Surviving in the Trash Hell Game by Tossing a Coin

Chapter 18 - The Raid (5)

“What are you doing now?”

Arges looked at his subordinates who still couldn't grasp the situation.

Literally, he scanned them with a glare that looked ready to swing his Morningstar and kill them right then and there.

As if that would make them change their minds.

But they knew that if they went back now, the number of enemies would only double.

They were despicable and cruel bastards, but they at least knew how to make a rational judgment.

And so, the man who was like the vanguard of the group promptly turned around and shouted.

“Your promise, please keep it!!”

Naturally, I had no intention of handing over the victory that was already in my grasp.

I struggled to parry the Morningstar clashing against my Greatsword and shouted.

“Of course!”

My resounding cry fell upon the heads of the disorderly group and became a clear conviction.

Arges, as if he had the experience of a leader, quickly noticed that the atmosphere was unusual.

Instead of rashly clashing weapons, he urgently threw his body towards the half-dead Erin.

“Stop! She’s a hostage!”

“Aack, ugh….”

He then roughly grabbed her by the hair, stood up, and wrapped his arm around her neck, pulling her close.

There was no way the already battered Erin could resist.

She could only let out a faint moan and be held helplessly.

“Let’s talk things over ‘slowly’. Hmm?”

The man aimed his Morningstar at Erin's head with a vile smile, as if he had caught his breath.

My thought that no matter how composed he was, he was still the boss of a bunch of bandits, was brief.

If I dragged this out, there was a chance they could be swayed by Arges' words.

I had to push forward with a swift and decisive battle.

“A comrade's life is precious, isn't it? So-”

He was right.

I might not care about others, but at least as long as she was my comrade, she was precious.

After all, it was thanks to her buying time that I was able to negotiate with the group of subordinates.

But that was precisely why I had no intention of backing down.

So.

“Hyaaaaaaaahp!!”

“…!? What, is your comrade's life not precious to you!!”

With a battle cry.

I charged straight ahead, pushing my body in first.

Arges, slightly flustered by the action that diminished the meaning of a hostage.

But as if trying to use this situation to his advantage, he turned the Morningstar that was aimed at Erin.

And swung it straight at my head.

But, while he still didn't know, I did.

That as long as the momentum had shifted, a crisis like this posed no threat to me.

“Keok!?”

This time too, as expected, the coin of the ‘Unlucky Kang Woon’ landed on heads.

‘Returner's Privilege’.

A skill that tested one's luck, which I had just gotten today.

The coin, tossed by the skill before my skull could be cracked, splendidly landed on heads.

Just like before, a translucent shield was created, blocking the attack.

Right after the cheerful sound of a weapon being deflected, kwang.

The dull thud of two bodies colliding rang out.

“Move!!”

“Hu-eok!”

From the impact of the shield and my body ramming into him, Arges' body was thrown back, letting go of Erin.

Not missing that opening, I embraced Erin's body and slid.

Scraping my body on the dirt floor hurt, but was it more painful than Erin was right now?

Without showing any sign of it, I stood up, holding her in my arms.

“Erin! Are you conscious?”

Erin's pained face, as she gasped for breath, relaxed at the sound of my voice.

She tried hard to focus her eyes and look up at me.

In her struggling eyes, tears began to well up.

“I'm sorry. I didn't want to be a burden….”

“No, Erin.”

She blamed herself, but I shook my head.

I knew.

That she had been continuously growing ever since she hesitated in the Tunnel.

How could I say anything bad to her, who had bought time for me knowing her life would be in danger?

So I just gently patted her on the shoulder and met her gaze.

I quietly met her eyes looking at me and nodded.

“You fought well.”

“R-really….”

Erin continued speaking weakly before her head drooped.

But her pulse, however faint, was still beating.

When she opened her eyes, I would present her with victory.

I handed Erin to Maletta, who had come up beside me at some point, and drew my Greatsword again.

“Captain,, I trust you.”

Maletta left only those words and stepped back so as not to interfere with the quest.

The trust contained in just those two words was felt so clearly that I gave a slight smile and a nod.

It was now really time to settle this.

I turned my head from the receding Maletta and looked towards the tumultuous Arges.

“I am, I am!! Your leader, Arges Valtan!!”

While I was saving Erin, the subordinates were showering their former superior with attacks.

Axes, knives, spears, bows, swords, weapons of all shapes and sizes were converging on his heart and neck.

And Arges was busy blocking or dodging the attacks of those dozens of men.

“Do you dare think you can get away with this alive!?”

He shouted, unable to hide his bewilderment, but naturally, no one was scared by his words.

The subordinates, on the contrary, began to charge with growing momentum each time Arges struggled.

No matter if he was a Grade 5, he couldn't stand against a human wave tactic.

As long as the difference in grade wasn't as wide as 4 or 5 levels.

The power balance in this game was such that four people of a lower grade could match one of a higher grade.

No matter how weak the bandits were to have formed a group, they were at least Grade 8.

With 40 of those Grade 8s, it meant they were equivalent to about 2.5 Grade 6s.

Of course, for someone 'out of the ordinary' like Maletta, pushing through with a human wave tactic wouldn't work, but from fighting him, he didn't seem to be on that level.

Besides, he'd taken many hits to the head from me, so there must be at least some damage.

“My group was able to expand its influence and grow solely thanks to me!”

“……”

“Uwaaaaaaaah!! You ungrateful pieces of trash!!”

Arges struggled, busy just dodging the attacks pouring in from all directions.

His previous momentum was gone, and the sight of him trying to persuade them somehow was quite laughable.

Because he knew it wouldn't work.

Because they had already seen their comrade stomped to death for the reason of becoming a ‘burden’.

“It's all thanks to me that you settled in Area 84 and live stably under the halo of Rekenhate!!”

“……”

“It's thanks to me, I say, you ungrateful-!!”

Listening to such struggles was amusing, but it was now really time to settle the score.

It was clear we were in a stalemate, and it was time for me to join in to end it.

I charged, aiming for Arges' now-widened opening, and got behind him.

I brought my Greatsword down on the defenseless man's head.

Kwang!

A cheerful sound, different from before, that made me think ‘it went in’.

As if the sound didn't lie, the man's body began to stagger.

Also, the man's short-cropped brown hair began to swell up.

“I don't know about ‘thanks to you’, but I can see a hill just fine.”

“Kkeu, heok….”

“The lump I made on your head, I mean.”

Before he could even react to my taunt, Arges' body collapsed.

Arges, who dropped his weapon and head weakly, knelt before me.

For a bandit leader who threatened me with Erin, then got ticked off and charged after being beaten a few times for his turf war.

It was the precipice of an all-too-shabby end.

Serves him right.

I approached him and raised my Greatsword again.

To finish him with my own hands.

To keep my vow to kill him for sure.

“Hey, Arges, I'm just gonna hit you three times, so take it well.”

“Don't make me laugh, you vermin….”

“This is for!!”

Still, whether it was his pathetic pride or just stubbornness.

Arges looked up at me, putting strength into his almost-fading eyes.

But as if that would make me feel any pity.

I swung the Greatsword just like that.

I brought the flat of the blade down once on the crown of his head.

“This is Erin's share!!”

The sound of a kwang.

Arges staggered, letting out a kkeo-euk sound.

Of course, he didn't fall, perhaps putting all his strength into it.

But if he thought I would harbor some misplaced sympathy or competitive spirit, he was sorely mistaken.

“And this is for Barkan!!”

“Barkan was by you- Keoheok!!”

I raised the Greatsword again and brought it down on his head.

Arges let out a scream of pain, blood pouring from his nose and ears.

It was now really time to end it.

I rested the Greatsword I had brought down on my shoulder, then turned the blade 90 degrees.

“And this is….”

A lot has happened, hasn't it?

So let's end this soon.

“Erin's share!!”

I swung the Greatsword just like that.

With the bladed part, I struck his neck.

With a kwajik sound.

Blood gushed out.

Arges' body falls weakly.

“Hoo, he's tough.”

Blood was flowing out, but he still wasn't dead.

He was sprawled on the floor, but I could tell from his bare, muscular chest heaving.

“Are Grade 5s’ neck bones also sturdy? It looks like his head would burst before his neck gets cut off.”

If he doesn't die after being hit in the head that much and doesn't die from being hit in the neck while defenseless.

Wouldn't a Grade 4 or 3 really not die even if you tried to kill them?

To think I had to fight and defeat a guy like that myself.

No matter how I thought about it, the quest window didn't seem to be on my side.

“I….”

“Hm?”

As I was approaching the fallen man to finish him off.

I heard his weak voice.

So persistent.

“I….”

“I never said I'd listen to your last words.”

He didn't even stop speaking.

The man weakly raised his upper body, even while bleeding profusely from every orifice on his face.

Wondering what kind of foolish thing he was trying to do, I raised my Greatsword again to deliver the finishing blow, but.

“To let me escape.”

For a moment.

The man's eyes, looking up at me, shone.

Kwajik!

By the time I noticed.

I had already been tackled by him and was falling over.

“Keoheok!?”

It was a simple tackle.

An attack that could hardly be called a blow, just throwing his body to knock me down.

It wasn't a ‘life-threatening crisis’, so the skill didn't activate.

To think he still had the energy to throw himself at me after being beaten that much.

Just how high is the prestige of a Grade 5?

Thinking it was a final desperate struggle, maybe for some ground-and-pound, I briefly took a guard stance, but I didn't know that split-second decision would decide my fate.

Instead of getting on top of me and swinging his fists.

The man fumbled in his pocket and pulled out ‘something’.

“Damn it!!”

It was a ‘Portal Creation Device’, something that would typically appear in other fantasy games.

An item similar to a ‘Return Scroll’, which creates a portal when a button is pressed.

The man was trying to escape.

And with my movements restricted now, there was no means left to stop his escape.

Even if I shouted for someone to stop him, there was no one to do it for me.

The bandits wanted this situation to end, Erin was injured, and Maletta couldn't interfere.

“I'll kill you all, you trash…!!”

After Arges snarled and spat out the words, he pressed the button on the ‘Portal Creation Device’.

Before I could even stop him, a deep blue portal that seemed like it would suck everything in was created.

What followed was obvious.

The subordinates showed no sign of stopping or preventing him, and I was pinned under Arges, unable to move.

Just like that, Arges leaned his body and was sucked into the portal.

The portal then vanished.

I let him get away.

“Damn it.”

A sudden turn of events that occurred before I could even enjoy the joy of victory.

As I was about to lie spread-eagled from the overwhelming sense of futility, the quest window updated as if to light a fire within me.

[ Erin's Request ]

You did not give up.

This special reward is given to you, who grasped fortune with tenacious will.

Special Reward :

You can activate the ‘Returner's Privilege’ skill once in any situation.

However, it is not guaranteed to land on heads.

2 stacks of ?? are accumulated. (Current stacks: 5)

Just being able to use a skill freely once and 2 stacks of something I don't even know what it is.

To think this was the special reward that followed after enduring such a huge penalty.

If I had my way, I would have loved to grab the quest window and have a go at it, but even that time felt wasted.

The man would surely return to his base and try to get revenge by any means necessary.

The tables had turned.

If before, he was the one attacking us.

It meant now, we were the ones who had to attack him.

To protect the village and complete the quest.

And also, for the revenge that was not yet over.

I had to give chase.

As if to prove my thoughts.

The quest window, updated once more.

[ Erin's Request ]

The end of the quest is finally in sight.

Deal with the last nuisance of Area 84.

Objective :

You must eliminate Arges Valtan.

Special Reward Condition :

There are no special reward conditions in this stage.

You ‘must’ win.