Chapter Text
It had just been a favor. Joining a low level raid on a favor to a friend of his that couldn’t make it. Byung-Gyu honestly would have dismissed Juhee’s minor request if he’d had a proper reason other than not wanting to do it. He didn’t have any classes to study for or to even attend and, really, he did owe her. (Don’t tell anyone but they were actually cousins and she had saved his ass one too many times to ignore a small favor like this.)
The raid itself was a D-Rank gate that the Association contracted hunters for. Not something he had ever stepped foot into. After awakening right off the bat as an S-Rank Healer, Byung-Gyu had only ever gone into high ranking gates. If Yoon-Ho saw him now he’d be laughing his ass off. Him, the only S-Rank in Korea to retire with all limbs intact and in perfect health, going on a D-Rank raid. The other gathered hunters couldn’t believe it either by their whispers. Casting glances at him but no one approached him for a chat.
It was kind of sad. He liked talking to people. But after nearly seven years of being a hunter of his rank, he knew that most people wouldn’t step up for a simple conversation. At least he could feel the relief in the air that he was giving everyone. If he was there then no one would get hurt. That he could almost guarantee.
Still, he offered smiles to those that would meet his eyes.
Loud greetings to someone caught his attention. Byung-Gyu had glanced at the registered hunters for this raid so he was vaguely familiar with the man that joined them. An E-Rank hunter. It made him curious why everyone was greeting him but he supposed this was just a good team of friends. People that had hunted together before. He had tried to introduce himself to the others but it had been obvious everyone had already known him. So, he stepped forward to say ‘hello’ to the last hunter joining them.
“Hey, there.” Byung-Gyu waved at the man - maybe a year younger than him - with a bright smile. “I’m your healer for this raid so don’t worry about getting hurt in there, yeah?”
“Oh, right, hi.” Hunter Sung gave him a small wave in return despite them being in front of each other. “You must be Juhee’s cousin, she told me she couldn’t make it this time.” Something a little disappointed was in the man’s voice.
“You guys friends?” He hadn’t heard Juhee mention a boyfriend recently.
“Ha, well…” There was an embarrassed flush to Hunter Sung’s cheeks as he looked away. “She’s always the one to heal me during these raids. Guess you could say we’re friends.”
Oh. He knew who this was now. Juhee’s personal little thorn that she both complained about and complimented in the same sentence speaking about him. The E-Rank hunter that couldn’t stop getting hurt but always had the fire to continue doing raids. As far as he knew, she had a crush on the guy.
“Well then, I’ll take good care of you for her.”
It wasn’t until they were knee-deep into the dungeon that Byung-Gyu realized that he hadn’t actually introduced himself to Hunter Sung. The bite of embarrassment at getting distracted had him sticking far closer to the man than the other hunters to find a moment to correct his misstep. That resulted in him making sure the E-Rank was buffed against the simple goblins to avoid him getting hurt. Juhee’s complaint about him always getting hurt made more sense now.
“I don’t mean to come off as condescending,” Byung-Gyu started as he healed the stab wound in Hunter Sung’s thigh, “but shouldn’t you be using a weapon?”
“Ah, well, about that…” Hunter Sung once had a beet-red face and refused to meet his eyes. There was no attempt to explain.
“Here.” He picked up his mace off the stone and held it out the hunter. “You can borrow this for now. I doubt I’ll need to fight anyway and you look like you need it.”
“Oh, um, thank you.”
The sincere gratitude in the man was nice to see. Byung-Gyu set the teal, black, and gold mace in Hunter Sung’s hands before getting to his feet. It didn’t matter to him to give up his weapon. This was such a low rank dungeon that he wouldn’t even need to fight, let alone need a weapon to do so. (Eunseok and Yoon-Ho had trained him well in close quarters combat.)
It was far easier for Hunter Sung to fight with a weapon but it was also clear that the mace was a heavy instrument to wield. He winced at the way it bounced off the stone with an overcorrection but didn’t say anything. First timer mistakes were common, he’d made them too. Still, it eased some of the concern at seeing the Hunter use a weapon instead of fighting goblins with his bare hands. Even Brawler fight-classes had gauntlets or knuckle dusters. No one ever went in barehanded.
When the dungeon boss was defeated there was the usual expectation for the dungeon to start trembling with it closing. Byung-Gyu furrowed his brow at the lack of typical shaking and searched the area for something to explain it. The sight of a separate passageway leading into the dark unknown had unease curling his gut. Double Dungeons were rare and typically dangerous.
A word of warning was given to the raid party but ultimately the decision to go in deeper or to leave wasn’t his alone to make. As he had told the hunters before entering the gate, this was their raid and he was simply the fill in. When it came down to a vote, Byung-Gyu settled on a resolute ‘no’ on entering. He knew that they were likely going in deeper and knew that he could likely handle a C or B-Rank boss if push came to shove, but it wouldn’t be easy. Anything higher and none of them were making it out alive.
It was a long walk. Well over forty minutes down a deep tunnel. Byung-Gyu held his spellbook in his left hand with a useless curl and uncurl of his right hand. The lack of mace was a little unsettling given where they were going but he would rather Hunter Sung have a weapon to defend himself. Even if it did have him missing the comforting weight.
The massive double doors that they came to had everyone stopping. A sense of foreboding leaked out from them. His perception was high enough to know that there was a single very powerful Mage behind those doors. Several times stronger than him. It had him warning the hunters to leave. He could heal them all in a powerful fight but he knew in his heart that not everyone was going to leave this dungeon alive.
To his horror, the hunters pushed on. Byung-Gyu couldn’t help catching Hunter Sung’s arm as they stepped through the doors. This was Juhee’s friend, he wasn’t about to let him die here. Gray eyes looked up at him in confusion but he could only shake his head in warning. If no one was going to listen to him then he was just going to have to make sure someone made it out. (The nightmare of Jeju Island flashed behind his eyes with the familiar sense of dread curling in his bones.)
“Don’t approach the statues,” he warned the hunters. They might only be puppets to the Mage holding the stone tablet but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous.
There were a couple mutters from the hunters about ‘overly cautious Healers’ that he ignored. Just like they ignored his warning. The leader of the party at least had the sense to stay back from the Mage statue while reading the commandments on the tablet. Byung-Gyu didn’t want to take his eyes off the angel statue but he found himself glancing over his shoulder on instinct. A massive statue was looking at them.
His head snapped to the doors when they closed and his hand tightened around Hunter Sung’s arm out of instinct. The commandments were turned over as he glanced at the Statue of God again. Those eyes were back into a forward facing position. Knowing that the puppet was being controlled had him looking at the angel statue. Absolutely nothing had changed about it.
Maybe it was a Mage channeling magic through it. Either way, this wasn’t a good situation.
“The statues move,” Byung-Gyu said even as one of the hunters went for the closed doors. “Stop!” He didn’t have spells that could freeze someone’s movements and as he watched a knight statue swing down an axe he wished he had learned some.
Despite being an S-Rank Healer, he couldn’t heal the dead. The moment that hunter’s heart and brain had stopped working there was nothing he could do. And it happened in a matter of milliseconds when that axe severed his head. A scream from one of the other hunters echoed in the chamber. Byung-Gyu looked over at her but couldn’t help the automatic turn of his head to the stare on his back. The massive statue was looking again.
“Did that…” Hunter Sung’s mumbling had him glancing at the man. “Everyone get down!”
Byung-Gyu found himself being tackled to the ground just as a wave of impossible heat rushed over their heads. The crack of his head off the stone hurt but it was easily taken care of. A sharp breath was taken in. Charred flesh met him and fresh blood. Smelling an injury, he forced himself to sit up. Arm protectively over Hunter Sung even as the man sat up with him.
There was a large molten red strip carved out of the stone between them and several of the other hunters. All it took was a single glance to find that there were only eleven remaining hunters out of the thirteen there had been. Vaporized instantly, it seemed. Byung-Gyu had seen a lot in his six years as an active hunter but nothing that could eliminate someone down to atoms like that. That was well beyond an S-Rank boss.
“Hunter Song!” A concerned cry had him turning his attention to Hunter Sung at his side. The man was looking at the leader of the raid party.
“Oh, sorry, let me get that,” Byung-Gyu apologized while reaching out his hand.
The older man was missing his left arm. It only took a small dip into his mana to completely restore the destroyed limb. At his side, the spellbook flipped open at the use of his magic. Pages rustling to settle on the regeneration spell he had personally recorded down in the book. They weren’t necessary for Mages or Healers but he found that he had the ability to use any spell he had studied so long as he had written it down. Healing spells were simply where he excelled and what he focused on.
Something was said to Hunter Sung about the statue that he listened to without commenting on. His eyes found their way back to the angel statue. It might have been his imagination but he was certain there had been a flash of red eyes within the dark hood for a single moment.
“Hey, hey, what’re you doing?” Byung-Gyu asked when he noticed Hunter Sung moving away from him.
“Testing something,” was the simple answer.
That test was apparently to get his head seared off. Byung-Gyu yanked the man down with a hiss of scolding that he couldn’t help. There was a look in Hunter Sung’s eyes that had him biting his tongue on the next scolding for being reckless. He had been too busy worrying about the Mage statue while the other man seemed to have worked something out about the Statue of God.
The order to bow to the statue had several of the remaining hunters cursing at Hunter Sung. Byung-Gyu wanted to question what difference that would make until the commandments Hunter Song had read off clicked into place. Worship God was the first one. It was a rather straightforward commandment actually. One he berated himself for not putting together sooner as he got into a bowing position. On his knees with his hands planted flat and his forehead pressed to the stone.
And once everyone had copied there was thick silence in the chamber. At his side, Hunter Sung was warm and slowly rising from the bow. He copied him without a second thought. There was no way to determine if they had done the commandment right unless someone tested it. So, Byung-Gyu rose to his feet despite the protests. A hand gripped his wrist as if to stop him but he gave Hunter Sung a reassuring smile.
When no eye lasers came the other hunters started to rise as well. There was speculation on what was coming next and if they could leave when the Statue of God moved. Face splitting open into a demonic smile as it rose to its feet as well.
Byung-Gyu made a decision then and there. No matter what came out of this, he was never stepping foot into another dungeon.
The second commandment to Praise God had one of the hunters stepping forward. He knew his fair share about religion but whatever this man was saying didn’t apply to this God. They each had their own praises and prayers and proverbs and verses. Whatever this God Statue was, it certainly wasn’t going to stop based on Christianity.
His call out for the hunter to move came with Hunter Sung’s. Moments too late. Again. The Statue of God stomped on the hunter in a sickening crunch of bones. One of the other hunters fell to her knees in despair and Byung-Gyu went to shoot forward to grab her when someone yanked him away. Hunter Song’s caution about it being too late came with another echoing thud of stone on stone and wet squelch of a body being crushed between it. He was an S-Rank but this well beyond even him.
A call out to head for the statues had Byung-Gyu shoving Hunter Song towards the distant wall. He searched for what Hunter Sung must have noticed and picked up on the statues holding instruments and books. Those statues must move like the others.
There was a break away from Hunter Song to let him reach the statue holding a trumpet. The screams of dying hunters when they fell to the stomping God or when they picked the wrong statue filled his ears. He had been through several horrible situations and knew how to keep his cool but even this was getting to him. It was Jeju Island all over again. Ants swarming his companions and murdering them faster than he could heal them. Stronger and faster than he was, more durable than a Tank, magic resistant. He knew what death on the air tasted like and this chamber was filled to the brim with it.
“Hunter Min!” A shout of his name had him snapping out of his frozen state. Hands yanked him out of the falling foot of the massive statue and shoved him into a run.
“Sorry, I’m sorry.” Byung-Gyu stumbled over his uncoordinated feet. He didn’t even know who he was apologizing to until Hunter Sung pulled him to a stop beneath a statue holding a set of drums. It didn’t play like the others. “I-I think they only work for one person.”
“Okay, you stay here,” Hunter Sung said while letting go of his arm.
“Wait!” He stopped the hunter. “I’m faster than an E-Rank.”
There was a protest on the man’s lips but he was already gone. That mistake before had almost cost Hunter Sung his life to save his and it was only fair that he took the risk here. He was far faster than an E-Rank hunter. Than even a B-Rank if he really pushed himself.
The whisper of mana into a spell for speed had him escaping the downward crash of large foot. He could hear the flipping of pages from his spellbook to accommodate for his use of it. There weren’t anymore statues with instruments that he could see. Byung-Gyu searched the line of statues around the circular room for one that stood out amongst the others. The painful race of his heart was ignored to the best of his ability to focus.
There! A statue holding a book with her mouth open like she was going to say something. He slipped on the edge of a slick puddle of blood and had to catch himself on his hands to continue. Pushing himself up the moment his palms touched the stone. It was with a trip that he managed to roll into the stone base of the statue right as the God Statue went to stomp on where he had been a moment ago. The sound of ethereal vocals filled the air as he pressed his forehead to the cold stone.
Never again. He was retired already. No way in Hell would he be entering another gate.
The shaky rise to a normal sitting positions was met with the remaining hunters talking. Byung-Gyu stared at where an altar had risen in the center of the room. It was a little hard to breathe as he took it in. There was only one reason for something like that to appear. And he wasn’t the only one to come to that conclusion.
Being unsteady on his feet wasn’t quite normal for him but he did his best to ignore it. No one tried to stop Hunter Kim from ordering Hunter Song to the altar as the sacrifice with his sword out. A red flame came into existence the moment the older man reached the altar. It brought a new sense of dread to the air. Did it require all of them? Was that what the third commandment meant? For all of them to prove their faith?
Byung-Gyu didn’t like the idea of that but he still stepped towards the altar. Clenched trembling hands at his sides and gritted his teeth. A second red flame burst into light. It was Hunter Sung that called out the possible meaning behind them as he walked closer. He wanted this to be over as he sat on the edge of the first level of the altar. Eyes taking in the dimly lit edges of the chamber. His spellbook was sitting near the Mage statue and Hunter Sung had dropped his mace a few steps out of the red flame ring. Neither would help in this situation.
The moment all six of them were around the altar a ring of blue flames sprung up around the red ones. And the doors opened. Byung-Gyu’s head snapped over to them but he made no move to rise to his feet. That was a trap, no way it wasn’t.
Not everyone picked up on that. The only remaining woman hunter disappeared in a dash through the doors and they closed an incremental amount. Then it was a man next to Hunter Sung. There was a call out for him to stop but met deaf ears. It left the four of them and the slow scrape of moving statues when someone wasn’t looking at them. Byung-Gyu looked away from the doors to keep an eye on the statues moving towards the ring.
“I can’t do this.” Hunter Kim’s sword clattered to the ground even as Hunter Sung tried to stop him from running. It left a hole in their defense against the statues.
“You two go,” Hunter Song said in the sketchy silence. “You’ve got several years of life ahead of you. I’ll stay behind to keep the doors open.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Byung-Gyu was never going to leave someone behind.
“We just have to wait out the timer.” The wavering confidence in Hunter Sung’s voice was nice to hear even in this situation. “Keeping an eye on the statues isn’t impossible yet.”
No, it wasn’t but it wasn’t easy. Byung-Gyu got to his feet with a careful step towards the edge of the ring to reach out for his mace. The only telekinetic spells he had were for objects lower than a certain weight. It was a flash of his arm out to grab the edge of it that had him breaking his gaze from a statue. Stone scraped on stone as he grabbed the mace. Then stopped when he looked at it again.
Behind him there was another scrape and one to his left. They couldn’t look at all of them. He tightened his grip on the mace and fell into a stance Eunseok had taught him. There was going to be a fight.
And with only six of the blue flames left, one of the statues breached the circle. Byung-Gyu heard Hunter Song call it out but a moment later there was a splash of something hot and wet across his back. The blood had his veins filling with ice. He snapped around with a lift of the mace to block the sword coming down on him. His arms buckled beneath the force and had him throwing himself to the side to avoid being cleaved in half. A swift turn with a speed and agility spell gave him the opening to bring his mace down on the stone ankle.
All that happened was a chunk breaking off. The proof that he was weak and useless here almost had him giving up. Then he heard Hunter Sung cry out in pain. An automatic link of mana was created to the hunter to heal him even across the altar from him. His spellbook flipped open to the draining spell. Another statue reached them and he moved to leap over the alter to avoid the falling weapon coming for his head.
The fall of his body to protect Hunter Sung with a strengthening spell came with an axe speeding through the air. He wasn’t a Tank but he couldn’t let someone die like that. Hands curled into the sides of his armor with Hunter Sung telling him to run, that at least one of them deserved to make it out of here alive.
All Byung-Gyu did was push his mana outwards in a constant healing spell to fight the bloodloss. Pages flipped in his book to keep up with the multiple spells he was using. The painful slice of something stabbing through his chest came with that same anchor tearing him back from the hunter he was trying to protect. He choked on the blood filling his mouth. Healing mana flooded his body but the weapon shoved through his body wasn’t taken out.
The slam of his body to the ground with the point of the spear through his chest being driven into the stone had the last breath in his lungs escaping. A tiny flicker of a blue flame went out. From his fading vision he found only one left. He cancelled the healing spell on his body and forced every last bit of mana he had into the regeneration bond spell he created with Hunter Sung. One of them had the chance to get out of here alive. As a Healer it was his job to make sure the hunters in the party survived.
Even if it meant not seeing them heal and recover.