Chapter 134 – Immoral Prince (2)
4.
People learned from defeat.
Of course, the two attempts at the Immoral Prince Raid ended in a crushing defeat, but at the same time, it was a chance to find out how to defeat the Immoral Prince.
Two roles needed to be filled to defeat the Immoral Prince.
There was the Relic Destroyer team, which eliminated the guardians defending the relics. Then there was the Prince Interference team. They had to constantly move to distract the Immoral Prince.
It wasn't too hard to destroy the Relics. The Relic Guardians were the type of monsters that had high defense and a lot of HP. Its attack power, attack pattern and skills were above average. It wasn't an easy monster to face, but the difficulty was much lower than the unusually scary monster called the White-eye Knight Argardo.
If one could buy time with the Immoral Prince, it was ok to have a small Relic Destroyer Team. It was possible to do the Immoral Prince Raid with a small group.
Basically, if Shir could occupy the Immoral Prince by herself, it was possible for the Stormhunters to accomplish their tasks even with a team of 25 Users.
Shir was confident about the plan. She was confident that she was stronger than anyone in Warlord. The only one that affected her opinion about this fact was the Hahoe Mask. However, even he could only affect her opinion. Shir thought very highly of the Hahoe Mask, but she had never thought she was worse than him.
Moreover, there was good reasons why she was able to have so much confidence in herself.
Immoral Prince.
The Blacksmith Olf had found a mysterious and marvelous metal that had been found by an ancient kingdom. Its existence hadn't even been recorded in history. Olf had created a very large ash-colored armor. Prince Dean was already a large man, but the armor made him look several times larger. Moreover, the helmet placed on top of this large armor looked different from normal helmets. It was shaped like a crown, and the helmet had a T-shaped opening where one should have been able to see the Immoral Prince's eyes. However, one could only see black light being emitted from where its eyes should be. Then there was the cape that was around his enormous armored body. It had the print of a trigonal symbol on it. There were three snakes biting each other's tail.
It made one breathless when see the dignity flowing off of the Immoral Prince. The thought of facing it was daunting, yet the Storm Queen lived up to her reputation… No, she was performing beyond her earned reputation.
‘My god. She lasted for 5 minutes.’
‘In truth, I thought this was a suicidal mission. However, at this pace… Maybe we might succeed in this Raid.’
Five minutes.
This was the amount of time Shir had been able to occupy the Immoral Prince.
They weren't evenly matched, but the battle was a close call.
If she was an average expert, her body would have been flung backwards from the powerful attack. However, she just swayed once after she blocked the attack. Another powerful attack that would have destroyed her defensive gear and body was sent towards her. She was able to dodge it even though she had lost her balance. There was a overwhelming difference in their battle capability, but she refused to stay on the defensive. She went on the offensive against the Immoral Prince. She made it so that the Immoral Prince couldn’t swing its sword properly. She was like a shield trying to bait attacks to defend.
It was a fierce fight.
“Hahui!”
“Yes! I’ll endure!”
This was a hard fight with an asterisk attached to it.
At Shir's shout, Hahui threw herself towards the Immoral Prine.
‘How dare you do that to the Queen! You are dead!’
She had watched Shir's battle, and Hahui's body had been itching to carry out her mission. Hahui's charge was fierce.
While Hahui was facing off against the Immoral Prince, Shir backed out. The three Priests on standby crowded her as they started chanting their prayers. They had started to cast their buffs.
This was what allowed her to carry out this fierce battle. She had Full Buff. Five minutes was how long the Buffs were active.
Of course, one couldn't disparage her skill for this reason. The Immoral Prince was strong. This became immediately apparent when it fought against Hahui. She had similar Specs as Shir, and she had also received the Full Buff. However, Hahui received a critical wound only after 1 minute had passed.
She was unable to parry the sword swung by the Immoral Prince. Hahui's left arm flew backwards.
Shweeek!
In a flash, the Immoral Prince had sliced through her elbow.
While Hahui was flustered, three Striker on standby charged towards the Immoral Prince. Two of them attempted an attack on the Immoral Prince, and the remaining Striker exited the battlefield carrying Hahui like a luggage.
“I can do this! I can hang on!”
Hahui struggled, but her arm had been severed. Of course, her movements were weakened compared to her normal self.
As they bought time, Shir had once again received a Full Buff. She let out a yell.
“I'm ready!”
The Priests and Swordsmen engaged in the battle ebbed away, and Shir once again charged towards the Immoral Prince like an arrow.
Then everyone wordlessly watched the battle that had started up once again.
5.
The Iron Golem wasn't that small. It possessed a body that was 3 meters tall, and a diamond larger than a man's fist was placed on the crown of the Iron Golem's head. The diamond was embedded in so deep that it couldn't be extracted unless the Golem's iron head was split open.
It was the Relic Guardian.
There was two Tankers in front of the Relic Guardian, and they were constantly drawing its aggro.
During all of this, a magician was circling around the golem at a high speed.
“Position! Get in position! Just stay as you are. I'll work around you!”
Ballista Hatch.
Normally, he was known for his unfunny sketches with Hahui. He was someone who always complained. Unlike his ridiculous and lame look, he was one of the top 5 Magicians in Warlord. He was incredibly skilled.
His specialty was using the Moving Casting skill in battle. He was able to move constantly in battle, yet he was always accurate with his strike.
Of course, he wasn't moving just for the sake of moving. His constant movements had a purpose. He was able to dodge the attack of enemies in real time, and it lessened the burden placed on the Tankers. He could move around the monsters engaged with the Tankers. This meant the Tankers didn't have to lure the monsters towards a specific location or a direction. Hatch would find the location and timing of his attack on his own.
“Don't over do it! I'll take the aggro, and while I buy some time, you guys brace up for battle! Give us another round of Buffs!”
When the Tankers were about to falter, Ballista had drawn the aggro towards himself. While he was being chased, he kept using his magic. He was buying time, so his comrades could reform the battle line. Hatch was considered to be the number 1 magician every Tanker wanted to hunt with.
He clearly had an in depth knowledge about the monsters, and he had the ability to adapt to various situation adroitly. He was able to comprehend battle situations in real time, and he was able to come up with solutions through his analysis. He was also capable of commanding others. This was why Hatch had been the obvious choice to lead the hunt against the Relic Guardians.
Currently, the plan was progressing very smoothly and stably under the command of Hatch.
“Full Buff is complete.!”
“The next Tanker will take on the Aggro.”
It had been 7 minutes since they started the battle with the Relic Guardian. There hadn't been any casualties or even injuries during that time. If 100 was the full score, his great command would be scored at over a 90.
‘This isn't that hard, but…….’
However, Hatch wasn't satisfied with the battle.
‘This might take longer than expected.’
The battle was smooth, but there was no breaks. Moreover, the speed of the battle was changing constantly.
‘We’ve hit it numerous time, yet it is showing only a crack…. I never expected it to be like this. At the very least, we’ll need 15 minutes to catch it. If we are to catch the other Guardians, it would take over 40 minutes…..’
At that moment, Hatch thought about the update he heard a moment ago.
Shir's first engagement had lasted 5 minutes. Hatch had be very surprised at the news. Shir had said she would buy enough time for them, but he had never expected her to keep her word.
‘The Queen is a monster amongst monsters.’
When he heard the news, his faith in his leader was renewed. She was an incredible woman. Her amazing ability allowed Shir to run the guild in a near dictatorship, and all the guild members followed her. Shir didn’t hesitate or back down from any problems, and she was always in the frontlines to make the breakthrough
However, the following update made Hatch’s heart feel heavy.
‘……however, the rest of us are just merely good at gaming.’
He had heard Hahui had barely lasted a minute, and her arm had been severed. He didn't look down on Hahui's skills. He was well aware of the skill difference between Shir and Hahui. There was no way there was such a large gap in skills. It wasn’t large a enough of difference where one would have lasted a minute and the other lasted 5 minutes.
This meant one of them was overworking herself.
Shir had boldly declared that she would be able to last for an hour, but from Hatch's perspective, he estimated she would last about 15 minutes. He was willing to bet his 2 years of experience that the situation would deteriorate towards the end of the 3rd exchange with the Immoral Prince.
‘Shit. Why aren't those bastards contacting me?’
In the end, they needed outside help.
It was as if they had read Hatch’s mind.
An urgent news arrived.
– This is bad! The Hydra Guild and the Red Bulls Guild just started their live Immoral Prince broadcast!
The fact that the two guilds had started their broadcast meant the two guilds were already here.
Hatch closed his mouth tight.
‘Yes. Instead of losing everything, it is better to gain something. This is the right thing to do.’
He knew he wouldn't receive praise for his actions. However, in Hatch's judgement, he was sure his plan would bring a better result than Shir's plan of doing this alone.
– The two guilds have announced their plan. They are going to destroy the Relic Guardians, while the Stormhunters act as bait….. Did we agree to this?
However, Hatch's expression didn't last long. His firmly closed mouth unconsciously dropped open.
‘Ah.’
Hatch realized it at that moment.
‘These assholes are trying to fuck us….’
The people he had called in were tigers, and he had briefly forgotten about this fact. However, he realized that truth at that moment.
6.
When the Red Bulls guild and the Hydra guild entered the Immoral Prince raid, they didn't even bother speaking to the Stormhunters. They immediately started to hunt down the Relic Guardians. The two guilds moved in perfect sync to catch the Relic Guardians. It looked as if the three guilds had planned this. It looked as if the Raid had been planned like a surprise party.
From the outside, the three guilds were perfectly in sync in their actions.
“Which son of a bitch was it!”
Of course, from the Stormhunters' perspective, they couldn't help, but let out curse words. Actually, the current raid was being broadcasted on the Stormhunters' live channel, and Hahui was continuously spitting out swear words. She was about to drop everything and attack the Red Bulls or the Hydra guild.
“Which son of a bitch betrayed us!”
Fortunately, Hahui had made several accidents in the past, so there had been measures taken. Her words didn’t come out through the broadcast speakers.
Anyway, she was rightfully angry. It was understandable. This mission wasn’t known to outsiders, so there shouldn't have been any intervention or intrusion.
In other words, there was most definitely a betrayer amongst them. Since she was channeling their anger for them, the guild members didn’t commit any rash acts. In such an atmosphere of anger, if someone who represented their anger spoke, they would naturally listen to her words.
Of course, there was only one person that could give an answer to her question.
It was the betrayer.
– It was me. I passed along the information to the other two guilds.
At that moment, Hatch confessed the fact that he was the betrayer. At that moment, everyone shut their eyes tight.
‘Of all the…….’
Everyone expected Hahui to yell in an earsplitting rage. They were sure she was going to let out a thunderous roar towards Hatch.
“Uh? Why? Really? Why did you do it?”
However, Hahui's response was unexpected. Instead of anger, she asked questions that was filled with genuine shock. Even the guild members that had known her for a long time had never seen this side of her before.
This instead made everyone become more flustered.
Hatch's betrayal…. They were having a hard time accepting it. Hatch always complained, but he was someone who worked harder than anyone for the Stormhunters.
Moreover, what did he gain from betraying them?
No matter what angle they looked at it, Hatch didn’t have much to gain from this betrayal.
On top it all, Hahui’s reaction added to the confusion.
The confused atmosphere created a state of disorder.
“Focus on the battle.”
Shir was the one that organized the atmosphere.
She had dropped out of battle to receive another Full Buff. After speaking that short sentence, she gritted her teeth like a boxer clamping down on her mouthguard.
She was expressing her intent of only focusing on the battle.
[The effect of the ‘Candy from the Bloodsucker Tree's Sap' was activated.]
She immediately started her fight again. Hatch's betrayal or the intrusion by the two guilds didn't register in her head.
It was the same for the Immoral Prince. These events were happening within the barrier it had raised to hide its body, yet it didn’t lose its calm.
When Shir once again charged forward, the Immoral Prince didn't show any particular signs. It lightly opened its hand, and a stream of fire rose up into the air. The stream of fire transformed into a large bird, and it flew towards Shir.
The attack was endlessly flashy and powerful, but it was merely a normal attack for the Immoral Prince.
Ggee-ah-ah!
The Fire Bird let out a cry as it swallowed up Shir. Armor was useless in front of the Fire Bird. The Fire Bird wormed its way into the gaps in Shir's armor, and her skin was being charred. Her HP was being ruthlessly chipped away. This was only a game, yet her body suddenly heated up as if she was in a sauna.
It was evidence that she had taken a massive amount of damage.
However, her HP started to recover immediately. It was thanks to the 'Candy from the Bloodsucker Tree's Sap'.
Of course, the Fire Bird didn't slow down Shir's charge in the least.
In a flash, Shir had closed the distance with the Immoral Prince, and flame was still encircling her sword from the Fire Bird's attack.
The Immoral Prince had no thoughts of dodging Shir's attack. The Immoral prince also lightly swung its sword. A red aura was being retained by the sword swung by the Immoral Prince.
‘Shit!’
Shir stopped everything in fright, and she forcefully twisted her body to the side. At the same time, the sword swung by the Immoral Prince split the air.
Soo-ooht!
The sound was very reedy. The sound was too light. It gave off the impression as if the sword hadn’t been swung.
However, accompanying this light sound, a large sword scar appeared on top of the ground and in between the vegetation.
It was as if the world had been cut in half.
Shir rolled on the ground after she forcefully avoided the attack. The Immoral Prince turned its back on Shir.
It seemed the Immoral prince was going to destroy the new groups that was destroying its relic. It was about to move in to destroy them.
When she was ignored, Shir gritted her teeth.
“You should focus on the battle with me.”
She spoke through her gritted teeth. She didn't sound resolute. Her voice was more of a mixture of restlessness and a bit of gloominess. She worked hard to ignore her feelings, and she ran in towards the Immoral Prince. At that moment, she couldn’t pay attention to what was going on in her surrounding.
Of course, she had no idea.
‘……isn't this the stronger version of the Crescent Moon Cut named Red Moon Sword Qi? If I had been hit by that…… I would have died in a really preposterous manner.’
She had no idea that the person she wanted to possess the most was nearby in the battlefield. She had no idea Hyrkan was there.
7.
Red Moon Sword Qi.
This skill would probably make the Swordsman Class Users' blood boil in couple months time. This fearsome skill had made a deep scar on the ground next to him. Hyrkan was doing his best to shrink his body next to this scar. He carefully used the hologram monitor to check the live broadcasts of the 3 guilds.
‘What a shit show.’
A mocking smile rested on Hyrkan's lips. No one knew Hyrkan was here right now. The Red Bulls had a contract with Hyrkan, but they thought he was resting after he finished leveling up.
‘I knew this would happen.’
This was the reason why Hyrkan deceived the Red Bulls.
There was two reasons behind his deceit.
First, his contract didn't forbid him from doing this. Hyrkan didn't have to follow Red Bulls' Raid plan. It was actually the opposite. If the Red Bulls wanted to broadcast footage of Hyrkan, they would have to work around Hyrkan's schedule.
The second reason was the fact that he had predicted this would happen.
‘Well, it doesn't matter if it's the cow bastards or the snake bastards. They all act the same.’
It was a cold situation where the two guilds were trying to take away the meaty part of the reward, while the Stormhunters was used as bait. It hadn't been too hard to predict what they were going to do. It was said like attracts like. These bastards thought alike, so it wasn't too hard to discern their intent.
‘As expected, I don't like these kinds of people.’
At that moment, Hyrkan turned his head once again to look at Shir, who was earnestly fighting the Immoral Prince. He looked at the guild members of the Stormhunters looking intently at Shir's battle. They were so focused on the battle that there was no chance they would notice Hyrkan's existence.
The tail end of Hyrkan's lips rose as if it had been hooked by a fishing hook.
It was a situation where the Stormhunters had become the bait. In some ways, this improved Hyrkan's mood. It felt as if his hurting inside improved in the span of a morning.
On the other hand, he shouldn’t be smiling. The current situation wasn’t that great.
Hyrkan returned the corner of his mouth to its original position. Then he tried to reason with himself.
‘First, I have to put aside the feelings I have towards the Stormhunters. Let me think after I put away those feelings.’
Their current situation wasn’t that great.
‘If the Storm Queen dies here, it doesn’t matter how many Users are left in the Stormhunters guild. They’ll be uncooperative no matter what.’
The Stormhunters were the first to cause a problem, but the Red Bulls and Hydra guild responded with similar type of behaviors as the Stormhunters. During all of this, if Shir suffered a Game Over, the Stormhunters would never cooperate with the other two guilds.
‘We’ll be fortunate if they don’t interfere with the Raid.’
If the worst situation comes to pass, the remaining Stormhunters guild members might attack the other two guilds. They would interfere with the Immoral Prince Raid.
Even if that doesn’t come to pass, the Stormhunters might abstain from the battlefield. In the end, the Red Bulls, Hydra, and the Hahoe Mask would have to face the Immoral Prince.
Of course, they could do it.
‘However, if the Stormhunters drop out, I might be in the same position as Che-sulyun.’
If the two guilds cooperate with each other, it was unknown as to whether Hyrkan would be able to hold the floor with them. That was the problem.
‘If I don’t want to die, I have to fight with my life on the line.’
There was no way the two guilds knew about Hyrkan’s situation.
However, they could, at the very least, predict that Hyrkan would fight desperately against the Immoral Prince. It was a given that Hyrkan wouldn’t just standby and do nothing in the Immoral Prince hunt. The price of failing to kill the Immoral Prince was annihilation. Moreover, from Hyrkan’s perspective, Hyrkan needed to have the biggest role in the Immoral Prince series.
‘Anyways, I never expected Che-sulyun to fight so well. If I work with the Stormhunters, the chance of victory is over 90%.’
Moreover, it wouldn’t be easy to kill the Immoral Prince if the Stormhunters pull themselves out of this Raid.
While the Stormhunters stood back from the Immoral Prince Raid, there was a good chance that multiple groups might turn against him. There was a high probability of the two guilds wouldn’t help out, while Hyrkan faced impossible odds.
In the worst case scenario, the Hahoe Mask would buy them as much time as they needed against the Immoral Prince to complete their tasks. Afterwards, the Red Bulls and Hydra guild could join hands, and they would be the only ones that would get a happy ending.
‘Anyways, I can't trust those two guilds no matter what.’
If Hyrkan was asked to name the guild he hated the most in the 30 great guilds, he would say it was the Stormhunters. However, this didn't mean he had inexhaustible amount of faith in the other 29 guilds.
This was also true for the Red Bulls. He had decided to work with them, but he didn't trust them. They were all doing this for profit. In other words, if Hyrkan aimed for their share in the profit and he caused a loss for the Red Bulls, their attitude and stance towards him would change.
So what was the best case scenario?
It would be for best if the 3 guilds were all wiped out, and Hyrkan was the last man standing. This wasn’t a guarantee. It was only a guess, but if the Hahoe Mask could monopolize all the rewards given in the Immoral Prince series, he wouldn’t have to worry about Items anymore.
However, this scenario was unrealistic.
As always, the best case scenario rarely came to fruition. This was why a person should act in a way where they could avoid the worst case scenario. One had to do this instead of working towards the best case scenario.
In his current situation, the second best policy was to choose the path with the highest probability of killing the Immoral Prince.
This was beyond considering the risks and returns. He must catch the Immoral Prince, and he had to choose the method where his survival was guaranteed.
To accomplish this, Shir had to survive, and the performance of the Stormhunters was critical.
“Hoo-ooh.”
Hyrkan regulated his breathing.
‘My life is really fucked up.’
A lot of thoughts passed through his mind. There were a lot of regrets in his past experiences, but at the same time, those experiences had nothing to do with his current situation. The memories of those times no longer existed now, and these thoughts flitted through his head.
The thought of his past experiences made this choice very hard hard to swallow. In the end, Hyrkan had to convince his pride more so than anything else.
He wasn’t helping the Stormhunters and Che-sulyun. This was a necessary task he had to accomplish if he wanted to step over everyone… It wasn’t a brief amount of time, but he was finally able to convince his pride with regards to his course of action.
Hyrkan pulled himself together as he got up.
‘This is for me.’
8.
If one kept sprinting in consecutive races, one's record would get worse instead of getting better.
Battle was similar in that aspect.
Shir was able to last 5 minutes in her first battle with the Immoral Prince. However, she was only able to buy 4 minutes on her second try. On the third attempt, she had started the fight when she hadn’t been able to pull her emotions back together.
This was why she started to rapidly waver after 3 minutes into her 3rd battle. Eventually, an accident happened.
The Immoral Prince’s sword was dyed red, but Shir didn’t stop her charge as the Immoral Prince used the Red Crescent Moon skill. She changed her steps to lean herself diagonally, and she was barely able to dodge the Red Crescent Moon.
She used the Dash skill at the same time as she dodged the attack.
In a flash, she closed a distance of about 15 meters. As she closed the distance, she used her Booster skill.
She even used the Crescent Moon Cut skill. This meant there was no way she would be able to evade backwards.
She didn’t care about the damage. When her attack reached it, the Immoral Prince would start the battle with her again. This was what Shir was aiming for.
‘If it dodges backward, I’ll use Body Slam to initiate a close combat….’
Of course, inside Shir’s head, the next move, the next move and the next next move was formulated. She was thinking three moves ahead. If she was incapable of thinking ahead, her head would be useless.
The problem was her decrease in stamina. Her judgement was becoming dulled.
Shir was trying to think about her next move, so she wasn’t able to counterattack or even dodge the Immoral Prince’s attack. She also missed the fact that the Immoral Prince had used a much faster version of the Dash skill she had used. She wasn’t able to immediately recognize this fact.
‘Ah!’
When Shir became aware of this fact, the Immoral Prince’s sword was already touching Shir’s shoulder.
Kwah-jeek!
The sword sliced through her black armor and her left shoulder.
Koohng!
At the same time, the Immoral Prince followed up with a Body Slam. Shir had lost her arm, and her body was in a baad state as she rolled across the floor.
The first one to move in this situation was Hahui.
Usually, she would charge in while yelling ‘My Queen!’, but she silently charged forward.
She wasn’t in a Full Buff state, and she hadn’t even used her own Buffs on herself. The speed at which Hahui was charging forward was the worst move one could pull against the Immoral Prince.
Hwee-reek!
The Immoral Prince stepped aside as if it was evading a charging bull. It easily evaded Hahui’s Body Slam. As if it had been waiting for Hahui, the sword flew in parallel to the floor like rock skipping over water. It was swift.
Soo-oohk!
The sword cut through her left thigh.
Hahui had lost a leg, so she fell over to the floor. The sword that had been swung by the Immoral Prince was reversed in an instant. It planned on pinning its sword through Hahui’s head.
‘Ah!’
It had all happened in such a brief amount of time, so no one was able to react to the critical situation.
Aside from reacting to it, no one had been able to process what was going on. That was the reality of the situation.
In the end, the guild members hadn’t moved. A third party had stepped in.
Kwah-ahng!
Accompanying a sudden sound of an explosion, a third party had appeared out of nowhere as he swung his sword towards the Immoral Prince.
Kah-ahng!
Instead of exchanging a greeting with the Immoral Prince, he shared the sound of steel with it.
It was the Hahoe Mask.
