Guerrilla (2)
"Graaaaaah!"
Zhou Tianguo roared, the sound thick with rage. They had been ambushed again, and their numbers had fallen to forty-five. Four more were dead.
As the raids went on, the scale of each loss was steadily shrinking. That was nothing to celebrate.
Rage alone won't fix this.
Put coldly, the casualties were shrinking only because there were fewer mages and healers left for the tanks to protect.
Keep this up and we're annihilated.
The size of each blow had lessened. The deaths had not stopped.
We have to withdraw.
Zhou Tianguo had a violent temper and flew into a fury at the slightest provocation, but he was no fool incapable of the most basic judgment. He could see that the fight was going against them, and that if they meant to avoid being wiped out, this was the moment to pull back.
"Um..."
One of the Yellow Dragon Guild members spoke up, careful with his words.
"Their escapes are too uncanny. At this rate, tracking them will be impossible. We'll need a large-scale reinforcement, starting with players who have professional tracking skills."
Reinforcements. It sounded reasonable enough, but what he was really saying was that they should fall back to the city. Had Zhou Tianguo's blood still been up, he might have ignored it. Not now.
Tracking itself was not even the problem. Large traces had been left at regular intervals. The trouble was that those traces were traps, and they had realized it far too late.
"I think that's for the best as well."
"We need to regroup and bring in reinforcements."
One by one, others began to side with the guild member who had spoken first.
This much is pretext enough.
Better to accept it as if he were giving in against his will.
"Reinforcements are necessary, I'll grant you that. Nothing to be done."
With that, Zhou Tianguo turned away.
No one objected. More than half their comrades were already dead, and any one of them might be next. To the Yellow Dragon Guild members still breathing, their own lives mattered more than revenge for the fallen.
A withdrawal.
Through Kkami's eyes and ears, Jin-soo was watching the Yellow Dragon Guild's elites in real time.
He looked hot-blooded enough that I thought he'd come charging in without a thought. Turns out he isn't a complete idiot.
Watching Zhou Tianguo and the Yellow Dragon elites come roaring straight into the traps, he had figured the rest would be easy—easy enough to wipe them out entirely. Unfortunately, they had come to their senses partway through.
Well. It's already too late.
The Yellow Dragon elites were down to less than half their strength.
And I've tested the skills enough.
Against them, Jin-soo had been measuring the improved performance of his Shadow Summons and the bite of his synthesized skills.
Then let's run one last test.
Until now, the Shadow Archers and Shadow Mages had carried the attacks. This time he meant to test the Shadow Knights, the Shadow Warriors, the Shadow Assassins, and the Shadow Healers.
I need to confirm whether hiding in shadow and moving through it still works in the middle of close combat.
He had held the knights, warriors, assassins, and healers back for one reason: safety.
If they're spotted in the heart of the enemy formation and focused down, they'll simply be destroyed.
The cooldown on Shadow Summon had dropped sharply to two hours, but Jin-soo had no interest in taking needless risks. The enemy's strength had not been something to take lightly, either.
But things are different now.
They were down to less than half strength, and fear had already driven them to withdraw.
You were free to come. Leaving is another matter.
He had no intention of letting the Yellow Dragon elites walk away. Sparing enemies who carried a grudge was nothing but an invitation to trouble.
If they'd chosen to pull out while their strength was still intact, even I couldn't have done much about it.
The Yellow Dragon Guild was on an entirely different level from the Chavel Guild. Jin-soo had grown far stronger himself, but with his base stats stagnant, there were limits. A head-on clash with a hundred Yellow Dragon elites had been too dangerous, which was why he had whittled their numbers with hit-and-run guerrilla strikes.
Now that they were down to half, he was confident he could win even if it turned into an all-out fight.
With the Bracelet of Reduction, even if a Shadow Summon is destroyed, I can call it twice in a row.
And if his stamina and mana ran dry, he could switch his status window to the holy affinity and unleash powerful ice-attribute magic.
I can summon Dragon Tooth Soldiers, and the Ant Angler colony as well.
His resolve set, Jin-soo closed the distance on the withdrawing elites at speed.
For the opening blow, a ranged attack skill is perfect.
The bowstring creaked as Jin-soo drew alongside the Shadow Archers. Arrows hissed away and struck home, each one charged with Pierce, driving into the Yellow Dragon elites.
"Guhk!"
"Aaagh!"
"Ambush!"
"Block it!"
Shields rang and skills cracked against the volley. Even so, the results were nothing impressive.
Only two?
The damage kept shrinking, and the reason was simple. The healers were pouring everything into protection skills, and on top of that the tanks, the warriors, and even the assassins had thrown themselves fully into defense.
Jin-soo and the Shadow Archers loosed Pierce-charged arrows without pause. Tanks met them with shields and guardian skills. Warriors and assassins either slipped the shafts or guarded their vitals and endured. One of Jin-soo's arrows punched clean through an assassin's heart, and that was the end of it. A few more found arms or legs. None found a vital point.
"Aaagh!"
They're not even thinking of hitting back.
Even under a one-sided rain of arrows, the warriors and assassins did not come charging like scalded boars the way they had before. Slowly, stubbornly, they kept retreating.
Then take this.
Jin-soo switched the skill loaded into his arrows from Pierce to Explosion. An arrow buried itself in an assassin's leg and detonated on the spot.
"Aaaagh! It hurts! It hurts!"
Bone showed through the wound. The assassin thrashed in agony.
"Rapid Recovery!"
"Holy Healing!"
A shower of heals poured down at once, and the bone-deep gash closed in a heartbeat.
"Urgh!"
The assassin limped back into motion. The visible wound had sealed, but ligament and muscle had not fully knit. Even so, he could still move. Jin-soo and the Shadow Archers kept firing explosive arrows, and still the results stopped at injuries.
Then a Shadow Mage's attack spell came roaring in—and did no damage at all. The healers, already expecting magic, had cast blessings and protection skills in advance, and the tanks' guardian skills shone just as they were meant to.
They've been beaten enough that they ought to handle an attack of this level without trouble.
Anyone too incompetent to answer a blow they had already predicted was long dead. But ranged attack was the only thing the Yellow Dragon Guild members had anticipated.
A Shadow Assassin, body hidden in shadow and Stealth already active, slipped in unseen. Its dagger drove into a healer's heart.
"Ghk!"
"What? Kill it!"
Attacks hammered in from every side. In that instant the Shadow Assassin vanished into another healer's shadow.
"What? Where did it go?"
"There!"
A guild member, belatedly catching the flow of its mana, shouted—and another healer died, choking on blood. The Shadow Assassin kept burying itself in shadow and leaning hard on Stealth, cutting down healer after healer.
This is better than I expected.
Jin-soo was more than a little surprised. A Shadow Summon's passive—the ability to hide inside shadow—stacked with the Shadow Assassin's Stealth, and the result was genuinely astonishing.
At this level, I could have committed them much earlier.
He sent in the Shadow Knights, the Shadow Warriors, and the Shadow Healers as well.
A Shadow Knight burst from the dark, and its shield crushed a mage's body outright. A Shadow Warrior revealed itself in the same breath and sheared a healer apart with a greatsword.
"Graaah!"
"Guhk!"
"What are those things now?"
"They're different from the one just now!"
"Hit them first!"
Curses, attack spells, and the dealers' blades and spears all came flying. The Shadow Knight caught the storm on its great shield and vanished back into shadow. The Shadow Warrior used its greatsword as a shield, weathered the blows, and slipped under as well.
"There! And there! I can feel the flow of mana!"
The effort meant nothing. They were spotted almost at once.
"Die!"
"Where do you think you're running!"
Steel bit, spells detonated, and the focused fire of the Yellow Dragon Guild members forced both the Shadow Knight and the Shadow Warrior back into the open.
Quite different from the Shadow Assassin.
Knights and warriors had no Stealth. Every time they hid in shadow and moved, they were caught.
Basic concealment has clear limits.
At a decent distance they could slip away easily enough. Right under the enemy's nose, it was impossible. Concentrated attacks hammered them down.
The less durable Shadow Warrior went first.
The Shadow Knight lasted a little longer than the warrior. In the end it was destroyed all the same.
No point committing the Shadow Healer.
Send it in and it would manage a few curse skills before being erased on the spot. That much was obvious.
A shame.
Still, there had been results. The Shadow Assassin was rampaging like a fish in water.
The healers have dropped off sharply.
Those still alive were fighting desperately to keep their own lives and had no room left to look after the warriors and assassins. Jin-soo seized the gap. He and the Shadow Archers loosed arrows without rest, and assassins struck by the explosive shafts writhed where they stood. This time, no shower of heals came flying.
"It hurts! It hurts!"
"Aaaagh!"
"Ghk!"
Mixing explosive arrows with piercing ones, Jin-soo slowly cut down the warriors and assassins. The Shadow Mages kept pouring out attack spells as well. With the Shadow Assassin tearing through them from within, the elites' losses began to snowball.
"Got you, you bastard!"
The instant the Shadow Assassin showed itself, Zhou Tianguo launched forward. Crimson aura sheathed his whole body, and his sword carved the summon apart.
The Shadow Assassin has been destroyed.
The summon that had been hiding in shadow with Stealth, picking off healers one after another, was erased in an instant. He had not even aimed for the core. Overwhelming attack power and aura had simply evaporated its entire body.
His skill, at least, is the real thing.
Guild Master Zhou Tianguo possessed strength that could fairly be called the greatest among the players on Floor 100.
Though most of his stats and skills seem concentrated on close combat.
Short-range movement skills like Charge and Leap looked to sit at a considerable level. That was all.
He has no ranged attack.
Over a short burst his speed was formidable. Over any real distance it was only average. And so he had no choice but to take a one-sided beating from Jin-soo, the Shadow Archers, and the Shadow Mages. Arrows burst against him. Spells detonated around him.
"Grrk— We're withdrawing!"
Zhou Tianguo shattered the arrows screaming toward him, cut an attack spell apart with his sword, and shouted through gritted teeth.
I thought he'd charge like before.
He seemed to have realized that doing so would only leave him swinging at empty air, and given up.
Then I can attack without holding back.
Jin-soo split from the Shadow Archers and joined the Shadow Mages. Then, with open relish, he poured out attack spells.