Chapter 253: Power 4
Rumble!
The vast plains located between the War Fortress and the Spirit Lands.
Tens of thousands of people were fighting a huge battle here.
Kudududuk!
The race of shadows, the Ains, who crawled out from the earth and tried to head towards the blazing Spirit Lands.
And the armies of the kingdoms who were keeping their formations in order to prevent the Ains from entering the Spirit Lands.
Booom!
Kuudududuk!
Pillars of flames and volts of lightning were created.
The tacticians of the kingdom's armies clenched their teeth and shouted while looking at the Ains, the race which had crawled out from the ground with immense power, who were pushing them back.
"Defense squad! 2nd Bridage! Wake up! Hold your positions!"
"Magic Brigade! Alter the grid location to R-8!"
"Bastards! Don't run! We cannot let these guys enter the Spirit Land!"
Boooom!
Boom!
Knights and soldiers over level 270 were getting smashed apart and were sent flying away.
With just a few thousand in numbers, the Ains were charging through the tens of thousands of well-coordinated soldiers.
Enoa, the 3rd in command of the Magic Brigade, grinded his teeth as he saw this scene.
'Jesus...Was the time of peace that long?'
It has been decades since the Kingdoms have entered a time of peace after the giant wars.
All the soldiers who had tasted wars had retired and the remaining soldiers, who didn't want to lose out, handed most of their jobs to the players who were immortal.
In the form of quests.
But the strength of the Ains was no joke.
'...This is not going to be easy at all.'
Enoa looked towards another location.
And watched the hundreds of thousands of players charging towards the battle from the distance.
"Giddiup! A history quest after so long!"
"Run! Hahahaha!"
"Jackpot!"
Those who were free from the ultimate fear of humans, death.
So these guys only thought of the frightening scene in the distance as a mountain of treasure.
The remaining soldiers were shouting at these players as well.
Telling them that it'll be a quest with substantial rewards and that it would please the Kingdoms.
But Enoa didn't expect that much from the beginning.
Usually the immortality aspect of the players was a huge advantage so the people of the kingdom usually used them by offering them rewards and treasures but the current situation was a bit different.
So he had remained behind at the War Fortress.
Enoa shouted towards the Magic Brigade who had been sent out in a hurry from the capital.
"Activate the Golden Dragon Formation!"
The members of the Magic Brigade gulped down their saliva and nodded as they started to spread out strange runes into the air.
The biggest difference between them and the players.
Technology, learning from experience and preparing for the future.
This was the reason why they called the players barbarians.
While those guys were busy living like carnivorous animals day by day.
They, like how a human should be, had prepared for the future.
And the Golden Dragon Formation was the result of this.
A powerful magic formation which allowed them to use the strength of the mana node that held the seal inside the Great Maze.
But they couldn't do anything with just this formation alone.
Since they had no medium that could handle the energy from the mana node.
There were only 3 items in this world that could withstand such a vast amount of energy.
So Enoa could only clench his hands into fists and mumble inwardly.
'Hurry...Please hurry with the item, Captain!'
Boooooom!
As Enoa mumbled towards the hole into the Great Maze that had been created by melting the surface.
One of the mages from the Magic Brigade asked quietly.
"He won't fail right?"
Enoa replied with a dumbfounded expression.
"Don't spout nonsense."
"No, it's just...The opponent has the flail so...".
The Magic Brigade studied all sorts of history regarding the ancient spells and items.
Of course they knew about the true power and might of the flail.
So the mage was worried.
Enoa shook his head.
"Not even close."
Even if the weapon itself was amazing, if the amount of strength of the person used by it was low then its overall strength would be limited as well.
The flail had tremendous power but a tremendous amount of energy was required to supply it.
They would only be able to use the true power of the flail when they constructed a giant formation like this and pulled out the energy from the mana node.
And such a feat, even the Great General Cykrus wouldn't be able to do it alone.
The flail in the hands of a human with a level limit of 250 would be negligible.
'It would just be a somewhat useful weapon.'
Enoa spoke towards the mage.
"Did you forget who our captain was?"
"Oh yeah..."
The mage thought of their captain, Arthus Krancheska, and exclaimed out.
He remembered.
Arthus Krancheska.
Captain of the Magic Brigade.
Owner of the prison with the Destruction Flame.
Red Dragon Wielder.
There were countless names and titles given to these people but there was one that stood out the most even out of these.
<ten thousand deaths>.
A title given to him because of the number of people who had charged at Arthus Krancheska during the 3rd Kingdom War and had been burned up like moths to a flame.
It was not a title that one could acquire from just having the Destruction Flame.
'I pray for your soul.'
Enoa thought of the mysterious thief and mumbled.
................
Kiiiiiiiiiing.
"Amazing. It's really amazing. The power."
Arthus Krancheska laughed happily.
'You dare push me this far?'
Arthus Krancheska laughed and at the same time mumbled in a dumbfounded manner.
Level 330.
It was not a joke.
A level which far surpassed the immortals.
Normal attacks wouldn't work and a simple step of his would cause players to roll away.
And the skills and the battle experience he had.
Those player guys didn't even think of going against him in the first place and Krancheska himself was confident.
That if he was given a bit of time, he could personally wipe away every player within the War Fortress.
Once there was enough difference in strength, quantity had no meaning.
Since they wouldn't be able to catch him if he ran away and they themselves wouldn't be able to run away if he chased them.
There were only 2 reasons why he didn't fight the bug-like players.
First, only he would get tired fighting against those guys who had nothing to give him.
Second, there was no reason to make another enemy.
He was basically a one man army.
The guy in front of his eyes should've been massacred in under ten seconds.
But for him to push him this far.
'For him to be able to push me this far just by having some resentment from the weapon...'
If he wasn't here then Hansoo would've been able to roam through the mass of players and massacre them.
No, if he actually learnt how to use that flail properly then he might've been able to cause him to tremble in fear.
But sadly for him, this was the end.
Rumble!
The Red Dragon Robe around Arthus Krancheska became more solid and started to wrap around the injuries on his body.
His broken bones were held in place by the robe and the locations which were bleeding had been stopped by the flame of the mana which covered his entire body.
There wasn't much mana left in him now.
There was barely enough to maintain his Dragon Emperor Robe, Spear and Shield.
Though the Destruction Flame could still let out a lot of flames, there was a limit to his flames.
But this was more than enough.
Krancheska lifted the spear with his right hand, the shield with his left and then spoke in a cold manner.
"Try to struggle a bit more."
Then.
Booooooooooooooooom!
Krancheska jumped up into the air.
Toooooong!
"Ugh!"
The red spear cut across the air and smashed into the cloud of flames, the Ain.
Though he had been injured greatly, he was still very powerful.
Hansoo looked at the Ain who had been sent flying back and swung his flail around to smash it into Krancheska's back.
But this was not enough.
Normal attacks weren't enough to penetrate through the Red Dragon Robe surrounding his body tightly.
Rumble.
Then, a skill was activated from inside Hansoo's body.
Arthus Krancheska's eyes shone brightly and scanned over Hansoo's body.
Then.
Rummblee.
The mana inside Hansoo's body, which had been twisting and coiling onto itself, started to disperse into thin strands.
"Kehehe."
Krancheska smiled and then focused onto the Ain instead.
Hansoo's attacks were useless as long as he could handle his skills.
And as he expected.
Boooooom!
The Forked Lightning smashed onto the Red Dragon Shield and made a huge noise.
But that was it.
"Uhahahahaha! Try a bit harder!"
Krancheska defended the attack which was surrounded in the Demonic Dragon's Reinforcement and then swung his spear around widely.
Paaa!
Hansoo sensed the tremendous power behind that attack and quickly backed up as he mumbled.
'What an annoying skill.'
The skill which annoyed him even more than the Red Dragon Robe.
Krancheska has been using it constantly.
If he didn't have that skill then he would've been destroyed by either the Pandemic Blade or the Nine Dragons Spear earlier.
There was only one reason why that guy had been able to withstand Hansoo and his own reflected attacks up until now.
<dragon's eye.>
Dragons, the sacred creatures which flew across the heavens, were not something the creatures of the earth could ever fathom to reach.
And he had pulled down the man who was like a dragon's avatar from an unreachable position of power to a place where he could just barely handle him by using the Power of the flail.
But the descended dragon didn't seem like it would give up that easily.
Boooom!
"Iiiiikk!"
Hansoo frowned as he heard the screams of the Ain who was getting beaten up with a shocked expression.
Dragon's Eye.
Well, Red Dragon's Eye.
A skill created by a level of mana control which has reached the apex, a tremendous amount of experience and insane calculative abilities.
Reading the flow of mana inside the opponent's body.
And for any skill that has been used at least once, the traces would remain behind.
Like an answer sheet which had been answered.
Arthus Krancheska read these traces, read the flow and figured out what the opponent's skills were.
He started with this and came up with a plan.
In order to smash apart his opponent's skills in the best manner.
In the most efficient and evil way possible.
And then he would cut them off from the beginning before they could even begin the skill.
As long as his opponents were weaker and were inside his range, it was a skill which had a tremendous might.
Though the amount of actual influence it had on the opponent was low, this was more than enough.
The moment the complex high level skills got interrupted by this, it would all get tangled up.
Booooom!
Krancheska smashed away the Ain and smiled as he started to push Hansoo back.
As long as he had this skill, any skills would be meaningless.
Since it would all be read by him.
'Well. It'd probably be quite dangerous.'
Krancheska mumbled as he saw the flow of mana inside Hansoo's body.
He saw quite a few things but there were 2 major skills that could bring him danger.
One seemed like a close range skill but the other was a very powerful offensive skill.
If Hansoo had used that skill then he might not have been able to hold on with just his Red Dragon Robe and Shield.
But he was cancelling all the skills.
Hansoo would not be able to handle the Red Dragon Robe surrounding his body.
At least not within the short period of time in which he would get killed.
"Haha. You've never even heard of this might?"
A secret weapon that he trusted in and only he knew about.
This Dragon's Eye was the proof of his talent.
As Krancheska smiled and swung his spear.
Booooom!
The body which was holding onto the flail and the Forked Lightning got sent flying back.
At the same time.
Uuudududuk.
The flail flew back after blocking the Red Dragon's Spear.
Though the flail had withstood the attack, Hansoo's left arm had not and had been broken.
Hansoo mumbled.
"Oh, I've heard of it."
"...What?"
The moment Krancheska replied.
Whoooosh!
The Forked Lightning in Hansoo's right hand flew across the air.
Towards Krancheska.
'Heh. What's he going to do with just this.'
What could he do with just this single attack.
Krancheska scoffed at the single attack which was flying towards him.