Chapter 188 – Demons’ Forest (3)
Galliard was a Dark Elf whom he met in the Tutorial. He had chased after Akasha’s snake for a long time and gave Shunpo to Yeon-woo after a quest.
Also, he was his brother’s first teacher.
After finding the picture of his family, he didn’t seem to know what to do. But it seemed like he had climbed the Tower, and he was staying with Brahm, who was his friend.
However, the combination of Galliard and Aether was something he had never thought of, and Yeon-woo felt extremely confused right now.
‘People like Aether are following Brahm, and if Galliard is stopping that…..’
Yeon-woo quickly followed after Galliard.
Galliard was famous for being a local of the Tutorial. He was as strong as a ranker.
But as he received rewards from climbing the Tower, it seemed like he had gotten stronger.
Everytime he moved with his Shunpo, there were remnants left behind, and the speed at which he shot his arrow was hard to chase with the eyes.
However, the arrow wasn’t a simple wooden arrow. It was an iron arrow that was carefully made.
Had Brahm made it separately for him?
Boom!
Like magic had been cast on the arrow, the iron arrow exploded where it landed.
The 9 Elohim players quickly scattered.
When you were dealing with a bow user, the damage would be greater the closer you were with other people. You needed to spread apart to decrease the bow user’s range.
Like they were thinking the same thing, they quickly avoided the arrows and formed a circle to catch Galliard.
But that was only possible if they could catch up to the archer.
Since Galliard had already mastered the skill called Shunpo, it was almost impossible for them to catch up.
Also, this was the Demons’ Forest. This place was disadvantageous to the Elohim players, and because there was cover everywhere, Galliard was like a fish in water.
Pababat—
Galliard fell back and continued to shoot arrows. His arrows were so rapid that the rankers felt a chill on their backs.
When they realized that they couldn’t avoid it, the players got their swords out to flick the arrows away. Once the arrows met their swords, a shock wave and fire covered them.
“Keacck!”
“Shit!”
The two that had been trying to catch Galliard spit out curses and fell back. One’s body had been completely burned, and the other’s had become completely bloodied as their sword was broken into pieces.
When Galliard was about to knock another arrow, suddenly, a player appeared from behind him. It was the High Elf with gold hair. He was the only person who had been able to barely catch up to Galliard.
“Got you…..!”
The High Elf laughed confidently and tried to pierce his sword where Galliard, but his expression hardened right after.
Galliard’s figure was fading away like an illusion.
<Shunpo – Transposition>
When your speed was at the extreme, there would be some remnants of you left behind in the air. Galliard had learned new skills after mastering his Shunpo.
It was a skill where he left his remnants behind to trick his opponents’ eyes and secretly hurt them.
And after they were caught in it, the trap would be activated. Behind him, there was a shadow of a tree. The arrow landed in the back of the rebelling High Elf.
Kwang!
“Keuk!”
He circulated his Wind Spirit and just barely made a barrier around him to block the arrow.
But the shock of the explosion was so big that his body was pushed back, and because his vision was blocked from the black smoke, he lost Galliard.
<Shunpo – Archer>
Then, Galliard’s body suddenly bent backward and was flung forward.
He had been using a hit and run strategy, but this time, he was aiming for a face to face fight.
“You dare! A child of darkness!”
The High Elf’s face crumpled as Galliard appeared through the smoke.
To a High Elf, who had the blood of the precious god of beauty, Freya, a Dark Elf was a disgusting and lowly species.
To him, Galliard was nothing more than a quick-footed hunter. The fact that he was attacking him meant that he was looking down at him, so he wanted to show him who he was messing with.
But there was something the High Elf was mistaken about. A bow and arrow were just tools that Galliard used. He was still a master in other martial arts and weapons.
And as Galliard’s skill increased, the High Elf’s martial art couldn’t follow him.
Galliard pulled out an arrow and slashed through the High Elf’s wrists and his Achilles tendon.
“Runt!”
Other people belatedly arrived to stop Galliard, but Galliard had already moved back and was shooting arrows at them.
He had chosen the method of critically injuring someone and attacking the rest of them when they came to help the injured.
The Elohim were all in the palm of Galliard’s hand.
They were one-sidedly attacked.
Eventually, Aether stepped up.
“He’s like a rat.”
Aether wrinkled his forehead and created arrows of light using his holy power.
Each of them all had an immense amount of holy power. When he brought his hand down, the arrows fell on Galliard like rain.
<Shunpo – Thousand Golden Wave>
Galliard used his Shunpo to escape, but the arrows of light kept on following him.
A few turned in different directions to surround Galliard, and before he knew, Galliard was already trapped.
His front, back, right and left were all blocked. The arrows all glinted with light.
“Explode.”
With the command word that only those with holy power could say, tens of arrows exploded at once.
As the white light became bigger, the surroundings of the lake began to be destroyed.
The sound of the explosion wasn’t even that big. But like the light of the sun, a white light pushed away the darkness and the black smoke.
Demon Trees, different Demonic species, and even the ghosts disappeared without a sound.
Just when they thought Galliard would be swept away as well…..
<Shunpo – Inverted Energy>
He gathered his magic power on his feet and jumped high into the sky.
At the same time, the other players of Elohim moved as well.
Below, the atmosphere became dizzying because of the explosion of the arrows of light. They followed him because they were thinking that it wouldn’t be easy for him to hide in mid-air, where there wasn’t any cover.
Different artifacts bursted with light and created a storm.
Aether also began to use his signature skill, <Holy Punishment of Light>. Spears made purely of light targeted Galliard.
There wasn’t an escape. Because Galliard knew this too, he twisted his body in mid-air and tossed out the discus that was in his belt.
It was a shield that his friend Brahm gave him before coming here.
In an instant, the discus grew and became a sturdy shield that looked like a bee hive.
When it was hit with the attacks, the shield shook like it was about to break any second.
The players got their skills ready again after that.
But at that moment…..
Grrrr, boom!
Suddenly, lightning bolts fell from the sky. They were bolts made of fire. Yeon-woo had activated his skill, Fire Rain, after watching the situation.
The Fire Rain had been absorbed by Wave of Fire, but the skill had not disappeared completely. Rather, Yeon-woo was able to adjust the intensity of the skill after the 21st and the 22nd floor, so it was even more destructive now.
It was literally a bolt from the blue for the players who had just been focused on their fight and hadn’t expected an attack from the outside.
The bolts took the players off guard. The players that were already injured by Galliard experienced intense pain.
With 3 of them completely toasted, the smell of burnt skill filled the air. The rest of them had barely used their skills and artifacts to save themselves, but they were still injured.
The least injured person still had a severe burn. Everyone else was barely holding onto their breaths.
And as a sharp breeze blew above them, Yeon-woo appeared. Along with Blink, he brought Vigrid down.
‘Jul.’
With his sword techniques that had improved fighting the Martial King, and with Bian on top of that, he was able to quickly cut off the heads of 3 players.
It really happened in the blink of an eye. The rest of them looked at Yeon-woo with shock.
A black mask and black clothes. And red wings with a white sword. It was exactly what they had heard about the Hoarder.
Even Galliard, who didn’t know about Yeon-woo’s new outfit, was able to realize who it was right away just by his figure.
“You…..?”
[I’ll tell you the details once we get out of here.]
After hearing Yeon-woo’s Open Speaking, Galliard had a slightly surprised face. Because to have awakened your consciousness meant that you were at least on the level of a ranker.
To Gallaird, who only remembered him from the Tutorial, it was a surprising growth.
But because they were in this situation, he just nodded his head.
As soon as Galliard gave his permission, he spread open his Fire Wings.
“Youuuuuu!”
Just then, Aether screamed in fury with a violently twisted face from below.
He had unexpectedly lost five of his subordinates. The other 3 weren’t that well off either. But because his target was about to escape, he felt like he was going to lose it.
Seeing the person who prioritized his reputation over everything else make that face, Yeon-woo felt like something he had just washed away a bad taste from his mouth.
But he couldn’t take his time. The guy used his Holy Punishment of Light again, and Yeon-woo gripped Vigrid.
The Holy Punishment of Light was a skill that brought down tens of lightning bolts that were like spears. It was buffed by Aether’s light property, and even players within Elohim tended to avoid fighting with him.
So Yeon-woo swung Vigrid to the right and exploded his skills without any control.
[72 Arts – Pok, Yul]
[Wave of Fire]
The new Bian that he learned caused a fire that was incomparable to the arrows of light.
When the Holy Punishment of Light was combined with this, red and white energy clashed, forming a huge mushroom cloud to float high up in the air.
The heat burned everything in its path. The forest around it was burned to a crisp until there was nothing more than the dirt on the ground.
While everyone was trying to get a grasp on themselves, he used Blink with Galliard to quickly leave the location.
He could see Aether screaming in rage in the corner of his eye, but he was busy blocking off the fire. The other survivors would have to struggle a bit if they wanted to live as well.
[Seriously, this is whack every time I see you. Are you using fireworks or something?]
[The bigger problem is that the spark might spread to the rest of the forest…..I don’t know what’ll happen.]
Shanon and Hanryeong exclaimed with compliments that weren’t really compliments and checked the souls of the 5 dead rankers.
Then Yeon-woo quickly left.
He glanced back to see where Aether was struggling.
Since they would meet again, he could get him next time.