Chapter 95: Cerulean Being (3)
The ‘Watch Tower’
A guild of players with 250 members.
The guild signed an official contract with 'Golden Tree Flower', one of the top 5 merchant groups of Bing Caravan, and carried out their requests.
The average level of the members was around 65, and the guild management team was all over level 70.
And the guild master of the Watch Tower was the person ranked 7th on the official Information Guild ranking, ‘Wine’.
As a player who received the title of the ‘Black Eye’ for the first time in an archer training school called the Black Spire, he was already a player who reigned as a star among many archer players.
In terms of size, it was only a small to a medium size guild, but the guild was already famous among many players known to operate with a small number of elites.
It was also often mentioned as a topic in threads of Circuit Master.
They bestowed a wonderful surprise attack on the Rebaccans who first revealed themselves at the main gate of Lundebarun.
In addition, a small group of player guilds also blocked Rebaccan’s second army, and over 300 guilds had already started moving in order to put a stop to them.
“Brother! Looks like we gotta back off now!”
“Knights and warriors are the last ones to retreat! We, the archers, will cover for the retreat!”
The man with a dialect shouted at the man wearing white earrings, which was the guild master of the Watch Tower, Wine.
Wine immediately ordered his men in a loud voice.
At the same time, the sound of horns echoed from all directions.
After hearing the sound of horns, the players began to retreat in a quick motion. This was a movement made through repeated systematic training.
DPS specialized in melee attacks began to back off during the middle of the battle, and those with shields such as knights and warriors began to slowly fall back last.
In response, the Rebaccans got in a formation and strongly pressured the tankers of the Watch Tower guild.
However, thanks to the cover of the archer units led by Wine himself, they were able to successfully retreat after their attack.
And after retreating for a long time,
“Report the situation!”
At Wine's command, players who appeared to be team leaders began to take care of their own members.
“Situation report! Report for injuries if you have any!”
“Brother, this is harsher than I expected.”
“...Agreed.”
In the midst of maintaining the guild members for a while, a man with a dialect opened up his mouth to speak with sweat running down his face.
“Katuri, what’s your take on this? Should we back off? After that first poke, I figured out the difficulty of the battle would be harder than we expected.”
Wine asked the man named Katuri, who carefully put the longbow in his hand on his back and adjusted his armor.
“It looks like we killed around 30 of’em this time, so how about we just keep hitting and running like we just did?”
“Alright, that makes sense. Since we’d have to do at least something in order to receive the reward of this quest.”
As soon as their conversation was over, the leaders of each party approached Wine and Katuri.
“The team 1’s casualty is direr than I expected. These mobs definitely aren’t something we could sleep on.”
“Most of the tanks took at least a little bit of damage.”
“For now, tell them to take their potions since we don’t have any healers in our guild. And take turns using health generating items if they have any.”
Upon hearing the report, Wine quickly took off a ring he had in one of his fingers and handed it over to the team leader.
“Let’s continue doing this for a bit more, and if it seems inefficient to continue, it ain’t that bad of an idea to back off then. So let’s keep going for now.”
“Okay, we will keep riding on the outskirts and continue to poke at the mobs. I’ll make sure that none of the guild members will die, so just listen to what I say. Got it?”
As Katuri finished speaking, Wine added in more for encouragement.
Then the guild members responded with cheers as if they were on some kind of a picnic.
***
***
“I...I’m scared...”
The Lympu with rabbit ears dropped down under her head, hid behind a tree with her entire body shaking like a leaf on a windy day.
Then the woman patted the Lympu’s head.
“It’s fine. This will end quickly. Yo, ‘ManJuk’! Are you still praying? He’s really invested in playing a character, I guess...”
She shouted at ManJuk as she stared at him.
Despite her shouting, ManJuk continued to sit on his knees on the floor, drawing a specific pattern on the tree and earnestly praying.
“I shall answer the call of the Saintess loud and clear. Gift this tiny creature the infinite power and light to defeat the darkness.”
After finishing his long prayer, ManJuk cautiously got up from this place.
A golden mist fluttered around his body, and his eyes gleamed with blue light.
“Are you done praying?”
“Yes.”
ManJuk answered her question in a dry voice as he picked up his blunt weapon and looked down from the mountain.
There, twelve Rebaccans scouts had drawn a unique magic circle on the surrounding road.
“You stay here and protect her. I’ll do the rest by myself.”
“Yeah, yeah. As always.”
“But if something happens, just call my name. I swear on the name of Bellica that I will come and protect you, Tei.”
“Alright, alright! I get it!”
The woman named Tei drew her longbow from her back and shouted as if she was hurrying ManJuk out of her sight.
“It must be great, Ms.Tei. Having a brother like ManJuk...”
The Lympu with rabbit ears carefully initiated a conversation with Tei.
Tei sighed after hearing that.
“That guy is literally insane, I tell you. The moment he starts playing the game, he becomes a fanatic.”
“E... Eek...”
Tei said as she put ManJuk down.
ManJuk slowly walked up to the Rebaccans scouts.
The Rebaccans sensed his presence and immediately got ready for battle.
ManJuk looked at each of them one by one in a dry manner without taking any particular stance.
“I don’t know where you’re from or how you got here, but the more you stay in this world, the more the conflict between the players and the people here will deepen.”
The Rebaccans looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
“That is why, in order to eliminate that conflict, I have made the decision to take your lives. Please forgive me.”
ManJuk raised his blunt weapon forward and pointed to Rebaccan in front of him.
The Rebaccan that was pointed out dashed at ManJuk at incredible speed, and the dagger in his hand slashed ManJuk’s throat in an instant.
And then,
The Rebaccan fell to the ground,
As he showed off his ruptured skull to the other Rebaccans behind him.
It happened in a blink of an eye.
The Rebaccans who were watching began to falter.
“ That man is... Strong...!”
“Perhaps, at the level of a Battalion Commander?”
“We will have to report his existence to the main unit.”
They exchanged conversations in serious voices.
“I shall soon reveal my existence myself to your Battalion Commander that you speak of.”
ManJuk opened his mouth with an indifferent expression. One of the Rebaccans laughed at him.
“Do you really think that not a single one of us could escape from you? Surely, most of us will die to you. However, I’d say it will be fairly difficult for you to kill all of us.”
ManJuk finally started laughing after hearing those remarks.
“Then let us play, hide and seek.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the eleven Rebaccans spread in every direction at incredible speed.
[Prayer of Repentance]
[Melee attack +240%]
[All stats +32]
[Movement speed +33%]
[Duration: 31 minutes 48 seconds]
[Paladin's Ethics]
[All stats +18]
[Movement speed +18%]
[Health regeneration per second +13]
[Duration: 18 minutes 1 second]
[Prayer of Holy War]
[All stats +22]
[Movement speed +15%]
[Pain relief: Lv. 2]
[Duration: 21 minutes 19 seconds]
Unfortunately for them, the Rebaccans underestimated ManJuk’s ability a little too much.
The players who had cleared the Troll Patch events such as Mose were on a completely different level, and there was no way that mere Rebaccan scouts knew that fact.
Especially on ManJuk who had fully prepared for everything.
A moment later,
“E... Eek!”
The Lympu with rabbit ears had to hear the violent blunt crushing noises that came from the Rebaccans eleven times.
Of course, with Tei’s sigh on the side.
* * *
[ 346 / 1,500,000 ]
The result of the first battle was a great victory for the players.
Although they were fighting against the rather smaller forces of Rebaccans, considering that the average level of the Rebaccans was around 80, it was a result that could be dared to be evaluated as a great victory from the players’ point of view.
The players from the Guild Alliance who defeated around 200 Rebaccans during this battle at the back gate of Lundebarun, were intoxicated by the heightened atmosphere and morale and began to cheer in contentment.
“In this case, we might as well prepare for the all-out war as soon as we join forces with other guilds.”
“If we continue like this, we will be able to secure the quest clear share quickly, right?”
“Anyways, good work everyone! Especially, the guild members of ‘Baby Shark’ for tanking damage in the frontline!”
As they complimented and encouraged each other, a player ran from a distance in a hurry.
“Rebaccans are here again!”
“Great! Looks like we managed to make them lose their cool with the last battle.”
“Let’s go with the similar tactic from before.”
“Everyone, get ready! I’d appreciate it if the sages could support the frontline more, please!”
“Everyone, stay alive! Let’s all work hard and block this wave too!”
The Guild Alliance who had formed a solid bond with each other from the previous battle began to wait for the Rebaccans to approach.
However, contrary to their expectations, something completely different appeared before them.
A huge black wall appeared, like the great wall, with no end in sight.
The players’ expressions began to harden up at such a sight.
The Rebaccans,
Had begun to take an active offense.
The daunting and high wall looked so sturdy that it seemed impossible to find any method of breakthrough from the front.
Starting with the archers from the back shooting arrows at the wall, the players in the frontline started to disperse around the wall.
“Go around the wall and attack the ones that are pushing this wall from the back!”
However, the players who spread left and right could not help but quickly fall into despair. The wall they saw earlier existed on both sides also.
The wall just kept approaching forward without stopping, to the extent that it could be described as a moving castle.
“Once it reaches Lundebarun, it will be blocked by the castle gate in the end! Wait until then, and either attack the back or attack them when they get out of the wall!”
One of the guild masters put out a plan, and the guild members got busy delivering this strategy to other guilds.
Soon, a new operational order was issued to all guild alliance members.
Expecting the moving wall will be blocked by the castle gate, the guild members started surrounding the back of the wall.
Although there was a wall in the back, its height was very low compared to the walls located on the left and right and the front, so the confidence that it could be penetrated began to spread like wildfire among players.
But after a while, the wall that was moving forward stopped in place.
“It gave up on moving!”
“Is it because we’ve caught their rear side?”
“Turns out the back was their weak point! This is a game after all! There has to be a solution!”
“We should get all our men to move to the rear side of this wall and attack all at once!”
The guild masters got together and started busily discussing the plan.
And when they were about to reach the conclusion.
Suddenly, a huge voice began to be heard from within the wall.
“Rebaccans!”
“Hoo!!! Haa!!!!!”
“Attack!!!”
As soon as the command was issued from within the wall, a huge shout struck the players.
The formation of the players had been completely ruined as they were scattered all across the field trying to get around the wall.
Not to mention that they were all stunned by the command to attack from within the wall and did not know what to do..
Still, they believe that the wall will open up and the soldiers will jump out from the inside, so there will still be enough time for players to refine their formation.
However, as if completely disregarding the expectations of the players,
The Rebaccans rushed out from the inside of the wall as if they were passing through a cloud and attacked the players that were scattered around the wall.
There was only one reason why the wall at the rear, the only point of attack that players had hoped for, was made lower than the other walls.
Deception tactic.
The players were completely defeated by it.