Chapter 171
Chapter 171
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 171
Chapter Title: Racial Grand Alliance (3)
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Rokan was the first to take to the air, but he wasn’t the first to arrive. According to the plan, it would be trouble if he exposed himself to Chrono first.
While Rokan lingered in midair to buy time, the representatives of the half-elf, gnome, goblin, and orc races—tasked with the time-wasting role—unleashed their power.
“Thorn Vine Forest!”
“Hyper Beam Rifle!”
“Illusion Maze Spell!”
“Descent of the Throwing Ghost!”
These were combination skills, but the high masters poured everything they had into them. The overconfident high masters and red guards, who had already been expending energy recklessly, got caught immediately.
Vines that could be called a thorny thicket forest sprouted rapidly, binding their feet, while a powerful illusionary force ensnared their minds.
Seizing the opening of their confusion was the beam rifle, born from the gnome race’s mechanical engineering pinnacle combined with a combination skill.
A powerful long-range weapon that had no place in fantasy rained down on them like targets.
It felt less like a delay tactic and more like an attempt to end it right there—but the enemy was no pushover.
“How dare you!”
Boom.
As the ancient emperor Chrono stomped the ground, the illusions bewildering the high masters vanished in an instant. Just as the current human emperor Kaism had potent buffs, he too inherited tremendous buff abilities.
“Dance of the War God!”
At that moment, an orc high master who had burrowed right up to them unleashed his power, beginning a frenzied sword dance fueled by combination skill-enhanced abilities.
“Red Meteor!”
And right on cue, the Red Cross Army cleanup squad sprang into action.
It started with Rokan, who had shot out first. Soaring even higher thanks to Kai, Rokan plummeted like a meteor into the heart of the Red Cross Army.
“Piercing Soul Arrow!”
“King of All Diseases!”
“Hundred Ghosts Night Parade!”
Troll, dwarf, and undead high masters followed, each unleashing their signature powers.
“You bastard, Gale Storm Incarnate!”
And they weren’t targeting just the Red Cross Army. The undead high master Arch Lich’s Hundred Ghosts Night Parade was a massive attack spell that raised wandering souls from the earth to assault the foes.
Whether it was because “as long as they don’t die” was the goal or not, he poured out his power mercilessly, even with Rokan in the attack radius.
But Rokan wasn’t one to fall to such combination skills. He instantly summoned Gale Storm Reality, slashing away the ghosts clinging to him.
“You bastard, just you wait!”
“If you can’t even dodge that, you should’ve died ages ago!”
Rokan gnashed his teeth at him, but the guy just snorted and kept unleashing his power.
“Rise, my legions!”
Clack-clack-clack.
The corpses of users who had died early rose in unison.
They couldn’t use master skills, but they formed a mighty zombie legion over level 300, lunging at the Red Cross Army.
It was necromancy on a level incomparable to something like Fallen.
“Corpse Explosion!”
Kaboom!
But there had never been any intention of preserving the corpses to use as soldiers.
Even as their bodies were sliced and heads crushed, the zombies pressed forward, clinging to the Red Cross Army—and detonated as bombs themselves, striking the foes.
A chain of massive explosions ripped cracks across the Red Cross Army’s bodies.
“Hunter’s Insight, Barrage of Destruction!”
Exploiting those cracks with precision was the troll high master. Showing what a true hunter’s battle looked like, he relentlessly targeted the Red Cross Army’s weaknesses, delivering one-shot kills.
At a firing speed so rapid it made one wonder how fast he could go.
“Peerless Frenzy!”
Meanwhile, the dwarf high master was rampaging through the Red Cross Army ranks.
With spears, halberds, greatswords—freely morphing the form of his weapon, he slashed and smashed his way through.
Though alone, it felt like multiple high masters fighting at once, each blow landing with devastating force.
“Damn it, the melee fighters are suffering. Wheel Wind!”
Watching that, Rokan couldn’t stay idle. He swept the surroundings with Wheel Wind, cleared a path with Chain Storm, summoned his Red Hare, and went on a full rampage.
And one more thing.
“Gale Slash!”
Whirrrrr!
He actively utilized the special skill of the sealed Gale Battle Axe.
The weapon’s built-in skill, which spewed intangible blades like Blade Storm to sweep an area in an instant, made its debut, shattering four Red Cross Army members in one go.
“Is, is it okay to wear that?”
“Crazy bastard! You wanna get killed by a blind swing? Just sit back and enjoy the show!”
“But isn’t that Rokan? What level even is that monster…….”
Meanwhile, the revived users could only gape in awe.
The quest hadn’t failed yet, so they had to hold position, but jumping in now with victory in sight seemed suicidal—the battle’s aftermath alone would tear them apart. So they just watched, unable to act.
They merely flailed to avoid stray sparks of death.
Swallowing hard, they could only watch the majesty of Rokan and the racial high masters on display.
‘It’s wrapping up nicely.’
This was the purpose of the quest from the start.
It could trigger much later, but the racial quests were designed to activate early like this based on progress, all to give users a huge stimulus.
To let them indirectly taste world-shaking power and motivate them to level up even harder.
To that end, it was a quest made with the mindset that sacrificing some easy pickings was fine—but even the developers probably hadn’t expected it to trigger this fast.
Or for one person to hog it all.
“Pick up the pace. Those idiots look worn out!”
As three high masters and one master went all-out, the Red Cross Army’s numbers dwindled rapidly, but it was no time to relax. The team meant to tie down the ancient emperor and high masters wasn’t faring well.
Far from binding them, a prolonged delay could lead to a wipeout or at least a couple of deaths. The Red Cross Army cleanup squad sensed this and accelerated.
“Everyone, pull back!”
The moment they finished off the last Red Cross Army member, he bellowed with a shout-type skill infused.
At that instant, the eight scattered in all directions.
Binding ankles and stalling was a razor’s-edge dance with death every second, but disengaging was entirely feasible.
“Argh!”
“Where do you think you’re going, you mad bastards!”
“Quest’s done—run!”
Thanks to that, the regular users ate the fallout.
They had already met the 30-minute quest condition, but distracted by the spectacle, they became sitting ducks for the now-targetless Chrono and red guards, getting slaughtered.
It was venting close to pure rage—brutal and merciless.
‘That’s…….’
Amid his escape, Rokan spotted something. The green madness in Chrono’s eyes had deepened and intensified.
Now it was spreading from his eyes and head throughout his entire body.
What variable that would create, even Rokan couldn’t predict.
‘It’s not like we did something pointless, right?’
Corruption’s power fundamentally amplified the user’s strength. How would it play out for Chrono?
‘Maybe…….’
A chilling thought crossed Rokan’s mind, but he shook off the negativity and prepared for the next fight.
* * *
“Hmph, nothing special.”
“For something like that, you took too long.”
“You guys are just too weak. Can’t even handle ankle-biting properly…….”
The eight racial representatives, regathered after scattering, were satisfied with their results yet busy growling at each other.
Zero teamwork in sight.
They’d return to their races and point blades at each other once this was over, but it made one doubt if they could even win like this.
“So, what’s the next phase…….”
“What next phase. Each takes one, finishes them off, then we gang up on the ancient emperor.”
“But the enemy numbers…….”
“That’s why it’s pointless talking to weaklings. Don’t worry. I’ll take two at once. Still faster than you lot.”
As expected of the hot-tempered orc, the orc high master cut in bluntly.
“I’ll take two as well.”
The troll high master declared 2v1, unwilling to lose.
But the Golden Lion camp stayed quiet.
1v1 might be different, but their skills weren’t suited for same-rank multi-target fights—and it highlighted the martial disparity between Golden Lion and Black Dragon Legion.
“Then who takes the ancient emperor…….”
“I can at least tie him down.”
Once more, the Black Dragon Legion.
The Arch Lich, desperate to devour Rokan. As a powerful mage and necromancer, he was best suited for stalling.
‘What! What’re you looking at?’
Rokan nearly snapped at the Arch Lich staring intently but barely held back.
Honestly, handling two high masters at once was still a stretch. No reason to jinx someone volunteering to shoulder the risk.
“……Very well. The Black Dragon Legion will handle it. We’ll support as fast as we can.”
“Hmph, pointless chatter.”
The high masters brimmed with confidence, eager to devour their foes, but moving immediately was impossible. Some hadn’t used master skills, but others had—meaning a full day’s wait for cooldowns.
In the meantime, the others finished regrouping neatly and heard one piece of news.
“He’s rampaging mad.”
Having lost all Red Cross Army, the ancient emperor had gone berserk.
Whether from rage at losing his subordinates or fully consumed by corrupted power—who knew—but he was smashing nearby strongholds alongside the red guards.
D-Day was set, so the races didn’t bother responding, but he didn’t stop. Like an incarnation of destruction, he toppled walls and exterminated every living thing inside.
“Preparations done? Time to end the ancient relic.”
Five strongholds destroyed overnight.
The racial representatives, who had gritted their teeth through it, moved out the next day once master skill cooldowns reset.
To adorn the ancient emperor’s finale.
‘Something’s off…….’
Everyone brimmed with confidence. Only Rokan harbored doubts.
Even if near-empty, shattering five strongholds unscathed didn’t add up.
Considering power expended so far, his forces should be heavily depleted, right?
He’d been wrecking strongholds hours ago and was still moving fast. Unless the system deemed him overbalanced and slapped penalties, things shouldn’t go this smoothly.
“There he is.”
As Rokan mulled it over, the ancient emperor and red guards entered view.
The clash of central continent’s top titans was about to begin.