Chapter 151 – Main Camp [Undead Fortress]

“Hahahahaha—!”

Alex Burke, transformed into a monstrous being by the immense Attack Power buff from his Berserker Skill and the Defense buffs applied by support-type Hunters including Healers, was rampaging through Bondo Fortress.

“That old man, seriously…”

Watching this, Recon Unit Captain Julia Texon clicked her tongue and blew off the head of a Necromancer commanding the undead with a Mana Bullet.

As if hit by an anti-tank rifle, the Necromancer’s head exploded right on its shoulders, and its body slumped to the ground.

Simultaneously, the Undead Legion struggling to hold back the Hunters’ offensive around it collapsed powerlessly.

“Melee Dealers are so inefficient. It’s much better to just snipe targets from a distance like this…”

Muttering another complaint while watching Alex Burke revel in his destructive frenzy, she aimed her gun at her next target.

“It’ll be over soon.”

Mobile Unit Captain Olande Pompidou, floating in the air and observing the battlefield of Bondo Fortress, murmured.

“My Mobile Unit has too little to do.”

His gaze shifted to the Tankers and Dealers of the Mobile Unit, huddled together quite a distance from the main battlefield.

Apart from Mandy Singh, an A-Rank Tanker-type Hunter from India, pointlessly dancing while watching the battle, they were all just standing still, observing the scene.

‘Did we overdo it?’

Looking back at the battlefield, Olande Pompidou thought.

‘It’s not like it’s such a formidable force that all 46 A-Rank Hunters needed to gather…’

The Mobile Unit’s mission is to support Assault Teams experiencing a shortage of combat power in emergencies.

Olande Pompidou, whose specialty is Wide-Area Teleportation magic, accepted the position of Mobile Unit Captain and spent nearly two weeks mobilizing all available resources to purchase Mana Potions.

Because teleporting across the vast expanse of Africa, east one moment and west the next, would require enduring tremendous Mana consumption.

However, since the African Liberation War began, he hadn’t drunk a single bottle of Mana Potion.

There had been no need to use Wide-Area Teleportation since disembarking from France’s nuclear aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle.

Today was no different.

‘Did President Ivanov overreact? Well, he’s a politician, so he always has to consider the worst-case scenario…’

A few days ago, Ivan Ivanov advised Alex Burke to carefully review their strategy before entering Congo, as anything could happen.

Olande Pompidou was also present that day and received the message alongside him.

Therefore, he had placed the entire Mobile Unit on standby in case of an emergency and was floating in the air, looking down on the battlefield.

But the ‘anything’ Ivan Ivanov mentioned hadn’t happened.

Bondo Fortress also seemed likely to fall as easily as the fortresses they had passed so far.

‘Well, I’ll probably need to use Mana Potions when we directly confront Ululu Tumbebe.’

Just as Olande Pompidou was having idle thoughts in the air, the last Necromancer of Bondo Fortress was finally killed by Julia Texon on the ground.

As with previous fortresses, the Undead Legion turned back into corpses, and the walls of human flesh made from byproducts crumbled.

“It’s over.”

Confirming the end of the battle, Olande Pompidou slowly descended to the ground.

There was no need to watch the prisoner rescue operation.

“It’s over.”

Julia Texon, who had been sniping Necromancers from atop the fortress walls and descended just before the fortress collapsed, also murmured.

“Kahahaha!”

Alex Burke, still under the effects of his Berserker Skill, also confirmed the end of the fight and let out a roar of laughter.

“Do I have to command the cleanup again?”

Looking at Alex Burke, who gave no orders to the Hunters and just laughed, Julia Texon frowned.

But she soon sighed in resignation and, slinging her gun over her shoulder, stepped into the collapsed fortress.

“Alright, everyone, let’s get org—”

In that instant, she could feel it.

The chilling Mana enveloping the entire fortress.

“Kuh…!”

Alex Burke also stopped laughing as if struck dumb, gripping his hammer tightly.

‘Wh-what is this Mana…?’

Olande Pompidou, who had descended to within five meters of the ground, also felt the Mana that sent shivers down his spine and soared high back into the air.

“What’s that?”

“What’s going on?”

“Is it an explosion already?”

Amidst the murmurs of the other Hunters, the Mana seeped into the collapsed walls and undead debris.

And instantly, the debris scattered throughout the fortress began to coalesce into large masses.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Julia Texon instantly drew her gun and fired three consecutive Mana Bullets at a mass forming beside her.

Thud!

Alex Burke also swung his hammer at a mass appearing behind him.

“Th-this is…!”

And from the air, Olande Pompidou confirmed the masses beginning to appear all over the fortress.

Mysterious masses appearing in numbers equal to the Hunters inside the fortress.

In an instant, the masses, having rapidly grown in size, transformed into giant bipedal combat machines about 7-8 meters tall.

“……Golems?”

Though somewhat unusual in form, they were unmistakably Golems.

Undead Golems made from human corpses and undead remains.

“……This is impossible…….”

With trembling eyes, Olande Pompidou could only stare blankly at the Hunters fighting the Golems that were once part of the fortress.

Thud!

After taking down another Undead Golem, Siguk charged toward his next target without hesitation.

Whoosh!

With a sound of tearing air, an Undead Golem’s fist flew toward Siguk.

Siguk lightly floated into the air, stepped on the fist, and climbed right up to its head.

Then, without mercy, he slashed its head to pieces with his sword.

Crash!

The Golem smashed its own head down. But before that, Siguk had already jumped off and landed on the ground.

‘Disgusting.’

The Undead Golem’s head was destroyed by its own punch, but it instantly gathered surrounding corpses and regrew.

Watching this live, Siguk used his All-Seeing Eye Skill once more.

‘The head was a fake. It was there.’

Siguk immediately charged at the Undead Golem again.

The Undead Golem kicked at Siguk, but he deftly dodged and sliced through the opposite ankle.

Thud!

As the Mana core in the ankle was split in half by Siguk’s sword, the Undead Golem fell backward powerlessly and moved no more.

Fuck your mother!” (Cào nǐ mā!)

Liu Yaofang cursed in Chinese as he froze three Undead Golems solid.

However, freezing only slowed their movements; it didn’t fundamentally destroy them.

Stab! Stab! Stab!

Destruction was Siguk’s role, as he instantly closed in on the three, stabbing and slicing their Mana cores with his sword.

“Stop cursing while fighting!”

Siguk shouted, glaring at Liu Yaofang floating in the air.

Liu Yaofang pretended not to hear and subtly moved away.

Siguk didn’t have the luxury to keep paying attention to him.

‘Damn… Detectors are useless…’

Both the Detectors using the now-obsolete Detector Skill and the Mana Detectors replacing their jobs were of no use.

The Mana cores of the Undead Golems hid their true nature that deeply.

The Detector Skill and Mana Detectors could only detect the Mana emanating from the entire body of the Undead Golems.

‘Damn!’

Thanks to that, Siguk, with his All-Seeing Eye Skill, was busy.

Unlike in Moscow, failure to complete the mission here meant immediate death, so Siguk had to move like crazy.

Crash! Crash! Crash!

George Goldenhil, also from the Special Operations Unit and moving with the 2nd Corps, tore apart an Undead Golem’s body and sent a small tornado flying with a kick.

The tornado’s power was immense, instantly ripping off the Undead Golem’s body.

‘There.’

Just before the Undead Golem could regenerate the torn-off body, George Goldenhil spotted the sparkling Mana core inside it.

Bang!

Immediately, an Energy Bolt shot from George Goldenhil’s hand shattered the Magic Stone and brought down the Undead Golem.

Liu Yaofang, away from Siguk, kept cursing and freezing Undead Golems.

Once the frozen Golems’ movements slowed, nearby Dealers swarmed in to attack their bodies.

Under the relentless assault of B-Rank Dealers attacking like ants, the frozen Undead Golems eventually had their Mana cores destroyed and ceased functioning.

After destroying the Lubumbashi Fortress, the 2nd Corps Lubumbashi Sector Collective Combat Unit and the main force fought against the Undead Golems for a full six hours.

Thud!

With the last Undead Golem falling to Siguk’s attack, the battle finally ended.

“Phew……”

Hunters sighed everywhere, sitting down on the spot.

The tremendous consumption of Life Force and Mana forced them to prioritize drinking potions.

Even Siguk let out a light sigh and downed Mana Potions and Life Force Potions in succession. The only thing better about him compared to other Hunters was that he didn’t sit down.

‘Undead Golems…’

Throwing the empty potion bottles on the ground, Siguk looked around.

Undead Golems, made from the debris that once formed the fortress walls and the remains of the Undead Legion, had once again become debris scattered on the ground.

Among the debris, Hunters groaned from their injuries.

‘Seems like no fatalities…’

Because he had been constantly moving across the battlefield with his All-Seeing Eye Skill fully activated to take down the Undead Golems, he had thrown potions to anyone who seemed in danger, so there were no deaths.

However, even Siguk couldn’t prevent injuries.

‘The 1st and 3rd Corps must be in the same situation, right?’

Watching and feeling the raindrops falling from the dark, cloud-covered sky and the dark aura gradually dispersing from the fortress, Siguk began to move.

As the Special Operations Unit Captain took the lead in rescuing the injured, the Hunters sprawled on the ground began to get up one by one and join the rescue efforts.

And watching this quietly, George Goldenhil made a meaningful expression.

[What? Alone?]

Julia Texon’s face, worn with fatigue, twisted severely.

George Goldenhil spoke to her.

“He was rampaging across the battlefield like a madman all by himself. I checked intermittently, and he was doing that while even rescuing Hunters on the verge of death.”

[What the hell is that guy?]

“A monster?”

[Damn… They want us to eliminate someone like that? Along with Ivanov?]

“It’s an absurd story.”

At George Goldenhil’s words, Julia Texon sighed.

[What on earth gave Smith the confidence to give such a mission to the two of us…]

George Goldenhil just shrugged, looking at the complaining Julia Texon.

“Well, anyway, we got a sense of his level today. Let’s respond properly when we all gather in Kisangani.”

[Right. I have to attend the commanders’ meeting now. I’ll cut the comms.]

“Alright.”

Soon, the video call from Julia Texon ended.

Closing the small laptop screen, George Goldenhil leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

‘Texon… Is she pretending not to know, or does she really not know?’

Julia Texon clearly stated it.

How could the two of them capture such a monster?

George Goldenhil still couldn’t tell if it was her deception or her genuine feeling.

‘Did the Chairman really only tell me?’

The memory of a day about a week before their deployment to Africa vividly resurfaced in George Goldenhil’s mind.

First, the weather of that day came to mind.

It was somewhat cloudy, with heavy rain starting and stopping repeatedly.

Then, the atmosphere of his house at that time.

The quiet atmosphere with only the sound of logs burning in the fireplace.

And finally, the person who visited him came to mind.

『It’s been a long time, Hunter Goldenhil.』

The Chairman’s secretary, appearing after a full four years.