When Whales Fight, Whales Break - Part 2
Seriously, why the hell did these bastards have to throw down here?
Sanghyuk frowned from a distance as he watched the players from Cheonmyeong and Ghost tear into each other in a frantic bloodbath.
A week ago, when other players had first begun trickling into Snake Cave, he had figured it was only a matter of time and scaled his hunting grounds back strictly to the sector where Giant Snakes spawned. His plan had been to hunt as many Giant Snakes as possible before wrapping up his time in Snake Cave for good. Now that an outright guild war had erupted within the caverns, however, focusing on his hunt was completely out of the question.
Unfamiliar guild emblems. Just run-of-the-mill outfits, then.
The moment a guild war was officially declared, a translucent guild emblem materialized sharply above the head of every participating member, making it effortless to tell friend from foe on the battlefield.
Guess I should pack it in for today and—wait.
As the brawl escalated, Sanghyuk turned to leave the cave. But just as he took his first step, a fresh pack of players appearing at the rear caught his eye.
What are those hyenas doing here?
Concealed in a shadowy recess of the cavern, Sanghyuk's eyes narrowed as he watched members of Magun flanking wide around the battlefield.
He hadn't recognized Ghost or Cheonmyeong, but Magun was unmistakable. Of all the villain guilds infesting EL, Magun was notorious for stooping to the absolute lowest scum behavior imaginable. They would do anything for coin. Countless subjugation forces had mobilized to wipe them out over the years, but with their specialty in running away and lying low, Magun's vermin clung to life like persistent weeds.
The Demon Hound, Killing Machine. To think I'd run into that piece of trash here...
Sanghyuk recognized Magun's guildmaster instantly. How could he not? In his previous life, when Sanghyuk was a broken wreck unable to play properly, Killing Machine had been one of the vultures relentlessly tormenting him. Back when Sanghyuk was at the peak of his game, the coward had never dared to come within spitting distance. But the moment Sanghyuk fell from grace, he descended like a phantom to tear into him again and again.
Let's see... Did someone hire them as mercenaries? How foolish. No one who ever climbed into bed with Magun had a happy ending... Then again, they probably prioritized winning right here and now over anything else.
The whole picture quickly came together in Sanghyuk's mind.
If this were just an ordinary guild war, I wouldn't have bothered getting involved... but with Magun here, that's a different story.
Sanghyuk shoved the Return Stone he had half-pulled from his inventory back into his bag. Instead, he reached down and began unwinding the Ten-Thousand-Year Golden Bone Whip coiled around his forearm.
Killing Machine, you might feel wronged... but I'm afraid I have an old debt to collect.
Extracting payback for things that hadn't yet happened in this timeline might seem absurd, but to Sanghyuk, the agonizing memories were painfully vivid. There was no way he was letting this slide.
“Kill them!”
Kwah-kwah-kwang!
Leading the elite vanguard of Cheonmyeong alongside Sirasoni, Killing Machine charged into the Ghost Guild's rear flank, shouting with manic glee. To him, PK was life itself. And a PK job where he could rake in massive, guaranteed profits? Pure ecstasy.
Killing Machine sent one final broadcast to his guildmates to ensure everyone was on the same page.
Cheonmyeong's guildmaster, Sirasoni, placed full trust in Killing Machine. But Killing Machine was rotten to the marrow. His intention from the very beginning had been to devour Ghost and Cheonmyeong in one fell swoop.
Cheonmyeong's about sucked dry anyway. Best to drain the last sweet drop today and throw away the husk.
Pulling off a hit on both Ghost and Cheonmyeong at once was a massive score. Under normal conditions, such treachery would be suicide, but with both guilds busy tearing at each other's throats, it was entirely feasible.
Now then, shall I enjoy myself until the banquet is served?
Killing Machine was a formidable PvP fighter. Blessed with a high level and decent gear, surviving the melee was child's play so long as he didn't overreach. Furthermore, the Magun players were all seasoned cutthroats. Gauging the flow of battle, they surreptitiously drifted toward the periphery. Ghost and Cheonmyeong, locked in a fight to the death, were too blind with bloodlust to notice Magun's deliberate withdrawal.
Watching from the shadows outside the fray, Sanghyuk saw right through Magun's scheme.
Look at these bastards... plotting to gobble up both guilds in one bite, are they?
A faint, amused smirk tugged at Sanghyuk's lips.
True to Magun's reputation, I suppose. Either way, those two guilds are about to get savaged by a rabid dog.
Sanghyuk shook his head at the doomed guilds. He had no intention of intervening on their behalf. In his previous life, an ill-placed sense of justice might have compelled him to step in. But the current Sanghyuk merely watched the carnage unfold with icy detachment.
No matter how greedy Magun is, cleaning up both guilds won't be effortless. Which means... once Magun is nice and bloated, I can just swallow them whole.
The math was simple. Magun would devour Ghost and Cheonmyeong, and Sanghyuk would feast on Magun.
Now then, let's wait.
Blending seamlessly into the darkness, Sanghyuk bided his time.
Ghost and Cheonmyeong fought with rabid ferocity. Both sides understood that whoever faltered here would lose the entire war. Even as casualties mounted, neither retreated, clashing relentlessly.
In time, Ghost began to buckle. No matter how much Magun held back, their presence alongside Cheonmyeong tilted the objective balance of power. Ghost's guildmaster, Dae-poong, fought valiantly with dual greatswords, but the moment he fell to Killing Machine, the scales tipped decisively toward Cheonmyeong.
Cheonmyeong had also suffered grievous losses, reduced to Sirasoni and a handful of elites. Yet what mattered was that Ghost was entirely wiped out.
We won!
Sirasoni believed this triumph secured their total dominance in the guild war.
During the twelve hours while those dead bastards are locked out of the game, all we have to do is mop up Ghost's remnants, and this war is as good as—
Sirasoni plotted their next moves, eager to seize the momentum. But his thoughts were cut short.
“Wh-what the—! Gah!”
Killing Machine—and Magun—finally bared their fangs. They turned on the exhausted survivors of Cheonmyeong.
“St-stop!”
Sirasoni bellowed, whirling around. Only about ten Cheonmyeong members remained standing, surrounded by twelve Magun scoundrels.
Ah... we've been played!
Looking at the fresh, unscratched Magun mercenaries compared to his battered guildmates, Sirasoni realized the bitter truth.
“Come on now. The outcome won't change, so why don't you die quietly?” Killing Machine sneered with a sinister grin.
“You bastard... you...!”
“Don't tell me you actually trusted me? If you did, you're the idiot. Out of all the people in the world, you chose to trust someone like me?”
Shameless to the core, Killing Machine truly lived up to his reputation as the absolute bottom-feeder of humanity.
Fury boiled in Sirasoni's chest. He realized too late that his own greed had courted disaster. But he refused to roll over and die.
“You vile outlaws! You won't get away with this! Show them what Cheonmyeong is made of!”
Sirasoni adjusted his grip on his spear and charged at Killing Machine. The remaining Cheonmyeong elites rallied behind his battle cry, throwing themselves at Magun. Though exhausted, they were not ready to collapse just yet. Fueled by sheer rage over this betrayal, they fought with desperate spite.
Yet resistance remained merely resistance.
There was no miraculous turnaround. All ten survivors were slaughtered by Magun. Sirasoni, in particular, was hacked to pieces by Killing Machine, paying dearly for his shortsighted ambition.
Shhhhh.
Killing Machine watched Sirasoni's body dissolve into radiant motes of light, shaking his head casually.
“Tough bastard. Clung on like a cockroach.”
With Sirasoni down, Cheonmyeong had been wiped out to the last man.
“Wait, four of ours went down? Against half-dead corpses? What an embarrassment.” Killing Machine frowned as he counted his ranks, reduced from twelve to eight.
“They fought like cornered rats. Couldn't be helped.”
Magun was a haven of villain players accustomed to PvP, but Cheonmyeong possessed slightly superior gear and levels. Cornered and betrayed, they had fought with savage frenzy, extracting a toll.
“Like I always say, the dead are the idiots. Keep your heads on straight, everyone. First, let's gather the drops...”
Killing Machine wanted to collect the spoils and make a swift exit. After pulling off a job this massive, it was best to go dark for a while before the victims could log back in twelve hours later.
Yet neither Killing Machine nor the surviving Magun members would ever touch the sea of loot scattered across the ground.
Fwip—KABOOM!
A sudden detonation!
Just when they thought it was over, a blazing fireball streaked out of nowhere, smashing directly into the rearmost Magun player and erupting violently. Engulfed in raging flames, the player collapsed. The rest froze in shock.
“Enemy!”
Seasoned in PvP, the Magun players instantly grasped the situation and snapped into defensive positions to counter the ambush. Yet something moved faster still.
Swiiish—clatter!
Snaking out from the darkness, a bizarre, skeletal tether whipped forward and coiled tightly around the neck of the Magun player in front!
Sanghyuk's hyena hunt had officially begun.
Snap!
“Gack!”
The Ten-Thousand-Year Golden Bone Whip constricted violently, snapping the player's cervical vertebrae with a sickening crunch. The victim never imagined he could be killed in a single blow; having never encountered such an attack, he slumped limp to the floor before a scream could even escape his throat.
Dropping two Magun players in the blink of an eye, Sanghyuk stepped smoothly out of the shadows, scanning his surroundings.
Six left, then?
Sanghyuk opened his senses wide, ready to dismantle the remaining six outlaws.
“Don't panic! It's just one guy!”
Killing Machine was the first to regain his composure. Seeing Sanghyuk alone, he barked orders to steady his crew. Taking down two men in a sudden ambush was certainly impressive, but it was still six against one.
“Arrogant little rat. You dare try to clean up after us?”
Killing Machine knew exactly what this opportunist was after. But numbers were everything in EL's PvP. No matter how skilled an individual was, six against one was an insurmountable wall—or so he believed.
“Keep your cool and surround him properly.”
Shing.
Killing Machine drew twin daggers from his waist.
“I'll gouge your eyes out myself.”
A master of dual daggers, Killing Machine flared with murderous intent, ready to drive steel through Sanghyuk's skull. Under his command, the five other Magun players fanned out, slowly closing the circle around Sanghyuk. From an outside perspective, Sanghyuk appeared hopelessly cornered.
Yet the man facing six killers was utterly serene. In fact, he looked remarkably at ease.
One... two... three! Now!
Standing motionless with his senses primed, Sanghyuk waited until the Magun players closed the distance. The instant they entered his calculated strike zone, he thrust his left hand toward the ground.
Synthesized Card Skill: Small Tornado
Whooooosh—rumble!
A tempest of gale-force wind erupted from Sanghyuk's palm, tearing through a four-meter radius around him. Naturally, everyone trapped within that perimeter was caught in the roaring vortex.
“Ugh!”
“Aaargh!”
Every single one of the five Magun players who had stepped into Sanghyuk's domain lost their footing, violently staggered by the turbulent air. In that exact fraction of a second, Sanghyuk spun on his heel and unleashed his right arm in a sweeping arc.
Clack-clack-clack, sh-sh-shing!
The interlocking segments of the Ten-Thousand-Year Golden Bone Whip fused rigidly in a straight line, transforming into a massive, jagged greatsword that radiated terrifying, razor-sharp sharpness.
Shwaaaack—slice! CRUNCH!
A beam of blinding, razor-edge light burst from Sanghyuk. It flashed across a full 360-degree sweep, bisecting the very air into top and bottom halves for an imperceptible instant.
The aftermath was gruesome.
The five Magun players who had encircled Sanghyuk... had all lost their heads. More accurately, each of their heads had been cleanly severed at varying angles.
Thud. Thud.
Decapitation signaled that their health had failed to endure Sanghyuk's raw damage output. All five toppled to the ground, scattering dense clouds of light particles.
Sanghyuk's attack power defied common logic. Had their defense been sufficient to withstand the blow, they would have sustained a grievous neck wound instead; because their stats were woefully inadequate, the strike simply sheared through bone and flesh alike.
“Wh-what the...?”
By sheer luck, Killing Machine had lingered just outside the perimeter of that radiant crescent. He survived with only a crimson gash carved across the bridge of his nose.
Drip.
A steady stream of light particles bled from his nose, spattering onto the floor, but Killing Machine didn't even think to wipe it away.
He was utterly, incomprehensibly overwhelmed.
A force that shattered all common sense bore down upon him without mercy.
Before Killing Machine stood a transcendent power—a heaven beyond heaven.
Looking down at the trembling rogue, the heaven spoke in a calm, measured voice:
“The outcome isn't going to change anyway... so why don't you die quietly?”