Chapter 153
Chapter 153 – Great Plains of Barrastan (4)
Having figured out the situation, Serin quickly pulled her bowstring. The moment one of the demons made it to a different camp, they would immediately have to fight the entire demon army head on.
If that happened, then no matter how much confidence she had in herself, the party would be annihilated. She intended to pierce through the head of any demon that looked to be about to escape the camp. However, the demons prepared to fight instead of run.
“Everyone take up your weapons!”
It was a relief that they didn’t scatter and flee, but the problem was the noise created by the clashing of weapons.
‘Clang!’
Also, it was likely that soon the sound of someone screaming would spread.
‘Kwaaaak!’
‘Kweeeh!’
Serin pulled back her bowstring while aiming at the demon’s forehead, but she couldn’t let go because of her worry.
‘What if it makes too much noise?’
However, at that moment, the sound of Edward chanting a spell could be heard.
“A Region devoid of waves, Silent Zone.”
After a moment, a wave of magic shining with purplish light appeared and spread from Edward’s staff. At that instant, Serin could feel something peculiar. The feeling one received when entering a tunnel while driving a car, where your hearing seemed to become fuzzy. At the same time,
‘click clang’
The sound of clashing swords could no longer be heard. It seemed that some kind of magical power was blocking the sounds. Serin let go of the pulled bowstring.
When the arrow flew, the sound, ‘pew’, could not be heard. Also, the sound of the arrow stabbing itself into the demon’s neck could also not be heard. Regardless of how it was happening, there was no sound that escaped outside.
Serin nocked a second arrow on her bowstring without a moment’s rest. A very intense, but quiet fight erupted. The demons fiercely resisted the hunters despite having just woken up.
However, Serin’s arrows and Edward’s spells slowly wore away the demons’ strength, and they started to be eliminated one by one. It seemed that even though there was no sound, he could still use magic.
As the hunters’ victory was approaching, a demon that lost the will to fight turned his back and began to run away at a fast clip in the direction of a different encampment. Without any need for discussion, Edward chanted a spell and Serin drew back her bowstring.
Quickly, tree branches grew out of the ground. The moment they grabbed the demon’s feet, Serin’s arrow pierced through its head. The demon failed to reach the outside of the encampment and collapsed on the spot.
Their attack on the first encampment ended in a success as the hunters finished taking care of the remaining demons. After the fight was over, the hunters looked at Edward and soundlessly opened and closed their mouths.
‘Ah, right.’ Edward must have said.
Afterwards, he ended the spell and sound soon returned for the hunters.
“That was great, Edward!”
“It was a good choice of a spell.”
“Thanks to you we managed to finish it without any problems, Edward.”
The hunters gathered around him and heaped their praises on him. Edward modestly lowered his head. Serin looked at Edward with curiosity in her eyes. No matter how she looked at him, he did not look like a dangerous person. How strange.
“Then, let’s proceed to the next encampment.”
At the leader’s words, the hunters moved towards the boundaries of the encampment one by one. As they proceeded, Edward held up his hand to Serin and said,
“Before, your timing with the arrow was great.”
It was likely that he was asking for a high-five. Serin hesitated for a bit before she hit his hand with a slight sound. Although he had said that her hands were small for a man, his hands were also rather small.
The hunters had found the location of another encampment and were walking towards it. Serin decided that it was a good time to find out the truth about him. She slightly touched her earring as she asked him,
“Mr. Edward, you’re rather strong. How did you get so powerful?”
“Hrm, who knows… Probably… Because my beginning stats were good? I think?”
Serin waited to hear his surface thoughts. However, she did not hear them despite waiting. This could only mean that what he thought and what he said were the same. Serin looked at him, and then added a rude joke in order to interrogate him.
“You didn’t… Do something like trolling, did you?”
He replied simply to her question.
“No way.”
His surface thoughts could not be heard this time as well. Serin was a bit flustered.
“Of course, I know that there are hunters who have become strong by trolling. However, I don’t want to get strong by doing something like that. Isn’t finishing these raids our objective? Even if you become powerful by trampling on others, it doesn’t help you in getting closer to completing that objective.”
Serin looked at him blankly. His surface thoughts could not be heard at all because 10 seconds had already, but for some reason it felt like he was saying the truth. Serin made up a half-hearted excuse to him.
“Ah… Yeah, I feel the same. That was a joke. Since you’re just too strong, Mr. Edward.”
While Serin was speaking, the leader at the front of the party closed his lips and placed a finger in front of them.
“Shhh”
Now that she looked in front, the next encampment’s barracks were lined up in front of them. The hunters walked carefully towards the barracks. Serin looked at Edward, who had gone ahead, and thought,
‘No matter how I look at it… He doesn’t seem like he’ll troll…’
She would still call Sungjin later, but she felt that the three of them would have to have a conversation. Though it did seem like Sungjin would attack the moment he saw Edward.
‘If I block him… He should listen to me.’
Serin continued to think as she walked towards the second enemy encampment.
*
Sungjin looked around the bloody barracks. There were no living demons remaining. This was the fourth encampment. Sungjin had massacred all of the demons without letting a sound escape. Besgoro commented,
‘That was cleanly done.’
Sungjin nodded his head as he said,
“As I continued, I got more and more used to doing it.”
Though at first Besgoro had looked at it negatively. However, his feelings toward it had slightly changed as they continued.
‘If things go well, then it should be possible for you to annihilate an entire army through only assassination.’
“That’s not possible. Do you see that rather showy, large tent over there?”
Sungjin held up Blood Vengeance and pointed it towards a barracks in the more inner region of the area. There, was a flashy tent embellished in red and purple.
‘Yeah. Is that the enemy commander’s residence?’
“Yes.”
Sungjin answered him as he looked down. It felt like the area of his left abdomen, right below his solar plexus still hurt. This was where he had been stabbed by the commander’s horn before regression. Sungjin ground his teeth as he thought,
‘I’m going to turn him into mincemeat.’
“The security at that place is incredibly strict, to the point that no matter what spell or trick you use, assassination is impossible. In the end, you can only fight him head-on.”
‘I see. Well, in the end, what solves everything is fighting head-on.’
“After we remove a few more squads, we’ll begin the fight.”
‘Great.’
As Sungjin walked towards the next encampment, he began making a rough outline of his plan.
‘I don’t know who will be the Hidden Boss, but considering Ariane’s test from last time… It’ll undoubtedly be an incredibly strong opponent. I should save all of my abilities that I can use only once a day in order to deal with him.’
Sungjin checked over his options. The options that he had that could only be used once a day were ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, Summons such as Cain and Soldamyr, and the ‘Ring of the Great Sage’.
‘I should save all of these and then go for the hidden boss.’
Sungjin decided to avoid using them if possible. Although he could know only after he met the boss, it was possible that it was an enemy that he could not beat even if he used all of those at the same time.
If there was a problem, it was that the raid’s boss, Commander Zeratar, was also incredibly strong. It was entirely possible that Sungjin might lose if he were to act carelessly. Last time when he had fought with nine allies, he had lost all nine of them.
If things did not turn out as planned, it was possible that he might have to use one or two of his abilities. Of course, it was best if he could save as many as he could. Sungjin continued to massacre everyone while relying on stealth as he went through the next barracks.
The time it took to wipe out the enemy was several times shorter than it had been before regression. This was because first, Sungjin had become used to doing this after repeating it several times, and second, as the total number of enemies had now decreased by a considerable amount, Sungjin was performing a bit carelessly and being cursory in finishing things up.
Sungjin entered the barracks where the demons were sleeping and swung his two swords as if he were a windmill and cut out the demons’ throats. However, while he was doing this, he did not see the figure of a guard who had entered the tent in order to change shifts.
The demon guard saw Sungjin’s incredible sword technique, which was rather impressive in that he was able to slice the demons’ heads that had tough skin, muscles, and bones. He quietly returned to the camp’s center and began to hit the drum to give the alert that there was an intruder.
‘Boom~! Boom~! Boom~!’
As Sungjin walked out of the barracks, the sound of the drums could be heard.
“Ahh…”
He realized his mistake.
‘What’s happening, were we found out?’ asked Besgoro.
“Yes. I had wanted to fight after taking care of at least one more… But it turned out like this.”
‘Boom~! Boom~! Boom~!’
Once the drum was heard, similar drum sounds resounded from somewhere else.
‘Boom~! Boom~! Boom~!’
And from another place.
‘Boom~! Boom~! Boom~!’
Soon, the sounds of all the soldiers rallying together could be heard.
“It’s the enemy!”
“It’s a human!”
“Arm yourselves!”
Sungjin placed Blood Vengeance in its sheath and took out Artemio as he said,
“Now, the only option is to wage war on them…”
It wasn’t long before a troop of heavily armed demons began to head towards Sungjin. There seemed to be around a hundred demons. There were not many hunter parties that could survive after fighting head-on against those demons.
That was why the survival rate for this chapter was so terrible. A few hunters had even lost their wills to fight simply by seeing the sight of the demons. However, Sungjin calmly struck the first blow.
“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe! Chain lightning!”
“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe! Chain lightning!”
Sungjin cast a spell with Besgoro and shot it towards the demons. The vanguards who charged courageously were hit head on by the attack twice and turned into ash. Of course, the enemies did not just stand there after being hit by magic. The demons were a race born with magic power. One of them that looked like a magician shot a spell towards Sungjin.
“Dark Spear!”
Soon, a spell shaped like a long spear came flying at Sungjin.
“Absorb Magic”
Sungjin absorbed it with Artemio, and then immediately returned it towards the demons.
“Expel Magic”
The magic spear that Sungjin shot out pierced through two demons as if it were a skewer. Sungjin continued on and chanted another spell to create illusions.
“What is real is fake and what is fake is real! Illusion!”
What used to originally create three or four illusions now generated eight phantoms.
If he used the ‘Ring of the Great Sage’ to pump up his magic power and then cast the Illusion spell, then perhaps he could create close to an army of several dozen illusions. However, that magic power would be more effective if used on another spell.
Regardless, Sungjin charged toward the enemy lines together with the illusions that he had created. Thanks to the magic, instead of 1 versus 100, it now looked to be a 9 versus 100 fight. The nine Sungjins and the one hundred demons quickly collided.