Tower Defense (4)
Over the battlefield, ash and tongues of flame drifted on the wind.
The gleaming pupils of a dragon and its blood-red wings tore open the sky.
Standing upon that back was none other than Kim Jun.
“K-Kim Jun?”
“W-why is he here…?”
Han Seojin’s self-proclaimed rival, Kim Jun.
He was famous for being on bad terms with the Cheongryong Guild.
No one knew why he had appeared here, but it didn’t seem like he’d come for revenge.
And behind Kim Jun’s back—
“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
“That guy is… Jo Minjae?”
“Minjae? Minjae, is that you?”
—there was Jo Minjae.
“Talk later.”
Kim Jun lifted his greatsword.
Then—
Cha-cha-cha-chak—!
He loosed a blade aura.
The earth split in a straight line.
The sword aura did not stop.
It pierced through the charging wraith knights, swept away the undead horde, and kept going until it struck the Gate that continued to spew out monsters.
Even the ones that hadn’t managed to emerge yet.
In an instant, hundreds of them turned to ash and vanished.
“T-that’s the same S-rank…?”
“When did he get that strong?”
Kim Jun. Kim Jun. Kim Jun.
Anyone from the Cheongryong Guild had heard that name so often it was enough to make them neurotic.
Han Seojin had practically worn it into the ground.
“A rival…?”
“What a load of crap.”
But looking at him now, the word rival felt laughable.
“Infernal Dragon Breath.”
As Kim Jun raised his sword, a colossal phantom dragon slowly took shape behind him.
Blood-red scales and wings, golden eyes that flashed like lightning. It was only a translucent spiritual body, but its presence was no different from the real thing.
The dragon opened its jaws wide.
Kwoooooooaaargh—!!
*
Kim Jun had no desire to do this.
But—
“Please, please, just my comrades…”
Jo Minjae’s desperate voice shook something in him.
He had no reason to help.
And yet, seeing Jo Minjae kneel before him in front of everyone else, begging for his comrades without caring who watched, Kim Jun could feel the sincerity in it.
It wasn’t as if he had planned to let them die anyway.
Even if he didn’t care for them, the subordinates themselves were innocent. The long-standing feud with the Cheongryong Guild was all because of Han Seojin.
“Kim, Kim Jun Hunter-nim…”
Ryu Aran stepped forward.
“Thank you. I don’t know how I can ever repay this kindness…”
“It’s been a while.”
Kim Jun’s voice softened noticeably.
He didn’t hate everyone in the Cheongryong Guild.
Ryu Aran, especially, was different.
The few times they had met at official Hunter Association events, she had been the complete opposite of Han Seojin.
Polite. Careful. Reasonable.
“I don’t know the details of your situation,” Kim Jun said, his tone heavy, “but a leader is a position where you have to carry more than anyone else. If you’re under someone unworthy, then in the end, all the pain falls on the people following them.”
It was a short statement, but it carried weight.
Whether she was a collateral branch of the Woondong Group or whatever was going on inside some chaebol family, that wasn’t Kim Jun’s concern.
There was only one thing he knew for certain.
Han Seojin was unfit to lead.
Ryu Aran closed her eyes for a moment, then gave a slow nod.
“…I’ll remember that.”
The answer was brief. Still, it rang clearly.
Kim Jun said no more. That was enough.
“This wave is over. Everyone, hurry back.”
As he turned away, voices burst out from all around him.
“Could you… maybe help us clear the rest too?”
“Yes, Kim Jun Hunter-nim. If you were with us, then…”
Fzzzt.
One sharp glance cut the words off dead.
The air itself seemed to freeze under the pressure of that look.
“H-hic…”
If he’d saved them, they shouldn’t have asked for more than that.
Human nature was to want more the moment it received anything at all.
But Kim Jun had no intention of indulging that.
The remaining Cheongryong Guild members supported one another and hurried down the mountain path.
Kim Jun also slowly turned and headed back toward his own stronghold.
Then—
Ping-!
Left the command fortress! Return within 1 minute!
Automatic disqualification if you remain away for more than 10 minutes!
“W-what do we do? We’ve already walked quite a way…”
Jo Minjae looked at Kim Jun in a panic.
“Minjae.”
“Yes?”
“Can you handle speed?”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to—”
Before he could even ask what Kim Jun meant, Kim Jun seized his shoulder tightly.
“Hold on.”
Swoosh—
Blood-red wings spread wide.
“Acceleration.”
Fasasasasasak—!
Explosive thrust.
The scenery was ripped backward at a speed that made it feel as if his vision itself were tearing apart.
“Uwaaaaaaah!”
*
Wave 30 begins: 10,000 B-rank Terracotta Warriors
Kwoooooooaaargh—!
The Gate ripped open as if being torn apart, and a gray army flooded out of the black mist.
Their armor, spears, and shields all looked as though they had been shaped from clay and stone.
Their movements were mechanical, and not a trace of living energy could be felt from them.
“Terracotta warriors….”
Kim Jun’s eyes narrowed.
From wave 30 to wave 39, the battle unfolded like the entire tomb of Qin Shi Huang had been resurrected.
They surged forward like a tide, but these monsters were different from the ones before them.
Clack. Clack. Clack. Clack.
A chilling military discipline.
The sound of thousands of feet shook the battlefield like one vast, unified pulse.
And soon, the difference became clear.
Ping-!
At the front of the entrance, the archer towers unleashed a rain of arrows.
But the terracotta warriors simultaneously raised their shields overhead.
Thudududuk-!
Even as arrows poured down like rain, the massive wall of shields swallowed every attack.
While that was happening, the soldiers in the rear pulled out bodies one by one and cleared the passage.
“So that’s it… they’re under command.”
Kim Jun muttered under his breath.
Until now, the monsters had relied on instinct and charged in mindlessly.
But these were different.
As if some invisible general were shouting orders from behind them, they advanced with precise, orderly movement.
They pierced the blind spots of the archer towers, cleared away the walls of corpses, and the terracotta army pushed one step deeper, then another.
This isn’t just a numbers game.
Kim Jun’s gaze naturally drifted toward the center of the maze.
A wide-open empty zone.
The kill zone he had deliberately created by letting monsters funnel in and gather there.
“Jia.”
“I know!”
Atop the spire of the command fortress, lightning and fire gathered in both of Ryu Jia’s hands.
“Meteor!”
Chiiiiiiik—!
The sky turned red.
A massive fireball descended slowly, but with absolute certainty.
Kwoooooooaaargh—!
The moment the meteor struck the center of the maze, a monstrous detonation swallowed the battlefield.
The terracotta shield soldiers, formed from earth and stone, shattered into pieces, and the dust storm surged outward like a hurricane.
Ten ranks, then twenty, collapsed in a chain reaction.
“Nice….”
But they couldn’t stop there.
Once the upgrades were complete, the changes were immediate.
Whoosh, whoosh—!
The arrows from the Lv.2 archer towers drove in far deeper than before, slowly beginning to punch through the terracotta warriors’ thick shields.
Bang! Bang!
The cannon towers now bombarded any enemy that came into range.
Each time a shell fell, a huge hole was blasted through the terracotta ranks, and clumps of earth sprayed in every direction.
“You can all just stand there and watch! This is my stage now!”
From the tip of the spire, Ryu Jia spread both arms wide.
In that instant, dozens of magic circles layered over one another in the sky.
Chijijijik-!
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—!
Fireballs, lightning spears, shards of ice, blades of wind…
Projectiles of different elements rained down at once, blanketing the terracotta army.
Kwagagagak!
Kwoooaang—!
Kukukukuung—!
As hundreds, then thousands of spells poured down like a storm of needles, even the terracotta warriors holding shields over their heads began collapsing one rank at a time.
The soldiers’ formation was shredded apart by dust and explosions, and fragments flew everywhere.
“Haa, haa…! Not yet!”
Even while gasping for breath, Ryu Jia did not stop.
The whole maze became a hurricane of composite magic, where flames and lightning, frost and blades crossed and intertwined.
The terracotta warriors’ orderly march wavered and fell apart in an instant.
And so waves 31, 32, and 33 went down.
Before even half the square had been crossed, thousands of terracotta warriors had already been reduced to heaps of mud.
“Meteor!”
“Inferno Trinity!”
Ryu Jia’s wide-area spells continued to pour down in succession.
As the flames and thunder she unleashed spread like a storm, the terracotta warriors entering the kill zone toppled one after another, crumbling back into earth and muck.
“Wow… are there even going to be any monsters left for us?”
“Let’s just stay quiet and not get in the way….”
People clicked their tongues in awe, but—
Clack-clack-clack-clack—
From wave 35 onward, the situation changed.
Behind the fallen terracotta warriors, more of them kept pouring in.
Neither the tower attacks nor Ryu Jia’s bombardment could hold them back anymore.
“They’re coming.”
“Everyone, get ready!”
At last, thousands of terracotta warriors broke through the maze and arrived at the front of the encircled square.
Their eyes were filled with killing intent.
Kwoooooaang!
As the shield-bearing terracotta warriors reached the towers, Kim Jun drew his greatsword.
“Get ready. From here on out, it’s our turn.”
The nine hunters all sprang into action at once.
“Rampart!”
“Holy Ground!”
“Frenzied Assault!”
Their skills burst like fireworks, cutting down the surging terracotta warriors one after another.
Kim Jun led the charge, spreading his blood-red wings as he swept forward.
Chwaaaak-!
With one strike, dozens of terracotta warriors were split into a single clean line.
Then came waves 36, 37, 38, and 39.
The square was filled with endless heaps of mud and flames.
The towers fired without pause, and the hunters cut down enemies that came at them without giving them a second to breathe.
Wave 40.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
The earth trembled as if it were about to collapse, and enormous shadows drew near.
An Ogre Lord, Death Knights in black armor, and a flock of wyverns that blotted out the sky.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Those aren’t B-rank! They’re all A-rank!”
The screams and fear of the newly joined hunters spilled out, but there was nowhere to retreat.
“Don’t panic! We’ve got the strongest tanker on Earth!”
Park Minsu planted himself on the front line and slammed his shield into the ground.
Then—
Kwoooooooaaargh—!!!
As Kim Jun raised a hand, a breath of blood-red flame split the sky.
Infernal Dragon Breath.
The wyvern flock was swept into the blaze all at once.
Immediately afterward, the cannon towers’ bombardment tore through the air and shattered the Ogre Lord formation to pieces.
Wave cleared: Wave 49
Whoooooo…
A thick fog spread across the square.
A chill settled over the shoulders of the hunters as they caught their breath.
Kim Jun’s brow tightened.
It was a familiar pressure.
“It’s here.”
Kim Jun’s gaze turned cold.
The beast that had remained unbroken through a single challenge before his regression.
Leviathan.
This time, it’s different.
33