Debuff Master

It did not take long for Siegfried to get the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity.

That afternoon…

“Alligator Squad! All forces report to your squad tent!”

Siegfried was leisurely watching some videos posted by top Rankers when the Assemble command was given. He slowly went to the tent that was acting as the squad’s headquarters.

“We received an order from the top. We will be ambushing the Cryptids’ colony in exactly one hour,” Carell said.

Then, the squad members, the NPCs to be exact, grimaced at his words.

‘Damn it!’

‘We have to mobilize again?!’

‘What sins have I committed in my previous life…?’

‘Aren’t they just blatantly sending us to our deaths…?’

‘How the hell are we supposed to obey the commands of that bastard again…?’

‘Ah… mothers…’

Their reactions reminded Siegfried of a famous commercial song that went along the lines of something like: “I can tell even if you don’t tell me~”

The squad members’ faces openly conveyed the thoughts in their minds, and it was clear that they were filled with distrust and anxiety over Carell’s leadership.

“Uhm… squad leader-nim…? How many squads are joining this operation?” asked one of the soldiers.

“It will only be us,” Carell replied.

“What?!”

“It is an order from above. Only our Alligator Squad will mobilize for this mission.”

“Fuck this shit! Is this some kind of a bad joke?!” the soldier cursed out loud before continuing. “Does this even make sense?! Only five hours have passed since we returned after fighting all night, but they are asking us to mobilize again?! Ha?! Only our squad on top of that? Aren’t they just sending us to our deaths at this point?!”

The other soldiers seemed to agree with the soldiers’ words.

“They should just ask us to jump off a cliff at this rate.”

“Ha… should we just plop dead then? Is that what they want?”

“Who gave this order?”

There was severe discontent since the soldiers were still tired from their previous mobilization.

“It is a command from above…”

However, Carell responded to their discontent by saying that it was a command from above, so they should just carry out their duties even though he himself seemed to be the most exhausted among the squad members.

“It looks like we’re going to die a dog’s death because of our squad leader!”

“Why do we have to suffer when he is the one who has a problem with the higher-ups?”

“Can’t he just go and die already?”

Carell was openly criticized and cursed at by the soldiers, but nobody dared mention anything about insubordination among them, and neither did Carell say anything about it.

“We will mobilize in an hour… that’s all…”

Regardless of the soldiers’ cursing, Carell said whatever he needed to say before going back into his tent.

“This is a disaster…” Siegfried muttered. He had been quietly observing the situation from the back.

***

An hour later, the Alligator Squad mobilized to ambush a small Cryptid colony.

“They’re going to their deaths again.”

“Tsk tsk… I feel bad for them.”

“I hope at least more of them can return this time…”

The other squad looked at them with pity.

“…”

Silence ensued throughout the entire Alligator Squad on their way to the Cryptid colony.

“It is a simple ambush operation. The colony is not that big, so you don’t have to be so nervous…” Carell tried his best to carry out his duties as the squad leader and alleviate the squad members’ anxiety, but there was no way that was going to work.

Their situation was currently so dire that even a skilled commander’s words of encouragement were going to fall on deaf ears. As such, there was no way that the words of a useless and pathetic commander like him would raise the squad’s morale.

“The small colony is right up ahead after these trees—” Carell trailed off.

He couldn’t finish his words because the squad members started cursing once again.

“Small colony?!”

“That’s small?!”

“Fuck this shit!”

“Are you kidding me?!”

In fact, even Siegfried chimed in as he laughed in disbelief and muttered, “I don’t think that’s small at all…?”

The ‘small’ colony of Cryptids turned out to be a large one that would be too much to handle even if an entire battalion was mobilized.

“T-This is…” Carell’s voice trembled.

“Squad leader-nim! We cannot continue with this operation! We’re all going to die!” one of the soldiers raised an objection.

“B-But…”

“Are you telling us to go die? This is an order from the top for us to die! Does this even make sense?!”

“Enough!” Carell shouted before stuttering, “I… I am… I am a knight.”

“Huh? What does that matter right now?” the soldier muttered, seemingly confused.

“And all of you are soldiers…” Carell continued.

“Ha!” the soldier scoffed.

“We will commence with the operation. A soldier lives by the command and dies by the command. That is the path of a—” Carell went on.

“Hey, you crazy bastard!” the soldier shouted at his squad leader.

Insubordination.

The fact that a foot soldier from a normal background dared to curse at his superior, who was a knight of noble lineage, was a serious offense that justified being cut down on the spot.

However, none of the soldiers rebuked him for his insubordination since the soldiers gathered in the squad were all conscripted soldiers. This meant that these soldiers didn’t possess the same patriotism or sense of duty as the professional soldiers who graduated from military school. As such, these soldiers placed far greater importance on their own survival than the command from the higher-ups.

What about the Adventurers? They didn’t really care about what was going on since they were something like a mercenary here, and they were immortal anyway, so they didn’t really get involved with the affairs of the NPCs.

“Go ahead and die on your own if you want to die so badly! Fuck that you are a soldier or whatnot bullshit you’re spouting—” the soldier cursed

However, Carell cut him off with a shout, “It is an order from above! I will not tolerate any further insubordination! We are commencing the operation!”

“This son of a bitch, really…” the soldier grumbled and gnashed his teeth.

“Any further disobedience or mutiny will be paid for with death!” Carell pulled out his sword.

“Death? Ha! Sure, go ahead, you bastard! Go ahead and kill me! Kill me! We’re all going to die anyway, so what difference does it matter if I’m killed by you or those monsters? Ha?! And there is no way a pathetic knight like you will be able to kill me—”

Patatata!

Something interrupted by flying toward them.

When you're just trying to make great content at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

“Aaaaaaaah!” the soldier screamed as he was scooped up into the air.

“…!”

The entire squad shifted their gaze above them.

“Kyaaak!”

“Kyak!”

“Kyaaaaah!”

And they found dozens of flying monsters going straight for them from above.

“E-Enemy!”

“Flying monsters have appeared!”

“It’s an ambush!”

The attack of the Cryptids had commenced.

***

“Euak!”

“Save meeee!”

“Gwuaaak!”

The soldiers started dying one by one, starting with the soldier who dissed Carell.

~

[Mostid]

[A Cryptid that is capable of flying.]

[It shoots out poison from above and dives down to pick up its enemies before flying back up.]

[Type: Mutated Creature (Flying)]

[Level: 100]

~

The Mostids—each the size of a bull—devastated the entire squad by shooting poison and picking up soldiers one by one.

In the midst of all these…

“D-Defend yourselves! Enemy ambush!” Carell called out.

He didn’t give any proper commands. He simply shouted the words ‘defend’ and ‘ambush’ again and again.

“Hey! Use your shield and defend us!”

“Anyone with crowd control skills?! Try to hold them down when they dive down!”

“Hahaha! This is insanely fun! Wow!”

Meanwhile, the Adventurers, who had long gotten used to party hunting, were doing well as they fought the Mostids without Carell’s commands. In fact, even the soldiers ran and stuck with the Adventurers rather than sticking around Carell.

However, that lasted only for a little while…

“Ack!”

“Damn it… there goes my forty-nine hours!”

“Ah, screw this shit. How are we supposed to win this?”

The Adventurers logged out or died one by one, and the squad suffered even more casualties after they disappeared.

“N-No…!” Carell shouted with obvious desperation in his voice, but that was it.

He didn’t give out any useful commands, and he also didn’t try to maintain order like a true commander would have done in a situation like this.

‘Wow… Forget about a disaster… Isn’t this situation just unsalvageable…?’ Siegfried grumbled while looking at Carell, and he finally realized why the Alligator Squad ended up becoming the icon of defeat and humiliation.

A pathetic commander on top of unreasonable commands from the top? This was no different than driving the soldiers to their deaths.

Siegfried could somewhat understand the soldiers’ feelings now.

‘I don’t think I can continue watching any longer, so…’ 

Siegfried finally made his move.

***

Meanwhile…

Badump! Badump! Badump! 

Carell’s heart started beating like crazy as he thought, ‘I… What should I do…? My soldiers are dying… I’m their commander… I have to save them! But what am I… what am I supposed to do in this situation…?’ 

However, no solution came to his mind, no matter how much he racked his brain. His mind had already been tainted with fear, confusion, and self-doubt to the extent that he could no longer think rationally.

Things had always been like this.

He had always been useless in situations like this, and the only reason he managed to survive was because of his personal abilities.

Frankly speaking, Carell’s abilities had been growing steadily ever since he got stationed here at the Arachnid Temporary Outpost. His potential as a warrior started to blossom after every life-and-death situation against the Cryptids.

Was it not a cliché that a warrior would become stronger for every life and death situation they faced?

Unfortunately, being a skilled warrior and being a skilled commander who could maintain their cool in situations like this were two completely different things. Carell had been swinging his sword for the sake of his own survival, and he had never once tried to maintain a level head nor analyzed the situation.

As such, he got unsurprisingly labeled as the infamous ‘Undying Loser’ or the ‘Commander Marked by Death’.

However, it seems that he had reached his limits. The abilities that had kept him alive until now were nowhere near enough to keep him alive against this group of Mostids.

“Kyaaaak!” A Mostid made a dive for Carell.

“Keuk!” Carell groaned as he fell to the ground.

“Kyaaak!” The Mostid shrieked before opening its hideous mouth.

The Mostid was about to shoot its poison at Carell, but a hammer flew from out of nowhere and swatted the Mostid away from the knight.

Whoooosh… Pak!

Splurt!

The Mostid’s body exploded after being hit by the hammer, sending its green gooey blood all over the knight.

***

Carell managed to avoid being poisoned by the Mostid’s blood thanks to his full armor.

“Sir, it is time for you to get up,” Siegfried said.

“S-Sieg…!”

“Sir, you have to get up and start commanding. Sir, look, your soldiers are all dying, sir,” Siegfried said while pointing at the battlefield.

His way of speech suddenly reverted back to the days when he used to serve in the military.[1]

“B-But… There is nothing that I can do…”

“Sir, just give out a command, sir…”

“A command…?”

“Sir, I will go and sweep all of them up, sir.”

“Can you really do that?”

“Just give the command. I will make it happen,” Siegfried said with a smile.

Carell saw that Siegfried’s smile carried a sense of confidence only those who were truly powerful enough to back up their own words could show.

Siegfried was able to maintain his cool despite the overwhelming numerical disadvantage since he had already experienced much worse battles than this one.

“S-Sieg…”

“Yes, squad leader-nim?”

“Please go and take care of them… if that is really… possible…”

“I can really do it, you know? Ah, and…”

“…?”

“You should go and care for the wounded while I sweep these monsters up, and you should handle any stragglers that I might miss.”

“U-Understood!”

“Then…” Siegfried muttered before taking out two green disks.

Tak!

He jumped up into the sky with both green disks in his hand.

“Kyaaaak!”

“Kyak! Kyaaaak!”

“Kyaaak!”

The Mostids rushed toward Siegfried.

‘Torrential…’ Siegfried tightly gripped the two disks in each hand.

‘Flower Rain…’ 

Then, he threw both disks!

Flash!

A green light flashed in the sky, and then…

Shwak! Shwak! Shwak! 

The flower petals of death filled the sky.

1. It is mandatory for all able-bodied Korean men to serve in the military once they hit 18. The above sir, sir, sir, is a lazy and sarcastic way of speaking once a mandatory conscript gained a few ranks. The actual word in Korean is ‘말입니다’ which means I say or I mean, but that doesn’t sound right, so I went with multiple sirs instead. ☜