o and fro. When their rear became noisy, the monsters chasing after Seol had to stop and hesitate. On top of this, the arrows continuously flying in were enough to delay the Bugaboos, even if it was only for a second. Some of the arrows even managed to land in the monsters’ weak spots and disabled them from continuing on.

Now that Leorda was helping out, while Tong Chai cut the number of enemy archers down, Seol stopped retreating up the hill, changed his grip on the spear shaft, and reverted from defending to attacking.

He rapidly took care of the blindly rushing pair of monsters with ‘Thrust’ and ‘Strike’, then went to town with the ones looking back in confusion. By the time he got back to the bottom of the hill, he managed to further kill two.

*SFX for a monster’s loud roar*

It was at this point in time that the leader Bugaboo stopped observing in silence and stepped forward. It took aim at Seol, loudly roared out in anger, and raised its massive mace up high into the sky. It was understandably p*ssed off, seeing that over half of its subordinates were cut down in no time at all.

‘Should I dodge this?’ (Seol)

Even if it was Seol, he had no confidence of completely defending against this attack.

The monster’s mace descended violently enough to blow away the dust on the ground. In the following moments, just as Seol prepared to retreat, a dark shadow leapt in front of him.

Boom!

A thunderous metallic noise exploded out.

“Phu-euhp!” (Hao Win)

Hao Win wielding a large steel shield gritted his teeth as his feet slid on the ground. Seol quickly propped him up and opened his mouth.

“I was going to dodge that.” (Seol)

“And I’m trying to block it for you. Oopsie!” (Hao Win)

Hao Win shoved the mace away with his shield and retreated with Seol in tow.

“That d*mn Priest is always slow with his spells, you see.” (Hao Win)

Seol wondered what Hao Win was on about, but then, a semi-circular barrier with them in the centre suddenly materialised. The leader Bugaboo powerfully slammed its mace on this barrier, but other than it trembling violently for a bit, nothing else happened.

“Oh, well. His Magic Power must be pretty high, since the barrier is useful and all.” (Hao Win)

“Didn’t a few monsters go over to that side?” (Seol)

“I took care of them. But thanks to that, I kinda got held up before coming here to help you.” (Hao Win)

The leader Bugaboo and its ten-plus underlings surrounded the semi-transparent barrier. It was unknown how long this magical defense would last, so they needed to do something about it. However, Hao Win seemed to be rather relaxed.

“In any case, aren’t you really amazing? How many did you take care of by yourself? Fourteen? Fifteen?” (Hao Win)

“It’s fourteen. Aren’t we in the middle of a battle?” (Seol)

“No need to sweat it. It’s about time our Miss Joker makes her entrance.” (Hao Win)

Hao Win pointed at the other hill. Seol could just about catch the glimpse of Odelette Delphine, currently decked out in a blue robe. She also happened to be aiming her wooden staff at the leader Bugaboo.

“Ahbarh – Ahba – Ahbaritia.” (Odellete Delphine)

Seol heard a loud buzzing noise. And at the same time, a sizzling ball of flames struck the head of the leader Bugaboo.

*SFX for a monster’s surprised, pained roar*

*SFX for flames erupting*

The flames caught on the monster’s fur and spread out quite rapidly. The leader dropped the mace to the ground, covered its face, and began rolling around on the ground like a madman.

“Take care of that big guy! We’ll take care of the rest of the small fries!” (Hao Win)

The protective barrier was still in place. Staying behind in the safe space, Seol began wildly stabbing the leader Bugaboo that was rolling around in pain. By the time the barrier became visibly thinner, there were several dozen bloody holes on the monster’s body.

There were other monsters still left, but their ranks had been broken into disorder a long time ago. Leorda continuously shot arrows with his bow, while Tong Chai went around silently with his dagger; Hao Win, too, was concentrating on relentlessly attacking his enemies as well.

For Seol, this first cooperative battle proved to be...

‘...Easy.’ (Seol)

It might have been a bit tough in the beginning while trying to aggro the monsters, but by enduring, things got progressively easier as time passed by. If he were alone, he’d never ever be able to clear this mission, no matter how hard he tried. Also, he thought that, if the composition of the team was off by just a little, this mission would’ve been a lot harder. This battle proved to him why a Sorcerer was valued so highly.

“You all worked hard!” (Odelette Delphine)

Right after the last creature fell, Delphine raised her hand from the hill over yonder and called out.

“A Sorcerer is really something else, isn’t it?” (Seol)

When Seol spoke in an admiring tone, Delphine stopped jumping up and down in delight and tilted her head to the side. From her perspective, all she did was to cast two spells while receiving absolute protection. And she couldn’t help but feel that he was being sarcastic, since he had not only blocked the combined attacks of the monster group, but also managed to eliminate almost half of them, too.

However, she became slightly abashed soon after realising that Seol was being sincere.

“Since you Warriors protected me, things were definitely easier.” (Odelette Delphine)

Delphine humbly replied.

“So? How was it?” (Hao Win)

Hao Win shook the blood off his sword and excitedly asked.

“Playing with a team ain’t bad, am I right?” (Hao Win)

Seol smiled in reply.

[You’ve successfully completed a ‘Very Hard’ difficulty mission!]

[1,667 Survival Points have been accredited to you.]

[Current SP: 1,847]

Fin.