The Fire Centaur's Wrath
Seoul’s eastern outskirts, B-rank gate.
The deepest core of the “Fire Centaur.”
And the 71st graduating class of Hunter Academy.
Despite it being their very first live combat in a regular gate, Kim Na-yeon’s party fought with flawless synergy, each member excelling in their assigned roles. The practical experience from lower-rank gates at Hunter Academy had surely played a part.
In truth, facing a superior individual head-on posed no great issue.
If there had been no A-rank rookie among them, the tank Kim Na-yeon would have held the front line, drawing eyes while the others supported from the rear or struck at gaps, that would have been textbook.
*Swish-swish-swish!*
A swift stab infused with freezing aura pierced the Centaur.
The flames wrapping its body scattered, revealing wounds across its entire frame.
At the same time, wherever the Centaur touched, its frozen body slowed gradually.
*Bang! Kwoom!*
Kim Na-yeon defended against the swarm of monsters surging from the left, swinging her shield at intervals to draw their focus.
Yet she never loosened her vigilance toward the floating red sphere in the empty space above.
*Kwo-oo-ong!*
The wounded Centaur roared in agony.
It looked as if one more push would bring it down.
In that moment, relief began to bloom across Kim Na-yeon’s face, which had remained tense.
Had her worry been unnecessary?
She had expected the B-rank gate to fall cleanly without a hitch.
But change struck without warning.
*Whoosh-flame!*
One of the ten spheres floating in the empty space above suddenly erupted in fierce flames.
“Rookie! Up!”
“…Huh?”
Kim Na-yeon’s warning cry, meant for the one who had dropped her guard.
The rookie recoiled instinctively.
And at that same instant—
*Crash!*
The sphere dropped into the spot the rookie had occupied, leaving a heavy shockwave, then shot forward straight ahead.
“Kyit…!”
The inferno storm unleashed by the massive sphere racing past was terrifying.
Thanks to Kim Na-yeon’s warning, the rookie barely dodged the sphere’s charge.
*Gooo-ooo-ooo.*
The sphere, which had moved in straight lines, halted its charge near the common wall.
Then, while still sustaining its burning power, it began to hover slowly.
Na-yeon shouted toward her party members.
“That sphere definitely has something! It might attack again!”
But the sphere’s movements were not swift—only sudden.
If one simply guarded, even the healer Kim Hyun-jung would have found it difficult to evade.
By now Hyun-jung had approached Na-yeon’s side and asked.
“What do we do?”
“It’s still one for now, but if those others start dropping, it will become dangerous.”
Na-yeon looked up.
The remaining spheres, aside from the first one, continued to hover in the empty space, still inactive.
“Then we should retreat first, set up a counter for the spheres, and start again.”
“What nonsense! If we push a little more…!”
“Rookie!”
*Kwo-oo-ong!*
The rookie’s body once again smashed into the Centaur.
*Swish-swish-swish!*
The rookie’s sharper assault pierced the Centaur’s frame.
The Centaur’s entire body was now covered in frozen wounds.
It seemed the boss’s end was not far off.
Kim Na-yeon ground her teeth.
“Damn it…! That bastard!”
“Na-yeon-ah, let the rookie do as she says here.”
Hyun-jung calmed Na-yeon.
It appeared she thought much the same as the rookie.
“The sphere’s movements alone don’t seem that threatening, and if the rookie takes down the boss quickly, it will all be over. …I know your cautious nature, but this time, trust the party members as well.”
Hyun-jung’s words carried weight.
The monsters that had burst forth from every direction were now almost all cleared.
Afterward, all six could focus their firepower on the Centaur together.
If they retreated here, they might encounter the recovering Centaur and new monsters.
Everyone in the party wanted to finish this quickly.
“…If you say so, I understand.”
Na-yeon nodded.
But as time passed, the flow of battle began to diverge from the party members’ expectations.
“…Why isn’t it falling!”
*Whoosh!*
The rookie barely evaded the Centaur’s rapidly whipping spear.
The speed had clearly increased.
The Centaur, which had looked as if it would fall any moment, was growing stronger by the second.
By now the rookie was sweating profusely.
“Again…”
The rookie, having retreated once, wiped the sweat dripping down her chin with rough strokes.
“And why does it feel so hot?”
*Gooo-ooo-ooo.*
Contrary to expectation, the sphere that had fallen and charged once more simply hovered at the outer edge of the common space.
Now all ten spheres had dropped.
The heat they radiated—
“Rookie! Retreat!”
Kim Hyun-jung shouted loudly from behind.
On the magic-reaction device floating before Hyun-jung’s eyes, an abnormal reading appeared.
“…B-rank boss ‘Fire Centaur’ magic reaction upgraded to A-rank or higher…!?”
“A variable gate…!”
Na-yeon let out a groan.
In history, only a handful of such abnormal gates had ever appeared.
The B-rank volcanic-region gate had already transformed into an A-rank-or-higher difficulty gate.
“This… this can’t be.”
By now even the rookie had recovered from her daze and retreated backward.
Self-respect was something one had to keep alive to accomplish anything.
If the current Centaur was an A-rank-or-higher boss, the party’s present power would only lead to slaughter.
*Crash!*
Na-yeon swept her shield at the retreating party members to shove the boss back once.
She then pointed at one of the countless holes punctured through the common outer wall—the one toward the cave through which the party had first entered.
“That way!”
This time, no one objected.
They had to exit the gate as quickly as possible, report the anomaly, and request support.
But—
*Whoosh-flame!*
“Kyit…!”
“What the—?!”
The very cave the party had entered had become a roaring furnace of flames.
“The exit is blocked!”
“Why?!”
*Kung, kung, kung.*
Like a colossal hill, it moved.
The Centaur, eyes burning with malevolent light, advanced.
This was no longer the seemingly weak B-rank boss of before.
Clearly an A-rank-or-higher disaster-level mythical species.
Despair began to settle over the party members’ faces.
Here the battle had become one of survival, not conquest.
The party members, who could not simply sit and wait to die, launched fierce counterattacks, but no blade could pierce the Centaur’s body wrapped in increasingly intense flames.
*Whoosh, boom!*
“Kyaaak!”
“Jun-hyeok-ah! No—!”
B-rank hunter Ryu Jun-hyeok failed to evade the Centaur’s spear and was struck, crashing to the ground.
Kim Hyun-jung ran to him, sweating, and released white healing energy.
Yet the deepest part of the dungeon had already become a furnace of flames.
Kim Hyun-jung, who was burning through all her mana, could not hold on.
*Kyung…*
In the end, Hyun-jung collapsed, spitting blood.
Now the only party members standing here were tank Kim Na-yeon and A-rank hunter the rookie.
“Khuk…”
The rookie barely maintained her abilities while standing.
Na-yeon’s situation was better than the rookie’s, but she could not say it was good.
If she had not grown through Wiji Yeon’s help, she herself would have fallen first.
It was utter despair.
Yet even in the midst of it, Na-yeon’s mind remained cold as she analyzed the situation.
The Centaur had grown strong, but the textbook action patterns of the Centaur had not changed.
In the end, she reached the conclusion that the thing was simply drawing power from something.
“…Hah!”
*Crash!*
The rookie, unable to react in time to the attack, leaped forward to block the spear instead.
From behind, the rookie’s voice, wet with tears, reached her.
“…Sorry.”
“For what?”
“For me.”
The weak appearance of a rookie who had always been proud.
She too was still nothing more than a girl whose body had grown.
“Be quiet. We are not finished yet.”
From behind her shield, Na-yeon’s eyes shone as she scanned the entire battlefield.
Spheres floating and descending near the ground.
The heat they emitted.
What if the heat from those spheres was granting the Centaur power?
If they could somehow eliminate those spheres…
*Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!*
“Rookie. Can you hold on alone for a moment?”
“Wha—”
“There is something I want to try.”
“Oh, okay.”
The rookie barely stood up.
Then, wiping away her tears, she lifted her sword with great effort.
*Ta-ta-ta-ta!*
Na-yeon immediately dashed toward one of the nearby spheres.
*Crash!*
She swung her shield fiercely, but the sphere was only pushed back a little.
It seemed it could not be destroyed by physical force.
But with that, she learned a new fact.
These spheres could be made to move with physical power.
Then, in this battlefield, there was a way to make them “disappear.”
*Warak, chi-i-ik!*
“Kuuuueeeet…!”
With her golden armor infused with all her mana, Na-yeon embraced the sphere tightly.
A sizzling sound accompanied the armor’s flicker.
Piercing the ‘Aegis Armor’ that formed perfect protection as long as mana continued to flow, the terrible heat scorched Na-yeon’s entire body.
“Kyaa… Aaaah!”
The tank Kim Na-yeon.
Even her attack method was limited to swinging the shield to repel.
Yet her trained body and the strength granted by her physique enhancements rendered A-rank speed-type hunters powerless.
Na-yeon lifted the sphere and hurled it toward one of the holes nearest the common space.
*Whoosh!*
She hurled it with force.
In the deepest part of the dungeon.
The place where all the spheres had vanished.
The heat that had filled the common space had long since disappeared.
*Bang! Bang!*
But now only Na-yeon stood before the Centaur.
*Crash!*
It felt as if the Centaur’s spear had bent itself to strike.
The heavy shockwave seemed to drive Na-yeon into the ground through her shield.
Yet she stood firm.
She did not fall, as if rooted to the earth.
With the spheres gone from the common space, the Centaur had reverted to its initial B-rank level.
Na-yeon, who looked as if she might collapse at any moment, desperately blocked the spear and swung her shield.
She had no way to deal effective damage.
Still, like a true tank, she held on to the end.
Since the terrible heat was gone, friends might regain their senses while she endured.
In that state of no-mind, an absurd thought suddenly arose.
Wiji Yeon.
Our cute lord Yeon.
Thanks to you, this unnie has clearly become stronger.
Like a tank, she stood to the very end, protecting the party.
She was no longer weak, was she?
Perhaps she had become a worthy unnie to be proud of?
*Kung.*
Na-yeon’s knees buckled.
Yet her shield remained upright.
Still, had it ended here?
In her fading consciousness, she thought she heard a familiar voice.
[You held up well.]
*Flash!*
In her blurry vision, a streak of light flashed.
*Kwa-aa-aa!*
*Swish-swish-swish!*
Immediately, wild mana surged into the common space, and a terrifying slash of numbers pierced the Centaur’s entire body.
*Kaa-aa-ak!*
*Crash!*
“…Huh?”
Na-yeon sat there in a daze, her whole body drenched in sweat, staring at the fallen Centaur.
Another hunter in this gate?
“Who is it!?”
Na-yeon urgently looked around.
But apart from the unconscious party members, no one else was visible.