Chapter 453 (Side Story): Time Attack (3)

The Ancient Gatekeeper. Strangely enough, it didn’t gain any new attack patterns when it entered phase two.

It literally goes mad.

“I-It’s coming this way!”

“Damn it. Don’t block it! Just let it pass! It should still have someone else marked as its target anyway.”

“That cleric... Smart move he pulled there.”

The five-person party pressed themselves tightly against the wall, intending to let the Gatekeeper rush past them unhindered. But unfortunately, the party’s Cleric accidentally made eye contact with the Mad Gatekeeper

during that process.

Boom!

“

Huh?

”

The Cleric, who had been stuck flat against the wall, let out a sound like air escaping from a punctured balloon. His mind couldn’t catch up to what had just happened, why he was suddenly sprawled on the floor.

“Why...?”

Wasn’t the Gatekeeper supposed to chase only its designated target, no matter what? Even as his thoughts spun in confusion, the question remained unanswered. However, before he could comprehend it, the Mad Gatekeeper’s blade came crashing down on his head. Everyone gasped as the Cleric’s body dissolved into fine particles and vanished. A Cleric, considered essential for clearing the labyrinth, especially below the third floor, was now gone.

Only Kai observed the situation with interest.

There’s an old saying. Never lock eyes with a lunatic.

The Mad Gatekeeper, even while pursuing its marked target, would always prioritize attacking anyone who made direct eye contact. The problem was, those raiders didn’t seem to know that fact.

“

H-huh

...

?

”

The surviving members stared blankly at the Gatekeeper. Just like that, the second, third, fourth, and fifth targets were chosen.

“

Urgh!

”

The fastest to react was the party’s frontliner, the Warrior responsible for defense. He instinctively raised his shield to protect his head, yet one of his knees sunk under the force.

“Shit! Why the hell is this psycho attacking us all of a sudden?!”

“Did that Cleric bastard mess with it somehow?”

Absurd. Kai hadn’t even pulled any tricks. Yet. Shaking his head, he began preparing himself.

Aside from the Cleric who got caught off-guard, the rest of them seem sharp enough to hold their ground.

One tank, one Archer, and two Wizards. Anyone attempting PK on the fourth floor wouldn’t be amateurs, after all. Judging from the fact that they brought two Wizards instead of two Warriors, they were likely a well-trained party, capable of handling the fifth floor without much trouble.

“Perfect.”

After all, toys that are too weak broke too quickly to be any fun.

***

Clang, clang clang!

The tank, straining under the shock beneath his shield, shouted, “Do something! Attack it already!”

“We are! But...”

“Damn it, it’s too fast!”

“Make it stay still somehow!”

The Archer and Wizards complained. Just like in

MID Online

, there was no aim assist for ranged classes in

Fantasia Online

. Since their DPS varied drastically depending on accuracy, missing every shot like this meant their damage was effectively reduced to zero.

Because of that, the tank’s anger seemed justified. “Are you all idiots!? I’ve got all the aggro locked down, and you still can’t hit a single shot?!”

Meanwhile, the Mad Gatekeeper kept relentlessly pounding away at the warrior’s shield. Once the shield’s rapidly dropping durability hit zero, hell would break loose. However, the Archer and Wizards refused to back down and snapped back in frustration.

“

Oh

, easy for you to say, hiding safely behind that shield!”

“That thing’s upper body movement is bugged! It dodges all our attacks!”

It was only natural that the strange situation led to mutual frustration and misunderstanding.

The tank’s right... but so are the Wizard and the Archer.

Even while relentlessly hammering away at the shield, the Mad Gatekeeper was deflecting or dodging every single ranged attack aimed at it.

This is exactly why you need a binding skill when fighting the Gatekeeper.

Without restricting its movements, dealing damage to it was far too difficult.

Kai stood silently, carefully observing the tank’s shield.

At this rate... its durability’s probably down to about 13%.

If the tank didn’t have a spare shield, he would last another five minutes at most. Sure enough, not even five minutes later, there was a sharp crack sound, and the iron shield split in half.

“Fuck!”

The Warrior pulled out a massive axe and swung it at the Gatekeeper, confirming he had no backup shield.

At that moment, the Mad Gatekeeper, which had been furiously unleashing a barrage of attacks, suddenly froze. Even with its enemies right in front of it, it slowly turned its head and looked almost as if it had broken down.

“W-what the...?”

“Is this a bug something...?”

“Then let’s run for it while we can...”

No. There was no way. There were no such things as bugs in a perfectly balanced game like this.

So they’re imperial explorers, huh... They’re more skilled than I thought.

There was only one reason the Gatekeeper would act this way. It lost track of its target. The siblings Kai had sent away earlier must have made it safely to the upper floor.

Any moment now.

Kai prepared for what was to come. Once the Gatekeeper lost its target, it would immediately enter phase three, regardless of how much HP it had left.

[The Mad Gatekeeper has entered Frenzy state.]

[The Mad Gatekeeper demands a sacrifice once every 60 seconds.]

[An ominous energy fills the space. Losing 200 HP per second.]

From here on, even Kai felt tense. He had cleared phase one, which was little more than a punching bag, without trouble. Phase two, though tricky, had been handled thanks to the looters distracting the Gatekeeper. However, phase three was the part he would have to face entirely on his own.

Remaining HP is 22%, huh.

That was disappointing. Four of them had fought for thirty minutes and only managed to shave off 10%.

Time left is 299 seconds.

If they didn’t kill the Mad Gatekeeper within that time, they would be the ones to die. The looters, having read the same system message, muttered.

“Frenzy status? Sacrifices? What the hell does that mean?”

“Let’s just run. If we escape now, maybe it won’t chase us—”

Just as the Archer cautiously stepped backward while speaking those words, the Gatekeeper’s sword instantly closed the distance and struck down toward his skull. The Archer fell to the floor, his backside slamming against the ground as his body shook like a leaf. He stared at the blade frozen above his head, unable even to swallow.

“Sh-shield...?”

Four stacked layers of Shield of Light blocked the Gatekeeper’s strike. The problem was that the party’s Cleric had already been forced to log out and was probably lying at home scratching their belly by now.

“What are you doing?! Attack now!”

Fury surged within them at being yelled at by the very Cleric who had put them in this mess, but right now, they had no other choice.

“Damn it, you want us to team up now?”

“We’re in this mess because of you—”

“Shut up and attack! Otherwise, we’re all dead!”

“

Tsk

. Fine. Temporary alliance, just this once!”

If they chose to be stubborn here, the only outcome waiting for them was complete annihilation. Perhaps the others didn’t want to die either, as they quickly regained their composure and began attacking the Gatekeeper.

“Over here!” The Warrior with the highest HP and Defense, shouted and swung his axe.

The Gatekeeper immediately locked onto him and lunged like a beast.

“If we didn’t have a Cleric, sure, but with one here...”

There was no need to rely on shields anymore.

Boom!

His axe and the Gatekeeper’s sword pierced into each other’s bodies at the same time.

Damn it, what kind of damage...

The warrior grimaced and glanced at the Cleric. If the Cleric betrayed them, he could easily wipe them all out in seconds. But before such suspicion could take root, his wounds closed rapidly.

“Heal! Heal! Heal!”

Apparently, the Cleric had no intention of betraying them, as the heals came almost excessively. He was even paying attention to the teammates whose HP was steadily dropping every second.

“

Hah

, seems like that bastard really wants to live.”

The Cleric kept his enemies alive by healing the very ones who had attacked him earlier. The Warrior scoffed with a strange sense of superiority and continued to swing his axe. Then, exactly sixty seconds later, a system message appeared before everyone.

[The Mad Gatekeeper demands a sacrifice.]

[Party member Dunkel has been chosen as the sacrifice.]

“What? Why me...

Aaargh!

”

One of the Wizards, Dunkel, was suddenly engulfed in blue flames. A teammate hurriedly splashed water on him, but the unquenchable fire instantly consumed his HP to zero.

“Unlucky.”

No, perhaps it was fortunate, in a way. At least neither he nor the Cleric, the core of this hunt, had been chosen as the sacrifice.

It seems the selection of sacrifices is random.

Another sacrifice would be chosen after sixty seconds.

Gritting his teeth, the Warrior swung his axe with even greater force than before. The same moment his axe split the Mad Gatekeeper’s helmet, its blade pierced straight through his abdomen.

“

Kugh!

”

[3,204 HP has been restored through Heal.]

[3,185 HP has been restored through Heal.]

However, as long as the Cleric was present, there was no chance they would fall first. Trusting in that single fact, the Warrior swung his axe madly. With an all-out offensive stance, they managed to bring the Gatekeeper’s HP down to 9%.

[The Mad Gatekeeper demands a sacrifice.]

[Party member MintPeach has been chosen as the sacrifice.]

“Damn it!”

“Guess we’re lucky again.”

The Archer, who had become the second sacrifice, was logged out. Now, only he and one Wizard remained, along with the Cleric with whom they had formed a temporary alliance.

If we’re lucky, we can finish it this time.

If another sacrifice was selected next, there was a two-thirds chance that either he or the Cleric would disappear. If that happened, the raid would inevitably fail even if the Gatekeeper’s HP was left at just 2%.

“Attack! All-out offensive from now on!”

Spells and the Warrior’s axe relentlessly battered the Gatekeeper’s entire body. 8%... 6%... 3%... Even though two members of the party were already gone, their speed was equal to, or even faster than before. It showed just how intensely focused the warrior and the wizard had become.

[The Mad Gatekeeper demands a sacrifice.]

[Party member NationalWizardAssociationMember has been chosen as the sacrifice.]

“Damn it! We were so close...!”

With the Wizard’s frustrated scream, only two remained. The warrior let out a sigh of relief.

Lucky. So lucky.

It was the best possible scenario. He couldn’t believe the last two standing would end up being the warrior and the cleric.

Luck...

But his thoughts suddenly stopped for a moment. It started as pure curiosity.

Even if I was lucky, could I really be this lucky?

The odds of exactly three party members, excluding himself and the Cleric, being consecutively chosen as sacrifices out of five were only 0.1%. Was it realistically possible for such a probability to align perfectly here and now, at the most convenient timing? Doubt soon turned into suspicion, and suspicion quickly transformed into a strong, undeniable certainty.

Receiving the Warrior’s cold hardened glare, Kai gave an awkward smile. “

Oh

... Have you figured it out?”

The Mad Gatekeeper’s sacrificial pattern. The criteria for selecting sacrifices here were simple.

“It’s based on the remaining HP ratio.”

The one with the highest HP percentage became the sacrifice first.

“I had a bit of trouble balancing your HP ratios, you know.”

“You bastard...!”

The Warrior’s eyes burned with fury. It meant they had been dancing in Kai’s palm all along.

“Why? Feeling wronged?” A chilling voice pierced his ears. “But you attacking me first from behind is alright?”

The single remark left the Warrior speechless, unable to refute him. At this point, the only thing he could do was unleash his raging hostility toward his opponent.

“I’m gonna kill you!!!”

Kai didn’t even glance at the Warrior charging at him with his axe. After all, there was someone else besides himself who was already focused on the Warrior.

The Gatekeeper’s sword pierced into the Warrior’s back. The blade went straight through his heart, instantly dropping his HP to zero.

“Get lost. And live a little nicer next time.”

The Warrior’s screen faded to black, his final sight being the Cleric rushing past his corpse toward the Gatekeeper.

[You have died.]

***

[You have slain the frenzied Mad Gatekeeper.]

[Level increased.]

[Level increased.]

[Level increased.]

.

.

.

[Acquired 75 stat points.]

His levels skyrocketed. Of course, it was only possible because he had claimed all the XP points for himself.

“I’ll allocate the stat points later...”

Kai gathered up the items dropped by the malicious chaotic players and then turned to look at something.

[Unknown Portal]

A red portal had appeared next to the Gatekeeper’s corpse, and Kai knew exactly where it led. One short, deep breath was enough to prepare himself, and he placed his hand on the portal.

[You have entered the Sanctuary of the Ancient B5.]