Chapter 63
Minotaurus (2)
Thud—! Thud—!
The ground shook violently as the footsteps grew nearer.
The vanguard member who was desperately running for his life felt his heart shrivel with terror.
Yu Gun-hyeok, clad in a black ghillie suit, glanced back over his shoulder.
‘Damn it, how the hell did something like that appear…?!’
A giant with the head of a bull was snorting fiercely as it charged after him.
And now, to make matters worse, a swarm of spiders was closing in from all around.
It was like trying to outrun a tsunami.
The players, scattered in panic, were nothing but easy prey for the monsters.
“Damn it! How far to the safe zone?!”
“Uh, a-about one kilometer left!”
“Bullshit! You said seven hundred meters a minute ago!”
“I—I don’t know! Something’s wrong with the map!”
The team member checked his navigation device and shook his head.
Even in this life-or-death moment, that idiot couldn’t read a simple map.
‘Useless bastard…!’
“Huff… Huff… Ahh!!”
At that instant, the guy checking the navigation stumbled.
His leg twisted, and he tumbled backward, sliding across the dirt.
“Team leader!” someone screamed, but Yu Gun-hyeok didn’t stop running.
“Shit! Why the hell won’t it stop chasing us?!”
They’d already lost several teammates, yet the monster’s pursuit never ceased.
Monsters always sought out and devoured players’ corpses to absorb their stellar power—
and boss monsters, with immense amounts of that energy, had an especially strong instinct to do so.
But for some reason, this bull-headed giant ignored the corpses littering the ground and only targeted the ones still fleeing.
As if it wanted to prevent anyone from escaping the rift alive.
“This son of a bitch!!”
Piiing—!
Compressed air whistled at his fingertip, bursting with a sharp sound.
“Clean Shot!”
A bullet of compressed wind shot out at the speed of sound, aimed straight at the bull’s eye.
Thunk—!
But even its eyeball was hard as stone; the shot bounced off harmlessly.
“F—fuck… what kind of monster is this?!”
He couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.
What made it worse was that this wasn’t due to some special ability or resistance—
It was pure, overwhelming physical strength, condensed stellar energy in its raw form.
A simplicity so absolute it was terrifying.
“Goddammit…”
He could only curse in despair.
Crunch—!
The bull giant caught up and stomped him flat without hesitation.
Then it turned, walking off with heavy, thunderous steps.
Its destination—a place that burned like a volcanic pit, crawling with spiders.
* * *
“The wave seems to be wrapping up,” Seong-cheol muttered, scanning the battlefield.
Despite the sudden ambush, they had managed to handle it with minimal casualties—
thanks to Se-hyun’s weapons and In-ha’s assistance.
Under normal circumstances, their team would never have survived with so few losses.
‘We’ve secured the safe zone… but what about the vanguard?’
He didn’t doubt their skills.
Saint Union, Team Leader Yu Gun-hyeok, and the other elite players summoned for this emergency—
they were all competent.
The problem was that they hadn’t anticipated the unexpected.
And worse—they hadn’t even tried to.
Even the thickest, tallest fortress wall can crumble instantly when weakened by complacency.
This was a stellar-class rift, and yet they hadn’t even conducted proper reconnaissance,
only rushing to clear it as fast as possible.
—What, still scared like a coward? This’ll be over in no time.
Gun-hyeok’s smug face came to mind.
He had always prioritized “efficiency”—
but that so-called efficiency was really just shortsighted opportunism.
His skills weren’t fake, but they were certainly overhyped.
Which only made things more dangerous.
He overestimated himself, underestimated his surroundings,
and each success made him even more reckless.
‘Let’s just hope they’re not completely wiped out…’
All the more reason to defend the safe zone at all costs.
If things went to hell, this would be their final stronghold.
BOOM—!!
A deafening roar erupted from the south.
Something tore through the air, scattering spider swarms like leaves in the wind.
That raw, brutal movement could only mean one thing.
“…Don’t tell me. The boss?”
Even as Seong-cheol realized it, someone was already sprinting toward the monster.
It was In-ha.
“…That’s dangerous.”
A stellar-class boss monster—
and one that had already cut through the vanguard to get here.
It was no ordinary creature.
“I have to help—!”
But just as he moved—
“Captain! Second wave incoming!”
“Shit! Right now?!”
The spiders surged again.
He couldn’t move now.
If he left, their already-fragile formation would collapse.
And that meant total annihilation.
Click—!
Seong-cheol bit his lip hard and shouted,
“Focus on the wave! We’re holding the line. Leave the boss to In-ha!”
“…Yes, sir!”
He slammed his gauntlets into the ground again.
KWAHHH—!!
Lava burst from beneath the bull giant, momentarily halting its advance.
In-ha used the chance to study the creature carefully.
“It does look like a Minotaur…”
It was the very image of the Greek myth’s monster.
Except—
“…It’s way too big.”
In mythology, the Minotaur was only about two meters tall.
This one was easily twice that size.
Still, its size didn’t matter.
If it was a boss, she just had to take it down.
Bang—!
In-ha accelerated with an explosive burst.
Slash—!
She swung her blade in a wide arc, cutting at its waist—
only to find her strike had done nothing.
“…My sword didn’t cut?”
It felt like trying to slice through thick hide with a dull blade.
The recoil made her arm tremble painfully.
The bull-headed giant didn’t even flinch.
Instead, it turned its furious eyes toward a priest maintaining a barrier in the back line,
snorted, and scraped its hoof.
BOOM—!
But then—an explosion erupted from its skull.
Through the fire and smoke, the tip of In-ha’s sword gleamed,
embedded in the Minotaur’s crown.
The blade hadn’t pierced its skull; it sparked uselessly off the surface.
CRASH—!!
In-ha detonated another explosion midair and flipped backward, landing nimbly.
When the smoke cleared, the Minotaur stood unharmed.
But it had worked in one sense—
its attention was now fully on her.
“Good. Look at me.”
She raised her sword again.
Bang—!
In-ha darted forward at full speed, slashing for its ankle—
Clang!
The blade bounced off again.
Before she could recover, the Minotaur’s massive fist came crashing down.
BOOM—!!!
In-ha narrowly deflected the blow, staggering as her insides quivered from the shock.
Her lungs burned; she almost vomited.
Every time her sword met its body, the sheer physical force was overwhelming.
‘So this… is the power of a stellar-class…’
It wasn’t technique or magic.
Just raw, unfiltered strength backed by stellar energy.
And she couldn’t match it.
She had to retreat.
But—
Behind her, the battle raged on.
The second wave of spiders was pouring in again.
Her teammates were barely holding the line.
If she withdrew now, the safe zone would fall.
‘Then…’
She steadied her breath.
The soulstone in her sword began to hum softly, resonating.
‘If I can just strike faster, stronger—’
She knew she wasn’t good at teamwork.
The only way she could help was by handling everything alone.
But how?
Then, a voice echoed in her memory.
—In-ha, what do you think your real ability is?
It was Se-hyun’s voice—something he’d asked her once, after they’d cleared a rift.
‘What… is my ability?’
She’d never thought about it.
He’d asked for her help, and she’d been happy to give it.
That was all.
—Your power isn’t “Explosion Blade.” That’s just your weapon.
Remember what I told you?
‘That time…?’
He had brought it up during a cosplay shoot—
when she’d been dressed as the Black Knight who slew the Black Dragon.
He’d noticed her bitter expression then.
—I asked why you looked that way.
And she had answered:
—The Black Knight’s armor was made from the dragon’s scales.
Her lance, from its fangs.
It was the dragon who gave her those gifts—
because only he could truly harm himself.
He knew one day he would die,
and he wanted it to be by her hand.
So when she stabbed the dragon,
her face shouldn’t have been proud or cold—
but sorrowful, tragic, almost in tears.
—That’s it, Se-hyun had said.
—What is?
—That’s your power.
The reason she could draw out the sword’s full potential from the moment she first wielded it—
was because she could understand the story it carried.
—I imbued that blade with a myth of its own.
And you were able to read it, without even realizing.
Back then, she hadn’t understood,
but now she did.
Se-hyun had been trying to push her forward.
—So if you ever want to take one step further…
There was only one thing she needed to do.
“Read the story within.”
Vrrrrm—
Feeling the stellar resonance from the soulstone, In-ha fixed her gaze on the Minotaur.
“I’ll borrow your story for a moment.”
The myth of the Minotaur—
A king who locked him in a labyrinth, feeding him human sacrifices.
And a hero who entered that labyrinth with a sword, determined to end the tragedy.
That was the tale of Theseus.
But—
‘…My attacks don’t work.’
The story alone wasn’t enough.
Her sword couldn’t pierce its hide.
Simply invoking the tale wouldn’t change that.
But—
there was another character in that story.
Someone who had guided the hero safely out of the labyrinth—
someone who had sacrificed for love.
In-ha reached for her gift.
“Ariadne’s Thread.”
Shhh—
The solid steel blade unraveled into shining threads,
floating in the air like strands of silk.
The metallic threads danced around the bull giant, weaving into a net.
They tightened, binding the monster like a silken web.
“I’ve heard your story… so now—”
Swish—
In-ha leapt upward, landing lightly on one taut, gleaming thread.
“It’s my turn to tell mine.”
And with that—
a new story began.
