Background (1)

Sang Hyuk summoned his Dark Wings. If all of his powers were off cooldown, Sang Hyuk thought that he had a good chance to take them all out. However, since that was impossible, he had to run and defeat his enemies one by one. Sang Hyuk spun around and threw ‘Evil Must Fall.’ While it had succeeded twice, it did not work this time, as Cres blocked the attack.

Cres was a level 170 NPC who had seen ‘Evil Must Fall’ twice used on his comrades, which made this feat possible.

“You realized that you cannot keep running, right? You can try though.  Run rabbit, run!”

Cres thought Sang Hyuk was on his last legs. Since Cres was still looking down on him, the chances of Sang Hyuk winning slightly increased. Cres spun his chakrams on his fingers, one in each hand, as he looked at Sang Hyuk. (EN: Chakram is a throwing weapon from the Indian subcontinent. It is circular with a sharpened outer edge and a diameter of 12–30 centimetres (4.7–11.8 in).)

“Let’s end this now.”

Cres reached out with his right hand to throw a chakram at Sang Hyuk. The weapon came flying like a live creature, and it was thus difficult to know how it would attack. However, Sang Hyuk had seen such an attack before and managed to block it using the Blood Wire he held in his hand.

Since Sang Hyuk had simply blocked the attack with a weapon, Cres could not hide his frown.

‘Did he realize that I was teasing him to counter my attack?’

Cres attacked obviously so Sang Hyuk would try to counter the attack and not block it. He would have won if things went his way. However, Sang Hyuk had been a step ahead of him.

Sang Hyuk felt a heavy shock in his hands as the spinner changed its course mid-air. Cres was using both of his spinning weapons simultaneously, but Sang Hyuk realized that Cres seemed like he was not fully controlling both chakrams. (EN: It seems because chakrams can change their course mid-flight, if Sang Hyuk had countered, Cres would have guided them to attack a blind spot.)

‘His eyes are busy while moving only his right arm…’

If Cres could use both of his weapons perfectly, Sang Hyuk would have a tough fight ahead of him. However, the weapons had a very high difficulty level for even an A-class mercenary. Sang Hyuk estimated Cres’s skills and thought that the situation was manageable.

Sang Hyuk looked at Cres’s hand and eyes rather than the weapons, as he needed to focus on the user’s movements rather than the weapons themselves. Cres’s right hand and two eyes gave away the secrets of the next attack, and Sang Hyuk knew in advance that the weapons would come from the left and behind.

Sang Hyuk blocked the weapons using the Blood Wire, and since Sang Hyuk’s basic stats were lower than Cres’s, he had to guess the movements in advance to block Cres’s attacks.

Cres was surprised, as the blood draining weapons would have been effective with a mere graze. However, Sang Hyuk had blocked his attacks in advance.

‘He blocked this?’

Cres tilted his head as he used his right hand and two eyes to control his weapons again. He moved them so quickly that there seemed to be hundreds of spinning chakrams surrounding Sang Hyuk, but it was no use as Sang Hyuk’s focus was only on Cres’s right hand and two eyes.

Sang Hyuk pretended to be surprised, as it was best that Cres underestimated him to the end. The two weapons came spinning, and it seemed like they were impossible to block.

However, Sang Hyuk blocked them and tried to counterattack this time. He controlled the Blood Wire he held with his right hand to catch one of the spinning weapons and hurled it back to its owner. However, Cres avoided the attack despite not expecting the counterattack at all, and it was a move worthy of an A class mercenary.

Sang Hyuk was not disappointed, as the crucial moment was after the counter and how the enemy would respond. As he had lived in EL for a long time in his past life, he knew all about fighting NPCs. Sang Hyuk believed that there would be a change in attitude at this foiled attack, and his defiance.

There were two possibilities. The first was that the enemy would become wary of Sang Hyuk and become cautious. The second was that he would enter ‘berserk mode’ after becoming enraged at not being able to catch someone like Sang Hyuk.

If Cres showed the first reaction, Sang Hyuk planned to run. The reason Sang Hyuk had been able to fight against those that chased him was that they underestimated him. If they became cautious, Sang Hyuk had no chances of winning. It was better to run.

On the other hand, if the enemies became berserked, Sang Hyuk planned to face them head-on, as that meant they had low AI intelligence. Therefore, he had been saving up everything for this moment.

“You, rat!”

Cres shouted as loudly as he could, and his eyes turned red while green smoke gathered over his head.

‘He is entering berserk mode.’

Everything Sang Hyuk had seen about Cres implied he’d go berserk, which meant he had a chance to win against a level 170 mercenary. Now, Sang Hyuk chose to fight instead of running.

“Die!”

As Cres was now in full berserk mode, his muscles bulged with strength as he grabbed his weapons. While NPCs received several penalties after entering the berserk mode, their attack abilities increased and they would chase their targets until one died or berserk mode dissipated. Sang Hyuk saw Cres now as a risky gamble and thought he would roll the dice.

Time was against Sang Hyuk, as everything may go to ruin if Cres’s comrades arrived. He would not be able to face all of them at the same time if things came to that.

‘I have to end this as quickly as possible!’

Sang Hyuk flew up the sky using his wings and threw several magic combination cards with both hands. He had chosen this method to finish the match quickly. It was a high-class card magic spell named ‘The Wheel of Fortune – the Eye of the Storm.’

Edited by Userunfriendly