Rear Support

Kwajik!!!

A woman in white martial garb burst in.

She struck them with lightning, turning them into charcoal.

She stomped on them, and they shattered into Polygons.

She casually picked up [Loot] along the way.

Americano asked Skilla.

Skilla, who had recovered enough to walk on her own, gripped her greatsword and surveyed their surroundings.

Americano listened while opening the [Loot].

“But, Anonymous and these guys, what’s the connection?”

“She’s strong.”

Ah…

“They want her?”

“She’s low level now, but depending on how she grow, she could become Balance Breakers later. If she focus solely on Tower climbing, she could reach the top in less than half a year, you know?”

“Heeh.”

“That’s why they’re making such a fuss to stop it. Tsk. Even so, do they really believe the Lord will stand by and watch after turning the village into this?”

Skilla, with a frustrated voice, scolded the Hero who had turned part of Gospel into ruins.

Americano pointed with her index finger.

Skilla guarded that direction, and,

“Gasp?!”

“Get lost!!”

The greatsword cleaved two Demonic Cultists in black martial garb in a full swing.

The raised greatsword came down on the remaining one.

The Demonic Cultist defended with his sword, but the ridiculously strong greatsword split him and his sword in two.

It wasn’t that Skilla was strong.

The ambush and Equipment Items did all the work.

The ambush forced a gear-versus-gear confrontation, and the greatsword’s Strength alone defeated the Demonic Cultists.

Even if Skilla were a higher level, cleaving someone’s torso in half with a single strike was, in Americano’s experience, a difficult feat.

Judging by the crimson greatsword, Skilla was likely from a well-to-do family.

The crimson greatsword was as thick as two forearms and as tall as Skilla herself.

She lifted the greatsword and slung it over her shoulder.

“What are the guards doing? Why haven’t we heard from them until things got this bad?”

“We shouldn’t be standing here; we should go to the Lord’s Castle. Maybe this is happening because the Lord is away.”

“Even so, the Lord’s wife should be there for times like this… Haa… Well, we’ll know when we get there. If she’s just crying in her room, I’ll give her a piece of my mind. Americano, you come too.”

“Me?”

Americano asked back in surprise.

“You got targeted by that Demonic Cultist, Yoo Seung-won or whatever his name was. Protection… no, well, your Special Ability looks good, but it’ll be safer to have you with us. I can’t leave someone who helped me in danger. Oh, right. If you come, I’ll tell you about Anonymous’s awesomeness too.”

“I’ll pass on that last part.”

I don’t want to be spoiled.

Anyway, she ended up accompanying them.

Her body was still stiff because of her [Outsider] status, but she could use her Awakened Ability comfortably even with that restriction.

It even gave her a sense of convenience, as if Hard Mode had become Easy Mode.

Pajik.

Kwack!!!

The Demonic Cultists Skilla couldn’t cover… no? Which side were the people in white martial garb on? Anyway, the people in white martial garb were charred black.

Moreover, the lightning was unavoidable.

She could strategize to overcome it, but no one had tried to strategize against her yet.

There were signs that the other side was using Awakened Abilities, but,

Kwajik!

The lightning was faster.

Convenient.

Fast.

Strong.

‘Boring.’

Kwang!!!

She struck down with lightning.

Boring.

That was her honest feeling.

Sense the Electrical Signal from her spot and strike with lightning, and that was it.

She used it only to the extent that it wouldn’t freeze her body, so some people could withstand it depending on the level difference, while others couldn’t.

Still, two or three strikes were enough to finish them off.

No one could avoid the lightning.

Therefore,

‘Not fun.’

Americano realized anew that she didn’t have a taste for slaughtering the weak.

The more she played an active role,

The less Nabi had to do.

Skilla teased her.

“Look how useless you’ve become. You bragged about being a Magic Tower Prospect, and this is all you can do?”

“Americano’s Special Ability is broken, it’s not that my Magic is lacking.”

“Yeah, no~. At least right now, you’re just baggage. Why don’t you cover us with something other than offense? Oh, is Americano better at detection too?”

“….”

Nabi, with an enraged face, erased the Magic she had memorized with great effort.

The Lord’s Castle was under attack.

“We’ll take Gospel! Don’t let those hypocritical bastards steal it from us!!”

“If you fall behind the Demonic Cultists, you’ll all go back and die!!”

“Warriors of Yggdrasil, protect this land from the old farts!!”

“With the power of the Dragon!!!”

Roughly four factions were checking each other while climbing the inner castle walls.

Explosions erupted from within the inner castle.

Bang.

Kwang.

Kung.

The sound of Summoned Heroes using their Awakened Abilities. Kwang.

Flames soared from inside the inner castle, and black smoke billowed.

Soon, Heroes fell from the castle walls, turning into Polygons.

Someone stood on the castle wall and raised their sword.

“We’ve cut them down by half!!! Protect our homeland from the Corrupted Heroes!!!”

Fully armed armor.

It was the captain of the guard.

Actually, it was hard to see because he was far away, but,

[Guard Captain Inos]

Her information window popped up from a distance, perhaps because they were friends.

Skilla’s eyes trembled violently, as if she hadn’t realized things had escalated to this point.

“Who should we, hit first?”

“What? You’re going to jump in there?”

“If we don’t, we can’t save the Lord’s Castle. Is there any other way?”

“There isn’t, but.”

Skilla adjusted her greatsword.

“Right, if we don’t step up here, the name of Hero will cry! Let’s go!”

“I’m not a Hero.”

“You’re Hero Skilla’s companion! Even if you’re shattered to pieces, I’ll be sure to collect every last bone fragment and Resurrect you!”

“Don’t say such terrible things.”

Resurrecting a non-Hero NPC seemed to have somewhat strict conditions.

Skilla ran.

Nabi granted her Magic.

Strength Enhancement.

Durability Enhancement.

Speed Enhancement.

Various Enhancements.

Americano also chased after them, using lightning.

At the same time, she opened the [Community].

Demonic Sect, Martial Arts Alliance, Yggdrasil, Dragon Knight.

First, she searched for the Clan names she had heard.

Demonic Sect.

Size 9700 members.

Average level 40.

Highest level 80.

Martial Arts Alliance.

Size 36000 members.

Average level 28.

Highest level 80.

Yggdrasil.

Size 25000 members.

Average level 32.

Highest level 79.

Dragon Knight.

Size 4200 members.

Average level 39.

Highest level 81.

The highest-level people wouldn’t have come, right?

She read the posts on the Community.

She filtered out only the posts related to Gospel.

[Current Gospel Situation]

[Live Gospel Lord’s Castle Capture in Progress]

[Woman Presumed to be Anonymous Discovered]

[On the Way to Gospel, Clan War Breaking Out]

And many other posts.

She skimmed through each one roughly.

In summary,

The Clans were currently fortifying their defenses in the villages they had occupied while checking each other.

The main forces and even the second and third-string forces were tied down.

The Clan members in Gospel were…

‘New recruits classified as outside the main force.’

There was hope.

If people with an average level of 30 or 40 had come, she would have had to give up on victory, but the enemies she had faced so far were strangely weak to be above level 30.

At most, they would be in their 30s.

Most of them would probably be in their 20s.

Heroes in the section called low-level.

That explained the sheer number attacking the Lord’s Castle and why she had been able to defeat them so easily so far.

Americano took out a sword from her Inventory.

Combat that was easy wasn’t her taste, but,

If victory or defeat was at stake, it was a different story.

[Slash]

Body Stiffening.

“Keuk…!”

It was blocked.

The Demonic Cultist who had knocked away her sword with his hand counterattacked.

She was pushed into a defensive position.

Americano solidified her defenses, and the sword was deflected by the Demonic Cultist’s Atrocity.

Her guard was broken.

Pajik.

Pajijik!

Electricity erupted, engulfing the Demonic Cultist.

He sensed something was wrong, but no matter how quickly he moved, he couldn’t avoid the lightning.

He was blown away by the lightning’s roar.

“Haa…!”

Head.

Body.

Eyes.

Sword.

It felt like everything was operating separately.

Forcibly holding all of it together to face forward was incredibly mentally taxing.

[Outsider] aside, was it always this difficult? It wasn’t this hard when she was catching [Skeleton]s with Tang So-hye in the Dungeon.

No, wait.

Back then…

Right, let’s try it like back then.

Focus.

She used self-hypnosis.

‘There’s only me here now…’

A Demonic Cultist threw a rock from the periphery of her vision.

The rock was aimed at Nabi.

It drew a straight trajectory.

Americano stopped her self-hypnosis and threw her sword to block the rock.

It shattered with a crisp explosion. The sword collided with the rock and bounced upwards, as if the casually thrown rock wasn’t ordinary.

She tried to use self-hypnosis several times, but,

This was already enemy territory.

Impossible.

Her head felt like it was spinning from the frustrating swordplay, and she barely managed to stop herself from throwing the sword.

“Hoo…”

Lightning.

The Demonic Cultists who had noticed Americano’s attack rushed to overwhelm her.

They were fast, but,

They were slow.

The lightning had already reached them from the moment it detected them.

Kwang!!!

Three Demonic Cultists disappeared, turning into ashes.

“Hooo…”

Breath.

It formed.

It was faint, but she needed to adjust it a little.

Nabi stared with her mouth open.

“Broken.”

“This is, also, a greatly, reduced, power, though.”

“That’s reduced?”

Based on [Level] [18(-8)]

[Magical Power] [30]

Compared to the real world power, it felt like it was 10 times… no, 20 times weaker.

Of course, it wasn’t based on full power.

It was just a feeling that if she gave this much power, this much difference would occur.

It wasn’t accurate.

She needed to have used her Awakened Ability a lot in the real world.

“Hooo…”

She exhaled.

She checked the coldness in her body.

She reduced the output of the lightning.

Enough to stun the enemies.

With that, the [Outsider]’s sword would reach the Demonic Cultists.

She stayed close to Nabi, protecting her.

And [Heal].

She washed away the wounds of Skilla, who was at the front line, continuing the battle with the Demonic Cultists.

She was wearing heavy armor, so there wouldn’t be any external wounds, but,

The fatigue from the impact was a kind of wound.

Moreover, there were Demonic Cultists who seemed to have techniques to pierce armor, as she had seen Skilla spitting out blood from her helmet after being struck by a Demonic Cultist’s blow.

[Heal]

[Heal]

[Heal]

“Haha! Come at me!”

She seemed satisfied.

[Heal]

Rear support.

Even if her body was stiff because of [Outsider], it was a position that was less of a hindrance to party play.

She didn’t like it.

It was boring.

Still,

“It doesn’t hurt at all! Haha!”

Skilla was running wild.

…Well, it wasn’t a completely bad feeling since the person receiving the support seemed to be having fun.

Demonic Sect camp.

They were handling three fronts.

Martial Arts Alliance.

Dragon Knight.

Even Gospel.

Yggdrasil wasn’t in direct contact, but they were definitely a potential enemy.

Three fronts.

They couldn’t easily let go of any of them.

Gospel was a land of no value to the Demonic Sect, but now that the Martial Arts Alliance had intervened, they couldn’t lose for the sake of their pride.

But,

“Daeju!”

A member of the unit that had been looting supplies from the rear hurriedly returned.

“We need support! Our allies are being attacked from behind!”

“….”

He had told them to send urgent reports by text.

That someone younger than him didn’t use text well.

Daeju sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Is it Yggdrasil?”

“No… it was red armor… I don’t know who it is!”

“You should have identified their identity first.”

“But I know one thing!”

“What is it?”

“Anonymous!”

Daeju’s eyes changed.

Anonymous.

“Where are they?”

That was the real purpose he had come here for.