The Fortress Wall Comes Down

Among the soldiers of Anong Castle, Tae-hyun’s reputation was sky-high.

A count who, even in the middle of all this chaos, still tried to tune up their weapons as much as he could. What a hands-on, exemplary lord that was!

The archers all loved him.

But one man was miserable.

My... my score...!

The archers and mages of Anong Castle had been unleashing a relentless barrage, but Marquis Marden’s army was tenacious.

They kept pushing forward, stubbornly absorbing the damage as they advanced. A few of the giant undead monsters had already reached the wall and were slamming into it with deafening crashes, while the undead soldiers and vampires who’d made it to the base of the wall had begun launching whatever ranged attacks they could.

"They’re filling in the moat, setting up ladders... wow. This is a real mess."

"Is this really the time to sound so relaxed?!"

Rufo shouted as he cut down a vampire that had charged up onto the battlements.

There were simply too many of them, and with the enemy firing back from below, there was a limit to how well they could hold the top of the wall. More and more of them were starting to climb up.

"Don’t worry. The top of the wall won’t fall that easily. The problem’s below."

Tae-hyun pointed at Gu Sung-wook and Evangeline as he spoke.

In this narrow space, ranker-level players were already on standby with support buffs layered over them. A handful of vampires scrambling up the wall one at a time had no chance of breaking through.

Gu Sung-wook’s swordsmanship in particular was impressive enough to make even the other players stare in admiration.

"Cold! Cry’s! Sword!"

"What the hell is Cold Cry’s Sword?"

"Maybe that’s the skill name?"

"Weirdly cool, though."

The real place they had to watch was below.

Tae-hyun already had a pretty good idea why the vampires were making such a fuss climbing the walls.

They want us distracted from the ground, huh?

Harass the defenders on the wall while assaulting the wall and gate themselves. It was the textbook way to do it.

And in fact, they’d already cleared away a good portion of the moat and the obstacles around it.

Doesn’t matter.

Tae-hyun headed down with Rufo, Cain, and Jeong Su-hyeok.

If the gate broke, then it was time for the next method.

Kwaaaaaang! Kwang! Kwang!

The thick iron gate split apart with a shriek of tortured metal.

The vampire warriors and giant undead beasts that had reached the gate had launched a full assault. With black magic exploding on top of that, even a gate as thick as this couldn’t hold forever.

The knights of Anong Castle swallowed hard.

They were gathered before the gate with Count Anong, prepared to fight. The moment the gate broke, the battle would begin.

They knew the enemy was strong, but none of them had any intention of retreating.

"Do not fall back! I stand behind you!"

Count Anong boomed, his voice every bit as massive as the body attached to it.

At least on the surface, he looked like a veteran of a hundred battlefields.

Then a voice drifted over from behind them.

"Huh. Still not broken yet?"

"..."

The knights nearly stumbled over in disbelief.

At a moment like this, who killed the mood like that...?

"Count Kim Tae-hyun!"

"Yeah. Looked like the gate was about to go, so I came down."

He sounded as calm as if he’d just stepped out for a stroll.

But Count Anong only looked impressed.

"As expected! Still, my knights and I are more than enough to handle this. Just watch! By the end of today, the bards will be singing songs of my deeds!"

The instant he finished speaking, the gate finally shattered.

Kwoooooooom—

Dust billowed up, and from within it emerged vampire warriors, giant undead monsters, and...

Marquis Marden.

"...!"

"!!!"

"!!!!!!!"

Nobody needed words. Their faces alone said everything.

Tae-hyun understood immediately what had happened.

I pushed him too hard!

Marquis Marden’s rage had boiled so far past the limit it might as well have burst through his skull. He’d abandoned command in the rear and come charging all the way to the front himself.

If you were talking pure offensive power, that was the right move. But for a man like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Marquis Marden—obsessed with dignity, status, and appearances—hiding at the gate and bursting in personally was something he would never normally do.

That was how well Tae-hyun’s taunts had worked.

"You said you and your knights could handle him?"

"Naturally! Everyone, charge!"

Without a shred of hesitation, Count Anong drew his sword and charged. His entire body glowed from the mountain of buffs the priests and mages had piled onto him.

"Take this, you fallen vampire!"

"..."

But Marquis Marden didn’t even bother with Count Anong.

He simply kicked off the ground and vaulted straight over him.

"Wha—?! Running away? Come back here, coward!"

Count Anong was flustered, but Marquis Marden didn’t react in the slightest.

The only one in his sights was Tae-hyun.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"I’ll kill you! Vermin! I’ll kill you!"

"Wow, Your Marquisness, that’s some violent language."

Tae-hyun answered as he blocked Marquis Marden’s strike with Iron Wall.

The force behind it was so immense that even blocking sent him skidding backward.

Marquis Marden bared his twisted smile and said, "You’re trusting in the god you serve, aren’t you? Isn’t that so?"

"Well... more or less..."

"Vermin. Do you have any idea how long I have lived? You are from an entirely different plane of existence than a worm like you. Naturally, I have prepared methods for dealing with cowards who cling to gods!"

Tae-hyun tensed for a moment.

Come to think of it, Marquis Marden was a vampire who had once been struck by a weapon containing the power of an Avatar. Of course he would have prepared countermeasures afterward.

"In the mighty name of Cain, I declare it: I shall seal the flame of Sadiq that you bear! Let it return to the pitiful spark it was when you were human, before you became an Avatar!"

"...Now that sounds terrifying."

Inside, Tae-hyun silently thanked the Sadiq Church.

Then he charged.

He had already primed Lucky Strike, and he dove in with a chain of linked attack skills.

Critical hits came crashing down like a storm.

But Marquis Marden simply endured that level of assault head-on.

"How can this be?!"

"Because Sadiq is a stronger god than some vampire punk like you, Marquis Butt."

"Impossible...! Y-you verminous little...! Did you deceive the god you worship? How could you do such a thing?!"

"Strictly speaking, you’re the one who fooled yourself."

"Silence!"

"Besides, if I’m the Avatar, doesn’t that make me the god himself? If I want to fudge my own name a little, what are you gonna do about it?"

Tae-hyun answered flatly.

From the look of it, Marquis Marden’s skill couldn’t properly take hold unless he knew the target god’s exact name.

And if that was the case, Tae-hyun had nothing to fear.

"...Watch carefully, you filthy vermin. Before this night is over, you will die."

With that, Marquis Marden pulled back.

He had realized there was nothing to be gained from staying here alone. Powerful enemies surrounded him on all sides.

The moment he retreated toward the gate, Marquis Marden cast a recovery spell. Blood streamed out of the corpses of the mercenary troops nearby and poured into him, restoring his condition.

The players watching from the wall recoiled in disgust.

"Whoa. He’s like a cockroach..."

"That’s holy-knight-tier survivability."

"Aren’t vampires just a seriously disgusting race?"

Listening ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to them, Evangeline grumbled inwardly.

Why is it always vampires getting the hate...?

Once his body had recovered, Marquis Marden shouted.

The gate had been breached, after all. They had to press inward and fight inside the castle now.

"Make a path!"

Marquis Marden’s army surged forward like an arrow.

They climbed over the filled moat, smashed at the walls around the gate—

And then Tae-hyun gave the order.

"Everybody, fall back from the walls."

The soldiers and players abruptly retreated from the surrounding area.

Marquis Marden’s army was puzzled, but they didn’t stop.

When the enemy retreats, you press the attack. That was basic tactics.

And then disaster struck.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwa-KWAAAAAAANG!

A colossal explosion tore through the entire wall and gate at once, not from one section, but from everywhere.

The countless bombs hadn’t been hidden in the moat or on the approach path.

They had been planted inside the walls and gate themselves.

Every player present stared with their mouths hanging open.

Blowing up the entire front wall and gate of Anong Castle in one bold stroke—nobody had even imagined it.

No, even if they had imagined it, they could never have done it.

What lord in his right mind would ever allow something like that?

This was only possible because Tae-hyun’s connections ran that deep.

Rumble...

The army massed around the wall and gate was utterly annihilated.

Calling it a disaster wouldn’t have been an exaggeration.

The giant undead monsters were crushed beneath falling chunks of masonry. The mercenary troops tried to flee in panic, only to be swallowed by the explosion and blown apart.

The only ones who barely escaped were Marquis Marden, who had turned into mist, and a few vampires.

But even they had been left in miserable shape by the sheer scale of the blast.

Tae-hyun had packed those bombs with silver too, just to be vicious about it.

What was the price of silver to him?

If it could bring the enemy down, that was all that mattered.

"Hah..."

Looking at the completely ruined front of Anong Castle, Tae-hyun was honestly impressed with himself.

This was Mechanical Engineering.

People mocked it for being more limited and unstable than magic, but given enough materials and time, it could produce results magic would never even dream of.

Tae-hyun accepted Bae Jang-wook’s call and shared the screen of the area around him.

Bae Jang-wook blinked.

Something about Tae-hyun’s surroundings was... off.

A blazing ruin.

Mountains of enemy corpses piled around it.

Where the hell is this?

Bae Jang-wook was stunned all over again.

He was curious why Kim Tae-hyun was at Anong Castle in the first place, sure—but even more than that, he wanted to know why perfectly functional Anong Castle had been reduced to total wreckage.

"Um... we’re supposed to be starting the broadcast..."

"W-wait. Just a second. Let me ask one thing first."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Kim Su-a, who had been planning to start by taking viewers’ questions, spoke up awkwardly, but Bae Jang-wook waved her off.

As they talked, Bae Jang-wook immediately started searching.

Of course, the keywords were Anong Castle, quest, and Kim Tae-hyun.

The results flooded in instantly—videos, posts, clips.

Bae Jang-wook’s jaw dropped.

They’d agreed to take viewers’ questions, and yet Bae Jang-wook was the one hogging the mic.

Kim Su-a had no choice but to soothe the irritated viewers.