Chapter 182 – Guerrilla Warfare (1)

The Saintess and the Royal Court Mage. Two knights who were expected to become sword masters.

When they were with the hero, they were the ones who led the expeditionary force, sweeping away the Demon King’s army at the forefront, receiving everyone’s expectations. Now, they had become the dead, rushing to kill the very humans they once protected.

Instead of divine power and mana, a sinister aura emanated from their bodies as they charged forward.

It was natural for the dead to be moved by such an aura, but no one had expected that even the Saintess, who possessed divine power, would become a servant of the Demon King.

‘At least the hero died peacefully.’

But even these foes were overwhelming for us.

In this world, Yerim was called a Saintess, but she was merely a skilled priestess, not a true Saintess.

Zahina had regained some of her strength thanks to the wooden bracelet, but she had not fully recovered her original power as a Grand Mage.

Moreover, Yelena was not here either.

I had some confidence as a knight now, but I was not a hero with the divine power to destroy the sinister aura itself.

Honestly, I wasn’t confident I could defeat those two Death Knights, who were once part of the hero’s party.

Furthermore, they brought with them thousands of zombies.

If we fought the former hero’s party, there would be no way to stop those zombies.

“They seem to be heading south. They’re probably aiming for the safe zone.”

Fortunately, we didn’t have to worry about the zombies immediately.

As Hoffman said, the horde of zombies wasn’t charging towards us.

They continued to run south without changing direction. Even I could see that their goal was the safe zone in the south.

“We have no choice but to trust the safe zone and the people there.”

The safe zone, reinforced by Yerim, was still guarded by priests and apprentice knights.

Irene and Yelena were also there, but they were busy creating a gate, so they wouldn’t be able to help in the fight immediately.

For now, we had no choice but to trust the safe zone and the people there.

We had to believe that they would protect the safe zone and the gate magic circle until we returned.

“This is maddening.”

We came out here to protect the safe zone, and now we had to tell the people in the safe zone to protect it themselves.

It was a situation that made one sigh, but at least it was somewhat reassuring that the zombies heading there were ordinary ones.

Unlike skeletons, zombies wouldn’t be able to withstand the divine power of the safe zone.

“Tell Yelena. Inform her of the situation here and that a horde of zombies is heading their way.”

“Okay.”

Fortunately, Zahina was here to relay the situation to Yelena.

They probably sent the ordinary zombies to the safe zone because they would only be a hindrance and not helpful in the fight, but that gave us a way out.

It was clear that among them were undead who retained their intelligence even after death, but unfortunately, they didn’t seem to understand tactics.

During our journey, our party had many conversations.

On flights to and from the United States, while resting in Jeju Island, we shared many stories.

Thanks to that, we got to hear about Yerim’s university grades when she was the top student, learned the name of Hoffman’s son-in-law, and found out what kind of music Zahina liked.

I never expected it to be heavy metal, but anyway, we shared many stories.

Among those stories were discussions about how our party would fight.

Since we were a party formed for combat, it was only natural, and we discussed how we would fight in various situations.

When we clashed with a skeleton army on the plains, when we fought corpse mermaids in the swamp, and when we battled monster troops in the mountains.

We thought about and debated how our party would fight in various situations.

Among them was a discussion about how to fight against named undead in a city.

“Everyone remember? Urban guerrilla warfare.”

“Yes.”

“I remember.”

“Everything’s fine, but can we change the name? ‘Guerrilla’ makes us sound like the bad guys.”

Ignoring Yerim’s grumbling, we watched as the former hero’s party approached.

And when they got close to the apartment, I quickly grabbed Hoffman and leaped in the opposite direction.

Yerim also jumped over the apartment with Zahina.

After jumping over a few apartments, we landed and ran south.

We fled desperately towards the city center.

“What’s that? Are they just running away like that? I thought they might be a new hero party, but maybe I was wrong.”

Seeing them run away before even reaching the apartment, the Saintess of Death shook her head with a sad expression.

“Our hero never retreated, never gave up no matter what enemy came. These knights nowadays are really useless, don’t you think?”

The gray-haired Saintess sought agreement from the Death Knight beside her, but the skull inside the helmet gave no response.

In fact, the gray Saintess didn’t expect an answer.

Of course, even when they were alive, they were men of few words, but they were still steadfast and excellent knights. Now, they were just undead with their personalities stripped away.

Undead hastily created by the Demon King. Death Knights with only their skills left due to lack of time.

The same was true for the Lich following behind.

He was a magician well-versed in etiquette and had unusual greed, but now he was just a skeletal magician. A Lich.

“Why do I still have my memories and personality? Did the Demon King give me special treatment? Honestly, I wish I were just a mindless undead.”

In reality, it was because her divine power had protected her brain until the very end, but she didn’t know that.

And now that she had become a servant of the Demon King, knowing that fact would be meaningless.

The gray Saintess, who had been making a regretful expression, wiped her face and pointed at the apartment where the humans were.

“Destroy it.”

As soon as she spoke, the Lich behind her extended his skeletal hand.

A sinister aura erupted from the Lich’s hand, forming a dark magic circle in front of it.

Instead of a mana-made, splendid magic circle, a black magic circle formed by the sinister aura.

Click.

As if uttering a spell, the skeleton’s jaw clicked, and the magic was cast.

Flash.

Lightning burst from the magic circle.

Not blue lightning, but black lightning that darkened the surroundings.

The lightning struck the apartment in front of it, and

Kaboom!

The apartment hit by the lightning exploded.

A hole was blown through the middle of the 30-story apartment, and soon the building began to collapse.

Crash.

“Do you think I’m a fool? I fought alongside the hero for years. Whether they ran away or are planning to ambush us, it doesn’t matter. We just need to destroy the safe zone.”

If they hadn’t run away, they would have appeared when we destroyed the safe zone.

If they had just run away, there was no need to worry.

Moreover, even if they were planning an ambush, there was no need to worry.

When fighting the hero, we had blocked enemy ambushes more than once or twice.

And many ambushes ended before they even began.

Because the magician had eliminated all the environments where an ambush could take place.

“It seems it’s time to show the power of the Lich.”

The Lich hadn’t become stronger than when he was the court magician, but since his mana had turned into a sinister aura, the number of times he could cast spells had increased several times.

In this world, there was more sinister aura than mana, and his body, which would have been overloaded if he used too much, was now just bones.

There was no further growth, but the Lich was now as powerful as several of his former selves combined.

Flash!

Boom!

Lightning flashed again, and the apartment collapsed.

In the midst of this, several zombies running south were crushed by the collapsing building, but neither the Lich, the Saintess, nor the crushed zombies paid any attention.

Even after leaving the apartment complex, the Lich didn’t stop casting spells.

Instead, the Lich floated into the air and continued to rain lightning down on the ground.

Row houses and commercial buildings exploded, and the streets were engulfed in flames.

While running away from the apartment, we heard the sound of the building collapsing.

Looking back, black lightning was falling from the sky, and buildings were exploding one after another.

“Wow… that’s insane.”

As Yerim said, it was truly an insane display of magic.

Like a bomber’s carpet bombing, the Lich was sweeping through the city alone.

I had underestimated the enemy too much. It seemed they weren’t without their own plans.

There were several ways to prevent the urban guerrilla warfare we were about to engage in, but the easiest and most convenient method was to turn the city into ruins with carpet bombing.

By destroying the city itself, there would be no way to conduct guerrilla warfare.

Carpet bombing.

It was a method used by the United States in a past life and by the Imperial Royal Magician Corps.

Seeing the Lich doing it alone made me, like Yerim, think it was insane.

If this continued, guerrilla warfare would be impossible, but we had prepared a countermeasure.

If the enemy was going to bomb the ground with a bomber, we had a fighter jet.

“Please. Just buy us some time.”

“Leave it to me.”

In response to my request, Zahina answered confidently.

She had been practicing various expressions, so her expression was much more natural than before.

However, sometimes her expression didn’t quite match the situation, making it hard to tell what she was thinking.

This was one of those times.

I couldn’t tell if her answer meant she would buy us time or that she would handle it herself.

Leaving me puzzled, she soared into the sky.

Unlike the Lich, who floated in the air, Zahina flew naturally, riding the wind.

Boom!

As Zahina flew up, the black lightning heading for the ground shot up into the sky.

Black lightning streaking through the air.

But Zahina darted between the lightning bolts like a swallow.

Regardless of what her answer meant, seeing her fly like that made it clear she wouldn’t be easily defeated by the Lich.

Zahina had separated the Lich, but the enemies detected by mana sensing were still moving.

The Lich might have thought he could quickly deal with Zahina, or perhaps the magician thought it would be easier to handle us without her.

Either way, it didn’t matter.

With the bomber separated, it was time to start the operation.

“Hoffman. Show them what you’ve got.”

At my words, Hoffman nodded with a determined expression.

He had been struggling among the strong party members for a long time.

While protecting and assisting Yerim, he had been searching for his own role, but he hadn’t been much help in battles.

In fact, this time might have been the same.

He was a half-awakened, and the enemies were elite undead from the hero’s party.

But fortunately, this time there was a place for him to shine.

He was a ranger from a thief background, and this was a city full of buildings.

Moreover, he had a priestess by his side.

A priestess who could imbue arrows with divine power.

Hoffman, carrying arrows filled with divine power, melted into the shadows of the ruined city.