The Ultimate Fan Meeting
BACKTICKCHAPTER_TITLE: Ultimate Fan Meeting
“Front! Block the cub bear! Don’t let any more come!” “Goblins spawning on the left!” “Six additional goblin spawns near the Erosion Core!”
Right now, chaos had exploded around the Erosion Core. We were fighting thirty monsters with barely eight people, and it was all hands on deck.
I wasn’t C-rank, but half my team was, and they were holding up way better than I expected.
And the real MVP here? Me.
I was the one pumping out Barrier, healing, and overflowing vitality to every single hunter in the group, and they all went wild when they first felt my buff.
“Woooow!!”
Just seconds ago, that C-rank warrior guy swung his shield and sent a shockwave flying that sent half the goblins flying.
Even with his normal power, he couldn’t have done that.
The B-rank mage lady was unloading endless lightning barrages, turning monsters into crispy snacks.
The C-rank thief sister was slicing through goblin sides with insane speed.
Yoo Sumi was happily sweeping monsters with the Wave-like Ice Sword she’d learned thanks to me.
You know that YouTube clip where hundreds of little fish swim together in a school? That’s exactly how the ice blades were flying, cutting everything into pieces.
All these hunters had tripled their strength and were mowing down monsters like a hot knife through butter.
“Good! Push forward! Let’s keep going!”
“Yeah!”
“Let’s finish this quick!”
I was in the back, casting buffs, healing, throwing up Barrier, shooting arrows, and scouting with Hawk.
It wasn’t just support, either. Hawk’s intel was blocking any surprise attacks or encirclements cold.
We were basically untouchable because of that.
On top of it all, my Great Tree’s Bow was giving us sniping support from the sky.
I thought people would freak out about me casting healing and shooting arrows at the same time, but nobody batted an eye.
Makes sense, though. There are thousands of classes and tens of thousands of skills. They probably just assumed I had some hidden gimmick.
Hawk was way up high, completely oblivious to the people below.
“…Alright.”
I nodded after taking in all the info from Hawk.
The situation was actually perfect. We’d reach the Erosion Core in just a few minutes.
All the civilians were already evacuated, alarms were blaring, and support would be here any minute.
The only thing that sucked was my mana dropping faster than I expected.
When I was buffing Yoo Sumi and Kim Seohwa together I didn’t notice, but now that I was spreading buffs to seven other people, mana was draining like crazy.
Still, I had about sixty percent left. We’d finish before it hit zero.
“Come on! Push the front line even more! We’re basically there!”
The hunters pushed the frontline forward at Yoo Sumi’s shout.
Only ten meters left until the Erosion Core.
The monsters surrounding it were getting steadily cut down.
I thought the battle was almost over when—
Crack! Crack!—
The Erosion Core started shaking violently and exploded with bright red mana.
Then, in a split second, it swelled up to twice its original size.
“Eh? What the heck?! Why is this happening?!”
“…Damn it. Everyone, fall back! This is dangerous! Jiyun, get back too!”
“Yeah, yeah!!”
The situation had turned nasty.
The Erosion Core had grown twice as big, and the otherworld territory was spreading at insane speed.
And then—
Zuzuzuz—
Mana started concentrating in one spot, and a massive shape began to take form.
It looked just like a giant bear, covered in thick, hard scales from head to tail. Its claws were razor-sharp and longer than a meter.
One swipe from that giant paw sent the entire frontline flying.
The Barrier on them shattered instantly.
What a terrifying monster.
If this kept coming, we were in trouble.
The giant bear charged straight at Yoo Sumi with a thunderous stomp.
She pulled all her ice blades in front of her to block—
Clang!
Her arm started shaking from the impact, and all color drained from her face.
But it didn’t stop there. The bear curled into a ball and—
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwak!
The monster started rolling forward like a massive wheel.
There was no way to stop it.
Yoo Sumi went completely pale, scooped me up in a hug, and jumped high while everyone else screamed and ran.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but suddenly a bright yellow light pierced through and I opened them again.
“…!!”
Hee-hee-hee~
The sound that came out wasn’t anything I’d ever heard except on YouTube.
Then came the sound of hooves and a loud, cheerful laugh.
“À l’assaut, Bucéphale!”
“C-Claire?!”
Blam!
A knight in golden light crashed straight into the rolling bear.
At the same time, a long lance shot forward and shattered the bear’s scale armor into pieces.
A huge hole appeared in the monster’s body as it flew back and crashed to the ground.
The knight who’d knocked it away stopped right in front of me.
“Claire!!”
Tears were streaming down my face.
In front of me stood the battle-ready Claire Moreau.
“Tout va bien maintenant! La héroïne est arrivée!”
I didn’t understand French, but I knew what it meant.
The hero had arrived, so we could finally relax…
She’d shown up after the event wrapped. How did she even know?
And Claire was staring right at me.
“…Une archère elfe? (...Elf archer?)”
“Eh…”
She’d said elf earlier.
Whoa. The hood had come off in all the chaos.
At this point, it didn’t matter anymore.
Then Claire started speaking in awkward English.
“Elf archer, I saw you!”
“Eh… y-yes…?”
“I saw your healing and support magic!”
“Healing… support?”
“Yes! Lend me your power! Fight with me!”
Lend me your power…?
I didn’t know if it would help much, but I threw up a Barrier and overflowing vitality for Claire.
Her eyes lit up instantly.
Surprise, shock, and that aura became several times stronger.
“Excellent!”
Claire charged forward with a shout.
Even though two giant bears had spawned at once, one lance strike was all it took to crush them like pancake batter.
After that, Claire single-handedly blew up the Erosion Core with a single massive charge.
The red mana that had been everywhere disappeared, but the monsters were still there.
From house-sized bears to reptiles, they were swarming everywhere like cockroaches.
“Look over there!”
One hunter pointed at the sky and I looked up.
“Hoooly crap…”
We were getting the full hunter glory today.
Rena Richter and Emma Ricci came flying down from the sky.
Rena was riding a white cube-shaped thing. It split into eight pieces and shot out eight laser beams in every direction.
Monsters caught in the lasers instantly burned to ash.
Then Emma swung her staff once and cross-shaped markers appeared, pinning the monsters in place.
Claire rode in on horseback and smashed them all apart in a spectacular display.
After every last monster was gone…
I snapped back to reality and started healing everyone as fast as I could.
“Elf girl!”
A familiar voice came from behind.
Claire was coming over again…!!
She held out what looked like earphones.
It was a translator.
I slipped it in my ear and—
“My voice, can you hear me?”
Claire was speaking Korean!!
The tone and everything stayed exactly the same, only the language changed.
There was a world-class translation tech out here…
“Ahhh… Claire… I’m your biggest fan…”
“I got swept up in the chaos when I came to the event. I saw you fighting while I was coming over. You were amazing! You looked just like the elves from movies and novels.”
“R-really?”
“Your archery was great too, but you protected everyone with healing and Barrier. It was terrifying, but you fought right alongside the monsters.”
“Eh… hehe.”
“The people of this city owe you everything! If the monsters had spread everywhere, I probably couldn’t have done anything.”
Claire was praising me right in front of everyone.
As one hunter, I was being recognized.
Was this the ultimate fan meeting? Among all the Claire fans on Earth, was there even one who’d gotten an experience like this?
“And your buff skill… it’s seriously overpowered. I felt power I could never imagine while buffed.”
“M-my buff is just really strong… and Claire, you were so cool today…”
“Fufu, I’m glad you’re my fan. I should’ve done some fan service, but the timing wasn’t right… So. A special fan service only for cute fans!”
She squeezed me tight.
I almost blacked out from happiness.
And finally—
“I’ll see you on the same battlefield someday!”
“Yeah!! See you later!”
That day ended with the biggest fan meeting in the world.
The second the tension left, exhaustion hit me like a truck. Yoo Sumi looked just as wiped out.
“Jiyun worked really hard…”
“You too, unnie…”
“By the way, the Association might contact us about the incident. Get ready. The reward money will definitely come.”
“Yeah… Hawk worked hard too…”
Hawk had been flying nonstop, catching monsters and scouting.
The unsung hero of this battle.
When we got home, I was going to grill some beef for him.
***
After the battle, an investigation into the incident began.
The media poured out articles, focusing on how the European S-rank trio had resolved the Erosion Core disaster.
Of course, everyone’s eyes were on those three.
But the Hunter Association dug deeper and found something.
Claire Moreau’s statement.
Statements from domestic hunters who had briefly held off a monster wave at the scene.
And CCTV from the parking lot.
From all that, they pieced together that one girl with green hair had played an enormous role in the battle.
That info made its way through every report until it reached the Association president…
“An unregistered awakened?”
“Yeah. She’s not on any domestic hunter registry. But there seems to be a guardian. And that guardian is a registered hunter.”
In front of the president sat the CCTV photo of Yoo Sumi and me at the exact same time.
“…Then I’ll contact that guardian hunter. We can’t meet the child and me directly, but—”
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