Chapter 31

Chapter 31 . Lizard Swamp (3)

Luring was a form of art .

Bringing a target to a wanted location was harder than one might think . In addition, Warlord monsters had their own characteristics . Of these, there were some that sent signals to their comrades or went back if they strayed too far from their pack .

Even with detailed knowledge on monster behavior, accidents happened . This fact was unchanged for even the Top 30 Guilds . In live broadcasts, it was common to see fights break out due to failed luring . That’s what made it so much fun . Accidents that went against prearranged plans kept viewers tense and on the edge of their seats .

Not to mention, it was much more difficult to lure monsters in the Lizard Swamp . Lizardmen were easy to aggro . In other words, if one ran into another Lizardman on their way to a designated hunting point, one would end up attracting two Lizardman . In that case, the player would no longer be considered luring . He was simply being chased .

The same applied to the current situation .

Nine .

Partied with three beauties, Hyrkan caught nine Lizardmen . So far, everything went without a hitch . Their party had lacked a tank, but Hyrkan and his Skeleton Warrior proved to be excellent supports .

In reality, Hyrkan was doing all the hunting . The other three were only sucking up experience like a mosquito .

But suddenly!

“Help!”

Ilya appeared with two Lizardman on her tail . Running towards Hyrkan, she asked him for help . Hyrkan snapped his finger twice, and the Skeleton Warriors that were on standby turned their heads towards the Lizardmen . The flames in their eyes blazed as they charged towards the two Lizardmen .

Ilya ran past the Skeleton Warriors to safety .

Behind her…

Clang, clang!

The sound of battle rang out . Hyrkan asked through the clashing sound of metals .

“What happened?”

“I, I ran into a problem . ”

Ilya continued with a confused and apologetic expression .

“I ran into a group of Lizardmen . In the end, the three of us had to split up…”

Hyrkan tried to ask her for a more detailed explanation .

However…

“Sorry, I’m so sorry . ”

Ilya kept apologizing before Hyrkan said anything, not giving him a chance to speak . She didn’t just ask for forgiveness . She did so with a teary face . Seeing her act that way, Hyrkan chose to not say anything .

“Let’s deal with this situation first . I can’t handle both of them alone . I need your support . ”

“Of course!”

Ilya finally smiled . Her smile together with her teary face made her look pitiful yet beautiful . It was like a flower carefully blooming in torrential rain .

Hyrkan couldn’t say anything more to her face . Not just Hyrkan, but any male would find themselves hard pressed to do so . Hyrkan silently passed her with his sword in hand . He prepared to fight the Lizardmen . Watching Hyrkan’s back, Ilya’s smile became twisted .

‘Heh, he’s totally into me . ’

It was a smile of satisfaction .

‘I mean, it’s only expected with beauties of our level’s affectionate acting . ’

The type of smile that fishermen with a big fish on their hook would make .

She had her worries . Hyrkan’s skills weren’t normal . Although they didn’t take him to be anything amazing, his three Skeleton Warriors were anything but normal . She felt it would be hard to honey-trap Hyrkan with monsters and their beauty .

But her worries did not last long .

For Ilya, it was much more fun to trick players than to hunt monsters . Using her looks and acting skills, she destroyed the inner walls that male players put up and lured monsters to kill them . To her, it was fun to prey on males without having to worry about any potential backlash . It was the type of fun only girls could enjoy, and at the same time, it was something that wasn’t possible in the real world .

At first, it started out as a joke, a bet of some sort . ‘Who can win over that male player first?’ That type of bet . In a blink of an eye, the bet had continued to where she currently was . It had even become the sole reason she played Warlord .

In front of Hyrkan who had put up a thick wall, the fun was multiplied . His cold and blunt response set fire to her sense of challenge . Ilya looked forward to watching him fall more so than the items he would drop .

It wouldn’t be long . Soon, Hyrkan would fall .

‘Two more will be here soon . ’

The remaining two were each luring one Lizardman . No matter how impressive Hyrkan may be, it was impossible for him to handle four Lizardmen by himself . If he could, there was no reason for him to be here .

Even more, if a strong magic hit Hyrkan or one of his Skeleton Warriors on ‘accident’?

Watching the Hyrkan’s back, Ilya licked her lips, like a true snake .

‘Ah!’

Imagining the scene, she would soon see; Ilya felt goose bumps on her skin . Although it wasn’t a feeling one could perceive in Warlord, she was sure she could feel it . The arms of her body in the real world would surely be covered in them .

‘I love this feeling so much . ’

This feeling . It was this feeling that she paid such a large sum to play Warlord . Such a feeling of euphoria wasn’t one she could feel in the real world . Not to mention, it was an act that wouldn’t pose any legal troubles, a perfectly lawful crime!

Of course, it wasn’t over yet . A fisherman’s work did not end until he cut the stomach of his game .

Ilya stared at Hyrkan and his summoned Skeleton Warriors as they vigorously fought against the Lizardmen .

Crack!

Suddenly, the sound of a hard object breaking struck down like lightning .

‘Eh?’

The scene of Skeleton Warriors helpless against Lizardmen entered her eyes .

‘What’s going on?’

The Skeleton Warriors she had seen so far did not lose out to Lizardmen in a one on one fight . She wondered just how much money one had to spend to make such strong Skeleton Warriors . If she had the money, she even wanted to try out the necromancer class .

But suddenly, those Skeleton Warriors were losing .

They weren’t just losing . They were losing in a completely one-sided manner .

Crack! Crack!

The Lizardmen’s swords were easily breaking the Skeleton Warriors’ bone shields .

Crack!

Under the continuous barrage of attacks, the Skeleton Warriors broke to an irreparable state . In addition, the Skeleton Warriors weren’t able to counterattack in the slightest . They were no different than sandbags .

Ilya became flustered .

This wasn’t it .

Although the Lizardmen were supposed to kill Hyrkan, such a scene wasn’t part of her scenario .

Suddenly…

“I’m out of magic power!”

Hyrkan shouted at Ilya . As if that wasn’t enough, Hyrkan approached Ilya and spoke again .

“I have no magic power left . Please buy some time for me to recover it . ”

“What do you…”

“You just have to buy time . We’re in an urgent situation, so please take on the role of the tank for a while . ”

Ilya did not have any way to refuse Hyrkan’s demand . Everyone knew that a magician without magic power was useless in Warlord .

In the end, Ilya reluctantly and carefully moved towards the Lizardmen .

Watching Ilya approach the Lizardmen, Hyrkan silently smirked .

‘Who do you think you’re trying to backstab?’

Everything so far was within Hyrkan’s expectations . Although it was possible that they would leave after the ten Lizardmen, Hyrkan was confident enough to bet his life that they would try to backstab him .

That’s what Warlord was . There was no such thing as turning over a new leaf . As the saying went, once a thief, always a thief . Those who enjoyed PKs did PKs their whole life and those who enjoyed conning others conned others their whole life . Nothing changed in Warlord . There was no reason to .

When Hyrkan saw Ilya bring over two Lizardmen, he knew their plan began . There was no doubt that the other two were bringing more Lizardmen .

He didn’t have to see it to know . They planned to throw a bomb called Lizardmen, and when Hyrkan was in a close fight, they planned to throw a magic attack on Hyrkan on ‘accident’ . They might even ‘mistakenly’ cast Healing on his skeletons . No matter the case, they would burst out into laughter once Hyrkan died . The memory of today would serve as another treasure for them .

There was no way Hyrkan would allow such a thing .

So he…

‘They’re coming . ’

Threw the bomb back at them .

It was simple . He just didn’t have to take the bomb in the first place .

Hyrkan snapped his fingers .

Snap, snap!

One, two .

Snap!

Then three!

The snapped his fingers thrice .

Then, in the middle of battle, his Skeleton Warriors began to dance .

The zombie dance of Michael Jackson’s Thriller embroidered the battlefield .

★★★

♬♪’ Cause this is thrillerㅁ, thriller night ♪♬

Michael Jackson’s Thriller . The beat of that masterpiece thumped Hyrkan’s chest and eardrums . Only Hyrkan could hear the song .

As such, Ilya only saw the Skeleton Warriors that had been fighting by her side suddenly straighten their two arms and move side to side .

Not to mention, she had never seen Michael Jackson’s Thriller before .

‘What?’

In such a ridiculous situation, she panicked . She couldn’t discern what was happening .

Meanwhile, her two friends arrived .

“Help!”

As previously promised, the two of them each brought a Lizardman as they arrived pleading for help . When they saw the scene in front of them, they also fell into a panic .

Meanwhile, the Lizardmen easily got rid of the dancing Skeleton Warriors . Their heads flew with a swing of a sword, and their bodies ended up in tatters after the Lizardmen struck them down with their swords . In the end, the Skeleton Warriors fell .

The Lizardmen flickered their tongues . They weren’t finished . They wanted more sacrifice . Immediately, they changed their target to Ilya, who was already fighting off one Lizardman .

Clang!

Ilya blindly swung her sword only to fend off the Lizardman’s sword .

Watching this scene, Ilya’s two friends could only stand flustered .

‘What’s going on?’

‘Why is unni fighting?’

Their leader was floundering in danger .

On the other hand, Hyrkan who was supposed to be the one in danger was lightly dancing in the back .

With this, it wasn’t hard to determine what happened .

‘… shit . ’

‘He found out?’

Watching the scene in front of him, Hyrkan smiled brightly .

‘God, I love necromancer . ’

He had changed his Skeleton Warriors to defense mode, ordering them to block with their shields instead of evading . This was what led them to become the Lizardmen’s sandbags .

It was all a ploy .

Then, in the most critical moment, he made them dance .

‘I swear, I need to leave this in video . ’

Originally, he didn’t plan on making them dance . He planned just to turn them back into their fragment forms .

However, his mood didn’t let him .

Had the girls picked a fight with him straight up or stole his monster, he would have acted appropriately . Instead, they tried to backstab him . They tried to act like his ally to screw him over .

They had evoked the king’s wrath .

Here, Hyrkan stopped acting . At quite a distance away, he spoke to the beauties in the battlefield .

“There is a lot of swamp areas around here, so I recommend you fight rather than run . ”

The girls didn’t answer . Dumbfounded at the fact their plan had gone awry, they stood speechless .

Clang!

Ilya couldn’t afford to listen to Hyrkan . Her attention was solely devoted to fighting the Lizardmen . She was almost at her limit as her feet sunk into the trap-like swamp . It wasn’t easy to move in swamps . It was even harder to run . It would be possible if she were separated by some distance, but running away in the middle of a battle was impossible . It was equivalent to giving the opponent her back .

Moreover, she was barely dealing with one Lizardman, but now there were two . She felt herself about to go crazy .

It was the same for the remaining magician and priestess . Now that they couldn’t just throw off the Lizardmen behind them, things became much complicated . Could they win against them 1 vs . 1? It might be possible for the magician, but it was impossible for the priestess . She needed help . However, there was only one that could help them…

And that was Hyrkan .

Of course, Hyrkan didn’t have an inkling of mind to help them .

Instead, he offered them some advice .

“There’s a movie called Hoodwinker that came out 30 years ago . It tells you what happens to liars so check it out . ”

It was a truly priceless advice .

“W-Wait!”

Though someone had called him, Hyrkan only waved his hand as he left the scene .

Watching him go, all three of the shouted at the same time .

“Damn!”

That was their last word .