Chapter 161. Solo. The Right Way to Stand Against the Demon King.
"The number of players was dwindling rapidly."
Krazen, the prince of the Crescent Kingdom and younger brother of General Senruk. He was the only member of the royal family who could inherit the throne if something happened to the heirless Senruk.
Despite this, his nickname was "Half." He had always been weak and lacked the charisma of his older brother, the General.
While he appeared to inherit strong blood from his father's side, the kings of the Crescent Kingdom were known for their charisma, which captivated their subjects. When Senruk rose to power, this trait was so potent that it was said to have gone out of control, earning him the nickname "General."
In contrast, he was always polite and good-natured, so much so that lords and nobles whispered "Half" behind his back because he lacked the qualities of the Crescent Kingdom's kings. Sometimes, a brave lord would even dare to say this in front of Krazen, but Krazen would always smile gently and make a joke of the situation.
His expression was completely different from usual. "That wasn't Jin Seo-woon's kill. The booster monsters were withdrawn from the battlefield. Why did the players suddenly start fighting?"
A white-haired knight walking beside Krazen said with a cold expression. "Perhaps they thought it was worth facing similar-sized enemies?"
"I don't know. The number of players has decreased a lot in the last few days. I'm also worried about the epic monsters terrorizing the map."
"Demon King Krosino didn't break the dimension barrier. If he were fully resurrected, this game would already be over."
"I still don't want to face him. What do you think?" When he asked, looking to the left, a somber mage whose entire body and face were covered in black robes answered. "If you're asking about the demon lord's soul, I think it would work on Krosino as well. The demon lord you serve isn't Krosino, but Biburaniq."
"Still, it's the same demon lord. How much power could Biburaniq possibly give Krosino? Still, it's best not to confront him…" Krazen trailed off and stopped.
"Huh?" As he cast his gaze to one side of the dense forest, the grass swayed, and a figure soon jumped out.
"Enemy!" Seeing the figure enter the grass, Krazen shouted and drew his sword, and soon more than 20 players entered their field of vision.
"There he is!" A knight recognized Krazen and frowned.
"Oh! Do you recognize me? Are you a knight of the Crescent Kingdom?" Krazen smiled gently and nodded, while the knight looked around Krazen. They had all lowered their visors, completely covering their faces. The white-haired knight standing right next to Krazen also had his helmet on, completely covering his face.
"Mighty Zanga?" Weirong glared at Krazen's group and asked in a low voice.
"He is the prince of the Crescent Kingdom, but he is only known as 'Half-Prince.' Yet, he's still a member of the royal family. Rumors circulate among the knights who know Cloyd that he owes his position to a few guards protecting him."
Seo-woon inwardly clenched his teeth at the knight's whispered words. "Does that even make sense? How can someone who survived countless solo battles like that be crowned simply by riding on his team's back?
Anyway, these guys..." Seeing his team members so pitiful they were speechless, Seo-woon nodded slightly. His strength, the one he'd seen on Earth, was definitely not inferior to Senruk's. Furthermore, he possessed the determination to kill guild members without hesitation and the social skills to easily break down outsiders' defenses. In Seo-woon's eyes, he was a formidable opponent.
"He must have a hidden trump card." He couldn't be sure, but he had a feeling.
"Do people from the same empire really need to be fighting each other already? There are still quite a few players left. How about we deal with them first and then confront him?"
It was a very tempting offer for Weirong. There were currently less than 50 players left. In this case, if the guild that made up 90% of the remaining players fought each other, it would only benefit the remaining 10%. Seeing the conflicted expression on Weirong's face, Seo-woon frowned.
"Who cares what you think." Just as he was thinking that, Rian spoke up. "You're a sneaky bastard. You say that, but why don't you eliminate the men you've ambushed around us?"
The moment he finished speaking, Rian threw his dagger aside.
***Kang!***
With a loud voice, the three hiding players jumped out. Seo-woon had put in a lot of effort to get the guild members and Krazen's group to meet at this point.
He had tracked the movements of Krazen's group with his Hwa-an-geum-jeong and arranged for them to circle around and confront the enemies at this exact moment so that the guild members wouldn't notice. Because of this, he was forced to endure a pain so intense that it felt like his left eye would pop out of its socket.
"It was very difficult to intersect in this place with people standing there. I couldn't just let them pass by."
The moment the three black-cloaked players whose presence had been detected exchanged looks of surprise, Weirong and Krazen's expressions also froze. At first glance, all three of them were wearing invisibility cloaks and hiding in the thick grass where the sun didn't shine through.
In fact, without Carmen's eyes, spotting them would have been nearly impossible. However, both of them were filled with a great sense of unease as to how a player whose primary weapon wasn't particularly impressive was able to locate them so accurately.
At that moment, Billy raised his voice and charged forward. "Ambush! Attack before they overwhelm us!"
At the same time, Rian followed Billy, and the knights held their positions and attacked the enemies while the mages set up barriers.
"Wait, calm down…"
***Bang!***
The wizards flung spells at Billy and Rian as they charged forward. The ensuing impact caused Weirong, who was trying to stop his teammates, to wince and draw his sword before charging forward
In the world of Cloyd, where the only goal was to kill or be killed, trying to resolve the situation through dialogue was madness. Considering the situation, the crisis of having to kill the enemies first and survive pushed the inexplicable feeling of unease to the back of their minds.
***Clang!***
Billy blocked the violently spiraling ice screw with his shield and was pushed back. As he pushed him back, the ice screw was spinning with enough momentum to freeze and pierce the shield, but Weirong shattered it with a single sword blow.
***Hvaaahh.***
The ensuing impact spread coldness in all directions, but Weirong paid no attention and checked on Billy. "Are you okay?"
"Yes!" After he finished his words, Billy pulled out a new shield and threw the frozen one. Then, seeing him charging forward again, Weirong jumped forward as well.
***Clang!***
Rian, who was on the front lines with Billy, got lost in the chaos, and when Billy opened up an opening, he took the first victim by stabbing the knight sharply in the neck. After killing one player, he slowly retreated behind the line protecting the mages and studied the map as he fought off the knights targeting the mages.
"It's coming as expected!" An epic monster was rapidly approaching in a straight line across the map. Seo-woon, stepping back for a moment to observe the flow of the battle, measured the abilities of Krazen and his guards.
"Absolutely, they couldn't stand against him with such a makeshift team." The mage and knight protecting Krazen on either side hadn't even participated in the battle. By carefully observing the general flow and focusing his attention on Weirong, he seemed to know exactly how to end the fight.
"If he dies now, we'll be in trouble." Weirong was the only player in this makeshift team with any useful combat skills. Billy slowly advanced once more and continued to fight near Weirong.
***Kang! Kang! Kang!***
As he dodged the knight's sword that recklessly struck his shield and watched for Krazen, he saw the knight standing next to him move.
***Tukang!***
He shoved the knight he was fighting with his shoulder and ran to Weirong's side.
***Kang! Kujik!***
Extending his new form, he lunged forward and tried to split Weirong's waist with a single sword blow, but the knight's sword was blocked by Billy's shield. The wrinkled-faced knight's eyes narrowed for a moment.
Aiming for the opening, he deliberately didn't raise his sword to kill with a single blow, but instead attacked from the side and delivered a fatal blow. However, he seemed quite surprised that the unknown knight blocked it. As a cost to blocking the knight's sword, Billy's shield cracked, and he was forced to abandon him.
"Ugh!" He heard Billy drop his shield. Seeing him grab his arm and stumble backward, Weirong belatedly turned his attention to the knight and stepped in front of Billy.
"Are you okay?"
"I can still fight." As he was blocking the enemy's attack, a knight swooped in like a ghost and struck him; cold sweat ran down Weirong's back, narrowly escaping death. As their swords clashed, they realized that although they outnumbered their enemies, these men were no match for them.
Just as Weirong and the knight were about to attack each other, Billy shouted. "Krosino is coming!"
The sound spread throughout the area, freezing even the three players trying to escape the battle. In an instant, the fighting on the battlefield magically stopped. The players, who had been retreating, watching each other warily, opened the map and frowned. It was too late to escape; the enemy was right above them.
***Shukang!***
In an instant, the creature, which had broken through the thick branches that covered the sky and entered the center of the battlefield, looked around with a somber expression.
"Another failure? You're just like a mouse."
The players looked at the creature that had just spoken, and Krosino returned their gaze with a dry, emotionless gaze.
"Is that Demon King Krosino?" He looked so ordinary, aside from his wings and skin tone, that one player remarked, but at that moment, he exploded with an intense presence that froze the air around him.
"This is practically a demon's power." His aura was far darker than the demonic energy of a demon that bound people, a repulsive energy that stirred their primal fears. The aura was so powerful that it was impossible to believe it came from this world, and the surrounding players' faces were pale as if their blood had been drained.
Krazen seemed to be the only player who remained calm in the face of such energy. "I don't know much about those men wearing helmets or robes."
"I think we should join forces for a while. What do you say?"
Weirong, his eyebrows furrowed, nodded in response to Krazen's question, which was posed in his usual calm, gentle voice. Up to this point, everything had gone according to Seo-woon's plan. Even though they were rivals destined to kill each other, he had decided that for the time being, they would have no choice but to join forces when facing a powerful monster.
"The question was what would come next."
"What does that mean? You think a bunch of insects can stop me by combining their strength?" Just as he said this, he felt Krosino's wings twitch, and then one of them moved.
"Ahhhhh!"
"Get out of the way!" Yelling, Billy pushed Weirong's waist, and he rolled onto the ground. The wind that passed by them both instantly swallowed the seven wizards and disappeared, leaving a giant trail in the forest. Several players began to tremble at the sight of this trail, which looked as if a hole had been torn open in the forest.
"I like this." The fact that a person he thought was insignificant not only dodged his attack, but also saved his companion's life was beyond Krosino's expectations. As Krosino turned towards Billy with a smile, something unexpected happened.
***Squeak!***
"Ugh!"
Krazen reached out and grabbed the heart of one of the knight companions protecting him and pulled it out. Even Seo-woon, who had transformed into Billy, was surprised and widened his eyes. However, the players around Krazen remained calm as if nothing had happened.
"Lord of Darkness. Loser of Galicia." As soon as he said these short words, he grabbed the heart of the jumping knight in his hand, and the heart exploded, spraying a jet of black ink-like energy into his hand.
Krosino frowned at the familiar energy and turned to look at Krazen. "Biburanik's energy? Are you a black magician?"
"Something like that." With that, Krazen brought the black energy extending from his hand towards his own heart, and the energy enveloped him. The color of his magnificent armor and everything on him, except for his silver hair, began to turn black. When Krazen finally opened his eyes, his face looked remarkably like Krosino's face standing before him.
"This isn't simple black magic. I didn't think there were still people who would make a pact with the Demon King. Human stupidity always surpasses my imagination."
Thanks to the people who made a pact with him and gained his power, he was able to transcend dimensions and be summoned to the human world. After bringing humanity to the brink of extinction and failing to destroy them, Krosino never imagined that humans would make a pact with the Demon King again.
When Krosino extended his hand, a sword made of black darkness was drawn. "The power of Biburanik. What beautiful memories it brings back." After saying this, he began to walk towards Krazen.