Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

It wasn’t particularly surprising.

After all, I had mentioned this area was infested with monstrous entities. Encountering them directly had always been anticipated.

But a ‘big’ one!

Without even a proper chance to warm up, we were being thrust into live combat so abruptly.

However, just as the saying goes, ‘Even if mauled by a tiger, no, even facing an S-rank monster, maintaining your composure ensures survival,’ as long as I didn’t lose my nerve, a solution could be found.

The predicament was our inability to visually identify the approaching monster due to this blinding sandstorm.

Thud, thud.

Even without Han Seo-hyeon’s warning, the telltale tremors made it evident-

That something ‘big’ was rapidly bearing down upon us.

Emerging from the sandstorm was a colossal monster resembling a rhinoceros.

Its towering stature became discernible despite the obscuring storm, its hulking frame easily exceeding 2 meters in height as it charged relentlessly towards us.

In that instant, I yanked Han Seo-hyeon aside. Kim Jae-ho could evade independently, and truthfully, Ramirez wasn’t my immediate concern.

So the only person I had to take care of was Han Seo-hyeon.

The very moment I pulled Han Seo-hyeon to the ground, the monster thundered into the space we had previously been standing.

A mere second’s delay, and we would have been trampled into bloody smears.

Ever since arriving here, these intensely precarious situations seemed to arise with alarming frequency.

Truly, I couldn’t even relax.

Casting my gaze towards Kim Jae-ho, I saw he had already unsheathed the blade slung across his back, his sinister expression fixated upon the monster.

Ramirez too had withdrawn the dagger from his belt, clearly possessing the fundamental instincts to protect himself.

Belatedly, the trembling Han Seo-hyeon by my side finally found his voice:

“Th-thank you…”

“Regain your focus. One wrong step means death.”

Han Seo-hyeon nodded, his expression hardening with renewed resolve.

This was live combat.

Death could arrive in an instant.

Han Seo-hyeon called her Hound with a slightly more hardened expression. And after a short time, just enough to exhale once, the monster turned its body towards us again.

A rhinoceros-like appearance. But not exactly like a rhinoceros. Wind swirled around its feet.

The reason it could move that massive body so quickly was because it could manipulate wind.

Just like artifacts imbued with elemental properties are astronomically expensive, monsters that can handle elements are twice as tricky to deal with.

But fortunately, it couldn’t use elemental attacks.

It could only move its incredibly heavy body incredibly fast.

Of course, with a body that size, just moving quickly could crush most opponents.

“For now, dodge.”

I grabbed Han Seo-hyeon’s waist.

“Whoa!”

Although I’ve been training her recently, Han Seo-hyeon was still slow enough to be in the rear guard.

As the monster stomped its foot, I pulled Han Seo-hyeon and said:

“It’s better to dismiss the Hound for now. If it gets grazed by something like that… ugh! It’ll be instantly shattered.”

Han Seo-hyeon’s Hound is of no help right now. If it faced that thing head-on, it would be torn to pieces.

“O…kay!”

Han Seo-hyeon answered diligently even as he was being dragged along the ground by me.

The monster grazed past us dangerously close once again. As I rolled on the ground, I spat out sand and said to Han Seo-hyeon:

“We’ll call it when we need it later. For now, let’s focus on dodging.”

The monster’s pattern is simple. It charges up power and then runs in a straight line. Even with the wind’s help to increase its speed, its braking power hasn’t improved enough to stop quickly.

This means the acceleration of its body is beyond the monster’s control. Therefore, until it comes to a complete stop, its body will inevitably be pulled in one direction as if someone were tugging on it.

That’s when there’s an opening.

After avoiding the monster’s bullet-like charge, there’s a brief moment of vulnerability. We need to exploit that opening.

“Huff, huff.”

Of course, exploiting that opening isn’t easy.

“Wait, a moment.”

Han Seo-hyeon, pushed and rolled around by me, quickly became a mess.

His hair was disheveled, and his whole body was covered in sand. I was in the same state after dragging him here and there to save him.

“Hoo, huff.”

Although young, he’s 175cm tall, only a few centimeters shorter than me. I’ve been moving around with someone like that. It’s natural to reach a physical limit.

So let’s finish this quickly.

[There’s an opening.]

I shared what I had figured out with Ramirez.

[Yes, I can see it, but…]

Ramirez threw a dagger, but it didn’t even scratch the skin. The dagger bounced off the skin and was lost somewhere.

[Haha, this is nowhere near enough.]

There’s no need to try hitting it like Ramirez did.

All visible parts are covered in incredibly tough skin. At least, it can’t be penetrated by conventional methods. We need an attack launched with magic power strong enough to pierce that skin. It would be simple if I stepped in.

But didn’t I bring these two to gain experience?

“Kim Jae-ho, Han Seo-hyeon.”

I called out to the two.

The only weak points worth targeting are vulnerable areas like the eyes, ears, and inside the mouth. Despite its mountain-like size, its eyes are only as big as buttons. If we can accurately target those button-sized eyes and stab through them to the brain in one go, we might be able to kill it instantly.

There’s only one person here capable of such a feat.

“Jae-ho, when that thing stops, climb onto its head. Then somehow thrust your sword into its weak point. Deep enough to kill it.”

With Kim Jae-ho’s inhuman sense of balance, he should be able to climb onto the monster’s head during that brief ‘opening’ and target its eyes.

“And Seo-hyeon, you create an opening for Jae-ho. Summon your Hound to bite its legs, or do whatever you can. Make the ‘opening’ as long as possible.”

Once again, the monster began to stomp its foot towards us.

“Can you do it?”

“Yes.”

As Han Seo-hyeon nodded, the monster began to charge at us. Even though it only moves in straight lines, making it seem easy to dodge, human stamina is finite.

Even now, after avoiding it several times, we’re out of breath. At most, we can only throw our bodies to avoid it like this a few more times.

So we need to finish it now.

Screech, the monster’s footprints left a long trail in the sand. In the moment it stopped briefly to change direction.

Kim Jae-ho instantly kicked off the ground and climbed on top of it.

The Hound, summoned behind the monster at some point, bit its hind legs. The moment the monster’s attention turned to the Hound, Kim Jae-ho thrust his sword deep into the monster’s mouth.

Grooargh!

The monster let out a single scream, shuddered, and then died on the spot.

The hunt was over in an instant.

In fact, it took longer to come up with the strategy.

Kim Jae-ho pulled out his sword and shook off the blood. The corpse was clean without a single wound. Although the Hound had bitten its hind legs, it failed to pierce the skin.

Clap, clap, clap.

Hearing applause from the side, I saw Ramirez clapping.

[Wow, that’s amazing.]

“Geez, what’s with the applause?”

Han Seo-hyeon frowned, seemingly displeased with that somewhat unhinged behavior, but Ramirez remained the same.

[It was perfect teamwork! So clean! And without using any magic…]

[Yeah.]

For some reason, even receiving praise felt odd. Maybe it’s because his attitude seemed more like he was evaluating us rather than feeling relief at surviving.

Hmm, it’s certain.

━He didn’t look tense at all, that guy.

‘Yes.’

Even when we were fighting for our ‘lives’, Ramirez wasn’t tense at all. Of course, I was the same since I had an ace up my sleeve, but still, to not be tense at all when facing a somewhat threatening opponent…

‘He doesn’t seem to be very good at deception, does he?’

━That’s what I’m saying.

It’s gotten to the point where I wonder if I should keep pretending not to notice.

But before I could say anything, once again I sensed a group looming beyond the sandstorm.

This time it’s a ‘group’.

“Damn it.”

I drew up my magic power. It seemed that the commotion had attracted a bunch of monsters.

It was a pack of hyenas drawn by the smell of blood.

* * *

It took quite a while to clear out the group of monsters that attacked us. The first ones to pounce on us were canine monsters resembling hyenas. They were only about the size of medium-sized dogs, but their numbers were the problem.

Moreover, they seemed used to group hunting, deploying rotational attacks that completely drained our stamina.

If there was any silver lining, it was that their skin wasn’t as ridiculously tough as the rhinoceros-like monster’s.

They could be taken down with simple sword strikes or magic-created blades.

I also unleashed my magic to create wind blades, slashing again and again at the monsters rushing at us.

Ramirez, who had been useless against the rhinoceros, was also quite helpful this time.

His dagger skills were impressively accurate, to the point where he confidently lied about having a talent for aiming correction.

The problem was…

[I’m out of daggers!]

How can you say that so proudly!

During the fight, I used the wind to retrieve his daggers for him. Kim Jae-ho and Han Seo-hyeon also collected daggers at my request.

Later, I even assigned Han Seo-hyeon’s skeleton specifically to dagger retrieval duty.

“That person is definitely weird. If daggers are his main weapon, how can he be so careless!”

Even Han Seo-hyeon, who had almost no combat experience, grumbled like that. Perhaps noticing the cold atmosphere between us, Ramirez scratched his head and said:

[Haha, I usually carry daggers in bulk, but I left my dagger case on the shuttle bus earlier!]

His unnecessarily cheerful voice as he said that made me even more annoyed.

Anyway, we managed to fend off the first wave of monsters.

“Ugh, I’m dying here.”

Everyone was in a mess. Ramirez, who fought from a distance throwing daggers, and Han Seo-hyeon, who also fought from afar controlling undead, were in relatively better shape.

Kim Jae-ho, who had been swinging his sword non-stop in close combat with the monsters, was covered in monster bodily fluids and flesh from head to toe.

“It’s gross.”

If it weren’t for Ramirez, I would have given him a refreshing shower with water. Too bad. Instead, I handed Kim Jae-ho the absorption cloth I had brought in advance. It was essential for wiping off the dirty bodily fluids.

“Where did you get this?”

“They were selling it on the way out of the black market.”

I was glad that what I had prepared just in case turned out to be so helpful. I also wiped off the bodily fluids that had splattered on my face.

Meanwhile, Han Seo-hyeon was in front of the corpse of the giant monster we had dealt with earlier.

“Can you revive it?”

Han Seo-hyeon is a necromancer. You never know. He might be able to move this giant monster too.

Han Seo-hyeon raised the corpse’s hand. And soon, the fallen giant monster began to move.

“Hmm, I don’t think I can maintain it for long.”

“How long can you keep it up?”

“About a day?”

“That’s enough.”

I climbed onto the rhinoceros’s back. This ride is surprisingly comfortable.

“Shall we ride this around?”

“Sure.”

It wasn’t a bad choice to save our energy.

[Oh, my, God.]

I gestured towards Ramirez, who had frozen stiff.

[What are you doing, aren’t you getting on?]