Guild Battle (2)

Ghost Archer Nam Cheolmin.

He took pride in that epithet. At least in Korea, no awakener could shoot a bow as well as he could.

Yet Kim Minwoo had shattered that pride in an instant.

What?

Hand over his crown?

And Seo Yerim, who had switched to archery less than a month ago, was supposed to inherit it?

It was so absurd he could barely wrap his head around it. What came next was even worse.

'Ha! Divine Bow?'

What an arrogant epithet.

That was what made it so ridiculous.

'Keep the showmanship within reason if you want me to play along.'

It wasn't that he failed to understand the intention. Frankly, even he thought Bow Phoenix was a rather unimpressive epithet.

If Minwoo had talked him up a little, shown some respect for his senior, then suggested a suitable alternative epithet, he would have chuckled and offered a few words of encouragement.

What good would antagonizing Ilseong Group's eldest son do him, anyway? They were better off getting along.

Instead, it had been a complete shitshow from the start.

'Arrogant bastard.'

Give him a little praise, and look how far he overstepped.

Even in the awakener world, where ability was everything, those words were outrageously arrogant.

Naturally, Cheolmin gritted his teeth.

'Let's see how good you really are.'

With his buffs active, he openly targeted Kim Minwoo.

Rapid Fire.

A skill that unleashed hundreds of arrows per second—his signature move.

When he sent those hundreds of arrows flying at Kim Minwoo, Nam Cheolmin was still brimming with confidence.

He had calculated the wind, trajectories, and direction perfectly. He couldn't remember the last time his shooting had been as clean as it was today.

Yet the brat didn't move. He simply stood rooted to the spot, staring at Seo Yerim.

'Surely she doesn't mean to knock them away with arrows?'

When they were already accelerating down from the sky, no less?

Nam Cheolmin smirked.

That was a feat even the finest world-ranked archers—not merely Korea's best—would struggle to pull off.

Perhaps this guild battle would end far more easily than he had feared. Once Kim Minwoo was eliminated and all the summons that could tank for them disappeared, dealing with a lone swordsman and archer would be easy.

He almost laughed.

Until Seo Yerim began drawing her bowstring at blinding speed.

"... Huh?"

Nam Cheolmin blinked.

'What's going on?'

Why was that woman using his signature skill?

'She had Rapid Fire?'

It was one thing with lower-tier achievements, but the higher the achievement tier, the rarer it was for achievement skills to overlap.

Had they beaten one-in-a-thousand, even one-in-ten-thousand odds to get the same skill?

If not...

Nam Cheolmin swallowed hard.

'What am I looking at right now?'

The mana arrows fired from the ground were rendering every one of his arrows useless. Not only were they grazing the very tips and robbing his shots of their force, but the mana arrows were flying toward him without losing any of their own momentum.

'This is insane...'

A master recognized another master.

Nam Cheolmin was no ordinary master archer. He already had half a foot in the ranks of the truly elite. That was why he could tell at a glance.

'What the hell is that freak?'

Something he had seen earlier suddenly came back to him: Seo Yerim staring intently at him as he used Rapid Fire.

*'Was she analyzing my skill?'

'Had she copied it on the spot?' *

"Guild Master!"

"Stay out of this! No matter what!"

Nam Cheolmin snarled the order at the guild members hurriedly preparing defensive skills against the incoming arrows.

Kim Minwoo had stood there calmly while every arrow was deflected, yet he was going to accept help from his guild members?

Nothing could be more disgraceful. And this was archery—his own specialty.

Gritting his teeth, Nam Cheolmin drew his bowstring.

'Fine. I'll shoot them down!'

All he had to do was return the favor.

Knocking arrows aside?

He was Korea's number-one archer, after all. Difficult, yes, but not impossible.

[Rapid Fire (S) activates!]

With a fierce gleam in his eyes, he drew his bowstring. Hundreds of arrows took to the sky once more.

Just as his shots approached the descending mana arrows...

"Huh...?"

Nam Cheolmin stared in horror.

The mana arrows' arcing trajectories twisted ever so slightly, evading every one of his shots.

Even more absurdly, those altered trajectories converged again, bringing the arrows straight toward him.

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!

Before he could react, arrows slammed into him all over his body.

[Your shield has burst.]

[You have been eliminated.]

Before he knew it, Nam Cheolmin had been transported outside the guild battle area.

Being the first to be eliminated wasn't much of a shock. He was simply dumbfounded by a sight he had never witnessed before.

'What was that?'

Had she controlled the arrows?

No, that couldn't be it.

Sending a sword flying and controlling it in midair with one's will was something that only existed in martial arts novels.

And she could supposedly fire hundreds of arrows and control them however she liked in midair?

He had never heard of such a skill.

Suddenly, Nam Cheolmin felt how much the wind had weakened.

His eyes widened.

'Did she account for the wind?'

Even then, it was strange.

Say she had calculated everything before firing. Say that was why the arrows had changed course midway.

But what had she been calculating for?

'...!'

Nam Cheolmin's eyes flew wide as he recalled the mana arrows that had so precisely evaded his shots before striking him.

*'Did she know I'd try to shoot them down and account for it before she even fired?'

'Was that why they changed course on the way down, then turned back?' *

Goosebumps rose along his arms.

If that was really what had happened...

The epithet Divine Bow.

He had thought it was mere bluster.

'... Maybe it wasn't.'

He could hardly imagine another epithet that would suit her better.

He thought of the archer awakeners overseas.

He might be Korea's number-one archer, but he wouldn't dare compare himself to the very best archers abroad.

Wasn't it ridiculous to compare the best in an awakener backwater to the best in an awakener superpower?

'The Sword Immortal is the exception.'

Korea's top-ranked swordsman, the Sword Immortal Seo Jincheol, was simply a special case.

["She's world-ranker material."]

Nam Cheolmin recalled Kim Minwoo's assessment of Seo Yerim in an earlier interview.

"Ha..."

Perhaps, at this very moment, a true archer capable of competing on the world stage had been born.

'Whatever else happens...'

Ilseong Guild, at least, was fucked.

Not only had its Guild Master been eliminated, but an archer of that caliber was raining arrows down on them.

For the guild's sake, he should have accepted his members' help to weather the crisis instead of confronting her head-on.

'... Still, I have no regrets.'

How could he have backed down there?

If he had, he wouldn't have been an archer.

That was why he had no regrets. If anything, admitting the gap between them had left him feeling a little lighter.

'I'd wondered why he asked for sixty trillion...'

With an archer like that in the deal, he could begin to understand the price.

"... But I wouldn't call it a discount."

Full price, maybe.

Did they perhaps still have more to show?

* * *

"Oh, an incredible upset! Guild Master Nam Cheolmin is the first to be eliminated!"

"It looks like he tried to deflect her arrows just as Seo Yerim did, but she turned the tables on him! Do those arrows have artificial intelligence or something? What on earth was that movement?"

"Ilseong Guild is in serious trouble. They've lost their Guild Master right out of the gate!"

"Emergency! Emergeeency! Arrows are pouring down from the sky! Ilseong Guild is completely pinned down!"

"She seems to generate arrows from mana, and right now, the Divine Bow... I mean, Seo Yerim isn't conserving mana at all!"

"Now that she's taken out their Guild Master, she's going all in without looking back!"

—Wow lol, what was that arrow movement?

—She probably predicted and calculated everything before she even fired. No other way to beat him that cleanly.

—Nam Cheolmin went down just like that;;

—Am I the only one seeing the gap here? She's insane.

—Objectively, they're in completely different leagues; there's no excuse for this. He just got destroyed one-on-one.

—Guess we have to call her Divine Bow now... not Bow Phoenix?

—You seeing our Divine Bow queen raining down arrows right now? lol She's in insane form lmao.

—Is this really the awakener who was fighting with a sword just a month ago? My heart is swelling with pride...

—Wow; she could seriously compete on the world stage. Seriously...

"And just as we speak, the undead army begins advancing! From the enormous golem to the skeleton troops and Cedric!"

"They're so busy defending against the arrows that they can barely do anything else! Of course, they're lower-tier undead, so a single prayer from the priests should be enough to banish them..."

"Awakener Park Siwoo is charging too, holy sword in hand! His potential, at least, is top-class! He's a disciple acknowledged by the Sword Immortal! Ilseong Guild needs to stay on its toes!"

Park Siwoo charged forward along with the undead army.

And...

A woman carrying a parasol was also advancing, standing atop a patch of earth that had abruptly risen beneath her.

"That summon looks like a mage, doesn't she?"

"That's right. That looks like Earth Movement, one of the mage skills."

"Cedric was no ordinary summon. I'm very curious to see whether that mage will be the same!"

Ilseong Guild wasn't standing idle, either.

While the mages deployed barriers to block the arrows, bursts of light from the priests began pouring toward the charging undead.

To counter Kim Minwoo efficiently, they had assigned five of the first team's slots to priests.

The dazzling skills of those high-level, high-ranking priests struck the undead horde.

Then it happened.

"Huh?"

"What's going on?"

"That hit them, didn't it?"

Bursts of light erupted among the sprinting skeletons.

Normally, lower-tier summons like those should have all collapsed, purified.

But...

"... They're completely unharmed?"

"And the summons haven't used any light-resistance artifacts! What on earth is going on?"

"The undead horde keeps charging!"

"Uh-oh! This is bad! If they can't stop those undead from closing in, things are going to get ugly! There are far too many of them!"

The murmuring Ilseong Guild members reacted quickly.

This time, the priests deployed shields to block the hail of arrows.

Mana gathered above the mages' hands.

If priest skills didn't work, they could simply sweep the undead away with magic.

That was their thinking.

Just then, Kim Minwoo's second summon raised her hand.

A moment later, all of Ilseong's supposedly accomplished mages coughed up blood and crumpled to the ground.

"?"

"?"

"?"

—?

—??

—???

"C-could that be..."

The commentators' eyes trembled.

They were professionals, knowledgeable enough to commentate on overseas matches as well.

Occasionally, in those overseas matches, the very best mages would do something like this to other mages.

They read every spell their opponents cast and reacted a step ahead, cutting the magic off.

That was usually called...

"S-spell disruption?"

"I-is that really spell disruption?"

"Impossible! Isn't that something only world-rankers can do?"

"And a summon is doing it?"

Their back line had been shattered in an instant.

But Ilseong Guild's troubles didn't end there.

Park Siwoo and Cedric.

The moment that one awakener and one undead engaged the front line...

"Uh-oh! Their line is... collapsing?"

"They can't hold!"

"What is happening? An S-rank warrior and swordsman are being pushed back! By just one summon and one low-level awakener!"

Park Siwoo engaged the swordsman, while Cedric took on the warrior.

The two S-rank awakeners had met them with derisive snorts, but moments later they were being driven back, breaking out in cold sweat.

A gaping hole opened in the front line.

Straight toward that opening...

"There's an opening! The golem goes for a body slam! Ka-boom! Oh, this is bad! The frontline warriors have been sent flying! Just how much Strength does that golem have?"

"The skeletons are pouring in! They're surging forward like a tidal wave! Skeletons may be called meat shields, but they can fight quite well in a chaotic melee like this!"

"A sword in the back means elimination, whether you're undead or human!"

Like ants spreading through their nest, the skeletons swarmed in and attacked in every direction.

The first team of Korea's fifth-ranked guild.

That very team was crumbling, powerless to stop it.