Run! Run! I Said Run! Can’t You Go Any Faster, You Slug!
"Run! Run! I said run! Can’t you go any faster, you slug!"
"Uwaaaah!"
Count Marcel ran with tears swimming in his eyes. His arrogant manner had disappeared long ago.
You harshly pressured someone and increased the effectiveness of their work.
Tactics has increased.
You have acquired the skill Harsh Whipping.
Temporarily reduces HP and MP while increasing other stats.
......
A skill that fit Tae-hyun perfectly, considering he’d reduced that haughty count to tears and snot while making him run.
What exactly did I do that was so harsh...?
Still, a skill was a skill. He was going to use it.
Harsh Whipping
Count Marcel's HP and MP decrease.
This is a Tactics-related skill.
It is affected by Fame and Infamy.
"Hahk! H-hufff!"
"T-Tae-hyun-nim. If he collapses at this rate..."
"If he collapses, we’ll just say the pirates killed him!"
A simple answer, delivered without even a second’s hesitation.
Hearing that, Count Marcel’s expression crumpled even harder.
"You think this is the time to slow down because that bastard’s moving too slowly? If the pirates catch up, are you going to deal with them? Then run! If you fall behind, survive on your own!"
Far in the distance, the pirates came into view.
When Tae-hyun and Rufo suddenly appeared, the pirates recoiled in shock and shouted,
"Who the hell are those guys?!"
"Stop them! Call the others!"
Instead of answering, Tae-hyun swung his sword.
"Kraaagh!"
"Even if you call them, they’re not coming, you idiots!"
With the attack power multiplied several times over by Lucky Strike, critical hits triggering almost as a matter of course, and the Sword of the Specter Warrior on top of that, every blow tore huge chunks out of a pirate’s HP bar.
Rufo was no slouch, either.
He wasn’t widely known because he belonged to a merchant group, but in pure swordsmanship, he was an NPC of tremendous skill.
Pirates at this level had no chance of stopping them.
"Captain! Captain! Help us!"
"What? Captain?"
If they were talking about a pirate captain, that meant Denelson.
Tae-hyun turned his head and scanned the area.
Denelson was nowhere in sight.
Instead, a large pirate was charging over from the distance with several subordinates at his back.
"Ah. The Vanguard Captain."
A captain was still a captain, after all.
While Tae-hyun was distracted for a moment, a pirate let out a battle cry and lunged at him.
"Die!"
You successfully evaded the attack.
"......"
Tae-hyun and the pirate locked eyes.
"Kyaaaaargh!"
"I’m starting to feel a little bad about this."
Just then, the Pirate Vanguard Captain came barreling in.
Wielding a massive iron mace, he swung as he charged.
Boom!
When the mace smashed into the ground once, it left a deep crater behind.
If it hit properly, it was powerful enough to leave your body unable to function.
"Why’s he so huge?"
"Maybe he’s half-orc?"
Rufo had said it absentmindedly, but to the Vanguard Captain it was a monstrous provocation.
His face flushed red as he roared,
"You bastard! I’ll crush you flat!"
Seeing that, Tae-hyun clicked his tongue in admiration.
"Rufo. Impressive. So you know how to provoke people like that. Attacking a man’s mother is always effective."
"N-no... that’s not what I meant..."
Whether Rufo denied it or not, the Vanguard Captain was already fully enraged.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every swing carried terrifying force, so the two of them focused on dodging for the moment.
Other pirates rushed them in the meantime, but—
Circle of the Rushing Gale!
Rufo’s sword spun in a whirling arc as the skill activated.
The pirates who had charged in screamed as blood sprayed from them.
"Aaaagh!"
"Fall back!"
Rufo showed exactly what a brilliant orthodox swordsman looked like in battle.
It was textbook perfection.
He wasn’t skewed too far toward offense or defense, but balanced between them, steady as a boulder, taking them down one by one without a single wasted motion.
Even when several pirates with bows fired arrows, Rufo didn’t panic. He dodged some and deflected the rest.
Tae-hyun, on the other hand, fought in a completely different style.
Not an orthodox swordsman, but a fighter who had raised all kinds of class skills at once—this was Tae-hyun’s own brand of strength.
He swung his sword like a madman, pouring out attack after attack.
He hardly defended at all.
Before getting hit, he’d evade with almost absurd instinct, and if he did get hit, he’d just trust his luck and let his evasion skills handle it.
As long as I dodge the stuff that really matters, that’s enough. Luck’ll take care of the rest.
From the pirates’ perspective, it was hell.
Tae-hyun’s attack power was no joke, and he was unbelievably quick on top of that.
Even when they surrounded him and managed to strike at once, their blows missed more often than not.
"This bastard’s no ordinary opponent! Watch it!"
"Surround him and stab him all at once!"
Circle of Defense!
Tae-hyun used one of the skills of the Gataqua Swordsmanship.
It was called Circle of Defense, but in practice it was closer to an offensive skill designed for dealing with crowds.
A chained multi-hit attack that struck every enemy rushing into the circle.
Pow! Powpowpow! Powpowpowpowpow!
Sparks flew as Tae-hyun’s sword spun in a blur.
"Out of the way! I’ll handle him!"
As pirate after pirate died, the Vanguard Captain roared and charged in.
The other pirates hurriedly backed off.
They were afraid they’d get caught in the Captain’s attack.
"Die!"
The Vanguard Captain swung his iron mace upward from below.
A red aura exploded to life around the mace and rolled over it like flame.
A skill? I could dodge it... but...
For most people, it would’ve been impossible to avoid.
Tae-hyun, however, was confident he could.
But he didn’t dodge.
Instead, he planted himself and responded with a skill of his own.
Circle of Counterattack!
"T-Tae-hyun-nim?!"
Rufo, fighting nearby, was startled out of his mind.
He was using that skill right now?
Is he insane?!
"Get out of the way! What are you doing?!"
Kakakakakang!
A circle took shape, and Tae-hyun’s feet slid back a little.
The enemy skill was just that powerful.
But it didn’t end there for the Vanguard Captain.
"Guhhhk!"
The iron mace shattered, and the Vanguard Captain was hurled backward and crashed to the ground.
You successfully executed Circle of Counterattack with perfect timing.
Circle of Counterattack has leveled up.
Your swordsmanship skill has increased.
"Captain!"
The pirates were shocked, but Tae-hyun didn’t care in the slightest and charged forward.
When an opponent was down, you had to finish them completely.
The duration of Lucky Strike has ended.
Lucky Strike ×4 Activated in rapid succession.
His attack power shot up in an instant.
Tae-hyun planted a foot on the fallen Vanguard Captain and drove his sword precisely into a vital point.
"I’ll do the same to every last one of you!"
The pirates are terrified by your strength, infamy, and fear stat.
Your Fear stat has increased.
You have received a bonus to the skill Threaten.
You have acquired the skill Intimidate.
Against enemies, it lowers morale and instills fear.
If morale falls below a certain point and fear rises above a threshold, they will flee.
Morale was a pretty important stat in fights like this.
No matter how large their numbers were, if morale dropped low enough and fear climbed high enough, they would run.
And once one person started running, numbers stopped mattering.
Come to think of it... my Fear stat is... already 80?!
Additional stats like Fear, Fame, and Infamy were much easier to raise than stats like Strength or Agility—at least in terms of pure difficulty.
Fame? That went up just by clearing quests and helping NPCs.
Infamy and Fear? You could raise those just by grabbing random people and killing them as you played.
Still, reaching numbers like that required serious, dedicated grinding... no, work.
People called it fame farming, infamy farming, fear farming—tracking down quests that gave lots of Fame, deliberately massacring NPCs, that sort of thing.
And yet Tae-hyun was already sitting at 80 Fear and 250 Infamy.
Is it because of the Sword of the Specter Warrior?
With Fame all the way up at 900, he wasn’t suffering from the effects of Infamy yet, but it was starting to feel a little ominous.
High Fear and Infamy were useful in battle.
If your Fear stat was high, opponents got scared more easily.
And when facing boss monsters, you were less likely to be intimidated yourself.
Infamy, like Fame, had several effects too, so it wasn’t a useless stat.
But... is it really okay for these to keep going up?
That sudden sense of dread was only natural.
Raising Fear and Infamy was the classic path toward becoming a villain-type character.
"Spare me! Spare me!"
"That bastard’s a demon!"
The remaining pirates all turned and bolted the other way.
"Who the hell are you calling a demon?!"
"T-Tae-hyun-nim. For now, we should get to the ship and rescue the people..."
"Yeah. Let’s do that."
"More importantly, how in the world did you use Circle of Counterattack like that?!"
Rufo asked as they ran.
He couldn’t suppress his curiosity any longer.
"What do you mean, how did I use it? You taught it to me. Pretty useful skill, honestly. Why didn’t you use it down in the underground temple? Seriously, all you do is strike poses."
"I was not striking poses!"
Rufo beat his chest in frustration.
Posing? That wasn’t it at all.
He hadn’t used Circle of Counterattack because it was difficult to use.
"If you use it wrong, it’s basically just a skill that says, 'Go ahead, hit me'!"
"Oh. Was it?"
Tae-hyun shrugged as if he hadn’t known and casually looked away.
To Rufo, it was enough to make the back of his neck seize up.
Th-that man...
"We’re here. Hurry up and get aboard!"
"Huh? Who the he— guhkk!"
"What the— where’d the others g— khak!"
"It’s an ambush! A— gkk!"
The pirates on the merchant ship each got out half a sentence before collapsing.
Tae-hyun beat them down without mercy.
"Overboard with you!"
He knocked aside the sword one pirate swung at him, then kicked the man in the chest.
The pirate screamed as he tumbled into the sea.
"Tae-hyun-nim! Rufo-nim!"
The merchant group employees tied up on the deck cried out, tears brimming in their eyes.
Rufo quickly untied them.
"Is everyone else here?"
"All of us from the merchant group are here."
"What about the people you brought with you?"
"They’re on the other side of the island..."
"......"
The merchant employees had been on the ship, so the pirates had boarded and imprisoned them there.
But the players brought to the island had been captured on land, so they were locked up somewhere else.
"Tae-hyun-nim. What should we d— what are you doing?"
"Huh? Looking for the flare. Where’d you put it?"
"The... the people we brought..."
"The people you brought? Let’s call the royal army first, then think about it. Where’s the flare?"
"O-over there, in the box next to the barrel..."
With practiced hands, Tae-hyun quickly pulled out the flare.
Guaranteed authentic by the Magic Tower.
Do not be fooled by imitations.
...?
The description was a little odd, but Tae-hyun activated the flare anyway.
The royal army was what mattered.
Bang! Bang! Pabababam!
Magical fireworks shot into the sky and burst outward in a dazzling spray.
It was bright enough to be seen from an enormous distance.
"The pirates definitely saw that too, right?"
"Most likely."
"Then Denelson saw it too?"
"Most likely."
"He’s probably pretty pissed. Think we should just set sail and run for it?"
"......"
Everyone had thought the same thing, but nobody had dared say it aloud.
That was Tae-hyun for you.
"That would be best!"
And the one who answered was Count Marcel.
By some miracle he’d made it onto the ship without getting hurt even in the middle of that vicious fight, and now he shouted in a panic,
"We have to set sail and return to the mainland at once! This is our chance while the pirate scum are in disarray! The royal army should be able to hold them off for at least a little while!"
Thud!
"Guhhhk?!"
Tae-hyun kicked Count Marcel. Planting a foot on the fallen noble, he gave an unconcerned shrug.
"Sorry. That running away part was just something I said."
"Kgh! You mean you’re not going to run? Can’t you see the pirates out there?!"
"I can. I see them. But then I had this thought. After the Specter of the Ancient God and the pirates beat each other bloody, the royal army’s about to arrive too..."
"......"
"No matter how famous the Caterand Pirates are, aren’t they going to be in a bit of trouble?"
Fight fire with fire.
Use one enemy to attack another.
What Tae-hyun saw right now was a jackpot-level opportunity.