The Extra is a Hero?-Chapter 305: THE COUNTER-ATTACK
Chapter 301: The Counter-Attack
The Medical Bay was no longer a room; it was a kill box.
Snow swirled in through the torn roof, mixing with the dust of shattered machinery and the metallic tang of blood.
In the center of the chaos stood General Vargr, a seven-foot Lycan monstrosity radiating an aura so dense it distorted the air.
He was A-Rank. In a fair fight, he would slaughter us in under a minute.
But we weren’t fighting fair. We were fighting for survival.
"Leon! Anchor!" I shouted, my voice cracking from the strain.
"RAAAH!"
Leon didn’t swing the [Breaker’s Hammer] to kill. He swung it to collide. He choked up on the handle, turned his shoulder, and drove the massive iron head into Vargr’s midsection like a battering ram.
CRUNCH.
Vargr didn’t budge. He caught the hammer head with one hand. His claws dug into the iron, screeching like nails on a chalkboard.
"Weak!" Vargr roared, raising his other fist to crush Leon’s skull.
But Leon wasn’t trying to overpower him. He was the anvil.
"Now, Selena!"
From the shadows of the ceiling, where she had clung with her crimson vines, Selena dropped.
She didn’t land on the floor. She landed on Vargr’s back.
The transformation induced by the [Tear of Gaia] had stripped away her hesitation. She was a fury of talons and teeth. Her legs wrapped around Vargr’s torso, and her claws—glowing with a sinister red light—dug deep into the gaps of his bone armor.
[Skill: Hemorrhage Strike]
"BLEED!" Selena shrieked.
She raked her claws across the back of Vargr’s neck.
It wasn’t a deep wound—the Lycan hide was too thick—but the effect was immediate. The red mana coating her claws acted as a potent anticoagulant. The blood didn’t trickle; it sprayed.
"Gah! Get off me, parasite!"
Vargr thrashed, reaching back to rip her off. He released the hammer to grab Selena by her hair.
That was the opening.
"Maria! Lockdown!"
Maria Frostheart stood ten meters away, motionless amidst the carnage. Her eyes were tracking Vargr’s movements with the cold precision of a targeting computer.
She didn’t chant. She simply clenched her fist.
The blood spraying from Vargr’s neck—the blood Selena had just drawn—stopped moving.
[Skill: Flash Freeze (Internal)]
Maria didn’t create new ice. She utilized the liquid already present.
Vargr froze mid-motion. His eyes widened in shock as the blood on his skin, and the blood just under his skin, turned into jagged crystals of ice.
"Thermal kinetic halted," Maria stated, her voice devoid of emotion. "Mobility reduced by 70%."
"You... witch!" Vargr howled, his movements turning jerky and stiff. The ice in his veins was agonizing, tearing muscle fibers with every movement.
He was slowed. He was bleeding. He was distracted.
I looked at the silver dagger in my hand.
I had no mana left in my own core. My ribs were grinding together with every breath. But I had the System Shop scroll I had purchased seconds ago.
[Void Cut: Stabilized]
[Cost: 2000 Mana (HP Conversion Active)]
My health bar plummeted.
[HP: 20% -> 5%]
The world went gray. My vision tunneled. The only thing I could see was the exposed patch of throat where Selena had ripped away the wolf-pelt collar.
I tapped into the [Shadow Swap] skill. I had one charge left.
I threw a piece of debris—a broken bolt from the train’s hull—into the air directly in front of Vargr.
Vargr saw the bolt. He ignored it.
Mistake.
[Skill: Shadow Swap]
The world twisted.
One moment, I was leaning against the wall. The next, I was mid-air, face-to-face with the Beastmaster.
Vargr’s yellow eyes met mine. He saw the silver dagger. He saw the black, static-like energy coating the blade.
He saw his death.
"NO—"
"Checkmate," I whispered.
I didn’t slash. I thrust.
I drove the dagger directly into the soft hollow of his throat.
Physical defense meant nothing. Bone armor meant nothing. A-Rank vitality meant nothing.
Space does not negotiate.
[Skill: Void Cut]
A sphere of absolute darkness expanded from the tip of the dagger. It was silent, consuming the light, the sound, and the matter in its radius.
VWORP.
The sound of reality collapsing was followed by a wet thud.
I fell to the floor, my legs giving out.
Above me, General Vargr took a stumbling step back.
He raised his hands to his throat. But there was no throat to hold.
Where his neck had been, there was a perfectly smooth, concave void. The flesh, the spine, the windpipe—it was simply gone. Erased.
The massive Lycan body swayed.
His yellow eyes looked at me, filled with confusion. He tried to speak, to curse me, to roar.
But no sound came out.
THOOM.
The A-Rank Beastmaster crashed to the metal floor. His body twitched once, then began to dissolve into particles of black smoke.
The silence that followed was heavy.
Leon collapsed, dropping his hammer. He sat amidst the blood and snow, his chest heaving.
"Did... did we get him?" Leon wheezed.
Selena slid off the corpse. She was covered in blood—not hers—and her breathing was ragged. The crimson vines retracted into her skin, and the feral light in her eyes began to dim, replaced by exhaustion.
"Alpha... dead," Selena murmured, wiping her mouth. She looked at her hands, trembling as the adrenaline faded.
Maria walked over to the body. She prodded it with the toe of her boot.
"Target vital signs: Negative," she confirmed. "Threat eliminated."
I lay on my back, staring at the hole in the roof. The snow falling on my face felt nice. It numbed the pain.
[System Alert: Boss Defeated.]
[General Vargr (A-Rank) has been eliminated.]
[XP Gained: 50,000 (Shared)]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
"We did it," I whispered. "We actually pulled it off."
We had survived the crash. Surviving the Zone. Surviving the Dungeon. And now, we had killed a General of the Demon Cult.
But the System didn’t give me a victory fanfare.
It gave me a warning.
[Warning: Death Rattle Detected.]
[Source: General Vargr.]
I sat up, ignoring the screaming of my muscles. "Wait."
"What is it?" Leon asked, seeing my face.
From the dissolving corpse of Vargr, a red light began to pulse. It wasn’t mana. It was a signal flare.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
A massive pillar of crimson light shot straight up from the body, blasting through the hole in the roof and piercing the grey clouds of the storm.
It was visible for miles.
"A dead man’s switch," I realized, horror dawning on me. "He didn’t just come to kill us. He was a beacon."
"Beacon for who?" Maria asked, looking at the red light. "The wolves are retreating."
She was right. Outside, the army of Frost Wolves and Ursas was scattering. With their Alpha dead, the blood-pact was broken. They were fleeing into the wilderness.
But they weren’t fleeing from us.
"They aren’t running because Vargr is dead," I said, struggling to my feet. "They’re running because of what Vargr summoned."
I limped to the broken window and looked out.
The storm was breaking. The Zone of Silence, destabilized by the massive discharge of mana from the Life Dew and the Boss fight, was fluctuating. The wind was dying down.
And on the horizon, emerging from the white mist like ghosts, they appeared.
Not monsters.
Riders.
Hundreds of them. Clad in silver armor that gleamed even in the dull light. They rode massive white stags—Elk with antlers like tree branches.
They didn’t charge. They formed a line, a perfect crescent that enveloped the valley.
Bows were drawn. Long, curved bows made of bone and silver.
"Elves," Selena whispered, joining me at the window. Her voice was trembling. "The Border Patrol."
"Are they... are they here to save us?" Leon asked, hope rising in his voice.
I looked at the banners they carried. A silver tree on a field of black.
"No," I said grimly. "That’s the banner of the Night’s Watch. The executioners of the High Council."
I turned to the group.
"We jumped out of the frying pan," I said, grabbing Leon’s shoulder. "And we landed in the fire."
"Maria," I ordered. "Seal the roof. Leon, get your helmet. Selena... hide your claws."
"Why?" Leon asked.
"Because," I pointed at the army of a thousand S-Rank archers aiming at our broken train. "To them, we aren’t victims. We’re trespassers."
I checked my status.
[Mana: 10/4800 (Regenerating)]
The engine of the train sputtered. The lights in the hallway flickered on. The mana was returning.
"We have power," I said. "Get to the engine room. If we can get the train moving, maybe we can outrun them."
"Outrun Elves?" Selena laughed bitterly. "In the snow?"
"We have to try," I said.
The red pillar of light faded.
From the line of riders, a single horn blast echoed across the valley.
DOOOOOOOOM.
It wasn’t a greeting. It was an ultimatum.
(To be Continued)
