"Get inside the west gate right now. Sese, help them out too."
"What? What is it?"
"What's going on?"
Mooljom and Sesese asked in flustered voices after hearing my words, but I needed to finish my business with MelodyCode before I could properly explain.
[Whisper] JeoJollyeoyo: How many?
[Whisper] JeoJollyeoyo: How many Elemental Mages?
[Whisper] MelodyCode: From what I know, three.
[Whisper] MelodyCode: They're probably hiding in separate places.
[Whisper] MelodyCode: If they already started casting their ultimates while avoiding your view,
[Whisper] MelodyCode: there's less than 30 seconds left now.
If it was three, it would be better to act immediately with just me, Yoochae, and the Berserker Sesese. I quickly opened a timer program that displayed seconds and pinned it to a corner of the screen as I spoke.
"There are three Elemental Mages currently hiding and casting their ultimates."
"Elemental Mages? You mean their ultimates?"
"Wait… where? Don't tell me inside the west gate?"
The Elemental Mage's ultimate was Meteor.
If three mages from the Fever Guild cast Meteor on the west gate where 40 people had gathered, the gauge difference would become massive, and in the worst case, the defense could be breached, and even the flag at the center might be lost.
"They planned this from the beginning."
The west gate was narrower than other areas both inside and out, and the buildings were densely packed, creating many blind spots to hide in.
They must've sneaked into the west gate and hidden in the alleys while 80 players were busy fighting each other. That probably took about 10 minutes. If it takes around 2 minutes to cast Meteor, then just like MelodyCode said, there wasn't much time left.
"We'll start searching right away."
"Haren and I will look too. As for the others…"
"There's no time to explain to everyone. Kim Yoochae, are you inside?"
"Yes. I'm searching now."
Thankfully, everyone grasped the situation immediately without needing lengthy explanations and began moving swiftly. I had to hurry back and search the alleys too. But before that—
[Whisper] JeoJollyeoyo: Hey
[Whisper] JeoJollyeoyo: Send me a friend request.
I still had a lot to talk about with MelodyCode. Why did they give away such a good weapon first? And why were they giving us such valuable intel? I needed answers to feel at ease.
[Whisper] MelodyCode: Alright
[Whisper] MelodyCode: Take the staff
[Whisper] JeoJollyeoyo: Yeah, drop it.
I didn't hesitate to use an attack skill on MelodyCode. Just as I expected, they didn't resist, probably due to their low remaining HP. MelodyCode deliberately dropped the staff at the perfect timing before collapsing and disappearing into the respawn zone.
I quickly picked up the staff, equipped it, and used all my movement skills to rush back into the west gate.
"Hyung, instead of randomly searching, let's split the area. We can divide the right side into top and bottom. The left side is smaller, so let's treat it as one."
"I'll go right with the guild master. JeoJollyeoyo, want to take the left?"
"Got it."
I was about to head to the right but quickly turned and ran in the opposite direction. The left side did have fewer buildings than the right, but since I didn't know exactly how much time was left, it would be difficult to check everything.
I racked my brain to think of the most efficient way to search the alleys. With little time left, I had to gamble a bit.
'If I were an Elemental Mage trying to secretly cast an ultimate…'
Where would I hide? Based on that line of thinking, I narrowed it down to four likely spots.
Two dead ends deep in the eastern area, plus the northern and southern edges. If the area were a clock face, those would be 12, 2, 4, and 6 o'clock positions.
'I'll sweep from 12 o'clock and go around from there.'
I reached the northern area as quickly as I could and confirmed it was clear, then headed east. Since pet summoning wasn't allowed during prelims, I had to move myself, which slowed things down.
Early Evening Guild has earned 10 points!
"Hyung, I got the one in the lower right. They were a team of two, so be careful."
"Already?"
Although Yoochae had gone to search first, even so, the speed was much faster than expected.
"Yeah. Even if it's an Elemental Mage ultimate, it still has a cast range, so I started by checking nearby."
"Ah, that makes sense."
The area with the most people fighting was right in front of the west gate. Since it was far from the 6 o'clock direction... that meant 2 o'clock or 4 o'clock were more likely.
Early Evening Guild has earned 10 points!
"We got one team too!"
"JeoJollyeoyo, we don't have much time."
Mooljom and Sesese soon reported in. Listening to them, I sprinted toward 2 o'clock.
"The magic circle was almost complete. I think there's less than a minute left."
If the scattered mages had started casting their ultimates around the same time... then just as Sesese said, we had less than a minute to kill the remaining two enemies.
"I'll head over right now."
Yoochae said, having assessed the situation, but if I didn't find and deal with the target before he arrived from the opposite side, we wouldn't be able to stop the ultimate. I clicked my tongue as I reached the alleyway at the 2 o'clock position that I had predicted earlier.
'Found them…!'
I immediately spotted the Elemental Mage casting their ultimate and a Spearmaster standing guard. They noticed me too, and the Spearmaster raised a golden-glowing spear.
After two teams had already been taken down by us, they must've realized their plan was exposed.
I saw that about 70% of the magic circle beneath the mage had been completed. As the Spearmaster charged, I dodged using movement skills. The timer on my screen ticked down relentlessly. About 30 seconds remained.
'There's no way I can kill the Spearmaster and stop the cast in time.'
If it were a healer or another support class, I might've had a chance. But it had to be a Spearmaster — a solid, all-around class. I quickly ran calculations in my head, comparing my skills with theirs to figure out the most efficient way to deal with them.
The evasive skill I'd used for movement still had 5 seconds of cooldown left. On the other hand, the Spearmaster still had their dodge skill ready, and one of their two charge skills had just been used.
'Charge skills usually have a cooldown of about 3 seconds, so if I assume that's the case here…'
Once I'd figured out my plan, I kept my distance to avoid getting hit by the continuous attacks from the Spearmaster.
Time was short, yes — but charging in recklessly would only hurt me. Stay calm.
"Hyung! Where are you?"
I narrowly avoided a wide horizontal sweep from the Spearmaster's spear and answered Yoochae.
"2 o'clock direction!"
I either dodged or took some of the incoming attacks while maintaining just enough distance to bait the Spearmaster into using their skills. PvP games were all about mind games and reading your opponent.
The enemy was under heavy mental pressure, especially after seeing two of their teams get wiped by us. Knowing that reinforcements could arrive and seal their defeat, they were clearly desperate to end things quickly.
That's why their attacks were rushed, full of mistakes, and thrown out without much thought — just whatever came to mind. As long as I kept a certain distance, those kinds of attacks were easy to dodge.
'Please…!'
I bit my lip and prayed desperately in my heart. Come on, take the bait.
The Spearmaster, agitated by my refusal to back down despite taking damage, hesitated for a moment as if debating with himself—then suddenly spun his spear in a wide 360-degree arc. A red glow shimmered at the tip.
It was the Spearmaster's ultimate. A skill that deflected melee attacks and basic strikes while increasing both damage and attack speed. He was clearly aiming to end this in one go, activating his ultimate and charging at me again.
But this was the moment I'd been waiting for.
I used the dodge skill I'd saved until now to narrowly evade the charge—then instantly closed the distance to the Elemental Mage standing behind him. In a flash, the positions between me and the Spearmaster were reversed.
My heart pounded as adrenaline surged through me. The magic circle beneath the Mage's feet was nearly complete. Without a moment of hesitation, I moved my fingers.
Since ultimates can't be interrupted by movement once casting begins, I skipped my snare skill and instead added my highest damage skill, the W skill.
W-Q-R-4-1.
Then after a short 1-second delay, once cooldowns reset, W-Q-R again.
I could do it. It was possible. The Mage's HP plummeted, but at the same time, the magic circle neared completion even faster.
The timer on my screen ticked down—
5 seconds,
4 seconds,
3 seconds,
2 seconds—
And finally, 1 second.
Early Evening Guild has earned 10 points!
The Mage collapsed with their staff raised, right as the magic circle completed—moments before summoning Meteor. The kill log appeared at the center of the screen.
"Haa…"
I did it. With just one second left, I stopped the enemy Mage.
As the realization hit, a breath of relief surged up from deep inside me.
[All Chat] aoko: Ah f*ck
[All Chat] RareHunter: ;;
The enemy Mage who failed to summon Meteor cursed in chat, and at the same time, the Spearmaster immediately charged toward me.
'Yeah, I'm dead now.'
Unlike me, who had barely any HP left, the Spearmaster was still in perfect condition. Worse, I was in a bad position with no dodge skill available, so I had no way to avoid the attack.
I figured I'd die here and return to the respawn zone. But I'd already accomplished my goal—killing the Mage and stopping Fever Guild's plan. So there was no major loss.
Still, I wasn't ready to go down quietly. I was about to use whatever skills I had left to at least struggle before dying—when suddenly…
Clink!
A golden chain shot out from behind the Spearmaster, binding him and yanking him backward. Then, with just a couple of well-placed skills, the Spearmaster was dead.
"Hyung."
Yoochae appeared in front of me—just as I was preparing to go down fighting, refusing to die without putting up a struggle.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : http://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]