Season 1 Side Story Chapter 14. Witch (3)
"... Huh?"
"Oh no, I was just talking to myself."
"Was that letter from Lorang?" Ran asked from beside him.
"Probably," Almond responded and went around collecting arrows from among the soldiers.
He had already convinced them that he could shoot better than them.
[Time Remaining:]
[00:09:12]
The letter's sender told him to survive for ten minutes and a minute had already passed. Around that time, strange signs began to appear.
Thud...! Thud...!
A strong impact could be felt from the heavily locked basement entrance. It was about to break open.
‘Is the escape route still far away?’
The mercenaries busily moved around, trying to find the escape route somewhere. Amid this...
"Hey! Commander! The escape route...!"
Thrum.
The mercenaries excitedly shouted as they cleared away a hefty display shelf.
"We... found..."
Boom...!
The display fell and revealed the escape route the mercenary group had been informed about. However, the iron door had been melted, making it impossible to open.
"..."
A moment of silence followed.
‘So this is why we were told to survive for ten minutes.’
Almond finally understood the letter's content. The other mercenaries looked at each other, seemingly confused.
"Who gave us this intel?" one of the mercenaries shouted in anger.
"Did he betray us?!"
A dispute started among the mercenaries.
Ran pulled Almond's sleeve, "Lord Almond..."
"It's okay," Almond assured him.
"There's a way."
"A way...?" Ran asked and looked around the underground factory.
Everything else was blocked except for a tiny window high above that seemed unreachable. If the lights went out, the place would probably plunge into darkness. It felt like they willingly walked into an underground prison.
Thump.
Ran collapsed.
"Haa... Haa..."
He held his chest, breathing heavily.
"Ran?"
"My, my heart..."
Clearly, the fear and trauma he had felt in the underground prison was resurfacing.
"Ran."
"A, a potion..."
"Potion?"
He wanted a potion.
"That, that's not possible," Almond refused.
Click.
Ran's hand tightly gripped his knee.
"Qu-Quickly. A small amount won't hurt, right? Po-Potions have real effects."
What should Almond do? It seemed he had to give Ran what he asked for.
"Here."
Gulp. Gulp.
As Ran recovered with the potion...
[Time Remaining:]
[00:08:01]
The remaining time they had gradually approached the seven-minute mark. Nothing happened yet... up to that point.
"He stopped," the commander’s voice echoed.
The mercenaries fighting each other halted.
"Let's worry about the false intel later. For now, prepare for battle."
Thud.
The commander pointed above the blocked underground factory’s entrance. A heavy sound kept resonating from there.
Rumble...
It seemed like something would soon break through.
Tink... Tingling...
Metal shards rolling on the floor could be heard.
— It's coming...!
— Hahaha, boss battle!
— It's just the beginning.
Almond glanced at the viewers' comments and prepared for battle as well.
Swish.
The commander drew her sword and spoke, "If you fight to the death, we might win with our arrows."
It seemed like she made a remark to boost morale, but Almond interrupted her.
"No, just hold your ground here."
"... What?"
"I've called for backup."
Whispers. Whispers.
The mercenaries exchanged incredulous glances.
The commander tilted her head and asked, "Can this backup... save all of us?"
Almond nodded without any hesitation, "Yes."
Crash!
The iron door finally broke and made a loud noise as it rolled down the stairs.
"Oh, no..."
"Here it comes!"
"Damn it...!"
Zap...!
A brilliant white light burst from above. It was so intense and seemed to even penetrate through solid objects. The beams of light spilled out.
Crash—
A mass of light rushed down the stairs and landed precisely in front of Almond and Ran.
Zap! Thud!
A text appeared above the mass of light.
[Prophet Nemesis]
This guy seemed like the boss.
"Hahahaha!"
It sounded like a cheerful laugh, but one could sense madness. The light gradually diminished and a human figure emerged.
"You folks. What did you think would happen coming in here so recklessly?"
The man’s hair glowed like white lightning. Not just his hair, but his entire body glowed.
"Now what!? The stairs are broken! Unless you can fly like birds, you'll all die here!"
His fiery gaze indicated he was not to be trifled with.
Snap!
He pointed with a finger and the mercenaries collectively flinched. They aimed their crossbows and bows at him, yet nothing happened.
"Tsk tsk. You're not the only ones with intel~"
"It's a trick," the commander’s monotone voice interrupted him.
"Hmm~?"
"It's a trick. Don't believe him," she confidently replied as if she had been waiting for this moment.
Nemesis smirked and wondered why the commander seemed so confident.
"Of course, it's a lie since you’re blabbering about having intel. And..."
Zap...!
A clear blue mana began to gather around the commander's bow.
'... What?'
Almond's mouth hung open in surprise.
The commander drew her bowstring and told Nemesis, "... I don't trust champions."
Bang—
The fearsome arrow, imbued with the commander's power, pierced through Nemesis. Yes, it pierced through. To put it nicely, it went through him. To put it bluntly, it merely passed by.
Thud!
The commander's arrow struck the wall behind Nemesis.
“Heh, heh, heh!” Nemesis stood in the same spot and innocently laughed. “Interesting! To think that would work on me!”
Whoosh!
Nemesis let out a strange scream and transformed into light. He charged at the mercenaries in that state and sent them scattering.
Slash!
“Argh!”
“Ugh!”
“Kugh...!”
The light electrocuted several mercenaries and they collapsed.
The commander fired arrow after arrow, but they all passed through.
Almond's attack also passed through. However, someone else managed to land a hit.
... Boom!
“?!”
Nemesis looked in disbelief at Ran.
“... Why is the priest of purity here?”
Ran ignored his comment and spoke to Almond, “Our purity is the same, so my attacks work.”
“...?”
“Please protect me.”
‘I see.’
The goal was to protect Ran.
[Time Remaining:]
[00:06:32]
They only needed to hold out for six minutes.
“Got it.”
Why was the goal to protect Ran against only one opponent? Just then...
Zappp!
Nemesis suddenly shone brightly, and numerous spirit-like entities appeared. They felt like the ghosts Almond and Ran had seen before, but had much brighter colors.
“Get rid of them!”
The summoned entities drew their swords with a shout and almost bent back at a one hundred twenty degree angle.
Whoosh!
They charged forward.
Almond thought his attacks would work on these creatures and shot at them.
'Where's their weak point?'
He managed to hit them with eight arrows despite not knowing their weak point.
“Argh...!”
From the creatures’ reactions, he realized they had a core in the center of them.
“The core is in the middle!”
After relaying this information to the mercenaries, Almond began shooting the creatures seriously.
Boom! Boom!
'Two shots.'
Annoyingly, hitting the core didn't kill them instantly. It took two shots. Such pesky creatures, but Almond didn't give in and took out every summoned creature trying to get near Ran.
Thud! Thud!
‘Two down.’
He already killed two.
‘Three, four...’
About a dozen had been summoned and four already died. That was almost half of them.
‘Five.’
It didn't take long for the number to increase to five.
Thud! Thud!
He struck two more cores in succession.
‘Six.’
The summoned creatures fell like dominoes and the mercenaries looked at Almond in awe.
Nemesis was too busy defending against Ran's attacks. He used a shield like Dalia from before, but the current Ran was different now.
Ran relentlessly attacked, ensuring Nemesis couldn't think about anything other than defending.
With a troubled expression, Nemesis tried to call back his creatures in dismay.
“They’re all gone already?!”
All the creatures he had summoned already disappeared.
He briefly disabled his shield and tried summoning them again, but the result was the same. Worse, they died even faster this time. In the end, he only wasted his pure mana.
Nemesis boiled with rage, “Darn you all!”
Kaboom!
Red lightning streaked everywhere and he rose into the air. His pure white mana turned bright red.
'Phase two.'
It seemed like they had moved to phase two of the fight.
[Time Remaining:]
[00:04:59]
Only five minutes remained.
***
— Wow, look at how fast they reached phase 2 lol
— If they last 10 minutes, it'll actually be disadvantageous ???
— ??? Stop being so good, Almond! (Sincerely)
— They're doing too well that it's become harder lol
‘Darn.’
Almond felt like he made a mistake.
"Did I act too quickly?"
Defeating the summons too quickly seemed to have further provoked Nemesis. He forgot about lasting ten minutes for the challenge and tried to kill Nemesis. However, it seemed nearly impossible to actually do that.
"Hahahahaha!"
As Nemesis swung his arm, a red bolt of lightning engulfed the factory.
Boom!
The Red Mercenary group fell like dominoes. The impact even took their commander off guard and sent her flying.
'An attack that spreads out in every direction?'
Just one swing of his arm attacked everything. This wasn't something they could win against. Only Almond and Ran barely managed to endure.
"Are... Are you okay? Kugh."
Ran had shielded Almond with pure mana and spewed out blood. He deployed all his pure mana as a shield to fend off the attack. His mana seemed nearly exhausted now with blood dripping from his mouth.
"Hahahahaha!"
Another attack seemed imminent.
Buzz...!
Red mana gathered in abundance again as Nemesis swung his arm.
Boom!
The remaining Red Mercenaries fell and blood even dripped from Ran's nose.
"Ugh..."
Ran gritted his teeth and held back a scream.
Almond checked the time.
[Time Remaining:]
[00:03:52]
Only about a minute had passed.
'There must be a way.'
They had to find a way. Continuing like this was out of the question.
"Hahahaha! Seems only you two are left~?"
Nemesis now focused on them. He would attack differently this time. Could they possibly fend him off? There was nowhere to hide from an AoE attack.
'He won't continue with an AoE attack.'
There was no way every attack was unavoidable in a game, especially from a boss.
'This might be a mechanism to get rid of the mercenaries’ help.'
The last two attacks only targeted the mercenaries. The game intended for only Ran and Almond to endure this challenge. No, it was only for the player to endure alone.
"Ran."
"Yes?"
"How many more attacks can you withstand?"
It was just Ran and Almond now.
"... Maybe two more times."
Ran gave an overestimation. Almond had no choice but to rely on that.
"Then... follow me!"
Thud!
Almond sprinted somewhere.
"Huh? Yes... yes..."
***
[Beginner’s Tip: Summoners may receive power from the sanctuary and fight in an immortal state. Showcase your abilities without the fear of death to seize power and honor! Potions are provided in abundance to ease the pain!]