Chapter 41 – 041. Archis Great Labyrinth (9)
– Merdin’s role is to check the movement of the Minotaur from the front. The most important thing is your role as a tank, parrying to receive attacks.
An action in which an opponent’s attack is slashed sideways with one’s body or weapon. Unlike blocking or evasion, parrying is an action that allows the attack to flow in a different direction, temporarily interrupting the opponent’s continuous action.
But knowing that didn’t mean that all parrings were successful.
In particular, it is difficult to accurately grasp the attack against a witch who recklessly wields a weapon based on great power.
– No, that’s easy to say…
– The difference in power is clear, but it is not to parry the opponent’s full-strength attack. The timing to aim for is when the opponent switches from preparation to attack. Watch your opponent’s moves carefully.
Before the full force is applied to the weapon wielded, it targets the movement itself and digs in to prevent the attack itself from becoming a complete attack.
Merdin remembered Eunhyun’s advice and cut off the blade of the Minotaur’s battle ax that he was about to take down from the air with his greatsword.
Whoa?!
The Minotaur is taken aback when the attack’s trajectory changes as it bounces off the moment he tries to strike it down with all the power in his Battle Ax.
Among the party members, Merdin had the largest physique and a long sword blade, so he was able to contain the high strike down attack in advance.
The changed trajectory of the Minotaur hit the hard floor and damaged it, and Merdin, who suddenly realized that his check had worked, shouted.
“Now!”
Alex, who had already drawn his sword and was watching the timing, ran quickly, aiming for the Minotaur’s gap.
Alex, who quickly took possession of the Minotaur’s back, cut off the beast’s calf.
“It’s shallow.”
The attack itself was eaten and blood was flowing from both calves, but the attack itself did not give high damage.
Oooooh!
In an instant, the Minotaur, who was allowed to attack due to Alex’s approach, lifted the Battle Ax again and swung it at Alex, but Alex’s body, strengthened by Eleanor’s blessing, immediately evaded and distanced himself.
The Minotaur, enraged at having injured his body, chased after him and attacked Alex at random, but Alex’s face remained calm as he continued to widen his distance and keep the distance outside of the Minotaur’s range.
“Uracha!”
With Alex’s mandate, Merdin, who escaped the Witchbeast’s boundaries, rushed towards the Witchbeast at full speed and thrust her greatsword into the Minotaur’s waist with all her might.
Ooh, ooh, ooh!
Writhing in pain as the huge blade pierced his side, the Minotaur went into a frenzy.
Taking her hand off the greatsword at all, Merdin, who was far away from the madbeast complaining of pain and going mad, looked at the Minotaur in a cold sweat and murmured.
“Crazy… Are you still moving in that state?”
Even though his side was pierced by a greatsword, the Minotaur, who had lost his mind due to pain and anger, was wielding his battle ax while watching Alex in front of him.
Alex, who continued to avoid the attack by maintaining a close distance, turned around and returned to the position where he left the first party members, and joined the ranks of the party as it was.
While spitting blood from his mouth, burning eyes and wild snorts as if burning his hatred for humans, the Minotaur comes running with a massive body big enough to shake the labyrinth.
Cheeik!
White smoke began to fill the surroundings of the Minotaur, which suddenly stepped into a certain area, and the temperature around it began to drop rapidly.
The trap artifact enchanted by the cooling magic that Eunhyeon and Aisha had previously dismantled was re-installed and activated.
Ooh, ooh…
Frost covered the entire body and the frozen body restricted the movements of the Minotaur.
The Minotaur, affected by the freezing state, was struggling to forcefully move his body, but his body, already frozen and on the verge of freezing, did not listen to his master.
“Now. Aisha-sama, the princess will prepare the formula right away.”
With Eunhyun’s signal, Aisha’s arrow, which hit all the mana in her body, finally started flying the moment she let go of the bowstring, drawing a thin line and flying towards the face of the Minotaur.
Aisha’s arrow, which accurately hit the Minotaur’s right eye, was not satisfied with that and went through the crown, bursting her demon’s face.
With his frozen face and half of his head already blown off, the Minotaur couldn’t even scream.
[Three-digit magic]
[Fire Arrow]
Above Yuria’s head, an arrow of flame embodied in the formula drawn in the air, her three feet hit the minotaur in a frozen state.
The Witchbeast, who couldn’t even scream and burned his head black, met his end like that.
When the battle was over, all the party members except for Eunhyeon took a deep breath and sat down on the floor.
“Oh, I’m going to die.”
“But wasn’t it worth trying this time?”
“Well, more than when we first met… Is that so too?”
Aisha and Merdin were laughing with relaxed expressions, as if they were proud of the fact that they had successfully captured the beast with their own power.
“As expected.”
“What?”
“I think it was an appropriate decision and order. I was right in thinking that it would be a good experience for both of them as well as me. And…”
Alex glanced at Princess Yuria with a complicated expression on her face and continued.
“To me too. It’s like experiencing reality a little bit.”
Alex must have been very worried when the princess, who had been treated like a flower grown in a greenhouse, started running away and talked about solving her labyrinth.
It was impossible to refuse, and it was an expedition that could cause unexpected situations.
Alex was convinced that the decision he made in advance to ask Eleanor to go to Eun-hyeon and ask for help in case of an emergency was the one that saved the life of the royal guards including himself and Princess Yuria.
“Please keep asking.”
“Well, don’t fall down just because you’re tired.”
Eunhyun and Alex laughed as they exchanged jokes with each other.
Even after that, the steps to exit the labyrinth were somehow smooth.
Rather, after the Minotaur’s hunt, it was being solved in the line of the royal knights and Eun-hyeon, who had gained confidence and skills in dealing with the beast, so the rearguard had nothing to do and was overflowing with leisure.
YuRia continued to observe Eunhyun’s back and couldn’t take her eyes off him.
“Princess. Is there anything that’s bothering you?”
Eleanor asked her because YuRia, who kept staring at Eunhyun with her firm expression, was worried about her.
“Princess, this is the man you brought. What the hell is it?”
“Um, that…”
Eleanor was hesitant about how to explain Eunhyeon.
Because once again she remembered her promise with Helena Hubie not to reveal his existence to anyone.
It wasn’t because of himself, but breaking the promise before regaining the trust he had already lost was something he had to be careful about, considering the future relationship between Eun-hyeon and the duke’s family.
“The details, I don’t know. That man was also familiar with my father, so me and my older brother only knew his face.”
Eleanor covered whatever came to her mind.
“The name… Did you say Eunhyun?”
“Yes.”
“Are you a descendant of the Ancients?”
“I heard that.”
“Eunhyeon, Eunhyeon…”
Listening to Eleanor’s answer, Yuria muttered the silver-haired man’s name.
She kept making a face that she couldn’t understand something and had a look of serious concern, but Eleanor had more trouble asking Eun-hyeon about this and that, so she quietly pretended not to know.
Princess Yuria’s party was able to get out of her labyrinth safely thanks to the efforts of her vanguards.
Haha…”
“I’m finally alive…”
Aisha and Merdin, who realized they had finally escaped from the beggar-like labyrinth while breathing in the early morning air of the cold night sky, knelt down and looked thrilled. Eunhyeon and Alex laughed as if they were having fun.
The party set up the camping equipment Eun-hyeon had brought in a nearby bush, and while Alex and Merdin set up the tent, Eun-hyeon made a bonfire and summoned a huge pot to cook stew.
Vegetables prepared before departure and the meat of the kobolds they hunted during the day were added to the stew, which was boiled with various seasonings and was a high-protein food that could be eaten in the field.
Receiving the bowl of stew, Eleanor looked at Eun-hyeon with a hard expression on her face.
“I-I can’t believe these meats…”
“Please eat. There is no other food anyway.”
Even at Princess Yuria’s party, she was confined in the labyrinth for almost three or four days. It was a party that she barely maintained by saving the remaining food, but there was no way there would be food left.
“Eh, it’s the meat of the witch beast… ?”
Yuria, who heard the identity of the meat, put on a disgusted expression as if her stomach was upset, but the three royal guards were eating the stew with surprisingly calm expressions.
“It’s been a while.”
“Iknow, right! I only ate during my first away training after joining.”
“The liver is a bit strong, but I have to eat this much outdoors, so it doesn’t smell as bad as I thought. Have you been on a lot of expeditions?”
“But I feel sorry for giving the princess this kind of food… There is a preservation meal that we have prepared separately. Eating it…”
“No, it’s fine. Let’s eat together.”
YuRia didn’t have a good expression like Eleanor, perhaps because her stomach wasn’t that strong, but she showed a determined expression, as if she didn’t want to be the only one complaining about something like this when everyone else was eating.
Alex, Aisha, and Merdin each had their own feelings while eating the stew made by Eunhyun.
Members of the Knights of the Kingdom, such as Artiana Gracia, had expeditionary training included in various types of training.
In this way, after catching the beast, the process of dismantling and purifying it to increase the ability to survive by filling the stomach with beast meat in the field was also one of the educational courses to complete the mission as the knights of the kingdom.
Of course, Eleanor and Yuria, who had never eaten the meat of a monster, showed a hard time adapting, but as they continued to starve, they could not resist the feeling of hunger that came and had no choice but to eat the stew.
As soon as they satisfied their hunger with dinner and escaped from the labyrinth filled with threats from the beasts, fatigue and boredom suddenly came to the party members as if their tension was relieved.
After confirming that all five party members were inside the two tents separated by gender, Eun-hyeon was standing watch by putting firewood into the bonfire.
Alex, who was the leader of the party to have Eun-hyun stay vigil alone, was very concerned about Eun-hyun. .
And after about two hours.
“Looks like you have something to say.”
“…”
The owner of the gaze poking her head out from inside the tent on the woman’s side, looking at Eun-hyeon, made her tremble.
“You must have been tired, but the mental strength you endured while waiting for everyone to fall asleep is amazing.”
“It kept lingering in my head. What is your true identity?”
Coming out of the tent, YuRia stared at EunHyeon with a hard expression, and she put into her mouth what she thought of her potential.
“Are you, by any chance, an ‘Earthling’?”
