A stone as big as a boulder hit the bunker in the trench. Their enemies completely flipped over in panic from the sudden attack, but they quickly calmed themselves. The front lines were quick to respond, and they soon checked the direction of the attack and pulled out their artillery.
“Those damn demon bastards. How dare they do a surprise attack?”
“Move, move! Quickly!”
The monsters in the trench sprang into action.
“Fire!” The artillery made a different noise and took a shot with a prolonged bang.
Bam! The hill on the other side shook roughly, and soil soared up like a tidal wave.
“Shit!”
Crack! The heroes cursed as clumps of dirt rained down on them in a formation. The artillery continued to assault the hills in a row, and—Pi, pi, pi, ping! One hero peeked his head out slightly, and then he rolled backward down the hill. Chilling metallic sounds rang all around them as sharp iron shards pierced deeply into the dirt.
“Damn it! At this rate—!” It was then vines began to grow thickly all over the hill, intertwining and interweaving to create a blanket of tight knots. It was Shadia’s work. With the creation of a small jungle over the hill, the heroes were able to take cover. Snowy Mountain lifted another large boulder with both hands again and threw it down with all his might, making an even greater impact than before. It seemed their enemies were surprised by the brute attack, and their offensive slowed slightly. It was all or nothing now.
“Shit! Shit! Fuck!” The heroes finally got moving. Those with arrows hid in the jungle and took their shots, while the magicians poured out large magic attacks with their cover. The rest picked up rocks or other heavy objects and threw them over like Snowy Mountain; imbued with their mana, their throws were considerably powerful. However, the enemies didn’t hold back either and launched a wild counterattack.
The headquarters of the Indigenous Monsters Alliance burst into an uproar. A mixture of wild cries and gunfire reached the detachment hiding nearby. Nobody said anything, but they could physically sense that the battle had officially begun. It was also time for them to start moving on their end too. Ru Amuh got to his feet, and so did Chi-Woo.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
With their backs bowed, everyone moved with great speed. They made a turn at a hill, and as soon as a trench came into view, Ru Amuh dashed for it and threw himself inside. He landed on the ground softly like a feather and struck his sword down like thunder. The two enemy soldiers who had their heads out to take shots at the hills were immediately decapitated, their heads flying off with dramatic flair.
Thud. Thud. Masses that appeared to be their bodies fell simultaneously. This was the heroes’ first close encounter with members of the Indigenous Monsters Alliance, but they didn’t even have the time to check what these monsters looked like. The heroes at the hills definitely did their part in causing a distraction and drawing all the attention toward them, and this was now the most crucial moment for the detachment to penetrate through the territory. Ru Amuh’s eyes shone when he saw his first target: a bunker with a boulder embedded on top. After he made sure the rest of the detachment had jumped into the trench, he ran straight to it.
A handful of monsters stopped shooting at the hill and turned to the long trench leading to the first bunker, perhaps sensing the bloodshed. And as soon as they saw their collapsed companions and Ru Amuh running in their direction like the wind, they quickly turned their arrows and crossbows to him.
Whoosh! There was a sudden gust of wind, sweeping over the monsters and making them fall on their bottoms. Ru Amuh flashed past them like a gale, and blood spurted out of a monster that had lost its balance. Ru Amuh pierced his sword into its head before it could recover and was about to take care of the other—that was when Chi-Woo suddenly heard a noise from behind.
Clack.
The familiar sound brought an unknowable sense of foreboding. Chi-Woo clearly saw what the monster had been clutching tightly even as it fell from the wind’s force. It had met Chi-Woo’s eyes briefly then. It looked prepared for death as it threw the item in its hand while Ru Amuh’s sword sliced its neck.
Thud! Roll!
A blackish, dark iron ball rolled and touched the tip of his feet.
Chhhhh--!
“…!”
Chi-Woo saw the wick burning fast and moved as quickly as his reflex allowed. Coming to a sudden halt, he picked up the iron ball and threw it back with some of his mana; the iron ball flew like a bullet and landed exactly inside the bunker at the front, 50 meters away.
“Ah! Why are you suddenly—!” Dulia yelled aggressively as Chi-Woo suddenly stopped in his tracks when they needed to move as fast as possible.
Kaboom—!
But hearing the sudden explosion, Dulia yelled, “What the hell!” Then he proceeded to stare at the bunker blankly. The constantly ringing gunfire suddenly quelled.
“…Teacher?” Having rushed forward without stopping until now, Ru Amuh turned back in surprise. He knew his enemy had dropped something on them but didn’t expect Chi-Woo to pick it up and throw it back. It was especially surprising for Ru Amuh since he had never seen gunpowder until he came to Liber.
“I did it just in case,” Chi-Woo said. If he had been even a little late, they would have all been blown up. Chi-Woo wiped his cold sweat away and breathed out a sigh of relief. He was still feeling a bit dazed. He had no idea the knowledge he gained during his military training would help him like this.
“I was lucky. I’ve seen weapons like that where I used to live,” Chi-Woo then explained.
“If that’s the case, it will be a good idea to take some of these for safe keeping,” Nangnang said and quickly searched through the monster corpses, finding a couple of more iron balls. After checking their hooks that appeared to be the safety pins, Chi-Woo nodded in approval. These iron balls weren’t exactly the explosives he was familiar with, but they looked pretty similar. And it seemed only expected that their enemies would have grenade-like items when they even had artillery.
“We should be more careful from now on.”
“Yes, and of course, our enemies would have to be careful too.” Ru Amuh slightly smiled seeing Chi-Woo clutch onto an iron ball. No presence could be sensed inside the bunker, probably due to the explosive that Chi-Woo had just thrown at it. They still went inside warily just in case and saw the mess; all shredded remains and shattered objects, scattered all over the ground. But like this, they had successfully reached their first pit stop—although, of course, they still had more than halfway to go.
“Teacher, do you perhaps also know how to use this weapon?” Ru Amuh asked while removing a corpse drooping over a cannon.
“Uh...” Chi-Woo hesitated. He wasn’t too familiar with heavy machinery. Although he had thrown a grenade and shot a gun before, he had never handled artillery.
“Let me through.” Someone stepped forward: it was Hodamaru from the seventh recruits. “I ran into a similar weapon as this one on the third planet I went to.”
It seemed Hodamaru wasn’t lying, and he quickly got into action. After studying the cannon for a bit, he released it from its closure and pulled out its barrel. Then, he picked up a large iron ball rolling on the ground that looked like a bomb and skillfully placed it in with gunpowder. A hero from the Celestial Realm didn’t only go to worlds where swords and magic existed; there were also planets with advanced technological innovations. Thus, this hero had naturally become an expert with a diverse range of knowledge after going through different kinds of worlds.
Similarly, if a self-propelled artillery was laid in the middle of the road in Korea, and the pedestrians were asked if they could use it, plenty who had specialized in the field during their service would come out professing, ‘Me, me!’ Thus, it was understandable that this hero would know how to use a weapon he had seen for the first time on Liber as long as it was similar to the one he knew.
“Could you aim for the next bunker across the trench?”
After skillfully assembling the artillery, Hodamaru turned the barrel. Instead of answering Ru Amuh’s question, he stuck an ignition stick into what looked like a vent piece and pulled the string hard. Sparks sputtered from the ignited artillery. Then, Hodamaru made a perfect shot, toppling part of the bunker in the middle. Ru Amuh’s expression brightened. This was the weapon they had been worried about the most. The detachment could be wiped out in a single blow if their enemies landed a shot with this weapon. But this also meant that if such a weapon became theirs, it could be used against their enemies to great effect.
“Could I ask you to stay behind and support us from here?”
“If you leave some members to guard me, I will gladly do it.”
“Okay, I’ll send you a message at the appropriate time.” Ru Amuh watched Hodamaru release the breeching mechanism and turned around.
“What are you doing!?” A monster with a pair of deer-like antlers ran towards them on four legs. “Why are you firing at your allies—?” It stopped mid-sentence. All of its comrades were dead, and people it had never seen before were gathered together in front of him. The monster’s subsequent moves were made with quite the reflex. It whirled around with frightened eyes, but unfortunately fell before it could run away. A dagger had pierced the back of its head as soon as it turned. Hawa strode towards it and twisted her dagger out. Then she calmly looked at Ru Amuh.
“Let’s go.” Ru Amuh immediately headed towards the entrance, and Chi-Woo hurriedly followed him. The next bunker was to their left in a diagonal. The trench was not in a straight line either. A number of them were connected in a curved S-shape, so the heroes had to turn a corner every couple of steps.
When they turned their second corner, Chi-Woo’s synesthesia picked up multiple presences. Even though they hadn’t been caught for sure, Chi-Woo sensed something strange. Without hesitation, Chi-Woo threw the explosive that Nangnang gave him at the next corner, making a parabola in the air.
“Mr. Ru Amuh! Wait…!” Chi-Woo tried to warn Ru Amuh in case he got swept into the explosion, but soon realized that this was not necessary. Ru Amuh had already slowed down and plastered himself to the wall as if he had known what Chi-Woo would do.
After the great resulting explosion, the group made a turn at the corner at an extremely fast speed. Chi-Woo was met immediately with a violent display of masterful swordsmanship. The sharp and fierce wind that Ru Amuh created pushed down their enemies, and Ru Amuh sliced them up as they groaned in pain. Then with a bright flash of his blade, he bisected all their opponents.
The detachment jumped over the pile of bodies in front of them and moved forward again. The bunker in the middle looked like a dead-end as it was crowded with enemies, but Ru Amuh slowed down again knowingly, and Chi-Woo threw the explosive in his hand towards the bunker’s entrance. The effect was immediate.
In a few seconds, screams could be heard inside the bunker, and their enemies ran out in a flurry. They fell in the aftermath of the explosion and met their end by Ru Amuh’s blade. After successfully cleaning out the middle bunker, Ru Amuh left the others behind to occupy it properly before heading straight to the third bunker. It was their final destination in this trench. Then the city would be within their reach.
—…Woah.
Philip widened his mouth as he watched Ru Amuh run ahead of them. In all honesty, Ru Amuh’s strategy wasn’t anything special. It was a standard tactic that anyone could think of—in fact, it could very well be given as an example of a standard infiltration in textbooks. However, this was what surprised Philip the most. Ru Amuh was following the standard procedure and going by the books to a tee, but they had the ability to see it through.
In terms of supplies and firepower, the rescue team was greatly lacking in comparison to the two major forces, and that was why most of the heroes fiercely opposed Ru Amuh’s plan. However, once they began their operation, the situation was 180 degree from their expectations, as Ru Amuh made up for their lacking firepower and resources with his individual performance. Philip believed speed would make or break the operation. If the heroes weren’t confident that they could suppress their enemies inside the trenches and bunkers at lightning speed, they shouldn’t even attempt to carry out this plan. However, while this plan sounded impossible to do in real life, Ru Amuh was doing exactly that.
He was making good of his words and bringing his plan into reality. Since he quickly skipped through processes that normally took a while to complete, their opponents couldn’t react fast enough. They were probably dumbfounded by now. Even Philip had thought Ru Amuh was a crazy idiot when he first heard Ru Amuh’s plan to infiltrate by barreling straight through the trenches, but now that he thought about it, Ru Amuh’s eyes had been shining with a different light.
As expected, the view of a normal person and a genius were bound to be different. There was a reason why Ru Amuh had saved a planet from a star-cluster crisis. Ru Amuh had been confident that he could successfully carry out this plan because he had overcome harsher situations with greater disadvantages than this. And even now, his eyes were brimming with confidence. While he was running towards the third bunker as he got closer and closer, his eyes seemed to be saying, ‘Why not?’
Nonetheless, their enemies were not complete idiots, and the troops on the front line seemed to have roughly grasped the situation by this point. The enemy’s muzzles quickly turned to members of the detachment, and a great number of soldiers blocked the entrance with bows and crossbows raised at the heroes. However, before they could properly retaliate, they began screaming and falling in all directions. It was because while they were distracted by the detachment, the large number of heroes on the hill rained a great wave of attacks on them.
Their enemies also had artillery, of course, but the heroes had more in this location. The first bunker and second bunker that they had occupied simultaneously opened fire. Most of the shots hit their enemies’ bunker accurately, but the enemy did succeed in making a shot at them.
“Be careful…!” A cannonball that looked like a small black sun flew towards them, and Chi-Woo immediately laid flat on his belly, but Ru Amuh jumped into the air instead, swinging his sword and facing the cannonball head-on.
‘What?’ Chi-Woo couldn’t believe his eyes. Even if Ru Amuh succeeded in cutting it, wouldn’t it explode? His breath hitched at the thought, but as soon as Ru Amuh’s blade touched the cannonball, Ru Amuh’s body gently swung in the air. The shell, which had streaked across the night sky without stop, seemed to be fixed at the tip of his sword. Then Ru Amuh made a soft U-turn following his rotation. It was a strange sight to behold—the power surged from within his body was rough and powerful enough to detonate the cannonball immediately, but the air that flowed around him was like a spring breeze. While he was spinning in the air, Ru Amuh met Chi-Woo’s eyes.
[Yes, a storm is rough, and a breeze is soft. But that’s simply a phenomenon of nature and not your swordsmanship.]
[You can think of a sword as a killing tool, but that’s simply the meaning you have attached to it rather than nature’s way.]
Ru Amuh recalled the valuable teaching he had received from his teacher. ‘Even if you move like a storm, you can slice your opponents like a soft breeze.’ Soon, the air that flowed around the cannonball headed back to the final bunker. ‘Even if you move softly as a breeze, you could sweep past your enemies like a storm…!’
The tip of his sword drooped slightly from the cannonball. Released from his grasp, the cannonball rotated like a gyro ball in the air and flew back toward the barrel it had been shot through like there was a great suction.
Baaang!
—Haha. That crazy punk!
Philip burst into laughter as he saw the spectacular explosion. He had merely given Ru Amuh a few words of advice through Chi-Woo; he hadn’t imagined that Ru Amuh would be able to use the advice so well in real life. Ru Amuh landed on the ground, giving Chi-Woo a look of gratitude and a smile; if it weren’t for Chi-Woo’s teaching back then, he might have been in trouble just now.
On the other hand, Chi-Woo’s face went blank. Ru Amuh’s entire movement had only lasted a few seconds, but it felt surreal. ‘What the heck did I just see?’ he thought to himself, but he quickly got back to his senses and picked himself up when he saw Ru Amuh enter the final bunker. Even though he had followed Ru Amuh quickly, the bunker was already under control when he reached it.
Their enemy probably hadn’t ever imagined that the cannonball they shot would come right back to them. And like this, the enemy’s front line was completely overpowered by the detachment. However, their operation wasn’t over yet. The city was now within their reach, but there was still work to be done. Even though they had successfully occupied the bunkers, more of their enemies would soon arrive. What should they do? What did they need to do so that the detachment could enter the city, and the remaining heroes could safely retreat? The answer to these questions was to create a greater commotion.
“Ruana! The message!”
“Got it!” Ru Hiana quickly turned on her device, and while Ru Hiana sent a message, Ru Amuh stood in front of the artillery. Even though it was his first time seeing a weapon like this, he had already seen how it worked twice. It was not difficult to prime it for a shot. After getting it ready in an instant, Ru Amuh quickly turned the barrel. The heroes in the first and second bunker that received Ru Hiana’s message followed suit and aimed in the same direction Ru Amuh was aiming at—not towards where the reinforcements of the Indigenous Monsters Alliance would arrive, but towards the Demon Empire camp shrouded in darkness less than 50 meters away.