Chapter 4

Chef Minjoon is up next, and as he proceeded to the middle, he wore an expression that suggested he was unsure about something.

"I'm not sure how I'll use this power or if it will ever work," Minjoon remarked.

"Just do whatever you believe is best," I said.

"All right, then."

So we started Minjoon's training. I directed the knights toward the youngster as he extended his open palm toward them. I was unsure what he was going to do, but when he began chanting, I realized how much I had underestimated his power.

Minjoon chanted, "Gluttony." Then, all of a sudden, wind burst out of his hand and sucked in the three knights as he closed his hand and kissed his fist, thereby ending the battle.

"Finished already?" Milton was surprised; he hadn't anticipated such a swift fight. I inhaled with my lips pursed, stunned, before remarking on what he did.

"I'm sorry for underestimating you."

"Today's lesson: never underestimate somebody from any clan," Heric stated.

Sujin is up next! I expected him to be nervous, but he appeared to be really thrilled about his turn.

He is known for being a timid and easily scared member of seventeen, so I wasn't the only one who was taken aback by his expression when he was called up for his training.

"You seem excited," Seungjae observed.

"That's new! You're usually terrified in these situations," Jaeseong said.

"To be honest, I'm trying really hard not to be overcome by fear; if I don't think positively, I might wind up getting wounded," Sujin responded.

When the combat began, Sujin began to use his vocal power. I knew it was one of his abilities, but when he sang, his wonderful voice took me by surprise.

As I listened to him sing, I was frozen in my place by his wonderful tone and mesmerizing song.

"Oh, it's working!" exclaimed Jiwoo. Sujin noticed how his power made me sleepy and continued to sing, believing it was working. But, unfortunately, it wasn't.

After a brief pause, I directed the knights to advance slightly. Sujin's voice cracked a little when he witnessed the dummies move.

"Or not..."

But the young man did not give up and continued to sing. But no matter how hard he tried, nothing worked.

Fun Fact: Imaginator may neutralize any singing or hypnotic onslaught. That's why I'm still able to use my abilities and move the dummies.

When he realized his power wasn't working, the boy gave up. His once-beautiful melodic vocals had devolved into shouting, threatening the knights in terror.

"Don't get any closer! I dare you!"

"Sujin, just attack them!" advised Joseph.

Despite the advice, Sujin was too scared to fight back. His body wasn't listening to what he wanted to do, so he opted to back away as the knight approached him.

"STAY BACK!" he exclaimed. He opened his palm in front of them, shouting, and attacked with crimson fireballs.

The knights caught fire as a result, which eased the youngster and placed a grin on his face.

Of course, I can use elements as well. So I put out the fire with water, replacing Sujin's joy with a terrified grimace.

"Oh no..."

"Knights, charge!"

Sujin lost all confidence as I ordered boldly. He ducked and covered himself in fear instead of fighting and deflecting my assaults.

Thinking this might be the end of him, Seungjae hurriedly defended his buddy and used his blue fireball to freeze the knight.

"Don't even think about injuring him!" shouted Seungjae. Sujin raised his head as he heard his partner's voice, revealing his wet eyes and red nose from crying.

"Seungjae-ah!" exclaimed Sujin.

"This is something I didn't expect from Seungjae," Milton exclaimed, and the other members nodded in agreement.

While the members were conversing, Seungjae assisted Sujin as they agreed to partner up for this training session.

It's as though these two have grown even more powerful than before; their aura has fully transformed into something phenomenal.

"Alright then, 1 vs 2, I can handle it," I grumbled to myself, and without hesitation, I summoned more knight dummies and directed them all to attack the Songist partner at once.

The Songist Pair, seeing the knights approaching them, greedy for their flesh, placed their hands in front of them and fearlessly chanted:

"BLUE!"

"RED!"

"FIRE SPIRAL!"

The two guys collaborated, combining their ordinary fire attacks to create something powerful. Seungjae, using blue fire, and Sujin, using red fire, combined their abilities as the red and blue fire swirled against one another, burning and freezing their opponent.

I gave up after seeing their potential.

"Well done! Looks like you defeated me!" They both smiled and huffed in relief as they hugged each other in glee when I surrendered.

Seongho, the Knight, comes next!

"Oh, knight vs. knight!" I exclaimed with delight.

"Well, I'm a little nervous, but come at me!"

"I see you're competitive, fella. I don't hate it."

We moved into our defensive positions and waited for the signal to attack. When the battle began, Seongho utilized fire to shield his sword.

"Let's see what I've got," mumbled Seongho as he watched the Knights rush at him. He tightened his grasp on his swords and began chanting.

"Slow motion." A magical white circle appeared in his left pupil, and his power slowed the enemy's motions in his view.

He wasted no time in slicing through their bodies, taking their lives, but his fight was far from over. Three more knights appeared behind him, and one of them attacked him.

"Behind you!" exclaimed Yuto.

Seongho immediately whirled around and deflected the knights' strike with his sword.

However, the force of the enemy's strike was too much for him, causing him to fall behind him and he managed to come to a halt.

He finished the battle by swinging the enemy's sword back and then slicing his belly while using his fire attack on the other two.

"Well done!" I exclaimed, pleased by what he demonstrated.

"Am I finished?" Seongho inquired.

"Yes," Heric said, "you may rest with the others." And with that, the leader collapsed to his knees from fatigue as he ran out of breath.

Jeongmin, who has the same power as I have, is up next. I've never fought an Imaginator before, so I'm apprehensive but excited to see how this turns out.

Jeongmin huffed as he devised a strategy to eliminate the knights, feeling the anxious tension.

'Because my strength is based on imagination, I can just envision what assault I can use to defeat them, right' He thought to himself. And before he could create more plans, the battle had begun.

"Begin!" screamed Heric.

The knights charged at Jeongmin, and the sight of these bloodthirsty knights charging at him terrified him. But that wasn't going to stop him now.

'Imagine, imagine, imagine.'

As he attacked, his pupils glowed rainbows. The knights were floating above them, preventing them from proceeding any farther. That didn't stop me, of course.

I instantly released my power from the knights and created an invisible one that he couldn't see.

Jeongmin was perplexed as to why I had stopped attacking, but when he saw my smirking expression, he realized I was already attacking without his knowledge.

As he tried to concentrate, he felt a surge of tense tension.

He attempted to use his second power, scent. When he used it, he saw some clay aroma streaming behind him.

That's when he discovered his opponent was on his rear. When he turned around, the opponent punched Jeongmin hard in the stomach.

The force of the attack threw the boy into the air, and he fell on the ground.

I may have gone a little too far with the attack, but it's also beneficial to make them feel pain.

As the boys tried to pull him up, he squinted in pain. He was having difficulty recovering. He wanted to cure himself to relieve the anguish, but he didn't have time when all of a sudden, the knight swung its axe at him.

He dodged fast and rolled to his side, using any attack he could think of. He chanted, "Wind cut!" and the wind he created sliced through the knight's body, legs, and skull.

I approached him after the combat and offered him a hand while he was still catching his breath.

He looked up as he saw my hand extended in front of him. "My loss," I said, and that was all it took to change his terrified frown into a grin and a soft giggle.

He then grabbed my hand as I lifted him up and, of course, healed him.

Jiwoo, our gamer, is the next second to last opponent. Knowing he possessed the rarest power in this realm made me nervous. Nonetheless, I had to play tough in order for him to exercise his power.

My knights charged towards him as the battle began. Seeing how the other members reacted when they saw these knights approaching, I assumed Jiwoo would react similarly.

But the boy just stood there, stone faced.

"Video games," he chanted, and a board that only he could see emerged in front of him.

The child was shocked and excited to see the board emerge in front of him, just like in the games he played.

He expected this to be part of his power, but he couldn't believe he was living out his gamer fantasies.

As he continued to investigate the board, he found it was filled with Super Smashy Gals characters. He selected the Pakémin menu, and hundreds of Pakémin monsters appeared on his screen.

"Holy—I knew Pakémin had a lot of monsters, but I had no idea there were hundreds of them." While he was preoccupied admiring all the monsters on the board, the knights got an opportunity to strike him.

Jiwoo only found out about them after Jiho informed him. As he rolled to his side, he quickly averted the sword.

"Shoot—I should start attacking," he grumbled to himself, immediately selecting any Pakémin he saw, and when he scrolled up, his eyes landed on one of the Pakémin he recognized.

"I choose you, Pikechi," he whispered softly as he summoned Pikechi behind him.

Pikechi's abrupt presence astonished the others who were watching. They were surprised to find a well-known Pakémin in front of them.

"What the—is that Pikechi?" Sujin exclaimed, stunned.

"Hyung can summon Pakémin’s?" Seungjae inquired.

"Pikechi, use Electric Bolt!" Jiwoo ordered, and Pikechi did as he was told. The tiny creature used its legendary electric bolt to electrocute the knights.

It felt as if the fight occurred in slow motion. Pikechi, the legendary Pakémin, was standing in front of me! The Pikechi I used to love as a kid is right in front of me, executing its legendary trademark power!

No matter how hard I try to act professional in front of these boys, if you bring out the things I adore from a fiction story, especially an anime I've been a fan of since childhood, I can't hold myself back!

"I'm going to give in! Can I pet Pikechi?" I pouted.

"What—Yumi! Come on, concentrate!" Heric said, stunned. You can clearly tell which of us is the easily distracted friend.

"With his ability to conjure characters from video games, he is unbeatable," I replied.

"You never know!" shrugged Heric.

I sighed and turned to face Jiwoo, asking, "What game can you summon?"

"Super Smashy Gals."

"See! That game combines like 30 other games! He is invincible!"

"All right, fine."

"Can I now pet Pikechi?" I asked Jiwoo again who chuckled at my reaction to his Pakémin.

"Sure," he said, shrugging. As I carefully touched Pikechi, he moved closer to me.

It was like a dream come true! I can't believe Pikechi, whom I liked, yearning to pet the animal is now happening!

His fur was as soft as silk. I could merely press my cheek into its fur. So I did. I brushed my cheek on its smooth belly and indulged in its velvety fur without hesitation.

The people who witnessed my strange obsession were taken aback.

"W-what are you doing, Yumi?" Heric shouted, struggling to separate Pikechi from me.

Minutes later, we ended up with our final opponent. Our musician, Yejoon,

"All right, let's wrap this up quickly," Yejoon sighed.

"Wow, I see you're self-assured, aye!"

"All I want to do is go home to the real world and rest."

"Understandable."

I then stomped my foot, producing even more clay knights. Yejoon, on the other hand, placed his open hand alongside him as if summoning something. I ignored what he was doing and attacked.

"Engineer!" he yelled, and a clay machine gun emerged from the ground, stunning us all. He pointed the M16 rifle towards the knights, including myself, and I became terrified.

"Wait–!"

Before I could finish my sentence, he began firing.

I rapidly constructed an impenetrable wall to shield Heric, the lads, and myself from the machine gun's bullets.

We were all terrified by the sound of the machine shooting as it shot everywhere and because of its massive construction, the bullet was extremely difficult to stop. But if I don't hold the walls up, the bullets will undoubtedly hit all of us.

So, in order for the lads not to die like I had, I held my power until the musician ended his attack.

He was eventually done after what felt like hours. With a huff, he let go of the gun's power, deforming the shape back into clay.

Everyone else slowly emerged from the wall, checking to see if the combat was over.

"You could have killed us!" I exclaimed.

He quickly apologized after seeing what he had done to the dome, the bullet-dented flooring and walls, and the terrified emotions of his team mates.

Despite the fact that Yejoon's actions drove us closer to death, I feel these boys are prepared for their mission.

It may be dangerous outside the Houndlet Kingdom's territory, but we must work together to keep these boys safe from this realm.

Given what they're capable of, there's no reason for me to be concerned.

Missions, here we come!