Chapter 144 - Citadel Invasion (2)

The party members were already prepared to act before Hyun even shouted.

It was the result of practicing so much in the experience dungeon and improving their team play.

TarrTarr used the «Shield of Predation» and blocked the left passageway; Ain used «Efreet's Claw» and blocked the right pathway.

They had two movement skills, «Shadow Run» and «Steps of the Incarnate», so they could always move faster than the devils.

As both pathways were blocked, it was as if the devils were locked inside of a giant room.

「Don't disband the party.」

Hyun gave a warning.

Ain usually disbanded the party to recharge the Shadow Linker's Demonic Energy and Salon to maintain the combo before they rejoined.

Boom-!

Along with the explosion of strong Demonic Energy, Louise was devoured by darkness.

The silhouette of a girl wielding a sword that was over 10 meters long looked as if the sunset had stretched out a shadow.

But unlike a shadow, it was very real.

The «Sword of Darkness» really was over 10 meters long.

«Biorhythm Acceleration!>>

Pang-!

The wind simultaneously exploding out of Louise's hands, shoulders, waist, and legs made her rotate like a top.

A dark tornado blew as she rotated in place.

Dozens of sword strikes rained down.

Wherever the magic sword strikes landed became a valley of death.

The «Sword of Darkness» just went through the party members and didn't inflict damage, but because the devils were trash mobs with low HP, they died in one hit.

The devil that was closest to Louise was cut into more than 10 pieces.

When the black tornado stopped, all of the devils had turned into light and scattered away.

"Ahh…"

Hyun let out a sigh after «Disassimilating».

It was a technique he could only use while «Assimilating» into Louise.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a Shadow Linker's second ultimate attack.

「Ahh… That gives me chills every time I see it.」

「Yes. It's too bad we cannot upload it as a video.」

As TarrTarr mumbled, disappointed, Hyun answered while smirking.

「We're going to upload them eventually. Just not yet.」

Hyun couldn't help but prepare for PvP amongst users.

If the time when he had to fight using all of this strength came, it would be better to have some techniques hidden under his sleeves.

He especially had to hide as much information from the previous game Asra's users as possible. He had to end the fight by using a technique they'd never seen before.

Although someone would be able to analyze his technique one day, he could use each at least once.

Developer Robert had probably said that he would erase the skills using special effects because he understood what he was thinking.

'Well, it's not like I'm going to hide it forever.'

Not only that, but he'd made backups of all the footage.

He was planning to upload some special ones when his channel views went down.

'What…?'

Mablen couldn't hide his surprise.

Even he wouldn't be able to kill a group of devils all at once.

But how could a user that wasn't even at level 200… someone who wasn't even a chosen one like him, have a skill with such destructive power?

'Isn't it just one skill?'

It took Mablen a while to realize that.

He started to understand why the group had said that they would try to recover the castle.

Fufu, a smile appeared on Mablen's mouth.

Before seeing them at the castle, he’d thought of them as lowly beings, but now he was starting to get interested in them.

Maybe watching their end would be more meaningful than drinking some tea while relaxing.

* * *

When Steven said he would make a movie through Asrian, he couldn't help but worry about something.

'Are action scenes similar to a movie’s really possible?'

He’d seen the potential after watching the video of Iluna.

But after playing Asrian by himself, he couldn't recreate such sensations.

'Maybe it's because my level is low.'

But it was the same when they presented him with users that were rankers.

Although they were better than him, they couldn't produce footage as great as movies.

But all those worries disappeared that day.

Although there hadn't been that many battles yet, the footage of the group running through the castle's ominous atmosphere was as good as a scene taken from a movie.

"Yeah, this is it!"

As he felt that sensation again, Steven shouted in excitement.

"To think that they could move like this without any special effects… I can use scenes like this immediately!"

"This isn't bad, but you'll get another sensation once you watch the entire thing."

"Hmm?"

"The real thing hasn’t even started yet."

Fufu, Robert smiled mysteriously while watching the screen.

Hyun's friends and relatives aside, he was probably the one who knew him the best.

After all, he'd left Hyun's plays on the main monitor numerous times as if he were watching a personal stream.

'Although, this time, I'm really not sure how he's planning to do it.'

Robert used the developer's authority to see the structure of Kaidan Castle and all of the forces inside it.

‘Can he really beat this quest?’

It didn't make sense from his point of view, but that made him more excited.

Once again, as always, Robert was hoping for Hyun to exceed all of his expectations.

The last section of the outer part of the castle…

Hyun was leading the way; the rest were in the middle, and a bat was following them from the rear.

Up until that point, more than 10 battles had taken place.

The group ran through the rooftops, the underground, and were finally about to reach the last section of the inner part.

Mablen fell into deep thoughts.

'How…?'

How did Hyun know places of the castle that not even he knew of?

They wouldn't have been able to run so smoothly if they didn’t have a map of the castle.

It was impressive that they hadn't been found out yet, but it was also impressive that almost no battles had taken place.

'Is this due to an unknown ability that only users have?'

Mablen fixed his gaze on Hyun.

Judging from the results until then, he was the party's leader.

He was always the one who took the most important role in all the battles that had taken place until then.

At that point, Mablen couldn't help but wonder about something.

It didn't matter how much he looked at it, TarrTarr, the Duke's knight, seemed to be contributing the least.

'How did the Duke make the weakest his knight…?'

Mablen shook his head.

His role was to report to the Duke once all the party members died.

The only reason the party was still alive was that they still hadn't been discovered.

But the security of the inner wall couldn't be compared to the outer one.

The soldiers inside the outer wall were mostly skeletons or ghosts, but the moment they entered the inner wall, they would face stronger devils.

There were even vampires like Mablen among them.

'Ahh… Finally, the inner wall.'

Salon gulped after seeing that they were getting closer to the inner wall.

Just at first glance, it was different from the outer one. It was luxurious and majestic.

What kind of high-level devils lived on the rooftops?

They were most likely all close to level 300… Although he wasn't sure how many of them were around.

'I can't believe that just five of us are going to be entering that.'

Salon remembered Hyun's words.

It was impossible to infiltrate from the inner wall without being discovered.

It didn't matter if they could or couldn't, they had to face the difficulties upfront.

'Yes. Even if I die fighting, I'll at least do it stylishly.'

Salon smirked and looked around.

He couldn't see them, but there were probably hundreds of drones filming him at that moment.

Realizing that gave him a boost of confidence.

「Follow me!」

Whack-!

Hyun smashed the floor and found an underground space near the edge between the outer and inner parts.

Two symmetrical rails grabbed the party’s attention.

「We’ve finally reached it.」

「Yes. Who would've imagined a place like this under the castle?」

Salon and TarrTarr mumbled, surprised.

It was where a transportation train passed from outside the territory to the inner part of the castle.

You couldn't send everything through teleportation, so that's why something like that was under the castle.

"Why did you come here…?"

After seeing the rails, Mablen kind of understood Hyun's intentions, nevertheless, he asked while acting as if he didn't know the reason.

Fu- Hyun didn't reply to Mablen's words and just smiled.

After a while, the party felt the vibrations of the earth becoming stronger.

Kurrrr-

…But that vibration soon stopped.

「Huh? Did it stop?」

「Yes, right in front of us. Once they restock on supplies, it will probably start again.」

「Good. That means that will mark the start.」

Just like Hyun said, the vibration started to get stronger again.

A train loaded with cargo was getting close to them.

「Get it right the first time without any mistakes.」

The group jumped simultaneously.

Tap.

The train still wasn't moving fast.

That's why even TarrTarr, who had bad mobility, could land on the train's roof.

Ouiing-! Ouiing-!

It was at that moment that the alarm bell started to ring.

If he hadn't seen Hyun until then, Mablen would have burst into laughter here.

Of course, a magic security circle was placed on the transportation train.

Seeing them trapped by the magic security circle as if they were rats would've been enough to make him laugh.

'Is this really possible…?'

But he couldn't laugh anymore.

He began thinking that maybe they would really be able to reach the core.

It was a strategy they wouldn't have been able to try if they weren't aware of the castle's structure.

No, even if they knew, it was impossible.

He still had some doubts, but he wanted to watch them a bit more.

Choo-!

The train began running faster.

Hyun quickly thought about the things they'd have to do from then on while maintaining his balance.

'We have to resist until the middle of the inner part!'

The transportation train would draw two spirals at the other side of the inner wall before reaching the core.

It would take about 10 minutes.

But since they'd been found out, they wouldn't be able to resist 10 minutes.

The important thing was to know when to get off the train.

If they remained on top of the train, they'd be devoured by devils before they even reached the core.

Choo-!

The train reached a spiral and ran along the surface section of its journey.

The inner part of the castle had lots of shining magic circles. It was like looking over a city at night.

While the view of the inner part of the castle quickly passed by…

Deng- Deng-

The sound of bells spread through the place.

It had been an hour since the quest began.

'Yes…!'

Hyun had purposely set the time of the infiltration at that hour.

The high-level devils inside the castle had the characteristic of moving depending on the time, so that was when they'd be able to dodge most of them.

Grrr-

As the wind and light stretched out, Hyun turned his head.

They saw devils that had the form of lizardmen and lizards trying to get on the train.

"Louise, don't move."

Louise extended her hand, but Hyun stopped her.

Wind techniques inevitably had recoil.

If she made a mistake using a wind technique on top of a train that was running fast, there was a chance she'd be blown away by the recoil.

Of course, Salon would also struggle while trying to get combos.

Choo!

The train was getting faster, so maintaining their balance was starting to get harder.

He had to leave handling the monsters trying to get on top of the train to Ain.

「You're the only one I can trust here.」

Fufufu. Ain smiled happily after hearing Hyun's words.

There was a lot of confidence in the voice coming out of her mouth.

「Me taking care of this section was part of the plan.」

「Tell me if it's too hard.」

「No. You probably won't need to help me.」

Ain still hadn't forgotten the contribution rate.

She was number 2 in the rankings by an overwhelming margin.

But leaving Hyun aside, she wasn't interested in the other party members, so she had been feeling annoyed.

She was glad they were in a situation where Hyun was forced to rely on her.

「I can use my ultimate attack, right?」

「Yes.」

As Hyun nodded, Ain's smile deepened.

Whether the party died or managed to successfully invade the castle, it would be decided before the duration of the ultimate attack was up.

Within the next 20 minutes!

In other words, it was time she used all of her skills.

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