Regressor Instruction Manual

Chapter 1397. Crimson Ball (7)

The situation was so bad that one couldn't even joke about having the advantage here. All they had was thirty-one young ladies with scant combat experience and barriers that looked as if they could collapse at any moment. Fighting spirit and determination weren’t irrelevant to battle, but even taking those into account, it was undeniable that their side was outclassed.

Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't forcibly draw the enemy’s attention. Lady Paint was correct, reclaiming the light was the best plan available at the moment, but their side was weak, and it was difficult to distinguish between friend and foe, which meant drawing attention wasn't exactly a great idea.

Even so, there were several reasons why they dragged the salon onto the stage by force. The first reason was Marquis Jayce. He had declared that this salon was a safe place. Of course, he couldn’t control everything.

Considering that the Brigade had infiltrated the castle, his calculations were clearly flawed, but at the very least, the Republic wouldn’t approach the salon. No matter what happened here or what anomalies arose, he wouldn’t come to the salon.

Even if he were to realize that a spark of resistance had ignited here, he wouldn’t come here. According to his personality, he would never deploy troops to suppress the spark here.

“...”

“...”

The Brigade was the same.

If Kim Hyun-Sung and Song Jung-Wook were their highest priority targets, they'd have no reason to come here. Song Jung-Wook was staying far from the ballroom to begin with, and Kim Hyun-Sung had no reason to seek out the salon.

Since the incident occurred while they were in the ballroom, they were most likely locked in a chase and battle with the Brigade.

If one assumed that the core members of the brigade, like Jung Jin-Ho and First Ki-Young, and the Republic forces acting for their cause wouldn’t come here, then the ones remaining were nothing but expendables brought along by the Brigade.

Whether they could be called reserve members or expendables was unclear, but at the very least, compared to the first two, they were a much lower hurdle.

‘Yeah. Compared to them... they’re at least... a little better.’

Of course, they couldn’t be considered easy opponents. Even if they were expendables, they were still personnel deployed for an operation. They expected the enemies to come here immediately after the light was revealed, but those enemies rushed in even faster than anticipated.

Fortunately, what appeared were test subjects similar to Park Deok-Gu, so I believed the young ladies’ psychological burden wouldn't struggle that much against them.

In their first real battle, they had no aversion to the fact that they had to kill humans. Instead, fear settled in their eyes. It was inevitable.

They were looking at bastards who looked like psychopathic serial killers. Things that resembled organs and flesh were smeared across them and their weapons. Droplets of red liquid that had yet to dry were still falling from their figures as well..

“What the hell?!”

“I wondered what was going on, but... hehehe... noble young ladies, huh? Hey, look at their faces.”

"Looks like... they want to fight.”

“Trusting in that pathetic wall? Hey, young ladies, let us have a little chat.”

The people in front of us were exactly five. It felt strange to call that a relief, but they were obviously looking down on the young ladies.

‘If they let their guard down, that actually works in our favor.’

When the men took a step forward, the young ladies flinched and stepped back.

“Hehehehehe.”

‘Why do villains always laugh like that?’

“Hey, Sett. No time to play around. Let’s finish this quickly. We still have a lot to do. We need to wrap up the job those Brigade bastards ordered us to do.”

One of them was holding a hammer so big it looked larger than his own body.

“Hehehehe. Got it,” Sett answered.

With a heavy thud, he walked up to the wall. As he raised the huge hammer, Lady Paint shouted, “Now!”

The young ladies instinctively cast their spells. Some were too terrified to chant properly, but it was still enough to turn the defenseless man near the wall into rags. Their Magic stats were high, and their spells were accurate.

He seemed strong, but before he could even muster his mana, an ice spike had already pierced his head.

“Huh?”

“Keep casting. Keep going,” Lady Paint instructed.

‘Yeah, the first time is always the hardest.’

The girl who fired the ice spike stared blankly at the bloody mess in shock, but she was already casting the next spell while tears welled in her eyes.

‘They probably don’t even know what they’re doing right now.’

They were simply acting on instinct, which was telling them that if they were to refuse to attack, they would die. Of course, the remaining men were more shocked than the young ladies. After all, they suddenly lost a comrade.

“Wh-what? Sett?”

“Keep casting. Next!” she said.

“Damn it. Kill them all!”

The men immediately moved toward the wall. The one in the back seemed to be a mage, and he started channeling right away. Meanwhile, the close-combat types raised their weapons and attacked the wall.

‘We have to deal with them as fast as possible.’

“You damn brats. How dare you!”

“Stop them! Stop them!” the mage shouted.

“Don’t let the wall break! Cast your barriers first. Barriers first!” Lady Paint ordered.

He was different from the one who got taken out in an instant because he let his guard down. He blocked and deflected the young ladies’ spells with a shield and pushed through the attacks before colliding with the rock wall. The wall the young ladies had built with their mana trembled violently as if it would collapse at any moment, but it somehow held.

Some of the young ladies pushed their whole bodies toward the whole while others moved fallen debris toward the entrance to reinforce it.

“Ugh!”

“We have to hold it. Hold it!” Lady Paint shouted.

“I’ll tear every one of you to pieces. How dare you kill my little brother?!” the man yelled.

“Hold it. Hold it!”

The wall they made was just a one-use barrier, not a solid fortress wall. It was simply something thrown up to block the entrance.

Up close, their faces were practically inches apart. When the man tried to shove his face through the gap to climb over, the young ladies nearest him grabbed stones and started smashing his face with them.

The word "desperate" couldn't even begin to describe it. With bleeding hands and missing nails, the young lady did everything she could with her stubborn will to keep him from climbing over.

“Don’t let him get over!” Lady Paint ordered.

“Kyaaa!”

“Cast the spell. The spell!” Lady Paint shouted.

“Die, you bastard! Die!”

“You damn brats!”

It was their first real fight, so everything looked clumsy. The spells they were supposed to cast in rotation were being shouted randomly from all sides, which burned through a lot of mana, and the young lady assigned to cast defensive spells was firing offensive spells instead.

In the end, the wall remained firm, and it was all because everyone fought with everything they had.

One young lady who looked too panicked to cast anything was gripping a stone with trembling hands and hurling it at the man. Another looked ready to run at any moment, but she clung to the wall, crying and screaming instead.

Even Lady Paint fired spells at the men trying to climb over.

The wall that seemed ready to collapse was no longer shaking.

The serial killer trying to climb over sensed something amiss.

“Shit... shit!”

‘The idiot got himself stuck in the wall.’

“Hey, Mel! Pull me out. Damn it, pull me out!” the man shouted.

“...”

“Hurry up and pull me out. What are you doing?! Pull me!” he repeated.

A magic arrow fired by one of the young ladies pierced the man’s eye.

“AAAAAAGH! Damn it! I told you to pull me out! What are you doing?! AAAAGH! I’ll kill you! All of you! I’ll kill every last one of you!” he roared.

More spells struck his arms, and then one of the young ladies smashed his arm with a stone, making him drop his weapon. The young lady from Hamgardia raised her sword and drove it straight into his neck. She looked like she was about to retch from the feedback, but she refused to let go of the sword. The man who was desperately trying to climb over the wall collapsed and vanished from sight.

“Blow that damned wall away already!”

“I’ve been firing this whole time. Damn it, what is this smoke?! Get back. Fall back for now. Just fall back!”

“Keep firing. Keep going!”

“What are you idiots doing?! Are you seriously being held up by a crappy wall like this?!”

“Just shove it. Sweep it all away!”

“Kyaaaaa!”

With a loud boom, one side of the wall collapsed. It wasn’t exactly good news, but the opening that formed was shaped in a way that made it hard for a person to squeeze through it.

One idiot with no brain tried to push himself into the whole and swung his sword. The blade grazed one of the young ladies pressed against the wall, but even after being injured, she grabbed the man’s arm and refused to let go.

A barrage of spells struck the brainless idiot, and he was blasted away with a heavy crash.

‘They’re really fighting desperately.’

On the other hand, it was a chilling sight. I vaguely knew they'd manage, but I never expected them to hold out this well. They had gone through a decent deployment ceremony earlier, yet I still thought some of the young ladies would definitely run or fall behind.

I expected there to be gaps somewhere, but even though they were confused, none of them abandoned their posts. It wasn’t because they understood that holding this place meant survival. It felt more like they wanted to prove that they were alive and that they could do this, too.

The most important thing was that they were gaining confidence in their own ability.

Regardless of the method or tactic, what mattered most was helping them realize that they could fight. Meanwhile, the light illuminating the salon was growing dimmer. It was an obvious outcome. One's mana wasn’t infinite, after all. They had to maintain the wall and cast spells at the enemies trying to get through.

There was no way they had the resources to maintain the light on top of that. A few of the young ladies looked on the verge of mana exhaustion, but they were still shouting at the top of their lungs.

“Keep the lights on!”

“Keep the light on!”

“Light it up!”

They encouraged each other.

“Light it up! Light it up!”

“You crazy brats! Damn it! Stop that right now!”

“Kyaaaaa!”

“Peneloti!”

Of course, Aina Peneloti was one of the girls screaming with all her strength. She made sure to maintain a safe distance away, as getting stabbed looked painful, but she was feverishly throwing stones at the bastards and encouraging the other young ladies.

She shouted nonsense like “Light the salon!” while stoning a serial killer up front.

“Light the salon!”

“Kyaaaaa!”

Naturally, some were injured. Some were bleeding from their heads, and others were scorched by the fire magic pounding on the wall.

‘God... how did her... face end up like that...’

“AAAAGH! It hurts. It hurts... It’s hot! It’s hot! AAAAGH! Mom... mom... moooom...!”

“Lady Rainelpia!”

The burning wall seared the flesh of the young ladies who had been pressing themselves against it. I could hear sickening sizzling noises, but none of them retreated from the wall.

They cried upon getting burned, but they screamed like they were possessed.

“Hold it! Hold iiiit!”

“What is this... damn it! A bunch of girls is holding us back!”

“Hold it! Light the salon!”

“Keep the light on!”

“Light the salon! Light the salon!”

It was as if they were trying to announce to the world that they were alive.

Then, it happened.

“Light the salon!”

From far away, in the complete darkness where nothing could be seen, a faint light came to life. Those who heard the voices bursting from this place had decided to respond.