Chapter 403: A One-Man Army (5)

There once was a hot topic that heated up the online community. It began as a light discussion about which boss was the hardest to fight. However, players who joined the debate each had different opinions, and the increase of rankers and pro gamers interested in the topic turned it into a big discussion. The conclusion reached after days of fierce debate was somewhat anticlimactic.

-From a gamer’s perspective, the hardest boss to deal with is the one that takes a long time to kill.

Of course, not everyone agreed, but most rankers accepted it and the reason was simple.

“Boss monsters naturally have high stats. Their health, defense, and attack power are on a different level from regular monsters.”

“You can’t afford to let your guard down even for a moment when facing them.”

“Why is that? It’s obvious. The moment you relax, you make a mistake.”

“If you mess up, it’s not something you can just shrug off. A mistake in a boss fight leads directly to death.”

MID Online

was different from games of the past. In older games where only the mouse and keyboard were used, people often did boss raids for over ten hours. However,

MID Online

was a virtual reality game. Not just the head but the whole body stayed busy. Naturally, high stamina and focus were required when fighting a boss that took a long time.

Even the members of the Black Dragon guild fighting Kai were realizing this fact.

“

Huff, huff

...”

“

Ughh

, what a monster.”

Two hours had passed since the war began. In that time, the Black Dragon guild had relentlessly attacked Kai. They kept going even though they knew they were at a disadvantage, and the reason was simple.

He’s human too!

It’ll come eventually.

The moment the character’s stamina drops.

The moment the player’s concentration fades and judgment gets cloudy.

They endured and waited just for that moment, but that was a huge mistake on their part. There was no way Kai didn’t know what they knew.

There are a lot of them.

Of course, he had prepared for that from the start.

There’s no benefit to dragging this out.

The Black Dragon guild had planned to take turns fighting and stretch the war for days, but Kai had a completely different plan.

At most half a day. If fast, I’ll end this in six hours.

It was not the kind of thought someone fighting 3 million enemies should have. Ordinary players took at least a full day just to wipe out a small orc village.

Perhaps it’s time to get started.

Kai had only used visually flashy attacks in the beginning on purpose. He could have used more efficient ones if he wanted to but he didn’t. Instead, he wastefully burned through mana and kept showing off flashy attacks. His intention was simple.

Morale.

In war, morale was the most important thing. That was something Kai knew better than anyone through countless battles like the Orc Expedition Force, the Black Bee hunt, the Battle of the Bir Plains, and the Titan guild. That was why he had crushed their morale with visual representation to start. In fact, the morale of the Black Dragon army dropped to the floor after witnessing Kai’s overwhelming power—more precisely, after Wang Ryu-In died from just two attacks.

Seems like the bait is working now... Let’s get started.

The enemy’s forces had clearly lost their energy when compared to the start. Watching them, Kai entered his second phase.

“Cancel summon, Mimic.”

The huge figure that had been fighting in Zatan’s form instantly vanished from the battlefield. Of course, there was a reason for abruptly canceling the summon that had been doing well.

“Enhanced summon, Mimic.”

It was so he could summon it right in front of him.

“

Gyoong

.”

The summoned slime squirmed on the ground.

“Form change, Aosa.”

At Kai’s command, Mimic’s body began to grow at a terrifying speed. Like a river swelling from a broken dam, its rapidly expanding form perfectly recreated the boss monster Aosa, who once swallowed up Whitehall.

“W-what the...”

“That’s... the boss from Whitehall?”

“Isn’t that the one from the video Dance with the Moonlight?”

The enemies were taken aback when the enormous boss monster appeared out of nowhere. Watching them, Kai silently smiled.

When people panic, their breathing quickens.

Naturally, that meant they inhaled more air.

“What the...

huh?

”

“

Grgh

...

kugh?

”

“

Cough, cough!

”

“Damn it! P-poison...!”

That was the reason the tens of thousands of Black Dragon guild members that surrounded Aosa all became poisoned together.

“The truth is, Aosa’s poison is horrifying.”

The moment they were poisoned, their health and mana began to drain by the second. The real issue was that breathing difficulty got added on top of that.

If someone who was fine suddenly can’t breathe, of course they panic.

Again, when people panicked, their breathing became even more rapid. In other words, it created a vicious repetitive cycle.

“C-Clerics!”

“Hurry, purify us...!”

“Th-the purification isn’t the issue!”

“Get out of the blue fog first! As long as you’re in there, you’ll just get poisoned again even if you detox!”

A low-lying fog of the Blue Plague covered the area. The poison status would keep renewing every second unless they escaped it.

“D-damn it. Even if we try to leave now...”

“Move! What are they doing in the back?!”

The comrades in the back who had seemed so reliable throughout the battle suddenly became dead weight.

“

Cough, cough!

”

“Damn it! You wicked...!”

“3 million of you swarmed in just to beat me down, and now you're calling

me

wicked?”

They hadn’t been able to stop Kai’s rampage to begin with. Let alone now, when they were like respiratory patients whose skill casts kept getting interrupted and whose movements were restricted.

“Log out, get out of your capsule, and go air out your rooms. Breathe in all the fresh air you want.”

Kai cut down the Black Dragon members like they were scarecrows in a beginner’s zone. Enemies who had been dying at a rate of twenty per second were now disappearing at eighty per second.

Hm, I guess it’s nearly over.

The duration of the Blue Plague Mimic used had come to an end.

“S-survived...”

“Healers! Use this chance to recover!”

“Heal the ones in the front first! Guild members in the back, drink potions!”

Kai stared silently at the relieved enemies before saying, “Mimic, form change to Zatan.”

Aosa’s massive body began to melt and change. It transformed into a giant ancient weapon with four large legs, resembling a camel or a turtle.

“Activate Gravity Field.”

“

Goooogh!”

With Mimic’s powerful cry, a crushing field of gravity weighed down the area.

“

A-argh!

”

“

Urghh!

”

The overwhelming pressure made it impossible even to stand. The air, once light and easy to breathe, became heavy as steel bars and forced the Black Dragon army to their knees.

Kai, on the other hand, looked completely composed because he had used a gravity field of his own to escape its effects.

Weapons slipped from the hands of the Black Dragon members who knelt against their will.

Kai leisurely looked around and lightly stomped.

“Absolute zero.”

A wave of extreme cold burst out in every direction from the spot where his foot landed.

“C-cold...”

The chill that touched the knees of the Black Dragon members climbed up their bodies and froze their hair.

Kai let out a small breath and white fog spilled escaped from his mouth. Around him were hundreds of thousands of frozen statues kneeling.

I used almost all my mana.

With such a massive range, the mana consumption was also in the hundreds of thousands. Kai opened his inventory and drank several potions in a row. They were top-grade mana potions, each worth over a million won.

“

Mmm

, tastes like Pocari Sweat.”

Once his stomach was too full to drink more, about half of his mana had recovered.

“Mimic, go and rejoin Blizzard and the others now.”

Mimic responded with a grand voice and began to move its massive legs, marching forward. The ice statues that were already filled with polygon fragments were crushed to pieces under its feet.

“

Hm?

”

That was when Kai sensed something unusual. He narrowed his eyes and turned his head to the left, where the dullahan army was located.

Ding!

[Hawk's Witness effect has been activated.]

Kai’s eyes turned green, and his vision zoomed in like he was looking through a telescope. Naturally, he could clearly see the presence releasing overwhelming energy among the dullahan army.

Is that... Xao Lin?

Kai furrowed his brows. The level 600 dullahans were unable to withstand Xao Lin’s sword and were falling one by one.

I didn’t expect Xao Lin to be that strong... This is completely unexpected.

Twenty-two dullahans were already lying on the ground.

Watching from afar, Kai slowly stretched out his hand. At the same time, four holy magic circles began to appear behind his back one by one.

As the holy magic circles clicked together like gears and spun fiercely, Kai began to chant a spell, “Resurrection.”

***

“Pathetic fools! Move aside!” Xao Lin shouted as he joined the front lines.

He briefly glanced at Kai, who was mercilessly cutting down his subordinates, and bit his lip.

Just you wait a little longer.

He planned to finish Kai once his men had worn down Kai’s stamina.

But before that...

He had to deal with the other nuisances first.

The dullahans banging their thighs with the helmets tucked at their sides were full of confidence. Thousands of skeletons were already following them. Moreover, their attacks were so strong that even the guild officers couldn’t hold out unless two or three fought together.

But in the end, they’re still monsters.

Xao Lin shot forward like a flash of light. The legendary sword he held, the Conqueror’s Blade, reflected the sunlight.

A weapon custom-forged by Moru, one of the greatest blacksmiths alive.

It was a Unique-grade weapon with unmatched cutting power and damage output.

One dullahan sensed Xao Lin’s presence and turned its head. At that moment, Xao Lin’s Conqueror’s Blade came crashing down with force great enough to split the sky. A strike filled with the wrath of a monster whose stats neared 3,000. It easily slashed the dullahan’s body in two.

“M-Master...?”

“The Dragon Lord defeated... a dullahan...?”

The Black Dragon guild members stared in shock at the unbelievable sight before their eyes, but Xao Lin proved it wasn’t just a one-time fluke. He charged across the battlefield, targeting only dullahans and slaying them in a single strike.

“

Hmph

. Even if they’re level 600, they’re still just monsters.”

Of course, their stats couldn’t be compared to his.

Xao Lin looked around. The army’s morale had skyrocketed since his arrival.

“The Dragon Lord leads us!”

“Defeat the wicked undead army!”

They’re like maggots that can’t do anything on their own unless someone leads them.

Clang, clang!

“Monsters are nothing,” Xao Lin scoffed quietly and turned to strike down a dullahan behind him.

The moment the bisected dullahan’s helmet hit the ground, clouds burst open in the sky and a beam of light struck the ground near him.

“W-what is that?!”

“Protect Master first!”

“Figure out what’s going on, what kind of skill is that?!”

Just as the startled Black Dragon troops raised their alertness, Xao Lin’s eyes sharply narrowed.

Hm?

The dullahan he had struck down with a single blow just seconds ago, the helmet he had clearly split in half was now twitching and slowly fusing back together.

Wait, this skill is...?

It was a skill he had seen countless times during hunts. A holy miracle that only Clerics could use in

MID Online

to revive fallen allies.

“Resurrection...?”

Why was Kai using that skill? That was the only question that filled Xao Lin’s mind, but he set the doubt aside for now and calmly assessed the situation.

Reviving one dullahan on this battlefield won’t change much.

Just as Xao Lin reached his conclusion, more than twenty beams of light rapidly rained down from the sky as if mocking his thoughts.