As the eight Hunters heading towards the Boss reached a certain distance, they suddenly realized that they had entered a barrier and were unable to leave, but only after it was already too late.
"Can we break through it?"
"No. It doesn't seem to be breakable." At least not by them.
"It must be one of the Boss's skills. It'll turn off once we kill it."
There was no other choice but to head deeper.
"What the…"
In the sky was a Hunter that all of them recognized. Wang Jiwoo. One of the country's most powerful Hunters. S-rank.
He was fighting the monster, who seemed to be the Boss.
"Is he… losing?" one of them muttered.
None of them wanted to agree, but as they saw just how bloody Wang Jiwoo was and how unscathed the monster he was fighting was, all of them subconsciously nodded.
All of them shuddered.
"We fucked up."
"If he can't kill the Boss with ease… we have no business being here. Let's turn around and wait by the edge of the barrier."
"Let's pray for the best. He's an S-rank Hunter. He'll win."
"Yeah… He'll win."
Nervous gulps here and there.
Just as they were about to turn around, the Tank screamed, "Incoming!"
He raised his shield and activated a hunter-skill that boosted his defense.
A long, elongated arm crashed into his shield, cracking it. The hand that pulled back was clawed and looked like the legs of a spider.
"What is that thing?"
They all looked up at a building where a monster was hanging on the side.
[Vermilisk the Crimson Wraith]
"How does that monster have a name?! Isn't the Boss over there fighting Wang Jiwoo?!"
Vermilisk was about 4.5 meters tall. It had thin limbs, looking malnourished. Its skin was a deep, bloody-red with a subtle oily sheen.
Six glowing orange slits, eyes, were arranged asymmetrically on its head. It had jagged teeth that extended outward even when its mouth was closed.
Bony ridges protruded along its back, tripped with small hooks.
All eight Hunters could not help but be scared. They all gulped repeatedly, standing in fear, but made sure to have their weapons clutched and their hunter-skills ready to activate at any given moment.
But the monster did not attack for a while.
It tilted its head back and forth, a grotesque smile appearing on its face.
"What rank do you think it is?" one of them whispered.
"I… I don't know," the mana-sensitive Hunter responded. "I can't read it."
That was a bad sign. This Hunter could read up to A-rank, which meant the monster in front of them had to be at least S-rank.
"Alright. Let's get ready to run."
"Run where? It's a deadend with the barrier."
"Forget the Boss, we're about to die to one of its guardians [11]."
"Shut your mouth. Don't jinx us. We're going to live. We're going to go home after this and have a nice beer."
"..."
Vermilisk lunged toward them out of nowhere.
"Block!"
❖ ❖ ❖
"Where in the world did you come from?" Wang Jiwoo asked.
In front of him was the Boss.
[Baelgorath, King of the Crimson]
It stood over seven meters tall, towering and skeletal. It had a humanoid body that was grotesquely elongated.
Its skin resembled cracked crimson obsidian, glowing from within as if magma flowed beneath it.
It had four arms. The upper pair was long and whip-like, while the lower pair was thicker and ended in bladed talons.
On top of its head was a burning halo of jagged horn. It sat like a crown and was constantly shedding embers.
There were no visible eyes and only vertical slits where powerful flames burned endlessly.
"This is the worst day to have sent my Avatars out on a Raid!"
Compared to many Raids that he had personally been on in the past, the danger he was in was without a doubt number 1 on his list. The boss in front of him was a monster that was plain and simply more powerful than any monster he had ever come across before.
'SS-rank? SSS-rank?'
He couldn't gauge its power level.
"Grandma, I don't know if I'll make it back," he laughed as the spear in his hand crumpled.
He grabbed the air, and the head of a wolf created from lightning appeared on his fist.
Swinging his arm forward, the wolf's head shot forward and grew into the full body of a wolf.
It was running across the sky, charging toward Baelgorath.
The wolf looked majestic. It looked mythical and thousands of years ago, if someone saw this in the sky, they would've begun to worship the creature.
As it landed on the Boss, the lightning wolf erupted into a chaotic storm of purple and blue lights.
Thunder cracked so loudly that the air itself seemed to split apart. The dispersed lighting regathered to form a head, but this time, much larger than before. The wolf head sank its fang into Baelgorath's torso and lightning exploded outward in branching arcs that wrapped around the monster's body.
Electricity was ripping across Baelgorath's limbs, crawling up its arm, and detonating in a burst of lightning.
For a brief moment, the monster was engulfed in a cage of thunder, its obsidian skin lit from within. The impact forced Baelgorath back a single step.
Just one.
Any lesser monster would have been erased, reduced to ash and scorched mana in an instant.
Then the lightning began to fade.
The sound of a wolf howling could be heard as the lightning unraveled into mere sparks.
The cracks formed on Baelgorath's body sealed themselves with a low, molten hiss, crimson light pulsing beneath the monster's skin as if it were inhaling the remaining electricity.
Baelgorath straightened its body.
It looked down at the fading sparks clinging to its chest, then slowly raised one of its upper arms.
The motion alone crushed the air.
A crescent of condensed crimson energy appeared in front and it began to travel toward Wang Jiwoo, who had just landed onto the building he had leaped into the sky from.
The crimson crescent warped space as it screamed on its path. There was no heat, no flames, just pure mana and this oppressive force that was heavy enough to make Wang Jiwoo's neck hair stand up.
"—!"
He crossed his arms and braced himself.
The attack slammed into him head-on.
The impact hurled him backward through the air, the shockwave ripping skin from his forearms as if he'd been dragged across broken glass. Blood sprayed outward, trailing behind him in a dark red arc. His muscles screamed, bones rattling violently as the force chewed through his defenses, tearing open his shoulders and splitting flesh along his ribs.
He barely managed to stay conscious as he crashed into the wall of a taller building behind him.
Wang Jiwoo coughed, blood spilling from his mouth as he forced himself to look forward.
Baelgorath hadn't even advanced.
The Boss simply stood there, embers falling from its crown, vertical flames that were his eyes burning steadily as if mildly amused.
The message it just sent him was clear.
That attack he just sent Wang Jiwoo had been nothing more than a greeting.
❖ ❖ ❖
Kwon Moon's face was pale, and his eyes were trembling.
What he was looking at didn't seem real.
"Is this a dream? No… A nightmare?"
That was the only possible answer to the events playing out before him.
He had followed the path that the group of Hunters had taken and found himself trapped inside a barrier.
Why was he here?
Because he wanted to join in on the fight against the Boss. The likely chances of him contributing were minute, but he wanted to just do even a single bit of damage before dying. At least then, when the light in him fades to darkness, he can rest easy knowing that he had "helped" defeat a Boss of a Dungeon Collapse.
"Hah…" he scoffed. "I can't help. If even Wang Jiwoo is struggling… an F-rank Hunter like me is nothing more than a burden."
His eyes were trying their best to follow the flow of the battle, but the speed of the monster and Hunter was so fast that he was catching afterimages.
Then he heard a bunch of screaming. It was faint and mere echos but he heard it.
"Is it that party I saw earlier?" he wondered.
Perhaps they were fighting another monster.
If his plan to die after dealing any bit of damage to the Boss was no longer feasible, then he wanted the next best thing: a monster powerful enough to get all those Hunters to scream.
Step! Step! Step!
He ran in the direction from which he heard the screams.
As soon as he reached the source, his hands immediately shook.
One of the Hunters was screaming, "You bastard! Put him down!"
A red-skinned monster with long limbs had crawled its way up a building and was nibbling on the arm of one of the DPS.
"I don't care if you hit me! Attack the monster with everything you have!" the Hunter caught by Vermilisk yelled to his party.
Understanding that their friend's life was likely over, the other Hunters had no choice but to muster up the courage to do as he said.
But no matter what attack they sent, the results were the same. Vermilisk remained unharmed as it squirmed around, dodging the attacks while continuing to nibble the arm.
Kwon Moon could only watch from afar, unable to help, as he only had a sword and shield. There was no way for him to deal any damage unless the monster came down from the building.
The monster was toying with them.
It could've killed the captured Hunter whenever it wanted, then resumed its attack, but it was taking its sweet time. It understood that it was much more powerful than the entire party combined.
'It's not even the Boss and yet… I'm useless against it.'
Was it so much to ask? He just wanted to die feeling like he accomplished something in his goal of avenging his family.
A sense of utter helplessness washed over him.
Just then, the monster suddenly vanished from the spot where he had just seen it.
"—!"
Where did it go?
Kwon Moon could suddenly hear the sound of something fleshy being chewed on behind him.
The party in front of him also looked around, and when they saw him, they screamed, warning him.
'I'm dead, aren't I?'
Gripping his sword tightly, he took a deep breath, and when he turned around, he swung his weapon at the same time.
"Die!"
His sword was easily caught and was yanked out of his hand. He raised his shield, but it was instantly shattered by an attack that barely had any force behind it.
The monster didn't laugh, but the way its mouth was moving made it seem like it was.
Then—
Skrshk!
He didn't even feel the pain.
There was this dull and wet impact against his chest, but it flowed so smoothly that it was as if he had been made of butter.
Kwon Moon looked down just in time to see a crimson limb piercing through his chest, coming out of his back.
For a heartbeat, his body didn't understand what had happened.
Then the monster pulled its arm free and with it, it tore out something from his body.
His heart.
A sensation colder than ice flooded his chest, spreading outward in waves. His legs gave out immediately, strength abandoning him as if it had never been there to begin with. The world around him tilted, the sky spinning as he collapsed backward, his vision blurring.
He barely felt it when he hit the ground.
Thud.
The cold deepened.
He didn't just feel the absence of heat as life began to leave his body; it was the absence of everything.
His fingers went numb first. Then his arms. His legs. His torso.
He didn't have a heartbeat but if he did, it would've stuttered and fluttered weakly as it began fade, each thump softer than the last.
Above him, the monster's silhouette loomed for a moment. It "laughed" and continued nibbling on the Hunter's arm.
Then it was gone. Returning to the party that had been rushing to help both their friend and the random Hunter who they assumed had been caught in the crossfire.
Kwon Moon stared up at the burning sky, his breath coming out in shallow, misty gasps.
Each inhale felt thinner than the last, as if the air itself was slipping away from him.
'So this is it…'
Memories surfaced.
His family's faces, laughing, arguing, smiling, and alive.
The warmth of meals shared together.
The sound of his mother calling his name.
And lastly, the day everything was taken from him. The Dungeon Collapse that burned his family tree into a single branch, himself.
Regret twisted in his chest sharper than any blade.
'I couldn't do anything to avenge them. Why was I left in this world alone? I accomplished nothing!'
Anger followed the regret. It was hot, bitter, but ultimately useless at the moment.
He was angry at the world that created Hunters but discarded the weak. Anger at the monsters, the one from that fateful day, and in general. Anger at himself for awakening as a Hunter just to be powerless.
Then sadness washed over him.
He wasn't sad that he was dying. He was sad that he was dying without meaning, without accomplishing anything.
His vision darkened, and the sky above had disappeared, replaced by pitch blackness.
The screams around him sounded distant now, muffled, as if he were sinking underwater. His thoughts slowed, each one heavier than the last.
'I just wanted to make my family proud. I just wanted to save others who could someday be in the same shoes as me. I just… I just wanted to kill all those goddamn monsters! Wipe them off the face of the planet!'
The light faded.
But… just before everything disappeared completely — a voice echoed inside his mind. It was a flat and emotionless voice, sounding almost mechanical, robotic.
[Congratulations Hunter Kwon Moon. You've completed the condition needed to unlock your secret hunter-skill.]
The darkness he was in began to tremble.
[Now you shall be reborn. Welcome, Sin of Gluttony.]
Something stirred where his heart had been torn out.
He had screamed into the void as he took his last breath and the void answered back.
❖ ❖ ❖
[11] Guardians: Monsters that guard the Boss in the Boss Room. They are unique from other monsters and are much stronger than the other pawns. Usually only found in high-ranked dungeons. Sometimes, they are named.