Chapter Text
Sung Jin-Woo floated a few inches above the snow as they traveled back in the direction of the gate. Everyone else was on the back of Tank, his newest summon that was a massive bear, large enough to easily carry the entire team. He’d been planning not to assist them with his summons outside of an emergency, but he’d decided they wouldn’t really lose anything in terms of experience if they didn’t have to march through the snow a second time.
Even though the cave was better for shelter it would quickly turn into a deadly bottleneck situation if the elves attacked them there. Moving to a wide open field well out of range from the tree line was their best bet for fighting ice elves. He figured they’d have their fight soon since he’d spotted a few ice elf scouts that had run off and would likely be back with the rest.
Han wrung her hands nervously. “Won’t they just wait us out? They are way more suited to survive out here than we are.”
“If our enemy was human then you would be correct, but monsters are a lot more single minded. They have little patience and even less self preservation, but that makes them predictable. If we stay where we can be found and more easily defend ourselves, then we just need to let them come to us.”
They stayed out in the snow field for about half an hour and the boss was getting close when he felt it. He hadn’t experienced its presence beforehand, but as he felt the cold aura filled with bloodlust and power, he knew the newby hunters wouldn’t last a minute against this kind of monster.
“Everyone behind me! The dungeon boss is likely an S rank monster. Stay back and let me handle this.”
Bin, the self sacrificing tank spoke up. “Are you sure you’ll be fine on your own? We can back you up!”
“This isn’t a debate! Tank, get them back to the gate!”
The giant bear began sprinting away with the hunters to get them to safety. Not that anywhere in a dungeon was ‘safe’.
Jin-Woo let his aura flare to draw in the enemy. It was a universal symbol, sort of like a gorilla hitting its chest or a bear standing on its back legs. It was a challenge, daring the enemy to attack him. It was a simple way to force them out of hiding because any prideful creature, monster or otherwise, wouldn’t let such a challenge stand uncontested in its own territory.
He briefly brought out Golem so he could retrieve some weapons for the upcoming fight. Grabbing a few knives he threw them into the snow far in the distance, near the treeline where the elves would be approaching from.
After a minute or so, a large group of ice elves suddenly stalked into the clearing, most of them on mounts of some sort, there were probably about fifty in total. He could immediately tell who the leader was, standing in front with the strongest presence he’d sensed from a monster since the double dungeon.
They came to a stop as the head elf seemed to be considering him, looking as if Jin-Woo was a particularly interesting puzzle. The elf spoke, but the wispy language didn’t have any meaning to him. He didn’t know what was going on, but he took their distraction as an opportunity to attack.
He suddenly yanked the knives he’d placed back towards him with his telekinesis, the blades striking the elves from behind. He was able to get three elves down before they’d had time to realize what was happening, and to add to their confusion and disorganization he called out the magic word.
“Arise.”
Two of the elves suddenly rose from the ground as shadowy specters, ready to attack their brethren, further breaking up the enemy’s formation. But something very odd happened the moment he had gained control over the souls of the dead monsters. He understood them.
Not his summons specifically, he could understand what all the elves were saying to each other, with his attention immediately drawn to the leader.
He looked interested but not alarmed by the sudden presence of the shadow soldiers. “I was right. You’re no human. I could tell from the moment I saw you that you weren’t really one of them because the voice does not demand that I kill you.”
Jin-Woo would like to say he responded in a logical and well thought out way, but that would be a lie. In the face of the first recorded communication between humans and monsters, he spoke the very intelligent words of “What the actual fuck?”
The ice elf tilted his head in question. “I’m not sure I understand. What are you asking, and why are you among these humans?”
“I think you have me mistaken for someone else. I’m definitely a human, born a human, raised a human, human all the way through.”
All of the elves began laughing very loudly, though the rest of the elves seemed to be less laughing at the joke and more just laughing because they were insane. “That is a good joke, as if anyone other than the Ashborn could do what you do. There is only one being in all of the realms that controls the shadows of the dead, and he is certainly not a mere mortal.”
The elf then stared at him with a calculating eye. “Perhaps you were a human once. I have only borne witness to the Ashborn once, and you are far too weak to be even a vessel for his power. If I were to guess you hold a shard of his being, a small portion of the Ashborn merging with a human would create a hybrid of sorts.”
He nodded slowly, doing his best to remain composed in the face of this insanity. “Who is this ‘Ashborn’ person?”
“He is no ‘person’. He is death and he is undeath. He is the holder and wielder of souls, the only being that can bring them back into this realm. He is the ruler of shadows and darkness. He is the only being to ever hold the titles of both Monarch and Ruler. Does that answer your question?”
“Not really, but it was helpful I guess. I agree that I’m not this ‘Ashborn’, so you can just call me Sung Jin-Woo, since that’s my name.”
“I see. I am Baruka, a general in the Frost Monarch’s army. I have no quarrel with you, will you join us to destroy the humans?”
“What? No! Why do you want to kill humans?”
The elf began to laugh once more. “You really don’t know what you’re up against do you? We don’t care about humans in the slightest, but we must kill them to satiate the crystals placed within our bodies. We were captured in our war against the Rulers and now are forced to fight against your people until one of us is wiped out.”
He felt like his world was turned upside down. These monsters weren’t actually their enemy, just another victim of these ‘Rulers’, whoever they are. He needed a way to free them from this, but his options were incredibly limited within the gate.
He looked Baruka in the ice blue eyes. “What if I free you from their control?”
The elf looked at him with a condescending smirk. “And how would you do that? Do you really believe we haven’t tried everything possible to be free? The only way to escape them is to die- Oh, I believe I understand your offer now, but that wouldn’t be freedom, just changing owners.”
He had to sell this. They finally had access to a source of information on what the gates were and what was causing them. They needed him. Every other monster seemed to have lost their minds to varying degrees, even among these ice elves Baruka seemed to be the only one that was still able to think and speak clearly on the past.
Sure, he could try to kill and summon him without consent, but even A class corpses had a low chance of success that was worse the more they fought him. With an S rank dungeon boss he highly doubted he could pull it off if he resisted and he couldn’t take a gamble like that on someone this important.
“You’re right. I can’t set you free, but I can give you something you’ll never get while you’re fighting humans on behalf of these Rulers. I can give you vengeance. Stand by my side as a shadow and I’ll give you the chance to fight back against them. Help us to defeat them.”
He locked eyes with Jin-Woo, searching for any sign of deception. “You really plan to take on the Rulers?”
“They have attacked our home and I won’t let that stand. They will pay for what they’ve done.”
The elf was silent in thought for a minute or so. “Understood. I have two conditions. First, you shall only get my soul, my comrades shall be allowed to pass on to the void. Their minds were not strong enough to hold up against the crystal’s influence and they deserve to finally find rest. Secondly, I will not just roll over for you, you must kill us in combat. If you cannot defeat us then there’s no point in thinking you stand a chance against them.”
He nodded, that made enough sense. “I accept your terms.” He raised a hand and pointed at the ice elves, “Kill them all.” And with that sixty A rank monsters rose from his shadow and charged forward.
His blades flew through the air, cutting down his opponents while they were locked in combat with the various beasts that had come forth. Whenever an elf fell he would call them back to fight for him, slowly causing them to outnumber the enemy more and more.
It didn’t take long before most of the elves had fallen. He’d used a good chunk of his mana already, but he still had about half left since his newer summons needed far less healing than any monsters he’d used in the past.
Baruka however was still standing his ground, a wave of ice pushing back his shadows and forcing many to require regeneration. He pointed at Jin-Woo. “Are you so weak that you will stand back and keep your hands clean? Are you so easily frightened?”
Jin-Woo couldn’t let that stand. Not because of his own pride though, if this had been any other fight then he would ignore the taunt and just let his enemy be worn down by waves of his unkillable monsters. But this wasn’t a fight, not really, this was an audition. He needed to convince this man that he could give him the vengeance he so desired. He would need to demonstrate the strength and skill that would be needed to face these ‘Rulers’.
So he flew directly up into the air, at least a few hundred feet and looked down at the fight below.
“You coward! Is this how you plan to fight?! By running away whenever you’re in danger?!”
This is exactly how he planned to fight, and it was how he would win.
He let himself start to fall, using his telekinesis to accelerate himself toward the ground even faster. It wasn’t near the fight though, if he kept his course he’d slam into an open field of snow away from any part of the battle.
He wasn’t so self absorbed or conceited to think that he was stronger than he actually was. Sung Jin-Woo was a cripple that chose office work over battles. His powers made him an excellent leader, a general of an undead army, but he was pathetic physically when compared to the other S rank hunters. Even A rank hunters could easily beat him if he didn’t have his summons.
His strength came from the fact that he knew that. He knew he was weak, so he would never fight fair or honorably. He would win with cheap tricks and clever ideas that would give him whatever advantage he could get his hands on. That’s what he needed to show Baruka. That he was a man that knew how to win even when he was severely outmatched.
The moment he was about to collide with the ground he activated Shadow Swap on the manticore that was fighting Baruka. The elf’s eyes went wide with shock as Jin-Woo suddenly appeared in front of him.
But he didn’t just appear, he’d tested it before and found that he maintained any current momentum when swapping. This meant when he appeared less than three feet away he was already flying into him at nearly two hundred miles an hour.
Before Baruka even had a chance to react to the teleportation skill, he’d already been slammed into by the cannonball that was Jin-Woo in S rank armor. Baruka just stared at him in shock before slowly looking down at the arm buried in his chest. Jin-Woo’s razor sharp claws had pierced his body and were now holding the man’s heart in a hand that had burst out of his back.
Baruka looked back up at him, locking eyes.
“I look forward to fighting by your side.”
And with that, he collapsed against the hunter, marking the dungeon as cleared and allowing the gate to open once more. The last of the elves were easily defeated and he dismissed any shadow elves to the void as promised. He pulled his arm out from the monster’s chest cavity and spoke a single word.
“Arise.”
Baruka’s shadow rose from his corpse without any fight or hesitation. This creature wanted revenge, and Jin-Woo was the only way he could get it. This meant he now had his first S rank summons, far stronger than the rest and a treasure trove of priceless information.
The newbie hunters were brought back to the gate by Tank, quickly followed by Jin-Woo and a procession of summons carrying anything of value, excluding elf corpses, which he felt deserved far better than being made into leather.
He was in a daze as the adrenaline began to recede and he walked over to Jin-chul who was waiting for him. Luckily his friend seemed to quickly comprehend what was going on and led him into his car to drive him home.
The moment he sat down he pulled off his helmet and began to weep on his friend’s shoulder.
“The monsters… they aren’t our enemies, they aren’t even monsters. They’re just POWs that are forced to attack us. Every single ‘monster’ we’ve killed the last ten years was innocent.”
Jin-Chul didn’t really understand, but he didn’t need to. He just consoled him and listened to his babbling sobs about everything he’d learned in the dungeon. He could get real information later, right now he just needed to support his friend.