Chapter 13

Chapter 13. Massacre (2)

Thanks to the lunatic who had appeared out of nowhere and started killing his own side, Balun had been able to breathe a little easier, but his heart only pounded harder.

That was because the lunatic who had committed the team kill was a monster that could fling fireballs with his bare hands.

Balun had spent his days fighting wars every day and had beaten all kinds of monsters there were to beat, but he had never fought a monster that created fireballs and hurled them with its bare hands.

To begin with, that was beyond common sense.

It was the kind of thing that should not have been possible.

A stage magician using sleight of hand would have been one thing, but where in the world was there such a thing as magic? Was this a game? Or some fantasy movie?

Naturally, a piece of common sense like “magic exists” did not exist for a twenty-first-century Korean, so Balun could not help being flustered.

It was already absurd enough that there were people who could turn invisible, and now what? Magic?

“If he is that nimble, then a fireball is not a very good choice. A fast anti-personnel spell would be much better.”

There was no time to think for long.

The bastard had started moving his lips and swinging his staff.

The upper part of his staff glowed blue, and then three ice crystals formed and shot forward at speed.

SHWEEEEEK!

“Ghk!”

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Balun hurled himself aside again.

The ice arrows struck the place where he had just been standing.

Seeing that, Balun rubbed his chest in relief. One of the ice crystals was embedded in the ground and still spinning in place. That meant it had enough power to pierce even this sturdy stone floor.

‘What the hell is that?’

If one of those hit him, it was over. Even if it did not kill him, it would at least leave him gravely wounded. Having a hole punched through your body was a grave wound by any definition.

“You really are absurdly quick. Listen well. Whoever captures that man gets this. As for anyone who runs away... I kill every last one of you. There is no need for gang members who do not protect their organization.”

The mage tossed a gold coin into the air and caught it several times. The Vipers members who saw it hesitated. Whether it was because of greed or because they wanted to survive, the other gang members who had been running away turned back around.

To Balun, it was no different from a red warning sign.

Things were bad enough already, and now he had even more enemies.

Balun steadied his breathing and quickly sized up the enemy. One mage on the roof, nine below. He had to fight ten against one.

“Hmm, that reward is a little weak. Right. Whoever captures him will be appointed Guild Master. Is that tempting enough?”

“Guild Master!”

The gang members’ eyes gleamed with greed.

They forgot their fear entirely and quickly tightened the encirclement. The mage grinned and started moving his lips again.

Balun wanted to cry.

‘Ah, I should have just followed Barel. Rent hell is far better than dying right now.’

The unfairness of it surged over him like a wave, making his chest boil.

No, this was too absurd.

Who could have known he would end up fighting a mage?

To begin with, where in the world did magic even exist? That was something found only inside games.

“I will kill all of you!”

Balun shouted loudly.

At that booming roar, the gang members flinched. Greed had overtaken their reason, but the fear already branded into them could not be helped. They had seen their boss die right in front of them.

Balun did not miss that opening.

He swung his two-handed axe sideways.

The muscles in both arms bulged as if they were about to burst, and two gang members were cut apart like logs.

That caused immediate unrest. Balun then charged like a bull at the man right beside him, who had recoiled in horror, and slammed into him with his shoulder. WHAM! With a crisp impact, the gang members were sent tumbling. Thanks to that, the encirclement was broken.

But Balun did not move through the gap.

He had felt something unsettling.

Then suddenly, he felt heat.

The acrid smell of something burning stabbed at his nose. From where? From the corpse pinned beneath the broken line of the encirclement.

He glanced over, wondering what it was, and nearly jumped out of his skin.

The body was swelling.

As though it were about to burst.

‘This is fucking insane!’

Instinctively, Balun raised the broad side of his axe to shield his body and ducked his head low.

At the same time, the corpse exploded.

BOOOOM!

Bone fragments, blood, and chunks of entrails burst in every direction. A dizzying pain shot through Balun. Thanks to the axe, he managed to block a large amount of it, but he had not completely stopped the attack.

‘For fuck’s sake, now he is even making corpses explode.’

His forearm, side, and legs all stung terribly. Had he been burned?

It also felt warm, so maybe he was bleeding...

He did not know.

There was no time to check such minor wounds.

At this rate, he really was going to die.

“Ho! Excellent quick thinking! To think you used the axe blade to block the explosion!”

Now the small fry did not even register in his eyes anymore.

If he did not kill that mage bastard, he would die.

Extreme excitement and terror had paralyzed his reason. And his paralyzed reason naturally followed instinct.

He took a hand axe into his hand and drew a deep breath.

He pulled his arm far back as if he were about to throw it.

“Heh heh, are you trying to hit me by throwing that? What a pointless thing to do.”

The mage sneered at Balun.

As though preparing to block the incoming axe, he thrust out his staff.

But what came flying at him was not an axe blade.

It was a chunk of corpse.

A red lump of flesh, impossible to tell whether it was an arm, a leg, or part of a torso, flew through the air and scattered blood.

The mage faltered in alarm.

For an instant, the blood spraying through the air obscured his vision.

Because of that, he could not cast his spell properly.

“No, what is this...”

WHIIIISH!

“Gah!”

The mage’s eyes flew open.

He suddenly felt something grab his leg.

Looking down, he saw a rope looped around it.

“Aaaagh!”

The rope was yanked hard. The mage could not react in time and was dragged right off the roof.

Balun rushed forward and seized the mage by the throat.

“Caught you.”

“Kkh!”

Balun grinned.

That felt satisfying.

This damned mage bastard.

“Mage, I do not kill right away.”

“What?”

“Instead, you get beaten.”

WHAM!

Balun’s fist smashed into the tip of the mage’s jaw.

The mage passed out instantly.

Balun hit him two more times for good measure, then looked around.

There were no surviving Vipers members left. They had all been caught in the corpse explosions and died.

‘Ha, surviving is hard as hell.’

Balun flopped onto the ground where he was.

Lying there motionless, he could feel a cool breeze gently blowing over him.

Balun stayed sprawled out like that for a long while, savoring the cool wind.

***

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Balun woke the mage and started with torture.

The moment he silently cut off a finger, the mage began sobbing and spilling information.

The bastard’s name was Malik, and he said he was a mage from the Mage Tower, but that meant nothing to Balun. What was a Mage Tower? How impressive was that supposed to be?

The important thing was why this man had targeted him.

Malik had targeted Balun because he wanted an experimental slave to use in magical experiments.

And the most important fact of all:

Just as Balun had expected, Malik was the one backing the Vipers.

He had been protecting them from behind and guaranteeing their safety, while the Vipers’ Rogues had been supplying him with experimental subjects on a regular basis.

“You backed them?”

“Yes!”

“How is that possible? Are you someone important?”

“I told you, I am from the Mage Tower! There is no madman alive who would dare touch someone under the Mage Tower’s name! Who would dare challenge the authority of the Mage Tower?”

The Vipers had apparently always chosen suitable targets among novice adventurers visiting the city and abducted them. And Balun had entered their net at exactly the right time.

A barbarian from who-knew-where?

Was that not the perfect SSS-rank kidnapping target? Someone they could seize without causing any trouble at all?

So Jackson, the Guild Master, had reported to Malik that he thought they could obtain a barbarian slave, and Malik had come to the hideout to take delivery of the slave himself.

It was an utterly ridiculous truth.

“I see. Now die.”

“W-Wait! P-Please spare me!”

“No.”

“I will release the barbarian slave! I will release the barbarian slave!”

Balun paused.

What slave?

“Barbarian slave?”

“Yes! Do you not wish to save your suffering brethren?”

Hope lit up Malik’s eyes. Balun laughed in disbelief.

What pointless nonsense was this bastard babbling now? He could barely survive on his own as it was. Who was he supposed to help?

Balun genuinely thought so.

His own life was already a mess. He was the one in need. Who was he supposed to save when he did not even have enough money to buy a single house?

“Shut up! Balun is tight-pressed. Balun is an unfortunate neighbor.”

“U-Unfortunate neighbor? What does that...”

“Now die. Go to Buddha’s side!”

Balun raised his axe.

Malik’s face turned pale.

What kind of barbarian in the world was this? Did it make sense for a barbarian to refuse even when offered the chance to save his own kind?

He truly was a brutal barbarian.

Apparently, he was the kind who would never allow compromise with an enemy.

“Th-Then the finest weapon! I will give you a weapon! A weapon fit for a warrior! So please!”

“You prattle noisily.”

“No! You fool! Do you know who I am?! I am Malik the Fire Butcher! If you kill me, the Mage Tower will never sit idly by—!”

SHNK!

After severing his neck in a single stroke, Balun wiped the blood from his axe and thought,

‘Why would he offer me a weapon of all things? He should have offered money instead.’

Of course, even if Malik had offered money, Balun had had no intention of sparing him. Was he crazy? Why would he leave future trouble alive?

Balun watched Malik’s head roll down the slightly sloping ground, then sprang to his feet.

There were corpses everywhere.

Before he knew it, he had ended up staging an outright massacre. Balun scratched his head awkwardly.

‘Damn it, this was not what I came here for...’

He had only meant to issue a proper warning and maybe take the boss’s head.

Instead, things had turned out like this.

It was beyond troublesome.

But what was the point of dwelling on something that had already happened?

‘First, loot the place clean.’

Balun tossed aside all stray thoughts and began thoroughly looting the now-ownerless Vipers hideout.

First, he searched the pockets of the dead men, then ransacked the inside of the building as well.

At first, it seemed as though there was nothing in the headquarters and he had come up empty-handed, but fortunately, he found a secret vault.

“Just as I thought! There is no way they would not have one!”

It was a cube-shaped vault, tightly secured with a lock.

CLANG!

CLANG!

SMASH!

But if you destroyed the vault itself, the lock became completely meaningless.

‘Holy shit!’

Balun’s eyes widened.

Inside were brilliantly gleaming gold coins.

What the hell?

How many were there?

After counting them, the total came to one hundred and ten.

“110 gold!”

Balun’s eyes shone with delight.

That boss bastard had piled up quite a fortune!

‘Thank you, boss bastard. You left this here for me, right?’

Balun chuckled.

The anger that had been boiling inside him cooled all at once.

He had made an enormous amount of money in a single stroke.

As people said, financial treatment really was the best. His skin still stung from being scorched by exploding corpses, but all he felt now was joy.

***

The moment Balun left the Vipers’ headquarters, he headed straight for the guard post.

He intended to bribe the captain of the guard.

After cutting down this many people, there was no way the city guards would sit quietly. Naturally, they would try to identify the culprit. If they were not going to do that, then what was the point of guards existing in the first place?

So Balun formed a plan.

He would buy off the guards with hush money.

He did not want to go to prison, and he did not want to become a wanted fugitive and run, so what else could he do? He had to spend money.

A guard who had suddenly sensed someone approaching had been absentmindedly picking his nose, but the moment he saw Balun, he flinched in shock.

A huge barbarian man in a wretched state was walking toward him.

“What the hell? What is going on— gah!”

Wounds showed through his badly torn clothes, and there was blood all over him. On top of that, his hair was a total mess. How could anyone not be startled? He looked as though he had just come back from a war.

“Y-You, you are that barbarian from yesterday!”

“I came to see the captain of the guard.”

“What?”

“Lead me to captain of the guard.”

“W-What are you saying? Just because you want to see the captain, you think you can? Huh?”

“Take this.”

Balun held out a gold coin.

The guard’s eyes grew round.

“A gold coin?”

“It is a gift.”

The guard whipped his head around several times, checked that no one was looking, and hurriedly pocketed the coin.

“Ahem. Right. Of course I should guide someone who wishes to see the captain. But... what is this about? You do not happen to hold a grudge against him, do you?”

“No grudge. I have something to say.”

“Well, in that case... follow me.”

The guard soon took the lead.

The place they reached was the guard barracks.

He told Balun to wait, then came back out about a minute later and gestured for Balun to come in.

When Balun entered the barracks behind him, a sharp-looking man peered at him with narrowed eyes.

At a glance, it was obvious that this man was the captain of the guard.

“So this is the one who wanted to see me?”

“Yes, sir. He said he had something to tell you...”

“I understand. Leave us.”

“Yes, sir!”

The guard stepped out.

“So you must be that barbarian who arrived recently.”

The captain of the guard looked Balun up and down. Clear wariness showed in his eyes.

“All right. Why did you want to see me?”

“You. I will give a gift.”

“Hm?”

The captain of the guard narrowed his eyes.

A gift?

Out of nowhere?

Balun fumbled around in his pocket, pulled out a fistful of coins, and placed them on the table.

The captain’s eyes widened.

Ten gold coins.

A full 10 gold.

“You. I give. Take.”

“You are giving this to me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because it's a gift.”

It made no sense whatsoever.

They had never met before, and yet he was suddenly offering him a gift? Did that make any sense?

But he was a man who had grown seasoned as the captain of the guard.

He quickly understood what kind of situation this was.

So, he wanted to buy his silence.

What else could explain such a huge sum of money?

‘That bastard definitely caused some kind of trouble. That is why.’

The only strange thing was that the man was a barbarian.

A barbarian giving a bribe?

Did such a concept even exist in this world?

At least, it did not exist in his mind. Barbarians were a people who hated cowardice to the bone.

But what did that matter?

In front of a great deal of money, common sense had no value at all.

“My barbarian friend, what is your name?”

“Balun.”

“Balun! What a splendid name for a warrior! My name is Dane! It is truly a pleasure to meet such a brave warrior! Ha ha!”

Captain of the Guard Dane sprang to his feet, embraced Balun, and patted him on the back, as if he were hugging a friend he had reunited with after decades apart.

Balun was bewildered.

How could a person’s expression change by a full one hundred and eighty degrees like this? In an instant, the look of contempt had become a look of trust.

“Balun. Thanks to your gift just now, we have become friends. And friends, by their very nature, help each other. Is that not right?”

“That is right.”

“Excellent. My friend, just trust me. So long as I am here, no one will dare lay a hand on my friend. Ha ha!”