When Goto cut off communications, his expression darkened.'Did we miss something?'During the planning of the operation, they made a series of contingency plans to counter any situation that would stop the mission from succeeding. However, the complete slaughter of a five-man squad of elite hunters had been far beyond anyone's expectations.'Wait a minute...'Suddenly, a memory surfaced in Goto's mind.

A strange event had occurred four months prior. During routine satellite monitoring of the queen ant, her magic signature has suddenly fallen by more than half of its usual strength. The research team that looked into the matter made some very optimistic predictions, speculating that it was a sign that the queen was nearing the end of her lifespan. However, the queen had instead slowly regained her magic power, making the drop in power all the more confusing.

'It only took a month, right?'Because of that unexpected result, those researchers were forced to shut their mouths."Mr. Goto."The voice of one of his teammates brought Goto back to the present."Hm."

The teammate, who had been examining the dead bodies of the third squad, rose slowly. Goto remembered that this was not the right time to get distracted by speculation. 'Did we come too far inland?… '*Sasa.s.sac*

Hundreds of ants swarmed out behind them, lifting their heads up towards the hunters as if licking their lips in antic.i.p.ation.

****

The Korean team had already entered the boss room, the so-called Queen's sleeping chamber, just 15 minutes after entering the ant nest.'If it takes a similar amount of time to get back...'

They would still have 30 minutes left to complete the operation before the one-hour mark.

'Good.'

After having checked his watch, Ma Dong-wook nodded in satisfaction. Until that point everything had progressed smoothly, and the only important thing was how they would manage to complete the mission. Baek Yoon-ho used his "Beast eyes" to a.s.sess the enemy numbers that were lying in the darkness ahead."The Queen is at the back, and there are eight guards in front of her."The Queen's guards were incomparably stronger than the average Ant. Facing these kinds of enemies would have been too much for Ma Dong-wook to face by himself—he would have had to endure the attacks from both the bodyguards and the Queen. From there on they needed an Off-Tank to alleviate his burden.Ma Dong-wook took a quick look around."Hunter Cha."

"Yes."

"Can you handle aggroing the guards while I take on the Queen?"

"Please leave it to me."Cha Hae-in answered briefly. During her time raiding with Hunters Guild, she had a.s.sumed the role of main tanker. In contrast, taking on the role of off-tanker would be a piece of cake.

Ma Dong-wook looked around at the team members. Everyone present was an extremely skilled magic creature hunter, and the meticulous planning of any details would only have resulted in a waste of time."Let's go."As soon as Ma Dong-wook turned towards the ants, Choi Jong-In made a giant orb of light and threw it against the ceiling of the sleeping chambers, filling the whole boss-room with light.

"What?."In front of the ma.s.sive size of Choi Jong-In's light globe, the cameraman couldn't help but gasp in surprise. He whispered quickly into the little microphone next to his lips."I've been involved in many raids as a Rank Hunter, but I've never seen such enormous light magic.¹ Truly worthy of the best Mage-cla.s.s hunter in Korea."His voice was being casted to the viewers of the whole country through his microphone.

He had just heard that the ratings for the broadcast he was filming had exceeded 80 percent.As temptation got the best of him, the man tried to approach even closer to the scene to get a better shot... but Min Byung-gu, who was standing behind him, pulled his shoulder."Gha!"Due to the strong grip tugging him, the cameraman helplessly turned toward Min Byung-gu. His shoulder hurt so much that his mouth hung open in astonishment.

'What sort of healer is this strong ... '

The operator didn't even have the time to be surprised at the strength of the S-rank mage-cla.s.s, because he found himself face-to-face with Min Byung-gu, who had a completely different look than what he had when they were exchanging jokes with each other in the helicopter."This is where the boss of the S-cla.s.s dungeon is located. No one can take responsibility for your life in this situation."In shock from Min Byung-gu's angry voice, the cameraman wasn't even able to give a proper answer and simply nodded repeatedly."If you understand, stay behind me. Now it'll start for real."That was the real power of an S-Rank Hunter. Even a healer, who had the weakest combat ability among all Cla.s.ses, could show an overwhelming force enough to dominate even Rank Hunters—it demonstrated the incredible gap between the two ranks.

What could the operator even try to do in this place where such monstrous people combined their strength to fight?

For the first time since becoming a Hunter, the cameraman felt powerless. He moved to stand behind Min Byung-goo. Exactly as one would have expected,

"Incoming."An ant bigger than the others noticed the hunters, and started crawling toward them on its six legs."That's the queen..."Baek Yun-ho couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. The other Hunters' faces also showed a nervous look.

The queen's majesty was overwhelming!

After having slipped through the defensive wall of thousands of ants, they became the first hunters to see the Queen with their own eyes.

'Today, I will cut off the lifeline² of these f.u.c.king ants.'

Baek Yoon-ho was thrilled at the thought of slaying that oversized insect.

However, there was something else that needed to be attended to first.

Baek Yoon-ho's gaze, which had been fixed on the Queen for a while, moved downwards.'First, we need to take care of them.'There were eight ants preceding the Queen' steps. The first thing they had to do to reach the Queen was get rid of the royal guards."Haaah!"As if he read Baek Yoon-ho's mind, Ma Dong-wook, playing the role of the team's main tanker, took the front line. Bulging veins popping out of his neck.

"Ants! Come to die!"In response to the deafening shout, the bodyguards—whose auditory system was much more developed than their eyes—rushed at Ma Dong-wook with their teeth and claws raised.

Ma Dong-wook gave one look to his team."Hunter Cha, now!"Cha Hae-in, who was distancing herself from Ma Dong-wook, pulled a long sword out of its sheath at her waist. Firmly grasping it with both hands, she thrust it into the ground with all her might.

Skill "Provocation Tremor."

*Cack!*

A circular wave of magic power spread out from the sword imbedded on the floor. The Queen's guards, who were targeting Ma Dong-wook, turned away as one to attack Cha Hae-in.

'Yes!'Ma Dong-wook looked at the bodyguards who, walking past him, were rus.h.i.+ng towards Cha HeIn. He pumped his fists at her success in taking the aggro of the bodyguard ants.

It was his turn next.

Ma Dong-wook stood in front of the Queen, who was moving its huge body towards Cha Hae-in."Your opponent is me."The queen roared at the enemy that was barring her path in displeasure."SCREECH-"

It was a terrible shriek—the pressure would have made any normal tanker's ears bleed, but it was pointless against the nation's greatest tanker, Ma Dong-wook.

"RAHHHH-!"

Skill "Taunting Shout."

Unlike Cha Hae-in, who employed an areof-effect taunt, Ma Dong-wook's single-target skill was aimed toward the Queen.³ The roaring ma.s.sive ant stopped her shriek, and focused her gaze at the huge man.

The "Taunting Shout" had worked successfully.

'Good!'Now, Ma Dong-wook's goal was to withstand the Queen's attacks until his teammates defeated all the bodyguards—which he was confident in them being able to do—and came to help him against the boss. As he was lifting a ma.s.sive s.h.i.+eld to the bottom of his chin, his eyes displayed unyielding resolution. As he always did, he prayed in his heart'Give me the power to protect myself and my team.'*Kwa Gukw.a.n.g!*With the explosive noises that rang out behind his back, the Queen Ant Raid, that would decide the fate of so many people, began.

****

"Dear husband, they said the hunters are on TV today. Aren't you going to see them?.""Not interested.""Don't be like that... on TV they were saying that they could really to defeat them today, so let's watch it together.""Mph. Those people run their mouths like that every time. I said I'm not interested."Then the old man roughly turned his back toward her and kept flipping through his newspaper. But even from behind him, his wife was able to hear the sound of a tongue clicking.

"Tsk tsk tsk. These d.a.m.n papers are all filled with talk about the hunters too."The old woman carefully closed the doors as she listened to her husband's grumbling."Whew-"Up until just two years before, her husband was a man who had followed the news on Jeju Island and supported the hunters more than anyone else. After all, he had lost his only child to the Jeju Island ants. His despair, so deep that it made him feel as if the whole world was collapsing around him, soon turned into a strong rage against the magic creatures.

Whenever there was a subjugation operation, her husband would donate money to the Hunter a.s.sociation to support the Hunters. Every time, before the day of the expedition, he would become so nervous to the point where he couldn't sleep at all.But, as the saying goes: the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

When the third round of the operation—for which the a.s.sociation had said they would commit all their power to—took great losses without achieving anything, her husband went into a daze for several days. Since then, he had lost all expectations and hope, and hadn't talked about hunters even once."Whew-"Once again, the old woman sighed and grabbed the remote control sitting in the living room. As soon as she turned on the TV, a fervent comment came from the host of the broadcast.The hunters' fight was about to begin.

The old woman held her hands in front of her chest, while watching the TV with a nervous heart.When the Hunters were injured, she turned her eyes away in sadness and applauded happily when their attacks landed."Oh my! Oh my!"⁴

That signalled the beginning. The ant monsters, which looked fearsome as they fought against the hunters, fell one by one. Every time a monster was slayed, the whole building shook with peoples' shouts and cheers."Oh my! Oh my!"