Floor 15: The Road to the Fortress (2)

About an hour had passed since I'd parted ways with Handrake.

Four more battles followed after that. Even though I deliberately steered around trouble unless a hidden mission demanded otherwise, I kept running into climbers far more often than before. Most likely, the survivors from Floor 14 had gathered in this region in greater numbers than I'd expected.

They're heading the right way, aren't they?

I had pointed the stranded climbers I'd rescued toward the direction of the arrow — the one only our party could see. Follow this heading, I'd told them, and when you spot a forest, cut straight through it. It was a small kindness. Our party had the heavy hitters and had set out first, so there was little chance of being overtaken anyway.

They all looked a bit dazed, but……

I suppose they took it as intel squeezed out of rescued stragglers, because they seemed to accept it with genuine gratitude.

And I was still running in the opposite direction of the original arrow.

Hm?

A faint explosion shattered my thoughts from somewhere far off. Beyond a stand of huge trees, the sky to the left flickered for an instant. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Climbers were in the middle of a fight somewhere out there.

That was the fifth one already. Thoom, thoom. Successive detonations lit up the sky twice more.

Hm — none of the lizardmen I'd encountered so far had used magic. That had to be a climber's spellwork.

If they can chain explosions like that back to back, I don't need to worry about them.

The average lizardman pack numbered around fifty. More than half of them would already be dead. Just keep moving, I thought, and was about to push fresh strength into my legs—

A shrill shriek of tearing air ripped out of the left-hand sky. I turned my head again. A mass of crimson mana was climbing upward like fireworks, a red sphere soaring to a suitable height with a rising whine before bursting in every direction like a bloom of sparks.

In that instant, I turned left.

That was unmistakably a distress signal.

A question formed in my mind even as I ran. There was clearly a mage of upper-tier caliber in that party. Over twenty lizardmen had to be dead already. And yet they were firing a rescue flare……

Did the lizardmen get thicker out here compared to earlier?

Something had gone wrong, that much was certain, but I couldn't tell what. There was only one way to find out — go and see for myself. I kicked off the ground and ran.

Night had fallen, and I sprinted up a grassy incline, the dew-damp blades slick beneath my feet. My pace dipped slightly with the climb, but my stamina held plenty of reserve. I drove power into my legs and picked the speed back up. The crest of the hill was dead ahead, and with every stride the clash of steel grew sharper in my ears.

Another explosion rolled out as I crested the rise, and my vision opened wide.

"What the……"

This was nothing like the scale of lizardmen I'd seen before. Hundreds of them — well past a hundred — were swarming a band of some forty humans. The humans were armed, so they weren't refugees; they looked like a cluster of routed soldiers.

KWA-BOOM!

The thunderous din rolled on. The mage who'd fired the signal was fighting at the very front line, giving everything they had.

So the bigger the band of stragglers, the more lizardmen come swarming?

Or it could be yet another hidden mission…… Turning the thought over, I started down the slope at a run. The survivors were already encircled. I would have to push straight into the densest press of lizardmen and pull every eye toward me.

Mid-sprint, I angled my course slightly. In that brief span, two human soldiers dropped and did not rise again.

Watching the soldiers crumple, the thought struck me unbidden: a simple charge wouldn't be enough. Sure, I could grind them all down given time — but my allies were already surrounded, bleeding men with every second that passed.

If I want to cut the casualties down, I need something heavier.

A flashing idea pierced through my mind. I drew up lightning while holding back all but the bare minimum of mana. The searing light scoured the darkness off the plain, and in the same breath every lizardman's gaze swung toward me.

Then I used Flash Lightning.

I slammed off the earth and launched — not at the lizardmen's front, but upward, into the air. For an instant I vanished from their sight entirely.

"Ssissk—! Where did the human go?!"

The sight of the lizardmen craning around in confusion burned itself into my eyes. I stepped off the sky with Kashatum's Shoes and came hurtling down like a missile. Lightning seethed across my whole body.

Before long, streaks of light trailing down from the heavens dragged their eyes upward.

And that was the end of it. Judgment fell from the sky.

Thousands of bolts erupted outward in a violent web, spanning a forty-meter radius centered on my point of impact. The wet grass conducted beautifully — far better than I'd expected. The discharge was fierce enough to char even the wild scrub black across the plain.

"Ghhhhaaahh……"

"Uuuooohh—!"

"Hhk—hhk—hh—"

The convulsing, electrocuted voices layered over one another like a chorus. Within moments, more than sixty lizardmen toppled over stiff and twitching, unable to offer the slightest resistance. A bitter tang of scorched flesh drifted in on the wind.

And I bellowed toward the survivors.

"Over here! This way!"

Those forty meters were a calculated distance. From my position to the survivors' cluster was roughly forty-five meters — which meant the encirclement around them had gone thin and ragged in a single heartbeat.

The survivors seized on it at once, concentrating their attacks toward my side of the ring. I kicked off my footing and charged in as well. The circle was half-broken already, but these were people who'd been through a punishing fight. I had to help them finish it.

I was running in, axe swinging, when the lizardmen abruptly wheeled around and began to flee.

"Ssissk! Re—retreat! Retreat!"

"A Gre—Great Warrior! The Great Warrior of the heretics!"

"Retreat!"

The lizardmen scattered in full rout.

What the hell was this?

Every lizardman I'd met until now had fought without an ounce of retreat in them, even as their comrades died in front of their eyes. Every last one swung its weapon down to its final breath.

And now they just run?

I couldn't make sense of the sudden turn. Was it the lightning? No — the more I thought about it, the less that held. I'd used lightning plenty of times before this.

Unless……

Maybe the lightning raining down from the sky had shaken them that badly? Judging by the way they'd called me the Great Warrior of the heretics, it seemed plausible. It wasn't as if I'd simply cast lightning across flat ground like a spell — it had come down, the way judgment does.

Still, should I run the fleeing ones down too?

Hm, no. No sense burning strength for nothing. I'd saved the survivors, and I still had stamina and mana to manage. About here was the point to swing back toward my original heading.

By the time my thoughts had roughly settled, the survivors had come to me first. Finely wrought full plate from throat to boot — the very picture of medieval knights. The knight at their head lifted the brim of her helm, and between the visor slits appeared the face of a woman with sharp, keen eyes. A few strands of sweat-dampened blonde hair clung to her cheek. The knight bowed her head lightly.

"My sincerest gratitude. It seems the gods have not yet abandoned the Empire. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠am Selena Tonz, Knight Commander of the Imperial Knights of the Deiorn Empire."

"Ah — right. I'm Kwon Suhyeok."

Imperial Knight Commander? That was a genuinely high position. What was someone like that doing all the way out here? It seemed the situation on the Soborn continent was worse than I'd imagined.

As if reading it off my face, Selena Tonz smiled a bleak, weary smile. "Yes — just as you're thinking, Kwon Suhyeok, the Empire's circumstances are dire. So dire that the gods have seen fit to borrow help from another dimension."

I exchanged a brief round of words with Selena Tonz, and of course told her about the Horen Forest as well. I had just turned my back to leave the group when the climbers approached quietly. I glanced over — at their head stood the mage who'd been fighting so desperately earlier. A young-faced Black kid, high school age at most.

Talent like that at that age? He's got to be exceptional.

Come to think of it, he'd probably been fairly well known in Ha Heijeong's first run too. I'd have to ask her later.

The boy piped up with artless, unguarded curiosity. "Hyung! You're Rank 1, Kwon Suhyeok, right?"

Everyone on Floor 14 had seen me, so this wasn't a question born of ignorance — it was asked out of courtesy.

"Hm? Yeah, that's me."

With a face that young calling me hyung first, casual speech had slipped out naturally. I winced inwardly for a moment, but the boy didn't seem to mind in the slightest. Neither did the climbers standing behind him — they only watched me with something close to reverence, no trace of offense anywhere.

The boy broke into a bright, guileless smile and bowed his head. "I heard what you said with the commander just now. Sorry to stop you when every second counts — I just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted to say thank you. If it hadn't been for you, we'd be dead. Thank you. Really."

He bent at the waist in a formal bow. The other climbers followed suit, one after another, offering their thanks with lowered heads. The sight of such good manners drew a smile out of me before I knew it.

"Don't mention it. Climbers look out for each other — that's how we survive. Everyone, heads up. Get moving with the knights, quickly. Another attack could come at any time."

"Yes. We pray you return safely to the fortress as well, Kwon Suhyeok."

I traded a few last words with the other climbers and turned to go — when the boy suddenly shouted after me at the top of his lungs.

"Hyung! Thank you so much! My name is Azad Hakin! I will repay you one day, I swear it!"

There were far more climbers in dangerous straits than I'd expected, so several more battles followed. My body wasn't struggling — but the clock was. I pushed my pace even higher.

Then, with about thirty minutes of my allotted time left — just as the thought of turning back was starting to sidle up to me — I finally found it. A crescent-shaped lake, its waters a deep, settled black even under the moonlight. A narrow stone causeway ran out from the shore to a small island at the lake's center.

What Ha Heijeong had described was impossible to miss, even from a distance: on that tiny island stood a massive stone monument, and driven into its face was a dagger.

Huh?

The dagger looked strangely, uncannily familiar. I was sure I'd seen it somewhere before—

Déjà vu. I hurriedly checked the dagger sheathed at my hip.

"Wha……?"

Bewilderment leaked out of me in an actual, audible breath. They were identical. I looked again at the blade planted in the monument, then back down at the dagger on my belt. Twice checked, and twice the same.

What is this.

Which meant the main dagger at my waist was the counterfeit — and the one out there was the real thing. What a windfall. And yet, finding it again, like this, left me more flustered than anything.

Hm……

Come to think of it, the god of the Soborn planet was Ronsyark, the Shadow of the End. The hint had been there all along. This wasn't strange at all.

Unique grade. A god's holy relic.

The moment it became certain that this was the true Ronsyark's Dagger, my heartbeat picked up on its own. The Essence of Lightning cost 45,000 points. This has to be worth at least that much, right? Even the counterfeit had carried an absurd spec — blocks all physical attacks once.

I was still pressing down my excitement, about to walk toward the dagger, when I felt someone behind me. By the feel of it, just one person — and the movement carried no malice.

Still, I stayed tense, watching my back, and out of the darkness Aleksei Braham came bounding into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠view. She looked thoroughly worn out. Between ragged breaths, she furrowed her brow.

"……What the hell? Why are you here?"

Uh, that's my line.

Then her gaze slid past me — and her pupils shook violently.

"Oh, for the love of……"