The scales of the great dragon blotting out the sky looked as though they had been carved from pitch-black night itself—smooth and impossibly hard. The overwhelming pressure radiating from its body, hundreds of meters long, crushed the entire Jamsil area beneath it.
The battlefield fell silent in an instant. Team Leader Han Minwoo, who had been barking orders moments ago, and the elite hunters who had been boldly severing monster heads—all of them could do nothing but raise their eyes to the sky. The primal terror of facing an existence that defied human comprehension had paralyzed them completely.
"This...... can't be real."
Only static crackled from Han Minwoo's radio. The Association headquarters watching the live feed was probably in a panic as well. S-rank Gate or not, this was no mere boss monster. It was quite literally a catastrophe incarnate.
KA-CRACK—!
A single sweep of the great dragon's wings crumpled the surrounding buildings' facades like paper and sent them cascading down. The magical energy saturating the air resonated with a piercing rupture, and weapons began to fall from the terrified hunters' hands.
"O-Oppa......"
Kang Jina's voice trembled badly. As the White Tiger Guild's rising star, she had undergone rigorous training, and her confidence in her own abilities had been bolstered recently by Somyeong's covert assistance. But the being before her was more than enough to crush that confidence in an instant.
Jina's legs buckled, and she sank to the ground. She instinctively looked up at Somyeong standing beside her.
'Oppa's a civilian. I'm supposed to protect him.'
That was what her mind told her, but her body would not obey. The great dragon's yellow eyes swept across the ground, then locked onto Jina—the source of the strongest magical energy flow.
A crimson glow began to gather at the corners of the dragon's maw. The searing heat of condensing magical energy made the surrounding air shimmer like a mirage. A single beam would vaporize this entire area without a trace.
That was when it happened.
A warm, large hand descended onto the shoulder of Jina, who was trembling and struggling to grip her sword.
"Jina, would you hold my bag for a moment?"
Somyeong's voice was as calm as ever. If anything, it sounded even more languid than usual.
"Oppa? What are you saying? Hurry, run—!"
"I'll be right back. It's heavy, so hold on tight."
Somyeong placed the weighty porter's bag into Jina's arms. By the time she reflexively caught it, Somyeong had already slipped out of her field of vision like a ghost.
'An overgrown lizard daring to make a scene in front of my sister.'
Somyeong's gaze sank cold. The energy of the Heavenly Demon, who had commanded the martial world for a hundred years, surged quietly through his veins. The true energy he had kept meticulously hidden—so as to appear as a civilian—now enveloped his entire body.
THOOM—!
The annihilation beam condensed inside the great dragon's maw poured down toward the ground. Every hunter who believed it was the end squeezed their eyes shut. As the crimson pillar of light cleaved the air and moved to devour everything—
Somyeong stood in a blind spot behind Jina's back, where no gaze could reach. And with a motion as casual as shooing a fly, he extended his right arm and threw a punch.
The formless fist pressure, achievable only by one who had ascended to the Fire Realm, erupted skyward through the void.
KWAAAAM—!
An unbelievable sight unfolded in the sky. The instant the great dragon's crimson beam collided with Somyeong's invisible fist pressure, it scattered in every direction—like a torrent of water striking an immense dam.
No—it was more than simply blocked. Somyeong's true energy tore the beam apart head-on, reversed its flow, and drove straight into the dragon's maw.
"SCREEEEEE—!"
The great dragon's death cry ripped across the Jamsil sky. Its most powerful attack had been reversed and slammed back into its own body, and the colossal form began to swell from within.
CRACKLE—! BOOM—!
The wings that had blotted out the sky snapped, and the steel-like scales flew in every direction. Somyeong's true energy did not stop after piercing the beast's heart—it continued to disassemble the enormous body, piece by piece.
A blinding flash of light engulfed the battlefield.
***
Moments later, the thick smoke and dust began to clear.
Where the deafening roar had been, an eerie silence now hung. The hunters stared blankly up at the sky. The great dragon that had stood like the end of the world was gone. Only chunks of flesh and fragments raining from above like precipitation proved that it had not been a dream.
"What...... what just happened?"
"Did it self-destruct? Or did its energy backfire?"
People offered their own theories and murmured among themselves. Then every eye converged on a single girl standing in the center of the battlefield.
Kang Jina.
She was frozen in place, Somyeong's bag clutched to her chest, sword raised into the air. In truth, she had been too stunned to move—but to everyone else, it looked different.
It appeared as though, at the very last moment, she had squeezed out every remaining ounce of strength and delivered a strike that pierced the beast's weak point, triggering a self-destruction.
"Hunter Kang Jina...... killed it!"
"Did you see it? The way she raised her sword at the end!"
"A miracle! A C-rank prospect took down an S-rank boss!"
Starting with one shout, the hunters erupted into cheers. Pulled from the brink of despair into victory, they lost themselves in excitement, chanting Jina's name.
"Huh......? Me? I did that?"
Jina stared in bewilderment between her own hand and her sword. She was certain she had felt something enormous brush past her back a moment ago, but in the chaos of the moment, she could not coolly assess what it had been.
"Jina! Thank god you're okay!"
At some point, Somyeong had appeared beside her, covered in dirt, panting. He looked as though he had been cowering under a broken shield fragment—a portrait of cowardice just now getting to his feet.
"Oppa! Are you alright? You're not hurt?"
"Yeah, I was glued to the ground, too scared to move. But our Jina's really incredible. You did all that by yourself, to protect your brother?"
Somyeong clasped Jina's hand, eyes sparkling with apparent awe. Jina blushed and started to shake her head, but Han Minwoo and the Association officials had already surrounded her.
"Hunter Kang Jina, you have achieved something truly unbelievable. I'll ask for the details later, but for now, I offer my respect for your courage."
Even Han Minwoo's cold eyes held a tinge of reverence.
Somyeong slipped quietly to the rear of the crowd. Seizing the moment when all attention was on the newly crowned hero, he walked slowly toward the crater where the dragon's remains had fallen.
His act of 'the cowardly porter who survived by luck' was flawless. Now, there was something to verify.
Somyeong pretended to collect supplies, lifting a large scale fragment from the ground. Beneath it lay a bizarre metal device, apparently dislodged from near the beast's heart.
'As I thought.'
It was a sophisticated machine blending modern science and magical engineering. Invisible to ordinary hunters, but Somyeong could read the artificial magical waves emanating from the device.
This had been no simple Gate rampage.
Someone had implanted this device inside the beast, forcibly amplifying its magical energy and inducing the rampage. This entire disaster was not a natural calamity—it was a meticulously calculated act of terror.
Somyeong's gaze sank cold. He lightly crushed the device in his hand and pocketed it.
"I don't know who you are, but pulling a stunt like this in the neighborhood where my family lives."
The cheers of the crowd felt distant. Somyeong put on his clumsy smile once more and waved at Jina.
"Jina! I found some potions over here! Come this way!"
Only upon hearing Somyeong's voice did Jina, still surrounded by people, finally let relief wash over her face.
"Oppa! Stay right there! I'll be right over!"
Somyeong answered with a bright smile.
"Sure, take your time. I'll be here holding the bag."