Episode 9. Ted's Siege (5)
Charged Lightning pierced through Tenichi’s head.
‘Got him. First shot.’
But Ted was by no means happy.
While the opponent was stunned and staggering for 2 seconds, Ted quickly began to run away.
The gun barrel had turned red from the effect of Charged Lightning. Therefore, he couldn’t fire shots for the next 5 seconds.
‘By the way, I aimed for the eyes, but as expected, the eyeballs weren’t destroyed. So he has a body enhancement skill.
Ted, who had thought that binding both eyes would make the opponent manageable, bit his lip.
Soon after, Ted took out the Stubborn Mosquito, sent it up into the sky, and hid among the trees.
“Ahahahaha!!! I totally fell for it! Or rather, you’re really strong, aren’t you?”
In an instant, his health—despite being level 650 and wearing +7 full-body armor—had dropped by nearly 25%.
From a single attack!
Tenichi himself was doubtful at that point. Because in his 10 years of gaming, this was the first time he had encountered such a powerful Musketeer.
Even so, without a moment’s hesitation, he charged toward where Ted had run.
“Hey! Stop running away! It’s going to be a problem if you keep running like this!”
Tenichi wasn’t a fool either.
The more Ted widened the distance, the more unclear his communication with Ruri became.
Ted was using his head.
To widen the distance from the battlefield where the all-out war on the Great Plains was unfolding.
If the distance grew any farther, it would become troublesome for Tenichi.
“Now the game of tag is over!
He thrust his sword toward the sky.
Majestic mana gathered into his sword.
‘Domain Declaration?’
At that moment, Ted, who had been running frantically, stopped in his tracks.
A skill learned at level 650, the
Soon, azure dragons appeared throughout heaven and earth and began to swirl around in every direction.
Countless dragons completely covered a portion of the forest, including Ted, like a semi-transparent membrane.
“
At the same time, he scattered other long-range skills in every direction.
Those skills shattered every tree within his domain.
‘Damn it.’
The tree Ted had been hiding behind was instantly destroyed.
‘A tank-worthy judgment.’
Soon, having pinpointed Ted’s location with
It was the skill he had used when attacking the castle gate first,
‘Now.’
At that moment, Ted conceived the possibility of a second attack.
‘
The opponent could grasp Ted’s general hiding location with
Then, against Tenichi, who didn’t know his exact position, the current situation was an opportunity.
‘I’ll use the placement of
Ted hid beneath a broken tree trunk.
And timed his skill to when Tenichi would fly in.
‘
Summoning-type skills have one advantage.
That is, being able to designate the summon location.
In Ted’s case, he could designate the summon location up to approximately 5 meters.
The moment Tenichi approached with a long-range dash skill, Ted cast
“Is he here!”
At that moment, sensing movement, he swung his sword backward.
Screech?
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
The three goblin musketeers were instantly unsummoned by the powerful single slash.
‘Sorry! Guys! I’ll buy you lots of delicious food later!’
Thanks to the noble sacrifice(?) of the three goblin musketeers, Ted bought himself time.
At that moment, Ted leaped out and fired a precise aimed shot at his head.
Bang!
Ted’s second bullet embedded itself in his head.
That attack also scored a critical hit, dealing massive damage.
Tenichi had defense exceeding ten thousand and health exceeding tens of thousands.
But with Ted’s strike of over 24,000 and an additional 22,600 damage, nearly 57,000 damage in total slammed into him, causing his pig-like high health to be drained in huge chunks.
“Y-you bastard! Since when does a Musketeer use summons!”
By the time he grasped the situation, Ted had already hidden his body behind another tree trunk.
It was an astonishingly swift movement.
“Hahaha! Truly amazing! But there’s nowhere left to run now!”
He approached the tree trunk where Ted was hiding.
‘Hoo, no choice now.’
At that time, Ted also sighed beneath a tree branch and mentally imaged the upcoming battle.
He envisioned the sequence of his next attacks and the opponent’s countermeasures.
‘The opponent is a typical tank. Tenichi’s innate ability is probably something related to survivability like
Three or four shots.
This wasn’t a matter of shooting and hitting like catching ordinary monsters.
The opponent was a ranker-class tank. It was impossible for Ted to match his movement speed.
A battle where only a single shot could land the moment the opponent became unable to move for some reason.
That was the kind of high-difficulty battle this was.
“
Tenichi immediately cast a skill to smash Ted along with the tree.
Already at close range.
An attack too fast to avoid.
‘Yes, this is it. A frontal breakthrough!’
Ted opened his eyes wide and charged at the attack.
Crunch!
His powerful sword strike accurately hit Ted’s body.
Clink!
At the same time, a motion like a glass wall shattering came from Ted’s body. The activation of his innate ability,
However, Indomitable had been activated.
Thanks to that, Ted didn’t die from his single attack. Instead, he charged even closer and grabbed the opponent’s forearm with one arm.
“Oh! Hahaha! A teddy bear’s free hug? You’re a guy, do you like men or something?”
Tenichi spoke jokingly.
But his body moved swiftly, striking Ted.
Even though it looked like a light, awkwardly postured attack, it was a normal attack that had single-handedly smashed the castle gate.
‘Ugh!’
Ted was horrified to see 1% of his remaining 10% health fly away.
Moreover, the difference in strength stats was so great that he nearly bounced away.
If he hadn’t held onto the bastard’s body with both arms and legs, he surely would have been knocked away.
And yet, even though Ted had gained an additional 12,000 defense for one minute thanks to Indomitable’s effect, a single punch had reduced his health by 1%.
“It’s over now! Teddy bear!”
Boom, boom, boom!
The bastard pounded Ted’s body heavily.
Ted also gritted his teeth and shoved his musket against the bastard’s head.
“Who says it’s over?”
Bang! Bang!
Ted clung to him and fed him two bullets.
But he was inferior in speed. Because while Ted fired one shot, the opponent threw three punches.
“Hahaha! I win!”
Soon, Tenichi’s health fell below 10%.
Yet he rather predicted victory.
Soon, a light burst effect occurred from his body. Additionally, his health, which had been at 10%, rose to 30%.
His innate ability,
“It’s over!”
Even if he had the innate ability
It was his victory.
…The moment he thought that, an anomaly occurred.
Suddenly, his health was slightly drained.
‘Got it! You bastard! Good job!’
The Stubborn Mosquito that Ted had launched toward the ceiling at the start of the battle! Receiving Ted’s command at the perfect timing, it bit Tenichi’s nape.
The Stubborn Mosquito’s damage was quite low.
But it was enough to replenish Ted’s health.
Soon, Ted’s health rose to nearly 25%.
However, Indomitable didn’t dispel. Because its duration was still remaining.
Afterward, Tenichi, who had attacked Ted several more times, realized that fact.
‘He has a skill that recovers this much health in this situation? Ahahaha! I’ve been completely had!’
Something he didn’t know about had greatly recovered Ted’s health. And right now, while Indomitable was active.
‘It’s a loss. Damn it… I’ll get another earful from Ruri. Haha.’
Ted’s musket steadily drained his health again.
Because it was extremely close range, zooming was impossible.
Therefore, the accuracy was low and the damage was judged at half or less. Even so, with the teddy bear’s attacks continuously piercing his head, his health began to bottom out in an instant.
‘Then…’
Gritting his teeth, he tightly embraced Ted’s body.
His remaining health was 3%.
Because he had to do what needed to be done one last time.
‘What’s with this guy? What the hell is he trying to do by hugging me…’
It was then.
His body began to fly backward as if bouncing. Ted, who was tangled in his arms, flew along with him.
“
‘What? Why this now…’
He, who was embracing Ted, used the long-range dash skill
It was truly fearsome speed. Moreover, it was a movement completely devoid of stability, heart-stoppingly so.
‘Anyway, this attack ends it.’
While flying, Ted calmly aimed at his head and fired.
Bang―――
Tenichi died just as they were flying. His body dissolved into mana and slowly disappeared.
A message window celebrating Ted’s victory popped up.
He had hunted an opponent with a level difference of nearly 400.
On top of that, the current battle type was
‘All right!’
Having flown like that for a while, Ted crash-landed into the ground and tumbled around. Despite having flown quite far, it was still a forest there.
* * *
“Where could he be around here?”
Then,
Although she was a shaman, a combat support class, her level was 685. She was a powerhouse with no reason to easily fall to anyone here.
‘Where is Mr.
The words Tenichi had left her as he was dying in defeat.
―I’ll move
Saying that, he transmitted Ted’s location coordinates.
Even as he was dying, Tenichi laughed excitedly, as if something was hilarious.
Anyway, Ruri knew the timing well.
‘
She declared the shaman’s domain and began detecting everything within several hundred meters in every direction.
Soon, she caught a presence at the spot Tenichi had mentioned.
‘Found him.’
“Pouch use,
She opened the
A pouch one rank above the
Like the
An expensive pouch costing a whopping 500 million won each!
But to her, whose equipped items alone totaled in the hundreds of billions, it wasn’t that much money.
Soon, a massive dark aura stretched out from the pouch she threw.
It caught the attention of both sides’ users, who had been desperately fighting the all-out battle.
“Wh-what?”
The black aura instantly took form, revealing two massive eyes and five curved horns.
It was demonkind.
Among them, a combat race—the Pentagonal Demonkind—had descended there.
‘Perfect. Now it begins. First, I’ll bind his feet…
She blocked all four directions around Ted in the forest with a simple shamanic spell.
“
Finally, she invested all her mana and prepared materials to unfold the
* * *
Ted looked at the black aura rising into the sky of the battlefield in the distance.
A fellow who couldn’t fully form a physical body, showing five horns briefly through demonic energy alone.
A lesser demonkind that had barely failed to reach level 500.
‘…The shaman’s doing?’
That was the only thing Ted could think of.
It must be related to
‘Surely that isn’t aimed at me? I should run for now.’
Feeling anxiety and a sense of crisis, Ted hurriedly tried to withdraw.
But by then, all four directions around Ted were already blocked. It was the
‘Huh? No! Hey!’
Surprised, Ted pulled out his musket and hurriedly fired shots.
The shamanic spell began to break.
But by then, it was already too late.
From the battlefield of the Great Plains, dozens of purple hands began flying toward Ted.
They were the purple arms that had grabbed Heketan’s limbs and pulled him into the Ackrich Paragon’s body.
‘No! Anything but that…’
Ted crawled out through the broken barrier and began to run staggering. And he tried to avoid the arms using footwork.
‘Hey! Get off! Get off!’
Soon, he also aimed and fired at the arms with Black and White.
The arms struck by bullets lost strength and scattered away as black energy.
But… there were too many arms chasing Ted.
‘
‘Uwaaaack!’
In the end, his sure-kill Charged Lightning failed… and Ted was caught by the purple arms.
Soon, Ted’s body floated up and was sucked across the forest to the Great Plains in the blink of an eye.
“Huep!”
Ted gasped in terror.
Ted didn’t know the details of
However, having experienced it firsthand, Ted knew the power of that grand shamanism.
‘Am I going to have my body stolen like Heketan now?’
Ted thrashed, twisting his whole body.
The more he did so, the more the black demon’s soul coldly seeped into Ted’s core.
‘No…’
The status abnormalities gradually took over Ted’s body one by one.
Due to the status abnormality [Marionette], Ted became unable to move his body.
[Mental Dissociation] felt similar to being dead drunk. He couldn’t see properly, nor hear properly.
‘Jeeen-zaaang…’
As Ted bitterly accepted the changes to his body in a half-dreaming, half-awake state.
An unfamiliar status window popped up.
‘Whaaaat…?’
Ted stared blankly at the risen message like someone heavily intoxicated.
Then, a small change began to occur from within his body.