Chapter 27

There was no time to breathe. Noquia was soaked in sweat from head to toe, her clothes a mess. Gasping for air, her chest heaving, she kept readjusting her grip on her dagger, wary of the guild members who were treating her like prey.

They stood at a tense standoff when Father stepped forward slowly. The wind tossed the hem of her black see-through dress, which kept wrapping around the swords in her hands.

Noquia locked eyes with Father and took a deep breath. Then she held it, bracing herself. Father flicked her rapier to the side, sharp and clean, and charged.

Noquia, as if waiting for this, crossed her daggers to catch the rapier.

Only one step stood between her and Father’s blade. And then, everything began to move in slow motion. Noquia’s eyes widened.

“Deadly Time!”

She immediately dropped her guard, dodged Father’s strike, and triggered a tier action. The attack landed squarely on Father with fireworks-like effects, unleashing a massive amount of damage. Noquia, convinced of her win, expected to see Father collapse in an ugly heap.

But instead, Father remained barely upright, her rapier stabbed into the ground to support herself.

“What the hell?”

Noquia stared in disbelief, dumbfounded. Father, her face pale, pushed back her disheveled hair.

“Shit… That was way too close…”

Noquia blinked at her. Then, panicked, she stumbled back.

“Damn it, fatigue!”

She hadn’t dealt max damage because of fatigue. She’d missed her golden opportunity to turn the tide.

Father quickly used a potion and called for Blaine. A gravitational field unfolded behind Noquia.

Unable to withstand the overwhelming pressure from above, Noquia collapsed, flattened to the ground. Father, having downed another potion, flicked her rapier clean and walked over.

“Let’s end the game of tag here.”

Noquia kept trying to get up, unwilling to give in so easily. But the more she struggled, the heavier the gravity pressed down on her. Clicking her tongue at Noquia’s stubbornness, Father raised her rapier to finish it—only for a sudden hail of arrows to rain down.

“?”

Father casually slashed her sword to deflect the arrows aimed at her, then glanced around with a puzzled look. Her expression immediately twisted.

Not far away, members of the Kilimanjaro guild were approaching in a horde. There were a lot of them—clearly, an alliance was involved.

Without saying a word, they launched an attack. Father gritted her teeth and swung her sword. It was a sudden ambush, but her guild members didn’t panic. As soon as Father moved to the front line, they followed in unison.

Blaine released the gravitational field pinning Noquia and dropped a gravity orb in the heart of the Kilimanjaro formation.

As the orb pinned the feet of Kilimanjaro and their allies, a barrage of attacks rained down. Those who managed to escape the gravity scrambled away in terror, while those who couldn’t move were nothing more than punching bags.

Just then, Red¹—who narrowly avoided the gravity orb—charged straight toward Blaine and launched an attack.

The strike landed on Blaine’s side before he could react, and he winced, clutching his flank. Another strike came immediately after.

But before the second blow could land, Red was suddenly struck by something and went tumbling to the ground. A thin, jet-black mist had formed a line in front of Blaine—then vanished just as quickly. It looked like the trace of something shooting past, tail trailing behind.

Blaine turned his gaze toward the source of the attack.

Not far away stood Theo, having just loosed an arrow.

“I told you I’d gouge your eyes out, didn’t I?”

As Theo threatened and approached, Red staggered to his feet. The charged arrow had knocked his back, but hadn’t dealt serious damage.

Grunting, Red clutched his side, then lunged forward again, eyes burning with murderous intent.

“You’ve got some nerve, you illegal bastard…!”

Theo didn’t even flinch as he fired another charged arrow at Red. Knocked down again, Red scrambled to get back up—but Theo was already there. He stomped down on Red’s shoulder, pinning him, and swung his bow hard.

“Who the hell are you calling illegal, dumbass?”

Whack, whack! With each crisp hit, critical strikes popped up one after another. Red tried to block his face with his arms and pushed at Theo’s foot, which was grinding into his shoulder—but Theo didn’t budge.

Then suddenly, Red began thrashing and screaming in agony. Curious, Theo turned around—only to see the twins behind him, casually hacking at Red’s groin with their axes.

“……”

It was the kind of sight that made your knees buckle just watching.

Meanwhile, Father and the guild members were mowing down waves of Kilimanjaro and their allied forces, one group at a time. But they couldn’t help noticing how oddly coordinated the enemies were. If they exhausted one enemy and tried to knock them out of the fight, another would charge in to interrupt, buying time for the exhausted one to recover and rejoin. Repeat that dozens of times, and it felt like they were fighting a horde of zombies.

To make things worse, enemies in the backline were using the frontline as meat shields while constantly raining down ranged attacks. That was a problem.

First priority: wipe out the backline. Father quickly scanned the surroundings—and spotted Noquia not far away. She was, surprisingly, diligently participating in the battle like a proper guild member.

Leaving Holanghee in charge of the front, Father retreated and made her way over. Noquia was wheezing and swinging her arms like a robot running on fumes.

“Hey, did your real body not sleep or something?”

When Father asked, Noquia looked up at her with sunken eyes.

“I am one with Noquia. Body and mind, united as one.”

Father stared at her with a sour expression.

“Bullshit,” she muttered, then tossed her a small leather pouch.

“What’s this?”

“Retai Powder.”

“Eh?”

“I need your help. Eat that and fix your fatigue first.”

Color returned to Noquia’s deathly pale face, where dark circles and red veins had taken over. As if waiting for permission, she dumped the entire Retai Powder into her mouth.

‘You only needed a pinch, though—why eat it all?!’

Father looked like she was about to cry from the waste.

“What should I do now?!”

Noquia’s voice was full of energy as her fatigue vanished. Only her in-game fatigue was gone—her real body must still be exhausted—yet her voice sounded completely refreshed. Maybe she really was one with her character.

Father pointed toward the frontlines.

“Think you can cut a path to the backline? Or at least take out some of those ranged attackers however you can.”

Following Father’s hand, Noquia looked toward the chaotic battlefield ahead, thunderous with noise. Clicking her tongue, she rolled up her sleeves.

“There’s a lot of them, but… I’ll give it a shot.”

She plunged her dagger into a charging enemy, rendering them combat incapable, then dashed straight into enemy lines. With her condition fully recovered, Noquia’s participation was a huge boost to the guild’s power—but the problem remained: there were still way too many enemies.

Noquia was a hybrid who used daggers, knuckles, and upper armor mounted on the top of her boots. While she was effective against single targets with either weapon, she lacked the explosive mobility needed to handle multiple enemies at once.

In short, Noquia was at a disadvantage in large-scale fights.

And yet, she seemed to be holding her own—only because she was one-shotting most of the players she encountered. But with enemies swarming like ants, carving a path to the backline was no easy task.

Father, Holanghee, and Noquia held the frontline together, which kept the flood of enemies from overwhelming the guild members. But the ranged attacks from the backline kept flying in without pause. All they could do was block or dodge—there was no clear solution. Worse still, the enemies seemed to be high-tier users, and their attacks were deadly.

Checking the cooldown on his Veil, Theo looked toward the frontlines. Narrowing his eyes, he measured something, blinking slowly several times before glancing around.

Then he spotted Blaine not far away, busy countering enemy spells with his gravity magic.

“Blaine.”

He called out, sounding a bit urgent. Blaine looked over, and Theo quickly explained something while pointing toward the front. Blaine glanced between the frontline and Theo, then gave a slow nod.

They moved into action.

Near the front, Blaine stood with his back to Father and nodded, signaling he was ready. Theo gauged the distance between them, activated his Veil, and sprinted forward. Five long strides. Blaine crouched down and interlocked his hands—Theo stepped onto them with his sixth step, launching himself into a high jump—and on his seventh step, landed smack in the center of the enemy formation.

A pitch-black veil spread out, cutting straight through enemy lines. Theo immediately activated stealth and vanished into the shadowy curtain. The Kilimanjaro guild and its allies began panicking at the unknown phenomenon.

“That’s it! That’s the hacker!”

Shouted Green.

“Those bastards still haven’t learned?! Still using hacks?!”

Orange came storming in, absolutely furious, and began attacking the Veil.

Others followed suit, bombarding it with strikes—but the Veil only wavered slightly. It held firm.

While their attention was completely absorbed by the Veil, Theo slipped out like a bullet and headed for the backline. Thanks to the chaos, he managed to take out one ranged enemy. But after that, he was quickly overwhelmed. He wasn’t a high-tier Murderer, and he hadn’t used any flashy action moves. What could someone like him really do after jumping into the enemy camp alone?

Dodging attacks, Theo retreated into the Veil to hide again. He nocked an arrow and drew it—but he was still out of range. The opening was there, but he couldn’t act on it.

As he mulled over what to do next, the area suddenly erupted in noise.

And then came Noquia’s scream.