Chapter 151 – Great Plains of Barrastan (2)

Serin Han looked through her memories for those regarding him.

‘A blonde man, good-looking, Edward, Spellmaster.’

It was exactly the man that was on Sungjin’s list. Unlike the other people on the list, he was someone who was important enough to get a star written next to his name. Sungjin had even made sure to say,

‘You must call me if you meet ‘Spellmaster’ Edward.’

Serin Han stole glimpses at him. He was good-looking and smiled winningly; from his outward appearance, he looked normal.

‘Is that man truly dangerous?’

He did not look dangerous at all from just his physical appearance. Serin decided to call Sungjin after clearing the Boss with Edward first. Sungjin did say,

‘Call me after about 1/5 of the raid time has passed. Since I have to clear my raid as well.’

She kept an eye on him as she held her bow.

‘I should first observe him until it’s time.’

Soon the raid began.

“Everyone. We should slowly go towards where the enemy camp is.”

They began moving while following some hunter’s lead. As the bow wielding Serin and magician Edward were dispatched to the rear, they weren’t particularly far apart from each other.

Serin diagonally moved backwards and stole a peek at him. His flashy items and his good looks were both eye catching. action

He had the pointy hat most magicians used, a crimson robe that seemed to have some kind of magical glow, and a staff with three bluish crystal spheres embedded in it. It seemed that he was using pretty good items. While Serin was examining him, shouts were heard suddenly.

“It’s the enemy!”

“It’s the humans!”

Serin looked towards the source of the voices. Five demons were looking at the hunters while yelling. Even though it was obvious that the hunters had twice their numbers, the demons didn’t seem to be discouraged by it at all.

Instead, they confidentially came charging at the hunters. Serin held up her bow. It was the crystal bow she had earned from Ice Palace in Chapter 11. She had gathered three and turned it into a Unique Legendary – one from Sungjin, one from Nada, and the last from the Auction House.

She nocked an arrow on her bowstring and pulled. She aimed at the head of the demon who was in the very front and then let loose.

‘Pew~’

The arrow flew accurately towards the head of the demon. Serin was certain that she would hit the exact center. Her arrow would definitely pierce through the enemy’s brains. However, the moment the arrow that had been flying on target was about to touch the demon’s head, it bounced off.

‘Tik!’

‘What?’

When the arrow was about to hit, the demon had turned and struck it with the horn growing from his head. Serin was a bit taken aback.

She had seen Boss Monsters or stronger beings knock aside her arrows before, but it was the first time where regular monsters on the field were able to deflect them.

In any case, the battle began while Serin was flustered. It was a battle to the death between the hunters and demons. But unexpectedly, it seemed that it was the hunters that were being pushed back.

Each of the demons was holding a single weapon – a sword, an axe, a spear, a mace – and while they were each fighting two or more hunters, they were not being pushed back at all.

If it was a 10 vs. 10 instead of 10 vs. 5, then the hunters would have been the ones who were losing their ground. Only 3 seconds after fighting, Serin, as well as the other hunters, realized,

‘Aren’t these guys incredibly strong?’

Even if this was the case, the hunters could not exactly begin running away from the first battle. The hunters began fighting against the demons that were several times stronger than them. Serin, of course, pulled back her bowstring once more. Since the head would be moving ceaselessly in close combat, she instead aimed at the torso instead.

‘Piin! Piin! Piin!’

This time all three had met their mark. The movement of the demons that were hit by Serin’s crystal arrows began to slow. Thanks to this, it was easier for the other hunters to fight the demons. As this happened,

“This annoying pest!”

a demon jumped high into the air and flew straight towards Serin. Serin leaped into the air and chanted,

“Sylphid.”

Soon, her shoes began to shine with a green light and moved her slightly away from the enemy. Serin continued to shoot arrows while she was floating in the air and flying backwards.

One arrow.

‘Piin!’

A second arrow.

‘Piin!’

A third arrow.

‘Piin!’

The demon was significantly slowed after being hit by all three arrows; enough that she could shoot more arrows at him while avoiding the horn on his head. Serin nocked an arrow that would be the final strike and pulled the bowstring. However, at this moment a hunter came flying towards Serin. This was because a demon had grabbed him and threw him at the floating Serin.

“Slyp...”

She tried to use her active skill once more, but it was too late. She collided with the incoming hunter and fell over on the spot.

“Kuu...”

The demon that had been slowed did not miss this opportunity and charged at the two people. Serin tried to get up quickly, but the demon was faster than she thought. When she thought,

‘What do I do?’

The sound of someone chanting a spell could be heard.

“Flames of Purification!”

The moment the demon swung his axe at Serin,

“Fire Blast!”

It became very bright. When Serin came back to her senses and looked, Edward’s blazing staff had pierced the demon’s heart. What was unique was that the flames on the staff had different colors from that of a normal flame and gave off a silver-white light.

Serin now had a reasonable estimate of the opponent’s toughness thanks to her arrows. However, even though the demon’s physique was incredibly tough, that light would disintegrate the flesh where it touched instead of simply burning it. Having a hole pierced through the area of its heart, the demon fell noisily to the ground.

‘Thud’

Edward held his staff in one hand as he extended the other to Serin.

“Are you okay?”

He pulled Serin up onto her feet when she grabbed his hand. Afterwards, they left towards where the demons were. Serin briefly looked at his back, before coming back to attention and shooting arrows once more.

The hunters that had been on the defensive quickly returned to offensive. While the hunters kept the demons busy, Edward’s spells and Serin’s arrows inflicted critical blows, and soon the demons died as they bled to their deaths. After the first battle was over, all the hunters took a breather.

“Whew...”

“As expected, a 10 man raid isn’t that easy.”

“Indeed. They seemed like a scouting party... For them to be so strong...”

At this moment, Serin stole a glimpse at her savior, Edward. It could have become a dangerous situation, but she had been able to escape the crisis thanks to him.

‘... He seems to be a kind person... Is this person really dangerous...?’

However, while she was stealing glimpses at him, her eyes met Edward’s briefly. Serin awkwardly tried to look elsewhere, but at that moment, Edward said,

“For a man, your hands are pretty small.”

Serin slightly fumbled through her words as she said,

“Ah... Yes, they’re... a bit small.”

The mask from the Raccoon Merchant changed your outward appearance, but it did not change your body type as it was related to combat. Although the hand looked bigger than it was, if you actually grabbed it then it would be a bit small. Serin thought to herself,

‘No way... Did he find out?’

While Serin was worrying, one of the hunters said,

“Then, let’s continue.”

All of the hunters headed towards the battlefield again. The second enemy group that they met had two more than the previous team, totaling to seven demons. The hunters were incredibly nervous. It wasn’t easy fighting five of them, and now there were seven. Furthermore, there was a demon among the enemies that was using magic.

“Eternal Flames of Hell! Inferno!”

While someone was surprised and said,

“A normal monster is using magic?”

Edward used a spell to block the enemy’s magic.

“Anti-Magic Shield”

Having seen this, Serin took out an egg from her jacket and threw it into the air.

“Come out, Rin”

A single crimson falcon soon appeared from the egg. The name of the falcon that had just appeared was Rinesh’kha. The falcon that Serin called ‘Rin’ for short was an immense in size whose wingspan measured 3 meters from left to right.

Normally, she took it out for Boss fights and used ‘Arabian Nights’ for Hidden Bosses, but she decided to use it here because Sungjin had said in the morning,

‘In this raid, try to avoid the Hidden Boss if you can. Since the Hidden Boss in the 10 man raid... Might be an existence whose strength is just incomparable. Even I don’t know if I’ll try it... I’m not sure. So, just think that there’s no Hidden Boss in this raid. Okay?’

If they’re not going to fight the Hidden Boss, then she could take out and use ‘Arabian Nights’ for the regular Boss. She stroked the falcon’s beak and said,

“While I’m shooting the arrows, keep off anyone who tries to approach me. Ok?”

“Kyaaak”

Having called Rin to be her guard, Serin began to shoot arrows without worry. The second fight was easier than expected. Part of this was because several of the Hunters had begun to use their Active Skills after feeling a sense of crisis from the first battle.

“High Tower!”

“Exploding fist”

“Heartless Strike”

The other part was because Edward began to throw powerful spells at just the right time.

“Ice Lance!”

“Fire Ring!”

After shooting arrows for a while, Serin began to have a strange feeling. Even before she had become a ‘Chosen One’, excluding when she had first met Sungjin, she had always been the ace of the team.

During the raid distribution, she had never missed being first in contribution. As they had proceeded into the latter half, the difference in contribution did begin to decrease again, but after she had become a ‘Chosen One’, her contribution levels had exploded once more. However, she now thought,

‘This time, it won’t be easy.’

Edward’s spells were simply that strong. Regardless of this, she still did not like losing first place. Serin began to focus more while shooting her arrows. On occasion, the demons would team up to try and attack her.

“Kill that Archer bastard first!”

However, Rin would show up each time, clawing their faces and pecking their necks. Serin would use this opportunity to use

“Sylphid”

She kept shooting arrows as she retreated backwards. In this way, even if the demons did manage to come close to Serin, they would die after turning into pincushions. Just when the fight was about to finish, with their victory nearly assured, Serin put away her arrows and observed Edward.

“Lightning Bolt!”

It seemed that he also had a lot of mana. He wasn’t exhausted even though he kept using magic.

‘This person is really strong.’

Serin thought as she pursed her lips.

‘Not only is he strong... But looking from the outside, he looks like a good person.’

If this hunter wasn’t one of Sungjin’s ‘important people’, then it was likely that she would recommend him to be their ally. Though, given Sungjin’s attitude when talking about him, it looked like there was no possibility of this happening.

‘I can’t forgive that guy.’

Regardless, Serin proceeded together with Edward to kill the enemies. Sungjin regarded him as ‘the worst’, but Edward seemed to harmonize well with his teammates,

“I’ll cast a spell on you, so please charge forwards.”

And he would be the first to help others.

“Anti-Magic Shield.”

Because of this, Serin felt a bit confused. From her point of view, not only did Sungjin have a lot of experience, but he was also an incredibly cautious person. The judgments that he made during the raids were generally correct. However, she thought that at least his judgment of Edward was somewhat incorrectly made.

‘I don’t know what happened back then, but...’

Serin thought of her earring. The cooldown for the ‘Eye of Jeremiah’ was 10 minutes. She thought that she should investigate as much as she could as the raid progressed.