CH 256

Neverending screams and ferocious shouts erupted from all over. Wherever Kim Jin-Woo looked, all he could see were evil expressions, and the red blood that painted his surroundings stung his eyes.

“Gwaaaaaar!”

“Kaaaaargh!”

“S-save me!”

In the sea of curses and unrecognizable roars, the screams of the Vampires were drowned out.

“Master! There aren’t many of us left!”

“Fuck, aren’t the Dukes done yet!?” Kim Jin-Woo cursed under his breath.

It had only been three hours since he followed the confident Taurus into the Ursus’ labyrinth, and yet more than half of his troops had already been sacrificed. Despite that, he had yet to even see any of the traps that the Ursus had prepared. The first skirmish alone had halved his force’s military strength. Even if his troops were an improvised force of Vampires, the loss was still a painful one.

Naturally, Kim Jin-Woo was unhappy with the outcome thus far. He muttered, “Phew, how much more are they planning on dragging this out?”

Surrounded by his bodyguards, the Taurus King was unusually relaxed, in spite of the chaos on the battlefield. The Ursus had launched a concentrated attack, but the Duke’s bodyguards had formed an iron wall to prevent their approach, resulting in the slaughter of only the surrounding troops.

Unfortunately for Kim Jin-Woo, it was he and the Vampires who had suffered the most as a result. Now, there were more enemies than allies around. The main stage had yet to reveal itself, and already, his strength was weakening.

It wasn’t that he was lacking in power. If he used even a fraction of his Power of Greed, which was crying out to be released from his body, he was confident that he could clean up the enemies in the area effortlessly.

However, if he were to waste his power from the beginning, when the Dukes finally intervened, he would be falling behind in terms of his power reserve, which could potentially result in an unfavorable outcome.

For now, the best he could do was to rely on his Mystical Spear while suppressing his power.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Kim Jin-Woo swung and struck with his spear endless times. Perhaps because he was solely relying on his physical strength, he was already starting to run out of breath. The High Ursus, who had received amplification buff effects, were just that strong.

“Master, you need to catch your breath for a moment. At this rate, when the real battle begins, neither Master nor I will be able to withstand it.” Angela, who had lost a majority of her clanmates, suggested a silent retreat.

“Once we get pushed back, we’ll lose all our momentum. It’s tough, but we have to hold on,” Kim Jin-Woo replied, shaking his head.

The Ursus labyrinth was as complex as it was vast. Its frozen walls were like the distortion traps created by Daedalus; they took away all of their intruders’ sense of direction and made the five senses feel unreliable. The only thing the enemy force could trust was their sense of sight, and even then, no one could predict what would happen if they were to lose sight of the Duke.

Kim Jin-Woo silently tightened his grip onto his spear while watching the Duke and his bodyguards. The High Ursus, who had been running rampant in the distance, suddenly charged towards him with wide eyes. They had been thinking of him as their enemy from the beginning.

He laughed bitterly. It was an alliance that hadn’t been built on trust in the first place, but seeing the look on the High Ursus’ faces, he now knew that there was no possibility of coexistence even after the war was over.

“Well, it’s unlike us to be holding hands and act all friendly with anyone, isn’t it?” he remarked. The High Ursus closed in on him as they opened their jaws wide, ready to eat him whole.

“Grr?”

While the High Ursus were confused by the sudden disappearance of the enemy that had been right in front of them just moments before, Kim Jin-Woo grabbed one of the white bears’ heads.

“Grrrrrrr!”

The bear growled fiercely. Its sharp claws swung toward him angrily. Kim Jin-Woo swiftly dodged its attacks and forcibly grabbed its neck, which was too thick for him to wrap his arms around.

Phew.

With a deep breath, Kim Jin-Woo released a tiny amount of the Power of Greed he had been suppressing all along.

Krgh.

The white bear’s mouth opened wide. However, there was none of the ferocity that had existed just moments before. The sight of the High Ursus, sticking out its tongue as it gasped for air, was disproportionately pathetic compared to its savagery.

“Grrrrr…”

The white bear’s fur in Kim Jin-Woo’s grasp quickly broke into strands and disintegrated bit by bit. The giant body of the white bear, formerly bulky and muscular, shrank like a deflated balloon before eventually turning into a handful of dust and fading away without leaving a single trace.

“Phew,” Kim Jin-Woo explained. It wasn’t enough life energy for the greedy Lord, but it was enough to restore his exhausted body. He caught his breath as he felt the energy begin to circulate through his body once again.

Thud.

While watching him from the side, Angela held a High Ursus and sucked away at its blood. As her pale complexion returned to normal, it seemed that she too had been able to deal with the problems on her end.

A few Vampires followed them and clung onto the bodies of wounded white bears, hungry for their blood. However, not all of Kim Jin-Woo’s forces had as much resourcefulness as him and Angela. The hide of the Ursus was too tough for the false Vampires’ fangs to pierce.

“Gwoaaaar.”

“Grrrrrrr.”

The giant bulls and white bears were still clawing and biting away at each other to the death. Even as their own allies fell around them, they only had eyes for the enemies in front of them.

Kim Jin-Woo also completely blended into the flow of battle. His sense of time faded away. The only sense that mattered to him was the mechanical movement of the tip of his Mystical Spear. All other senses gradually dulled in the ongoing battle.

It was as if he had been caught in a complete trance. Where there was energy, Gungnir sapped away at it, and where there was an enemy, Gungnir struck them down. That was all.

All distractions slowly disappeared, and the only things that filled the void were his surgical, efficient movements.

While watching from afar, the Taurus King exclaimed mildly to himself.

After all, the Undefeated Commander’s fighting method was something that was rare on the Deep Floors. It had been clear that he was hiding his true strength, but his efficient movements alone revealed hidden strength that not many Counts could match.

“If the white bears hadn’t intervened, this might have turned ugly,” the Taurus King remarked. His heart that beat wildly every time he encountered a strong foe was crying out loudly inside of him. However, he reined in his fighting spirit by exhaling wildly instead.

To him, his opponent was an annoying one, but that was all there was to it.

His opponent had previously defeated the Satyrs, but the Taurus King didn’t even recognize a half-Duke who hadn’t been able to fully exercise his powers. Even if the half-Duke had somehow been defeated, he didn’t think the Satyrs’ opponent would be any match for him.

He only had one true nemesis—Ursus.

Seeing the High Ursus surrounding the Undefeated Commander, the Taurus King shook his head. It seemed even his archenemy couldn't be bothered to give it their all.

It seemed as though the main objective was to drain the Undefeated Commander’s strength rather than to defeat him on the spot… No, it was possible that those wicked white bears wanted the Taurus and the Undefeated Commander to turn on each other.

Recalling the face of his crafty nemesis, the Duke cast his gaze across the battlefield. His head, which was high enough to touch the ceiling, turned as he scanned the situation.

The battle that filled the entire passageway was chaos itself. They had occupied a fairly large open area as the battle continued, but the number of troops that could actively engage in combat was a mere fraction of all the troops present.

Nevertheless, the Ursus continued to pour out from dozens of passages that connected to the open field, resulting in fierce battles everywhere.

“Tsk.”

Although the High Ursus stood out quite a bit, there weren’t many of them. Even if they were the elites, they were still white bear warriors at the end of the day. It seemed the sinister king of the white bears had yet to come to a decision.

“However, you're not the one who will dictate the flow of this battle.”

Neither the Undefeated Commander nor the Ursus would dictate the timing of the decisive battle.

Crash!

The huge labyrinth shook from and intense roar.

“Urgh!”

The time was ripe. The Duke, who had been watching the expressions of the white bears who were bewildered by the sudden roar and shaking, took a deep breath and called out, “All troops!”

The roar of the mighty Duke matched the roar from just moments earlier, drowning out the screams on the battlefield. “Forward!”

Upon experiencing the sudden shock and shaking, Kim Jin-Woo came to his senses. He muttered, “Is it starting?”

Thinking that the trap the Ursus had laid out had finally activated, Kim Jin-Woo was momentarily filled with joy, but that was short-lived as he realized how wrong he was.

The white bears looked perplexed. It was possible that they hadn’t been informed of the trap in advance by their cold-hearted ruler, but that possibility wasn’t high. Now that the enemy had been lured into the desired location, there was no reason to deceive these loyal warriors who would have readily died for their king at his command.

“Gwoaaaaaaaaaaah!”

At that moment, the Taurus King roared and the Taurus began to advance. It was an indication of which side was leading the charge. The Taurus, who had been holding their positions, struck out in unison as they began to push back against the Ursus. The balance of the battlefield collapsed, and the hundreds of Ursus that had flowed through the passageway were slaughtered in an instant.

“Ah…” Kim Jin-Woo let out a low moan as he closely watched the movements of the Taurus.

Was it because he had been too immersed in battle? Or had his senses been blinded because he had been too focused on hiding his Highlord powers?

Belatedly, he realized that a third source of energy was approaching, and his expression stiffened. Anyone could tell to whom the wave of energy, comparable to that of the Taurus and Ursus, belonged. A third Duke, who had been slowly approaching from the east, had finally arrived on the battlefield.

“They’re way too early,” Kim Jin-Woo muttered.

He had sent back Rikshasha and the rest of the Under-Elves, who were too weak to remain on the battlefield. Because of his decision, he had been blind to the situation that was unfolding outside the labyrinth. From now on, he truly had no choice but to depend on himself and charge forward blindly.

“Phew.” Taking a breather, Kim Jin-Woo called for Angela. She was busy trying her best to not let her few remaining clanmates get caught up in the advance of the Taurus. He said, “We’ll follow them too.”

As the Taurus’ advance gained momentum, the movements of the bodyguards became more agile. Tracking their movement with his gaze, Kim Jin-Woo quickly gathered Angela and the rest of his subordinates and started to move forward as well.

One of the prepared cards had been activated. There were many other traps prepared by the Ursus that remained, but after the Taurus had made the first move, the Ursus were unlikely to continue to sit around and wait for any longer.

From then on, this was going to be a real battle. Already, the power of Greed was clamoring to be released.

Judging from the turbulent momentum, it seemed that the third Duke had broken through the walls and forcibly entered the labyrinth, bypassing the entrance. Kim Jin-Woo wasn’t sure how the rock-solid frozen walls had been broken through, but it was definitely an unexpected move.

Taken by surprise, the Ursus had no choice but to maintain a passive position, as they were too worried about a possible flank attack from the rear. Naturally, the frontlines were immediately pushed deep into the center of the labyrinth.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the Taurus and the third Duke’s plan was successful.

But those who were gathered in the labyrinth knew that the Ursus weren’t going to so easily give up their labyrinth.

As if to confirm their suspicions, the trap that the Ursus had prepared activated.