Episode 47: The Rising Flame and the Fall of Three
The roar of the explosion hadn't fully faded when a thick curtain of smoke rolled across the battered street like a slow gray tide. The charred air reeked of scorched asphalt and burnt polyester, sharp enough to sting the nose and burn the throat. Rubble and splinters of shattered sidewalk lay scattered around the impact crater, and at its center, something massive had been hurled back.
Kim Do-hyun (김도현) was still hunched low near the ground, his hands bracing his knees, lungs wheezing with each shallow breath. His ribs ached from the last brutal strike he had taken, and his abdomen still felt like a twisted knot of fire from where that mountain of a man had crushed him. His fingers were trembling slightly, half from adrenaline, half from pain, but his eyes were steady, locked on the aftermath.
