Ch.78Full-Scale War (5)

CRASH-!

CRUNCH–!!!

The man’s charge finally ended after breaking through the building’s outer wall and smashing through several interior walls and pieces of furniture.

If the building hadn’t been constructed by dwarves, he would have broken through another exterior wall and gone outside.

‘That might have been better.’

I took in the interior of the building.

There were spots where light filtered in through the holes made by the earlier arrow rain, but otherwise it was a generally dark place.

“That’s quite a sturdy armor you’ve got there!!”

“Tch.”

I wanted to get outside immediately, but this muscular man clearly had no intention of letting me leave.

Woooong-!

The man who had cornered me against the wall began drawing up his aura.

As his aura gathered, his muscles visibly grew larger and his veins bulged disgustingly.

He looked less like a human and more like an Ogre of a different color.

He was nothing short of a muscle monster.

‘There aren’t many who go to such extremes for physical enhancement. Where did they find this guy?’

With each passing moment, I could feel terrifying power gathering in the muscle monster’s arms.

It was obvious that if those arms came crashing down on me, my armor would be useless and I’d be finished in one blow.

The only fortunate thing was that his charging time was long and his attack motion was large, so I wouldn’t have to take the hit.

‘That’s probably what he’s counting on.’

Instead of trying to dodge by moving my body, I activated a quick teleport and positioned myself behind the muscle man.

“What…!”

“Everyone has an ace up their sleeve.”

Slash-

I swung my sword, wrapped in sword energy, and delivered a deep cut across the muscle monster’s unprotected back.

With his monstrous vitality, it wouldn’t kill him, but it would be enough to incapacitate him for a while.

The next moment, I leaned backward to avoid an assassin’s attack.

Originally, the assassin had planned to strike when I dodged the muscle man’s attack, but my sudden teleportation had thrown off his timing.

“You’re a beat too slow.”

“…”

After avoiding the attack, I raised my knee and struck the assassin’s chin.

Then I moved to slash the assassin with my blade…

Whoosh-

The assassin, launched into the air by my knee strike, grabbed the ceiling and instantly vanished from my sight.

“This is why I hate fighting dark elves in dark places…”

That technique was a dark elf racial skill.

Using places with minimal light as doors to move through the shadow world—a completely unfair skill.

Realizing that fighting this assassin in the dark was the worst possible choice, I turned and moved toward the exit.

‘I need to get out quickly while his brain is rattled from that chin strike…’

Whit-

At that moment, an arrow was shot into the building.

The arrow, coming from an unknown direction, grazed my cheek and embedded itself in the floor.

‘Where did that come from…?’

If it had been shot from the exit I was heading toward, I could have reacted to it.

If it had pierced through the building, I would have heard the sound of it breaking through something.

But this attack didn’t fit either scenario—it was an incomprehensible attack.

“Nothing’s ever easy, is it?”

I stopped moving and stood in place, wary of incoming arrows.

I had an ominous feeling that if I moved without solving the mystery of the arrows, my heart would be pierced.

Whit-

Another arrow flew at me.

This time I was on guard and could defend against it, but I still couldn’t tell where it had come from.

‘The difficulty is not knowing the direction—the speed itself isn’t that fast.’

Whit-

Another arrow… no, two arrows flew toward me.

It seemed intended to prevent me from getting used to the pattern, but thanks to that, I could finally see how the arrows were entering.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

To put it simply, it wasn’t some magic or supernatural ability, but simple curved shooting.

The archer was shooting arrows through the holes created by previous arrows, directing them toward me—a godlike technique.

‘The only good thing is that the curved shooting slightly reduces the arrow’s speed…’

Having figured out the secret of the arrows, I started moving again.

But I couldn’t move at full speed.

Even though I knew the secret, the problem was that I couldn’t detect the arrows until just before they emerged from the holes.

‘And this assassin is also a problem.’

Slash-

The assassin appeared from the shadows again, cut the edge of my robe, and disappeared once more.

Since direct attacks at my neck would be immediately countered, he had switched to distracting me.

And when my attention was divided…

Whit-

An arrow would be shot at me from an unpredictable direction.

‘I don’t think these two have shared vision or coordination abilities… must be that old man’s ability.’

I was about to dodge the incoming arrows and take another step.

I would have, if I hadn’t noticed one unusual arrow with concentrated magical energy mixed among the others.

Creak- Crack-

The magical arrow, shot precisely at me and approaching a certain distance, began to draw in surrounding magical energy with an ominous sound.

My assessment was quick, and my action was even quicker.

I immediately activated my remaining two teleports and escaped as far as possible from the arrow, making it outside the building.

BOOM-!!!

Almost simultaneously, the noise, heat, and blast from the explosion engulfed me.

I was certain that if my judgment had been even slightly delayed, I would have suffered fatal injuries from the explosion.

Just as I thought I could catch my breath after making it back outside…

A disaster stood before me.

Vargan, the king of the dwarves.

“Ha, I wondered where you went.”

“Ragnarok.”

Vargan’s axe was surrounded by lightning-like energy as he swung it toward me.

The moment I saw it, only one thought filled my mind.

I’m going to die.

Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die.

Since arriving in this world, I’ve experienced all kinds of hardships and threats.

Some dangers I had planned for, but countless others had caught me by surprise.

Yet searching through all my experiences, I couldn’t recall anything that triggered my survival instinct to sound such a frantic alarm.

This was the first time I’d experienced having all escape routes blocked, seeing only death.

Dodge? Impossible with my speed.

I had used up all my quick teleports long ago.

Defend? That would only result in being split in half.

At least in my current state, I had no means or ability to block that attack.

True Word? What could I do with it even if I used it?

At least it wasn’t the right time to use it yet.

Just as I thought all possibilities were exhausted and death was certain…

A familiar and welcome voice reached my ears.

“Don’t you dare try to split Frey in half!!”

“Sorry I’m late…!”

Kitsune used her shikigami and talismans to restrain Vargan’s movements.

It wasn’t for long, but it bought enough time for Lilly to act.

Simultaneously, Lilly created a storm that briefly delayed Vargan’s attack, then summoned another gust to move me.

Thanks to them, I was able to avoid Vargan’s attack, and the next moment, his attack fell where I had been standing.

Woooong- CRASH!!!!!

The massive building I had been in moments ago was split in half.

At the same time, thunder and lightning struck the entire area, continuing to destroy the building until it completely collapsed into dust.

Seeing that sight, I let out a sigh of relief and looked at the two of them.

“Phew… I really thought I was going to die…”

“And you call that an explanation?! I trusted you when you said you could handle it, but you nearly died again just now!!”

“I was truly terrified this time… Please prioritize your own safety from now on.”

All I could do was apologize to Lilly and Kitsune.

They had wanted to rush to my side as soon as the battle started, but I had stopped them.

With the muscle monster breaking through our defensive line once, if both of them had left too, the dwarves who came with us would have been perfect targets.

“We managed to save all the dwarves and send them away. They were still in good shape, so they’ll probably regroup with the hero’s party and come back.”

“Thank you for going along with my stubbornness.”

“If you know it was stubborn, don’t do it again next time, okay? Fighting those monsters alone—it was truly insane.”

It was a decision I’d made trusting in my spare life from the fox bead, but I didn’t mention that.

Partly because enemies might hear, but also because Lilly would probably hit me.

‘If I told her, she’d probably explode with anger, asking if I was planning to die…’

While we were catching our breath, the enemies seemed to have regrouped as well.

Vargan, who had momentarily paused after using his massive technique, appeared to have recovered somewhat and started moving again, though not at full capacity.

The rabbit beastman who had been sniping from a distance seemed to have found a new sniping position, as I could feel his gaze targeting us from afar.

And the dark elf who had been in the building earlier reappeared in relatively clean condition, having apparently escaped to the shadow world.

As for the muscle monster, I had hoped he’d been caught in the blast and died, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Boom-

He emerged from the collapsed building’s debris with an even larger body than before.

“Kugh, damn that old geezer, launching attacks like that when I was inside.”

“I was hoping you’d just die, how disappointing. Well, now that everyone’s gathered, shall we begin round two?”