The Support Ate it All

The sleeves of the Dang family fighters snapped as all kinds of metal rained down.

As if they meant to shred everything within range to pieces.

The problem was that the enemy was iron jiangshi.

Even while taking the barrage of hidden weapons across their entire bodies, the bastards still came hopping forward—HOP-HOP—then swung their stiff arms wildly and ripped at anything they could reach.

“Damn it…!”

The Dang family fighters couldn’t even get a few exchanges in before they were forced into close combat.

They each tried slashing with swords or smashing with fist techniques, but it was all the same—none of it worked against jiangshi.

They kept getting pressed back, and in the end they allowed a clean hit through.

“Ghk.”

A middle-aged man staggered back with a choked groan.

Blood streamed down from an arm where flesh had been torn away.

And as if that still wasn’t enough, two jiangshi came hopping in—HOP-HOP—like they were moving in to finish him.

But then, a shadow suddenly surged up from under the man’s feet and took on a human shape.

It inflated its upper body like a balloon to block the slashes, then grabbed the two jiangshi—one in each arm.

Right after that, a sleek shadow dove in and split them cleanly in half.

Lab Director and Dark-Shadow Commander swept across the battlefield, hunting for the next target.

The middle-aged man watched them with eyes wide, then turned his gaze to Dang Gyu-young.

Judging by how complicated his expression looked, he was probably from the Elder Council side.

Meanwhile, the others were taking down jiangshi in their own ways too.

Maybe because of all the experience piling up, everyone looked fairly practiced now.

Zhuge Soso’s sword moved so fast it wasn’t even visible.

She carved through the talismans with successive slashes, passed right by the jiangshi as it collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut—

and immediately delivered another flurry of slashes to the next one.

The Hyeseong Group gunners were doing the same.

They loaded red rounds into their mana guns, aimed, then pulled the trigger.

A clear sound rang out—

TUNG—

The jiangshi was swallowed by flames.

‘Flame special rounds.’

They’d realized it after watching my Spiral Explosion + Inferno Fist chain.

Instead of peeling off talismans one by one, it was easier to just burn everything to ash.

“……!”

Watching that, Seo Ye-in’s eyes sparkled.

She immediately held out her hand to Ahn Jeongmi.

“Me too.”

“My lady, the model you use is optimized for the power of standard mana BB pellets.”

“So special rounds won’t work?”

“The compatibility is… not great.”

“What a shame….”

Seo Ye-in’s hand drooped.

She looked like she understood it in her head, but the way she stared at the flame special rounds was still full of longing.

As Hyeseong Group’s team leader—and her butler—Ahn Jeongmi couldn’t bring herself to ignore it.

In the end, Ahn Jeongmi handed over her own mana gun.

“……For now, use mine.”

“I’m going to burn them…!”

Seo Ye-in’s eyes glittered.

She loaded flame rounds into the butler’s mana gun and fired at an iron jiangshi.

Ahn Jeongmi watched with complicated eyes.

Not quite the same kind of meaning as the Elder Council man earlier.

Somehow it felt like about twenty squeaky hammer hits had just been added to an invisible tally.

Whether Seo Ye-in knew that or not, she was completely absorbed in burning down iron jiangshi.

Before long, the area was cleared.

The Dang family fighters gave a respectful bow.

“Thanks to you, we were able to escape the crisis. We will never forget this debt.”

“We only did what we had to do. For now, evacuate the wounded to somewhere safe.”

“We will.”

“Would it be better if we escorted you?”

It was a fair question, considering they could run into enemies again while fleeing.

But the Dang family fighter shook his head.

“If we use the family’s devices and formation arrays, avoiding them won’t be difficult—even if driving them off might be.”

“I’m just worried about the ‘what if.’”

“If we’re struck down, then that too must be the will of heaven. Don’t worry about us—help the other family members who still need it.”

“Understood.”

Before they left, the middle-aged man—and several people who seemed to be from the Elder Council side—walked up to Dang Gyu-young.

They hesitated for a moment, then forced the words out.

“Thank you. And… I’m sorry.”

After owing someone your life, you couldn’t put private feelings first.

And in the Dang family—where debts and grudges mattered more than anything—that was doubly true.

Dang Gyu-young gave a small nod in response.

“Take care of yourself.”

“When this is over, I’ll come see you.”

Meaning: I’ll apologize properly then.

With that, the Dang family fighters turned away and disappeared into the darkness.

“…….”

Dang Gyu-young looked a little lighter.

Like a heavy burden had been set down.

But the expression hardened into seriousness again—because the night was long, and there were still plenty of family members who needed help.

Dang Gyu-young flicked a glance my way, then started walking at the front again.

“Let’s go.”

*****

After taking down iron jiangshi and pulling Dang family fighters out of danger several times—

we sensed commotion up ahead again.

The scale of the battle must have been huge, because even with the Blood Cult’s formation array limiting our senses, the vibrations still carried through.

As expected, the scene inside was a chaotic melee—several times more fighters and jiangshi than before.

Here and there, I spotted people in blood-colored martial robes.

‘Blood Cultists.’

They were hiding among the iron jiangshi, closing in on the Dang family fighters, then landing a sudden blade strike in ambush.

The Dang family fighters seemed to have noticed the tactic too, because they’d already pulled out poison—something they wouldn’t even bother using on jiangshi.

Acrid smoke rose across the battlefield, and gritty dust scattered through the air.

But among the jiangshi, there were some that deliberately jumped straight into the poison smoke and poison dust.

Unlike the iron jiangshi, they weren’t interested in fighting at all.

They were focused only on absorbing the poison.

‘Poison-absorbing jiangshi.’

They were probably going to soak it up and then spit it back out later, intact.

Even so, it wasn’t like the Dang family fighters could afford to stop using poison.

The battle was already tilted against them—how could they not use it to keep the Blood Cultists in check?

‘Good. We’re not too late.’

There was still more than enough room to turn this around.

We jumped in immediately and started dropping enemies.

Meanwhile, on one side of ★ 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ the battlefield, Dang Eunbi stood out too.

She kept darting around, and every time she slipped poison in—

a Blood Cultist would clutch their throat and drop, one after another.

“Ghk.”

“……Ugh!”

For a Dragonslayer Academy prospective entrant, she was doing a decent job holding her own.

Then a Blood Cultist who looked squad-leader level pointed at Dang Eunbi.

“That little rat—grab her!”

Nearby iron jiangshi swarmed in, hopping like a plague of locusts—

HOP-HOP-HOP—

Instead of feeling threatened, Dang Eunbi curled her lips into a satisfied smile.

She pulled out something cylindrical from her clothes, then yanked a tail-like cord attached to it.

The next instant, a blinding flash burst out—

A massive blaze swept over them.

‘At least she listened.’

When I guessed the Blood Cult’s big play would involve jiangshi, I’d given the Dang twins some advice.

Hidden weapons infused with fire qi would be effective.

I figured Dang Eunbi might ignore it because it came from me—

but she’d prepared properly and put it to use.

While I felt a surge of pride, the squad-leader Blood Cultist ground his teeth at the unexpected losses.

“You, at the very least—I’ll catch you no matter what.”

Then he personally stepped in and started moving with footwork.

Dang Eunbi answered with that same satisfied smile again.

She rummaged in her clothes like she was about to pull out another hidden weapon—

but her face quickly turned flustered.

‘She ran out.’

Of course. It wasn’t like she could make hidden weapons with that kind of power endlessly.

In a pinch, Dang Eunbi scattered poison, but the squad leader kept using footwork to evade it like it was nothing.

And when he closed in to just about striking distance—

a shadow burst up from under his feet and slammed him.

Dang Gyu-young rested a shadow club on one shoulder.

“You’re doing all this just to catch a kid? At least pick someone your own level.”

“Sister!”

Dang Eunbi’s face filled with emotion and admiration.

The look in her eyes was practically the look someone gave a prince on a white horse.

Dang Gyu-young patted the cousin’s head like she found it cute, then turned toward the squad-leader Blood Cultist.

He staggered up, glared at Dang Gyu-young, and spat the words out like he was chewing them—

—only to get hit by a mana BB pellet and drop on the spot.

The sniper was Ahn Jeongmi.

In an even tone, Ahn Jeongmi added one line.

“You’re taking it far too easy.”

This was a battlefield in the middle of a chaotic melee, and no one had agreed to a one-on-one with Dang Gyu-young.

He’d focused only on the opponent in front of him—and failed to guard against being sniped.

With the Blood Cult’s command structure wobbling, the tide of the battle rapidly tilted toward our side.

The iron jiangshi were steadily cleaned up, and the poison-absorbing jiangshi—like they’d received orders from some Blood Cultists—started trying to leave the battlefield.

They’d succeeded in absorbing poison, so the plan was probably to use it in another fight instead.

But Dang Gyu-young noticed instantly and moved Dark-Shadow Commander.

They were split neatly in half.

While the Dang family fighters handled cleanup, Dang Eunbi walked up to us and bowed her head.

She even did it to me.

“Thank you for helping.”

I might be the bastard who stole her sisters, but gratitude was still gratitude.

Even if her “gratitude time” was extremely short.

Then Dang Eunbi spotted Zhuge Soso and lifted her eyes.

“Soso…?”

“Eunbi. It’s been a while.”

“Soso…!”

The two of them clasped hands tightly.

Looks like they’d known each other from before.

Well, Dang Gyu-young had said she’d known Zhuge Soso since they were very young—so they probably spent time together back then and got close.

But after Dang Gyu-young stepped away from the direct line, they likely hadn’t had many chances to visit.

So it was probably been years since Dang Eunbi had seen her.

Maybe that was why she didn’t want to let go of the hand she’d grabbed.

“When did you get here? I didn’t hear anything at all.”

“Just today. I didn’t even tell that one I was coming.”

“That one” was obviously Dang Gyu-young.

Dang Eunbi nodded and kept asking.

“I see… The timing is so strange. Did you come to help?”

“Yeah. I heard things were a mess. If it’s a friend, I thought helping at a time like this is the right thing to do.”

“Thank you so much…!”

Dang Eunbi’s eyes shimmered with emotion.

There was definitely a noticeable temperature difference compared to when she thanked me.

Zhuge Soso answered with a warm smile.

“Let’s get this handled, and then we’ll hang out again like before.”

“Yes…!”

“I’m going to hang out with this one too.”

As she said that, Zhuge Soso rested a hand on my shoulder.

The gesture was so natural and friendly that the smile drained from Dang Eunbi’s lips.

Then she stared at me with hollow eyes, like she was saying:

Does it feel good when you steal everything like that?

After Dang Gyu-young and Seo Ye-in, now Zhuge Soso too?

Without meaning to, I’d become “Kim Ho, the big-sister snatcher.”

As Dang Eunbi kept shooting me dissatisfied looks—

A gloomy bell sound echoed from somewhere.

I looked around for the source, and on a pavilion roof a short distance away, an old man was standing there.

I still couldn’t identify him.

But I recognized what he was holding at a glance.

‘A soul-summoning bell.’