## Chapter 106 – Cultists in the Underground Waterway
After walking for quite a while in the direction the cultists had come from, we finally spotted a light source. A crimson glow emanating from beyond a corner suggested the presence of some kind of facility. It also seemed to carry a strange odor.
“Smells super fishy. This has gotta be it.”
“Could be a cultist temple.”
Tense, we lowered our posture and cautiously peeked around the corner.
Since I had dark hair, which would provide better camouflage, I went first. Very slowly, carefully, ready to pull back at any moment, I witnessed the truth beyond the corner.
“…!”
It was an altar.
Beyond the corner was a large room.
In the center of the room was an altar with some kind of flame burning on it. And the symbol. The symbol I had seen countless times was emblazoned on the wall behind the altar, and four cultists in robes were standing there, blankly staring at the altar.
I scouted for a moment and quickly pulled back.
I immediately explained what I had seen to the others.
“Four cultists in total. There’s an altar in the center, and the fire seems to be coming from it. It’s quite large… Mr. Merman, any guesses? Judging by the looks of it, they’ve been nesting here for quite some time. To keep a fire like that going, they’d need firewood too.”
Since the waterway connected to outside the city, they could have come in that way. What was their relationship with the undead? Maybe they were subordinates of that necromancer.
“I don’t know. More importantly, are you alright? It’s getting scarier and scarier…”
“Believe in money. Believe in money.”
Lowering our voices, we discussed how to deal with the four of them.
Since they didn’t seem to have noticed us yet, the best course of action seemed to be to just run in and stab them to death one by one. But now that I thought about it, seeing that altar made me think there might be a high-level mage among them.
If so, we’d have to take a risk.
“Mr. Merman, you stay here… Can each of us take one down? Judging by the looks of them, they don’t seem to know there’s an intruder or anything. They don’t seem to be on guard at all.”
“Should I go in first?”
Maria said confidently.
She seemed to be overconfident in her shield, but when it came to ambushes like this, there was nothing more important than that kind of confidence. If you firmly believed that you wouldn’t be harmed by the enemy because you trusted your shield, your combat power would increase dramatically.
“Okay, let’s number them 1, 2, 3, 4 from left to right based on our perspective, and then kill them all in the order we charge in. Maria’s first, so she takes the guy on the far left, and the rest of us take the guys next to him. Okay?”
By pre-determining our targets like this, we’d be able to slaughter the panicked enemies in an orderly fashion.
“Let’s do it.”
“I don’t care.”
“Hmm, alright.”
We decided on the order. Maria, me, Claudia, and Copson would charge out in that order. After making our resolution, it was time to begin the assault. We crept slowly, cautiously, to a point where we were almost touching them. We planned to launch our ambush from a suitable spot.
By suppressing the sound as much as possible and walking like turtles, the enemies didn’t notice the attack until we were right on top of them. They were simply focused on muttering something while looking at the altar.
Were they praying? It didn’t matter.
It was a great opportunity for us.
They probably never imagined they’d be ambushed.
And then.
ㅡSwish!
Keeping silent, we burst out and ambushed them, each marking one of them.
“…What? Rogues?”
Hearing the loud footsteps, the cultists finally noticed our presence and turned around. But it was too late. We were already charging, and they had only just turned around, wondering what was going on. There was no time to react.
“Kill ’em!”
I shouted like a beast and charged towards my target. To the left, Maria was charging with her shield raised. And to the right, Claudia had already slit one of their throats.
“Sya!!! What is this!!!”
“Hrah!”
ㅡWham!
Maria collided with the leftmost guy. The impact caused the cultist to drop the wand he was holding and bounce away. She immediately drew her sword and pounced on the fallen guy. As the sword pierced the cultist’s body as if entering a sheath, I also made eye contact with my target.
“Damn!!!”
I immediately thrust my blade towards the guy’s face.
The guy, letting out a scream of terror, twisted his body violently to avoid my sword. But that was it. Having thrown himself to the side without thinking about the consequences, he was now completely exposed to the next attack.
As Karin had taught me, I calmly kneed the guy in the stomach. The guy, vomiting stomach acid, bent over like a shrimp. I immediately gripped the sword I had thrust into the air in reverse and stabbed it into his back.
“Kuh-erk!!”
As the blade pierced his back, blood poured from the guy’s mouth, and he collapsed. I kicked the fallen guy’s head and checked on Maria. She was in a mount position, hacking at the cultist’s neck. With three of them definitely dead, there was only one left. The ambush was a great success.
The thrill of battle filled my chest.
“Keuh-ah!!!”
ㅡAt that moment, Copson’s scream erupted.
Could he have been hit? I didn’t know what he was hit by, but Copson fell backward. I reflexively shouted Claudia’s name.
“Claudia!”
Responding to my call, Claudia charged towards the cultist who had knocked Copson away, with her arms outstretched in a cross shape. It was an incredible speed. The curved swords in her hands emitted a pure white flash, reflecting the flames of the altar.
ㅡSwish!
Claudia, sprinting like a wolf running downhill, swung her sword at the cultist’s neck. It was a fierce strike that severed life itself, without any kind of mercy.
ㅡWhoosh!
At that moment, the cultist’s figure disappeared.
“B, Blink!”
A cry of astonishment burst from my mouth.
Claudia’s sword cut through empty air. It was Blink, a short-range teleportation magic used by high-level mages in moments of emergency escape! Memorize! Judging by the fact that he used Blink without chanting, he was a high-level mage!
ㅡShuk!
The cultist’s disappeared figure reappeared near the altar.
“Jyao! Hada! SyaruMee!”
Completely switching to a battle stance, he raised his wand and shouted loudly. It all happened in an instant.
“Tch!”
However, such tricks didn’t work against Claudia. Immediately kicking off the ground and changing her trajectory, Claudia chased after the cultist who had escaped using Blink. Despite the sudden change of direction, she didn’t lose any speed and launched a second attack in an instant.
ㅡClang!
“W, what the hell is that bastard!”
At that moment, a dark, translucent barrier appeared, blocking Claudia’s attack and knocking her away. A curse burst from my surprised mouth. I immediately ran to support her.
ㅡPoat!
But Claudia was a seasoned warrior. Having been knocked all the way to the wall, she kicked off the wall and shot out again. The two blades of her curved swords seemed to ripple and scatter. The image of the object couldn’t keep up with the speed.
ㅡWhoosh!
However, that transcendent strike once again cut through the air. The cultist’s figure had disappeared. It was Blink. Two Blinks and one shield. With the appropriate use of those skills, he had perfectly evaded the attacks of Claudia, the expert assassin.
Mage, this was the power of a mage.
“He’s a tricky opponent… Ah?!”
It was when she straightened her posture and raised her sword to charge again.
ㅡScreeeeeech!!
ㅡScreeeeeech!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ㅡScreeeeeeeeech!!!!
Gargoyles poured out of the holes in the ceiling! Those black swarms rushed towards Claudia like a dark fog.
“Katt! The mage!”
Claudia shouted as she collided with the gargoyles. Without time to answer, I charged towards the cultist. Having used Blink once more, he was now sticking to the wall with the symbol on it.
“Maria! Get that bastard!”
Running forward, I shouted Maria’s name. Having already finished her killing spree, she responded to my call and sprinted with me.
Run! Let’s run! I didn’t know what the hell happened to Copson.
ㅡWhoosh!
As I ran with Maria, a familiar dark fireball flew towards us. A curse spell! Surprisingly, the fireball was flying towards Maria, as if targeting her.
“Hah!”
With her shield in front, she wasn’t afraid of it at all and moved forward in a straight line, as if trying to collide with it.
A bad feeling flashed through my mind.
He had Blink and Shield memorized, so why would he cast a spell at Maria, who had a shield? Could it be some kind of attack magic that shields were useless against?
“ㅡDon’t block it, dodge it, you idiot!”
Thinking that far, I twisted my body violently and tackled Maria. I didn’t know what it was, but if she took it head-on, it wouldn’t just end with her shield breaking.
“Kyaa!”
I rolled on the floor with Maria tangled up with me. The impact was considerable, as we had been running fast. Her shield flew into the air, and then a loud explosion was heard behind us.
ㅡBoom!!
The curse spell that had flown towards Maria had exploded.
She thanked me in a dazed voice.
“T, thank you.”
It wasn’t a curse spell. It was just a simple attack spell. Judging by that tremendous explosive power, even if Maria had blocked it with her shield, she wouldn’t have been able to avoid her upper body being blown away. Dodging without blocking was the right choice.
“That bitch! There are things you can throw at people and things you can’t!”
I was shocked by the power.
We immediately got up and faced the cultist, who had become emboldened.
“GuHuHuHu…”
With a wicked smile, he held out his wand to us. Chanted darkness once again created a black flame. The incomprehensible abyss of darkness that had gathered at the head of the wand formed a sphere and was fired at us.
ㅡWhoosh!
“Left and right!”
“A, alright!”
At my signal, Maria and I each dodged it to the left and right. An explosion was heard from behind, and using that as a second signal, we each charged at him from the flanks. Judging by the speed of the casting, we would have a good chance of winning if we sprinted here.
“Now we kill him!!!!”
Shouting, I swung my sword wildly, intending to split him in half.
I was worried about the barrier, but if I was knocked back by it, Maria would attack next. That was what it meant to have two people attacking one person. Absolute superiority. We would win in close combat, even if it was long range.
“ㅡYou motherfucker!”
The blade of the bastard sword reflected the flames of the altar and tried to dig into his shoulder. It was a full-power diagonal slash that contained my primal strength itself.
ㅡClang!
“What?!”
With a harsh metallic sound,
ㅡthe attack was blocked.
At that moment, the cultist, having thrown away his wand, took out a dagger from his chest. He skillfully defended against my attack. My sword trembled, blocked by the cross guard of the dagger.
“Ciao!”
“Uh, uh-erk?!”
Having deflected my sword, he immediately counterattacked me.
Panicked, I pulled my sword away and focused on defending against the attack. This guy… was a master! Despite the short reach of the dagger, he skillfully penetrated the gaps in my bastard sword and pressured me.
ㅡClang!
ㅡClang!
“Keuh!”
Attacks were exchanged.
“Mariaaa!!! Help me!!!”
The attacks were so relentless that I screamed. Me, being pushed back by swordsmanship? I was only focused on defense, backpedaling against the godlike dagger skills that made it seem like the blade was split into two.
If this guy had a one-handed sword instead of a dagger, my head would have been gone a long time ago! My heart was pounding like crazy.
“Hey!”
At the moment of absolute crisis, when the blade was about to pierce my forehead, Maria’s intrusion saved my life. Maria’s widely swung sword forced him to stop attacking and evade.
“Hah… hah…!”
With that, the situation was back to two against one. Without the wand as a medium, it seemed difficult for him to use magic again. The magic stored in Memorize would probably be enough for three times at most.
“Hiss! Hiss!”
Catching my breath, the cultist with the dagger threatened us with a snake-like sound.
“Barbarian!!! Are you alright!!!!”
Breaking the brief silence, it was Copson’s voice asking about our well-being. He appeared in front of us, carrying Maria’s shield.
“What, you bastard! Why are you here now!”
“I remember that damn cultist hitting me in the head with his wand!”
It seemed he had been unconscious for a while and had just woken up. A stream of blood was flowing down his forehead.
What about Claudia? Looking back slightly, she was unleashing her might against the swarming gargoyles. It was hard to expect her help. No, rather, we had to finish him off while she was dealing with the gargoyles.
“Let’s combine the friendship of the three of us!!!!”
I shouted reflexively.
I had comrades who I trusted, and who trusted me!
Regaining our numerical superiority, an incredible fighting spirit began to surge within me!
This was it! This!
Kim Katt, who only fought battles he was guaranteed to win!
Now that the numbers were filled, there was nothing I was afraid of!
“We will punish the evil bastard!!!!!”
Without anyone saying anything, we charged at the guy who was cornered against the wall. The guy was shocked as the three of us charged at him at once. No matter how skilled he was with a knife, there was nothing he could do against armed thugs charging from three directions.
“Die, you commie bastard!!!!!!!”
