Ranker’s Return

Moving violently, Teika’s spear tore through the air. The edge of the flying spear glowed with a bloody light and headed toward the death knights. Meanwhile, the death knights kicked the skeleton horses in the ribs. As faithful companions of the death knights, the skeleton horses read the death knights’ intentions and moved. They charged toward Teika while sinister black energy surrounded the swords of the death knights.

A death knight’s sword collided with Teika’s spear. Blood-red and black energy spread out in all directions. Everything that touched the scattered energy exploded, regardless of whether it was the air or the ground. The winner of the clash was Teika. The blood-colored spear broke the death knight’s sword and moved forward, piercing the skeleton horses and death knights like making chicken skewers.

“Hit him at the same time!” Sunny shouted in an urgent voice when she saw the scene. For a strong person like Teika, the death knights couldn’t face him one-on-one. Sunny had known it from her few days of fighting, but she had been simply watching like a fool again. 

‘I forgot that it isn’t the level I am normally used to playing against.’

Sunny shook her head from side to side. Now wasn’t the time to blame herself. It wouldn’t be too late to think about that after this battle. Apart from one death knight who turned into black smoke, the remaining death knights rushed at Teika simultaneously.

Lee Hoon also threw himself forward and filled the place of the death knight who had disappeared. Together, they once again attempted to attack Teika from all directions. Lee Hoon rushed toward Teika with magic power covering his body. This was a quick dash. It was to prevent Teika from using a skill.

‘It is a loss if the other person uses a skill.’

This was what he had learned from dealing with Kim Seokjung and Gang Junggu. It was something Lee Hoon hadn’t even thought about when he practiced with Hyeonu. In the first place, Hyeonu didn’t use his skills much. Instead, he utilized basic weapons and martial arts to push Lee Hoon into a corner. However, Gang Junggu and Kim Seokjung were different; they used their skills in the right place. In particular, each blow was powerful, so it was best not to let them use a skill.

Teika looked at Lee Hoon with shining eyes. It was because he had read the latter’s intentions.

‘He is trying to stop me from doing what I did earlier.’

It wouldn’t be so easy though. There had been previous rankers who prepared such a strategy. In fact, it was a large number of them. Sometimes, their strategies worked, and sometimes, they didn’t. Nevertheless, the result was as it was now. Teika was the player who remained 1st in the arena for the longest period of time globally.

Kicking away from the ground, Teika rushed forward and threw the spear at Lee Hoon, who was running toward him. Teika’s spear shot out and became a blood-red comet. It flew with a crying sound and collided with Lee Hoon’s shield, stabbing it. To be exact, the spear was spinning so rapidly it had the momentum to penetrate the shield.

There was a sharp metallic sound, and Lee Hoon was forced to take a step back. He couldn’t hold up against Teika’s attack power. At this moment, a red sphere aimed at Teika, who was currently defenseless in midair. Yet Teika’s body instantly sank down to the ground, leaving the red sphere to burst like a firecracker in the air at the spot where Teika had just been. As he landed on the ground, Teika was welcomed by the death knights.

They scattered their ominous energy as they brandished their respective weapons. The black pure energy struck toward Teika, but he avoided it with exquisite movements. The pure energy attacks passed by him and only dug up the innocent dirt floor.

Then Teika quickly ran to where his spear was rolling toward. Lee Hoon was standing in front of the spear, but Teika didn’t care at all. He was confident he could defeat Lee Hoon. It was an act that might seem conceited to some, but Teika proved that his confidence was right and not simply a show of arrogance. He lightly dodged Lee Hoon’s attack and punched him in the abdomen.

“Oof!” Lee Hoon was hit in the abdomen and collapsed while holding onto it. It was an unexpected strike, so he hadn’t been prepared. Before Lee Hoon knew it, Teika had picked up his spear. He then tapped Lee Hoon’s back with the butt-end of the spear.

“You’re out,” he notified Lee Hoon.

Lee Hoon was alive because Teika had hit him with the blunt part of the spear. Otherwise, it was clear that Lee Hoon would’ve disappeared in a very ugly way. The battle that continued after that was very one-sided; everyone knelt down in front of Teika’s spear.

Dwayne tried to fill Lee Hoon’s vacancy, but he couldn’t help it since their classes were different. The monk and paladin classes had dissimilar characteristics after all.

Hyeonu approached Teika who was putting the spear into his inventory and asked, “How about it, Teika? I would appreciate it if you told me the truth.” 

“The combination is obviously okay. No other teams have a combination with a necromancer right now. That is a clear variable. I think it is worth a try in the siege if Alley Leader takes charge of the ace players of each team.” Teika gave a surprisingly good rating and rated Crescent Moon’s players highly.

The biggest reason for that was Sunny’s existence—the only necromancer pro gamer. The necromancer class was one that nobody had ever experienced in the competition, so it would be impossible to cope with perfectly.

“I see...” Hyeonu nodded.

This was the idea he had when he recruited Sunny to Crescent Moon as a professional gamer. Sunny had grown better than he had expected, and she was now judged to be capable of standing on the world stage of Arena Week.

“The other players are also fine. Each one has distinct characteristics. To be honest, I think Crescent Moon is the only team in the world that is so unique.” Teika was honestly quite surprised by his first spar with Crescent Moon. In fact, Crescent Moon was very different from what they had demonstrated in their games in the Korean League.

Teika didn’t know what type of training they had done with Kim Seokjung and Gang Junggu, but they were trained in the details of battle. At this level, it was clear there would be no such thing as the other players of Crescent Moon being one-sidedly beat up in Arena Week or holding back Alley Leader. If there was one thing that was regretful...

‘Their level is too low.’

It was the unfortunately low level of the other players. Truth be told, Teika found it very disappointing. If they were all at the level of other professional players, this team would be perfect. Still, that didn’t really mean anything.

‘They have Alley Leader behind them.’

So what if they were a bit weak?

The Undefeated Sovereign would take charge.

“Then I’m glad. I think the preparations are going well.” Hyeonu revealed his satisfaction with Teika’s assessment, which was more pleasant than he had expected. His intentions from when he first formed this team seemed to be revealing themselves.

“What should we do next?” Teika asked.

“Do it again like before. Then we will go into PvP practice,” Hyeonu answered.

Teika nodded and felt that should be fine. The practice time wasn’t as long as he thought. Perhaps it was because of Kim Seokjung and Gang Junggu’s efforts so far.

‘Or maybe he is feeling it is burdensome for me.’ 

Teika instinctively felt that the moment he wanted wasn’t too far away.

***

“Good job today,” Gang Junggu said to Lee Hoon, who was on the ground. The PvP practice was also over. That was it for today’s training.

“You worked hard, Hyung-nim.” Lee Hoon didn’t forget to bow his head to Gang Junggu as he barely managed to rise.

“Go ahead. It must’ve been tough. Log out now and rest. Don’t go hunting, okay? It will be a loss if you are forced to log out.” Gang Junggu patted Lee Hoon on the shoulder and left. He headed to the place where Kim Seokjung, Hyeonu, and Teika were gathered.

“So that’s why you helped with training today?” Kim Seokjung said.

Gang Junggu cocked his head when he heard those words. ‘The reason? What is the cost of bringing Teika here?’

Judging from what Kim Seokjung said, it was clear that Hyeonu had promised Teika something.

‘He isn’t someone who needs many things...’ 

Rankers as big as Teika weren’t lacking much. Of course, it wasn’t that they didn’t want anything. It was just that Hyeonu couldn’t normally give such things, so it was obvious that the item Teika wanted had to be an item that Hyeonu had. 

Just then, Hyeonu looked between Kim Seokjung and Teika and said, “Isn’t this a good deal, Hyung-nim? Now that all the kids are gone, let’s get started.” 

“I understand, I will get ready.” Teika nodded at Hyeonu and walked to one side of the arena.

Gang Junggu approached the two remaining men and asked, “What is going on, Hyung-nim? What is Hyeonu supposed to give him?”

“He decided to fight our dongsaeng today in exchange for helping them train.”

“Fight? That’s why he worked so hard today?” Gang Junggu shook his head with an incredulous expression.

No matter how hard it was to find a sane person among the Arena rankers, this was a little too much.

“He also requested to use everything. It will be pretty shocking...” Kim Seokjung’s subsequent murmur came as a bigger shock to Gang Junggu. It was a request for Hyeonu to fight with all his power. This person was a real madman, really crazy.

‘Or maybe Teika doesn’t know how strong he is.’

Anyone who knew Hyeonu’s ridiculous power wouldn’t have requested this.

“Hyung-nims, would you like to watch? I don’t think it will take long...” Hyeonu asked Kim Seokjung and Gang Junggu who were standing still.

“When am I ever going to see this again? Don’t worry about us and go ahead.”

“Hyung-nim is right. It won’t take long anyway. Just pretend we aren’t here.”

Kim Seokjung and Gang Junggu waved to Hyeonu as if they were telling him to go, then they sat down in one corner of the arena. Hyeonu walked past the center of the arena and took his place on the opposite side of Teika. Then he took the Mysterious Sky Sword out of his inventory and hung it from his waist.

“Do you really want me to go all out, Teika?” Hyeonu inquired one last time. Could he really put everything into it?

“Yes, I want the best of Alley Leader, be it your skills or specs,” Teika answered with a firm expression.

“Then we will both use buffs before starting. Won’t that be fairer?” Hyeonu suggested.

Teika nodded in agreement. Both men started using the buffs they had. In particular, Hyeonu summoned Tang-E to give him buffs. “Go sit next to the two people over there. I will finish it quickly, then we can go eat meat.”

“Understood, Master dude. You have to win.” Tang-E looked at Hyeonu and nodded several times. Then he moved to Kim Seokjung and Gang Junggu, whom Hyeonu had pointed to.

“Then let’s fight, Teika.” Hyeonu’s smiling face became cold.