Chapter 442: Half a Day

442. Half a Day (3)

In the center of X-District, you could hear several voices sounding off from a large industrial area that was never completed.

“What’s for dinner tonight?”

“Dude, we just had lunch.”

“Whatever.”

“Fried fish and chips.”

“Shit… We had that for lunch too. We even had it for breakfast.”

“Deal with it. They bought a ton because it was cheap. Get ready to eat fish and potatoes for a while. You’ll grow gills and start shitting potatoes.”

“Oh, God.”

“You bastard! What’s that card up your sleeve?! Hand me the hammer! I’ll smash it to bits.”

“Smash away. Smash away, you crazy fool.”

“Hey! Fight! Fight! What are you all doing? Bet on it! Bet money!!”

“Hey, we’re close to shift change. Get ready.”

“Why are we the only ones working? Where are the Druids? Why aren’t they taking a shift?”

“If you’ve got complaints, take them to the boss. Want me to set up a meeting?”

It was a strange sight.

The streets, gray and desolate, usually silent except for the dying beggars, had never seen this much noise before.

Ironically, that’s why it became a base for Enjoyment and the Unaffiliated Gangs.

The area was excluded from important redevelopment of X-District, which made it easy to avoid attention. Plus, with only vagrants here, it was an easy claim for them.

“It still feels wrong. Should we really be working with these guys?”

On an unfinished building, Druid A looked down and voiced his worry. He was with Enjoyment, of course.

A Druid who fled to the city, chasing freedom, wealth, and pleasure.

Though he never made much of it, since he was average in both brains and skill.

Yet he still grumbled as he looked down at the Unaffiliated Gangs below.

Even a mediocre Druid was way above their level.

Druid B, who was sitting nearby, responded while tearing into a freshly cooked steak with his hands.

“Why do you think so?”

“Don’t you know? They’re just a bunch of local thugs. Look, someone just got scammed and had their hand mangled. There’s no discipline. None at all.”

“That’s exactly why it’s great. What’s the problem?”

“Great?”

“Yeah. They’re perfect cannon fodder. Easy to control.”

Druid A nodded at Druid B’s words. That might be true.

If your partner’s competent, it felt reassuring while working together, but splitting the spoils afterward was always a mess. Maybe this was just right.

“Fine, agreed… Now pass me some steak, too.”

Like Druid B, Druid A grabbed the hot steak with his bare hands and started tearing into it.

Even though this was his fourth steak, he still wasn’t full. After all, a Druid’s powerful body needed a lot of nutrients.

In the end, the two Druids decided to grill more steaks, chatting as they ate.

“So, what’s going on with the City geezers?”

“Guess what? Just like the other old fogeys, they’re dragging their feet. They’re too greedy to accept immediately, but they’re more cautious than expected.”

“I still don’t get it. Heck, they’re just old folks holed up in the city. So how did they manage to steal our data? We all had a hell of a time because of that!”

“Technically, it wasn’t the City. It was that guy Dave.”

“Ah…”

Druid A muttered. Dave, the fixer from Randa’s T-District, 30th Street.

No one in Enjoyment didn’t know about him.

It made sense, since he was the one who took down Seamus.

He was one of Enjoyment’s greatest success stories, contributing greatly to the ABC Scam and even finding Eve…

“Could it really be true? That he stole Eve, the one Seamus discovered and captured?”

“It’s obviously just a dumb rumor. How could a Dark Mage capture Eve just because they knew Net Sailing?”

Druid A nodded. It was true. Just knowing Net Sailing didn’t mean a Dark Mage could capture Eve.

Not unless a group of Druids teamed up.

“Maybe he knows where Eve is. They say he let her go. Either way, we have to kill him, Eve or not.”

Druid A nodded again at Druid B’s words.

After all, he killed Seamus, and Seamus was with Enjoyment. Revenge was justified.

Besides, if they wanted to establish themselves in Randa and build Enjoyment’s power, Dave couldn’t be left alive. This was about their reputation.

‘If he really did take down Seamus, he’s not ordinary. But he must’ve used some kind of trick. There’s even a silly rumor he used the power of Nature.’

Druid A was evaluating Dave when suddenly, a distant explosion echoed.

A loud thundering sound.

Druid instincts kicked in, putting not just Druid A and B, but all Druids in the fortress, on high alert.

The Unaffiliated Gangs, on the other hand, still hadn’t grasped the situation.

‘These sluggish maggots!’

Druid A cursed at their sluggishness while looking up at the sky.

His keen senses pointed straight above.

And they were right.

Something was falling from the sky—a bullet made of flesh.

Remarkably, the bullet radiated a massive amount of energy, and just as proof, the flesh split apart, etching five magic circles into the sky.

“Shit…”

Druid A cursed under his breath.

Because five pieces of flesh had turned into bullets and were falling straight down.

BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!

The flesh bullets fell so fast even a Druid’s keen eyes struggled to follow them, creating massive pillars of earth upon impact.

Shaking buildings, dust clouds, screams… But it wasn’t over yet.

Before the shockwave from the first attack even faded, high-density mana bullets smashed through walls and rained down.

“Aaaaagh!”

“Aaargh! Wh-what… what is this?! Where is- Ugh!”

“My eyes! The shrapnel…! My eyes…!”

“Oh, no. My leg’s gone… Someone, help me. This bastard’s leg… Ugh!”

The mana bullets punched through walls, making screams echo throughout the fortress once more.

The only fortunate part was that most of the victims were from the Unaffiliated Gangs.

Among the chaos, Druids A and B locked eyes, remembering what they had to do, and each headed to their designated locations.

In that spot was a twig buried in the ground, and without delay, Druid A activated the spell hanging on the twig.

Crunch-crunch! Thud-thud-thud-thud-thudth-thud!!

The twig explosively grew, drawing natural energy as its nutrient source, engulfing the building and the surrounding area.

Though it wasn’t enough to cover the entire fortress, similar twigs were growing from other buildings, so it was fine.

The trees that grew instantly covered the outer buildings like a protective shell and formed a roof over the skies, creating walls of wood in the fortress.

Thanks to this, most of the mana bullets that had been piercing through cement walls were blocked by the trees, bringing some stability back to the fortress.

DONG! DONG! DONG!

With the attack blocked, the emergency signal sounded, and both the Unaffiliated Gangs started moving, readying a defense.

The same was true for Enjoyment.

Druid B, who had split off earlier, came back, shouting for them to move together.

“Alright. Right be-”

“-MEEEEEEEE!!”

Just as Druid A was about to move, a strange sound reached his ears.

It sounded like an animal’s cry, yet it was bizarre and unsettling, not belonging to any animal.

Even amidst the rain of gunfire, the creepy cry rang clear, making Druid A reflexively turn his head.

And that’s when Druid A saw it through the window.

Seamus, with his head transformed into a goat’s.

His appearance had changed, but Druid A could tell.

He’d seen Seamus countless times during their training days when he was called a genius.

The Seamus, who was once hailed as a genius, was now a monstrous creature, running on all fours. No longer even human, let alone a Druid.

This was a nightmare. A terrible nightmare.

But the nightmare didn’t end there.

Seamus’s goat-transformed thigh muscles grotesquely bulged before he kicked off the ground and flew toward the building, smashing into it.

The building’s outer walls, wrapped in tree armor, crumbled like crackers.

“MEEEEEEEEE.”

With his monstrous form, Seamus closed in on Druids A and B in an instant.

They were his targets from the start.

As soon as Seamus closed the distance, he drove his fist forward, and with a squishy burst, Druids A and B’s chests were crushed, killing them instantly.

It was absurdly easy.

***

CRASHHH…!!

The building that acted as the outer wall of the fortress trembled before collapsing.

As the building fell, a massive cloud of dust rose, covering the surroundings. The mana bullets, which had been blocked by the trees, resumed raining down.

Dust filling the air, bullets pounding down, and screams in harmony.

The fortress fell back into chaos as the corpse puppet, Seamus, inhabited by Third, began his rampage.

“MEEEEEEEEE!”

Third let out his eerie, signature goat cry and charged forward, using his horned head to tear everything in his path to shreds.

No exaggeration. People, walls, buildings, obstacles, barbed wire—everything was literally torn apart.

His charge was that powerful.

Thanks to that, Seamus was able to dig straight into the heart of the fortress.

“What the…?! A monster?! KILL IT! SHOOT IT DEAD!!”

The Unaffiliated Gangs, who had been regrouping, yelled in shock as they pointed their guns at Third.

But before they could even fully squeeze the triggers, Third moved in, dispatching them.

He tore open their bellies with his claws, smashed bodies with his fists, and snapped necks with a flick of his wrist.

Killing a dozen at once.

“…!!”

The gang leader, who was commanding, widened his eyes in shock at the brutal display.

However, this was holding back. Oliver told him not to smash their heads.

If he had been allowed to smash heads, they would have died quicker and more horrifyingly.

“That’s enough!”

Someone shouted from above. It was a Druid from Enjoyment.

They manipulated the trees growing between the buildings into pillars and sent them charging toward Third.

The multiple tree pillars, enhanced by the power of Nature, tried to enclose Third from all sides, but Third calmly counterattacked.

It wasn’t hard. He just had to break through before they fully surrounded him.

“Crazy!”

BANG!!

Third grabbed onto one of the descending Druids, jumped, and slammed his head against the charging tree pillar.

Even to a reckless Druid, such an act was pure madness.

However, due to his evolution during battle with Oliver, combining enhanced internal parts and transplanted Druid cells, the corpse puppet Seamus could pull such crazy stunts.

Proving that the tree pillar shattered while Third remained totally unharmed.

Not just unharmed; he was now dangerously close to the Druid.

The panicked Druid tried to retreat, but a 1.5-times longer armed Seamus grabbed him.

“Ggkk!”

The Druid groaned in pain under the crushing grip and tried to fight back while three other nearby Druids rushed to help.

Thankfully.

“MEEEEEE.”

With a weird cry, Third threw a punch.

Naturally, his first target was the Druid he had caught.

Their fists collided.

The sound of shattering echoed, the Druid’s fist broke like a matchstick, and Third’s fist buried into his chest.

“MEE-HEH-HEH!”

As soon as he killed the first Druid, Third immediately moved to take out the next.

The three Druids who rushed in to save their comrade.

Given their mediocre skills, it wasn’t too hard.

Third swung his fist, carved through one Druid, and struck out with a back kick to hit the third Druid in the process.

The third Druid couldn’t dodge the speed of the response, causing his abdomen to burst open like spilled spaghetti.

Witnessing how quickly three fell, the fourth Druid froze in fear, giving Third the opening to close in and snap his neck with one hand.

Crack.

“Get distance!”

One of the Druids encircling Third shouted. Close combat was a bad idea.

As soon as the order was given, the Druids either pulled away or manipulated trees to widen the distance from Third.

In response, Third used his goat-like legs to chase down the retreating Druids, closing the distance.

Fortunately, that wasn’t difficult as the goat-like legs gave him great speed.

Once close, Third swung his fists, smushing bodies, palm-striking organs, kicking holes, and headbutting targets into shreds.

At last, some of the Druids concluded that distance alone would result in being picked off individually and instead chose to use Nature’s power to strengthen themselves or transform into wolves or bears, coordinating their attack on Third.

It was a smart choice. When over a dozen Druids attacked simultaneously, it became a tough fight.

But it was also a bad choice. Because they were up against the corpse puppet Seamus.

Seeing the Druids charging, Third grabbed a nearby wooden fragment and infused it with Nature’s power before swinging it like a giant’s bat.

WHOOSH-and-BANG!!

The wooden bat sliced through the air loudly, squishing the charging Druids.

Crushed by sheer mass.

After taking out the close-range Druids, leafy branches and wooden spears, empowered by Nature’s force, rained down on Third.

Third tried to dodge while holding onto the wooden bat, but the branch had already wrapped around his legs, limiting his movement.

He tried to reverse-infest the branch and counterattack, but the defensive spells and relentless assaults made it hard to seize control.

So Third chose to use the wooden bat as a shield against the attacks before retaking control. And just then, a rough sound emerged.

MOOOOONG!!

Something was closing in fast.

It was another Druid with a far greater skill not seen with the previous ones.

This was a highly skilled Druid.

Even when Third swung the wooden bat, this Druid shattered it and closed in on Third, gripping his neck tightly.

A complete reversal in an instant. The Druid clutching Third’s neck spoke.

“MOOOOONG… You bastard! Did you turn Seamus into a puppet!?”

Having reached a level similar to Seamus, the Druid had partially transformed into a beast.

The green bull head was proof.

Third knew who this was. He had never met him, but had glimpsed it in Seamus’s memories.

“MEEEEEEE… Craig.”

“…!”

The Druid called Craig faltered in surprise.

He hadn’t expected a mere corpse puppet to know his name.

It caused Craig to delay his actions by a fraction, but that tiny mistake proved fatal.

He missed the timing to dodge Bathory’s descending attack from above.

VROOOM!!

Bathory, cloaked in swirling blood, burst into the fortress, drilling right through the wooden roof and crashing down just in front of Third, right on top of Craig.

Because of Craig’s delayed response, he couldn’t kill Third, and a chunk of his body was diced away.

Meanwhile, Third used the opportunity to strike Craig’s throat, snapping his neck.

“Craig!!”

The other Druids screamed, having lost a powerful ally in an instant.

But what they should’ve known, was this. Bathory had arrived.

Descending shrouded in blood, Bathory appeared like a fairy born from a blooming flower among the battlefield.

The human-faced vest she wore vomited out a large quantity of blood as soon as it emerged, creating a giant blood pool, from which over twenty corpse puppets began to emerge.

All of them were taken from Gallos, mages who could use high-caliber magic.

This accounted for a significant threat from Enjoyment’s perspective.

The enemy had just rolled out a bunch of cannons right in the middle of the fortress.

The Druids reflexively tried to disrupt Bathory’s blood magic. However, tendrils of wood moved around them like vines and bound their limbs and torsos.

Third had reversed the power of Nature to seize control over them.

The situation had flipped once more.

The corpse puppets finished rising from the blood pool. Then, under Bathory’s command, they began gathering mana all at once, unleashing spells in all directions with a fearsome shout.