The King of the Mirror World
The Frost King spoke. "Looking at the lot of you, the urge to relax and savor this is strong, but I must end it before the others notice."
-Whoooosh!
That moment passed in an instant. Mina snapped back to her senses as the wind whipped through her hair. She didn't need to search for the cause. The gale was nothing more than the aftermath of the Frost King swiftly raising his fist.
"Before I recover all my strength, I cannot let Yu Seongjin find me, or I won't be able to fight at full power!"
What should we do?
Mina's mind raced faster than ever as she assessed the situation. She had blocked the Frost King's sword, but he had swung it with only one hand, leaving his other completely free. The tingling sensation racing across her skin told her that taking that blow would end in far more than a simple wound.
But is there any way to block it?
They had no breathing room. She wasn't sure if Lee Jun's magic wand could even be called a weapon, but with the two of them currently holding back the Frost King's sword together, if either of them freed a hand, could they stop the coming attack? No—even before that, if one of them stepped away, it was doubtful they could even hold the sword they were blocking now.
Is this what it truly means to be unable to use any mana at all?!
She had faced A-rank monsters before. She had thought them strong, but never to the point where she couldn't even gauge their power. The reason Mina felt this so intensely was because of that very fact. Even now, the ropes formed from Seok-jun's mana were still binding the Frost King's ankles.
This is what S-rank means...!
At last, the crystal giant's fist swelled in an instant.
It didn't swell!
It had simply approached so fast that it only looked that way. The moment a spine-chilling sensation brought the thought that this was the end—
-Thud!
"What?!"
Mina was hurled backward. Lee Jun had kicked her sideways, knocking her out of the way. She tried to shout, but before the words left her mouth, the Frost King's fist connected with Lee Jun.
-Kwaaaaaang!
The explosive roar shook the cave. As scattered debris and the shockwave from the blast drove Mina's body even farther back, a voice reached her.
"Ugh... Seok-jun?"
"Yes. It's me."
Thanks to Seok-jun catching her mid-flight, she managed to stop.
"I'm sorry."
"Is there any reason for you to apologize, Mina?"
"But Lee Jun..."
Mina recalled how Lee Jun had just shoved her aside and was lowering her head in solemn guilt when—
"You don't need to worry about him."
She looked up at Seok-jun, doubting she had heard him correctly.
"Just watch what happens."
"...Huh?"
When she followed his calm gaze back toward the Frost King, she was stunned.
"Hmm."
The Frost King let out a sound that might have been admiration or a sigh as he stared at his feet. And there stood Lee Jun—the man she had been certain would be dead.
He was blocking the sword with his magic wand while meeting the crystal giant's enormous fist with his own tiny one.
"Is Lee Jun really a B-rank hunter?"
"Why do you ask?"
"There's no way a normal B-rank hunter could block an attack like that!"
It was already absurd that he had stopped the Frost King's sword with a cheap plastic toy from a stationery store, but a B-rank hunter who could trade direct blows with an S-rank monster and emerge completely unscathed? Anyone who heard it would dismiss it as a bad joke.
"So it wasn't the weapon that was special—it was the wielder?"
Even the Frost King hummed in quiet surprise as he studied the man who had met his fist head-on.
"What are you? No matter how I look at you, I sense neither special power nor vast energy. So how can you produce such strength?"
-Boom!
The Frost King immediately tried to kick Lee Jun away, but—
"Hitting the shin is one of the most painful spots there is!"
-Thump!
"Truly astonishing!"
Lee Jun had countered by slamming his helmeted head into the incoming knee, stopping it cold without being pushed back an inch. The Frost King's impressed voice rang out.
"Uryaaa!"
The Frost King kept swinging his fists and sword in a relentless barrage, and Lee Jun answered with his magic wand and bare fists. Their blows crashed together again and again. The magic wand and crystal blade whipped through the air, yet the two continued their duel as the shockwaves boomed outward.
"And he's still only B-rank?"
The Frost King was a monster that had nearly defeated even S-rank hunter Yu Seongjin. Even weakened and unable to use mana, could someone really fight on equal footing with such a creature and still be called B-rank?
"He is undoubtedly a B-rank hunter."
At Seok-jun's calm reply, Mina seriously began to question whether her own common sense had been wrong all along.
"Mina, how far can you extend your slash?"
"My slash..."
It was a technique any A-rank hunter who wielded bladed weapons could use. It wasn't exactly launching wind like most people imagined. It felt more like firing sharpened mana.
"Why are you asking so suddenly?"
"I've found his weakness."
!
Mina barely stopped herself from crying out. They couldn't let the Frost King hear this.
"About six meters."
When Seok-jun frowned slightly at her whisper, tension gripped her. Among A-rank sword users, her slash range was considered quite short. She wasn't sure why, but she suspected it was because she was a production-type hunter whose mana was heavily invested in creating her own blades.
She had once tried using ordinary swords instead of her mana-crafted ones to increase the range, but sadly the distance had only shrunk. It seemed her mana simply refused to accept anything that wasn't her own weapon.
"Could you concentrate your mana more and push it a little further?"
"In that case..."
Only then did Mina realize he was referring to her usual controlled output. In gates, preserving mana for long periods mattered more than raw power per strike.
"Right now... maybe seven meters?"
"Then how about retrieving that sword over there?"
"Ah!"
Mina nodded at the large greatsword embedded in the cave wall he indicated. One of the advantages of production-types was the ability to reclaim mana-crafted items and convert them back into pure energy.
-Kwaaaang!
A quick glance showed the Frost King and Lee Jun still locked in combat with wand and blade, so there was an opening.
Mina moved to the wall with Seok-jun, gripped the sword, and focused. The blade vanished, and the mana flowed back into her.
"With this... maybe eight meters?"
"Still not enough. What if you used all your mana?"
"I've never tried using it that way before..."
Seok-jun's steady gaze told her he was measuring her total capacity.
"Use exactly half."
"Half?"
"Send the slash with precisely half your mana. That should be ideal."
Though she wondered if it was even possible, she had no better option and nodded.
"Then where exactly should I aim?"
"Down there."
"That's the floor!"
Mina couldn't understand. A weakness should be on the Frost King himself, yet he was pointing at the ground.
"Didn't you find anything strange about this place?"
"Strange how?"
"The Frost King's original body was far larger than this."
"Yes... it was."
Even now the giant was comparable to a freeze golem, but it was still much smaller than its true size.
"Monsters generally possess larger cores the bigger and stronger they are. A core suited to that enormous body could never fit inside something this small. Above all, the creature itself said it: 'This is my body.'"
"You don't mean..."
The battle footage with Yu Seongjin had shown no sword use. Yet now the Frost King wielded one, and the blade was the same color and material as his body. It might have been coincidence, but—
"The ground we're standing on is the same. Normal caves suitable for humans to enter are extremely rare. Especially one this vast. Most caves are formed by volcanic activity or limestone erosion—terrains that can't be explored without proper equipment. Yet the floor beneath us is a flat crystal plain identical to the Frost King's body."
"So if the core is hidden, you believe it's beneath this ground that's essentially part of him."
Seok-jun had extended his mana to locate the core while the Frost King's attention was elsewhere.
"The Ice Bear is only just holding on. We must target the core immediately."
Without another word, Mina reshaped the mana of the longsword into the rapier she knew best.
"Where exactly should I strike downward?"
"Three meters behind where the Frost King is fighting right now. Straight down."
As she knelt and prepared to dash, Seok-jun placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered.
"If you circle right, I'll draw his attention from the left."
"Got it."
He sprinted left. Mina matched him by running right.
-Ratatatang!!
"That toy again?"
"Eyes over here!"
[Shalala~ Bang!]
The moment the Frost King turned toward Seok-jun's bullets, Lee Jun clung to him and swung the magic wand that let out playful popping sounds.
Did it even have that function?!
Mina nearly burst out laughing, but she reminded herself that the others were buying her time. She circled the right edge of the cave and raced toward the spot Seok-jun had indicated.
Jagged walls flashed past. The crystal floor sparkled beneath her feet, threatening to send her slipping if she lost focus for even a second. The moment the Frost King's back came into view, she gathered mana into her rapier as she ran, preparing to unleash the slash the instant she arrived.
The floor was right in front of her. The instant she fired the slash containing half her total mana—
"So that's why it remained hidden?"
"Dodge!"
The overlapping voices of the Frost King and Seok-jun sent a chill racing across her skin. Mina instantly altered her path, veering farther right.
-Kwa-gwang!
A crystal sword slammed into the exact spot she would have reached. Still, Mina adjusted her aim using the embedded blade as reference and fired her slash straight down toward where she calculated the core must be.
-Craaack!
The floor split the moment the slash connected. The crevasse revealed a cross-section of empty space mixed with crystal, exactly as Seok-jun had predicted.
"Yes, I have no choice but to admit it. I underestimated you."
Yet the Frost King's perfectly calm voice told her the slash had not reached the core.
"I never imagined anyone other than Yu Seongjin could push me this far."
The words sounded furious, but his voice overflowed with pure delight.
"Then I can no longer afford to hold back!"
-Ruuuumble!
The moment the Frost King lightly stomped, the ground around the crevasse—which had been slowly collapsing—began to crumble at terrifying speed. Wind howled upward from below.
"Kyaa?!"
Mina panicked and stabbed her sword into the wall, but she had already fallen deep in the blink of an eye. She would survive the fall thanks to her mana, but Seok-jun and Lee Jun—
She glanced around. Seok-jun was descending slowly on a mana rope. As for Lee Jun—
"Pff, pff!"
"He really is a B-rank hunter..."
He crawled out from a pile of shattered ice and shook himself like a wet dog, scattering ice fragments everywhere.
But Mina had to seize her tension once more.
"My introduction is late. I am the one who carves away the frozen chill."
The crystal giant now stood with a glowing red core at its back.
Yet Mina could not carelessly fire another slash. Because in this place, that was not the only thing that looked like a core.
"I am the King of the Mirror World."
-Creeeeeak!
Centered on where the Frost King stood, the space they occupied began to repeat, stretch, and expand endlessly.