The Age of Titans (1)
“No! Spare me!”
“Haha! Look at this guy. He was lurking for an assassination attempt on me, and now he’s spouting this bullshit?”
Was Hong Gil Dong the first user in Taitonic history to fall to a titan combo? No, with only the third titan just emerging, he probably was. In that sense, his death wasn’t all that pathetic. Even as a ranker, a thief was still a thief. With two titans packing insane attack power laying on status effects in sequence and piling on focused DPS, he didn’t even get a chance for a heal or shield before dropping dead.
Thieves boasted top-tier damage in Taitonic, but their tankiness was paper-thin. That’s why I’d always been so wary of status effects—they could kill you just like that.
The moment Hong Gil Dong bit the dust, I focused my senses on the ground.
Ah! No drop, as expected!
Hong Gil Dong was in Murderer status right now. I’d been hoping his infamous item—“that one”—might drop, but the patch was real: PKs with titans didn’t cause item drops. It was a godsend item for any thief, but getting it meant killing him some other way.
“Argh! What the hell? Two titans?!”
“Did he snag a new one? I didn’t hear shit about that.”
“I don’t know! Just attack!”
I’d summoned two titans, but so far, only Hong Gil Dong was down. The two hundred Taeseong guild members swarmed us, unleashing everything they had.
Radiant Shield
I’d been too slammed to even cast a defensive skill, swinging basic attacks nonstop. Now I finally threw up my magic shield and charged the nearby DPSers.
Hyunjung’s Levendas trailed right behind me. Thanks to its blistering speed, it caught up fast, slamming follow-ups right where I opened with my strikes.
Boom!
Boom!
Titan attack power could tank a few hits, sure, but dishing out AoE damage like this with just basic swings? Huge advantage.
Swinging relentlessly alongside Hyunjung, even our basics hit like AoE skills—multi-hitting five or six users at a time.
The DPSers couldn’t hold and tried backing off with skills like Backstep, but Glory Sword was off cooldown and faster. Fifteen-second cooldown majesty, timed perfectly after a few basic hits.
“Arghhh!”
“Titans are total bullshit!”
Archers crumbled to ash like dominoes. No time to gawk—I kept slashing at the nearby Taeseong grunts nonstop.
Been a while since I summoned titans. Time to get my money’s worth!
I’d won 1v100 field fights before, but straight-up mook-sweeping like this outside sieges? Rare as hell. And today? Not solo rampage, but a duo: Two-Man Rampage.
“Hahaha! You fucking bastards! You flew around hunting our guild like pros, but now you’re just scampering away!”
Hyunjung, that guy… He’d kept it bottled up, but he had a ton of grudges against Taeseong. Made sense—the guild he’d poured years into basically disbanded. Must’ve eaten at him.
Yeah. Vent all that built-up stress from now on. Starting today!
“No way! We can’t take that!”
“Everyone bail! We couldn’t even touch Sandro normally—now he’s on two titans? Forget it!”
Soon, more Taeseong users around us were fleeing than fighting. Knights bolting on griffons, mages flying up with Fly spells, archers ditching their sniping to run outside the ruins… But more headed for the portal than out.
Seeing guildmates like Hong Dang Mu duck into the portal, others followed.
“Hyunjung! Portal—move!”
“Huh? Oh, got it!”
Hyunjung’s Levendas blocked between me and the portal, but he got the hint instantly, shifting its massive bulk aside.
Judgment Advance
Cooldown up, so Luitus unleashed its signature charge again. My guess? The biggest gap between Knight-grade and Lord-grade titans was these AoE status-inflicting dashes.
Dainess had Leap Attack like that; Levendas lacked it, which felt like a miss. Anyway, Luitus’s let it wreak havoc on users in mass fights like this.
Boom—Glory Sword!
Boom! Boom!
Dozens toppled along the path. Especially the ten-plus clustered by the portal—I mixed in basic cans and AoE skills.
As the fallen Taeseong scrubs started rising, Hyunjung dashed in with Shield Attack for another AoE stun.
“Kuhahaha! Whack-a-mole! Let’s mole those moles!”
Then he bellowed “mole” and rained his massive warhammer on the stunned Taeseong heads nonstop.
“That bastard… First time on a titan, and he’s going full psycho?”
Hyunjung’s manic grin left me speechless for a sec. Had to respect his passion for the game, though.
While we cleaned up portal stragglers, the rest of Taeseong pulled back over a hundred meters. Titan HP was still over two-thirds—no doubt we could bag more. But if they kept running? Tougher than expected.
Titans truly shine in sieges or field boss raids where users can’t just bail, I thought, then yelled at the distant Taeseong remnants.
“Everyone! This was just a taste! Like I’ve been saying, if you’re sick of getting PKed, quit Taeseong now! Whatever excuse you need, get out ASAP—it’ll be good for your mental health going forward!”
“Shut it, Sandro! Without your titan and holy sword, you’re nothing!”
Some Taeseong exec peeked from a far-off building and shot back.
“Still thinking that, huh? Even back when I was lowbie trash you couldn’t catch, what makes you think you can now? If that sounds funny, I’ll make two promises right here!”
“Promises my ass! Quit yapping and fuck off!”
“One: Any high-level with a Taeseong guild mark? I won’t let ’em live—guaranteed kill. Two: Until Taitonic shuts down, I won’t die once. Watch and see if I keep ’em!”
Arrogant as hell. But to them, maybe—my words were dead serious.
They’d hunted our guild guilt-free; hearing we disbanded probably gave ’em smug satisfaction. No forgiveness from me. So before Burning Star burns Taeseong to the ground, better bail.
Hyunjung beside me had words too, yelling without prompt.
“You hunted our guild with zero remorse, right? Felt all superior when we disbanded? We won’t forgive you either. Quit before Burning Star torches every last one of you!”
No quits today, obviously. But shout this every fight? Cracks would form, one by one. Burning Star wouldn’t lose to Taeseong—not once in the wars ahead!
Tiny guild, freshly made, small roster. But routing hundreds with two titans? We’d announced ourselves to the world.
Hyunjung and I casually unsummoned our titans in front of those hundreds and ported out.
“Jihwan, check this. We’re already blowing up Allta.”
“Yeah? What’s it say?”
Raid and field fight wrapped quick, so we disbanded. But couldn’t skip celebrating this milestone—Hyunjung and I ditched the corner store for some proper chicken and beer.
Hyunjung showed me the Allta post on his phone—our history-making feat from hours ago already buzzing. Fresh post, minutes old, but hot enough for dozens of comments.
“Whoa, Burning Star’s already this famous?”
“You wearing the mark alone makes headlines. Plus, even with just two, we’ve got the most titans in Taitonic right now.”
“Two for now… But yeah, we gotta stack more. Titans open up so much.”
“Right. Without titan skill synergy, Hong Gil Dong probably escapes. To crush Darius and his crew proper, guild was the way.”
“Speaking of—kill Darius once more, and we’ve bagged his whole grudge squad once each, right? Hong Gil Dong down today.”
“Huh… Yeah?”
Caught up in raid and PK frenzy, I’d missed it. But nailing Hong Gil Dong meant we’d one-shot every original grudge member except Darius.
“Still a ways off. Gotta nine-times each to even out. Darius gets ten.”
“Ruthless prick. You really planning tenfold payback? Heh.”
Hyunjung misunderstood… Truth was, they’d never even killed me once. But by my math, this squared things fine.