Chapter 21 - Counterattack(3)
“This building has 5 basement floors. As far as I know, there are no secret passages….”
After killing the person dispatched from Rekenhate or whatever, everything went smoothly.
To the point of succeeding in a bloodless entry into the bastards' hideout located underground.
But I couldn't be entirely happy with the result.
The inside of the hideout was strangely quiet.
If they brought as many as 40 subordinates to attack one village, the main base must be quite large.
Moreover, the hideout boasted a considerable size, from the corridors to the stairs, both vertically and horizontally.
It was obvious it could accommodate hundreds.
But now, I couldn't find a single person inside the building.
It was the same even after thoroughly searching down to the second basement floor, wondering if they were hiding somewhere.
Only the scattered junk, as if someone had been here just moments ago, seemed to tell the story.
“Is it possible this isn't the main base?”
“That's not possible. They probably gathered somewhere else, or hid deep underground.”
Unlike Maletta's question, there was no possibility that this wasn't the main base.
There were no signs of tidying up as if they had left the place.
Rather, the disheveled bedding found in a few rooms supported the opposite possibility.
So Namyr's words felt a bit more credible.
They had either already left while the guy from Rekenhate and the aide were buying time.
Or, they had gathered all their forces in a deeper place for a single point breakthrough.
“Hah, what a pain. What if I say I'll just cut down this entire facility?”
“That probably wouldn't be a good idea. The facility is made of rather fine materials, so it would take ages.”
“Tsk.”
I also wanted to cut it all down and bury them, just as Maletta suggested.
After all, the quest didn't say I couldn't receive Maletta's help.
Maletta also seemed to accept Namyr's conjecture as she shook her head.
But Namyr showed his disapproval and refused.
At his strong refusal, she had no choice but to extinguish the flames on her scythe and turn away, but instead.
As if something caught her eye, she picked up an item from a room on the 2nd floor she was rummaging through.
“Perfect timing. Then let's just get some insurance.”
“Ah, no! Where are you going?”
Maletta left the room just like that.
She ran out so fast that the resulting wind pressure made a mess of the room.
I don't know who owns this room, but my condolences.
Maletta wasn't gone for long.
She looked at me, her face not even sweaty, and held out the object in her hand.
It was a ‘Portal Creation Device’.
A device similar to the one Arges had used to escape.
It could only be called good luck.
To think I could get insurance like this.
“A Portal Creation Device? That's lucky.”
“I set the checkpoint to somewhere in the forest on the surface. If things go south, you escape first.”
“I'll consider it.”
I put the device in my pocket and resumed the search.
“What about me?”
“You find your own.”
Thanks to that silly conversation in between, I did relax a little.
But it didn't lead to any results.
“We can't just keep rummaging through rooms.”
The 2nd floor was mostly personal rooms, so we wasted a lot of time searching.
Getting impatient as time slipped away, I stopped searching and asked Namyr.
And Namyr's answer was a spectacle.
“Is there any place Arges might be?”
“The leader's office is on basement floor 4.”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because you didn't ask….”
Good grief.
This bastard knew but didn't say anything.
He had followed me under threat, but he was too scared to directly confront the leader.
Alright, fine.
If you're going to be so passive and difficult, then I'll have to use you.
“Alright, then let's go down!”
“M-me too? You said I only had to find the way….”
“I said you have to find the way, I never said you only had to find the way.”
I verbally cornered Namyr who was trying to get away with excuses, and we went down the stairs.
After quickly running down the long, steel stairs, we faced the 4th floor.
Beyond that corridor.
At the vanguard of a group of dozens, no.
Hundreds lined up.
As if to say this time was different.
Wearing a pitch-black coat, looking at us with a morningstar slung over his shoulder.
Arrogantly glaring at the other side as if he had healed all his injuries and nothing had happened.
There was Arges.
***
“You went in deep. Were you that scared of us?”
That was the first thing Kang Woon said upon encountering Arges.
Kang Woon slowly approached them, lifting his chin.
“Why didn't you just hide in a corner? Like an ostrich burying its head.”
“This bastard!”
Provoked by the endless taunts, one of the subordinates flared up and was about to rush out.
But Arges slowly raised his hand and lightly stopped him.
“Don't act rashly.”
What laced his voice was composure.
It was a composure similar to when they first invaded the village, as if victory was already certain.
Kang Woon briefly furrowed his brow at the completely changed attitude from before.
Not missing the momentary shift in atmosphere, Arges shrugged and spoke first.
“The gatekeeper was blocking the door. What happened to him?”
“The guy from Rekenhate or whatever? He turned to ash and died.”
But Kang Woon seemed to have no intention of delaying.
He merely replied as if annoyed by the smile Arges gave with a twitch of his eyebrow.
“To treat Rekenhate like that. As expected, ‘his’ words were right.”
“Shut up.”
Kang Woon looked at Maletta and nodded his head slightly.
“Maletta, if you please.”
“Yes, Captain.”
It had already been proven that even a Grade 4 couldn't react to Maletta's speed.
There was no way Arges, who possessed only about a quarter of his skill, could block it.
Arges, Kang Woon, Maletta, and Namyr all knew it.
So Arges smiled grimly.
Even though he could see the future where Maletta would kick off the ground and arrive before him.
Even though he knew that if he stood still, his head would be cut off and roll on the floor.
He just fumbled in his pocket.
Just like someone else.
Maletta wreathed her scythe in flames.
She lowered her body to surge forward.
Soon, she kicked off the ground and rushed in, her eyes filled with flames to kill Arges.
“I heard your name is Kang Woon. A fine name.”
But Arges was composed.
Even knowing Maletta would soon grant him death, he acted leisurely.
Even uttering the name Kang Woon had not told him.
Kang Woon's expression briefly filled with bewilderment.
Arges just calmly took something shiny out of his pocket and held it up with his index finger and thumb.
“So, this is how you felt.”
Flash, it shone, catching the fluorescent light.
Kang Woon, feeling a sudden ominous premonition, squinted, trying to get a good look at it.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Kang Woon to realize the identity of what Arges had taken out of his pocket.
It was a coin.
A golden coin identical to Kang Woon's.
He knew from its round shape, small size, and golden glow, visible even from a distance.
And Kang Woon couldn't help but know the coin's identity.
That's why he wanted to deny it.
It was a ‘Returner's Privilege’ obtained by solving a ‘quest’.
It was something close to a special ability that Kang Woon obtained because he went through the special situation of ‘transference’.
So Kang Woon thought it was a bluff.
It didn't matter how he had obtained information about Kang Woon himself and his skill..
In fact, there were quite a few ways to know an opponent's skills in-game.
Kang Woon was sure it was something of that sort.
“To create a situation by tossing a coin. A very strong skill, isn't it?”
He did accurately guess Kang Woon's skill, but he didn't do anything more.
While placing the coin on his thumb as if to flick it at any moment, he didn't flick it right away.
Kang Woon judged it to be a bluff.
He thought Arges was looking for an opening to pull some kind of trick.
“Maletta.”
“Yes!”
So Kang Woon just quietly commanded Maletta, as if whispering.
He ordered Maletta to take Arges' life before any trick could unfold.
Maletta, who answered in a hushed voice, just nodded.
Just like that.
She kicked off the ground with a kwang and shot forward.
To take Arges' life, she aimed the blade of her crimson-flame-wreathed scythe at him.
She flew in so swiftly there wasn't even time to blink.
He thought that just as the Grade 4 from Rekenhate had died, Arges, a Grade 5, would die the same way.
Because that was the logical conclusion.
But.
It didn't happen.
No.
It couldn't happen.
Maletta stopped moving.
Just before cutting Arges' neck, she froze with her scythe in mid-air.
Without blinking, without falling, without moving, she came to a halt.
Kang Woon, who was about to reach for Maletta wondering what was happening, also stopped.
He couldn't move his lips, nor could he extend his hand.
However, Kang Woon himself could perceive that he had stopped.
Time had stopped.
And Kang Woon was familiar with that sensation.
When he was attacked by Arges.
When he felt a ‘life-threatening crisis’.
When his own skill, ‘Returner's Privilege’, activated and he tossed the coin.
It was the sensation of flicking the coin in that frozen time.
“So this is how you dodged my attack. I thought that barrier was strange.”
Arges looked at Maletta's scythe with an unpleasant smile and, alone, moved his thumb to toss the coin.
With a ting sound, the coin floated in the air.
The coin fell with a thud, spinning on the ground for a bit.
After it stopped spinning, it displayed one side.
Kang Woon still doubted the idea popping into his head.
He thought there was no way a ‘character’ like Arges could use a skill like ‘Returner's Privilege’.
“Oho….”
An interjection only Kang Woon, who perceived the stopped time, could hear.
Along with Arges' nonchalant and leisurely comment.
Time started flowing again.
Being far away, Kang Woon couldn't see which side it was.
He could only hope that what he was thinking was wrong.
He just hoped no new variables would arise, as the 'momentum' was still with him.
But a coin has a heads and a tails.
A coin that endlessly lands on heads or tails was nothing but a cheat.
Asking for heads to keep coming up only for Kang Woon was close to greed.
So Kang Woon swallowed hard at Arges' mocking tone and could only look at Maletta in the now-flowing time.
His worries proving futile, Maletta stopped.
She sliced Arges' neck in a grand arc and stopped right behind him.
After swinging the scythe, she straightened her upper body and looked back.
“…Did I get him?”
Kang Woon muttered this with hope.
He recited it as if wanting to quickly have it proven that all his worries were groundless.
But.
“Captain.”
It was proven.
It was proven in a way that confirmed Kang Woon's ominous guess.
“I'm sorry.”
Maletta passed by Arges, who was standing perfectly fine despite his neck being cut.
She stumbled as she walked towards Kang Woon.
She powerlessly dropped her scythe and reached for Kang Woon with a trembling arm.
“If it was going to be like this. I should have… told you beforehand.”
Her face was an indescribable mix of bitterness, sadness, and bewilderment.
As if she had predicted her own death.
As if blaming herself for no longer being of any help.
“Maletta, you…!”
Kang Woon urgently ran to grab Maletta's hand.
He kicked off the ground, intending to immediately hug her and evacuate.
He was about to.
“This pathetic melodrama.”
Kang Woon saw Arges, who was suddenly standing behind Maletta, and held his breath.
Seeing Arges with a sinister smile behind Maletta as if plotting something, he opened his mouth.
“No-”
“That's enough.”
But his words didn't reach.
Because Arges lifted his leg and kicked Maletta's body.
Maletta's kicked body turned to dust and fell to the floor.
Like a pile of ashes that burned away.
As if a no-longer-living body had been cremated.
“Mal…etta?”
At that sight, Kang Woon couldn't even reach out and just stared wide-eyed.
He dazedly called her name, wondering if he could save her now.
But Arges gave him no time to rest, stomping on the pile of dust that replaced the body, and at the same time.
“Now, it's your turn, Kang Woon.”
Holding his morningstar, he slowly started walking towards Kang Woon.
The armed subordinates also began to approach, letting out their own 'kikik' laughs.
“Damn it, don't fuck with me!”
Snapped back to reality, Kang Woon stepped back and urgently fumbled in his left pocket, taking out the coin.
The coin from his pocket shone golden, just like Arges'.
It twinkled under the building's artificial light and floated in the air, but.
“How dare you!”
As soon as an unpleasant smile formed on Arges' lips, he surged forward.
He swung his morningstar, aiming precisely for the coin.
With a very faint kwajik sound.
The golden coin Kang Woon tossed in the air was futilely shattered to pieces.
Only fragments flew far away.
“Your damn luck ends here! Everyone, kill those two bastards!”
In that moment.
The 'momentum' that Kang Woon believed he still had was lost.
“Kuk, bring it on!”
The situation not yet over, Kang Woon summoned a greatsword to resist somehow.
He tried to turn his back to the wall and take a defensive stance, but.
“All of you-huh…?”
A sudden foreign sensation from his side made him unable to even do that, and he collapsed.
Kang Woon, on one knee, raised his head to check the opponent.
He soon realized the act, and who the person who did it was.
“Die, die, die!!”
“Keo, heok…!”
It was Namyr Anas.
It was Namyr's dagger.
Namyr, who had been biding his time and watching the situation, had judged it hopeless and wildly stabbed the defenseless Kang Woon's abdomen.
About a few dozen stabs.
Kang Woon coughed up a gush of blood and collapsed powerlessly on the floor.
The blood that instantly poured out of Kang Woon formed a reddish-crimson puddle.
Arges approached with a smile, as if finding the sight interesting.
Namyr responded to him with an awkward smile on his sweaty face.
“Leader! I stayed by this bastard's side for this very moment.”
“Namyr Anas.”
“Yes, that's right, Leader! It's me. Me, the Namyr Anas you yourself evaluated as a promising prospect!”
Namyr appealed by hitting his own chest with his palm.
He raised his voice without being able to look Arges properly in the eyes.
“I'm sorry. I admit it might look like a betrayal, but I couldn't possibly tell you the whole plan.”
“Hoh.”
“Because if I said that! I would've definitely been found out! From beginning to end, I was for you, Leader!!”
Arges took a step closer in admiration, but Namyr raised his voice even more.
It was no longer an appeal, but closer to a desperate struggle for survival.
It was similar to a prey crying out before its death.
“Namyr Anas, excellent.”
Arges placed a hand on Namyr's shoulder.
He uttered praise that hadn't come out in most situations until now.
At words that could at first glance sound like praise.
Color returned to Namyr's stiff face for the first time.
He made an expression as if he had escaped a pit by grabbing a lifeline, but.
“To be able to lie like that without a single change in your expression.”
“L-Leader!?”
His expression instantly turned ashen.
He made a face as if the lifeline he grabbed had snapped, and he was falling into the abyss once more.
Arges scoffed and wiped his face once with his remaining hand, then.
“I truly-keoheok!”
He planted his fist in the middle of Namyr's face as he tried to continue his excuse.
Namyr clutched his nose and knelt before him.
And of course, Arges' retaliation didn't end there.
“How dare you, you bastards, do this!!”
“Keuheok, kkeuk, kkeoeok, eok!”
“Me!! You dare betray me!?”
Arges kicked the kneeling Namyr's head, knocking him over.
He started to mercilessly stomp on Namyr's fallen body.
He unleashed the anger from his previous defeat without restraint, creating countless bruises on his body.
“My subordinates, I shall grant you the honor of delivering the final blow to this traitorous bastard!”
“Kikik… Understood.”
And of course, the retaliation was not going to end leniently.
Arges stomped on Namyr for a bit, then turned around as if uninterested and gave the order.
The subordinates changed their target to Namyr at Arges' words.
“N-no!! Please spare me!”
“No? Spare you?”
It was self-evident what would happen when they reached him.
So Namyr, even with his battered body, somehow crawled and grabbed Arges' ankle.
He begged desperately with a voice thick with bloody phlegm.
“Where did that spirit you had when trying to deceive me go? I'm disappointed.”
But Arges showed no mercy.
He just coldly slapped Namyr's hand away.
“N-no!! No!! D-don't come!!”
And what that implied was obvious.
The subordinates received Arges' command and faithfully carried it out.
They took up their respective weapons and began to hack at his fallen body.
“Noooooo!! Heoa-eo-aaaaak!!”
Namyr's desperate scream echoed through the corridor.
To his screams as a beat, blood and flesh flew off.
The person named Namyr was being gruesomely dismantled as the price for his betrayal.
“Kuk, hahahaha! Amusing, how amusing!”
Watching that sight, Arges let out a cathartic laugh.
As he planned to dismantle not only Namyr but also Kang Woon as the price for handing him defeat.
He couldn't help but laugh at the perfect revenge being accomplished.
Arges stopped his brief laughter and turned his body to finish off Kang Woon.
He opened his mouth to mock Kang Woon, who should be lying there struggling in the puddle.
“Now, it's your turn….”
But.
There, Arges saw.
The disappeared owner of the puddle.
And from the puddle, a long trail, as if a person had been dragged.
There was no need to say what that meant.
“Damn it!!”
Arges gasped and urgently followed the direction.
At the end of that direction was Kang Woon, who had somehow crawled quite a distance away.
In his hand, identical to Arges'.
There was Kang Woon, holding a ‘Portal Creation Device’.
“At the very, very end, keok….”
“This son of a bitch!!”
Arges yelled, almost screaming.
He kicked off the ground and rushed in, swinging his morningstar at his head, but.
It didn't reach.
Kang Woon just flicked his thumb and activated the device.
“Yeah, I was lucky.”
“Uoooooh!!”
Arges let out a roar and swung his weapon.
He hoped his weapon would directly hit Kang Woon's head, leaving not even a shred of a variable.
However, only the kwang sound of the morningstar striking down proved that his wish did not come true.
Kang Woon was not there.
In his place, only a purple portal floated before disappearing.
Arges could only laugh in vain.