky.

The cooled flames of battle began to burn again.

---

While Shin-yeon was continuing the battle with Ryoka.

At the entrance of the hideout, Yeon-ah and Esi, who had come down from the aircraft carrier, had currently arrived.

Step—

They quietly arrived at the entrance of the hideout wearing the dokkaebi hats received from Shin-yeon.

Of course, there were hidden turrets and surveillance cameras scattered like gravel around the entrance, but since the two were wearing dokkaebi hats, they were able to reach the entrance of the hideout without any worry.

“Huh… I don’t know who the owner of this building is, but they’re truly a terrifying person. If a mediocre person got caught, not even bone fragments would remain.”

“From what I’ve looked into so far, they were just an ordinary citizen, but there’s no way a mere ordinary citizen would have such security equipment.”

It’s probably right to see that it was written like that as a disguise to hide the real owner.

“As you said, I don’t know who it is, but whoever it is, they won’t survive unscathed.”

And Yeon-ah had no intention of letting the owner of this hideout, who had plotted this incident, off easily.

But for that, getting inside the hideout somehow was the priority.

However, the iron door of the hideout, made entirely of mana alloy and tightly closed, firmly blocked Yeon-ah and Esi’s way.

“It looks quite thick even from the outside. But fortunately, apart from the alarm device on the outer wall of the door, there doesn’t seem to be any special device on the door itself.”

“You mean?”

“If we’re going to enter while keeping our appearance hidden, we just need to somehow break through the door.”

Knock knock—

As Esi’s hand lightly knocks on the iron door, the door resonates heavily and emits a sound.

And before Yeon-ah could wrap her hand in flames to melt the iron door at Esi’s words, a slightly reduced beam of water shot out from the water droplet Esi was riding on.

Whine—!

“Ugh…”

“Bear with it for a moment.”

A painful high-pitched sound is heard as soon as the water beam touches the iron door.

At that sound, Yeon-ah reflexively covered her ears, and Esi narrowed her eyes and continued working at a rapid pace.

The water beam that had dug into the middle part of the iron door draws a circle, creating a circular cutting line on the iron door.

But while Yeon-ah was wondering how to remove the cut piece of the iron door which was still blocked, Esi continued to move the water smoothly without interruption.

“It’s important to make as little noise as possible, so…”

Rumble—

The water Esi extended digs into the cutting line and completely envelops the cut piece of the iron door to the other side.

And Esi, who pulled out the piece of the iron door with the water’s vibration from beyond the door, quietly placed it on the ground without making any sound.

“…That’s amazing.”

“After retrieving our race’s treasure, controlling water has become even easier. This level of task is simple.”

A truly perfect job.

At that, Yeon-ah unknowingly gave praise towards Esi.

Although Esi herself was saying it was nothing special, Yeon-ah, who could also handle water, knew how difficult such delicate control of water was.

If it were just a large and powerful attack it might be different, but this level of control was certainly not something that could be done with just brute strength.

Therefore, despite Esi’s denial, Yeon-ah who had expressed admiration to her soon turned her head towards the hole made in the iron door.

“…Then I’ll go in first.”

“Alright, I’ll follow right behind.”

Although the hole Esi had made was quite large, it was a size that required kneeling to enter, so Yeon-ah carefully climbed onto the hole.

And Yeon-ah, pressing down on the hat with one hand so that the hat she was wearing wouldn’t come off, quickly entered the inside of the hideout through the hole.

Following her, Esi also crossed through the hole with a smooth swim.

“This is the inside of the hideout…”

“Hmm… Fortunately, mana moves properly inside. I was worried because there was a mana blocking function on the outer wall, but it seems it was an unnecessary concern.”

“It seems it was there only to block attacks from the outside.”

“Yes, it seems so.”

Esi, who had entered the hideout first, looked at the water droplets still existing around her and muttered like that.

Esi had been worried because there was a mana blocking function on all outer walls except for the iron door that Yeon-ah and Esi had entered through, but fortunately it seemed to have been unfounded.

And Yeon-ah and Esi, who had swiftly infiltrated the inside of the hideout, calmly looked around while examining the interior of the hideout.

Whir– Whine–

The interior was decorated even more viciously than the security equipment at the entrance.

And the floor and walls made of a single inorganic color gave a very cold impression.

However, that wasn’t what they needed to pay attention to now, so Yeon-ah quickly scanned the interior and then focused her gaze on the stairs she found at the end.

“It seems there’s no one here, so let’s go up for now.”

“Mm, alright. But I’ll say in advance, although there shouldn’t be any problems with these hats, let’s assume the worst case scenario.”

“Yes, you don’t need to worry.”

It was Yeon-ah’s job to ensure that the worst case scenario didn’t happen in the first place, but as Esi said, there was no harm in being prepared.

Therefore, Yeon-ah, suppressing her carelessness with tension and taking a deep breath, slowly began to climb the stairs with Esi.

To rescue Neon who had been kidnapped by Ryoka.

The infiltration of the two people wearing hats began.