Ranker’s Return

The moment Hyeonu’s staff touched the ground, red flames engulfed Aike. Aike waved his hand at the flames covering his body. The white divine power around his arms started to stop the flames, swiftly extinguishing them. Then seconds passed by, and Aike couldn’t find any more flames.

“......!!!” 

Yet right then, Aike felt a cold sensation on his back and quickly leaned over. It was an instinctual action that saved his life because a white spear suddenly appeared in the air at that very moment. If Aike had stayed still, his heart would’ve been pierced.

‘Unfortunately, his senses haven’t changed.’ Hyeonu left his regret behind and moved the ice spear that he had created. The ice spear rose in reverse and soared into the sky. It seemed like it would stab straight into Aike’s back.

Just then, Aike quickly turned his head. With one glance, Aike caught sight of the ice spear’s movements and rolled his body across the ground without hesitation. His judgment was appropriate, but it was also the worst action he could have taken. It was a great move to avoid the attack of the ice spear, but Hyeonu’s immediate response turned it into the worst decision.

The ice spear quickly reversed again and headed down toward Aike’s back on the ground. Firing instantly, the spear moved forward at an explosive speed. Just before it pierced Aike’s body, something white appeared around Aike’s torso.

This white light was the barrier Aike was using. He was able to block Hyeonu’s attack with it. Aike gripped his sword and stood up quickly from the ground before charging at Hyeonu. Aike’s sword, which was currently glowing white, seemed to pierce Hyeonu.

Hyeonu’s feet moved quickly. His agility and strength stats were low, but they were still superior to his body in reality. Simultaneously, abundant magic power flowed throughout his body. The white light from Aike’s sword hit the ground, digging a pit into the floor. However, Hyeonu wasn’t there. He had already moved three or four steps out of the range of the attack.

Right then, a crimson-red fire spear appeared in Hyeonu’s hand. He grabbed it and ran to Aike.

Aike’s expression became distorted when he saw Hyeonu run over with the fire spear in hand. He didn’t know how much Hyeonu believed in his skills, but Aike knew there was still a difference in stats.

‘It’s ridiculous that he’s ignoring this...’ Aike thought. A priest had some degree of flexibility when it came to the stats distribution. They didn’t need to devote too many stat points to divine power like a magician had to do for the magic power stat, so some points could be spared to be used for the strength, agility, and physique stats. Of course, it didn’t appear that way in melee combat.

‘Am I that easy, Alley Leader?’

Aike gritted his teeth.

***

“What is going on now? Player Gang Hyeonu is rushing to Aike with a fire spear!” The host expressed his doubts about Hyeonu’s strange behavior. This host lacked professional knowledge about Arena, but of course, he still knew a lot more than ordinary people.

Nevertheless, his knowledge just wasn’t enough compared to that of the commentators and professional players sitting on either side of him. He couldn’t grasp the hidden intention behind Hyeonu’s current actions and had to ask the commentators.

The commentator on the left of the host started to answer the host’s questions. “Player Gang Hyeonu’s choice right now is a great risk. At first glance, it seems like a good choice because it is a melee battle between non-melee classes. But in reality, that is actually not the case.”

This commentator had quite a serious expression. His eyes widened like he was surprised, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the screen because he felt Hyeonu’s choice was really amazing.

“The magician is a class that has the most limited stats distribution in the event. They are somewhat forced to distribute most of their stat points to the magic power stat as they need a lot of magic power to use magic,” the commentator said into the microphone, without his eyes ever moving from the screen. He was staring at the screen as if he was going to pierce it.

The commentator continued, “On the other hand, the priest class is less limited. Just distributing only half your state points to divine power will be good enough to fight with. The stat points should be distributed according to the buffs, barriers, and divine power used during combat.”

“I see. So that means the judgment Player Gang Hyeonu made might be bad. But... I don’t think it will be like that?” the host remarked.

The scene on the screen appeared in the eyes of the commentator who warned about the potential worst-case scenario. In it, there were two men attacking and defending fiercely. One man was fighting with two spears in his hands, a red spear and a white spear, against the second man with a white sword. It was quite spectacular that the first man was able to deal with two long spears at the same time. In particular, exclamations naturally flowed out from the viewers upon seeing the gravity-defying movements of the spears.

“Player Gang Hyeonu’s cooldown time for the ice spear has already finished, and he is using it to put pressure on Player Aike. It is the first time in my life that I’ve ever seen two spears being used at the same time.”

The commentator’s words were the same as what the viewers felt as they watched the battle through the screen. It was their first time seeing a battle involving two spears. This was also the same for Aike, the person who was actually fighting in the battle. His mind was in a state of chaos due to the attack style he was seeing for the first time.

‘What the hell is this?’

The anger he felt from seeing Hyeonu rush at him with the spear had long disappeared. Aike was now full of confusion. It had been fine at first. A spear was tricky to deal with, but it wasn’t that hard. He had fought back while being attacked. The problem was that another spear suddenly appeared in Hyeonu’s hands at some point.

From then on, hell unfolded before Aike’s eyes. The magic spears were unaffected by gravity. They floated in the air and even moved according to Hyeonu’s will. Aike was literally in a state of dealing with two attackers.

‘I have to remove one of them... How to get rid of it?’

Aike worked out a way to resolve this situation, which was the biggest challenge of getting rid of the spears. He had to destroy at least one before he could consider obtaining victory.

‘If I have to target one, it has to be the ice spear.’

The CC caused by the fire spear was burns. Burns dealt a level of pain that Aike could endure, but the damage the ice spear caused was unbearable. If he were frozen into a statue, his movements would be stopped, and this wasn’t a problem that could be solved with willpower.

Aike’s sword swung toward the red spear. Hyeonu naturally struck Aike’s sword with the fire spear before grabbing the ice spear that was floating in the air and using it to stab at Aike. Aike created a barrier around his arms and grabbed at the ice spear. The ice spear and barrier exploded simultaneously.

Aike showed a faint smile as the situation flowed the way he wanted.

‘That’s it.’ Aike moved his sword with a smile. He looked at the spot where the spear had disappeared and lunged his sword at Hyeonu, who looked bewildered.

Right then, Hyeonu’s expression changed. His flustered expression disappeared and was replaced by a faint smile just like Aike’s. Hyeonu grabbed the fire spear that was floating in midair and stabbed at the approaching sword. The spear and sword collided, resulting in an explosion.

This time, the fire spear didn’t disappear; its appearance remained intact. Taking advantage of the reaction force generated by the conflict, Hyeonu retreated and then extended the spear toward Aike again.

Hyeonu stomped his feet and thrust the fire spear forward. Dozens of small beads emerged from the tip of the fire spear. Aike quickly swung his sword at the shower of red beads covering him. He had just barely hit the beads and let out a small exhale when Hyeonu appeared in front of him.

This time, a white wolf emerged from Hyeonu’s fire spear. It was Ice Wolf, a magic of the ice attribute that was comparable to Firebird. This ice magic consumed less magic power than most spells and was strong. It was the preferred spell for any magician with ice attributes. Surprisingly, it was now implemented with Hyeonu’s fire spear.

Aike quickly kicked off from the ground to dodge. He currently had no skills to stop this powerful magic. To be exact, he had no time to use such skills because Hyeonu rushed in too quickly. While dodging Hyeonu’s attack, Aike’s expression stiffened noticeably. This was because Hyeonu’s combat style was very familiar.

‘Teika...’

Hyeonu was imitating the combat style of Teika, one of Aike’s best friends. He was fighting by replacing Teika’s skills with basic magic.

‘What the hell is he...’

Aike had no clue about how much of a monster Alley Leader truly was. He never dreamed that Teika’s combat style could be imitated with magic like this.

‘Still, I can’t give up.’

This didn’t mean he would just be beaten. Just because Hyeonu was using Teika’s way of fighting didn’t mean that Aike couldn’t win. Aike tried to focus his mind back on Hyeonu. ‘He shouldn’t have much magic power left.’

Hyeonu had now consumed two types of magic. Moreover, he used magic power throughout the battle. If so, he shouldn’t have much magic power remaining at the moment. In comparison, Aike still had quite a bit of divine power.

‘A few big ones should be possible several more times.’

This was because he had used fewer skills than Hyeonu.

‘I will use this.’

The priest class had several attack magics, and Aike picked one of them—the one with the strongest power. Aike ran with his sword pointed to the ground. When Hyeonu saw that, he smiled and moved toward Aike.

Aike quickly slashed the sword twice as he ran—once from top to bottom and once from left to right. Then a white cross appeared in the air. He was using the priest’s attack magic, Grand Cross.

“Player Aike has released Grand Cross, the priest’s signature attack spell. A sword was used, so it is expected to be considerably sharper than the original Grand Cross.”

“It is worthy of the person who was undefeated in PvP last year. He controlled his divine power very well.”

At the next moment, Hyeonu appeared on the screen.

“Uh...” The commentators who saw that could only sigh with admiration.