Victory
“Shackles of Binding! Grasp of Restraint!”
“Body Weakening! Twisted Steps!”
Every manner of binding skill and curse came screaming in, all of them aimed at pinning Jin-soo’s feet. Most he could nullify outright with his high Spirit stat. Not all of them.
There were simply too many mages and healers, and more than a few among them carried high skill levels and formidable Magic Power and Spirit.
“Tch!”
Jin-soo focused his mana and shattered the bindings by force. Even so, he could not help the brief hitch in his step.
“Die!”
“Flame Arrow! Flame Arrow!”
In that instant a hissing storm of attacks converged on him from every side, and the impact detonated.
“Kh!”
He slipped some, blocked others, twisted clear, and cut his enemies down — and through all of it his body grew heavier.
Curse skills.
A curse could not be thrown off by simply flooding it with mana. Corruption was no different. You needed a holy-affinity healer’s Dispel and Purification.
The Shadow Healer is dark-affinity. No Dispel. No Purification.
It was a matter of attribute. Raising the level would not fix it.
He had no complaint.
It’s already doing its share.
Every time the cooldown came back around, the Shadow Healer fired Recovery, Corruption, Curse, and Aggravation. But no matter how tirelessly the Shadow Healer and the rest of the Shadow Summons moved, sheer numbers were more than they could swallow.
Next, I go healer.
He had points to spare. Once this fight was over, he meant to fuse every essential healer skill through Skill Synthesis.
Stacked curses dimmed his vision, dragged at his feet, and set his skull to throbbing. Corruption ate into his flesh. Aggravation split his wounds wide. Steel sheared and bone crunched, and Jin-soo paid it no mind, matching his rhythm to the Shadow Summons as the brutal fight went on. The longer it lasted, the thinner the Chavel Guild’s ranks became — though the pace of that thinning had clearly slowed.
His mana and stamina, by contrast, were burning away fast. The Blood-Sucking Sword’s option skill, together with Blood Drain and Mana Drain, triggered without pause, yet he spent health and mana faster than they could restore it.
Worst of all were the curses piled layer upon layer. He triggered the Revival skill sealed inside the Ring of Revival, but the ring’s level was still too low. It mended his wounds and nothing more. The curses remained. The Recovery skill in his Ring of Recovery could not lift them either.
Stubborn bastards.
They had started at two hundred and fifty. Barely a hundred and fifty were left. A full hundred were dead.
At this point somebody ought to be scared enough to run.
Unlike the pursuit squad that had bolted the moment the tide turned, not a single one of them left the field.
Because of him?
Jin-soo’s eyes found Lucas, Guild Master of the Chavel Guild.
“We’ve almost got him! No one falls back! Turn your back on me and you die by my hand!”
Lucas was not merely rallying the guild. He drove them like a whip officer, and the threat landed perfectly.
So he’s killed a runner before.
To break the Chavel Guild’s momentum, Lucas had to die first. That would not be easy.
Rat.
The moment Jin-soo closed past a certain distance, Lucas slipped away as if he had a sixth sense for it.
Tells his people not to be afraid, and the Guild Master himself won’t risk his hide.
Had the cowardice been obvious, morale might have cracked, and someone might have pushed back in the open. But Lucas measured distance with exquisite care. He was already moving before Jin-soo could attack. From the outside it hardly looked like avoidance at all — more like a man shifting to give orders, or to strike a Shadow Summon.
He’s burning his own guild like consumables.
An enormous number of Chavel members were dead, and Lucas did not care.
Take losses like these and even a victory ought to leave a sour taste.
More damage was still piling up, and yet his face held no despair. It was bright with anticipation.
He doesn’t just see them as expendable. He sees them as prey.
Before the regression, Jin-soo had seen plenty of men like that.
Scum who look at a Player and see points, not a person.
Dead subordinates were consumables. Spend enough time and you could always replace them.
Win at the end, and every point and item his people gathered becomes his. That’s what he’s thinking.
The corner of Jin-soo’s mouth lifted. He meant to take that face — so sure of victory, so full of expectation — and fill it with despair.
Right now, he can afford the confidence.
The guild’s losses were severe, but the fight itself was not particularly against them. Jin-soo and the Shadow Summons were completely encircled. Curses and restraints had gutted his mobility, his attack, and his defense, and on top of that his health and mana were slowly bottoming out. Anyone looking at the field would have said Jin-soo and the summons were losing, and the Chavel Guild was winning.
“Press harder! They’re no better than rats in a jar! We’ve already won! Avenge the dead with his blood!”
“Kill him!”
“Blood for blood!”
Lucas raised his voice and hauled the guild’s morale up with it. Convinced they held the advantage, the Chavel members attacked even more savagely.
A smile bloomed at the corner of Jin-soo’s mouth.
A heavy price, but in the end they think the win is theirs.
The victor takes everything the defeated owned. That was the rule of the Tower.
If the Chavel Guild under Lucas beat him, they could reclaim every point and item the dead guild members had carried.
He won’t step in unless the moment is decisive.
Jin-soo had met plenty of men like Lucas before the regression.
He’s skilled. So is his personal party.
Had Lucas committed alongside that party, the guild’s losses would have dropped sharply. He had not. His own safety came first. But when the decisive moment arrived, he would step in himself — if only for the points.
The Shadow Knight’s shield finally gave way under the unrelenting assault and burst apart. Into that gap poured every attack skill they had, and the blast roared.
The Shadow Knight has been destroyed.
The Shadow Warrior has been destroyed.
With that thunderous blast, the Shadow Knight and the Shadow Warrior were wiped out where they stood.
The Shadow Mage has been destroyed.
The Shadow Healer has been destroyed.
The moment those two were gone, the Shadow Mage and the Shadow Healer were cut down in an instant.
The Shadow Assassin has been destroyed.
The Shadow Archer has been destroyed.
The Shadow Assassin and the Shadow Archer put up a decent fight. They could not last.
“Now you’re the only one left. I’ll finish you myself.”
Once every Shadow Summon was gone, Lucas stepped forward, just as Jin-soo had expected. He was certain of his victory.
He had reason to be. Jin-soo’s health and mana were nearly spent. Stacked curses blurred his sight, hung on his body like a thousand pounds, split his head with pain, and set his heart burning.
“The coward who was scurrying off like a rat a minute ago — where’d you find the nerve to step up?”
Jin-soo curled his lip and mocked him.
“I’ll tear that babbling mouth apart with my own hands.”
Killing intent poured off Lucas as he spoke.
“If you were that sure of yourself, you should’ve come out sooner. Your men are all dead, and only now you show your face?”
Of the two hundred and fifty, only about eighty remained. Two-thirds of them were dead. Add the forty who had fallen before this fight, and Jin-soo had all but annihilated the Chavel Guild itself.
“What — now that I’m in this shape, you think you can win?”
Jin-soo’s unshaken bearing drew Lucas’s nerves tight.
Does he still have a hidden card? Or is it just bluster?
Lucas’s thoughts tangled.
Bluster. It has to be bluster. If he had a trump card, he would have used it while the summons were still up.
He forced the unease down.
“I’ll settle the grudge of every guild member you killed! Die!”
Lucas kicked off and charged. Blue aura streamed from his sword in thick ribbons.
One stroke. I’ll cut him down in one stroke.
He swung with everything he had. In that instant his eyes caught Jin-soo changing weapons.
A staff?
What Jin-soo held was a staff — a weapon reserved for mages and healers.
Has he lost his mind?
Lucas thought it even as he finished the swing. His sword, wrapped in blue aura, and the pure-white staff breathing freezing cold were a heartbeat from colliding.
Jin-soo turned with light ease and let the blade slip past. The white staff he swung next bent like a snake and whipped in at Lucas’s side.
“Huh?”
Startled, Lucas tried to bring his sword up to block. Too late. The staff caved his armor in and shattered ribs and spine together.
“Gyaaaaah!”
Lucas screamed and tumbled helplessly across the ground.
In a flat, unhurried voice, Jin-soo cast.
Frost Decree
Summon Dragon Tooth Soldiers
Summon Maw Ant Colony
Ice Barrier
Ice Storm
A bone-white mist heavy with cold wrapped the Chavel Guild.
“C-cold!”
“My body’s freezing!”
Ice crackled as it seized them. The White Drake teeth and Maw Ant carapaces Jin-soo drew from his inventory became Dragon Tooth Soldiers and Maw Ants. An ice barrier rose around the guild, and a storm thick with killing cold tore through them.
“Aaaagh!”
“What the hell is that monster?!”
Dragon Tooth Soldiers and Maw Ants slaughtered the enemies trapped inside the ice without mercy.
“Kill them! Kill them, I said!”
“They’re too strong!”
“The white mist — my body won’t move right!”
The Dragon Tooth Soldiers and the Maw Ants held their encirclement and moved like machines, and the slaughter went on.
“Guhk!”
“Save me!”
“Aaagh!”
The Chavel members screamed and died, one after another.
“I’m gonna die like this!”
“Break through!”
They resisted desperately. All they managed was to bring down a portion of the Maw Ant summons.
Ice Explosion
Ice Storm
Frozen Hell
Jin-soo maintained Frost Decree and poured out attack magic without rest.
“Kill him!”
“Uwaaaaah!”
They rushed him like moths into a flame. He kept casting even as he swung the Staff of the Ice Dragon like a staff, smashing every guild member who came at him. Flesh burst. Bone broke. Every swing of the staff tore another body apart.
“Guhk—!”
“Aaaagh!”
“H-Heal!”
“Protect!”
The healers supported with everything they had. It could not turn the fight.
From the start, the Chavel Guild no longer had the strength for a real battle. Wiping out the Shadow Summons and cornering Jin-soo had pushed them just as hard. Health, mana, spirit, skill cooldowns — they had scraped the bottom of all of it. In that wrecked condition they had no chance against a Jin-soo restored to full strength, nor against his Dragon Tooth Soldiers and Maw Ants.
Nowhere to run. Nothing left but despair.
“Eek! S-Sanctuary!”
Terrified healers cast Sanctuary, trying to buy even a little time.
“L-let me in too!”
“Me too!”
Panicked guild members rushed the skill without a thought for anyone else.
Sanctuary
Sanctuary flared to life. It meant nothing. The Maw Ants were already thick inside its bounds.
Those who fled into the skill became rats in a jar, and died there. When the healer who had cast it fell, Sanctuary came undone.