Not far from us, Minjae was fighting alongside Snake-1 and Shark-2. They had been surrounded on the avenue as they made a run for the base.
They were honest with themselves—surviving in this situation, with no backup in sight, was almost impossible.
To turn one's hands into weapons, every hunter must center their mind and summon the will to win. Minjae took a deep breath and began to feel the flow of blood through his body.
Through that mental harmony, he shaped his hands into twin sledgehammers.
Two soldiers stared in disbelief as flesh grew and mutated across the hunter's arms, tearing through the fabric of his uniform. Once again, they were reminded that hunters were no different from the demons themselves.
"Snake-1, Shark-2! Get ready. If they won't let us flee, we're breaking through."
The bipedal demons, waiting with vicious intent, suddenly shifted. One by one, they moved positions without disrupting the balance of their encircling formation.
The three soldiers stood within the ring, unsure of their next move.
"Sabertooth!" Shark-2 called. "I've got a plan. I need you to group them up."
The soldier gripped his grenade launcher with both hands. Minjae immediately grasped the idea.
With a sharp nod, the hunter lunged at several visible demons and swung a wide arc around him. His hammer-arms were as solid as steel.
Minjae felt bones crack and organs rupture under his blows. Blood sprayed across his helmet, and the demons were hurled aside with no hope of survival.
Then he took off running, drawing half the demons after him. The rest remained, surrounding Snake and Shark.
The soldier with the grenade launcher reached to his vest and unclipped a fragmentation grenade.
"Some people call me crazy. They ask why I carry grenades when I've already got a launcher. They get their answer when they're on the battlefield with me."
He slowly pulled the pin and brought the grenade close to his eye, listening to the fuse hiss its way down to the detonator.
"I just love catching the timing... when my life's on the line."
He hurled the grenade toward the demons. It exploded midair, just as it neared them. They had no chance to react—engulfed in flame and shrapnel.
Shark and Snake raised their arms to shield themselves from the debris. Then Shark gripped the launcher with his other hand and fired into the remaining group.
Another explosion followed. The ring of demons shattered, and the acrid smoke dulled their senses. The soldiers charged after Minjae, who now faced ten bipedal demons alone.
Snake-1's rifle was built specifically for demon hunting—its heavy rounds capable of piercing even the toughest armor. Its weight was significant, but soldiers trained for such weapons went through hellish drills to fire them even while running.
Snake-1 was one of the rare few who could maintain balance with it.
He laid down a napalm spray of bullets on the remaining demons that had survived the blasts. Each shot punched through flesh, crushed organs, and splintered bone.
Noticing Shark-2 shouldering the grenade launcher, Minjae jumped high, narrowly dodging the blast.
With a single shot, the launcher wiped out all ten demons clustered in one place.
All that remained of them was scorched flesh, strewn across the street.
"Well done," the soldier said, addressing the hunter. "Didn't think you'd pull it off."
"And you didn't want to trust hunters with your backs?" Minjae responded. "Now you see it—on the battlefield, nothing else matters. So long as we're on the same side, we fight shoulder to shoulder."
"You're right. We need to move to the checkpoint."
The soldiers offered their fists to Minjae. He was surprised—among soldiers, that gesture meant respect. He lightly bumped his own fist against theirs.
Our squad had repelled the demon raid without a single casualty.
As the battle ended, civilians emerged from windows, shouting their praise. They'd been watching us from the safety of their homes.
For the next hour, we waited for everyone to regroup. We restored order to the base, bagging up demon corpses like trash.
Salez, who hadn't been seen throughout the fight, silently picked up chunks of meat. He crouched and reached toward a severed demon's head.
Turning it over, the bloodied face nearly made him vomit.
We saw him drop the head and fall to the ground. Minjae, furious, stomped toward him and grabbed him by the throat.
"You bastard! Not only did you do nothing, now you're squeamish about cleaning up? You're not trustworthy. You left us to die like dogs! They'll mock us when they hear our sniper didn't fire a single bullet!"
No one stepped in to stop them. Everyone stood in grim silence, helmets off. Even Harin was expressionless.
All of us were screaming those same words inside—Minjae was just the one to say them out loud.
"What was I supposed to do...?" Salez croaked, struggling to breathe. "They forced me to join Nightwatch. Said they'd take away everything I had if I refused. Sent a rookie to fight demons, saying it was my duty... Tell me, if I die, does that give our country a better chance of winning?"
Minjae's furious gaze pierced the sniper's soul.
"What nonsense are you spewing, kid?! You mean to say hiding under the table is better than helping your comrades in war?"
"Are you kidding? Of course it is! My family's waiting for me. I never wanted to become a hunter. But what choice does a migrant have? You send us to the front lines as meat, while taking all the other jobs for yourselves. What did I do wrong, being born in this country?!"
Sabertooth lowered his head, forcing down his anger. He gritted his teeth and let go of Glaz.
"I've never seen demons like this before! You think I'm just some naive kid while you charge into battle without thinking about who's waiting for you at home! The colonels say we're free—but none of us have a choice!"
"We're being waited on too," Minjae said, shoulders dropping. "And for their freedom, we fight. For them to live, we fight!"
"But unlike you, I'm not Korean. You can quit whenever you want. To the generals, I'm just meat to be pushed around..."
Salez's voice trembled with every word. Tears welled up in his eyes.
"Just stay out of the way and help where you can," Minjae muttered, turning his back.
Dolphin sat atop an ammo container while Taehwan leaned against the fence. Watching the young sniper, Dolphin clasped his hands.
"A squad with two hunter-snipers and a girl survived without a single loss. I already know what the news will say tomorrow morning."
Dolphin's face had the calm of a battle-worn veteran. One of his eyes was white—likely blind.
"If these demons have a patron, then they'll surely know about us. Every squad was attacked at the same time... That can only mean one thing. They're searching for someone. And I fear it won't take long before they find out we're hiding the Prodigy."
"Yeah, Dolphin. The best option is to wait for morning and switch outposts. As long as Umbra's moving, we can't leave the Orange Zone. We have to stop this influx."
Dolphin glanced at Taehwan. After a pause, he lowered his head and added:
"What do you think are our chances of survival? I think we're all going to die. They told us to protect the strongest hunter—but if that's the case, why send him to Nightwatch? If Umbra is real, they're two steps ahead."
"We all knew what we were getting into. Every colonel here would die for Prodigy. Who knows, maybe he really will save this world. If so, I'd give anything to ensure humanity survives..."
"To stake everything on one young hunter... Never thought I'd be ready for that day. The whole world's watching us. To be honest, I've long been ready to die. Today, when that demon swung at me, I realized I wouldn't regret it if I died. I even closed my eyes, hoping it'd be painless. No one would cry for me. But you saved me, hunter. If someone told me in the past that a hunter would save me, I'd have blown his head off."
"Found time for remorse. Not all hunters are what you think. Though I get it—we use the power of the very things we're trying to kill."
"Hm... This world isn't what it used to be."
"It's not your time yet, Dolphin. I've read your file, officer. You're the last of us fated to die here."
Dolphin stared at him. Realizing the weight of his words, he fell deep into thought.
***
Meanwhile, another squad in the neighboring district was combing the streets in pitch darkness, searching for their missing comrades.
They moved cautiously, relying solely on the dim glow of their flashlights.
Every streetlight had gone dark. Oppressive silence hung heavy in the air, broken only by the crunch of boots on cracked pavement.
Scattered corpses of lesser demons littered the ground, and a choking stench filled the air—burning their eyes like freshly cut onions.
Four soldiers moved slowly, sweeping the area as they called out over the radio.
"Damn it, still no response…"
"Do you think they're… all dead?" muttered a timid girl, clutching her flashlight. "All our comrades…"
"Hey," barked the squad leader, smacking her on the back of the head. "Keep looking. We don't know anything for sure yet."
At the center of the group walked a girl with calm, emotionless eyes. Her short white hair and glasses made her stand out from the others.
"Yeonghee, how can you stay so calm in a situation like this?"
That girl was Kang Yeong-hee—an A-rank hunter, and in terms of power, as close to S-rank as one could get without crossing the line.
The squad leader knocked the nervous girl again.
"How many times do I have to tell you? Don't call people by name on the field."
Just then, the girl stepped on something solid. She lowered her flashlight.
A cold, lifeless face stared back at her. She gasped and stumbled back in horror.
It was the head of one of their own—the same man who'd been hitting on Yeonghee during roll call.
"Oh my god! That's… that's Bull…"
"So… we do have casualties…"
Then, from up ahead, came a faint thumping sound—a rhythmic vibration echoing against the wall. The girl raised her flashlight cautiously.
What the beam revealed made her blood run cold.
It was an alien growth—a pulsating mound of hot, translucent chitin fused to the side of a building. Through its glowing membrane, dozens of demon bodies were suspended in thick, viscous slime—twitching in sync with some unknown heartbeat.
It was a Demon Hive—an organic incubator from which these monsters were born.
The Hive throbbed steadily, its vibrations like a chant—declaring that new life was forming inside… and would soon be released.
The soldiers froze, stunned by the sight. Even Yeonghee, always composed, could not hide her unease.
"A Hive? B-but why is it here...? They only appear in the Red Zone!"