Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 701
Chapter 701: Calm Before the Storm (1)
Although I got that nod out, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised. Amelia Rainwales. She was my true ally and someone who should’ve been inside the city walls.
Stuck without any way of contacting her over these last few months outside, I had been getting pretty worried, so I was glad to see her. And yet, I was also quite confused.
How is she here? Did she come out to look for me because I hadn’t come back in so long…?
Hmm, I got a feeling that was exactly what Amelia did. She would’ve gone around every place she could find to look for a way outside because she was worried I had gotten myself into trouble.
For that reason, she was a woman more trustworthy than anyone else.
“Kill…? Just by yourself?”
Though surprised at Amelia’s sudden appearance, Baekho quickly regained his composure and snorted at her.
“Aures!” he snapped. “Just focus on protecting gramps! I’ll deal with her myself!”
“Ah, understood!” Aures ran in Fallen Gramps’s direction.
However, Amelia just smirked at the sight.
“I don’t think I ever said that. That I am alone.”
Everyone’s gaze whipped toward the cave entrance that led down to the magic circle.
Flash!
From within the dark cave interior, a short, bright flash burst forth.
It wasn’t any ordinary metal arrow. It was light. To be precise, it was a spirit arrow fired by the power of a spirit.
Vwoong!
I didn’t even need to see who fired it.
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has cast Rupture.]
The arrow flew toward the stunned Fallen Gramps at a speed difficult to track with the naked eye. Aures quickly threw his body in the way to block the arrow from reaching its target.
Boom!
The arrow pierced his left arm before exploding.
Drip, drop, drop.
Since it was an internal explosion, pieces of his flesh and blood were flung all around him.
“Looks like Long Ears is here as well?”
Everyone froze like time had stopped.
From inside the cave where the arrow was shot from, my allies began to slowly reveal themselves.
“Belbev Ruingenes…”
Erwen’s eyes were filled with poisonous intent.
“Bjooorn! So we just need to beat them all up!”
Ainar looked excited.
“Please calm down. They aren’t going to go down easily.”
Versyl looked pretty nervous about all this.
“By yourself, a-again…”
And Missha looked at me with worry in her eyes.
Auyen is here as well.
The members didn’t end there.
“It seems he is not here. I heard he was an excellent archer.”
“So this is outside the city walls…”
“Still, it’s a relief that we were able to find our missing captain as soon as we came out.”
“Yes, and it seems he is in danger.”
It wasn’t just the original members of the Anabada Clan, but even James Calla, Sven Parav, Melend Kaislan, and Lilith Marrone. The elite members who joined pretty recently from our connection at the Ice Rock Expedition were here as well.
Now that I look at them like this, the clan’s grown a lot…
There were enough of us to completely change the tide of battle.
While I felt a sort of pride well within my heart, I could see anger and frustration gather in Baekho’s eyes.
“The entire horde is here?”
The sight of it made me realize he was feeling what he had talked about not long ago. The thing about what all experienced adventurers could feel as easily as they breathed.
“Yurven Havellion.”
To feel “that” more surely, I called out the name of the guy who had just been a spectator this entire time.
“Yes?”
Was it because he was a wizard? Why did he freeze up so much? The situation had flipped 180 degrees already.
“How long are you going to stand there? If you don’t move, you’ll end up dying from a stray hit.”
“Oh! Yes!”
As I spoke the exact same words Baekho had said before, GM quickly collected himself and ran up to me.
This guy’s pretty funny as well.
The way he acted toward Auril Gavis, and the way he acted toward Baekho. He acted all innocent, but he was the biggest fox of them all.
…Well, maybe it’s to be expected of someone of his position?
Thinking about it, neither I nor Baekho was GM’s ally. To put it simply, we didn’t have the right to feel betrayed, no matter which side GM took.
“S-sorry.”
“It’s fine, so piss off.”
“Okay…”
Baekho didn’t stop GM. He didn’t have the mental capacity to try.
“Wow, what’s with this lineup… With people like this, you could probably face off against Orcules, no problem.”
Even though he acted calm, I could tell better than anyone else here that he was feeling an unprecedented level of panic.
I mean, it’s understandable.
After being kicked by Amelia, Fallen Gramps hadn’t even been able to get up.
And their tank Lek Aures was currently missing an arm.
Also, their healer Jaina was running out of MP.
“I need to heal you…”
“I’m fine, so don’t agitate them.”
She couldn’t even dare heal while being overwhelmed like this.
“Ahaha, this is a problem… Baron, how about we call this a draw…?”
What was this bastard talking about?
I let out a dry chuckle, then looked down at a specific part of Baekho’s body. “You talked about castration, right?”
“Uh… Baron?”
“Well, it should work out since I have a hammer.”
“I mean… Can we settle this with words first…?”
I ignored everything he said and took another step forward.
Baekho clicked his tongue before letting out a deep sigh. “Why the hell does this happen to me? How did those guys appear at exactly the right time?”
To be honest, I could understand his frustrations. This was outside the city walls, and I conceded that I got lucky.
From what I can tell, though, I don’t think it’s just because of luck.
Having observed how Baekho’s team operated from the inside for quite a while at this point, one question wouldn’t leave me. If Baekho were suddenly thrust into my shoes, would he have allies who would try to come find him, even going outside the city walls to do so?
I don’t think he has a single one.
Knowing that, it didn’t feel like what happened today was solely because of luck.
It was something I had emphasized multiple times by this point.
“Bjooorn! When are we starting the fight?!”
There was a clear difference between zero and one.
***
It was now Baekho’s team that was put in a bad position. Of course, even so, I never once thought I would be able to kill him in this situation.
If this guy makes up his mind to run away, I’ll have no chance of catching him.
However, this was still an opportunity for us.
Lek Aures and Jaina Flyer.
Using the fact that we could defeat the team members Baekho had gathered for his own purpose…
“My sister’s enemy…”
We might be able to avenge her for that day, today.
I took another step forward. Baekho seemed to laugh at himself as he spoke.
“Haha, Baron? Can you stop getting closer? Let’s have a chat, okay?”
Step.
“No, I don’t need to hear it anymore. I’m not curious what you talked about with that old man anymore, alright?”
Step.
“Ah, fine… Okay! I’ll give you money! You can usually settle things like this with money, right? How much do you want? I’ll give you as much as I can!”
Step.
“…Do we really need to spill blood here? Us? Hmm?”
Step.
Baekho’s expression hardened.
Step.
He no longer said something every step I took.
Step.
Only when I was right in front of him that he mumbled something. It was as if all the things he did until now were just an act.
“Baron… Do you really want to see this thing through?”
Baekho spoke in that threatening voice of his that I was most familiar with.
“Even if you’d make it out, everyone else will die.”
Even without a proper explanation, I had no trouble understanding what he was getting at.
Stellar Extinction. The strongest card up Baekho’s sleeve.
He was trying to use that like a modern nuclear bomb.
In a way, it was a game of chicken of some sort. If he really went all out and went for a suicide tactic, I wouldn’t be able to handle him either, not when I wasn’t the only one here anymore.
I went speechless for a moment, unable to muster a response. Baekho gave a mocking smile.
“I knew you’d do that. Yeah, you’re a pretty soft guy. Unlike how you look.”
Just as Baekho had said multiple times, it truly was my weakness and my fatal flaw.
Step.
Baekho actually took a step toward me.
“Baron, I’ll give you one piece of advice.”
I didn’t know why everyone was so insistent about giving me advice.
“Someone with so much to lose can never defeat me,” Baekho said as he looked straight into my eyes. “Because I can give everything up if it’s for that one thing I desperately want.”
Maybe if someone else had said it, it might have been different. But because it was Baekho, I couldn’t really say anything.
For him, it was probably true. Fallen Gramps, Jaina, Lek Aures. If it was for his goals, he wouldn’t even blink if they all died in front of him.
I swiftly reached out my hand toward Baekho who had fearlessly stepped toward me. And yet, even though I had grabbed him by the collar in an instant, Baekho’s expression remained calm. His eyes told me that he believed there was nothing I could do to harm him.
“Try it,” I commanded. “Try whatever you were going to do.”
Baekho furrowed his brow, seeming not to understand.
I mean, what was so confusing about it?
Baekho, this punk—he was misunderstanding something about me.
Losing something precious to me. Of course, I was afraid of it, I hated it, and just thinking about it crushed my heart so much that it drove me insane. However, because of that…
Crack!
I dragged in the hand holding his neck and headbutted him with my forehead. Although a frightening crack echoed out into the distance, Baekho didn’t even let out a groan as he asked in turn, “What’s this?”
Hah, did he really not know? How naive was I in his eyes?
Crunch!
I got pissed off, so I headbutted him again.
“Do you really want to do this?”
Didn’t I tell him already?
Crunch!
An even more horrifying sound rang out, and blood began to flow down Baekho’s forehead.
“Do you really not care even if all your precious allies die?”
Well, it wasn’t that I didn’t care. It was that I knew.
I knew the ending of those who complied with the demands of hostage takers. Those bastards didn’t know how to be satisfied. Give them an inch, and they’d take a mile. And after they took that mile, they’d demand two.
“Behel—LAAAAA!”
There was only one method of dealing with scum like him.
Crunch!
I slammed my head as hard as I could, and I glared at him without moving off of him. “Someone with so much to lose can never defeat you?”
Not at all. This guy was laboring under one hell of a deep delusion.
“I have never won a single time—not once—without losing anything.”
I was Hansu Lee, and I was Bjorn Yandel. A player and a warrior who had spent his entire life fighting.
My role in the labyrinth was to raise my shield and defend my allies, so I had never run away from any situation. The path I had walked told me that running away wouldn’t let me protect anything.
After throwing back Baekho who was looking at me with disgust, I continued.
“Baekho, if I lose something, you’ll lose something as well.”
It was time I said it.
“Don’t say you have nothing to lose. Because that one thing you desperately want, I will take it from you. No matter what.”
Baekho didn’t say anything. Rather, he was observing me to see if I was being serious or not.
And I was doing the same to him.
“Why? Think I can’t?” was the look in my eyes as I glared at him.
This was also a game of chicken. When each side could destroy the other, we were seeing who was more ballsy.
However, it didn’t take long for the results to make themselves known. After all, Baekho was actually more rational than me.
“So what do you want?”
Since the situation wasn’t going as he wanted, Baekho spoke with a dejected tone and took a step back.
“Do you want money? Or blood? If it’s that, I can give you the healer or the tank, but not that gramps. If you say you want him, then I’ll have no choice but to see this to the end.”
Okay, so he couldn’t give up Fallen Gramps no matter what.
“Ah! Castration’s off as well, so don’t even say it!”
This guy. His mouth never stopped running, even now.
I took a moment to think as I eyed him, and the answer came to me soon enough.
“I’m not the one who’s making the offer,” I declared. He shot me a look of confusion. “The one who is making the request should. While kneeling on the ground.”
Baekho gritted his teeth. I seemed to have pricked his pride. However, in the end, he probably concluded that doing as I said was better for him.
“I…*apologize* for threatening you, Baron…”
Baekho gritted his teeth as he forced out those empty words.
“If you would…*forgive* my one mistake today…then I will repay you in kind in a sufficient manner…”
He sounded awkward in all this, like a child who had never apologized in his life.
I nearly let out a dry laugh at how inane this all was, but I held it back and slapped his back with my palm.
“Argh! I even apologized, why are you hitting me?! Are you saying you’re not going to take the apology?”
Heh, don’t start with me.
“It’s not that,” I said. “I just…”
“Huh?”
“I just wanted to.”
Ah, that felt good.