Playing in the Snow

CRACK!

Oh Hyeonseong shattered the monster that had frozen solid like an ice sculpture and continued forward.

There had been so many of them blocking the path.

The monsters broke apart effortlessly, scattering across the ground in countless fragments.

Joo Jihye followed cautiously behind Oh Hyeonseong, staring blankly at the shattered monsters.

‘…What the hell was that?’

Just witnessing what had happened moments ago was enough to make the hairs on her body stand on end.

The power had been utterly absurd.

But at the same time, a question arose.

Why had someone this powerful retired and ended up farming in some remote countryside village?

“Why did you suddenly go quiet?”

“…I will never mess around again.”

“Huh?”

They continued through the passage covered in frost.

Apparently, the subordinate monsters hadn’t all been wiped out. Black wild dogs appeared and blocked their path.

However, there weren’t nearly as many as before, so Joo Jihye stepped forward and took them down one by one.

“I think it’s this way.”

“Seems like it. We’re getting closer to it, so stay alert.”

They followed the passage where the tainted energy grew increasingly dense.

Eventually, they approached a room at the very end, its entrance blocked by black vines. Joo Jihye easily tore the vines apart with her telekinesis, and they entered.

“P-people!”

The villagers and Hunters who had been dragged away were unconscious, bound tightly by the vines.

They hurried over and checked their conditions.

“They’re all still breathing.”

“I don’t see the boss… Let’s get them out first.”

Joo Jihye approached and began tearing away the vines.

The tightly tangled vines ripped apart under her brute strength, spraying black fluid that stained her clothes and face, but she paid it no attention.

She could have used her ability to do it more easily, but the shock might harm the fragile bodies of the civilians.

‘Judging by the concentration of tainted energy, this is definitely the center of the nest. But where did the boss go?’

Oh Hyeonseong looked around as he considered the situation.

Judging from both the room itself and the structure of the cave, this was where the burrowing-type monster had first settled after arriving and established its nest.

Even if it had moved elsewhere, there was no way it could have failed to notice the commotion in the tunnels.

The strange silence made Oh Hyeonseong sharpen his senses.

“Joo Jihye, get back!”

KWAAAAANG!

A sharp tail burst out from beneath the ground, aiming directly for Joo Jihye’s heart.

The attack was so fast and stealthy that she couldn’t even react.

But the instant the tail shot toward her, Oh Hyeonseong grabbed the back of her neck and yanked her backward before forcefully kicking off the ground.

SHWAAAK!

Her body was dragged backward, and she fell to the ground.

Fortunately, the tail had missed her heart.

Oh Hyeonseong slid backward across the floor as well.

“Gasp… Gasp…”

Joo Jihye struggled to catch her breath.

‘I really… almost died.’

If Oh Hyeonseong hadn’t pulled her away, she would have died on the spot.

Whether one was a high-ranking Hunter of Rank 10 or above or not, death on the battlefield didn’t always arrive with any grand warning. Sometimes, it came in an instant.

The tail of the monster lurking beneath the ground swayed gently.

“So they weren’t food. They were bait.”

What a calculating creature.

It had even used humans as bait to lure in more humans before eating them.

Meanwhile, Joo Jihye got back to her feet and spoke with renewed determination.

“Hah, fine. Let’s do this together!”

Fighting an S-rank boss monster with only the two of them was incredibly dangerous, but Joo Jihye was convinced that if she fought alongside Oh Hyeonseong, they had a chance.

After all, she had just witnessed his abilities with her own eyes.

But for some reason, no answer came.

She turned around.

And there was Oh Hyeonseong, standing a considerable distance behind her.

“U-um…?”

“Sorry. I need to prepare something big if I want it to work on that thing. Buy me some time up front.”

KWAAAAANG!

At that moment, the boss monster burst from the ground.

A gigantic black beast.

Its appearance resembled that of the black wild dogs, but the spikes covering its entire body and its numerous eyes made it far more grotesque.

More than anything else, however, was the suffocating pressure it radiated.

“Damn…”

Joo Jihye swallowed hard as she tensed up.

Unlike other ranks, S-rank Gates had no upper limit.

That was why even the strongest Hunters never knew when they might die inside an S-rank Gate.

The reason Hunters were required to form teams was to secure at least a minimum level of safety in such extreme environments.

Even at the national level, losing a high-ranking Hunter of Rank 10 or above was an extremely serious matter.

Above all, this was Joo Jihye’s first time facing an S-rank-level battlefield since she had been seriously injured in the Busan Gate a year ago.

She wasn’t even sure whether she could perform at the same level as before, and now she was being told to stall the boss alone.

“Don’t get scared. Think about all the training you’ve gone through. You might not feel it yet, but you’re much stronger than before.”

“R-Really?”

“Probably.”

It wasn’t as though he had ever seen Joo Jihye a year ago, so how could he possibly know?

Thanks to that, her expression immediately crumpled.

Regardless, Oh Hyeonseong continued advising her from behind.

“That thing is called a Grimhell. It’s clever in battle and fast on its feet, so it’s troublesome, but its weak point is its abdomen. See the parts where the color is slightly different? Keep targeting those while you fight. It’ll have to focus on defending them, which will divide its attention and restrict its mobility to some extent.”

It was a fairly old memory, but Oh Hyeonseong had fought one of them in China before.

Back then, it had devoured an entire city rather than a village and grown much larger than this one, but the creature’s fundamental characteristics wouldn’t have changed.

In the meantime, Grimhell kicked off the ground and charged rapidly toward her.

“Ugh, whatever!”

Joo Jihye irritably raised both arms and activated her ability.

A powerful force immediately pressed down on the beast.

Her intention was to crush it completely and burst its entire body apart.

With a series of grinding sounds, Grimhell’s body was gradually forced lower.

BOOM!

But the creature shook off the force and charged again.

Its resistance to mana was far greater than that of its subordinates.

Ordinary levels of telekinesis simply wouldn’t work against it.

“Tch…! Why can’t you just make this easy?”

THUD!

Joo Jihye dropped the weapon case she had been carrying on her back.

With a heavy sound, the case landed upright on the ground.

She kicked it open.

SHRRRK!

Countless swords were stored inside the opened weapon case.

Joo Jihye immediately activated her telekinesis, and all the swords inside rose into the air at once.

These were her personal weapons, designed specifically for fighting powerful enemies against whom direct telekinetic attacks didn’t work properly.

One of the swords accelerated through the air and struck Grimhell precisely in the shoulder.

Ordinary attacks would barely have been able to injure the creature, but the telekinetic force concentrated onto a single point through the sword produced far greater destructive power.

Then more swords rained down on it.

Grimhell dodged from side to side, rapidly closing the distance, but Joo Jihye retreated while maintaining her distance as thoroughly as possible.

‘She’s moving even better than I expected.’

Even Oh Hyeonseong watched with an impressed expression.

Very few people could clear an S-rank Gate alone.

Perhaps it would be different if they deliberately chose an easy Gate, but Grimhell was by no means an easy opponent.

Joo Jihye was performing exceptionally well.

‘As expected. Her training with Han Suyeon couldn’t have been for nothing.’

Han Suyeon was the best instructor in the country when it came to mana.

Some might think, It was only one week, but anyone who knew her abilities would say, She got an entire week?

The results of that training were now becoming clearly visible.

Joo Jihye controlled her swords with far greater precision and produced more power while consuming less mana.

She was putting everything she had learned from Han Suyeon directly into practice.

“Kgh… Just when is that thing going to die?”

However, the longer the battle continued, the more disadvantageous the situation became for Joo Jihye.

She had landed several fully accelerated attacks, yet Grimhell showed no signs of dying easily.

She had also tried targeting its weak point, but while it allowed wounds elsewhere, it defended its abdomen no matter what.

At the same time, the steadily shrinking distance between them made her increasingly anxious.

WHOOSH!

Then its tail wrapped around her leg.

It had pierced through the ground from a blind spot and suddenly launched a surprise attack.

‘I-I got…!’

KWAAAAANG!

Joo Jihye was violently thrown away and slammed into the ground.

Her head, shaken by the impact, rang violently.

Relying on a Hunter’s instincts, she hurriedly forced herself back to her feet.

But Grimhell was already right in front of her, raising its sharp claws.

It was already too late to retrieve the swords whose control she had lost.

CRACK!

However, the monster’s raised leg suddenly froze.

Grimhell, which had been staring only at Joo Jihye, abruptly turned its gaze to the side.

Oh Hyeonseong stood there with one arm raised.

“That’ll do. Good work.”

Oh Hyeonseong gave a slight nod.

Understanding the signal, Joo Jihye immediately threw herself away.

At the same time, an intense wave of cold swept through the room.

CRRRRACK!

An overwhelming torrent of freezing energy poured toward Grimhell.

The energy swirling around Oh Hyeonseong was focused entirely in one direction.

Unlike when he had frozen the subordinate monsters, this attack was far more concentrated and far more powerful.

Even the boss, with its tremendous resistance to mana, began to suffer as its skin froze and necrosed and the cold penetrated deep into its bones.

THUD.

Yet, astonishingly, Grimhell took another step forward.

Then another.

It was forcing its way directly through the freezing torrent.

The creature understood that if it could simply get close to a human who used abilities, killing them would be easy.

And so, even if its entire body froze solid, it continued forward with a single obsession—

to tear the human apart and devour him.

But just as it finally reached right in front of Oh Hyeonseong—

SWISH!

A sword appeared in Oh Hyeonseong’s hand.

“Did you think I was some weakling who could only hide behind a Spirit?”

Grimhell had frozen at exactly the right moment.

Oh Hyeonseong forcefully kicked off the ground and swung his sword.

The monster’s head shattered into countless pieces.

Its enormous body split cleanly in two.

Yet none of the creature’s filthy blood rained down on them.

Only countless pure-white crystals scattered through the air.

Seo Jaeho, a Hunter from the Disaster Management Bureau, ran through the mountains.

As Oh Hyeonseong had instructed, he had reported the situation here to headquarters.

Then he received unexpected news.

A private-sector Hunter who was closer to the area than the government subjugation team that had already withdrawn was rushing over to provide emergency support.

And the person who arrived at the scene was someone Seo Jaeho never could have imagined.

“It’s right here, President!”

Seo Jaeho reached the entrance to the nest and turned around.

Standing behind him was Choi Jeongil, the president of Aegis Entertainment.

He wasn’t even breathing heavily.

Not a single hair on his head was out of place.

“Did those two really go inside by themselves?”

“Yes. They went in first to rescue the people who were captured.”

“…No additional support is necessary. Don’t let anyone else enter.”

Leaving Seo Jaeho behind, Choi Jeongil entered the nest alone.

He began racing through the dark passages at incredible speed, his expression deeply furrowed.

‘Please… I hope they’re still safe.’

From an objective standpoint, enough time had already passed that there should have been little hope.

Joo Jihye was strong, but facing a burrowing-type boss monster alone was too much for her.

And Oh Hyeonseong, his senior, was still suffering from the aftereffects of a severe injury.

He had also lost all of his Spirits after his last battle.

In that condition, not even the Oh Hyeonseong of the past could handle an S-rank Gate.

Choi Jeongil clenched his fists tightly.

He couldn’t allow those two to die such meaningless deaths.

At an astonishing speed, Choi Jeongil located the area where the tainted energy was most concentrated.

He entered the heart of its source.

THUD!

“…?”

But what greeted his eyes was a room filled with pure-white crystals drifting through the air.

The corpse of a gigantic monster, split cleanly in half.

And sitting casually on top of it was Oh Hyeonseong.

“You’re a little late.”

Oh Hyeonseong sat there leisurely without a single wound on him.

At the sight, Choi Jeongil couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

“Haha…”

He felt like an idiot.

Only now did he fully realize just who he had been worrying about.

“Still the same as ever, Senior.”