Chapter 129
Chapter 129
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: Ambush (3)
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It was time to offer the carrot after swinging the whip. No matter how much they were threatened, the mercenaries wouldn’t step into a position where death was all but certain. They had to stay alive first if they didn’t want to become deserters.
“Don’t worry. Even a mage is human in the end. Besides, we don’t need to kill that guy, right? Just tie his feet, and we can take down the orc plenty easily.”
“…….”
“We’ll join in too.”
“!”
“Feeling ready to fight now?”
“If that’s the case…….”
“Good. Head to Point B. We’ll link up there.”
Once the comms cut off, Joo Won-jun’s subordinate looked at him and asked.
“You’re really going to fight alongside them?”
Joo Won-jun had been meticulous about hiding his identity from the start. For him to say he’d fight personally was shocking.
“Are you insane?”
“…….”
“I have to put on a show like this to get the bullet sponges moving. They’re cowardly and greedy, but their skills are the real deal. If I push them hard enough, they can definitely take out that one orc.”
What Joo Won-jun was aiming for was a melee brawl. If he threw in all the gathered mercenaries and hunters and used up every weapon to sow chaos, even if Kim Suhyun was a mage, he wouldn’t be able to protect the orc forever. The moment a gap opened, he’d blow his head off.
‘He’s human, after all. He can’t block forever. Not with those numbers.’
* * *
Suhyun had his grudges, but the situation was the situation. U Shangkai asked in a sharp voice.
“We’re not pursuing?”
“What?”
“Pursuit! They’re not the only ones here. Shouldn’t we chase them down and catch them?”
His words sounded reasonable, but they carried the intent of making the others take the lead this time. With a solid justification, U Shangkai was confident.
“You want to pursue in this situation? Are you sane?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you see the traps I just found? You want to charge in after spotting those? Without knowing what’s waiting? Go ahead if you want. I’m not shoving my men into traps.”
“…!”
U Shangkai was at a loss for words. Not being ex-military, he struggled to respond in a situation like this.
“So what’s your plan?”
“We fall back and wait.”
“?”
Suhyun’s response was unexpected. U Shangkai pressed, unable to understand.
“Why?”
“We have zero reason to rush. They snuck in here covertly, but we didn’t. They’re the ones getting antsy. They know dragging this out could bring Chinese or Russian forces.”
“…!”
Suhyun was chillingly cold-blooded. U Shangkai had been thinking of immediately tracking the attackers after their overwhelming victory in the skirmish, but Suhyun wasn’t drunk on the win at all—he was already calculating the next move.
“Plus, this spot is just as good for them to dig traps as it is for us.”
* * *
“What the hell? Why aren’t they moving?”
“They fell back, apparently?”
“What?”
And Suhyun’s decision threw off Joo Won-jun’s expectations too. He’d figured they’d charge in right away after linking up with the Chinese and winning the last clash, but they were pulling away instead.
‘This bastard?!’
Shouldn’t a young mage act with some confidence and arrogance? For someone who’d risen that high at his age, this was excessively cautious.
‘This screws up my calculations…….’
They couldn’t hold out here long. They’d slipped into the Haimken zone via bribes and deals, but if word reached the governments and time dragged on, armies would swarm in. They could die before even facing a Korean trial.
He’d planned for them to rush to the set point, trigger the traps to sow chaos, then kill the orc……
“No choice. We move.”
“Alright. Let’s go!”
‘Idiot bastards.’
Joo Won-jun inwardly sneered as the mercenaries, who’d serve as bullet sponges, shouted with gusto. With his calculations off, he had no choice but to get directly involved. The enemy wasn’t to be underestimated.
“Pull out the corpses.”
“Yes, sir.”
The reason he was called a necromancer was simple. He could raise and control corpses. It was straightforward, but the results varied wildly depending on how they were used.
Shiiiik—
Corpses preserved in cryo-storage on the transport robot’s back were extracted. They weren’t mere bodies—they were artificial monsters made by mixing monster flesh with enhancers.
“You sure it’s okay? Using your power here?”
“I’m not the only necromancer in the world.”
“Still, it could raise suspicions.”
“What can they do, suspect me? This one’s off the government’s books. If it gets out, I’ll just deny it.”
Not content with just enhancers, the corpses were thinly coated in altaranium. They could withstand modern weaponry and even superpowers a few times.
‘Superpowered folks are vulnerable to this stuff.’
They always relied on their powers working, so when they didn’t on charging foes, they panicked easily.
That’d hold for a mage too.
“Bring the prepared stuff as is. If they don’t come here, we’ll deliver it ourselves.”
* * *
Meanwhile, Suhyun’s team wasn’t idle. They busied themselves preparing for battle. The Chinese superpowered escorts, specialized only in protection, weren’t skilled at setting traps.
“Sung-jae, this spot good?”
“Yeah, set it there and pull back.”
Explosives expert Jung Sung-jae camouflaged it convincingly before withdrawing.
“What’s the team leader doing up front?”
“He said stay back since it’s poison…….”
Suhyun was moving up front with Seo Gang-seok. Suhyun nodded approvingly at the traps the hunter-born Seo Gang-seok had set.
“Nice work.”
“Thank you.”
“They’ll grind their teeth if they hit these.”
“Self-inflicted.”
Seo Gang-seok showed no hesitation facing his old comrades. He’d already made his peace.
“They’ve probably taken antidotes. They’d know I’m here.”
“But it won’t matter, right?”
“Yes. I’m not the old me anymore.”
As they talked, Goo Jung-chul swallowed hard with a tense expression.
-I’m not planning anything too tough for you. Just hold position here and guard this orc. Block anyone who tries to hit it. Hold the line.
-M-Me, sir?
-Yeah, you.
Suhyun placed a hand on Goo Jung-chul’s shoulder.
-I trust you.
-…!
He didn’t even trust himself that much, so Goo Jung-chul couldn’t fathom what Suhyun saw in him to entrust this. Clutching his pounding heart, he glared ahead, trying to calm down.
“They’re coming.”
“Where from?”
“They’re using their heads. Drones.”
Suhyun had been observing likely approach points with Remote Viewing. Before the mercenaries showed, he spotted something launching and smirked.
“They figured we’d trigger it if they came on foot…… Sorry to disappoint.”
It looked like they were sending via drone what they’d originally planned to detonate on approach as a last resort. Fast-moving drones were hard to shoot down, and once close, downing them would cause the same explosion.
“Shouldn’t we block it?!”
“It’s poison anyway.”
Suhyun pulled out an artifact and slipped it onto his finger. One from Louiril’s collection—a Magic Missile artifact.
Puck!
One drone exploded mid-range before even closing in. Thick white smoke billowed out.
“Poison confirmed.”
“Damn it. That X mage bastard…… Move!”
They already knew Seo Gang-seok was with Suhyun’s team. Knowing his skills well, Joo Won-jun had shelled out for high-end antidotes for everyone. The poison on the drones was no exception.
‘He can’t shoot down all the drones!’
“Slippery bastard.”
Watching via Remote Viewing as Joo Won-jun fell back, Suhyun clicked his tongue. He’d hoped they’d charge so he could end it here…… But the guy’s superpower allowed ranged fights.
For now, it was time to handle the others.
The drones burst in the sky all at once. Poison dispersed into the air, blanketing Suhyun’s men and the Chinese indiscriminately. Seeing that, the attackers charged through the trees.
“?!?!”
“Poison wasn’t gonna cut it.”
“No way!”
The white smoke was sucked straight into Suhyun’s hand in an instant. They knew he was a telekinesis user, but no one imagined he could do that. It defied human control.
‘How?!’
Their view cleared completely. The mercenaries cursed and hid behind the massive corpses Joo Won-jun had raised.
Scattered superpower exchanges erupted at range. Suhyun’s side had solid defenses with no casualties, and the attackers kept mobile to avoid hits too.
Until one unlucky mercenary hit the first trap.
“Aaaagh!”
“!”
“Trap!”
“They set traps in the meantime?!”
“Don’t freak out! Pop a rapid regen shot!”
Troll-blood-based ultra-fast regen serum. Mercenaries like these always prepped for quick injection. But even after injecting, it had no effect. The wound melted away instead.
“Seo Gang-seok, you son of a……!”
Suhyun’s team had only one poison expert in mind: Seo Gang-seok. Assessing via his controlled corpses, Joo Won-jun ground his teeth.
“Push! Stopping now means more losses!”
Everyone but him and a few others was in the field. The attackers didn’t even notice Joo Won-jun pulling back amid the chaos.
“Charge, you dumb bastards!”
Hearing Joo Won-jun’s voice over comms, the mercenaries gritted their teeth. They knew, but hearing it again boiled their blood.
Fortunately, they still had reliable firepower.
Boom!
Three massive corpses Joo Won-jun raised broke through traps and reached the line. The Chinese unleashed superpowers immediately, but the corpses swung arms to weather it. They reflexively squeezed their eyes shut.
-Kraaaang!
“!”
“Bite!”
At Shaina’s shout, the Posukan tiger lunged ferociously. It wasn’t alone—Shaina’s shadow beast followed.
Puck!
After telekinetically blocking a distant sniper shot and redirecting the bullet to cut the sniper’s breath short, Suhyun turned back. As expected, Joo Won-jun’s specialty: corpse control. A real pain depending on the situation.
But Suhyun trusted his team.
‘Two are held by Shaina and the tiger. The last one…….’
He prioritized distant sniping or bombardment to maintain formation, but if Mallock seemed at risk, that took precedence. Suhyun kept his gaze ready to shift back.
“This bastard, why’s he so tough?!”
“It’s a necromancy corpse! Don’t treat it like a normal human!”
Seo Gang-seok instantly identified it and warned the team. Necromancy corpses resisted poison well. Even superpower poison only melted parts off.
“Head to Mallock! Block it!”
Failing to pin its feet with bullets and superpower artifacts, the men charged with curses. Goo Jung-chul was left alone.
But Goo Jung-chul charged stubbornly.
Boom!
“!?”
The thing that uprooted trees easily was blocked outright by Goo Jung-chul—big as he was, still just human—and Joo Won-jun’s eyes widened.
“What?!”
Boom, boom, boom!
Goo Jung-chul covered his face with his arms and advanced like a boxer. The corpse swung a massive fist, but it only thudded dully without stopping him.
‘Thanks, Joo Won-jun. This’ll make Goo Jung-chul truly grasp his power.’
Crisis was opportunity. No matter how much Suhyun drilled him, Goo Jung-chul couldn’t fully trust his ability. True conviction came from clashing with a real foe in combat.
“…!”
It didn’t hurt. Goo Jung-chul’s eyes widened as he swung a fist. The force started pushing the corpse back.
“T-This…….”
All his trusted cards were neutralized or pinned. For the first time, Joo Won-jun felt cold sweat on his back.
‘The corpses are tied up, snipers and anti-monster rockets…… All taken out?! Just mercenaries left…….’
Shotgun blasts erupted from trees, and a poisoned mercenary groaned as he collapsed. They’d tried approaching amid the corpse’s disruption, but the traps were no joke. They’d planned to heal minor hits with serums and charge, but Seo Gang-seok’s poisons exceeded expectations.
Mercenary forces were nearly halved.
‘It’s impossible!’
“No, this crazy…….”
Even amid the whirlwind, Suhyun tracked Joo Won-jun’s movements and spat a curse.
He was fleeing.
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