Then, Rion noticed something strange and stopped in his tracks. The black grass brushing against the tip of his boot undulated as if it were alive, emitting an eerie sheen.
If he’d discovered it a few days earlier, he might’ve brushed it off, thinking that even plants in an S-rank Gate were bound to be abnormal, and not paid it much attention. But now was different.
He had already faced an unheard-of type of monster—one that kept its main body hidden underground while attacking by exposing only parts of itself above the surface.
After seeing a boss whose body was so merged with the earth that it wouldn’t have been strange to call it one with the ground itself, he couldn’t afford to lower his guard.
It doesn’t hurt to be suspicious.
Rion cautiously extended his hand toward the undulating grass. And at the moment he thought the tip of the black blades seemed to glow red—
Boom—!
An attack slammed into him before he could even grasp the situation. Startled, Rion instinctively wrapped himself in defense and leapt into the air.
“Guess they were right—complacency gets you killed.”
As expected, the black grass wasn’t a mere plant. It was likely some sort of surveillance organ—practically the boss’s eyes. It must have been monitoring Rion’s movements while he was alone and launched an attack the moment it sensed a threat.
The guiding should be wrapping up soon. Still, it’ll take time for them to get here… so I should assume I’m on my own until then.
With that thought, Rion began calculating how long he could hold out alone against the boss.
“No. Don’t think it’s impossible—think that it has to be possible. Even if it isn’t, I’ll make it so.”
Shaking his head violently to dispel the sudden negative thoughts, Rion slapped his own cheek.
“This is the final stretch. I can’t afford weak thinking now.”
Muttering to himself, Rion rose into the air. To his left, he could see someone running toward him from afar; to his right, the ground was writhing ominously.
It was obvious which side would move faster. Rion fixed his gaze on the right, focusing all his attention in preparation for the imminent attack.
Boom—!
Truly, it was power befitting an S-rank Gate boss. Just blocking the attack felt overwhelming. He couldn’t shake the thought that handling this monster alone was impossible.
Still, all the other monsters had already been dealt with. Once Seo-jin arrived and applied his sleep-based support ability to the boss, and the others joined in the assault, there was a high probability the situation could be resolved.
So all he needed to do was focus entirely on defense and buy time—about five minutes until his teammates arrived, or ten at most, just to be safe. With that in mind, Rion carefully observed the boss’s movements.
The boss, as if still testing the waters, merely tracked Rion’s motions with its eerily glowing red eyes.
Occasionally, it would throw out attacks as if probing Rion’s limits. Even though he could tell they weren’t full-power strikes, they were still difficult to deal with.
It’s definitely not using its full strength yet. Just testing me. I really hope it keeps that up for as long as possible…….
If this level of pressure was just probing, then once the real assault began, there was no way Rion could handle it alone. But he also couldn’t allow the boss’s attention to turn toward his teammates.
The others were still some distance away, and the boss had already moved directly beneath Rion’s feet.
Just three more minutes—three minutes……!
Despite Rion’s desperate wish, the boss seemed to decide it was done hesitating and finally began to move in earnest.
A massive tremor shook the forest, strong enough to rip trees out by their roots. Then, in a blinding flash of red light that swallowed the Espers’ vision—
“Grrrrrr!”
What had looked like a hill trembled violently, revealing its true form. It was part of the boss’s body—something that resembled a gigantic spider at first glance.
“Yeah. Now that looks like a boss.”
What Rion had thought was black grass turned out to be the boss’s fur. The grotesque creature, with eyes embedded in every single strand of hair, opened its massive mouth as if declaring that the warm-up was over.
Damn it—that direction is…….
He’d thought he was drawing its attention well enough, but the boss’s mouth wasn’t aimed at Rion. It was aimed at the other Espers.
Of course, now that the boss had fully revealed itself, the Espers wouldn’t just take it lying down—but among them, the one with the best compatibility against the boss was Rion.
As always, his hesitation was brief. Abandoning his attempt to keep the boss’s attention on himself, Rion flew rapidly toward the others. Fortunately, the boss was the type that took a considerable amount of time to fully unleash an attack.
Ten seconds—no, even just five seconds…….
But once again, the boss didn’t grant Rion his desperate wish. When the blinding light aimed at the Espers became unbearable to look at, Rion launched himself into the mass of light at his maximum speed.
KWAANG—!
The collision of tremendous forces sent a violent shockwave through the Gate, powerful enough to collapse the forest. The Espers, who regained their vision a beat later, rushed toward Rion.
“Kang Rion!”
“Sunbae, are you okay?!”
“I—I’m fine.”
“Fine?! What do you mean fine—your leg……!”
Hyeon-seo cried out in horror.
Rion had succeeded in blocking the attack, but even for him, deploying a perfect barrier while moving at that speed was nearly impossible.
“I’ll treat it right away. But it’s going to take some time…….”
“It’s fine.”
“What do you mean it’s fine?! If you leave it like this, you might have to get your leg amputated once we leave the Gate!”
The leg that hadn’t fully made it inside the barrier was mangled beyond what one could bear to look at. Min-hyeon immediately began treatment, but Rion didn’t have the luxury of lying around and waiting.
“Just do enough. I’m not going to be walking around anyway.”
“Are you insane?! If something really goes wrong—”
Min-cheol tried to stop him in alarm, but he couldn’t finish his sentence. As if to signal that the real fight had begun, the boss thrust its legs toward the Espers.
“Hhk……!”
“Kim Min-hyeon, snap out of it!”
Momentarily stunned by the grotesque sight, Min-hyeon barely came to his senses at Rion’s shout and resumed the treatment. The moment Rion’s leg had just barely regained its original shape, Rion stood up without hesitation and shouted to Seo-jin.
“Apply the skill—now!”
“Yes!”
At Rion’s command, the Espers immediately took combat positions. Seo-jin poured all his strength into activating his sleep-based support ability on the boss.
A B-rank skill against an S-rank boss. Naturally, Seo-jin couldn’t put it to sleep. However, it was enough to inflict a debuff—at least slowing and fatiguing its body.
“It’s slowed down a bit!”
“Attack—now!”
The Espers launched a coordinated assault. In the eyes of those who knew this would be the final battle, a fierce determination burned.
“Grrrrrk!”
“There’s got to be a weak point somewhere.”
“The eyes…… the eyes are way too disgusting.”
“The eyes? Right—let’s try attacking the eyes.”
“But there isn’t just one or two of them!”
Amid the chaos, Tae-hwan—one of the few who kept his composure—shouted instructions. As if mocking his words, the monster’s countless eyes blinked red in unison.
“Aren’t there any eyes that are bigger than the others?”
“Not the ones on the fur—there are some embedded on its back that are noticeably larger.”
“Then let’s start there. Lift me up.”
Rion hoisted Tae-hwan into the air. From above, Tae-hwan surveyed the monster’s form. Just as Rion had said, there were eight eyes on the boss’s back that were clearly larger than the rest.
“I can’t be sure, but monsters that look like this usually have their eyes as a weak point. Can you attack it?”
“Hmm…… honestly, right now it’s all I can do just to hold it in place.”
Rion answered with a strained expression. The boss was moving relatively calmly thanks to Seo-jin’s debuff, but it was also because Rion was exerting all his strength to restrain its movements.
In this state, participating in the attack as well would be too much. Instead, Rion focused on supporting his teammates from the air. Tae-hwan nodded.
“Then lower me onto that thing.”
“Are you sure? That fur is…….”
“I’ll be fine. I might not be on your level, but I’m still S-rank. Don’t underestimate me.”
With a playful grin that seemed to say trust me, Tae-hwan urged Rion to hurry. After a brief hesitation, Rion decided there was no other option and carefully lowered him onto the boss’s back.
“Grrrrrk!”
“Press it down harder!”
As soon as Tae-hwan mounted it, the monster began thrashing even more violently. Rion poured all his strength into the hands gripping the boss’s legs, forcing them into place.
“Hoo… here I go.”
Tae-hwan clenched his fist, aiming straight for one of the boss’s eyes. Sensing the threat, the boss struggled even more fiercely.
“Just hold on for five more seconds!”
Struggling to maintain his balance atop the writhing monster, Tae-hwan shouted to Rion. Rion squeezed out every last ounce of strength to suppress the boss’s movements.
“Now……!”
Tae-hwan’s fist came crashing down toward the boss’s eye.
Rion’s hands, restraining the monster’s violent thrashing, shook uncontrollably.
