All-Out War
Boom! Slash!
Endure. Just endure.
Zhou Tianguo sheared through the incoming magic and arrows, choking down the urge to charge out and butcher every last one of them on the spot.
Next time will be different. I'll prepare more thoroughly and wipe them out properly.
He had underestimated them. If I hadn't lost every man with a pursuit skill in that first ambush, it wouldn't have gone this one-sided. Mana couldn't be infinite. Piercing, explosive, flame, and ice arrows, plus fire and blast magic—all of it ran on mana, so it had to have a limit. Humiliating as it was, if they simply held and endured, the enemy would eventually have to stop.
"I-It's over!"
As if confirming his guess, the attacks ceased.
"Full speed! Move!"
At his command the Yellow Dragon Guild's elites surged forward. Then—
Kraaaang! Thud! Thuk!
The magic and arrows they had thought finished came screaming in again. That wasn't the end of it.
Thuk!
"Guhk!"
"Assassin!"
An assassin Zhou Tianguo was certain he had already killed reappeared and resumed the slaughter.
What? What the hell is going on?
The renewed assault, striking the instant they had relaxed, landed a heavy psychological blow on Zhou Tianguo and the Yellow Dragon elites alike.
Don't tell me they didn't commit their full strength at once? If this keeps up, what then?
They might be annihilated before they ever reached the city. His mind filled with a single thought: get back inside the walls as fast as possible.
"Run! Return to the city at maximum speed!"
What mattered most to Zhou Tianguo was his own life. The moment the margin vanished, his true nature surfaced. He prized speed over protecting his guild members and hoarded every scrap of stamina and mana he had left. Until now he had spent a great deal of both leading from the front to shield them. He no longer had that luxury.
The instant he abandoned their protection, their pace shot upward—and the Yellow Dragon casualties mounted just as fast.
Almost there.
Through the brush the city shimmered into view. A little farther and they would be inside.
"Huh?"
Just as Zhou Tianguo allowed himself to believe it was over, figures stood planted dead-center across the path, blocking it completely.
Those are—
Among them were two summons in pitch-black armor that his guild members had already destroyed.
A stone golem too. And that one's a Player. A summoner? Or the summoner's companion?
What mattered was that the one who had stayed hidden all this time had finally shown himself.
Think you can handle me now, is that it?
What grated most was the sheer arrogance of standing openly in his path.
Insolent bastard. I'll kill you.
Bang!
Zhou Tianguo kicked off the ground and lunged.
"Krgh!"
Pain split his skull. Worse, his body grew heavy and his feet dragged.
A curse?
His face hardened.
Not a summoner. A healer?
His thoughts tangled. He had been certain it was a summoner—how could it be a healer?
The summoner's companion, then?
In that same instant the opponent discarded the staff, drew two swords, and charged straight at him.
What? Has he lost his mind?
Why would a healer draw blades and rush a warrior?
I'll take his arms and legs.
Even if he wasn't the summoner, he was clearly the companion. The enemy whose hair they had never so much as glimpsed had finally revealed himself. The intent to kill shifted toward capture.
Clang!
The moment their swords met for the first time—
"Krgh!"
—that loose notion of taking him alive collapsed at once.
What? That sword—
Every time he clashed with the blade of pure white, the aura he had manifested through skills grew faint.
Skill Nullification? A broken item like that actually exists?
Zhou Tianguo was badly shaken. Rather than fear, though, the fight lit a fire in him.
After I kill you, I'll put that sword to good use.
His aura was shaved away with every collision, but mana could more than make up the difference.
"Haaap!"
Drunk on the thought of felling the man and claiming the broken Skill Nullification item, Zhou Tianguo poured every drop of mana into a savage assault.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Blades crossed again and again. In strength and speed the opponent did not yield an inch.
Was he not a healer? He clearly used a curse skill—how?
Confusion flickered through him.
An item that carries a curse skill?
The turmoil in Zhou Tianguo's head refused to settle. The man fought with two swords. One poured out brilliant pure-white light; the other bled a ghastly crimson radiance. That much could be explained. Perhaps he wasn't a healer at all, but a warrior using an item imbued with curse skills.
I've never seen this face before. How can he be this strong?
High stats could be written off to diligent leveling and absurd item luck. The swordsmanship, however, was beyond belief.
Who the hell is he?
At the first sight of dual blades he had dismissed the man as a fool chasing appearances. Facing him directly flipped that judgment one hundred and eighty degrees. The swordsmanship had reached a height so lofty that the word perfect rose unbidden—so far beyond Zhou Tianguo that he could scarcely even perceive where the summit lay.
Slash!
A thin red line opened across Zhou Tianguo's cheek. That was only the beginning.
Swish!
More red lines scored his previously unmarked body.
How is this possible?
Confusion flooded his eyes. It wasn't the stats. In strength and speed he actually held the edge. The broken white-bladed item was a problem, but pouring mana into the clash let him overcome it to a degree. The reason he was being driven so one-sidedly was simple: the gap in pure swordsmanship between them was as vast as heaven and earth.
I'm losing in pure swordsmanship?
Zhou Tianguo had survived every hardship and climbed to Guild Master of the massive Yellow Dragon Guild. Luck, skill, and sheer venom had all played their part. Yet his greatest weapon had never been high stats or good skills. It was the swordsmanship he had honed since his days on Earth. He had won tournaments large and small across China; that excellence had been his sharpest edge, and life-or-death combat in the Tower had only sharpened it further. Never once, in any fight against another Player, had he felt himself outmatched with the blade.
Not anymore.
Clang!
The pure-white blade clung to his own like glue, fouling his movement.
Slash!
Into that gap the blood-red sword darted like a serpent and grazed his left arm. Without the difference in stats, that strike would have taken the arm clean off.
Damn it...
The two swords he faced poured out attacks as if they were separate living things, each with its own will. Then, without warning, they joined to bind his blade and snake into the opening they had created. It felt less like fighting one enemy than like facing two masters of paired-sword techniques who moved as a single body.
And that was not the end.
Splat!
A small wound tore wider, stinking as it rotted at frightening speed. The effects of Worsen and Decay.
What in the world is happening?
Superb swordsmanship, warrior skills, and on top of that dark-affinity healer skills.
Hold until support arrives.
He trusted the Yellow Dragon members would come to his aid.
"Guild Master!"
His expectation proved correct. A few from his direct party broke off to reinforce him.
Kraaaang! Clang!
They were immediately blocked by a summon bearing a massive shield and another wielding a greatsword. The rest of the Yellow Dragon members found their feet tangled by the stone golem.
When did our numbers drop this low?
In the frantic flight, the surviving Yellow Dragon members had fallen below thirty.
And why are they acting like that?
Only three had actually run to help him. The rest were inching toward the city, desperately fending off magic, arrows, and curses.
These bastards—are they trying to abandon me?
The ones blocking the front were tied up by Zhou Tianguo and his direct party. Dodge the magic, the arrows, and the curses, and escape was straightforward.
"Grind!"
His teeth ground of their own accord at the betrayal of the men he had trusted. Yet the choice they made traced straight back to what he himself had shown them. He had accelerated without a thought for whether Yellow Dragon members lived or died. From their side, he had abandoned them first.
Thuk!
"Guhk!"
"Assassin!"
One of the members struggling through the barrage died. The shadow assassin's work had begun.
Good riddance. Damn them.
A member of the guild he led had just died, and Zhou Tianguo felt joy instead of rage. Traitors deserved to die. The pleasure was not purely emotional.
"Scatter and you all die! Regroup! Stick to me and the magic and arrows will stop! I'll handle the assassin!"
At his shout the fleeing Yellow Dragon members hesitated.
Thuk!
"Aaagh!"
In that pause another fell to the shadow assassin's dagger.
Fwoosh! Kraaaang! Shwish-shwish-shwish! Thud-thud-thud-thud!
All the while magic and arrows kept raining down.
"G-Go."
Those who had been trying to peel away rejoined him. Their own calculations had settled. In close combat, allies in the line of fire would stop the enemy from flinging magic and arrows freely. Zhou Tianguo's own fight still looked evenly matched; if they joined, they could tip the balance at once.
Idiots.
He had not called the traitors back to protect them. He meant to use them as bait to open a gap for his own escape.
"Yaaaaah!"
"Die! Die!"
Once the members who had given up flight piled in, Zhou Tianguo stole a glance around. Alone, he had been one breath from collapse; with support, a sliver of room appeared. He had no intention of spending that room on checking the assassin-looking summon.
Now.
He seized the instant opening and hurled himself through it.
Tap! Whoosh!
Leap carried him more than ten meters in a blink, clear of the battlefield.
Thud! Dudududu!
The moment he landed he triggered Sprint and tore toward the city at a terrifying speed.
"Th-That bastard's running alone!"
"Hey! You piece of trash!"
Slash! Swish!
"Aaagh!"
"Guhk!"
The instant Zhou Tianguo left, the Yellow Dragon members still on the field collapsed.
I didn't expect him to be that far gone.
Watching Zhou Tianguo bolt, Jin-soo felt a brief, hollow disbelief. He had fought countless battles before his regression. A leader fleeing first in the middle of a fight was vanishingly rare.
The fight wasn't even completely one-sided.
Zhou Tianguo was strong. His total stats sat below Jin-soo's, but in the warrior's core stats—strength and agility—he outstripped both Jin-soo and the summons. His skill levels were lower, yet numbers could have covered that weakness. Even reduced, twenty-four Yellow Dragon elites remained. Fight to the death and their odds were at least even.
Well, that assumes I don't resummon the destroyed shadow summons with the Bracelet of Reduction.
There was no way the fleeing Zhou Tianguo knew that.
A genuine piece of irredeemable trash.
And yet he had become Guild Master of a giant guild like the Yellow Dragon. He must have hidden his nature well until now.
Tap!
Jin-soo launched himself forward and swapped items from his inventory.
Creeeak!
He drew the bow to full draw.
Twang!
An arrow laced with Pierce screamed toward Zhou Tianguo's back.
Whoosh!
Zhou Tianguo twisted and dodged.
Shwish-shwish-shwish!
Jin-soo loosed without pause.
"Nngh!"
Crack! Boom!
Judging further evasion impossible, Zhou Tianguo spun and batted the arrows aside, then displayed the art of running backward while still knocking them down.
His skill is real.
Running backward, though, cut his speed sharply. By then a shadow archer had closed in beside Jin-soo and added its own arrows.
Shwish-shwish-shwish!
With twice the shafts in the air, Zhou Tianguo's feet slowed and his hands grew frantic.
Whoosh!
In that gap a shadow assassin that had closed the distance hurled a dagger at him.
Clang!
"Damn it all!"
Arrows from Jin-soo and the shadow archer, plus the assassin's dagger, dragged Zhou Tianguo's steps slower and slower.
Shackles of Binding, Body Weakening, Twisted Steps, Worsen, Decay.
The moment Zhou Tianguo entered curse range, Jin-soo swapped the bow for a staff, stacked movement-slowing curses one after another, and cast Worsen and Decay.
Flame Barrier.
He even spent a mage skill to cut off the retreat.
"You son of a bitch! What are you?! How are you using skills from multiple classes?!"
Watching Jin-soo shoot, curse, and cast magic in turn, Zhou Tianguo screamed as if he could not believe his eyes.
"You don't need to know."
Jin-soo closed the distance, swapped the staff for Baekcheonsingeom and the Blood-Sucking Sword, packed them with mana, and swung.
"Just die quietly."
He brought Baekcheonsingeom and the Blood-Sucking Sword down together.
Kagaang!
They collided head-on. Zhou Tianguo barely blocked.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
But the miracle of Zhou Tianguo beating the man he had already fled for lack of skill never came. He resisted desperately and was driven back, more and more one-sidedly.
Swish!
Then, in a spray of blood, the right arm still gripping his sword flew free.
"Aaaagh!"
A wretched scream tore from Zhou Tianguo's mouth. It did not last long.
Slash!
The next swing of Jin-soo's blade took his head.