Break at the D-Rank Gate
A gate break erupting from a D-rank gate.
And yet—
Why were C-rank monsters like ghouls charging at us with drool streaming from their jaws?
Well.
Figuring out the reason could wait.
Right now—
“I have to survive.”
3/10 → 2/10
“How dare you! Before whom do you dare spill that filthy saliva!”
Sir Isra burst from the shadows and shot forward in a charge.
Body Reinforcement → Mana Release
Imperial Sword Style - Modified Isra Form
1st Form – Flash Slash
Slash—
The ghoul’s head split cleanly in two.
“Whoa.”
Fast.
Far too fast.
I had thought I was finally getting used to Sir Isra’s speed.
But now—
All I could manage was tracking her with my eyes.
Without the Heavenly Martial Body, I would never even have seen the moment the ghoul was cleaved in half and died.
“With mana application possible, this is quite livable.”
Even when she had first possessed an orc zombie, Sir Isra had managed limited Mana Release. Drawing on the enlightenment of her previous life to strengthen the skills she now held, she was practically flying as she unleashed her mana.
“Not bad. Iron Head.”
“It is but a trifling remnant.”
Hey.
You two.
Aren’t your standards a little high?
Enough banter.
A gate break was unfolding right in front of me.
I couldn’t just stand around.
2/10 → 1/10
“Hohoho. Is this a rescue operation?”
“Mage. Regulate your firepower so the civilians are not harmed.”
“I am the Witch of the Solar Eclipse. Do you truly think I would make such a blunder?”
The two undead called forth their own subordinates as well.
Five undead in total.
It felt like only yesterday that I had been assembling corpses every time I entered a gate. Now a single order brought the undead surging forth, and the change left me strangely moved.
“Let’s go, everyone.”
“Yes. My Lord.”
“I shall obey Master’s command.”
Sir Isra and the Armed Zombie Warriors took the front.
Ingrid and the Skeleton Mage settled into position behind them.
“Student. Can you walk?”
“Y-yes. I’m fine.”
“Head the other way. You’ll come out onto the main road.”
“Would it not be wiser for Sir to withdraw as well?”
“To anyone else, you’ll just look like another monster.”
“Mmmgh.”
“I’m a little worried myself, but there’s nothing for it.”
Leaving my two retainers’ concerns behind me, I advanced in the direction the ghouls had come from.
A deserted alley.
Perhaps because of that, there was no visible civilian harm.
“Grrrrk.”
“Uwaaagh.”
Instead, undead monsters were scattered all along the street.
D-rank Undead
D-rank Undead
D-rank Undead
All of them D-rank undead.
I had thought it strange that ghouls had appeared, but not everything was C-rank.
“I shall clear a path for you.”
Unique Spell Formula — Solar Eclipse
Ice Bolt ×2
Flame Beat ×2
Spell Effect — Maximize Repulsion
Modification – Shatter
Wavering flames collided with shards of ice.
Instead of dwindling, the opposing forces repelled each other and grew stronger.
Extreme heat and cold ground against one another until they spun into a single point and shot forward.
“Guek?”
The zombie warrior’s scream was swallowed by white light.
Wherever the pale radiance touched was simply deleted.
A zombie warrior with a hole punched through the center of its face toppled to the ground, and a skeleton soldier three meters away collapsed with its skull blown clean open.
One streak of light had felled more than ten of them.
“The range is narrower than when you wiped out the slimes, isn’t it?”
“Solar Eclipse is not merely a mass-destruction formula.”
Depending on which attributes were combined and in what ratios, the nature of the spell shifted. Range and direction could be adjusted at will, she explained.
Wasn’t that an absurdly versatile skill?
“Only if one can calculate all of it, of course.”
Maximizing the repulsion of opposing attributes the way she had just done required extremely fine control. Trajectory and release angle demanded serious mental work as well. Even if one learned the formula, anyone short of a witch on Ingrid’s level would likely destroy themselves with it.
“Hmph. Not something any mere mage can manage.”
Even Sir Isra agreed with that.
Wonders never cease.
“I acknowledge that the mage is skilled.”
She still looked thoroughly displeased about it, though.
“Ingrid. How much mana do you have left?”
“Around eighty percent.”
So she could fire that attack about four more times.
“Would it not be better to eliminate them all at once?”
“Iron Head. What do you think would happen if you tried that in a residential district?”
One or two buildings would simply vanish, no doubt.
“Ahem.”
“This is exactly why iron-heads are hopeless.”
“Sir. Fighting has broken out over that way.”
Sir Isra hastily changed the subject.
Clang!
She was right.
When I strained my ears, I could hear the faint ring of metal on metal.
“Must be the hunters who responded.”
Phew.
Thank goodness.
This was the first gate break I had experienced since becoming a hunter.
I had improved by leaps and bounds after meeting Sir Isra, yet fighting monsters in the real world was still a first for me, and I was pretty tense.
“It is too soon to feel relief.”
“Why?”
“The hunters appear to be losing ground.”
Damn it.
“What are you waiting for? We have to go!”
I dragged the undead toward the source of the noise.
An empty lot between buildings.
A gate glowing crimson stood inside a fenced-off clearing, and monsters were pouring out of it in droves.
“Shit!! It was supposed to be D-rank!!”
“What the hell is a ghoul doing—agh!”
“Our team can’t hold them alone!”
What a spectacular disaster.
Five hunters were holding the undead back.
Outnumbered and outclassed, they had been forced into the alley, while the monsters that had already slipped past were escaping the scene through other side streets.
The biggest problem, of course, was—
“Guooorgh!”
The ghoul that was drooling like a gluttonous beast.
Bang! Crash!
Its long claws hammered against a shield.
The impact sites were dented deep.
It hadn’t punched through yet.
Even so—
With the shield looking like that, the tank holding it would not last much longer.
“Two minutes. No—he will fall within one.”
“You can predict that too?”
“His ragged breathing, the trembling of his muscles, the angle of his sagging arms—it is plain to see.”
What the hell.
That’s terrifying.
“A mere trifling skill.”
But if we only had one minute, there was no time for chitchat.
“Sir Isra. Kill that ghoul.”
“Then I must leave your side.”
“I still have the Armed Zombie Warriors.”
“Tsk. There is no helping it.”
Looking thoroughly reluctant, Sir Isra plunged into the fray.
Her blade flashed through empty air.
Slash!
One stroke, one kill.
Even before the modification she had carved through Living Armor like soft vegetables.
With her specs more than doubled, D-rank undead were no match for her.
“Guooooh?”
“Do not spray saliva in so undignified a manner.”
Slash-slash!
Damn.
That’s Sir Isra for you.
“Be careful! That ghoul isn’t the end of it!”
The shield-bearing hunter shouted as if squeezing the words out.
“I already took care of one ghoul on the way here.”
“These ghouls—they were the hunters who went in!”
Holy crap.
So they had been the hunters who entered the gate.
Which meant—
Something had turned that hunter team into ghouls.
“Guooooooorgh!”
There it was.
The monster that had just stepped out of the reddened gate.
The culprit that had wiped out the hunter team that entered the gate and triggered the break.
“H-Hunter! Can you buy us five minutes?”
“If we just hold for five minutes, support from the Counter-Abnormal Bureau will arrive!”
Another hunter added.
Hmm.
I don’t know about that.
“Holding out for five minutes looks pretty tough.”
“Ah.”
“Killing it, though—that might be doable.”
I had the situation figured out.
If this had been before I modified Sir Isra, maybe not.
But after running the numbers, it looked feasible.
Fireball
While we talked I had quietly rearranged my mana. I released it and hurled the spell at the undead clustered around the gate.
BOOM!
The employee ID hanging around the neck of the hunter clutching the crumpled shield swung wildly.
“Hah… hah…”
He leaned against the shield, gulping air.
Barely ten seconds earlier he had not even had room to breathe. Catching his breath had felt like a luxury.
I thought I was going to die.
When the mana density of the D-rank gate had exceeded one hundred percent and the break had begun, he had actually felt relieved. His team had been on standby nearby when the accident happened.
Five D-rank hunters might not be able to resolve a gate break, but he had been confident they could at least keep civilians from getting hurt.
Who could have known ghouls would come out?
Ghouls—C-rank monsters.
People might think a single rank difference was nothing special.
But anyone who had actually crossed blades with one would never say that again.
A single C-rank was more troublesome than five D-rank monsters put together.
The hunter team that entered the gate was definitely killed by that mutant.
An evolved boss monster.
It was only natural that a team that had gone in thinking it was a D-rank gate would be wiped out.
And the fact that those hunters had been revived as ghouls was an even bigger problem.
Truly—
Their luck had been terrible.
And yet, in another sense, it had been far too good.
“Deputy Kim. Are you all right?”
“Still alive, at least.”
“Who is that hunter?”
“No idea. Looks like a necromancer type.”
“Those are zombies, right?”
“Yeah. From what I can tell.”
“A zombie just cut a ghoul down in one hit.”
“There’s an armored one too.”
The hunters on Kim Jongsu’s team each tossed out a comment.
Moments earlier their faces had been masks of despair; now they watched the situation with room to spare.
The atmosphere had flipped completely.
The reason they could catch their breath was…
“Dead ones. Return to the place you came from.”
Slash!
“You vermin. How dare you bare killing intent toward my Master?”
BOOM!
…the undead that had charged into the battle mid-fight.
The zombie(?) with the bone sword carved through enemies like sheaves of rice, while the skeleton mage draped in vines swept the monsters away with magic none of them had ever seen.
“Guuuuuh.”
“Guuuk. Protect. Master.”
The armored undead blocked the path, preventing the damage from the gate break from spreading any farther.
“Fireball.”
And the master of these dead hurled fireballs whenever an opening appeared.
BOOM!
Undead blackened and charred.
It was overwhelming.
Enemies that five D-rank hunters had barely managed to hold back were being swept away like autumn leaves.
“Deputy.”
“Yeah.”
“That hunter… has to be C-rank, right?”
“C-rank max level, or maybe B-rank.”
Nothing else made sense.
Otherwise there was no way someone could drop C-rank monsters in a single blow, casually destroy dozens of undead, and—
“Guooooooorgh!”
—toy with an enhanced mutant boss monster as well.
Surely not.
There was no chance it was D-rank.
Not one of the hunters dispatched from the Counter-Abnormal Bureau could believe that Minho was only D-rank.