◈ Episode 320. By a Hair’s Breadth (2)
“What? Retreat?”
Chief of the Shinhwa Guild’s raid force.
Kim Hyeonseok irritably furrowed his brow. Shinhwa had firmly secured its position as Korea’s second-ranked guild after Gaon. But from a global perspective, they were frogs in a well whose place in even the top hundred was uncertain.
Even so, there were limits.
“No, Analyst Nam. I admit our raid force isn’t all that strong. Especially if you compare us to Gaon, Shinhwa must look even more pathetic. I admit that too. But still, isn’t this looking down on us a bit too much?”
Gaon and Shinhwa had been cooperating since the reconstruction of Yusra.
As a guild, Gaon had pulled far ahead of Shinhwa, but Shinhwa, as a conglomerate, could still offer help in group management to Gaon, which had swollen into a massive alliance.
As someone had said, it was a relationship with clear give and take.
Bad blood aside, they were thorough when it came to business.
The fact that Gaon’s chief analyst,
Nam Cheolmin, was in contact with Shinhwa proved as much.
That was why it made no sense.
-“I am not looking down on Shinhwa.”
“Then at least tell me the reason. I’m saying I can’t accept this. We may not look like it, but our average level is 450. Shouldn’t we be able to put up a good fight here? President Baek will also be joining us soon……”
-“That’s not it. An unexpected incident has occurred.”
“What? An incident?”
At the urgent voice, Kim Hyeonseok calmed his excitement.
Only now did he notice the constant sound of typing behind that voice.
Only then did Kim Hyeonseok grasp the situation.
“……
Did something happen up above?”
The Zero Mountains.
Vast and towering as they were,
incidents and accidents had never ceased in the mountains since they were updated into reality. It went without saying that dragons resided at their highest peaks. The place where Hoyeol, the Shadow Mercenary Corps, and the Great Evil had fought was somewhere in the Zero Mountains as well.
Kim Hyeonseok smacked his lips and continued.
“Still, shouldn’t the lower area be fine? Of course, we should avoid unnecessary damage, but this is the lowlands, isn’t it?”
It was not wrong.
The vastness of the Zero Mountains did not only work against them. Even if an incident broke out up above, the probability of it affecting the lower area was extremely low.
But this time was an exception.
-“Shit.”
Tap-tap.
Had the fingers that had been moving so dazzlingly come to a stop?
The moment the typing that had sounded like background noise ceased,
Nam Cheolmin’s shout followed.
-“Chief Kim Hyeonseok. Your side is not safe either. The Zero Mountains are flowing backward! High-level monsters that live up above are invading territories and coming down into the lowlands!”
“……?!”
What?
It was a statement that completely denied the common sense of Arcana.
But he had no time to question it.
[A ‘Bloodthirsty Mountain Wolf’ appears in the area.]
“C-Chief Kim?!”
A Bloodthirsty Mountain Wolf……!
A monster he could not possibly fail to know had appeared.
He did not know what others might think, but Kim Hyeonseok had always regarded Nam Taemin as his rival. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. He felt his own level painfully every day, so to know his enemy, he had also steadily watched videos of Nam Taemin’s battles.
That was a monster even the mighty Nam Taemin had struggled to hunt.
[Bloodthirsty Mountain Wolf: Lv.685]
“Damn it!”
-“Chief? Don’t tell me they’ve already come down that far?”
“……
It’s a Bloodthirsty Mountain Wolf.”
Kim Hyeonseok looked back over Shinhwa Guild’s forces.
“……
Tch.”
At present, with their master, Baek Iseol, not yet having joined them.
If everyone fought while risking their lives……
they might somehow be able to deal with that one wolf.
However.
‘Their true value lies in pack hunting.’
It meant they were mobs with a troublesome pattern, moving systematically with a named monster as their leader. Even when Gaon defeated them, Nam Taemin had bitten the leader to death, then swept up the pack that lost its will to fight afterward and claimed victory.
Kim Hyeonseok gritted his teeth.
‘I’m not Nam Taemin, and Shinhwa isn’t Gaon.’
At this rate, they would be annihilated.
A despairing estimate came to mind.
But Kim Hyeonseok and Shinhwa had forgotten one thing.
That the brain of Gaon was with them.
-“Chief. Pass this on to the mages of Shinhwa Guild and to players with an Agility stat of 400 or higher. Tell them to wound themselves enough to inflict the [Bleeding] status effect on themselves.”
“……!”
-“Those creatures have the habit of attacking an opponent’s weak point, the injured, first. With an Agility stat of 400 or higher, they can barely shake off their pursuit. As for the mages, you understand, right? Within the limits your mana permits, use Teleport at your discretion to widen the distance.”
We’re still a long way from catching up to Gaon.
Kim Hyeonseok immediately issued orders according to Nam Cheolmin’s words.
The guild members scattered swiftly.
“Phew.”
After receiving the report up to that point, Nam Cheolmin relaxed for the moment.
At this rate, all of Shinhwa would be able to safely flee from the mountain wolves.
However.
“Huh?”
The Shinhwa Guild’s position, updating on the monitor, was unusual.
Why was that?
Because instead of retreating, they were moving in the opposite direction.
“Hello. Chief Kim. Can you hear me?”
-“…….”
“Hey. Shinhwa Guild Chief Kim Hyeonseok!”
Rustle—rustle—
The sound of them pushing through undergrowth continued to be heard.
The communication had not been cut off, nor had anything happened to him.
After thinking for a moment, Nam Cheolmin clicked the mouse.
“……
Please understand, since this is an emergency.”
Gaon and Shinhwa were only in a proper cooperative relationship.
Monitoring through drones was not part of their agreement.
Nam Cheolmin muttered as if justifying himself.
“This is a situation even the Commander-in-Chief would understand.”
But the situation was what it was. Nam Cheolmin moved one of Gaon’s drones spread throughout the Zero Mountains and shone it on Shinhwa Guild’s location. Thanks to that quick judgment, he witnessed it.
“That is……?”
Seven demon hunters of Akshan.
And.
Slice—!
“What, what, what the hell?!”
The sight of them attacking a player.
*
Spurt!
Blood sprayed in every direction.
The unpleasant stickiness touching her skin.
She opened the eyes she had squeezed shut.
‘……
It’s not my blood.’
Gremory stroked her own neck with trembling hands.
It was attached.
Completely intact.
Only after confirming that did the player collapsed on the ground enter her sight.
Gremory laughed well despite her trembling voice.
“Ha……. Hahahaha……. Hah!!”
This was truly authority.
These deficient humans were better than the Demon King’s army.
No, better than demon corps commanders, were they not?
“How dare you, to my queen……!”
If they were cunning demons, they would have lost the will to fight after seeing an ally fall so miserably. But look at these foolish adventurers. Were they not desperately protecting her?
‘With my authority, I can do it.’
Gremory assessed the state of the battle.
‘In this world where negative emotions surge like this……!’
A third world that was neither the Demon Realm nor the Arcana Continent.
Since the time she had spent here was extremely short, it was only natural that the information she knew was extremely limited. But seeing one thing was enough to understand ten. Surging negative emotions never lied.
“Hehe.”
The corners of Gremory’s mouth rose as far as they could go.
Although she had still not shaken off her fear of her natural enemy,
Gremory had found a way out.
“That high-and-mighty look of yours won’t last long.”
To think the day would come when I provoked Akshan, my natural enemy.
‘I’ll forgive you, you lecherous bastard.’
She liked the unfamiliar blood wandering through her body more and more as time passed.
But the arrogant bastards still did not seem to intend to exchange words.
Step.
Clack—step.
The seven demon hunters moved at the same time.
Bolts reloaded into crossbows.
Gremory hiccupped behind the players surrounding her.
It was a bizarre sound that came from being terrified, yet not forgetting to sneer.
“What would the dogs of Akshan know? How human lives are treated in this land! I don’t know what’s wrong with humans killing and being killed by one another, but what matters is that you bastards killed those humans!”
Worthless humans valuing their insignificant lives.
Whether in this land, on the Arcana Continent, or on the Seorn Continent already swallowed by the Demon Realm.
In truth, it was all the same.
“You have committed deeds no different from a demon’s!”
But as she had said, this land.
The world of adventurers was full of contradictions.
Creatures that were already no longer human were claiming to be human.
-“Supernova? That demon-like bastard?”
-“That is correct, my queen.”
-“What a ridiculous world, for trash like that to be called a hero.”
A demon who could see through humans’ negative emotions.
It was a contradiction that she, and only she, could notice.
Of course, for Gremory, it was good news.
‘You bastards will bear all the blame.’
In this world, the situation would spread rapidly through strange machines.
The truth was that a human intoxicated by her authority had thrown away his own life, but from the eyes of insignificant humans……. The corners of Gremory’s mouth rose grotesquely.
“You are not demon hunters, but human hunters, are you not?”
That was right!
It would only look as though those Akshan bastards had committed slaughter.
Gremory set her mind to work.
‘To think not avoiding the battle would turn out to be beneficial.’
What she would gain through this battle was considerable.
Not only had she properly confirmed the power of her authority,
but there was an even more important result.
‘This is an opportunity to deny Akshan.’
Like the holy war that had unfolded on the Arcana Continent in the past.
An opportunity to drive the resurrected Akshan into a corner in return.
An opportunity to trample them from the sprout.
Tatadak!
“Pfft, you’re terribly angry.”
At that moment, the demon hunters rushed in.
‘How utterly tenacious.’
Gremory laughed, yet gnashed her teeth.
It was a newly born body,
yet the fear imprinted into her as prey had still not faded.
The opposite seemed to be true as well.
‘Disgustingly so.’
Even in a situation where they had been driven to the edge of a cliff,
Akshan did not care and continued to thrust their daggers.
As expected, bastards with neither blood, tears, nor emotions.
Whoosh—!
The fired crossbow bolts accelerated.
Clatter—!
As though gripping the leash of a well-trained hunting dog,
Swaaaa—!
when they pulled on the silver threads connected to the bolts,
Srrrrk—!
the crossbow bolts began to bend in unpredictable directions.
Gremory shouted urgently.
“Protect me……!”
At first, she had been certain they were aiming for her, surrounded by adventurers.
But the madmen of Akshan exceeded her imagination.
Thud!
“Kuh?!”
The reason they had made the crossbow bolts bend so strangely was unbelievably simple.
It was merely to aim for the gaps in the adventurers’ armor, their weak points.
“Keugh……?!”
Thump—
Not satisfied with one adventurer collapsing while clutching his neck,
they were immediately gifting a bolt to the adventurer beside him.
Thud!
Thunk!
Thud!
“Kuh?!”
“Ugh!”
“Hah!”
The adventurers fell, letting out their dying screams.
“……
You really are insane.”
Gremory could not accept it.
As she had said, the current situation was not bad.
Yet Akshan’s madness was enough to make her body shudder.
“You mean you don’t care how many humans you kill if it means hunting me? You are madmen, just as I heard, Akshan. Now I understand why the Great Evils of the Arcana Continent trembled at you……!”
Gremory realized it once again.
Akshan, those bastards, were dangerous.
While she could still trample the sprout,
she had to pull them up by the roots so they could never raise their heads again.
In that sense, this was the perfect time for her as well.
They were not her natural enemy for nothing.
Even as she acknowledged Akshan, she did not forget what she had to rely on.
“But this is not the Arcana Continent.”
If it was for hunting demons,
Akshan would not distinguish between means and methods.
And this was a world where that method could not be accepted.
Glance.
Gremory’s gaze turned toward a player.
That tiny little machine attached to his armor
—the body camera—
was said to serve the same role as a demonic eye.
Surely, it was spreading the atrocities of those Akshan madmen far and wide.
Gremory looked straight at her natural enemy.
“Just as it was on the Arcana Continent, you bastards will not be understood in this land either, Akshan. Do you know why? Because humans are born that way. Every one of them harbors evil within.”
“…….”
Boringly enough, there was no answer as expected.
“Fine.”
Then Gremory had no intention of wasting any more time either.
Yes, now was the time to sever this tiresome food chain.
Gremory drew up the powers of the Demon King, the Great Evil, and the mixed-blood.
“Rise. My soldiers.”
……
Twitch.
Then the fallen players twitched.
Gremory smiled with satisfaction.
‘The newly born me is no longer prey.’
However.
……
Twitch.
Gremory had overlooked it.
The second iron rule of Akshan.
『When [Exorcism Ritual]
is active,
the demon hunter’s attacks
inflict damage
only on demons.』
……
Twitch!
“……
Huuah!”
A player who had suffered a fatal wound and collapsed to the ground let out a ragged breath.
Then he touched his own neck, which had been pierced through.
There was no wound, no bleeding, no pain.
Yes, there was only one thing visible.
A blinking message.
[Status effect, ‘Bewitchment,’ has been released.]
“?!”
At the same time, Gremory’s pupils shook violently.
She realized it belatedly.
That what she had been barely enduring until now was not mere fear.
“Kuh……?!”
Surge!
Blood gushed up from Gremory’s throat.
……
How?
Why are those humans fine?
Their throats were definitely pierced.
This is unreasonable.
It makes no sense.
I cannot accept this.
Why must I, who possess the powers of both the Demon King and the Great Evil,
why must I vomit blood like this?
I cannot acknowledge this…….
Never……!!
At this moment,
the hundreds of emotions Gremory felt
could be explained in a single phrase.
‘……
I-I have to run!’
It was a natural-enemy relationship that could never be defied.