The Emberfang Tiger crossed the remaining distance in the blink of an eye.
Its body became a streak of crimson fire, the overwhelming heat pouring from it washing over Kael like a tidal wave. The stone beneath its paws melted with every step, while the already cracked arena floor continued to sink beneath the unbearable temperature.
Kael didn’t retreat.
Instead, he stepped forward.
He walked directly into the inferno surrounding the beast.
Heat surged against his body from every direction. It seeped through his already ruined clothes and seemed to sink straight into his flesh before reaching his bones. Every instinct screamed at him to back away.
He ignored it.
None of this pain was real.
The VR simulation perfectly reproduced physical sensations, but his actual body remained safely inside the pod outside.
If there was ever a place to fight without caring about injuries...
It was here.
The Emberfang Tiger let out a deafening roar as it threw itself toward him.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
The moment the beast entered striking distance, his stance changed.
His feet rooted themselves into the fractured stone as he dropped into a deep crouch, his center of gravity sinking lower until he resembled an immovable mountain anchored firmly to the earth.
His fingers locked together.
Not into a fist.
But into a single rigid point.
The Emberfang Tiger opened its jaws.
Flames spiraled within its throat, forming a vortex of blazing heat capable of swallowing everything before it.
It lunged straight for Kael’s neck.
Kael answered by stepping into the attack.
His lead arm shot forward like a steel spear.
Thud!
His hand pierced through layers of scorching muscle before burying itself deep inside the Emberfang Tiger’s chest.
Right where its heart violently hammered beneath layers of bone and flesh.
The unimaginable heat instantly surged across his arm.
His skin split.
His flesh burned.
The smell of charred meat filled the air.
Yet Kael didn’t withdraw his hand.
Instead...
He twisted.
His feet remained rooted in place while his hips rotated violently, every muscle throughout his body moving as one. The force generated wasn’t borrowed from momentum alone.
It came from perfect coordination.
Every tendon.
Every muscle.
Every joint.
United into a single motion.
At the same time, his other hand clenched into a heavy fist.
Not a swift strike.
Not a sharp strike.
A crushing one.
His entire arm descended like the head of an enormous war mace.
Crunch!
The blow landed squarely against the back of the Emberfang Tiger’s skull.
The sound echoed throughout the arena.
Bone shattered.
The beast’s charging momentum vanished instantly.
Its enormous body stiffened.
The blazing hatred burning within its golden eyes rapidly faded as they rolled upward.
The violent heat aura surrounding it suddenly became unstable.
Without its heart maintaining the flow of mana through its mutated body, the immense fire energy erupted into complete chaos.
The crimson glow covering its fur flickered.
Then...
It disappeared.
The flames died.
The suffocating heat rapidly dispersed as patches of grey ash drifted from the beast’s body like dying embers carried away by the wind.
Its enormous body slumped forward.
Boom!
The weight of the Emberfang Tiger crashed onto Kael, pinning him beneath the corpse inside the smoking crater.
Several moments passed before Kael slowly pushed against the lifeless carcass.
With considerable effort, he shoved the massive beast aside before climbing back to his feet.
His arms trembled slightly.
The skin across both hands had been scorched black in several places.
His knuckles looked raw and torn.
Even lifting his arms felt strangely heavy.
Kael inhaled deeply.
His breathing came in slow, ragged breaths as he quietly looked down at the fallen beast lying motionless within the crater.
The arena gradually fell silent.
Without the Emberfang Tiger continuously releasing its terrifying heat, the temperature rapidly returned to normal.
For the first time since the battle began...
The air no longer felt like it belonged inside a furnace.
Just then, the familiar mechanical voice echoed throughout the empty arena.
[Trial Complete.]
[Evaluating Performance...]
Several streams of blue light descended from above, scanning both Kael and the battlefield.
A few seconds later...
Another notification appeared before him.
[Evaluation Complete.]
[Hunter: Kael Voss]
[Hunter ID: HV-47291368-NA]
[Congratulations on successfully completing the A-Rank Hunter Reassessment Trial.]
[Your Hunter Rank has been updated to A-Rank.]
[Please proceed to the reception desk to update your Hunter ID.]
[The Hunter Association wishes you continued growth on your journey.]
Kael barely spared the notification a glance.
The next moment, the surrounding world slowly dissolved into countless particles of white light.
His consciousness gradually returned to reality.
...
Kael slowly opened his eyes.
The familiar interior of the VR pod came back into view.
He instinctively reached inward.
The moment he sensed the familiar stream of Earth Energy quietly circulating throughout his body once again, he couldn’t help letting out a long sigh of relief.
"Finally..."
Just a few minutes without it...
Yet it had felt as though someone had stripped away a part of himself.
Like walking around completely naked.
The feeling was indescribably uncomfortable.
After allowing himself a brief moment to reconnect with the steady flow of Earth Energy, Kael removed the VR helmet before pushing open the pod.
Hiss.
The transparent cover slid upward.
Kael stepped outside.
The instant both feet touched the floor, he immediately noticed something different.
The room wasn’t empty anymore.
A man stood quietly several meters away.
He wore a perfectly fitted black suit, his posture straight and composed. Although no aura leaked from his body, there was an unmistakable sense of authority surrounding him.
More importantly...
The man had been staring at him the entire time.
Kael frowned slightly.
Before he could ask why the stranger was there, the man spoke first.
"Mr. Voss."
A respectful smile appeared on his face.
"Welcome to the Hunter Association."
"My name is Ferris Newman."
"I currently serve as the director of this branch."
"I sincerely apologize for not coming to welcome you sooner."
His tone remained extremely polite.
Far more polite than someone of his position normally needed to be.
Kael’s brows knit together.
"Ferris Newman..."
The name sounded strangely familiar.
For a brief moment, he searched through the countless memories inherited from his future self.
Then...
His eyes widened ever so slightly.
"So it’s him..."
He finally remembered.
Ferris Newman.
If this really was the same person...
Then Kael wasn’t simply meeting an ordinary branch director.
He was standing before someone who would one day become a legend.
Three years from now, in the timeline of his future memories, the third district would experience one of its darkest disasters.
A Rift Break.
Normally, such catastrophes rarely reached human civilization.
Every discovered Rift was heavily monitored, with massive fortress cities constructed around their entrances. Should a beast tide occur, it would be contained before the monsters could ever spill into the outside world.
But not every Rift announced its existence.
Even after all these years, new Rifts continued appearing across the planet.
Most revealed themselves through violent spatial disturbances during formation, allowing humanity to discover and secure them before they became dangerous.
Others...
Were different.
Some Rifts concealed themselves completely.
They quietly matured in isolation, hidden from human eyes while the monsters within multiplied unchecked.
Then, one day...
Their entrances suddenly ruptured.
Millions of beasts poured into the outside world without warning, creating devastating beast hordes that swept across entire cities before help could arrive.
Ferris Newman earned his name during one such disaster.
Back then, he had only been an A-Rank Hunter.
Yet when an undiscovered Rift erupted and unleashed a catastrophic beast horde upon a densely populated region, Ferris stood alone at the breach.
For two entire hours.
He fought without retreating.
Without reinforcement.
Without allowing a single beast to pass.
By the time support arrived, his body had given out and he had already died. Yet before his death, he had saved millions of civilians.
From that day onward, the name Ferris Newman was remembered throughout the Hunter world as one of humanity’s greatest heroes.