No Matter How Many Times He Watched It
It was the same no matter how many times he watched it. The raid party that had been pressing their advantage so well... just a second later, they were suddenly blown to pieces and scattered to the winds.
“Master. It is magic. Nitinger blew them away with Word Magic,” Heuk-heuk explained telepathically.
“My Lord. Nitinger is a dragon far stronger than Hakkaras. The same goes for his magic,” Yong-yong added.
Heuk-heuk and Yong-yong began to explain. Fundamentally, Red Dragons were stronger than Black Dragons! The only thing Black Dragons did better than Red Dragons was underhanded scheming.
“Aren't Red Dragons supposed to just have terrible tempers? Why are they so good at magic too?” Cain asked.
At Cain's question, the two dragons stared at him as if looking at a mere slave of Archisus. It was an incredibly offensive gaze, even if he couldn't quite put his finger on why!
“Dragons are the masters of magic. What does a bad temper have to do with anything? If a dragon has a bad temper, they simply cast devastating magic with that bad temper,” Yong-yong scoffed.
“It seems Nitinger has become several times stronger than before. To think he could wield Word Magic so flawlessly...” Heuk-heuk murmured.
Word Magic—one of the most notoriously difficult magic systems in existence! In theory, it possessed infinite possibilities, as it could manifest anything exactly as spoken.
Naturally, it had its drawbacks: astronomical mana consumption and extreme difficulty. Casting a spell through Word Magic consumed tens or hundreds of times more MP than standard casting. Furthermore, if the desired effect became even slightly complex, the failure rate skyrocketed. It was a form of magic that was practically impossible to showcase unless one was a dragon.
“Huh? But don't you guys not use Word Magic?” Cain pointed out.
Heuk-heuk primarily used black magic, while Yong-yong favored lightning magic.
“...”
“...”
Caught completely off guard by Cain, both dragons fell dead silent.
“W-Word Magic is honestly just inefficient... It's only used by show-offs...” Heuk-heuk stammered.
“Y-yes, indeed. It's not that we can't use Word Magic, we simply choose not to...” Yong-yong chimed in.
“So you just can't use it, then?”
“...”
“...”
Tears began to well up in the corners of both dragons' eyes.
“?!”
“Why did you have to go and say that to make them cry?” Lee Da-bi scolded.
“She's right, Cain. Apologize to them quickly,” Tae-hyun added.
“Ah, no... I was just... I was just curious... I'm sorry, okay? My bad...” Cain flusteredly apologized.
Only after receiving his apology did the two dragons wipe away their tears.
“It's not that we are weak, it's just that Nitinger is exceptionally strong,” Yong-yong sniffled.
“Exactly. Dragons grow stronger as they age, but we are still so young...” Heuk-heuk agreed.
“Alright, alright. Just ignore Cain. So, what you're saying is Nitinger is definitely stronger than Hakkaras?” Tae-hyun asked.
“He won't resort to cunning or underhanded tricks, but in terms of pure magical prowess, it's not even close,” Yong-yong confirmed.
“He must have spent his entire life studying magic while sleeping. Quite uncharacteristic for a Red Dragon,” Heuk-heuk muttered.
“What kind of Red Dragon actually studies? What an absurd fellow,” Yong-yong grumbled.
The two dragons, their pride deeply wounded, continued to hurl insults at Nitinger, but Tae-hyun wasn't listening.
‘Stronger than Hakkaras...’
As he replayed the video slowly several times, the situation became clear. The reason Nitinger had remained submerged beneath the sea, quietly taking hits, was because he was preparing his magic.
The raid party had assumed Nitinger was silent because their attacks were working, but that was a fatal miscalculation.
‘Is this guy really a Red Dragon with anger issues? He seems to control his anger perfectly fine.’
Judging by his split-second decision-making, his cognitive capacity was easily worth ten Cains. Tae-hyun felt a chill run down his spine. If a dragon was this smart on top of being powerful, how on earth were players supposed to hunt him?!
“Don't tell me... did he turn the entire surrounding sea into lava to melt the traps, and then trigger a tsunami to blow them all away?”
Carbanog agrees that your hypothesis seems correct.
“...Insane.”
He actually found himself missing Hakkaras, who had merely spammed curses and dragon breath. Nitinger's scale of destruction was on a whole other level. He was a literal flying natural disaster!
Tae-hyun shook his head and opened the next video. Aside from that one, the community boards were currently flooded with posts about the Nitinger raid.
‘Yeah, I should ignore these.’
You crazy bastards, go hunt him yourselves!
He played the next video, which vividly captured the Nitinger raid party being utterly demolished.
“Attack again! Nitinger still can't fly!”
The raid party fought exceptionally well. Even as the situation fell apart, Lin Zhipeng continued to command until the very end, and the rankers didn't retreat, relentlessly pouring down attacks. In truth, Nitinger was indeed unable to emerge from beneath the sea!
Yet, Nitinger still completely overwhelmed the raid party. Devastating high-tier magic continuously erupted from beneath the ocean! With every blast, mercenary NPCs were wiped out, and the siege weapons installed on the reefs were swept away. By this point, the raid party realized it was over. Relying solely on standard spells had been their mistake. They should have prepared far more powerful means—like Tae-hyun's demonic army!
“...Retreat!”
“W-where to?!”
“Scatter for now! If we bunch up, we'll all be wiped out!”
At Lin Zhipeng's shout, the rankers swallowed their tears and began to scatter in their respective parties. The raid was a failure. And in the wake of the scattered raid party, Nitinger was left alone. An extremely pissed-off Red Dragon—a being capable of bringing ruin to the entire continent.
“Wow. That gives me goosebumps.”
Tae-hyun felt a shiver run down his spine. The final shot of the video happened to be Nitinger's glaring eyes, glowing beneath the dark ocean waters. It looked exactly like a horror movie trailer!
“So, what happened next?”
“Nitinger is currently on a rampage...” Lee Da-bi replied.
Fortunately, the vampires were safe. Nitinger seemed to prefer venting his anger on humans rather than smelly vampires. The first to suffer was a port city in the Auston Kingdom. Nitinger went there and cleanly erased the city from the map. Next, he headed to a port city in the Erangs Kingdom, further to the west. And he erased that city as well. By this point, the community boards had completely exploded. Players had realized the gravity of the situation and rapidly shared the information.
It was absolute chaos! Lee Da-bi was busy sending out members of the Power Warrior Guild to gather as much information as possible.
“Right now, Nitinger is resting. He's probably trying to recover his mana...”
“He isn't flying, then.”
Carbanog states that it is because he was hit by the debuffs and status ailments earlier.
In the video captured by Power Warrior, Nitinger was walking around as he destroyed the cities. Even though his wings were intact, he couldn't fly! The debuffs had indeed been effective.
‘In that case, the other restrictions should still be in effect...’ But did he really have to destroy entire cities in one go?
“Well, nothing we can do. Let's go.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down!” Alcott, who was still standing nearby, gasped in shock and tried to stop Tae-hyun.
He could understand using the demonic army. There were plenty of targets to die in Tae-hyun's place, and with Tae-hyun's skills, he could easily escape on his own. But going to hunt a dragon was a completely different story. This beast was even more powerful than Hakkaras!
“Facing Nitinger right now is suicide! Besides, the Valley is far away. Just leave him be for now! Even if he comes toward the Atali Kingdom, the northwest region isn't under your direct rule... Ah. Kim Tae-hyun. I get it. You're planning to offer him the stone tablet, aren't you? I know your Speech skill is incredibly high, but now is the time to hold back. Later...”
“Wow. I didn't know he could talk that fast.”
“First time seeing it myself,” Cain agreed.
Tae-hyun's group marveled at Alcott. He usually maintained a cool and composed image, but in this situation, he was speaking at a breakneck speed. It was pure survival instinct!
“Well, Alcott. First of all, you're misunderstanding something. Of course, I do plan to offer him the stone tablet and try to make peace. But if reconciliation is impossible, I will attack.”
“!!!!!”
First shock!
“And even if those northwestern cities aren't under my direct rule, they belong to the NPCs who pay taxes to me.”
If it were the south, he might have let it slide, but the north was already the territory of noble NPCs who had sworn absolute loyalty to Tae-hyun.
Carbanog asks if that battle-crazed Count Marchetti's city wasn't in the northwest.
‘Right. That Dong Zhuo-like bastard... No, still, he's a guy who pays taxes to me...’
“If he comes that way, I will stop him no matter what. I have no intention of letting him run wild.”
“B-but...”
“And lastly, I have no intention of forcing you to come. If you don't want to go, you don't have to.”
“?!?”
Alcott was startled. Was this a trap?
“If... if I don't go...”
“If you don't go?”
“...Are you going to kill me?”
If the moment he refused, the rest of the group attacked him all at once...
“...”
“...”
The atmosphere suddenly turned ice-cold. Tae-hyun's group twirled their fingers around their temples, asking each other with their eyes:
Is Alcott out of his mind?
He's always been a bit paranoid, but this...
Noticing their reactions, Alcott's face flushed red as he yelled,
“K-Kim Tae-hyun was exactly like this in Pandemonium Online 1! You bastards!”
At that, all eyes turned to Tae-hyun. Tae-hyun shamelessly denied it.
“I never did that.”
“...You shameless bastard...!”
“He said he didn't!” Cain barked.
“Yeah, Alcott! Stop trying to frame him!” Lee Da-bi chimed in.
“Are you trampling on our good intentions?!”
Tae-hyun quieted his companions down and spoke.
“Alcott. I'll say it again, I think highly of you.”
“...!”
Thump!
Alcott felt a surge of emotion, like a child getting praised for scoring a perfect hundred on a test.
“You are an excellent spy.”
“...”
This son of a... Was he not evaluating his actual combat abilities?! Just when he was starting to feel touched!
“And you're an outstanding ranker. You've contributed a lot to this quest as well. Of course, I did use to set traps with those kinds of questions back then...”
So you did do it in Pan-On 1!
“...But that was only for those who had committed crimes. I have no intention of doing that to you. As you said, Nitinger is extremely dangerous, and I also believe I could die if my calculations fail. That's why I won't force you. If you really don't want to go, you don't have to.”
“...”
“Now, let's move! If Nitinger comes to the Atali Kingdom, we stop him no matter what!”
Cain enthusiastically picked up the momentum.
“Though it would obviously be best if Nitinger didn't come this way at all!”
“...”
“Cain. Did you really have to ruin the mood?” Lee Da-bi sighed.
“W-what? No, you guys were all thinking the exact same thing! Why are you only picking on me?!”
Alcott felt a renewed sense of admiration for Tae-hyun's group. Even though facing Nitinger was incredibly dangerous, they followed Tae-hyun's decision without a single shred of doubt. This was a level of absolute trust rarely seen anywhere else!
“...I'm coming too!”
“What? Hey, I told you there's no trap. You can sit this one out.”
“Hmph. It's not that. I simply know that Kim Tae-hyun is not a man who fights without a chance of winning. You must have a plan. In that case, staying with you will yield the greatest profit.”
Carbanog asks if you actually have a plan.
‘Well... honestly, my plan was to draw aggro and then run toward another kingdom if things went south...’
The Auston Kingdom was conveniently close, after all... But Alcott, completely oblivious to Tae-hyun's true thoughts, was thoroughly swept up in the emotional atmosphere. He, too, wanted to be a part of this beautiful circle of trust.
Cain looked at Alcott and asked,
“Hey. If you're tag-teaming with us, can't you invite some of your close ranker friends too?”
“Who in their right mind would come to fight Nitinger?”
Anyone who saw that video and still agreed to come would have to be either completely insane or utterly brainless.
“?? Well, obviously you don't tell them what we're fighting.”
“...”
Alcott stared in absolute horror. Just what was wrong with Cain's thought process?!