Chapter 287: Those Who Try to Understand (3)
“Kya-kya-kya-kya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya!!!”
“Kya-kya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya!!!”
“Kya-kya-kya-kya-kya-kya-kya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya!!!”
“Kya-kya-kya-hya-hya-hya-hya!!!”
The enormous zombies and the Hungers charged forward in a group, shaking the ground with a deafening rumble.
Despite their massive size, they were surprisingly fast, reminiscent of a large truck barreling forward.
“They’re coming.”
Oliver, watching the green light of nature's force fluctuate in the forest, spoke.
Although noticeably weakened, it hadn’t completely vanished, indicating their resistance.
Before the thought even fully formed, massive tree roots shot up from beneath the ground, aiming directly at Oliver.
“Kya-kya-kya-kya-ha-ha-hah!!!”
One of the enlarged zombies, now encased in a thick carapace, leaped into the air, slashing at the roots with such force that it split them in half.
A strength impossible for an ordinary corpse.
However, the druids hiding in the forest, numbering about a dozen, weren’t intimidated in the least. Instead, they pooled their strength and summoned even larger roots, dozens of them emerging from the earth. The gang members entrenched ahead started firing their machine guns in response.
Ratatatatatata!!!
While the bullets held them at bay, the druids slammed the roots into the ground with a single blow, intending to crush Oliver.
But Oliver struck first.
[Minced Meat]
He disintegrated the flesh of the zombie he was riding, bringing it to his hand, and fired it like bullets.
[Finger Gun]
The emotion-infused flesh pierced the tough roots imbued with the force of nature, and Oliver immediately followed up with a black magic spell.
[Biobomb]
Using the flesh as a fuse, the natural force contained within the roots merged with the black magic, swelling up before exploding.
With a thunderous bang, the roots were shattered into pieces, and the shockwave spread in all directions.
Even the gang members firing their machine guns, as well as the druids, paused at the sight of such overwhelming destruction. The forest and Oliver were now completely exposed.
“Kya-kya-kya-hya-hya-hya-hya!!!”
The grotesque Hunger was the first to charge forward, devouring the gang members who had built defenses at the forest’s edge. Several of them were swallowed whole without even the chance to scream, becoming nutrients for the Hunger.
“A mere monster dares...!”
The druids stationed behind the gang retaliated, intertwining earth and wood to form massive pillars that struck the Hunger.
The flames that made up the Hunger's body surged violently as it let out a bizarre wail, stumbling backward.
In the meantime, the zombie that had grown to the size of a giant, with its muscles pushed to the extreme, reached the druids' frontlines.
“Graaahhh!!!”
The carapace-covered zombie roared with fury, bringing both fists down in a devastating blow aimed at the druids gathered below.
Boom!!
The ground shook, and a massive cloud of dust rose up, as though an artillery shell had struck. Although most of the druids managed to dodge, a few were sent flying, and even those who avoided the attack were not completely safe.
Following their master's will, the zombies snatched the defenseless druids from the air, biting them with their teeth, pummeling them with fists, and tearing them apart.
“Aaaargh!”
“Guh...!”
“Ugh...!”
Like bacteria infecting through a wound, the hordes of zombies and Hungers penetrated the forest, causing chaos.
The zombies kept charging forward, smashing through trees and attacking any gang members and druids that stood in their way.
The Hunger, meanwhile, swung its long, spindly arms, grabbing enemies and stuffing them into its mouth, growing in size and extending its lifespan.
In an instant, the forest turned into a battlefield.
The gang members, leveraging their superior numbers, fired indiscriminately at the zombies, but to little effect.
Their firearms couldn’t penetrate the carapace armor of the enhanced zombies.
All they achieved was announcing their presence, and the enraged zombies trampled them with punches and kicks.
But the druids were a different story.
Although the initial charge had caused some casualties, the druids, true to their reputation, quickly regained their composure. Moving nimbly through the trees, they spread out to narrow the range of attacks and cooperated to fend off the advancing zombies.
They erected massive wooden pillars to block the zombies' advance, wrapped their bodies in roots to immobilize them, and hurled giant wooden spears to pierce the carapace armor of the zombies. They buried them under mounds of earth or used their nature-imbued fists and animal claws to crush the zombies' heads and tear them apart.
Oliver's zombies struggled, like bears swatting at bees, unable to subdue them.
If their attacks connected, they could deal significant damage, but the druids were undoubtedly faster than the Hungers and zombies, making it difficult to land a hit.
They needed reinforcements.
With this judgment, Oliver, under increasing pressure, pulled out a scroll from his chest.
It was a low-grade teleportation scroll he had purchased from the Black Market, though he had modified it slightly.
An unnecessary and cumbersome task, but it was a precaution to hide the fact that he could use spatial magic.
Oliver threw the scroll, connecting it to his magic, and activated it. The space around him distorted, tearing open to reveal a masked corpse puppet—Bathory—and eight headless disciples.
The druids, who had been pressuring Oliver through the forest, were startled by the sudden appearance of the corpse puppets. They immediately tried to attack, but this time, Oliver’s side was faster.
Bathory commanded her disciples to form a circular formation, and together they shared lightning magic, creating a magical circle of electricity.
Bathory added her own magic, compressing the lightning as if readying a bomb, and then detonated it, unleashing a powerful electric current in all directions.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crack!!!
The magic created by the nine cooperating magicians, though prepared hastily, had devastating power, dealing significant damage to all the surrounding druids. As their suppressive fire weakened, Oliver released his control over the giant zombies and employed black magic.
[Target of Hate]
He planted a mark of hatred on the druids and enemies spread throughout the forest.
Now, the zombies, previously moving in an orderly fashion under Oliver’s command, began rampaging like wild horses, shrieking as they charged in every direction.
The druids who survived the electric blast tried to dodge the zombies’ attacks by moving through the trees as they had done before, but...
Bathory and her headless disciples filled in the gaps, pushing the druids further into a corner.
Once the flow of battle shifted, the druids found themselves trapped—dodging the giant zombies' attacks left them vulnerable to the corpse puppets, and focusing on the puppets exposed them to the zombies' assaults.
“I’ll go first, First.”
Oliver said, requesting permission from First, who was residing within Bathory’s corpse puppet, as he stepped forward.
First agreed, commanding the headless female necromancers to press the attack on the druids.
Flames, ice, lightning—all kinds of elemental magic flashed brightly.
Along with Oliver, the fighters who had followed him, as well as the direct forces of the Crime Firm’s board members, the security forces, and Pinkman, all advanced deeper into the forest.
‘At this rate, it might be difficult to have a conversation with Seamus…’
Thud!!
The zombie Oliver had been riding on, charging on all fours, suddenly stopped.
Its legs and body were entangled by roots that had rapidly sprung up from the ground.
The sudden halt caused Oliver to be thrown forward by inertia, but the emotional particles in his cloak of emotions gently cushioned his fall.
While requiring a large amount of emotion, it was quite convenient.
‘This is too convenient...’
Ping—Kaboom!!!
As soon as he landed, dozens of wooden spears came flying at him.
The spears were imbued with the same natural force he had seen at McCluskey Security Company.
Reacting instinctively, Oliver spread a thick layer of magical particles around him, halting the spears in midair before they could reach him.
A group of druids had surrounded him, continuing their relentless attack.
“The boss ordered us to stall him! Crush him!!”
Crunch... Crrrack...!
With the druids’ shout, roots grew around Oliver, attempting to coil around him and squeeze him to death.
But they couldn’t.
Even without using any special black magic, the emotional particles surrounding Oliver blocked the roots' pressure. In fact, the roots began to crack under the reverse pressure of the emotional particles.
Pure strength difference.
The druids were shocked, clearly not expecting to be overpowered by force in the forest.
But Oliver paid them no mind. He added black javelins to the wooden spears he had seized with his emotional particles and flicked his finger forward.
The spears, now infused with emotion, returned to their original owners.
A sharp sound of air being pierced was followed by the grotesque sound of flesh and wood bursting apart.
“Kya-hya-hya-hya! Die...!”
The moment Oliver launched his attack, someone rapidly closed the distance and appeared before him.
It was a man wrapped in bandages, wielding a massive steel greatsword.
Oliver recognized the face. It was one of the Development Opposition Committee members who had attacked the vehicle carrying him, Forest, and Al.
‘As expected, the Development Opposition Committee and Seamus are connected…?’
While contemplating the involvement of the Development Opposition Committee members now scattered throughout the forest, the steel greatsword came crashing down toward Oliver’s head.
Not merely aiming to split his head, but to turn his entire body into minced meat.
However, the emotional particles from Oliver’s cloak acted on their own, emitting a massive amount of energy and halting the greatsword mid-swing.
It wasn’t that the attack was blocked, it simply stopped.
“You…”
“Nice to see you again… But I have some business to attend to.”
Oliver politely requested understanding from the bandaged man, and using his targeting magic, slightly pushed him away.
Dartboard-shaped magical targets appeared on both Oliver’s hand and the bandaged man’s body, repelling each other with intense force. The bandaged man was flung into the distance, colliding with the corner of a massive old tree.
Crash! With a loud cracking sound, one side of the tree splintered and tilted, slowly falling over.
Crrraaaash!
The giant tree collapsed with a loud thud, kicking up a cloud of dust and pinning the bandaged man underneath it. The other bandaged men, now three of them, rushed toward Oliver.
Their forms were more akin to spiders, dogs, or lizards than humans, and with their grotesque movements, they attacked Oliver with tentacles, fangs, and claws.
Clap!
Oliver, noticing the three rushing opponents, clapped his hands.
In response, the emotional particles that had spread throughout the area converged, taking the shape of massive hands that squashed the three Committee members like mosquitoes.
Flesh burst and bones were crushed as the three were reduced to a gruesome mixture of meat. Meanwhile, the bandaged man pinned under the fallen tree let out a furious roar as he pushed the giant trunk aside and rose to his feet once again.
Crack! Crunch... Boom!
[Nail]
As the man rushed toward him, having lifted a tree many times his size, Oliver casually flicked his finger in the air, casting a spell.
In response to his incantation, emotional particles gathered on the man’s shoulder, forming a nail the size of a forearm and driving it in deep.
It happened without any warning, as if the nail had always been there.
“...!!”
The excruciating pain, far beyond normal, caused the bandaged man to collapse.
Behind Oliver, a voice suddenly shouted.
“Now’s the time!”
Oliver turned his head.
Six druids, having regrouped, were summoning a spirit using the fire that had spread around them as a medium.
It was the second time Oliver had witnessed the summoning of a spirit.
The first time had been with Kevin, the military mage, who had called forth a salamander, a fire dragon born of flames and nourished by fire.
This time, the spirit was in the form of a woman.
A giant woman composed entirely of blazing red flames.
She appeared, dancing gracefully within the massive fire, and the druids called upon her.
“Oh Lady of Flames! Burn our enemies to ashes! Leave not even a trace behind!”
Their plea was not an exaggeration.
The spirit, wielding a strange power beyond mere magic, absorbed the surrounding flames throughout the forest, radiating heat and light like the sun itself.
Far beyond the capacity of any ordinary fire mage.
Even standing near her caused the trees to wither and ordinary humans would have been scorched alive by the sheer heat.
Yet, just as the spirit finished gathering her strength, she locked eyes on Oliver and, unexpectedly, vanished without a trace.
“...”
“...”
“...”