"Boss break! Boss break! All hunters, secure the perimeter!"
The words hit Leon like a punch to the gut. Emergency sirens wailed across the plaza, and every hunter within earshot turned pale.
Boss break. The two words every hunter dreaded to hear.
The dungeon gate didn't just open; it exploded.
Metal and stone erupted outward like the world's largest bomb. Concrete chunks the size of cars rained down like meteors. A hot dog vendor screamed and dove for cover as his cart was crushed beneath the falling debris.
Steam billowed from the smoking crater where the gate had been.
Then something emerged from the wreckage.
Leon's blood turned to ice.
Nine feet of living nightmare in black armor pulsed with sickly green veins. The Lord's Champion moved with the inevitability of death itself. Its bull-like head, crowned with horns capable of piercing tank armor, bore yellow eyes that glinted with a cruel intelligence, relishing the slow demise of its victims.
In its massive claws, a spear materialized from thin air—six feet of twisted metal that hummed with barely contained power.
The E-rank hunters took one look and fled.
A wise choice.
Those who stayed soon learn why the boss breaks had a ninety percent casualty rate.
One hunter—a kid wielding an enhanced blade—charged the Champion head-on. His sword struck the black armor and shattered like glass against diamond. The creature's casual backhand sent him thirty feet into a concrete wall.
Leon heard every bone in the kid's body snap.
Two more hunters attempted flanking maneuvers, but the Champion's hoof came down with the force of a collapsing building. Their screams were abruptly silenced.
Blood pooled across the cracked pavement.
An Association officer stepped forward, radio crackling in his hand. "All available S-ranks to Sector Nine! Priority Alpha emergency! We need—"
The spear pierced his chest before he could finish. Blood sprayed across the white marble steps as his body crumpled like wet cardboard.
Leon stepped forward.
His zombies materialized beside him like shadows given form: Warrior, Assassin, Mage. They stood in perfect formation, a testament to countless battles. The panicking crowd parted around them like water around rocks.
The Champion's burning gaze locked onto Leon.
Those alien eyes narrowed. This human felt different. Dangerous. Worth the effort of killing personally rather than simply stepping on like the others.
The spear shot from its hands in a blur that slowed lightning.
Leon's warrior zombie moved faster than thought. Spectral arms crossed in a perfect defensive block, catching the weapon with an impact that shook the entire plaza. Sparks cascaded like a waterfall of stars, and the force drove the zombie backward, its boots carving twin trenches through solid concrete. Spiderweb cracks spread across the street in all directions.
His assassin zombie flowed like liquid shadow, weaving through screaming civilians and abandoned cars with deadly purpose. Her twin knives found every microscopic gap in the Champion's armor, drawing precise lines of dark blood across its flanks.
The creature's roar shattered every window within three city blocks.
Jino Park crouched behind an overturned hot dog cart at the plaza's edge. His streaming camera shook in hands that wouldn't stop trembling.
"Holy shit," he whispered into his microphone. "This is live. This is actually happening right now."
His chat exploded into digital chaos:
WTF IS THIS REAL???
NO WAY
SHOW THE BOSS
GET CLOSER YOU COWARD
SOMEONE'S GONNA DIE ON STREAM
The Hunter Association's emergency broadcast flashed across every screen in the city like digital fire:
BOSS OUTBREAK DETECTED
LORD'S CHAMPION - SECTOR 9
CAUTION: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS
EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY
Jino's viewer count skyrocketed from three hundred to three thousand in the blink of an eye. His hands trembled so violently that he struggled to keep the camera steady.
"Someone's actually fighting it," he breathed, his voice cracking with disbelief. "There's this necromancer with insane zombies, and they're—"
The comments flooded in faster than human eyes could process:
What kind of summons is that?
No way that's E-rank!
GET CLOSER! GET CLOSER!
This necromancer is cracked.
RECORD EVERYTHING!
The Champion retrieved its spear in the plaza as if picking up a dropped toy. The weapon spun in one massive hand with a casual grace that made Leon's skin crawl.
Steel clashed against alien metal in a symphony of destruction. The Champion lunged forward like a striking viper. Leon's warrior zombie deflected the attack by millimeters, sparks flying between them like angry fireflies.
Leon circled the battlefield like a wolf stalking wounded prey. His Voidreaper barked repeatedly, Dark Mana rounds chipping away at the Champion's armor with surgical precision. Each shot found joints and exposed flesh, opening wounds that leaked black blood onto the cracked pavement.
But it barely slowed the creature down.
His assassin darted in again, moving like death itself. Her knives sought the vulnerable spot behind its knee, steel biting into alien sinew. The Champion staggered, its massive bulk swaying like a drunken giant.
Then it spun with impossible, physics-defying speed.
Its armored backhand caught the assassin mid-strike. She flew through the air like a broken doll, crashing through a parked car's windshield in an explosion of safety glass and twisted metal. The vehicle's hood crumpled around her motionless form like a steel coffin.
Leon's chest tightened as if someone had reached inside and squeezed his heart. One zombie down, two left against a monster that barely looked scratched.
The Champion pressed its advantage with a predatory instinct honed by eons of killing. Its spear swept in a wide arc that could have halved buildings. Leon threw himself sideways, concrete exploding where the weapon struck like a grenade.
His warrior zombie seized the split-second opening with mechanical precision. The mantis blade flashed in a perfect two-handed strike, finding the microscopic gap between the Champion's gauntlet and bracer.
The creature's left hand separated at the wrist in a spray of dark arterial blood.
The Champion reared back, bellowing in pain and rage, making earthquake sirens like whispers. But instead of retreating like any sane creature would, something fundamental shifted in those burning eyes.
Power surged through its wounded form like electricity through copper wire. Muscles swelled beneath armor that began glowing with malevolent energy. The bleeding stump stopped gushing as cauterized flesh sealed itself with unnatural speed.
Phase two had begun.
The Champion's remaining fist crashed into the warrior zombie's chest with the force of a meteor impact. Spectral ribs exploded like breaking trees. Black blood sprayed from the massive wound as the zombie staggered backward, its boots sliding across blood-slicked concrete.
But it didn't fall.
Jino's camera shook like a paint mixer set to maximum as he fought to keep the action in frame. His viewer count hit ten thousand and continued climbing like a rocket escaping Earth's gravity.
"The zombie's still standing," he gasped into his microphone. "How the hell is it still standing? That should have killed anything!"
His chat erupted with fresh waves of commentary:
ZOMBIE OP PLS NERF
This necromancer is absolutely cracked.
PHASE 2 INCOMING!
RIP zombie bro.
GET THE MAGE IN THERE!
The Champion's eyes blazed crimson like twin suns going supernova. New power coursed through its alien veins, armor plates shifting and reforming into more aggressive configurations. Spikes emerged from its shoulders and elbows, as if the creature were growing weapons from its own body.
Leon's warrior zombie leaked black blood onto the cracked concrete in steady drops that sounded like a funeral drum beating time. Yet it maintained its fighting stance with the stubborn defiance of something that had already died once and wasn't afraid to do it again.
Damaged but not defeated. Ready to die for its master as many times as necessary.
Leon checked his remaining ammunition with practiced efficiency from too many life-or-death moments. Half empty. His assassin was down, possibly destroyed. His mage zombie lingered in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Around them, the plaza resembled a war zone. Broken concrete, shattered glass painting the ground like deadly diamonds, and pools of blood—both human and alien—mingling in abstract patterns of violence.
In the distance, more sirens wailed as S-rank hunters raced toward the chaos, knowing they might already be too late to save anyone.
The Champion's crimson gaze fixed on Leon with the focused intensity of a predator that had finally found prey worth hunting. Steam rose from superheated armor that glowed like coals fresh from the forge.
The real fight was beginning.