That was all the time it took.
In the span of less than a blink, the air in the caldera hung still. Time stopped. Jin, using the spark of Bahamut's forbidden power, punched through the centre of the Boss Monster’s stone-fire chest as if it were wet paper.
<< Congratulations! You have completed the mission successfully! >>
The System notification blared as the towering Boss Monster collapsed into a pile of cooling black rubble. Jin stood atop its remains, the Vesuvius’ Core pulsing with a violent orange light in his right hand.
But victory had a price.
<< Warning: You have suffered the ‘Burning’ status effect! >>
<< HP is dropping rapidly! >>
Jin’s right side was a mess of third-degree burns, the flesh hissing and smoking where it had come into contact with the core. His HP bar plummeted to a quarter of its total. Yet, there was only silence. Not even a wince as Jin's face remained stoic and calm. He then pulled the sleeve of the < Pharaoh’s Commandment > over the gory sight and downed a couple of Tier One healing potions.
“My lord, are you alright?” Fenrir walked up to Jin’s side.
“I’m alright, Fenrir. Don’t mind me, but what about you?”
“Some singed fur on my tail and ears. But none for the worse,” came the reply.
Jin managed a small laugh through the pain as he patted the Shadow Wolf’s head. “It was all thanks to your amalgamation. Without it, I could end up looking worse.”
Upon hearing his lord’s praise, Fenrir was jubilant. Not only was his furry tail high and wagging, but his whole body wiggled alongside Jin’s patting.
“M-Master… I’m so sorry I can’t be of any use…”
“Don’t worry, Catt,” Jin replied as he caught some noises coming from his rear. “Your turn might come sooner than expected.”
At Jin’s command, Fenrir’s massive form bled into the jagged shadows cast by the rubbles nearby.
“Oi, you fucking bastard!”
The silence of the caldera shattered as the Achievers’ party finally caught up. Leo, the tanker, led the charge, his face twisted in a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. His two other party members trailed behind, gasping for air in the dying sulphurous heat.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Leo screamed, his sword and shield trembling. “You came out of nowhere and KS-ed us!”
Jin stared him down with disgust etched on his face.
‘You shall not kill steal others.’
It was the most important tenet of the RIFT and the Player’s world. In layman’s terms, kill stealing or KS-ing was the sin of snatching the final hit when others had bled more for the victory. To those found guilty, death was often the answer. Because of it, most players shunned the practice as one without honour or pride.
As Jin looked at the pathetic, soot-covered leader of the Achievers, a cruel and eerie smile cut across his face. He wasn’t a ‘Player’ playing for honour in a make-believe game of hero and monsters.
He was a father who had crawled out from abyss for his daughter.
“Is that what you actually care about?” Jin asked, his voice dropping to a bone-chilling tone. “Who kills what? Aren’t you forgetting something else, you bastard?”
Jin didn't stay for the answer. He jumped down from the Boss Monster’s remains, his boots crunching onto the scorched ground as he made his way towards his daughter.
Behind him, Leo and the others tried to give chase, but their feet snagged. Cattleya’s near-invisible threads protruded from the rubble and ruins' floor, locking them in place.
By the time Jin reached the makeshift recovery area, Eleana was awake.
“Valkyrie, please check Mel while I change Bennie’s bandage,” the healer ordered. Eleana moved to help without a moment’s delay, her weakened and pale face determined.
“Are you sure you should be moving, Ele-I mean, Valkyrie?”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Jin’s voice startled her. She didn't recognise the hooded figure, but the healer quickly stepped in.
“Welcome back, sir. H-Have you defeated it? Is the Boss...?”
Before Jin could answer or ask for a much-needed heal for his arm, a roar shattered the moment.
“Camillia! Eleana! Stay back!” Leo screamed from across the ruins. “Don’t approach that KS-ing bastard!”
The shift was instantaneous. The two girls tensed, and to Jin’s inward dismay, his own daughter drew her weapon against him. He couldn’t blame her; though her obedience was misplaced, she was still a professional following her leader’s call, and he was a masked stranger.
“Now, where will you escape to, you bastard?!” Leo shouted, finally ripping through the threads. He charged forwards with the other two, blocking Jin’s path. “We won't let you leave this place alive even if you hand over the loot!”
“Hey, Leo, are we really doing this?” Camillia asked, her voice wavering. “He just saved Eleana. And us.”
“I agree,” Eleana added, her eyes narrowed at Jin, but her grip on her blade was uncertain. “Camillia says this man brought me back from the battleground.”
“Are you two deaf?” Lilian, the Supporter-class snapped. “If our leader says he’s a kill-stealing son of a bitch, then he is. Have you forgotten our White Raven’s rules?”
Jin watched them bicker, his disgust deepening. Their party was a mess – held together by ego rather than trust. With his
“Oi, bastard! You will answer for your crime!” Leo stepped into Jin’s face, his shield and sword raised.
“What crime?” Jin’s voice dropped. “For kill-stealing?”
“Why you–”
Before Leo could even swing his weapon, he froze. Not only his legs this time – Cattleya’s threads coiled upwards, binding his arms and torso until he looked like a fly in a web. And in the same measure, the threads snared the rest of the party, even Eleana.
“You accused me of KS-ing, right?” Jin stepped closer, his presence looming over the bound tanker. “So, tell me one thing, you pitiful excuse of a leader. How much HP did the Boss have left before I killed him?”
Silence fell over the group.
“No answer?”
“W-We’re too busy fighting!” Lilian stammered.
“Bullshit!” Jin’s voice cracked like a whip. “What kind of Players are you if you don't even know your enemy’s vitals? It’s displayed on your bloody screen!”
He let the silence hang for a beat before delivering the killing blow to their pride.
“It was ten million HP! For almost half an hour, you couldn't even bring it below eighty per cent. Forget trying to kill the bloody boss! You useless lot were waiting for your turn to die. And all I did was to end the farce in a single strike.”
“Y-You’re lying!” Leo spat. “Not even a Platinum-V rank could do that with one hit–”
Jin had no time argue. Instead, he pulled back his right sleeve.
The sight was horrific. Blackened, charred flesh hissed in the air, raw and gory from the contact with the Boss Monster’s inner core. Both Eleana and Camillia let out muffled screams of shock.
The accusations died in Leo’s throat. Looking at the wound, it was a miracle Jin was standing, let alone speaking. Most men would be screaming for the sweet release of death.
“I’m done with you fools,” Jin said, rolling his sleeve down as if the injury were nothing but a mere scratch. He walked past them, the threads holding them long enough for him to make his exit. “You call yourselves Achievers? Don’t make me laugh. More like Arse-chievers. You’re kids chasing a hero fantasy. The RIFT isn't a fucking game.”
He stopped beside his daughter, his gaze softening behind the mask for only a fraction of a second.
“And you, Eleana Sasaki.”
The mention of her full name stung the group like a backhanded slap. Eleana froze; her already pale face dropped to almost a ghastly look.
“Everyone calls you the Valkyrie, right?” Jin said, his voice carried a slight, unexpected warmth. “Do you even know what a Valkyrie means? Before you let it go to your head, learn how to survive first. And also... choose better party members.”
He turned to leave, but the sound of grinding stone echoed behind him. Leo, fuelled by a bruised ego, shattered Cattleya’s threads and surged forwards. He raised his shield for a bash, his sword following in a murderous cleave.
“Fenrir.”
Jin didn't even flinch. From the jagged shadows of the ruins inside the cooling volcano, a blur of midnight fur and ethereal green with silver claws erupted. Fenrir slammed into the tanker’s blind spot, pinning him to the ground with a force that cracked the stone beneath them.
Leo’s head was halfway inside Fenrir’s massive, salivating jaw before Cattleya’s threads secured him to the ruins floor like a cicada on a specimen board.
“Stay there and think, you damned fool!” Jin growled. At his telepathic command, a dozen more pairs of glowing eyes opened in the shadows surrounding the party. The rest of the pack had arrived.
“W-Wait!” Eleana dropped her weapons, her hands raised in surrender. Unlike her leader, she knew when she was outmatched. “You know my name. You killed the Boss. You handled a high-ranking tanker like he was nothing. Who… who are you?”
Jin let out a short, dry laugh. “Him? High-ranking? Hah. He couldn't hold a candle to a real tanker I know. Not even if that man only had one arm.”
“Are you a Legendary Star-ranked Player?” Camillia asked, her voice trembling. “I know a Beast Tamer of legend–”
“Enough!”
Jin’s word cut her off like a kamaitachi. He climbed onto Fenrir’s broad back, looking down at them as a master looks upon a student who has failed their first lesson. “I’m no Tamer. Use your heads. You’ve felt my threads and seen my wolves. Think about what that makes me.”
He beckoned his pack, and they began to dissolve into ethereal smoke, bleeding back into the shadows.
“Wait! Please!” Eleana stepped forwards. “How do you know me?”
Jin paused. Behind his mask, he felt a sting of tears. She was so much like her mother – stubborn, beautiful, and far too brave for her own good. And like her mother, she didn't know when to stop asking questions.
He wanted to hug her, but he knew he couldn't. Not yet.
“Remember what I said, Eleana. You’re strong, but this is not a game. One mistake is all it takes to die a dog’s death inside a RIFT. I’m sure your father told you that, didn't he? Or did you forget what happened to him?”
Eleana’s eyes went wide, and her tears swelled. “My father? Do you know–hey! Wait! Please!”
But Jin was already moving. Fenrir leapt over a wall of cooling basalt, vanishing into the sulphurous haze.
As the silence of the caldera returned, the party stood in stunned stillness. They were safe. The poisonous gas was gone, and the Boss Monster was nothing more than a pile of cinders. The Cataclysm had ended before it could begin. All’s well that ends well.
But for Jin, this was not an ending. It was a new beginning.
“Fenrir, assign one of your pups to Eleana.”
“As you command, my lord.”
Jin looked back from the corner of his eye. The others were trying to free the tanker while Eleana was still staring at the spot where Jin had stood earlier. She didn't notice a single excited pup – the runt of Fenrir's pack – curled up in the darkness of her own shadow. Her silent, invisible guardian was in place.
Their reunion?
That would have to wait.