Season 3: Chapter 187: Well (1)
One of the so-called three archers of Persia had been killed a few minutes earlier. Now, only two archers remained in the forest. They were the Persian aces, Kenin and Upra.
They had momentarily given up on returning to the base and rapidly fired at Almond.
“Why isn’t it hitting? This angle should be perfect.”
“... Damn.”
They grew flustered by the unusual situation of not hitting their target. From this angle, their shots would have hit. It felt truly strange to see the enemy still alive.
Even Kenin, known as the top ace, felt confused by this unprecedented evasive technique.
“What kind of method is he using?” Kenin shouted with a fierce expression.
“Keep shooting and cover me! I’ll move forward!”
Kenin advanced step by step while shooting his bow.
His rapid-fire speed increased as if he was determined to turn the enemy hiding behind the trees into a pincushion.
‘What?’
Only then did Kenin notice something peculiar about the enemy’s movements.
‘He’s moving backward?’
Left and right movements could be easily discerned from a distance, but forward and backward changes couldn’t be noticed so clearly when someone only took a step or two. This could also be seen in sports broadcasts when viewers felt confused over whether a goal had been scored.
Indeed, Almond had precisely gauged the range of their arrows.
‘This is as far as they can reach.’
Considering the angle of the curve shots, he had figured out the range of their arrows. What initially seemed like a vague boundary had now become a clear line.
Almond could dodge their arrows with just a step or two. In reality, an arrow could still cause damage if it grazed him. However, an arrow’s physical force became zero once it traveled a certain distance in the game. This made such evasion possible.
“Damn! The range isn’t enough!”
Just as Kenin shouted—
“Kenin! Watch out!”
Almond, who had been moving back and forth behind the trees, suddenly popped out. Was he going to counterattack?
He drew his bow.
[Focus]
“!?”
Kenin threw himself to the side.
‘For some reason, I feel like this will definitely hit.’
His instinct as an archer told him that arrow would definitely hit someone, so he dodged by throwing his body to the side. No matter how good an archer was, they couldn’t predict the future.
A sudden, sharp movement could help to dodge a headshot.
Swoosh—
Sure enough, Almond’s arrow grazed where Kenin’s head had been. It was a difference of 0.001 seconds.
The arrow, accelerated by the power of the focus trait, flew with tremendous speed. This was the terror of Joseon’s archery.
Kenin only smiled.
‘Got him.’
Thud!
Kenin’s arrow struck Almond’s side.
Yes, Kenin had fired an arrow even as he threw himself to the side. It looked like he ran away in fear of the enemy, but he had also shot an arrow in that split second.
‘What an idiot, giving me an angle where I don’t need a curve shot.’
That wasn’t all. The arrow Upra shot while retreating also seemed to hit Almond.
Thud.
Almond lay on the ground.
“Nice!!” Kenin and Upra cheered simultaneously.
Almond had been a tough opponent to bring down.
“This is Persia! Hahaha!”
Kenin didn’t typically say that. If Joseon’s archery had its terror, Persia had its own. Their incredibly agile moving shots used Parthian style archery.
“Did you think I was running away!? Hahaha!”
Even while dodging, the Persians could shoot accurately. This was the essence of Persia’s three archers.
One could never judge the situation based on their movements. Even when bowing their heads in apology or shaking hands in greeting, they could suddenly draw and shoot their bows to kill their opponents. This was the Persian archers.
“Let’s go! To the base!”
Kenin and Upra started running to the base.
A lot of time had already passed, but Persia had often turned the tide with just a few archers.
***
At this point, the commentators focused on the forest near the Persian base.
“Oh!?”
“Almond!?”
Almond lay on the field as the Persian archers ran toward the base.
“This could change the game!”
— Oh no, he lost
— He just went down, it seems
— Noooo
— He held on for a long time
— He fought well...
Although Almond had been taken down, the viewers didn’t seem to think it was a crisis.
“Ah, so this is why Persia is still holding on! But what can change with just two more archers!?”
What difference would it make for two archers to escape the forest and head to the base? Many Joseon archers had already sufficiently harassed the Persian base and Joseon had gradually pushed back the barbarian soldiers. What could two archers do when Joseon clearly had the upper hand?
“This can change everything!” OrangeKing declared that these two archers could make a difference.
“Persia has often turned around first and second era crises with just a few archers! They’re an archery civilization! They excel in turtling! How do you think they’ve survived so far!?”
Just as Joseon heavily relied on the early power of their archer units centered around Almond, Persia often overcame crises or decided matches with their frontline archer units centered around their three ace archers.
“Especially in the early stages! It’s easy for aces to turn the situation around!”
Moreover, few troops possessed weapons in the early stage. A few ace units had a high chance of deciding the battle. Joseon’s early decisiveness was also due to the high combat power of Persia’s ace units.
Viewers who had experienced the power of these units understood this well.
— Oh no...
— We often do this, don’t we?
— True
— This is a crisis then
— Damn
— This is bad
— Were we just frogs in a well?
— FARE“WELL”
Those who wanted to undermine Almond began to appear and mocked the situation. The catchphrase they chose this time seemed to be, “Frog in a well.”
— Until the round of 32, it’s a well league
— But we were the best in the well!!
— The difference in skill is crazy
Those who kept quiet and hid when the national competition went well started coming out as Joseon lost the archery battle.
In other words, Almond’s defeat was a significant blow. His death had shaken matches before, but not as much as this moment.
“Ah... Almond held on well! But we need him to respawn quickly and rejoin the battlefield!”
The only solution was for Almond to respawn quickly and return to the battlefield.
“Look at the worker damage report!”
“Ah, Persia... They really are masters of turtling, aren’t they? They are holding out better than expected!”
Persia had built additional guard towers near their base, reducing the worker damage. This damage needed to be increased to finish them off completely. It seemed unlikely that this could be done. Without siege weapons in the second era, ending it like this seemed impossible.
“If Joseon’s rush is blocked here, what happens then?!”
“It’s still a big gain! They could unintentionally see a third era victory or even a fourth era...”
It would become very difficult if the two Persian archers returned and successfully defended. Joseon’s forward barracks would become meaningless and the excessive investment would be in vain. The battle would drag on into the third era and eventually the fourth.
— 4th era??
— Facing Persia in the 4th era is impossible
— Ah
— This is bad
— Noooo
— Are we going to see a fully upgraded Persia?
“In the fourth era, all of Persia’s upgrades are free... but it takes time.”
“Yes. They can shorten that time by increasing the number of scholars. By the fourth era, they get upgrades for free!”
In the fourth era, it would be a nightmare against fully upgraded Persian troops.
“Fully upgraded elephants with maximum health and armor... We don’t want to see that!”
— True
— Horrifying
— Lol
— Ugh
— Hang in there, Pang!
To avoid such a scenario, the Joseon archers had to annihilate nearly all the workers in the Persian base even at the risk of their lives or they had to defeat the two Persian aces returning.
“The Joseon archers in the enemy base need to know the enemies are coming from the forest! They must prepare! When the total number of archers is low, two aces make a big difference!”
Could they win by just preparing? Such doubts lingered. Even Almond had done his best to stall them.
“Why isn’t Cookie giving a signal? They need to prepare!”
“Indeed! Is he not seeing this!?”
Cookie hadn’t signaled the archers in the enemy base. He needed to inform them that two Persian archers were returning from the forest.
— What?
— ???
— Maybe he’s too busy
— Ah
— At this crucial moment??
The reason grew clear in the next moment.
“Oh!?”
OrangeKing’s eyes widened.
— No way
— Gasp
— Huh?
— ?
***
“We’ll make it just in time.”
“Yes.”
Kenin and Upra ran at full speed through the forest while conversing.
“We might be a bit late.”
“We can handle it.”
Kenin displayed a confidence that he could manage everything once he arrived.
“But that guy... he seemed a bit dangerous,” Upra murmured as he glanced at Almond’s fallen body.
“Yes, but he’s dead. Right?”
“...”
Kenin had a tendency not to acknowledge true rivals.
“Yes, he’s dead. After killing six out of our eight members.”
“Don’t piss me off. Just focus on the next battle—” Kenin scowled and glanced back.
“Seven,” a strange voice interrupted.
‘What...?’
Perhaps Kenin felt too shocked. Everything seemed to slow down for him.
‘What the hell, Upra?!’
Something glowing white had pierced Upra’s face and blood sprayed everywhere in slow motion. Upra’s face seemed to burst open with blood splattering all around. It happened slowly, so slowly...
‘Upra! Is he dead?! Who the hell did this? Was there another one?!’
Kenin saw someone standing in his shrunken pupils. Someone stood there beyond the bloody mist where his comrade’s head had burst. That person stood there as if peering from the entrance of hell into this world and had already drawn another arrow.
Creaaaaak...
Almond muttered, “There were eight, huh? I’ll have to tell Carrot.”
Woooom!
A white light radiated as Kenin’s mouth slowly gaped open. At that moment, a thought flashed through his mind.
‘What’s the point of reporting after killing us all?’