The New Frontier of Self-Destruction
Evangeline’s face paled in sheer disbelief. No matter how much of a boss monster he was, this HP and recovery rate was just... Are they seriously expecting us to kill this thing?
At that moment, Gardu swung his sword, triggering a massive explosion in his vicinity.
"Damn it!"
Smith quickly activated a defensive skill to block the blast, but that brief opening was exactly what Gardu wanted.
"Rise!"
"Block him!"
Swoosh!
Gardu is summoning his subordinates!
Fortunately, he hadn't summoned his entire crew. Perhaps because the bomb traps had already wiped out so much of his forces, only the elite subordinates who usually flanked Gardu emerged. Still, their presence alone exerted immense pressure. They were no pushovers.
"Ye who were captains of the pirate fleet in life, but became my slaves in death! Go and slaughter them!"
As the elite warriors clad in captain's attire charged forward swinging their weapons, the players were instantly pushed back.
"I shall hold them! Follow me!"
Count Anong charged back into the fray, leading his knights. Crash! Heavily armored warhorses clad in gleaming barding trampled the pirate warriors beneath their hooves. Seizing the opening, Count Anong and his knights swung their weapons, battering the enemy warriors left and right.
"Excellent work, Count Anong!"
Tae-hyun let out a sigh of relief and lunged forward. As long as the subordinates were taken care of, dealing with Gardu was much easier. The rankers and high-level players held the front line, while the rest of the forces rained down ranged attacks from behind. Despite bringing so many warriors with him, Gardu found himself isolated, trapped within the encirclement, and thoroughly battered.
Gardu retaliated fiercely even while taking hits, but with two ranker tanks like Smith and Evangeline on the field, his counterattacks struggled to find purchase. Only the exceptionally unlucky players got hit and logged out!
"Krrraaaack!"
"...!"
Along with a massive roar echoing from the ships out at sea, crimson Krakens emerged. They were combat-type magical beasts resembling giant octopuses! Given enough time, the players could easily defeat them, but time was exactly what Gardu was trying to buy. If left unchecked, those magical beasts would charge in and shatter the encirclement!
"Tae-hyun! What do we do?!" Smith asked, his voice laced with panic.
"Don't worry. I've prepared something for this."
"...?"
Smith stared at him in bewilderment. He still has a hidden trump card? What on earth could it be? There didn't seem to be anything left that could turn the tide...
"Let's go!"
"...???"
Blacksmiths who had been waiting inside the fortress suddenly charged out! Smith gasped in shock at the sight. No matter how skilled they were, how could mere blacksmiths take on magical beasts? Even if they tried to throw bombs, they would be logged out before they could even get close.
"Tae-hyun! That's a bit..."
"How are they supposed to stop them with that?!"
"Are you ready?"
"Okay! Launch!"
The blacksmiths who charged out didn't run straight toward the enemy. They knew all too well that if they ran on foot, they would be obliterated by the beasts' ranged attacks before they could even get close. Instead, they chose to rely on Engineering. It was sad and painful to craft something other than pure bombs, but they endured. All for the glorious opportunity to launch and detonate an even bigger, more powerful explosion! After strapping a massive amount of bombs to their bodies, they climbed onto the catapults.
"Now!"
Thwang! The catapults fired with immense force, launching the blacksmiths high into the air at incredible speed. Whoosh!
"Three, two, one..."
Flap!
The blacksmiths soaring through the air deployed their gliders. This was also an Engineering item! Because they were much harder to control than flying mounts, almost no one sought them out, but they were perfect for a situation like this. Since they were crafted for single-use anyway, it didn't matter if they got hit and destroyed.
The Power Warrior Guild members waiting in the rear stared in absolute horror at the flying blacksmiths.
"W-What the hell are they?"
"Fufu..." Gabriel watched them with a deeply proud expression. "That is the new frontier of our proud self-destruction tactics... 'Aerial Self-Destruction'."
"..."
"..."
Hearing this, the Power Warrior Guild members slowly backed away to put some distance between them, but Gabriel didn't even notice.
"Traditional self-destruction tactics had the disadvantage of requiring us to catch the enemy off guard or lure them into a trap to close the distance. However, if we can fly through the air like this, we can close the gap instantly and attempt a self-detonation... Wait, where did everyone go?"
While they were bickering, the blacksmiths shot forward like arrows.
"Kreeeeeeek!"
Sensing the approaching enemies, the magical beasts shrieked and unleashed a barrage of attacks, but the blacksmiths maneuvered nimbly through the air, dodging the onslaught. Rip! A few of them had their gliders shattered by grazing blows, but they didn't care. They had already reached their destination anyway!
"Here we go!"
"Drop! Drop!"
They plunged straight toward the magical beasts. And the very moment they got as close as humanly possible...
Kaboom! Crash! Boom!
Self-destruction!
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[Your HP has reached 0...]
The blacksmiths logged out at the exact same moment they leveled up! It was a display of overwhelming firepower that instantly suppressed all the magical beasts trying to crawl out of the sea. Everyone present stood frozen, their mouths agape, utterly speechless. It was an unimaginable spectacle orchestrated by non-combat classes who weren't even level 100!
"W-What in the..."
"How is that even..."
Lee Da-bi, who had been watching the situation unfold, tilted her head in confusion. "But, you know..."
"Yes?"
"Instead of the blacksmiths riding the gliders and flying over themselves, couldn't they just make time bombs and launch those instead? That way, they wouldn't have to die with them..."
"...!"
Gabriel looked as if he had been struck on the head with a hammer. Lee Da-bi stared at him, a sudden realization dawning on her. No way. Did they seriously not think of that?
"N-No! If we did that, the aiming would be imprecise. Precision is everything!"
It was a plausible argument. Though, of course, that wasn't the reason Gabriel and the blacksmiths had done it at all.
"I suppose that makes sense."
"And besides, doing it that way lacks style..."
That was the real reason!
"Excuse me?" Lee Da-bi wondered if she had misheard him for a second.
"Tae-hyun, I must apologize. Those people are truly incredible..."
"If you have time to talk, use it to beat up Gardu."
Tae-hyun stacked his Lucky Strike as he pummeled Gardu. Thwack! Thud! Bam!
"You little rat...!"
Because Gardu's HP was so high and his recovery speed was so absurdly fast, he didn't even bother dodging most attacks. Yet, if there was one thing he absolutely avoided, it was Tae-hyun's spear attacks! He was hyper-focused on Tae-hyun to the exclusion of everyone else. Damn it. There are so many people here, why are you only targeting me? Tae-hyun smacked his lips in annoyance.
Looking at the current situation, it seemed like they were overwhelming Gardu, but in reality, things weren't going that well. They needed to deal decisive damage, but Gardu was enduring everything with his overwhelming HP and recovery rate. Instead, it was the raid force that was slowly being worn down. Tae-hyun needed to create some sort of variable to break Gardu's defense, but Gardu was keeping his guard up against Tae-hyun and Tae-hyun alone. I taunted him way too much!
Thanks to that, the other players didn't have to worry as much about defense or evasion while fighting the boss, but what mattered most right now was offense.
"Aaaaargh!"
Boom! Crash! Bang!
Gardu unleashed curse after curse, relentlessly targeting only Tae-hyun! Tae-hyun gave up on attacking entirely and focused solely on dodging. If he got greedy and tried to squeeze in a few more hits, he might end up getting logged out.
Left, up, then diagonally back to the right... As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Tae-hyun dodged the rapidly incoming curses, prompting gasps of admiration from the raid players.
"Whoa...!"
"How on earth is he dodging all of those?"
Of course, from Tae-hyun's perspective, it was just absurd.
"Are you guys even pulling aggro?!" Tae-hyun shouted at the tanks while narrowly dodging another incoming curse.
"W-We're trying! We're trying, but...!"
"Gardu won't even look at us!"
He was completely ignoring them!
Tae-hyun pondered. Should I use Archisus's Curse right now?
Archisus's Curse. It was an incredibly broken curse skill when fighting a single opponent. The problem was, even if he used it now, it might not have much of an effect. Archisus's Curse was a luck-related debuff. As far as Tae-hyun knew, the effects of low luck included skills failing, every hit taken becoming a critical hit, equipment breaking easily, and so on.
However, the only skill Gardu was currently using was the curse he was hurling at Tae-hyun; he was easily overwhelming the rest of the raid with just his basic attacks. For a boss monster, he used surprisingly few skills! If Tae-hyun recklessly cast Archisus's Curse, he might just waste his Luck stat for nothing, like pouring water into a bottomless pot.
Should I use the Ancient Hammer to break his weapon first? To stop him from raising more subordinates? But since he's so wary of me, he'll definitely react the moment I switch weapons and charge. In that case, should I still go with the curse...? In the span of a single second, countless thoughts flashed through Tae-hyun's mind.
The battle along the coast of the Atali Kingdom was being broadcast live by dozens of players. With most famous players currently conserving their strength for the upcoming tournament, this was a massive event the community hadn't seen in a long time! Furthermore, the names of the participating rankers were illustrious: Tae-hyun, Cain, Smith, Evangeline, Alcott, Crawford, and more. Although dozens of players were streaming, the vast majority of viewers were tuned into a single broadcast: the Power Warrior Guild's stream!
Thanks to their prime broadcasting location and their willingness to generously share all kinds of exclusive information regarding the battle, the Power Warrior Guild's stream was on an entirely different level compared to the others. What kind of knighthood was that? What kind of golem was the one that just appeared? When and how was this fortress built? The Power Warrior Guild members were making a killing by revealing information they had received permission from Tae-hyun to share!
"T-The viewer count just surpassed 100,000!"
"A new record... It's a new record...!"
The guild members felt their hands trembling. They knew this was a major event, but they never expected the numbers to shatter the ceiling like this!
"Keep going, Min-soo! Do something more! This is our chance!"
"Do what?! I'm already explaining everything as best as I can!"
Choi Min-soo panicked. Of course, he also wanted to draw in an even larger crowd while they had this golden opportunity. But there was nothing left to show!
"Should I just start making stuff up?"
"Like what?"
"Maybe some rumors about the rankers over there..."
"...Can you actually handle the consequences of that?"
While the Power Warrior Guild members were indulging in these happy worries, there were others watching the battle with dead-serious expressions. They were the players from the giant guilds!
"...This is insane. He was this powerful?"
"How did he gather so many players? Kim Tae-hyun doesn't even have a guild..."
"The players are one thing, but the other assets are even more mind-blowing. How did he get that golem? And what is up with that absurd amount of bombs? He can still command a whole order of knights, too?"
They watched the battle with eyes full of shock. The military power of this territory was beyond anything they had imagined! The Atali Kingdom was different from typical cities or castles, and because its facilities were somewhat lacking, they had looked down on it. But once the battle began, hidden forces seemed to spring forth like an endless fountain. And every single one of those forces was enough to send a chill down the spine of anyone watching.
If we were to wage a siege against him, could we win?
Not a single person could confidently answer yes.