A God's Strike and a Flawless Victory

When Tae-hyun bellowed using his Speech skill, the intermediate and lower-tier demons nearby began to flee in a mad panic. The demon Thousand-man Commanders gnashed their teeth and tried to restore order, but their efforts were utterly futile.

"Aaaargh! It's Archisus! It's the real Archisus!"

"Why the hell isn't that crazy bastard Adad fighting himself instead of ordering us to do it?! Selfishness is a demon's birthright!"

Thanks to their flight, the space around them cleared out like a receding tide. This made things significantly easier for Tae-hyun and his raid party.

Hmm. Can we actually pull this off?

Despite his confident words to Cain, Tae-hyun hadn't actually resolved to fight to the death. His plan was simple: test the waters, and if the boss seemed unkillable, beat a hasty retreat! Thanks to the raid party's wild rampage, the enemy's formation was already in shambles. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠With Tae-hyun's abilities, escaping would be a breeze.

A commander leading a demon army of this scale had to be a direct underling of a Demon Duke. Surely, he would be around the same level of strength as Galgral or Lalgrgal?

Now, how should I initiate the attack—

"I'm going in!"

"????"

While Tae-hyun was still calculating his skill combos, Cain let out a roaring battle cry and charged forward. Tae-hyun momentarily wondered if Cain had lost his mind, but there was a method to his madness. Swept up in the heat of the moment, the raid players were recklessly throwing themselves at the demon commander.

No matter how absurdly powerful their buffs were, charging blindly at a demon commander was suicide! Realizing this, Cain had stepped up to draw the aggro and tank the boss.

Wait, Cain is actually making a smart play?

Tae-hyun watched in sheer disbelief. They say people can change, but this was practically a miracle.

"You miserable insects must be begging for death!"

Naturally, the demon commander was absolutely furious. He might fear Archisus, but he certainly wouldn't tolerate these other pathetic weaklings defying him!

"Die, you arrogant trash! Kneel before me!"

"?"

"Wait, it didn't work...?"

The players stared at the demon commander in blank confusion. The demon commander was instantly flushed with intense embarrassment. After all, there was nothing more humiliating in the world than confidently unleashing an ultimate skill only for it to be completely neutralized!

"D-Die! You worthless trash!"

"Look at him. He's totally throwing a tantrum because he's embarrassed."

"Die!"

The demon commander drew his weapon. It was a battleaxe personally bestowed upon him by Adad, a fearsome weapon pulsing with the concentrated, malevolent mana of the Demon Realm.

Whoosh! Clang!

"?"

"Wait, did he just block that?"

"Is Cain insanely strong, or is that boss just weak?"

"I know Cain is a top-tier tank, but he's still a player... The boss has to be a pushover, right?"

Having his most confident strike effortlessly blocked by Cain, the demon commander froze in utter bewilderment. Even the surrounding players were stunned, so one could only imagine the sheer shock the boss himself was experiencing!

Cain, who had just scooped up a massive chunk of free reputation out of nowhere, blinked in confusion. What the hell is going on?

But he didn't have time to ponder.

"Attack!!!"

The raid players instantly realized the boss was a paper tiger and charged with ferocious intensity. Dozens of melee skills and ranged spells rained down simultaneously, obliterating the demon commander's defenses. Not wanting to be left out, Cain repeatedly bashed the boss with his shield to disrupt his movements.

And finally, Tae-hyun stepped forward to deliver the finishing blow.

"Critical Explosion!"

It was a devastating strike that detonated every single critical stack he had accumulated while carving through the demon horde!

As soon as the buff expired, Tae-hyun immediately activated another skill.

"Archisus's Dice!"

Talk about luck!

The Archisus's Dice skill, which granted a completely random buff, could easily turn out to be utterly useless depending on the situation. However, the Blessing of Accuracy was an incredibly potent buff for their current predicament. It was a divine blessing that completely bypassed the demon commander's evasion!

"Archisus's Third Attack!"

"!!"

He had originally hoped to reach Master rank during his previous quest. It seemed the massive amount of skill experience he had steadily accumulated had finally pushed it over the threshold!

That took forever...!

Since Tae-hyun didn't have a dedicated swordsman class, he didn't possess a single bonus modifier for swordsmanship skills. While other players leveled up their skills three or four times faster, Tae-hyun had to grind his way up the hard way, step by grueling step!

"...!"

[!!]

Tae-hyun and Carbanog were simultaneously stunned. Although Tae-hyun had acquired and witnessed countless swordsmanship skills throughout his gaming career, this one was on an entirely different level. It was, quite literally, a strike of a god!

But the cooldown... is one year.

Aside from the staggering penalty of not being able to use it for an entire year once activated, it easily appeared to be the most devastating skill in Tae-hyun's entire arsenal. Critical damage boosted by his Luck stat? Accumulated critical stacks? None of those could even begin to compare to this raw power! At this point, even a one-year cooldown felt like a perfectly reasonable price to pay.

"Urgh! Cough! Ack! Gack!"

While Tae-hyun was busy admiring his new swordsmanship skill, the demon commander was being beaten to a bloody pulp. Who could have ever predicted that a boss monster of his caliber would be utterly helpless, unable to land a single counterattack? He wasn't supposed to fall this easily. He still had an entire army of perfectly healthy subordinates at his disposal...

But with the vast majority of the demons fleeing in terror at the mere mention of Archisus's name, and the Thousand-man and Ten-thousand-man Commanders completely demoralized by the raid party's overwhelming momentum and divine buffs, there was not a single soul left to aid the commander.

Under normal circumstances, the raid players should have been terrified by the swarms of demons surrounding them. Instead, their morale soared to unprecedented heights. Kim Tae-hyun is here! Kim Tae-hyun is leading us! Despite being a hastily assembled pickup group, their coordination was flawless, executing complex maneuvers with perfect synergy. Even the players themselves found it hard to believe. It was almost like a state of collective hypnosis!

Their attacks grew increasingly precise and lethal. Every player was performing at the absolute peak of their mechanical ability, unleashing one perfect combo after another.

Wait... are we actually going to kill him?

The thought suddenly crossed Tae-hyun's mind. We can actually do this! While he had considered the possibility of victory, he had assumed it would require him to exhaust every single trump card in his hand. He had never expected it to be this smooth.

Defeating the commander of an entire demon army by merely renting out five or six Authority skills was an incredibly lucrative trade!

These players are doing way better than I expected!

Tae-hyun realized the truth and was genuinely amazed. This was a pickup group; it wouldn't have been surprising if they scattered and fled the moment things took a turn for the worse. Yet, they were fighting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like absolute madmen, as if they had all taken some kind of performance-enhancing drug. Under their relentless onslaught, the demon commander was the one being utterly overwhelmed!

"Nice job! Melee, chain your skills now!"

"I've applied the curse! Burst him down!"

"Interrupt his casting! Don't give him a single second to breathe!"

"As expected of Kim Tae-hyun...! He must have predicted all of this!"

The players shouted excitedly to one another. Standing nearby, Tae-hyun could only listen in sheer disbelief.

How the hell would I know what skills you guys even have?

They were coordinating perfectly entirely on their own, yet they were somehow attributing all the credit to him. But the players were already hopelessly trapped in their own delusion, convinced that Kim Tae-hyun had calculated every single variable beforehand.

"Attack! At—"

Knowing that the other players had probably leveled up dozens of times, Tae-hyun ignored his own level-up notification and immediately checked his Reputation and Holy stats.

My Reputation is at 190,000... Once it hits 200,000, I can probably clear quests through sheer reputation alone.

At that point, he could literally walk up to NPCs and say, "Do you have any idea who I am? Huh? I've slain dragons! I've slaughtered demons! I've done it all!" and half of his quests would resolve themselves on the spot.

And my Holy stat is closing in on 60,000...

"Kim Tae-hyun! Give us your orders!"

"Kim Tae-hyun!! Just say the word, and we'll follow you straight into hell!"

"In that case, let's retreat!"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"????"

"Our buffs are about to expire. Leave the rest of them and fall back!"

Slaying the commander was an unexpected jackpot that Tae-hyun hadn't even dared to dream of. Having secured such a massive victory, there was no reason to be greedy. He had gotten everything he wanted!

"R-Right. If he says retreat, we retreat."

"Yeah..."

The raid players quickly followed Tae-hyun, rapidly withdrawing from the battlefield. They complied because he ordered it, but they couldn't help but feel a strange, lingering sense of emptiness.

The demon forces didn't even dare to pursue the retreating raid party. The display of martial prowess they had just witnessed was simply too terrifying. Who in their right mind would chase a force that had just charged into their ranks, obliterated everything in their path, decapitated their commander, and casually strolled away?

Although the raid players had been too caught up in the heat of battle to notice, the entire skirmish had been broadcast live across dozens of personal streaming channels. Unlike a grueling, drawn-out siege, this had been a lightning-fast, explosive battle that ended in the blink of an eye! From the moment the city gates opened to the decapitation of the demon commander, the entire operation had taken less than a few hours.

"Dude! You're a superstar right now! Go check the forums!"

"Since when were you this good at Pan-On?!"

Whispers were flooding the inboxes of every single player who had participated in the raid. The battle had been that impactful! Currently, the community forums were completely dominated by discussions of the clash against the demon army.

Players with a keen eye for high-level gameplay began to analyze the battle in depth. While the sheer force of the charge and their overwhelming combat power were impressive, the perfect synergy among strangers was what truly baffled them.

Players who had personally experienced the horrors of the plague curse shut down that opinion with absolute, unwavering resolve.