Boss Battle: The Iron Tyrant
As Rensei ventured deeper into the dungeon, the air grew heavier. The chamber opened into a vast cavern illuminated by molten veins running through the cracked stone walls. At its center stood a hulking figure—The Iron Tyrant, a monstrous, ten-foot-tall ogre clad in jagged, blackened steel. Its molten eyes burned with primal rage as it slowly lifted its colossal battle axe, its serrated edge glowing red-hot.
"Alright… Let's see what you've got."
The boss let out a deafening roar before launching forward with surprising speed, bringing its axe down with the force of a falling meteor.
Burst Step—Activate.
Rensei vanished in a blink, reappearing just outside the shockwave of the impact. The axe slammed into the ground, sending molten cracks racing toward him.
Gear 1st: Earthbound—Activate.
The moment his foot touched the shaking ground, Rensei planted his stance, negating the tremors completely. Using the stored force from the impact, he propelled himself forward like a cannonball, twisting his body mid-air to drive a reinforced punch straight into the Tyrant's armored chest.
CRACK!
The boss staggered back, but its thick steel plating absorbed most of the damage. Rensei landed, shaking his fist. Tough bastard.
The Tyrant retaliated with a sweeping horizontal slash.
Mercury Requiem—Activate.
Rensei's body flickered fluid-like, the strike phasing through him as he weaved past the axe's deadly arc. Using his momentum, he twisted into a counterattack, his leg contorting like quicksilver as he delivered a spinning roundhouse kick that dented the Tyrant's helmet.
The boss roared, stumbling but recovering quickly. Its armor began rearranging itself, shifting like liquid metal to reinforce the dented areas.
"Oh, you're adaptive? That's new."
The Tyrant lunged forward, aiming to grab him with its massive gauntlet.
Burst Step—Activate.
In a blink, Rensei appeared above the boss, twisting mid-air and bringing his heel down in a brutal axe kick aimed at the helmet's weak point.
BOOM!
The impact dented the metal deeper, sending the Tyrant reeling.
Seizing the moment, Rensei switched stances.
Gear 1st: Earthbound—Activate.
He stomped down, securing his footing, then launched himself forward, delivering a devastating shoulder tackle infused with the force of the entire dungeon floor. The impact sent the Tyrant skidding back, its armor cracking under the sheer force.
The boss roared, its molten veins flaring brighter as it activated its Berserker Mode. Its armor liquefied and expanded, forming massive molten gauntlets over its arms.
It came at him with a relentless barrage of punches, the air boiling around each strike.
Mercury Requiem—Activate.
Rensei's body flickered and flowed between attacks, ducking, weaving, and twisting with inhuman fluidity. He moved like liquid metal, his form adapting to each incoming strike.
Then, he switched gears.
Burst Step—Activate.
A sudden explosion of force launched him straight up, flipping over the Tyrant's head.
He clenched his fists.
Gear 1st: Earthbound—Maximum Compression.
He sucked in the surrounding force, compacting it into his right fist as he descended.
"Let's see how much you can take."
With all his strength, he unleashed a full-powered punch, striking directly at the cracked dent in the Tyrant's helmet.
BOOOOOM!
The sheer impact sent shockwaves tearing through the chamber. The Tyrant's helmet shattered, revealing a monstrous, charred skull beneath.
The boss staggered, its molten veins flickering.
Rensei didn't hesitate.
Burst Step— Activated.
In a flash, he reappeared behind the Tyrant, then beside it, then under it, delivering rapid precision strikes at every exposed weak point. His attacks came from every angle, a relentless assault of earth-shaking punches, fluid strikes, and explosive movements.
The Tyrant lurched forward, trying to counter.
But Rensei was already above it.
He twisted mid-air, both fists glowing with the combined force of Earthbound and Mercury Requiem.
"Game over."
He came crashing down with a devastating double-fist smash straight to the Tyrant's exposed skull.
KRAAAAAK!
The boss crumbled, its molten core snuffed out as its massive body collapsed in a heap of broken steel.
Rensei exhaled, rolling his shoulders. "That was fun."
As the dungeon began disintegrating, the system notification appeared before him.
[Dungeon Cleared]
[New quest Unlocked: Job change]
Rensei smirked. "Oh… Now that sounds interesting."
I stood over the corpse of the C-Rank dungeon boss, its remains still crackling with residual energy. My breathing was steady, barely labored. The fight had been a decent warm-up, but nothing that truly pushed me. The only thing that stood out was how easy it felt. I had gone from barely managing against lower-ranked monsters to overwhelming a C-Rank boss like it was nothing.
I wiped the blood off my gloves, flexing my fingers. This wasn't my limit.
That's when the system's voice echoed in my head.
[Hidden Condition Met: You have surpassed the limits of an ordinary hunter.]
[A Gate is forming.]
[WARNING: Once entered, you cannot leave until the trial is complete.]
I snapped my head up just as the dungeon began to distort. The air grew heavy, space itself warping like ripples in water. Then, at the far end of the boss chamber, the walls cracked apart, revealing a swirling mass of black void speckled with distant stars.
A new dungeon. A Celestial Gate.
I exhaled, feeling my pulse quicken. A job change quest.
No hesitation. I stepped through.
The Celestial Trial: The Star-Forged Crucible
The instant I crossed the threshold, the world vanished.
The ground beneath my feet was no longer stone—it was nothing. A vast expanse of space stretched endlessly around me, galaxies twisting in the distance, planets orbiting unseen forces. My body felt weightless, yet when I moved, I felt resistance, as if swimming through the void.
Then, the system's voice returned.
[Trial 1: Survive the Falling Stars]
[Objective: Endure for 10 minutes.]
I frowned. Falling stars?
A distant glow flared overhead. Then another. And another.
Then the sky fell.
Massive, molten meteors the size of buildings came screaming down toward me. The first one slammed into the space where I had been standing, the impact sending a shockwave through the void. I barely dodged, activating Burst Step to propel myself sideways, twisting midair as another meteor shattered just inches away.
More were coming. Hundreds of them.
I reacted instantly. Earthbound activated, locking my position midair for a fraction of a second before I launched off an invisible foothold. Mercury Requiem flowed through me, my body twisting with unnatural speed as I wove between the deadly barrage.
But they weren't just falling randomly.
They were tracking me.
My mind raced. Think, think—
Then I saw it—a faint distortion in the air before each meteor changed trajectory.
The gravitational pull!
I grit my teeth. If they were tracking me, then I could manipulate them. Instead of dodging outright, I pushed toward the next meteor, letting its gravitational pull drag me into its orbit before I Burst Stepped at the last second. The meteor curved, slamming into another one, detonating both.
A chain reaction.
I danced through the chaos, redirecting the meteors into each other, twisting through the collapsing destruction.
Ten minutes had never felt so long.
Then, as suddenly as it started, the sky cleared.
The system spoke.
[Trial 1 Complete.]
[Proceeding to Trial 2.]
The space ahead of me rippled, distorting like a mirage on the horizon. Then, the Cosmic Tyrant appeared.
He towered over me, a colossus of celestial might. His armor was forged from the remains of dying stars, obsidian-black with veins of molten energy coursing through it. His helmet had no face—only a swirling vortex of galaxies trapped within its confines. He radiated an aura of pure destruction, and in his grip, he held a halberd taller than I was, its edge shimmering with the light of collapsing suns.
I had fought monsters. I had fought other hunters. But this… this was something else.
The system's voice rang in my ears.
[Final Trial: Defeat the Cosmic Tyrant.]
There was no countdown. No time to prepare.
He moved.
A single step, and the void shattered.
The sheer force of his presence sent ripples through space, twisting gravity itself. Planets in the distance crumbled under the weight of his existence. My body screamed as an invisible force tried to crush me where I stood.
I Burst Stepped out of the way just as his halberd descended.
The moment the blade touched space, the fabric of reality collapsed inward.
An explosion of light erupted, sending shockwaves of cosmic energy in every direction. If I had been even a fraction of a second slower, I would have been obliterated.
I twisted midair, activating Mercury Requiem, my body bending and shifting with inhuman fluidity. My boots skidded across an invisible platform of compressed gravity, my hands crackling with celestial energy as I counterattacked.
I launched forward.
I threw a punch, my fist glowing with cosmic power. The void around it twisted, a miniature supernova detonating at my knuckles.
But he was faster.
The Cosmic Tyrant's halberd swung sideways, intercepting my strike with a burst of force that sent me flying.
I twisted, righting myself in midair. Before I could even land, he was already above me.
His halberd glowed with the light of a dying star, and he swung down.
I Burst Stepped to the side, dodging by a hair's breadth. The sheer force of the swing created a gravitational vortex, pulling me backward. I barely managed to activate Earthbound, anchoring myself against the collapsing space.
I need to change my approach.
I activated Cosmic Weave, a skill I had unlocked during the previous trial. The universe around me slowed. Not truly, but my perception expanded—I could see the currents of energy flowing through the battlefield.
And I saw an opening.
I launched forward with Mercury Requiem, twisting around the next strike. My body became a blur, slipping through the gaps in his attacks like a comet weaving through an asteroid field.
I closed the distance.
My palm collided with his chest plate. Energy surged.
A violent blast of cosmic force erupted from my hand, sending shockwaves across his armor. The impact cracked the star-forged plating, the molten veins beneath flaring with unstable energy.
For the first time, the Cosmic Tyrant staggered.
But he didn't stay down.
Instead, he laughed.
A deep, resonant sound that shook the void.
Then, his halberd split apart.
The weapon fragmented into dozens of floating blades, each one burning with the fury of a collapsing galaxy. With a flick of his wrist, they shot toward me.
I dodged the first. Then the second.
But they kept coming.
I twisted and flipped, Burst Stepping between the razor-thin slashes of celestial energy. But it wasn't enough. One of the blades clipped my side, and I felt a searing pain as my jacket was sliced open.
Damn… he's adjusting to my movements.
I needed to counter, and fast.
I gathered energy at my fingertips. Cosmic Dominion surged within me, and I reached out.
The stars answered.
The space around me cracked, and suddenly, debris from shattered planets hurtled toward the battlefield. I grabbed hold of a passing asteroid, flipping off its surface just as one of the Tyrant's blades embedded itself into the rock.
I pulled.
The asteroid swung around me, a makeshift weapon, and I hurled it straight at him.
The Cosmic Tyrant raised a hand. The asteroid stopped midair—but that was exactly what I wanted.
I Burst Stepped behind him while he was distracted.
My hands glowed.
"Celestial Breaker!"
I drove my fist into his back.
A shockwave exploded outward.
The force sent him hurtling forward, smashing through floating debris. The system registered the damage, his health bar dropping slightly.
I didn't let up.
Before he could recover, I activated Earthbound, anchoring myself to the void before launching forward like a missile.
I aimed for his chest, driving another explosive punch into the cracked part of his armor.
The moment I struck, the impact detonated like a supernova.
His entire form was engulfed in golden flames.
For a moment, I thought it was over.
Then, through the fire and smoke—
His halberd reformed.
The flames parted, and the Cosmic Tyrant stood there, his armor mending itself with the light of dying stars.
His galactic vortex eyes locked onto me.
Then, he raised his hand—
And the entire battlefield collapsed.
⸻
Gravity vanished.
Planets, stars, and celestial debris imploded, sucked into the singularity forming in his palm.
The force was unimaginable. My body was dragged forward, the very atoms of my being stretching toward the endless void.
I had seconds to react.
I pushed against the pull, activating Earthbound at max output to anchor myself. But it wasn't enough—the gravitational force was too strong.
Then I'll use it against him.
I deactivated Earthbound.
For a split second, I allowed myself to be pulled forward, accelerating at breakneck speed toward the singularity. The moment I reached the event horizon—
I activated Burst Step.
The sudden directional shift slingshotted me around the Tyrant, my body bending through the warped gravity like a comet.
I reappeared above him.
This was my chance.
I gathered everything.
All my power. All my remaining strength.
A single punch—imbued with the force of collapsing stars.
I swung.
The void erupted.
A radiant explosion tore through the battlefield, shattering the Tyrant's armor completely. His body convulsed, the cosmic energy within him destabilizing.
Then—
He fell.
The singularity collapsed, taking him with it. The battlefield stabilized.
The system's voice echoed.
[Final Trial Complete.]
[You have surpassed your mortal limits.]
[You are no longer bound by the Earth.]
I exhaled, watching as the last remnants of the Cosmic Tyrant vanished into the void.
Then, before me, a new message appeared.
[You have been granted the title: Celestial Monarch.]
[Your power transcends realms. Your domain is the cosmos itself.]