The Gauntlet
“Gah!”
A tentacle whipped across a hunter’s head, and with a short, sharp cry, the man collapsed. His skull had been completely crushed, and a pool of blood began to form beneath him. ‘That was the B-rank hunter who entered with me…’
“The next attack is coming! Everyone, get ready!”
There was no time to mourn the dead. I simply surrendered my body to instinct and continued the fight. I locked eyes with Hye-na, but we didn't exchange greetings. We just shared a brief, silent nod. The B-rank hunters were endlessly keeping the boss in check, dodging dozens of tentacles. When the boss’s attention was drawn away, the A-rank attackers would carefully land their strikes. The vanguard had been trading blows in this hellish battle for every single second.
CRASH!
I barely ducked to avoid a tentacle. If that thing hit me, I’d be lucky to end up crippled; usually, it meant instant death. Thinking was a luxury. I just let my survival instincts take over and dodged the attacks. Even if only by a fraction, we were definitely dealing damage to the boss.
How much time had passed? An hour? Two? Maybe not even an hour. The floor was slick with the viscera and blood of the hunters who had been torn in half. Aside from the A-rank tanks, all the surviving hunters had discarded their armor. They knew that allowing even a single hit meant death, so they poured every ounce of their focus into evasion.
The situation was hopeless. The number of standing hunters was dwindling, and the boss was regenerating its wounds. Its regenerative ability was sickening. That grotesque mass of black matter rolled its eyeballs around, making no sound at all. Even when its body was carved open by blades, it just sprayed purple blood and whipped its tentacles around in silence. The hunters in charge of the offense were already exhausted, and the boss’s recovery rate had begun to outpace the damage we dealt. Even the healers who had been tending to Choi Seojin were now on the front lines, helping to fight. Many hunters had screamed, asking if Choi Seojin was dead, but the healers only replied, “He isn’t dead yet.”
“Everyone, stay focused! Don’t give that thing a chance to scream!”
The vanguard hunters kept repeating those words. I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed like something catastrophic would happen if the boss was allowed to scream.
WHOOSH— CRACK!
“Ugh!”
‘…!’
A tentacle slammed into the hunter holding a shield right in front of me. The shield shattered instantly, and the hunter’s body folded in half. The problem was that the tentacle was coming toward me, still dragging the folded body of the hunter. I was a beat too late.
CRUNCH!
“Gah!”
Instinctively, I thrust my left arm out to protect my internal organs, blocking the attack, and was sent flying into the wall. Fortunately, I didn't hit the wall directly; I hit the corpse of the hunter still attached to the tentacle, which saved my life.
“Damn it…!”
I felt agonizing pain in my left arm. I regained my senses and looked at it; the bones were completely crushed, leaving it dangling. Even when I tried to exert force, nothing happened.
“Haa…”
Death was staring me in the face. Watching from afar, the situation looked even more desperate. The hunters had already lost their will to fight. I didn’t even know how many hours we had to hold out before the support team arrived. Even if they did come, there was no guarantee they could turn the tide.
Just then, a low voice drifted from behind me.
“Don’t look back, just listen.”
A woman’s voice, thick with blood and phlegm… The only hunter here who had been lying down when we entered was Choi Seojin.
“…”
“I’m keeping my eyes closed right now. How’s the situation? If it’s okay, don’t say anything. If it’s the worst-case scenario, cough once.”
“*Cough!*”
When I answered with a cough, blood sprayed from my mouth. My own condition was dire. Even though I had sacrificed my left arm, it seemed my organs hadn’t escaped damage, as blood was surging up my throat. It was all over. The hunters had completely lost their fighting spirit. Hye-na seemed like she still wanted to try, but there was no way she could do anything in that exhausted state.
Just as my hands began to tremble with the fear of death, Choi Seojin’s voice reached me again.
“Hey… That thing thinks I’m dead. In fact, I feel like I’m going to fall asleep any second now…”
“…”
“Still… if I squeeze out the last of my strength, I think I can pull off one final big hit… Are you going to do it? If you’re in, cough.”
Choi Seojin was a Psyker hunter who manipulated electricity… calling him a Psyker was just a fancy way of saying he was an esper. I didn’t know what he was planning, but I had no choice. Living with one arm was better than dying.
“*Cough!*”
It was a calculated move, truly worthy of an S-rank. The boss in the distance was staring in our direction with its creepy single eye, as if passing through us.
“Then… run to where that thing is… there’s a corpse wearing golden armor in the middle…”
I remembered the hunter’s corpse, lying there decapitated in golden armor.
“There’s a golden shield next to the body… take that and charge at its eye… draw its attention for exactly one second… The red sphere inside its mouth… is its weak point. I’ll aim for that.”
“…”
I let out a dry laugh at Choi Seojin’s plan, which required me to risk my life in a charge. Aside from the fact that I was the bait, it was a plan actually worth trying. The front line was hopeless anyway. It had devolved from a battle into a desperate struggle just to stay alive. It was a plan that could only be proposed to me, someone who had been hit by an attack and accidentally sent flying to where Choi Seojin was.
“Hurry… decide… I’m about to fall asleep… That golden shield next to the corpse… it’s the sturdiest piece of equipment here, so it should withstand at least one hit…”
I couldn’t tell if Choi Seojin’s words were a lie to reassure me or the truth. Even so, I had no choice. It was a binary choice: either Choi Seojin’s plan succeeded and I was lucky enough to survive and leave the gate, or I stood here, waiting for death with my shattered left arm dangling.
I covered my mouth, pretending to cough up blood, bowed my head, and whispered.
“*Cough!*… Instead, if you succeed, put my name down as the second contributor to the boss kill at the Association… and tell them to use an Elixir to treat my body…”
An Elixir. The Association called them ‘highest-grade biological catalysts,’ but hunters just called them Elixirs. It was a miracle drug that could heal almost any disease or trauma once consumed. They were mostly found in A-rank gates, very rarely, in the form of elegantly carved silver bottles. Naturally, it wasn’t something you could buy with money. And to get the full effect, one person had to drink the entire bottle.
Choi Seojin was silent for a few seconds before replying.
“You… you’re making a deal in this situation? You’re something else… Fine… even if the Association refuses, I’ll stake everything I have to get you one bottle…”
“Then… I’m going.”
There was no time to prepare myself. I ran toward the boss with all my might. It was true what they said about your life flashing before your eyes before you die; time seemed to slow down.
“Hey, you son of a bitch!”
As I screamed at the boss, its creepy eyeball fixed on me. I picked up the golden shield lying in front of me with my right hand and ran toward the boss. All the hunters were staring at me. Their eyes looked as if they were watching someone who had lost their mind to the fear of death and was attempting suicide.
A black tentacle flew toward me. In my current state, I couldn’t dodge it. I just held up the shield and braced my body.
CRACK!
My vision went black for a moment. When I opened my eyes, I was flying through the air. I could see my severed right wrist and the shattered pieces of the shield flying with me.
‘You said it would withstand one hit…’
Seeing that I was still alive, I thought Choi Seojin hadn’t been lying about everything. ‘To be alive after taking two hits from that tentacle… I don’t know if I’m lucky or unlucky.’
Time flowed slowly, like slow motion. When I spun half a turn in the air, I saw Choi Seojin. He was holding a mass of electricity in both hands, as if condensing energy, and threw it at the boss. Strangely, every hunter except for Choi Seojin had collapsed. I closed my eyes. I thought of Yuna, Nahyun, and Jihyun. The three of them were smiling happily. My body no longer felt pain; I couldn’t even feel the agony anymore.
‘Ah… I want to go to the beach… again.’
“*Cough!*… *Cough!* Haa… *Huk!*…”
I opened my eyes. I could feel hot liquid flowing from both ears. I couldn’t hear anything but a high-pitched ringing. Feeling the sensation of every bone in my body being crushed, I struggled to lift myself up.
“*Cough!*…”
My mouth poured out blood incessantly. My left eye wouldn’t open. I couldn’t feel any pain. My right eye wasn’t normal either; it wouldn’t focus, and my vision was shaking. My left arm dangled precariously, as if it would fall off if a child pulled on it. My right wrist had been severed. There was no blood. A squirming black liquid was stuck to the stump, either sealing the wound or contaminating it, stopping the bleeding.
I walked on my two legs, which were the only things still somewhat intact. As if to say I only had a few minutes left before the flame of life went out, blood flowed from my mouth with every step I took. I staggered to where the boss had been. The floor was covered in sticky purple liquid, and fragments of the shattered red sphere were scattered all around.
It seemed Choi Seojin had succeeded in killing the boss. All the hunters had collapsed. Blood was flowing from all of their ears. Even though the boss was dead, the escape gate hadn’t opened. But… there was something even stranger. The black wall behind the boss had collapsed. And behind it was a room that looked like an altar. It was as if… that altar was telling me to come there if I wanted to live.
Even though I could only hear the annoying ringing in my ears, it felt as if someone was whispering directly into them. Bleeding, I entered the altar. It was a room with a gloomy and bizarre atmosphere. Countless hearts were attached to both walls. They were bleeding, as if they had only recently been extracted. I walked to the altar in front, where two candles were lit. On the altar sat a pair of gloves made of black metal.
‘No…’
They weren’t just gloves; they were closer to gauntlets. They were gauntlets with a simple design, accented with gold lines here and there. The black metal gauntlets, the kind a knight might wear, were standing upright, as if inviting me to put my right arm inside.