The Weapon Genius: Anything I Hold Can Kill

The ground quaked under the weight of their momentum, feet pounding, blades flashing, skills sparking. Dust curled around them like breath from an exhausted beast, thick with smoke and the smell of split vines.

Jin ducked a lashing root, pivoted low, and slashed upward. The katana in his grip hummed, striking true, but not deep enough. The vine split, only to regrow at the edges, curling back with a hissing pulse.

The monster was learning.

Again.

"Left!" someone shouted, Echo, voice resonating sharp across the battlefield. Jin shifted without thinking, just as a jagged limb tore through the space where he’d stood. He landed beside Areum, her arms covered in glittering cuts of hardened glass, each one sharpened to a weapon’s edge. She flung a crescent blade toward the monster’s core, and it struck, only to bounce harmlessly off the barklike plating.

Hanuel shot past them both, twisting mid-air with his staff fully extended. A flick, a twist, and he cracked the edge of a vine coiling behind Daeho. The hulking man didn’t even flinch as the vine shattered beside him, too focused on barreling forward, his fists like battering rams.

But for every vine they severed, two more slithered out from the earth.

Detective Jun-taek slid across broken stone beside Joon, snapping his fingers to direct a curved blast of redirected velocity toward a massive root that had risen to trap them. The force exploded outward, launching the root into splinters.

"Try to keep pace!" Jun-taek called out, spinning one of his shell casings between his fingers before snapping it forward. It ricocheted off the ground twice then smacked the base of a vine, making it snap upward just as Echo landed and hit it with a high-frequency pulse.

The combination turned the vine inside out.

"Nice," Echo muttered.

Meanwhile, the scout was sprinting across the rubble, flicking shimmering gold discs at the feet of his allies. Anyone who stepped into one gained a burst of momentum, appearing several meters forward in an instant. A flash-step for anyone who needed it. Areum used one to close distance and land a glancing blow on the monster’s arm.

Still, Gugwe-mok was relentless.

The amalgam of bark and vine twisted unnaturally as it shifted its attention toward the building Seo and Chul had taken shelter in. Its bundled arms stretched wide, then slammed down onto the rooftop.

The impact rippled.

Jin gritted his teeth, raising his sword and driving it into the ground to brace himself. Chunks of stone rolled past. A nearby wall crumbled.

And from the scattered pieces of debris, more vines erupted.

"Scatter!" Seo’s voice cut through the chaos.

Hanuel and Areum ducked behind a broken railing. Joon launched his metal spheres and detonated a burst of crackling lightning across the vines. They jerked, spasming, before curling again, faster this time, more controlled.

"They’re getting smarter," Seungmin muttered from nearby, his arm half-shifted into a jagged, broad-axe-like form. "And I don’t like smart plants."

Kyungjoon vanished in a blink and reappeared beside Seungmin, slicing one vine with a compact blade before tossing a glare toward Jin.

"Is it supposed to be this hard?" he asked. "I thought you guys weakened it."

Jin didn’t even bother answering. The truth was, this was different now. Merged with the core, Gugwe-mok had stopped holding back. It wasn’t defending anymore, it was purging.

From the center of the battlefield, the creature let out a low, guttural growl. Its four vine-limbs writhed like serpents. The green glow in its chest pulsed, brighter now, faster.

And then it surged forward.

The attack was sudden. Unpredictable.

Joon barely managed to send a shockwave toward the ground, launching himself back. Hanuel leapt across to intercept a root, staff extended. The moment it hit, he flicked the base and sent a reverberation down its length, cracking it from within. But the recoil nearly ripped the weapon from his hand.

A shadow passed over Jin.

He turned just in time to see Daeho, massive now, bulked to inhuman proportions, slam his palms together, catching two vines mid-swing. He roared, veins bulging, and threw both vines into the creature’s face.

"BACK OFF!" Daeho bellowed, lunging with a double-fisted punch.

It hit Gugwe-mok square in the chest. For a moment, everything seemed to stop.

Then the monster lifted a foot and stomped.

The ground split like paper.

A blast of energy burst from the point of impact, sending Daeho skidding back, heels carving into the dirt. He crashed into a chunk of wall, hard, but still stood, breath heaving.

"...Still fine," he muttered, wiping blood from his mouth.

Not far from him, Echo winced. "Okay, yeah. We’re losing this one."

They weren’t out yet. But the tempo had shifted.

Again.

Jin forced himself to stay upright, katana still burning faint heat in his palm. His heart pounded.

And then, something cracked.

Not in the air.

Not from the monster.

From below.

He felt it more than he heard it. A faint vibration in his legs. A hum in the earth.

A line of glowing red, faint as a hairline fracture, split through the broken street near the creature’s feet.

The monster froze.

Its limbs twitched.

Another red glow bloomed from a collapsed building.

And another.

The glow pulsed. Brightened.

For the first time since the battle began... Gugwe-mok hesitated.

Jin squinted toward the source.

A circle of crumbling concrete lifted, just slightly, then dropped back down.

The monster’s head turned toward it. Its limbs drew close, like a shield.

And in a voice quieter than before, but infinitely more tense, it whispered:

"...No."

Jin blinked.

Before he could process the reaction, before he could even ask what it meant—

The ground exploded.

From beneath the rubble, two massive hands, formed not of bark or vine, but fused stone and steel, burst upward, each grabbing one of the monster’s outstretched limbs.

Gugwe-mok jerked, snarling, as the hands locked tight.

They didn’t budge.

They didn’t flinch.

They just held.

A second passed.

Then a third.

Then—Jin saw it.

From the rising dust.

A shape. Massive. Cracking stone and bending metal in its wake.

A figure stepping through a halo of red light, a light Jin remembered seeing a few days ago at the firehouse.

Aestros.