Chapter 81 – Surrounded (3)

A skeleton laughing gleefully at the Apostle who was one step from death.

If it hadn’t laughed, I would never have known that skeleton was the lich.

But being more than an ordinary skeleton, the lich had to show itself.

As liches claim they remain the same as when they were living mages, unlike other skeletons, the lich had emotions.

Though not always successful, we had found liches that way in the other world too.

Even now, though the cowardly lich had disguised itself as an ordinary skeleton after seeing its enemy flee, it couldn’t hide those emotions.

Well, the current situation was worth laughing about.

It was funny that the safe zone’s cleric who should be in the safest place had come right out front,

And from the lich’s perspective, it was amusing that he was dying from a human-made bullet.

The holy power supporting the safe zone was shaking violently, and with the cleric unconscious and unable to heal himself, soon they could sweep through the safe zone after its holy power disappeared.

Certainly the current situation would be very pleasing to the lich who had moved south avoiding the safe zone.

“But what a shame, our party is here too.”

Unfortunately for the lich, there was another cleric here besides the Apostle.

Though the unconscious Apostle couldn’t heal himself, the reason he hadn’t died immediately was because of another cleric, Yerim.

Though the wound was too severe to heal completely right here, it was enough to keep him alive.

And our party didn’t just have a cleric.

“Plus, you’re not the only one with a gun, or a sniper.”

I signaled to Zahina with my eyes.

‘Zahina, target!’

Zahina immediately understood my eye signal.

“The skeleton opening its mouth and shaking its body right now?”

Zahina had already shouldered her gun and was aiming at the target.

When she saw me nod, she immediately pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang!

When Zahina pulled the trigger, several mana-imbued bullets flew toward the skeleton.

The bullets flying like light rays shattered an invisible wall blocking right in front of the skeleton.

Crash!

With the sound of breaking glass, sparks flew in empty air and the skeleton tumbled to the ground.

Though it was quick and excellent shooting, Zahina frowned seeing the tumbled skeleton.

“A mana barrier?”

I clicked my tongue at Zahina’s words. I felt the same disappointment.

“Well, it is a mage after all. I thought it might be more careless in a different world, but unfortunately it had basic defenses up.”

If there hadn’t been a mana-made barrier, this shot could have finished the lich…

Unfortunately I didn’t have such luck.

After seeing the lich yesterday, I had thought of several ways to deal with it with party members.

What I just directed Zahina to do was one of them.

A single surprise attack we could use before the lich knew we had guns and a shooter who could imbue bullets with mana.

Though it unfortunately failed due to the mage’s mana barrier, it wasn’t without effect.

After the lich tumbled to the ground, its form was no longer visible.

This was because skeletons had swarmed to where the lich had been, creating a sea of people, no, a sea of bones.

Not only was it impossible to find it mixed among the skeletons, but the lich was probably already gone from there.

I put the scratched shield in my pouch and stood up.

“Eh, what are you doing putting away the shield now.”

Yerim behind me cried out in surprise, but I waved my hand to reassure her.

“Don’t worry and focus on treating the Apostle.”

“But there are zombies, no, undead right in front!”

“The Demon King’s army will retreat.”

“What?”

Yerim made a puzzled expression at my words, but her expression quickly changed.

Because as I said, the Demon King’s army retreated.

It wasn’t the orderly movement the Demon King’s army had shown before.

Like an uncontrolled zombie horde, the Demon King’s army surged backward.

Soon after, the road that had been full of undead was empty.

The death energy coloring the sky retreated far away, and the flames burning in empty air disappeared.

“What happened?”

“As you can see, the Demon King’s army retreated.”

“No, why did they retreat?”

“The lich was just attacked. Though it probably wasn’t hurt, a coward like that wouldn’t stand firm after being attacked.”

Though that stability-oriented personality made us fail to catch it every time in the other world, its personality was also a big help in blocking the Demon King’s army’s advance.

Back then, we could make the Demon King’s army temporarily retreat by sending small guerrilla units against it.

Though most of the guerrilla units that jumped into enemy territory didn’t return, thanks to them we could buy time.

“Wow… That’s really fortunate. So are we safe now?”

Yerim who had been watching that scene with surprised eyes asked me with sparkling eyes.

“That can’t be. To talk about safety, at least you need to save the Apostle first.”

At my words, she put more strength into her hands on the Apostle’s chest.

“I am treating him hard! But the wound is too severe! Alone I can barely maintain this state, let alone heal him!”

It certainly looked that way. Even now you could see the ground through the blown-open hole.

With such a hole, how she was keeping his life thread connected…

Clerics really were amazing people.

While thinking that, Yerim spoke again.

“If there’s no immediate danger here, we need to move the Apostle. It’s difficult to treat him here having to block infection and foreign materials.”

Indeed, it looked difficult to treat someone here.

Since it would be troublesome if the Apostle died now, we decided to move him as Yerim said.

“And it would be good to have someone help with treatment. Even if not surgical treatment, just bandaging and preventing infection would be enough…”

I reflexively answered Yerim’s words.

“Let’s call Seo Eun.”

Yerim looked at me with surprised eyes.

“Ah, right. The team leader would work. When the zombie outbreak happened, I saw the team leader treat several injured people.”

It made sense for Seo Eun.

She had many certifications, including a nursing assistant license.

Of course, even with a nursing assistant license you shouldn’t treat people freely, but this wasn’t a situation to follow such rules.

I searched my pouch for bandages, wrapped them around the Apostle’s stomach, and carried him on my back.

Though I didn’t want to carry the Apostle, I was the fastest.

Yerim moved with me while keeping her hands on the Apostle’s body.

Since he would die immediately if she stopped injecting holy power into his body, she couldn’t take her hands off the Apostle.

We headed inside the safe zone.

When we left, the safe zone boundary was empty.

Though it had been full of people and undead just moments ago, now only the desolate road remained to see us off.

After sending Hoffman to get Seo Eun, we headed to the memorial hall where the Apostle stayed.

Normally we would have arrived right away, but carrying an injured person took time.

While going to the memorial hall, both Yerim and Zahina had hardened expressions.

For Yerim it must be because of the Apostle, but Zahina having a hardened expression…

Though Zahina had been showing more expressions as time passed, I had rarely seen such an expression from her.

Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked her.

“What’s worrying you?”

At my question, she lowered the gun from her shoulder and gripped it in her hands.

“It’s because of this gun. The gun is too weak. The bullets too. To think it can’t even easily pierce a mage’s basic mana barrier, I need to find another gun.”

I shook my head at her completely unexpected words.

Though unexpected, it was worth worrying about from her perspective.

Until now, she had done more than her share with the gun.

Of course, even without the gun she helped in various ways, but thanks to her ability to imbue bullets with mana, our party had no gaps.

Me as a knight, Hoffman the soldier with thief background, Yerim the cleric, and Zahina handling both remaining mage and rear archer roles.

Though she was still plenty helpful now, Zahina seemed to find it lacking.

“Unfortunately, it seems my abilities won’t return to normal in this world. Natural since I’m cut off from the Mother Trees.”

Come to think of it, her power wasn’t originally just this level.

According to her words, she could instantly repair broken bodies and freely move sky, earth and water.

If so, the party leader would have been Zahina not me,

And then, would Zahina have been acting like a blockhead like other elves.

Thinking that way, the present seemed better.

“Since my power has weakened, I need help from tools. It’s fortunate I can imbue bullets with mana, but just imbuing mana couldn’t take down strong enemies.”

Zombies and skeletons could be taken down sufficiently with ordinary guns just by imbuing mana.

Corpse golems made of clustered zombies weren’t much different, and mana-imbued bullets worked on corpse mermaids too.

Of course, they wouldn’t work on the octopus, but that was the same for me.

“I need a strong gun and bullets that can at least pierce mana barriers and destroy skeletons.

The weapons here could even destroy the hero’s party. Though we can’t carry such weapons around, shouldn’t there be weapons stronger than this gun?”

I couldn’t help but laugh wryly at Zahina’s words.

I’d heard many complaints about 5.56mm NATO rounds lacking stopping power since my previous life, but to hear it from an elf…

There was nothing wrong with Zahina’s words.

Trying to catch a lich with NATO rounds from a regular rifle was nonsense.

When even the Demon King’s army poured hundreds of bombs to catch the hero’s party, giving an ordinary rifle to an elf who could imbue bullets with mana.

I couldn’t help but reflect.

But I couldn’t give her a cannon either.

“Should we look for an anti-materiel rifle somewhere…”

Or maybe we needed to find a grenade launcher.

Soon after we arrived at the memorial hall, and fortunately the Apostle survived.

The fluctuating holy power across the safe zone stabilized and people sighed in relief.

The next day the Demon King’s army came to the safe zone again, but they didn’t approach closely and broadly surrounded the safe zone.

The Apostle didn’t show himself to people after that day.

Contrary to Yerim’s expectation that he would come to his senses after recovering, he hid inside the memorial hall.

While the Apostle hid in the memorial hall, the Demon King’s army surrounded the safe zone, and the octopus monster came down from above.

The safe zone had truly become surrounded on all sides.