Chapter 180: Chapter 180- Fire Lead



"Ok, I think I know from where we should start," Talon spoke a while later as he pointed at the map. "It's from there. Then, we go left, right, right again, and then left and we should be right at our destination."

Running his hand through his hair, Talon silently calculated how long it would take them to reach the first spot.

'A few minutes give or take. Then, we will have to go south, which is going to take at least one hour, and every other spot after that is several hours of moving through stinky tunnels. If we don't get it from the first three spots, well, that's going to be really annoying.' Shaking his head, he put the map away.

"Let's go." He said.

The two then start to make their way through the sewer tunnels. Even though they weren't visible to most people, the sewer system of Seoul was quite gigantic in size. Thousands of tunnels moved and connected everywhere across the entire city. The size of each tunnel was several feet higher than Talon.

It was a world of its own, hidden under the ruined city. However, this world was still completely intact as if it was never touched by the several natural disasters that hit the world across the past two months.

Except for weed and grass growing across the wall along with a multitude of plans and fungi, the place looked completely the same.

"It's such a weird place. It feels like we entered a completely different dimension." Sophie murmured as she looked around her with an impressed expression.

"Yeah, an entire ecosystem started thriving here after the end of the world. We might find far more than just a bunch of rats at this point." Talon replied.

'I really hope I'm wrong, though. If we end up finding more monsters down here, all of our plans will crumble down.' He thought to himself.

The two continued walking, turning left and right as they explored the place. They found some obstacles here and there across their path.

"Here, take my hand," Talon said as he extended his hand for Sophie over a huge puddle of water that he just jumped over. The distance was rather wide so passing it was difficult for someone like Sophie.

The latter nodded her head as she jumped over and landed on the edge. Immediately, her body lost balance and she started falling back. But, a hand moved forward and grabbed her before pulling her up. Sophie ended up landing on Talon's chest.

Her eyes closed for a moment before she opened them again as she looked up. Her eyes made contact with his and she was frozen for a second. Staring this close at Talon made her heart skip a beat. However, that wasn't the only thing that stunned her.

'Since when did his eyes become this beautiful...' She thought to herself.

Even though she had always loved Talon's eyes with how charming they were. Now that she looked at them closely, they were far more mesmerizing than ever before. Their charm was amplified a hundred times. They were simply hypnotizing to stare at.

"Are you ok?" Closing his eyes and opening them again, Talon called for her.

"Huh? Oh, right. I'm fine." When she realized how she was acting, Sophie turned around. Her cheeks turned a little red.

'He's going to be the end of me...' Cursing herself, she finally released herself from Talon.

"Let's continue." Without waiting, Sophie continued walking as if nothing happened.

"..." Talon stared at her back silently. Then, he opened his mouth, intending to say something only to close it again and shake his head.

'Not now. I need to focus on the mission.' He thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Talon kept watching the monster's behavior. It didn't seem like it was doing much except for roaming around the place. He wanted to learn whether these rats had any kind of ability that might be troublesome to deal with. But, so far, he noticed nothing. It behaved like a rat, except instead of eating waste, it loved flesh.

'I guess there is no point in waiting anymore.' Standing up, Talon snapped his finger only for a blue flame to appear in his hand.

"Are you ready?" He asked Sophie.

"Ehem, yes."

With that, Talon aimed his hand at the rat before he pulled it back as far as he could. His muscles contracted as they got ready.

'I need to hit it perfectly where I want it. If it moves even an inch, I might miss the spot. I have to be extremely careful as I only have one change to pull this off.' His eyes flashed with a sharp glint.

Using the full range of his enhanced focus skill and future sight, Talon pinpointed the exact point where and when he needed to throw the ball of fire.

Then, at the perfect moment...

*Swish*

He threw the ball as fast as he could. The blue flame flew out of his hand like a bullet as it reached its target in a split second. At that moment, the rat realized the huge danger it was in. But, by that point, it was too late to do anything.

*BOOOM*

The fire hit the rat right in its tail and made it fall to the ground. The monster screeched loudly in pain as it stood up and started running in terror, vanishing inside one of the tunnels.

"Let's go!" Talon exclaimed before he grabbed Sophie's hand and leaped.

"Woah!"

Before she could even react, they were already in the air, freefalling toward the pit. "I wasn't fully ready yet!"

Landing on the ground safely, Talon quickly started running after the rat. "Don't fall behind, Sophie!"

"I know, I'm right behind you!"

The two entered the tunnel, quickly vanishing inside. Ahead of them, a blue flame could be seen moving in the darkness.

'Hahaha, this is working!' Talon's face lit up when he realized his plan was going as he expected. 'I'm so smart sometimes, it's actually sickening.'

Everything that happened so far was what Talon intended. He deliberately targeted the rat's tail so that it didn't immediately die from the blue flames eating its body and would instead end up running away in fear.

If his prediction is right then this rat will immediately go back to its nest to hide from the threat. In other words, they would be led right toward the heart of the problem.

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