Return of the Frozen Player

The Knight Commander Trevor swallowed a mouthful of his saliva and fell into deep contemplation.

‘What was that just now?’

The power of the two men threatening the family was terrifying. Although it was a peripheral town, they were more powerful than himself, who was the Knight Commander of the town. In addition, there were even two of them.

\'But there\'s an assassin somewhere in the town who can tear them apart without a sound.’

Something wasn’t right. Something big seemed to be happening in Port Lane, a town that had always been peaceful.

\'No, perhaps...’

Trevor had a strong feeling that something bigger still was going to happen. He closed his mouth, put away his sword, and approached the family.

"Are you all right?"

"K-Knight Commander Trevor...”

"Can you stand up?" He helped raise the couple up and ordered his subordinates. "Move them to the emergency shelter first."

"Understood. What about you, Leader?"

Turning his head, Trevor looked at the gloomy dark clouds covering the town, and said, "I have a bad feeling. I\'ll save those who haven\'t been evacuated."

***

“…”

Pride\'s eyebrows wriggled with his eyes closed. At the same time, the barrack’s tent opened, and one of the fiends rushed in.

"P-Pride-nim! Right now...”

"Salute first."

"S-Sir! I am Astic, the 13th member of the Pride Squadron!"

"At ease." Pride dismissed his subordinate\'s fuss and opened his eyes gently. "I felt it, too. There\'s someone else here.”

"Yes, and the ones who died weren\'t normal fiends. They were our guys from the Pride Squadron."

Power was justice and law among the fiends. Being part of a "Squadron" meant being recognized as having greater power. Of course, the power gap between the “normal” fiends and the member of a Squadron was massive. Despite that, those two had been easily defeated.

"It\'s surprising that there are people who can kill a fiend in such a small town, much less those who can kill Squadron members... This is ridiculous." Astic swallowed his saliva. "In my opinion, the information that came from Darkmoon Pavilion a few days ago seems to be correct."

"If it\'s the Darkmoon Pavilion… Is it regarding the Archmage and the Gray Envoy?"

"Yes, they also said to watch out for Specter whose location they couldn’t pinpoint.”

"Hmm." Pride got up and stepped out of the tent. The sea breeze made his uniform flutter in the wind. "Release them."

"What?"

"Except for the Despair Squadron members who are necessary to carry out the operation, release all our guys into the town."

"You mean...”

Nod.

Pride nodded lightly with a subtle smile. "Even if Specter isn’t here, the Archmage and the Gray Envoy are enough sacrifices to build our achievements."

The sticky demonic energy exuding from Pride’s body made the cliff vibrate. The fiend next to him and Astic unconsciously kneeled down and prostrated. With his hands behind his back, Pride muttered as he looked down at the peaceful little port town.

"Today, in this town, we shall kill those who used to be the heroes of mankind."

***

"What the hell is going on?!"

Harveson Ward, the lord of Port Lane, asked as he led his family into the emergency shelter. The knights who saluted him quickly summarized the situation.

"Invaders? A transparent wall? Did the Knight Commander Trevor confirm the situation?"

"Yes, he did."

“…”

Harveson’s brows furrowed deeply. He knew more than anyone else about Knight Commander Trevor’s loyalty to himself. Naturally, he also harbored infinite trust in the Knight Commander.

‘If he\'s doing something this big, it means something extraordinary is going on.’

He looked around the residents gathered in the emergency shelter and said, "How many people have been evacuated here?"

"A total of 1,218 people have been evacuated."

Port Lane had a total population of 1,852. This meant that only 65 percent of the residents had been evacuated. Harveson agonized for a while then made a decision.

"Knights, listen. Leave the shelter with the minimum number of people to protect it, join Knight Commander Trevor, and bring the remaining residents here safely."

Of course, the knights protested.

"It is too dangerous…"

"As swords who swore allegiance to you, we will never leave your side."

"That is right. We have to protect you, Lord, here. It was also the Leader’s order."

While Harveson was pondering how to get around the stubborn knights, the shelter greatly shook.

"Kyaaaa!"

"What, what, an earthquake?!"

"No... It\'s not the ground that shook, it\'s the shelter."

The shelter shook once again while everyone was shouting.

"It doesn\'t make sense..." Harveson shook his head.

The shelter they were currently in was built with Earth’s technology.

"They said it was strong enough that not even ten large-scale spells could faze it...”

Vroong, vrooong!

Dust fell from the ceiling whenever the shelter vibrated. Residents hugged each other and looked up at the ceiling with anxious eyes.

"The vibrations stopped."

"Is it over?"

The moment they exhaled the breath they had been holding…

Booooom!

One of the shelter’s walls directly collapsed. Three men and women walked through it at the same time.

"Why is a shelter built in the countryside so sturdy?"

"Look at the brand on the outer wall. It\'s a shelter built by the Myungho group."

"What? Made in Korea? Then it\'s bound to be sturdy."

Three men and women entered while chatting and looking around.

"Well, we don\'t have to determine the order to go first, do we?”

"No. We can\'t leave any evidence anyway."

"Don\'t worry, just kill them all."

The woman with heavy makeup raised her hand. Purple drops formed at the tip of her fingernails and vaporized in an instant.

"...Ueup!"

"Uwaack!"

Soon after, there were voices of anguish.

"It\'s a deadly poison called nirtine. You\'ll never find an antidote. Only when I\'m dead will it disappear."

She spoke cheerfully with a grin, as an angry Harveson walked forward past the knights.

"What the hell are you doing? Treat them now!"

"Hmm, for you to speak so authoritatively, are you the lord here?"

"Yes, I am Harveson Ward, the Lord of Port Lane."

Faced with the imposing self-introduction, the poison woman smirked. "Iya, must be nice to be a noble, eh? But so what? Just think of this as the inevitable and die."

"What a heinous...”

Harveson was slightly taken aback. Usually, you would try to extort what you wanted from your opponent before killing them. But it seemed that they weren’t planning on doing that.

‘It\'s as if... all they want is our lives.’

Unfortunately, that was precisely the case. The fierce poison woman ordered, "Hey, there are knights coming out there. They\'ve got magic, so they’ll be able to hang on a little bit. Take care of them."

"You\'ve been talking like we\'re your subordinates for a while."

"Leave it alone, it hasn’t been a day or two since she became like that."

The fiends shook their heads and walked forward. At first glance, the number of residents gathered at the shelter seemed over a thousand.

‘With this number, it’s probably the majority of the town\'s population. Most of them will die from this woman\'s poison...’

\'It\'s hard work, but even if we take care of a couple of knights, it probably won’t make her habits any worse.’[1]

When the knights came running with their swords and shields, the fiends shrugged.

"Guys who don\'t even know their limits...”

"Ah, there are always people like that wherever you go."

They smirked as they used their respective skills. What happened after was the knights in front of them disappearing without leaving even any bones behind… or so they thought.

"I agree with that, very much agree. There are too many people like that. It\'s annoying."

A really irritating voice came from next to them.

‘An unfamiliar voice!’

‘A woman?’

When the two fiends turned their heads with stiff expressions, they saw a woman standing between them. The woman wore fancy robes, unsuitable for this old, gloomy shelter. She was wearing a large witch hat on her little head and her arms were crossed in front of her chest.

"But there are people like that next to me…”

The grinning magician\'s smile was truly bewitching—much more so than the poison woman’s smile. Was it because of that? The fiends, who would have usually attacked with no hesitation, paused for a moment. Their unsightly appearance was their last.

Rumble, crackle!

The magic lightning directly penetrated their heads.

When two of her allies died in an instant, the poison woman stepped back.

"What, what?!"

"A million volts." The woman in the robe turned and slightly lifted her witch hat. "Did you know? There\'s a saying in Korea to watch out for lightning as it strikes from the ceiling."

"I’m from Korea. And there is no such saying in Korea. You mean out of the blue…”

Rumble!

Once again, a lightning bolt came from the ceiling, striking down the poison woman.

"Ahem, I know it\'s out of the blue. I was just joking. Why did you answer so seriously?" Skaya murmured while feeling embarrassed, fanning her red cheeks with her hands. "Oh, right."

After rummaging through her Inventory, she pulled out something big and bulky.

Harveson asked in a wary voice, "Who are you?”

"I\'m Skaya Killiland. Don\'t be hostile. I’m a nice archmage who’s here to save you all."

"Then the thing you\'re holding right now... What is that hideous-looking thing?”

"Oh, this?" Skaya said, wearing a welding mask. "This is a gate driller! It\'s a secret weapon that will pierce the transparent walls surrounding the town."

Skaya then beckoned to the shelter\'s personnel. "Follow me if you want to live."

"But inside the town, there are still some residents…”

"Don\'t worry." She replied in a soft voice with a hint of laughter. It was a warm voice that made the listeners want to believe in it. "We\'re here. So you don\'t have to worry anymore.”

***

Bang! Bang!

Gilberto\'s eye moved about and every time his eye stopped, his finger would pull the trigger. He continued his tough battle against the town’s fiends as if he were playing a shooting game.

‘There are too many of them.’

There were too many fiends. Currently, there were about 60 fiends in the town. But unlike the first time, his sniping success rate wasn’t as high.

\'They\'ve noticed there\'s a sniper.’

Naturally, the fiends had their own countermeasures.

‘If they try to avoid my bullets, it\'ll follow them forever, but...’

Their response was surprisingly simple. It would end if they simply destroyed the bullet. His guided bullets consumed magic. It was too much for him to maintain more than a few dozens of guided bullets at once.

Zzzzk.

The top of Gilberto\'s left hand turned blue.

"Jun-Ho, where are you?"

[I’m waiting.]

“A knight is leading eight residents to the park. And behind them...”

[There’s a fiend. Bastard.]

Gilberto kept real-time communications with Seo Jun-Ho through Skaya\'s communication magic and said, "I’ll continue to disturb and annoy the enemy. Take care of the aftermath."

Specter and Rahmadat had always been the vanguards of the 5 Heroes. However, Rahmadat wasn’t here, and even Specter wasn’t with them today.

"Seo Jun-Ho."

The Player with them today was Seo Jun-Ho. He wasn\'t the wielder of Watchguard of Darkness, but the wielder of Frost.

1. Habit of the poison woman ordering them around. ☜

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