Inter-Class Counter Battle (6)
"Whoa, finally here."
Kim Subin, one of Korea's rare S-class hunters and the flagship of the Giwon Guild, stared at the scoreboard with sparkling eyes.
Class 1-5 vs Class 1-10.
Kim Subin let out a cheer while staring at the glowing lights that announced the next matchup.
"You think that one's gonna be that impressive?"
An old man with a long white beard trailed behind him, scolding the bouncing Kim Subin.
"Come on~! Even the guild master is watching this. I'm gonna go all out to recruit that kid."
"Heh heh heh~"
The old man just smiled and kept stroking his beard.
He glanced over at the student standing at the very front of Class 1-5's formation on the scoreboard.
The only swordsman in the entire class, the class representative, wearing a sword at his waist.
Despite all the weird titles plastered on him, the information given about him was extremely limited.
He was definitely an interesting student, though.
"Not like you can just watch casually. You need to prepare to recruit him for real."
Kim Subin paced in place while scolding himself, and the old man just chuckled.
No matter how amazing he was, how amazing could he possibly be?
The pinnacle of the geniuses he had seen was right in front of him.
The old man looked at Kim Subin with a satisfied smile and said, "I see."
"No, really?! Look at this!"
Kim Subin pointed to the seat next to him.
Pointing at Tamrang Guild Master and his flagship hunter Kim Jin, Kim Subin said,
"Look! They're also staring at Class 1-5! They're definitely trying to recruit our Jojun, right?"
"Ho~"
Tamrang Guild Master was indeed keeping a close eye on Class 1-5 while chatting with Kim Jin.
So it seemed that this Jeong Jojun kid had real potential.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's take a look."
The old man dragged his feet, intrigued, and stared at the scoreboard showing the upcoming inter-class battle.
Fixing his black armband and smiling, he watched Jeong Jojun.
***
"Everyone, fighting spirit!"
I thrust my fist forward toward the back of our class while standing at the front.
"Ooooh!!!"
Our usually disobedient classmates cheered along with my rhythm this time.
Yes! This is the power of unity!
"Good job."
Violet, standing in the middle row, gave me a thumbs-up while looking at me.
"Yeah! Our secretary is directing us well too!"
She got a bit flustered at the word "secretary," but since she was used to it now, she just turned her head with a "Hmph!"
"Jojun, fighting!"
Alice waved at me and cheered.
"Yeah, Alice, you direct well too."
Normally the class representative and vice-representative would lead, but our class was a bit special.
Since I was the front, middle, and back row all at once, I wasn't in any of those positions.
My role was a solo guerrilla mid-fielder.
Grand name, but basically just a one-man army that I could move around wherever I wanted.
And I was in charge of the core of the strategy for the upcoming inter-class battle.
Piiik-!
The sound signaling the start of the match filled the arena.
"Everyone, let's give it our all since it's about to start!"
Before the match began, this sound was for lining up and preparing.
During this time, I planned to slip away from our formation and infiltrate the side of Class 1-10.
"I'm going!"
I pushed forward with a spirit of earth attribute wrapped around the dry, sandy ground.
Slurp.
Sliding forward, my vision blurred past.
And when we were a certain distance away from our class...
Piiik-!
Once again, the heavy mechanical sound rang out, signaling the start of the match.
Kuwoong-! Kuwoong-!
At the start of the match, the sound of both sides raising their shields in formation boomed loudly.
It was natural to raise shields right when the counter battle started.
Since both sides' snipers were trying to cut through the core dealers in the middle row, it made sense for the front row to raise their shields with all their might to protect the dealers from the very beginning.
Using the spirit, I advanced quickly, and soon the appearance of Class 10 became clear.
"Whoa, their formation is solid."
The sight of Class 1-10's formation coming into view.
Seeing them fixing those huge shields on the ground while struggling to lift them, it was clear what strategy that class was using.
Considering that the class representative and vice-representative of Class 1-10 were a sniper using a shotgun as their main weapon and a buffer providing buffs, that class was boldly abandoning the front row's shotgun formation and relying only on the firepower of the middle and back rows with the "come to me" strategy, not moving an inch.
"Terrifying."
That was the strategy I hated the most.
In the old strategy game that all Koreans played as kids, the Terran that placed siege tanks in the center and slowly mined them was the one I hated the most.
Class 1-10, which had its strength in the back row, had a good strategy.
But the downside of that strategy was obvious.
Those heavily armored front row guys were very slow to change formation because of the weight of the shields, and they were weak against mobile attacks like mine.
So from now on, I would charge in beside their formation and disrupt them.
Plain guerrilla warfare.
Scritch scritch.
While slowly circling around using the spirit, I felt a chill.
'They're coming.'
I quickly drew the sword at my waist, scooped up some dirt from the ground, and scratched a spirit slash in the air.
Pow!
Immediately, something crashed into the dirt I had made, and an impact hit me.
"Ugh."
Even though I blocked it, the long, large-caliber bullet shattered the dirt and bounced off to the side, embedding into the ground.
If I hadn't mixed in the rotation trick when scooping up the dirt and used the spirit slash, it would have definitely pierced my chest.
"That's pretty dangerous."
I knew the combination of buffer and sniper was destructive, but actually getting hit made it feel even more real.
Okay.
My top priority target was set.
Right there, the one standing on the hill.
That 'sniper' and 'buffer'.
***
"That crazy bastard."
Bae Won-hee, the representative of Class 1-10, trembled as he watched the scene.
He had already heard rumors that he had blocked Kim Subin's sniper rifle from Class 1-3 head-on, but seeing this kid throw mana like crazy and block a large-caliber bullet wrapped in a buffer, he couldn't understand it.
Creating a whirlwind of dirt to deflect the bullets.
Who the hell was this crazy guy?
"Did it succeed?"
"No."
Bae Won-hee answered his vice-representative, who had wrapped a buff around him, in a dismal tone.
"I roughly expected that. What were you going to do?"
"Let's fire one more time."
Since he had spent quite a bit of mana, that guy must have consumed mana too.
Now might be the time to eat him.
Klick.
Adjusting the scope, he looked at Jeong Jojun through the red crosshair.
"Huu."
He swallowed and listened to his heartbeat.
His eyes turned bright red, and the sounds rushing into his ears slowly faded.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
While calculating wind speed at the bottom of the scope and carefully calculating the trajectory to Jeong Jojun on the crosshair...
Whoosh.
Jeong Jojun turned his gaze toward "this side."
More precisely, he turned his gaze toward the trajectory he had aimed for.
Inside the gap in the center of the crosshair, Jeong Jojun smiled slyly and looked at "himself."
That smile made Bae Won-hee unconsciously pull the trigger.
The iron touch of the finger on the trigger grew thicker, and a vibration shook from the body pulling the trigger twice.
Kwaaang!
With an enormous sound, a large-caliber bullet filled with mana and buff flew toward Jeong Jojun.
While looking at the large-caliber bullet heading toward Jeong Jojun in slowed time with bullet time on, Bae Won-hee prayed.
'Please hit!'
But contrary to his prayer, Jeong Jojun drew the sword from his waist and...
Clang.
With a flash of flame, he split his large-caliber bullet in two.
Yes.
He cut it down.
Not like blocking it earlier, but cutting it down head-on.
"M-mad..."
Bae Won-hee involuntarily spat out a curse.
This was the first curse he had ever uttered while maintaining his cool and reading the battlefield.
While wiping his hands and casually spinning his sword, Bae Won-hee said to Jeong Jojun,
"Shit. Tell all the back row guys except me to mark that bastard."
In the end, Bae Won-hee made his decision.
He would pour all his firepower except himself and his vice-representative into stopping that monster from entering.
Continuing to consume mana bullets on that guy was too huge a loss.
"Understood. Back row team, everyone....!"
Hearing his vice-representative's voice giving the order, Bae Won-hee regained his cool and turned his scope from Jeong Jojun to Class 1-5.
Class 1-5's power was concentrated only in the middle row.
The tankers and snipers placed in the front and back rows were very weak, so he would start eating them now.
"Huu."
Once again swallowing, Bae Won-hee moved the red crosshair to find a target.
And soon...
Kuwoong!
A large-caliber bullet spewing fire pierced through the sniper in the back row.
"Yes. That's it."
Looking at the back row that had become completely combat-ineffective, Bae Won-hee let out a triumphant cry.
That was impossible.
This bullet, filled with mana and rare buffer buffs, was a level that even Class 1 couldn't block.
"Huu."
Bae Won-hee pushed the red scope forward and looked for the next target.
First, he would retire all the snipers in Class 1-5's back row.
Only then could he go wild.
Kuwoong!
Once again, the explosive large-caliber bullet pierced the sniper.
"That's right."
Bae Won-hee smiled faintly and predicted victory.
Yes.
That monster alone couldn't turn the tide.
He had already analyzed Class 1-5's power before the inter-class battle started.
This strategy of setting up a massive shield to draw them into a war of attrition, while being aware of the firepower of Violet and Alice in the middle row, was extremely favorable for Class 1-5, who had weak back rows.
"Good."
Ting-!
He heard the clear sound of the bullet clip being ejected after all the ammo was used, and Bae Won-hee exhaled.
Slowly pushing the bullet clip back in, he looked at the approaching Class 1-5 formation in the distance, but...
"Eh?"
Once again, Bae Won-hee's cool broke.
What was that?
Bae Won-hee rubbed his eyes to check if he had misseen and looked forward again.
It was really happening.
Right now, Class 1-5's front row was throwing away their shields and charging toward this place along with the middle and back rows.
"Th-that!"
An obvious charge ignoring the middle and back rows of Class 1-10.
Seeing that shameless charge, Bae Won-hee growled and quickly pushed the bullet clip into the gun and loaded it.
Whether it was some kind of reckless act or not, he would have to pay for it.
Bae Won-hee, with his eyes bloodshot red, aimed at the middle row dealers exposed without defense in the sniper rifle.
Alice, the core dealer of Class 1-5, with her bright red twin-tails bouncing as she ran toward here.
If he retired the vice-representative first and then cut down the core dealers in the middle row one by one...
Clearly, this counter battle would end in our victory.
"Huu."
Exhaling and slowly concentrating, at that moment...
"Eh.. eek?!"
He heard his vice-representative's trembling voice in the slowing auditory sense with bullet time.
He didn't know what it was, but it wasn't important right now.
He had to cut down that Alice quickly...
Twitch! Twitch!
He felt his shoulder being shaken urgently by his vice-representative's hand.
Why was he calling him while interrupting a critical shot that required extreme concentration? Annoyed, Bae Won-hee turned his head toward his vice-representative.
When he turned his head, it was his vice-representative staring at something above him.
Naturally following his gaze, he looked up into the sky.
"Eh.. eek?!"
He involuntarily let out the same trembling voice as his vice-representative earlier.
Because in the sky above...
Jeong Jojun was descending while dragging the tail of a sharp electric current that seemed to come from nowhere.
On the end of the sword pulling the lightning, an enormous amount of electricity was condensed, visible at a glance.
"Shit...!"
He tried to dodge frantically, but soon a brilliant lightning bolt struck the ground and...
Zzzzt-!
The electricity slowly swelled up and then...
Kwaaang!
Streams of electricity shot out in all directions.