Season 3: Chapter 332. Fire (3)
The fire hadn’t caught just the gates of Joseon’s base.
"Chargeeeee!!"
"Daaaeee-han! Min! Guk!"
Even the cheer squads on both sides became fired up.
"Roma! Roma! Rooo-maaaa!"
"WOOOOOOOOOO!!"
The commanders’ eyes, reflected on either side of the broadcast screen, looked the same.
— Is that a still image of Best Yi Sun-Shin??
— Whoa, she’s not even blinking
— Thought both were photos lol
— That’s insane focus
They gave orders while staring at the battlefield without flinching. This massive clash happened simultaneously at each base on opposite corners of the map. The fight was so intense that ordinary focus wasn’t enough to keep issuing orders. This battle would determine the fate of both sides. Everyone had staked everything on this final war.
And then—
"It... it’s down!!"
"They’re in!!!"
BOOOOM!
The final gate of fate had fallen. Rome had breached the wall of Joseon’s main base.
"WAAAAAAHHHH!"
A massive mace crushed the head of a frontline soldier.
Crunch!
Heavy shields replaced the fallen gate, forming a new wall as the enemy pushed in.
[Movement Speed Increased]
Vwooooom!
Even their speed was terrifying.
Rumble rumble rumble!
It was a literal bulldozer of an assault.
"Guh-urgh!"
"Augh!"
Joseon’s frontline swordsmen stepped up to block them, but it wasn’t enough.
Wham!
Bam!
Rome attacked with a perfect coordination of shields, maces, and crossbows. In a head-on fight, Joseon stood no chance.
Bread rode around on horseback shouting, "Back!! Pull the line back!!!"
Joseon had to retreat. The power difference was clear.
Rome pushed in harder with siege engines behind them.
Rumble rumble rumble!
It looked like Rome would break straight into the throne room with such momentum.
"Further back!"
Joseon continued retreating. It felt suspicious, but...
‘It’s the cavalry squad.’
Anto sensed something and ordered all the second string troops.
[Hold Shield Wall]
Even the crossbowmen held their shields and stood by. At that moment, Joseon made a move.
"Open!!"
At Bread’s shout, Joseon’s troops parted like the Red Sea.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Through the gap, a cavalry unit charged in. Cavalry was quite effective against heavily armed mace units.
However, Rome’s vice commander shouted, "Fall back!"
Thunk.
All mace troops quickly retreated as spearmen and crossbowmen stepped forward. Instead of firing, the crossbowmen held their shields with both hands and formed a wall. Through the gaps in that wall—
"!"
Shiiiiing!
The spearmen lunged forward. Instead of throwing the spears, they thrusted them.
[Danger]
Tiiing!
A warning ping appeared, but the accelerating horses couldn’t respond in time.
“Neighhh!”
With faction bonuses applied, the horses only stumbled. Still, half the cavalry was unseated and the shield wall blocked the rest of them.
Best Yi Sun-Shin’s expression didn’t change. Rome possessed a stronger army than Joseon. That had been clear for a while, but the issue lay elsewhere.
‘We lost the macro game.’
The enemy had equal numbers. It was a strategic loss. They had ultimately allowed Anto’s hidden expansion.
She hadn’t fully calculated the impact of the hawk baiting, and Anto hadn’t given her the chance to. Still, she felt no regret. Having participated in countless tournaments, she knew better than anyone that regret led directly to defeat in games at this level.
Yes, they were losing now. They had lost the macro game. They could possibly even lose this base battle.
‘Fine. You win the battle.’
She remained unshaken. Only her eyes and hands moved swiftly.
‘I’ll win the war.’
She issued a command to a place far removed from the battlefield. To the Roman main base, which Anto wasn’t paying attention to.
Piiing...!
A red beam of light descended onto Rome’s base. All the Joseon archers who infiltrated turned their gaze toward it. It was the Roman headquarters where the enemy commander resided.
***
Almond continued firing arrows as he checked the command in the corner of his eye. A long red beam pointed down. It was a strategic guide signaling a major operation.
Tactical orders usually appeared as white text directly in one’s vision, so it didn’t mean to begin right away. However, orders for this operation would soon follow. It was a higher-level command.
Everyone paused and stared at it with their mouths agape.
[Assassination]
The master operation was an assassination plan.
‘Assassination?’
Almond swallowed dryly. It somehow felt like his mission.
Tiiing!
[Move]
Sure enough, the order came to Almond. He stopped firing and began running. At the same time, the Roman soldiers he’d pinned down lowered their shields and started chasing. Best Yi Sun-Shin’s assassination order arrived the moment they realized Almond had been shooting alone.
"Get him!!"
The Roman troops sounded furious. They felt enraged that only one archer had toyed with them.
Vwooooom!
[Movement Speed Increased]
With cleric buffs, they chased after Almond with fire in their eyes. Although part of the militia, Almond was still an archer. They would eventually catch up.
He contemplated shooting them while running, but their shields would block most of it. Shooting would only slow him down even more. Just then, another order came.
[Cleric]
Almond’s eyes sharpened. He didn’t need to shoot multiple times.
‘I see.’
Creak.
Almond drew his bow.
Vwooooom!
[Focus]
Light gathered around him. Three seconds later, he slipped behind a tree and came to a halt.
Scraaaaape!
Dust scattered as his feet dragged across the ground.
"Throw it!!"
At that moment, the Roman soldiers hurled their spears. As a militia, Almond’s best bet was to dodge. However, he gritted his teeth until the very end and aimed his bow toward a specific angle.
‘This is it.
Swish.
He released the arrow. At the same time, the enemy's spear came flying in.
[Duck]
He ducked his head instantly.
Thud!
The spear soared just over his back.
“Phew.”
Even a graze would have been fatal. He felt chills crawl up his spine.
‘The arrow?’
The arrow had landed by now.
Thwack.
It landed right in the center of the cleric’s head. A burst of white light radiated from the focused energy.
"!"
BOOM!
Everyone’s eyes widened, especially Pierre who had been chasing in the front. He looked back in disbelief. The cleric had died, which meant the speed buff could no longer be applied.
‘Even while being chased?’
The situation had been one-sided. They were the pursuers, and the enemy was on the run. The distance between the cleric and Almond was quite significant.
Not to mention, Almond was a militia. A single graze would be lethal. And yet, amid all these odds, he had sniped the enemy’s most important unit with a curved shot no less.
‘Unbelievable.’
Almond’s tenacity, focus, sharp judgment... that uncanny sense for flipping the tide. It had to be acknowledged.
‘In combat only.’
Of course, all those talents only manifested in battle. While he possessed exceptional combat skills, his ability to read the game was not just lacking but completely absent.
‘Which means he won’t realize it.’
Pierre halted his pursuit. Almond was already running far off into the distance. Pierre didn’t seem interested in chasing him anymore. He had read the flow.
‘No new orders are coming.’
Anto’s commands had stopped coming for a while now. Pierre understood what that meant. The tide of the game had shifted.
"We’re heading to the base."
Pierre grinned. If he read the situation correctly, Rome had a very high probability of winning this game.
***
Meanwhile, the Joseon archers continued to slaughter the workers at Rome’s base.
Bang!
Bang!
Eventually, all the Roman workers retreated into the town hall or nearby buildings and abandoned resource gathering. Some fled in lines toward the expansion. They had no other option even though it meant going far out of their way to avoid the archers.
In the end, the workers couldn’t even approach the resource nodes. Rome’s base resource system had been completely shut down. Once all the visible workers had been wiped out—
"... Phew. The hunt is over."
The Joseon archers regrouped. Only four had survived: Pang, Spam, Carrot, and Latte.
"In the end, it’s just us bastards," Latte joked with a grin.
Everyone chuckled. The usual suspects had survived. There would be five of them with Almond joining them soon.
"Here comes our tardy boy."
Pang waved at Almond, who was running in the distance. Almond waved back as he jogged over. Judging by his relaxed demeanor, no enemies seemed to be chasing him. The five frontline archers had managed to survive.
‘So we’re together for this, huh.’
All of them sensed it. This would be their final mission.
‘Thank goodness.’
There would be no regrets with the five of them. They all turned their gaze in the same direction.
[Assassination]
The glowing red letters marked the town hall.
"We’re... supposed to go there?"
That was their final mission. The command precisely marked a location because no meaningful resistance remained in Rome’s main base.
"Guess it’s going to be a rush battle."
Anyone could tell that it would be a rush scenario.
"There’s a high chance this is a losing battle for Joseon."
What kind of play could five archers pull off? They couldn’t set fires or destroy buildings. And they were all unarmored militia. A single arrow from the town hall’s auto-defense would kill them instantly. And yet, they had been assigned an insanely difficult assassination mission.
"How many of us do you think will survive?" Pang muttered while scratching his head.
"Probably just one."
Carrot’s cold assessment made everyone chuckle because they all knew who that would be.
"Yo. You made it, pretty boy."
Almond finally arrived.
"What? Why’s everyone just standing around?" he panted and looked confused.
"There was an order to wait, so we waited man."
"Oh, I thought you guys just missed me."
“Pfft!” Carrot burst into laughter at that.
"You’ve got a habit of laughing when pretty boys talk," Pang grumbled and felt annoyed that Carrot never laughed at his jokes.
"W-What are you talking about!?"
"Oho, suddenly so shy."
"I’m just laughing because it’s—"
Ting!
[Enter]
Gulp.
Suddenly, everyone swallowed dryly and pulled arrows from their quivers.
"Let’s go."
Pang stepped forward.
"Only one of us will survive."
"Yup."
"Agreed."
Almond, who hadn’t heard the earlier conversation, felt puzzled.
‘Wait... does that mean I’m the one?’
Strangely, the other four pushed forward aggressively.
"Ahem. As the acting leader... I’ll say one last thing," Pang shouted while running ahead, "Just get Almond inside the town hall!!"
"!?"
"Almond will figure it out! It’s always this bastard anyway!!"
Almond felt dumbfounded and confused as to what they meant by that.
"???"
All the archers shouted in unison full of spirit, "OKAY!!!"