You Just Activated My Trap Card
Hogriffons lost their balance in the sudden blast of wind and plummeted headlong to the ground.
- Hogwiiik!
Ho-yeong smiled with satisfaction.
“Beautiful, our mages!”
The auxiliary trap, Reversal Wind Magic Circle. A joint creation by Sicoop and Meyril.
“The trigger was set to activate when the Hogriffons’ flight created an updraft, and that response generated a powerful whirlwind, correct? Sicoop handled the trigger, and Meyril-sama the whirlwind, I assume.”
Pierre, true to form as a mage from a noble house, had already deduced how the magic circle worked.
“That’s right. More precisely, the vortex wasn’t generated from nothing. It’s closer to amplifying the air current created by the flapping of the Hogriffons’ wings, mal-im-ni-da.”
Sicoop offered the explanation in a clipped addendum.
“Oh? Then its power and mana efficiency must both be excellent. Using wind as the catalyst to create more wind. An elegant idea. Both of you.”
“Ah, that was actually the lord’s idea, mal-im-ni-da.”
“Is that so? Then the Border Count is well versed in magic as well. Not only did you devise mana soil, but you’re also thoroughly familiar with the operation of mana itself.”
“I-isn’t heee? The lord really is wonderful, yyooo.”
At Pierre’s admiration, Sicoop and Meyril straightened a little with pride.
“Hm? My ears have been itching for a while now. Why’s my RP suddenly going up?”
Ho-yeong, who had been standing apart, tilted his head and then surveyed the battlefield.
They’re heavy bastards, so I can’t fling them very far.
Ho-yeong had drawn inspiration from the magic towers among the defensive towers that appeared in the game.
Magic towers could be attuned to various elements like fire, wind, ice, and lightning, and their power could be maximized by placing mage units or heroes whose attributes matched the tower’s.
The trap worked. That’s enough. Now let’s see how those guys react. They can’t just fly over the explosive-stone zone anymore.
The Hogriffons charged forward with stubborn force.
Good. At least they’re stupid. Once they get aggro, they just rush in blind, exactly like in the game.
The kill count kept ringing out from the explosive-stone mines’ power.
Hogriffon #003 has been slain. You have obtained 5 EP.
Hogriffon #005 has been slain. You have obtained 5 EP.
…
Only five are dead, huh. Still, once you count the ones that went down, the number’s pretty high. Good.
The ones whose bellies had burst died instantly, but those who had been struck in less vital areas, like the legs, were still alive where they lay. Only, alive was the limit; they were already combat-ineffective.
“All right, keep coming! Horses, spread the formation wide! You see those planks up ahead? One horse per lane!”
The warhorses obeyed and spread into a long, horizontal line.
Each time a hoof struck one of the planks, it gave a faint creak.
- Crack.
But when the Hogriffons crossed them, the planks gave way under their weight.
- Hogri?!
Beneath the boards they had been covering, a deep pit was revealed.
The ones who fell in without even a chance to flap their wings were skewered on ironwood stakes.
- Hokkk!
Even the ones following behind could not stop in time and often tumbled straight into the pit.
Some landed on the bodies of their comrades, but that did not help them.
Hogriffon #010 and #013 have been slain. You have obtained 10 EP.
They merely forced down the ones already impaled and ended up skewered alongside them.
“Ironwood is really tough. It lives up to its name.”
As its name implied, ironwood was hard and sturdy, but that also made it difficult to work.
In other words, it was perfect for using whole, exactly as they were doing now.
Thanks to Bernaval’s active involvement in processing the ironwood, they might not have many of the stakes, but they had enough to make a Hogriffon skewer stand without the whole thing collapsing.
- Hogriiiee!
Those that sensed danger tried to take to the air and clear the pit.
But they were already exhausted, so they could not fly very far, and where they landed there were more planks waiting.
“Good! Their numbers are dropping fast.”
Of the roughly sixty, nearly half were dead or badly wounded now.
“Now just veer a little to the side and keep going! That’s it, just a bit more. Good, then swing back in after that!”
The warhorses faithfully carried out the command, splitting left and right to draw an oval path.
- Hogri!
The Hogriffons in the lead came to a brief stop. Even the ones who had only ever charged straight ahead had finally developed some suspicion of the traps.
- Hoguu, hoguk!
One of the leaders spotted something and cried out. The others behind it also stopped. Instead of planks laid flat on the ground like before, iron frames were planted in crossing X-shapes.
They were using construction materials originally made for rebuilding the ruins as improvised traps.
Scattered iron caltrops made from nails might only sting a Hogriffon like thorns, but those iron frames were different. Their size was enough to call them metal-weapon mines.
- Hokuuuu!
The ones who caught the scent of blood mingled with iron decided to back off.
Of course, that did not mean they had given up on their appetite for horse meat.
- Hoguri!
They retreated only to make room for a charge, and to gain momentum for flight.
“M-my word.”
The Hogriffons unfurled wings larger than their own massive bodies and rose all at once.
“If this had been fought atop the wall, it would’ve been a nightmare. How are you supposed to bring down monsters that come flying in with bodies that big? Arrows would look like toothpicks.”
The sight also impressed the Tamer Territory guards watching from afar.
“No need to waste arrows on them. The traps are enough.”
“Border Count, why did you install those iron-pole traps so conspicuously high? If the monsters just fly over them, wouldn’t that make them useless?”
Pierre asked Ho-yeong, who had been muttering as if it were all no big deal.
“Explain it in more detail.”
“If they’d been buried deeper, wouldn’t the dirt and dust have hidden them too well? Even if those things have good eyes, that only applies while they’re floating in the air.”
“No, the Hogriffons’ sense of smell is unusual. The moment they catch the scent of iron, they become wary. That’s why the Border Count used ironwood instead of iron rods for the earlier plank trap.”
Wyatt, standing nearby, answered for him.
“As expected of an experienced adventurer. Wyatt is correct.”
Ho-yeong nodded naturally. In truth, he had not realized it until Wyatt pointed it out.
“Then why use iron poles this time? They don’t even look sharp.”
Jea asked as if it were her turn.
“Ironwood is nice because it’s sturdy, but it’s too sturdy for its own good. It takes time and labor to cut each piece down individually. Better to use materials that already exist.”
“But those strangely shaped iron poles don’t look sharp at all. If a Hogriffon stepped on them, would they really do any proper damage?”
It was a frighteningly direct question from a priestess.
The steel frame she was pointing at was an H-beam. As the name suggested, its cross-section was shaped like an H, and because it served as the skeleton of buildings, it was a very solid structure. Ho-yeong had ordered Bernaval to make them after years of rolling around construction sites.
“If you go out of your way to sharpen something like that, it becomes useless when it’s time to actually build something. If it’s rebar, fine, but how are you supposed to build a house without steel frames? There’s such a thing as too much boneless fried chicken. Anyway, that’s how it is.”
Ho-yeong said it flatly.
“And that thing? As it is, if you fall onto it from above, it hurts like hell. Why didn’t I bury them deeper? Because then the monsters would hurt less when they were stabbed.”
“Because the Hogriffons are quite heavy, and the smaller the contact area, the greater the pressure applied. That means the penetrating force of those iron poles would rise accordingly. Also, the more of the iron pole is exposed above the ground, the larger the area of penetration becomes, so the damage the Hogriffons suffer should increase proportionally.”
“Bingo. That’s exactly what I mean. Mages really are smart. They can turn gibberish into something that makes sense.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, I mean…if you order a barley pie, they bring you a rose cake instead. Yes. Right. That’s it.”
He corrected the Korean proverb to fit the Kain Kingdom.
“But if they don’t step on the traps, isn’t it pointless?”
“Well, let’s wait and see.”
Jea, Wyatt, and Pierre, the so-called J-W-P party, still had their doubts, but they said no more in the face of Ho-yeong’s confidence.
- Hoguuuuri!
The Hogriffons that had risen high in the air began gliding toward the horses.
- Hokku?!
The rearguard panicked. The creatures in front had abruptly stopped in midair and were now dropping backward.
- Crack.
The Hogriffons slammed into the iron frames they had tried so hard to avoid and were left mangled, skewered, and broken.
“W-what in the world is that?! It’s like they ran into an invisible wall and got knocked out of the sky!”
“Yes. Exactly. A transparent rock wall.”
“A rock wall? All I can see down on the ground are low, flat stone slabs!”
A giant stone wall rose from the field. Ho-yeong had turned the terrain itself into a trap.
“You put a spell of invisibility on the wall? But to make something that huge invisible would require an enormous amount of mana and magic power!”
Pierre was stunned.
“Judging by where the Hogriffons collided, there’s probably a substantial section buried underground as well. Making only the exposed part above the ground invisible would be impossible for anyone but a true expert…wait. On the surface, you’ve only made it look like scattered little stone slabs? How on earth did you…?”
“Pierre, have you perhaps heard of the Spatial-Light Modulation Phase Distortion Magic Circle?”
“My lord, didn’t you tell me to call it a transparency magic circle-”
“Spatial-Light Modulation Phase Distortion Magic Circle.”
Ho-yeong cut off Sicoop and recited the name with pride.
“It was a bit of a pain to spread mana soil all around that big rock wall.”
By adapting the transparency magic circle that Sicoop had shown earlier, he had made the surrounding terrain invisible rather than the wall itself.
As Pierre had said, making the wall itself invisible would consume an enormous amount of magic power. That was not a job Sicoop, with his limited mana, or Meyril, who was only skilled in weather magic, could have handled.
But with the mana soil magic-circle method, the mage’s mana consumption could be reduced dramatically.
“Then the reason you made only the parts exposed on the surface visible was….”
“For trap identification. Of course, only so the monsters can’t tell them apart and only we can.”
“And you installed the iron poles so obviously on purpose….”
“To hide the real trap, which was the stone wall.”
“A trap that’s visible is the bait, and the real one comes after it. And you even used the bait trap as a second-stage impact trap. Truly remarkable.”
The Hogriffons that flew in after them also smashed into the stone wall and were bounced back.
Many died with their necks broken on the spot, or, if they escaped instant death, lost their balance and fell onto the iron frames below, suffering severe injuries.
“Just like sparrows flying straight into a window. Tsk tsk. They’re monsters, sure, but I almost feel sorry for—no, actually I don’t! You should’ve dodged when you saw the fire wall!”
From the Hogriffons’ perspective, an invisible wall they couldn’t understand would be far more frightening than a visible wall of fire. Their crude brains could not easily imagine a wall hanging in empty air.
But among them were some that were not entirely stupid.
- Hogu! Hoguri!
Several gave up on flying and carefully landed along the edge of the steel frames.
They did not know the cause, but they had seen the result with their own eyes. If they kept flying like that, they would end up the same way.
Even among the same birdbrains, pigeons and crows have a huge difference in intelligence, huh. These must be the pretty smart ones among Hogriffons.
Like the horses, they circled around the steel-frame zone and ran on.
All right, now only the climax trap is left. It’s a little pitiful that they’re getting skewered like chicken skewers, but it can’t be helped. Human lives come before monsters!
With even the last scrap of pity folded away, Ho-yeong threw himself back into the operation.
By now, fewer than thirty percent of the Hogriffons remained.
“All right, horses, just keep running straight through! See that rock outcropping up ahead? That’s a transparent stone wall too, so just slip around it a lit-”
Before Ho-yeong could finish his instruction, someone was thrown from the saddle.
The rider at the very back had turned the wrong way and slammed into the rock outcropping.
“Who was that?”
Both horse and rider seemed injured, because neither could move.
“Wasn’t that Shrakhim?! That idiot!”