Wandering Mercenary in an Open World

The barbarians who climbed the wall were abnormally huge. They pushed away the shields that blocked their way with their massive bodies, and swung their axes and war hammers.

Thud!

The head of one shield soldier was crushed like a ripe tomato. Another soldier who screamed at his friend’s death was hit by a hammer on his skull and died with his neck buried under his shoulder.

In an instant, two squad members were killed, but the soldiers calmly thrust their spears. It was a moment when their long training paid off.

As the barbarian who was stabbed deep in the abdomen staggered back, all kinds of cold weapons pierced his torso.

“Shit, what kind of strength…”

The soldiers grimaced at the strength of the barbarian who was still struggling even after being impaled.

“Hold on tight!”

Then, a man who looked like the squad leader shouted loudly and swung his sword.

Finally, the head of the barbarian fell from his neck and rolled on the ground.

“He’s dead!”

“We did it!”

The squad leader spat on the ground and said.

“Don’t get excited! It’s only one…”

He couldn’t finish his sentence. Another barbarian who had grabbed him from behind chopped off half of his face with an axe.

The squad leader who only gasped like a fish fell to the ground. A soldier who stepped back in fear accidentally kicked a pot of oil and fell.

“Aaargh!”

His body was soaked in boiling oil and he writhed in pain. The formation naturally collapsed.

Roar!

As the barbarians rushed towards the soldiers, a giant appeared from nowhere and blocked their way with his sword.

A red flash and the scene that caught the soldiers’ eyes was the giant kicking the headless barbarian and his body off the wall.

The giant, Ruon, didn’t stop there and spun his body and stretched his arm roughly.

His hand grabbed the barbarian’s neck as soon as the barbarian also choked Ruon’s neck with both hands. On the back of the hand that aimed for the windpipe, a snake-like vein wriggled.

They glared at each other with burning eyes, but in the end, the one who showed the whites of his eyes was the barbarian. His eyes rolled back and bloody foam flowed from his nose and mouth. When Ruon felt no more breath from his mouth, he threw him away.

The barbarian whose neck bone was crushed fell to the ground with his head twisted grotesquely.

In the blink of an eye, the soldiers bowed their heads to him who killed two barbarians.

“Th-thank you.”

“If you have time to thank me, attack the ones climbing the wall. You have to destroy their heads to stop them, so don’t use arrows or oil carelessly.”

Ruon didn’t wait for an answer and stomped on the ground. He was now busy going back and forth on the wall, supporting the places where the formation was in danger of collapsing.

Of course, it was almost impossible to defend the entire wall by himself, so he left the opposite side to Kyle and Colin.

In Ruon’s sight, who was checking the situation, there was a soldier who lost his legs and was crawling on the ground with his elbows, a barbarian who crushed his head, and a soldier who was enraged by his comrade’s death and fought back. All those scenes looked like a slow video.

He didn’t hesitate and ran there, cutting off the neck of the barbarian who wore a fur coat, and then knocked down the one who ran after him with his shoulder and kicked his face.

His head exploded and blood, flesh, and crushed brain splattered everywhere.

“…Uh, ugh, mom…mom.”

He turned his head at the sad sobbing and saw a soldier leaning on the wall. His intestines spilled from his torn belly and steamed in the cold weather.

But that meant he was losing his heat, and soon the soldier closed his eyes with a blue lip and a murmur of cold.

Ruon watched him silently with tears frozen on his cheeks.

A desperate scream pierced his ears.

“Lord!”

He saw a barbarian with a wolf skin on his shoulder lifting a huge two-handed axe high in the sky. His copper-colored muscles moved dynamically.

His target was the lord, who was coughing with his elbow on the ground, and next to him were two broken staffs that looked pitiful.

Ruon threw his ego sword without hesitation. The sword that looked like a red disc with a tremendous rotation pierced the barbarian’s neck in an instant.

Blood spurted like fireworks.

The lord who sensed death and closed his eyes tightly opened them at the sound of the barbarian falling. Ruon was standing in front of him.

He saw the sword that was stuck in the barbarian’s neck go into the owner’s hand as if it were alive, and he swallowed his dry saliva unknowingly.

“…Th-thank you.”

Ruon grabbed his hand and lifted him up. The lord blinked his eyes and tried to grasp the situation.

Fortunately, the soldiers got out of the panic and started to respond properly.

It was possible because there were much more soldiers guarding the wall than the barbarians who climbed up, and the formation didn’t collapse thanks to Ruon and Kyle’s help.

The lord bit his lip as he saw Kyle fighting the barbarians with a hammer wrapped in lightning. Was there really an individual who surpassed the group?

Then Ruon said.

“Are you going to blink your eyes like an idiot?”

It was a reckless remark that could have cost him his head, but Seong-ju seemed to regain his senses and shouted with a flash in his eyes.

“Warriors of El Tigre! Do not retreat-! We will not lose. Pull up the front line and show those filthy barbarians our dignified rage!”

At that, a roaring cheer erupted from the mouths of the soldiers who had been barely holding off the enemy.

This was the difference between having a commander or not. Just having someone who fought with them on the same battlefield and boosted their courage made their fading morale flare up again.

That’s when it happened. A metal hook shaped like an eagle’s talon caught the castle wall. Then, a thumping sound of kicking the wall followed, and a huge shadow blocked the sun and jumped over the rampart.

Just then, a guardian knight, Wayne, who had cut off the barbarian’s neck, bravely yelled and swung his sword at the new enemy.

The neat arc of his sword’s trajectory showed how hard he had worked in the past.

And it collapsed with one axe strike.

“Ugh!”

Wayne fell back faster than he had run. Not only did his sword break, but his breastplate was split horizontally. He tried to get up somehow, but his knee buckled and he fell to his knees.

“Wayne!”

Seong-ju’s eyes widened at the sight of his beloved knight spewing blood. He was about to rush over at any moment, so Ruon reached out his arm to stop him and silently looked at the opponent.

A barbarian with a thick skeleton that was unbelievable for his height, and a skinny man wearing a ram’s skull on his head, were talking on his shoulder.

“How boring.”

“Haha, yeah. It’s ridiculous that a half-penny tried to stop the chief. Then I’ll finish it off.”

The skinny man jumped off his shoulder and started shaking his staff with skulls hanging from it.

“The avatar of ice carved by the north wind-”

He stopped chanting and fell backwards. As if a giant had pulled a string connected to the back of his head. Upon closer inspection, a dagger was stuck deep in his forehead, splitting the ram’s skull.

A moment later, the sound of the shield breaking was heard.

The barbarian showed no expression change, even though his colleague had just died. No, he rather muttered as if he was interested.

“The shaman’s shield can withstand a flying spear… but to break it with just a dagger, what a great power.”

He chuckled and spun the axe in his hand. Meanwhile, a soldier named Seonut, enraged by Wayne’s injury, rushed in with a spear, but all of them had their necks cut off with one axe strike.

The heads rolling on the floor were chilling.

“Where are these bastards…”

The barbarian, who had been annoyed, recovered his expression and said.

He was looking right at Ruon.

“I didn’t think there would be a warrior like you among these weaklings. You’re a fine fellow with a wildness that you can’t hide under your skin. What’s your name?”

Ruon briefly replied to the barbarian who was purely enjoying himself.

“Ruon.”

“Your name is just so-so.”

He said that and lifted both corners of his mouth. His fierce smile distorted the blue-dyed pattern on his face.

“My name is Ba-bo-kun.”

Ruon snorted at the shocking name.

“Fool… what?”

Did he touch a sensitive spot? The barbarian, Bo-kun, had a thick vein on his forehead.

He growled.

“You ignorant bastard. ‘Ba’ means chief. The only one above me is the great chief Jigor, who has the title of ‘Ka’.”

He’s still a fool, anyway.

Bo-kun felt humiliated by Ruon’s slight shrug and his eyes gradually became bloodshot.

“Damn you. I’ll crush you in one breath.”

As his eyes turned red and swallowed all the whites, the ground he was standing on cracked.

Ruon left a faint afterimage and raised his sword to the flying axe. The crossed blades slid and sparks flew.

“Ugh!”

It was only one collision, but he concluded that his power was no match for Ruon and quickly widened the distance with agile movements.

“Unbelievable power… enough to remind me of Jigor.”

He muttered that and his pupils flickered with a pale gold.

Wolf?

Ruon wrinkled his nose and saw a large wolf’s phantom behind the barbarian who was glaring at him.

But the other soldiers, including Seong-ju, didn’t see it and just swallowed their saliva and looked at the two.

Sure enough, the barbarian’s mouth made a howl of a wolf as he rushed in again.

He then started to attack from unpredictable angles like a beast. Each attack was so powerful that it could easily cut off the neck of an ordinary soldier like Seonut.

But Ruon, who didn’t lose his breath and blocked all the attacks, chased after the opponent who was trying to widen the distance and thrust his sword.

Bo-kun raised the flat side of his axe like a shield with a surprising reflex speed, but he couldn’t withstand the force that even the devil couldn’t handle.

The axe shattered like glass.

Ruin plunged his sword deep into the heart of the barbarian, cutting through his flesh and muscle as he walked straight through the scattering fragments.

“Ugh-”

The barbarian chief, who spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed, clenched his teeth and lifted his head.

“You’re unbelievably strong… but it’s useless… the moment our god revives… your pathetic civilization will end.”

He must have some kind of secret.

Ruon repeated the enemy’s words briefly and then replied dryly.

“Be that as it may.”

He didn’t care what their god was. He had always faced the enemy in front of him, whoever they were.

Bokun blinked his eyes, dripping with blood, at the fearless answer.

As the sun set behind him, Ruon stood tall, reminding him of the man who had given him the only terror in his life.

Bokun forced his lips to open.

“Ji, Jigor… sir…”

The barbarian’s head dropped as he left the king’s name as his last words. His lifeless eyes looked like nothing but lumps of collagen.

“How boring.”

Ruon muttered and turned around, pulling out his sword. The lord, who had been staring at him like a madman, shouted with a vein in his neck.

“The great hero Ruon, who defeated the great demon, has slain the enemy leader!”

The soldiers, who had been dumbfounded by Ruon’s amazing strength, responded with a thunderous cheer to the lord’s words.

“Ruon!”

“Ruon!”

“Ruon!”

Some banged their spears on the ground, and those who didn’t have such long weapons stomped their feet.

Soon, the wave of cheers and heat spread throughout the wall, and the soldiers began to push back the barbarians with explosive momentum.

The end of the perilous battle was approaching. Fortunately, the side that grasped the hem of victory was El Tigre.