After having calmed down and persuaded the F-rankers to move further into the decrepit mansion’s area. Every one of them has no choice but to begrudgingly move further into the dungeon.
They’re not in fear anymore as they are mad at the fact that they have no choice but to advance. Their anger overrides all the hesitation before as there is nothing more dangerous than a beast cornered. Given a man no escape and he would rather fight to his death. Even if despair had grasped their hearts briefly, humans are creatures of arrogance if nothing else.
The D-rank Hunter has devised the tactic formation so that they can advance regardless of being surrounded or not. Scouting their ways through as they swept through the spider monsters with focus.
Most of the time, F-rank Hunters don’t have enough coordination to work with one another and if even one of them breaks, the panic would spread. But thanks to the Forgotten Melody that Jihoon played, the morale attrition is negated entirely as long as it plays.
No Hunter ever clears the first Gate they delved into in a single attempt even if prepared because all the pressure and tasks required would overwhelm their ill-prepared mind. It would be difficult to take one step at a time when the constraint of time always avails them.
The webs are becoming denser as they move. Suspecting it that following it will lead to the Boss Area thus the D-rank Hunter made his way while the others follow suit and clear whatever stragglers that the D-rank tore his way through.
It is still a F-rank Gate to him, but he knew already of how overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
Then, they approached the definite Boss Area of the Gate with how dense the cobwebs and monster density were but the D-rank Hunter acts as the impenetrable wall for all the F-rankers, allowing them to reach this far without any casualty incurred.
A lot of them have become much more accustomed to Gate-delving compared to the initial entry. If there’s the next time they enter a Gate, they won’t immediately be afraid without the Forgotten Melody.
“Alright, listen here. I alone will deal with the boss. All of you will hold your ground and stay safe till I get out. Do not die, that’s my order to all of you”. The D-rank Hunter spoke as he enters the Boss Room.
"Sir, with all due respect, I'd like to accompany you to face the boss monster." Jihoon said as he stepped forward, gripping his halberd tightly.
The grizzled D-rank Hunter turned, fixing Jihoon with a steely gaze. "You've got a decent head on your shoulders, kid, but this is no place for a greenhorn like you."
"I may be new to this, but my Song Magic has proven useful so far," Jihoon replied steadily. "With me bolstering our strength, we'll have a better chance of taking down the boss quickly and cleanly."
The D-rank's eyes narrowed as he considered Jihoon's words. Finally, he gave a curt nod. "Alright, you've earned the right to prove yourself. But you follow my lead to the letter, understand? No heroics or you'll get us both killed."
Jihoon nodded firmly. "You have my word. I'll hang back and provide support however I can."
The other F-rank Hunters watched with mixed expressions - some envious, others relieved they weren't the ones chosen. But Jihoon paid them no mind, his focus solely on the challenge to come.
As the boss gate closes behind them. Jihoon takes out the electric guitar that he wrapped around in cloth. With a light strumming of it, he felt a great presence started to approach the two of them.
“Here it comes. Don’t falter”. The D-rank Hunter said as he prepares to draw its attention toward him.
The boss chamber shook as a massive, chittering form descended from the vaulted ceiling. A grotesque monstrosity of an arachnid the size of a siege engine. Spiked edges and jagged bone infused into its mandibles dripped in corrosive ichor.
Jihoon took a steadying breath, the intro notes of "Glint of Cold Steel" beginning to play faintly in his mind as he prepares for the confrontation. With his hands moved into position, the battle begins in earnest as the D-rank Hunter made his charge toward the boss alone undaunted by the horror.
The spider-horror let loose a deafening shriek that set Jihoon's teeth on edge. Without warning, a volley of ossified spikes erupted from its underbelly, shredding the ground where they stood moments before.
"Keep moving! Don't let it box us in!" the D-rank roared, charging straight at the abomination.
Jihoon broke into a sprint, electric guitar wailing, as "Glint of Cold Steel" swelled to a crescendo. His vital reinvigorated as the D-rank met the horror head on. Warhammer and mandibles clashed into explosions of sparks while the D-rank nimbly evading the sweeping of its barbed legs.
Seizing the moment, Jihoon swapped for his halberd while its focus is solely on the D-rank. While the effect of “Glint of Cold Steel” still lingers, the halberd’s spearhead finds its mark toward one of the arachnid’s eyes. A piercing screech shook the chamber as the monster recoiled, spraying its ichor wildly. It is still only a F-rank Boss Monster, but he can’t overcome it by himself.
The spider-horror regrouped with startling speed, charging them in a blind fury. Jihoon braced himself as rows of gnashing pincers closed in. Then the D-rank was there, a whirlwind of steel that battered the creature back, blows raining down with bone-crushing force.
"Don't just stand there gawking, kid! Put that magic of yours to work!" The D-ranker bellowed over the electric guitar's soaring refrains.
Jihoon stands up again, taking his halberd out as he observes the boss monster and its details. Then when the chance show itself as its focus is solely on the D-ranker, his halberd struck into the weak spots of the monster such as the joints or below stomach.
He attacks rarely but when he does, he makes sure that it hurts. Taking the guerilla method, the boss won’t know what hit it until too late.
Their coordinated assault slowly whittled away at the spider-horror's defenses. Jihoon's opportunistic strikes deal critical damage while the D-ranker’s warhammer continuously pound like a blacksmith’s forge. Slowly with inch by inch, they scored rents on its armored carapace, foul ichor oozing from both critical and accumulated wounds.
Before they could continue however, the boss monster’s breaking point has been reached as it enters a state of frenzy. Jihoon can no longer approaches easily as its careful, probing strikes quickly devolved into a storm of snapping pincers and sweeping legs.
Jihoon found himself pushed onto the defensive, the reach of his halberd barely keeping the gnashing mandibles at bay upon approaching. "This shouldn't be possible..." he gasped, retreating from a volley of ossified spikes. "How is this just a F-rank?!"
The D-rank gave a grunt of exertion, repeatedly smashing his hammer into the creature's oversized skull to barely any effect. "Worry about that later, kid! Just keep it occupied!"
Jihoon backpedaled furiously, the guitar segment of "Glint of Cold Steel" hitting a feverish gallop as he fought to evade the unrelenting assault. He could feel his Song Magic bolstering his reflexes, but even that was rapidly being outpaced by the boss's berserker onslaught. At this rate, even one misstep would be fatal.
All of this makes him realized that a generalized buff has worked wonder with a team that can deal with a horde of lesser enemies, this boss however is an entirely different caliber altogether. To make any headway, he would need to compose a Song Magic that is tailored specifically for this situation. Something more potent and focused.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It’s like comparing a standard battle theme to an ‘important boss’ theme if he must make a short comparison.
Risking a glance at the D-rank, holding the line through sheer stubbornness. Jihoon suddenly realized the inspiration for the Song Magic that he has.
“Sir! Do you believe in me?” Jihoon yelled to the D-ranker who has been enduring the frenzied onslaught up until now.
“Not the time right now!” The D-ranker said before something resembles to that of a spiked hand-axe struck the other eye columns of the spider-horror. It shrieked as its sense of vision were ruined severely. With that, there was a brief respite for him from all the battering that even his D-rank gear is at the brink.
It is clear that a monster of such caliber to overcome difference of ranks like this can’t be considered as mere normal F-rank anymore.
“Tell me, what’s your belief?”. Jihoon said as he makes himself clear that this is a matter of life and death depends on the D-rank Hunter’s answer.
The D-rank wheezed, propping himself up on his warhammer as the blinded spider-horror screeched and thrashed. His armor was rent in multiple places, trails of blood seeping from the lacerations.
"My belief?" He gave a ragged chuckle. "Kid, I've been beating my head against monsters like this for longer than you can imagine. Seen friends and comrades torn to shreds because they didn't have the strength to endure."
His grip tightened on the warhammer's shaft, knuckles whitening. "But I kept putting one foot in front of the other. No matter how many times I got knocked down, I got back up. Because the moment you lose that fire inside, that unwavering belief in yourself...that's when the real fight ends."
Jihoon can see the fire within the man’s eyes. A furnace of determination that refused to be snuffed out. This veteran has stared at death more times than he could count yet still stood defiant either way.
"So you're damn right that I believe, greenhorn," the D-rank stated, squaring his stance as the spider-horror reoriented on them. "I believe we're going to smash this ugly bastard into paste. And if my hammer doesn't get the job done, I'm putting all my faith in that magic of yours to light the path!"
Jihoon felt those words resonate deep within his soul. Without a moment's hesitation, he began plucking out the intro notes on his electric guitar. This would be no ordinary buff - it would be an anthem of unyielding conviction to raise the D-rank's will to titanic heights.
With a name already decided, he simply muttered its name only for himself to hear.
Belief
Kickstarting into an intro already with a refrain of face-melting riffs, each one higher than others before making them stabilized and transition toward the chorus.
The D-rank snapped into action as the first scorching riffs rang out, warhammer whirling in lethal arcs. He met the spider-horror's charge head-on, deflecting its gnashing pincers with bone-jarring blows. Each impact resonated with the steadfast belief channeled into his battered form.
The chorus is then composed of a simple rising note progression before ending in a slight drop. Then it is repeated with its note progression key changed into lower scale, as if to represent melancholy.
For a moment did the D-rank falter, the sheer monstrosity of his foe giving him pause. But the melody's swelling cadence refused to let that seed of doubt take root, buoying his spirit even as it briefly touched the depths of fatalistic melancholy. His warhammer continuously found its marks in thunderous cracks of splintering chitin.
Once the refrain structure is done, Jihoon performs a short bridge before repeats the refrain again. Due to the structure of the song in general only rises higher it progresses, the intensity only scales up indefinitely as the song goes on.
The battle raged with renewed ferocity, each combatant giving as good as they got. Jihoon's searing refrains fueled the D-rank's frenzy of blows, forcing the spider-horror to yield ground inch by punishing inch. Gouged floor and shattered masonry littered the scorched chamber as the clashing of steel on carapace rang out in a deafening crescendo.
Then once the refrain is repeated, he moves into the transition phase again as the song enters the interlude. Its melodic progression consisted of high notes and lower notes mixed together in the song’s progression, as if emulating the feeling of self-conflict.
Bloodied and battered, the D-rank staggered back under the weight of the monster's relentless onslaught. Its pincers and barbed legs scoring deep rents in his armor with every failed block or desperate dodge. For a moment, the fires of his conviction flickered and wavered in the face of the soul-crushing dissonance, only for Jihoon's anthem to crash over him in a rising swell of self-belief.
The interlude’s progression enters its crescendo phrase as the refrain of melody played again, and again as each refrain shifted the key upward. Finally, the chorus of the song comes as it rides off the crescendo of the interlude.
Resolve flooded back in a tidal resurgence, banishing the whirlpool of doubt. The chorus swelled like a battle standard, and the D-rank was the unyielding vanguard rallying behind its defiant call. Each thunderous blow of his warhammer became a proclamation of unshakable faith in himself, in his cause and in the fight itself.
The harmony of the chorus consisted of the constant rapid shift of chord progressions but generally rising in overall progression, like turbulent thoughts that conflict when one’s belief is put to the test. Then Jihoon started to refrain from the previous harmony again in shifted higher key change before ending it in a high note.
The shifting, soaring melodies refocused the D-rank's mindset, vigor renewed awhole, aligning the maelstrom of his beliefs as an unbreakable whole. As the final, piercing high note rang out, his warhammer found its mark with a sickening crunch - burying itself deep in the spider-horror's repulsive maw and silencing its foul shrieks forever. Belief, unshakable and unyielding, had triumphed over the dreadful abomination through storm of blood and fury.
The song reached its post-climax as Jihoon played the very intro of the song. Marking its restart point had the battle gone any longer than it should. Slowly approaching its end, the song died down as he puts his electric guitar away as his performed song is registered by the System.
______-----{////\\\\}-----______
Belief
Classification: Song Magic
Rank: Intermediate
Effect:
-+25% to all Physical Attributes to self and one ally within Song Magic’s range.
Effect becomes +50% to all Physical Attributes if caster is performing this song directly.
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
The D-rank not wanting to risk the chance that the boss suddenly rise from the dead, he crushes the head of the spider-horror until it becomes unrecognizable smear of paste. Jihoon also hands over the remaining incendiary that he brought with him as he also uses it to torch its remains to ashes. Forgetting entirely that they supposed to harvest the boss's material but after such close call, they don't exactly have the profit in their mind at the moment.
“So… it is done…”. The D-rank said as a part of him felt all of the things transpired so far was unreal. Rapping his knuckles against his breastplate in a gesture of relief. "Don't know about you, kid...but I could use a stiff drink after that mess."
On cue, a shimmering portal opened in the far wall, beckoning them to return from behind the boss gate. As they limped through, they were immediately surrounded by the anxious yet exultant F-rank Hunters who had remained behind. A chorus of excited voices assailed them.
"Did you really slay that monstrosity all by yourselves?"
"I could hear the most epic battle music resonating through the gate!"
"Seriously, what kind of ability lets you enhance people like that?"
Jihoon waved them off with a tired grin, too drained to properly explain the intricacies of his Song Magic. The D-rank, however, silenced them all with an upraised hand as they passed through the dispersal chambers.
"Save your breath, greenhorns," the D-ranker growled, leaning heavily on his warhammer. "Just be thankful you weren't us poor bastards who had to take that unholy thing head-on."
The chamber filled with a reverent hush as they emerged, battered but victorious, into the harsh fluorescent lights of the Association's staging areas after they exited the Gate which are now closing on its own after there’s no Hunters remain in there.
Technicians and staffers immediately swarmed them, rebuffing the curious onlookers as they hurried them to the infirmary wings.
It was only once they'd been properly seen and checked up that Jihoon had a chance to reflect on the harrowing events. Even as the medics checked him over and administered healing salves, his mind kept drifting back to that grotesque, nigh-unstoppable spider-horror that is too much for him right now.
Something about the entire situation just felt...off. Skewed from what should have been a relatively straightforward F-rank gate delve. The sheer ferocity and tenacity of that abomination, effortlessly shrugging off everything they threw at it until Jihoon's magic got involved. It made his instincts prickle with unease.
As if sensing his preoccupation, the D-rank fixed him with a knowing look from the adjacent bed. "You're thinking it too, ain't you kid?"
Jihoon could only nod slowly, recalling the spider-horror's terrible onslaught with a frown. "How the ever-loving hell was that just rated as a F-rank? I've read plenty about Gates and the typical threats that come spilling out before making this Gate entry...but that thing we fought today was on another level entirely."
The D-rank snorted, already anticipating the bureaucratic headaches awaiting them both. "Well, get ready to tell it to the briefers, because you can bet your ass there'll be a report written up in triplicate about this clusterfunk."
Leaning back with a weary sigh, Jihoon could only stare at the ceiling and ponder the questions swirling through his mind. What other impossibilities were waiting out there, lurking beyond the veil of the Gates? And if that was just his first Gate entry then... how much more does his Song Magic need to grow to match the threats surely lying in wait?
Only one thing was certain - his journey as a Hunter had barely even begun.