The guardian chamber stretched before them like a cathedral built by a madman who wanted it to feel like a horror film. Black stone pillars held up a ceiling lost in shadows, and pools of glowing lava were the only source of light.
They slowly stepped into the center of the boss's room. The space was shaped like a perfect circle, with marble pillars lining the edges—each one stretching up and disappearing into the darkness above.
Jinhyuk frowned.
"Weird… where's the boss?" glanced around carefully.
"I don't know," Ilwoo muttered, tightening his grip on his sword.
"Everyone, stay alert. We don't know when or where it might show up."
"Sounds like you don't know when the boss pops up, huh?" Hayeon chuckled, but fixed her eyes on the surroundings cautiously.
"Even though I played this game previously, I killed Gamar a dozen times."
"Because you were a high-level player," Hayeon glared at Ilwoo.
Ilwoo nodded at her. "I don't know what's happening—"
Before he could finish the sentence, his muscles tightened. Ilwoo lunged forward, and a flash of light streaked past where Jinhyuk had been, tackling him to the ground.
"Hyung?" Jinhyuk's eyes widened at Ilwoo's sudden behavior. "Why are you—?"
But then his gaze slipped past Ilwoo, locking onto the figure behind him.
"Hikke..."
He quickly backed away from Ilwoo and stood up, unsheathing his daggers with trembling hands and pointing them at the figure. Jinhyuk stayed previously.
"Cover behind me," Kim Donghyun barked, stepping forward to shield them.
Hayeon gritted her teeth. "Where the hell is that thing coming from? Damn it!"
The boss monsters of the first floor emerged from the darkness, a nightmare given shape.
It was massive and hunched, about the size of a dire wolf but even bulkier, standing as tall as a horse at the shoulder. Its eyes glowed red, burning like live embers in the dark.
[GARMR, HOUND OF HEL]
"How is that…" Ilwoo murmured, as if the words scraped up from a dry throat.
Garmr's massive head swiveled toward them, snarling at them like a predator found its prey.
When it opened its maw, they could see straight down its throat to what looked like another dimension entirely.
"MOVE!" Ilwoo shouted.
The beast's claws slammed down like wicked blades, screeching against the stone and carving deep gouges into the floor.
The impact blasted chunks of rock outward, and where its claws touched, the stone began to melt from the heat.
They scattered in all directions, instincts taking over.
Hayeon rolled behind a pillar just as the next strike scorched the air where she'd just stood.
"Its use scorched claws!" she shouted. "We've got ten seconds—just survive!"
"Ten seconds to do what?" Jinhyuk called from behind another pillar, his face pale, still shaken from the boss monster's sudden strike.
"Before it turns you to ashes, dumbass," Ilwoo gritted his teeth, circling wide with his sword drawn. The blade felt pathetically small against the creature's massive form.
Kim Donghyun made the first attack, charging from Garmr's blind spot with his axe aimed at the creature's rear leg.
The blade sank into flesh, drawing black ichor that hissed when it hit the stone.
Garmr spun faster than anything that size should move, massive claws raking across Kim's chest. His armor held for a split second before tearing like paper.
"Donghyun!" Minji rushed forward, her sword flashing as she tried to draw the beast's attention away from the wounded man.
Ilwoo watched in horror as Garmr's jaws snapped shut inches from Minji's head.
She stumbled backward, alive only because Jinhyuk had tackled her out of the way at the last possible moment.
"This isn't working!" Hayeon's spear had bounced harmlessly off the creature's hide.
"Our weapons aren't strong enough!"
She was right. Every attack they'd landed had drawn blood, but the wounds closed almost immediately. Making it hard to damage the boss.
"Can't we retreat?" Han Jisoo choked out, his whole body shivering as he backed toward the entrance.
"Door's sealed until we clear the floor," Ilwoo reminded them, dodging another claw swipe that would have opened his stomach.
"We win or we die here."
HOWWWWWWWWWWWL
Garmr's second howl.
"It's entering the second phase!" Ilwoo barked.
"EVERYONE GET AWAY FROM IT!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Garmr's body ignited, blazing like a miniature sun so bright that Ilwoo had to shield his eyes.
"shit!" Hayeon barked somewhere from a distance.
"I can't see that mutt."
The distraction cost them. While they were still struggling, Garmr charged forward and grabbed one of the civilians, Park Sunhee, who had insisted on coming, even though he had no fighting experience.
The woman's scream cut off abruptly as the beast's jaws closed around her torso. With one brutal shake of its huge head, there was barely anything left to recognize.
"No!" Minji roared in rage, and she charged the beast with her sword raised high.
"Minji, wait!" But Ilwoo's warning came too late.
Garmr's backhand caught her mid-charge, sending her flying into a pillar with bone-crushing force. She crumpled to the ground and didn't get up.
"We can't win this," Jinhyuk said, his voice cracking with barely suppressed panic. "We're not strong enough. We're not ready."
He was right, and Ilwoo knew it. But retreat wasn't an option, and neither was surrender. Which left...
"I don't have any choice but to do this quickly," he said, eyes suddenly on his belt, where the sword still hung, which he got from the ruins.
"We have to distract it."
"Don't try to be a hero," Hayeon said, keeping her spear raised between herself and the circling hellhound.
"I'm not—I just wanted to keep it distracted while you finished it off."
His mind raced, fear pushed aside by instinct.
"We don't have much time. We have to kill it now!"
Garmr crouched low again, hellfire glowing in its throat.
"Damn it! Everyone—get behind the center pillar! Now!"
They leapt aside as the breath attack roared past, slamming into the pillar, which hissed and steamed under the heat.
"After this attack, you guys have to be distracted," Ilwoo said, covering behind a pillar to save himself from the breath attack.
"distracted? How?" Kim Donghyun asked, supporting the unconscious Minji.
Ilwoo pointed at the creature, its breath attack already starting to wear them down.
"We need to strike before it uses the next one!"
HOWWWWWWWWWWWL
"Now!" Ilwoo said as the creature prepared to use the next attack.
"You are crazy," Hayeon snapped.
"Bait and switch. Lure its attacks, then dodge at the last second."
He scanned their worn-out team—five fighters still standing, one knocked out, one dead.
"This is going to be close."
What followed was the most terrifying game of tag they'd ever experienced.
They split up, taking turns drawing Garmr's focus and diving for cover just as its breath attacks seared the ground where they'd just stood.
But the tactic came with a price.
Kim Donghyun took a swipe from the beast's claws—deep cuts tearing through his already battered body.
Jinhyuk stumbled mid-dodge and scorched his entire left side. Even Hayeon, fast as she was, was clearly slowing—worn down by exhaustion and her pile-up of small wounds.
"Almost there," Ilwoo panted, rolling behind cover as Garmr's breath blazed past and the others charged in.
But then... Garmr stopped attacking.
"Shit," Hayeon muttered.
"It knows what we're trying to do."
Instead of another breath attack, Garmr began stalking toward Ilwoo's hiding spot, moving with predatory patience. No more blind aggression—it was going to hunt them down one by one.
"Goddamn it," he muttered under his breath as the creature drew closer.
"New plan," Ilwoo said, watching Garmr close the distance.
"I'll take it down myself."
"That's a suicide run," Kim Donghyun said, his voice tight with pain.
"I don't have another choice." Ilwoo's grip tightened around his sword.
"You really think you can pull it off?" Hayeon asked, her voice dry.
"Maybe. Maybe not." He met her gaze through the green slits of his mask.
"But if I don't try, we all die."
Garmr was close now—so close, Ilwoo could feel the heat radiating off its body.
"On my signal," he whispered, then stepped out from behind the pillar.
"Hey, you mutt!" he shouted, lifting his sword in challenge. "Come and get me!"
The hellhound's blazing eyes locked onto him, filled with raw hatred. It rose up on its hind legs, ready to slam down with a crushing blow that would smash him like a bug.
At the peak of its rise, just as Garmr's head dipped close, Ilwoo gave the signal.
"NOW!"
Four weapons struck the beast's back legs at once. The hits weren't deep, but just enough to throw it off balance at the worst possible moment.
Garmr's breath attack, meant for the human right beneath it, veered off-course—its fiery blast grazing Ilwoo's arm instead.
He clenched his jaw, forcing himself to stay focused through the sharp sting in his arm.
He lunged at the creature's back, driving one sword deep into its flesh. With his other hand, he yanked a second blade from the ruins, tearing it free from where it had been strapped to his belt.
The cloth around it unraveled mid-motion, revealing the weapon's full, gleaming edge. Without a breath of hesitation, he brought it down—slamming it into the creature's spine.
The blade sank deep.
A burst of red lightning exploded from the wound.
The creature howled—a guttural, ear-splitting cry—as it crashed into the wall, its body convulsing. It thrashed, limbs flailing, nearly hurling Ilwoo off.
But he held on. Teeth clenched. Muscles screaming.
And with fire in his eyes, he shouted through the storm—
"DIE, YOU GODAMN MONSTER!"
When the light faded, Garmr lay motionless, its massive form slowly dissolving into shadow.
[FLOOR GUARDIAN DEFEATED]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
Ilwoo dropped to his knees, the rush of adrenaline fading like a switch flipped off. Around him, the rest of his team were in the same shape—drained, hurt, but still breathing.
"We did it," Jinhyuk said, the fear was still written on his face. "We actually did it."
"Barely," Kim Donghyun corrected, checking on the still-unconscious Minji. "And we lost someone."
They stood in silence for a moment, honoring the memory of the civilian who'd died in Garmr's jaws.
Another name to add to the growing list of people who'd paid the price for this new world.
Ilwoo looked around at his battered party—wounded, exhausted, traumatized by their first real boss fight. The smart play would be to retreat, regroup, and come back stronger.
But the tower doors remained open behind them now, after defeating the floor boss.
"No," he decided. "We have climbed as much as we can."
"All the way to the top?" Jinhyuk asked.
"However far it takes." Ilwoo thought of Sena waiting outside, of the promise he'd made to return.
"We finish what we started."