Ranker’s Return

-The raid time attack starts right now!!

After Jang Junhyung shouted, the clock of the raid time attack started to flow. One second—this was the amount of time it took Jeblin, the demon of fire, to start moving. While gripping the middle part of the red spear, Jeblin moved fast enough to leave an afterimage.

He arrived instantly in front of the Crescent Moon players and stabbed his spear, pointing at the spot where Sunny stood. The ground split open. Sunny was no longer where she had been standing though as Lee Hoon had grabbed her and rolled her sideways.

Lee Hoon quickly got up, carried Sunny, and fled to the back. Then he said, “Today’s raid might have nothing to do with us, but how can you just stand there in a daze?”

“Sorry, I was too relaxed.” Sunny had a look of regret on her face.

Nevertheless, her being logged out wouldn’t cause any problems. She was of no use in a raid. This was a lasting weakness of necromancers. They were helpless in front of the strong.

“You don’t need to be sorry to me. Just don’t do it next time.” Lee Hoon shook his head before turning toward Jeblin.

The battle was already on the verge of starting. Tang-E had appeared and was currently putting the buffs on Hyeonu while Yuri withdrew her hand like she had already buffed Hyeonu. Just then, Jeblin moved again, hiding his figure once more. He was so fast that he couldn’t be seen properly.

Compared to Jeblin, Hyeonu moved slowly, pulling out the Mysterious Sky Sword gradually. This action was clearly visible to everyone. However, there was actually something else that was moving swiftly—Hyeonu’s magic power. Behind Hyeonu, dark red magic power appeared like the tails of a nine-tailed fox. Shooting forward with enough momentum to penetrate everything it touched, the black-red magic power flew accurately toward the shape in the air.

Hyeonu’s magic power and Jeblin’s fire spear collided. Jeblin stopped there while holding the spear with both hands. Then he shouted at Hyeonu, “Human!!”

[The Fear of the demon of fire, Jeblin, has been heard.]

[The Fear of the demon of fire, Jeblin, has been ignored due to the influence of fighting energy and killing intent.]

Jeblin ambitiously unleashed a wave of pressure, but it was just a spring breeze to Hyeonu. It was gentle.

“I’ll burn your hair first!” Jeblin yelled.

It was a very unusual line. He wanted to burn Hyeonu’s hair first...

On the other hand, it was also very creepy.

“Who are you going to make bald??” Hyeonu questioned.

‘This crazy jerk, why would you burn someone else’s hair? Just say that you’re going to kill me!’

Hyeonu got goosebumps every time he heard Jeblin’s lines. He had heard them a lot over this week, but he still hadn’t gotten used to them.

“I will burn it unconditionally!!!” Jeblin said the same thing once again.

Simultaneously, wings spread out from his back. The wingspan that measured approximately four meters wide was greatly intimidating to the viewers. Yet Hyeonu didn’t care about it. This was because he knew...

‘He can’t fly anyway.’

Jeblin couldn’t fly. The wings were just a part of the pattern—a flare that signaled the full-fledged battle.

“Die!” Jeblin charged over with his wings wide open and his burning spear pointed at Hyeonu.

‘Fighting Energy Emission, Area Proclamation.’ Hyeonu used two skills on the fast-moving Jeblin. They were Fighting Energy Emission and Area Proclamation, which reduced stats and slowed down movement speed. This combination was for binding Jeblin’s hands and feet.

Simultaneously, Hyeonu took exactly one step forward. The moment his foot touched the ground, another skill was activated. It was a skill he obtained from Larenix, the last emperor of the Luos empire.

[Giant’s Pride has been activated.]

[Attack and defense will increase by 20%.]

Giant’s Pride—it had the effect of increasing attack and defense while advancing. Jeblin’s movements slowed down. It wasn’t just a bit slower. It was a lot slower. It was now slow enough for his movements to be seen when he only left afterimages previously.

“Do you think I, Jeblin, will fall for such a thing?!” Jeblin growled and stabbed his spear.

‘Sure enough, it isn’t much different from how it was in practice,’ Hyeonu thought.

At Jeblin’s original speed, Hyeonu had been able to see all of Jeblin’s movements without missing anything. So now that Jeblin had slowed down, his movements appeared even clearer. Hyeonu wasn’t someone who was unable to stop what he could see. Stabbing forth with the Mysterious Sky Sword, Hyeonu’s goal was the tip of Jeblin’s spear. Hyeonu’s sword struck Jeblin’s spear, and the dark-red magic power and bright red flames burned as if they would eat each other.

“Oh, good! Let me show you what strength is!” Jeblin burst out laughing.

At the same time, the red flames displayed an even more splendid presence. Hyeonu smiled when he saw it. ‘It is the same even here.’

The raid was progressing identically to the practice sessions. Typically, humanoid-type monsters were highly intelligent. Yet for some reason, Jeblin had a fairly standardized pattern.

“Try it.” Hyeonu continuously injected magic power into the Mysterious Sky Sword. The scale of the black-red magic power had increased so much that it was even enough to swallow the entire Mysterious Sky Sword. It didn’t seem like he would lose to Jeblin’s pressure at all. Rather, Hyeonu’s magic power was more explosive.

Jeblin didn’t provoke Hyeonu and instead fell for Hyeonu’s taunts. “Just what type of human are you?!” 

The smile on Hyeonu’s face deepened. ‘I always feel that... he is so stupid. He isn’t like a humanoid boss monster.’

Usually, giant boss monsters were strong, but they moved and made decisions out of instinct. On the other hand, humanoid boss monsters were weaker, but they had the same intelligence as normal people. In light of this, Jeblin didn’t gain anything and only lost advantages.

Hyeonu had thought this way while practicing the raid all week. It seemed the boss this time was meant to serve as a rest break for them. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so easy. However, this was just Hyeonu’s illusion. The only one who could fight like this against Jeblin was Hyeonu. The other teams were all focused on stopping Jeblin’s rampage and dealing heavy blows to him. Jeblin was trickier than the snow mountain cyclops, so this was normal. It was Hyeonu who was abnormal.

“Is it because you keep burning hair that your hair is all burnt?” Hyeonu’s mouth didn’t stop running in the midst of the exchange of attacks and defense. He constantly made fun of Jeblin. It was like the trash talk that often appeared in professional sports.

“Die, die!!! I’ll burn your hair first!” Jeblin shouted with a furious face. Then he moved right away.

‘Okay, the appearance change pattern is coming.’

The Jeblin who appeared in front of Hyeonu now was completely different from his human form before. Now his entire body was burning. Feeling agitated, Jeblin swung his spear recklessly at an immensely fast speed. However, he was so angry that the sharpness of his attack was gone, simply stabbing in a quick and strong manner instead.

“Anger won’t bring back your lost hair. Calm down, calm down. Don’t you know? Even the last strand of hair will fly away,” Hyeonu provoked Jeblin even more. He scratched Jeblin’s weak point. He was as hateful as a four-year-old.

“You! I will never let you go!” Jeblin’s red body started to turn blue.

The temperature was becoming hotter. This was Jeblin’s second pattern, where he entered a type of berserk state. This version of Jeblin that emitted blue flames had an overall increase in stats but lowered defense.

“As expected, he is going to do this.”

“It is a strategy that only Hyung can do. He even scratched at the nature of the monster to reveal the pattern.”

Lee Hoon and Mason murmured when they saw this scene. It was a ridiculous sight. The second pattern usually came after the boss’ health was reduced to a certain level, yet Hyeonu had triggered it with a few words.

“The condition for triggering it is that you shouldn’t be damaged by the boss monster’s attacks. It’s ridiculous,” Mason added with an expression like he found it absurd.

‘He actually found it...’ Mason thought in awe.

It had been a great coincidence that Hyeonu discovered this method. Like all the other teams, Crescent Moon had also practiced attacking Jeblin. One week wasn’t a short amount of time, but it was by no means a long amount of time. The humanoid-type boss monster called Jeblin was fast, strong, and tricky.

‘Of course, Hyung was fine. We were the problem.’

Hyeonu naturally had no problems. He could kill Jeblin at once with three simple buffs from Tang-E. The problem was the other five. Jeblin was a humanoid boss monster and knew how to hunt. He’d stared at Yuri and Sunny. Although he pretended to target others, he ultimately only targeted these two people.

Thus, they gave up on the raid and just left everything to Hyeonu. They felt sorry about it, but there was no other way. They would just be a nuisance if they came out. It was best to stay behind and give him intangible help. The moment Jeblin discovered them, it was obvious that everything would go wrong.

Therefore, Hyeonu was the only one to attack Jeblin from beginning to end. Then on the third day of practice, Hyeonu appeared with a video. The identity of the video was an attack strategy similar to what he was showing at present. To be exact, it was a draft of this strategy.

Hyeonu had been trying out many methods constantly. As a result, the method he was showing currently had the fastest clear time. The ridiculous plan consisted of taunting Jeblin to give him a mental shock and making him enter the berserk state as fast as possible, which would lower his defense. Once Hyeonu killed Jeblin, the raid would end.

“Isn’t it really ridiculous? Forcing Jeblin into the berserk state to lower his defense...” Mason said.

“Indeed. Anyone seeing it would probably think he’s crazy?” Lee Hoon agreed with Mason’s words.

The berserk state—most monsters had it, and it was the worst pattern. All stats rose in exchange for lower defense. No player would want to take this risk.

‘Ah, except for Hyung.’ Awe started to appear in Lee Hoon’s eyes. He felt this way after seeing the sight before him.

The Mysterious Sky Sword cut through the space toward Jeblin, who was holding the blue spear. Swinging his spear, Jeblin deflected the Mysterious Sky Sword. However, Hyeonu slightly twisted his wrist just then. It was a small movement, but the movements of the Mysterious Sky Sword were really gorgeous. As it crawled through the air like a snake, the dark-red pure energy split like a serpent’s tongue, dodging the blue spear and digging deep into Jeblin’s side.

“Kuheok!” Jeblin’s wings were cut off, and he fell to one knee while emitting blue flames.

“Hey, who will burn whose head?” Hyeonu stood in front of him with the Mysterious Sky Sword on his shoulder.

‘It was almost a serious problem.’ 

Unlike his relaxed appearance, Hyeonu was inwardly sighing with relief. It took longer than when he practiced previously.

‘Is there around one minute left?’

The giant buff was almost ending. Based on what Hyeonu experienced during practice, it was impossible to kill Jeblin easily once the giant buff was over. If he had gotten the timing wrong, he would’ve been logged out. Hyeonu spoke, “Watch your mouth next time. In addition, improve the way you discern people.”

The Mysterious Sky Sword fell toward Jeblin’s neck. Crescent Moon’s raid time attack was over.