Chapter 305: Performance, and Crisis – 2
Shakran was powerful.
Beyond the level Ian had expected, Shakran’s armed forces were great.
‘Surely… while I was struggling with quests, he didn’t just play around I guess.’
With the recent content of the Maurya Empire.
In the recent years, Ian had already been ahead of many players in the content, and he surely outdid the other rankings.
But now, seeing Shakran, it was clear the most that Ian misjudged him.
Ian, of course, didn’t make the mistake of thinking that he was any less than Shakran.
In fact, like Remir and Levya, or the users of the other cla.s.ses, he wasn’t judged so well.
However, in the case of Shakran, whose style of battle was similar to that of Ian’s character battle style, he still seemed much skillful.
And as he had come here, Ian’s expression began to get brighter.
‘If Shakran is like this… maybe we could get hold of the Balrog?’
The Guild Master of the t.i.tan Guild—Shakran, the official number one of the guild.
It was originally the DarkRuna Guild which was the first; followed by t.i.tan Guild in the 2nd, but thanks to the idiot Irahan’s saga, the guild fell down from its rank.
And in the background, Shakran had a mighty force standing behind him.
Kw.a.n.g- Kw.a.n.g-!
The reddish-brown creature created by Shakran had scars all over its body.
And Ian, because of that mighty army was able to attack more furiously.
[‘One point Attack’ has been successfully implemented.]
[Due to the additional attacks, the effect of ‘Mana regeneration’, the pa.s.sive skill of the legendary monster ‘Balrog’ has been reduced.]
[The legendary monster ‘Balrog’ suffered catastrophic damage.]
[The vitality of ‘Balrog’ is reduced by 169840.]
Ian was in delight.
‘Yeah, hitting it in the same place was such a pain in the a.s.s.’
Once Ian and Shakran found a way to break the pa.s.sive skill ‘Mana Regeneration’, they began to go through the Balrog with all their might.
But Balrog had many complicated abilities apart from the Mana regeneration, and Ian knew that.
Especially the ability to draw out the mana from the surrounding beasts was a level that they couldn’t handle.
‘d.a.m.n, for starters I should use Pin and Karceus to clear out the monsters around it.’
The Balrog was attacking with the Mana and then recovering.
In order to counteract the monster’s ability, Ian decided to blow out all the monsters around the Balrog.
Shakran realizing that was using long range skills to attack and cause damage to it, but it wasn’t very effective, as the skill was more specialized in close combat attacks.
‘Well, it doesn’t seem like he has the skills with spirit power…’
It was similar to an attack skill that could be used with mana, and the spiritual power can be used much effectively with the growth of skill.
Could it be over the level of 150?
And Ian didn’t use the skills with spirit power that well.
That’s was the obvious reason, why this situation didn’t work so well.
And the skill that was still in use ‘Spirit multiplication’, this was a skill that aimed at putting the condition of ‘Paralysis’ on the enemy than hurting it.
However, in the case of high-level monsters like Balrog, which have a great resistance, the current situation was useless.
“Uncle, I’m moving out for a while and take down the others, you can hold this, right?”
And the words from Ian, Shakran frowned and replied in a blunt tone,
“Go at once. But I won’t be able to last for long on my own.”
“I know.”
After the brief exchange of words with Shakran, Ian turned away and headed towards the nearby hors.e.m.e.n.
But right then.
“Ian, wait!”
A familiar voice came from the back, and heat could be felt all over.
“Ignition…!”
Hwark-!
As far as the plan was concerned, Remir should have been inside the s.h.i.+eld, to cast wide area skills.
On top of that, right behind Remir was Levya.
“Heal…”
Ian stopped in his tracks, and Remir’s Ignition, which gave out strong firepower burnt down every low-level monster around Ian to ashes.
Chik- s.h.i.+k-!
Ian spoke with confusion in his voice.
“Remir this isn’t right, what about the attack order of the wizards?”
At the question from Ian, Remir answered with a smile.
“I gave it Fiolan.”
“Huh?”
“According to what I saw from the inside, I and Levya were able to see the angles of the Balrog. It could have been safer to stay inside, but… isn’t it better to catch the Balrogs for the better result in the coming time?”
Remir’s statement made a lot of sense.
In fact, this was on Ian’s mind, as Remir’s wide area attacks could’ve been in handy.
Ian shouted over towards Remir and Levya while running towards a Balrog to attack it.
“Then let’s do it this way, let’s grab at least three Balrogs!”
“Okay!!”
“I get it!”
As soon as he heard their answers, the three took their positions almost immediately.
And in the middle of the battlefield, a ‘Balrog hunt’ started with top cla.s.s rankers.
* * *
“Balrog… two are… dead…?”
In the fierce battle that was happening in the canyon, Irahan who had himself guided the Balrog and the magical beasts felt nervous with the news.
However, the scale of the battle was so huge that Irahan didn’t get caught by Ian’s eyes.
Having seen one Balrog defeated after the other, Irahan started to get nervous.
‘No, what is that fool of a Devil King doing as the Balrogs are dying one after the other?’
The situation was very frustrating for Irahan.
‘If there is nothing that can be done, they should have sent too many Balrogs that outpowers Ian and catch him first!’
Despite being frustrated, Irahan had no control over the battlefield.
In this battlefield, all the commands and ordering right of the Asmodian camp was in the hands of the Devil King, and the situation made him feel very disgusted.
‘Hue, along with such amount of firepower, I don’t understand why we aren’t able to break through this s.h.i.+eld…’
Irahan stared at the Devil King who was contemplating the situation in the battlefield with an uneasy expression.
And unlike the nervous expression of Irahan, the Devil King Ha.r.s.ein wasn’t so nervous.
Irahan muttered under his breath.
‘What’s that? How is that son of a b*tch able to stay calm?’
Ha.r.s.ein appeared as if he was enjoying the current scenario.
After a while, Irahan understood the reason for that.
* * *
Eventually, after the improvised Balrog hunting party was able to return to the inside of the s.h.i.+eld, after a successful mission.
Of the 7 Balrogs, they hunted down 5 of them.
And while Ian was around hunting down the Balrogs, it wasn’t that the human users were without any damage.
But even if they had received the damage, to take down 5 Balrog was a tremendous achievement in such a situation.
And it was natural for the morale of the human users to increase.
“Keu…! Can we really be able to stop this all?”
“I think so.”
“The Central battlefield is the main… we will manage to stop here, will it be possible to gain anything even if the Northwest and the Northeast are lost?”
“Hmm. I think so, that is why Shakran also came into the Central continent.”
The users who succeeded in the surprise attack entered the struggle once again, but with a pleasant mind.
By now the attack power of the Asmodians was down to the half, and there was enough durability for the stone statue and the s.h.i.+eld.
On top of that, the s.h.i.+elds underwent number of cycles according to Ian’s orders, so the defense was maintained even though he was absent for a while.
And as the users who could partic.i.p.ate in the Dimensional war were all ranked users, they had a sense of the game.
‘This much is enough. If we manage like this we will be able to overcome them.’
Ian stared at the Devil King who was floating in the air in the middle of his army.
In fact, if it wasn’t the Devil King, they could’ve turned the table right after taking down all the Balrogs.
‘Phew, What is that jerk going to do? No matter how strong it is, this could get tough…’
Ian touched the ‘Soldiers of the Earth’ that was in his hands.
‘The remaining time is 3 hours and 15 minutes… is it now the time to use the Soldiers of the Earth…?’
He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to use the Soldiers of the Earth, he thought that he could get rid of the Devil Kings army.
‘Yeah. What’s there to lose. We got by till now with our hard work, using it can be done.’
Ian pulled out the Soldier of the Earth with a nervous face.
And just before he was going to use the item.
Suddenly a tough and heavy voice resonated all through the battlefield, which Ian heard.
[Foolish people… I don’t understand why you want to struggle so uselessly like this…]
The voice which was ringing in the ears belonged to the Devil King Ha.r.s.ein.
“That jerk, what is he trying to do again? Doesn’t feel right…”
Remir who was beside Ian mumbled under her breath, and the next moment all the users began to doubt their eyes.
[A new Devildom sky will appear in this place!]
The heavy voice of Ha.r.s.ein resonated all over.
“Doesn’t, it doesn’t make any sense.”
“What the h.e.l.l is this…?!”
Grrrong- Kwakwakw.a.n.g-!
The celestial sky began to split while glowing in red light.
* * *
A new sky of the Devildom opened up with the words of Ha.r.s.ein.
Just like he had said, the celestial sky began to split and the red sky of the Devildom began to form.
And through the cracks in the sky, a lot of things started to pour out.
It was such a sight, that it even made Ian lose his words.
“This, how…?!”
Ian stared at the sky with a shocking face which was now pouring out Asmodians and magical beasts.
“That, that things are all… Balrogs?”
At the words from Levya, Ian nodded his head with the same blank expression.
“Yep, they… are those.”
Even in a single glance, one would see thousands of Balrogs.
On top of that, from the top of the canyon’s sky, giant dragons with a few flying ones came out.
“There is a Devil Dragon over there, Ian.”
At the words from Remir, laugh came out of his mouth.
“Ha, Haha…”
And Shakran who was right next to Remir asked.
“What’s a Devil Dragon?”
Remir replied with a fretful smile.
“It is a legendary creature like Balrog. I hunted it with Ian the other day.”
Shakran nodded his head and enquired.
“Is it stronger than Balrog?”
“That’s a bit tough to answer, but… it is easier to deal with when compared to Balrog.”
The conversation between those two was interrupted by Fiolan.
“So what. There are a dozens of them flying around here.”
“…”
Remir was at a loss of words.
In fact, there was nothing wrong with what Fiolan said.
At that moment, Ian opened his mouth while pointing to the opened sky.
“There, something else seems to be coming?”
“What? Isn’t it done yet?”
Already knowing about the game’s outcome, the users were all looking at the rain of monsters with ease.
And once again, the voice of the Devil King rang out.
[Have you come, my brothers…]
The unidentified Asmodians were surprisingly, the ‘Devil’ t.i.tled monsters similar to Ha.r.s.eins.
Now there were a total of six Devils including Ha.r.s.eins, who were hovering around the battlefield and a storm of their armies were moving along with them.
Ian who was watching this scene unfold hurriedly picked up the Soldiers of the earth into his hand.
‘Well, when you’re screwed, you need to do whatever you can to unscrew it.’
Ian used it without any hesitation.
[The Soldiers of the Earth, one of the Seven Treasures of the King of Rings will be used.]
Wooing- Wooing-!
In the close vicinity of Ian’s which had a treacherous view, a new color and radiance began to spread gradually.
Users around him panicked and asked Ian.
“Ian, what, what is it?”
“What kind of item is it?”
Ian wanted to answer, but his lips didn’t move at all.
Ian’s body once again went into the control of the AI.
Ian began to contemplate in comfort when a system message popped up.
Tring-
[With the power of Castle (Current) King, you have summoned the Army of Heaven(G.o.d).]