[Novel] The Mirror [Chapter 3 (3/4)]

"WOOHOO! IT'S NOT EASY BUT IT'S FUN!" shout Minsook as he casts a powerful spell towards the enemy.

Sungmi is right as she said the trip using the ship won't be that easy, but Daesun and Minsook are improving a lot after their sparring session with the centaurs. Just three hours after they left the shore, not only was the wave strong, but they also met their first wave of enemy. It's their first encounter with blood maidens: they are the upgraded version of ghosts, they are female spirits full of hatred, their body full of blood - they do smell like blood, with messy long hair and their weapon is their long-dirty nails. And they don't come alone - some ghosts also appear. They are now facing 10 blood maidens plus 5 ghosts. But again, Daesun and Minsook do well, plus Sungmi supporting them, they are having a good fight.

"Now my attacking shield is stronger!" said Daesun while giggling, then he releases two arrows at one time, while their enemies feel frustrated they can't hurt the guardians - they even get thrown with wounds if they touch the shield.

"Nice attack, Daesun!" shout Sungmi, "now I need to show-off too."

"No princess, what else of your power that we haven't seen..." said Minsook after he cast another spell then turned his head to Sungmi, "what the..."

But as Minsook turns to see Sungmi, the princess isn't there, but as the replacement of her, there is a big griffin - it's a legendary animal with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; while its head, wings and front feet of an eagle. 

"Is she a... griffin?" asked Daesun, feeling amazed.

With her front feet, she charged and attacked the enemies fiercely, making the ghosts and blood maidens scream in frustration. With her claw, she caught one of the blood maiden, hurt it badly then made her turn into ash - dead. 

"That was so cool..."

"Come on, Minsook, attack them now while they're confused!"

"Let's go, hyeong!"

"Am I late?"

The feeling of appearing from the mirror is weird but it's even more weird when you appear from the mirror and directly pass through the bag as well - that's how Myungwoo feels as he joins the group. The sky is dark, so it must already be evening when Myungwoo arrives. Daesun, Minsook, Kichul and Sungmi are in the battle. Kichul looks fresh but Daesun looks a bit tired. Myungwoo turns to see the enemies who attack them: it's a group of big creatures made by mud. They attack with their fist. Myungwoo feels scared to see the way Daesun rolling to avoid their big fist. There are around 7 of those mud creatures left, while Myungwoo saw a pile of mud on the surface of the ship, it must have been defeated.

"Is that golems?" asked Myungwoo as he took out his ax.

"Right. Their weakness is air. We need Minseong and Minjoon so badly. But it doesn't mean we can't defeat them, hyeong," answered Minsook as he casts powerful blast from his staff.

"I'll cut them in half!"

Myungwoo jumped while raising his ax towards one of the golem. The golem which got confused being attacked by a flying trident around him (Myungwoo bets it must be Kichul using his shadow ability) didn't expect a reinforcement by Myungwoo. His ax landed on its head and it cracked quite long along its head. The golem falls to the ground and makes the ship shake. Luckily, this ship was made from Sungmi's ability, so it's stronger than ordinary ships.

"Nice attack, Myungwoo!" complimented Sungmi as she attacked the wounded golem with her long chain. 

It's so powerful and breaks one of its arms in just one hit. 

"Let me finish it off!" shouted Daesun.

Daesun raised up mud from the defeated golems with his telekinetic ability, then it hit the golem fiercely until it got buried under it. Then there is no more movement - one more golem defeated.

"It's more fun than a training session!" shouted Minsook cheerfully.

"Be careful of using too much energy!" shouted Myungwoo as he started to attack another golem.

"Finally our schedule finished."

Minseong flops on the couch as he loses half of his energy from the three hours long recording session. 

"Let's go back to our dorm then," asked one of his group mates.

"Nah, I have something to do at school."

"At school? At this hour? It's 7 already..."

"Yeah, I really need to finish doing something, hyeong," said Minseong while looking around, "hyeong, can you drop me off at the school?"

One of the group's managers turned his body around, "sure, let's go now then?"

Minseong quickly raised up from the couch, "see you tomorrow, everyone!"

Minseong skipped happily towards the manager. The picture of him being in battle soon makes him excited. He even thinks he doesn't need to sleep first, he can't wait to join the group in the mirror world soon. He has another choice to go back home but it will be faster if he just goes to school. The distance from the recording studio is closer to the school, so he can arrive in the mirror world sooner. 

"Look what I bring."

Myungwoo put a big plastic bag with a lot of cup ramyeon inside. Daesun just left to go back to the real world half an hour ago, and Minsook will leave as soon as Minseong joins them. They need to do this rotation to save their energy. 

"Oh hyeong, this is what we need in this time of crisis," said Minsook while sitting beside Myungwoo in relief.

"Princess, you like this, right? Let me make one for you," said Kichul.

"Oh that's the ramyeon I ate yesterday," said Sungmi as she sat in between Myungwoo and Kichul.

"But we need to boil the water manually," said Myungwoo, sad.

"No way," complained Minsook, "do we have an element guardian with electricity power or what, princess?"

"Sadly we don't have that kind of element, but light and air element combination can create electricity. But we don't have an air guardian now..." explained Sungmi as her eyes staring at the ramyeon cup, feels hungry, "except you wanna sacrifice your energy a little bit more to cast a spell. But you're quite tired already."

"That wouldn't cause a big problem, princess," said Minsook as he made the spell book appear on his palm out of nowhere once again, "Minseong will be here soon... right?"

"I think so, but his schedule is unpredictable most of the time," answered Myungwoo.

"But we have no choice so... please help me to prepare the cup ramyeon."

Myungwoo and Kichul willingly open the cup ramyeon (with Kichul explaining to Sungmi about the function of each seasoning package while opening it).

"Okay, I found the correct spell to make boiled water."

Minsook raised up his staff on the top of four cups of ramyeon before mumbling weird language. A while later, boiled water poured out of his staff then he carefully filled each cup with it. Soon, the smell of ramyeon filled the air. Myungwoo, Kichul and Sungmi are clapping their hands happily. Myungwoo quickly closed the cap.

"Now we just need to wait for 3 minutes," said Myungwoo while preparing chopsticks for the others.

In the next 5 minutes, four of them are happily eating the hot cup ramyeon.

"This is gonna be one of my favorite foods from now on," said Sungmi.

"Come to our world, I can buy you a lot of it, princess," said Minsook after gulping the ramyeon.

"I can't go to your world that often but you guys surely can bring some to me when you come here."

"Why can't you go to our world often?"

"Yes she can't go to our world that easily," said Kichul while mixing his ramyeon again.

"But why?"

"I- you know about it too, Kichul?"

"Of course I do. Your power will be decreasing faster when you visit our world, right? I can feel that."

"I think that's because of your mind reading ability so you know about it, right?"

Kichul smiled softly, "so stay healthy here, princess."

"I'll bring a lot of ramyeon for you, princess," promised Minsook.

"By the way, are we arriving soon? I can see the shape of the land there."

Sungmi put her ramyeon and looked afar, "right, that's Darcy Country."

"I can't wait to see what kind of country that is."

Suddenly Minsook raises up and pulls Myungwoo and Sungmi down while shouting, "watch out!"

A while later, a flash of trident almost cut off where Myungwoo's and Sungmi's head position were staying a second ago, if Minsook didn't pull them down.

"What the hell..." cursed Myungwoo, "what is that?"

"Can't I eat my ramyeon peacefully?" shouted Minsook angrily before he stood up.

"Be careful!"

Kichul charged to protect Minsook from the attack of a trident with his own trident. 

"They are demons. Get prepared to fight them," ordered Sungmi.

The guardians are standing up with their weapons, getting ready for another battle. Myungwoo is analyzing their enemy: tall figures with horns on their heads, they have giant bat wings and holding a trident. There are three of them.

"Luckily we have two light guardians here. And Minsook, prepare a lot of holy magic spells. Also, be careful not to use your energy too much." 

"Sure, princess. I will..."

But suddenly Minsook fell on his knees, while at the same time, Myungwoo jumped and charged to the closest Demon. Minsook groans while holding his head, he seems in pain.

"Minsook, are you okay?" asked Kichul while hold Minsook's arm.

"Minseong... he might be in danger. Someone is after him."

"Who is after Minseong?" asked Myungwoo after bravely cutting off a demon's horn.

The demon groaning loudly as the wound on his horn shining brightly - that must be the effect of a holy attack of Myungwoo's ax hits it.

"A girl in a cloak... and... big human... there are two of them... the girl is holding a chain..."

"That must be your prophecy. Stop using your energy, Minsook!" Sungmi is shaking Minsook's body hard.

"But what can we do with Minseong?" asked Myungwoo as he dodged the Demon's attack.

"No, princess, your energy!" shouted Kichul, using his mind reading ability to read Sungmi's mind, "you can't go to our world with your condition now!"

"And we can't go back now," sighed Minsook as he barely stood up then cast a spell towards the Demons.

"Listen, there might be mistakes even in a prophecy. And even though it's real... I'll prepare our warriors. It's about time I should share my power for the two of them. I'll make them protect Minseong," decided Sungmi.

"That's our only choice," said Kichul before disappearing and attacking the Demons quietly from their back.

"I'm coming!"

"Minseong!" shouted Minsook loudly.

Minsook suddenly appears from the bag and charges with his ax. His double attack with Myungwoo defeated one Demon. 

"We should do that often," said Myungwoo, "are you okay?"

"What do you mean, hyeong? Of course I'm okay," answered Minseong before he quickly defended himself from the demon's trident with his ax.

"Well, there might be mistakes even in prophecy, like what princess said," said Kichul as he appeared beside Minseong to stab his trident to the demon's arm.

"Yes. Just like how you see, I'm totally okay."

But suddenly, Minseong fell even before he could jump high. He can feel the sting from something coil around his wrists, something hard and cold, with a very strong power. He dropped his ax, he suddenly feels his arms have no power even though he can still move it. He is staring at his hands and he can see a reddish mark on his wrists.

"Minseong, what's happening?" asked Myungwoo as he protected Minseong from getting attacked.

Demon isn't an easy opponent, they are so persistent, even there are still two of them fighting with all of their might even though they are hurting quite badly.

"Where... from where this mark appears..."

"Minseong, go back now! Someone must be trying to attack your body!" shouted Sungmi as she raised up her morning star to pull Minseong's mirror out of the bag, "now!"

Minseong quickly touches the mirror and he disappears.

"Cut off the tail! Looks like it's one of their weaknesses!" shouted Kichul after successfully stabbing his trident to a demon's tail and pulling it away forcefully until the tail got cut off.

Myungwoo is staring at the Demons with only one purpose: quickly defeat them then go to save Minseong. He is the leader, he should protect all of them. He promised to himself that he will go to Minseong soon.