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First Lieutenant Aaron shouted,
"Halt!"
A guardsman who was about to behead the last remaining Serpes froze in place.
The Serpes was already too wounded to move easily.
First Lieutenant Aaron approached and plunged his sharp sword into the muddy ground.
"These footprints. They're definitely not ours, are they?"
The guardsman who had been about to behead the last Serpes lowered his head and looked at the footprints near Aaron's sword.
"I'm not sure..."
"You have no eye for detail. Go and fetch the company commander."
"Yes!"
"Oh, and finish off this Serpes."
"Yes!"
Slash!
While the guardsman who had beheaded the Serpes in one stroke ran to the company commander,
Aaron looked at the footprints again.
The ground was a mess of the guardsmen's footprints from fighting dozens of Serpes.
However.
These footprints were clearly different.
Too shallow to be the footprints of guardsmen wearing heavy armor, and the feeling left in the footprints was too cautious.
'These aren't the kind of footprints a guardsman wearing heavy armor would leave during a battle with monsters.'
It might have been possible if someone was afraid of the monsters and tiptoed around them.
But there was no one like that in the 2nd Company of the 5th Guards.
Even if there was someone who tiptoed, they were still too shallow compared to the other footprints.
Footprints that felt like someone was wearing light clothing and walking carefully.
"What's the matter, Aaron?"
"Company Commander! Take a look at this."
Company Commander Dominic looked down at the footprints near Aaron's sword.
He recognized them at a glance.
"These aren't our footprints."
"Yes, that's right."
"And they're not old either."
"Yes."
"There are other humans in this dungeon besides us."
"That seems to be the case, Company Commander. Could it be..."
"You mean that rumor?"
"Yes."
"That there are spies messing around with the dungeon... If it were that serious, we would have already received official notice from above. Rumors are just rumors."
"But..."
Company Commander Dominic cut off First Lieutenant Aaron's words with a look.
He looked around and whispered in a voice that only the two of them could hear.
"We must not confuse the company members. I also know that the rumor is true to some extent."
"Yes, Company Commander."
"Good. We'll push forward to where the dungeon core is. We'll get rid of anything we encounter along the way. Monsters or humans."
"Yes! Company Commander. What should I tell the company members..."
"Since when has our company become an organization that needs to explain every order?"
"Ah! I apologize."
First Lieutenant Aaron bowed to the company commander and turned around, shouting loudly.
"2nd Company, listen up! The operation is the same. But there are enemies in this dungeon who are not monsters. We'll push forward to the core room as planned, and if we encounter an enemy, we'll get rid of them without hesitation, no matter who they are!"
"Yes!"
Company Commander Dominic nodded in satisfaction and stretched his hand forward.
"2nd Company. Advance."
"Advance!"
Boss Room.
Thud.
The head of the Gryphon, which had been fiercely attacking the guards, fell off.
Company Commander Dominic shouted.
"Form a semi-circular attack formation around the core room's iron door!"
All the boss monsters in the boss room had been defeated.
Now, all that was left was to enter the core room, destroy the core, and hold off the monster wave, and the mission would be over.
But none of the company members questioned the company commander's new order.
They simply trusted their superior and were loyal to his orders.
First Lieutenant Aaron approached Company Commander Dominic.
"Did you feel it?"
"There's someone inside. They were practically flaunting their energy while we were dealing with the Gryphon."
"They're not even trying to hide."
"That means they're confident in their abilities. I'll go open the door."
"I'll go!"
Dominic's thick arm pushed Aaron back.
"I'm not the kind of superior who uses his subordinates as shields."
Aaron lowered his head and replied.
"Yes, Company Commander."
Dominic slowly approached the core room's iron door.
He wasn't the kind of superior who used his subordinates as shields,
But he wasn't the kind of person who wasn't careful either.
Clang.
He drew his sword.
And grabbed one of the handles of the two iron doors.
Creak.
He held his sword upright and looked inside the iron door.
A man with a large axe on his back was standing there.
And two more men on either side.
Fortunately or unfortunately.
There was no ambush.
Dominic grabbed the other iron door and threw it open wide.
"Who are you people?"
The man with the axe on his back stepped forward.
"My name is Kain."
"State your affiliation and rank."
Kain shook his head.
"That's not important. But I'll tell you what I'm going to do from now on."
"What you're going to do?"
"That's right."
"Tell me."
"I'm going to kill you guys that I met in the dungeon..."
Kain glanced over the guardsmen who were forming a semi-circular formation behind Dominic.
"All of you."
"How dare you!"
If he were a warrior who was quick-tempered or had an inflated ego, he would have already charged forward.
But.
Dominic was a company commander who was more cautious than anyone else.
"Then I'll tell you my role too. I'm going to half-kill you guys who are plotting something foolish here and drag you to the royal family to confess everything."
Kain gave a bitter smile.
"If you can."
Dominic slowly took a step back.
In response, Kain and his two subordinates slowly came out of the core room.
"Attack!"
At Company Commander Dominic's shout,
The mages and archers who were prepared in advance unleashed a barrage of ranged attacks.
The 2nd Company of the 5th Guards, consisting of 30 men, had 15 ranged attackers.
10 mages and 5 archers.
A total of 15 ranged attacks were unleashed on Kain and his two subordinates.
Swish.
Kain drew the axe on his back with a light movement.
The huge axe blade was large enough to cover Kain's upper body,
But even a cursory glance showed that it was not properly maintained, with dull edges and missing teeth here and there.
Unlike the smooth swords of the swordsmen, there was no sharpness to be found anywhere on the axe blade.
Whoosh.
Kain swung the axe horizontally in a large arc.
A dull energy seemed to be discharged along with the dull axe blade,
Bang! Kaboom! Pow!
It detonated and blew away all the magical attacks and arrows that were flying towards him.
Company Commander Dominic quickly gave instructions.
"Disperse, disperse! Shieldmen forward!"
He was so flustered that.
He even made mistakes that he wouldn't normally make.
He should have placed the shieldmen forward and then dispersed the remaining personnel, but.
In his haste, he gave the order to disperse first.
But the confusion was only momentary.
The company members, who had trained together for a long time, moved in perfect order.
The 10 shieldmen knelt down and set up a defensive wall.
Behind them, the mages and archers retreated.
And the melee fighters scattered widely and surrounded the three men.
Whoosh.
Kain's axe was swung again, large and violently.
Crack!
A violent energy tore through the dungeon's stone floor and spewed out.
Although it was invisible to the eye.
One could feel that its power was indescribable.
Company Commander Dominic hurriedly stepped in front of the shieldmen.
He raised his two-handed longsword high.
Slash!
He vertically cut the energy that Kain had unleashed.
Bang!
Dominic's sword was thickly imbued with blue aura,
But it failed to cut through Kain's energy and bounced off into the air.
Thud!
Dominic hastily turned his body and blocked Kain's energy with his shoulder.
The victory of a war depends not on the abilities of one outstanding individual, but on the skills of organically well-trained troops.
As a commander, he had always focused on consolidating his physical strength after reaching a certain position in order to stand at the forefront.
Rather than incrementally increasing his swordsmanship skills for the sake of achieving petty accomplishments.
He believed that defensive power was more important in order to always set an example at the forefront as a commander.
For moments like this.
Crrr.
Dominic's feet dug into the dungeon's stone floor and slid backward.
'I have to hold on!'
If he was pushed back here, the soldiers behind him would be in danger.
He had to somehow block this attack.
Then.
The swordsmen in charge of melee would stab at the man from all directions.
The reorganized ranged attackers would be able to unleash another barrage of attacks.
And the shieldmen would be able to block the man's attacks at least once more after that.
'It doesn't matter if my role ends here.'
Company Commander Dominic gritted his teeth and endured with even more strength.
His shoulder bones were already crushed.
It was a long time for Dominic,
But it was actually only a fleeting moment.
And.
Kain's movements were faster than expected.
Whoosh!
This time, Kain swung his axe vertically in a large arc.
Crash!
Even before the horizontally discharged shockwave had completely dissipated.
This time, a vertical shockwave surged forward with fierce intensity.
At the point where the horizontal and vertical shockwaves overlapped.
The commander of the 2nd Company of the 5th Guards, Dominic, was standing.
Bang!
The vertical shockwave struck Dominic's body.
It happened before the previous shockwave had even dissipated.
Dominic's body was sent flying far away,
And the shockwaves that had merged into a cross pattern engulfed the shieldmen as they were.
Thud! Bang! Pow!
The sounds of things bouncing, exploding, and shattering echoed everywhere.
In just two strikes.
He had only swung the axe with missing teeth twice.
The defensive line set up by Company Commander Dominic and the 10 shieldmen was shattered miserably.
Some were injured so badly that they couldn't even get up.
And the rest were not in a condition to fight properly again.
First Lieutenant Aaron hurriedly turned his head to find the company commander.
Company Commander Dominic had flown far back and collapsed.
He didn't look like he would be able to get up again.
"Attack! Everyone, attack with all your might! That's the only way to survive!"
Some time later.
The royal palace was turned upside down.
The 2nd Company of the 5th Guards, which had been deployed to the dungeon on the verge of core amplification around the metropolis, had gone missing.
The disappearance of one company of the Guards was a serious incident.
The royal family dispatched the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Companies of the 3rd Guards.
When the 3rd Guards arrived at the scene.
The dungeon where the missing 2nd Company of the 5th Guards had been deployed had been amplified to A-rank.
The 3 companies of the 2nd Guards pushed through the dungeon as it was and succeeded in dealing with the boss.
However.
In the dungeon's boss room, the corpses of the members of the 2nd Company of the 5th Guards, who had been miserably broken and exploded, were scattered chaotically.
The traces of the battle that had taken place at the scene revealed that this was not due to a monster wave.
It was clear that all the fallen had been attacked by the same type of attack.
The commander of the 3rd Guards reported to the royal family that a battle had occurred before the monster wave, and that all had died from the attacks of the same person.
He clearly reported that.
The royal family announced that the 2nd Company of the 5th Guards had failed to hold off an A-rank monster wave and had been annihilated.
Fortunately, they had defeated all the B-rank monsters in advance, so no significant damage occurred to Manesia, and all the dead members of the 2nd Company were awarded honorary medals.
"Did you hear the rumor?"
"About the 2nd Company?"
"About the royal family's announcement..."
"Shhh. Be careful what you say. I already know about it."
"Is this okay? To announce that the most honorable royal guardsmen died because they couldn't stop a mere monster wave... Does that even make sense..."
"Lower your voice. Unless you want to be dragged away on charges of treason."
"...Anyway, I can't accept it."
Unlike the royal family's announcement.
A completely different rumor began to circulate among the guardsmen.
Portus, a city located on the southeastern coast of the continent.
Bang!
Marquis Espin Elaina, who once roamed the battlefield with his comrades who had shed blood as royal guardsmen and was now a frontier lord staying in the coastal border city of Portus, slammed his fist on the marble table.
Crack.
The thick marble table was instantly split in half.
"What? One company of the guards was annihilated because they couldn't stop a monster wave? Does that even make sense? Those central aristocrat bastards... I can't take it anymore."
In Espin's left hand was a sheet of paper.
It was a sheet of paper containing the royal family's announcement of this incident and the list of soldiers who had received honorary medals.
At the top was the name of Company Commander Dominic.
When Espin Elaina was a member of the Royal Guards.
He had participated as a company commander in the battlefield to punish the rebellious nobles, when he was just beginning to make a name for himself.
There was a very cautious junior company member in his company.
His name was.
Dominic.
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