Whoosh!

A massive shadow blanketed the sky.

The spider monster, with its eight legs tucked in, hurled its body toward the mall building like a missile.

Walfred’s eyes went wide.

"Damn it...!"

CRASH!

A thunderous roar shook the entire building.

The rooftop floor tilted beneath him.

Concrete fragments flew in all directions from the impact, and the lower levels of the mall, unable to bear the spider’s weight, collapsed in on themselves.

"Cough, cough!"

The thick cloud of dust blocking his vision had him coughing nonstop. Walfred grabbed a half-broken railing and barely managed to keep his balance.

Thankfully, the building itself hadn’t collapsed.

He couldn’t tell whether it was thanks to the building’s sturdy frame or because the spider had impaled itself at an angle.

"...I really thought I was a goner."

Walfred ran a hand down his chest in relief.

His heart was pounding like crazy. Cautiously peering down, the dust slowly cleared and revealed a hellish scene.

"Aaarghh!"

"Aaagh! My leg! My leg...!"

The spot where the spider had landed was utterly devastated.

Chaz and the hunters had only been thrown back by the shockwave, but the refugees hadn’t been so lucky.

They’d been crushed under building debris or caught in the explosion, leaving them bloodied messes.

"What the hell..."

A massacre playing out right in front of him.

In that instant.

The monster started moving again.

Crash!

The spider monster shook off the debris and rose up.

The red eyes mounted on its head glinted as if searching for prey. Then they all locked onto a single direction at once.

"Aaah!"

The fire attribute Awakened, the very same girl, was pinned and unable to move, trapped between piles of collapsed debris.

Did Chaz also realize that the spider monster was after the girl? He shouted urgently.

"Recover the target! We’re retreating!"

The hunters moved at Chaz’s command.

They blocked the spider’s path toward the girl, and using that opening, Chaz raced through the air at high speed and approached the girl.

He used a wind attribute attack skill to shatter the debris pinning the girl’s feet. Then, just as he was about to scoop her onto his back and flee.

Boom!

The pile of collapsed debris erupted skyward.

At the same time, the spider monster, fully free of the rubble, opened its mouth wide with ferocious intensity.

Splat!

What it spat out was a glob of white sticky fluid.

A massive web. The web flew like a bullet and slammed straight into the girl and Chaz.

"Damn it! Wind Cutter!"

Slice! Snap!

Chaz used his skill.

Sharp wind blades cut away part of the web, but it was so thick and sticky that he couldn’t remove it completely.

In the meantime.

Whoosh!

The sticky strands wrapped around the girl’s legs and Chaz’s arm. Using that opening, the spider closed the distance, and in that moment, Walfred realized something.

Its target wasn’t Chaz, but the girl he was carrying. The way the six eyes greedily fixated on the girl was proof.

’Don’t tell me that thing’s after the fire attribute too?’

Monsters also instinctively recognized beings that posed a threat or could benefit them.

In this freezing weather, a girl radiating heat would be an extremely attractive prey to it as well.

"You damn spider!"

Meanwhile, with his ankle held by the web, Chaz didn’t hide his fury as he unleashed his attacks.

Whoosh! Whump-whump-whump!

Wind arrows poured down like rain.

The intangible arrows hammered the mana stone embedded between the spider’s eyes. Hit in a vital spot, the spider flinched and backed away.

Using that opening, Chaz fired off Wind Cutter again to sever the webs and adjusted his grip on the girl on his back.

"Hold it off!"

Throwing his subordinates out as cannon fodder, he rode the wind and shot up into the air.

Chaz rocketed up to the height of a building’s third floor in an instant and tried to flee the battlefield.

But.

Whoosh! Splat!

A thick web flew through the air again and snared Chaz’s ankle. The spider had been pretending to flee and had ambushed him with the spit attack.

And this web was different somehow.

"AAAAAGH!"

The moment the web wrapped around him.

Chaz let out an ear-splitting scream.

His shoes melted away rapidly, and the skin where the web had touched also melted off, looking like burn scars. As if it had touched a strong acid.

Crash!

Maybe because of the horrific pain?

Chaz plummeted to the ground.

The girl with him was thrown off and slammed into a building wall before collapsing. The spider didn’t give Chaz a chance to recover and pounced.

"Damn it! Protect the boss!"

"Go for the mana stone! Attack, you bastards!"

Once Chaz was in danger, his subordinate hunters quickly moved to block the spider monster’s charge.

"N-no! Don’t come over here!"

"AAAAGH!"

Crunch! Crack!

A brutal slaughter unfolded.

The sharp claws on the spider’s legs skewered the hunters’ bodies like kebabs, and its steel-like jaws crushed their heads.

But they were hunters too.

Even as they were dying, they cut off three of the spider’s legs and dealt damage to the mana stone.

’But...’

They couldn’t take down the spider monster.

It was an obvious result.

They were hunters of lower rank than Chaz.

Even among them, there were less than three who looked like D-rank hunters. From the start, beating an Elite Monster was beyond them.

Crunch!

As the last hunter’s head was crushed.

The hunters were wiped out in just five minutes.

Having chewed up and swallowed every hunter, the spider monster turned toward the girl again. With all the obstacles gone, it was as if it was finally going for the main dish.

Right then.

"Tch, I really didn’t want to use this."

Chaz, who had somehow regained consciousness, rose into the air once more. A few empty glass vials rolled at his feet.

His eyes were bloodshot.

"You’ll pay for making me use a potion with your body!"

A storm-like wind whirled around him. All in. He had no strength left to flee, and no subordinates either. The only option was to fight to the death.

"Die!"

CRASH!

Dozens of wind blades pummeled the spider like a tempest. The spider used its remaining legs to protect the mana stone, but the defense wasn’t perfect.

And as a result.

Cracks rapidly spread across the mana stone.

"SKREEEEE!"

Did it sense the danger?

The screaming spider suddenly began frantically digging at the ground. Realizing it was trying to flee, Chaz’s eyes flared.

"You’re not getting away!"

Sensing victory, Chaz flew after it. Then, just as he was about to generate dozens more wind blades for the finishing blow.

Splat!

The spider, which had seemed to be fleeing, suddenly twisted its body and slammed a thick grayish-white web straight into Chaz’s torso.

This one wasn’t the flesh-melting kind.

It was as heavy and hard as a chunk of metal.

"Ngh! Why is this so heavy...!"

Chaz’s body, wrapped in the web, plummeted to the ground. Even as he fell, Chaz rained wind blades down on the mana stone.

"SKREEEEEE!"

But the spider monster charged in without dodging Chaz’s attack. As if to say it didn’t care about taking this much damage.

Chaz’s eyes went wide.

He clearly hadn’t expected the thing to charge at him in return. And the price of his miscalculation was brutal.

Squelch!

The sharp claws on the spider’s leg easily punched through Chaz’s abdomen.

"Gurgh!"

Red blood spilled from Chaz’s mouth.

The agonizing pain shattered his focus, and as his skill vanished, the spider unleashed a barrage.

It moved every leg to grab Chaz, and tore his body apart on the spot.

Crunch! Crack! Rip!

With horrific sounds, C-rank hunter Chaz met his end. Watching from the rooftop, Walfred bit down hard on his lip.

’...This thing really is a crazy monster.’

Such cruel and overwhelming power.

To survive, the right move would have been to run without looking back when the chaos first started.

But Walfred had stayed in his spot.

There were two reasons.

The first was that even if he ran, he figured there was a strong chance he’d run into the spider again later.

’And the second reason was...’

How to put it? He’d had a hunch.

The hunch that Chaz and the hunters would drain the spider monster’s health to its limits and inflict serious damage on the mana stone.

And right now.

That hunch had turned into an opportunity.

’For every Elite Monster, the mana stone is the equivalent of a heart for humans.’

In other words, destroy the mana stone, and the thing dies instantly.

And right now, thanks to the desperate fight Chaz and the hunters had put up, the spider monster was a wreck. More than half its legs had been severed, and the mana stone was riddled with cracks.

Like one solid hit would shatter it.

"Hoo, hoo."

He took slow, deep breaths.

His heart felt like it might burst, but his head was cold.

The rewards he’d get if he took the thing down.

A skill book, gear, massive amounts of experience.

If he could land the killing blow and claim those rewards all for himself, the gamble was worth it.

’Let’s go.’

Walfred stood on the railing.

Below him, the spider monster was opening its mouth, ready to devour the girl.

"Frozen Weapon."

A massive ice spear formed in Walfred’s hand.

Then, with perfect timing, [Cold Emission] activated, and the spearhead glowed blue.

The power had been enhanced.

Whoosh!

In that instant.

Walfred threw himself into the air.

Aiming for the mana stone embedded between the spider monster’s eyes, the one that looked like it was about to shatter.

---

Lauren, a sophomore at Newark Girls’ Academy.

She was an ordinary high schooler who had lost her parents in an accident at a young age and lived alone with her older sister. At least until the world froze over.

The failure to clear the Antarctica Black Gate.

The ice age that followed shattered her ordinary life. Lauren, who had been at school at the time, struggled alongside her teachers and friends just to stay alive.

’But...’

Reality was cruel.

Her friends froze to death from the cold, or got eaten by monsters one by one. Every single day, the people who had been by her side disappeared one after another.

Lauren had figured she’d soon meet the same fate. But about a month after the world froze, a miracle happened.

[Eden System activated]

[Awakening complete.]

[Compatible attribute: Flame]

A fire attribute Awakened.

She’d gained the most survival-friendly attribute possible in this frozen world. After that day, Lauren’s life dramatically changed once more.

She was no longer dead weight, but recognized as an essential member who maintained the shelter’s average temperature, and she was treated accordingly.

But the peace was short-lived.

One day, the Crown Heights Station gate was suddenly unleashed, and the Crown Heights Arena Shelter where she’d been staying suffered devastating damage.

The survivors who had escaped the flood of monsters headed for the Newark Caverns Shelter. The shelter representatives had arranged it in advance.

But before they could reach their destination.

Unwelcome visitors blocked their path.

[Negotiations have broken down.]

The hunters from the Newark Galleria Shelter.

They’d suddenly demanded that the group come to their department store rather than the Newark Caverns. But when the refugee leader refused, they’d resorted to force without warning.

The fight had gone badly.

The hunters from the Newark Galleria Shelter were stronger than expected, and just as it seemed they’d be subdued completely.

An unexpected disaster had arrived.

[SKREEEEE!]

A D-rank Elite Monster.

With the spider monster’s appearance, the scene quickly turned into hell. People had died helplessly.

The kind woman who used to look after Lauren, the men who had managed to hold onto their humanity even in this terrible world, had all been crushed under the monster’s feet and reduced to bloody pulp.

Even the terrifying hunter who had tried to abduct her had been ripped to shreds.

’No, no...’

Now that all hope was gone.

Lauren collapsed.

The thought to run crossed her mind, but her body wouldn’t listen. She couldn’t fight either.

Having spent all her time inside the shelter, she was a Level 1 F-rank hunter. She didn’t have a single attack skill that could take down a monster.

"Skritch! Skreeerrr!"

Right then.

The spider monster slowly closed the distance.

Its mouth, reeking of blood, stretched wide open.

"Sis..."

Lauren squeezed her eyes shut.

She was scared. She wanted to live.

But everyone who could have helped her had long since been turned into bloody pulp. So Lauren let her body go limp and waited for the death that was coming.

Right then.

Whoosh!

A sudden gust of fierce wind.

From up above, coming down. The sound of something cutting through the air made Lauren reflexively open her eyes.

In that instant.

CRASH!

The ground shook with a tremendous roar.

A thick cloud of dust and cold mist hit her face. Coughing as she looked ahead.

"...Huh?"

Lauren couldn’t believe her eyes.

She couldn’t help it.

The monster that had been right in front of her had a glowing blue ice spear lodged between its eyes.