Chapter 129 – LV.Thirteen Centaur Vampire – [One]

All of this was happening too abruptly. Naturally, everyone was acting hastily.

Seo Yun watched Oh Haengbok and Oh Haengun shouting at each other.

“You know vampires have blood command authority, right? A higher vampire can give a forced command to a lower one!”

As Oh Haengun shouted, Oh Haengbok shouted back.

“I know!”

“Why do you think the Chief told you to come outside the fortress wall? It’s to get you close so he can dominate your mind… It’s a trap!”

“I said I know!”

“It’s a trap, I’m telling you! Put down that hammer right now!”

“I know, you little punk! Why the hell are you telling me to put down the hammer?”

“Because I’m scared you’ll just charge out there holding it!”

“So you want me to be the only one here without a weapon, just sitting around eating popcorn?!”

“Who said that?!”

“Then what the hell do you want me to do?!”

Seo Yun couldn’t tell if they were arguing or if they were just shouting to be heard over the deafening gunfire outside.

It was probably both. Oh Haengun was shouting so loudly she worried his voice might give out.

“Stay right here!”

“Even if we hole up inside the fortress wall, a Centaur Vampire can sneak in, you idiot! I myself can turn into a blood mist and pass through a mouse hole, don’t you know that?!”

“If a Centaur Vampire tries to infiltrate like that, our villagers can shoot him dead right away, so it’s fine!”

After a heated argument, Oh Haengbok reluctantly dropped his prized Warhammer, the Spell Shatterer, onto the ground. It was ironic, considering that weapon was an item captured from defeating a Centaur Vampire. To think he had to be even more cautious against enemies he had personally defeated before?

From outside, the Centaur’s shouts could be heard.

“Not coming out—?! Should I give it another go—?!”

It didn’t seem to be an empty threat, as the cannon roar sounded again. Seo Yun flattened herself on the ground, waiting for the roar to cease.

Even though she had the Non-Magical Weapon Immunity spell cast on her, she couldn’t feel completely at ease. She doubted whether that spell would consider the high-explosive shells currently falling as non-magical weapons and block them.

As someone who had completed their military service, she felt that modern weapons seemed more magical than destructive magic spells. Whether in terms of power, aftermath, or sheer grandeur.

After another round of artillery fire ceased, another shout came.

“Come out and face me, Orc Warrior—!”

Being repeatedly singled out, Oh Haengbok seemed to be taking this situation personally. The stress he was under now seemed to flow out as an infrasonic growl.

“Damn it… that bastard…!”

Oh Haengbok’s Spirit stat, which he had barely raised by 1 point to reach 4, was still below the average for a normal person. Expecting great patience from him was difficult.

Hearing a beast-like growl escape from her Chief’s mouth, Oh Haengun looked at Oh Haengbok with concern.

“Chief, calm down…”

“Calm down, my ass! Are we just going to keep taking these artillery shells? We have to go out and do something—!”

It was an angry shout, but even to Seo Yun’s ears, the part about needing to do something was correct.

If they just stayed put like this, the enemies outside the fortress wall would simply pummel them unilaterally. So, what then?

The Players of Happy Village all turned their gazes to the two Leaders. The fact that neither Oh Haengbok nor Oh Haengun were military experts wasn’t important right now.

Under their expectant gazes, hoping for a decision, Oh Haengbok growled out his words.

“Everyone, get ready to go outside the fortress wall. Before the fortress wall gets completely destroyed, we need to go out and beat those bastards up.”

Oh Haengun’s eyes widened at those words. Then, he let out a deep sigh and said,

“If we have to go outside the fortress wall and do something… we’ll do it instead of you, Chief.”

As if in agreement, the Players stood up and gripped their weapons. Seo Yun also drew her Flaming Sword, looked outside the fortress wall, and thought.

No matter how you looked at it, their numbers were overwhelmingly superior. Would it even make a difference if this small group of Players charged out?

Probably, yes. Warrior Players clad in armor thicker than any human could wear were like walking tanks on two legs. No matter how many gun-wielding Skeletons or soldiers there were, they could break through.

But the problem was that the enemy knew that too, and they were likely well-prepared to deal with tanks.

“If we’re charging out of the fortress wall, I’ll take the lead.”

At Seo Yun’s words, Oh Haengun frowned.

“What kind of crazy talk is that? Are you relying on your Non-Magical Weapon Immunity?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s because the Centaurs will likely refrain from using high-firepower weapons against me.”

Seo Yun quickly summarized what had happened with the Dawn Corps. Then she made a request.

“So, pile on the Buffs for me. Among the scrolls we got from the Troll, there was a Haste Spell, right? Cast that on me, not on anyone else…”

At that moment, a huge man leaped over a crater formed by a fallen artillery shell and approached them.

It was Arnold. Despite the situation likely being bewildering, he somehow managed to maintain his stoic expression and spoke in clumsy Korean.

“Roughly heard situation. Fight together.”

Oh Haengun nodded. It was shameless to have this Barbarian Warrior, whom they had excluded from hunting expeditions for being an outsider, participate in a life-or-death battle, but now was not the time for such considerations.

And perhaps it was painful that he alone had to stay inside the fortress wall? Blood flowed from beneath Oh Haengbok’s deeply pulled-down Helm. It seemed he was clenching his teeth so hard his fangs might pierce his own mouth.

Oh Haengbok spat out his words as if chewing them.

“Then, everyone… don’t die, definitely…”

Seo Yun walked towards the fortress wall. Park Taeyang’s voice came from behind her.

“I’ll go too…”

“Taeyang, you stay by the Chief’s side! If the Centaur Vampire tries to invade to dominate the Chief’s mind, you repel him with a Divine Spell. Got it?”

Then, everyone waited briefly for the fortress gate to open. During that time, Seo Yun glanced at Arnold.

Sensing the fear hidden beneath that stoicism, she asked.

“Scared?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s there to be scared of? From what I heard last time, you got shot about a hundred times and still carried me all the way to Gyeonggi-do running.”

To ease the tension, Seo Yun grinned inappropriately for the situation.

Arnold’s lips twitched as if he wanted to say something, but there was no more time for conversation.

“Charge!”

The fortress gate opened.Contrary to Seo Yun’s insistence, Oh Haengun’s Golem charged ahead first.

Seo Yun ran after it, along with Arnold and the Players from Happy Village.

Arnold, gripping his Greatsword, ran behind the massive Golem and regretted his decision to say he would fight alongside them.

Damn it, what kind of battlefield is this? And the ones out there were an actual army.

Thunderous gunfire roared dozens of times, overlapping consecutively.

The moment they cleared the Fortress Wall, a crossfire poured down. Most bullets merely ricocheted off the Golem’s body, but some reached their side.

The bullets were deflected by the Players’ Armor and Magic Spells here, but that didn’t mean they could stay calm. The gunfire reverberating from all sides enough to vibrate eardrums, the muzzle flashes dazzling the eyes from every direction—it was terribly chaotic.

Oh Haengun shouted something from behind. Thanks to learning some Korean over the past half year, Arnold could roughly understand.

“Stick close to the Golem and run!”

The rock giant blocking the front now felt utterly inadequate. With all sorts of things flying from every direction, relying on just that one Golem to run forward was far too unsettling.

Still, everyone kept running until they suddenly stopped and flinched.

“What the…”

Something flying amidst the bullets struck the Golem and exploded. A rocket fired from an anti-tank weapon.

As the Golem, its joints melted, staggered, Oh Haengun quickly used a Spell to restore its stone body. Amidst the continued hail of bullets and Artillery Shells, everyone moved forward again.

It wasn’t a tactical maneuver but a desperate advance filled with the need to do something. A desperate movement driven by the knowledge they couldn’t just stay still like this.

No one knew exactly how to move or which side to attack. There was no time for tactical discussions or debates. They only knew that if they didn’t want to keep getting pummeled, they had to counterattack, so they had rushed out of the Fortress Wall.

Arnold’s pupils darted around, capturing the chaotic battlefield scenery.

Soldiers—men who had become synonymous with marauders in today’s world—were visible. Now, was he supposed to charge among them and swing his proud Ability Score and Greatsword? The mere thought was horrifying.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to kill. He just knew all of this was his fault.

Their pillaging, all the terrible acts they committed—it was because the world was like this, and wasn’t he the one who made the world this way? For him to punish them would be like a father who raped his daughter eventually beating the pregnant daughter for not using contraception.

That’s why, even when attacked by someone until now, he had never killed his attackers in return. He couldn’t bring himself to do it…

“Over there, behind the building!”

The area outside the Fortress Wall wasn’t completely open ground. Continuing to run, they found cover behind a collapsed building. The Players, as if wanting to confirm they were still alive, exchanged words with trembling voices.

“The Skeletons are holding K2s? What’s that about? Earlier, we didn’t even have guns, so why do the Monsters have modern weapons?”

“Even if it wasn’t us, the soldiers had guns, so maybe it’s like… whether friend or foe, if someone nearby has modern weapons, the Monsters also use modern weapons…”

There was no time for lengthy discussion.

Seo Yun reported the enemies’ movements.

“About thirty are approaching from this direction. They seem to be trying to surround us from both sides.”

Everyone held their breath, preparing for the imminent attack.

Not long after, something glinted in the distance. A Warrior Player shouted frantically.

“Over there, a Panzerfaust!”

Arnold’s eyes widened too. Even with no military knowledge, he knew that thing that just emitted smoke was an anti-tank weapon.

“Get do—”

Arnold tried to shout “Get down!” but realized that was less realistic than “Dodge!” The rocket flew at a speed only someone with an absurdly high Agility Stat like himself could react to.

However, the rocket flying toward them exploded mid-air.

“Huh…”

Arnold saw Seo Yun pointing her finger in that direction. It seemed the girl had detonated it using the Hearth Priest’s ability.

Meanwhile, the Warrior Players on their side weren’t idle either.

“Shoot! Kill that bastard first!”

Since the Monsters were using modern weapons, there was no point in fighting with spears and swords alone, so the Players had also brought out rifles.

As if retaliating against the audacious anti-tank gunner who had just tried to kill them all, the Players unleashed a barrage of gunfire. After that unlucky soldier fell with a single scream, the soldiers who had revealed themselves were all shot down.

Just as they began to feel the illusion they were fighting well—BOOM!

An Artillery Shell landing behind them sent a chill down their spines. It was clear they couldn’t stay here.

“Run!”

At Oh Haengun’s shout, everyone ran. The moment they escaped the building they had just been hiding behind, it was struck by an Artillery Shell and collapsed.

Arnold tried to calm his pounding heart as he looked around. Wherever he looked, soldiers aiming weapons at them came into view.

After continuing to run, another rocket struck the Golem. This time, it seemed to have hit properly, as the Golem crumbled apart.

The Players behind it were fully exposed to the enemy’s firepower.

As everyone held their breath, Seo Yun stepped forward. And when the girl activated her Halo, illuminating the surroundings, Arnold doubted her sanity. Was she insane?

But the next moment, at the shouts echoing among the soldiers, Arnold doubted his own sanity. Voices, as if through a loudspeaker, boomed clearly.

“Don’t shoot, she says!” “She says don’t shoot!” “Don’t shoot…”

As Seo Yun flaunted her presence before everyone, Oh Haengun sweated profusely, restoring the collapsed Golem.

During that time, not a single bullet, let alone a rocket, flew toward them, as per the shouted commands, but they couldn’t rejoice.

“Over there, they’re coming!”

Centaurs charged.

Their hooves shook the ground. Dust thickly obscured the view ahead.

In that moment, he understood the feelings of infantrymen of old who had to physically block cavalry charges. Although he had even taken down a Frost Giant before, Arnold felt extreme fear looking at them.To soothe that fear, Arnold looked at the girl standing at the very front amidst all this. That girl, swinging her Flaming Sword left and right to be clearly visible to everyone.

As he always felt, it was beyond comprehension how that tiny girl could be like that. With that small frame doing that, it was hard to just stand here dumbfounded…

Arnold stepped forward, blocking Seo Yun’s path, and let out a battle cry with all his might.

“‘Fu―c―k o―ff―!'”

It was a battle cry that in the game not only had a stun effect but also granted a fear Status Effect with a certain probability. Perhaps because the distance was too great for a proper effect, no enemies fell, but their movements froze for an instant. Moreover, the charging Centaurs also halted their gallop as if they had been hit on the head with a club.

The Players, who seemed to have just snapped out of their daze and regained their senses, belatedly raised their gun barrels.

Arnold took another deep breath and tightened his stomach.

A short but enormous cry echoed across the battlefield.

“‘If you’re coming, co―me―to―me―! The great Barbarian Warrior is he―re―'”