Junhyuk dashed quickly through the forest. With luck, he would come up against the buff monster in no time. However, if he was late, his allies could end up in trouble. Still, Junhyuk trusted his luck.
He had had many experiences in the battlefield, and through all of them, he thought luck was always with him.
As he ran, Sarang contacted him.
“Aktur attacked us.”
Aktur had not been alone. He had joined a sniper, and Sarang had been killed. He had thought Sarang would’ve been OK with Helen, but Aktur was formidable. Sarang had meant that she and Helen had been killed.
“Are you OK?”
“I lost one of the items I just purchased, so I’m angry, but I think I can get it back from Bebe.”
There were items like that, items that required a certain affinity to an attribute to be used.
Sarang’s items were like that. She would repurchase it once she had enough gold for it. Her items were different from his. He couldn’t always get his items back with enough gold. Others wanted them as well.
He said, “Right. We’ll regroup in the middle. Bring Helen with you. I’m hunting a buff monster first.”
“Sure.”
Junhyuk was moving fast. Aktur was already doing his thing. From Sarang’s point of view, that wasn’t pleasant at all. Junhyuk took the middle road while wishing he would come up against the Mantis Lord quickly.
An hour passed, and Junhyuk got his wish. Something was moving slowly ahead. Once he discovered it was the Mantis Lord, Junhyuk rechecked himself.
He was alone, so dealing with the monster would be dangerous. However, the Mantis Lord’s only strength was its attack speed.
Compared to a dragon, it was weak and had very little health. Junhyuk wanted to seize that opportunity, so he ran forward, and when the Mantis Lord saw him, it turned around. Junhyuk dashed straight for it.
The Mantis Lord swung its appendages like they were blades. It seemed to be moving with the speed of acceleration, so Junhyuk raised his swords.
Clang!
His movements were slower, but he still parried the monster. Nudra had taught him the principle of that. Nudra’s movements were slow, but the hero could block all of Junhyuk’s attacks. That had been a new experience for him, being slow but precise in his parry.
Junhyuk had even managed to block some of Artlan’s attacks, and the hero was much faster than he was. However, he could only deflect the attacks. Nudra, on the other hand, could win while fighting like that.
It was only the beginning for Junhyuk.
After a while, he started getting accustomed to the Mantis Lord’s speed. It was fast, but due to its shape, all of its attacks seemed similar, so Junhyuk just waited for his chance to counter.
Junhyuk could use his powers to create an opening, but still he waited.
While fighting the monster, Junhyuk refined his swordsmanship. Some heroes were much faster than him in the real world, but there were restraints in the Dimensional Battlefield, so the difference in speed between heroes wasn’t that high there.
Junhyuk watched as the Mantis Lord’s eyes turned red.
Clang, clang, clang!
Its attack speed was the same, but the attacks had much more force behind them. Now that the force accompanied the speed, Junhyuk started getting pushed back. However, because he had purchased the strength runestones, he was able to maintain his balance and stance.
After a while, the Mantis Lord’s strength increased again.
Junhyuk decided to go all out then. Fighting the Mantis Lord had been good practice for him, but he would invite Artlan to train with him again, so he wasn’t worried about sparring with others.
Junhyuk triggered a Spatial Collapse on the Mantis’ back.
Craaaaack!
The Mantis Lord let out a loud scream, and Junhyuk used his Spatial Slash. After the two attacks, the Mantis Lord’s eyes widened, and Junhyuk raised his force field around it.
The Mantis Lord got encased by the force field, so Junhyuk teleported behind it and stabbed the back of its neck.
The Mantis Lord died, and Junhyuk received its buff.
[You’ve killed the Mantis Lord. For the next five hours, your attack speed will increase by 100 percent and your regeneration rate will increase by 50 percent. If you die, you’ll lose these buffs to your opponent.]
Then, Junhyuk saw something that the Mantis Lord had dropped. It was one of its saw-like front legs. It wasn’t big, but the size didn’t matter. The allies would be able to acquire the new buff whenever they wanted now.
Elise would make that happen.
Junhyuk smiled, took the leg and ran back. Thinking that he would be able to acquire the buff whenever he wanted, he said, “This is how we’ll continue our streak.”
They had been winning, but some of the allies had died. That meant that they hadn’t gotten much stronger, but now, things were different.
Ronga had been extremely strong with that specific buff, so Junhyuk knew that he had just taken another step toward becoming a legend.
He was heading back to the buff tower when he got contacted by Elise, “Aktur appeared here, so we are retreating.”
“Sure. Don’t get caught.”
He continued toward the buff tower. Junhyuk was thinking that he could always just beat the enemy heroes there. Elise would buff everyone, and the allies would be stronger because of that.
When Junhyuk reached the path, he saw the others waiting by the watchtower. The enemy heroes were heading for them.
Junhyuk teleported toward them and took a look at the enemies. Aktur, Trarune and Blinka were present.
When Junhyuk joined the allies, the number of heroes on each side became the same.
“Aktur, you get around fast,” Junhyuk said.
“Right?! I have to work hard to win.”
Junhyuk laughed, and Aktur said, “You shouldn’t trust your buffs so much.”
At that moment, Junhyuk gave the Mantis Lord’s leg to Elise and said, “Use this.”
She took it and smiled. A bright light shone from her hands, and the item she was holding disappeared.
“I’m ready,” she said. She extended her hand with a smile and added, “This is interesting.”
Her hand shone, and she touched Layla and Junhyuk, buffing them.
Junhyuk turned to Elise with surprise, and she said, “My buff has evolved. I can now use it on two people at the same time.”
Elise’s buff combine three battlefield buffs. On top of that, Junhyuk still had the roaming monster’s buff, so there was not a moment before where he was that powerful in the battlefield.
To make her power even stronger, they required synthesis items. The allies didn’t know much about those items, but they knew Elise’s buff would become stronger with them.
With each new synthesis item, however, her power had a chance to evolve. Elise, too, could become a legend.
Junhyuk smiled at Aktur while the enemy hero stared hard at Elise.
“What?! A buffer?”
“That’s right, and you don’t know the half of it.”
Elise couldn’t buff enemies, so there was no way for them to know just how powerful her buff was. The enemies had to experience it first hand. Junhyuk ran forward at the same time someone appeared from the buff tower. Everyone looked at the being joining them. Anyone would make a difference in the coming battle.
Everyone’s gaze went lower to the ground, and they saw Gongon laughing and wagging his tail.
“Waiting for me?”
Gongon was very far away, so Junhyuk shouted, “Gon! Get over here!”
Gongon transformed into a fully-developed dragon and soared through the sky. Straps of bandages flew toward him and wrapped around Gongon’s leg, pulling him down. Gongon dropped to the ground, and Layla and Junhyuk dashed toward him.
Junhyuk turned to Layla and said, “Let’s use the nullification field.”
“The nullification field?”
“Sure. We are buffed, so we should decide this with just our swords.”
Aktur was in the middle of summoning his skeleton soldiers, so the nullification field would work perfectly.
Junhyuk grabbed Elise and Layla and teleported, appearing right in front of his enemies. He shouted at Gongon, “Firebreath!”
Gongon immediately spewed fireballs. It was better for the allies to use their powers before the nullification fight triggered.
Junhyuk used his Spatial Slash against Aktur, who moved by reflex, managing to dodge a critical hit. However, the enemy hero still got hit. Because of the buff, an extra attack triggered.
“Elise! Use your field!” he shouted.
Elise raised the nullification field, the skeleton soldiers shattered on the ground. The enemies were surprised by the turn of events, and Junhyuk and Layla attacked Aktur.
Aktur was having a hard time fighting two heroes. Layla’s attacks missed the enemy hero, but Junhyuk’s attacks landed. Because of the buff, he could attack with incredible speed. Aktur scowled as he looked at Junhyuk.
The nullification field disappeared, and Junhyuk quickly raised his own force field.
Blinka stomped the ground, using its area-of-effect stun. However, because the allies were all within Junhyuk’s force field, the ultimate was useless.
“Kill Aktur!”
After Junhyuk attacked, he heard Elise yell, “Dodge!”
Junhyuk and Layla moved to either side of Aktur, and Elise used her ultimate on him.
