Chapter 204
“Is Neo Seoul really that big?”
“Seriously? Twenty million people live in Neo Seoul?”
“That’s a lie, right?”
Zeon let out a sigh as he looked at the little kids surrounding him.
Reior, Diane, and SaMeul.
Children born between Urtian and Deborah had encircled Zeon, bombarding him with endless questions.
Children born between an elf and a human.
Like Eloi, they were half-elves.
Inheriting Urtian’s bravery and Deborah’s wisdom, the children had completely let down their guard around Zeon.
And from that moment, Zeon’s hell began.
An endless barrage of questions poured in.
At first, he answered sincerely.
But the questions never stopped, and eventually, Zeon raised both hands in surrender.
“Is Zeon’s house in Neo Seoul too?”
“When are you going home? Can I come visit?”
“How big is your house? Is it bigger than ours?”
The three kids kept taking turns like a spinning wheel, asking nonstop questions until his ears started to hurt.
The one who saved Zeon was Brielle.
“Enough! You brats!”
“You’re a brat too, Brielle!”
“Hmph! At least I’m not some helpless kid who only relies on adults like you.”
“Who are you calling helpless? We’re warriors.”
“Oh really? Then what magical beast have you hunted?”
“Th-that’s……”
“None, right? Heh! Go drink more of your mom’s milk, you little brats!”
“Waaah!”
In the end, the youngest, SaMeul, burst into tears.
The other two glared at Brielle with frustrated expressions, but they couldn’t match her.
“Damn it!”
“So annoying.”
“If you get it now, how about you leave already?”
Eventually, the three kids had no choice but to retreat, swallowing their frustration.
Zeon thanked Brielle, who wore a victorious smile.
“Thanks.”
“To struggle against kids like that. You really are weak against children.”
“They’re just kids.”
Zeon chuckled.
The world had changed into a complete mess, but one thing hadn’t changed—children were still meant to be protected.
Even if those children were half-elves.
Just then—
“Damn it! It’s a wounded man!”
“Lower the basket quickly!”
Urgent voices suddenly rang out from the fortress entrance.
Zeon and Brielle rushed toward the entrance without a word.
A large number of awakened individuals had gathered there.
Clank!
A pulley turned as a basket was being raised.
When the basket finally reached the entrance, the awakened individuals helped the person inside out.
The man was covered in blood to the point his face was unrecognizable.
He was one of the awakened who had left with Komak.
Urtian hurriedly asked,
“What happened? Where’s Komak? Where is everyone else?”
“Th-they’re… all dead.”
“Dead?”
“It was a trap. Th-the orcs set a trap and were waiting for us.”
“What do you mean? How could orcs set a trap?”
“Ugh! Be careful… They’re coming after us…”
The wounded awakened couldn’t finish his sentence.
His head dropped.
He had died.
Urtian fell silent at the sight of his death.
The others also stared blankly at their fallen comrade.
But they quickly snapped out of it.
Because of the last thing he said.
“The orcs are coming?”
“Shit!”
The awakened hurriedly looked outside the fortress.
In the distance, a cloud of dust was rising.
Soon, the silhouettes of massive orcs appeared within it.
“Orcs! The orcs are attacking!”
“This can’t be!”
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The alarm bell rang together with the voices of the awakened.
All the awakened and residents inside the fortress rushed toward the entrance.
“Orcs?”
“Don’t tell me Lord Komak and the others were all wiped out?”
Fear spread across the people’s faces.
Komak was the second-in-command of the Red Storm Corps.
The shock of someone that powerful being killed by orcs was enormous.
“Komak… is dead?”
Urtian ground his teeth and stared ahead.
Komak was his subordinate—and his friend.
The only one who understood him and supported him completely.
The one who always had his back.
The fact that Komak had been killed by orcs filled him with rage.
“How dare mere orcs kill Komak…”
It wasn’t hard to imagine what had happened to Komak’s body.
That made it even more painful—and infuriating.
The orcs were marching straight toward the steel fortress.
At their front was Ashanka.
“So that’s the humans’ fortress?”
A sandstone mountain stood tall in the middle of the barren desert.
Halfway up, a large cave entrance could be seen.
And a group of humans glaring at the orcs as if they wanted to kill them.
Ashanka bared his fangs and smiled.
“A fitting place for insects like them.”
“Chit! How shall we attack?”
An orc attending him asked with excitement.
“We start with a greeting. Shaman!”
He called for the orc shaman.
“Yes! Lord Ashanka!”
Soon, an old orc adorned with skulls and bones all over his body appeared.
He was the shaman of the Red Hammer Tribe.
Each tribe always had at least one shaman.
They performed miracles that ordinary orcs couldn’t even imagine.
***
The Red Hammer Tribe’s shaman specialized in Beast Frenzy.
It was a unique ability that used special spells to paralyze the minds of nearby magical beasts and drive them into a rampage.
“Gather the nearby beasts and attack the fortress.”
“Yes! Lord Ashanka!”
The orc shaman closed his eyes and began chanting.
The first step of Beast Frenzy was detection.
Using sorcery to locate nearby magical beasts.
The second step was identifying the specific frequency and wavelength that could paralyze the beast’s mind.
The final third step was recreating that frequency through sorcery to drive the beasts into a frenzy.
The old orc shaman excelled at Beast Frenzy.
In an instant, he detected the magical beasts living nearby.
But the moment he confirmed their presence, he was startled.
“Huh! This can’t be!”
“What is it?”
“There are magical beasts extremely close.”
“Then hurry and drive them into a frenzy.”
“Heh heh! I’ll give them quite a surprise.”
The old orc shaman twisted into a grotesque smile and resumed his chanting.
***
“That’s… a lot of them.”
“It looks like every orc nearby has gathered.”
Levin and Eloi clicked their tongues as they looked at the orc army.
At a glance, there had to be at least a thousand.
It was the first time they had seen such a massive group of orcs.
Levin frowned.
“They won’t be able to come up here easily, right? We’re halfway up the mountain.”
“If nothing unexpected happens, we can hold out. This place isn’t called the Steel Fortress for nothing.”
It wasn’t literally made of steel, but the mountain itself was composed of solid rock.
On top of that, the entrance sat above a sheer cliff.
As long as the basket was raised, the orcs had no way up.
Of course, with their physical strength, they could try climbing—but the awakened of the Steel Fortress would never allow that to happen.
This place truly lived up to its name, boasting defense like steel.
That’s why, although the awakened were tense, they weren’t afraid.
Defending was always easier than attacking.
And this was a rare natural fortress in the desert.
With the rugged terrain on their side, they could hold out even against a larger force.
“…The problem is food.”
Zeon frowned.
While there was plenty of water, food was severely lacking.
The longer a siege lasted, the more disadvantageous it would become for the Steel Fortress.
“This is going to be difficult.”
Rustle.
At that moment, a faint sound reached Zeon’s ears.
“……”
Zeon turned around with a puzzled expression.
The sound had come from deep inside the underground cavern.
All the awakened were currently gathered at the fortress entrance, and the civilians were hiding in their homes.
There was no reason for any noise to come from inside.
Zeon began walking toward the source of the sound.
He arrived at the entrance of a vertical cave deep within the Steel Fortress.
It was the very place where Gerwen, one of the fortress elders, had once kidnapped them to dispose of them.
“Didn’t they say Four-Eyed Bats lived in here?”
BOOM!
At that moment, the iron bars sealing the cave entrance shattered with a deafening explosion.
Immediately, countless flying magical beasts poured out.
They were the swarm of Four-Eyed Bats that lived in the underground depths.
Thousands—tens of thousands—of bats flooded out at once, filling the ceiling of the cavern.
Each bat was only about one or two meters in size.
Individually, they weren’t particularly frightening.
But in numbers of thousands or tens of thousands, it was a different story.
When a swarm of Four-Eyed Bats latched on, even large magical beasts would be drained dry of blood in an instant.
The bats emerging from the cave were not normal.
Their four glowing red eyes were filled only with ferocity.
After circling briefly in the air, the swarm attacked the awakened.
“Gah!”
“What the hell? Where did these bats come from?!”
The Red Storm Corps awakened panicked under the sudden assault.
They had only recently joined the Steel Fortress and didn’t even know about the bats.
The original fortress awakened shouted,
“Four-Eyed Bats! They’ve escaped the vertical cave!”
“Damn it! Why now of all times?!”
Though the bats lived in the inner vertical cave, they rarely came out.
Partly because the only entrance had been sealed with iron bars, and partly because there were other routes leading outside.
Because of that, the bats had rarely harmed the people of the fortress.
Especially after the entrance had been sealed, there hadn’t been a single attack—so no one had been on guard for them, even when the orcs attacked.
“Ghk!”
“Aaagh!”
Many awakened were helpless against the bats’ assault.
Once bitten, there was no way to remove them before they drained all the blood.
“Die!”
“Take this!”
The awakened attacked to save their bitten comrades.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Various skills rained down on the bats.
Despite the immense impact and pain, the bats refused to release their fangs from their victims.
Even as they were dying from the attacks, they continued sucking blood relentlessly.
Their persistence was so horrifying it could haunt one’s nightmares.
Slash!
The feeding only stopped once their heads were severed.
A martial-type awakened cut off the head of a bat with a large blade.
But by then, the victim had already died.
The corpse of the drained awakened was shriveled like a dried mummy.
At the horrifying sight, everyone nearby fell silent.
Taking advantage of the confusion, the bats attacked again.
The sky filled with their overwhelming swarm, rushing down at them—
—and at that moment—
Whoosh!
Dozens of sand serpents shot into the air, intercepting the bats.
Zeon had unleashed his Viper.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dozens of bats rushing toward the awakened exploded and fell from the sky.
Zeon shouted,
“Everyone, get a grip!”