Skeleton Master 199
Mu-hyuk kept tabs on his MP while pressuring Dark.
Not bad at all?
He'd figured it would drop to 30%, but it was still hovering around 50%. Must be thanks to his absurdly high recovery rate.
And Dark?
He watched the man's expression closely as he attacked.
Dark was clearly reluctant to use skills—confirmation that his MP was running lower than expected.
Plus, Mu-hyuk had seen him chug an MP potion mid-fight. Dark had bad luck with brackets in the third round of preliminaries and had already burned one before facing him.
So now, he had just one potion, scroll, or support item left.
I've still got two.
Mu-hyuk toyed with him leisurely.
Wind Step.
Thanks to that cheat skill, he could harass Dark while minimizing damage taken. But if his focus slipped even a little, Dark's skills would shave off a huge chunk of HP—he couldn't afford to get careless.
Round two?
Flash.
He closed the gap and thrust his sword. Dark dodged sideways and countered with his own blade.
Mu-hyuk retreated urgently, transformed it into a bow, and loosed an arrow. Dark blocked with his shield, but Mu-hyuk didn't care. In Illusion, even blocked attacks chipped away at HP.
Mu-hyuk unleashed a barrage of arrows without pause. Dark finally rolled aside, dodging or batting them away with his sword.
Blessing of the Dead.
Mu-hyuk cast his spell in that instant.
"......"
Dark's brow twitched.
There was no way to block Mu-hyuk's magic. And even though it couldn't be blocked, the damage was higher than expected—two or three more hits, and he'd have no choice but to use a heal.
His frustration boiled over into action. Dark charged wildly, closing the distance.
As Mu-hyuk pursued, Dark slashed, unleashing a crescent of red energy that sliced through the air toward him.
Good.
Forcing a skill out of him was a win.
Mu-hyuk backpedaled swiftly—then froze for a split second.
Damn.
The edge of the arena was right behind him. He halted, thrust his shield forward, and braced.
Boom!
The impact was massive.
HP took a solid hit too.
Still fine.
He was at about 60% HP now.
No heals meant cumulative damage from smaller hits had worn him down to half. Dark's HP, on the other hand, was probably still at 100%.
But his MP's gotta be empty.
Just to be sure, Mu-hyuk poked him more.
Flash flash.
Using Wind Step, he dashed right into Dark's face.
Cross Slash.
Hit landed, then he immediately went into stealth.
Stealth.
Dark whirled in panic, scanning around. As Mu-hyuk crept in for a stab, Dark suddenly snapped his head toward him.
He raised his sword overhead, as if to smash down—
But at the last moment, Dark froze.
And took Mu-hyuk's strike head-on.
"Urk!"
Dark scrambled to shield-block the follow-ups.
Gotcha.
Mu-hyuk's lips curled into a grin. He'd held back on the skill at the end to conserve his dwindling MP—that much was clear.
Now it was time for real.
"Summon."
Ninety skeletons finally materialized.
*
Hold back. Hold back again.
To conserve MP as much as possible.
If his MP hit zero when the skeletons appeared, it'd be a disaster.
But his finals opponent was a necromancer who defied expectations, ignoring his class's core strengths.
His summons surely inherited his stats, so he'd invested in strength, agility, and stamina—but even accounting for that, it was unbelievable.
Skills or not, this is ridiculous.
In the end, to top off his slowly draining HP, Dark occasionally cast heals.
He even used attack skills to pressure Mu-hyuk into summoning sooner.
Yet despite burning through so much MP, Mu-hyuk hadn't called his undead.
Why?
Did he still have MP to spare?
Anxiety crept in.
Then Mu-hyuk vanished.
Damn.
Alert for ambushes, he sensed movement nearby.
He's here.
His body moved on instinct.
If close, an AoE skill would do the trick.
No, wait...!
But at the last second, Dark had to stop.
MP left: barely 10%.
One more cast could spell doom.
Better to sacrifice HP.
So he took the hit.
"Summon."
Only then did Mu-hyuk call his skeletons.
Damn it.
This situation pissed him off.
I'll win. No matter what.
He pulled his last saved potion from inventory.
The final one.
No more support items.
But it didn't matter.
With skeletons out, Mu-hyuk's MP would drain fast—way beyond one or two potions.
MP is recovering.
MP topped to 30%, and Dark charged.
Shatter him in one go.
Flash.
Dark leaped into the air, raising his sword as golden light enveloped him. He hung suspended, gazing down like time had stopped.
Heaven's Punishment.
His ultimate AoE skill activated.
Rumble, rumbllllle!
Mighty lightning spawned from the sky, slamming into the arena.
*
The announcer's voice boomed.
Lightning crashed down.
Boom, boooom!
Something was off.
Blood-drenched longsword.
Its innate damage absorption skill.
Absorbable damage: 5,000.
Lightning still fell.
Barrier held.
About three seconds in.
Mu-hyuk had prepared fully in the interim. He'd paired mages and archers with Armor Knights, shields up. He himself sheltered under one.
Amid the spectacle, Mu-hyuk moved.
Swish.
One step forward, arrow aimed at airborne Dark.
Multi Shot.
One arrow struck Dark's shin.
Perfect.
Confusion potion applied. The lightning-blocking skeletons surged as one—toward plummeting Dark.
*
Sung Min-woo had the Dark vs. Mu-hyuk match on the right screen. Left: Illusion homepage, naturally.
Posts flooded in at breakneck speed.
F5 refreshed a cascade of new titles.
He clicked the top-viewed one. Simple post, but comments were wild.
Fierce debates, strong opinions—it was entertaining just watching.
↳ Combat: Yup, necromancer. Bet he focused on strength, agility, stamina stats even before the summon inheritance leak.
↳ DarkHorse: Impressive. Heard he's the first to snag Gangster Necromancer.
↳ Cup: Wanna level a Gangster Necro too!
↳ Rise: Same here.
↳↳ Aku: Big deal.
↳↳ WindFighter: Blind much? That's Dark's ultimate. One blast could flatten all the skeletons.
↳↳ Aku: Lol, barrier blocked it.
↳↳ WindFighter: Barrier's breaking.
↳↳ Aku: Most impact absorbed.
↳↳ WindFighter: Lightning still raining.
↳↳ Aku: Lol, Dark's falling.
Sung Min-woo smirked at the pointless bickering.
Then—
The right screen's announcer sounded hyped.
He focused on the video.
Sung Min-woo clenched his fist.
He had a feeling.
Glanced left, hit the list.
Clicked the first.
Sung Min-woo smiled softly.
Nice praise. Jealous.
Most comments positive.
↳ Deadbeat: Class? Luck, duh. Bracket luck, plus Dark's sword and shield shattered—losing now would make him an idiot.
↳ Powerhouse: Deadbeat, luck's part of skill.
↳ Deadbeat: Skill my ass.
↳ Powerhouse: Pathetic. Stay a keyboard warrior. You'll be a nobody in Illusion forever.
↳ Deadbeat: Owned.
↳ Powerhouse: Too childish, no reply.
↳ Deadbeat: Owned.
Sung Min-woo's brow furrowed.
What's Deadbeat's deal?
Thought about replying, held back.
Mu-hyuk's victory.
"Damn, he pulled it off."
Sung Min-woo fired off a text to Mu-hyuk, thinking it was time for a treat.