The Accelerating Wave
“Kraaaaak!”
Draco, who hadn’t opened his jaws once since waking, dropped his lower jaw the instant the order came.
Fire Breath
Crimson flames swallowed the raptors. A savory roasting scent spread as black smoke billowed upward.
“Karurururuk…….”
The raptors’ screams drowned in the firestorm. The wide sheet of flame incinerated more than a dozen of them outright, while those only brushed by the heat whimpered and scrambled desperately to get away.
Far stronger than the combined magic Ingrid had unleashed!
【That fire is rather scorching. Did you truly craft an undead of such power with a ghoul as its base?】
【If the Witch Coven had seen Draco, they would have fainted on the spot!】
Heh.
Heheheh.
Even the Continent’s Greatest Sword and the strongest of the Witch Coven were tossing out gasps of admiration. My cheek kept twitching upward.
Roughly a third of the raptors had taken moderate-to-light wounds from Ingrid’s magic. Half had been ruined by Draco’s breath. Most of the monsters guarding the stronghold had become casualties without ever getting to swing a claw.
“Karurururu!”
The survivors stretched their heads forward and charged at full speed.
“Draco. Hit them with another one.”
“Kraaaa?”
Why the question mark?
【His mana’s completely drained.】
Ah.
【It seems he empties his entire reserve in a single exhalation.】
Ugh.
“Grrrrr.”
Draco tilted his head.
“I’m not scolding you.”
“Grrrr!”
He shook his head up and down with vigorous enthusiasm. Watching him was exactly like looking at Happy, the dog we kept back home.
“Dame Isra.”
【I have been awaiting your command!】
Mana Release flared from both of Dame Isra’s legs as she took the lead.
【Knights of the Order—escort our lord!】
“Guuuk.”
Five Armed Zombie Warriors stepped forward to form a wall.
【We won’t be outdone either.】
“Keh-keh-keh.”
Ingrid and the Skeleton Mages began rearranging their mana.
“Grrr!”
“You go fight too.”
The moment Draco heard the order, he slammed his legs into the ground with everything he had.
Thud-KRAANG!
A single leap kicked up a cloud of dirt. Fast. Fast enough not to fall behind Dame Isra even while she was using Mana Release.
“Karururu!”
Shunk!
Hook-like raptor claws stabbed into Draco. A few scales cracked under the impact, and the talons punched through skin and muscle hardened by rigor mortis.
The next instant—
“Grrrr.”
The raptor that had driven its claws into his forearm became a raptor torn in half.
The monster, ripped clean down the middle by that brutal grip, flopped wetly onto the dirt.
“Karururu!”
“Karuk!”
Two more raptors dove in and sank their teeth into his flanks. Teeth sharper than any carefully honed blade. Just like the claws, they sank in with almost no resistance. The raptors clenched their lower jaws, trying to tear free a chunk of his body.
But he didn’t budge.
“Kah-huh-huh?”
One raptor managed a questioning cry—just as the other one failed to answer at all, its head ripped clean off by Draco.
Puhahahak!
“Grrr.”
The second raptor met the exact same fate.
“Tough little guy.”
Whether the raptors stabbed him or not, he simply tanked the hits and counterattacked. Against a type like Dame Isra—high attack power and high agility—he would struggle. But raptors weren’t that smart. Monsters that moved purely on a hunter’s instinct. What good did it do to bite a vital point when the target was undead?
【I believe we ought to teach him a more dignified method of combat.】
“He’s playing to his strengths.”
【Ahem. A retainer of yours, Sir, ought to possess the dignity befitting that station.】
I never particularly cultivated dignity myself, you know.
After we put down every last raptor, I set foot on the hilltop.
First Stronghold secured.
Wave spawn point has changed to the Second Stronghold.
Monster wave timer has been accelerated.
00:57:31 → 00:27:31
So taking a stronghold makes the next wave arrive sooner. Blood-drying work.
What if we seized a stronghold without leaving ourselves any reserves? Get pushed back by the second wave and everything becomes wasted effort. We’d have burned stamina and mana for nothing—an outright negative for clearing the gate.
“So this is why people say wave-type gates are a nightmare.”
【Worry not. You have me, Isra, at your side.】
【There is more than enough time to recover the mana we spent.】
“Grrrr.”
Twenty minutes would refill maybe half of his remaining mana at best. A shame he couldn’t fire at full output.
No—wait. I should check exactly how much firepower he produces depending on remaining mana.
“You learn fastest by going through real combat.”
As expected. The old saying wasn’t wrong: train as if it were real battle, fight as if it were training.
“G-Guui-dong Necromancer!”
A tank from the Phoenix Guild came running up, gasping for breath. Good grief. He hadn’t even finished healing the wounds from the last wave.
“You people should rest.”
“Excuse me?”
“I can handle the waves alone.”
I wasn’t about to make the injured fight, so they needed to catch their breath. They looked ready to collapse as it was.
【You are merciful even to those who spoke so foully.】
Eh, that barely counts as an insult. Compared to the scorn I ate for five years, it’s practically endearing. Besides—
“A man ought to keep at least one insurance policy.”
If my retainers alone weren’t enough to clear the place, I would put those friends to work. Hunters ought to help each other out, right?
The Phoenix Guild—one of the domestic top five. Kim Youngsu, a C-class hunter, had always taken pride in his affiliation.
Just joining Phoenix was enough to put you in the top one percent of hunters! Even if they had recently lost face over the high-difficulty gate called Primitive Tide, that pride had never broken.
Or so he had believed.
What the hell is that guy?
Park Minho. The rookie hunter who had stopped a Gate Break in the middle of Seoul. When Youngsu had watched the body-cam footage released on broadcast, it hadn’t left much of an impression. Summon-type hunters never excelled with their own bodies—that was only natural. To them, a summon’s power was the hunter’s power.
He just got lucky and landed a strong summon, that’s all.
Youngsu was different. Not luck—skill. His talent had been recognized, he had entered the Phoenix Guild, and he had never stopped training as he hunted monsters. He had even volunteered for the infamous hell training of the Phoenix Guildmaster and clenched his teeth through every second of it. Other C-class hunters didn’t even register in his eyes. Climbing higher—that would be him.
That was what he had thought.
【This reptile is rather cunning.】
【Don’t casually change its species. Master told us they’re Primitive-types.】
【Is that not simply how they classify ancient creatures?】
【Huh. Sharp for an iron-head.】
A raptor that had been nimbly dodging attacks and hunting only openings suddenly—
Imperial Sword Style — Modified Isra Form
Slash!
—offered its own neck to the blade as if presenting a gift.
Solar Eclipse
⊳ Flame Beat × 3
⊳ Wind Cutter × 3
⊳ Modification — Pressure
Puhahahak!
Blades that resembled Wind Cutters yet glowed a deep crimson sliced through tough hide with ease.
“Grrrr!”
Fire Breath
What sent an even deeper chill down Youngsu’s spine was the fire belched by that strangely shaped undead. Raptors struck head-on by the flames toppled without even a chance to resist.
“Anna. Raptors are weak to fire, right?”
“I know what you’re trying to ask, and no—I can’t put out that kind of firepower.”
Anna, a fellow C-class and rival, answered in a prickly tone and shook her head. If she could have produced that much heat, they wouldn’t have struggled against raptors in the first place. Youngsu let out a low groan at her sharp reply.
When he said he’d clear the strongholds alone, I didn’t believe him.
They had already spent days grinding themselves down inside the nightmare gate known as Primitive Tide. Poisoned tempers were already high when a D-class hunter riding a recent wave of fame had stepped forward without a shred of fear. Youngsu had said something out of concern that bungling a stronghold would bring the damage down on them.
Misjudgment.
Damage?
Second Stronghold secured.
Wave spawn point has changed to the Third Stronghold.
Monster wave timer has been accelerated.
01:17:52 → 00:47:52
……
Without any help from the Phoenix Guild, the man had blocked the waves alone, then gone on the offensive and secured stronghold after stronghold in succession. Something even the Phoenix C-class hunters rotating in and out of combat had failed to achieve—accomplished by a hunter who, by all estimates, had only recently ranked up to D-class.
I’m still a long way off.
A truly brilliant hunter… looked like this. Kim Youngsu had no choice but to realize it, far too late.
“I think I finally get why people turn pale at the mention of wave-type gates.”
【Why is that?】
Schlick!
Dame Isra pulled her sword free from a raptor’s body and asked.
“There’s just too many of them.”
Shameless raptor swarm tactics. The more strongholds we secured, the more raptors poured in with each wave. Climbing from the first to the second stronghold had brought about sixty. The next wave brought eighty. Right after we took the fourth stronghold, the count blew past a hundred.
【I’m sorry. It’s my fault we keep having to rest.】
Ingrid twisted her body this way and that. After every stronghold fell, we always had to stop. With the wave timer accelerating, getting hit by a wave while assaulting the next stronghold would be a disaster. And of course we needed to recover spent mana as well.
“Grrrr.”
Draco gave a low rumble of his own.
【Hmph. To become a drag on our lord.】
【Listen, iron-head. I know you burned through your mana too.】
【Even without mana I can swing a sword as much as I please.】
【Without body reinforcement or Mana Release you’d be shredded in seconds.】
【Would you care to taste my blade?!】
They still had energy to spare, apparently. I pretended not to notice my two retainers bickering and glanced back.
The Phoenix hunters trailed after us in a subdued atmosphere. Every face looked uncomfortable.
【It seems even they know shame.】
【Hmph. How dare they look down on Master. Next time they try it, I’ll slap their mouths shut with a Flame Beat.】
Please at least hold off on the preemptive strikes. Those friends are our insurance, so let’s treat them nicely.
After blocking one more wave, we reached the Fifth Stronghold.
【At last the end of this journey comes into view.】
【Shall we open with a big hit this time as well?】
“Let’s.”
Monsters at a stronghold never attacked first. They held their position and only retaliated once struck. Just as we had done every time so far, starting with a heavy opening blow was the advantageous play.
While Ingrid rearranged her mana—
“Karururuk!”
A specimen about one and a half times larger than the other raptors poked its head out beyond the hill.
A mutant?
The raptor, its entire body dyed blue, fixed its eyes on us—then let out a monstrous cry and leapt down the hillside.
“Karururu!!”