Taming Master

Chapter 181: Enemies on Every Side (Middle) (3)

His opponents were high-level users that were in their mid-lv 140s, but in the eyes of Ian, who was now over lv 150, the lv 140 users that didn’t have proper control abilities looked nothing more than children.

“Crazy guy, let’s kill him!”

“Scrap Summoner that’s all bark and no bite!”

Firstly, the Warrior user and the Knight user, who were closest to Ian, swung their swords as they charged towards him.

And while riding Halli, Ian lunged towards them equally as well.

‘Let’s see, shall we warm up a little?’

The Warrior user, whose movements were faster in comparison, ran into Ian first, and the two people’s weapons moved quickly as they began to clash with each other.

Clang- Cla-clang-!

However, before they could even exchange a couple clashes, Ian’s spear stabbed deeply into the man’s shoulder.

Shove-!

As he was pierced by the sharp blade of the spear, which was twisted into a zigzag shape, the Vitality of the man decreased significantly in a moment.

“Euk-!”

And Ian spun his spear in a circle before immediately dealing a consecutive blow!

On top of that, as his Inherent Ability, the ‘Lightning of Judgment’, was also invoked, the man was thrown backwards.

Boom- Crash-!

• Inherent Ability, the ‘Lightning of Judgment’, has been invoked.

• You have dealt critical damage to Kaimon Empire User ‘Servicon’.

• Kaimon Empire User ‘Servicon’s Vitality has been reduced by 27,980.

• Due to the AoE explosion, ‘Servicon’s Vitality has been reduced by an additional 13,780.

Towards the guy, who was thrown backwards after his Vitality hit the floor in an instant, Ian threw his spear.

Swaeek-!

Before his body even hit the floor, Ian’s spear pierced through his chest.

• You have killed Kaimon Empire User ‘Servicon’.

• You have obtained 1252 Fame.

• You have obtained 679 Specialty Points.

With the spear piercing through his chest, he turned into a grey light.

Ian quickly ran over and pulled out his spear before spinning it in the air.

“Why so weak?”

Ian continued to cast an AoE provoke as he raised his spear towards the flustered Knight, who was frozen in place.

As he did so, the hesitant guy lifted his sword and shield again as he slowly approached Ian.

The Warrior user that charged in with him had suffered before being able to make any sort of move.

‘Keu, as expected, even the experience is different with good items.’

Of course, for such a result to come out, the biggest reason was that the skill difference between Ian and the guy was too great.

On top of that, a spear had a longer range compared to a sword, and as there was also a positional advantage as Ian was attacking from on top of Halli, this overwhelming difference was created.

It was indeed a situation where the expression ‘fleeting moment’ perfectly fit.

The Knight user that had now stood right in front of Ian glared at him as he opened his mouth.

“That dimwit was just careless. Don’t mistaken it as your skills, Ian.”

“Is that so? Then you should try and prove it.”

From Ian’s stance, they were just words that made him laugh.

‘Who’s the one that dares being careless in front of who?’

Ian clenched down on his spear as he charged towards the man.

In this current situation, where he needed to quickly reduce the numbers by even one, there was no time to relax.

Clang- Cla-clang-!

The guy blocked Ian’s restless attacks quite well.

‘Is he trying to show that he’s at least a Knight?’

However, that was only for a moment.

Ian’s spear harshly dug into the gap that appeared in between his shield and sword.

Shove-!

Ian clicked his tongue internally.

‘The Kite Shield looks cool, but aside from horseback battles, it can’t help but drop in efficiency, so I have no idea why people use it.’

The Kite Shield, which looked like a kite[1], had a shape where it stretched down at the bottom.

Compared to the light and spherical Round Shield, it was a shape that couldn’t help but limit the movements of the user.

From the beginning, the Kite Shield was a shield that was designed to be long in order to cover the lower-half of the body, which became defenseless when on a horse.

It was not a piece of defensive equipment to be used in close combat.

Clang- Cla-cla-clang-!

As he allowed one attack, the guy began to continuously get cut by the blade of the spear.

Crash-!

At the Lightning of Judgment that burst out consecutively, he was scorched black.

Plop-.

Within a short time of not even 3 minutes, Ian made it game over for two lv 140-ranged users.

The Luspel Empire users that watched that form cheered as the Kaimon Empire users swallowed audibly.

“Wow… Do, dope.”

“This crazy, is he really a Summoner? How can the damage he deals from stabbing with his spear be that nonsensical?”

“That’s because his attacks went in properly. And it seems his items are good, too. If the blade of a spear was lodged into someone’s chest like that, even if it was a spear that was pierced through by a Magician or Priest and not a Summoner, I feel like they would deal critical damage.”

However, that was just the beginning.

Ian dug up the battleground from the start as he began to massacre his enemies.

The ones that were mainly Ian’s targets were high-level users that were over lv 140.

This was because, even if it wasn’t Ian, users that were in the lv 130-range or any normal empire soldiers could be taken care of by the ones that participated in this battle, but users that were over lv 140 were a little dangerous.

“This crazy, do a combined attack! Catch that guy first!”

“Kill him! What are the Magicians doing? At least cast some AoE magic!”

“You idiot, this is the central continent! If an AoE attack is invoked, we’ll also be caught in it!”

The collapsed rampart.

And while stepping on the remains of the rampart that were piled like mountains below it as he ran here and there, Ian slaughtered the Kaimon Empire users without rest.

Roar-!

Ever since Ian jumped down from his back, Halli also began to run around like a fish in water, while Ly was showing an even more menacing fighting power than Ian.

“Goddamn, what is that lightning that’s falling? Was there such a thing amongst the Summoner’s skills?”

“Well, it could be possible. It could also be a Familiar’s Inherent Ability, or an Inherent Ability attached to a Legendary-rank item.”

“He really hit the jackpot. He’s seriously doing everything alone.”

Even despite being busy because of their own battles, the users glanced every so often at Ian, and the filming crystals that went around here and there in the air as they shot battle videos were gathered in a huddle around Ian before they realized.

“Whew… I’m sweating a little.”

As his Vitality dropped down below half, Ian, who pranced around the battleground like crazy, fell back and received treatment from the Priests.

And while Ian had fought for quite a long time, about two more places also crumbled besides the west rampart.

‘It looks like we should endure for a little more now before returning to behind the line of defense.’

It was only because of the narrow space right now that they could block them off as not a lot of enemies could trespass through, but if more holes appeared, it would be difficult to block them off like now.

This was because the absolute difference of their troops was too great.

Ian scanned the battleground as he turned his gaze towards the line of defense that looked like it was in the most danger.

However, just then, the loud roar of a lion burst out from one side of the battleground.

• Ian, where do you think you’re escaping to!

In an instant, all gazes in the battleground gathered in the direction that the roar of a lion burst out from, and that was the same for Ian as well.

“Hmm…?”

And Ian’s gaze met the eyes of a man holding twin swords.

The man had a domineering image, with a red light rising from his dark red armor…

For some reason, Ian thought that he looked familiar.

‘What the hell? I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere…’

The man’s lion-roar burst out once again.

• Don’t you think we should finish the battle that we weren’t able to finish in the Pascal Islands!

It was only then through the roar that burst out weightily from the man’s mouth that Ian realized who it was.

‘Ah, that Kaimon Empire user that I met inside that prison…!’

Ian grasped his spear tightly.

Along with a strange competitiveness, he felt himself become excited.

Ian’s footsteps moved towards him.

“Haha, long time, no see. I was taken aback because you disappeared so suddenly back then.”

Amongst the users that remained in Ian’s memory, he was one of the small handful of users that showed exquisite control and fighting abilities.

Ian was genuinely glad to see him.

“Huhu, that attitude overflowing with confidence is one thing that hasn’t changed.”

The two people stood facing each other in the middle of the battlefield.

And from the mouth of someone, a quiet exclamation burst out.

“It’s Shyakran! Shyakran and Ian ran into each other!”

Despite it being a situation where the siege warfare was continuing, the gazes of many people poured towards the two people.

It was an interesting scene being displayed, to the point that it prevented others from turning their gazes away despite the pressing situation.

As Ian also heard the words that it was Shyakran, he became even more excited.

‘No wonder, I thought he was strong… He was a top-class ranker!’

Shyakran, the Guild Master of the Titan Guild, was a named user that Ian also knew well of.

‘An opponent I can’t fight properly if I don’t use all of my fighting power…’

Ian, who contemplated momentarily, ended up using the ‘Will of the Selamus Warrior’ skill.

• You have used the ‘Will of the Selamus Warrior’ skill.

• For 20 minutes, all combat stats will increase by 40%.

• Your ‘Agility’ stat will drastically increase.

• Your Proficiency towards all weapons will increase up to lv 15.

• The level of the Proficiency that is related to the weapon currently in use, ‘Spearmanship’, has been set to Intermediate lv 5.

A golden aura began to rise from Ian’s body.

Shyakran, who saw that, smirked.

“Huhu, within the time I didn’t see you, you’ve obtained a interesting skill.”

Ian also smiled equally as he replied.

“You’re also probably different from back then.”

Shyakran nodded his head.

“Of course!”

The gazes of the two people became quite serious.

And shortly after, without one going before the other, the two lunged for each other.

* * *

Separate from the western area of the fortress, where Ian was playing an active role, the general progress of the battle began to turn a little unfavourable to the Lotus Guild.

Amongst the large army of a hundred thousand, close to half of their fighting power had succeeded in getting over the first line of defense.

Even so, that was only possible because there was Ian stopping the western area well, as well as Kaizar sweeping the northern area.

As Herz thought that the first line of defense in the southeast location was no longer blocking off the enemies as well as they should be, he hurriedly let out a command.

• Everybody in Zone 1 of the line of defense must gradually retreat back starting now. Exactly 3 minutes from now, the circuit breaker will come down.

During the time when Ian and Herz designed the fortress, besides the northeastern side, where it was perfectly blocked by geographical features, they divided the remaining three zones before designing.

And the zone that was allowing the most enemy infiltration right now was Zone 1 where Herz was.

Herz escaped backwards little by little as he began to slowly take back the defending army.

• The circuit breaker will come down soon! Once the circuit breaker comes down, the elemental towers will begin to operate, so you must all escape to the back before then!

Different from the basic guard towers, the elemental towers were towers that dealt AoE-type damage.

Especially if you were within the range of the flame tower, which had the strongest firepower, you could become a roasted turkey whether you were an enemy or an ally.

Herz began to countdown while looking at the time.

“5…4…3…”

And in accordance with the countdown that Herz gave, the defending army began to move diligently.

However, not all of the defending army retreated to the back.

Users that were in a difficult position to escape from to get to the back instead moved forward more aggressively as they moved in order to kill even one more opponent.

Since if the line at the front overdid themselves and escaped to the back, their opponents could get a wind of their plan.

Shortly after, as Herz’s countdown ended, a deafening roar began to ring out in the fortress.

[1] Repetitive, I know, but in the original Korean version, the author called it ‘ka-ee-teu sheel-deu’ before stating that it was in the shape of a kite in Korean.