Hana tried to keep her breath steady, but Seunghyo could hear the panic setting into her voice.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes,” he replied. Likewise, he was doing his best to keep his breath steady. “Whatever it is, it’s starting to fade.”

  He took Hana’s hands in his and squeezed reassuringly. Seunghyo took some solace from the fact that he wasn’t lying. In fact, the pain had only gotten worse. But he was slowing her down and, from the sounds of it, the others needed her help more than he did.

  “I’ll catch up, but you need to help them,” he continued. “Now.”

  Gently, but firmly, he removed his arm from Hana’s shoulders. And as if to reiterate his point, he continued walking quickly without her support.

  “Go.”

  Hana hated the idea of leaving him behind more than anything. She’d spent years hating him, and then years longer dismissing him. And now, more than anything, she wanted to make up for lost time.

  But his shoulder injury had stopped bleeding and he was able to walk on his own, unassisted. Whatever poison Henry had used, its effects must have been limited.

  “Fine,” she shot back. “But don’t rush yourself. I’ll be back for you, okay?”

  Seunghyo watched her run until she turned a bend and disappeared from view. Most of what he said was true and the bleeding had stopped. Initially, the pain of the wound was unbearable but it had long since faded and been replaced with a burning sensation.

  He took a deep breath, the cold air filling his lungs. It was nice respite from the fever that had come on in the last five minutes. Whatever effect of Henry’s attack, it didn’t feel like it was abating. If anything, the burning sensation spread from his shoulder and engulfed his entire body until it felt like his skin was on fire.

  His feet felt heavy, but he tried to focus simply on putting one in front of the other and moving forward. But the fever was getting worse. His jacket felt like an oven and sweat was pouring from his face. He undid the zipper and slid the jacket from his shoulders, letting the cold air seep in past his thin layer of clothes. But even that respite was short-lived.

  The pain had returned, but now it felt like thousands of needles piercing his skin. With his free hand, he reached up to his shoulder and dug past the layers of cloth and bandage at an attempt to alieve the pain. Under the bandages, he felt a hard almost leathery.

  “What the hell? When did I…?”

  Seunghyo never finished the thought. It was stiff, almost like armor but that made no sense. He followed it along his arm, looking for the seam but he couldn’t find it. With his fingers, he traced along the hard material again, looking for an edge, but each time he followed along until he found the skin of his arm.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  He could hear the concern in his own voice. Finally, he settled for removing the rest of his shirt and the bandages. Seunghyo didn’t notice how little he felt the cold. Or how easily his injured arm moved without pain.

  His only focus was his shoulder which had turned black, and his skin which had become hard with grooves and cracks that allowed him to move and flex. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve said it looked like armor.

  ***

  Jinyoung had only seen his adoptive father in combat twice: once during a raid when he and Hana were children and most recently against the wraiths in the silo.

  The biggest difference between those two instances wasn’t Youngho’s own skills or power, but rather his ability to recognize what the old man was capable of. The fact that Youngho was able to deal with two wraiths relatively easily on his own was more than impressive. It was breathtaking.

  However, that was not true in this battle. The difference was immediately evident to Jinyoung, even without the help of his [scan] ability. Whereas earlier, Youngho movements flowed seamlessly in a natural and controlled manner, now his fighting style was rough. He’d even go so far as to call it savage.

  Gone were the controlled punches and parries, replaced with wide sweeping strikes meant to hamstring and maim his opponent. Jinyoung watched as Youngho launched a savage combination of high kicks and palm strikes. On the surface, each strike targeted the armored stranger’s vital points. Deeper still, his [scan] revealed each punch to be exploding with a black mana force. Enough that the power from his infected arm was bleeding into the visible spectrum and obvious to anyone who was watching.

  As he watched, Youngho swung a wild kick that was easily dodged and countered with the butt of the spear. The bladed end came around, but Youngho caught the spear haft easily and launched a devastating punch at his opponent’s midsection. It was barely a glancing blow, but the thud of his fist bouncing past the armor was deafening.

  For all his power, Youngho was on the losing end of the battle. The stranger used its spear’s superior range to keep Youngho at a distance and deal small glancing blows far out of arm’s reach. It wasn’t able to counter or easily parry Youngho’s attacks like it had earlier, but it was only a matter of time before the monk was cornered or the many glancing blows took their toll.

  “What do we do, Jinyoung?” Willow asked. “We should help your father, right?”

  Under normal circumstances, he’d be inclined to agree. And, for all their conflicts, he wouldn’t hesitate to jump into battle. But whoever this alien armored stranger was, it wasn’t a monster. And as far as the most pressing concern, the system reminded him of one important fact.

  [SIN detected.]

  Before he could respond, the spear came around and struck Youngho directly in the face. Stunned, he stumbled back in an effort to create distance and left himself open for the follow up. The armored figure cradled its spear in two arms before spinning and diving forward.

  Instinctively, Jinyoung [dashed] in and [charged]. He felt the power course through his body and settle in his sword arm. Neither the armored stranger nor Youngho paid him any attention, but when the spear was thrust forward, Jinyoung was already there.

  He had to be perfect. A split second early and Jinyoung would be run through, a split second late and it’d be Youngho.

  But Jinyoung’s timing was correct. He chopped with his sword, a wild downward arc and caught the spear just behind its point as it passed underneath him.

  Immediately, the spear exploded with power like it had before stunning the stranger and knocking Jinyoung over with its force.

  He’d only have one chance to stop this before it got any worse. “Stop! We need to-”

  Jinyoung didn’t finish his sentence. The fight had been so ferocious that he wasn’t able to get a good look at Youngho from across the room, but up close he could see it. The black had spread to his shoulder and it fairly glowed with power.

  But worse were his eyes.

  They were completely black.