36-73

EP.73 Lich and Hero – 3 

On the vast plains, two armies faced each other. 

One side was Carrion’s soldiers with Yujin; the other was an undead horde reeking of corpses. 

The lich glared at Yujin with eyes full of rage. 

‘I’ll make sure to kill you painfully and turn you into an undead.’ 

A chilling aura emanated from his empty eye sockets. 

An ordinary person would have been frozen in terror, their hair standing on end. 

But Yujin calmly looked back and raised his middle finger. 

‘Eat shit.’ 

Raising a middle finger here didn’t have any special meaning, but the lich could tell from Yujin’s expression that it was an act of mockery and insult. 

“You arrogant bastard… I’ll make you beg for your life soon. Advance!” 

The undead horde began to move all at once, like an ominous wave. 

The distance between the two sides steadily shrank. 

While one side advanced eagerly, the other watched the approaching enemy calmly. 

‘What are they scheming now?’ 

Seeing Yujin and his soldiers standing still, suspicion crept into the lich’s mind. 

An enemy who could overturn a hopeless battle in an instant-he couldn’t let his guard down, not knowing what trick might be prepared. 

Just as the distance between the armies was nearly closed, Commander Munch’s booming voice rang out. 

“Everyone, use the prepared items!” 

The soldiers reached into their pockets. 

What happened next shocked even the undead lich: 

They began snorting white powder-clearly drugs-through their noses. 

The lich couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

The sight was so astonishing that it made him forget his anger for a moment. 

‘Madman!’ 

Even an evil lich like him hadn’t imagined using drugs in war. 

“Advance!” 

Now face-to-face, at Munch’s order, Carrion’s soldiers advanced in perfect unison. 

“I feel my strength surging!” 

“Let’s crush the enemy!” 

“I’ll lead the charge!” 

“Let’s bet on who can kill more!” 

The soldiers were filled with boiling excitement and the thrill of battle. 

The drugs also pushed their reflexes to the limit. 

“Graaah!” 

“Let’s destroy the undead who defy the will of the gods!” 

The two forces collided. 

The soldiers’ weapons easily cut through the undead’s necks and arms. 

Although the undead outnumbered them, Carrion’s individual combat power was overwhelming. 

“These guys are so slow!” 

“These punks don’t stand a chance!” 

Watching his soldiers tirelessly defeat the undead, Yujin was impressed. 

‘Even I, on their side, think they’re amazing.’ 

Their fervor was like that of fanatics or rioters. 

Yujin thought this might be the most motivated army in the history of this world as he casually drew his sword. 

“Well… but it still doesn’t seem like quite enough.” 

One soldier could take down several undead, but that also meant that many undead could swarm a single soldier. 

In terms of numbers and quality, the two forces were nearly evenly matched. 

‘I thought maybe we’d gone too far, but if we hadn’t done this, we’d be fighting at a disadvantage.’ 

Yujin gripped his sword tightly and focused mana into his legs. 

“Guess I’ll go too.” 

He leapt high into the sky and landed at the front lines, cutting through the undead as he landed. 

Boom! 

“Graaah!” 

“It’s the hero!” 

“The hero is fighting alongside us!” 

The embarrassing cheers were annoying, but Yujin didn’t want to kill their morale, so he cut down enemies and advanced. 

The undead fell like toys. 

Seeing this, the lich gestured and gave orders to his subordinates. 

“I’ll take care of him. The rest of you, handle the others.” 

As the path cleared, Yujin quietly watched the lich. 

Cold bones peeked out from beneath a black robe. 

The hand he’d cut off last time had already been restored. 

“A one-on-one duel… no reason to refuse.” 

Neither side wanted to waste troops here. 

Their fight would decide everything, and even the soldiers realized it, so a natural one-on-one match formed. 

“Looks like you didn’t like the gift I gave you last time, since you went to the trouble of fixing it yourself.” 

Yujin approached mockingly. 

Despite the provocation, the lich stayed alert-he knew from their last fight that Yujin was no pushover. 

“Don’t worry. I’ll tear you apart alive.” 

“Well… I think you should worry about your own life first. Who was it that ran away last time like their ass was on fire?” 

Anger surged from the lich, and a cursed black aura spread from his body. 

Where it touched the ground, vibrant green grass withered instantly. 

“You don’t know your place, yet you keep running your mouth.” 

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” 

The lich was both amazed and angered by Yujin’s shameless attitude. 

Had there ever been such an arrogant human before him? 

“I can’t believe a guy like you is called a hero.” 

“I’ll tell you because you seem too stupid to know. The times are changing.” 

Even the lich had heard of many legendary heroes, but never one like Yujin. 

Despite his anger, he had to admit Yujin had abilities worthy of a hero. 

‘He’s definitely the one who suggested using drugs in this and the last battle.’ 

The human before him was unlike any other he knew-unpredictable, with the ability to pull off outlandish schemes. 

That’s how the lich saw Yujin. 

“I admit this one thing. You must be killed here.” 

The lich quickly began casting magic. 

Huge arrows appeared in the air, black magic shooting toward Yujin like lightning. 

Bang! 

Unlike Yujin, the lich lacked the talent for surprise attacks-his attack only made a deep pit in the ground. 

“I’m good at tripping up guys I don’t like.” 

The ensuing battle was so fierce that neither side could claim dominance. 

It was a tense fight, like a tug-of-war between two doppelgangers of equal strength. 

Yujin dodged powerful magic, while the lich blocked sword attacks with layered defensive magic. 

‘Are we evenly matched? I’ll have to use that.’ 

Yujin discreetly checked the item hidden in his clothes as he charged the lich. 

Dodging numerous spells, when he was about two meters away, he threw his sword with powerful mana. 

“…!” 

The sword pierced through the lich’s defensive magic and struck his chest faster than expected, but unfortunately didn’t reach the weak spot near the heart. 

“Foolish. You think I’d fall with such a cheap trick?” 

Unless the core containing the lich’s soul and magic was destroyed, Yujin’s attacks did little damage. 

His sword was just stuck in a painless bone fragment. 

But a smile appeared on Yujin’s face. 

‘What’s he up to?’ 

The lich tried to cast a spell to finish off the now weaponless enemy, but what he saw was Yujin’s new weapon. 

After throwing his sword, Yujin pulled out a gun from his clothes. 

It wasn’t a complicated gun that fired bullets with gunpowder-Yujin didn’t have that knowledge. 

What he held was a crudely made water gun. 

‘What is that?’ 

The unfamiliar object caught the lich off guard-a fatal mistake. 

“Taste the power of the gods.” 

Sssshhh! 

With a sound like a toy water gun, liquid shot out. 

With the lich’s defense magic already broken, the liquid hit his face directly. 

“Kyaaaah…!” 

The lich immediately recognized the liquid: 

Holy water, deadly to undead-this was a highly concentrated, divinely empowered holy water. 

“How does it taste to have dozens of priests alternately infuse you with highly concentrated holy water?” 

As Yujin spoke, he quickly closed in and grabbed the sword embedded in the lich’s body. 

“Stop this guy!” 

As a high-level undead, the lich wouldn’t die even from powerful holy water, but the fatal wound interrupted his magic and left his body weakened. 

“Do you think I’ll wait until then?” 

Crack! 

The sound of bones breaking rang out. 

Yujin shattered the embedded sword and slashed through the lich’s core. 

“Kyaaaah!” 

A vast amount of magic and evil energy burst from the purple core. 

The lich felt his strength rapidly fading as he glared at Yujin. 

“You… you…” 

In the dying lich’s eyes, he saw Yujin’s mocking smile. 

“You got cocky because you relied on numbers, and this is what happens.” 

If not for that last secret move, the lich would have been a tough opponent. 

But for Yujin, what mattered wasn’t that. 

What mattered was tormenting the evil enemy to the very end. 

That was all he thought about. 

“You… bastard…” 

The lich, boiling with rage, thought: 

I should never have gotten involved with this guy. 

He was someone who should have been killed by the Demon King’s army. 

“Goodbye.” 

Yujin, not even allowing a final word, sliced the already split core into pieces with his sword. 

‘This guy doesn’t look like a hero at all, but that’s why he’s the greatest threat to the Demon King’s army!’ 

As his consciousness quickly faded, the lich felt fear toward Yujin-but it was too late.