Chapter 144 – LV.Fifteen Warrior Oh Haengbok – [One]

Back when I was playing TRPG, ‘Barbarian Warrior Arnold’ was a character of Good Alignment. He would roam around helping NPCs in trouble while wielding a single greatsword.

The Korean GM repeatedly pointed out that it was strange for a tribal warrior who had lived harshly in an apocalyptic setting to indiscriminately perform good deeds (that damn guy kept interfering with playing according to character setting too!), but Arnold’s playstyle never changed afterwards. Wasn’t Conan, who was essentially the original for barbarian warrior characters, that kind of character to begin with? Also, Arnold himself found it more fun and enjoyable to play that way.

I see centaurs up ahead.

They are formidable foes even at a glance. Even to the eyes of a Level 19 Barbarian Warrior.

Some who looked obviously strong were carrying hefty heavy weapons, while others held massive bows. The skeletons they commanded carried rifles, each one a vicious weapon that would leave no one unscathed if hit. One of the centaurs shouted.

“Fire!”

Amidst a hail of all sorts of arrows and bullets raining towards us, Arnold didn’t try to dodge or block them; he just ran.

That sprint alone left the vicious things they fired behind Arnold. Arnold was originally fast, but now he was about twice as fast as before. A boy named Han Siwoo, who travels with Seo Yun, lent him some magic bracelet. Wasn’t it something made by that GM guy?

As I kept running, several centaurs gave chase.

The barbarian warrior’s unique hyper-intuition warned of danger.

I quickly turned my head and saw one of them starting to spin up a minigun. Before bullets erupted explosively from that barrel, Arnold twisted his entire body and lunged at the creature with a leap.

The greatsword swung wide cleaved two half-human half-beasts simultaneously.

After dispatching the approaching enemies, I ran again. Guessing the location of the cannon roar I heard earlier with the barbarian warrior’s unique physical intuition and hearing, I charged, and invisible dice of fate announced a successful detection.

I saw a sizable mortar and the artillerymen around it.

To drive those artillerymen away, there was no need to even let out a roar. Just the sight of this imposing warrior was enough to terrify them.

Arnold didn’t bother chasing the soldiers screaming and fleeing. He approached the abandoned mortar and crushed its thick barrel with brute strength.

The barrel, crumpled to the point it couldn’t even spit out a pebble, let alone an artillery shell, clattered noisily on the ground.

Seo Yun saw the village Players on the fortress wall. They might have been able to avoid this fight, but they didn’t. Whether it was the right thing or not couldn’t be known immediately.

Among the sturdy warrior Players were also teenage Players. All were frantically firing crossbows (not crossbows, but actual stone-throwing devices) trying to reduce the number of skeletons outside by even one.

Active warriors Seong Juri and Lee Jongho, of course, and even Jeon Sangguk, retired as a Player, were on the fortress wall wearing armor.

It seemed he got shot in the hand while fighting. People who weren’t Players, waiting without joining the fight, rushed to Jeon Sangguk, who was screaming, and confirmed that the bullet had pierced through the back of his hand and exited. Then, Park Taeyang hastily recited a healing spell.

“O Sun, descend with light…”

Park Taeyang’s body flinched as a cannon roar sounded, but the spell continued without stopping.

At first, every time a cannon roar echoed from far away, both adults and teenagers flinched, but soon they seemed to grow accustomed even to that, firing fiercely and repeatedly in silence.

The cannon roars coming from afar ceased not long after.

“Good, Arnold! If I’d known you’d work this hard, I would’ve treated you better…”

Oh Haengun, saying something, abruptly ducked his head. A stream of bullets grazed past above him.

Through a hole pierced in the fortress wall, Seo Yun saw the enemies swarming ahead.

Perhaps Oh Haengbok believed he could enter his village bloodlessly. The number of enemies wasn’t as great as the horde that came last time.

What he brought now seemed to be a sort of vanguard; several dozen centaurs and about two hundred skeleton riflemen were the entirety of the troops Oh Haengbok commanded. Apart from one soldier who seemed attached to translate Oh Haengbok’s orders to the centaurs, no Dawn Corps soldiers were visible.

That number was quite manageable, but it was difficult for the Happy Village warriors to venture outside the fortress wall.

All because of that one enraged orc vampire.

Even from a distance, Oh Haengbok looked much larger than before, though it wasn’t that his body had grown, but rather the thickness of his armor had become even greater. It seemed his monstrous strength had increased, so he wore heavier and sturdier armor. It was hard to confidently claim that any attack from the village could pierce that armor.

The vampire who had ascended to the position of a quasi-deity shouted as if roaring.

“Get rid of those damn small suns over there first, huh? Don’t damage the fields! The potatoes and tomatoes planted there are all mine!”

However, that formidable strength did not allow Oh Haengbok to invade inside the fortress wall. Because he is an undead vampire.

Around Happy Village, small suns raised by Sun Priests for farming shine brightly. There are even two small suns blazing gloriously in the air before the entrance.

Oh Haengbok, being a vampire, covers his entire skin with armor, so he wouldn’t burn to death instantly if exposed to that sunlight, but he would still suffer definite adverse effects. Penalties for vampires under the sun, such as weakened strength, blindness, or extreme lethargy.

Perhaps disliking that, Oh Haengbok didn’t approach the fortress wall but shot arrows while holding a bow.

That alone was terrifying.

Even though I’ve seen it several times before, it felt like missiles, not arrows, were flying.

The missile targeted Oh Haengun, who had ‘betrayed’ him. Oh Haengbok could see even behind the fortress wall with the vampire’s unique heat vision.

Even though Oh Haengun was behind the fortress wall, the arrow shattered the wall and struck Oh Haengun’s chest beyond it.

Oh Haengun’s body flew through the air and then plummeted below the fortress wall.

Seo Yun ran over, cast a healing spell, and asked.

“Are you okay?”

With a groan, Oh Haengun nodded. He had both the mage’s own defense spell and Seo Yun’s non-magic immunity spell cast on him. Even from that terrible attack just now, he didn’t receive irreversible damage.

“Seo Yun… Thanks to you, I’m alive, yeah.”Even with those words of gratitude, it seemed he was still quite shaken. Was it because he’d just been knocked down and rolled on the ground?

No, it wasn’t that. It seemed he felt hollow at the fact that the respected Chief had truly tried to kill him. Seo Yun urged him on.

“Save the thanks and get up. You need to keep giving orders.”

“Yeah, right. I should…”

“Shall we proceed as planned? The number of enemies is fewer than originally expected. It feels a bit wasteful to execute it now, but…”

“Let’s do it. Hoarding leads to shit. We have to do it while we can.”

Seo Yun nodded, then ran along the Fortress Wall, shouting that she was executing the plan.

After confirming that the Warrior Players, and even Seo Rayeon, were nodding, she approached Gaeulbi.

“Eulbi?”

“Alright, leave your body to me…”

Gaeulbi hoisted Seo Yun onto her back and, without hesitation, leaped down from the Fortress Wall. It was a light landing, like that of a leopard. Seo Yun warned her.

“Don’t go outside the Small Sun. That bastard Oh Haengbok will come running right away…”

“Got it.”

Gaeulbi’s voice had been subdued since earlier, not from tension during battle, but because she had been in that state ever since the incident with her aunt.

Of course, that wasn’t important right now.

As the two pretty girls descended, the gazes of the Centaurs focused on them. Eyes glazed with desire, a result of unnecessarily faithful adherence to Greek mythology.

Three Centaurs who were rushing to capture them were shot down by bullets. The village Warriors on the Fortress Wall were now providing covering fire with rifles, not crossbows.

Several who had exposed themselves outside the wall to aim and shoot paid the price. Without even a single scream, several village Warriors fell, hit by bullets fired by the Skeletons. Seo Yun couldn’t cast the non-magic immunity Spell on all of them.

‘Fuck.’

Even feeling regret was a luxury now. To not waste the time they were buying, she had to focus as much as possible. And so she did. Seo Yun chanted a Spell.

As the Spell completed, she immediately extended her palm.

“—Firebird.”

The Firebird, whose size had swollen to about four times its previous size upon reaching Level 12, flew toward the Centaurs. Since the distance between them and her was considerable, the Centaurs easily split to both sides to avoid it.

Thus, the Firebird flew through the center where they had been. Though spiritual, it left behind distinctly hot flames. That alone was according to plan.

The so-called ‘plan’ wasn’t some grand strategy. There was no military expert here, nor was there an Undead Zhuge Liang, so the prepared plan was simple. A fire attack so rudimentary it was almost laughable to call it a tactic.

The flames and heat covering the ground stimulated the combustible and flammable materials buried underground.

These were items like gasoline and flashbangs that Seo Yun had gathered over the past few days from Gangwon-do and various other places, stuffing as much as she could into the Bag of Infinity, as well as gases created and filled by the village Mages using Magic.

It would have been even better to bury a bunch of explosives to create a grand explosion, but unfortunately, obtaining large quantities of explosives in this day and age was difficult… Still, at the very least, it looked sufficiently spectacular visually.

Where the Firebird left flames behind, smoke began to rise from beneath the ground, soon followed by fierce flames. Flames accompanied by explosions erupted like volcanic craters. Not just in one place, but here and there.

Fire, crimson fire, filled the world spread out before them.

At Seo Yun’s gesture, the flames moved with clear murderous intent, like a red tidal wave. The Hearth Priest’s Pyrokinesis.

The Wave of Fire swept over the Half-Human Half-Beast monsters and Skeletons. Over twenty Centaurs were engulfed in the flames, and the Skeletons that had been wildly firing bullets from the Fortress Wall were all, without exception, swallowed and melted there. Soon, an updraft seemed to form, and a whirlwind of flames began to swirl over the ashes.

It must have been a spectacular sight even from up there. Cheering voices could be heard from the Fortress Wall. Amidst the tension, Seo Yun savored their cheers and the result she had achieved.

But that was brief. At first, the shouts of “Long live Seo Yun!” changed to voices yelling, “Seo Yun, be careful!”

Seo Yun immediately became alert. There was no need for anyone to point out the direction to be wary of. Thud, thud—the sound of something shaking the ground could be heard.

A Warrior charging through the flames came into view. Oh Haengbok roared.

“You—!”

Naturally, Seo Yun tried to evade. Then, Oh Haengbok let the Spell Shatterer he was holding in his hand hang behind his shoulder and, still charging, swung it.

The Warhammer left his hand, spinning wildly as it flew through the air.

Seo Yun, thinking it was aimed at her, widened her eyes, but Oh Haengbok wasn’t targeting her.

A moment later, the sound of shattering glass came from above. Gaeulbi shouted.

“The Small Sun!”

Seo Yun turned her head and was horrified. The Small Sun that had been shining above her head was shattered to pieces. The Spell Shatterer had destroyed the magical force maintaining that glowing sphere.

The Spell Shatterer fell to the ground with a ‘thud,’ and the sunlight it had been casting around disappeared.

And into the place where the sunlight vanished, Oh Haengbok arrived. With those crimson eyes of his.

“Jump!”

At Seo Yun’s shout, Gaeulbi kicked off the ground. Their bodies soared into the air to a height that would only be possible for a gymnast jumping on a trampoline.

From below, crude curses that couldn’t form proper sentences could be heard.

Looking down, Oh Haengbok was reaching his hand toward them. As if he would grab them the moment they descended.

To prevent that, Seo Yun spread her wings. Flapping them powerfully, their ascending bodies were kept from touching the Mortal Realm.

Their feet landed on the Fortress Wall.

Seo Yun was about to feel relieved, but then, startled by the sensation of shaking, she looked down below the wall.

Oh Haengbok picked up the Spell Shatterer again. He swung it once more.

“You—fucking—pieces—of—shit—!”

Now, with no sunlight shining down, the hammer that had lost its outlet for rage struck the Fortress Wall.

A series of roars, clearly more devastating than any battering ram hitting a wall, echoed.

“Everyone, take cover!”

Three times, exactly three times. Three hammer strikes brought down the Fortress Wall.With the first hammer strike, the fortress wall cracked; with the second, it split in two; and with the third, the surrounding walls came crashing down in a great collapse. Oh Haengun had thickened the fortress wall immensely to withstand even artillery shells, and considering that fact, this feat was akin to toppling an entire small mountain…

Seo Yun, who had barely managed to flee from the collapsing wall, was stunned.

If Seo Rayeon hadn’t sent a whirlwind of flames from atop the fortress wall to force Oh Haengbok back, and if the Sun Priest hadn’t seized that moment to create a new Small Sun, Oh Haengbok might well have charged through the breached wall.

“Well… the operation was roughly a success. Good work, Seo Yun.”

Under Oh Haengun’s praise, Seo Yun nodded with a weary feeling.

“Yes, well…”

After the fire whirlwind vanished, Seo Yun and Seo Rayeon maintained a barrier of flames at the site of the collapsed wall, blocking the charge of the surviving Centaurs. It would take quite some time for those flames to die out, and in the meantime, Oh Haengun could repair the fortress wall.