Alisa staggered backward, her breath ragged, body bloodied. Her frost-coated blade clung to her fingertips, trembling. Around her, the battlefield was scorched, the screams of hunters ringing from every side. Her legs ached. Her mana reserves were drained to fumes. She had been fighting for hours without pause—freezing wolves, shielding injured teammates, commanding defensive lines.
Her knees buckled. "Just… a little longer…"
Then she saw it.
The wolves suddenly stopped their charge. Every claw froze midair. Every snarl went silent.
They turned.
Hundreds of them.
And bolted toward the gate.
Alisa's eyes widened. "No…"
She stumbled forward. "They're going for the surface… the civilians… the lower-ranked hunters…"
She tried to run. To intercept.
But her body had reached its limit. Her feet dragged. Her vision blurred.
She collapsed—face down in the dirt.
---
Around Russia, homes, cafés, control rooms—all tuned to the broadcast.
Families clutched one another.
Guilds stopped mid-operation.
PSD officers froze at their desks.
The hunters on screen were losing.
Alisa—the Ice Princess—had fallen.
"Is this live?" someone whispered.
---
Inside the national crisis center, the President shot up from his chair. "Shut it down!"
An aide stammered, "Sir, we can't. The camera used for this livestream is a new model—it transmits directly through a quantum relay. No cables, no server. Unless we physically retrieve the camera…"
The President snapped, "Then get me that damn camera!"
---
On the battlefield, the camera was tipped sideways, cracked and half-buried in rubble.
It still streamed.
Shaking, but alive.
It captured the carnage.
The Wolf King tore through the outer ranks, his army following behind. Lower-star hunters tried to defend themselves—only to be hurled into walls, ripped apart, or buried beneath crushed debris.
The ground was soaked in blood.
A warehouse exploded.
A fire crew was massacred trying to save civilians.
The camera recorded it all.
---
Back inside the gate, the five 7-star hunters—Dmitri, Maks, Lena, Niko, and Alek—were barely standing. Blood oozed from wounds, armor torn, weapons bent. But they moved forward, dragging one another toward the gate, determined to stop the massacre outside.
---
At headquarters, the President was losing his temper.
"Everyone's dying. What now? WHAT DO WE DO?!"
He collapsed into his chair, trembling.
The door opened.
A field officer stepped in, nervous.
"You were supposed to protect the gate!" the President barked.
"I know, sir… but a hunter came. He asked what was happening… I told him everything. He gave me this watch and asked me to deliver it to Sunny."
Sunny took the watch with confusion.
The President scoffed. "Rank?"
"6-star."
The President's expression sank.
But Sunny stared at the watch… something clicked.
He whispered, "Sir… look at the screen."
---
Reporters and media personnel were crouched behind flipped vans, panic spreading.
"He's slaughtering them!"
"We need to get out of here!"
"No, wait… look!"
Their cameras turned toward a rising cloud of smoke.
The Wolf King had just thrown a truck into a building, collapsing two floors in the process. Debris scattered. The ground hissed in heat and dust.
A silence settled.
And through the smoke… something walked.
One step at a time.
A figure.
Tall. Calm. The dust swirling around him couldn't touch his silhouette.
His hood hung low, his black coat rippled gently.
Every camera focused.
One reporter whispered, "Is that… a hunter?"
---
Yelena grabbed her mother's arm, yelling. "Mom! Come quickly!"
They rushed to the living room.
The broadcast was still running.
They saw the battlefield. The silence.
And the man.
Their mother gasped. "Max…"
Sunny stood as the camera caught the figure clearly.
He was too far to be heard.
But the Wolf King—he noticed.
He looked directly at the new arrival.
To ordinary eyes—Max looked like a human.
But the Wolf King saw the truth.
He saw horns beneath the hood. Eyes glowing with celestial flame. Wings—folded behind Max's back. The pressure. The aura.
He shivered.
A moment of hesitation.
But his army was watching. He had to act.
He stepped forward and snarled, "So… a human comes to challenge me?"
Max raised his head and smiled.
"So… a mere insect dares speak to me like that? Brave."
The Wolf King growled. "What did you just say?"
Max exhaled. "Okay then. I'll humor you."
He lifted his hand.
And moved.
---
The battle lasted less than three minutes.
Max blurred across the field—every wolf that lunged was torn apart midair. He crushed bones with his fists, incinerated rows with blasts of fire, and slammed enemies into the concrete until the ground cracked.
The Wolf King attacked—claws like daggers.
Max caught them.
And snapped them.
The Wolf King screamed. Max answered with a spinning kick that sent the beast into a building, leveling it.
Hunters who had survived were wide-eyed, lips parted.
"Is that…?"
"He's… not human…"
Within moments, Max stood over the broken corpse of the Wolf King, blood hissing at his feet.
---
But then—
Alek appeared behind him and launched an attack.
Max dodged it with a side-step, his eyes still calm.
In HQ, the President narrowed his eyes.
"…What rank did you say?"
Sunny answered, still staring at the screen.
"6-star."
The President smiled.
"6-star, huh…"