Ch.8383. Ghost Fleet (2)

# Turn Undead

Turn Undead.

It was a secret magic that those with divine magic could use upon reaching a certain level, and fortunately, Baek Seol-hwa had acquired high-level divine magic through her contract with Bahamut.

Since she was originally Pohang’s strongest Awakened, her level was quite high even before the contract, allowing her to learn new magic befitting that level.

The effect of Turn Undead was incredibly simple. It inflicted fatal damage to undead… essentially a one-hit kill.

If the target wasn’t undead, then nothing would happen! It would be an awkward situation, but if the opponent was an undead subject to Turn Undead…

“SCREEEECH!”

It was like facing the worst possible natural enemy.

The Banshee, which had been floating over the sea delivering terrifying screams, let out an agonizing shriek and vanished without a trace under Seol-hwa’s Turn Undead spell.

When the Banshee that had been spreading terror across the sea disappeared with a single Turn Undead, the artificial fear and panic that had intimidated Pohang’s fleet naturally dissipated.

For the patrol ship that was losing control of its speedboats due to fear, this was a golden opportunity.

“All speedboats! Block the enemy speedboats charging toward our fleet!”

“Roger!”

With the artificial fear gone and Baek Seol-hwa eliminating numerous Banshees with a single strike, the marines’ morale seemed to rise. The speedboats followed Kim Tae-sik’s orders without question and were able to properly respond to enemy speedboats attempting to ram into Pohang’s fleet.

Having regained their courage after the Banshee’s screams disappeared, the marines immediately boarded their vessels, preparing for close-quarters combat or using magic and machine guns to intercept approaching enemy speedboats.

Some Pohang speedboats even rammed into the sides of enemy speedboats, initiating close-quarters combat themselves.

And then…

“Wow. One hit? As expected of magic taught by Lord Dragon!”

[It seems your guess was right—the enemy was indeed undead. If Turn Undead works so well… Wait, does that mean it would work on the zombies on land too?]

Having turned the tide of battle with a single spell, Baek Seol-hwa praised the dragon god Bahamut for the Banshee’s disappearance with one Turn Undead spell, while Bahamut coolly observed the situation and concluded that the enemy was truly undead.

To be honest, even Bahamut himself couldn’t give a perfect answer, so he had taught Seol-hwa the Turn Undead spell with the idea of fighting first and judging later, and it had actually worked.

After confirming that they were closer to undead than zombies, he wondered if Turn Undead might work on the zombies that had settled on land.

‘Hmm. If that’s the case, it feels like we’ve been working hard for nothing.’

While Bahamut felt somewhat deflated…

‘But Turn Undead itself is a high-level spell. At this point, only Yu-na and Seol-hwa can use it. So maybe it wasn’t wasted effort after all?’

At the same time, Turn Undead was a high-level spell, and within the Balhut Cult, only two members could use it.

Although there were many mages in the cult, the number of spells they could use and the number of times they could use them were limited. Even if they discovered the weakness of Turn Undead, it would be difficult to exploit it proactively.

Moreover, within the cult, rather than relying heavily on mages’ spells, the trend was to use magic as support and focus on firepower projection using Bahamut Bullets. Even the mages in the cult tended to rely on familiar modern weapons made with Bahamut coins rather than their own magic in battle.

“It’s worth testing.”

But it was certainly worth testing.

Once they knew that Turn Undead was effective, the rest could be figured out step by step through experimentation.

In the future, if powerful undead appeared on the Korean Peninsula, Turn Undead magic could be used as a trump card against them.

[Yes. Let’s deal with the enemies before us first.]

“Yes. Leave it to me.”

But first, they needed to deal with the ghost fleet that had appeared in the East Sea.

Bahamut agreed with Seol-hwa’s words and ordered her to completely eliminate the enemies at sea. Seol-hwa immediately returned to the navigation room and gave orders to Kim Tae-sik, who was commanding the naval battle.

“Tell the scattered marines to regroup near the patrol ship. Our fleet will charge toward the enemy fleet.”

“Understood, Lady Yu-na. But what was that miracle just now?”

“It’s magic taught by Lord Dragon. As you all just saw, it eliminated those terrifying Banshees with a single hit.”

“I-Indeed. Magic taught by the Dragon Lord himself.”

When Bahamut’s name was mentioned, Kim Tae-sik became convinced that this battle was not at all hopeless.

He had already been confident of victory after witnessing the miracle earlier, but Seol-hwa’s words further confirmed that victory was within reach.

“All fleet units, form a formation centered on the patrol ship! Speedboats that have strayed from the battlefield, gather near the command ship immediately! I repeat, speedboats that have strayed from the battlefield, gather near the command ship immediately.”

“Roger.”

The marines engaged in close-quarters combat on deck immediately boarded the speedboats and began gathering around the patrol ship following Kim Tae-sik’s orders.

With the Banshees gone, the patrol ship had firm control over the speedboats.

Thanks to this, they quickly recovered from the chaotic formation and began forming a crane wing formation centered around the patrol ship.

“Now then, shall we slowly close in? Kim Tae-sik, once the speedboats form a formation, slowly move toward the ghost fleet.”

“Understood, Lady Seol-hwa.”

The fear had already disappeared from the fleet.

As if no longer questioning Seol-hwa’s orders, Kim Tae-sik began faithfully carrying them out.

As the fleet gradually moved toward the ghost fleet’s command ship, Seol-hwa also left the navigation room and went out on deck once more.

As Pohang’s fleet began advancing toward the command ship, Banshees started emerging from the ghost fleet again.

“More than I expected. Those Banshee screams are annoying. Turn Undead!”

As Banshees appeared and the fleet’s formation began to falter, Seol-hwa immediately used Turn Undead to eliminate the emerging Banshees.

However, the artificially induced fear was effective in slowing down the advance speed, and the fleet’s progress noticeably slowed.

Even though Seol-hwa eliminated the Banshees as soon as they appeared, the enemy was pushing through with sheer numbers, and marines who heard the Banshees’ screams began to be gripped by fear again.

[Once they successfully inflict a status ailment, they can cause great confusion and instill paranoia in our troops. If speedboats lose control in this situation, we’re the ones in danger.]

“Could a normal Awakened withstand that?”

However, this was their first encounter with such monsters, and they had no proper countermeasures.

Spider zombies could be dealt with using an Awakened’s physical abilities, but with Banshees, physical attacks were completely ineffective.

Considering that those in the navigation room were only slightly affected by the Banshees’ screams, they could confirm that the effect weakened somewhat if one didn’t hear the screams, but…

[Considering that even brave marines are succumbing, this might not be a matter of willpower but of magic resistance. I suspect we’ll need a relic that can increase magic resistance.]

“We can’t find such a relic here right now!”

[Haha, that’s true. For now, we’ll have to tough it out. Let’s think about it later.]

From the perspective of someone who had to go out on deck and fight directly, there was no way to respond.

At the very least, Bahamut suggested that it was more a matter of magic resistance than willpower, mentioning the need for a relic that could increase magic resistance.

However, Seol-hwa replied that they didn’t have such a relic at this point.

“Then it’s simple. As soon as Banshees emerge from the ghost ships, I’ll have to snipe them with Turn Undead from a distance!!”

[Is that possible?]

“Yes. Long-distance sniping is something I’m quite confident in.”

In the end, Seol-hwa’s idea was to snipe each Banshee as they continued to emerge from the command ship.

Since it was quite a difficult task, Bahamut asked if it was possible, but Seol-hwa replied that this was something she was confident in.

“Turn Undead!”

Indeed, as soon as a Banshee tried to emerge from the command ship, she successfully sniped it with Turn Undead.

The soul drifting miserably on the sea perished without even letting out a scream, turning black as if burning up. In response, the ghost command ship tried to deploy another Banshee, but…

“Turn Undead.”

“SCREEEECH!”

This time it was sniped before half of its form had emerged.

Since it couldn’t fully materialize, the Banshee’s scream only echoed inside the ghost command ship without affecting Pohang’s fleet.

[You’re really good at this.]

Even Bahamut was impressed by how easily Seol-hwa could snipe something appearing at a specific location—it was as easy as closing her eyes for her.

“Turn Undead. Turn Undead. Turn Undead. Turn Undead. And boom!”

Moreover, as if there was no cooldown at all, she fired Turn Undead like she was spraying bullets, putting the opposing side in a difficult position.

From the perspective of those trying to block the fleet’s approach, the Banshees’ screams would be most effective, but the opponent was sniping each Banshee one by one with Turn Undead.

From the undead’s perspective, Baek Seol-hwa was firing Turn Undead relentlessly, as if gritting her teeth with tears of blood in her eyes.

Additionally, she was using her specialty temperature magic to mercilessly destroy the keels of fishing boats blocking their path, sinking them into the sea. Gradually, there was no way to block the patrol ship’s approach toward the ghost fleet.

“Is… that magic actually easy?”

“How could it be?”

Witnessing this scene, Kim Tae-sik asked a mage crew member in the navigation room if the magic Seol-hwa was using was actually easy, to which the crew mage shook his head and asked in return how that could be possible.

‘Firing so rapidly without getting tired… Does she have infinite mana?’

If an ordinary mage had fired that much, they would have consumed all their mana and collapsed from exhaustion long ago.

However, Baek Seol-hwa was firing Turn Undead spells as if she were perfectly fine, so from a mage’s perspective, it was natural to wonder if she had infinite mana.

Moreover, even from the perspective of the crew mage, the Turn Undead magic that Seol-hwa was demonstrating was recognized as high-level magic.

“She was already Pohang’s strongest Awakened before, but now it wouldn’t be strange to call her the Korean Peninsula’s strongest Awakened.”

“Is she really that good?”

“Yes. Though it may be presumptuous for someone with my limited knowledge to say this, I can confidently state that there are very few Awakened who can match her among the known names on the Korean Peninsula.”

“Hahah! That’s good. Very good.”

At the crew member’s assertion, Captain Kim Tae-sik was convinced that the rope he had grabbed was a strong one.

“Turn Undead. Turn Undead. Turn Undead… My throat is starting to hurt from saying the spell name!”

Literally, the fleet’s advance was unstoppable.

With Baek Seol-hwa standing on deck leading the way, the patrol ship moved forward as the command ship, followed by speedboats escorting it.

In this way, Seol-hwa’s fleet reached the front of the ghost fleet’s command ship, but…

“The enemy fleet… they’re running away! The ghost fleet is fleeing from us!”

“That’s impossible. Zombies running away? That can’t be!”

As Seol-hwa’s fleet approached close range, the ghost fleet chose to flee without hesitation, as if frightened.

Turning their ships around and moving away from Seol-hwa’s fleet, Seol-hwa was shocked at the fact that zombies were running away, as if she couldn’t believe it.

Of course, there was information that intelligent spider zombies would choose to flee without hesitation if they saw no chance of winning.

However, it was the first time they had fled as if scared before a proper fleet battle had even begun.

[There wasn’t an overwhelming difference in power. Fleeing just because of Turn Undead…]

If there were opponents they couldn’t face from the beginning, like Bahamut, fleeing wouldn’t be shameful.

However, the ghost fleet had the upper hand in terms of power, and Seol-hwa’s fleet had to advance by clearing fishing boats blocking their path with her magic, as if conducting a siege.

They could have maintained distance and forced Seol-hwa’s fleet into a meaningless war of attrition, but they didn’t even do that—they just ran away with their tails between their legs.

[…This is quite strange.]

Seeing a development completely different from what he had seen so far, Bahamut quietly expressed his puzzlement.