The Lord Just Wants to Have Fun

At the front of the formation, fifty musketeers stood in two ranks.
Quickly loading their weapons with gunpowder and lead shot, they followed Philip’s orders precisely as Carpenter and the knights withdrew.

‘Hah! So this is the main force of the human army?’

Avocado scoffed.

He had fought human armies sent for monster subjugations before.
He knew the frailty of humans and their tactics well.

Typically, humans would break enemy formations with knight charges, then advance with dense pike formations like a hedgehog or pelt their enemies with arrows and crossbow bolts to harass them.

But the human army before him looked pathetically weak.

There weren’t many of them, their armor was light—mere leather cuirasses and breastplates—and they weren’t even holding spears or clubs, but short, unfamiliar weapons.

‘Whatever those things are, they won’t be enough to defeat us!’

Lizardmen were fast, their thick, scaly hides resistant to arrows and blades.
Knowing his own species’ strengths well, Avocado swiftly reorganized his warriors’ formation before launching the charge.

“Naghara is great!”

“Krrruk! Attack!”

Philip alternated his gaze between the charging Lizardmen and his musketeers.
The troops, tense and with their muskets aimed, waited for his command.

“Hold.”

As the Lizardmen reached 100 paces, the musketeers instinctively placed their fingers on the triggers.

“Hold. Not yet.”

Thanks to Carpenter’s rigorous training, no one fired prematurely.
Meanwhile, the Lizardmen drew even closer.

And when they finally entered 50 paces—

“First rank, fire!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Philip’s order was met with a deafening explosion as flames and thick white smoke erupted from the muskets.

The lead bullets, propelled near supersonic speeds, ripped into the charging Lizardmen warriors.

“KIEEEEK!”

“KUAAARGH!”

With a thunderous roar, the frontline warriors collapsed en masse.

The sudden devastation shocked the Lizardmen, forcing them to halt their charge.

Before they could recover—

“Second rank, fire!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“KIEEEEK!”

“GUAAARGH!”

As the smoke cleared, even the human soldiers standing behind the musketeers were left speechless.

This was the first time they had witnessed the true power of flintlock muskets in battle.

The Lizardmen hit directly by bullets were obviously dead, but the ones merely wounded looked even worse.

Their scaly flesh was shredded, as if they had been torn apart by wild beasts.
Fragments of shattered lead bullets had ripped their bodies open upon impact.

‘Damn… This is insane.’

Even Philip, the very one who had introduced flintlocks, was stunned.

At that moment, Terry shouted beside him.

“My lord, the next order!”

‘Right! I can’t hesitate now!’

The Lizardmen were in total panic.
And a panicked enemy is an easy target.

“Fire at will! Shoot as soon as you’re ready!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

As soon as the order was given, the first rank, who had stepped back to reload, opened fire once more.

“It’s thunder! Run away!”

“Kuruk! If you flee, I will kill you myself! Charge again!”

Avocado roared, slashing down a retreating warrior to make an example of him.
His threat snapped the Lizardmen warriors out of their panic, and they resumed charging toward the human lines.

However—

Waiting for them this time was not the musketeers.

“Frontline, switch!”

At Philip’s command, the musketeers swiftly withdrew, and soldiers armed with spears, swords, shields, and armor moved to the front.

A clash erupted as Lizardmen and soldiers collided.

At first glance, it seemed inevitable that the physically superior Lizardmen would overpower the human soldiers.
However, contrary to expectations, the battle was evenly matched.

The soldiers fought in coordinated groups of three:

One wielded a shield, blocking attacks.
The other two attacked from the sides, striking at weak points.

“Fight as you were trained!”
“Don’t break formation! Stick to your roles!”
“Aim for the nape, flanks, and Achilles tendons! Their scales are weakest there!”

Following Philip’s and the officers’ orders, the soldiers systematically took down the Lizardmen one by one.

Meanwhile, the musketeers weren’t idle.
If a Lizardman broke away from the group or entered a clear line of fire, they immediately shot them down.

The Lizardmen’s numbers dwindled rapidly.

“Krgh! Impossible!”

Even Avocado, who had joined the second charge with his warriors, was shot and toppled to the ground.

However, thanks to his tougher and thicker skin, he avoided fatal injuries.
Rolling across the dirt, he barely managed to fend off the human attacks before fleeing with the remaining survivors.

But as he retreated—

Knights on horseback appeared ahead of him.

Having withdrawn earlier under Philip’s orders, the knights now mercilessly cut down the fleeing Lizardmen.

“You bastard! I’ll kill you myself!”

Splat!

Carpenter, seizing the chance for revenge, landed a clean strike on Avocado.

With his right shoulder wounded, Avocado could no longer wield his greatsword properly.
Carpenter immediately capitalized on this—severing his right arm completely.

“This time, I’ll take your head!”

“Kuruk! You cowardly human!”

Avocado raged, convinced that the humans had cheated.
Otherwise, how could his Lizardman warriors have suffered such a humiliating defeat?

‘I can’t die here! I am Naghara’s heir, the destined king of all scaled races!’

Desperate, Avocado dodged Carpenter’s next strike.
His agility surprised even the mid-level Expert knight.

“Impressive. But that just makes me even more determined to end you!”

With Avocado injured and retreating, Carpenter pursued relentlessly.

No matter how fast a Lizardman was, an injured one could never outrun a knight on horseback.

“Die!”

As Carpenter closed the distance, he prepared to deliver the final blow with his Aura-infused sword.

However—

A knight riding behind him suddenly shouted in alarm.

“Captain! Look above you!”

“What?”

When Carpenter looked up, he saw a dark orb hurtling toward him from the sky.

Neighhhhhh—!

Barely reacting in time, Carpenter leaped off his horse.

A split second later, the dark sphere struck his mount.

The horse instantly withered, its flesh shriveling as if sucked dry.

“Tsk! Who did that?!”

Landing gracefully, Carpenter immediately searched for his attacker.

It wasn’t hard to find.

Floating in the air was a sorcerer, cloaked in a dark robe adorned with eerie symbols.
His staff, decorated with bones, emanated a sinister aura.

“A necromancer?”

While Carpenter tensed in alarm, Avocado, in contrast, bowed his head in reverence.

“Ahhh, the Apostle of Naghara!”

“So, you’re the backwater lord’s forces? I assume you were the ones making all that noise just now.”

The middle-aged sorcerer, his skin deathly pale, spoke in a voice as grating as nails scraping glass.

“What magic did you use?”

Philip’s gaze sharpened as he stared at the sinister necromancer.

‘So, this guy is the mastermind behind the Lizardmen’s actions?’

At that moment, a semi-transparent scroll appeared before Philip’s eyes.

Sudden Mission: Kill the Necromancer.

Reward: 10,000 Points
Time Limit: 1 Day

‘Mau, is this from you?’

‘Wait, Eldir? Doesn’t he only give blacksmithing-related quests?’

‘Why?’

Necromancers, beings who sold their souls to demons in exchange for dark magic.

From Philip’s inherited memories, he recalled that just one necromancer could wreak havoc on an entire kingdom.

Whether it was by unleashing plagues, creating chimera abominations, or raising undead armies, their mere existence spelled disaster.

‘So even stingy Eldir is offering 10,000 points for this… that says a lot.’

The soldiers and knights, who had been slaughtering Lizardmen effortlessly just moments ago, were now trembling in fear.

“My lord, be careful!”

“D-Don’t go near him! It’s a necromancer!”

Terry instinctively moved to shield Philip.

Meanwhile, Carpenter and the knights were on high alert, keeping a wary distance.

Even the soldiers, who had fought bravely, began backing away from the necromancer’s presence.

Philip scowled.

‘Damn it. We were so close to total victory…’

Necromancers were incredibly rare, yet one had appeared in the Prill Mountain Range, controlling Lizardmen?

“What kind of magic did you use?”

The necromancer surveyed the battlefield, irritation lacing his tone.

From his perspective, a large number of Lizardmen had suddenly dropped dead with no visible magical energy.

To him, the muskets’ volley fire must have seemed like a powerful spell.

‘Makes sense. If you’ve never seen firearms before, it would look like magic.’

“No one wants to answer? Then I suppose I will force you to speak.”

Without warning, the necromancer slammed his staff into the ground.

WHOOOOOSH!

A sound like wailing ghosts filled the air.

Suddenly, the atmosphere darkened, and a suffocating pressure bore down on everyone.

Philip’s instincts screamed at him—

This felt exactly like the haunted house he had once visited with a YouTuber friend back on Earth.

A place so cursed that even professional shamans had fled in terror.

Back then, even in broad daylight, the air had been unnaturally cold, his head heavy, and his shoulders weighed down as if carrying iron shackles.

But this—

This was at least 10, maybe 100 times worse.

‘Damn… I can’t move…’

It was as if he had been paralyzed in sleep, trapped under a nightmare.

The worst part?

Even the soldiers were similarly frozen in place.

‘If he attacks now, we’re done for…’

Philip could see that even Avocado and the remaining Lizardmen were also cowering, crushed by the necromancer’s aura.

“K-Kehek! A-Apostle, please have mercy!”

But the necromancer ignored them, focusing solely on Philip’s army.

Moments ago, he had sensed a large number of Lizardmen’s life forces suddenly vanish.

The humans wielded sticks that radiated fire, yet there was no magic detected.

Thus, he was convinced—

Somewhere, a powerful mage was hiding among them.

But no matter how much pressure he exerted, that mage refused to reveal themselves.