I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 454: Bom, We'll Go

I ran with Han Yeoreum to the shantytown.

We needed to retrieve the weapons Nora had taken.

"Nora."

A short distance from the village.

Among the monster corpses, we spotted Nora covered in blood.

Her sharply protruding nails were drenched in blood.

Startled by the intense aura Nora was giving off, I instinctively hid behind Yeoreum.

"Ah... I apologize. My Black Tiger clan's combat style is rather aggressive... I've shown you a savage side of me."

"No. Nora, you were amazing."

Nora's perked-up ears quickly settled down.

She seemed to have shown some emotion, but quickly composed herself and looked around as if nothing had happened.

"A monster wave without any warning signs is quite strange. Fortunately, no one was injured."

"Hmm..."

Did Nora not know this was Josephine's doing?

Though Nora and I belonged to different factions, we shared a common goal of helping the shantytown beast-kin.

She wouldn't likely refuse our desperate request.

"Nora, I have a favor to ask."

"What favor?"

"Um... could you possibly return my weapons?"

"Your weapons were already retrieved. Your young companions said there would be serious trouble if I didn't return them."

"What?"

By young companions, did she mean the children?

Why would the children suddenly demand the weapons back?

As these questions arose, I heard the sound of multiple sets of feet running.

"King!"

"Shuin!"

Levinas carrying my bow and Gaeul holding my quiver came running at full speed.

Behind them, Saebyeok was carrying Yeoreum's sword.

"Kids...?"

I started to call out to them but looked up instead.

I could see a mermaid floating in one of Levinas's soap bubbles.

'Marin?'

Had Marin gone to the children to explain the situation?

Eager to meet the children, I ran toward them.

"King, catch the bow!"

"Hewe."

After taking the bow from Levinas and Gaeul, I heard the sound of a flapping tail.

It was a fish-like sound, different from Sophia's tail.

"I humbly request your help. Please, could you save Mo—I mean, Bom?"

Marin bent her mermaid tail in a kneeling position.

Seeing her desperate appearance, Levinas puffed out her chest.

"Don't worry, just trust us!"

"...Bom has made good friends, I see."

Marin gave a faint smile at the sight of the children, who looked quite reliable.

Perhaps wanting to live up to her expectations, Levinas raised her eyebrows and ran along the village path.

"Let's go! We're going to save Bom!"

"Yeah!"

Pitter-patter!

The children kicked up small clouds of dust as they ran.

I called after them.

"Kids, it's the other way."

**

We followed the pheromones Bom had left behind.

As we ran, Marin told us about Bom.

"Bom's real name is Mokryeon."

"Mokryeon?"

"Yes. I told her to hide her name outside. I felt sorry she had to hide her name, but fortunately, she likes the name you gave her."

"Ah..."

So that's why Bom didn't tell us her name when we first met.

I thought it was just her playful nature.

It felt like a small puzzle piece had fallen into place.

"...Actually, Bom is a descendant of the Imugi."

Marin watched our reactions as she spoke.

Our unsurprised reaction seemed to confuse Marin.

Among our group, only Nora looked shocked.

"You all don't seem very surprised."

"Well, the Imugi is amazing, but my friends are just as amazing as the Imugi."

"...I see."

I looked at the children along with Marin.

Noticing our gaze, Levinas put on a solemn expression.

She looked like a horned rabbit as magnificent as the Imugi.

"Before being an Imugi, Bom is our friend. So the things you're worried about won't happen."

"That's wonderful news."

Marin's mermaid tail trembled with joy, unable to hide her happiness.

Having gained some trust, Marin unhesitatingly shared Bom's deeper truth.

"Bom is precisely what you'd call an incarnation of the Imugi."

"An incarnation?"

"Yes. The Imugi gathered its power right before passing away to create her."

I see.

So she was created in a special way.

Having a specially created body myself, I didn't feel anything particularly unusual about it.

"Though Bom is young and her power as an Imugi is weak, she is nonetheless an Imugi. With time and training, she will surely become a dragon."

"Wow."

Our Bom, a dragon.

That's quite impressive.

My mouth hung open in amazement, but Marin's expression wasn't good.

"Josephine plans to forcibly turn Bom into a dragon. That's why I used all my strength to help her escape from here..."

"And we brought Bom back... I'm sorry..."

"No, it was an inevitable fate anyway—"

We had to stop our conversation and halt in our tracks.

The path ahead was blocked by countless monsters.

"Watch out for the sky...!"

A considerable number of what appeared to be divine beasts were mixed in with the monster horde.

The butterfly that had sprinkled sleep powder on me was also in the sky.

"Tch."

"W-wait...!"

As Han Yeoreum clicked her tongue and drew her sword, Nora urgently grabbed her wrist.

Yeoreum's momentum subsided instantly at Nora's desperate appearance.

"Some of them are divine beasts."

"There's no time to hesitate...!"

"They're the last hope of the beast-kin here. So please..."

Divine beasts held special meaning for the beast-kin.

This was evident just from seeing how Levinas treated the Long-lived Horned Rabbit mana stone.

Yeoreum knew this too, which is why she couldn't easily swing her sword.

"Then what should we do?"

"...For now, let's deal with the non-divine beasts while we think."

"Let's do that!"

Yeoreum drew her sword and charged at the monsters.

A cyclops, the same one-eyed monster that had grabbed Bom.

Yeoreum sliced its waist in half with a single strike.

"Graaah!"

I fired an arrow through the gap created as the cyclops's upper and lower body separated.

The arrow flew between the falling intestines and hit the belly of a snake-headed monster that was about to shoot an arrow from between the cyclops's legs.

Crackle-!

Lightning sparked from the arrow, electrocuting the snake monster and spreading to nearby monsters.

This seemed manageable.

But just as I was about to take out another arrow, something shocking happened.

Peeee-

A beautiful bird sound came from somewhere.

At this clear, enrapturing sound, the fallen monsters began to rise again.

The separated upper body of the cyclops picked up a club, and the charred snake monster stood up again, holding its bow.

Our group froze at this impossible sight, and Nora explained the miracle that had just occurred.

"...It's the Forest Keeper."

"Forest Keeper?"

"Yes. Originally a divine beast with a benevolent nature that returns those who died in the forest to their families, but..."

Now it was our enemy?

An enemy we couldn't easily kill.

I bit my lip hard at this terrible situation.

"What should we do...?"

"We need to damage the monsters' bodies enough that the Forest Keeper can't control them."

"That's difficult."

Everyone nodded and confronted the monsters in their own way.

"Yah!"

"Yayayah!"

Levinas created plants to bind approaching monsters, and Gaeul threw enhanced lemons at them.

Gaeul pulled countless lemons from a dimensional portal and threw them.

The monsters hit by the lemons melted cleanly.

'Wow.'

Just how many lemons did Gaeul have?

While I was momentarily distracted by Gaeul, I heard something explode nearby.

Saebyeok had blown up a cyclops's head.

'We can do this.'

I immediately nocked another arrow.

A shock arrow that would blow away everyone nearby.

I was aiming for those shooting arrows from a distance.

'Did it hit...?'

The moment the arrow reached a monster's head, I saw a blue curtain appear.

The curtain easily blocked my arrow.

Bang-!

It also blocked Saebyeok's attack, as well as Yeoreum's and Nora's attacks.

"What kind of hardness..."

"It's the Guardian. Even siege weapons can't penetrate—"

Boom! Boom!

Saebyeok struck the blue barrier.

Each time she extended her fist, cracks began to form in the blue shield.

"..."

Was Saebyeok's attack stronger than siege weapons?

I wanted to see the barrier break, but unfortunately, that wasn't possible.

Woong-!

The protected monsters attacked more aggressively.

As a result, Saebyeok couldn't throw punches and had to focus entirely on dodging.

"Ah..."

When Saebyeok's attacks stopped, the barrier began to regenerate.

It was disheartening, but what made us even more desperate was the presence of divine beasts that hadn't even used their abilities yet.

There were about ten divine beasts visible.

How on earth were we supposed to break through?

I was pulling my hair out in this seemingly hopeless situation.

Swish-!

Boom-!

A shell that flew in from somewhere shattered the Guardian's barrier with a single hit.

Startled, I looked in the direction the sound came from.

What I had thought was a shell from the sound alone was none other than Master.

Master had sent the Guardian's barrier and all the monsters behind it flying with just one punch.

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