NOVEL NEXT Chapter 97
“Yor’s out..!”
“Hey, you guys in the raid squad! Damn it, there’s no time to waste! Log in right now!”
“I need to get some rewards to recover my item costs!!! Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!”
“This guy’s really panicking. What’s going on?”
“For real, it’s morning!”
“Wow, he survived? He’s been alive for a whole month without dying?”
“It’s kinda impressive to see this stuff happen…”
“But now’s not the time! We gotta log in fast; it hasn’t even been long since he showed up, and knights are already going down!”
“Seriously, who attacks in the morning when everyone’s sleeping?”
“Lol, so it’s okay for hundreds of knights to gang up on him?”
The early morning dawned.
And completely out of sync with the calm morning, the community buzzed louder than ever.
Of course, it was because Yor had shown up out of the blue.
Users hadn’t expected him to strike first either; they expected him to be dead or hiding somewhere.
Thanks to that, Otherworlders had no choice but to log in urgently.
Among them were many who had to go to work or were still waking up and couldn’t log in yet.
“Who are all those guys gathered at the entrance near the forest?”
There seemed to be quite a few…?
And around that time, Yoo Chaerin’s party also set out to the forest.
*
As the only single male Knight Commander among the Knight Commanders, the Fourth Knight Commander, now looking a bit shabby, sighed softly while looking at the chaotic barracks of the knights.
‘…This is a disaster.’
He prayed that there wouldn’t be any fights in this weather, yet at this moment, the guy showed up.
He had been completely caught off guard.
Of course, unlike others, Rayleigh had done some preparations.
It was a disaster waiting to happen if monsters attacked while they were sleeping.
Every night, he had set up a watch shift so that they could respond immediately in case strong monsters appeared.
While the other knights were putting on their armor, he had bought them time.
Since they were aiming to defend, he had stationed many Knights with particularly strong defense.
Even if monsters from the Deep Layer came down to attack, they could still hold out.
But who would’ve thought…?
‘It would break through so quickly.’
There could be many reasons. It could be that they had grown complacent from camping for a month, or perhaps fatigue was building up from the rain that fell last night.
Maybe their bodies had yet to wake up in the morning, and the fog that filled their sight might have played a part too.
But those were ultimately secondary issues.
The biggest issue was that the opponent was stronger than they had prepared for.
The stationed knight support team had been able to stop a few charges from mutated wild boars.
Even if monsters from the Deep Layer came down, they would have had enough time for the Knights to regroup.
Yet those knights were breached within minutes.
Afterwards, Yor was rampaging like a furious wild boar, tearing down tents chaotically and moving around like crazy.
As if to pay back for the humiliation he suffered a month ago.
Knights who hadn’t even properly donned their armor were left defenseless.
‘I can’t let the damage escalate like this.’
Rayleigh hurriedly grabbed his clothes and rushed outside with his sword.
Screams of knights echoed everywhere.
He moved towards the area where the commotion was loudest.
Even though the opponent was strong, he wasn’t worried yet.
Having faced him before, Rayleigh felt confident he could handle it alone.
His swordsmanship was far superior, and while the opponent was fast, his attacks were utterly predictable.
He had prepared enough holy water, so he thought he could manage.
As soon as the Fourth Knight Commander spotted Yor, he swung his sword.
Clang!
Yor, sensing the danger, raised his spear to block the attack. Even when Rayleigh had seen him last time, his reaction speed was exceptional.
“You won’t rampage any longer.”
Rayleigh delivered what he thought was a cool line.
Yor chuckled softly at that. He subtly stepped back.
“We’ll see each other later.”
With that said, he took off running. This unexpected response caught Rayleigh off guard.
“What?”
He tried to chase after, but he quickly lost sight of him due to the fog enveloping them.
“Aaaah!”
And yet another knight’s scream erupted.
‘What the hell…’
He swallowed his frustration.
*
After escaping from the Knight Commander, I continued facing the knights. Of course, it was the only choice.
‘Am I crazy? There’s no way I can take them on now.’
Sure, I could say the tide was in my favor at the moment, but in terms of strength, I was still at a disadvantage.
I was one, while they had over a hundred knights and countless Otherworlders.
I couldn’t afford to underestimate the numerical advantage. Even if they only poked at me once, it could spell hundreds of hits.
Our Mountain Lord brother would struggle against attacks like this, and I didn’t need to see things get any worse to know that.
So I had to maximize damage while I was in the most advantageous position.
There was no reason to drag things out with the Knight Commander.
Thus, I sent knights back to dreamland once again.
After a while, armored knights started to appear.
The women in underwear were gone, and solid-eyed warriors stood before me.
“There they are!”
“Stop him before he can rampage any further!”
However, unlike before, they weren’t all grouped in fives.
While there were certainly some that formed teams, most were out solo with only their swords in hand.
Unlike before, they had no time to form ranks this time.
It was total chaos.
And in such chaos, I had the advantage as a lone fighter.
Countless swords were aimed at me, but I didn’t care and charged at them.
“Attack!”
Swish!
In that moment, many swords came slicing towards me. I could dodge a couple, but dodging them all was impossible.
In a split second, two choices flooded my mind.
Should I back off to avoid getting hit, or should I accept a wound and plunge in?
The decision came first from my instincts rather than reason.
The answer was to go in. Watching the oncoming blades, I allowed one strike to hit while dodging as many vital spots as I could.
Thud-!
I winced at the stinging pain for a moment.
But my body was already preparing for a counterattack. They had spent their turn on the attack, so now it was mine.
I swung my spear wide horizontally.
“Guh!”
“Aaaah!”
Knights struck by the spear fell like leaves in autumn.
Their armor cracked, and blood burst out. It was inevitable my strike would be a bit rough now that I was fully engaged in battle.
‘Still, they shouldn’t die from this.’
More Otherworlders began to charge in.
Early in the morning, they logged in quickly after hearing the news that a battle had begun.
“Aaaah!”
I didn’t bother holding back against the Otherworlders and sent them logging out personally.
They had no support and, anyway, they would just respawn. Thankfully, thanks to the Player’s Eye, identifying them was easy.
“Got it! The view is clearing up!”
“Don’t scatter! Gather together! Let’s stick together to reduce casualties!”
After rampaging for a good while, the fog began to thin out little by little.
With so many people moving and the morning progressing, the fog slowly dissipated.
The fog usually forms in the morning and lifts later in the day as the temperature rises.
It was just thicker today because of last night’s rain, but the fog was still going to clear.
As visibility improved, two clustered knights began muttering curses.
“What the hell…”
“…What a mess first thing in the morning.”
There were quite a few knights lying on the ground. Fainted knights were sprawled all around like corpses.
Having launched the attack an hour ago, I had sent quite a number of them back to dreamland by now.
I hadn’t counted them, so I didn’t know the exact figure, but at least a third had already retired.
From the knights’ perspective, this would be a serious blow.
But I still felt like I had a mountain of work to do.
Even though their numbers had clearly decreased, there were still dozens of knights left.
On top of that, the Otherworlders were steadily logging in.
Of course, that didn’t change what I needed to do.
‘I have to deal as much damage as I can before they fully regroup.’
If they gathered in one spot, it would only become a hassle for me.
Sure, when the time came, I could always escape again, but I wanted to finish this battle as soon as I could.
Because I, too, craved the comfort of a cozy cave.
“They’re coming!”
“Don’t be alone! Stick close to your allies!”
With that, I began my attack on the knights again, focusing on those who were still on their own instead of those who had formed ranks.
Sometimes I spotted small groups of knights huddled together, and if I thought I could break through, I charged through recklessly.
Swish-! Slash-!
This resulted in my body getting hit by blades multiple times.
Maybe it was because I was trying to take down as many knights as possible in a short time that I had to act boldly at times.
Of course, my wounds quickly healed, but my body was gradually getting covered in blood.
I also made good use of the blood I was spilling.
Splish-! Splash-!
The blood flying like a dart hit the arms and legs of the knights.
“Damn it, everyone get ready with holy water!”
“Wait, why is that guy fighting like that so aggressively…?”
This was manageable. In the chaotic situation, the knights were not as tough as I had feared.
Even though the Knight Commander was charging in like crazy, the one who had to lead was still easily dealt with.
‘The real trouble is the Otherworlders.’
But that was the annoying part; there were still plenty of Otherworlders left.
They came without hesitation to attack, knowing they would just respawn. They had no qualms about attacking.
It seemed they thought they only needed to land one good blow, with many trying to pull off a mutual destruction strategy.
‘These Al-Qaeda-like bastards…’
When they rush in disregarding defense, I had no choice but to momentarily retreat. No matter how well I could regenerate, a heavy injury would take me a while to recover from.
Because of that, I had no choice but to step back when they charged.
Having many movement restrictions was only natural.
‘Is there really no other way?’
Should I just douse them with blood like crazy?
If I didn’t think of a way, the tide of battle might flip on me.
“Hmm?”
As I pondered this, I sensed movement from the edge of the forest.
And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt it.
“Wait! Someone’s running over there!”
A fellow Otherworlder who had been taking screenshots from a distance said.
“What’s that? Reinforcements?”
“No, hold on, something’s off!”
They were indeed reinforcements.
Of course, from my perspective.
They were slightly fewer than the raid squad, but a decent number of people were rushing towards us.
I spotted Yoo Chaerin and Im Haneul running at the front.
Soon, after spotting me, Chaerin waved her hand and shouted.
“We’re here!”
I couldn’t help but smirk at that.
Finally, the numbers were starting to balance out.
“…This is crazy.”
Conversely, the expression on the Knight Commander’s face soured.