The Specter King

To reach the dungeon entrance, we had to pass through the loading dock. Was that party we'd run into earlier still hunting? If they hadn't beaten us to the spot, we could have raked in a lot more. A real shame. Breaking a Dungeon Hunter's unwritten rules for a quick payday would have been a stupid move. Disappointing as it was, we'd have to call it a day with what we had.

"Huh? Those people over there... that's the party from earlier, right?"

Something strange caught my eye as we crossed the loading dock. Bodies were scattered everywhere. The only humans inside a dungeon were Dungeon Hunters, so there was no need to guess who they were. It was the party we'd crossed paths with before.

"What the hell? Did they get wrecked?"

All five party members were down, groaning, looking badly hurt. Had skeletons done this? From the way they'd been hunting, they didn't seem like the type to get taken down by skeletons...

A sudden sense of dread washed over me. We hurried over to them.

"Ghhhk...!"

A man built like a bear, still wearing his backpack, clutched his chest and writhed. Blood streamed down his head. Judging by his condition, he'd taken a blunt-force impact. His left arm was broken, the bone punching through the skin. Skeletons attacked by slashing and stabbing with their pointed bodies. They weren't monsters with the kind of raw strength that could inflict trauma like this.

"Hey. Are you all right?"

I poured a potion over the wound for the time being. It was a waste of a potion, but helping a party in this kind of danger was another of the Dungeon Hunters' unwritten rules. Truth be told, that particular rule got ignored more often than not. Even so, I treated him.

After I splashed the potion and used Light Heal, the pain seemed to ease, and he looked up at me.

"Th...ank... you...!"

He forced the words out, his face twisted with effort. It looked like a man with his guts torn open leaving his last will. I had a gut feeling this guy was hurt far worse than he looked.

"What happened? This doesn't look like something skeletons did..."

"R-run... away... that thing..."

"That thing?"

A dangerous monster had shown up, by the sound of it.

"Specter... King..."

"Jaeseong! Behind you!"

Sujin shouted in a sharp voice. I spun around to look where she was pointing. A specter incomparably larger than any I'd seen so far was descending from the air. It was about the size of four king-size comforters stitched together — big enough to swallow a family-size bed. No matter how much of a joke specters were, something that huge made my jaw drop.

"Specter King!? Is that a boss monster?"

Boss monster. The term referred to an individual among monsters that possessed exceptionally powerful strength and abilities. Just as humans were divided into ordinary people and Dungeon Hunters, monsters too had their ordinary rank and file — and then the special ones.

These special monsters wielded power and abilities so different from the common breed that titles like King, Leader, or Boss were affixed to their names. The Specter King was the boss monster of the specters.

Go even further — to individuals of transcendent strength beyond even a boss — and you got what were called Named Monsters. Those were identified not by their species but by unique names, the way people were. Anyway, none of that was what mattered right now. What mattered was that we had just run into a Specter King.

"Shit! I knew something was off! A Specter King?!"

The strangely large number of specters had been foreshadowing this all along. The Specter King drifted down, its body fluttering, and hovered a few meters off the ground, looking at us.

My fists clenched on their own. This was not a situation I could take lightly. A boss monster's combat power couldn't be measured against ordinary monsters. No matter how much of a pushover specters had been for me, a Specter King was a different story. The fact that this five-man party had gotten wrecked was proof enough.

"Should we run?"

Yeonji must have decided we didn't stand a chance, because she was the first to ask ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠about running. For a Dungeon Hunter, retreat wasn't shameful. What was shameful was failing to recognize the gap between yourself and your opponent.

But it was already too late to run. If the three of us scattered, we might have a shot — but that wasn't an option I could take. I had no intention of abandoning a single one of my women. We'd have to fight here.

"We've got no choice. We have to stand and fight. My ability is Light Control, so there's still hope."

The one silver lining was that I had light-attribute skills. On top of that, Sujin and I had killed a Siren before. The experience of taking down an opponent stronger than yourself always gave you courage. Sujin wasn't afraid either — she stared at the Specter King with her fighting spirit blazing.

A low, throbbing hum filled the air around the Specter King. It sounded like a vacuum cleaner kicking on. Dust kicked up from the ground along with the noise. A violent resonance of air began to build, centered on the creature.

"Poltergeist! That's the Specter King's ability!"

Sujin pointed at the Specter King and shouted. It was a power that fodder specters couldn't use at all.

"Kyaaaah! We're floating!"

Yeonji and Sujin's bodies drifted up into the air. I rose with them, caught in the Poltergeist just the same. It wasn't just levitation — a crushing pressure bore down on my chest. Poltergeist was a form of telekinesis.

An ability like this made tanking nearly impossible. Yeonji had more experience than the rest of us, but not nearly enough to handle a Specter King. Far from drawing aggro, she was being swept up by the Poltergeist herself, unable to even put up a guard.

I loosed a sacred arrow at the Specter King. The bolt punched through the darkness-choked air and slammed dead-on into the creature pressing down on us. The instant it struck, the Poltergeist squeezing us weakened. I fired Holy Arrow after Holy Arrow until the force field was gone completely.

"Ngh!"

The moment the power binding us vanished, our bodies dropped. Like proper Dungeon Hunters, we all found our balance and landed lightly on the ground. Break-fall posture — no real damage. The Specter King I'd just hit, however, darted nimbly through the air and unfurled its Poltergeist all over again.

"We're starting to float again!"

Yeonji cried out, her voice tight with panic. She had never once tanked an enemy like this.

"It's moving too fast — I can't even land a hit!"

Sujin tried to attack the Specter King with Water Cannon, but it was hopeless. For something that enormous, it was as nimble as a flying squirrel. Maybe because its body had no mass? And like any specter, it would have a camouflage ability, so even landing a hit was a problem.

Just as I'd feared, even the Water Cannon that luckily grazed it punched straight through its body and kept going. Apparently the thing could maintain its camouflage while using Poltergeist at the same time. A broken ability if I'd ever seen one.

A monster like that couldn't be put down without a light-attribute ability, or at least a weapon enchanted with light. Then again, that was probably why they called it a boss monster.

In the end, I'd have to handle this myself. But hitting something that moved that fast was brutally difficult. I'd trained my accuracy plenty, and my arrows still missed it every single time.

The one silver lining was that, maybe because it was so focused on dodging, its Poltergeist had weakened. Dust swirled up around us like it had been sucked into a vortex, and a heavy pressure still crushed my chest — but our bodies no longer lifted off the ground.

"No choice, then."

I activated my acceleration ability. It burned through a not-insignificant amount of stamina and mental power, so I'd have preferred not to use it — but if my attacks wouldn't connect, I had no other option. The instant the skill fired, the world slowed to a crawl. In that stalled world, I was the only one moving at normal speed. I tracked the Specter King's darting motion and loosed a Holy Arrow.

A wet, piercing hiss. The sacred arrow punched into the center of its body. The Specter King shuddered violently, like a blanket caught in a gale, and its movements slowed visibly. A solid hit.

This was my chance. I had to pour on the damage now. I used Light Control to form a sphere of light. Unlike Holy Arrow, which concentrated power into a single point and fired it, this was slower and cruder — but it packed far more destructive force. I hurled it at the Specter King.

"Go!"

The sphere of light flew toward the Specter King. Then, out of nowhere, a bunch of fodder specters appeared in front of it. They threw their own bodies into a meat wall and took the sphere head-on. That was not a tactic you'd ever expect ghost bastards to come up with.

A sound like air screaming out of a tire — and about ten specters were slaughtered on the spot. But their loyal barrier had stopped my sphere and protected the Specter King.

Fuck. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A touching scene that brings a tear to your eye, my ass — what kind of bullshit was this? I could not wrap my head around those brain-dead specter bastards pulling a sacrificial play like that.

Maybe this was another of the Specter King's abilities? The power to dominate fodder specters and use them as meat shields. Entirely possible. Otherwise those empty-headed specter shits would never throw themselves away like that.

Having nullified my attack, the Specter King used Poltergeist again. This time, unlike before, the force seemed focused entirely on me. My body shot into the air like it had been launched from a spring.

"Aaaaaaah!"

"Jaeseong!"

Sujin and Yeonji's panicked shouts rang out in chorus. But I was already dozens of meters up.

The Specter King rose after me, ascending as if it were being lifted to heaven. The higher we climbed, the more the objects on the ground shrank to the size of beans. The air grew thinner. A cold, knifelike wind scraped my skin. The vast factory complex dwindled until it looked like a town built ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from toy blocks.

This was the same technique that had turned those other Dungeon Hunters into pulp. The same method the Siren had used to kill Yohan. These monster fuckers apparently had a habit of going berserk the moment they saw a human, desperate to drop them to their deaths. Fall from this height and it wouldn't end with broken bones — they wouldn't even be able to recover a body. I had already climbed to an altitude you could skydive from.

The Specter King let out a nauseating hiss, as if it were laughing at me. At the same instant, the invisible force holding me up vanished. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Specter King had just handed down a death sentence. I plummeted toward the ground.

"Aaaaaaah!"

The wind screamed past. As my altitude dropped, the toy-like landscape of the ground swelled larger and larger — but I kept myself as calm as I could.

Whether it was thanks to the Mentality skill or not, even with death right in front of me, my reason stayed sharp.

Obviously I was not the kind of man who was going to die like a dog here. Yohan's death at the training center had given me the flexibility to respond in a situation like this.