Chapter 219: Painful Victory 1
As soon as he revived, Junhyuk kicked the door open. On average, people who'd died required time to recuperate, but he didn't have any time. He was in a hurry. Sarang could die at any minute, and the gate might be destroyed. He didn't think about anything else and almost destroyed the door with his kick. He could hear the voice announcing his deployment, but he doesn't pay any attention.
Outside, he summoned the Kasha.
"What happened?"
The Kasha didn't utter a word, and he ran outside. At that moment, someone called for him from behind him, and he stopped.
"Big brother!"
Junhyuk turned around to look, and Sarang was there, staggering a little bit. He realized it while watching her. She had died.
Junhyuk didn't say anything and just gave her a hug. Against his chest, Sarang shook her head and asked, "You've experienced this?"
"Many times."
He had died many times. The first death had felt like endless emptiness, but he was getting used to it, even though he didn't want to go through it by any means.
Without speaking, he hugged her tightly as Sarang gathered her breath against his chest.
"What shall we do about it?"
"About what?"
"Guardians' CEO."
Junhyuk winced a little, but didn't completely continued the subject by saying, "It's OK. You did everything you could."
Sarang had probably protected Sarang until her death, and that was good enough. The situation being what it was, if Eunseo died, it would be Got's will, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Junhyuk petted Sarang and said, "The giant golems are still here. She wouldn't have entered the castle with such low health. Let's head out."
"Sure."
Sarang leaned against him while they walked outside. There, they saw that the gate was destroyed. In those conditions, there was nothing to hold enemy attacks back. Only the golems remained, and things didn't look good.
Junhyuk was about to walk ahead when someone called him from the wall, "Junhyuk!"
Junhyuk and Sarang were very surprised to see her, and Eunseo sprinted toward them. Once he saw her, he saw that her stats had gone way up. She had 180 health and 180 mana, which was extremely balanced.
He looked at her and said, "Did your power activate?"
"Yes."
"What kind of power is it?"
"I'm not so sure."
"Can you show it to me?"
Eunseo shook her head.
"I can't start it now."
"What?"
She smacked her lips and said, "I activated my power and learned it has a cooldown, but I don't know how to trigger it."
"Do you remember what happened when you used it the first time?"
She thought for a moment and said, "The enemy hero had pointed her pistol at the middle of my forehead and pulled the trigger. Suddenly, time slowed down, and I appeared behind her and kicked her at her weak spot."
Regina had pulled the trigger, and still, Eunseo was able to do all that within that time? He shook his head.
"Really?"
He did not understand the principle of triggering powers yet, but Sarang looked at Eunseo and whispered her thoughts about it in his ear. Sarang's intelligence was extremely high, and she had been able to figure things out just by listening to Eunseo.
Junhyuk shook his head and unsheathed the Blood Rune Sword.
"Let's make an experiment. I'll attack you, and you use your power."
"What? You are attacking me?!"
Without hesitation, he swung his sword at her. It was an honestly swing, like all of his other ones, and Eunseo froze.
The sword came at her, and she felt it moving slowly. Then, she stepped around him easily and high-kicked the back of his head.
Toosh!
He staggered forward mid-attack and held the back of his head.
"I was right. It's a counterattack."
Her opponents would think their attacks had succeeded when suddenly her power triggered, and she attacked their weak spots with a critical hit. Junhyuk had lost 15 percent of his health from the blow. Considering she didn't have any equipment, her first attack power was very strong.
Powers that were designed to control the opponent dealt less damage, but powers that were designed to hurt had increased strength.
As an example, Artlan was a good case. He didn't have any powers that controlled the opponent, so all of his powers dealt a lot of damage. To help with that, he acquired both attack-boosting and defense-boosting items.
Junhyuk looked at Eunseo and asked, "How long is the cooldown?"
"Thirty seconds."
It was the same as his Spatial Slash. On average, hers was longer than most powers, but that was because she was counterattacking. He wanted to check if her power was limited to short range or also worked at long range, but he could do it later. Then, he suddenly thought of something.
"Did you kill Regina?"
"Yes. Her health was low, so I killed her."
He nodded heavily.
"OK. Did you pick up the item she dropped?"
"Here," Eunseo said, showing a metal object in the palm of her hand.
"What kind of stat does it have?"
"It increases defense by twenty and attack by ten. It's a ring."
"Wear it."
"What?"
"If you wear it, you won't get killed, even if you are shot on Earth."
Eunseo, who hadn't died, had activated her power and earned the item. Junhyuk knew he was a target on Earth and wanted her to survive any attacks. Heeding his words, she put the ring on and smiled bitterly. The ring was rough and very noticeable.
"Wait a minute."
Knowing that they had protected the castle, he wanted to find out how the allies were doing, so he pulled out the communication crystal.
"How is it going?"
He heard Artlan's reply, "We've destroyed the gate and killed a golem, but we had to retreat."
"Did we lose anyone?"
"Nudra, Halo and Diane were killed."
Junhyuk sighed and turned around. As expected, the heroes were exiting the castle. Halo, Nudra and Diane walked out together, so they must've been killed after Junhyuk died fighting Regina.
"What do we do now? Regroup? The gate is destroyed, but we still have golems here."
"We'll finish it with speed. Just run here without the minions and head to the lower path. Leave Sarang behind."
"Sure," Junhyuk said and looked at Sarang. "Stay inside the castle's force field, and if an enemy shows up, tell me right away."
"OK."
He patted her shoulder, turned to Eunseo and said, "Even though you've activated your power, if you interfere, you'll be killed forever. Don't step in."
"Fine."
Eunseo also did not want to fight a hero. She didn't want have that experience again.
Then, he turned around to see Diane smiling.
"We'll destroy them first. Let's go," she said.
"Yes!"
He started running with the heroes to bring an end to that battle. The allies might lose, and that could be their last opportunity. If the enemies used the central road, they could get ahead of the allies, so he and the heroes ran as fast as they could.
They got to the enemy castle without meeting anyone. Sarang had also not contacted him, and their whole group was there.
Artlan and Vera joined the group, and they ran to the entrance of the castle. The enemy heroes weren't around, and the group continued to where the second golem was. There, they saw the enemy heroes gathered around the golem.
Until now, the enemies had sent their heroes out one by one or in small groups to attack the allies. Now, all of them were gathered in one place, even Adolphe. They would be very dangerous together, and with the included golem.
Ordinarily, Sarang would be there to help out, but she wasn't. Therefore, the allies had to be extra careful.
Artlan looked at their enemies and said, "We'll kill the giant golem right off the bat. Cast the Meteor Shower, and let's see how they respond. I'll pretend to use my quickdraw to lure them here."
Everyone nodded. Artlan's quickdraw took a long time to trigger, but it dealt an absurd amount of damage. The enemies would want to stop it.
Junhyuk had already teleported with Artlan to have Artlan use the quickdraw at the enemies, so now, they couldn't ignore it while knowing the amount of damage it dealt.
The allies prepared their attacks. Even the giant golem didn't have them in range. The enemies only had one person who could attack from long range, and Killa was already preparing to fire.
Halo and Nudra stood in front of Artlan. Both of them could withstand her shots. Right as they did, a gunshot rang out, and Halo pivoted his body. He had been hit on the shoulder, but he ignored the pain. Not even an eyebrow moved on his face, and Junhyuk wondered how much pain a hero would have to go through to have the soul the size of Halo's.
The shot went through, but before the enemies had a chance to move, meteors fell from the sky, slamming hard against the golem.
"When the giant golem comes at us, we'll retreat," Artlan said quickly.
The golem couldn't leave the castle, nor could it recover its health. The allies wanted to keep it at a distance and, if possible, attack from far away. There was no need to fight it and the enemies at the same time.
The enemies, on the other hand, hadn't expected Artlan's tactics, so they looked at each other and began to move.
If things continued that way, they would lose their golem. So, they stepped forward. Sarang wasn't there, and they did not expect to lose in her absence.
Junhyuk smacked his lips, and Artlan asked, "All of them have thirteen-meter ranges, correct?"
"Yes."
"If you get close to Killa, she will kill you."
"I have my force field."
Artlan smirked at his answer and concluded, "OK. Let's kill Killa first."
"She can disengage by jumping, however."
"I know it. Get her off guard." After saying that, Artlan looked at the group and added, "Halo and Diane stick together, and everyone focus on Killa after we teleport."
"Can we kill her with one focused group attack?"
"We have you."
Junhyuk smacked his lips. What Artlan had meant was that they wouldn't lose track of her with Junhyuk's mobility.
"Are you ready?"
Diane notched an arrow and nodded. Meanwhile, Halo launched his sword in the air and looked at Junhyuk. Artlan touched the handle of his saber and smiled.
The three ultimates were set to trigger, and Junhyuk's Spatial Slash was also ready.
"Let's go."