Level Up Machine

Chapter 69 The Siege of Talion Fortress (4)

-BOOOOM!

A terrifying impact shook the fortress walls. Five streams of breath, imbued with dreadful magic, struck the walls. A massive explosion erupted, and the 20-meter-high walls of Talion began to crumble.

Along the outer wall of Talion, a powerful magical barrier had been installed to withstand breath attacks. This barrier, responding solely to magic, couldn’t prevent ogres or other giant monsters from physically climbing the walls, as it was purely designed to defend against ‘breath’ attacks.

The meticulously prepared barrier shattered without even showcasing its capabilities. No one anticipated that breath attacks would come from within Talion’s ‘interior.’

“Aaaaah!”

As the walls collapsed, the screams of the summoners echoed everywhere. It was a horrifying sound, as if they had entered hell.

The extermination squad, which had been steadily blocking the monsters from the front, couldn’t respond to the sudden barrage of breath attacks.

The pungent smell of burning flesh, and the chilling sound of summoners who failed to react in time being crushed under huge piles of rubble, filled the air.

“Hey, pull yourself together!”

“Mo-monsters… Aaaaah!”

To make matters worse, monsters began to charge through the collapsed walls. The defense line of the summoners, who had been leveraging the advantage of the fortress, fell apart.

-Growl!

Crash! Creak!

“Aaaaah!”

A gruesome massacre began. Monsters trampled over the collapsed walls and indiscriminately attacked the panicked summoners within Talion.

Bones were crushed, and summoners’ upper bodies were swallowed whole into the monsters’ mouths.

“Descend, Dragon of Water.”

Amid the chaos, a clear woman’s voice resonated in the summoners’ ears. It was the voice of Park Si-a, the guild master of the Leviathan Guild.

Contrary to the chaos and confusion of the battlefield, her voice remained eerily calm, as usual.

The powerful magic and cold energy contained in her voice slightly calmed the panicked summoners’ minds.

Ssshhhh.

Tiny droplets of water formed around her body. Thousands, tens of thousands of droplets began to cluster in the air like living beings.

“Ah?”

Short exclamations of awe escaped from the summoners watching this marvelous sight. A thrilling shiver ran through their bodies.

What Park Si-a’s magic created in the air was a massive dragon, appearing over 30 meters long.

It was a water dragon with a long, snake-like body, unlike the western dragons. This was the magic that earned her the nickname ‘Leviathan.’

-Roooaaaar!

The gigantic dragon made of water roared. The ferocious roar, as if it were a real dragon, swept through the surroundings.

-Growl…

The monsters, hearing the dragon’s roar, froze in place and began to back away with stiff expressions.

The predators who had been fiercely attacking amidst the chaos among the summoners suddenly turned into meek lambs.

“Leviathan…”

The nickname of Park Si-a slipped out of a summoner’s mouth as he stared blankly at the marvelous sight.

Leviathan, the sea monster from myths. He could now fully understand why Park Si-a, who seemed like a delicate woman on the outside, had earned such a terrifying title.

-Roooaaaar!

The water dragon created in the air let out a rough roar and opened its giant mouth towards the monsters. In an instant, an ogre’s body was swallowed into the water dragon’s mouth.

The water dragon, which was so massive that the 5-meter-tall ogre seemed like a toy, roughly chewed the body of the ogre it had swallowed.

Crunch!

As the sound of flesh being torn apart was heard, the transparent mouth of the water dragon turned crimson with dark red blood.

“Waaaah!”

“Long live the Leviathan Guild! Long live Park Si-a!”

The summoners cheered at the wondrous power displayed by Park Si-a. The morale of the extermination squad, which had plummeted to the ground, surged once more.

“Leviathan Elite Squad, First Unit, advance!”

“Levi

athan Elite Squad, Second Unit, advance!”

In alignment with Park Si-a’s attack, the elite troops of the Leviathan Guild, who had regrouped, charged towards the monsters.

The hundred-member unit, composed of a perfect ratio of close-combat classes, long-range attack classes, and healer classes, relentlessly pushed back the high-level monster troops.

“Waaaah!”

“Let’s go too!”

Even the summoners who had been about to flee were inspired by the formidable presence of the Leviathan Guild and began to charge at the monster troops again.

Park Si-a watched the summoners rushing towards the monsters with an excited expression, her face hardening into a cold look. Observing the battle between the summoners and monsters with icy eyes, she turned her head and spoke.

“Summoner Kang Ha-rin, Warlock Park Sang-jun.”

At her frosty voice, two individuals responded. One was a slim beauty with short hair reaching her shoulders, and the other was a suspicious figure wrapped in bandages from head to toe.

“Yes, Guild Master.”

Kang Ha-rin replied with a stiff expression, showing none of her usual cheerful demeanor. Park Sang-jun remained silent, gazing intently at Park Si-a.

“The monster troops will be held off by me and the First and Second Units. The two of you, lead the prearranged assassination squad to hunt the boss monster.”

“Yes.”

Kang Ha-rin answered briefly and turned around. As she watched her back, Park Si-a continued speaking.

“There were five breaths fired earlier. There are likely more than twenty Dragonians still conserving their strength. It’s impossible to confront them with the assassination squad alone. Don’t engage in a full-scale battle, just buy us some time. We’ll clear things up here and come to support you as soon as possible.”

“Hmph, who do you think I am? Don’t worry, Si-a unni, I’ll take down that fake lizard by myself!”

“…I told you to speak formally in public, Ha-rin.”

Park Si-a sighed deeply as she gave instructions to Kang Ha-rin. In response to her words, Kang Ha-rin scratched her head with a bashful smile.

“Hehe~ I guess this stiff atmosphere just doesn’t suit me.”

“Hoo, in any case, be careful. Absolutely no full-scale battles.”

“Got it!”

Kang Ha-rin nodded vigorously and dashed forward. Running ahead, she shouted towards Cheon Tae-hwang.

“Let’s go, Tae-hwang!”

“Yes.”

Cheon Tae-hwang nodded briefly and followed her. Normally, it wouldn’t make sense for someone with only 61 summon attempts to join an assassination squad tasked with taking down an S-rank boss monster.

However, Cheon Tae-hwang was already a powerful summoner whom ordinary summoners couldn’t dare to challenge. He followed Kang Ha-rin with a slightly excited expression, looking forward to the battle with the boss monster.

“Everyone joining the lizard hunt, come out!”

Kang Ha-rin’s voice echoed through the chaotic battlefield. The summoners assigned to the ‘assassination squad’ beforehand stepped forward at her call.

The number of the gathered assassination squad was roughly around twenty. It was significantly fewer than the originally organized squad of over fifty members.

“Damn it.”

Seeing this, a curse slipped out of Kang Ha-rin’s mouth. This time, the summoners who joined the assassination squad were all high-level summoners above level 90, forming a powerful force.

At the same time, many of them were key executives or even guild masters within their respective guilds.

However, due to the sudden breath attack, only about half of the originally intended assassination squad had assembled to manage the situation.

‘This is really dangerous.’

She swallowed a heavy sigh, thinking.

The Dragonians hadn’t used many of their breaths yet, but facing them with less than half of the planned squad was practically a suicide mission.

‘…But we can’t just not go.’

Gripping the long sword strapped to her back, Kang Ha-rin bit her lip. Thanks to Park Si-a’s efforts, morale had barely been raised, but if the Dragonians launched an attack here, the battlefield would surely become a mess again.

‘If only there was one more ranker… no, even just two more.’

With a determined expression, Kang Ha-rin headed towards the direction from which the breaths had been fired. At this point, there was no other way but to buy as much time as possible, as Park Si-a had said.

“Amazing.”

Yeong-sik murmured in a low voice as he watched the quick response of the Leviathan Guild.

Despite the confusion from the breath attack coming from within the fortress, which could have easily caused chaos, the Leviathan Guild’s response was remarkably calm.

‘No wonder she’s one of the three great guild masters.’

Watching Park Si-a, who had instantly turned the tide of what could have been a one-sided massacre, Yeong-sik’s eyes gleamed with admiration.

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yes. No guild members are injured.”

Park Cheol-tae replied to Tiria’s question as she looked around. Tiria sighed with relief, her expression reflecting her gratitude.

“To think they would infiltrate the fortress and fire a breath attack…”

She felt a chill at the unexpected intelligence of the monsters. It was a surprise attack that exploited the fact that the magical barrier against breath attacks was focused only on the outer wall.

“This is troublesome.”

Yeong-sik frowned as he spoke.

The original plan was for the assassination squad to swiftly eliminate the Dragonians, who would be exhausted from firing their breaths, but this surprise attack had easily shattered that plan.

The breath attacks that collapsed the wall were just five. Considering there were over thirty Dragonians, it was highly likely that their forces were in much better condition than anticipated.

“Can the assassination squad handle this alone?”

Tiria asked with a worried expression. She wasn’t concerned about the safety of the summoners in the assassination squad but about the catastrophic consequences if they failed.

If the assassination squad, sent to kill the boss monster, was instead annihilated, the battle’s outcome would drastically tilt in favor of the monsters. It wasn’t just about winning or losing the war.

If the Leviathan Guild, a key force in this battle, were to be crushed, the native inhabitants and summoners of the Elnote Kingdom would face a horrendous disaster.

“The chances of failure… seem higher.”

Yeong-sik, after a long contemplation, finally spoke with difficulty.

Under the original plan, the assassination squad had enough power to handle the Dragonians, but the situation had changed.

“I’ll have to go myself.”

Tiria clenched her fist lightly as she said this. The failure of the assassination squad would lead to the defeat in the war.

The thought that her guild members, who meant everything to her, might get hurt filled her mind.

Her words caused a stir among the guild members.

“Everyone, hold off the monsters here. I’ll go and check on the assassination squad.”

With that, Tiria turned to leave. Yeong-sik grabbed her arm as she was about to head towards the assassination squad alone.

“Wait.”

“I’m sorry, Yeong-sik. Even if you try to stop me this time, I must go.”

Tiria said to Yeong-sik with a dark expression. Yeong-sik shook his head as he responded to her.

“I’m not trying to stop you.”

“What?”

Tiria looked at Yeong-sik with a puzzled expression.

“I’ll go with you.”

Yeong-sik tightened his grip on her arm as he spoke.