Snake Venom Ch 80

Chapter 80

“Team Leader, your scent is getting stronger.”

“I know.”

Yeonwoo, who had been taking the suppressant from his pocket, paused. He lifted his gaze, studying Cheon Wooshin in silence.

He said he knew, and yet he sat there, hands calmly on the wheel, as if nothing were amiss.

That unbothered composure — tinged with a faint chill — only stoked Yeonwoo’s dread.

The taxi’s front passenger door jerked violently. Then, with a harsh screech, it finally wrenched open and a man tumbled out, coughing violently as he hit the ground. He looked up and froze the instant he saw Wooshin’s car slowing to a stop — the expression of a man who knew he’d lost.

He scrambled up and fled toward the roadside barrier in a panic, trying to haul himself over it. At the same time, Suho’s vehicle braked, blocking the taxi’s view. As Suho opened his door, a gun barrel emerged from the rear window of the taxi. He slammed his door shut as muzzle flare sparked.

Bang! Bang!

Some fled like rats, others chose bullets — every man reacted differently.

Their bonds, once so smugly strong, collapsed in seconds.

Of course they did — they had never faced an enemy like this. They had grown fat on cowardice, while this team had been tempered in battle.

And yet the man firing clearly had no sense of reality — arrogance born of holding a gun.

“Come out, you bastard! I’ll blow your head off!”

Suho couldn’t move recklessly under the indiscriminate fire, and eventually the gunman paused to conserve ammo.

A brief standoff.

Then Wooshin slowed, hand sliding inside his jacket.

He drew his pistol.

Expression blank, he lowered his window and aimed. The gunman noticed, whipping his barrel toward Wooshin — but removing a finger-sized threat at this distance was nothing for Wooshin. He squeezed the trigger.

A suppressed crack split the air. A scream answered it.

Wooshin opened his door, stepping out.

His face was empty — an unreadable mask. His eyes, just as cold.

Yeonwoo grabbed at his coat hem, unable to stop himself.

“You need to take the suppressant first.”

Wooshin was not someone to confuse priorities. With his scent thickening, the suppressant was urgent.

Absolutely urgent.

“……”

But Wooshin did not reply.

He did not even look at the suppressant.

Nor at Yeonwoo — the one person he should lean on most in that moment.

The unease clawing at Yeonwoo deepened into dread. As if trying to deny reality itself, he called softly:

“Team Leader.”

Wooshin lowered his gaze.

The numbers were still stable — only the scent had risen. His eyes, calm and weighty, were exactly the ones Yeonwoo knew… and yet something was wrong. Yeonwoo could feel it.

Wooshin’s long fingers came into Yeonwoo’s field of view.

A gun hanging loosely from them.

Even a stray shot would be fatal at this range.

That would never matter if this were the Wooshin he knew — and yet Yeonwoo’s throat dried. A very bad sign.

Then Wooshin looked at him, lips curving in a smooth, graceful arc — but twisted with mockery.

“How troublesome.”

Yeonwoo blinked — struck as if someone had slapped him.

“Your team leader isn’t here.”

The shift came too fast.

A flick of Wooshin’s finger, and the muzzle turned toward Yeonwoo’s chest.

Yeonwoo stared, stunned.

He had truly changed.

This was not the Wooshin he knew.

When had it begun? Had he missed a warning sign while focused on the chaos?

The only clue was the surge in scent.

But scent was merely a precursor — a warning, not the transformation itself.

For the change to coincide with the rise… to give him no time to act…

It was merciless.

Hopeless.

Even knowing that, Yeonwoo clenched his teeth until his jaw ached.

He would not crumble.

Wooshin hadn’t taken the suppressant, and he held a weapon. The criminals were not fully subdued. Suho still had no idea the person behind him had changed.

This situation was a nightmare.

And yet Yeonwoo lifted his chin, meeting Wooshin’s eyes head-on.

“No.”

No time to despair — he needed to stall.

He remembered the one thing that mattered most: the man before him.

The real Cheon Wooshin.

How much effort he had poured into reaching this point. How easily this could destroy everything.

Yeonwoo refused to let him collapse.

“My team leader is here. He is my team leader.”

Wooshin’s smile deepened.

He glanced toward the taxi briefly, then back at Yeonwoo.

“Oh right. You’re the mutt who wags his tail for anyone without discrimination.”

Yeonwoo froze.

Mutt.

A promiscuous mongrel.

The kind of slur racist anti-hybrid extremists spit.

And it came from Wooshin’s face — with his voice, his tone — making it cut twice as deep.

Wooshin watched Yeonwoo’s stunned expression with amused satisfaction.

His beauty remained ethereal, dignified — but corrupted now with decadence and venom.

Meanwhile, Suho dragged one assailant out of the taxi, subduing him with brutal efficiency.

Yeonwoo tugged Wooshin’s coat sharply.

An irritated gaze snapped toward him.

“I’m saying this because you’re my team leader. It’s dangerous. Take the shot before you regret anything.”

Wooshin gave a quiet, careless laugh.

“You sound just like before. I suppose he really did tolerate your idiotic rambling.”

Yes. This was the other Cheon Wooshin — the one Yeonwoo had once dreaded facing again.

Suho seized even the furthest runner, binding him. Another wounded man lunged from the taxi, knife in hand. Suho hesitated — taken off guard.

Wooshin lifted his gun.

Yeonwoo reached out instinctively—

“Wa—!”

Bang!

A scream — the knife-wielding offender collapsed as Suho pinned his arms and cuffed him.

Suho bound all four men quickly, lining them like livestock.

Efficient. Clinical.

Almost frightening.

Then Suho turned to Sio, curled and trembling, saying something comforting — before Wooshin’s gaze returned to Yeonwoo.

“Bark.”

“……”

Yeonwoo blinked.

He could not understand.

A test? A mockery? A game?

It did not matter. Opposing him now meant danger — more than danger.

With no other choice, Yeonwoo’s lips parted. His voice, shamefully small, escaped.

“…Woof.”

Wooshin’s smile bloomed, rich and poisonous — like a night flower opening under moonlight.