Sudden Ambush and Black Reaper's Counterattack
Thud.
Daron crumpled sideways, a hole punched clean through the back of his head.
“Ugh….”
Fafnir, who had been standing with his neck stretched long in a lazy stretch, took one step back.
Anyone looking would have seen the perfectly timed cancel of a Great Bash.
“Hey! Looks like we’ve got a necromancer!”
“Detect him!”
The Iron Blood crew faltered.
Fafnir grinned and charged straight at them.
One hand loose at his side, the other palm open.
Tanker Bado-cheol braced for impact.
‘Great Bash again? What a fucking idiot.’
This time he planned to just push in.
But Fafnir stopped right in front of him.
“Blood Explosion.”
“……!”
The moment the blood from the caster splashed out, Bado-cheol who hadn’t even raised his guard got drenched in his own blood.
Then the explosion went off.
“W-what the hell? Did he just cast a spell?”
“That guy’s a mage?”
“No way, we haven’t even found the necromancer yet!”
Already two of the Iron Blood crew were dead.
The remaining ones panicked as Skeleton B, Penelope, and Bell surrounded them from every direction.
“Hic… hic…”
“Glug… glug…”
In the meantime the other four finally caught their breath.
Hilde, who had just downed a potion, turned toward Fafnir.
“Wow…”
Surprisingly, Fafnir was overpowering three of them single-handedly.
Every time a mage started chanting, Skeleton B’s interference kicked in and the other two were desperately dodging his blood magic.
“Insane. How the hell is he doing this?”
“His level’s probably similar to ours.”
Drexler and Veron were stunned too.
They had known from hunting that his control was insane, but overwhelming five people like this?_Even in a fight against Iron Blood Alliance elites, no less.
‘Did Fafnir hide his level?’
Of course not.
In this game there was zero reason to hide anything.
So how exactly was he able to 5-on-1?
The answer was right in front of them.
An absurdly simple reason.
Control!
***
“Goddammit, take this!”
Iron Blood Jin-kwon shouted in a state of extreme rage.
In front of him lay the corpse of the mage.
-HP below 10%!
-10 or more status effects applied!
-Multiple status effects can sync and create additional effects!
-MP depleted!
-Stamina insufficient!
A flood of status messages flashed before his eyes.
Shockingly, Jin-kwon had not landed a single valid hit on Fafnir the entire time.
‘Just how high is this bastard’s level?’
The Iron Blood crew couldn’t wrap their heads around it.
Their levels hovered around 230, owners of specs in the top 10% of the Korean server.
‘His reflexes aren’t even enough to keep up with a Monk?’
A Monk who was weak in demo battles but had outstanding PVP specs, a Thief whose speed and attack speed rivaled his, even they couldn’t land a valid hit on Fafnir.
“Wind God Punch!”
Jin-kwon saw an opening and rushed in with an uppercut.
A skill that forcefully lifted the opponent into the air at super speed.
But Fafnir ducked as if he had predicted it.
‘The skill animation is way too big.’
Fafnir’s eyes sparkled and he drove his sword straight into Jin-kwon’s abdomen.
“What? That can’t be—”
‘Impossible. How is that even happening?’
Fafnir chuckled inwardly as he watched the shock on the Iron Blood caster’s face.
He was the kind of player who timed attacks on flying dragons moving at near supersonic speed from 200 meters away.
Dragon Hunters in this game faced every kind of magic, impossible physical abilities, and the weirdest patterns to test players.
Frontal Hellfire Breath, followed by wing strikes and debris, then tail slams.
It was already hard to dodge all of it, and there was never even a one-second window to slip through and counter.
If you missed that tiny gap, those ruthless patterns would repeat endlessly.
Players who had once pulled off the impossible back in the real world were now the current Dragon Hunters.
Fafnir sat at the very top even among them.
Humanoid-type monsters were tutorial-level compared to Dragon Hunters.
In other words, even if you called them rankers in this world, they were nothing more than easy prey to Fafnir.
Like the former Kingsman Guild rankers, for example.
‘The only difference is that my equipment is a bit better, so I have to hit them a little longer!’
That part was almost over anyway.
Fafnir thought.
‘Once I take care of these guys, I’ll search around and find the others too.’
A few days ago it had been said that guild masters from guilds under the Iron Blood Alliance were also here.
Their skill levels were average, but their specs were top-tier ranker level—treasure Goblins.
Even if it wasn’t for profit, Fafnir had no intention of letting them live anyway.
No guild master under his banner was actually helping users in the first place.
‘And I need to move to the next stage too.’
No need to drag this out any longer.
Fafnir nodded, and the Skeleton B’s raised their swords with menacing glares.
That was when—
“Kuh… kuuuh…”
A gurgling sound came from behind him.
-Veron has died.
“……”
“Veron!”
Right in the middle of the party, a dagger was buried straight into Veron’s chest, right where he was coughing up blood.
“Eh?”
“What?!”
The party members gasped in shock.
Fafnir’s face froze solid.
At that exact moment something in the darkness reflected light.
“……”
Fafnir rolled sideways without hesitation.
Even though he threw away all form, he had to if he wanted to live.
‘Here, in this place…’
Recalling old memories, Fafnir swung his blood magic like a wall.
Clang! The sword that bounced straight off the wall took a weird angle and slammed down from behind the assassin’s head.
An angle that even ordinary people couldn’t see.
But the assassin tilted his neck just enough to dodge it.
“……”
“……”
Their eyes locked.
‘That angle definitely couldn’t have been seen.’
‘He must have rushed in after killing his own presence.’
They had exchanged one blow each.
“Watch out! The necromancer’s hiding!”
Iron Blood Jin-kwon shouted as he watched.
“Necromancer?”
The assassin tilted his head in confusion.
“He’s a necromancer?”
“What?”
Then did that mean they had been three-on-one’d by a necromancer in close quarters?
No.
The real problem was that a necromancer who could counter-attack at an angle by using the wall after dodging an assassin’s stealth strike was absurd on its own.
“Just what the hell…”
“Wait, could that guy be Fafnir…?! It’s Fafnir!”
One of his subordinates suddenly shouted.
“Fafnir?”
Fafnir was easy to understand.
The number-one contributor ranking player that all guild leaders were desperately searching for.
Meanwhile the assassin who had landed on the ground spoke up.
“You’ve gotten stronger.”
“You’re the one who should say that.”
Fafnir fired back without missing a beat.
Watching from the side, Drexler and Hilde turned to the assassin.
“Whoa, that guy… what the hell did he just do?”
“He’s definitely… a ranker…”
Hilde and Drexler’s prediction was only half right.
The assassin, Black Reaper, was not a ranker.
But she was certainly strong enough to hunt those very rankers down!
“You barely survived…”
Jin-kwon sighed in relief and shouted.
“But why the hell are you so late? You were summoned ages ago!”
“Don’t talk nonsense. PVP wasn’t even in the contract.”
It seemed like Jin-kwon and the assassin had made some kind of deal.
That was when Fafnir, watching the assassin closely, raised a finger and asked.
“You’re not the one I met in the sewers, are you…?”
The assassin who had appeared was indeed the same person from the underground sewers of the capital.
Her equipment had changed a bit, but the shape of the turban wrapped around her body was identical, so he knew immediately.
“……So you really do remember me.”
The corner of the assassin’s masked mouth lifted slightly.
At that moment—
“Black Reaper!”
“……”
The assassin’s mouth went dry for a second.
“No…”
“By the way, what the hell are you doing with the Iron Blood crew? Are they your lackeys?”
The assassin shook her head slightly at Fafnir’s question.
“No way.”
“That sounds about right.”
“……I was the first one to discover this place. They bought it with money.”
“What, so you’re the knight who gave them the bus ride.”
“……”
The more he talked, the more irritated he got.
Haaah.
The assassin sighed and raised her dagger.
“Enough. Die.”
The next instant black fog enveloped the surroundings.
Cling-cling! Bright flashes of light in the fog!
“Fafnir-nim!”
“Louis, illuminate the darkness with your light! Holy Light!”
Lihana hurriedly chanted.
The moment the burst of light cleared the fog, the assassin and Fafnir’s forms were revealed.
It was quite different from everyone’s expectations.
“……”
The assassin tilted her head in confusion.
And Fafnir, who was standing there perfectly alive after putting distance between them, was also visible.
“If it was back then, I would have just abandoned the quest and run away.”
But right now, after hunting so many monsters, collecting every skill, and getting equipped—he was more than capable of taking on the assassin as well.
“Then I’ll go all out from now on.”
Fafnir braced his stance.
***
Scrape.
Jin-kwon rolled his eyes.
“……What?”
For a Monk like him, PVP was like factory job manual.
If the opponent was stronger up front, he used a skill to block; if weaker, he just body-checked and pinned them down.
To him the fight between Fafnir and the assassin was no different from kids playing tag on the playground.
“What the hell are they even doing… Why aren’t they just fighting? They’ve been circling for a while now.”
The assassin throwing only knives to test the waters.
Fafnir spinning in circles and just staring each other down.
Jin-kwon’s eyes couldn’t understand either of them.
But…
-Stealth mode activated.
-Undetectable.
-Enemy detected!
-Stealth mode deactivated.
-Stealth mode activated.
-Enemy detected!
-Stealth mode deactivated.
“……”
The assassin, Black Reaper, flinched.
‘This guy never even gives a gap even if I’m dead… That bastard.’
Normally an assassin player would use one stealth attack to knock out the enemy in the dark.
The famous ‘kill angle.’
It was the only way; over 90% of assassin skills came with stealth bonuses.
‘If I just get one good shot, I can kill him.’
Even if he hid behind Skeleton B and backed off, Fafnir wouldn’t lose sight of him.
Of course if he had stopped there earlier, he would have been dead already.
But Fafnir was also good at close-quarters combat.‘Even back then he was the type who knew how to control things… What changed in the meantime.’
No, thinking about it, he had always been one step ahead even then.
The Black Reaper who had retreated asked.
“You’re not a necromancer? Hidden class?”
“Hidden?”
“Like Death Swordman or some Death Warrior thing.”
‘Did such classes even exist?’
They weren’t in the novel, but there seemed to be several hidden classes.
“I’m under no obligation to tell you.”
“Hah…”
A deep sigh escaped the Black Reaper.
“I shouldn’t have used this in a place like this. Since I signed the contract, there’s nothing I can do.”
After speaking, the Black Reaper pulled out an item and threw it.
A green light surrounded the floating item.
-Recording block gem used.
-For 10 minutes, all external connections such as recording and live streaming within a 100m radius are blocked.
One of the few items you could buy in the cash shop!
It blocked not only in-game functions but also external ones, so the price was insanely high.
One per minute within a 10m range.
The cheapest one cost 500,000 won.
‘It must be over a hundred million won at the very least.’
The important part wasn’t that.
The Black Reaper slowly raised both daggers and closed her eyes.
“Dark… dark… deep into the darkness.”
While muttering like a chant, she bent at the waist.
“What?”
“What kind of stupid pose is that? Hey! Stop screwing around and move!”
Hilde’s group tilted their heads.
That was actually pretty good compared to the others.
Jin-kwon couldn’t hold back and yelled.
But there was one person who was different.
Fafnir.
‘That’s… it.’
Gulp, he tightened his grip on the blood magic sword.
The next moment the Black Reaper vanished without a sound.
“What?!”
“Blink?”
The party who were watching with their eyes wide open were bewildered.
Blink?
No.
It was just that she had momentarily surpassed the speed of sound, so it looked that way.
‘Here she comes!’
Fafnir gritted his teeth and swung his sword down.
Kakakak!
-Perfectly defended against enemy attack.
-Swordsmanship mastery increased.
A black shadow bounced away with a burst of sparks.
The assassin who had performed several aerial flips landed with a trembling voice and looked up.
“How… did you block that?”
How.
Fafnir just grinned instead of answering.
‘As expected, he comes straight from the front.’
He had known that would happen.
When the Black Reaper used that skill in the novel,
it was written that her attacks always started from the front.