Chapter 106: Battle in Defense in Windsor

Meanwhile, as the enemy's offense intensified, Windsor hurriedly developed countermeasures. The situation got more precarious and unpredictable day by day, as the enemy increased the speed of their attacks as if launching a time-sensitive attack. Therefore, Juan Byron had called in the key personnel to a meeting to come up with a strategy on the current situation.

"First of all, I will explain the current situation," said Windsor's administrator, starting the discussion. He nodded and looked at the data on Lee Shin. "You all are aware that a Qualified named Lee Shin has arrived. The Qualified of Merteng have spoken so much about him and also said that Lee Shin’s arrival would be a gamechanger. Actually, it is said that Mr. Lee Shin captured Delbet of Tetir alone, not long ago.”.

At those words, several people in the room were surprised and laughed. Juan already knew, but he was still amazed when he heard it the second time. The challengers, including Park Joo-Hyuk and Baek-Hyun, smiled as if they had expected it.

"Did he really break through the Demon Realm to get to Delbet? Looking at the amount of time Lee Shin took to get there, it seems like he knew the way and just went straight, no?”

"Yes, that's right. One of the Qualified from Lantan who traveled with Lee Shin had the Explorer class. That individual had used that skill to break through the Demon Realm above the sea and set foot on the land of Merteng before," the administrator explained.

"Then are you saying that Qualified helped Mr. Lee Shin?"

"Yes, that's right. For some reason, Mr. Lee Shin took the two Qualified of Lantan whom he had captured, as well as Inyuu Kogo from Lantan, who was previously imprisoned, to the Demon Realm,” the administrator explained.

"But, don't we already know the reason?"

"Yes, the reason was to make Lantan an ally of Merteng," said the administrator.

The people who attended the meeting started to shake their heads at the administrator’s absurd words.

"So are you saying that Lee Shin was trying to take these people with him in order to convince Lantan?"

"Yes, that’s right. And in fact, Lantan has declared that they will form an alliance with Merteng," said the administrator.

"Seriously?"

"Why though? What made them do that? Are those Qualified from Lantan that important?" Juan asked the administrator.

"I haven't heard the exact details yet," said the administrator.

Juan had briefly heard about everything that transpired, but news about Lee Shin always felt new to him. Juan wondered if it was possible for an individual to achieve this much in such a short period after their arrival. Lee Shin’s achievements were truly outstanding.

Challengers who already knew about Lee Shin just nodded without much reaction.

"It's not over yet. Before Lee Shin and his party entered the Demon Realm, they had captured the Task Force of Wildes, which was their main wartime offense unit. Besides, Lee Shin used that as leverage to negotiate with Wildes, and eventually formed an alliance with them as well," the administrator explained.

"Now that I hear this, I guess I can understand. Did they make an alliance because they saw Merteng’s potential as Tetir began to crumble overnight?"

"That's also possible, but I think there was also dissatisfaction with Bilone and Meldeuren's monopoly. They could have taken a gamble to form an alliance with Merteng because they saw it as a way out of the power structure that they did not have the ability to retaliate against despite their grievances," the administrator explained.

"Hahaha! Isn't all of this thanks to that guy Lee Shin? Let's just move on to the next topic," said Juan.

Juan proceeded with the meeting, calming down the agitated room of people who were getting excited at every detail.

"Yes, Mr. Lee Shin, the one who captured Delbet, extracted information about the Qualified named Kim Kang-Chun and Ji Eun-Ju through interrogations, and followed the paths in Yellow Zone.”

“Tetir set up a trap using the two Saviors, but Mr. Lee Shin broke through it and rescued them. In the process, Mr. Kim Kang-Chun came out alive, but Ms. Ji Eun-Ju did not make it," the administrator continued.

"What did you say?"

"Eun-Ju... Eun-Ju is dead?"

Only now did Park Joo-Hyuk, Baek Hyun, Park Hye-Won, and Hwang Kang-Woong hear the news, and they could not find the words to say in response. Their faces were full of bewilderment. Even when Ji Eun-Ju had been taken captive, they had not felt like this, as if their hearts sank to their stomachs. Yet now, hearing this piece of news, their brains seemed to have stopped functioning, like a broken machine.

“But why? Why did Eun-Ju have to die? You said the master went to save them! But why did she have to die? Besides, the master must have had Martyr with him, so why?!” Park Hye-Won stood up from her seat and shouted at the administrator, in denial.

“Stop it, Hye-Won.' Hwang Kang-Woong grabbed her and tried to stop her, but she could not sit back on her chair.

She breathed heavily.

“But, well, just like Hye-Won said, our master… I mean Mr. Lee Shin can revive the dead. If so, why couldn't Eun-Ju come back to life?”

“Did the enemy… burn Eun-Ju's body? Or was Mr. Lee Shin not able to find her dead body?” Park Hae-Won asked.

“Well, if they could not find the body, they would not have been certain that she's dead,” said Park Joo-Hyuk.

As Park Joo-Hyuk spoke, Park Hye-Won bit her lip. She knew it too, but she just wanted to have a tiny bit of hope. The faces of the other Undermost challengers, including the four of them, also hardened.

'I should have stopped her earlier.'

Park Joo-Hyuk felt a sense of guilt. He was aware that it was nothing surprising for Ji Eun-Ju to have eventually died, looking at her character. That was why he had urged her to either give up on climbing the tower or change her personality.

However, she had still died—his advice had been meaningless.

Park Joo-Hyuk clenched his fist and swore to take revenge on whoever had caused this.

"Ms. Ji Eun-Ju gave up on being resurrected," said the administrator.

The challengers look at him with blank faces again. What did the administrator mean by that? It took a moment before the challengers changed their minds and sighed. They realized that Ji Eun-Ju was the kind of person who would say such a thing.

"Do you know who killed Eun-Ju?"

"Yes, it was Michael Taylor, a Qualified from Cormir," said the administrator.

"Michael Taylor of Cormir..."

"Okay, so it was that bastard."

"Well, we didn’t like Cormir to begin with, so we’ll get back at him soon."

The challengers gritted their teeth and etched the names ‘Cormir’ and ‘Michael Taylor’ deep in their hearts.

"But, it's hard to be certain that it was Cormir's intention to kill. It was mentioned that Michael used demon power before he fled," the administrator explained.

"Demon power?"

"No way… Could he be a demonized human?”

"These damn demon bastards!"

"Stop. Stop it! It's time for us to come up with a strategy for Windsor." Juan stopped them from being riled up again, and tried to round up the conversation.

"Alright then, let's finish up. Anyway, after that situation, all of the soldiers of Aman and Tetir, who were surrounding Narden, were captured and escorted. They will soon capture Aderta and come to support Windsor. Tetir might join our alliance. That's the situation in Merteng for now," said the administrator.

"Okay everyone, as you can see, the enemy alliance has become impatient. That's why the enemy's attacks suddenly intensified. We'll win if we just hold on and let time go by,” said Juan.

"But holding on is not as easy as it sounds," said the Minister of Magic with a serious face. "Since Windsor was activated, Merteng has put in a lot of merit points into Windsor, but the fact is that Windsor is still lagging behind the enemy. I think it will be hard to hold on for a long time with the performance of our Refraction Shield."

"Hmm..." Juan pondered, touching his lips.

A lot of merit points were consumed due to the ongoing battles, and there were not many merit points they could use to support. They could not even upgrade their defense barriers in this kind of a situation, so the challengers felt helpless.

"The enemy is preparing a large-scale combat formation. Even if we deflect their attacks with a Refraction Shield, it will eventually break under overwhelming firepower."

"No matter how many wizards there are, there must be a limit to their ability, right?"

"There appears to be a wizard on the enemy's side who can use sixth-order magic. If we can eliminate that one, we believe that it will be impossible for the enemy to activate the combat formation.”

"It seems like the enemies really are in a hurry. If the wizard can use sixth-order magic, doesn’t that mean they are at least as powerful as a Qualified with a Black Pattern?”

"That's correct."

After hearing those words, Juan and the officers' gaze turned to Park Joo-Hyuk and the three Korean challengers, who were the Saviors of Merteng and the strongest offensive force of Merteng as well. It seemed difficult to overcome this situation without them.

"We will assassinate him," said Park Joo-Hyuk.

"I think you guys can do it," Juan replied.

Park Joo-Hyuk looked at Park Hye-Won and Baek Hyun.

"The three of us will do it. Mr. Hwang, please take charge of strengthening the castle walls," said Park Joo-Hyuk.

"Understood," Hwang Kang-Woong replied.

"Alright, currently, Bilone, Stan, Aman, and Cormir are sending their troops here. We'll hold out no matter what, because the best reinforcements will come soon." Juan declared with a satisfied smile.

***

At night, Park Joo-Hyuk, Baek Hyun, and Park Hye-Won sneaked out of the citadel and watched the enemies. The most important person in this operation was Park Hye-Won. With her wind spell, their team could easily snipe the enemy wizard on the battlefield.

"First, we have to find a sniping position without being detected by the enemy."

"The combat formation will need at least a few more hours to activate, so let's find our positions before then."

The three people entered the mountain range that was several kilometers away. The distance was far enough that people looked like ants to the naked eye. The choices for a sniping location were highly limited since there could not be any obstacles blocking the view between the enemies' forces and the sniper.

After checking several possible locations, the three settled on one, and as soon as they scanned their surroundings and confirmed it was safe, they got ready to snipe. They took out a large Hextech Sniper Rifle from Park Hye-Won's Subspace Pocket.

Click—!

Since she had the Subspace Pocket, there was no need for her to disassemble and reassemble the sniper rifle. She took the weapon and got into position. As she infused mana into the rifle, her view rapidly expanded.

Park Hye-Won slowly moved the scope to find the wizard by zooming in so close that she could see the enemy’s face even from that distance. However, it was not an easy task to find the wizard among tens of thousands of troops.

"It's almost sunrise."

Suddenly, the sun that had set began to rise again, and the sky began to brighten. It was the time for the enemies' attacks to start again. In the midst of the enemies’ activity, a group of people in robes appeared.

"I see some wizards there,” said Park Hye-Won.

"What? Did you find them?" Baek Hyun asked with an excited voice.

"Quiet down! We haven't found that wizard yet," Park Hye-Won said, annoyed.

Park Hye-Won tried to focus again on finding the wizard. Simply searching for the target alone required tremendous concentration and mental fortitude. That was because Park Hye-Won had to continuously manipulate mana and scan the areas until her eyes were tired. It was exhausting for her.

"Hmm..." Park Hye-Won’s teammates were holding binoculars and surveyed the enemy camp, trying to help her.

There were several individuals whom they thought could be the wizard who could use sixth-order magic, but Park Joo-Hyuk and Baek Hyun had no way to confirm which one of them was the wizard.

"If we keep going like this, we'll just have to target the moment the combat formation is activated."

"Yeah, you’re right. We found the location where the mana circle will soon be activated, so let's wait a little longer."

A moment later, dozens of wizards gathered around the large magic circle on the ground and started pouring their mana into it. The next moment, one of the wizards stood in the center of the circle, making gestures that seemed to control the magic. The movement of mana, visible to Park Hye-Won and the others, flowed in accordance with each movement of that wizard’s hand.

‘There he is!’

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

All three of them were sure that the wizard standing in the center of the mana circle was the one they were looking for.

Clang! Click!

Park Hye-Won, who was kneeling on the floor, had her Sniper Rifle aimed at the wizard. Her mana flowed into the rifle smoothly.

‘I have to end this in one shot.’

Even if the opponent was a strong Qualified,he was still a wizard and wizards generally had weak physiques. Park Hye-Won was sure that if she could accurately hit the wizard’s vitals, she could kill him instantly.

‘Goodbye.’

Park Hye-Won strengthened the bullet that was inserted into the Sniper Rifle, and by reinforcing it with her wind attributes, she maximized the rotational and penetration power of the bullet.

Bang—!

As soon as Park Hye-Won’s finger pulled the trigger, the bullet flew out at a rapid speed, with a fierce recoil. It only took a second to reach the target several kilometers away.

Crack!

Baaam—!

With a loud crashing noise, the bullet shattered the shield that was created in front of the wizard. It then accurately penetrated through the target's head and hit the ground behind him, causing an explosion. It was clearly a deadly shot.

As the magic circle broke mid-operation, hundreds of wizards around it staggered from the shock.

"Nice shot!"

"Now..."

As soon as Park Hye-Won saw that the shot was successful, she stood up. However, she froze suddenly when she noticed the ground shaking.

"What's happening?" Park Hye-Won was shocked.

A huge wave of mana surrounded half of the mountain. Park Joo-Hyuk, who also felt it, hastily looked through the binoculars at the enemy's camp. The enemies were moving quickly, as if they had expected this.

‘Damn it! They got us.’

Park Joo-Hyuk’s expression distorted as he gritted his teeth.