Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Investing Through the Status Window.

Episode 67: Crisis, And Cooperation (7).

The earth was gradually stained pitch black. From all sides except the riverbank, an enormous number of ghouls slowly approached the big city, Behimruod. Those who witnessed this scene from atop the walls were all overwhelmed by the immense force.

For Allen, too, it was his first time witnessing such a large number in one place, making it difficult to guess how many there were by mere sight. There were certainly thousands, and it might actually reach ten thousand.

‘……Shit……!’

This was a battle of a totally different level than the territorial battles experienced in the eastern region before. ……The thought that this was what real war was struck his mind like an arrow.

Huff, huff, huff.

Not just Allen but all the members were already gasping for breath at the sight of that dizzying scene.

The ghouls, which had been approaching slowly, suddenly began to speed up, and from the moment they became clearly distinguishable, they started to run like mad.

“- Kyaaaaaaah.”

From all around, the ghoul’s strange screams burst forth. The faint-hearted guards, upon seeing this, either collapsed with their legs giving out or even fainted.

With a thudding sound, the ghouls began to cling to the walls. They were literally throwing their bodies to create a staircase. Simultaneously, dozens of balls shot up into the sky and flew towards the castle.

“Ah—!”

It was a mass of ghouls thrown by a corpse giant. As they descended, they split into several pieces and fell like hail with a thudding sound. Immediately, rampant screams and strange cries could be heard.

From that moment, the Allen-Mercenary Group began to fight in earnest. They killed the ghouls falling to the walls, protecting the guards’ backs as much as possible, and the guards huddled at the edge of the wall, shooting arrows to block the ghouls from climbing up as much as possible.

“Fire, light the fire—!”

Allen decided to pour boiling oil, seeing that the ghouls climbing up the wall from the outside were too fast. He had intended to use it only in a real emergency, but it seemed necessary to kill their momentum first.

As his order was given, the guards lifted the cauldrons filled with boiling oil and poured it over the heads of the ghouls. With the sound of flesh cooking and sizzling, the bodies of the ghouls melted away. Simultaneously, the guards shot fire arrows towards the ghouls smeared with oil.

The fire that spread quickly engulfed the horde of ghouls in an instant. For a moment, the area below the walls was defended, but masses of ghouls kept flying into the fortress from the sky.

“Damn it—!”

The city inside was already in chaos. The ghouls that fell inside the fortress began to climb up the stairs to the top of the walls. The Rudra-Mercenary Group, positioned at the staircase, occupied the front and defended by setting up shields to prevent them from climbing up.

Suddenly, there was a giant hand that grabbed the stone wall of the fortress with a snap. It belonged to a corpse monster with abnormally thick and long arms, serving as a sort of hook.

“Get rid of that—! Ghouls are climbing up—! Quickly get rid of that—!”

The members and guards quickly ran over and cut off the fingers, gripping the stone wall one by one with swords or clubs. Fortunately, they managed to detach the hand before a large number of ghouls could climb up.

However, from the one that couldn’t be swiftly cut off, ghouls began to pour out in droves. Allen instructed the guards to hold their positions at all costs and ran there with his members.

“Push through—! Push them back with a charge—!”

Bald Illiterate Billy, Old Dog Kalisman, Training Junkie Victor, and Inkist Arnold lined up in the first row, raised their shields, and charged. With a powerful charge, the ghouls hit the shields, thud thud thud thud, and either fell or were pushed down below the walls. The ghouls that fell were quickly dealt with by the second row, following closely behind the first, smashing their heads with weapons. In the third row, the Blind Saintess protected the group leader and the milk-jug mage by kicking and striking any ghouls that might have slipped through with her hands and feet.

Thus, reaching the spot where the corpse monster’s hand was hanging, the Allen’s-Mercenary Group quickly cleared the surroundings and tore off the hand. Fortunately, probably due to another nearby mercenary group quickly joining in and helping to take care of it, no more ghouls came up.

Huff, Huff, Huff.

The city was in chaos. However, Allen could not afford to care about what was below. They had no choice but to leave it to the self-defense forces and the guards.

Having returned to his original position, Allen confirmed that about half a dozen guards had either died or were injured. The gaps in the stone wall were gradually increasing. Allen approached one of those spots to check the situation below. The ghoul stairs, which had collapsed once due to boiling oil being poured, had risen more than half again.

“Elena—! Shoot magic below—!”

Upon hearing Allen’s command, the milk-jug mage unleashed elemental magic upon the mountain of ghouls piled up beneath the walls. The magic, being of high firepower, was highly effective. However, Allen limited the number of times it could be used to avoid excessive mana consumption. After all, they might not be able to use it when truly needed if too much mana was spent.

The battle continued in this manner for quite some time. Among the members, those who were greatly fatigued resorted to swinging their weapons with sheer willpower and desperation. Already having drastically reduced stamina and concentration, they sometimes allowed the ghouls to land an attack.

Allen had those members step back for a moment to drink potions diluted with water, allowing them a brief period to replenish their strength.

Victor swung his ax wildly until the handle broke, and from then on, he started jabbing the ghoul’s head with a shield. The sword lost its edge, and the tip of the spear became blunt. The iron club was relatively intact, but it, too, was severely dented and bent from the beating.

Only the Blind Saintess, using her hands and feet, was not hindered by weapons and easily dispatched the ghouls with swift, agile movements as she had from the start.

……And, just then.

Something heavy soared and landed on the wall with a thunderous crash. The creature appeared to be about 2 meters and 50 centimeters tall, boasting a massive build that matched its height. Fully armored from head to toe, it held a greatsword as big as its own body in its right hand.

Allen recognized its identity immediately upon seeing it.

‘A Death Knight—!’

The Lich sacrificed its own body to summon from hell, a demon beast obsessed with battle. Its oppressive presence was indescribable in words. Merely looking at it made one’s body stiffen as if turning into a rice cake.

[Attributes]

Strength: 64

Agility: 44

Stamina: 69

Intelligence: 5

Magic: 51

The sum of its strength, agility, and stamina was 177—a stat total that could almost be considered A-rank. In Behimruod, those who could face a Death Knight were probably few and far between.

The creature swung its greatsword fiercely with a whoosh. A mercenary nearby was sliced in half, along with his weapon and shield.

Witnessing this scene, the mercenaries retreated in shock and horror. It was clear that this was an entity beyond their capability to confront.

Group Leader Rudra also noticed its presence and looked at Allen. Since her absence would leave the stairway exposed, someone had to come and block it.

“Group Leader Allen—!”

Allen also understood the situation and immediately took his mercenary group to do a baton touch with the Rudra-Mercenary Group. Meanwhile, three more mercenaries had already fallen to the Death Knight.

The milk-jug mage occasionally cast spells at where ghouls were swarming… However, the momentarily emptied spaces were quickly filled again.

After a while, Group Leader Rudra arrived in front of the Death Knight with her members. But upon seeing one of her precious members being shattered by a single strike, she was suddenly seized by fear.

‘This creature is a real monster…!’

The captain also seemed to recognize this at a glance too, and rushed at the creature with his sword but was completely overwhelmed in terms of strength. The enemy was one, no, two levels above the captain. Even more, the creature was faster than the captain despite swinging that massive greatsword.

In the end, the captain was thrown out after six clashes, but just then, the magician of the Rudra-Mercenary Group completed his magic and launched it at the creature.

It wasn’t an elemental spell, but still, a fairly powerful mana bullet hit the creature’s body precisely. ……However, the Death Knight, with its overwhelming magical power, couldn’t be scratched by such lame magic.

Only then did Group Leader Rudra realize that she couldn’t take down this creature with her strength. At least her father’s mercenary group would have to come to be a match. However, a mercenary group that had to protect the Marquis couldn’t possibly leave him and come all this way.

In that brief moment of hesitation, the Death Knight quickly leaped forward, sending another mercenary from this world to the next, and then targeted Group Leader Rudra this time. It seemed to have figured out that she was the head.

‘Ah.’

The captain moved immediately, but the greatsword was already dropping sharply, poised to split the head of the group leader. There was no way the compliment whore with [Agility: 8] could avoid the strike that even a high-level mercenary couldn’t dodge.

“Nooo——!!”

The moment the captain let out a piercing scream, something struck the sword hard, twisting its trajectory.

———!!!

The greatsword narrowly missed Group Leader Rudra, striking the ground with force. At the same time, a powerful force pulled her back, sending her flying.

‘……Ah……’

“Ugh, ughhh…”

The bald illiterate safely caught her as she flailed embarrassingly in the air.

Standing before the Death Knight was none other than the Blind Saintess. With her blindfold removed, she was glaring fiercely at him with eyes as deep as the universe.

At that moment, whoosh, the great sword on the ground moved, tearing through the air. The Blind Saintess bent her upper body ninety degrees very flexibly to dodge the sword, then immediately threw a powerful punch into the creature’s torso.

Baaang—.

The Death Knight was instantly pushed back hissing all the way. Hmm…. The Blind Saintess, meanwhile, slightly furrowed her brows at the tingling sensation transmitted through her arm, and then shook her hand a couple of times.

‘…It’s tougher than I expected.’

The dark space visible between its helmet flashed with red eyes, and in an instant, the Death Knight sprang right in front of the Blind Saintess’s nose.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

The sword didn’t slice her but continued to smash the ground with bangs. She dodged each strike flexibly like a mollusk, then suddenly took advantage of a gap and kicked it in the stomach with the sole of her foot. The moment it was hit, the Death Knight swung the sword it had slammed down sideways with a whoosh, but she dodged it flexibly again with a swift movement.

‘No matter how much that thing thrashes about, it’s merely a yawn compared to Master.’

The Blind Saintess dodged all of her opponent’s sword strikes with quick movements and kept swinging her fists. However, its resilience was so great that her arms were starting to feel the strain.

Then, suddenly, it raised its left hand and clenched its fist. At that, ghouls began to rush madly towards her.

Allen did everything he could to prevent the ghouls from approaching the Blind Saint. It was already a challenge to face a Death Knight. If a ghoul joined in, it could introduce an unpredictable factor.

Still, Ordnung managed to fend off the occasional attacking ghoul with ease while aggressively pushing back the Death Knight.

‘This creature must be eliminated. At all costs…!’

A significant number of ghouls were connected to the monster before her. If she could take this one down, it would greatly relieve the people.

It seemed unlikely that conserving strength in the fight would lead to an easy victory. Moreover, the creature wouldn’t tire like a human, so as time continued to pass, the situation would become increasingly disadvantageous for her.

Sssuh, Hooo.

After taking a deep breath, the Blind Saintess clenched her fist tightly again.

‘…I’m gonna all out.’

And with explosive speed, her fist struck the creature’s chest—.

———!!!

The Blind Saintess clenched her teeth against the not-so-weak backlash. As much as she was aggressively attacking him, the damage was continuously accumulating on her as well.

The Death Knight, this time, rolled backward and crashed into a stone wall with a bang. However, it quickly got up again and, irritably swatting away a ghoul blocking its path, charged at her with determination.

“- Ordnung.”

“- Yes, Master.”

“- Do you remember the saying that a fist is a concentration of power?”

“- Yes.”

“- Then, remember this above all.”

“- What is it?”

“- If you can find the center and strike, there is nothing in the world that cannot be broken.”

At the moment its dark mana was wildly surging, Ordnung’s eyes precisely found that center.

The Blind Saintess, facing the Death Knight charging at her, ran towards it as well, dodging the horizontally whooshing greatsword by the tip of her nose, and then took two more steps forward, stretching her arm straight towards the center.

———————!!!!!!!

A tremendous shock struck the body of the Death Knight. The dark mana swirling around its body dispersed outward due to the shockwave of the fist. And then, with a crack, the thick armor cracked and shattered.

“Fall— downnnn———!!!”

The Blind Saintess poured all her strength into her arm until the moment she thrust it forward with a final scream.

With a creaking sound, her arm pierced through the torso of the Death Knight. At the same time, its body fell backward with a thud.

The Blind Saintess gasped for breath as she quietly watched the demonic being turn into dust as it collapsed.

Although the final attack completely shattered her right arm, fortunately, she had managed to bring it down. And as the Death Knight fell, a significant number of ghouls collapsed on the spot as well.

‘Master…!’

……The overjoyed Blind Saintess thought,

‘Maybe with this much, I could finally punch master in the solar plexus really hard.’

Indulging in blasphemous fantasies.