Chương 18: Boss

"Are you sure teaming up under this level's ruleset makes sense?" Gray kept his tone perfectly level. His fingers, however, hovered mere millimeters above his dagger hilts. The man across from him shrugged.

"The rules prohibit killing. They say absolutely nothing about self-defense. We are just Hiders trying to survive the level." The second man leaned forward, his armor clinking softly.

"We caught the tail end of your fight earlier. You use smoke, correct? That kind of obscuring ability is perfect for defensive play. Strength in numbers and all that. Would you be interested in getting through this together?" Gray weighed the offer in silence. His last bitter experience left him hesitant to join another party. The rules, however, were clear: if a Seeker killed another Seeker, a heavy penalty awaited. Gray was a Hider.

If this trio were lying about their roles, they could easily slaughter him right here and now. But how could they possibly know his role? There was no way they would willingly take that risk. Forming a party remained the most logical step. Hunting the Riftborn to earn extra Contribution Points alongside a group stood as the optimal strategy for any Hider, as their primary goal was merely to survive the time limit and collect the system rewards after all. Aligning with a party carried minimal risk.

Betraying him and stabbing him in the back simply was not a viable option for them.

"Yeah," Gray finally breathed out.

"I'm in." Name: Luca Morales Class: ChainWeaver Level: 4 Rank: Awakened Ladder Rank: 221 Name: William Johnson Class: Vanguard Level: 4 Rank: Awakened Ladder Rank: 290 Name: Felix Plier Class: Dawn Ranger Level: 4 Rank: Awakened Ladder Rank: 109 Gray evaluated their gear. Heavy, rusted iron wrapped tightly around Luca's forearms, the thick links dragging against the asphalt with every step. William resembled the literal embodiment of a tank.

Encased in polished black plate armor from head to toe, he wielded a massive kite shield nearly as tall as he was. He carried no weapon. Just the shield. Felix wore flexible leather designed for mobility, though strangely, no bow was visible on his person.

"Your ranks are much higher than I expected." Gray tilted his head.

"When did you guys form a party together?"

"We ran into each other right at the drop," William replied.

"Been together ever since." He narrowed his eyes.

"You didn't meet anyone early on? Usually the group you form in the beginning is the one you stick with till the end. You didn't kill them all off, did you?" Gray shut his eyes, shaking his head.

"No. I guess you could say I lacked luck in the ally department." He let out a long, exhausted sigh.

"The first person I met was strong. Terrifyingly so. Honestly, she scared the hell out of me. I told her it would be best if we went our separate ways. She didn't take the rejection very well, but she eventually let me go." He pressed on before they could dig deeper into his past.

"After that, I managed to find a team in the nick of time for the Mirror Matchup. Unfortunately, one of my teammates deeply resented my leadership. We parted ways. Now I'm here." Gray offered an exaggerated shrug. A phantom scoff echoed inside Gray's skull.

"I swear, people can be ungrateful sometimes," William scoffed.

"Anyway, we'll see how we perform together on this level. If things go smoothly, maybe we can form a proper permanent group moving forward." Gray grunted in agreement.

"So what now? Do we recruit more Hiders?" William wagged a gauntleted finger.

"Before you arrived, we spotted a boss heading this direction. We figured it would be smarter to engage it with a fourth member." Gray's eyes brightened.

"A boss fight? Count me in. Do you mind giving me a rundown of your party's skillset so we can figure out our composition?" He did his absolute best Jun impersonation.

"Luca here can immobilize and restrain targets," William explained.

"He uses chains for both offense and crowd control. I am our frontliner—a pure defensive Vanguard. Not only can I protect myself, but the surrounding people as well." He gestured toward their last member.

"Felix is our long-range artillery. An archer who utilizes hardened light." The three men turned their collective gaze to Gray.

"And you?" Luca asked, his tone flat.

"I'm essentially a cloud mage," Gray replied.

"I can obscure the battlefield with dense fog, and I possess an active weapon-damage boost ability." William stared at him for a lingering second, then nodded firmly.

"Fantastic. The boss is about half a mile out. Let's move." Gray and the trio sprinted toward the city's commercial district. Brilliant LED billboards illuminated the gloomy streets, advertising luxury clothing brands on nearly every block. Gray held no personal memories of Korea, as his family had immigrated to the US when he was just a year old, leaving his heritage as an abstract concept he only experienced through second-hand stories and television broadcasts.

To him, the glowing metropolis just looked like another Times Square. The party rounded a sharp corner, bringing them face-to-face with a towering behemoth. It stood a staggering twenty feet tall, taking the exact horrifying form of the Abomination, Gray had fought in the club earlier. Only this variant was massively upscaled. The Great Abomination Lv. 5 The boss snapped its gaze toward the newcomers.

It unleashed a deafening howl that vibrated through the earth beneath their boots and rattled the glass of the surrounding skyscrapers. Four pairs of eyes on its grotesque face ignited with a bloody crimson glow. The jagged horn atop its head erupted, doubling in length with a sickening crack of bone. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. It advanced. Each colossal stride fractured the concrete street and sent violent tremors through the ground.

It leaned forward, and its horn flared with blinding light, unleashing a relentless barrage of jagged, bone icicles. William reacted instantly, and he slammed his shield into the pavement. A translucent blue barrier flared outward in a protective dome, encompassing the party mere microseconds before the projectiles struck. The magic shield shuddered violently under the assault, hairline cracks webbing across its surface. Luca didn't wait for the dust to settle.

He bolted out through the open cavity at the rear of the dome, sprinting to flank the creature. Heavy iron burst from his arms, the metal flying through the air to coil tightly around the monster's elongated horn. Once the links pulled taut, he planted his feet and yanked. The Abomination jerked forward, the sudden whiplash forcing an abrupt halt to the missile fire. The beast snarled, its massive hands grabbing the tethers and hoisting Luca high off the ground.

Before it could pull him in, Luca released the chains. The metal vanished, and he dropped safely back onto the asphalt. Fresh chains instantly materialized around his forearms the second his feet touched down. Felix raised an empty hand. Golden light gathered in his palm, coalescing into the elegant curve of a bow. He stretched out the opposite arm, and condensed more energy into a single, radiant arrow. He nocked the projectile on the glowing string and drew back.

The arrow doubled in size, then doubled again, humming with power. He loosed. The streak of light soared into the sky, vanished completely mid-flight, and reappeared a second later to plunge deep into one of the creature's crimson eyes. The Abomination shrieked in agony. Viscous black blood poured freely from the punctured socket, and it frantically clawed at its face, desperate to pluck the shaft out—but the effort proved futile. Its massive fingers passed harmlessly right through the light construct.

Recalling that the miniature version of this monstrosity became helpless once toppled, Gray seized the opening. He charged directly at its colossal feet. The Abomination's foot was a nightmare of anatomy: webbed, tipped with razor-sharp claws, and coated in a thick, slick grime. Gray vaulted onto its massive instep and drove his dagger deep into the flesh. The steel sunk in smoothly enough. But that was all it did. The monster reared its leg back.

Gray struggled frantically to free his weapon, but the blade remained wedged tight in the dense muscle. Abandoning the dagger, he attempted to leap away, but his feet refused to budge. He yanked upward with all his might, but the desperate attempt only forced his shoes deeper into the sticky, adhesive goo coating the flesh. The boss snapped its kick forward. The sheer force launched Gray helplessly into the air.

Moments before Gray's doomed pursuit, Felix had retracted the light arrow back into his hand, phasing out the projectile lodged in the creature's eye. He nocked another round. This time, the light multiplied on the drawn string. One arrow became two. Then four. Eight. Finally, sixteen. They clustered tightly along the bowstring, and Felix exhaled and loosed the volley. The glowing missiles arched through the sky in a radiant swarm, screaming toward the Abomination's face.

It raised its thick arms in a desperate attempt to shield itself, but the barrage simply phased through the dense hide, continuing their relentless trajectory. They struck true. The radiant barrage punctured every remaining eyeball, completely blinding the towering boss. William, however, wasn't watching Felix or the monster. He had focused his attention solely on Gray. The Vanguard reacted the instant the boy was hurled into the sky.

"Hold on, I've got you!" William roared. He projected a barrier directly into Gray's flight path. The invisible wall shattered Gray's bones with a sickening crunch, completely caving in the side of his face and crushing his upper body. He slid limply down the smooth surface of the barrier, dropping lifelessly to the concrete below.

"Finish the boss!" William shouted over his shoulder.

"I've got the kid!" Luca stopped holding back. His chains exploded outward in a massive flurry, crisscrossing around the creature's bulky torso in a colossal X before cinching tight. The thick iron links flared with a dark aura, and in the next beat, they sliced effortlessly through thick flesh and dense bone, reducing the screaming monster to scattered, bloody chunks. Your party has slain The Great Abomination. 100 CP rewarded to each party member. 10% EXP gained.

"Good call suggesting that we fight the boss as a trap, William." Luca mused, rolling his shoulders back to relieve the tension.

"It would've been incredibly annoying to gang up on him if he actually used that smokescreen ability to mask his escape." William walked calmly toward the exact spot where Gray lay crumpled. Blood rapidly soaked the front of Gray's shirt as he lay propped against the concrete curb. The left side of his face was an unrecognizable, shattered ruin, and his breath came in wet, ragged gasps, his lungs desperately seeking every available bit of oxygen. William squatted down to meet his eye level.

"You didn't actually think this was going to end well for you?" William whispered.

"Rank 425, and you're still this naive?" Gray tried to fight. To move. But every muscle in his body felt like heavy lead, weighing him down. The only way to escape was to take off. Shroud Domain Cooldown remaining: 1 hour, 12 minutes. Fuck! Gray stared dead into William's mocking eyes, gathered the blood pooling in his mouth, and spat a thick glob directly at the man's face. William didn't even flinch at the provocation.

His mana barrier simply phased into existence, intercepting the incoming spit before it could make contact. Deactivating the shield, William stood up, walked around Gray's crumpled body, and violently yanked the boy's head backward by the hair.

"Restrain him." Luca extended an arm, shooting out a chain link that coiled tightly around both of Gray's ankles. With an upward lift of his wrist, he hoisted Gray into the air, leaving him helplessly suspended upside down.

"Let's see if you can act out in that position," William sneered.

"I was willing to kill you quickly, but I think I'll savor this a bit more."

"I thought we were just taking his gear?" Felix asked, jogging over.

"It's way too risky to kill him. What if he actually is a Seeker?"

"We are taking his gear. But there's a massive loophole the system missed." William's grin widened, baring his teeth.

"The penalty is strictly for killing another Seeker. But if we cripple someone to the absolute brink of death, we avoid the punishment just fine. After that, we keep his body captive until the timer hits zero. Once the level officially concludes." He slid a thumb over his neck.

"We slit his throat and absorb his points." Felix let out a low, impressed whistle.

"Great idea, William. I get to do the honors, though." A low whirring hum interrupted their scheming as four loot portals tore a glowing rift through the fabric of space.

"Felix, go fetch whatever's inside," William ordered. Felix plunged his hands inside the first two glowing tears. He pulled out two silver rings. Turning, he claimed the contents of the remaining two portals. Two more rings. Dimensional Ring [LEGENDARY] x4 A pocket dimension for storing belongings.

"Wow, four rings! One for each of us!" Felix exclaimed. He tossed a ring to Luca and another to William, promptly pocketing the remaining two. Luca caught his ring but sneered.

"Hey. If you're getting the kill, I get all the equipment." Felix grumbled a string of curses under his breath, then reluctantly tossed Luca the extra ring. The Vanguard immediately began stripping Gray of his belongings. He tore off Gray's pants, ripped away the tattered remains of his robe, plucked the daggers from their sheaths, and pulled the bloodied shirt over his head. The agonizing pain easily buried the humiliation of being stripped naked.

By now, worrying about ethics and morals remained the absolute last thing on Gray's priority list. It was either them or him. Hol — Movement flickered in the very corner of his inverted vision. A shadowy figure was quietly approaching from the depths of the alleyway. Gray immediately canceled the spell activation. Through sheer willpower, he managed to crack a bloody smile across his caved-in face after recognizing the silhouette.

"What are you smiling at, brat? You're-" William's breath caught in his throat. A guttural, wet tear of flesh echoed into the street from directly behind the tank. He spun around, only to find a rusted chain protruding completely through the dead center of Felix's chest.