7 Whether you want it, or not

The monster laughed as it continously stepped on the smear that was once the tank. The little bits of armors were no more than small plates now and bits of gore stuck to the beast's foot while it continued it's onslaught.

The monster roared once it turned around and saw that all the other hunters had disappeared. It had taken too much time with the bulky human. It started to punch itself, growling and speaking in it's own language.

It was mad at itself for letting the others escape. However what was done was done and it needed to move on. It looked around one last time, to see if it was lucky and one of them missed it's chance to escape. It wasn't the case.

It couldn't see Seneos' head poking out from behind the orc's corpse. He watched it while trembling and quickly duck back under the corpse when it turned it's gigantic head once more. It's antlers were once again ratlling against the ceiling, as it stood to it's full size.

Then both Seneos and the healer heard it, a yawn. The beast yawned and scratched the side of it's neck before walking back to it's hiding place. It was most likely going to sleep there until another pack of naive preys came.

Seneos snapped his head towards the door as quickly as humanly possible when he heard it open and he supressed his gasp once he saw another orc entering the room. It looked like the previous one, but it was slightly bigger and looked stronger. This one had no weapons though compared to it's dead mace-wielding brethren.

From where it was it could see the corpse of it's downed comrade, but luckily enough it couldn't see Seneos who was silencing the healer. Contrarily to himself, she wasn't able to keep her calm.

The whole situation had shown Sen that this team was much more inexperienced than it should have been, and the girl was even worse than that. She was an inexperienced minor inside a dungeon, blocked in a throne room with an orc and a monstrous mix between a human, a snake and a moose.

"Shhhh" He tried to calm her down, but she wouldn't. She was completely panicked, squirming in his arms as he tried to keep her steady. Her eyes were moving around frantically, as though she was a diver, alone in the dark and searching for any source of light.

Seneos locked his legs around her hips and put more strengh in his arms, sadly she was still a high ranked hunter. Even though she had a path that made her a healer, she still had more than enough strengh to resist him. Thus he decided to speak to her, or rather whisper to her ears.

"We are dead if you continue like that. They'll see us. They'll devour us."

A sequence of light tremors had Seneos tighten his grip over the girl in reaction. The beast began to move while the orc moved towards the throne standing at the back of the room. Seneos hadn't even paid attention to it due to how primitive it looked, but it still served a purpose apparently.

The beast neared it's hiding spot and it's leg went through the barrier. It hadn't even noticed it, just like the hunters. It made a confused noise and looked around. It roared at the orc who winced and spoke in the same language as the tremendously powerful beast.

It sounded apologetic and it didn't please the beast. It roared once more, sending shockwaves through the room as the orc pointed at it's body with a trembling finger.

It's body was starting to get absorbed by the barrier, as though it was eating it.

"BLEEHHHHHH !" It roared as it's burning eyes glared at the corpse of the previous boss. It understood, it understood in a second. The pillars had been smashed, none of the rubbles made good hiding spots, there was only the corpse.

It yelled an order, one that the orc set out to execute immediately. However the tremor caused by the continous roars had been shaking the entire room and more rocks fell from the ceiling. The rest of the pillars collapsed and the ceiling crumbled over the head of the orc.

It was killed on the spot.

Seneos felt as if time had stopped for a moment. He saw the beast getting sucked in, he saw the healer jumping over him to shield his body. He chuckled and his thoughts drifted to the tank.

'I am going to end exactly like him...Perhaps it's a punishement. Perhaps I could've at least tried to save him, especially since I am going to die anyway.'

He heard the desperate cries of the healer as the ceiling continued to fall and reached them. Then he heard nothing anymore.

Yet it wasn't the end. He could feel again, and the first thing he felt was his body getting dragged on the cold stones. He felt the burning pain all over his broken body, but mostly in his eyes. He still opened them though, he had to know what was going on.

He saw a dark room, a gigantic one. He saw a light coming from behind him. He turned his head and saw the entrance to the dungeon. A sliver of hope entered his heart and it was burned to ashes the next second as he heard howls in the distance. At the other side of the room, a pack of wolves came into view.

He looked back in a panic and saw that he was being carried by the healer who had seen better days. She was bleeding from an arm and both of her legs. She was damaged to a point where her very breath sounded painful.

Seneos understood something at that moment.

'She is exhausted...She can't use magic anymore.' He thought as she looked at him. A smile appeared on her face as she laid him against one of the room's pillars.

"W-What are you....Doing ?" He asked, his throat felt dry and his voice was hoarse but she still heard the question.

"We are both done for if we continue like that. The entrance is way too far for us to reach it before the wolves come. My legs.....My legs are too damaged. I don't know I could even drag them with me on the way. Only you can get away." She explained as she laid herself besides him.

He had but a thought.

'This kid....Is this kid seriously telling me to abandon her ? And why.....Why am I agreeing with her ?!'

Many people could call this reaction logical, and it was. But to a hunter, this was cowardly to the highest level. Yet it was her suggestions, nobody would blame him. In fact....Nobody would even know.

Weirdly enough, for a man like Seneos at least, he shook those thoughts away.

"I can't let you die here ! You look like you are ten years younger than me !" Sen exclaimed as the wolves' howls grew closer. The girl didn't feel like listening to his attempt at sounding brave though, she merely retrieved something from her suit and handed it to him. It was an envelope, an envelope full of money.

" Show that to the others....If they are still alive that is....It's for the slums of Seoul, they'll know what it is." She murmured and then pushed him away.

Seneos looked at her in shock, his mouth trembling as his eyes moistened. She walked towards the wolves, as steadily as she could with her broken legs. She tried her best not to show weakness by limping her way towards them.

She gripped her staff tightly and yelled.

" RUN YOU DAMN OLD MAN !"

It was like a trigger, Sen began to run as fast as he could once he heard it. He didn't look back even once.

As soon as he reached the entrance, he heard her cry. He heard her scream. He heard her getting torn apart, the wolves barking and fighting each others to devour her body.

He grinded his teeth and stepped through the white portal. Before he could see the outside, he heard another voice, a robotic voice. It was instantly replaced by another once the playground came into view. He heard an amalgamation of what sounded like a hundred voices.

"As that thing just said, congratulation hunter. You have defeated this dungeon and did so in an amazing way. For not getting a single direct hit from the secret boss as well as beating it all alone, the previous team not counting as your own since you were not really part of it, you have been granted the highest order of reward.....This dungeon is yours now. Whether you want it, or not."

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