Jisoo tied off the last strip of bandage, her hands trembling as she pressed it against Jaemin's side. "There. It should hold for now."
Jaemin hissed through his teeth, forcing himself upright despite the fire burning through his ribs. "Forget me. You two need to go back. Help Hyunwoo."
Jiwon grabbed his shoulder, pushing him down again. "Not happening. You can barely breathe, and Hyunwoo told us to pull you out. Charging back in would only slow him down."
"You don't get it," Jaemin snarled, his voice raw, desperate. His fists clenched as he glared into the shadows where Hyunwoo had stayed behind. "Hyunwoo's strong—stronger than any of us—but he's not the kind to push people away... unless something's wrong. The fact that he shoved us out of that fight—" His voice broke, grinding into silence as his jaw tightened.
Jisoo's breath caught. "You mean... he didn't want us there because he couldn't fight with us?"
Jaemin shook his head, his voice low and burning. "No. It's worse. He didn't let us fight with him. He prepared to die doing so."
Each ragged breath rattled his chest, but his eyes blazed with urgency. "Listen to me. If he's holding the line alone, it's because he himself didn't sure he can handle it. You have to get back to him before it's too late."
Jiwon and Jisoo locked eyes, a tense silence between them. Neither spoke, but both knew Jaemin was right.
___
Far from camp, the underground air was heavy with the stench of Grimm and dust. Hyunwoo stood hunched, his chest rising and falling as his green aura flickered weakly. The crimson light within him pulsed stronger with each breath, eating away at the last of his own.
His eyes were sharp, but empty—movements mechanical, precise. The first humanoid Grimm lunged with clawed hands; Hyunwoo twisted just enough, catching the strike with his forearm, ignoring the deep cut it left. His counter was instantaneous—a strike to its jaw, a sweep at its legs, another blow crashing into its chest.
It should have been enough to stagger it. But Hyunwoo didn't pause. He didn't think. Every movement was cold, efficient—like a machine programmed only to dismantle.
The second Grimm darted at his flank. Hyunwoo pivoted, his body moving before instinct could even catch up, his spear lancing through the creature's shoulder. It shrieked, but Hyunwoo's eyes didn't even flicker. Pain in his own arms, his ribs, the dripping blood from his side—none of it registered.
Each attack he unleashed carried more precision, more brutality. Where before he fought with calculation and adaptability, now he fought with a rigid, merciless rhythm, every counter perfectly timed, as though he'd rehearsed their patterns a thousand times in silence.
And beneath his breath, almost inaudible, words slipped out.
"You... really... persistent."
The crimson glow flared brighter, drowning out the last fragments of green.
Hyunwoo consciousness is gone.
His strikes became sharper. Faster. Less human.
The two Grimm pressed in, but for the first time—it was them being forced back.
___
The underground chamber quaked with every blow. Hyunwoo's body was already battered—his left arm hung at an unnatural angle, bone cracked, but he still swung with it, forcing it to move as if it wasn't broken. His breathing was ragged, but his crimson aura burned hotter, flaring with every strike.
The first humanoid Grimm lunged, claws raised. Hyunwoo met it head-on. His shattered arm snapped forward, spear in hand, driving straight through the creature's chest. The Grimm screeched, body thrashing, but Hyunwoo didn't flinch. He forced the weapon deeper, twisting, until the black ichor splattered the ground and the beast dissolved into smoke.
The second Grimm came from behind, claws raking across his face. Blood spilled, cutting across his left eye. Hyunwoo's head snapped back from the blow, his vision burning red—not just from aura, but from blood.
Slowly, he turned, the wound leaving a fresh scar carved across his eye.
The Grimm roared again, charging.
Hyunwoo didn't retreat. He stepped in, spear snapping upward like a guillotine. The strike was clean, brutal, severing the creature's head in a single arc. Its body staggered, collapsing to the floor before fading away like smoke.
Silence.
Hyunwoo stood there, chest heaving, crimson aura flickering violently around him. His broken arm still clutched his weapon, trembling under the strain, but his eyes—now dulled into a predator's—showed no relief, no humanity.
That was the sight Jiwon and Jisoo arrived to.
They froze in place, seeing the battlefield littered with ash and black ichor, Hyunwoo standing bloodied in the center, his left eye slashed and his arm mangled, aura crackling like fire about to consume him.
"...Hyunwoo..." Jiwon whispered, her voice trembling.
But he didn't turn to them. His gaze stayed locked forward, cold and unyielding, as though still expecting another enemy to emerge.
The chamber fell into a heavy silence. Smoke from the slain Grimm curled and vanished into the damp air, leaving only the sound of Hyunwoo's uneven breathing.
His body wavered, the crimson aura around him flickering erratically. The once-bright flames now cracked and splintered, fragments breaking off like shards of shattered glass. Each fragment dissolved into the air as though the power itself was tearing apart.
Hyunwoo staggered forward, his spear dragging along the ground with a grating scrape. His broken arm barely held on, his left eye bleeding freely. For the first time since the frenzy began, his body looked human again—frail, trembling, on the verge of collapse.
The red aura cracked again, pieces breaking away until nothing was left. Only the faint green shimmer of his own natural aura lingered beneath, flickering weakly like a candle about to die.
Then his legs buckled. His spear clattered onto the stone floor as his body gave out completely. He fell forward, hitting the ground hard, unconscious.
Jiwon and Jisoo rushed in at once. Jisoo caught his shoulder before he hit the ground again, horror flooding her face as she saw the scar across his eye, his broken arm twisted at an unnatural angle, and his aura—completely drained.
"Hyunwoo!" Jiwon shouted, kneeling beside him, shaking him slightly. His face was pale, sweat and blood mixing down his cheek, but there was no response.
Jisoo's voice cracked as she muttered, "His aura... it's shattered..."
Both twins froze in that moment, realizing this wasn't just exhaustion. Whatever had overtaken him left Hyunwoo on the brink of something far worse.
Jiwon shifted Hyunwoo's limp body onto his back, gritting his teeth at the weight and the smell of blood. Jisoo picked up his fallen spear before her eyes caught something in the distance.
"...Wait."
The battlefield was quiet now, but where the two humanoid Grimm had fallen, their remains weren't dissolving into nothing like the others. Instead, the black mist peeled away slowly, unnaturally, until what was left on the ground... was not Grimm at all.
Two pale limbs—an arm and a leg—lay twisted among the rubble. Human.
Jisoo's breath caught in her throat. "No way..."
Jiwon turned, and the color drained from his face. The same grotesque sight they had seen once before—back at Forever Fall—burned itself into their memory again. A Grimm that, once destroyed, left behind human remains.
"It's the same," Jiwon muttered, his voice tight. "Just like that day... when Hyunwoo fought alone."
The siblings exchanged a look, the same chill running down their spines. The implications were too heavy to voice out loud, but both understood—these weren't ordinary Grimm. They were something else. Something connected to Hyunwoo.
Jisoo tightened her grip on the spear in her hand. She looked down at Hyunwoo's unconscious form, his face scarred, his aura shattered.
"What the hell are you hiding from us, Hyunwoo...?"
___
The forest was too quiet. Too still. The smell of blood clung heavy in the air.
Hyunwoo lay motionless, his chest rising only in shallow, ragged breaths. The scar carved down his left eye bled sluggishly, his arm bent wrong, bone straining beneath torn flesh. Where his aura once burned, nothing remained—only broken shards of red light dissolving into the night like shattered glass.
Jisoo's hands trembled as she pressed against his wounds, crimson staining her palms. Her throat was tight, but the words broke out anyway.
"We can't... we can't handle this. If we wait—if we're even a little late—he'll die."
Jiwon's gaze darted from her to Hyunwoo, then to the grotesque fragments that lingered where the Grimm had dissolved—human arms, a leg, twisted remnants half-consumed by black. His stomach churned. He forced the thought aside, snapping his scroll open.
"I'll call Pyrrha. She can reach Ozpin faster than us." His voice was sharp, urgent, but beneath it was something close to fear.
The line connected, Pyrrha's face glowing against the night through the cracked scroll screen. Her expression shifted immediately at the sight of blood across Jiwon's hands.
"Jiwon? What happened?"
"It's Hyunwoo," he said, almost spitting the words. "He's... he's torn apart. His aura's gone, and he injured heavily . If we don't get help now, we'll lose him."
Jisoo bowed her head, strands of hair falling across her face as she whispered through clenched teeth, voice cracking,
"Please... don't take him from us now. Not like this."
On the other end, Pyrrha's eyes widened, the weight of the moment striking her silent for a heartbeat. Then she nodded once, her voice steady but grave.
"I'll inform Professor Ozpin immediately. Don't move him. Don't leave him. Hold on until help comes."
The call ended. The forest pressed in once more with its silence.
Jiwon lowered the scroll slowly, his chest heaving, his pulse hammering in his ears. He looked at Jisoo, still kneeling in blood and dirt, still fighting to keep Hyunwoo tethered to life.
"All we can do now," Jiwon said, his voice barely above a whisper, "is keep him alive long enough to be saved."
The words felt fragile. Like a prayer.
The decision weighed on them heavier than the silence. The ruins was no place to keep him. Too open. Too vulnerable.
Jiwon clenched his jaw, eyes sweeping the treeline before locking on Jisoo.
"We can't stay here. If more Grimm come, we won't last. We move him—now."
Her head snapped up, horror written across her pale face.
"Move him? With his arm like that—his ribs—" She broke off, staring at Hyunwoo's shallow breaths. "If we make one mistake, we'll kill him faster."
Jiwon knelt, placing a hand firmly on her shoulder. His voice was low, but hard, as if forcing conviction into both of them.
"If we don't, he won't make it until help arrives. The camp's closer. Safer. They'll reach us there first."
Jisoo bit her lip until she tasted blood, then nodded, though her hands still shook.
"...Alright. But slow. Careful. No sudden movements."
Together, they shifted Hyunwoo's limp form. Every time his body jolted, Jisoo's heart stopped, her breath catching in her throat. His head lolled against her shoulder, scarred face pale, blood soaking through the bandages she had tried to tie around him.
"Stay with us," she whispered against his ear, though she wasn't sure if he could hear her anymore.
Step by step, the forest opened to the faint glow of their campfires ahead. The sight should have been comforting, but all Jiwon could think about was how far it still looked. How heavy Hyunwoo felt in his arms. How every second dragged them closer to losing him.
The campsite was quiet, the fire burning low. Jaemin sat propped against a log, bandages wrapped hastily around his ribs, his face pale with exhaustion. He lifted his head at the sound of footsteps—heavy, stumbling, desperate.
Jiwon staggered into the clearing, Hyunwoo slung across his back like a dead weight. Jisoo rushed at his side, hands slick with blood as she pressed against Hyunwoo's chest.
"Move the blankets—now!" Jiwon barked, his voice breaking with strain.
Jaemin jolted upright despite the pain in his side, dragging himself toward the bedrolls. He shoved his own aside, clearing space just as Jiwon collapsed to his knees and laid Hyunwoo down.
The firelight revealed the full horror—Hyunwoo's arm twisted at a sick angle, his shirt torn and soaked through, and a deep gash across his left eye.
"Gods..." Jaemin whispered, his throat dry. "What happened to him?"
Jiwon's chest heaved as he pressed his hands against Hyunwoo's wound, trying to keep the blood from flowing. "He fought like something else was in him. And then—he just... broke."
Jisoo knelt on the other side, her face set in a hard mask though her hands shook. She tore strips of cloth, pressing them against the bleeding with controlled urgency. "Don't talk—help me keep the pressure. If we're late, he won't make it."
Jiwon's fists tightened on the blanket, guilt flashing across his face. "We already called Pyrrha. She'll tell Ozpin. They'll send help." His voice cracked with both pain and determination. "But until then... it's on us."
The three of them worked in silence, broken only by the crackle of the fire and Hyunwoo's ragged, shallow breaths. Every moment stretched too long, every flicker of his chest too fragile.
Jiwon finally looked at the others, eyes dark with fear.
"All we can do now," he said quietly, "is hold him here until they come."
The firelight flickered across Hyunwoo's unconscious face, the scar marring his left eye, the faint twitch of his broken arm. For the first time, the one who always stood unshakable looked like he could slip away at any second.
____
Support my stories on p*treon.com/Jujukaka0 and get 12 early chapters,