Chapter 18

Chapter 18

I realized the reason immediately. There was only one skill he could be using in this situation. Stealth.

Just as I expected, in the brief opening created by Hunter Kim Seongmyeong blocking and Hunter Jeong Soyeon supporting, something black flickered. Before I could even think about what it was, something appeared above the wolf’s head.

“Juyeong—”

The black thing flickered again. Hunter Yoon Juyeong stepped off it midair and plunged downward as if leaping.

The fall, carrying the strength of an S-Rank hunter, was truly sharp and intense. The long, sharp object in Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s hand pierced through with a violent sound, as if it would crush the bastard’s skull in one blow.

Red burst out. Only after smelling the thick iron scent did I realize it was blood.

—Awooooooo!!

The wolf let out a cry that couldn’t be expressed with human voice, shaking its body as it tried to fling off the weapon lodged in its head and the human holding onto it.

But perched atop the wolf’s head was none other than humanity’s ultimate weapon and last hope—an S-Rank hunter. He casually pulled his weapon out of the wolf’s skull, then lightly pushed off and leaped away from the beast.

“It’s coming again. Hunter Kim Seongmyeong, get ready.”

Yoon Juyeong, who had leaped off the wolf and landed lightly in front of Hunter Kim Seongmyeong, whispered quietly.

Kim Seongmyeong stopped looking at Yoon Juyeong with an admiring face and immediately returned to his usual expression, raising his shield. Jeong Soyeon did the same.

“Seohee, stay close behind me.”

“Ah, yes…!”

I immediately followed Hunter Jeong Soyeon’s words, standing close behind her while fiddling with the ring on my right hand. The inhuman-level battle happening right before my eyes was putting immense pressure even on me, who wasn’t directly participating.

The wolf, seemingly disoriented by Yoon Juyeong’s sudden attack, kept shaking its blood-gushing head before turning its murderous, gleaming gaze toward us.

The bastard lowered its front as much as possible and tensed its hind legs tautly.

‘A charge attack.’

My guess wasn’t wrong. The bastard put all its strength into its hind legs and shot toward us like an arrow.

I couldn’t even track all of the wolf’s movements as it shot toward us. Every motion was too fast and too intense for me to witness.

The only reason I knew the bastard had charged was because I saw Hunter Kim Seongmyeong blocking it with just his shield, accompanied by a massive roar.

“Krrrgh…!!”

“Support going in again! Blessing of the Earth!”

“Just hold out one more time after this attack. Two more strikes and it’s over.”

With that brief announcement, Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s form vanished again.

And without any delay, the exact same situation as before repeated. Yoon Juyeong, suddenly appearing from thin air, plunged downward like a falling arrow and this time pierced the bastard’s eye.

‘Ugh.’

Honestly, when its skull was pierced, I couldn’t see the wound because of its fluffy fur, so I didn’t feel much… but having an eye completely pierced was a bit different. I suppressed myself to avoid any unnecessary reaction from physiological disgust and stared ahead as if glaring.

The one who had pierced the wolf’s skull once and its eye once landed cleanly beside Hunter Kim Seongmyeong again, not a single drop of blood on his clothes.

The bastard, suddenly blinded in one eye, let out a howl that was too unstable and rough to be called a proper howl, banging its head against the ground. It seemed like it was trying to vent its rage, or maybe a desperate gesture to escape the sudden pain.

But before long, the bastard staggered and raised itself back up.

“Seems like it’s a tough breed. Standing even after having its head and eye pierced clean through…”

Hunter Kim Seongmyeong muttered quietly, his voice mixed with equal parts admiration and disgust. He was right—the sight of the bastard getting back up after taking fatal wounds that should have been instantly lethal stirred up a person’s fear.

But Hunter Yoon Juyeong, the one who had reduced the bastard to that state, didn’t seem to feel much of anything. With an utterly unfazed expression, he casually pulled out his long weapon again.

‘A sword…? No, that’s not it, that’s…’

The weapon in his hand looked similar to the long needle-like thing he had used earlier against the field monsters, but enlarged in size.

My observation of Mr. Yoon Juyeong’s weapon didn’t last long. Because the wolf, staggering but getting back up, turned its murderous intent toward us once more.

Hunter Kim Seongmyeong raised his shield at the front, and Hunter Jeong Soyeon prepared to cast her support magic again. Mr. Yoon Juyeong didn’t show much on his face either, but he gripped the sharp object in his hand a little tighter.

—Grrrrrrrrr…

The bastard didn’t let out a howl, didn’t charge at us, didn’t swing a front paw. Instead, it flattened itself low to the ground, letting out that beastly growl as it glared at us with its remaining eye.

Something was coming. The moment I felt that instinctive sense that weaklings get, Hunter Kim Seongmyeong shouted out in a flustered, urgent voice.

“Something feels off! Maybe it’s a skill that scatters party members—!”

His shout, unfortunately, didn’t get to finish. Because what he’d predicted happened exactly as he’d feared.

The bastard, which had been lying flat on the ground, suddenly lifted its head and began to unleash a massive roar unlike anything I’d heard before.

It wasn’t just a loud roar. It had a physical form, pushing me and the other party members back.

‘If—if I get separated—!’

I didn’t know about the others, but the moment I got separated from the party, I’d be in danger. I tried my best to hold my ground and move toward Hunter Kim Seongmyeong.

But there was no way my body, just a C-Rank hunter, could dodge an attack from an A-Rank dungeon mid-boss monster. I couldn’t hold out any longer, tumbling across the ground and getting pushed far away.

“Ugh…!”

Luckily, all my equipment was stacked on defense, so I wasn’t badly injured, but the impact was another story. The area around my inner ear was still throbbing, and my body, having suddenly taken that massive physical force, was trembling in shock.

I gasped for breath and forced myself back up. Through my slightly blurry vision, I could see Hunter Kim Seongmyeong, who had somehow managed to hold his ground, and Hunter Jeong Soyeon, who had been pushed back a bit but not as far as me. And—

Something black pierced through the wolf in a straight line.

There was a slight delay between seeing it and processing it. I blinked a couple of times before I realized that the black thing that had pierced clean through the wolf’s body was none other than that familiar black object thrown by Hunter Yoon Juyeong.

And along with my realization, the bastard’s massive form began to collapse downward, further and further. A gush of dark red blood clots spilled from between its long snout.

—…

It left behind a faint sound that couldn’t quite become a cry or a howl, and then collapsed right there on the spot. As always happens when something huge falls, it surrendered its body to the ground with a massive thud.

*Kugugung…*

Along with a thick cloud of dust that lingered for a moment, the erosion phenomenon that had been happening around us began to fade. The scenery, which had been covered in white snow, started returning to its original form.

‘Ah…’

That last attack had really, really startled me… but it seemed like we’d made it through safely. I let out a sigh of relief, forcing my still-shaky legs to hold steady as I tried to get up.

“Huh?”

At least, that’s what would have happened if something hadn’t suddenly grabbed my leg and yanked. I blinked blankly at the intense pressure suddenly gripping my leg and looked behind me.

“—?!”

There was a wolf. But it wasn’t white. It was black. And… it had eyes as red as if they held the most intense fire in the world.

Before I could even process what it was and make a sound, something rushed in and sucked me and the wolf in instantly. There was no time to think about what the hell was happening or how this came about.

In the end, the last thing I saw was Mr. Yoon Juyeong, who had somehow grabbed my hand with an urgent expression.

* * *

I dreamed of a night sinking into distant darkness.

A child was crying. Like so many unloved children in this world, the child couldn’t even cry out loud, just silently sobbed in a corner of a cramped room, tears streaming down.

I pushed through the dark shadows of the sinking night and approached where the child was.

—Why are you crying alone?

The child lifted its head. In the deep darkness, only the child’s copper-colored eyes glistened, wet with sorrow.

I carefully reached out and wiped away the child’s tears. But no sooner had I brushed the tears away with my fingertips than new tears fell from the child’s eyes.

—What’s so sad that you’re crying like this.

I already knew what the child was so sad about. The reasons for children who grow up without parents and without anyone to lean on to be sad and distressed were everywhere.

But instead of giving each of those reasons a name and examining them closely, we pretended they didn’t exist. So in the end, we were miserable for no reason, and hopeless for no reason.

Even knowing all of that, I deliberately pulled the child gently into my arms and spoke.

—Tell me what made you so sad. Let me share your sorrow.

A small tremor pressed deeper into my embrace. I patted the child’s tiny back and whispered again softly.

—I know it hurts as if you’re the only one left in the world. That’s why I want you to tell me all the more.

Because we are human, born human and raised human, we live knowing loneliness and feeling solitude.

Life is, after all, floating alone through a vast world, and existence is walking alone along the straight line drawn by birth and death.

Yet even so, just knowing that my voice can reach another person existing on a parallel line different from mine, and that someone else’s voice can reach me, is enough to ease the loneliness and lighten the solitude.