Baruka

Ice Elves support antagonists in the dark fantasy Korean manhwa and the light novel Solo Leveling series. They are a group of elves that reside in cold environments and were ruled by one of the nine Monarchs, the Frost Monarch. An army that fought against Sun Jinwoo was led by Baruka. For the ice elves that Jinwoo encountered during the Red Gate Incident, most of them were shown to be very arrogant and tended to want to fight strong opponents. During their first ambush on Jinwoo's raid party, they cleverly attacked the two weakest hunters in the group and could easily kill one of them. The other, an E-Rank Hunter named Han Song-Yi, was saved in the nick of time by Jinwoo, who caught the arrow that the elves shot at her with his bare hand before it could reach her face. Upon realizing that Jinwoo was the strongest member of the group, one of the elves taunted him with a neck-slashing gesture before retreating, highlighting their bold and aggressive behavior as a species. Ironically, this same elf would later be instantly beheaded by Jinwoo during their second encounter several days later. Unlike most magic beasts, they possess human-level intelligence and are skilled fighters, wielding bows and daggers in battle. They typically use arrows with ice magic infused into them and are smart enough to ambush and attack their opponents from a safe distance. They also all seem to be able to use Stealth collectively and appear to be very sadistic, as they take great pleasure in slaughtering humans, with Baruka claiming a voice in their heads commands them to.

Baruka's body is lean and athletic, with broad shoulders and a strong physique, far taller than any average human. He has white eyes lacking any pupils, and like all Ice Elves, blue irises can appear in his eyes whenever he feels a high amount of emotions (e.g anger, shock, love). He has pale blue skin, long white hair that spreads out wildly with spiky tips, and long pointed ears. Baruka is usually seen with an arrogant smile that flashes white teeth. As the leader, he does possess a special feature that is three red, purple-colored glowing crests on his forehead resembling three thin diamonds, with the one in the middle being the tallest. He wears a blue, long, fur-lined winter tail coat with a high fur collar, which is sported by a wide belt with tribal and geometric engravings wrapped around his waist. Underneath the coat, he has on a black shirt with a high fur collar. His pants are also blue, and he wears golden boots that look like armor.

Like the other ice elves, Baruka is illustrated as a sadistic murderer who enjoys murdering humans and expresses pride in battles. Being observant, Baruka quickly took notice of the details that Sung Jinwoo was not an ordinary human upon facing him. He was also selfish as he was willing to sacrifice the lives of his comrades for Jinwoo upon realizing that he was powerful. Baruka's dagger is a long, bright silver blade with a white glow, a curved edge, and a grey handle.

When the hunter expedition led by Kim Chul entered the Red Gate Dungeon and was sealed inside, Chul split it into two groups, with him taking the higher-ranked members to find and kill the boss. However, Baruka and his warriors easily defeated their small raid party and killed every single member except for Kim Chul, who ran away in terror. Seeking to finish the frightened human off, Baruka followed Chul through the forest until he was led to Jinwoo's group. While initially cloaked, Jinwoo exposed their presence, and Baruka revealed his intelligence by speaking in his language, which Jinwoo understood and even spoke back, which he believed was due to him being the "player" and using the System. Upon revealing that one of his scouts told him that Jinwoo was strong enough to give him a serious fight and remarking that the E-Rank was not completely human, Baruka offered to spare his life if he sacrificed the lives of his squad members in return. Naturally, Jinwoo refused Baruka's offer and summoned his shadow army including the recently added pack of Ice Bears. Although Baruka initially had the upper hand in their one-on-one fight, shrugging off Jinwoo's hit-and-run attacks and the fireballs launched by his shadow mages, the hunter was able to turn the tide after luring in Kim Chul to be killed by Igris and extracting his shadow to acquire Iron. The ice elf boss managed to hold his own against the triple threat of Jinwoo and his shadows, but the hunter was eventually able to land a near-fatal blow on him though Baruka still dodged it. By then, the rest of his ice elves had been slaughtered by the shadow army, and Baruka became enraged. Jinwoo feinted an attack by throwing one of his daggers, then using his telekinesis to bring it back at high speeds, causing Baruka to block with his dagger, which destroyed it. Iron was then sent to restrain Baruka while shadow mages launched fireballs directly at him. While he survived the blast again, Jinwoo used Stealth to land a direct hit on Baruka. When the ice elf angrily proclaimed his will to continue the fight, he failed to see Iron appear behind him and was crushed underneath the shadow's warhammer. Afterward, Jinwoo attempted to extract Baruka's shadow but failed all three attempts due to the dungeon boss's superior strength. As an S-Rank magic beast within a Red Gate Dungeon, Baruka was considerably powerful, to the point that Jinwoo acknowledged he could never beat him in a solo fight and only succeeded by triple-teaming the ice elf with his strongest shadows at the time, Igris and Iron.

Dagger Mastery: Baruka was proficient with the use of his dagger, shown by his being able to match the swordfighting of both Jinwoo and Igris. Enhanced Strength: Baruka's strength was acknowledged by Jinwoo himself, who stated that the S-Rank magic beast was stronger than he was on his own. Enhanced Resistance: Baruka was able to resist direct hits by the fire magic of Jinwoo's shadow mages as well as resisting the poison effect from Kasaka's Venom Fang. Enhanced Speed: Even while pinned down and outnumbered, Baruka was still able to dodge a near-fatal attack from Jinwoo. Stealth: Baruka was able to camouflage with his surroundings and hide all traces of his presence, essentially turning himself both physically and magically invisible. Conversation: Baruka is one of the few magic beasts encountered by Jinwoo capable of direct speech, albeit talking in a monster-exclusive tongue that only Jinwoo of all humans could understand due to using the System.

Sung Jinwoo = Male; Race: Korean; Jinwoo is a tall, handsome, and muscular young man with gray eyes, sharp facial features, and black hair with bangs that dangle all the way down to his eyes. When using his powers or feeling intense emotions, his eyes glow purple and his facial features become more pronounced. He favors dark clothing and often seen in sleek and stylish outfits ranging from tailored suits to long hooded coats. Traits: He is also mostly indifferent to materialistic desires and can be very selfless. Jinwoo is a humble and benevolent individual who cares deeply for his family and has an ardent desire to become stronger. As a result, he shares a close relationship with his sister and his mother, and rarely wastes an opportunity to refine his skills and gain more power. His deep bond with his family also makes him absolutely merciless towards anyone who dares to hurt them. In battle, however, he is ruthless, as he tends to slaughter his enemies indiscriminately, and even somewhat disdainful, as displayed when he taunted the Ant King by calling him a "mere insect" and mocked Kandiaru for the flaws he made in his design of the System. Jinwoo possesses tremendous amounts of physical strength. Abilities: Jinwoo is tremendously fast and can move at speeds so great that most opponents are unable to track his movements. Jinwoo possesses absolute control over shadows and darkness, and can reshape them into any form he desires. Jinwoo can speak and understand monster tongue, which he uses to communicate with his shadow soldiers and the enemy monsters that he encounters in battle, like Baruka.

One of his shadows is Igris. Igris is the shadow of Blood-Red Commander Igris, and one of the generals for Jinwoo's shadow army, serving as his right-hand man. Igris is a large knight with a light purple glow, jet-black armor covering him from head to toe, a tattered black cape, and a long red hair-like ornament extending out of the back of his helmet. His left eye still bares the scar from Jin-Woo during their battle while in the anime is the right eye that has the scar. Igris is loyal, respectful, and chivalrous, to the point that he tends to kneel to his master every time he finishes a battle for him. A running gag with his character is that he always brings the head of his kills back to Jin-Woo, which ultimately became a problem when Iron started to copy him. Much like Jin-Woo, Igris also does not approve of Iron's dumb antics and typically gets irritated whenever Iron goes overboard in battle. He is also capable of being nervous and anxious that he's acting a bit too arrogant and thinks that he would seem disrespectful sitting on the throne before his liege.

During Jinwoo's fight with Baruka, a crazed Kim Chul attempted to kill Jinwoo only to be killed himself by Igris. Knowing that he would have a hard time defeating Baruka only with Igris' help, Jinwoo quickly extracted Kim Chul's shadow from his corpse and named him Iron. Now a loyal shadow to Jinwoo, Iron helped his master in his fight against Baruka and ultimately defeated the ice elf by smashing him into the ground with his battle axe. Iron takes after his appearance in life, wearing the same armor and wielding the same weapons. As a shadow, he also has a light purple glow. When he evolved to Elite Knight Grade, his axe became larger, became double bladed, and gained a smoky quality to it. Iron is a loose cannon and has a tendency to go overboard in battle, usually causing excessive destruction with his antics. He also takes pride in his kills and gets easily frustrated when his opponents prove to be immune to his Taunt skill. Although Jinwoo regards Iron as a dunce, he still keeps him around, as the latter always gets the job done well in battle.