E-Rank Hunter, Arthur Pendelton.No matter where he went, that title followed him like a shadow.Arthur’s overall strength was barely a step above a regular human being's. Aside from being a fraction tougher and healing a little faster, he was as ordinary as they came.Naturally, that meant he spent most of his time getting patched up. He’d stared death in the face more times than he cared to count.It wasn’t like Arthur actually enjoyed the Hunter lifestyle.The job was incredibly dangerous, the other Hunters treated him like a punchline, and to top it all off, the pay was abysmal.Honestly, if it weren’t for the medical insurance provided to registered Hunters by the Hunter Association, he would have turned in his license a long time ago to find a normal desk job.But for a guy in his mid-twenties with absolutely no corporate skills, there wasn't another option. He needed the money to pay for his mother’s astronomical hospital bills every month.You could say his back was entirely a

Julie’s face was entirely drained of color, and Arthur Pendelton felt a sudden knot of dread tighten in his chest."What is it, Julie? Are you feeling faint?""Th-there… look over there."Arthur followed her trembling finger.She wasn't pointing at the runes on the tablet anymore.She was pointing directly up at the gargantuan stone deity.More specifically, she was staring at its face.Arthur tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.From where he stood, the impossible monument looked exactly the same as it had a minute ago."……?"Julie’s breath hitched, the words catching in her throat."The… the eyes. The eyes of the statue just moved. They looked right at us.""What?"Arthur stared back up, tracking the massive stone sockets.He checked from three different angles, but nothing seemed out of place.The cold, gray stone remained perfectly motionless."Hey… I'm sure it was just a trick of the firelight," Arthur whispered, trying to soothe her.But Julie didn't seem to hear him.She kept h

Every Hunter left alive heard Arthur’s voice ring across the chamber."!!""The instruments?"A desperate ray of hope instantly ignited in the eyes of the survivors.In stark contrast to when he had ordered them to bow, this time everyone moved with unbelievable, frantic speed.If Arthur's deduction was wrong, the moment they stepped near a monument, they would be hacked to pieces by the guardians holding the musical artifacts.Yet, not a single person in the room questioned his logic.Mr. Sterling was the first to dive in front of a stone statue carrying a carved harp."……"Sterling fought to control his ragged breathing, raising his eyes to stare up at the looming gray shape.And as if by some miraculous design, the stone fingers of the statue smoothly shifted, strumming across the strings.Cling, clang...A hauntingly beautiful, fluid melody began to ripple through the air."It's working!!""Hurry! Get to the ones with the instruments!"The remaining Hunters sprinted toward the nea

Creak...Creeeak...The remaining six survivors spun around, their tactical weapons raised."What was that noise?!""Look at the perimeter!""They're advancing!!"The air left their lungs in a sudden rush of terror.The smaller guardian statues—the ones that had previously remained perfectly motionless unless a human breached their specific proximity circles—had physically shifted several yards closer to the altar.Arthur's gaze dropped, tracking the movement of the dust on the floor.No... the stone limbs didn't move. The stone pedestals themselves are sliding.The bone-rattling screeches were coming from the ancient tracks beneath the monuments, grinding slowly against the flagstones like a closing vice."Wait... they stopped?" Kim panted, wiping a thick layer of cold sweat from his brow.While the rest of the group kept their weapons trained on the closing circle, Arthur's focus snapped back to the spectral blue embers floating in the air.One of the flames sputtered, dissolving in

Creeaakkk…Creeeeeeaaaaakkkk…While the three of them had been talking, the closing circle of guardian statues had narrowed the gap to a mere dozen feet.Left entirely alone on the platform, Arthur dragged himself onto his stomach, taking several deep, ragged breaths to steady his racing heart."Haaah... haaah..."His hand brushed against a cold piece of metal on the stone floor—the shortsword Kim had abandoned when he fled. Arthur reached out, his fingers wrapping firmly around the leather hilt.If I'm going out, I'm taking at least one of these stone bastards with me.He managed to tilt his head back, watching through the blood in his eyes as Sterling cleared the threshold with Julie safely perched on his shoulder.A quiet sense of relief washed over Arthur’s chest.At least they made it...There was no grand, noble martyrdom in his mind. In truth, Arthur had run the cold, pragmatic numbers in his head before making his decision.Even if he somehow survived and dragged his broken bo