Chapter 010 – Ahenna’s Forest (3)

“Awo awoo awoooo~!”

Ahenna let out a long series of howls . On the surface, it sounded like a ordinary wolf’s howl, but the intonation and pitch subtly changed; as if she was speaking . Upon hearing her voice, the giant wolf pack began moving as a group .

“What the hell?”

While the other three hunters were panicking, the wolves closed in surrounding all four of them .

“Whoa whoa whoa…”

One of the hunters who was backing up walked into Sungjin’s back .

Sungjin, already out of patience, spat out a declaration to the other hunters .

“The Boss is mine . I don’t care what you all want to do, just don’t get in my way . ”

Sungjin charged into the army of wolves towards Ahenna, as soon as he was done speaking, leaving behind the three hunters . Ahenna, who was giving orders to the other wolves via her voice stopped and prepared for battle .

In the blink of an eye, she attacked with her claws at an incredible speed .

But Sungjin dodged her claws with an even greater speed, ducking under her attack .

It was a hundredth of a second, but Sungjin saw her eyes grow wide as if to say “How can you dodge this?” . And it was reasonable for her to be surprised as there were very few hunters capable of evading her attack this early in the raids .

‘Die’

Sungjin initiated an upward slash as soon as the paws were out of the way . Ahenna leaped back thanks to her animalistic instincts, but the tip of Sungjin’s Katana still managed to reach her snout .

“Kaaa!”

Ahenna retreated, screaming in pain . Sungjin felt the feedback from the strike . It was a shallow cut .

‘Not enough damage . ’

Sungjin prepared to charge in to initiate a follow-up strike, but

“Kao!”

A Dire Wolf charged at Sungjin from the side . Sungjin dodged it by ducking under his attack, but another charged at him .

Sungjin was forced to take a step back . And within moments, Ahenna had backed off and was immediately surrounded by a dozen Dire wolves . Gray wolves rushed in to encircle her completely .

Sungjin frowned .

‘How diligently they serve their queen . ’

Suddenly,

“Pew!”

Sungjin heard the sound of an arrow flying through the air from behind him . He saw the arrow fly in his direction . While deliberating whether or not he should knock it out of the air, he realized it was flying above his head .

‘What was that about?’

When Sungjin checked behind him, he saw that the other Hunters were fighting for their lives .

“Fuck! Kill it!”

The ‘Novice Scout’ was shooting arrows randomly, missing every shot . The ‘Novice Swordman’ and the ‘Hooligan’ were waving flaming weapons (imbued with Salamander’s ash) wildly without thought .

“Stay away! Stay away!”

Ahenna howled a command to the wolves .

“Awooawoawo~~”

The wolves upon hearing her call stopped attacking and moved as one . They orbited around the four hunters . Although they were wolves, they were orderly and precise in the execution of their queen’s commands .

Sungjin fixed his grip on the katana and entered battle stance .

‘…I need to kill the leader first…’

Sungjin scanned the sea of wolves . It was not difficult to find her . Snow white fur, with an unnaturally large body size .

His gaze met hers . Ahenna was bleeding from the long cut on her face which went from her nose to her forehead . Once she looked into his eyes, she called out again

“Aaaawoo~”

The moment her command went out, the largest of the Dire wolves stood between Sungjin and her .

‘…She’s smarter than I thought . ’

It will be difficult to complete this Raid Solo . Sungjin briefly turned to look at the other hunters . The hunters were all grouped up together with the ‘Hooligan’ shouting commands .

“Together Together!”

Then, the ‘Novice Swordman’ accidentally touched the ‘Hooligan’s’ shirt and lit it on fire . The ‘Hooligan’ jumped up in surprise quickly putting it out . He then cursed out at the ‘Novice Swordman’ .

“Mother fucker! You wanna die, boy?”

“I… I’m so sorry!”

Sungjin shook his head in disappointment .

‘Wolves are better than Humans . ’

Sungjin felt that asking for their help would be unfavorable and might cause even more headaches . He gripped his Katana tightly; he couldn’t think of a way to reach Ahenna at the moment .

‘Let’s start by decreasing their numbers a bit . ’

Sungjin, changing his tactics, searched for a thinner section of the encirclement . But the first one to make a move was Ahenna .

“Argg”

With her short command, the wolves surrounding the Hunters attacked all at once .

“Fuck!”

The ‘Novice Swordman’ diligently swung his sword, but the fire on the sword eventually went out .

“Uhh…”

The moment he hesitated, the hand holding his sword was ripped off . Within seconds, he was torn apart to pieces .

The ‘Hooligan’ saw that the ‘Novice Swordman’s’ weapon went out, and understood his club would soon lose the enchant . He searched his pocket .

But the moment he paused to reach into his pocket, a Wolf pounced on him .

He hurriedly swung his club to hit the wolf, but another wolf charged from his blindspot . It jumped up and grabbed him by the neck in its jaws .

“Mother fu…”

He couldn’t even finish swearing before his neck was ripped off by the wolf .

The ‘Novice Scout’ launched fire arrows all over the place, but his arrows only struck innocent trees . Once his protector the ‘Novice Swordman’ and the ‘Hooligan’ died,

“He…Help!”

He tried to run towards Sungjin, but was bit in the neck and killed . Sungjin genuinely felt sorry for them, but he wasn’t available to lend a hand . The strongest of the wolves was busy attacking him . After exchanging a long series of blows,

“Awoawoo~”

Upon Ahenna’s command, the wolves separated from Sungjin and backed off . When Sungjin looked around to search for the reason, he saw that there was a light in ‘Ahenna’s Forest’ .

The fire arrow from ‘Novice Scout’ had started a forest fire . Ahenna and her loyal wolves backed away from Sungjin and the fire and continued to encircle him from afar .

Surrounded by wolves and the fire, Sungjin was drenched in their blood . He took this chance to look around .

‘So many…’

He cut down the wolves without rest . But their numbers never seemed to decrease . Whenever he would wipe out a large number of wolves,

“Awooo~”

Ahenna would let out a cry which would summon an even larger number of beasts to her . It reminded Sungjin why this place was named ‘Ahenna’s Forest’ . Sungjin asked the Operator,

“Operator, Time remaining?”

[14 minutes 29 seconds remaining . ]

Killing the Orc Chief took him less than a minute, and Ahenna had already dragged out the fight by 5 minutes . After all, no matter how strong Sungjin was, he only had two hands and one Katana .

Recklessly charging into a well-coordinated formation of beasts was nothing short of suicide .

‘I really need to kill the boss first…’

Sungjin searched for the Queen . She was bleeding from her snout and forehead, and only glanced at him from time to time .

She instinctively knew she was no match for him .

‘How annoyingly smart’

It was as if she knew that she would win by dragging out the time . Sungjin, surrounded by the wolves, couldn’t help but recall the wandering merchant Aindell .

‘Maybe I should have bought a few Salamander’s ash…’

Sungjin had 180 coins left over (see notes) . He had been so focused on saving coins for the late game that he might have penny pinched too excessively .

‘Consumables’

Now that he thought of it, he recalled that the necklace ‘Yanhurat’ was inside his pocket . Keeping the wolves at bay, he took the necklace out to inspect it .

‘Is it time to use this…?’

Yanhura’s special active effect was Zealot(III)

‘For 30 seconds, increase damage and speed by 300%’

Once the effects were over, his HP would drop to a third of what it was . But the effects were well worth the harsh penalty of the item . Sungjin, who was already abnormally powerful, would benefit immensely from using it .

But, he had seen the fate of those who had relied on the power of Zealot . Those addicted to Zealot had always met a bad end .

There were many who placed their bets heavily on Zealot’s active effects . Many who swore by it, forming the core of their strategy around its use . But those who became dependent on its effects someday couldn’t handle the penalty and faced gruesome deaths .

Sungjin held the necklace in one hand as he kept the Wolves at bay . Then,

“…Kill”

He heard an ominous voice originating from his palms . Sungjin looked from the corner of his eyes towards the necklace . The ‘Yanhurat’ stared back at him with a hideous smile .

The Necklace continued to whisper to him . To put it around his neck, to fight .

‘I didn’t want to use this…’

But as he deliberated his options, time kept on ticking by . He knew he could eventually overcome the sea of wolves and complete the objective, but the longer he took, the less time he had available to search and defeat the hidden boss .

‘I will kill the queen within the next 30 seconds . ’

Coming to a conclusion, he swallowed his inhibitions and placed the necklace around his neck . The voices could be heard much more clearly now .

“Kill them”

Sungjin charged towards Ahenna with all due haste, ears filled with the mad whispers from the necklace . A wolf attempted to block his way . Sungjin easily cut through him .

Blood splashed onto his chin . The whispers from the necklace sped up by several times .

“Kill them, Murder them”

A gigantic Direwolf pounced upon Sungjin . The moment he noticed the wolf, he cut it apart with lightning speed . Sungjin’s blade moved even faster than usual .

The Dire wolf collapsed to the floor without even being able to let out a sound . Drawing blood twice, the necklace again picked up speed .

‘Kill them, Murder them, Rip them to pieces, end their lives!’

“Graah!”

A grizzly bear charged towards Sungjin, but with a single slash, the bear became slices of meat . The Voices grew louder and stronger .

‘Kill them! Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!’

Just hearing the necklace made his adrenaline pump wildly . His eyes felt as if they were threatening to pop out, and he unconsciously started grinding his teeth .

Sungjin made a beeline for the Queen . Innumerable beasts stood in the way to protect their Queen, but Sungjin in Zealot mode was three times faster and three times stronger . His speed and strength were like that of a hurricane, sweeping away his enemies in a rain of blood .

The beasts, who came in contact with his path of destruction were cut apart like pieces of paper . He cut and cut and cut . And all the while, the maddening voice sped up without end .

‘Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!!!!!’

“Aooooooo~!”

Ahenna let out a voice full of fear, and all the wolves in the vicinity launched their attacks towards Sungjin to stop him . The sound of Ahenna’s cries and the voices from the ring overlapped .

‘Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!!!!!’

And once the sounds overlapped, Sungjin couldn’t help but yell towards the endless stream of wolves,

“I’ll kill you all! You sons of bitches!”