The hallway closed in on them as they approached the enormous stone doors leading into the boss chamber. Ice crystals clung to the walls like a living thing, pulsing faintly with an eerie blue light.
Each breath misted over with the cold, yet this cold was unnatural. It was thick. Heavy. Like the air inside a tomb.
Ji-hwan raised a closed fist, bringing the team to a silent halt.
"Final checks," he replied softly, calm and sharp, eyes fixed on the imposing carvings ahead. "Potions. Mana. Weapons.No mistakes ."
Behind him, the party moved with quiet discipline. Potions clicked softly into place. Mana hummed in the air like distant thunder. The scent of cold steel, burning magic, and tight focus hung thick.
Min Seul-gi, the group healer and main mage, breathed slowly, exhaling a mist into the air. "Two major heals remaining. One barrier. Mana's at 80 percent."
Do-yun, the tank, rolled his shoulders. His enchanted tower shield shimmered faintly with frost resistance. "Armor's clean. Barrier glyphs active."
Woo-shik flipped his daggers, then grasped them tightly, the runes lighting bright blue.. "Let's kill this thing and go home."
Ji-hwan nodded once. Then stepped forward.
He placed a gloved palm on the frozen stone.
The ancient door pulsed in response, reacting to his mana signature.
RUMMMMBBLE.
With a scraping creak that echoed down the passageway like a waking creature, doors began opening.
And then—
SNAP.
A blur.
No warning.
No sound.
There was a flash of silver and ice around the gate, like a shooting star.
BOOM
The ground shook under their feet as the boss monster charged into their ranks, scattering the team like scattered leaves during a storm. Frost and debris exploded outward in a blinding wave. Its roar followed—deep, primal, and deafening, like a mountain breaking.
"AMBUSH!" Ji-hwan shouted, appearing with a sword in hand in a swift but smooth motion.
But the monster was already moving.
Four meters of raw power and speed. Its fur shimmered like shards of broken ice. Each breath produced mist into the air like steam from a dying world, or a world engulf by a black hole. Its fangs were jagged icicles, and its eyes—clear, cold, intelligent to it's brim and gleamed with a hunter's focus.
"What is this world?! That's not a C-rank boss!" Woo-shik exclaimed, rolling backward as a the monster claw lunched towards the ground just where he was standing.
"It's a B-rank Ice Wolf King!" Seul-gi yelled, hurriedly casting a burning sigil to block a swipe from the creature's tail.
The beast twisted and exhaled—
A blizzard in breath form. A breath that even a fire dragon that's not yet an adult, would fear.
The frost breath swept across the field like a tidal wave of snow and pain.
"SHIELD!" shouted Do-yun, pounding his tower shield into the ground. The icy breath hit it—and bounced off on either side like a stream around a boulder.
But it's wasn't far enough.
One of the back-line hunters, a young D-rank named Chan, screamed. Frost coursed down his leg in a couple of seconds, turning flesh blue and brittle. He fell in groaning pain. Pain of cells dying. Pain of blood freezing. Just pure pain.
"Get him out!" Ji-hwan shouted, rushing forward. "I'll draw aggro!"
He struck—steel flashing.
His blade struck it's flesh but hardly cut through, it's was more of a crash than a cut. But still it was something as the wolf growled, turned, and with terrifying speed, lashed its tail.
CRACK.
Ji-hwan was sent skidding backward across the frozen floor.
"Leader!" Seul-gi cried out, already chanting.
Yet the creature did not stop.
It leaped—towering as a great shadow—then dropped, shaking the chamber.— The ground split, and suddenly…
Blue flame portals opened in a perfect circle.
Six monsters emerged, Ice Wolves monsters, thinner than their King but almost human-size, with eyes aflame with savage hunger.
"Summons! C-rank wolves!" Hye-jin shouted, drawing her bow.
"Split and engage! Stay mobile!" Ji-hwan ordered, rising to his feet.
The group spitted up in a hurry.
Do-yun and Woo-shik went off towards the left pursuing three wolves. Hye-jin and Dae-hwan went right. Seul-gi remained central, switching between spell for healing and incarnation for magic, like walls of flame.
Ji-hwan went straight for the boss monster.
He utilized his martial arts Flowing Crimson Edge—his unique skill that makes each attack to become more rapid and sharper with every strike
He slashed once—twice—three times.
The Ice Wolf King dodged the first, blocked the second with a raised paw, and countered the third with a vicious claw strike that split the air like lightning.
Ji-hwan barely avoided decapitation.
Too fast. Too smart.
It didn't fight like a beast. It circled, tested, baited. It thought.
"Its intelligence is… unnatural," Ji-hwan muttered, repositioning.
A scream broke the chaos.
One of the summoned wolves had Dae-hwan on the ground with its jaws around his neck. Do-yun charged forward shield-first, ramming it into the wall.
CRACK.
Blood stained the ice.
"Dae-hwan's out! Concussion!" Seul-gi called out.
Ji-hwan raised one of his eyebrows. "It does not want a quick kill, It is wearing us down."
The boss monster inhaled again.
Another gust of frost—and this one in a larger arc.
"MOVE!" Ji-hwan shouted, dodging through the blast.
"Now! While it's casting!" he barked.
Seul-gi launched a delayed fire burst.
BOOM!
It exploded at the King's feet, staggering it.
Woo-shik dashed in, blades slicing at the hind leg. "Barely a scratch! This thing's hide is enchanted!"
"Fire! Aim for weak points!" Ji-hwan ordered.
Hye-jin loosed a fire-tipped arrow—it sank into the King's side.
The beast howled, blood darkening the snow.
Ji-hwan didn't hesitate.
He sprinted, then jumped.
Mid-air, his blade glowed crimson.
He twisted, flipped over the wolf's massive head, and drove his sword down into its neck.
THUD.
The King collapsed.
Chest rising and falling.
Then—
Still.
Silence.
No one moved.
"Is it… dead?" Woo-shik asked, panting hard.
Seul-gi ran a scan. "Vitals… gone. Yes. It's dead."
He dropped to his knees, exhausted. "That wasn't your average B-rank boss."
Ji-hwan pulled out his sword. "No. More than that, it was thinking. Its intelligence surpassed even that of most B-rank bosses."
There was blood, frost, burn marks around them. Chan was stable but would not be walking for a few weeks. Dae-hwan was unconscious. The others were bruised, battered, or bleeding.
They had survived.
Barely.
Ji-hwan took a slow breath. "Heal up. Collect the cores. Then we evac."
Seul-gi pulled out a teleport stone, activating it.
Nothing happened.
"…That's weird," she said. "It should've worked."
Do-yun approached the exit portal.
It was still there.
Still swirling.
Still glowing.
But it hadn't dimmed.
"Why isn't it closing?" Hye-jin asked, his voice filled with uneasiness and worry.
Ji-hwan stared at the portal.
"Seul-gi. Check for dimensional interference."
She began a chant. Her face paled.
"…The space isn't stable. Like the dungeon didn't register the boss kill. Or…"
"Or?" Woo-shik pressed.
"Or this wasn't the real boss."
Silence.
Then—from the far side of the chamber, beyond a crack in the wall—
A low growl.
Deep.
Rumbling.
Alive.
Something stirred in the dark.
Ji-hwan raised his sword.
"…Get ready," he whispered.
Because the nightmare hadn't ended.
It had just begun.
To be continued…