The Support Ate it All

The first sniper shot had only been the beginning.

Blue threads of light slashed toward the witch from all directions.

Tududududu!

Of course, it was the marksmen of the Hye-seong Group doing the sniping.

Being a defense city, they were always on standby, stationed at every building.

They must’ve been keeping an eye on her all along.

Perhaps even from the moment the witch stepped into the city.

They wouldn’t have known her exact identity, but they must’ve sensed something was off.

Then, upon receiving Ahn Jeong-mi’s emergency signal, they had sprung into action.

Magic bullets, packed with immense destructive power, rained down like machine gun fire.

The Witch of Death twisted her body in grotesque ways as she was continuously struck from all sides.

But in truth, she didn’t appear to have taken much damage.

She is an S-rank, after all.

She was the guardian under the command of the Corpse Dragon and also the First Legion Commander.

Among the witches, her skills were considered top-tier.

Naturally, she outranked the Witch of Corruption by far.

The Hye-seong Group’s marksmen might’ve been highly skilled, but even they were a bit lacking when it came to taking down an S-rank.

As expected, the Witch of Death, who had been dancing grotesquely, suddenly came to a halt like a puppet with its strings cut.

Then, as if nothing had happened, she straightened up calmly.

Flutter—

Next, black energy fluttered around her like the hem of a robe, wrapping her in its folds.

Every time a magic bullet touched it, it vanished as though being sucked in.

“There are too many nuisances.”

After saying that, the Witch of Death gently floated into the air.

And when she waved a hand above her head, a subspace opened up and spat out its contents.

A giant spinal bone that was so huge it could have been mistaken for a building.

Booooom—!

As the spine slammed down, the buildings below were completely shattered and crumbled to pieces.

Seo Ye-in who had been fleeing alongside us looked at the scene with mournful eyes.

“…The bakery.”

“That’s not exactly the priority right now.”

I pulled Seo Ye-in along and gave her a sharp remark.

The giant spine was encrusted with small bone fragments, and as they fell and snapped together, they formed skeleton soldiers.

Spine Tower.

It was both a Necromancer’s item and a structure used to store bone-type undead and summon them when needed.

It compensated for the chronic weakness of becoming vulnerable without corpses.

With that size, it must have stored a few hundred at least.

As the skeleton soldiers poured out in droves, the Hye-seong Group’s marksmen had no choice but to change their targets.

The longer they left those things unchecked, the more the damage would spiral out of control.

Ratatatatata!

After diverting attention that way, the Witch of Death turned her gaze back in this direction.

Then she lifted a scythe taller than herself and used teleportation magic to close the distance in an instant.

“You weren’t trying to run, were you?”

“Of course not. I was just attempting a strategic repositioning.”

“I think you’ve moved enough. Let’s pick up where we left off.”

Ratatatatata!

Ahn Jeong-mi and Seo Ye-in concentrated their fire, but the fluttering black cloth deflected the magic bullets.

The witch charged in immediately, swinging her giant scythe.

Swish— slash— shhk—

Every time the scythe passed, it seemed to carve lines into thin air.

That was how much destructive power it held.

Even a slight touch would slice someone clean apart, making defense unthinkable.

Dodging just barely by twisting my body, I managed to avoid it. But the ends of my hair were sliced off and scattered.

“Ah, my bangs…”

“Don’t joke around.”

The Witch of Death began to mix magic into her scythe attacks.

She flung thorns the size of a palm like shuriken.

Shweee— shweee— shweee—!

As I scrambled and dodged with Thief’s Step, a thought ran through my mind.

It’s getting hard to hold out.

Just a little longer and Hye-seong Group’s reinforcements, along with the Underworld Dragon King and the Chairman, would arrive.

But as expected of an S-rank, this wasn’t going to be easy.

This isn’t the time to hold back.

[Activated ‘Octopus Limbs’.]

[Activated ‘Amplification’.]

[The rank of ‘Wind Force’ has increased. (B+ → S+)]

[The rank of ‘Spiral Burst’ has increased. (B+ → S+)]

[‘The rank of Thief’s Step’ has increased. (B+ → S+)]

[The rank of ‘Inferno Fist’ …….]

[The rank of ‘Mysterious Yin Jade Demon Finger’…….]

[The rank of ‘Ice Wall’…….]

[The rank of ‘Mutual Destruction Eye’…….]

…….

[Duration: 00:14:58]

[Cooldown: 2 days 19:29:59]

I had amplified nearly every skill I possessed.

The cooldowns were stacked up, but that was a problem to worry about after surviving.

Sensing that my abilities had suddenly surged, the Witch of Death widened her eyes.

“……Are you really a first-year student?”

“Technically, I’ve graduated over 200 times.”

“If you don’t want to answer, just say so.”

“I’m serious, though.”

Why didn’t anyone ever believe me?

Even Dang Gyu-young seemed to think it was just some kind of cheat-code excuse.

Feeling a bit disheartened, I cast my skills.

[Octopus Limbs]

[Hummingbird] ×3

Three lightning hummingbirds shot into the air.

They circled in the sky, then charged toward the witch from three different directions.

But those jet-black hems of her robe were still fluttering.

Even if they hit, it was obvious they’d be blocked.

But then, in that very moment—

Boom!

A grenade-sized magic bomb flew in and exploded near the witch.

It had been thrown by Ahn Jeong-mi, who’d been waiting for an opening.

The blast seemed to have the effect of dispersing her mana, as the black fabric flickered faintly for a moment.

Not missing that brief window, I landed the hummingbird strikes.

Crackle!

Then I followed up with Octopus Limbs and the Mutual Destruction Eye.

[The target has been afflicted with ‘Frozen (B)’ status.]

[The target has been afflicted with ‘Poisoned (B)’ status……]

[The target has been afflicted with ‘Frozen (B)’……]

Crackkkk,

The witch’s toes were covered in ice, but only for a fleeting moment.

She seemed to have immediately dispelled it with a debuff-removal skill.

“That was decent in its own way, but—”

Boom!

The next moment, compressed air exploded, and the witch was sent flying.

An S-rank Wind Force had landed squarely.

The earlier hummingbirds and the Mutual Destruction Eye had been set up for this very moment.

However, the Witch of Death stopped mid-flight, suddenly halting in midair. Then, she used Blink once more to close the distance.

All that carefully laid groundwork was undone with a single Blink.

I’m the only one without Blink.

Dang Gyu-young had it, Oh Se-hoon had it, the Witch of Corruption had it, the Underworld Dragon King had it. Even the Witch of Death had it. I was the only one who didn’t.

It was truly a frustrating thing.

The Witch of Death swung her scythe and asked,

“Got anything else?”

“I do have one last trump card.”

“Let’s see it, then. I’ll kill you after.”

“Alright. And that would be—”

Right then, a massive pressure swept in from somewhere.

The witch couldn’t dodge in time and took the hit.

Crash!

As she skidded back, she looked up. And there was the Underworld Dragon King floating in the air.

The trump card was telling on her to the dragon.

The Underworld Dragon King opened his mouth.

“You old hag, what brings you here?”

“‘Old hag’…. such words pain my heart. You’re even older than me.”

“Then call me an old lizard or whatever you want. Just answer the question.”

“I was going to just quietly watch this time, but… when do things ever go according to plan?”

The witch glanced sideways at me.

That must have meant she changed her plans because of me.

The Underworld Dragon King spoke in a disinterested tone.

“Then I suppose you’ll have to change the plan again. You’ve dragged this out too long.”

Just as he said, reinforcements were steadily gathering from all directions.

Not just the Hye-seong Group’s elite soldiers, but swordsmen, mages, and powerful fighters from various classes.

All of them were graduate-level, ranked B or higher.

The moment they arrived, the reinforcements began pushing back the swarming skeleton soldiers.

It was probably only a matter of time before they were all subdued.

Even so, the Witch of Death smiled faintly.

“Let’s keep going a little longer. I’ve got nothing to lose anyway.”

Then, once again, she waved her hand toward the Spine Tower.

At her gesture, the bones of a freshly assembled skeleton soldier darkened. The newly darkened skeleton donned bone armor and mounted a skeleton warhorse.

Knight-class.

The skeleton knight immediately locked eyes with me, then charged this way, leading a group of skeleton soldiers.

She clearly intended to bring me down with them.

The Underworld Dragon King scoffed and moved to intervene, but—

“Hmph.”

“Weren’t you here to stop me?”

The Witch of Death cut in between them, swinging her massive scythe.

The dragon and the witch clashed in midair.

BOOM—!

Ahn Jeong-mi spoke urgently.

“Young miss! Kim Ho-nim! You need to get out of here!”

“Can I really run away just to save myself? We have to fight.”

“Fight.”

Seo Ye-in and I answered firmly.

Ahn Jeong-mi looked a bit moved.

We were just first-years, and we had just come out of a life-threatening battle.

Anyone would’ve understood if we wanted to run away in fear, but she seemed to think we were risking our lives for the sake of the Hye-seong Group.

That wasn’t entirely wrong, but there was another reason.

As long as it’s not the witch, we can handle it.

Against an S-rank elder monster, we had no choice but to be on the defensive the whole time.

Although my rank had been boosted through amplification, the quality and quantity of my skills, traits, and items still lagged far behind.

She was probably going easy on me a bit.

The guess was either to see how things would play out or to toy with me a little before killing me.

If she had been serious, [Distortion] would’ve been broken instantly and my limbs would’ve been severed.

In contrast, the opponent in front of me was a skeleton knight.

Not an easy foe by any means, but compared to the Witch of Death, this one was practically a saint.

And Amplification isn’t even finished yet.

Cooldowns were still all over the place, and the plan was to keep fighting until the effect wore off.

I planted the sapling in the ground and reached out toward the oncoming undead.

[Earth Line]

[Spiral Explosion]

Whoooooosh—!

A huge whirlwind roared forward.

The skeleton knight spurred its warhorse harder and managed to escape the whirlwind, but most of the skeleton soldiers were helplessly dragged into it.

Then, as the wind compressed them tightly into a mass—

Boooom—!

They were blown to pieces in a huge explosion.

Only a handful of skeleton soldiers remained.

But the most important one, the skeleton knight, was still intact and now charging toward us at terrifying speed.

Ahn Jeong-mi and Seo Ye-in fired their magic rifles at him in rapid succession.

Ratatatatatata!

Armor shattered and the shield broke apart as the skeleton knight continued to take damage.

However, it charged forward with unwavering determination to carry out its mission.

I watched it carefully and, just as it was nearly upon us, I began casting a spell.

You don’t even have Blink, do you?

Then you’ll just have to take this.

[Octopus Limbs]

[Ice Wall] *2

Two thick ice walls rose up, one after the other.

The skeleton knight crashed straight into it at full speed.

Baaang!!

Shards of ice scattered in all directions.

“……”

Ahn Jeong-mi looked at me like she was staring at some wicked demon, but I pretended not to notice and clenched my fist tightly.

From inside, dark crimson flames began to blaze.

[Inferno Fist]

Whooooooooooooooosh—!

The fiery storm swept away the skeleton knight and the skeleton soldiers who had been following behind it.

Because it had been amplified to S-rank, I suffered some minor burns.

[‘Retrocovery’ has been activated.]

[Cooldown: 2 days 23:59:56]

But that too quickly healed.

That takes care of this area.

I lifted my head and looked upward.

There, the Underworld Dragon and the Witch of Death were locked in an intense battle, and the more I watched, the more a strange sense of déjà vu crept over me.

Come to think of it, when I first fell into the game world, two dragons had been fighting back then too.

…And I copied elemental resistance, didn’t I?

This was a chance.