Ranker’s Return

Dozens of dark crescent moons struck the players. A short time ago, the tankers activated their defense skills and raised their shields to block the path of the crescent moons. Now, small noises emerged from all over the place, and the tankers that blocked Hyeonu’s pure energy were pushed back a few steps. Their expressions were subtle but bright.

“It isn’t as strong as I thought it would be?”

“Compared to the stats reduction... It isn’t a big deal.”

“I don’t think I will die as long as there are enough heals.”

The tankers spoke their opinions one by one. This was passed on to Bi Yoon, Preby, and those in the rear.

“What’s going on?”

“His skills were probably used up in killing the NPCs, so he must be weakened now,” Bi Yoon said, making his own guess about the reason.

They were plausible words. Alley Leader had handled two powerful NPCs in an instant, so it was likely he couldn’t help consuming his skills.

“How about changing formations? I think we can go with C,” Preby suggested.

In his opinion, it was good enough to go with Formation C.

“Can we really go with C? The damage won’t be small...” Matsumoto, Zenith’s master, interrupted in the middle. His voice was filled with concern.

“No, I think it will be okay. It’s fine. It’s a bargain as long as we consume more magic power. The end goal is to kill him.” Bi Yoon thought that Preby’s opinion made sense.

Formation C was an aggressive strategy that risked the lives of half of those gathered here. In other words, the plan was to exchange their lives for Alley Leader’s health and magic power. This was a strategy aimed at the fact that Alley Leader’s strength wasn’t indefinite. It was common sense that the stronger the skill, the longer the cooldown would be.

‘If he is under a penalty and there is no magic power, we can do it.’

“What do you think, Tony?” Bi Yoon turned to look at Tony.

“He is very fierce. He doesn’t let anyone see his limits. Therefore, I think there is a need to gamble at least once,” Tony replied. Tony was the leader of Team Shadow, and he had aimed twice at Hyeonu but never succeeded.

He thought, ‘If we succeed this time, we can earn much more than what we have spent so far.’

Team Shadow had a broken reputation. In particular, it collapsed thoroughly after they tasted humiliation in Alley Leader’s stream.

They who had once been called the best were now rated as average.

‘We just have to succeed once. Just once...’ Tony thought.

It was as if Bi Yoon knew what Tony was thinking and went on to speak to the guild members who were looking at him: “Prepare for Formation D. Just pour out everything.”

Bi Yoon pulled out the most extreme formation. Formation C was lacking, so it was time for Formation D. Formation D was to disperse the formation and focus on using all of their skills. This meant only one thing. It would be good or not bad. Why? Even if it didn’t work, Alley Leader would use some means to prevent it, but blocking their attacks without using any skills would be an impossible feat even for the game operator.

At this point, Alley Leader would be missing some skills and trump cards. So Bi Yoon and the others could then come along and kill him. It was a perfect scenario.

“I understand. I will tell them,” Tony said.

***

‘Isn’t the atmosphere strange?’

Hyeonu suddenly felt a different atmosphere. More than a dozen people had already been logged out by him. Their actions didn’t make sense considering that most of them were tankers and only a few were melee damage dealers.

‘It is time to finish this...’

Hyeonu immediately rushed toward them.

‘There’s one minute left in the giant buffs? It is enough.’

One Who Yearns lasted five minutes longer than the giant buffs, so six minutes of skill time remained. After calculating that, a mean smile appeared on Hyeonu’s face.

‘The bait is being eaten so well?’

Hyeonu had used little magic power in the four-minute battle. Various buffs were wasted, but he was willing to throw them away if he could deal with these players quickly. The cooldown of Crescent Moon Cut was over. Hyeonu performed it again, with plenty of magic power this time, and aimed at those who were actively charging toward him.

Then an eerie sound that was different from before filled the mountain. Only a few tankers were currently gathered to block Hyeonu’s pure energy. They had blocked it well enough so far and believed that would be the case happen again. Yet their faith was completely shattered.

The shields and tankers holding them were cut down, and blood rose from the tankers’ wounds. The melee classes and magicians standing behind them couldn’t avoid Hyeonu’s pure energy either and received the pure energy attack directly with their bodies. In an instant, blood flowed down to the bottom of the mountain.

In contrast to the stream of flowing blood, the air was still and quiet. There was no sound at all like it was blocked by something.

Hyeonu turned his head and looked around as he searched for something. He glanced to the left and right several times before opening his mouth. His voice rang out in a small but clear manner. It was to the extent that Bi Yoon’s group could hear it in the distance. “Now, I’ve gotten rid of all the kids in my way. There are no tankers now. Ahh... How are you going to stop me now? Bi Yoon!!”

Bi Yoon’s name was called out. After hearing Hyeonu’s words, Bi Yoon’s face crumpled like a piece of paper. Those in the rear didn’t know exactly how the situation was flowing.

‘The tankers have been annihilated?’

“This is the worst. Preby, get ready now. I hope all of you are prepared.” Bi Yoon had a dark expression as he gave instructions to the members of Team Hell, the Five Stars’ PK specialist team.

The expressions of Preby and the others didn’t look much different to Bi Yoon’s. Basically, the strategy they had prepared for the battle against Alley Leader was to launch a raid. They had prepared for Alley Leader by considering him as a boss monster. In a raid, the absence of tankers meant failure.

After giving instructions to Team Hell, Bi Yoon turned and spoke to Preby, Matsumoto, and Tony: “Zenith, the Five Stars alliance has been annihilated except for us. I won’t say anything else. We’ve all lost to him once. We just need to remember this.”

***

By the time Bi Yoon, Preby, and the others joined the battlefield, most of the other guild members had already logged out. It was less than five minutes after the battle began. They could see how Alley Leader was enjoying ‘playing’ around. In the blink of an eye, many guild members were slaughtered like cows in the slaughterhouse. It was a hard sight to see.

The man whose body was split in half under the tree was the one who had laughed and chatted with Bi Yoon just 30 minutes ago. Another man whose head was rolling around was a guild member who had bowed his head and said he admired Bi Yoon.

“I told you. Can you handle it? You are interfering with my streaming and playing Arena. How long do you think I’m going to endure it? I need to go for a meal with Tang-E. Hurry and come at me,” Hyeonu said.

Something snapped in Bi Yoon’s head. It didn’t actually occur, but Bi Yoon definitely heard it.

“Yes, I’ll come,” he replied.

Bi Yoon pulled out a sword that scattered a deep blue light and slammed it into the ground. As he ran fast across the blood-stained dirt ground, his sword was swung like a whip. Bi Yoon’s pure energy struck Hyeonu like a wave. It wasn’t just one or two blades. This was literally a wave of them.

Hyeonu imitated Bi Yoon and swung the Mysterious Sky Sword like a whip as well, and black pure energy spread out from it like a wave. The pure energies collided with each other. Bi Yoon had predicted this and already launched a follow-up attack. It was a crescent-shaped pure energy.

This was Crescent Moon Cut. However, the difference in skill and stats meant it was significantly smaller than Hyeonu’s version. Bi Yoon’s version of the move was almost half the size. Still, pure energy was pure energy, and Crescent Moon Cut was Crescent Moon Cut. It shot at Hyeonu with an intense momentum.

However, Crescent Moon Cut wasn’t exclusive to Bi Yoon. Hyeonu had also learned it. This time, it wasn’t a weakened version like the one Bi Yoon performed. The Crescent Moon Cut that Hyeonu fired completely destroyed Bi Yoon’s version and flew straight toward Bi Yoon.

A white shield sprang up in front of Bi Yoon who was in danger, and it was split in Bi Yoon’s place.

“What are you trying to do alone? You have to follow the plan. Do it properly from now on,” Preby reprimanded Bi Yoon.

The latter came to his senses. What was his position? What should he do? What crisis did he inflict on himself?

“Sorry, I'll do that from now on,” Bi Yoon said.

“As long as you know. Everyone, go into battle!” Preby yelled. Hearing that, a group of players surrounded Hyeonu.

They numbered around 40. There were the five masters of Five Stars and Team Hell, Zenith’s master Matsumoto and the elites he picked out, and lastly, Team Shadow. The players showed looks of strong tension. They couldn’t help being nervous. Fighting in such a blood-stained space was always a tense experience. It was even more nerve-wracking because all this had been done by only one person.

The current group’s number was lower than half of the previous team’s, but the pressure they felt was much greater. If they had any characteristics, it was that there wasn’t a single person holding a shield. Perhaps it was because there were many people who were more familiar with PVP than hunting.

There were few priests or magicians in this group, only three or four at best. The rest consisted only of melee classes. The nearly 40 melee players moved like a single organism and used their skills one by one. It was a thorough rotation. Not one person attacked or defended against Hyeonu more than once at a time.

One of the viewers watching the scene questioned something.

-Isn’t it strange?

-What? Strange?

-It feels like he is just looking. He isn’t fighting back.

-Wait... Really?

Hyeonu’s behavior was strange.

Originally, it was normal to deal a blow or block a skill and then counterattack. Right now, there was nothing like that. He simply blocked the other person’s skills silently. It was like he was trying to consume the opponents’ skills.

-He didn’t even use the red one.

-There isn’t even the black energy that slows people down.

-Why save skills like this? The cooldown time seems to be long over.

The more they saw, the more they didn’t understand. The viewers only noticed because they were watching the battle as a third party. In fact, the people actually fighting had no idea about Hyeonu’s odd behavior. Just then, Hyeonu used the skills that the viewers mentioned. The red energy generated by Fighting Energy Emission encroached on dozens of players like threads while the black energy of Area Proclamation tied up their feet.

“What?”

“Using skills?”

There was murmuring all throughout the group. The debuffs were too powerful for them to wait for instructions. It felt like they couldn’t move.

“Herb...!!!” Bi Yoon and the other guild members quickly opened their mouths. Then blue-white crystals started to appear in the air.

“Master dude, I’ll save you!!” A small doll appeared on top of the cabin in the distance.