Chapter 107
With a loud “Boom,” explosions erupted everywhere.
The rifles loaded with Bahamut Rounds unleashed their true power, setting flames wherever they struck, engulfing targets and their surroundings in fire.
“They’re stronger than zombies, but weaker than mutant zombies!”
“Then we just need to keep firing!”
The opponents were stronger than regular zombies. They could wield weapons and shields, unlike mindless zombies, and their strength and movements were superior.
But that was their limit.
Against the Balhut Cult, which had accumulated countless victories in battle, they couldn’t even breach the wall of shields.
Instead, they were thrown into the air or engulfed in explosions from the unrestricted Bahamut Rounds.
Among them, however, were high-ranking Skeletons—commanding entities akin to mutant zombies—introducing an element of unpredictability.
“There’s no Skeleton here to stop me! Time to die!”
Charging fearlessly into the Skeleton horde, Jina Ahn targeted the commanding entities, relying on the Balhut Cult’s firepower support.
With a powerful thrust of her spear, she shattered the skull of a commanding entity, which had served as a lieutenant-like figure within the horde.
Despite its strength, it was no match for Jina Ahn, the strongest awakened individual at Ulsan Airport.
“Wow. She’s bold, isn’t she?”
“To move into the Skeleton horde without fear… She’s like a leader herself.”
Lieutenant-level undead weren’t easily defeated. They were usually guarded by elite Skeletons, who launched coordinated attacks.
“Provide fire support! Snipe the elite Skeletons to help Miss Ahn deal with the commanders more easily!”
“Roger that.”
Dealing with clustered enemies was the Balhut Cult’s specialty.
Bahamut Rounds could obliterate the elite Skeletons in a single shot, allowing Jina Ahn to infiltrate and crush the commanders’ skulls.
Even so, Jina Ahn had to combat her own fears, knowing that the powerful rounds might accidentally strike her.
“This is nerve-wracking…! What a grind!”
Despite her astonishment at the Balhut Cult’s firepower, a smile crossed her face.
“But now I understand why you decided to ally with these people, sir!”
Far from being intimidated, Jina Ahn felt reassured by her allies’ strength.
Without stopping, she pushed further into the horde.
“Keep attacking! We must destroy their leader!”
Sensing Jina Ahn’s impulsive move, Son Sang-hui ordered the soldiers to intensify their assault.
Though her command risked hitting Jina Ahn, the Balhut Cult soldiers followed orders without hesitation, firing relentlessly.
The ground shook as dirt and bones flew into the air.
Even amidst the chaos, Jina Ahn pressed forward.
“Found it!”
Her target was singular—the commander leading the army.
She knew from experience that eliminating the central leader would disorganize the undead horde.
Naturally, a wall of bones formed to block her path to the commander.
“Die here and now!”
Jina Ahn spun her body, using the momentum to hurl her spear with incredible force.
The spear pierced through the bone wall and struck the commander squarely in the skull.
However, the high-ranking undead was resilient. As it attempted to pull the spear from its skull…
“Move!”
At Jina Ahn’s command, the spear thrashed within the commander’s skull, destroying it from the inside.
Bones shattered as the spear was forcibly extracted, accompanied by a loud “Pop” as the skull separated from the body.
“Swing it!”
With another gesture, the spinning spear smashed into the skull, shattering it completely.
The commander’s neck bones broke, its head and body collapsing onto the ground.
Dodging Skeletons targeting her, Jina Ahn retreated while shouting, “Return!”
The spear, which had destroyed the commander, flew back through the bone wall, returning to Jina Ahn’s hand.
“Sister! The enemy is in chaos now! Let’s wipe them out!”
“Yes, I see it. All units, switch to attack mode!”
With the commander defeated, the undead army became disorganized.
Some attacked aimlessly, resembling wild animals.
The Balhut Cult and Ulsan Airport’s awakened individuals switched from defense to offense.
Bahamut Rounds blazed as soldiers advanced, smashing enemy skulls with greatswords or rifle stocks when ammunition ran out.
The military boots of the Balhut Cult crushed fallen Skeletons’ skulls as they pressed forward.
“I won’t be outdone either!”
Jina Ahn, having defeated the commander and returned to the main formation, once again charged into the Skeleton horde, unwilling to fall behind.
With that, the Balhut Cult and the Ulsan Airport Allied Forces successfully destroyed the enemy vanguard and began dealing with the remaining forces.
“The first battle went smoothly, but where did these unfamiliar entities come from?”
“There were plenty of detour routes here, weren’t there? Maybe they deployed troops through the Otovale line or Iero region? Or perhaps they were hidden here all along?”
As the allied forces began clearing out the remnants, Son Sang-hui sighed at the realization of being ambushed.
Where had they come from to evade surveillance and station such a large number of undead?
Jina Ahn provided the answer.
“Could they have been hidden?”
“Look at those farmlands. For something like those bones, they’d make excellent hiding spots, wouldn’t they?”
Jina Ahn explained matter-of-factly that the farmland beside the road could have served as a perfect hiding place.
“So, you’re saying—”
“They must have dumped these bones into the farmlands like corpses. Since these things are animated by a necromancer’s magic, they’re just bones if the summoner isn’t around. Even if someone noticed them, it wouldn’t raise suspicion.”
“So that’s why they weren’t detected by magical scans!”
Unlike zombies, which made sounds through their vocal cords, Skeletons were silent.
This made detecting Skeletons through sound—one method for locating zombies—ineffective.
Moreover, without being animated, Skeletons appeared as ordinary bones to the unaware, allowing them to evade even Son Sang-hui’s detection abilities as a sensing-type awakened.
This was why, when the Balhut Cult initially discovered bones in the farmland, they dismissed them as remnants from a burial ground and thought little of the bodies dumped there.
However, Jina Ahn’s explanation revealed an important fact.
“So, without a summoner, these things can’t rise, correct?”
“Exactly. Without a summoner, these things can’t be called forth. This information was obtained through interrogating a few underlings, so I can’t completely guarantee its accuracy.”
In other words, the existence of these entities depended on a summoner—commonly known as a necromancer.
This also meant that a summoner had to be nearby to summon this Skeleton horde.
“So, the summoner is somewhere in the vicinity?”
“Right. Typically, anyone using this kind of magic would be affiliated with the Immortal Cult, meaning someone from the cult must be nearby.”
A summoner connected to the Immortal Cult was evidently nearby.
Though their exact location was unknown, Son Sang-hui remained vigilant while Jina Ahn asserted that only the Immortal Cult would carry out such a scheme.
“Why would the Immortal Cult target the refugees?”
“I don’t know. But those people seem intent on gathering as many survivors as possible. I guess they need the refugees too.”
The motives of the Immortal Cult remained unclear.
It would have been more logical for them to focus on an upcoming confrontation or negotiations, but instead, they were targeting refugees—a seemingly pointless act.
Son Sang-hui voiced her doubts, and Jina Ahn referenced the cult’s recent actions, suggesting that they might need survivors for some reason.
“Survivors… as offerings, perhaps?”
“Don’t say such scary things! But… it might be possible. I’ve seen something similar before.”
Although Jina Ahn dismissed the idea as frightening, she couldn’t completely rule it out.
Deciding to shift away from grim speculation, Son Sang-hui brought up a more grounded issue.
“The problem is that there are no residents in this area. We’ve already conducted investigations here. Unless they infiltrated through a detour—”
“Our evacuation was only announced today. It doesn’t seem likely the Immortal Cult could have noticed and deployed troops here so quickly…”
Son Sang-hui pointed out that the area was under Balhut Cult surveillance and had already been thoroughly investigated, making infiltration difficult.
Jina Ahn agreed, noting the improbability of the cult responding in such a timely manner.
“Then maybe a spy is hiding among the refugees. That’s what I’d like to believe.”
“A spy among the refugees?”
“To ambush us with such perfect timing, it’s more plausible they slipped in among the refugees, monitored our movements, and triggered pre-set traps. That explanation makes more sense, doesn’t it?”
Jina Ahn suspected that infiltrating the refugee group was easier than deploying agents from afar.
For the Immortal Cult, which could access Ulsan’s administrative network, ensuring the safety and verification of thousands of refugees was nearly impossible.
The cult likely exploited this gap to plant spies among the refugees or near Ulsan Airport.
“I think so too. Out of around 4,000 refugees, slipping in one or two spies isn’t difficult.”
“What’s your plan? Are you going to take the spy to Gyeongju with us?”
Taking the spy to Gyeongju would mean planting an infiltrator within the city.
Although it was possible to rely on Gyeongju’s remaining forces or request the Balhut Internal Revenue Service to root out the spy, doing so would still pose risks.
“No, we need to find them here.”
“Can you manage that?”
Finding a single spy required substantial administrative resources.
It was better to detect them now rather than risk further infiltration.
“Skeletons are controlled through magic, right?”
“Yes, they require magical energy.”
“As a sensing-type, I can identify subtle magical patterns. We’ll move to a location suitable for combat, fight them again, and I’ll memorize the magic patterns used to control the Skeletons.”
Son Sang-hui, as a sensing-type awakened, could identify individuals by their magic and planned to use this ability to track the spy’s magic patterns.
On the other hand—
“So we’ll have to fight them again, right?”
Fighting until the magical patterns could be identified meant another battle with the sudden Skeleton attacks.
Jina Ahn, brimming with confidence, grabbed her spear and offered a reassuring smile.
“Support troops will be ready within an hour, so it won’t take too long.”
“Leave it to me. I’ll take the commander’s head.”
“I’m counting on you.”
Son Sang-hui found herself reassured by the presence of such a reliable hero.
As she prepared herself mentally, she thought of Baek Seol-hwa, who was fighting the ghost fleet off the east coast.
—
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