"Please join the Overgeared Guild, we need talents like you."
"Give me some time to think."
It was a reasonable answer at this point. From the time she revealed herself to the time she registered her name on the unified rankings until now, Elizza Nowak had received invitations from no less than 10 guilds across the West Continent. Each time, she politely declined or said that she would think about it so as not to offend them. Elizza Nowak was a rich young lady, she didn't need money or fame— which she already had. What she needed was an environment to develop her hobby of being an assassin. It might sound crazy, but she wanted to build an image that was the opposite of her outgoing personality in real life. It was more like a challenge for herself than a symptom of schizophrenia.
"Let's wait until after we defeat this year's Demon King."
"Well, we look forward to hearing from you."
"May the best one defeat the Demon King."
"Hehe."
Minutes later, the big screens broadcast the voice of the host.
『 Unfortunately, viewers. Despite their best efforts, Group D, who are in charge of the South Gate, were unable to overcome Aduka when he activated his special ability and forced the players into a completely new battle. We will have a 10-minute break for the players, followed by 20 minutes for them to discuss their plan to attack Aduka a second time. The short 8-minute post-match commentary will be available in 2 minutes. Don't go anywhere, we'll be right back! 』
This was followed by a two-minute commercial break from sponsors. Viewers at home and in the stadium rushed to the bathroom because they would rather watch player discussions than post-match commentary.
***
Aduka only revealed two types of attacks in the first challenge.
The first form is a gray lightning ball that deals damage to the target hit and 8 surrounding locations take a small amount of damage. That is, if they are lucky, Aduka will randomly attack the 4 corners, dealing damage only to the main target and the 3 closest locations. In addition, it also causes electric shock. If Aduka uses the lightning ball to attack someone right before their turn, the attacked person will be paralyzed for 2 seconds, directly reducing Aduka's turn-waiting time. If the attacker is on the right side of the person who was just hit, the electric shock will also occur and they will be paralyzed for 1 second. Therefore, there will be people who always avoid indirect paralysis during their turn.
The second form was a laser beam fired from the satellite above Aduka's head. It didn't do splash damage like the first form, but its power was at least three times higher. The ones who got hit directly were Tarma - who died instantly on the third cycle, and Alexander - who survived thanks to his legendary armor.
Another important information is about skills with long casting times. Since each turn is only 5 seconds, skills with casting times longer than 5 seconds will be cut off and considered not to have started that turn. Their second turn will continue the skill until it is completed. Fortunately, because of this mechanism, skills over 10 seconds have been shortened to 10 seconds.
During the discussion, they created a board of 120 squares, divided into 12 vertical rows and 10 horizontal rows, and then selected key players to place in the most favorable positions to thoroughly figure out the Evil God of Time Aduka. With each person's unique profession, they came up with the most optimal positions in the hope that their famous skills would be put to use.
Katz and Seuron use blood and soul on the battlefield so they are placed at positions 118 and 119.
Ruby wants position 109 in the corner because she can't bear to see many people around her taking damage, so Sexy Schoolgirl stands right behind, at position 110.
Hao is placed at position 101 with a bind skill to give Ibellin at position 102 a chance to deal massive damage right after.
Jishuka can attack enemies and heal allies at the same time, and if she pulls her bowstring for more than 2.2 seconds, she will gain a shield that protects her from at least one abnormal status (in this case, the electric shock from Aduka's first attack form) and has a low chance of applying the shield to party members. This means that in just one turn, she can double this chance, at the cost of reducing Aduka's attack-waiting time. Therefore, she chooses position 80.
The remaining prominent players are mainly from the damage dealer class, so their positions are placed in different rows, mixed with players from other classes. In order, they are Asuka at position 7, Chris at position 16, Skull at position 24, Regas at position 29, Kraugel at position 34, Zibal at position 43, Yura at position 50, Peak Sword at position 57, Elizza Nowak at position 64, Pon at position 69, Alexander at position 77, and Coke at position 93.
Eat Spicy Jokbal chooses position number 2 to quickly create a dungeon to support allies.
***
After discussing everything, they stepped into the penultimate battlefield. The players quickly moved to their predetermined positions so that when Aduka appeared, they wouldn't be misplaced by the system.
[You are under the influence of the Evil God of Time Aduka's power.]
[The ability to attack freely has been disabled.]
[Battle mode has been...]
[Please be careful! Delaying your attack decision...]
[The first attacker...]
...
...
It is not wrong to say that Evil God of Time Aduka is unique. If it were the other 3 Heavenly Kings, in the event that they really wiped out the enemy, the players would have 20 minutes to discuss before challenging again, and during those 20 minutes, the Heavenly Kings' skill cooldowns would stop, their stats would also be reduced by 30%, only their health would be fully restored.
On the other hand, Aduka's attack and damage are fixed by turn so there is no cooldown time at all, and the stats do not decrease, so when looking at the new lineup with these outstanding names, perhaps the battle will be much easier than the previous lineup despite every resources of Aduka have been kept the same.
With a firm mindset, they started the battle, and it went exactly as they expected. The first 10 minutes corresponded to the first cycle, Aduka only used the lightning attack type, and Chris was unlucky to be hit by random attacks twice, fortunately the healer at position 42 performed the first healing spell on him and the healer at position 96 performed the second healing spell, bringing him back to almost the same health as before. The amount of health Aduka lost in these 10 minutes was 27%, and according to their calculations, the raid would end at the end of the third cycle with minimal casualties.
They thought everything would go smoothly, but they were wrong. When it came to the second cycle, after firing a lightning ball attack, on the next turn, the satellite above Aduka's head fired, and the one who was hit by the laser was Yura. Zibal, Kraugel, and Jishuka simultaneously noticed that Aduka's turn-waiting time gauge had moved up a bit, something that Group D had not noticed during their raid.
With more than 10 healers scattered throughout the formation taking turns casting spells, they could hold out even if Aduka's satellites became more active, and as it became more active, the gauge would gradually reach its peak. They wondered what would happen when that time came...
According to the notification window that appeared when Aduka appeared, if the gauge value dropped to 0, he would steal the next player's attack turn and that player will lose 45% of their current total health. It was only in the second cycle that Aduka's satellite fired for the first time, indicating that it had some unknown activation condition, and since it fired so early, it was highly likely that it would fire again. They waited for the satellite to activate to verify, and with a random lightning ball attack that hit Regas without much effect due to Regas's weapon having the lightning attribute, Aduka's next turn was performed by the satellite. It hit Kraugel.
'Legend...'
'It's definitely targeting legendary classes!'
'It's aimed at legendary class players or those who can deal legendary-level damage.'
From this new information, Jishuka would be the next to be attacked. And that was exactly what happened. She coughed up blood when she realized that the seemingly fixed damage of the laser attack was stronger than expected.
"Its power increases gradually to compensate for the increased turn-waiting time, I don't know if the creator of this boss is sane or crazy..."
"We only have Ruby as the next legend in the group, whichever magician's turn it is, use protection on Ruby." Zibal gave the order on Kraugel's behalf.
There was a magician at position 27 and he cast his best defensive spell on Ruby and 3 people around her within 5 seconds of his turn.
As the spell covered Ruby and the 3 positions 97, 98 and 110, the satellite moved slightly, so subtle and fast that neither Kraugel nor Jishuka noticed. It was thinking about something.
The next 3 attacks, the satellite did not change at all, Aduka just randomly threw lightning ball at Skull, Pon, and a magician at position 104.
The players took this opportunity to activate their offensive or support skills, trying to reduce Aduka's health as much as possible.
They anxiously waited to see what Aduka's fourth turn would be, but it seemed the enemy had no intention of using the satellite anymore. He used the lightning ball to attack like a machine, regularly with each turn. The waiting time gauge also decreased because of that.
This inexplicable behavior puzzled them but they could not explain it. The second cycle passed, and Aduka's health was now at 34%, while the turn-waiting time gauge was at an extremely low level.
At this rate, one of the first 12 player turns would be stolen, and what had to happen happened. Aduka randomly attacked the archer at position 106, and then it was Asuka's turn. She knew that someone would have their turn stolen anyway, and it definitely wouldn't be her, and she needed a great performance to keep her hopes of winning the medal alive, so she activated Sword Frenzy, a skill of Berserker class to deal massive damage to Aduka, and at the same time, the gauge dropped to 0. The spearman at position 8 could only look at her with angry eyes.
"Almost similar names but the same rudeness?"
"Blame yourself for choosing to stand next to me."
Asuka's ultimate was powerful enough to cause Aduka to lose 5% of his health, and then the Evil God of Time made his move. Katz at position 118 was the one who got hit, along with the position 8 spearman who was heavily injured from the turn-stealing effect.
What puzzled people was why the satellite didn't attack when Aduka stole the turn. It was clearly an opportunity to do more damage with a free turn. The unanswered questions kept piling up, but for some reason, they assumed that Aduka's next move would be the satellite's. They were right, but only partly right.
The satellite attack instead of Aduka was indeed not beyond their expectations, but the sign of the difference was that during the turn of the swordsman in position 12, Aduka raised his left hand, pointing at the spearman in position 8.
Just received treatment from the healer at position 9 about 20 seconds ago, seeing Aduka's gesture, he already thought he wouldn't survive this time. That was true.
As soon as the position 12 swordsman's attack ended, the satellite fired not just one, but multiple laser beams in the straight line that Aduka pointed at. The damage was calculated using the Fibonacci coefficient, so the person further back suffered more damage, and who was the last person in that straight line? It was Katz!
Exactly! Katz being attacked by the lightning ball on Aduka's free turn was a way to mark the beginning and end of the special attack in a straight line. Their formation was divided into squares, and whichever square this line passed through, the person standing on that square would be attacked without exception. The third cycle had only been a minute—equivalent to the 21st minute of the challenge—and this strongest formation had lost people for the first time. Not just one.
"How does it feel to be told you're crazy?" Director Yoon Sangmin turned to his right, looking at the person who designed the satellite.
"It's rare, just let them say what they want." That person looked at the data displayed on the screen.
"But don't you think its stats are too high?"
"It's high because there are too many elites in this new group. If the total number of legendary classes and people with near-legendary attack power were less, this definitely wouldn't have happened, just like Group D."
A straight line passed through 12 squares. With the lowest damage being 15,750 and the highest being 178,200, it was already too lucky for group E to have only 7 deaths. Everyone froze for a moment, including the players, so because of this mistake, positions 13 and 14 missed their turn.
Aduka's gauge turned red and exceeded its maximum threshold. Kraugel immediately recognized the problem.
"It's overloaded! This is our chance while it pauses its function."
They had to strike before Aduka and his satellites could reactivate. Nine physical damage dealers and three magicians activated the skills they had been saving, bringing Aduka's health down to 7%.
Who was the next attacker? None other than Kraugel. What could have been more spectacular had he used the skill that had finished off Janamelis nearly an hour ago. However, he used a different skill. He wanted to honor the person who had helped him get this far.
"Splitting the Sky!"
A skill created from Swordsmanship Creation, originating from the Fourth Style of Piaro's Supreme Swordsmanship. Back then, it was still weak and child's play in front of the Great Demon Belial, but as the years passed, it was now comparable to Piaro's Splitting the Sky, if not superior.
Kraugel delivers the decisive blows.
[Critical!]
[Critical!]
[Critical!]
[Critical!]
...
Aduka's health was dropping steadily. He was turning into dust. Everyone waited for the successful raid notification window to appear.
[Aduka of the South Gate has fallen.]
[Group E has succeeded ƝCẞX #>P@ ƎʔʉŸƙŪŁ ĞØծԽռ դԾՅւփ.]
...
...
[The influence of the Evil God of Time Aduka's power that you were under has ended.]
[The Turn-Based Strategy battle method has been dispelled.]
[The ability to attack freely has been enabled again.]
[A new enemy has appeared!]
Aduka's satellite turned white. At this moment, a name appeared above it. Toul.
『 ... 』
"..."
Now both the host and the audience were also speechless.
"What are you thinking? Isn't fighting just Aduka enough???" Director Yoon Sangmin shouted.
"Their opponent is an Archangel, boss. This little thing is nothing. I disabled all of its defenses, taking it down won't be hard."
"But its attack power remains at level 4, hitting its targets 3 more times will increase it to level 5 and level 6, you want them to give up or something?"
"Its health is only ⅓ of Aduka's and its accuracy has also decreased significantly. It will be defeated in less than 4 minutes, you wanna bet?"
"But..."
"Boss~, just sit down and watch. This year, Grid is missing, so we have to have something to impress everyone."
"..."
"Hey, come on, your fried chicken is cold now, if you don't want to eat it anymore, give it to me!"
That person laughed heartily and Yoon Sangmin was at a loss.
***
After 23 minutes, this is what happened before their eyes.
[Toul is a parasitic life form that becomes aggressive when it loses its host. It will self-destruct after 4 minutes if it does not find a specific host, and the explosion will destroy everything within a 500 meter radius.]
[Toul's attack power and speed are very high, however, its defense is 0.]
[Destroy it quickly!]
The audience in the stadium and the viewers at home could no longer sit still. They stood up to cheer for the survivors to enter the final battle before facing the Demon King Damian. And not to disappoint them, the players, after being freed from the turn-based strategy combat mode, charged forward in unison. Their unity was exactly what the S.A Group was aiming for.
Sitting in the monitoring room with Director Yoon Sangmin and his colleagues, that person closed his eyes and muttered in a voice that no one could hear.
"You're as beautiful as the day I lost you..."
The person's memories from his previous life were coming back...
***
[Toul of the South Gate has fallen.]
[Group E has succeeded in attacking the South Gate.]
[The top contributor to the attack on the South Gate is South Korea's representative, Jishuka!]
[The second place contributor to the attack on the South Gate is South Korea's representative, Yura!]
[The third place contributor to the attack on the South Gate is United State's representative, Kraugel!]
3 minutes 57 seconds. They had barely killed the last gatekeeper.
Kraugel thought the next gold medal was his, but Yura's flawless coordination with Jishuka outshone his performance. He congratulated them and thanked them for putting together an unforgettable experience despite Grid's absence.
Now, after nearly 100 minutes of facing the Four Heavenly Kings, they are preparing for their final confrontation. This year's Demon King, Damian.