Chapter 39
“Block.”
Eunwol's brief murmur.
Paaaang-!
At that moment, the dozens of Cloakers that had been about to pounce on her from all sides stopped dead in midair as if by magic.
Like a screen with the pause button pressed.
Eunwol stared for a moment at the mutants frozen in midair.
“...”
Then a short word burst from her lips.
“Banish.”
Rumble rumble-!
An enormous invisible repulsive force exploded forward.
The Cloakers fixed in midair were torn into pieces and vanished without even a scream.
In that brief opening.
“Myth Guild! Form up!!”
Guild Master Yoon Seo-jin did not let the opening pass.
No sooner had Seo-jin's rough roar rung out than the formation that had been scattered in disorder snapped into perfect alignment as if measured with a ruler.
Click! Click! Shkrrk-!
“First Battalion, deploy the forward barricade! Don't let a single one through!!”
“Second Battalion, guard the flanks and block any attempts to circle around!!!”
“Third Battalion! Unleash magical firepower!!! Don't leave even their ashes behind!!”
“Fourth Battalion, prepare for guerrilla assaults!”
“Fifth Battalion, deploy the support and healing formation! Don't allow a single casualty!!!”
The formation deployed in an instant.
Then, from the sword Yoon Seo-jin drew, fierce crimson flames gushed forth.
“We will defend the Capital Area and its administrator. Do not sully the name of Myth!”
“We will remain remembered as Myth!!!!”
“Show that arrogant bastard the power of Myth!!!”
“Woooooah!!!!!!”
Kwoooong-!!
Along with their battle cries, the firepower that erupted in an instant reduced some of the mutants commanded by Jinhyeok to ash.
After watching the scene for a moment, Seo-jin casually joked to Eunwol beside him.
“Hmm... Head Mod. It's our first time coordinating, so you won't hold us back, right? Do you think this is enough to farm favor with the System?”
“...How would I know? You're the one who dragged your entire guild here even though I didn't call you. Just don't get in the way.”
“Come on. We're one of the Capital Area's biggest guilds. We can't miss out on an event this sweet, can we?”
At Seo-jin's sly answer, Eunwol let out a bemused snort.
Though their goals differed somewhat, long conversations were a luxury for the two powerhouses who had supported the Capital Area from their respective positions and for their own respective reasons.
“Phew.”
Eunwol lightly caught her breath and cast a cold gaze toward Baek Jinhyeok beyond them.
“Baek Jinhyeok. I'll admit there are parts of what you said that I agree with. I hate Hunter bastards who cower and look after their own lives because they value them so much.”
Perhaps because of a memory from the past that flashed through her mind, disgust rippled through Eunwol's red eyes.
But then she stared directly at the name tags hanging behind Jinhyeok like trophies.
“But I can never agree with your method of sacrificing innocent people to achieve your grand cause.”
Eunwol drove the point home in a cold voice.
“And with this little, you won't get past even this place, let alone the Black Zone.”
Instead of growing angry at her provocation, Baek Jinhyeok slowly clapped and let out a mocking laugh.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
“...You won't even get past this place, you say.”
Jinhyeok's gaze smoothly swept across the Myth Guild's formation filling the area around him.
"This is certainly the first time a guild has rallied together and come out to greet me. I'll give you that."
Jinhyeok's eyes flashed with interest.
“Eunwol, you're a responsible and excellent administrator. But that's as far as it goes.”
Jinhyeok slowly raised his right hand. Mana rippled from his pale fingertips.
“At the same time, you're unbelievably arrogant and stupid.”
Ssssss-!
Three corpses emerged from behind Jinhyeok.
The zombies who had once been the administrators of Anseong, Cheonan, and Pyeongtaek.
Grrrrr...
Uoooh...
Krrrgh...
They all released mana at once and reached out toward Eunwol.
“...!”
Eunwol's complexion instantly turned white.
As an administrator herself, Eunwol instinctively knew what they were about to unleash upon her.
The power of an administrator that she herself had just used.
‘Banish...!’
Invisible repulsive force shot forth like an explosion from the fingertips of the three Head Mod zombies as they thrust their hands out in unison.
“Block...!”
Their power was nowhere near Eunwol's, but there were three of them.
“Urgh...!”
Eunwol barely blocked the shock waves.
But she couldn't hide her shock.
‘He can even use the abilities of zombified Awakened...?’
Seeing this, Seo-jin shouted urgently.
“Third Battalion, attack all at once! Concentrate your firepower and eliminate the administrator mutants first!!”
Just as the Myth Guild's magic was about to pour toward the administrator zombies and Baek Jinhyeok.
“Arise, Shadow Walker.”
Baek Jinhyeok smiled and snapped his fingers.
In an instant, the pitch-black shadow beneath Jinhyeok's feet began expanding like a swamp.
Crack-crack-!
Then, from within that darkness, a massive figure that looked as though countless corpses had fused together rose with the sound of its joints bending.
“!!!”
“...!”
The instant the Myth Guild's magical firepower struck Shadow Walker's massive body.
Not even a single explosion rang out.
The spells unleashed by dozens of mages melted away, flesh and all, the moment they touched Shadow Walker.
“Sh-Shadow Walker...?”
“It's one of the Red Zone's top-tier entities...!”
“How is that lunatic controlling something like that...?”
While the Myth Guild members stood frozen in shock.
-Kikkikik... Grrrraaa....
A grinding sound like colliding bones and a wail rang out.
At the same time, Shadow Walker's massive body slipped into the shadow on the ground like collapsing mud.
And the next moment.
“H-Huh...?”
“W-Watch your feet!!”
The members of the Third Battalion preparing magic and the First Battalion members who had raised the barricade.
The shadows beneath their own feet began heaving and churning like a swamp.
Crack-! Crack-crack-!!
“Aaaaaaaagh!!!!”
“L-Let go! Gyaaaagh!!”
Dozens of rotting hands surged up from the guild members' shadows.
They soon clutched the guild members' ankles, bit into their flesh, and began dragging them away.
At that moment.
“Go.”
A cruel command fell from Baek Jinhyeok's lips.
“Teach those arrogant bastards exactly what it costs to refuse to follow my grand cause.”
No sooner had his words echoed across the battlefield.
- Grrr
- Uwooooh...
The hundreds of mutants and followers held back behind Jinhyeok all let out a collective roar and began surging forward like a wave.
“They're coming!!!!”
“Don't give ground!!”
“Fight back!!!”
And so, the curtain rose on an all-out war that would decide the fate of the Capital Area.
****
The battle unfolded in an instant.
- Grrrrr...
- Uwooooh
A tidal wave of mutants poured in from every direction.
Even in the face of that overwhelming numerical assault, the Myth Guild's defensive formation did not easily collapse.
Bang-! Bang! Kwoooong-!
“Push them back!!”
“Don't retreat!!”
The shield-bearing vanguard of the First Battalion held firm and desperately smashed apart their waves.
“Ghk! There are too many...!”
“The rotation intervals are getting shorter!”
The zombies kept surging in without end.
Some slipped through the gaps.
They were followers who served Baek Jinhyeok.
“A gap has opened. Don't kill them—just sever their ankles.”
“We have to throw them in alive.”
As they targeted the First Battalion's openings, the once-sturdy vanguard began to crumble bit by bit.
“Stop the ones circling around the right!!”
“Aaaagh! They're in the shadows...! They're hiding...!!”
A fierce battle was also raging along the Second Battalion's flank, which had to block attempts to circle around.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Cloakers and assassin-type Awakened who slipped into blind spots were tenaciously inflicting casualties.
Kwoooong-!!!
“Don't give them a moment's rest!”
“Pour it on!”
The Third Battalion, unleashing magical firepower, kept spewing flames and reducing mutants to ash without pause.
“D-Damn it...”
“They just keep coming...”
But the number of enemies pouring in was overwhelmingly greater than the firepower being unleashed.
“My leg...!”
“I need a heal here!”
“Hold onnn!!!!”
The Fifth Battalion's healing formation had sworn not to suffer a single casualty.
The number of wounded was far outstripping their healing speed, pushing them to their limit.
But the greatest problem was Shadow Walker tearing through the formation from within.
-Kikkikik... Grrrraaa....
Dozens of hands kept popping out of the shadows, snatching inattentive guild members and throwing the defensive formation into disarray.
“...!”
Eunwol and Seo-jin's expressions hardened as they surveyed the battle.
They weren't losing ground, but the evenly balanced scales were beginning to tilt ever so slightly.
“...The longer this drags on, the worse our chances get. They're coming back to life.”
Eunwol bit her lip and spat out the words.
In her eyes, a guild member who had fallen moments earlier was rising again and charging into the allied formation.
“These bastards are no ordinary opponents.”
Seo-jin also shook the blood from his sword and breathed heavily.
The sly look had vanished, and anxiety clouded Seo-jin's face as well.
Instead of answering, Eunwol alternated her gaze between Shadow Walker carving through the formation and the three administrator zombies beyond the battlefield.
‘If it were just Shadow Walker, I could focus and deal with it somehow. But...’
Eunwol's gaze grew cold.
‘If I move rashly, the administrator zombies will immediately exploit the opening and keep me in check.’
If this became a battle of attrition, the outcome was practically predetermined.
“They're trying to wear us down while keeping us alive. At this rate, we'll be wiped out.”
“Then...”
“We have to cut off Baek Jinhyeok's lifeline ourselves.”
Eunwol's gaze fixed on Jinhyeok at the very rear.
“No matter how powerful he is, he must be focusing a great deal of power on controlling hundreds of mutants and Awakened simultaneously.”
At her words, Seo-jin nodded and gripped his long sword, where crimson flames flickered, more tightly.
“Burn your heart.”
A low murmur.
Explosive flames surged from Seo-jin's entire body, distorting the air around him.
“I'll break through. Fourth Battalion guerrilla unit! Concentrate all remaining firepower at the tip of my sword!!”
“We will remain as Myth!!”
“Support the Guild Master!!!!”
The Fourth Battalion guerrilla unit broke through the encirclement all at once. In that brief opening.
Kwoooaaa-!
Seo-jin's body shot forward like an explosion.
A trail of crimson flames pierced through the layered wall of mutants and was about to plunge straight into Baek Jinhyeok's throat.
Sizzleee-
“...What?!”
Despite the raging flames that seemed capable of devouring everything, Seo-jin's longsword was blocked by Baek Jinhyeok's outstretched hand.
“That pathetic hope that the one controlling the army would have a fragile body.”
Jinhyeok tilted his head and sneered.
“I've subjugated countless Awakened. Did you really think I couldn't use their abilities?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the fingers of Jinhyeok's free hand lightly traced a line through the air.
His target was not Seo-jin in front of him.
Slash-!
“...!”
The slash that narrowly missed Seo-jin's shoulder shot straight toward Eunwol's throat, where she was supporting Seo-jin from the rear.
An ambush flying in from a blind spot.
Sensing danger instinctively, Eunwol's head turned reflexively.
Spurt-!
The invisible slash grazed her white cheek.
*****
Meanwhile, in the Capital Area Survivors Gallery, everyone could only speculate, unaware of how the situation was unfolding.
Sh... shit...
ㄴ When the hell is the Head Mod's announcement going up!!
ㄴ Exactly!!
Isn't this taking too long??!
ㄴ What the hell is happening...?
There was one person who grasped the situation and acted faster than anyone else.
“Ah, fuck!”
That was the Troll NEET.
Yeah, fuck. It was me, just watching the CCTV for Restroom No. 5.
I was already out of my sleeping bag.
“The situation I was worried about has finally happened.”
It happened before I even had time to react.
Maybe because this was a battle between combat-type Awakened.
The situation was unfolding at a speed far beyond my pathetic reaction time.
“They're fucking fast...”
It was my first time watching a battle in real time, so I didn't even have time to react.
I'd joked that Jinhyeok was a crazy bastard, but I hadn't realized he was this insane.
That bastard... the protagonist of the world?
Hey, Telescope Guy!!
ㄴ Why aren't there any comments!!!!
ㄴ Did something happen...?
Relay it quickly!!!
ㄴ Shit, should we go check it out ourselves...
The users still hadn't grasped the situation.
I was the only one who had figured out what was happening so quickly, since I was watching the CCTV.
Even though I knew next to nothing about battles between Awakened, I could tell how things were going to unfold.
“This is really bad...”
At a glance, the Myth Guild members seemed to be fighting desperately and holding their own in an even match.
But the more closely I examined the situation, the more hopeless it looked.
To begin with, the horde of zombies and the outsiders made up of Awakened from other regions outnumbered the Head Mod and the Myth Guild by several times over.
And allies who died in battle were rising again and becoming the enemy in full.
Once you added that thing from the Red Zone, there was only one conclusion.
They were somehow hanging on for now by whittling away at the enemy, but if this battle of attrition dragged on, they would inevitably be the first side to run dry and die.
“...”
At this rate, they had no chance of winning.
Which meant I had no time to delay any longer.
“Jinhyeok bro, I'll make you regret this.”
Securing potential customers was out of the question, and to me, whose top priority was attracting customers, that bastard was someone I wanted to tear apart.
“Customer service is all about speed.”
After quickly gathering the things I needed and moving out, I found myself standing in front of none other than the elevator.
Ding-!
I stared at the elevator's wide-open metal doors after it arrived and fell into thought for a moment.
“Ah, fuck... I really didn't want to do this...”
I wasn't sure whether this would work or how things would unfold.
Even for me, it was a gamble, and perhaps an act that would put my life on the line.
But no matter how much I racked my thick skull, this was the only way.
“Agh, fuck my life.”
I stepped into the elevator.