Chapter 176. 11 Quad Million Army vs. 4
***
"No way!!"
As soon as he saw Senruk's confident expression, Seo-woon pulled out several teleportation scrolls from his subspace.
As soon as he tore the scroll that would teleport all team members within a certain range, Seo-woon and team members around him simultaneously disappeared from their positions.
Seeing that the image that was supposed to change remained the same, albeit barely, Seo-woon's expression became even more serious.
-Ding! You are within Range Disruption range. Teleportation is being blocked.
Ki-chan's brows furrowed as he looked at his body that had only moved about 40 centimeters. "Brother, this..." Ignoring Ki-chan's panicked voice, Seo-woon quickly informed the team of the current situation. "
...So, gather all the troops and supplies and retreat to Goyoj Castle. Abandon all other castles and resist there. If Sagwang is there, we can somehow stall them. Do not touch the epic beasts under any circumstances!"
-Seo-woon!
-Is there no hope?
"Hyung! I'm coming to help! Hang on a little longer!" Seo-woon coldly responded to his teammates' words. "Juriell. Move for the team. If I die, you take over." Sanggwang. Honestly, there's no hope. We'll do our best, but there's only so much we can do against so many enemies. And Ryle. This is a game. You must move for the team's victory. You know that now."
The team fell silent when Seo-woon finished speaking. The team members, who had listened to his final orders along with Seo-woon, looked resolute. "I've been dead for a long time in the middle of the game.
To be honest, I never thought this day would come after I joined you." Finishing his words, Ki-chan took out the Abyss Staff and stored magic inside, preparing for the final battle. Bing-hoo also increased his preparations by emitting a cold air around him.
"This is the first time I've faced so many enemies."
-Shrak. Jin-ryong's famous sword was silently drawn and trembled. A powerful energy surged from the sword, which had absorbed his inner strength.
"My master said that sometimes you have to be willing to die to gain something." Seo-woon nodded in agreement. If the game ended here and he didn't break into the top ranks, his consecutive rewards, which had a decisive impact on his earnings, would be cut off. Now, consecutive victory rewards were several times greater than first-place prize, so it was a painful blow for Seo-woon.
Seo-woon donned the full Black Dragon armor, strapped on the Spider Wire, and held the Paladin's whip in one hand and the Hamit-transformed Chain Sword in the other. As if that weren't enough, he didn't forget to call Shinyo and Shin-geum. "This is a major crisis."
"Even you can't find a way out of here." Surrounded by enemies swarming from all directions like ants, two monkeys spoke, and Seo-woon's arms and shoulders began to burn with the fire of the first stage of fear.
"Even if we have to leave, we can't just leave.
Hearing Seo-woon's words, two monkeys smiled deeply. "Should we break through from different routes? Or... should we break through to a single point?" Ki-chan asked, looking at the soldiers pouring in from all directions like a cloud.
Even before he asked, Seo-woon's left eye was already reddening as he searched for the slightest possibility. He could see the army attacking from the front and the twin demons approaching from both sides.
Behind them were slightly weaker soldiers, whose skill was so inadequate that it was hard to even compare them. However, since they knew this better than anyone, they had positioned the most players and soldiers behind them.
Seo-woon quickly assessed the situation and said, "We will break through from the front. Target the crowd carefully, but be careful of the encirclement. If you see any weak points in the encirclement, break through there and drag the encirclement with you."
If we can reach the top of that hill where the crowd is passing... we can find a way to survive." The three of them nodded in agreement and began to move with Seo-woon.
***
A week before the million-strong army departed. A fierce battle of nerves raged over two castles held by a small quad sandwiched between the Yan Guild and the Guangjun army. When one side tried to launch a siege, the other intervened to prevent it, making a proper siege impossible.
In sheer numbers, the Guangjun formation had twice the number of soldiers than the Yan Guild. This was quite natural, as Guangjun had control of the central region and therefore had more troops.
However, the reason Guangjun formation couldn't crush the Yan Guild and maintain the balance was due to the Yan Guild's unique soldiers. The steel soldiers were equipped with black metal armor so strong that they could easily defeat regular steel soldiers by a ratio of 2:1, even 3:1.
"Something must have come out of the boss monster." Yan All armed soldiers fighting against the Guild's soldiers were saying the same thing. In this sense, Kuad was unlucky. While occupying the central area with the largest castle and numerous other castles clustered around it was advantageous, the boss monster and buff monster were beyond their reach.
As time went by, Kuad, trapped between Guangjun formation and Yan Guild, was gradually losing its strength.
Stuck between two massive groups, they weren't defending the castle with their own strength, but were simply trying to survive the clash between the two sides. Their hearts were more anxious than those of debtors fleeing from creditors.
At any moment, the balance between the two factions could be disrupted, and they could be swept away like a sandcastle in a storm. Unable to even freely recruit, they were forced to survive by gradually reducing their supplies, hoping that the number of survivors would drop below 2,500 as quickly as possible.
However, a glimmer of hope soon emerged. One day, a player arrived. A man claiming to be from the Yan Guild said,He laid out a thousand coffins in front of their castle and made an offer. "If you accept our offer, we'll at least give you a chance to survive."
While the monk was making this offer, the general was receiving a similar offer. "The combination of Goyoj Castle and Jinseung Kuad isn't very good. His kuad, composed entirely of crowned players and unrivaled in Cloyd, is well known to those in the know."
Gwang-gun's mouth twitched at the bald old man's words. "So? Shall we combine our forces, kill him first, and then compete for the top?"
"We have nothing to lose, right?" "..."
***
That was how the joint operation came about. He took his loyal followers, who had nowhere else to go, to Seo-woon and handed them over as spies. Seo-woon had no mercy in his heart, so it wouldn't matter if he killed them all. If he could read the enemy's movements for even a moment, that would be enough.
But as if by some stroke of luck, the enemy accepted all the spies he sent. And those spies, acting steadily, managed to decipher Seo-woon's movements. The moment they figured out their movements, they launched into action without hesitation.
They gathered an equal number of soldiers from the Guanggun and Yan Guilds and secretly moved them, waiting and waiting for Seo-woon to arrive at his expected destination. It was a labor-intensive operation. What was happening? Senruk couldn't understand.
"Stop their retreat! Form a tighter wall with soldiers!" The young woman's sword, freezing hundreds of soldiers with a single blow, was enough to send shivers down one's spine just by looking at it.
That wasn't all. A young warrior, wielding elegantly channeled ki energy in his sword, led the way, displaying skills rivaling those of his brothers Skurs and Berus.
Furthermore, a mage, who switched between chain lightning and lightning summons as if he were a ball of electricity, was instantly dispatching hundreds of soldiers, showing no signs of stopping as if he possessed infinite mana. Two strange-looking monkeys were roaming the battlefield, targeting only the players, and the most alarming of all, as expected, was Jin Seo-woon.
The armed men were luring soldiers towards them with extending whips and wires shooting from their backs, killing them with a single sword blow, forcing the soldiers under his command to break formation or slow their movements, scattering the front lines. The most worrying thing was...
-Kang! If he showed the slightest opening, that man would come after him directly. If he reacted even a second too late to the wire shooting out at the speed of light, he would be snatched away instantly.
"Is there really that much difference between us?"
He knew that this man was a quick learner. From the very first game, he had started with Cloyd on the same day, in the same place as the enemy. However, he was definitely not behind the enemy in terms of his rate of rise through the ranks. So why was there such a difference now? He couldn't understand. There weren't many things in his life he couldn't understand.
"Everyone! Halt your movements!Don't let them break through the siege!"
The soldiers from the other three formations hadn't arrived yet. He had to hold out until they arrived. 100,000 to 200,000 was a difference, 100,000 to 1 million was a completely different story.
No matter how skilled the enemy players were, it was impossible for them to defeat a million people. "Fire more arrows and spells! There's a clear limit to how much we can hold out with our barriers and our bodies! Mages, focus on status-altering spells!"
-Clang! Bang!
Repelling the attacking steel soldiers with his long chainswords, Seo-woon grimaced and applied more force, causing the enemies' waists to snap and chainswords to lengthen.
-Bro! We're useless! Seo-woon nodded to Ki-chan's team chat.
-Tomorrow somehow! If we can't, we'll all die! Senruk, who had extensive experience on the battlefield, began to worry when he saw Seo-woon silently advancing and clearing a path.
In such a chaotic battle, it's inevitable that the field of vision of those directly engaged in combat will quickly shrink. Especially when there's such an overwhelming difference in the number of soldiers, only enemy soldiers can be seen in each direction, increasing confusion and making it difficult to determine the basic direction.
It takes countless battles to develop the ability to see the whole picture and consider everything in such a chaotic situation. Even in Cloyd, where all kinds of items are available, this kind of experience cannot be replaced by items.
But that man, Jin Seo-woon was wandering around like a ghost, searching for weak points in the siege. "Does he have eyes behind him too?!" If he let him escape now, things would only get worse.
With the kingdom in such turmoil, Senruk didn't want to leave his post for long, so his impatience grew. If enemies surrounded in the center charged towards one side, soldiers blocking the other side would naturally attack the enemies from the rear and be surrounded from all sides.
However, in such a situation where this was impossible, the soldiers on the other side had to quickly move to the weak side of the siege and fill the gap. The faster the breakthrough attempts moved, the harder it became to fill the gaps.
And Senruk began to think he might lose Seo-woon. At that moment, two of his trusted subordinates rushed towards Seo-woon's group. With the arrival of the twins, who had abandoned even the soldiers they commanded, the siege that had been unilaterally dragging Seo-woon's group finally stabilized.
-Kvaang!
"Ki-chan, get out of there!"
In close combat, Blocking Berus's attack, which was concentrated on the weakest magician, with his chain sword, Seo-woon shouted loudly. This time, Binghu helped Ki-chan, who naturally retreated.
-Kwoong! This time, when Skers' sword hit the ground, a red aura shot out towards Ki-chan and split the ground. Binghu narrowed his eyes as he neutralized the red aura with his piercing blue aura. The two brothers, their feet tied,They retreated at the same time they attacked and hid among the soldiers. They thought tying their feet for a moment would be enough.
Binghu wanted to chase them down and freeze their bodies piece by piece, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew the longer they remained motionless, the narrower their chances of survival would be.
"I'll hold them off. In the meantime, find a way to break through this encirclement." Seo-woon's pupils flickered at her sudden words. But at that moment, he didn't have the strength to tell her that they would fight together until the end. Their relationship wasn't that deep, and there was no need to go to such lengths for a single game.
If there was a way to survive, he had to live, and surviving until the end was the least he could do for his fallen teammates. At least, that's how he felt inside his cloak.
After a moment of surprise, Seo-woon nodded and used Hwaganggeumjeong to assess the weak encirclement, then moved toward it, and the two brothers charged at him without hesitation. He hadn't even known they were coming at first, so he was caught off guard, but this time was different. Binghu flew towards the two brothers rushing towards him and charged towards the center of the encirclement.
—Puwaah! An indescribable coldness erupted from his sword, engulfing him and the two brothers in a fog.
"What was that?"
Jin-ryong looked back for a moment, then widened his eyes and shook his head. Unable to bear the sight, he turned his head and swiftly cut down the soldiers blocking his view. A gleam of curiosity appeared on Ki-chan's face. He was curious about Jin-ryong's reaction, but the situation wasn't right for asking. "He blasted his core."
Even though martial arts were inferior to magic, he knew exactly what that meant. If this were reality, it was a method a warrior wouldn't use even with their last breath. A method only suitable for Cloyd.
As powerful as his years of experience, Binghu's blast dragged Berus and Skers, who couldn't hide their disappointment, towards him. Berus activated his defensive ability, which could only be used once every three days, and Skers lost his right arm, frozen in that fleeting moment.
Before he could even strike, he couldn't believe such a thing was possible with just the energy emanating from his body and sword. The cold air rising from his sword intensified, and the two brothers, their swords dulled by blood seeping from their lips, were unable to resist and were forced to take the blows.
After the fog-like cold air dispersed, only Binghu's lifeless body remained, frozen white, and the twin brothers lying lifeless before him. Unable to close his eyes, Senruk watched as the bodies of the two brothers and the satisfied smile on Binghu's face disappeared, and three boxes appeared.
"Do whatever it takes to stop them! All armed men, tie up those bastards!" The ground turned into a swamp, and thick iron chains and all sorts of things sprang up from the ground to try and stop the group, but Seo-woon,They couldn't stop Jin-ryong and Ki-chan.
Dozens of knights rushed in, but as soon as blue light erupted from Seo-woon's body, they retreated, unable to withstand the heat. Even steel soldiers melted instantly from the heat of the blue flames.
"Damn it. We can't hold on like this much longer." Thanks to Binghu's unexpected sacrifice, they achieved a significant success and averted the crisis, but despite this, the escape route was still narrow. His and Jin-ryong's energy had already been significantly depleted, and Ki-chan could no longer use high-level magic.
On top of that, Shin-yo and Shin-geum had been called back by the enemy's accumulated attacks. If they lost any more strength, they would be crushed by the enemy army and die.
"Baek-ho! I wish I could unlock Baek-ho..."
Since he had nearly caused a huge scene after trying to hit Baekhwa once while reading Mushin's memories, Seo-woon had been practicing every time he had the time, testing every single blood vessel in his body. He still had many more blood vessels to test before even daring to try Baekhwa, but now he was inside Cloyd. "I never thought it would be like this."
Seo-woon confirmed that soldiers from the other three directions were slowly joining the siege via Hwaganggeumjeong. He dispersed Cheonghwa in all directions to push soldiers back and raised all the Seonma-gi.
"We only have one chance." If he couldn't break through Baekhoe in that one chance, he would die not at the hands of soldiers, but because of Juhwa-ipma. When he raised the remaining Senma, the players blocking them hesitated and hid well behind the soldiers. Seo-woon simply crouching down and preparing something was enough to exert significant pressure on them.
Senma rose slightly and lunged towards Baekhwa along the energy lines. -Kwaang! A deafening roar echoed through their scalps, and Seo-woon's eyes darkened, blood gushing from his ears and nose.