I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 299
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 299
Ep. 299
Ihyeon caught the moment the Shaman’s smile rotted away in an instant, and he realized his mistake.
If he had something to say, he should speak directly—how could anyone else know what was in his heart?
The Shaman clicked his tongue and offered an explanation.
“According to legend, even the great warrior Wumute of the steppes once bathed in the Great Spring. And if you could establish a stronghold at the Great Spring, you would become a king who surpasses Wumute.”
Then he thrust his hands forward and shouted with all his might.
“Go! Sweep away those monstrous creatures and make that place your own land, Kaez!”
It was a thunderous cry that seemed impossible from a wrinkled old man.
Though he was vigorous enough to shout “Go!” here and there in his usual manner, there was something stirring about it that moved the hearts of the steppe people.
The people who had been overwhelmed by the enormous numbers of Duogsinis moments before found their courage restored.
“Kaez! Go!”
“Become our king!”
“End those cursed Duogsinis and land spiders!”
A fervor and roar poured forth no less intense than the battle raging below the cliff.
Ihyeon answered the people’s cheers simply.
Click—
The anti-materiel sniper rifle had become something of a trademark of Ihyeon’s among the tribal members by now.
“I was planning to do that anyway.”
He had come here to meet Jia and the One-Strike Knight Order after all.
If this place held deep meaning even in the actual steppes, and they had built such a formidable wall, then naturally he had to save it.
To concentrate, Ihyeon pulled the people back at a distance and aimed his scope at the carriage where the Bishop was.
The carriage was quite large, certainly.
‘At that distance, an anti-materiel sniper rifle would blow it away in one shot…’
That was when it happened.
“Hm?”
An unexpected variable emerged.
The Duogsinis supporting the palanquin set it down, and from within emerged a single figure clad in a black robe.
From the way several Saedos nearby bowed their heads, this person appeared to be the Bishop.
Whoosh—
‘Look at that bastard.’
The Bishop even made direct eye contact with Ihyeon from atop the cliff, as if openly declaring that he knew Ihyeon was watching him.
He wondered if the Bishop’s face bore the influence of the land spiders even more deeply than the Saedos, but surprisingly, aside from his entirely black eyes, his skin was clean.
Observing how the siege was progressing more tediously than expected, he seemed to have decided on a course of action.
Splurch—!
No sooner had he thought this than the Bishop extended his arm and killed one of the Duogsinis beside him.
No, that wasn’t an arm at all—it was more like a tentacle.
Seeing it pierce through a Duogsini in one motion suggested considerable destructive power.
It wasn’t just one.
Splurch—! Splurch-crack—!
The Bishop, having killed five Duogsinis in succession, soon raised both arms high.
Darkness wove densely like a spider’s web spread rapidly around him.
The Duogsinis and Saedos caught in the web before they could escape thrashed about helplessly.
It seemed he intended to offer them as sacrifices, but I couldn’t discern what the Bishop was truly attempting.
‘Is he trying to destroy the fortress walls with some massive skill? Or to strengthen the Duogsinis?’
Yet the Bishop’s true intentions were far grander.
They manifested at a scale that transcended my imagination.
“L-look over there!”
A Nomad behind me cried out, pointing at the sky.
Truth be told, even without that voice, a definite anomaly was unmistakable.
Srrrrr—
As if a flock of clouds passed directly beneath the sun, darkness began to fall across the bright day.
I tilted my head slightly upward to look.
“An eclipse…”
Purrrring—!
Remarkably, the sun was being obscured.
A black shadow beginning as a small crescent gradually spread wider and wider.
This was clearly beyond all reason.
Not that questioning such things held any meaning at this point.
The beginning of the Twilight was said to commence with an eclipse.
It seemed the High Priest and other high-ranking Bishops possessed the ability to control eclipses in this manner.
I gestured to summon the people and spoke.
“Bind the three former Apostles.”
“Pardon?”
With such an extraordinary phenomenon occurring in the sky, the former Apostles who had already suffered worsening symptoms from that unpleasant wavelength earlier could hardly be unaffected.
Upon hearing my words, the Saedos rushed over and spoke urgently.
“Thanks to Ilgyeok shooting that white beam earlier, we remain unharmed!”
“That’s right! Please trust us!”
“GRRRAAAHHH!!! DIE!!!”
“????”
Surely those words of asking for trust should have come from three mouths, but one was out of sync.
One former Apostle with a blackened face swung a sword and charged toward me.
I clicked my tongue and swung my Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle once.
With picture-perfect technique, the former Apostle struck on the back of the head crumpled to the ground right there.
Riding on Purung, I occupied a position quite high up—yet he charged anyway.
The decision of the other two former Apostles, who witnessed this clearly, came swiftly.
“Yes, we’ll bind ourselves.”
“No need to trouble the others—we’ll just bind ourselves, hehe.”
First they bound the fallen one thoroughly—applying considerable force to make it extremely secure—then proceeded to bind each other in a beautiful display of cooperation.
I confirmed they were completely bound, nodded, and asked.
“Tell me what you know.”
The eclipse had already consumed about a third of the sun.
Fortunately, it hadn’t progressed any further, but it already seemed to have exceeded what could be called “fortunate.”
“That is… an eclipse that only Bishops and above can use. Once the sun is obscured, the power of Apostles and Duogsinis like us becomes tremendously stronger.”
A wide-area buff effect, in other words.
Indeed, the momentum of the Duogsinis climbing the fortress wall had grown noticeably fiercer.
But then.
“Hm?”
I detected that some change had occurred in the One-Strike Knight Order atop the fortress wall as well.
– Wahhh! Fight!!
– I don’t know why, but it seems we’ve grown stronger because of the eclipse!
– I feel energized!
‘…Can that even happen?’
No matter how I looked at it, the Bishop had used quite a powerful technique, yet it seemed the One-Strike Knight Order had received the buff as well.
I wasn’t entirely sure if Duogsinis were Undead, but since they were monster-born, they apparently shared something in common.
Thanks to this, the first wave of Duogsinis climbing the fortress wall couldn’t properly utilize their newfound strength and burst apart, tumbling downward.
I’d gained an unexpected advantage, but the situation still wasn’t favorable for the Knights.
The Duogsinis receiving the buff were overwhelmingly numerous.
Meanwhile, even if the 100 Knights received a similar buff, the role of the civilians who were actually debuffed was too significant.
If time dragged on, the disadvantage would remain the same.
“And when the partial eclipse progresses… an Eodukshin is created.”
“An Eodukshin?”
“Yes. Ah! There!”
I turned my gaze back down to the cliff below.
Something ominous was happening in the spider web the Bishop had spread.
The struggling Duogsinis and Apostles were gathering into a single point as if being compressed.
Crunch crunch— squelch squelch—
A nauseating sound echoed out, but heedless of it, even other Duogsinis were being pulled in.
Naturally, the clump growing thicker and thicker expanded accordingly.
The mass, which had devoured hundreds of Duogsinis like a black hole in an instant.
“G-good heavens…”
“It’s really an Eodukshin…”
Soon it became a massive form reaching 30 meters, swaying and wobbling as it took its stance.
The overall body was triangular like a pyramid, but the legs supporting it from below were excessively thin compared to the torso.
The tentacles jutting out here and there were individually thick enough, but their proportions were still grotesquely disproportionate to the main body.
True to its name, the Eodukshin appeared to be the most powerful entity and siege weapon that could be summoned with a partial eclipse.
Thud thud— thud thud—
Soon, the Eodukshin, whose proportions seemed like it could collapse at any moment, began advancing slowly toward the One-Strike Knight Order’s fortress, which stood slightly taller than itself…
* * *
“V-Vice Captain! A strange creature has appeared at the front!”
“I’m watching too!”
The Vice Captain of the One-Strike Knight Order was experiencing something he hadn’t felt in a long time—a genuine sense of crisis.
…To be honest, there had been dangerous moments even while fighting alongside Ihyeon, but whenever I was with him, things somehow managed to go smoothly, so I rarely felt any real sense of danger.
The sun seemed to darken for a moment, and then some grotesque, colossal monster appeared and began charging toward the city wall.
Though it appeared slow relative to its massive frame, the way the surrounding Duogsinis couldn’t keep pace and were trampled flat showed it was moving at considerable speed.
“Eodukshin! It’s an Eodukshin!”
The Nomads fighting alongside the Knights were screaming, and the Vice Captain’s ears caught their cries.
“An Eodukshin? That’s nonsense!”
The Vice Captain roared loudly, as if trying to shake off his fear with an even greater fear.
Fortunately, the Vice Captain’s sharp rebuke allowed everyone to regain some composure.
“Hold the line! Hold it! Squad Leaders, you’re responsible for managing your troops!”
“Vice Captain, no matter what you say, that thing is too much!”
“What kind of size is that—it’s as big as the wall itself!”
The Squad Leaders grumbled but faithfully carried out the Vice Captain’s orders.
…Which meant kicking the backsides of anyone showing signs of retreating backward.
The One-Strike Knights, warriors of reversal, did not falter in fear.
It was simply that their opponent was too overwhelmingly powerful.
Boom-boom-boom——
The Knights’ defensive weapons concentrated their fire on the Eodukshin.
But the creature’s body structure was so bizarre that boulders simply bounced off, and while bolts seemed to embed themselves, it was questionable whether they were causing any damage at all.
The Vice Captain watched this and gnashed his teeth.
‘This place isn’t advantageous for us. Damn it, was it a mistake to draw their attention by taking in the Nomads?’
Within these city walls lay a mysterious spring somewhere.
It seemed to possess considerable efficacy for the living, but that auspicious energy was rather bothersome to the Knights.
If circumstances hadn’t forced their hand, there would have been no reason to hold a siege in such a place.
“Why did the Captain even speak of One-Strike Spirit back then! Ugh, I have to endure this.”
With the tiger Ihyeon and the fox Jia absent, the current One-Strike Knight Order could be called rabbits at best, making the Vice Captain their king!
He voiced complaints he would never dare speak in front of those two.
In any case, the Eodukshin’s overwhelming presence was truly formidable.
‘If only my Master were here, he would’ve blown away a creature like that in a single strike….’
Even his regret couldn’t change the current situation.
The Vice Captain was prepared to charge into the front lines himself, like Jia, if they couldn’t produce meaningful results before the creature reached the wall.
“Just hold on a bit longer!”
“I mean, it’s not about holding or not holding!”
“Who spoke informally?”
“….”
Though they were instinctively shrieking and shouting, everyone knew intuitively that the distance wasn’t far.
Then it happened.
Boom——!!!!
“???!?!?!?!!”
“What… what is that?”
The massive form of the Eodukshin that had been charging toward the castle wall suddenly burst like a balloon with a resounding pop.
To be precise, an absurdly enormous hole had been torn through its center, but the visual effect was remarkably similar.
The horrific muscles and repulsive black traces that had filled its interior scattered in all directions.
The beam, still brimming with power, mercilessly obliterated the other Duogsinis that had been standing in its path.
Kwaaang—!!
The thunderous roar echoing from the distance reverberated against the cliffs and castle walls like an echo that followed afterward.
It was a phenomenon caused by sound arriving a moment too late, though the Knights had no understanding of such scientific principles.
Yet there was one person who came to mind before this unscientific phenomenon.
A Squad Member who had just forcefully shoved back a Duobuxini climbing up the castle wall cried out.
“Master! Master has arrived!”
“Where?! Where?!”
Normally, they called him the demon king of hellish PT training, complained that he didn’t even pay them wages while working them to the bone, and grumbled that he didn’t value them one bit.
The Knights, who said whatever came to mind, had never felt such joy at their master’s presence!
…After all, even kings are cursed when they’re absent, so what clever method could Ihyeon possibly employ?
In any case, the situation was so unbelievable that immediate objections erupted.
“Wait! Don’t let your guard down yet! There’s no guarantee that’s actually the Master!”
The Vice Captain shouted, glancing around.
The Eodukshin, which had been their greatest headache, had been blown away, but there were still plenty of Duogsinis remaining.
If they got careless and let even one slip past the castle wall, it would be a catastrophe.
“Who else could unleash such a crude yet devastating attack besides the Master?!”
“And who’s been using informal speech with me this whole time?!”
“…”
Even the Vice Captain had to admit it was a fair point—such a cowardly tactic of attacking the messenger instead of the message!
The other Squad Members, who had been skeptical, felt their morale soar at the thought that Ihyeon had arrived.
“Waaah!”
“Master! Master! Master!”
“The demon king of PT training!”
“Shh! If he hears that, he’ll make us do PT exercises again!”
‘At least we’ve caught our breath now…’
The Vice Captain swiftly pushed forward the precarious battle situation and felt relief wash over him.
Though their first meeting had been fraught with discord.
Through the time they had spent together, Ihyeon had somehow succeeded in bringing even the Knights of the Evil God—the vanguard of the Overlord’s faction—completely under his command.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————