Chapter 119 – Frost Giant – [Five]

About how far up the mountain had they climbed? A sudden, convulsive scream rang out.

“Ah!”

Seo Yun flinched, thinking it might be a sudden ambush, but looking around, there were no monsters that had approached. So what was it?

Turning her head toward the source of the sound, Seo Yun discovered a soldier who had fallen, clutching his own leg and groaning.

It seemed he had tripped and fallen somewhere. Perhaps due to poor nutrition weakening his bones, it didn’t look like he had just scraped his knee—it seemed completely broken.

Of course, there was no kindness toward the injured. The Dwarf guiding the way exploded in anger.

“Hey, you, shut the hell up, you little shit! You want to draw a horde of monsters, you idiot bastard!”

Other soldiers forcibly clamped the groaning soldier’s mouth shut. Then, in a small voice, they made a request.

“Hey, that Priest girl is over there, could you heal him…?”

The Dwarf clicked his tongue.

“That young lady is my Senior? I can’t just order her around.”

At the words shifting responsibility to her, Seo Yun sighed. After gauging Gaeulbi’s reaction, she spoke.

“Eulbi?”

“Huh?”

“You said your aunt is in the Dawn Corps, right? I’ll go gather some information and come back.”

Gaeulbi seemed to easily catch on to her intention. Gaeulbi nodded with a bitter smile.

“Okay, will you?”

Seo Yun approached the injured soldier. Silently kneeling before him, she set the broken soldier’s bone, then cast a Healing Spell and an Improve Stamina spell before finally raising her head. And she cleared her throat.

The soldiers’ dazed eyes were fixed on her, to an almost burdensome degree.

One of the soldiers tried to speak to her. A weak voice flowed from his mouth.

“Thank…”

If they started bonding warmly here, Gaeulbi would get angry. Seo Yun cut him off and asked.

“There’s a Nursing Officer in the Dawn Corps, right? Ga Huiyeong.”

“Uh… Major Ga Huiyeong?”

“Yes. I was in her debt when I worked in the Medical Corps? I heard she might have escaped with the Dawn Corps soldiers. Does anyone know where she is now?”

The soldiers looked at each other. One of them opened his mouth.

“I know, but…”

“Is she with you all?”

“Yeah.”

“Is she doing well?”

“Uh…”

“Can I see her later?”

The soldier nodded, and Seo Yun asked a few more questions, successfully finding out where she was currently staying.

It was an unexpected result. She had only asked as an excuse to heal the soldier the Chimpanzee disliked, but she had actually learned about her survival and location? She felt bewildered even though she was the one who asked.

Feeling the soldiers’ gazes still following her, Seo Yun returned to her team. She spoke to Gaeulbi, who was forcing a calm expression.

“I found out where your aunt is.”

The next moment, Gaeulbi stopped her acting. She stared at her with wide eyes.

When Seo Yun relayed the conversation she just had, Gaeulbi asked in a trembling voice.

“You’re not lying, are you? That Hearth Priest Seo Yun, trying to lure you to their base to capture and imprison…”

“No, I didn’t say anything about the Nursing Officer being a team member’s relative or anything. But even so, I don’t think they’d go that far, right?”

Gaeulbi seemed to find her words plausible. As if pondering the information she just heard, she suddenly hugged Seo Yun’s shoulder and said.

“Thank you so much…!”

Seo Yun peeled off the Chimpanzee clinging to its owner and said.

“But if we want to go to those humans’ base, I think we need to start building rapport from now on…”

“Do we really have to?”

“Better than not being able to meet your aunt and ending up in a huge fight, right? It would be good to at least pretend to be friendly.”

Gaeulbi nodded with a confused expression, and Seo Yun felt relieved. Now it seemed she really wouldn’t have to worry about that girl’s mood anymore.

After walking a bit more, soldiers began collapsing from the cold this time.

Again, Seo Yun approached and cast a Warmth Granting Spell, and another soldier spoke up.

“This is really kind of you… But earlier, your friend was glaring at us a lot—did we do something wrong?”

They had done plenty wrong. An infuriating amount.

“You guys attacked us while we were walking.”

“Hmm…”

“And that boy over there got shot right away.”

At Seo Yun’s words, the soldiers fell silent for a moment before muttering.

“Sorry, really.”

“If you’re sorry, please don’t do it again later. If I get kidnapped again, it’ll be the third time? At this point, I’ll be the one getting cursed at for getting kidnapped.”

They continued walking, and even though the soldiers weren’t fighting, they kept collapsing one by one for various reasons, and each time, Seo Yun had to step in. Like soldiers long stranded in a foreign land, the fact that they collapsed just from walking hinted at their severe physical condition. That was why she felt pity for them, despite having suffered quite a bit because of them.

Amidst this, not only the soldiers in poor health but a natural phenomenon that made it difficult for everyone to proceed enveloped them all. White snow began whipping against everyone’s faces.

People stopped walking, shielding their faces with their palms, and cursed.

“Suddenly, what kind of Blizzard is this…!”

Lately, with excessive snow accumulation, a strong wind alone could roughly create a blizzard, but this Blizzard was a genuine one combining heavy snow and gale-force winds.

At this very moment, the snow seemed to dye not only Mount Taebaek but even the air white. Thick snowflakes fluttered, filling their vision. It might be a common natural phenomenon in snowy mountains, but it was still too sudden and coincidental.

Gaeulbi muttered.

“This… it’s not an ordinary blizzard; it’s like a Priest Spell?”

Han Siwoo blinked.

“A Priest Spell?”

“Minor Weather Manipulation… a spell all Priests commonly learn at Level 13.”

If that speculation was correct, it was truly bad news. Because the estimated Level of the enemy they had to finish off this time had risen even further, and because this Blizzard was truly at a level that could obstruct their vision.

“Priests are really so damn overpowered…”

While Han Siwoo was spouting nonsense, the Dwarf Mage muttered.

“Fucking hell, damn it. Should we rest until the Blizzard stops, or keep moving? Just a bit more and we’ll reach the giant bastard’s cave…”However, she could not choose between the two.

Seo Yun, feeling the violent shaking of her necklace, warned them.

“Everyone, stop. Enemies are approaching.”

As she spoke the incantation, the enemies appeared here, using the blizzard as a smokescreen.

Yetis, their bodies covered in white fur, suddenly appeared right before their eyes, as if they had teleported through the blizzard.

Not one or two, but dozens. And behind them, likely even more, though the blizzard obscured them, making the exact number unknown.

As the Yetis charged, the soldiers, without anyone’s orders, frantically pulled their triggers.

Screams and gunshots erupted simultaneously from among the soldiers.

“Crack!” “Agh!”

Close-range shots to vital areas felled a few Yetis, but the rest managed to force their way into the soldiers’ ranks. The massive Abominable Snowmen grabbed soldiers and hurled them, ripped off their heads, and tore their bodies in two.

Amidst this chaos, the Dwarf Mage seemed to be shouting something to take command, but it was hard to hear.

From above, some bizarre, unidentifiable shrieks assaulted their ears and minds all at once.

It was a sound that could turn a person’s brain inside out. While Seo Yun, with her 9-point Mental Stat, frowned, the reactions of others with lower Mental Stats were even more pronounced.

Seeing soldiers firing wildly, even hitting their allies, Seo Yun hurriedly chanted her spell even faster.

“The warmth of the hearth—”

Finally, the spell was complete.

The Hearth Sanctuary Spell. A red energy spreading outwards created a defined area. The wind howling into the crimson zone lost its force, and the swirling snow melted away.

Thus, the blizzard vanished, at least within the zone, and their vision cleared.

The monsters rampaging all around were now fully revealed. As were the monsters in the air.

“In the air—!”

Han Siwoo, covering his ears, shouted and pointed upwards. Seo Yun looked and saw monsters where his finger pointed.

It seemed the Frost Giant wasn’t just controlling Yetis with his Mind Domination Spell. The half-human, half-bird monstrosity visible in the sky was a Harpy. From the old woman’s head on the Harpy’s bird-like body emanated the same shriek that inflicted the Confusion status ailment in the Immortal Kingdom.

“Gaeulbi!”

Thwack! Gaeulbi fired her crossbow, hitting its neck and bringing it down. It wasn’t just one or two, but Gaeulbi shot them down one after another, and soon the soldiers’ wild firing also subsided.

However, in that brief time, far too many allies had died.

Seo Yun clenched her teeth, gripped her Flaming Sword, and stomped the ground. Right in front of her, a Yeti was pouncing on an unfortunate soldier.

“Agh…!”

With the clean skill befitting her 8-point Dexterity, Seo Yun split the Yeti’s back with a single slash before it could even react. The Yeti, its spine severed, staggered and fell backwards.

The soldier who had nearly died blinked rapidly, gasping for air.

There was no time for thanks. Seo Yun quickly turned her head. Spotting another Abominable Snowman in her vision, she charged at it as well.

This time, the Yeti saw her coming. Seo Yun ducked under its arm, swung wide enough to fill her vision, and stabbed its chest. The Yeti, its lung pierced, couldn’t even scream.

She had killed two monsters in an instant, but to meaningfully reduce the enemy numbers, there were still far too many foes running amok.

The enemy’s ambush had already succeeded. They kept appearing from all sides, from the air. It didn’t seem like a simple ambush, but a full-scale assault with all their forces.

Amidst the screams echoing from everywhere, there was one piece of good news.

A scream so massive it could drown out all the other cries in this place erupted.

“U—Aaaaagh—!”

It was a volume no human could produce.

That enormous scream came from behind. Seo Yun turned her head sharply and saw, in the distance, the Frost Giant on one knee and Arnold driving his Greatsword into the back of its knee.

The Frost Giant had probably tried to move undetected using a transformation spell to ambush from the rear. But in that position was Arnold, the most powerful Barbarian Warrior in their group. It seemed that when the Frost Giant revealed itself, Arnold had pounced on it from behind instead.

It had been problematic for Arnold to stay with the group because they wouldn’t gain Experience Points from fighting Yetis with him, and Arnold, unable to wear armor, likely wouldn’t be much help in a gunfight against Yetis. So, having him follow from a distance had unexpectedly produced the effect of preventing a surprise attack.

Whether Arnold could defeat that giant was unknown, but it soon became clear that bringing him along had been the right decision.

“Damn—you, dwarf—!”

The Frost Giant’s axe, accompanied by a pained roar, clashed with Arnold’s Greatsword. The explosive sound and shockwave from that moment were palpable even to Seo Yun from this distance. Had she faced it directly, she wouldn’t have had a bone left unbroken.

Confirming the two were still fighting, Seo Yun gripped her sword again and turned her head.

Han Siwoo stepped in front of a Yeti that had approached, and without even looking back, he shouted.

“I’ll hold them off, so you chant a spell! Summon a Flame Spirit…”

Seo Yun did so without reply. She stood behind Han Siwoo as he confronted the monster and began her incantation.

The final battle, expressed in game terms, the boss fight, had begun.