Ch.271271. The Eve of the Storm (3)

The landing of the allied fleet was successful, but the Cult of Immortality didn’t consider themselves defeated yet.

Yes, allied soldiers continued to appear at Incheon Harbor.

So what? Could they completely defend against the charge of Death Knights and the attacks of undead golems?

“Destroy the fleet! If we can just destroy the fleet, victory is ours!”

The undead golems’ projectile attacks could be dodged at a distance using an Awakened’s agility. However, the allied fleet, clustered together due to the West Sea’s annoying topography, couldn’t avoid the undead golems’ projectile attacks. They were essentially stationary targets, and destroying even one ship would be a tremendous gain, so the Cult of Immortality aimed their undead golems at the fleet rather than the landing Awakened.

“Block them! Build barriers to prevent the enemy from reaching the fleet!”

The allied fleet was well aware of this fact. The fleet they were operating was literally the lifeline and supply line for the landing forces. If the operation failed, they would need to retreat using these ships—their only escape route. Considering all the supplies inside the ships that the landing forces needed to fight, losing the fleet meant losing both the fighting power and escape route for the landing forces. That’s why Takashima Shiro, the leader of the Yamato Alliance, came to the front lines personally to encourage the allied forces and build barriers himself, leading his Awakened from the very front.

“Victory is within our grasp!”

The number of landing soldiers gradually increased, and they advanced to build barriers against the undead. The Death Knight Order didn’t stand idle—they charged at the allied forces to trample down the barriers they had worked so hard to build, but…

“Bahamut Bullet, fire!”

The results were less than expected. The Bahamut Bullets that Seorabeol had relied on proved effective in stopping the Death Knights’ charge. In fact, an unfortunate Death Knight took a direct hit from a Bahamut Bullet fired by an unnamed soldier and was annihilated, once again proving the power of Bahamut Bullets to the world in this war.

“The golem is throwing rocks!”

However, this battle also demonstrated what kind of power undead golems could display in defensive battles. The barriers they had painstakingly built were shattered to pieces when the undead golems launched full-power projectile attacks, even causing severe injuries to nearby Awakened. Their offensive power was tremendous. Once they attacked, barriers were essentially breached, so the allied forces couldn’t immediately seize the advantage.

“For the Dragon Priestess!”

“Lady Seol-hwa is watching over us!”

The Hwarang, having completed their guerrilla mission and returned to the main force, began to enter the battle after a brief rest. Realizing that the main problem was the undead golems attacking the fleet and frontlines, they started charging toward the undead golems, clashing with the Death Knight units guarding them.

Apparently not forgetting the experience from the Ulsan battle where Hwarang had single-handedly eliminated undead golems, this time they were thoroughly prepared, using Death Knights as guards against the Hwarang, setting up a title match between Hwarang and Death Knights.

“Damn it. Get out of my way right now!”

“Finally, you can’t run away anymore! Hwarang!”

While the combatants themselves might not have realized it, this was a title match that spectators had been secretly anticipating. A fight where neither Hwarang nor Death Knights could afford to lose had begun. The losing side would likely be ridiculed not only by spectators but also by their own allies—it was literally a chicken game. The Hwarang couldn’t target their objective, the undead golems, and instead had to engage in short-term battles with the Death Knights, effectively being held back. However, the situation itself didn’t work against the allied forces.

“The Death Knights’ charge is faltering. Advance! Advance! We need to get within range to attack the undead golems!”

Conversely, as the Death Knights began to focus on the Hwarang, their pressure on the allied main force started to weaken. Seizing this opportunity, Shiro moved his main force to push back against the Cult of Immortality. As the allied main force began to push into Incheon’s urban areas, the Cult of Immortality started to feel a sense of crisis.

“Don’t let them leave the harbor! Target their main force!”

“Fire the ship cannons! Even if they don’t reach full range. We need to destroy the undead positioned in the city!”

Massive rocks began to target the allied main force, while the allied forces started using their fleet’s cannons to fire shells at the undead positioned throughout the city. Both demonstrated tremendous firepower. Allied mages tried to intercept the massive rocks thrown at their main force to reduce their power, but the power wasn’t reduced at all, unfortunately hitting and turning dozens of Awakened into bloody pulp. Conversely, the shells fired by the allied fleet exploded in the city, sending undead flying into the air and causing concrete to collapse. Both sides were desperately using every means to push back the other, and their forces were essentially evenly matched.

“Drone units, deploy! Snipe the undead golems targeting our main force!”

“Skeleton mages! Shoot them down! The moment the drones destroy the undead golems, it’s over!”

The allied fleet was using drone units to try to snipe the undead golems that were demonstrating tremendous power in defensive battles, while the Cult of Immortality was using every means available to thoroughly protect the undead golems. Both sides were beginning to realize: the end of this battle would be determined by whether the undead golems were destroyed or successfully defended. Seorabeol’s victory meant destroying the undead golems; the Cult of Immortality’s victory meant protecting them.

“We can win. We can win!”

The Cult of Immortality could be confident they had the advantage in this battle. The enemy was an expeditionary force that had traveled a long distance, and it would take time for reinforcements to arrive. If they could somehow protect the undead golems, they could use Incheon Harbor’s terrain to completely annihilate the 6,000 troops and the fleet, which would also be an opportunity to greatly increase the Death Knights, the Cult of Immortality’s elite forces. Moreover, the Dragon Priestess was on the frontlines, so if they could offer her to “him,” they thought he would surely be pleased, but…

“Wait. Why isn’t the Dragon Priestess coming to the frontlines?”

They felt something strange about the fact that the Dragon Priestess wasn’t coming to the frontlines and was only protecting the fleet. The Cult of Immortality’s commanding necromancer felt an ominous sensation, but until the Dragon Priestess made her move, they were defending adequately and maintaining a stalemate, so there wasn’t an immediate problem. However, the moment the Dragon Priestess stepped onto the frontlines, the Death Knight Order maintaining the frontline would quickly be pushed back…

“Contact the main force in Gangbuk. Request reinforcements.”

“Isn’t that excessive?”

“The enemy is our archenemy, Seorabeol! To end this decisively, immediately relay the request for reinforcements!”

They requested reinforcements from the main force in Gangbuk. They felt the forces stationed in Incheon were insufficient, and in reality, the Cult of Immortality’s main forces were not in Incheon but stationed at the frontlines in Anyang and Gwangmyeong. They could defend adequately with support from the Death Knight Order stationed in these two cities, but feeling ominous, the necromancer commander requested reinforcements from the main force in Gangbuk, even if it seemed excessive, to decisively end the enemy.

“Right. It’s because of Kim Su-ho that I’m so worried. The enemy doesn’t have Kim Su-ho!”

Yes, it was all because of Kim Su-ho. But Kim Su-ho wasn’t participating in this battle, and the person who appeared to be the commander was known as the leader of the Yamato Alliance. He was reportedly a powerful figure close to superhuman levels, but on the Seoul front, even superhumans were merely senior-level Awakened due to the rampant Awakened inflation. So it wasn’t common for a single Awakened like Kim Su-ho to reverse the tide of battle…

‘Wait. Then where is Kim Su-ho right now?’

When his thoughts reached this point, he felt an ominous sensation at the fact that Kim Su-ho’s presence wasn’t felt at all while the allied fleet was conducting landing operations. For the sake of initiative, it seemed too much to call this a solo operation formed only by Seorabeol’s allies—in that case, it would be faster and simpler to summon the Dragon God and push Incheon away. But the enemy hadn’t summoned the Dragon God, which meant they knew what plan the Cult of Immortality was preparing, so they were preserving their strength, according to the higher-ups’ judgment. Then, would Seorabeol, which had been dealing with the Cult of Immortality so coldly, leave their strongest Awakened, who could be used right now, idle just for the sake of initiative competition?

‘No, that can’t be! Seorabeol will definitely use Kim Su-ho to shake the Cult of Immortality!’

He was certain that Seorabeol would do just that.

“Contact Anyang and Gwangmyeong too! Tell them to send skeleton mages… no, Death Knight units here immediately!”

“What?”

The ominous feeling soon became a sense of reality, and as if by instinct, he urged them to request reinforcements from Anyang and Gwangmyeong as well. Before the communications officer’s question ended, the officer who had just contacted Gangbuk returned.

“Report! Kim Su-ho has appeared in Gangbuk!”

“Right! So what happened?!”

“The Death Knight Order that was heading to Incheon after receiving the reinforcement request… was completely annihilated after encountering a special forces unit led by Kim Su-ho.”

And the answer that came back confirmed that the ominous sign was real. Yes, Seorabeol wouldn’t leave Kim Su-ho idle for no reason, and they had deployed their main force from Seoul to Gangbuk to individually defeat the reinforcements heading to Incheon. It seemed they were demonstrating their characteristic mobility well, as they had pursued and annihilated the Death Knight Order heading to Incheon, and the commander felt a burning sensation in his spine at the act of smoothly escaping from enemy territory. If the reinforcements sent by the main force in Gangbuk had been neutralized by Kim Su-ho’s hand…

“That means the connection with the main force has essentially been cut off. Did you hear that? Contact Anyang and Gwangmyeong immediately! If Incheon falls, Anyang and Gwangmyeong are also in danger!”

It meant that the connection with the main force had essentially been cut off. As long as reinforcements sent from the main force to Incheon were all individually defeated by Kim Su-ho, the only path left for Incheon was to use the undead forces remaining in Anyang and Gwangmyeong to defend Incheon. As a result, the frontline would inevitably be pushed back, but Incheon was both the only passage for Death Knights to enter and a stronghold connected to the homeland. If it was lost, they couldn’t dispatch additional Death Knights to Seoul, and the connection with the homeland would be cut off, forcing them to survive on their own against the Seoul allied forces.

“The Dragon Priestess has appeared on the battlefield!”

“Only now? No, did she time it to when Kim Su-ho cut off the reinforcements!”

And exquisitely… no, it seemed she had deliberately timed it, as the Dragon Priestess finally stepped onto the frontlines. As she appeared, the morale of the allied forces began to rise, and the allied soldiers, forgetting even their wounds, began to charge like the undead, without fear of death. But there was a reason they didn’t fear death.

“Healing Magic Circle.”

Seol-hwa used a healing magic circle on the battlefield to heal the allied forces on the spot. While it was impossible to restore Awakened on the verge of death to a level where they could fight again like Yu-na could, she had the skill to at least keep them alive as long as they weren’t dead. In other words, as long as they weren’t instantly killed by the undead golems, they could somehow survive, and at the same time…

“Song of Resurrection.”

As she began to cast a buff that continuously restored life force, the entire allied force began to display zombie-like recovery abilities, quickly recovering even from fatal attacks if given time. Based on tremendous sustainability, she had made it possible for all soldiers to play the role of tanks, and as these tanks began to advance with barriers, it reached a point where it didn’t matter if the Death Knight units broke through the Hwarang and charged. Moreover, this buff was also applied to the Hwarang, so the power balance collapsed in an instant, and the Death Knight Order began to retreat or face annihilation from the Hwarang’s attacks.

“Well, we’re within range now.”

And when Seol-hwa herself reached a range where she could target the undead golems.

“Turn Undead.”

She activated an instant-death magic specifically for the undead, and at that moment, the dozens or hundreds of human corpses that made up the undead golems began to separate and collapse. Of course, the Cult of Immortality’s necromancers rushed in to stop the collapse of the separating undead golems, but…

“Bang.”

As it happened, Seol-hwa’s specialty was sniping with high-powered magic from long distances. The necromancer who appeared in Seol-hwa’s sight had his head explode like a watermelon, and as she began to blatantly snipe the necromancers, their movements naturally became more cautious.

“Retreat. Surrender the harbor, but absolutely defend the city of Incheon.”

However, the Cult of Immortality’s commander, who was quick to assess the situation, quickly acknowledged that this battle was his defeat and began to pull back the Death Knight Order and undead golems deployed on the frontlines, retreating from Incheon Harbor. With a firm determination to defend the city of Incheon at all costs, they began to build fortifications using the undead to prevent the enemy from advancing to the center, just as Seorabeol had shown in the past.

“Gimpo, help us immediately! We can’t lose connection with the homeland!”

“Ah, understood.”

They began to thoroughly check the allied fleet of Seorabeol-Yamato Alliance that had seized the harbor, seeking to link up with Gimpo.

“That’s right! If they can’t join up with the Seoul main force, safety-conscious Seorabeol will eventually have to take a step back! If we hold out as much as possible like Seorabeol did in the past, we’ll win!”

This was the approach the Cult of Immortality, which had opposed Seorabeol for a long time and knew their methods better than anyone, could choose.