There Is Something In Rebound That Can’t Be Explained By Numbers

Crack—Crash—!

“Aetas! What on earth did you do!!”

Mors rushed at Aetas as if she were about to hit her, grabbed her by the collar, and shook her while asking. Aetas’s expression was anything but normal.

But even while Mors had her by the collar, Aetas only kept muttering to herself.

“Ludicer! I have to go to Ludicer!”

Leaving only those words behind, Aetas disappeared. The remaining three goddesses also vanished from the ruined garden with faces full of anger.

Ludicer tried to take the four suddenly barging-in goddesses in stride. It wasn’t the first or second time something like this had happened.

But Aetas’s condition was unusual. With a hasty, cornered look, she grabbed both her arms and kept repeating that she should contact Kim Han.

And the words that came stumbling out of Aetas’s mouth were no less unusual.

“…What?”

“C-contact Kim Han! Hurry!”

“Aetas! You……! What on earth were you thinking…… See you in a bit!!”

Just as Ludicer took out her magic book, a gentle voice stopped her actions.

“Stop.”

“…Sophia?”

How long had she been there? Sophia slowly approached Ludicer and the other goddesses. An unreadable smile was drawn thickly at the corners of her mouth.

“What are you saying!”

“Right! Our Naruan is in danger too!”

Aetas and Mors flared up, while Ludicer glared at Sophia with cold eyes.

She paid no mind to their reactions.

“From what I heard, Aetas, you were plotting something huge this time?”

“S-so I’m trying to clean it up!”

“Hmph! Do you think I’m only talking about this incident? I know what you did to your representative too! You shouldn’t ignore me just because I’m the record-keeper.”

What was this about? Anyone could see Sophia was winning the war of words between her and Aetas. Aetas’s complexion changed as if her shame had been exposed, and she shut her mouth.

“Put the issue between the two of you aside for later, and tell Kim Han to come back immediately!”

“You people are truly stupid.”

“What?”

“I think I can see why Kim Han gets frustrated when he meets you. If you’re gods, act like gods. More importantly, what exactly do you think the six heroes are? Hm?”

The zombies were now only corpses; they could no longer move of their own will.

In the late stage of the battle, only advanced undead such as death knights and liches remained. More than half of the Rebound Legion was also exhausted. Those who had gone out with Yonga had returned to the main camp.

Wigo, who had been in charge of defense, had fainted and been laid down in the center of the formation, and beside him Nana was gasping for breath while looking at Wigo anxiously.

The party continued the fight by relying on Hazel’s spatial defense and counterattacking.

Proy and Naruan were the only ones still able to move with ease. Even Hazel was quite tired, since she had been focusing entirely on defense.

Even so, the members were unconsciously infusing their weapons with divine power and hurling magic, mounting a fairly effective counterattack.

Soria sent back the other spirits, leaving only Salaim, the fire’s high spirit, and slowly burned each death knight one by one.

Liru loosed arrows with trembling arms, and the momentum of Ostum and Hippoly had also clearly weakened.

Desperate struggle.

As if proving in person that Rebound had never taught them how to give up easily, the party fought with desperate ferocity.

Had that momentum reached the undead too? The undead, who knew no fear and no exhaustion, began to hesitate.

“Say the word if you need help.”

The shoulders of the members who had been sitting and panting all flinched at once.

These people were depleted of both divine power and stamina. Potions aren’t a cure-all. Since they were completely empty, they needed rest. Those who had collapsed now were completely out of the fight.

“It’s fine, companion.”

Hazel’s voice was firm.

It wasn’t just her own feelings. She was firm, as if speaking for the entire party including Hazel, and it felt as though my offer to help had hurt her pride.

Hazel took charge of defense even more carefully and resolutely.

When the number of undead kept dwindling until it fell below a thousand, hope that they could do it spread through the eyes of the Rebound members.

Their momentum was sharpened further, and their movements became more concise.

Conserving stamina with minimal movement, they gradually reduced that number.

By the time the standing members’ mouths began to taste of blood and the breathing of Naruan and Proy grew rough, the undead numbered fewer than 500 including their commander. If they were in normal condition, it was a number they could wipe out in less than an hour.

But now it was a dangerous number that had to be dealt with one by one, with everything they had.

Thud—thud—

Liru and Soria’s legs gave out and they collapsed to the ground. Judging by the stream of blood running from their mouths, they seemed to have suffered internal injuries.

“Lord Kim Han, grant permission!”

While everyone else was exhausted, the one lively member cried out desperately.

No, she wasn’t the only lively one. Chloe and Patrick from the priest line were relatively lively too. In any case, Mae Young-ryeong, who was even livelier than the two of them, cried out desperately.

“Go ahead.”

The moment I gave my permission, a dense black aura rose from Mae Young-ryeong. food-luck had been activated.

“Aren’t undead usually extremely low on luck?”

I thought her food-luck had met its natural enemy.

But Mae Young-ryeong’s condition was strange. Her momentum, wrapped in black aura, was strikingly similar to when ‘Witch’ had been activated.

“What?”

Before I even had time to understand the explanation on Mae Young-ryeong’s status window, the undead began acting strangely. The tainted mana of the lich, which had been in the middle of casting magic, exploded and swallowed the surrounding liches and death knights.

Even though those high-ranking beings should have been able to dodge easily, none of them escaped the blast radius; they were engulfed by the explosion and vanished in black smoke.

Strange phenomena erupted everywhere.

The changes that occurred in less than about 30 seconds were enough to confuse not only me, but all the members as well.

I was the one who ordered it to use food-luck, the power of ‘Melun,’ to keep the absorbed luck value at a fixed luck stat. The luck stat of 100 visible on Mae Young-ryeong now was the result.

But what did it mean to absorb the luck stat infinitely?

The aftereffects of Mae Young-ryeong infinitely absorbing the undead’s luck didn’t stop at the lich, the archmage of the undead race, failing to control mana and blowing himself up. It also seemed to affect Mae Young-ryeong’s continued attacks.

Seeing them simply stare blankly and watch the summon spell they could have stopped for some reason, that seemed to be the case.

“Dual-sided Gemini. Summon. Party.”

Enveloped in divine power, the card—symmetrical around its center—shone brightly and vanished, and in its place two Black Oaks appeared.

The Black Oak holding a staff began mumbling an incantation as soon as he appeared and created a barrier enveloping the party.

With the barrier of the priest Black Oak, the grand shaman, giving them a little breathing room, Hazel drank a concentrated divine power recovery potion and caught her breath.

The chief Black Oak rushed out as soon as he appeared and unleashed sword aura.

His spirit and force were worthy of praise, but just as I was about to click my tongue at how stupid he was, as expected of an orc, Mae Young-ryeong’s voice continued.

“Noble Virgo. Summon. Immune to Evil.”

Another card was summoned again, immune to evil.

High-grade divine magic that grants immunity even to attacks from magical beasts, including undead that use tainted divine power.

Unusually, it is a type of divine magic that requires a variety of catalysts, and its success rate is known to be abysmal. Of course, its effect is tremendous when facing magical beasts or undead.

Just like that Black Oak chief now.

The undead were everywhere. It was a number of 500 that couldn’t even be compared to 10,000, but even so, 500 was enough to surround the area without leaving a gap.

Naturally, attacks rained down on the summoned Black Oak chief. Even so, the Black Oak chief did not suffer a single wound.

At first the Black Oak chief was puzzled, but once he realized the beings surrounding him couldn’t harm him, he ran wild to his heart’s content.

The timing of bringing out the Immune spell was also worthy of praise.

The Immune spell may seem invincible if it succeeds, but there is still a reason it was on the verge of being shelved. It is because its duration is only about ten minutes, at most thirty.

Mae Young-ryeong’s skill combination made me nod unconsciously at the perfect timing.

It was definitely excellent. She, too, had clearly and steadily improved. No less than anyone in Rebound.

It was also true that Mae Young-ryeong’s fight alone wasn’t enough. The undead still remaining to surround them at this stage, when the battle was nearing its end, were elite among elites.

They were already ignoring the summoned orc and making moves to break through the defense.

“Say the word anytime.”

“…You seem kind of happy. That we’re having a hard time, I mean.”

The voice came from below me, at my feet. I had already picked it up with my senses, but Lee Hyo-ju, who had been unconscious, struggled to raise herself and spoke.

Without turning my head toward her, I kept my gaze on the battlefield ahead and answered Lee Hyo-ju.

“Did it sound that way? Maybe it does…….”

“No, why…….”

“Let’s see? How about the heart of a boyfriend whose girlfriend is having a 7,000-won mocha Frappuccino?”

“…Huh?”

I gave Lee Hyo-ju a teasing question with a snort of laughter, then watched the battlefield even more tensely.

There were only a few members still standing now. Hazel, Proy, the two priests, and Mae Young-ryeong.

In fact, excluding the two priests who were practically noncombatants, only three people were still standing on both feet.

The undead legion that had numbered over 10,000 now had only a little over 100 left.

But in the current situation, even 100 death knights were a force that required them to be prepared to die. And among those 100-odd were death knights and liches mixed together.

The death knights and liches still radiated tireless momentum. Just as Proy, who was shrugging his shoulders, and Mae Young-ryeong, who was emitting dark aura, were about to step forward—

Suddenly, the remaining liches quickly withdrew. And the death knights straightened their weapons and formed a defensive line, as if trying to protect the liches from something.

“…What?”

Just as Proy voiced his bewilderment, the tainted divine power began to fluctuate violently.

The power ‘Check,’ which I had activated out of habit, told me in detail what was happening.

It was too late to intervene. The magic had already finished manifesting.

“Everyone, fall back.”

“Companion!”

“Tch. Good work. Fall back. Take care of the injured.”

The one who objected most strongly to my words was Hazel.

But I wasn’t trying to steal the credit for her having held out and commanded the battle until now.

Hazel also seemed to sense something odd in the follow-up praise, so she lifted the space itself and moved backward. A sort of spatial movement.

And the members could soon understand why I had ordered the retreat.

Doo-doom!!

As if such a grand background sound were playing, more than 3,000 undead appeared through large-scale spatial movement magic. And not a single one of them was a zombie.

Imposing, with confidence multiplied 200-fold.

The expressionless faces of the newly appeared undead and the existing undead somehow seemed to be saying that.

“Doo-doom… my ass. Ja-ryong.”

“Gyaah?”

“Use some strength.”

“Gyaah?”