Jihoon made it to his F-rank Gate Subjugation site as he can see many other F-rankers like him awaiting their entry of the Gate. Amidst the crowd, he saw Jin who is calling out to him as he waved his hand to catch Jihoon’s attention.
Jin looks more confident this time around, and other than carrying his Association-issued blade is also a guitar case on his back as if to make himself stand out.
“Hey, you’re finally here! With you here, I can tell that this Gate is going to be breeze with you”. Jin said with unabashed enthusiasm, unaware of the severity of the situation they’re in.
Jihoon can only reply with a wry smile on his face. Since this is a Gate designated for subjugation instead, it is possible that the Gate Boss at the end of it is going to be extremely powerful compared to its actual registered difficulty.
At this point, he doesn’t know who is registering the difficulty of the Gate, is it just whatever the Hunter who found it said and the Association just accept without further checking?
For some reason, Jihoon can feel an ominous aura irradiating from the Gate itself. Is it the effect of his MAG stat being higher than otherwise that he can detect irregularity just by sensing? Either way, it hard confirms that something wrong is going to occur in this Gate.
The fact that this Gate’s subjugation is set for one month makes it far more suspicious now that he realized the conspiracy behind. The mastermind has just done feeding the Boss of this Gate and is about to harvest its bloodsoaked loot drop. And the Association’s investigation team has yet to make their appearance at all for reasons unknown.
“Listen here! We’re about to enter this Gate with the purpose of subjugation. I will not be held responsible for any mishandling or casualty arise due to personal negligence or defiance of order”. The leading Hunter of this Gate spoke, they are supposedly also a D-rank which is obviously unusual for an F-rank Gate.
Jihoon felt his unease mounting as he regarded the unusual deployment. For a mere F-rank Subjugation, having an elite veteran Hunter spearheading the operation seemed...excessive. A concerning portent, especially coupled with his unsettling premonitions surrounding this particular Gate.
Jin seemed oblivious to the subtle discrepancies, eyes alight with anticipation as he hefted his Association-issued blade. The battered guitar case slung across his back only reinforced his almost cavalier nonchalance about the mission.
Jihoon mustered up a strained smile in return, lacking Jin's unbridled enthusiasm. So much seemed askew - the ominous aura suffusing the Gate itself, the bizarrely over-qualified handling of a supposedly minor Subjugation, and now the conspicuous absence of the D-ranker's investigation team who should have been lying in wait.
Could it be...they'd already fallen prey to whatever malign machinations were afoot? A ploy to draw in additional lambs for sacrificial culling before the Association exposed the apparent conspiracy from within? Jihoon's stomach twisted sourly at the thought.
The lead D-rank Hunter was issuing final instructions, his graven voice cutting through Jihoon's churning doubts and reservations. "...stay in formation, stick to your assigned fire teams. Jung-wha, Kyung-sam, you're with me in the vanguard pushing the spearhead. We hit hard and fast, don't give them bastards a chance to dig in its heels!"
Two hulking warriors outfitted in elite armaments stomped forward, flanking the D-rank with grim determination writ across their brutish features. Just their presence alone seemed to cast an oppressive pall over the milling rookies.
Jihoon swallowed past the lump in his throat as the Gate's pulsing wickedness reached an ominous fever pitch. Whatever's lurking within, it was no mere mook to be trifled with - of that much, he could be certain. But the true source of his disquiet laid in the unknown - just who among these assembled Hunters could be dealing from the same stacked deck as the sacrificial operations overseer?
Surely the grizzly D-ranker and his task force wouldn't leave them completely twisting in the wind...would they? Jihoon could only hope his trust in the grizzled veteran hadn't been tragically misplaced as the Gate's corrupted light flooded over them and the dimensional breach yawned open once more.
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Entering… Derelict Courthouse of Judgment
Difficulty: F (D+)
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Apparently… the little goddess that blessed him with Song Magic just also give him the ability to recognize Gate’s name and its difficulty upon entering. And seeing the adjusted difficulty add in beside didn’t bode him very well. A little amount of unknown has been lifted and he wasn’t sure of what to feel.
They found themselves standing in the shattered remains of what appeared to be some ancient judicial hall. Towering columns lay strewn amidst piles of rubble, their intricately carved facades pocked and scarred by eons of decay. Tattered banners depicting somber masked visages flapped lifelessly in a spectral breeze.
But it was the figures shambling throughout the ruin that made Jihoon's gut clench. Decrepit armored husks, remnants of some long-fallen order of sentinels, now reanimated into a vicious mockery of their former sworn duty.
Their helm-capped skulls twisted in eerie unison toward the intruding Hunters as the team fanned out into formation, baleful crimson pinpricks flaring within those empty eye sockets. Rust-etched blades and polearms rasped against their battle-scarred breastplates as the undead sentries staggered forth in stiff, inexorable strides.
Inhaling deeply, Jihoon started plucking out the opening refrains of "Glint of Cold Steel" in his mind as the first skeletal horrors closed the distance - harsh, defiant power chords to imbue them with sharpened lethality. If these grotesque undead were but the vanguard of whatever malign forces conspired against them, they would need every advantage Jihoon could provide to persevere.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The battle of their lives loomed ahead - and Jihoon swore his allies would not want for fortitude when the reckoning finally came.
Jihoon swung his halberd into a wide arc, and with his trained martial form established after that one month training, he doesn’t flinch or hesitate as he cut down the swathe of undead with some ease.
The mobs in this Gate didn’t become difficult much like the Spider-infested Mansion before but the boss will be another headache that he has no easy answer to as its danger has been artificially raised.
He only has one tactic and that is to stall the raid team until the Association’s investigation task force arrives. Not too powerful that they breeze through the Gate but not too weak that they suffer casualty.
“Jihoon, you alright?”. Jin asked his old friend as the intensity of the battle is already greater than the back at the previous Gate.
“I’m fine but… I don’t know how much I can trust the veteran Hunters here. If this F-rank Gate really is just what its difficulty suggests then they have no reason to enter along like this. They would spend their resources somewhere else”. Jihoon spoke as his acuity is sharp when it comes to matters like this.
The raid team pushed deeper into the decrepit judicial hall, wading through scattered rubble and the desiccated remains of the undead sentries. Jihoon kept a wary eye on their supposed veteran leaders, Jin's guitar case thumping against his back with every measured stride.
As they navigated the crumbling ruin's maze-like interior, Jin leaned in close. "Hey, you see how unstable this whole place looks?" he murmured, chin angling upward.
Jihoon followed his friend's gaze, taking in the worrying cracks and fissures snaking across the vaulted ceiling high overhead. Many of the supporting columns were eroded down to mere stumps, while others teetered precariously atop piles of age-old detritus.
"One good shockwave from a detonation or ground-shaking attack could bring the whole structure tumbling down on us. The whole place is as stable as a house of cards" Jin observed grimly. "We'll need to be careful about collateral during the inevitable boss fight."
Nodding tightly, Jihoon scanned their surroundings with newfound trepidation. Jin was right - in such compromised environs, even a glancing blow that missed its intended target could trigger catastrophic structural failures. Entire sections of flooring had already given way, exposing shadowy pits that plunged into dilapidated sub-levels below.
Everywhere Jihoon looked, the architectural decay and accumulated ravages of time leered back at them. With the Gate's difficulty artificially amplified to unknown degrees, the slightest misstep could spell outright calamity for the entire team.
The two F-rankers shared a loaded look, a silent acknowledgment of the graver stakes now confronting them. Whatever horrors awaited at the delve's climax, they would need to exercise the utmost precision and control to overcome the threat without succumbing to the ruin's treacherous deterioration.
As they pressed onward through the labyrinthine complex of listing archways and toppled masonry, Jihoon found himself wondering just how far their supposed veteran leadership was willing to push them all. His gaze drifted toward the D-rank Hunter marching at the vanguard, mouth settling into a grim line. If their suspicions proved true, the very Hunters swore themselves to safeguard them could soon become the deadliest hazard of all.
Suddenly, the floor in front of them gave away as it collapsed into the darkness below. The original trajectory path devised toward the Gate Boss as fast as possible was cut. The leading D-rank growled in annoyance before commanding others to take the alternative path they may lead them toward the Boss Room.
And so, taking their path, the raid team by chance come across the grand courthouse where its massive size suggested something of importance once taken place here. But the focus of the Hunters placed upon a singular figure kneeling in the middle of the courthouse.
A knight clads in full-plated armor, which is still intact in comparison to the other undead that roam the judicial hall. However, the decay of time lies apparent as there is nothing to identify this knight at all. Even then, the might instilled beneath the armor and the halberd it wields still lingers as if one wrong step and it will hurl its warpath toward them.
With all the carefulness that they have, the knight still caught them as its gaze suddenly revealed once any of them are in proximity to it. Due to the design of the grand courthouse, they have no choice but to approach the knight who is at the center of this room.
The knight gave a glancing look at the raid team and when its eyes finally laid upon the veteran Hunters, all hell broke loose. It immediately moved into its standing position. The halberd moves hand in hand as it lunges toward the leading Hunters.
In that instant, Jihoon's enhanced senses kicked in and the little goddess’s passive blessing takes its effect. Carried on some frequency only he could perceive. The comprehension of the goddess's arcane knowledge also extended to these forgotten syllables that armored vigil of husk is saying.
"Defilers...steeped in sacrificial rites...you dare stained these hallowed grounds dripping in the echoes of the slain..."
The judicator's hollow revulsion washed over Jihoon like a cold wave. It clearly recognized the conspiratorial markings borne by the D-rank team, marks no doubt accrued through their soul-harvesting atrocities.
Then, in a blinding flurry of motion, the ancient horror charged - halberd blurring as it led with a thunderous overhead chop aimed squarely at the veteran Hunters. They barely had time to interpose their own weapons before the bone-jarring impact sent them staggering back.
"Engaging boss entity!" the D-rank leader snarled, even as fissures cracked across the tiles from the shockwave. "All units, subdue with extreme prejudice!"
What followed was a ferocious melee of clashing halberds and ringing steel as the judicator fought with the cold, merciless fury of the dishonored dead. Again, and again as it singled out the conspirator cell for its most brutal attacks, heedless of any injuries it sustained from their retaliatory strikes.
Jihoon quickly takes out his electric guitar as he strums his selection of Song Magic at disposal. Unfortunately, only Glint of Cold Steel is the one that carries the most effectiveness right now as a team. Yet as every blow that the knight swung, the catastrophic structural failure only rippled and spread further outward.
Masonry fracturing, support columns buckling, the entire courthouse struggled to contain the violence that this judicator is mustering at his target.
At one point, Jin was nearly crushed beneath by a falling balcony until Jihoon’s hasty motion boosted by his own Song Magic dragged him out of the danger zone. Even though a grateful look been shot to Jihoon, the judicator continues to fragment and divide the formation of the Hunters apart.
"For every innocent life you siphoned...a thousandfold penance shall be wrought..."
The harbinger's threats carried the weight of ancient, grim justice as it hewed through their ranks with implacable precision. Entire sections of the courthouse were collapsing now, choked with thick clouds of pulverized masonry.
Holding onto his own friends’ hand, Jihoon knew that things have gone beyond salvageable already. As he deliberately separated him and Jin from the scattered party, the floor beneath them ruptured as Jihoon and Jin was separated once again.
With only a nod, the two of them can only hope that they can come across each other on their path again as they leave the collapsing courthouse for their own fate. Every man for themselves, that’s how the situation has devolved for them.
The ceiling then collapsed as the grand courthouse divided into unsurpassable sections. What happened to the F-rankers, the D-rank party, the knight, Jin is all but a mystery.